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October 9: Nice to see you all again. I realize that it has been a fairly long time since I've written anything of substance on my blog. even i will admit that my previous writings on the meanings of Viva la Vida - although didactic, weren't exactly the makings of thought provoking or life changing fodder. in late may i made an attempt at writing, but at the time i couldn't put my thoughts together well enough to make a cogent argument for well, anything. so here we are in october... one of the reasons it has taken me so long to write again is because of my relatively busy schedule over the past 6 months or so. sprockets season started a little earlier for me this year (sometime in april) and ended for me this past weekend. i think that in 2007 my last weekend at the shop was the weekend right after labor day, whereas this year - i am working all the way until next week. for those of you who do not remember, sprockets season entails working thursday afternoons/evenings for 3- 4 hours and then again on saturdays from 10 - 6. in other words - i work a full 6 days a week 6 months out of the year. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ my field center was given a new project this summer called coarse particulate matter sampling. basically the study wants to look at the health effects of larger particulate matter (10microns) that collect on both teflon and glass (endotoxin) filters. this is all good and fine, except for the fact that there was a clear lapse in planning/logistics. thankfully none of the ball dropping was performed by me or my immediate supervising authorities. there were 3 mistakes that were made for this project. 1) they put the cart before the horse by almost 2 months. initially sampling was supposed to start in july, but it got pushed back to september. the coordinating center claimed to have this "great" database up and running - but in reality it was piece of shit. by the time they actually got it to work the way it was supposed to, i had already done 95% of my scheduling. oh right - the people that i scheduled that were part of the database supposedly all lived in the chicago area. since they are selected based on proximity to attributes such as industrial sites, major roadways, etc. some of the categories did not have very many participants. and then...some of the participants lived in places such as...california. scheduling was a minor inconvenience, and i made my numbers. the time frame in which i was supposed to schedule participants, however - was a little ambitious. i had roughly 35 people to schedule in 3 weeks, but there was some type of balance i had to reach of "making sure that we got the high priority participants." well, if they live in california or if they don't call back right away, i'm not going to sit around and twiddle my thumbs. would it be possible to schedule that many people in a rural center like winston salem? sure - they do it all the time. in chicago? unlikely. people here are busier, and they like to be given advance notice. 2) the actual deployments. aside from this project, my field weeks consist of 3 - 4 work days not in the office. one day consists of taking down sites and equipment from the previous cycle, one day consists of changing out air samplers at our permanent sites, and one day consists of setting up equipment at new homes. lab prep and filter prep take me around 1 day to complete. this project entailed setting up 4 - 5 homes every single day. i would try to set up between 8 - 12 every day and be back in the office by 130. at this point, it was necessary to spend 3 - 4 hours at the MINIMUM prepping for the next day. i think that over the coarse of setups, i worked close to 55 hours a week JUST for this project. bear in mind that i had to work at the cycling shop too. i should also mention at this time that although there was talk of sending someone to help me, the coordinating center didn't deem it a "must" until they got detailed reports from me. so they sent someone to help with takedowns, and voila - we were done on time every day. 3) the pumps we used didn't have the capacity that we expected. long story short - TSI led us to believe that the pumps we were using (SP530) had the capability of logging data once a minute every minute for up to 3 weeks. well, we had never needed anything like that before because the duration of most of our sampling is no longer than 7 complete days of data points. (2 week sampling time with 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off). so while deploying passive samplers at people's homes during the final week of setups, i noticed that a lot of the pumps were failing, and after 2 hours of troubleshooting at home, i personally found out why. goodness gracious - the pumps actually only held around 11 full days of data. but 11 and 21, that isn't the same, right? after much communication between the coordinating center and TSI, it was discovered that the manual of operations and spec sheet provided for the 530 as it pertained to sampling capabilities was copied and pasted from a different model of pump. i think that the coordinating center is still pursuing legal action on this one, because that is completely unacceptable. right, so after all was said and done, i think i was able to salvage right around half of all our setups by reprogramming them to sample for 11 days. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ i had a good sales season at the cycling shop this year. last year i was the FNG (F'ing new guy) and although still not as adept as the other guys that have been working on bikes for many years, i improved greatly when it came to sales knowledge and mechanical work. one of our full time seasonal workers took a mechanic position at a different shop, and one of the full time year-round mechanics left the chicago area, so for awhile we were in a real crunch there to find people who could work. we'll just let it suffice to state that not all of our employees this year worked with the same sense of intensity that say, justin or phil work with. and i'll leave it at that. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ i'm almost done with my thesis work. once i started writing, it became much easier to just keep on going. details on this will come soon. well, that's what i've been up to. i'll blog a little later this week about some things i've learned this summer about people in general. i do not plan to blog about the presidential election. i'll sum up my feelings by saying that i hope that this time America will pick the lesser of two inadequate candidates. June 4: Viva la Vida. The title track for Coldplay’s fourth studio album has a bit of a teasing connotation. Translated roughly into English, it reads “Let life live!” What’s very interesting about this song is that it actually takes Biblical concepts and blends them with actual historical events. There have been lots of articles out there that address what the events are, and I’ll try to take a stab at some of them in this post. Bear in mind, of course that if you look at the album art it may remind you of the revolutionaries during older French times. And of course it’s not such a long stretch to relate some of these lyrics to the inept/arrogant rule of the soon to be ex Republican party. I used to rule the world This first verse could have Biblical implications from both
the old and new testaments. The old
testament God prodded Moses into leading the chosen people out of Egypt and into
the promised land. “Seas would rise”
could refer to the parting of the Red Sea. In sort of a reverse rising, the same phrase
could be applied when Jesus calmed the seas while on the boat. The final two phrases of this first verse
could be applied to Moses as well. According to scripture, he never makes it into
the promised land, but instead dies shortly after the Jews’ 40 year long ordeal
in the desert. As a matter of fact, none
of the elder first generation who fled Egypt got to see the promised land.
Again, the phrasing could be applied to
Christ. People disregarded his miracles
later on, and called for his death; even one of his own followers disowned him
three times in front of others. This passage could relate to many of the kings in the past: Louis
13, George 3. Even from the old
testament, King Saul and King David when people sang, “Saul has killed his
thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands…” Houses built on sand were a parable that Jesus told from the new testament. Pillars of salt are also an interesting reference to Lot’s wife in the old testament as she turned back to look at her old city. This verse of course speaks about how quickly we lose power if we lack a solid foundation or if we lack solid background information… I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing A more difficult bridge to dissect. Jerusalem
bells may refer to the return home or the return to the promised land, and can
even signify angels. Roman Cavalry were
one of the more intimidating groups of people in Biblical times, and there is a
passage in the Bible that describes the armor of God: It was the wicked and wild wind How easy it is for people to become corrupt with power… Revolutionaries wait The villain king/president begins to realize that his
corruption has begun to catch up. A
lonely string in present times may refer to the oil industry, or in history may
refer to the kings who were convinced that they had divinity in them and could “speak
with God.” At the very end, they still
think they were right, and perhaps think that being king is a burden that not
very many people are cut out for. may 21: the things we do as i was looking at random people's websites, updates, and whatnot this morning, i came across the latest progress report for my almost 5 year old niece. apparently she is very advanced for her age, which comes as no real surprise because according to my sister she enjoys such activities such as reading, doing the little workbooks over watching TV, etc. the real surprise is that she's a kid and she'd rather being doing these things than say - being outside playing or watching TV. i think the most interesting thing about this situation is that my niece doesn't really need any real push or impetus to do any of these items... so often times children of Asian immigrants find themselves in a no-win situation. born into a country that boasts freedom, they really don't get to see "freedom" as a young American of Asian descent. familial and cultural obligations seem to overwhelm us, and i along with my two sisters certainly were not able to escape this. i'm not suggesting that it's unwise to gently push a child in the way of academia, but i believe that the cookie cutter hierarchy of 1) academics 2)ability to play two instruments and finally 3)the ability to be competent in at least one non-contact sport requires room for flexibility. of course, the fear is that once the children of overbearing Asian parents grow up and have a family of their own, incidences from their childhoods could lead to the potential spoiling of their children; that is to say - the next generation will lack focus and drive altogether. funny that tina and betty are both rather well self-motivated and know roughly of what they want. tina fell into (got molded into?) an Asian mother's dream: went to a top school, found a loving husband, and now has two adorable kids in a suburb (replete with yard, dog, and nice fencing, of course) of a well-respected hub of education, technology, sports, and even culture. betty, who is a self proclaimed "black sheep", probably has the more independent drive of my sisters. up until very recently or so it seems, it has been her way all the way. she's done a fair share of traveling, working in different cities, working in different countries, and living in various small towns and big cities. although it's too early to tell, there must be something very different about her fiance, as i sense a different demeanor in the way that she acts and talks now. what will be interesting is to see how betty's kids turn out. although i'm not sure at the moment if she'll choose to adopt or maybe have a biological child, personality differences between my sisters will ultimately lead to varying degrees and types of motherhood. certainly i cannot vouch for anyone, but it seems as if tina has been steadfast in her approach to no-nonsense mothering; her blogs on how other mothers (both caucasian and asian) are sometimes quite illogical have made me chuckle, and in turn have also gotten her a few equally illogical emails. i think my favorite was the one where she cited how asian mothers will often times scold the furniture in a room when their children fall, saying, "bad chair, bad table" when really - it's carelessness on the child's part. one miffed asian mother replied, (and i'm paraphrasing) "don't discount 5000+ years of culture, music, language, etc. etc." all very fine and good things, but that argument really has no sustenance. basically the argument is, "because we as a overly proud and hubristic group of people have made tremendous advances in the last 5000+ years in the following areas, we now have the right in the 21st century to blame inanimate wooden objects for our children lacking coordination." i'll go ahead and not dignify that drivel with a response. tina also endures a bit from other parents who think it is "wrong" to leave your child in daycare while you work. because honestly we're still in a civilization where women should stay home and clean the house, take care of the kids, and cook dinner while men are the primary breadwinner. right. so maddy is an example of how sometimes by fate, luck, fortune, genes, whatever you want to call it - things end up ok and even "easy." i really doubt my sister sits there and pushes her to do countless activity/supplemental books, but at the same time i'm sure that learning is encouraged in the household. there's a funny picture of maddy on my sister's blog that's captioned "getting braver" and it shows maddy climbing on a playground structure that's only around 2 - 3 feet above the ground. contrast that with my other niece livy who at age 2 was climbing on tables and swinging from the kitchen chandeliers... i wonder what choices maddy will make as she gets older. it's pretty clear that she's a bright kid. tina posted something very tactfully on her blog and facebook: smarty pants with written proof. it wasn't titled, "look how smart my kid is, blah blah blah" and even in the excerpt tina mocks her kid by saying, "athletic skills not included." apparently sometimes she likes to fall off of chairs, and her inclinations are more towards music than they are sports. i'm interested in seeing how her focus on academics and music affects the rest of her life later on. with the correct amount and type of encouragement from her family, i'm sure that she'll go very far. not that this should be confused with the aforesaid obligatory Asian Child Syndrome. because as we all know, there are a lot of Asian mothers out there who use their children's accomplishments, grades, and trophies only as conversation starters. as the child gets older, the topics of conversation shift to SAT scores, AP tests, etc. finally to, "whew, my son go to EMMA AIYEAH TEE" (say it slow...think of letters). it was recently mother's day and i couldn't help but feel a little bit jaded. tv ads and society would have us think sometimes that all mothers are perfect. i read a funny little news article about the best and worst TV/movie moms of all time. two of the best moms listed were marge simpson and dumbo's mom. both very good choices! however, it was not without interest and skepticism that the mothers in the joy luck club were listed as one of the "top 10 mothers." the person that wrote the article knew a little bit about what asian kids have to go through, and referred to the mothering by the 4 hens as being "misguided" and "misdirected" but in the end with good intentions. when all is said and done, i think that my own perpetually strained relationship with my mother is the cause of some of my past and present relationship hardships. as the only "woman" figure in my life growing up, my thought and action processes up to very recently have been subconsciously controlled by her. at the same time though...it could have been worse. but like i've mentioned before, we've all got our own burdens to face up to. my parents are moving to NC soon and from what i understand, their house has been recently listed on the market. it's so weird - i don't feel any particular belonging to that house, nor do i feel any particular happy moments. i almost hope that with the move, parts of my past will magically be erased...
Being cool is normally subjective. But there are some things that unequivocally make you uncool. We’re not saying we’re cool, we’re just saying if you own any of these items, you’re not. 10. iPhone
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: You can access e-mails, high speed internet, and watch videos, all on your phone. Because really, normal people around you are so f*&king boring you can hardly bear actually interacting with them. WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: I’ve done some research and iPhone is actually a Japanese word that means “something that’s not able to be put in a pocket and instead must be carried in your hand at all times or set on the table in front of you so that any one around you can see it.” This may sound shocking, but when someone remarks how hot it is, they’re not asking you to look up the temperature in both farenheit and celcius, or show them a clip on a 3 inch screen from “An Inconvenient Truth” in an effort to relate this heat to global warming. 9.Ironic Belt Buckles
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: Now you can show up in bars and point at your belt buckle and tell people that you are a “Rodeo Champion” or a “Pac Man” or a “Truck Driver” or a “Jack Daniels.” And while they will know that you are actually none of these things, you think you’re being playful and a little bit mysterious. You also think this tactic will help you pick up women. WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: You’re the same person who has ironic facial hair (mustache), drinks ironic beer (PBR) and wears ironic T-shirts (Lucky Charms). You spend your entire life trying to look as shitty and poor as possible while, chances are, you have rich parents or a job for an accounting firm that pays you over $60,000. In four years you will be a Republican living in the suburbs and complaining about your 401k over wine spritzers at dinner parties.
8. Blue Tooth Headset
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: All the other losers have to use their hands when they talk on the phone. Not you! You can talk on your phone and at the same time safely give some loser the finger because they’re only driving the speed limit. It’s Tuesday, doesn’t this asshole know you have your jujitsu class at 24 hour fitness to go to? WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: I don’t give a shit if you’re talking to someone on the other end, when you’re in a Subway Sandwiches and they’re trying to take your order while you say “Listen, you give me that paperwork for the Johnson account by tomorrow or it’s your ass. No mayo. I said no Mayo! Yeah, that’s right, Johnson account on my desk! No pepperoncinis!” it’s pretty god damn confusing and asshole-ish to everyone trying to deal with you. Answer your phone when you have time to hold it in your hand. The only people that should be wearing blue tooth wireless headsets are military field generals and the people that work the day after thanksgiving sale at Old Navy. 7. Quoting Austin Powers/Borat/Old School
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: Put on your earmuffs because that woman has a vageen that hangs like sleeve of wizard. Yeah, baby! Those movies are HILARIOUS, thus if you can quote them, by default you’re hilarious too! WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: We all enjoy quoting our favorite movies, but let’s put these three to bed. Not only did I have every last bit of dialogue to the Borat movie screamed in my face three months before it came out, but let’s face it, Austin Powers wasn’t funny 10 years ago. And I still have to hear people telling me that “circus folk smell vaguely of cabbage.” On top of it, everyone murders the accents. Whenever I hear some asshole in a bar trying doing his version of Borat, somehow he sounds like a tongueless Canadian with a sock in his mouth. This has to stop or I am going to skip the earmuffs and go directly to cutting my ears off. 6. PT Cruiser
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: It’s like a car from back in the thirties! It’s sleek design and throw back look allows everyone tailgating in the parking lot at the Dave Matthews concert know that you’re a free spirit who is all about having good times! WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: If you’ve ever wondered what a gay transformer would turn in to, wonder no more. Not only do they call a retarded amount of attention to themselves on the road, when you drive them you look like a soccer mom whose transporting alcohol during the prohibition era. 5. Tricked Out Bicycles
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: I honestly have no idea. WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: Instead of looking like some hipper, younger version of a real biker (who actually is cool), you just look like some 8th-grader who blew his allowance on sparklers for his tricycle. With its weirdly-bent handlebars and wacky forks, your “cruiser” looks like the elephant man of bikes. Plus, these things are clearly uncomfortable to ride. I love watching some tattooed douchebag try to look laid back and cool after he had to dislocate both of his shoulders just to reach the handlebars. Not to mention, you could’ve gotten a friggin’ car for what you paid for this piece of crap. Dumbass. 4. Fidel Castro Hats
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: Wearing a Fidel Castro hat let’s the world know that you’re different and that you have thoughts and ideas that make you significantly more special and free thinking than those who wear traditional baseball hats. WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: You know why the Communist Cuba Military can get away with wearing them? Because they carry automatic weapons. You most likely carry a compilation book of Charles Bukowski poems. The tiny bill and camoflauged coloring make you look like a retarded son of a army ranger who had a pair of scissors and access to his father’s closet. I realize you want to tell the world you’re a non-comformist, but unfortunately being a non-conformist means you’re conforming to non-conformism. You might want to ponder that at that next record release party for a band no one’s heard of that you’re pretending to like. 3. Guitar Hero
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: Dude, this game totally rocks! I love this song! Hell yes! Welcome to the Jungle, baby! You’re gonna diiiiiiiiiiiee! WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: Despite what the commercial says, you do not suddenly turn into Slash when you’re playing this video game. You are playing a child-sized guitar that doesn’t even have strings. It has multi-colored buttons and an on/off button. And playing this video game does not mean you can play the guitar now. If I have to hear someone say “I can totally play ‘Anarchy in the UK’” but actually mean “I can totally play ‘Anarchy in the UK’ on Guitar Hero,” I am going to take a pee inside the nearest PS3. 2. Longboard Skateboards
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: You’re just a laid back dude who likes to cruise the streets and board walks but still has the credibility shared by those who ride smaller, more dangerous boards. WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: You’re basically one step away from being the little kid at Costco who jumps on the big grocery cart when his mother isn’t looking. Whereas if a normal skateboarder falls he injures himself, you’re traveling at speeds that allow those walking to pass you, and if you fall, you’ll most likely fall on the board and continue traveling. Hence, you’re basically riding a skateboard designed for those without any coordination or athletic ability. It’d be like playing baseball, except replacing the ball with a giant stuffed animal. 1. Funny Ringtones
WHY YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL: A ring tone is a great way to give strangers and coworkers a little peek into your personal life and let them know that your grasp of pop culture is vast. You’re pretty sure that having a silly quote from Monty Python or the Transformers theme song as your ringtone will make those around you realize that you are a the guy everyone else wants to be. There is definitely more to you than meets the eye. WHY YOU’RE NOT COOL: Having your phone play Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” just makes you look (and sound) like an asshole. And the fact that you let it “ring” 15 times while you stand there and look around for reactions to your hilarious little joke not only reeks of desperation, but it makes everyone around you want to cram that phone up your taint. Put it on vibrate like every other normal person and keep your witticisms between you and your collection of Star Wars figurines. april 25: back from hiatus: the kingdom, our burdens, our life choices, intensity in classical music, violence in chicago, China Olympics originally, i was going to do a short commentary on the movie "the kingdom", but as the weeks went on and i continued to rewrite bits and pieces of that entry in my mind, circumstances, events, and new revelations kept hitting me; now is a good stopping point to jot some of that stuff on paper. i attribute this new wave of thinking to the amount of time that i've been spending on my bikes lately. more alone time = more time to think about life. betty says that writing is self-therapeutic, and although i do not disagree with her, i would say that sometimes my writings can be left in the open. they don't need resolution, they don't need to make anyone feel better or more open. as a matter of fact, some of my writings have the tendency to really dig at the issues most of us choose not to face, or just don't bother to think about. without further ado... the kingdom faris has the duty of playing "glorified baby sitter" and at the very beginning regards the americans with skepticism. however, once he sees that the team really trying to collect evidence and find out what went on, he begins to build rapport with jamie foxx's character. we learn that faris has a wife and two kids, and that his elderly dad lives with them in an apartment. like most muslims, the family prays during the day. this was actually a very poignant part of the movie - seeing faris as both a man of Allah as well as a man of law - the outward rashness he once showed disappears as he talks to his wife, kids, and father. there are also some comical moments when some of jamie foxx's team members throw an 'f' bomb, and he goes, "why, why do you say this word to me? i should, i should go get soap and wash your mouth out." and jamie in the movie says, "so that's your shit, huh?" and faris goes, "you need bathroom?" without giving too much away, the team eventually finds the responsible party and kills him. however, faris dies in the skirmish. before the "villain" dies, he whispers something into his grand daughter's ear. as the movie closes one of the FBI team members asks jamie foxx again "what did you whisper in her (jennifer garner's) ear to make her stop crying?" and jamie responds, "i told her, 'don't worry, we'll kill them all'". meanwhile in saudi, the daughter of the villain asks her daughter, "what did your grandfather whisper in your ear before he died?" and she responds, "he said 'don't worry my child...we'll kill them all.'" to be honest, the ending floored me at first. then it hit me that in any confrontation, war, or argument, each party ALWAYS thinks that they are right. there was one scene in the movie where jamie and faris are about to break into the villains' apartment, and jamie goes, "which side of the door is allah on?" and faris replies, "i guess we'll find out..." i found that the movie wasn't pro american, pro terrorist, or pro saudi. it was pro-humanity. it exposed the rawest emotions that we have: that of protecting the ones we love, that of protecting and fighting for what we believe in. sure, we see terrorists as being "bad." but extremist muslims see american imperialism as being hell in a handbasket. and although i am in no place to judge, the roots of american depedence on mid east oil may actually be proof of this. i recommend seeing the movie very much so; as i mentioned, it may not have been the best performances by jamie foxx and jennifer garner, but i thought that the actor who played faris was exceptional, and it's a thought-provoking action packed movie overall. our burdens all joking aside, it's also true that many of the changes in our lives also turn out to be burdens. they can be brought on by others' actions, accidents, or any number of tragic/malicious events. as the youtube clip indicates, our burdens aren't so bad sometimes when we look around us. it's also true that no matter how dire of a situation that we think we're in, it could always be worse. not very reassuring, but i think it's true. it's also true that there are vultures in this world who lay in wait for our failures or our shortcomings or our burdens. somehow they feel vindicated or even that their existence is justified when they see other peoples' burdens. i'm no psychologist, but i'm willing to bet that the people who do that have much deeper issues. anyone who looks to put others down to make themselves seem larger or mightier is just trying to hide their flaws. i admire people who are able to keep their burdens under wraps. you know, the ones that have a health condition that you would have never guessed, or the ones that have an ailing relative to take care of, or the ones that have lost someone dear to them. basically the ones that have been through a lot of crap and may still be going through crap, but every day they show up and do what they need to do. i'm not insinuating that i don't care about peoples' problems, or that people shouldn't vent or have friends to talk to about what they're going through; what i am saying is that on the grand scheme of things, most of our problems and burdens are well, pretty insignificant. letting burdens encompass you will eventually allow them to dictate who you are and who you become. this of course can be good or bad, but if these burdens are predominantly in the past, i would say that people are only going to find pain by living in it. as you all know, i have very little tolerance for Bible
thumping, and this blog is definitely not a place to find religious
teachings; if i wanted to do that i would create another link that says
"religious thoughts" or something similar. no, my Biblical references
for the purpose of this blog are only to serve as anecdotes and
examples. burdens also have a very tricky way of sometimes making us better humans. in the Bible, paul referred to something he called as a "thorn in his side." it's probably safe to assume that it wasn't a real thorn, but something else. maybe something physical, maybe something mental, maybe something emotional. what he learned from all of that is that this thorn MADE him keep his eyes on Christ until he realized that "His grace is sufficient for me." i find that in general, people who have been burdened with something have a certain quality about them that i can't describe. "nice" isn't the right word because tons of people who aren't burdened by things can be nice. no, i'd say that it's more of a quality that can only be described as a "gentle soul". whatever flaw, responsibility, ailment, etc. that these people may have are dealt with appropriately by them - but somewhere along the way their kindness also translates into who they are to everyone else. it may show itself in the form of compassion, or meticulousness to detail, or more overall patience. life choices for those of us that were pushed to be something we didn't necessarily believe in, we met the status quo of instruments, grades, non contact sports, and top 25 universities. but for what? it's a happy day in anyone's life when they finally get it together and realize that in the end, you really only have to do something that YOU want to do. of course, i didn't realize this until i got out of undergrad with a subpar GPA. i worked harder in my MMI classes than i did in undergrad, and do i regret it? not at all. it was what i wanted to do. the best thing that might have happened to me in the past few years was having to learn to work in MESA Air by myself. no one to watch over me, no one to tell me what to do. problems, circumstances, scheduling, and planning were all left up to me. so with that new responsibility finally came the glimmer of "oh wow, i can actually manage my own projects." that same mentality has carried over to working at johnny sprockets. last year i was learning to ropes and some of the duties at the shop i just wasn't capable of doing in my very first year. my approach to customer service repairs was the following: examine the superficial problems that they had. for example, if they said, "my wheel needs to be trued" or "i need new spokes", that's what i wrote down. i seldom looked at the other parts of the bike like form, headset, etc. etc. this year i'm starting to take a more comprehensive look at bike problems. sure, i still miss a few things here and there, but justin has done a good job of showing me how to look over the entire bike. of course i still do a double and triple check over with any of the mechs before i actually "take in the bike." speaking of life decisions and choices, it has come to my attention that whilst in high school, very few male students are able to handle their lives, especially in relationships. man, i was a huge idiot to elise, and after thinking about it, i wish that i would NOT have dated in high school. instead, i wish i had been friends with more females that were 1 - 2 years older than i was, because it's not myth that girls are usually more emotionally and mentally developed. probably would've helped me out in the long run. intensity in classical music once in awhile though i'll be taken aback by the cleanliness of a group or of a pianist. i've heard some wonderful musicians in the past few days. and by wonderful, i mean musicians who are not only technical, but who also play very cleanly, show emotion, and also show a certain amount of intensity. ol' dr. dave (northington) back in the day always stressed to me that you don't have to play "fast" to play with "intensity." being the young whippersnapper that i was, i never quite understood that concept very well. again, after i've gotten older - i understand completely what he means now. i heard someone play a mozart piano concerto the other day on the radio, and it was immaculate. intense and clean. almost made me cry. not. there are also a lot of crappy musicians out there who rely solely on emotion or charisma. i can at least appreciate people who play only with technicality because at least it sounds clean, and even if they come off as being completely measured, boxed, or cold, at least they took the time to work on clean mechanics. but ugh, i can't STAND people who only play with "charisma." yes, they like to move their bodies with "expression", but when you get past the actual show, you find that they, well...suck. jeffrey siegel is one of those musicians. his "conversation" series are nothing more than fluff and the occasionally correct music interpretation. i'm trying to decide still if jay chou as a classical musician deserves any credit. all of the performances i've seen are really more "show pieces" and they really don't highlight any clean mechanical playing. so although there's no doubt that he is popular, there is doubt in my mind that he's actually "good." i'm listening to an album written by english composer mike oldfield who is by trade a guitarist. it's called "music of the spheres" and it features some pretty big names like pianist "lang lang." when lang lang first hit the scene, i thought he was pretty decent. big, full sound but also a showman. seems like he has gotten even better, because even though there are a lot of repetitive notes in these tracks, he interprets them very well, and it actually sounds "clean", hoooray. violence in chicago http://www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.19727/content.content_view.htm i had brought up the episode of CSI miami before where horatio is upset that so many hispanic and black missing kids never make the front page of the newspaper, whereas there was one kidnapping of a caucasian girl that made the front page immediately. please please read the article that i posted above. this line should put society to shame: "What none of us wants to say, but what we as a city say by our tolerance of 600 murders a year, is that many of these lives are expendable. There is no empirical proof that Chicagoans ignore homicides by the hundreds because the blood flows in impoverished neighborhoods where most of the faces are black or brown. But to deny that reality is to ignore what most of us will admit under our breath." Olympics in China april 2nd: facts of life with all this talk from obama about the causes, roots, and potential alleviation of racism, it sort of got me thinking again about why it is that racial issues actually exist. maybe it's only by the stroke of happenstance that when americans refer to "racial" issues today, people automatically assume it to mean "black" issues, when in reality, the percentage of minorities who are of "african" origin and those of "spanish speaking people" origin is really quite similar. sometimes i think it's sort of sad that those who are of spanish speaking or spanish lineage don't have a clear strong cogent voice that mainstream media follow. whereas black americans have such loud and vocal characters such as barack obama, jesse jackson, al sharpton, etc. etc, the spanish people have...george lopez and carlos mencia? well the positive outlook is that at least lopez and mencia are both full of hot air and they know it, whereas jesse jackson and al sharpton are full of hot air yet they seem to think that they serve some great purpose to society, and mr. jackson likes to jump on any bandwagon he can to promote "civil rights." i wonder how he's doing with his suing of the city of chicago. i don't even think that stroger likes him, but then again, no one really likes stroger so that situation is like watching my rats fight each other. this is not to say that Spanish speakers don't have vocal leaders throughout the rest of the world. i think that history has taught us that although unorthodox and downright unethical by many standards, south american leaders can be a force to be reckoned with. i often tell jennifer that the two most discriminated against types of people in this country right now are the white protestant male and the typical run of the mill 0/1st generation asian male. white protestant male because these crackers/wasps fit all the criteria for non-affirmative action, while asian males ugh...we simply get the shaft because we're pushed to work so hard by such annoying and nagging asian mothers that most of us become cookie cutter citizens just to appease them. here is an interesting article that states that more black and hispanic males live in jail than they do in dorm rooms. a few of the underlying reasons are postulated in the article as well. i am not sure what my stance is on this particular issue. on the one hand, i don't think that any type of person should get more praise than another. in college, or work, or life, let's say that a typical white wasp joe scores a 85 on some composite generic scale, and a "poor black male with not as many resources" scores the same 85. how would you interpret this situation? if whiners and liberals cry for "equal treatment," then they would say 'who cares...they both got the same score, they're both equal in this regard.' right??? wrong. the article would seem to insinuate (and we see it all the time in real life) that if the poor oppressed black man actually does somehow make it into the real world and do equally as well as a non-black non-hispanic counterpart, then he has somehow, shall we say - accomplish more. i think my bullshit meter just hit sky high. i think partly this is because of the unnecessary adulation bestowed to whatever party or individual our media/culture has decided to crown for the week. if you recall my post awhile back about the VT shootings, i remember saying that a lot of tools on facebook had that "we are all hokies" avatar as their picture, and that it wouldn't last. whoahhh ohhh...looks like andy was right again. the last i checked, some of the people who had that avatar are back to posting pictures of "spring break 2008" or "fun times part 4" with the obligatory sun/beach/alcohol profile pictures. i also said that newspapers would never print how many soldiers died per day, and wow - looks like i was right again. remember the tinley park shooting in february of 2008? 5 women gunned down in lane bryant in a south chicago suburb. how many soldiers do you think died per FUCKING DAY in iraq in february? 4.2 PER DAY is a third party's calculation. yet no newspaper bothered to come up with that calculation because heaven forfend it cut into our pity time for an isolated incident. sorry, i digressed. i was supposed to be talking about minorities and their issues. oh right. so as phil and i were discussing at the bike shop one day, poor minorities who are not educated really don't have an incentive to "do better." if they know that every month a government check comes, or if they know that the rest of the world sees them as a write-off or charity case, why would they bother coming together as a whole and being more proactive about the important issues such as health and education? i can't accurately say who's fault it is for people not giving a damn, but i can venture to say that it falls equally on individuals, cultures, as well as the government. i think this is where my feelings soften up a bit. if it's truly not the individual's fault for wanting more, or knowing better, then if somehow down the line, he or she realizes, "hey, there's more to life than living in cabrini green, eating cheap fast food, and watching movies starring ice cube", more power to them. but at THAT moment of realization, the playing field is even again. no more favors, no more unnecessary accolades. if minority groups and advocacy groups want equal treatment, then the safest way to do so is to get to that point where there's a level playing field. no hand holding after that, no favors, no affirmative action based on race/gender/etc. however, i don't think that this glorious time will be here in the near future. just this past week i've seen two more substantial pieces of evidence that would seem to indicate that companies purposefully market the same product to different people in different ways (geography, locale, income level) if you've seen any corolla commercials, you'll notice that it's a white guy enjoying the "comfort" and "smooth ride" of the car. a family of badgers and a sushi made of pufferfish were the gimmicks. didn't see any TV ads for corollas for black people? don't worry - you're not alone. they're only on billboards...with the main point of 'coROLLa' and then "keep ROLLin'" uh huh...where's that smooth ride and quiet interior now? was there anything even REMOTELY related to the car's features in the billboard? i think not. but hey, we should all get one if we're black because a smoothly dressed black man is standing in front of one "ROLLin" along. the second example i'm a little bit more unsure of, although i think i'm onto something. if you all have checked out redbox.com, you'll see that it's a dvd vending machine. simple terms: 1 dollar a night regardless of the number of nights. at 25 nights, you keep the DVD for 25 bucks. return to any redbox, which are conveniently located inside a lot of heavy foot traffic areas: jewel, walgreens, and MCDONALDS. now, i have no comment on the mcdonald's right now, although some of you out there may just say "yeah, it's no different from putting them in jewel or walgreens." BULL to the max SHIT. oh praytell, why not put them in healthier eating places? i don't see any popping up at baja fresh or whole foods yet. right, so for whatever reason, the 1 dollar thing works. for some people, maybe it's because they can't get a credit card and debit cards work fine. or maybe they don't want to have their addresses on file with a rental company, or a drivers license, or a SSN (or fake SSN, etc). i wasn't sure on how redbox.com ensured that certain DVD's were returned to a certain location, but then it occurred to me that most people are creatures of habit, and where they go usually dictates what type of person they are. so if you're from an affluent area or if you work in an affluent area, chances are you'll go to a redbox in that area with more plentiful brand new releases or movies that are umm...more cultured(?). i tested out my theory by going to a walgreens that's in an area where there are still housing projects. lo and behold, i find lots of madea, tyler perry, and movies starring aforesaid "stars" as ice cub. i don't pretend to have the final word on any of this. as adam pointed out, my "correct interpretation" is not the same as his "correct interpretation", and it never can be in a subjective world. but these are still issues that exist whether we want them to or not, and at least that's something to think about. Feb 18: Lucky to have missed the Flu I suppose that flu season is back in full force now. i didn't think much of it till a couple of the ladies down in clinic started to get sick. when that happens, they just pass it around to one another and it's all downhill from there. while playing around on the weather.com site and looking at all the possible forecasts, i noticed that they included a "flu report" as well. apparently last week was a pretty bad week to get the flu. luckily for me, i escaped the full brunt of the illness and only had a cough for around a week or so. it started as a piece of cereal that went down the wrong tube. coughed it up, kept on coughing for a few days, and then true to myself i was running around outside with very few layers of clothing on, which gave me a chest cold. more coughing, i tried to take mucinex but it made me dizzy. finally what made me feel better was just riding really hard one day for around 30 minutes. somehow there's something healing in maybe sweat or just...being really active. but i finally started coughing out the phlegm, and today, i had maybe one or two really bad bouts of coughing, but overall i am feeling great. made it to work in really quick time on the single speed. the new race bikes is built up too. check out the biking page for that, or just go to the home page and there should be a link to my ridefetish.com profile. midterms are right around too. not that i have to take any this year, but i did spend quite a lot of time these past few weeks with some group members writing a paper and working on a presentation. two of my three group members were actually pretty decent. the last one can seriously go off and never come back. luckily we are being split up again into different groups, so i wont' have to deal with her again. i tried my best to give her a non-scathing evaluation, and then i wrote my prof a separate email telling her how i felt about that group member. anyway, i have like 22 - 23 midterms to grade for the class i am TA'ing in. luckily, i am grading some of the easier questions so it won't be too big of a deal. should be done by next monday grading them. hopefully it doesn't snow too much this week. i'm in the field again, whoo hoo. thankfully i am taking 2 days off at the end of next week to do a little traveling. woot! who wants to send me valentines day candy that is 50% off? i will stock up on all those deliciously cheap candies tomorrow when i get groceries i am sure. ha. later. Feb 11: Back from Hiatus whooo...it has been awhile since i've written anything. been awhile since i've thought anything too. after my 25th birthday, nothing really happened for awhile that was interesting to note. speaking of - the evening of my birthday i had a nice dinner of jimmy johns with jennifer, and then the following evening i actually got to catch up with some of my old buddies from college, and had a very elegant eating experience at the local tgif. i think i'm finally past that stage of wanting to do something extravagant at every possible occasion. birthday otherwise was great. my family was nice enough to send me some extra spending money, and with some of it i bought a new suit for myself that i can wear on nice evenings. the most arbitrary and wasteful thing that i got with the money was guitar hero 3 for the wii. hard to imagine that the game itself plus the controller is around 100 bucks after taxes. at least jennifer is getting some good play time out of it. so far she has beat the "easy" level, and has around 5 - 7 songs done in the medium level. i - of course, am almost done beating the "hard" level, and i've passed a few on "expert" as well. on that note, here is a video of an insane guy playing the unlockable tune "through the fire and the flames" on expert level. i think on hard level i have passed roughly 5 percent at best. shows how good he is. or just how lame i am. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-9ao_vOsZkg&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-9ao_vOsZkg&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> chinese new year recently occurred as well. i will be the first to tell you that i had NO idea when it was, and when my mom called me that evening at 9pm my time, i was like, "what in the world?" but i did eventually learn and figure out that it was year of the rat, so based on that new revelation plus hammie dying so long ago, i decided to fill the hammie void with some new additions to the family... <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fLt_u-VeLJQ&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fLt_u-VeLJQ&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> the rat with the white body is a blue point siamese rat - she's got this little tuft of color on her nose (hence the blue point), and right by her tail there's a little bit of color as well. the other one with more color is a blue hooded rat because incidentally, it looks like she's wearing a hood. they actually got a new house too - a 3 level rat house with stairs, food bowl, and a big wheel. sadly, because it's been so long since i've handled any type of rat or hamster, i still get mildly allergic to them when they scratch me. however, i think that it's going away now. i made an episode of MTV cribs starring the two of them in their new habitat, which is pretty funny. but i'm afraid i can't post it or people will think it's culturally insensitive. basically, because they are called "hooded rats" i say that "we're two little hoodrats, jea jea...we're so gangster drinking water out of this bottle...jea jea." and i compare their cage to a prison because it's got wire bars, and hoodrats like being in prison. yukon even made a cameo in it because he was their "dogggg." anyway. went to a formal the other evening. uic college of medicine winter ball, to be exact. nice place they held it at; i've never actually been to the nature museum but it was cool to see. 5 hour open bar and HD's...nothing too fancy but i wasn't disappointed with the experience. having to make wedding plans too. not for myself, of course, because that is still a ways away. a friend of mine is getting married in late may out in cali, but luckily my southwest airlines rapid rewards voucher will get me out there. all i need to do is to find reasonable housing, and i'm set. my sister's wedding (betty) is out in baltimore at the end of june, and i'm making plans for that already as well. will be a busy summer season, i guess. i think my mom's 60th birthday 'bash' will be sometime in may as well, so i will make another return to east TN then. the nicest thing about being 25 so far is that car rental rates are finally cheap! seriously. got my royal caribbean credit card too. i did some calculations - if i pay rent via paypal by transferring money to jennifer's account, even with the 3% that paypal charges, i could accumulate roughly 2000 points a month. after the course of 1 year, that is a free companion fare on a 3 - 4 night bahamas sailing. so basically i could be looking at a free cruise ever 2 years if i really wanted to. too bad though - i want to go on the nicer ones that rccl has to offer, namely sailings from their Freedom Family fleet. i'm not going to complain though - some of the 4 night caribbean sailings are on ships with ice skating rinks in them, and that would be cool to do as well. TA'ing for one of the mmi classes is going alright. prof is real smart, and real busy, so a lot of the work really does in the end fall into my lap, but it's not anything i can't handle. class is fine - i'll survive this quarter i am sure. look for a biking update in the appropriate section. Jan 23: A quarter century of excellence (?) finally, it snuck up on me - i turn 25 tomorrow. i may not have gotten the anuka fish smoker, or anything else on that list, but it's ok. apparently i have some stuff at work that came in from various members of my family, which i am grateful for. of course i haven't been in the office for a few days, so it'll be a nice birthday surprise tomorrow when i get there. i don't have any wise sayings for anyone. i'm too young still to really grasp the true meanings of life. and i don't have any advice for those of you who are younger. but i have picked up a few things throughout these 25 years. i know is that sometimes you want to listen to other people's wisdom. sometimes you don't want to listen, and then you realize later that some people are wise. and then in the most surprising of events - sometimes you realize that anything you do in life has to be for you. you'll end up miserable if you do things for other people. you'll end up miserable if you're bound by cultural, racial, religious, or gender expectations. as they say in "little miss sunshine", 'You do what you love, and f*ck the rest.' in 'everybody's free to wear sunscreen', there's a line that goes "be nice to your siblings...they're the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future." perhaps this is the first year that i could finally take advantage of this. after some consensus, it's obvious that the three of us did not grow up in normal circumstances. the effects of our unorthodox upbringing manifested itself in different ways; i think i am at the stage now where i can look back and face events and time periods and make the correct decision as to what's best for my future, even if it means filling a huge void in my life with the memories that i choose to make, not the memories i was forced to have. at any rate, i am going to start working on a picture compilation of myself through the years. betty somehow found a lot of old pictures of me - will take some time to go through, but should be fun. Jan 17: Product Review: Glad Steam Lock Bags every once in awhile, i like to look at products/gadgets/gizmos that have just come out and see what they're all about. i'll admit it - sometimes i can't afford to test how well the apple airbook will perform, or ride an isaac newton bag, but i do have enough time, money, and resources to test out simple things like kitchen gadgets. this one has impressed me thus far. they're relatively cheap: you can usually get them in a 10 pack for less than 3 dollars, and although there's really no real recipe book out there just yet, the worst that can happen is that you pop your food back in the microwave for another minute or so. the technology in these is simple: food steams in the bag, and excess steam vents out. this would be my hugest concern. for example, let's say you're steaming fresh vegetables, right? glad recommends that you not add water because the steaming actually draws moisture out and shrinks the veggies. veggie water = veggie steam = mostly water steam. not too bad. but let's say you're trying to get a little fancy and you want to cook fish (like i did tonight). salmon fillet, a little seasoning, and a little wine and butter. now you get...salmon/wine/butter steam popping out the vents. a quick wipe with a paper towel did the trick, and i'd say it's much easier to deal with than cooking salmon steaks on a george foreman grill or even a grill pan. environmentalists out there will say that throwing away these bags is bad, and you can't reuse them. actually, you CAN reuse them as long as you are cooking similar items in the same meal. i mean, you don't want to mix spaghetti and meatballs with like...asparagus i guess. i don't know though - cooking gas + dishwasher costs + water and liquid detergent runoffs versus throwing away a bag that my guess is recyclable? you make the call, i'm really not sure. the website now has a few recipes, some of which are pretty neat. like i mentioned earlier, there is a lack of gourmet choices. but it's a lot of trial and error. i overcooked some tilapia in a bag the other day, and tonight my salmon turned out nicely. i mean, i'm not going to go out there and try to cook a steak in there, but poultry and fish are good mediums for these bags. i will probably be using these frequently in the future. Jan 15: Facebook is Stupid, but so are you. remember when facebook was only for those of us who were 'elite?'. it started in the ivy leagues, and slowly it made its way even to little ol' northwestern university. but soon, it spread its dirty little claws into such schools such as moraine valley community college, east tennessee technical automotive repair shop brawl institute, etc. then the worst part of it: it opened up to high schoolers. then the next worst part: people who weren't part of any network could all of a sudden sign up for facebook. simultaneously, it seemed like mark suckerberg couldn't do anything right. he gave us a status message dealie, but made us turn everything into a gerund. he opened up advertising to mainstream corporations, and then he opened up the floodgates by allowing applications such as marketplace, superwall, etc. etc. to be developed. when i occasionally look at the things for sale, i can't help but notice the tons of knockoff purses, ads for "CHEAP TRAVEL" and yes - even yesterday, i saw a welsh corgi for sale. on facebook. facebook isn't totally to blame though. we're fascinated as a society by things that make us laugh, and feel good for a moment, so when your friend throws a sheep at you, or posts on your superwall, or gives you a growing gift, or wants to compare likenesses, or wants to be in a suicide pact with you (i'm sure there's some tool out there developing the application as we speak), you say, "sure!!!!" do you all actually read any of the fine print before you add these ridiculous applications that basically allow third parties to access your information? the safest thing to do is to only allow applications developed by FB to be on your page, unless you trust the developer/know him or her well enough to add a third party application. for example, my friend adam roth developed both iBIke and auction sniper. hence i am comfortable adding his applications. a few funny ramifications i have seen from facebook's eventual demise/people's carelessness: yesterday my friend posted a link to "free ringtones" on my wall. immediately i deleted it off because i had the sense enough to know that it was a fake message. i am guessing that some of you not so smart kids out there actually clicked on the link wanting to get some FREE RINGTONES and were probably met with some stupid website that then proceeded to phish and pharm your account and computer information. all i can say is, "good for you..." you're probably the same type of people who click on AIM profiles when they say "HAHA...look at these pictures of me, rofl, lol" at any rate, i'm not going to discuss these issues any further. i always tell jennifer that people are stupid, and she always replies, "but they can't help it." just remember that if all else fails, you can "tase your friend, bro!" Jan 14: Things I would Like for my Birthday. it occurred to me recently that i will be turning 25 this year on the 24th of January. since that is the case i started to think of items that i might like, both physical/tangible items as well as attributes/personality traits/nontangible items i would like as well. this past year i made it a goal not to be nearly as materialistic with the stuff that i buy, and save for a few mistakes here and there, i think i did pretty well. some of these items are pretty funny, others are practical, but i guess what can be said is that all of them represent a piece of who i am. they are listed in no particular order. 1. anuka hot smoker yes, i'd like a hot smoker to use around the apartment. i prefer my foods to be cooked as well as nicely flavored, and i feel like this smoker does the trick. plus i really like lox, and having a smoker would allow me to prepare such treats. 2. food dehydrator i also like beef jerky and dried fruits sometimes, and eating them in such fashion not only makes them taste better, but it's also faster. 3. assuming that i get my royal caribbean cruise lines credit card, i would like all of you to let me put your expenses/bills/rent on my card (not all at once). you may then write me a check, which i will use to pay off the credit card. i will therefore accumulate the necessary amount of points needed to take one free cruise a year. of course by letting me put all your expenses on my card, each one of you would get a turn at taking a free cruise with me. 4. i want yukon to learn how to actually walk correctly. i'm slowly starting to make him walk when we go down the steps. i am honestly the type of person who thinks that if he wants to pee and poop and look around and sniff around, he should be able to on leash, but at the same time it'd be nice for him to know not to pull so hard. Jan 11th: New Years Resolutions(?) i suppose it's that time of year when everyone starts to make resolutions. proof of that can be found in almost any department store; i was in walmart yesterday purchasing some saline solution for my contacts and in my little bit of spare time walked around the sporting good section and noticed that they were missing a good chunk of stock. granted, i suppose that treadmills, workout equipment, and home gyms can be purchased as legit Christmas presents, but it's not quite as flattering as say - getting a flat screen TV or getting a cruise or a vacation. i'm not sure that weight loss can be qualified as a resolution for me this year. i think that for me, weight loss is something that constantly needs to be worked on. it's not one of those things where i can take care of it for a few months, and let it slide without repercussions. the tried and trued method for weight loss for me has always been close monitoring of food: watching what i eat, how much i eat, etc. while performing moderate exercise. adam has introduced me to different methods for keeping up metabolism, different takes on macronutrients, and even such crazy workouts such as crossfit, but for not, i'm content to sit and enter in my nutrition info into hand made excel spreadsheets and eventually maybe applications like www.fitday.com. i'm not sure what my goal will be for the long run. i mean, everyone has a very idealized weight, right? and although i'd like to get down to 125, which was my high school weight, it will be VERY difficult. but betty did find some entertaining pictures of when i was a sophomore (i think).
one of my other resolutions for this year is to be less emotional. yes, i realize how weird this may sound to some of you but there is a good reason for it. in my classes in the MMI program, i have met some pretty interesting characters as professors, all with very demanding jobs as CIO's, upper level management, etc. some of these professors have been more passionate about teaching than others, and some of these professors have been more emotional than others. when some people are frazzled by work, they carry it over to home life and extracurricular life. others though - no matter how rough or crappy their day is, they have this sense of just utmost calm in their demeanor. my professor for my technology and data acquisition class was one of these calm types. he's the chielf informatics officer for northwestern memorial faculty foundation, and has huge job stress. but each time he came into class, he was calm and composed. even when i see him in the halls at work once in awhile, he's always very pleasant and rarely looks frazzled. there must be something physiological about being so calm too - he's in his upper 40's but looks like he's in his mid 30's. and i do admit that sometimes i let my emotions get the better of me. i have a relatively short fuse when it comes to incompetent people. there was the case of the collection agency that kept calling on a saturday morning because they had the wrong phone number on file for a previous tenant, and recently there was the case of chase credit card morons trying to talk me into getting a new chase card when all i wanted to do was cancel my old one. i feel as if ol' dale sanders would have handled both situations much better. Jan 5, 2008: Happy New Year happy new year, folks! i guess i should first do a review of the cruise that i was on recently. actually, i should start with a preface. the first cruise that i ever went on was the year i graduated from northwestern. my sisters were kind enough to pay for my stateroom which i shared with betty on a disney cruise line sailing from port canaveral to nassau with a stop on their private island before returning to port canaveral. only recently did i begin to realize how costly disney cruise lines is, and had i known this beforehand, i would have tried to do more on the ship to take advantage of all the cool stuff my sisters did for me. i can't say enough good things about disney cruise lines. everything from the food to the service, to the sheer # of things to do on board to just the way it looked. i even enjoyed watching the shows because the dancers/actors/singers were very talented. my second cruise was in january of 2007. jennifer and i went with royal caribbean cruise lines this time with a similar itinerary: port canaveral to nassau to RCCL's private island back to port canaveral. we didn't get to do too much after nassau because jennifer got really sick, but it was still a very good cruise for the money. i thought the food last year was overcooked, but we loved our stateroom attendant as well as our dining room staff. although we were on the smallest and oldest of the RCCL fleet (Sovereign of the Seas), it was wonderful. there was a rockwall, and the sports deck was quite adequate. for a trip down memory lane, here are the pictures this year we did something different. went on carnival cruise lines out of LA for a 4 night cruise to santa catalina island, then ensenada, mexico, with a return to LA. It was the Carnival Paradise sailing on new years eve, and i was pretty excited to go. i had never seen Baja California before, and the west coast of mexico sounded pretty fun. i guess the safest thing to say would be that the cruise experience this year was just a tad bit...underwhelming. since the list of "bad things" far exceeds the list of "good things", i will start with the short list of "good things." our stateroom attendant was quite good, his name was winai. his towel animal making abilities were excellent, and he wowed us with a puppy dog complete with tail on the last evening. twice a day our room would be clean, and we never lacked any commodities. the same can be said for the crew members working the pizzeria and deli. they were overworked partially because of carnival's ambitious dining plans, but they did an excellent job. our dining room staff was good this year, but not as good as RCCL or disney. the vessel itself was larger, and more to explore. from an objective standpoint, there were more lounges, and there was a minigolf course as well as a waterslide. our stateroom was nicer this year - a whole window instead of 2 portholes. the whole guaranteed stateroom thing worked out in our favor. embarkation and debarkation were very smooth. i also thought that the staff in the shops and photo takers/photo sellers were VERY excellent. moving onto the things i could not control: both flights were bumpy and long. it almost took a full 5 hours to get to LA from chicago, which is ridiculous. the flight there was late to begin with, so we got there a bit later. (didn't matter). the flight back was bumpy and we had to sit in our seats for the first 2 hours because of turbulence. because it was new years day when we got to catalina, a lot of the shops were quiet. also maybe due to the weather/conditions, snorkeling wasn't as exciting as i thought it was going to be. water was murky, and temp was in the 50's. luckily we had on our wetsuits. same for ensenada. we did the bufadora and winery tour - underwhelming, but we had no idea they would be like so. one humorous thing was our dining room arrangements. there were a total of 5 couples seated at our table. the first night only 3 of us showed up, and both of the other couples were newlyweds from utah/byu and mormon. the final night four couples showed up, and lo and behold, jennifer and i were the only ones that were a)not married b)not from utah c)not mormon and d)all of the above. one of the couples turned out to be really cool, and we ran into them a lot. it was sort of funny. the first night jennifer pointed out their pictures from the photo gallery because they "stood out" and that's who we ended up eating with. i will put my thoughts on the mormon faith in another posting if i get around to it, but suffice it to say that although i cannot and will not ever agree with all of their beliefs, they are some of the warmest and friendliest people who put protestants to shame when it comes to spreading the word. Chris, one of the guys - even joked that Jennifer and I should move to Utah, get married, and convert. hah. now onto the things about the cruise that totally stank. the list is long. i think that the first complaint would be the food. there were some foods that they could not mess up on. bread, peanut butter, jelly, smoked salmon, and bagels were all good. but every single food that needed to be seasoned was either NOT seasoned at all or OVERLY seasoned. cooking times were also a cause for concern. there is no way in the world that lobster tail should ever taste stringy, nor should there be any way that two different thicknesses of beef wellington would be able to cook to a medium rare in the same amount of time. they had "southern fried chicken" which i found abysmal. no seasoning in the batter, and overcooked. but then we had the "salmon and artichoke salad" which i was excited to try. not so after i bit into it and found that it was just TOO MUCH salt. the only dinner dining room food i found to be good was the rack of lamb, followed by the veal shank. the good consistency i found was always in the deli, where the bagel with lox and cream cheese and pastrami/corned beef sandwiches were good. there was always a constant nauseating smell coming from our hallway. not sure if it was because someone vomited on the carpet, or because there was a plumbing problem, but it was VERY disappointing that it took a whole 3 days to start working on the problem. parts of the vessel were designated as non smoking such as the 10th lido deck, but never once did i see the policy enforced, which created a VERY unpleasant experience while dining outside or just walking around. the shows were mediocre at best. the brass players made it a habit of playing EXTREMELY sloppily with problems with intonation as well the annoying inability to play together in rhythm. singers were spirited, but resembled American Idol auditioners rather than the disciplined singing that i heard on both disney and RCCL. thankfully lenny the cruise director was a bright spot in entertainment, and the young lady that taught the austin powers dance should be credited and given an incentive as well. the person who designed the lounges on the Paradise must have been completely discombobulated at the time. the Rex lounge was a farce at best. let's be realistic - should a disco have leopard print, zebra print, and tiger print all in one scheme? the decor in the Leonardo was a joke at best too. the locations of the lounges were bizarre as well. why in the world would there be a coffee bar next to the leonardo next to the rex next to the 10 dollar store? the only saving grace was that the rotterdam and queen mary lounge were well decorated and for once, well located. i assume the location to be by default, because had the company had anything to say about the location, it may as well have been in the middle of the minigolf course. i can't say that i would recommend carnival to any of my friends or acquaintances. during non-peak season, disney cruise lines is only around 100 bucks more per person (based on feb 7 - 8 sailings from port canaveral), and royal caribbean i think would be the best bang for the buck. seriously - carnival should consider maybe learning to utilize staff and resources more efficiently/better before they expand their fleet. Later, I wrote this on Carnivals Comment Service: On my comment card, I gave the experience a rating of 2.5 - 3/5 because of the few people that made the experience enjoyable. I've decided that realistically, this cruise should get a 2.5 at the MOST out of 5. This is the most disappointing cruise I have been on, and sadly - it was because price was a factor. After comparing rates for comparable sailing dates/lengths, I will never sail on Carnival again, nor would I recommend it to anyone who wants to have a truly enjoyable journey. It is worth the extra 20 - 30 dollars per person to sail on Royal Caribbean, and 100 - 120 dollars per person to sail on Disney.
Dec 29: Another cool Accessory. so this one has been about 3 - 4 years long overdue. my old monitor had various chips, scratches, and dead pixels in it, namely from the time that i shot a CO2 cartridge from a paint ball gun into the screen. so my new monitor? eh, it's not the greatest, but for 200 bucks plus a 30 dollar mail in rebate, i'm not going to sit here and complain. Hanns G HW191 D Widescreen LCD monitor Dec 26: Merry Christmas! i hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and i hope that you all will have a nice new year as well. i'm not going to get on my soap box this year and explain why it's ok to say "merry Christmas", because i've decided this year that "happy holidays" is simply not enough for me. why should i have to hide behind something i believe in? anyway, that's enough. whew. what did i do over the break? well, it wasn't too long of a break because i'm taking a little vacation at the end of this week to get an illinois driver's license. i know, i know - finally, no more weird looks when i flash my super awesome TN license with the green renewal sticker on the back! early next week i will be heading off to california for two days, and then a quick day trip to mexico. should be pretty fun. it's actually part of a cruise. after looking at all the cruising and vacationing choices for this year, and after going back to TN for thanksgiving and spending more on tickets than i really wanted to, a new year's cruise actually wasn't that expensive. i did the awesome jewasian thing this year with the cruise and got the absolute CHEAPEST beds on the vessel by going "guaranteed inside stateroom." my gamble that i took was that although i could be stuck with the lowest category staterooms, i could also place a bet that said that those rooms would be booked by people just wanting to go but not wanting to take a huge risk on rooming. SO. lo and behold, i think that i got put into an ocean view room while paying an inside room price. ding ding ding! airline tickets were also very affordable given this time of year, so jennifer and i will celebrate new years in style. right, so i had to work last friday, but by saturday i was in tinley park at jennifer's folks place. saturday was low key, sunday was low key, and monday (new years eve) we went to her grandpa's and then to church. tuesday was present day, and i came back on the commuter train this morning straight to work. i will spare you all from reading about the true meaning of Christmas, but just keep it in the back of your mind. i will be the first to tell you that Christmas is way over-commercialized with retailers more concerned about making the holiday push for selling merchandise than they are with perhaps donating some of that money to help the needy. we're in battles over what we can put in store front windows because somewhere, someone decided that "Merry Christmas" offends too many people. if they put the same amount of effort into cleaning up streets so that impoverished children can play in clean and safe and well-lit parks without fear from gang members, then maybe we'd have something to discuss. with this spirit in mind, i was excited to get the nice gifts, because quite honestly, jennifer and i made off with a pretty good haul. and i'd like to think that my gifts were thoughtful and humorous as well. for my family, i did the usual gift card giving, because honestly, there's really nothing that i could buy for them that they couldn't get for themselves, and it's not like i can go and get my nieces nice bottles of wine or anything like that. i ended up getting betty a gift card to pottery barn since she's a future soccer mom, and for tina's family i got them starbucks cards and toys r us cards. for my parents i got some cards from outback, borders, and i think bath and body works. they both get to eat, my dad gets the books, and my mom gets the body works. for some reason i was under the impression that Christmas was not until this coming up friday, so last friday when jennifer said, "you only have a few more days," it was somewhat of a shock. never one to give up, i quickly mounted on my mission to find gifts in less than 2 days. which i did right after we ate dinner at panera. there's a world market right in that same shopping center so i got it done in a timely fashion. nice chocolates, pretty decorative candles with plates, world beers, and these two hilarious bottles of novelty beers basically covered the spread for her family. oh, so what was the coolest present that i got this year? jennifer made me an ornament that had yukon's picture in it wearing a santa's hat. yup, and here's the picture she used. the actual ornament just has his face with the hat.
and here's a card that we had made after we went to go see the petsmart santa. (sort of off topic, but it's in the holiday spirit)
per usual, click on the picture to make it bigger. i think this year i just cared more about the people and animals in my life than i did about the actual stuff. don't get me wrong, i got some neat things: jennifer got me the simpsons movie, need for speed carbon for the wii, and wii play for the wii. i also got some gift cards, a cool puzzle, and some binoculars to check out the sporting events i go to. i mean, i even played santa to myself and got a spiffy new JVC Everio GZ-MG130 camcorder with a little case for my future travels, but dunno - it doesn't make me as happy or as giddy as seeing yukon in a santa's hat. at any rate, i hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that if you don't celebrate Christmas, a lovely time with your families, friends, and loved ones. have a great new years too! take care. Dec 10: Substantial Post? i've been a little busier these past few weeks than i had originally anticipated. somewhere in there, i took a final for my data and technology acquisition class (i think it was actually at the end of november), and most likely it went fine. it started to snow here too a good bit. we had a day where it came down pretty hard, and then the following week it came down hard again. nice to see a little bit of the white stuff before Christmas. i have one final coming up this thursday, and then officially i'll be done with this quarter. speaking of thursday - i have to meet with my thesis adviser and an ER modeling specialist to get started on my project. PACKED day, let me tell ya. oh, so thanksgiving. started off easily enough. jennifer gave me a ride to the train, and i made my way to the airport in good time. got there, and it got really cold outside, so a bunch of the planes were icing over. at this point, there was a tiny little dusting of snow, but nothing i'd say to be "dangerous." ice is another issue, i guess. so my flight that was supposed to leave at 11am was delayed by more than an hour and a half, so i ended up purchasing a day pass to the northwest airlines world club. pretty sweet stuff, very comfortable chairs, business center, nice TV, open bar with decent quality liquors, beer, juices, sodas, etc, and of course - snacks and foods. being there made me realize just how lucky we are. well - just how lucky i am personally. i mean, the day pass was 45 bucks, and although it's not an amount i can throw down every day to have some extra comforts and luxuries, it's by no means an amount that i can't afford. if the commercials i hear on the radio and see on the tv are correct and for every 1.25 donated to various charities, 1 woman or 1 child can be fed and for like 1.75 - 2 dollars, a man can be fed around the holidays- well then, my friends...my spending certainly should nag on my conscience. I could with this set of metrics feed around 8 families of 4. not only on thanksgiving, but if i just take a look at how much money i usually spend per month just buying non-grocery food items, it's shameful. for every 6 dollar cream cheese and lox bagel i eat, that's a family of 4 plus change. now i know i can't save every homeless person or donate to every person who is in need of charity, but perhaps i could make a more concerted effort from now on to help when i can. it was my first return to east tennessee in more than a year. the moment we landed in knoxville, i realized that some things really never change. we landed around 20 minutes early, and there was a plane parked at the gate. instead of just going to another gate, we had to sit there and wait for someone to move the original plane. you all should totally see pictures of the airport. instead of the hub bub rush of o'hare or even midway, we have rocking chairs and massage chairs sitting throughout the terminal. with my parents moving to NC next year to be closer to the rest of the family, aka not me - this thanksgiving was spent cleaning out my room it's amazing what small trinkets we leave and what we toss to define who we used to be at some other hour in our lives. i kept these little soccer trophies from when i was 8, some piano and cello stuff, and some academic stuff. the books i chose to keep weren't the ones that taught me about fluids or calculus, but instead - one yearbook, a slew of comic books, and some pictures from back in the day. thanksgiving night i spent cleaning my room, and first thing friday morning i was at walmart/jewelry stores running errands for my dad cause he needed a few things from around the city. also had to drop off my mom's rather new civic to be serviced/get some new appliances, etc. with the help of my sister and my brother in law. on friday evening i got to see my good friend sam from high school. have not seen him in a few years, so that was a special treat. Dec 1: Happy December:substantial post coming later about thanksgiving thoughts, etc. November 27: Beat SnowCraft for the first time this season. A yearly tradition...trying to beat snowcraft. this time it only took me two tries.
the above picture is me owning level 9. click to enlarge per usual
congratulations to me. i beat it. November 12: The Power of Maddox:
simply amazing how one man is able to do this to major corporations. if you get the chance, you should also read his article entitled "the most expensive 94$ orbitz will ever make". if you do make your way to his blog, make sure you keep in mind that they are HIS opinions. people get offended, so if you're offended easily - don't go there. but if you want to read some articles that are thought-evoking even if they hit a few nerves, it's a good site, and it's linked from my home page under "friends" November 7: Things to Consider. in the grand scheme of life, a few items are worthy of note that contain the word "free." being of asian descent, the term, "buy one get one free," and "free food" will sometimes whet my appetite. sadly over the years, i've discovered that "free food" sometimes includes no more than stale sandwiches, cheap chips, and brand name colas at best. and "buy one get one free" usually applies to an item that is already somewhat pricey, and stores will rarely ever give you just a single item at half the price. although the other day, i bought a pair of pomegranates at "buy one get one free" pricing, which was quite good. another favorite "free" of mine is the "free roundtrip ticket" offered by southwest airlines through its rapid rewards program. the concept is simple enough: obtain 16 credits in two years, and you fly free provided that there are seats available on the flight. each one way flight counts for 1 credit, and 1200 dollars spent with their credit card counts for 1 credit as well. the exception is airfare/vacations provided by southwest airlines/vacations, which counts for double the dollar credit. example: a 300 dollar flight on southwest would count as a 600 purchase dollars. one can also rent cars and stay in hotels that are southwest partners for .5 credit. as the travel holidays are upon us, i was thinking about ways to possibly "cheat the system." i notice that on my most recent account, i need 5.5 credits for a free flight. i'll be making a trip to south florida for a few days in mid december, and that RT flight will be 2 credits. which means i'm left with 3.5 credits. now i think that since i've recently been purchasing things with my credit card INCLUDING airfare on southwest, i'll be able to garner another 2 credits, leaving me with 1.5 credits left until free flight. the wheels start turning...what can i do to quickly get that flight? paypal was my first option. since jennifer has a paypal account, i can send her money for "purchase of a good", right? well, yes - but consider that paypal charges 2.9% plus .30 cents per transaction. that means that for every 1200 dollars i "purchase" on paypal, they keep 35 bucks (or roughly that), and i'm left with 1165. to get to 16 credits this way, i would effectively be paying paypal over 500 dollars, and VERY rarely does a southwest flight ever exceed that. i mean, given the situation i'm in now, i suppose that i could get 1.5 credits, sell my RT voucher on ebay at a ridiculously high price to some holiday traveler, and then use the money i earn to buy a flight sometime next year, plus have money left over to use on a different flight. option 2, which i discussed with steven at the bike shop today...what if you could charge a lot of money to the southwest card, and then refund it to a different card, namely your debit card? that way southwest thinks you're buying and using all their credit, but in reality you are getting your money back to your bank account, which you can use to pay off the credit card and come out on top. simple solution, right? no...because most businesses will only allow you to refund a purchase back to the same credit card, or offer "store credit." and secondly, the credit card machine owners charge anywhere from 1 - 5% per transaction. i might be better off just using my paypal system. actually, the best "system" is just to put all your purchases on the card, and pay it off on time. that way you build credit, and work towards your award flight. speaking of steven at the bike shop, i got a new trainer today for the winter season. finally, i get my hands on a cyclops fluid 2 trainer. much nicer than the performance POS i had. plus paying 180 for an item that retails at 329 isn't a bad deal either. made use of it tonight...training will be less unbearable this winter. also obtained a wii recently. sometimes at night i like to look at ebay trends and bidding trends. i notice that towards the holidays, people will bid on items after work is over. (think parents, college students, etc.) which is humorous to me because a)they have no idea of the concept of a commodity such as esnipe and b)they probably have to sit in front of their computers the whole time. yesterday i witnessed a scam happening with a wii, and i thought it humorous. and of course i'll be in the mix sometimes just driving up prices for no reason. this afternoon though, i was looking at wii's again, and noticed that some were reasonably priced. and since a lot of them had remaining times of <1 minute, i thought i'd play around and see what i could do. got a basic wii system for 315, which although is marked up way past retail, isn't bad for this time of year. now i just have to make sure the seller is legit before i send payment. speaking of ebay again and tying it in with the concept of "free", you have to understand that every contest/gameshow/give away that gives a "free prize" still makes contestants pay the tax on it. ok - so i was playing around on ebay again and looking at cruise/vacation packages. saw some 2 night hotel stay plus any of the royal carribean sovereign line of ships sailings going for under 200 bucks. won it for 280, and was pretty stoked, because the auction said, "all inclusive." well i get the certificate and on the back it says, "each person is responsible for a fee of 299 to cover port charges, taxes, etc." so i email the seller, and say, "hey, this is weird..." and after some back and forth with the travel agency, they said, "fine, send back the certificate and i'll refund the money." solely based on this, i gave them positive feedback. they were under the impression from some agent that the fees didn't apply - i'm not going to sit here and argue semantics with someone who has 100% feedback ratings on ebay. unfortunately, i had already sent off my certificate to the cruise company, etc. etc. so i couldn't mail it back. after my calculations, i figured out that even with a 600 per couple booking fee and the 280 i paid for the certificate on ebay, a 4 night cruise + 2 night stay could still run you in the upwards of 1200 - 1400 bucks depending on when you go. so i'm gonna hang on to that package for maybe a trip next year. hopefully in conjunction with my "free southwest RT ticket." got grades back for stats. got an "A". feels good. peace. November 6: Mishmash. whew - nice to be done with "midterms" for this quarter. for my data and technology acquisition class, the midterm was nothing more than a dressed up version of the practice test that he gave us. so basically - done in about 10 minutes - first one done...but that doesn't really mean anything, i guess. the stats midterm was a little bit more of a donkey. instead of just asking us to calculate pure stats questions, we had true and false questions, fill in the blank, and then questions based on these dumb readings we had to do outside of class. true and false: i think i did ok. fill in the blank: maybe ok. readings: BARF. i didn't really bother to read anything until the weekend before, and secretly i hoped that the reading questions would be the same as the ones he gave us on the practice test. incidentally, i was the second one to finish the stats test. the first one to finish was my friend from the technology acquisition class. woot woot for mmi students. funny little moment in the stats midterm. so the previous week, the professor had explicitly stated, "the first part of your test will be close note close book and the second part of the test will be calculations where you can use notes, etc." well, there is a group of 3 medical student girls who sit together right in front of dean and i, and we KNOW that they heard the professor the week before. come test day, 2 of the girls have their act together, and one of them says to the third girl, "man, did you read those articles?" and the third girl goes, "no, but i brought them though." at this point, i was like, "HRM!" but i didn't think too much about it until the test started and there she was, using her notes to try to do the close-note close book portion of the test. HAHA. she got owned. ahhhh...so then there was a double date at hophaus with dean and his woman. note to self: stay away from their buffalo chicken, cause that stuff is really too spicy. TOO much. had a few good beers too with a shot of patron. friday was uneventful, but the weekend turned out to be pretty cool/interesting with lots of happenings. the CIBOR was in town. always a pleasant time when he comes into town from the outer reaches of boise, idaho. me and mj went to the NU football game on saturday morning, and then the three of us settled into a nice meal at piece in the afternoon. due to a weird twist of events, cibor and i ended up going back out to get some drinks, saw transformers in IMAX which was amazing, then out to meet up with some of the old soccer girls from NU. that was a treat - probably have not seen them since new years, and even then it was an incomplete group.
look, it's good ol' annie! so after these partying festivities, cibor and i went to the dominick's and rolled in at around 230 in the morning to get a pizza. well, there was this guy in front of us that left a good 1.5 cart length gap between himself and the couple in front of him. and the guy behind us (who happened to be of dark skinned descent) said, "hey buddy, is something wrong?" well the guy in front of us (who happened to be of asian descent) goes, "there's nothing wrong with me - have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately, you nigger?" like - right out of nowhere throws the n-word. now, i'm a pretty reasonable person most of the time, and you know, i will joke about eating fried chicken, water melon, and drinking grape drink because hey - i'm from TN and that's what we used to do. and i was sober because i was the driver for the evening, so when that N word popped out, i went off on the dude in front of me. at this point, i'd also like to point out that the contents of his cart were as follows: 3 bottles of the really expensive antibacterial multi-surface cleaner, 5 rolls of paper towels, and 5 or 6 perfectly portioned out mini pizzas for one person. so it's probably safe to say that there was something wrong with the dude...like maybe he was a germaphobe. that would explain his standing behind everyone and then later on he didn't even want to take his change. so when i got angry, i said to the lady running the register, "do you have security here, cause this guy just called the dude behind me a nigger." and sweet irony, the security guy was this very robust black gentleman, who i must say - handled the situation very well. and of course i was angry, and i was like, "don't ring up his fucking shit, kick his ass out of the store!" the lady rang up his stuff, and that's when he didn't want his change, and she said, "i'll give it to breast cancer awareness" and little ol' kemosabe said, "i don't care what you give it to." and i said real loud, "give it to the foundation for retards, so it'll help this dude right here." even the security guard got a chuckle out of it, at which point crazy asian man goes, "why don't you try growing some hair, you dumpling?" so i did something that perhaps i would not have ever done, but i lunged at him, and in doing so, stripped off my jacket. good thing ol' robust security guard was there cause if he weren't, i woulda decked him. and cibor grabbed me too, which i am thankful for. so anyway, crazy asian dude got taken out of the store in handcuffs, and they called the cops, and that was the evening. it's so very odd how some people can be so incredibly ignorant race. i mean, you can hate someone for being an asshole, but you shouldn't hate someone for being a certain color. it should be, "oh, i hate that guy right there, who happens to be black/mexican/asian" instead of "i automatically hate him because he's whatever race." the whole incident also reminded me of the virginia tech shootings with krazy korean killer. sort of reminds me of some asians i knew back at NU too. hrrrrmmmmm. interesting. and to end it all, here's a picture of jennifer and i ate julia's halloween party...
Oct 30: Dean's a Funny Guy. To: "Wei-an 'Andy' Chang" Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 2:25 PM
Oct 7: Long Cool Day. first some humor. isn't this the truth?
per usual, click to make it biger. oh, so i had a full day on saturday. started out pretty slow, then at noon MJ and i headed off to accenturepalooza (basically employee appreciation day) at northerly island. it's actually cool that they do anything at all for their employees - MJ tells me that every other year they have it at six flags. i mean, renting out northerly island isn't that bad either. haha. considering the best that NU preventive medicine is our yearly picnic in the summer and yearly "banquet" at christmas time. so mj's thing had two 80's cover bands. high infidelity was actually pretty good. and since it was family oriented, there were a few cool things (not that we did any of them). inflatable climbing wall, the joust, little ball tosses, darts, pool, giant trike races, etc. went home and rested for awhile before going to the blackhawks game. going into the 3rd period things looked bleak - we were down 1 - 3 to the SUCKY DETROIT REDWINGS but somehow in the third period we scored twice to push it to overtime. after a tie, it went down to a shootout, and we won. whoop whooop. justin's bday was today too, so we went to try to meet up at a place called English in river north. uhhhhh....let's just say that if it weren't for justin, mj and i would not have shown up. hahah. so we ended up going to portillo's and had a good midnight meal. the only downside was that some stupid suburbian high school was having some type of post-homecoming dance meal there too, and the dudes thought they were so awesome by trying to get us to get them a beer. someone forgot to tell them that they arent in the burbs anymore...stupid asses. nice day overall. fun stuff Oct 1: Bears at Detroit. got a chance to go out to detroit to watch the bears play. you know - for the cheap seats at soldier field which are now only available via very expensive ticket brokers, it's a cool 275$ per game. i got end zone tickets to detroit, a rental car, filled up 22 gallons in fuel, had the dog put in petshotel for 2 days plus 2 hours of playtime, got a cool parking spot/tailgating spot at ford field all for 90 dollars less than what i would have paid for a home game in chicago. breakdown of the day: woke up at 330, drove to the rental car place at 415, and was on the road to detroit by 5am. interestingly enough, we made it to detroit in around 4 hours because let's be serious - with the width that 94 is and the way the roads are built, you can drive 85 - 90mph without a problem. sneaky police though...since there aren't that many onramps in part of michigan, they hide under or just after bridge pillars. too bad i was onto their tricks! anyway, made it to the tailgating place at 1130 local time after some confusion as to where the actual tailgating lot was, and then set up camp. for the first time i tailgated, i felt supremely inadequate by what i brought: i brought 4 of my quart size home made beers, 2 goose island brews for jennifer, and an additional 2 sam adams brews in case anyone wanted any. i also brought 5 regular brats and 5 cheddar brats as well as the required buns. and two types of mustard too. paper plates, plastic cups, napkins. two chairs, and my little portable gas grill. the folks beside us? big folding table. huge weber portable gas grill, smaller charcoal grill, and a deep fryer. paper plates, cups, nakins, plastic ware, 3 types of beers, another 3 types of hard alcohol, and another 3 - 4 types of sodas. steaks. pork chops. grilled veggies. and the thing that put me to shame the most? crab legs that they boiled in the deep fryer. the walk to the stadium from our lot was only around 10 minutes - not too bad at all. gentrification existed to the max around the stadium. lots of old dilapidated public housing across the street from new condos and townhomes. the game was...good, but probably due to the fact that both teams looked very, very bad. the bears ended up losing 30 - 20, and we endured some scorn on the walk back to the car. drive back was ok too. needed some iced coffee from mcdonald's and some dinner at taco bell. heh. definitely fun - will probably do it again next year. Oct 1: Continuation of Previous Post: oh right, so i finally set up some time to talk in person with my advisor. he's the professor i had back in the day that also happened to be very high up on the NU emergency room pecking order. somewhere in there i'll probably also ask him if i can TA for him next quarter in addition to writing my thesis and taking one final class. i wonder how i'll end up feeling after i get my masters degree. it'll be weird to walk the stage again at NU, assuming of course - that i even choose to do so. the funny thing about SCS grad students is that you actually get to walk across the stage at the outdoor ceremony along with the PhD's and other folks. i'm sure i won't feel that much different - i'll probably end up with some more bargaining power for salary and if i want to stay another year at NU working in preventive medicine, etc. i want to spend this winter under the tutelage of one of the mechanics at the bike shop learning just how to work on bikes. the ideal situation is that next spring, i'll be able to take any new bike out of a box and assemble it/tune it up from start to finish. i think the bottom line is that no matter what, i still need to make it out to specialized in california. incidentally i have no idea when that day will actually be. actually, i'd even be content to have a specialized job working here in chicago. after i get all the necessary experience to work for specialized, will i happily jump on the next plane to morgan hill, california? i'd like to think so. i'd like to think that i could just leave everything behind here in chicago and just...go. of course there would need to be logistics to work out: who gets to keep the dog (i do of course...haha) amongst other things. i guess the upside is that i still have time to think about all of this. the downside is that with my masters program almost complete and with my piece of paper that says "MASTERS" almost handed or mailed to me, i have less time to think about it than i did a year ago when i was still shooting the breeze. Sept 28: Not too Shabby. sort of nice to be back in the full swing of things with work and school again. granted, nancy ferguson at good ol' SCS is going to be wishing that she had let me transfer my stats credit from undergrad over to the masters program after i make a 99.9999 in the class. actually, i take that back - i sort of like how i didn't get to transfer my undergrad credit over. it means that i'll get to spend less time studying in the class and more time doing important things like arranging all of my beers from lightest floculation to highest, highest attenuation to lowest, etc. etc. dean was nice enough to let me borrow his books from dale sanders' class, which basically entails technology acquisition. which means that i spent a total of ~90 bucks for my two books for the stats class. let me tell ya, that's a lot less than i used to spend in undergrad. the beauty of all is that although amazon will always have the greatest selection and very competitive pricing along with a website that for lack of a better term is "smart", sites like abebooks.com will always have the lowest pricing and a no-frills website. abe books is sort of like google - clean, good features, no frills or bells and whistles. i actually chose to get one book from either of the sites just to "mix it up" a little bit. haha. it finally dawned on me that after this quarter, i will only have one more real class to take before getting mastered. finally set up some time with my advisor to talk about my capstone project/thesis....more later. Sept 25: Words of Encouragement whenever i tell anyone that i want to apply my medical informatics degree to a job working out in California for Specialized, i am usually greeted with a "oh, that's cool." mainly because i suspect that people don't really know what MMI is, nor do they realize that there are aspects of specialized that don't involve direct biking. but today the Chief Security Officer/Chief Informatics Officer at NMFF heard my aspirations, and for the first time, i heard, "that'd be such a creative use of this degree." did i forget to mention that he rides a trek madone and a cannondale scalpel? nice. Sept 13, 2007: I hope Jodie Foster's new movie tanks. you know why? cause i'm tired of looking at the frickin ads every time i open up hotmail.
click on it to make it bigger. Sept 12, 2007:Flip a coin, win a prize...unless you drink Blue Moon. this will probably be my first real "rant" on a web page, but i thought i would get it out there. and it's not even quite as hateful or as scorning as my usual rants. i'd like to take a look at the concept of probabilities for a moment. specifically, that of tossing a coin 100 times. now, before i get into that, i'd like to talk about prizes behind doors. the only catch is that there are 2 doors, and each time the prize can either change doors or stay behind the same one. that is to say, one time the prize could be behind door number 1, and the next time it could be either behind door number 1 OR door number 2. each time you restart, it doesn't matter what the previous door had behind it, right? same with flipping a coin, you dumb monkeys. right now, 50% of you are scratching your heads, going, "but but but...if you flip a coin 100 times, it's going to be heads around 50% of the time." if you happen to be in a frat AND you like to drink blue moon at the same time, right now is the time when you should try to drown yourself in your own pile of blue moon brewed by coors vomit. but in case you're too stupid to realize this - pretend that each time you flip a coin and you get a heads, you'll get to drink another bottle of blue moon while listening to dave matthews (no offense, MJ, because i know you do this) and wearing some sh*tty-*ssed brand of clothing you found at the mall. great prize, isn't it? 50% of the time EACH time you'll get the prize. but does it matter what you just flipped? NO!!!! because each new coin flip yields a brand new contest where you can potentially win another great "prize" of aforementioned tomfoolery. it's not like if you were drawing a prize out of a bucket of balls, where each time you draw a losing ball, the probability of you winning on the next draw goes up. on that note, stop reading my blog, and go flip some coins. of course .19879185 percent of you out there are dumb donkeys and have a two tailed coin from a joke shop, hence you will never win my awesome prizes. Sept 11, 2007: On my own again. before i start off on the meat of this entry, i'd like to take a moment for you readers just to pause and think about the fact that it's been 6 years since the world trade center/pentagon/u93, etc. attacks. a lot of you can probably remember where you were right at that moment when you heard that the planes went into the wtc. i was driving my baby blue mercury sable station wagon into the little rinky dinky gas station by my aunt's diner in oak ridge, tn when i heard the news... julia's last day at work was last friday - a little sooner than i would have expected or liked, but hey - what are you gonna do? while i'm sitting at work these days doing data and sample prep, she gets to spend 2 weeks in nicaragua and then go to NYC for a little while as well. however, her beloved Michigan Wolverines football team is at a dismal 0-2, so i guess things work themselves out in the end. she made me this cool little tool belt that some could misconstrue to be an apron. at any rate, it holds samples plus the rotameter so now there's no need to go up on roofs and people's homes carrying extra little bags that don't quite fit into the laptop bag. my creativity never being as well-personified, i took her out to lunch at sushi para ii for her last day. and of course, she tried to get away with not eating the rice with her sushi buffet, and got the "we'll charge you" threat from one of the waitresses. ha. yesterday was sort of a blur at work. it was a long day: a 8am - 7pm day, and when i walked into the office at around 7:50, it was weird to see that julia's desk was cleaned out. however, i can once again change in my office before and after work into and out of my biking clothes. the small perks of working in an office i guess. not to get too sentimental about being alone because like i mentioned earlier in an entry, i'm not REALLY alone because there are other people at work and julia only lives about a mile away from me - i guess that the lasting memory of her in the office will be the cool snowflakes she made out of construction paper (once again, creativity) to compliment my strings of christmas lights, which are still up after almost a whole year. haha. jennifer thinks, however, that whenever i have no one to talk to i get all crazy and wacky when i come home because i've got all this stupid energy bottled up and nowhere to put it now verbally. haha - good times, good times. later. Sept 1: What the Deuce? Can someone explain to me why there is an album called Kidz Bop that basically entails a bunch of kids singing popular songs? Is it just that I'm still too conservative or are some of these songs outrageously inappropriate for children?
August 30: As a Reminder: This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal
***************************************************************************** August 28: Feelings through songs. although i'll be the first one to admit that many of the songs heard on popular stations these days really sound like hella ella ella ella ey ey ey, there are some goodies out there by artists who have had a long and successful career. now songs these days don't have to have a direct meaning. they're allowed to remind us of some previous happening, some other instance in our life when the rush of emotion was strong. for example, "my favorite mistake" by cheryl crow was written in a way that many different type of people could take song to be their own. cheryl crow herself never commented on who the song was about, or even if there was a favorite mistake of her. daniel bedingfield came onto the scene with first his high pitched "i want to get through this" and then wowed our years and even hearts with "never going to leave your side" and "if you're not the one." the latter of these songs was so strong that for awhile it was the UK's number 1 wedding AND funeral song. i'd say that the past few days have been a whirlyball of emotions and feelings for me. whirlyball, not a rollercoaster. the object of whirlyball is to score a little whiffle ball into a goal while driving little bumper cars. and sometimes when driving or shooting, you get completely SMASHED by others. haha. just goes to show you that our lives aren't ever algorithmic, and that what happens to us in some way or fashion is a direct result of what other people choose to do and the events that happen to them as well. in college i was lucky to have met wonderful people. gracious, i met cibor and mj, and after these years, we're still the three buddies that will go skiing this year (for sure!) and whenever cibor visits from boise, we hang out. and whenever MJ has a chance after work, we hang out as well. mj, please get a place in the city instead of living at your house in st. charles. heh. while in college, i had the honor of meeting some young ladies as well. and although those opportunities never really turned out as ideally as they could have, i definitely learned a thing or two from the school of hard knocks in the lady department. i would also have to say at this point that meeting jennifer doesn't count because we didn't really get to know each other until after college was over. how do you describe the following elation? getting work with a wonderful young (well, sort of older now) lady by the name of lilia 'sexrox' chen, then meeting a girlfriend named jennifer followed by the always present kris lightner...and most recently in this past year, meeting, working with, and getting to know who i would consider to be one of those most articulate, intelligent, and beautiful women i have ever been graced to know: julia. don't worry wenny, i still remember you too. :o) i lucked out the first time with lilia being so smart and well-adept at performing all the air pollution stuff. when she left i was sad cause i was going to miss her, but also sad because right when she left, a lot of crap was dumped into my lap and honestly at that time, i had NO idea what i was doing. well, julia was offered a position today at an environmental firm located in chicago, and her last day will probably be sometime in mid september. and this time, i'm sad again. not because a lot of work is going to be dumped on me. on the contrary, her leaving is the direct result of MESA Air slowing down for the next year. nah, i'm sad the way anyone would be when a great friend leaves for something else. or different. or better. i'm sad in the same way i was when cibor went out to boise after college, or when i knew i wouldn't see sam travaglini that much anymore. not bitter, or angry, but just...genuinely sad. because as fate would have it, people in my life leave sometimes... the bright part of all of this is that people are there for a reason. people and things don't show up just for shiggles - i believe that each instance and person in every person's life has some type of lasting effect that is microscopic at first, then huge in the end. that being said, people stay sometimes for a few weeks, some for a few months, some for a few years, and if you're lucky enough, you'll find people who stay for the entire 9 innings of the game of life. and overtime too if needed. i was blessed to work and learn so much from lilia and kris, and then later julia. not just about the EXCITINGNESS that comprises mesa air, but also about life, love, a good degree of corruption, ahem, lilia - and just overall STUFF. i matured because i was around people who were mature. i know, i know...julia isn't gone forever, and gracious she'll still be living a mile away from me, but it'll just be weird to go into work come october and not see her there. i know that for a week or so after lilia left, i still looked toward the door every morning at around 9 expecting to see her there. so the song that comes to mind about being sad and happy and blessed all at once is: "make a memory" by bon jovi. although the actual song is talking about hooking up with your ex for one last memory, i take it to mean that you should always make good memories to get you through the hard times in your life. i have great memories about high school and undergrad. i have memories about lilia, cibor, etc. thinking back about someone or something should always make you smile more than it makes you sad. that's all. hammie is also on the verge of death. the average lifespan of a hamster is 1.5 - 2 years, and as i recall, lilia and i got hammie when i was still living in 1400 n. lake shore drive in late 2005. so he's getting up there in his years of just when i had him, and he was probably at the shop for a bit longer before i found him. that's the thing about little pets - they die the quickest. i guess the song that comes to mind about hammie right now is "say goodbye" by dave matthews. again, it's more of the title that strikes me instead of the actual song. i feel as if hammie's hours are coming to an end. also finally got my computer up and running again after a short hiatus without a working video card. along with the close completion of the two bikes, i'm feeling a little bit like rocky's "eye of the tiger!" on that note, i'm out. later ********************************************************************************** August 16, 2007: Mishmash of items. i was listening on the mix this morning as jennifer dropped me off at work, and the topic at hand was about how much to tip restaurant waitstaff. in general, my policy has always been the following: although now that i think about it, i'd like to devise a new tipping scheme. actually, john lithgow's character on 3rd rock from the sun devised it when he was on the date with the other professor. but the basic gist is that you would take 20% of the pretax bill out in singles (round up on the dollar amount), and say to the waitstaff at the very beginning: this is your potential tip. for every time that my glass isn't refilled within a reasonable amount of time or for every time i feel like i am waiting more than i should, your tip will go down by 1 dollar until it reaches zero. many of you out there are rolling your eyes, but i'm actually sure it'd be quite effective. actually, i think the reasonable thing for me to do now is to use an evaluation system instead of my flat 15%. now that i think about it, some of the girls at chili's are much more attentive than the ones in higher priced restaurants. August 6th, 2007: Very expired clif bars. my dad sent me a cute email today. it was a forwarded email as most of his emails are when he wants to share something cute, or something that's a picture, or a powerpoint presentation. and although i do have better things to do than look through his different emails and the different powerpoint slides, i usually look through them anyway for fun. sometimes he gets duped though. he sent me a warning about the "invitation virus..." clearly a hoax since a) i haven't heard anything on any of the news networks, and b)some of the terminology they used was pretentiously fake. as it turns out, he got it from a family friend, and now he's sent out that email to everyone on his list. ahhhh. been spending a good chunk of time watching BBC america lately. didn't know if you all knew it or not, but gordon ramsey is one of my favorite tv celebrities now. british, does the 'hell's kitchen' show on fox, and has a few series on tv, one of which is "kitchen nightmares", where he tries to revive a suffering restaurant. it's actually quite comical because gordon's such a toughass when it comes to getting stuff done. he'll say the most ridiculous things on TV. of most recent memory, he referred to a kebab that someone had made and displayed on this hanging skewer as a "hanging's donkey schlong." ah hahah. also been playing a game called "F.E.A.R." for the computer. it was a very highly touted first person shooter game in 2005, and i can see why. it's taken me forever to get to stage 8. goodness gracious. it's definitely worth checking out for 19.99 at target or any other store. i also want to go to six flags soon. hrrm. July 30th, 2007: Expired Clif Bars. ok, so some of you may know that last week or so i watched a tv show on TLC that dealt with morbid obesity in people. i'm talking people that consume more than 36,000 calories a day. you may have heard of some of them in the news in passing. for example, there was the guy who couldn't fit through the door so the fire department had to come and knock down part of his wall, etc. the people featured on this show were grossly (both metaphorically and literally) overweight. one man was well over 800 pounds, another was in the high 600's, and there was a lady that was around 700 pounds as well. i do appreciate the fact that TLC filmed the show in such a way that it wasn't a "freak show" or a "come laugh at the fat man" show, but more of a documentary where these people got to talk about their feelings. there was also a segment at the end where the people were confronted with how much they ate in a typical day. a few highlights included one of the people spending 14,000 USD per year just on chocolate bars, the ability of one man to consume 13,000 calories per day just eating snacks, and also how another man had a bucket that he lowered and raised out a window for the delivery people to make the exchange. the bottom line is that all of those people were in huge denial about their eating problems. mr. bucketman refused to believe that he ate that much, and claimed that his daily intake could not be more than just 5,000 calories. another lady who drank 2 cans of soda, ate 4 reese's cups, a six pack of donuts, and other assorted candies RIGHT BEFORE BED said that she felt good when she ate but really bad right afterwards. the guest doctors on the show were very careful not to come out and say that fat is addicting, because lord knows that would cause all sorts of problems for insurance companies, medical centers, etc. can you imagine that? "i'm addicted to fat..." sure, it's possible to raise the levels of sugar and fat so high in your body that anything less would seem like a "withdrawal." i'm not going to comment on this topic anymore. instead, i am going to comment on my own lifestyle. somewhere in the past year, i started treating my body like an amusement park ride again, and after watching the show last week, i sort of got these creepy mental images in my mind. well, half of them are creepy. every time that i reach for something unhealthy such as a burger, or think about eating excessive amounts of sugar, fats, or carbs, the only image that i can get to pop up in my head is of that one fat black man who had the bucket outside of his window. the mere mental image of being on oxygen, not being able to see cause my face is so freaking swollen, and having all sorts of health issues has literally SCARED me into not eating again. rather, it's scared me into eating so carefully that once a week, it's actually OK to eat some fast food. on the other hand, every time i reach for fruit or veggies, i think of a very lean and sculpted cyclist - sometimes male, and sometimes female. which brings me to the topic of the tried and trued andy diet. 2 packs of low sugar oatmeal and 1%milk for breakfast, 1 clifbar at around 11AM, another clifbar at around 2:45 or 3pm, and a sensible dinner. daily caloric intake is once again under 1300 kCal per day. consequences of this diet: the upside of eating clifbars: i scored two+ boxes from the bikeshop, and every time i order clif products now they are basically only around 50 cents per item. later. July 30th, 2007: This is where all my blogging is going to be done. Obviously I haven't written anything just yet. The sidebar will have more stuff later as well. |
