Tuesday, January 30, 2007
To Hell With Florida!
In general, I'm a pretty mellow guy. As an adult, I don't get mad or angry easily over the small or big things in life. I always try to look at the bigger picture, and look from the perspective of the other side. It is this very trait that makes some of my own friends think at times that I'm not 100 percent with them when they have personal conflicts. Worse yet, they would think that I'm trying to argue against their point, when I am merely suggesting to look from a broader point of view.
Well, not today. I am royally pissed. While having my routine lunch at work with my laptop, I started reading the news. Yes, I admit, I'm a news junkie. But what I read today was so upsetting that not only did it anger me, it rocked and saddened me to the core. I lost my appetite instantly. Then I wept a little. After my coworker asked what was wrong, I wiped away a tear and became furious.
What the f**king hell is wrong with Florida?!? Don't get me wrong. I have friends and coworkers who live there. But what the hell is wrong with the politicians, law enforcement agents, and those involved in public policy? SERIOUSLY?!? First, you have the public officials who don't know how to count ballots. Second, you have the judicial system screw us over with said ballot counting incident. (Remember the presidential election of 2000?) Third, you have the Terri Schiavo clusterf**k, which was a private matter turned national debacle involving religion and politicians, which eventually cost us money and time in Congress. Then you have Mark Foley, a Republican Representative from Florida who was the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and who also happened to be the central sexual predator on congressional pages. And finally, this.
Here is a quick rundown of events from our friendly state down there:
A young teen made some bad decisions and got involved with some felony crimes in 2003.
Due to some confusion, the bail stemming from the felony crimes were not paid, but said teenager thought the legal matter was resolved.
The justice system didn't know how to mark the case due to non-payment of bail, so the matter was recorded technically incorrectly as "failure to appear."
This past weekend, years after her felony crimes, the young woman went to a parade. While walking back to her car, a man grabbed and brutally raped her.
The young woman reported the violent crime to the police after she left the crime scene and returned to her car.
Police officers took her to a clinic to be examined. The nurse prescribed the young woman emergency contraceptive medication and provided a hotline for crisis intervention.
The police officers then asked the young woman to accompany them to assist in locating the scene of the crime to collect further evidence.
While en route, police officers learned of the young woman's past warrant.
After conferring with an acting sergeant, the police officers decided to haul the young woman to jail.
It is universally accepted that all jail inmates have to relinquish all personal artifacts, like wallet, jewelry, medicine, etc. While in jail, the jail nurse decided not to release the second dose of the emergency contraceptive medication to the rape victim, citing his/her own religious beliefs.
Because it is their policy to only allow collect calls to be made from the jail, the victim was not able to call the crisis prevention hotline for rape victims.
The rape victim remained in jail for two days, before the top brass finally learned of the situation through the media.
Let's leave religion out of this discussion. We can argue forever about the morality behind emergency contraceptives, regardless of what you and I or anybody else believe in. Let's talk about ethics here.
What infuriated me the most were three factors. One, the jail nurse overstepped his/her boundaries and forced his/her personal beliefs on others. The nurse had no right whatsoever to do so, especially when emergency contraceptive medication is not deemed illegal in the state of Florida. All he/she had to do was remove him/herself from that situation and let someone else with an objective, unbiased moral point of view do the work. This is also the very reason why I sometimes have a problem with missionaries. I don't necessarily disagree with mission work in general, but I definitely disagree with shoving one's own beliefs down others' throats while threatening eternal hell and diminishing another's culture and tradition as a good method of spreading God's Word.
Second, how stupid does one have to be to not realize that perhaps bending the rules in regards to the phone call policy when a traumatized rape victim perhaps need to seek counseling? If the jail warden did not want to be responsible for making exceptions, then all he/she had to do was voice his/her concerns to a superior, and move it up the chain. To be a police officer, you need to have a high school diploma or equivalent. Even a ninth grader has the sense to realize that a victim of a violent crime not only needs compassion, but understanding and perhaps a little bit of exception in special and extreme circumstances.
Finally, how heartless and compassionless do you have to be to throw a traumatized victim of a violent crime in jail? Whatever happened to common sense? Is any of the police officers or the acting sergeant so callous to the point that they feel like they no longer need to be concerned with the emotional and spiritual well being of the victim? For Christ's sake, the warrant was only $4,585! Chump change compared to the cost they now may face if this poor woman decides to commit suicide, or worse, if this incident sets a precedent for future victims to not report violent crimes because they have a few skeletons in their closet. Not to mention the potential amount of money the police department will want to settle should a lawsuit be filed.
My solution to Florida? Let's just start teaching our kids to draw the American flag with 49 stars. If there is no fault line between Florida and Georgia/Alabama, then let's just create an artificial earthquake to split Florida off into the ocean. Seeing how many Cubans love to go there, I wouldn't be opposed to Florida breaking and floating on to rest next to Cuba. Or we can just blow the damn place up and make Florida a nuclear wasteland. Neither option is exactly great, but I would prefer that all my friends and coworkers move out of there first, and after the Chicago Bears win the Super Bowl, before such drastic measures be implemented. I'm going to propose another possible solution should my friends not want to move out of Florida. Take away Florida's statehood, divide the land into two, and integrate the land into Georgia and Alabama respectively.
Then we won't have all these idiocies from Florida running amok in regards to public policy...
Below is a copy of the news article as reported by Valerie Kalfrin at the Tampa Tribune for my archival purposes should they remove it after a certain period of time in the future.
Paradegoer Reports Rape, Jailed On Warrant
By VALERIE KALFRIN The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jan 30, 2007
TAMPA - A 21-year-old woman told police Saturday that a man grabbed her off Howard Avenue and raped her behind a building during the Gasparilla festivities.
But officers investigating the case arrested her after learning she had an outstanding warrant from her teenage years for failure to pay restitution.
She spent the next two nights in jail.
Police are reviewing their policies after the arrest, which one victim's advocate said could have "a chilling effect" on the rape investigation, the woman's well-being and the desire of future victims to contact police.
The woman's family is outraged.
"We're incensed. Everyone is just beside themselves," her mother, 47, said at 5:20 p.m. Monday, moments before escorting her daughter from Orient Road Jail.
The Tampa Tribune is not identifying the woman or her family because police are investigating a sex crime.
"You've got to make sure you throw somebody in jail on a four-year-old felony warrant after they've been brutally raped?" the mother said. "It was a failure to take the actual dynamics into play."
Her daughter did not speak to reporters.
Adding to the mother's ire is her claim that a jail nurse prevented her daughter from taking a second dose of emergency contraception prescribed by a nurse at a clinic as part of a rape examination. The jail nurse, said the mother and the victim's attorney, denied the medication for religious reasons.
Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter could not comment about that allegation or anything else about the woman's medical situation because of the federal health information privacy act. However, she said all medications are confiscated from inmates upon their arrival until they are verified.
Policy Refers To Misdemeanors
The police department in 2002 issued a legal opinion under then-Police Chief Bennie Holder that advised against arresting victims of violent crime on outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
"The goal of the policy is to avoid further traumatizing the victim of a serious crime," Assistant City Attorney Kirby Rainsberger wrote at the time. Officers should use discretion to balance "the severity of the injury suffered by the victim compared to the seriousness of the crime specified in the warrant," he wrote.
The policy does not advise whether police should arrest crime victims wanted on felony charges.
"It's rare in police work that someone isn't arrested on a felony warrant, but you always want to have compassion for a victim," police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said Monday. "This may be a case where we need to revise our policy."
Police supervisors did not learn the woman's circumstances until early Monday, after inquiries from the media and the woman's attorney, Virlyn "Vic" Moore III of Venice. At that point, police worked with Circuit Judge Walter Heinrich to grant her bail: $4,585 that a Sarasota County court said was unpaid in a 2003 auto theft and burglary case, McElroy said.
Moore disputed that the money was unpaid, calling it a "technical violation." The woman thought the matter had been resolved, he said.
The woman told police she went to Gasparilla on Saturday with friends but left about 1:30 p.m. She said she was walking north on Howard Avenue, back to her car parked at the University of Tampa, when a man grabbed her near Swann Avenue, dragged her behind a building and raped her.
McElroy said the rape was reported at 3:40 p.m., once the woman had returned to her car and told a friend.
Generally, in rape cases in which a victim does not suffer extensive injuries, it is standard procedure for officers to take the victim to a clinic to be examined by a nurse, McElroy said. If the victim is not at the original scene, officers will ask the victim to accompany them there to look for additional evidence, she said.
In this case, officers took the woman to a clinic on Busch Boulevard, where a nurse examined her and provided her with the 24-hour hot line for the crisis center, McElroy said. On weekdays, victim advocates from the police department provide referrals for counseling, McElroy said.
The woman did not have the opportunity to call the hot line, her mother and attorney said. As a jail inmate, she was allowed only to make collect calls. "She did not have any crisis intervention. Zero. None," her mother said.
Routine Check Revealed Warrant
McElroy said the woman tried to show police where the rape occurred but had trouble finding the location because it was dark. While en route, police learned through a routine check that she was wanted. Jail records show that the woman was booked into Orient Road Jail on Saturday for "failure to appear" on two felony warrants: grand theft auto and burglary. In fact, McElroy said, the "failure to appear" was recorded because of the alleged nonpayment.
Unsure of how to proceed, police drove the woman to a gas station at Howard Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard to consult with an acting sergeant, who determined the woman should be arrested, McElroy said.
The woman's mother said she received a phone call about 9 p.m. Saturday from a female officer saying her daughter "was raped today at 2, but her name came up on a bulletin and I have to take her to jail."
In her opinion, the mother said, "The rape investigation has come to a screeching halt."
McElroy disagreed, saying that officers referred their report to the detective division. A detective tried to find potential witnesses Sunday but was unsuccessful, she said. The detective did not try to speak to the woman in jail Sunday because there were no "time-sensitive leads," McElroy said.
Bonnie Bucqueroux, a victims' advocate and coordinator of the Victims and the Media Program at the Michigan State University School of Journalism, said the handling of the situation could have "a chilling effect" on this case and others.
"This is one of those cases where they made the wrong call," she said. "Spending two days in jail … certainly adds to the trauma she endured. … Why would victims who had any concerns about any dealings in their past come forward?"
Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at vkalfrin@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7800.
Labels: philosophy, politics, stupidity
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sex Battles!
Today was like no other day. Prominent public figures share a common skill with me: Open mouth, insert foot.
First, you have the the Health Minister of Japan Hakuo Yanakisawa referring to women as "birth machines." Next thing you know, you have Senator Hillary Clinton making this sarcastic and rhetoric comment in Iowa on her campaign trail, "What in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men?"
Can't boys and girls just get along and play nice? =)
In other news...
Did any of you listen to Coach Lovie Smith's Sunday press conference right after the Bears arrived in Miami? Especially the part where the coach answered a question about Line Backer Brian Urlacher? Listen to the press conference, and pay close attention to minute marker 13:19. (Just drag your mouse to that vicinity in the timescale.)
If I was Brian Urlacher, I think I would have felt a little dirty after how Lovie described him in that kind of voice. "Six percent body fat!" Shiver! I think Lovie would make a great man date auctioneer! LOL
Labels: funny, politics, random, sports
Sunday, January 28, 2007
What I want for my birthday!
Considering that my birthday has just passed, I've got my eyes set for the gift people should get for my birthday next year. I want the Swedish self-cleaning toilet!
Of course, if it is too pricey for my friends to buy me this neat gadget, I'll be more than happy to settle for a two-in-one gift: a pet kitty and its amazing talent.
Labels: animals, funny, oddity, random, technology, television
I'm a Failure
Throughout my adult life during and after college, I have made friends who were in high school and under 18. I know that is kind of weird, especially when none of them are related to me. These are people I have met in person, either through their families or their older hometown friends who are of my age. The only exception was a girl who I met online when I was 19, 10 years ago.
Most of these friends have grown up and are in college, and some have already graduated college and moved into adulthood. Looking back, these girls at one point or another had some sort of a crush on me. It is just unfortunate that young girls are impressionable and at some point in time had crushes on guys who are way older. But I have always denied them the acknowledgement of their crush, because of the age thing and the creepiness of such Lolita-ness. I would much rather date someone who is of my age or older, as I can't stand to have a conversation about things like, "So my teacher was like totally mean to me, and he did this and that," or "And he told her stuff like so and so, and she got mad, and now she is like totally mad at me for something I didn't do," et cetera. I would hate to hear crickets chirping when I try to talk about politics or current world affairs.
But one thing is for sure. Although they were hurt initially with my not doing anything with their baring of their souls in regards to me, they have always understood eventually and remained friends. They would come to trust and rely on me for advice in their troubled young dramatic lives. Of course, being girls that they are, most of the time it involved their love lives. What I have never understood was the fact that when they knew that I have never had a girlfriend for over six months myself, they still wanted my perspective on relationships and sought my advice and opinion. I tried the best I could, based on my personal beliefs.
Why am I talking about this? Because most of them are no longer teens now, and they have stopped asking for advice. It has been years since I doled out words of wisdom. Until yesterday. A very distraught friend could not stop crying because she recently found out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her at least emotionally through the Internet. I have no idea what to say or do, as now that we are both adults despite the fact that she is still 20, I don't feel like I am exactly a subject matter expert on relationships. Especially during a time when I am in a jar of pickles myself.
Looking back at most of my friends and the decisions they made, I realized that I have been a total failure. They didn't heed my advice. They made many decisions that taught them huge lessons. Although I wanted to say many times, "I told you so," I did not have the heart to do so. After all, they were young girls, and "I told you so" is not exactly what they wanted to hear when their little hearts got broken.
Thank goodness that none of them have made the ultimate mistake that led to teen pregnancy. But I felt especially sad and upset that one blew my advice off and disregarded her own parents' efforts to make her understand that a 32 year old guy should not be wooing a 16 year old girl. Last year, she had a scare and thought she might have been pregnant. My heart sank. And it got worse when she fought with her parents and decided to move out of state with him when she turned 17. And she didn't want to hear anything from me because I sided along with her parents.
Now that she's 18 and in her senior year, I wondered how she truly is doing. After all, she keeps on saying she is happy now because she is in love and wants to marry him, even though he has a drinking problem along with a nasty temper. (I know, what a great combination.) Disowned by her parents, her boyfriend can't exactly pay for healthcare, much less her college tuition if she wanted to get higher education.
I know that whatever situation she is in is the result of her own decisions, but I still feel a little bit of guilt. She had this huge crush on me once, and it was also around that time that her now boyfriend was always hanging around school grounds pursuing her. I feel like I should have pretended to like her and string her along, saying things like, "I like you too, but let's wait till you're 17 before we get into a relationship." That would have at least bought her time to ignore this strange pedophile. But I could not in my heart pretend to have feelings for her, much less knowingly waste a year of her romantic life.
In retrospect, I think if she learned of my deception if I had done what I should have, she would have hated me more than her parents. But sometimes I feel like the cost of my friendship, although steep, would have been less than the cost she is paying now. She was extremely bright and smart, did sports, and artistic. A college entrance was not far off, but now it seems like having kids and getting married soon is a priority.
I look at her and think to myself, "God, I'm a total failure." Because of her, I don't feel like I should be giving out advice to anyone anymore. I think being a true friend, you not only need to just give advice, but success can be had only if the other party heeds to your advice. I know I probably shouldn't be so hard on myself, but I do think about this once in a while.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Watch Out! I May Be Gay!
I consider myself a Christian. I subscribe to the basic universal beliefs of my religion for the most part. But in this modern day and age, I also believe in respect, tolerance and coexistence. There is certainly no room for ignorance and bigotry in my world. My God does not hate or discriminate.
While running 5.5 miles after returning home from work tonight, I learned of something interesting. Apparently a "Christian" website, Love God's Way, has published a list of "Gay Bands" warning parents of possible homosexual influences on children. Seeing that the list includes some of my favorite bands, I'm just left wondering why I haven't jumped over the fence and play for the other team after all these years. Could it be because the website author is full bull crap?!?
I seriously wonder if the author of the "Gay Band" list even knows the lyrics of all the songs of each artist to assist in determining the qualifying gay factors. John Mayer? Frank Sinatra? Phish? Nirvana? Eminmen [sic]? Oh, and by the way, if you're going to put some artist in some list for some silly reason, it is highly recommended that the artist's name be spelled correctly. Here is the list in verbatim as of 2007.01.25. And I'll just put [sic] here to denote all the author's misspellings below. =)
The Spores (endorse suicide)
Scissor Sisters
Rufus Wainwright
Merzbau
Ravi Shankar
Wilco
Bjork
Tech N9ne
Ghostface Killah
Bobby Conn
Morton Subotnik
Cole Porter
The String Cheese Incident
Eagles of Death Metal
Polyphonic Spree
The Faint
Interpol
Tegan and Sara
Erasure
Le Tigre
The Gossip
The Magnetic Fields
The Doors
Phish
Queen
The Strokes
Sufjan Stevens
Morrissey(?questionable?)
The Pet Shop Boys
Metallica
Judas Priest
The Village People
The Secret Handshake
The Rolling Stones
David Bowie
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Man or Astroman
Richard Cheese
Jay-Z
Depeche Mode
Kansas
Ani DiFranco
Fischerspooner
John Mayer
Angel Eyes
The Indigo Girls
Velvet Underground
Madonna
Elton John
Barry Manilow
Indigo Girls
Melissa Etheridge
Eminmen
Nirvana
Boy George*
The Killers
Lou Reed
Lil' Wayne
Motorhead
Jill Sobule
Wilson Phillips
DMX
Lisa Loeb
Ted Nugent (loincloth)
Dogstar
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Lil' Kim
kd lang
Frank Sinatra
Hinder
Nickleback
Justus Kohncke
Bob Mould
Clay Aiken
Arcade Fire
Bright Eyes
Corinne Bailey Rae
Audioslave
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Panic at the Disco
Elton John(really gay)
Labels: life, music, oddity, religion, stupidity
Yes, I'm a Little Weird
First, think of a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice on a table. Now hold that thought.
A reminiscent thought came to mind earlier today. It was a flashback to the summer of 2004 when I was working on a project in New Orleans. Ah, the good old days. Fleeing to Houston by automobile with my coworkers when Hurricane Ivan the Terrible threatened New Orleans. The super long hours I put in to make up for my project manager's lack of management skills. The good times I had at the French Quarter getting sloshed with my coworkers. And the time I spent training my protégé new to the position to become as smart and skilled as I was.
One afternoon, said protégé and I went to the cafeteria for lunch. He got his food faster than I did, so he squatted on some prime real estate table at the atrium. I finally came out of the checkout line and joined him. "Uhm, that is really weird," he said as I sat down. "Why do you say that?" "Your choice of food for lunch is just unbelievable!"
You see, my fast food tray had the following items: 1) a tiny carton of two percent milk, 2) a to-go size box of cereal, 3) a small tray of sushi with six pieces, and 4) a bottle of V8 juice. Yeah, you're probably asking yourselves as well, "What the hell?!?"
Well, I was hungry. And after eating butter-laden Southern food meal after meal for days on end, I wanted something healthy. But I knew cereal alone, even with two boxes of it, would not hold me over for even two hours. Hence the sushi.
Why was I thinking about this today? While at work here in Schaumburg, my coworker and I went down to the cafeteria. He had a salad, and I had a Shrimp Po'Boy from the grill, along with two side items for an extra $1.29. They were French fries and steamed broccoli. What? you say? Well, I wanted something healthy to balance out all the fried stuff. And I love broccoli!
Seriously, if you think hard about it, it isn't really all that strange or weird. Let's think back to the milk and orange juice. Would you drink both together in one sitting? You might say that it's disgusting, right? So if that is weird, then why is it perfectly normal to have a glass of orange juice along with your cereal and milk in one sitting? You see my point, right?
So really, I'm not weird after all! =)
Labels: food, life, oddity, random
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Sexy is Not Professional
Today marked the one week anniversary of working at my new project in Schaumburg. Although we have had a slow start, I think I have been doing quite well.
Anyway, I knew I had a bunch of meetings today to plan out the project, do the weekly status meetings and the sorts. But during one of our I B M only meeting without the clients, my phone busted out ringing. My ring tone since Christmas has been Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back. Apparently, my project manager has never heard that song.
He glared at me in disbelief. I fumbled around my coat pocket looking for the darn thing so I could turn it off. Before I could it either silence the ring or end the call, my project manager finally said, "What? Are we supposed to dance to this?"
My coworker busted out laughing. My project manager kept his leer. I finally turned it off, but it was too late. Right! I managed to cap my first week at work with great fanfare. How professional is that?
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Suddenly Sick to My Stomach
So tonight was the fourth episode of that new show, Dirt, on FX Networks. It should not be to anyone's surprise that their original shows usually are rated for mature audience, and its topics or storylines tend to shock: Perfect juicy gossip material for those office water cooler discussions.
Well, having watched a few episodes, nothing has shocked me. After all, I am desensitized from all the shockers since I started watching Nip/Tuck, another perfectly fine and quality entertainment from Rupert's conglomerate. LOL But tonight, I was shocked. Lucy, the character played by Courteney Cox, used a vibrator.
Notice the lack of an exclamation mark on that last sentence. Obviously the vibrator thing was not the shocker. It came out on the previous episode, which didn't shock me at all. What was so appalling was the fact that after Lucy's mother called while Lucy was having a jolly good time with the vibrator, she just tossed the toy in the drawer in the nightstand and slid it shut!
I know I can be a clean freak sometimes, but, uhm, if I was a girl, I would think I would go and rinse my vibrator in running hot water before "storing" it away. Gross! Yuck! Of course, one could argue that the character was wearing some sort of panties underneath the lingerie while using it, but experience indicates otherwise.
As if that wasn't enough to make me fall ill suddenly, another shocker had to surface. In between a commercial break and using the loo, I looked at something as I usually do. Just for the hell of it. I noticed some specific information around 22:43, but didn't think much of it. It wasn't until I went back to the living room and perhaps two minutes into the show's resumption did my world come crashing down. HARD. In an instant.
Yes, my balloon was popped. It rained on my parade. Whatever cliché you can find and attach to my frame of mind, that will work.
Was I too forward? Did I reveal too much of my honest feelings? Should I have played the game? I hate engaging in games, especially those kinds of games. I never do. Now it's all over again. I felt just as good as the day I found out about guy number three. Even though what I fear the most has not happened yet in this case. But all indications in aggregate along with that missing link discovered at 22:43 point to what I fear the most.
Great! Whatever happened to honesty? Insomnia, here I come. Again.
Labels: drama, life, television
W Bush broke my TV!
Alternate Title: Broadcasters' Prank
I've kept this under wraps for long enough. But I can talk about it now that everything is resolved to full satisfaction.
Back in January 10, 2007, I was watching the television that evening. I wanted to see what Mr. W Bush had to say in his address to the nation. It was a precedent, because of two reasons. One, he wanted to get the public buy-in while bypassing the initial step of going through Congress. Second, it was the first time a live presidential address to the nation was held in a non-traditional location. I don't remember where exactly, but it was either the library or some other wing of the White House.
Anyway, that infamous night, I almost shat my pants when I heard W Bush ask for 21,500 troops and two staggering billion dollars for his Surge Plan to fix Iraq. All along, we knew that this was coming, but nobody expected how bold and humongous his request would be.
I was in shock. I just stared ahead. I thought about my future. My future kids' future. We are already spending over eight billion dollars a month on this Iraqi quagmire now.1 Something this administration has promised will be a short and cheap war like $200 billion in the high end total.2 We will be paying for this war, estimated to top two trillion dollars by the time the conflict ends3, for many years and generations to come. Longer if W Bush keeps up his tax cut programs which benefit the wealthy.
Within minutes of W Bush's request, I noticed a black horizontal line on my 39 days old LCD television set. It was a thick line from the right edge of the screen, narrowing down to almost invisible on the left edge of the screen. My initial thought was Ha ha! Look at this! W Bush's outrageous request broke my television set! Of course I didn't think it was broken.
Minutes passed. Wait a minute! The black line is still there! And it's getting worse. I thought maybe CBS was pulling a prank or something in their broadcast, so I switched over to NBC. Same thing. Then I switched over to the non-HD channels where the speech was televised as well. Same thing. I panicked. Maybe RCN, my cable provider, had a problem with their cable signal feed, so I switched over to my computer input signal. Same thing! Next thought? No!!! I have a Super Bowl party coming up in weeks!!!
Obviously the broadcasters did not pull a national prank. Frantic daily calls to Sharp's technical support teams yielded not-so-good news. After all, a free exchange would be possible within 30 days of purchase. But this happened on day 39. What to do? A week went by, and lucky me, since I bought it through the Sharp employee discount store, they would replace my unit.
As long as the same model is in stock. Crap! But they don't have it in stock. Double crap! And the warehouse in Romeoville would not receive another shipment for another two to three weeks. Triple crap! And I would be the last to get my hands on a unit in the next shipment, because there are other customers with defective units ahead of me. Quadruple crap!
After much pleading and employing courteous approach with the customer service department folks, I was able to sweet talk my way into getting high priority for my case. It came with a price though. I'd spend about an hour on hold each day to talk with a representative, and finally keeping in daily touch with a manager after successfully escalating my problem.
Then came yesterday. I got a call from Sharp telling me that it is ready to be delivered, and that I would need to schedule a delivery time with the trucking company. Today, I came home early from work to get my brand, spanking new television set. I'm relieved beyond belief! And really excited!
Well, guess what? Turns out that tonight W Bush is having his State of the Union Address. Not that I'm a superstitious person, but I think I'll avoid tuning into W Bush's speech tonight. Because honestly? I truly believe that W Bush broke my 46 inch television set. =)
1 U.S. Gov Info/Resources by About.com/New York Times Co., Reuters 2007.01.18, National Priorities Project 2006.11, and Washington Post 2006.04.20
2 White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsay on 2002.09.15, now no longer employed by W Bush.
3 Chicago Sun-Times 2007.01.23
Labels: politics, random, stupidity, technology
A Little Prayer
Okay, I'm not one to be a routine prayer kind of a person, but I thought this was really funny and cool at the same time:
Our Papa
Who art a bear,
Hallowed be thy fame,
Thy championship come,
Thy play be run,
At home as it is away.
Give us this day our Sunday win,
And forgive us our turnovers,
Though we pounce on those who turnover against us,
And lead us not into fourth and long,
But deliver us from Grossman.
Amen! =)
Monday, January 22, 2007
Dealing With Stress
In my line of work, we have a really tough life. We work hard, travel lots, and damn near sweat blood and tears. But the rewards are great. Without anything more than a Bachelor's degree, we can earn just as much as most people above the national average. But the price of all that hard work and travel? Stress. Stress in the work place, and stress in personal life.
A friend and former coworker of mine dealt with this stress by taking up to liking this gigantic frozen mixed drink from TGI Friday's that has chocolate syrup and lots of chocolate Kahlua and Bailey's Irish Cream, along with other liquors. It was huge, and probably contained about 20 ounces of sweetness. She had the hardest time weaning off of the good stuff once her projected ended.
And then I have another coworker who dealt with this stress by going to the bar and spending his dinner per diem on alcohol. If there was anybody I can attribute the saying "Drinking my meal," it would be him. Of course, he had a long list of getting caught driving drunk that he was "let go" eventually. After all, as consultants, we are of no use if we don't have a driver's license.
Me? I don't do any of that crazy stuff. I don't go to the bars and have random one night stands with various local girls. I don't get belligerent on alcohol either. I run on the treadmill. Or out in the trails if I'm in a nice place with the great outdoors. That's how I release my stress.
But now, I may have to rethink my strategy. As I have mentioned in the past, I love shopping. And with my new long term contract project, I think I may have to dive into this secret addiction of mine. The office building I work at is right next to Woodfield Mall, arguably one of the best in the Chicagoland. And just a block away is Ikea! And sometimes when I stress, I eat. A lot. And Todai is next to me as well.
God, I hope I don't get too stressed out, as my wallet and credit card, or waistline for that matter, might not be able to handle it all! =)
Monday Anxiety
Ba-thump. Ba-thump. That is all I could hear all day: The rhythm of my own heartbeat. The span of my attention today has been shorter than those suffering from some form of dementia. I can't think. I can't concentrate. I can't relax. Okay, maybe I can think, because thoughts are racing through my mind like Einstein on the verge of discovering E=mc2. Yet, I'm somewhat nervous.
Was it because I discovered the lack of soy milk in my refrigerator this morning which caused me to skip breakfast and my routine cup of coffee? But some would argue that coffee causes you to be jittery, not there lack of. And did you know that there are two kinds of soy beans, distinguishable between the two by a simple characteristic: the color of the dot?
Why am all over the place today? Unfortunately, I'm everywhere but work. I need to get a grip on things! I suspect I may be high today. Much like I was high last night, which made me toss and turn relentlessly in bed. Insomnia. I hate it. But the causes of my frequent insomnia are varied just as much as there are colors in the rainbow.
Is it the Bears win in the NFC conference championship? That may play a part of it, but I doubt that is everything. In fact, I could possibly put a finger on it, but then the anxiety would come back. Not to mention the whole jinx thing. This is definitely something bigger than the Bears win last night. Suffice to say, Sunday, January 21 will be a day to remember. Not only because of sports, but of bigger things. And definitely because I got outsmarted. But I didn't smell...
I'm giddy and excited as all hell, and I simply can't contain my happiness.
"Don't screw up," my little sister said. And I couldn't agree more.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Going to Miami
So... For all you doubters out there, na nee na nee na na! The Chicago Bears are going to the Super Bowl!!! No turnovers; no sacks!
Now I'm seriously considering cashing in my 401(K) and splurging it all in Miami. =)
Honestly, I think the reason why the White Sox (even though I'm a Cubs fan) and why the Bears are heading to the Super Bowl is because I moved to Chicago in 2004. I brought the good vibrations! ;-)
Labels: sports
Life Cycle of AT&T
Back in January 9, I mentioned briefly how Cingular is reverting back to AT&T when I wrote about the iPhone. Well, Stephen Colbert explained it perfectly with illustrations!
Labels: funny, politics, technology
It's Everything!
Here is what Conan and his team envision the first commercial for the iPhone:
Labels: funny, technology
Saturday, January 20, 2007
It's not like I'm a Witness or anything!
Friday morning came. I woke up early and drove to work. Midway into the hour long commute, someone called. It was a number I didn't recognize. Nor did my phone match it up to anything in my phonebook. Someone started singing: "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to me! ..." Ah, it was Michele. She's a close friend whom I have known for almost a decade since college. She called from her boss's phone!
Even though I was bought a tequila shot the night before, I still didn't remember it was my birthday. And, sad as it is to say this, I also forgot it was also Michele's birthday. But I'm sure I would have remembered when I was fully awake and had gone to work and called her then.
Then my parents called. Mom asked, "Did you get my voicemail? Did you go out partying with your friends?" I replied, "No." She was shocked. My dad took over the phone and asked the same thing. They thought I would be out getting trashed with my buddies. But nosireebob! Not yours truly...
Yesterday was mild when the work day concluded. I simply went out to dinner with a few friends, and watched a movie. Nothing extravagant for me. I've never celebrated my birthday as a young adult. In fact, a couple weeks before my birthday, I altered my birth date information on both MySpace and the social group web site. I hate attention, ever since after high school. In fact, I spent my 21st birthday staying at home!
I don't know why, but like I explained to my parents, as an adult, I think job promotion, pay raises, good review, project completion, landing that big contract are what I celebrate. I even consider those to be more important than the anniversary of the day my mother huffed and puffed for hours to pop me out. After all, all I did was just laid there in the midst of amniotic fluid to be pushed out not by my own effort into the hands of some doctor. I can see how that can be important for my parents, but me? It was fun for a few years as kid, but not now.
And of course, I did not join the Jehovah's Witness after high school or anything like that. But that's just me. I'm quirky in that way. And I'll be sure to change my birth date information to December again when this time next year comes around. And I'll shock my friends when I tell them that I got home before midnight on my birthday. It'll be another smashing success! =)
Poopie
BL: MA
READER DISCRETION ADVISED
This blog has been rated MA for mature audience.
Okay, for any of you who don't know, I'm Asian. Although I may be American and a mutt, I was raised on Asian food. Don't get me wrong, I love both Asian and Western foods. In fact, I love food so much that I try to embrace culinary arts from all cultures. If anything, I'll try it at least once. Lessons I've learned so far? I don't really like Ethiopian food, or escargot.
Some time ago, a group of friends and I went to this Argentinean restaurant to socialize and boozelize. It was a bring-your-own-beer (or any alcohol for that matter) type of a place. I have never been there, but if you know anything about South American cuisine, at least the American-bastardized versions, their main culinary attraction is typically meat. Lots of meat. And that is why my friend who hosted the evening chose that place.
I got the El Filet, which is practically two filet mignons that came together as about 20 ounces. And it was only $21! No wonder it was a popular dish. And some other people got skirt steak as well. Basically, all the meat dishes were bountiful for the price you pay. And the taste rivaled those of the expensive chophouses in downtown Chicago! A far cry!
Anyway, in Asian culture, or at least specifically in Chinese methods of cooking, everything is sliced thin. And although we eat varied types of meat, the quantity of it is small as we typically balance it out with vegetables. Sure, a typical dinner will have a beef dish (with broccoli), a chicken dish (with leek or another green), and a plain vegetable dish. To feed a family, we will never use more than half a pound of beef or chicken.
So where am I going with this? Let's go back to the Argentinean restaurant. Pretty much everybody finished their food. After all, eating a slab of meat by itself is part of the American culinary culture. But not me. I ate one of my two filet mignons, and took the rest home.
As I'm not used to eating a hunk of meat by itself, I was hurting the next day. I mean, we Asians eat food with rice and vegetables. No rice, no appetite! Anyway, I was sitting on the toilet, and I was practically crying. Not because I had the runs, or I had a tummy ache, but the digested meat was hard and not cooperating with its exit! Ugh!
Then I thought to myself, if this is what I have to deal with every time I eat meat alone as a meal, how the heck do people on Atkins diet handle their daily bowel movement?!? I remembered a project manager who was of Italian heritage. Carbohydrates were a part of his daily meal, much like us Asians. But one day after working together for years, he and his wife decided to lose weight and go on the Atkins diet plan. And I remembered joking with him, "Does it not hurt every time you go to the restroom? Isn't it a struggle?" And his response, after being on the diet for a couple weeks, was, "Well, you get used to it."
Yeah, I don't think I can ever get used to the pain. I think I'll stick to the Asian balanced meal. I say Asian, because our food pyramid really has four times the carbohydrates the American food pyramid recommends!
Friday, January 19, 2007
Femme Fatale
This is interesting. This morning I was saved by a babe. But...
So last night I went out to a bar after much coaxing from my friend Rosa. Despite showing up late, there were still plenty of people left mingling about. The two of us immediately went to work introducing ourselves and making new members to the social group feel comfortable and welcome.
Everything was hunky dory. There were plenty of new members. Everybody was having a great time. Heck, I had a great time! Unfortunately, Rosa and I had to leave early. She had to go because she still had errands to run before flying out on Friday for a wedding. I had to wake my butt up early and drive to Schaumburg!
But... The plan failed miserably! The beer was flowing... C'mon, who can resist $2 Amstel Light on draft, or $3 flavored martinis?!? Of course meeting two incredible people didn't help either. Hee hee.
Finally Rosa was able to twist my arm into settling our tab and leave. We walked out in the cold and got in the car. She pulled out of the semi rock star parking spot and went up to the light.
"Oh my God!"
"What's wrong?"
"It's two till midnight!"
"So?"
"We gotta go back to the bar and buy you shots!"
Although we lost our awesome spot, we managed to find another semi rock star parking spot. The guys who remained at the bar were shocked to see us reappear. A few minutes passed, and six shots were served.
"What's this?"
"You'll like it. It's To-Kill-Ya!"
A little toast here, a silly speech there, and we drank. Then we sucked down our lime. But wait, what was that stuff in my mouth? I inquired of the gorgeous bartender I had been flirting with all night long if she had sprinkled cinnamon on the lime.
You see, cinnamon will cause my tongue's taste buds to swell and hurt, therefore causing loss of taste for several days. And what do you know? It was cinnamon! Perhaps I shouldn't flirt with drop dead gorgeous bartenders from now on. Cause they might be femme fatales! But for her that night, it was so worth it! =)
Saved by a Stunning Babe
I live in a high rise condominium building right in the southeast corner of a street and North Sheridan Road. As many fellow Chicagoans would know, North Sheridan Road is a four lane street; two going north and two going south.
Anyway, as usual, I woke up early today, had my breakfast and coffee, and got ready for work. I went to the garage and got into my car. I pulled out of the garage and waited on the traffic light on the side street intersecting North Sheridan Road. As I waited there, a gorgeous girl walked up to the corner and waited to cross the street as well. She was such a drop dead gorgeous stunner of a girl, that I could not keep my eyes off of her.
Then the light turned green. Instead of driving at normal speed to cross Sheridan Road, I pulled out slowly so I can continue watching her. As my SUV intersected the first lane of Sheridan Road, the beautiful angel stopped in her tracks. I thought to myself, Busted! She knows I'm gawking at her! But right before I stepped on the gas pedal, a woman in a Ford Taurus blew through her red light on Sheridan Rd and missed the beautiful babe! Along with me!!! This dumb ass driver was on the second lane, and as she drove by, I saw her looking at the phone and thumbing with it! This is evidence that texting while driving is just as bad as driving drunk!
I slammed on my brakes. The Taurus narrowly missed me. And the scariest part? The woman in the Taurus kept on going, totally unaware of her close call. If I had been turning left onto Sheridan Road, we would have hit each other almost head on. If the walking babe was not so pretty or absent, I could have been t-boned on the driver side by the Taurus!
Needless to say, I can safely proclaim that this is the first time gawking at a gorgeous woman have saved my life! Thank you, hottie!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
2007 is starting off awesome!
This is totally awesome. 2007 started out great for me!
First, my annual review came back:
Second, my first project of the year is a long term contract! No more worrying about billable goals!
Third, I finally get to stay in Chicago! My long term project is in Schaumburg, which is keeping me home, at least for the next six months.
Woot!
Either Way
You were almost kind, you were almost true
Don't let me see that other side of you
You have learned in time that you must be cruel
I'll have to wait to get the best of you
Poison in everything you say
Don't you, don't you?
Wonder what difference does it make......Either way
You were almost kind, you were almost true
Why give away that other side of you
Happens every time, so it must be true
Step on a kid, he'll grow up hating you
Poison in everything you say
Don't you, don't you
Wonder what difference does it make....Either way
Were you ever kind, were you always cruel?
Who's ever seen that other side of you?
Happened every time, so it must be true?
Where did you learn it's either him or you?
You were almost kind, you were almost true
Don't let me see that other side of you
You have learned in time that you must be cruel
I'll have to wait to get the best of you
Poison in everything you say
Don't you, don't you?
Wonder what difference does it make......Either way
Labels: life
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Stupidity at its best!
Last fall, I expressed how I feel about the stump on Darwinism when I shared the transcript of a casual Saturday morning instant messenger chat I had with my high school friend. Well, today my other friend Changren sent me an amazing video of what happened earlier in the day in Portland, Oregon, in light of the recent deep freeze and snow dump that occurred in the Pacific Northwest. {You can read more on the news here.}
After watching it at least twice, it dawned on me that this video is further evidence that modern technology is allowing those of lower intelligence or lack of common sense to live longer, when without technology these very same people would have died due to natural selection, also known as Darwinism. Look at the driver of the first vehicle, which looked like a nice Volvo SUV. As he/she was coming out of a spin after hitting another car, that driver actually hit the gas pedal while out of control! Not only did he/she make that mistake once, but an additional two more times! Maybe he/she does not deserve a nice vehicle like the Volvo SUV.
Next we see another driver in a red Toyota Prius. He/She was out of control, but managed to stay put. Maybe the person with the video camera thought that that was the end of all the fun packed action, therefore stopping the camera. The next thing you know, the camera was rolling again, and said driver apparently got out of his/her resting position and decided to drive off, despite having experienced a scary incident! And that led him/her to continue into further slippage. What was he/she thinking?
And then there's the other driver in a Subaru wagon. He/She was doing fine, and decided to go down the hill. But let's give him/her the benefit of the doubt that he/she did not realize that a gazillion accidents have occurred down that hill. So he/she turned into the hill, and what do you know? No surprise here. But what I couldn't understand was that as soon as he/she began to slide, the driver simply just locked up his/her brakes and rode it all the way down! Wasn't pumping the brakes a basic skill they teach at all driver's ed as well as all training materials used to prepare you for passing the driver's license exam?
Sigh. Modern technology will simply allow us to procreate and pass on our stupidity gene. Weaklings included, like myself, since I was born without perfect vision. =)
Labels: funny, random, stupidity
Monday, January 15, 2007
Research on the Wood Spiders!
Thanks to Erin who first brought my attention to this somewhat dated funny video! Check it out!
Labels: funny
Countdowns are hot!
It seems like countdowns are getting more and more popular each day. No doubt thanks in part to free and simple programming code being doled out to the masses by means of the Internet superhighway.
You have the customized countdowns you can create for whatever occasion you feel like having and post it on your MySpace page, and you certainly have the countdown till Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt turns legal. So it comes as no surprise that someone posted a countdown till the Apple iPhone is released! As a bonus, it even includes a cutout box with an exact dimension so that you can fill the void and emptiness in the mean time.
Surprisingly, unlike the gazillion countdowns that exist on the Internet for practically everything on the face of the earth, there is not a single countdown attributed to Suri Cruise. I'm shocked to see that the perverts did not even create one! Oh, that's right... I forgot that there is speculation that Suri Cruise either A) does not exist, or B) has been given up to the church to so that she can grow up to be a sex slave.
Labels: technology
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Am I Suicidal?
Seriously! What the hell?
I woke up early today, braved the cold and ran 5K with friends at Momentum. It was all in the name of free pancakes. Because I was up at 07:30 and a 5K took a little over half an hour, I got home early. But I was still groggy in a way, never mind the four glasses of mimosas I had along with the six pancakes I wolfed down. So instead of doing house chores or anything important when I returned home, I sat my ass down in front of my television and tuned into Showtime.
Hey look! A movie is starting! Perfect timing! I made myself comfortable and slipped further into the throw blanket on the couch to get cozy. The opening title sequence was kind of odd. I should have switched channels then, but because I have not seen this really old movie, I watched on. Besides, the music was kind of catchy, in a reminiscent kind of a way.
The introduction of this movie scratch-your-nails-on-the-blackboard painful. Not only was the annoying late 80's / early 90's music along with crazy, puffy hair driving me nuts, the awful screenplay and the super cheesiness of the movie just drove me suicidal. And this was only 15 minutes into the movie!
Yet...
Like a horrible porn movie starring two extremely unattractive people having sex, it was a train wreck I could not turn away from. God almighty!
Since I grew up in Indonesia, I really have an excuse for not having seen or heard of this movie. But who remembers Mannequin On the Move from 1991? If you have never seen this, I highly recommend watching this awful movie if you feel like you need to kill yourself with a spoon by poking at your pinky toe.
And Eva turned one!
it melts into wonder
me, all at once the ghosts come back reeling in you now; what if they came down crushing?
Labels: philosophy, random
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Another Blast From the Past
She said it. A friend from high school mentioned "blast from the past." And I have nothing but to agree with her. Santi sent me this link to a group on Facebook, and I went to its destination. I couldn't see anything as I wasn't a registered member of Facebook. Should I join Facebook? But what is this thing that Santi sent me? Curiosity got the best of me because instead of going to bed early as I wanted, I spent the next couple hours registering for a membership, feeling my way through the site, and read up all the Help guides to understand the whole thing that made up Facebook. After finally updating some basic information about myself, I went back to the link Santi sent.
I was floored; speechless. I guess someone had set up a social group for those who share a common thread: the school I attended throughout junior and senior high. At first, the reaction was alright. Then I started to explore a little bit, like seeing who the members of this group were. Then I felt really old. Everybody were alums from classes of years past my college graduation, except for one, Santi. She said it best! "I must be a dinosaur here!" I started to think which of the prehistoric species I should nickname myself after.
While exploring the group, I did not recognize most of the names. After all, they came after I graduated. But then, I was slowly getting sudden rushes of lightheaded feelings. A last name jumped out from this big list of members. I instantly relived moments long ago, those of which I have carefully filed in the recesses of my deepest and innermost memories. Although I was looking at the computer screen, I did not scroll. I just stared blankly ahead, and scenes from my younger self appeared, as if a movie producer or editor was fast forwarding a movie sequence, pausing here and there looking at finer details of specific special scenes.
And there I sat for a long time, fixated on a blank spot on the screen. Then another last name popped up, and this time the feeling was ever stronger, reliving an old life ever longer. And that led me to one of the darkest moments of my life—a period that I have never shared with anyone, maybe with the exception of briefly brushing the subject while talking with Amber once. It was the darkest 18 months that I have ever lived through.
As an adult now, I still can't imagine how I was able to survive those months. And no, it has nothing to do with girls, if that's what you were suspecting. Then I started thinking about the catalysts that pulled me through, and how I came to become the person that I am today, which is leaps and bounds over the old self. Sure, you may recognize the same face on the outside, but if you knew me during those 18 months, you'd wonder if it was the same person you were talking to. As I probed the possibilities of who I should really credit for my understated rebound, two names came up: The Irvin family and the Bradley sisters. They probably don't realize the immense impact they have on my life, but they should not be surprised that after all these years, we're still close and remain in touch with each other.
Tears started to trickle down my face. Okay, that's enough of that. I turned off the computer screen, and looked at the clock. Perhaps it was better that turn in and return to memory lane another time.
If I lived in Germany...
If I lived in Germany and need to join a gym or fitness club, I think I'll choose Leo's Sports Club, hands down!
Labels: adverts, funny, random
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Awesome Tuesday (Part 2 of 2)
Most of my closest friends know to what capacity I work at I B M. If you don't, it basically goes like this: I travel to client sites and work; for each hour I spend working, I in turn bill the client. So the business model for my team focuses on billability, which in turn means I cannot be on the bench for too long, such as working from home picking my nose or cutting my fingers.
Anyway, considering that this is the start of the second week of 2007, I kind of got slightly antsy for sitting at home. I really don't have much to worry about yet, as my billable goal is only 68%, but I wanted to hit the new year running.
As 17:00 drew closer, I got a call from my resource manager, who handles project assignment to people like me. What I heard was music to my ears! There is a signed contract from a huge company that will last six months! Three of which will be spent pseudo locally, Schaumburg, and the other three in Los Angeles!
I cannot be more than excited for this! First of all, I don't have to worry about my billable hours for the first half of the year! That's a big chip off my shoulder. Secondly, I won't have to fly anywhere for three months, which means I get to stay home in Chicago for three months! Granted, it will suck big time for my airline miles and hotel points earning potential to keep my highest status. But oh well... And finally, I will get to visit my little sister more often now! How sweet is that?!?
Of course, I just hope I don't jinx all of this, as I won't know for sure for a few days. But this news certainly made my Tuesday!!!
I want an iPhone!
Originally titled: Awesome Tuesday (Part 1 of 2)
I typically don't talk about technology, the field of expertise in which I work in, on my blog. The first and last time I wrote something about it was a while back when I purchased my Network Area Storage. Well, this blog entry will be about technology!!! =)
As usual, whenever I'm working at home, I have my television set tuned to CNN Headlines in the background. During the quarter-hourly cycle of news around noon, it was reported that Steve Jobs finally announced at Macworld 2007 the long and highly anticipated iPhone. CNN indicated that Apple, Inc may call it iP, since Cisco owns the iPhone trademark currently.
With this exciting news, I logged onto Apple.com, but did not see any details regarding this announcement. All I knew then was that they made more information about iTV, now AppleTV, and the iPhone. A quick instant message to my buddy in Seattle who is an astronomical fanatic of Apple products yielded a semi-live coverage of the event by engadget.com. Apple.com did not include this announcement in their Hot News section until a few hours later.
As I don't write about technology or computer much in my personal time, this is good news; so much so that I absolutely have to write about it. As I travel a lot for my job, it has proven ridiculous to have to carry my portable music player (a fourth generation 40GB Apple iPod), digital personal assistant (a Toshiba e740), and a cell phone (a Nokia 7610). That is until my iPod broke, which occurred at the heels of Nokia's finally announcing the availability of the N91 in the US, after almost a year of teasing us with "Coming Soon!" thanks mostly in part to the Federal Communications Commission.
I love the N91. It totally replaced all the three portable devices I used to carry with a single device. I still use it today. The N91 has superior operating system, excellent web browser, great contact/calendar management, seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook at home and Lotus Notes at work, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel camera, and a kickass near open standard music player that can play every format out there, except for the proprietary (monopolizing) music from iTunes. But there are a few things about it that I still can't get over:
1. Low resolution screen,
2. Not much of an internal memory for the phone's core functionality, which would cause the browser to halt or sometimes crash when a web page has over 500KB worth of data, and
3. A storage of 4 GB for music.
On the final note, it is interesting to realize that I have not yet used the entire capacity yet, and that Nokia will be releasing the 8 GB version for the same price I paid for the original version: $549.
But with the announcement of Apple's iPhone, which is slated for release in June of this year, I am already itching to own it, despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of Apple products. Even though I'm an early adopter of most technology gadgets, I might take a wait and see approach to the iPhone before I purchase it to replace my N91. I want these questions answered:
1. If the phones are sold locked from both Cingular (now AT&T again) and Apple, will either provide the code to unlock the phones, even though the U.S. Copyright Office made a ruling on November 27, 2006 that breaking the lock is no longer illegal?
2. Will the phone's main user interface, an advanced touch screen, which strongly supplements the only physical button of the iPhone, be able to withstand drops without cracking?
3. Although the iPhone runs on GSM quad band with Edge, it does not have 3G!
4. Since contact synchronization is done through iTunes, how well will it interact with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes?
5. Will Shure produce a sound isolating headphone that will work with the three channel 3.5 mm jack?
There is no doubt that this phone will be super awesome, but if most of the above problems which I deem super important are not addressed, then there is no chance I will buy the iPhone. But I still can't wait to check out Apple's spin on cellular phone and music player convergence!
Note: The iPhone 4 GB will retail for $499, and the 8 GB will retail for $599; both of which require a two year contract.
Labels: technology
Well, this is gay!
Ohio State versus Florida. I don't really care for either team. But I was cheering for the Gators, despite the fact that all my friends were cheering for the Bucks. When it comes to teams I really don't care for, I typically root for the underdog. By that I mean whoever is ranked lower. And the Gators won! Woo hoo!
But my celebration came at a steep price though. The game was to start at 19:00, and Cliff somehow scheduled the game watching party at 17:00. I figured that I probably need to cook dinner around 16:00, and then show up around 17:30 to help him save some tables. A brief exchange of text messages later, I felt a sudden urge to rush things. After all, Cliff's last text message from the bar was pretty dire: "I can see things getting busy. So the earlier you get here to help me hold tables the better."
So I decided to rush my dinner preparation, which was a time consuming process. I was making Japanese beef curry. I bought some premium tender shoulder rib meat, so naturally there were lots of marble (or tendon-ish fat) that was hard to cut when raw. While feeling the urgent need to rush through cutting the meat, I somehow ended up cutting my finger! Mothereffer! It hurt like hell, and it was an inch and a half long and deep!
While I panicked around my condo, I realized that I was out of Band Aid bandages! As I rummaged through my first aid pack, I frantically looked for a first aid antibiotic cream. Found one! Shit, it expired in the middle of 2005. Look, thank goodness there was another one. Damn, that expired in the middle of 2006. Finally, I found one that expired December of 2006. Hell, that was close enough.
While I continued cooking sans my index finger, I text messaged Maria: "Have you left home? Bring ten band aids!"
Of course I showed up later than planned because I had to wash, examine and treat my freaking wound that wouldn't stop bleeding. And when I got there, what do I get from Maria, a member of the female order of the Homosapien species? Hello Kitty and Blue's Clues bandages. How gay is that?
Labels: random
Monday, January 08, 2007
The Asian Inquisition
I looked at the call log on my cellular phone right after we hung up: 54 minutes.
Damn! I spoke with my parents for almost an hour. And what did we talk about? A whole lot of nothing! I barely conversed with my Dad about anything significant. My Mom, on the other hand, is a different story. Of course both my parents got really excited when I sent them Shutterfly links to the New Year's Eve party and Aarthi's Birthday Party pictures. The critiques came flooding over the satellite link between Chicago and Shanghai:
"Who is the girl in picture number so and so? She's cute!"
"Oh my goodness. The girl in picture number so and so is this and that!"
"Which girls are your friends?"
"Is that you dancing in the middle of those two girls? Heavens! Your behavior in America!"
"Are you dating any of the girls in the pictures?"
And so it goes. But the best part of the 54 minute conversation was our brief discussion leading up to my sending the Shutterfly links for their review. Below is an excerpt, roughly translated because my Mandarin vocabulary is worth shit and they have to dumb things down for me to understand:
Mom: What did you do for the new year?
John: I went to a party in a hotel with some friends.
Mom: You went out of town?
John: No, just here in Chicago.
Mom: What did you do?
John: I had a good time with friends. We played a lot. (I meant partied, but I don't know what the Mandarin word for party as a verb is.)
Mom: You always play around with a lot of girls, looking at pictures of you from the past.
John: Most of my friends are girls.
Mom: Listen to me.
John: Yes?
Mom: Szu (my sister) tells me you play around a lot.
John: What? What do you mean?
Mom: You play with girls around a lot. (I realized now that she meant flirt.) And that is not good for you to catch a girl.
John: I don't think that is the problem with why I don't have a girlfriend.
Mom: I'm telling you. You need to find a suitable girl for marriage.
John: (to self) God, here we go again!
Mom: When you play (flirt) around, you scare girls off. They will think you're a playboy.
John: (to self) God, this is embarrassing. (to Mom) Well, I'm just having a good time. I don't flirt with girls when I'm with (dating) a girl.
Mom: How can you find a girl to go out with when you scare them away while playing (flirting) with other girls?
John: (to self) Was that an oxymoron? (to Mom) I think playing (flirting) is a way to catch a girl.
Mom: So why don't you have a girlfriend yet?
John: Because I haven't found the right girl that I like a lot.
Mom: You're too picky!
John: It's not because I'm picky. Sure, there are some things I don't like about a girl sometimes. And poor personality is no exchange (substitute) for good looks. Besides, some girls I like tend to break up with me.
Dad: I didn't hear everything you said.
John: Uh, hi, Dad!
Dad: How old do you want to be when you get married?
John: (to self) What the hell? The Asian Inquisition tonight? (to Dad) Happy new year!
Dad: Happy new year. You're almost 29. Why don't you have a girlfriend?
John: Because I don't know.
Dad: Don't wait too long.
John: Well, I cannot just make (force) a girlfriend to happen.
Mom: We can find you a perfect wife in Shanghai.
John: (to self) This phone switching is starting to get old. (to Mom) I don't want you to find me a wife.
Mom: Well, then you need to find a girlfriend.
John: But...
Mom: And you need to stop playing (flirting) around.
Seeing that this was a losing battle, I decided a quick distraction was in order: "Do you want to see pictures from the new year's party?" "Yes, that would be great!" God, that was a piece of cake like dangling a keychain in front of a baby! And that put the kibosh on the Asian Inquisition instantly.
That is until minutes before we finally hung up. God, I miss my parents.
Here's to turn you on! =)
I may have mentioned previously about January's biggest party, which celebrated Aarthi's birthday. You don't need to hear a play by play recount of the event. All you need to know is (or is that "are"?):
1. Blow up doll.
2. Motorboating.
3. Kettle One and Amanda.
4. 1650 calories, 81 grams of fat, 6 grams of trans fat (Oh God!) and 235 milligrams of cholesterol (my heart!).
5. Pictures.
6. And this! Enjoy!!!
Disclosure: It wasn't me who first mentioned "Internet." I simply said, "Totally." And the right hand with the money? Not mine. And the left hand that touched the blonde's stomach? Not mine either. But I wish they were though. =)
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Supposed Drama of a Football Fan
This post is in response to the "drama" spurred by the recent Super Bowl Party invite that I sent out earlier in the week. I guess people in general who work during the day and don't get their soap opera fix need to create drama out of innocent situations. So what was the "drama"? The wording I chose in the email that was sent out through Evite was a little spark, it turned out:
Here's an alternative to g-Matt's gas inducing chilli cookoff slash Super Bowl, or the only alternative if you didn't make it into his famous A-, B-, C- and D-Lists. Hope you can come out and party up this national holiday.
Here is the background information. G-Matt is a friend I met a couple years ago from a social group we both belong to. G-Matt had planned on having a Super Bowl / Chili Cook-off party at his place, and sent out the invitation several weeks prior to Thanksgiving of 2006. Since g-Matt and I share a few friends, I invited some of our common friends to my party.
So I've got more than one friend email me with concerns. In addition to what my friends are telling me directly, word on the street goes like this:
Drama #1: Oh my God! John is snubbing Matt K with a competing party!
Drama #2: John referred to Matt K as g-Matt!
Okay, I hardly think I need to explain anything, nor defend myself. But considering how other people are making a huge mountain out of a flat ground, I guess I should say something about this to set the record straight. After all, a few people asked me about the drama last night at Aarthi's party, but I doubt that that would be enough to bring the drama back down to earth.
First of all, let's not get too hung up on the "gas-inducing" part of it. It is just a reference to the chili and flatulence joke that is prevalent in pop culture. It is not in anyway an adjective to describe g-Matt's party. Now that we got that out of the way, let's get to the meat and potatoes!
My party, which the invitation was sent out a month before the Super Bowl, is not a competing party. Nor was it a challenge to g-Matt, who sent out his shindig invitation way before mine. Back on July 22, Maria, Maria's Matt, Christine, Kristen and I went to Pegasus for an awesome Greek dinner. The conversation about television sets came up because Maria had just bought her boyfriend a huge flat screen television set as his graduation gift. I joined in the conversation because I was thinking about buying a new one myself, and that I had begun researching on which one to get. I also mentioned that if I got it before Super Bowl, I would host a Super Bowl party. After all, I wasn't sure if I would have saved enough money for a new television set before then. Given that g-Matt sent out his invitation on November 20, it is clearly an indication that I wasn't trying to compete or derail his party. I was going to turn down g-Matt's invitation and stay home with my brand new television set, whether I will be throwing my own Super Bowl party or not. Simple as that.
So if I wasn't trying to compete or derail g-Matt's party, then why did I invite people who were already invited to his party? Well, for starters, while watching the Boise State University compete Oklahoma University at the Fiesta Bowl, I learned that a few of my friends were not invited to g-Matt's party. Seeing that they had no place to go, I decided to throw my own party, since I was staying at home nonetheless. Secondly, I thought to myself, what would Jesus Do? Just kidding. Actually, the thought was that if I was to send out an invitation for my own party, I should send it out to all my friends like any other party I host. I couldn't possibly look at g-Matt's RSVP list to see which of my friends replied yes and then exclude them, because then, some of my friends will find out about it and ask me, "So I wasn't good enough to be invited to your party?" I was trying to be fair to my circle of friends. Knowing that some of my friends were invited to g-Matt's party, I would not be offended or hurt if they decide to go to his party instead of mine. After all, g-Matt sent out his invitation before I did, and they are his friends too.
In regards to the A, B, C and D lists, well, I don't think that is a big deal. It's not like he hides the fact that he categorizes his friends into some sort of a preferential order. To a certain degree, we all do the same thing ourselves. We just don't verbalize it and tell people where they stand. But that is what I like about g-Matt. Sometimes he can be brutally honest with you, no matter how hard he tries to spin it off in a jovial way. Anyway, he tells you where you fit in his list, and I know I'm in the D list. Does that cause me heartache? No, because we're not some BFF or whatever. Different people are just tight with certain people, and not so much so with others. Sure, I'm friends with a lot of people in the social group, but there are only a select few with whom I am much strongly closer with. I believe that that goes with all social relationships of every individual out there. So my mentioning his lists was nothing related to my supposed competition or derailment, or worse yet, jealousy.
Finally, the issue with "g-Matt." Remember the social group I mentioned earlier? Sometimes there are many people with the same first name. In cases like that, we always provide an alternative nickname. For example, there are many John's out there. So there is Hiking John, because he always do hiking trips for the social group, and then there is J-Ho, yours truly. And then there is the Lawyer Rob. You get the picture. But sometimes, for people you are closer friends with than the general population in the social group, you tend to give additional terms of endearment behind their backs. We have many Matt's in the group, and remember Matt H, who I referred to as Maria's Matt earlier? Well, to distinguish the two Matts apart, sometimes we call Matt K "Gay Matt."
Wha wha what?!?
You read that right! People call Matt K "Gay Matt." Why? Because he has this way about him that is somewhat feminine some times. Let's just say that he is a little flamboyant. Although I'm not his closest friend in his most inner circle, his close friends also refer to him as that. I myself don't use the whole phrase; just "g-Matt." But let's make one thing clear: I was not the one who came up with that term, because I first heard it used at Finn McCool's on December 17, 2005.
To the casual observer, I can see how this could be so oh lordy pants! with my referring to Matt K as g-Matt. It's a term of endearment. Why? Because no matter how flamboyant he can be, of all the people from this social group who have been in a relationship, he is still with his girlfriend for years! And the fact that he was married to a woman once before clearly is enough evidence that he isn't gay. We all know that. That is why "Gay Matt" is such a funny term of endearment! It wouldn't be funny at all if he was single, and never had a girlfriend. Just like I found out not too long ago that my other nickname behind my back for several months has been "Bisexual John." It's funny, because I'm not bisexual. But anyway...
Okay, so that should be it, right? But one of g-Matt's closest friends wrote me in an email and indicated in part, "I know that's what everybody calls him but you've got it in writing. I wouldn't want to be the one having to explain what it means if he asks." Well, from my point of view, my having it in writing is not worse than people verbally calling him that. Whether it be in writing or in saying, the level of joking and "disrespect" amounts to the same. Furthermore, as a friend, I would not worry about being the one having to explain what it meant. I knew that my invitation will somehow get to him since we shared some friends. And if he asks me what I meant, I'll be straightforward and honest, and explain that it is a term of endearment. I wouldn't call myself a friend if I dreaded to explain it, much less pretended not knowing what it means. But hey, that's just WWJD (What Would J-Ho Do).
I wish people would not create fictitious drama at the expense of others. I strongly recommend to those with a drama-less life to perhaps put four tablespoons of salt in his or her boss's coffee, or tape a "Kick Me!" note behind a coworker's back, or better yet, go up to your female coworker or friend and yank her hair by the handful while she's eating lunch and scream, "Bitch!" for no good reason. Maybe that will fill in the void when they can't watch soap opera? Okay, I'm kidding, but seriously, let's just enjoy the playoff season and wait patiently for the day the Chicago Bears open a can of Whoop Ass on the New England Patriots on February 4, 2007, and leave all these hyped up artificial drama!
Put a gun to my head, won't you?
Alright... Just the other night, I was on Active.com signing up for the Chicago favorite race to kick off the running season, the Shamrock Shuffle 8K. Everything was going smoothly, except the final stage of the registration, when the website kept on preventing me from finalizing my submission. After going through the registration page over and getting rejected time and time again, I noticed what the error was! I felt like they were putting a gun to my head!
Labels: sports
I've moved on!
Please pardon me if I'm slightly drunk right now. But I just got to blog about this evening before I forget.
Seriously. What the hell? I went to Aarthi's birthday celebration at The Ivy, and someone was there. The whole freaking night, she was stealing glances at me, and looking at me. What the hell? Why did she need to leer at me when I was flirting with people? Does she not realize that she was the one who broke my heart? For cyring out loud, she was the one walked out on me! If she had not done that, I have every confidence that we'd still be dating right now. I was so distraught that evening that I missed my exit on the highway and ended up at O'Hare!
(A shrink would note: The bigger question is, "Why did you notice her looking at you?")
Oh well. I've moved on. The good news is that I finally had a serious talk with R tonight at the party. It turns out that she was not the one who gave me a fake number. I was the dumbass who remembered her number wrong. Instead of a 2 at the end, it was a 3. I'm so excited that we finally got that sorted out. We'll just have to see if it is honestly her real number on Monday. She claimed that she's more sober tonight than the night of October 28th. We'll just have to see. I promised her that if it is another fake number, I'll hang myself. We'll see! ;-)
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Funny... A couple days after my ranting post about the ill placed perception of Muslims by Americans, CBC announced that they have ordered an initial eight episodes of a new show called Little Mosque on the Prairie.
Little Mosque on the Prairie is a situation comedy that pokes fun at the common American stereotypes of Muslims in this post 9/11 world. In the little bit of snippets shown on CNN, I could tell this new show is going to become a big hit. At least in Canada initially. Of course Hollywood will wait about two years before stealing the concept and porting the show over like they did with The Office, Survivor, et cetera. But at least the critics in Hollywood think that this is going to be a good show.
Now, if only I can get CBC here stateside. Go Muslims! Go diversity! Boo to intolerance and bigotry. Boo to the likes of that racist Virginia Representative Virgil Goode, who wrote in response to Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison's decision to use the Quran as part of his swearing-in ceremony:
"The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran." WTF?
If Representative Goode is honestly and truly a Christian man like he claimed, perhaps he should follow this advice: WWJD?
Goode's Letter to his Constituents:
Friday, January 05, 2007
American Croissants are just so...
Do you sometimes get the feeling that there is something you really want, and you have to do whatever it takes to get what you want right now? For some reason, I cannot stop thinking about croissants all day long. Even when I was full after breakfast, I was already jonesing for some croissants. It was so bad that after work, I made damn sure that I squeezed in a dash to Dominick's between dropping mail and picking up at the dry cleaner's errands.
When I got my dozen croissants, I could not wait to rip the box open. I walked through the parking lot back to my car. Given that it was Friday evening, Dominick's was packed. {And don't get me started with the shopper in front of me in the express 10-item limit checkout line, with an entire cart full of groceries.} As I walked to my car, I was already being hounded for my parking space, for this girl in her little white car was following me slowly.
Then I got in my car and threw the croissants on the passenger seat. I inserted the key into the ignition. But all my mind could think about was the damn croissants. Instead of turning the key, I muttered gently as if I was seeking forgiveness, Sorry, lady. You'll just have to wait. I have a withdrawal to fix. So I busted open the box and gobbled down a croissant. Never mind the fact that I have not washed my hands. Yeah, I was that desperate!
After satiating my jonesing, I drove off. And I thought to myself, "Why is it that American croissants taste so bland, like plain bread, and not so flaky?" I mean, how hard is it to mix the right kind of yeast, the right combination of ingredients to yield a tasty, airy and flaky piece of pastry? As my French friend Sabine would say of American bakeries, "Those stupid Americans don't know what they're doing!" And I agree. I mean, our neighbors up north are a continent away from Europe, yet they sure do know how to make good croissants!
Sadly though, as much as I hated how the American croissants tasted, the jonesing came back even after I had dinner. I reluctantly consumed two more croissants. God save me!
Labels: food
Thursday, January 04, 2007
I have a very involved sister.
Family can be interesting at times. For years I have told Szu, my little sister, what I did for a living at C e r n e r. Every time family or friends talk to her, she would have to ask me who I worked for again and again. And she still doesn't know what I did back then. Of course now that I work at I B M, her memory problem has ceased.
Or so I thought.
I've told her many times as well that I run. Every time I did a half marathon, or a 5K or a 10K race, I would tell her how I did. In the many years of being an active runner, she never caught on to a few key details. Repeatedly forgetting the distance of a marathon is understandable. Many family members of active runners tend to forget distances all the time. But a recent online chat with my sister not only revealed her memory problem, but turned out to be pure comical at the end:
John: OMG
Szu: huh?
John: I think I just made a huge commitment...
Szu: like....?
Szu: you asked someone to be your girlfriend?
John: Ha ha ha... That's not really commitment. That's more like a trial... =)
Szu: oh
John: ...or a long term test drive...
Szu: then what is it?
John: I just committed myself to run the Chicago Marathon 2007.
Szu: oh i see
John: I just registered for it. It's on Oct. 7, 2007...
Szu: what is the distance?
John: 26.2 miles.
Szu: damn! on foot?
John: Uhm............
Szu: or bike?
John: Marathon?
John: That's running.
Szu: oh
May I bang my head against the table or something? Like playing in the blender? You just gotta love family sometimes. =)
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
I like it dirty...
I had made plans since the middle of August for last evening. But because Aarthi had to send out an invitation to her birthday dinner some days ago, I had to reprioritize and involve my trusty home-made television show recorder. My now second plan for Tuesday evening had to wait till tonight.
So I prepared for the occasion by cooking up some mean dinner. With all the excitement that I had to contain, and after exercising great patience, dinner was finally served. Not knowing if it will live up to the months-long hype, I sat down in front of my television and pressed play on the new show with Courteney Cox—Dirt.
This, of course, is the same shallow crap from Fox Entertainment Group that has no significant contribution to society much like Nip/Tuck. Despite its extreme shallowness and the fact that it is plain ol' raunchy, I think I may have found my other addiction on FX Networks.
So juicy... God help me...
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
First butterflies for 2007
It is only the second day of the new year, and yet I already had my first case of the butterflies in my tummy. Stranger yet is that the girl isn't someone I met for the first time!
Anyway, it was Aarthi's birthday dinner, and we went to Moxie's to celebrate her 29th year. It was not a huge crowd, but a decent turnout. And this girl was there. My heart skipped a beat when I saw her. Then I thought to myself, well, she is friends with Amy (Aarthi's roommate), so what did I expect?
She was already sitting down, and there was an empty seat next to her. In a split second of nonchalance, I decided to sit at the other empty seat at the other end of the table. Now we were both sitting on the same side of the table, with just one person between us so as to not have to face her uncomfortably the entire evening. By this time, I had not acknowledged her presence, nor have I said hello. A gazillion thoughts raced through my mind.
Then another friend showed up and took that empty seat beside her. Some time into the dinner, I was talking to this friend over her. I know, it is extremely rude, right? But let me explain.
Back in October 28th, I met her at the Halloween Pub Crawl. I thought we hit it off pretty good. I admit it was my own perspective. For all I know, she could have not thought much of me. But in any case, by the time I was ready to leave, I asked for her number. In my drunken state, I was as happy as could be.
Fast forward a couple days later. I called her, and to my amazement, I got a prerecorded message asking me to check the number and try again. I was a little bit devastated, for it was my first fake number since moving to Chicago! I suppose it was possible that in my drunken stupor I mistyped her number in my phone, but I am not one to email or call Amy to verify if I was given a fake number. I had no desire or intention to embarrass myself in front of her friend should it really be an intended fake number.
So that was then. Fast forward sixty-six days of not seeing her. Which brings us back to this evening where my heart skipped a couple beats, and my mind filled with so many thoughts. What should I do? What should I say? I can't just ask her straight out if she gave me a fake number on purpose, right? And I can't just sit there and talk to her as if nothing has happened and pretend like Halloween was just a few days ago either, right? I mean, if it was an intentional fake number, then Amy would've known all along that I tried to date her, and Amy would just sit there and giggle at me for talking to her as if there was something there.
So midway through dinner, I finally noticed that she was done eating. Okay, this is your one time to break the ice! But what to say? Despite my being a total drunk that one night long ago, I remembered everything about her, including her name and what she did. But I wanted to make the conversation last a little bit, so instead of asking some generic question that could have resulted in a one word answer, I asked, "So R, how have you been since Halloween? How's teaching coming along?" This question was the best I could come up with, knowing full well that she worked in public relations of some sort and not a teacher like Amy.
I thought my carefully crafted question would get her in a conversation, at the expense of my pretense of forgetting what she did. But with the multiple conversations going on at the table, and my talking over my friend sitting next to me, it kind of backfired. The conversation didn't go as far as I wanted to, despite not knowing where exactly I wanted it to go.
So now I am left with bewilderment and that feeling I had when I was in kindergarten sharing a puppy love with the principal's daughter. Aarthi is having a huge birthday shindig with close to 50 people this coming Saturday, and she will be there, as so will I. Thoughts are still lingering in my head. Will I have another shot with R? Is she seeing somebody now? How am I going to approach this on Saturday? What if she gave me the real number and I was the one who screwed up putting it in my cell phone? Normally I can handle girl situations with ease and finesse, but with her, I feel like I'm in kindergarten all over again.
I'm glad I'm not a diehard fan.
Last night I was watching a couple college bowl games with a few friends. Then Linda and I got to talking about what sports we liked, and which ones we played in high school varsity. It was inevitable that we had to disagree on whether pro or college basketball was better, among others.
Having being an athlete myself for several years in the past, I am a sports fan. I learned a great deal from my coaches. Teachings that were instilled in me even today include not just playing to win, but to play a good game, and always show the opposing team, win or lose, that we are the true and passionate athletes displaying excellent sportsmanship. It is funny how the biggest lesson in sports was not how to score an average of X points per game, etc. The lessons that mattered actually helped build character, and molded the person that I am today.
But sometimes, it kind of bothers me that there are diehard fans out there who border along the lines of insanity. Is a true fan someone who roots for his or her home or favorite team to win only? Or is the definition of a true fan someone who roots for a win no matter what?
Sports is all about respect, playing a great game, and displaying excellent sportsmanship on the field. Nothing bothers me more than a diehard fan screaming bloody murder when a referee makes a bad call against his or her team, but cheers for the same kind of erroneous calls against the opposing team. It's almost as if it wasn't the game that mattered, but that his or her own team wins at all costs.
Whenever I watch a Bears game, and a call was made unfavorably against us on a play that was questionable at first, I will for sure boo the referees. But upon instant review and slow motion replays, and it was indeed a good officiating call, I will stand corrected and mutter, "Well, that was the right call, even if we had to give back the touchdown, possibly costing us a win." But there are diehard fans who after instant replays will continue to scream bloody murder, ignoring their awareness that it was the correct call. To me, I don't really think they are true sports fans. They are nothing but a bunch of fanatics, and possibly gamblers who have money that depended on the outcome of the game.
And it seems like most of the diehard fans are quite unreasonable, and mostly have not played competitive sports. Either that, or if they had played competitive sports before, they probably had been poorly coached, or taught to pull tricks and play dirty to win. A true sports fan would boo a bad call regardless of which team got shafted.
Last night's Fiesta Bowl was arguably one of the best college football games I have ever seen. Both teams played an excellent game, and Boise State University prevailed in the end with overtime despite a horrible call against them with a passing interference. A true sports fan would not lament and live in the past with a feeling of depression, but recognize that the game was fairly won and the battle tipped in favor of the team that truly outdid the other in skills and planning. Whining and whimpering should only exist if a game is lost entirely on bad officiating, but limited to the past and move on.
Those, my friends, are the reasons why I am a true sports fan, and am glad that I'm not a diehard fan.
"All blacks are criminals!"
Do I have your attention? I hope so. Those who know me well will tell you that I would never make such a preposterous statement that all blacks are criminals. Indeed, I don't believe that all blacks are criminals. Although anybody who has any kind of intelligence and reason would disagree with the titled statement, there are still plenty out there who are plain stupid and continue to carry on with such attitude.
And it is this very same stupidity on the part of many people that feeds the attitude that all Muslims are terrorists. Worse yet, this self-induced lie and inaccurate attitude feed the fear many Americans have of Muslims and a majority of Arabic nations. Cases in point: Iraq and Iran. Well, we all know the quagmire that W Bush have led us into with poor intelligence without due diligence on our part, so there is no need to discuss Iraq here. But let's talk about the preemptive measures, though not of physical war level, that my government is propagandizing against Iran due to ill-placed misconceptions and unsubstantiated fears.
The L.A. Times recently reported an article for the case for Iran. It is a good and worthy read. I typically would just link out to the article, but because the L.A. Times may in time remove online access to this article and have it archived, I have copied the entire article for my blog:
The Case for Iran
By M. Javad Zarif, M. JAVAD ZARIF is the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations.
December 30, 2006
WHEN THE U.N. Security Council was forced to convene on the Saturday before Christmas to vote on Resolution 1737 — against Iran's nuclear program — it was only natural to ask what the urgency was.
Iran had not attacked or threatened to use force against any member of the United Nations; in fact, Iran has not attacked any country for more than two centuries. Iran was not on the verge of building a nuclear weapon. To the contrary, as a study released this week by the National Academy of Sciences concludes, Iran needs nuclear energy in spite of its oil and gas reserves.
At the same time, Iran has categorically rejected the development, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons on both ideological and strategic grounds. It has remained committed to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — which it ratified in 1970 — and was even prepared to provide guarantees that it would never withdraw from the treaty.
All of Iran's nuclear facilities have been inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has stated its readiness to place them under an even more stringent regime, as it did from December 2003 to February 2006, when more than 2,000 person-days of scrutiny resulted in repeated statements by the IAEA that there was no evidence of a weapons program. As IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei recently said, "A lot of what you see about Iran right now is assessment of intentions."
Many such assessments have been produced by the intelligence agencies of governments with agendas hostile toward Iran. They are, as a result, misleading. For instance, a draft National Intelligence Estimate by the CIA in 1992 concluded that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon by 2000. The Israelis have been saying for many years that Iran will pass the "point of no return" within six months or less.
But even these alarmist assessments concede that there is no actual evidence that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon and that, even if it wanted to do so, it would not be capable of developing one before 2010 or 2015.
So: no urgency, no imminent threat. The real reason for the pre-Christmas meeting was to take advantage of a more favorable Security Council composition — before new members arrive on Jan. 1 — and impose sanctions on Iran.
The sanctions aim to punish Iran for refusing to suspend its peaceful and legal uranium enrichment activities. However, suspension is not a solution in itself; it can only provide time to search for one. A stopgap suspension was already in place for two years, while Iran engaged in negotiations. But over the last three years, the United States and its European allies have never proposed any long-term solution other than insisting on an indefinite suspension of Iran's enrichment activities.
In contrast, my country has proposed real alternatives to ensure that its civilian nuclear program will remain exclusively and indefinitely peaceful:
• On March 23, 2005, Iran offered a comprehensive and far-reaching package to France, Germany and Britain, including national legislation to permanently ban developing or using nuclear weapons, technical guarantees against proliferation and unprecedented, around-the-clock IAEA inspections. It also envisaged relations of mutual respect and cooperation in a wide range of economic, political and counter-terrorism areas. Despite their initial enthusiasm, the Europeans refused to engage in negotiations on that package, insisting instead on indefinite suspension, apparently because of U.S. objections.
• On July 18, 2005, Iran offered to allow the IAEA "to develop an optimized arrangement on numbers, monitoring mechanism and other specifics" for an initial, limited operation at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, "which would address our needs and allay [their] concerns." The offer was not even considered.
• On Sept. 17, 2005, Iran expressed its readiness to engage in serious partnerships with private and public sectors of other countries for uranium enrichment in Iran "in order to provide the greatest degree of transparency." Again, the offer was rebuffed.
• On March 30, 2006, Iran proposed establishing regional consortia for fuel-cycle development with countries inside and outside the region, with joint ownership and division of labor based on the expertise of the participants. No one cared to respond to this proposal.
• During the September and October 2006 talks between Iranian nuclear negotiators and the European Union, Iran proposed an international consortium, an offer that was initially considered very promising by the Europeans but then was rapidly rejected as insufficient. Once again, they insisted instead on suspension.
These offers were exact replicas of the IAEA's main proposals on multinational fuel activities, including enrichment, published Feb. 22, 2005. Iran's readiness to implement them presents a unique opportunity not only to remove concerns about our fuel-cycle activities but also to strengthen the Nonproliferation Treaty by providing a model for other countries with similar enrichment programs. No other country with similar technology has been prepared to be as flexible as Iran.
Neither suspension nor sanctions can achieve the stated objective of ensuring nonproliferation because Iran has now been compelled to develop nuclear technology on its own. As many nonproliferation experts have already pointed out, in countries with Iran's level of technological achievement, only engagement, transparency and international monitoring can provide assurances of nonproliferation.
Iran remains eager to dispel any doubts. It is not too late to reach an agreement on meaningful measures that can serve our common objective of limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Who's next to you?
Happy New Year, boys and girls! I hope you rang in the New Year with as much fun and excitement as I did! Considering that I just I woke up around 13:15, it is suffice to say that I got a little bit wasted.
Oh, what a night! Some friends and I celebrated the conclusion of 2006 at the Q101 Rock 'N' Roll Ball at the Sheraton Chicago Grand Ballroom. There were two stages: One live with four bands, and another downstairs with a DJ and a dance floor. We only got to see the opening band, Too White Crew. Although we wanted to see Collective Soul, we ended up dancing the night away downstairs.
Memorable moments?
Well, not even an hour of being at the ballroom and before any of us got a buzz going on, I got in a small altercation with Fat Chick and Sidekick Cunt, and almost got kicked out of the Sheraton! Funny story can be read here. After watching Too White Crew play, we migrated downstairs to the dance floor.
Once we got downstairs at the hallway before entering the second ballroom, we were quickly distracted by more party favors. There was a stack of Metromix gym bags, lots of interesting bling and horns, and some silly picture holders which Erin and I mistook for bells. We couldn't figure out for the lives of us why they didn't ring while we shook them vigorously! Anyway, Christine got one of the gym bags for her purse, and I stocked it with all sorts of goodies by the boxload. Horns? Check. Picture holders? Check. Stolen can of Pepsi from minutes ago (because the bar would only serve two drinks per person)? Check.
After prom pictures were taken at the bling stop, we finally went into the dance floor where we met a couple of very interesting girls. They looked like they were the kind of people who should be hanging out with us! The blonde girl's name is Jamie, and I don't remember her friend's name. So the rest of the evening was spent dancing downstairs.
Apparently Jamie liked me, as Erin somehow learned of that. But being the only guy with a bunch of girls {while Christine and her boy disappeared somewhere}, Jamie thought that I was with at least one of them. She even asked me much later while dancing with her, "Why aren't you dancing with your girl?" while pointing at Rosa. She didn't believe me when I told her that Rosa was just a friend, so she just said, "Right," before walking away. That was probably the last time I saw her. Oh well, cest la vie. {I just simply don't understand women's insecurity with a guy with lots of female friends. The reaction from Jamie was certainly something not of the first encounter, but from several people throughout my life, including from a few of my own friends!}
When midnight came around, we missed the countdown because Lauren had to assist Erin while the rest of us waited. Mind you, ever since Too White Crew, we somehow got separated from Matt and Maria, despite the several text messages sent to both of them indicating where we had gone. In any case, Lauren and Erin appeared at the nick of time, and as we walked into the dance floor, the countdown began. We all ran in there, but didn't make it. But everybody hugged each other a few seconds after the countdown.
Then Erin disappeared. We became instantly worried because she was wasted! After walking rounds on the dance floor, Lauren finally spotted her. The sight was so uhm, fill in the blank with some adjective that I don't think I should be chronicling it on my blog. We separated them, and thought things were safe. So we continued dancing.
You know how little Erin is, right? Anyway, after a few minutes, our dancing circle of friends got smaller. I looked up and saw this aforementioned guy lifting her up and dragging her away from us! It was so funny that I had to get Lauren's attention so she could see this loser's act of desperation. Lauren laughed a little bit and said, "Oh my!" before dashing over to save her.
Perhaps the incident involving Erin was the highlight of the night. It was so funny! But damn it, unfortunately I can't write about it. You see, we have this rule... What happens at the New Year's Eve party stays at the party. Or at least the juicy details. Oh well. You'll just have to ask her yourself. If she remembers any of it! Ha ha! New Year's Eve 2006 was definitely as rad as 2005 for sure!
Besides the gazillion "Happy New Year!" text messages I got after midnight, which probably will send me soaring past the 200 monthly text allowance from Cingular, the first text I received was from Christine:
Christine: Just checking to see if you guys made it home alright.
John: I just woke up.
Christine: Who's next to you?
John: The fat chick. Surprisingly she gave good head. :)
Rosa showing us how to dance.
Turn the wheel; churn the pot!
Erin, Rosa and Lauren showing how it's done.
Jamie and her friend cracking Erin up!
The story of Fat Chick and Sidekick Cunt
This is a supplementary story to the New Year's Eve blog.
While Too White Crew was kicking it up during New Year's Eve Rock 'n' Roll Ball, we migrated to the side of the stage to feel more of the thumping of the speakers. Then we came across this one Fat Chick and her trusty companion, Sidekick Cunt. Fat Chick was one mean and evil woman. She wouldn't let anybody stand within three feet away from her (which I later learned from other bystanders). Albeit my keeping a good distance behind her, she kept on telling me to give her space, and when I didn't move and explained that she had plenty, she would bounce her ass backwards and shove me with all that junk in her trunk!
Finally, I just told her, "Bitch, stop grinding me with your nasty ass!" She turned around with her thumb and index finger about a quarter of an inch apart and said, "There's nothing to grind," before shoving me backwards with her ass one more time. Not wanting to make a scene, I gave her more space yet again. Then Sidekick Cunt would keep on leering backwards and make obscene gestures as if the two of them owned the place. And this is when we all realized that they only wanted trouble. They inched backwards again and started things again! Having had enough of the Fat Chick's lardy ass, I finally made my first move: Shoved her forward. Sweet baby lord Jesus, my 175 pounds behind me did not even make her move an inch! Her ass acted like a shock absorber; all my energy just rippled around her ass chicks and disappeared into the anterior. {There is a reason why 300 pound women should not be wearing white tights!} Obviously she felt that, which caused her to turn around and exchange some nice choice words.
The girls finally had enough of these conniving bitches, so we moved further away from them to the left. Fat Chick and Sidekick Cunt were a good five yards away from us, and we were a few feet behind this one guy with a huge Rex Grossman jersey. What do you know? Within ten minutes, the two bitches somehow got behind the jersey guy! But we just ignored them, despite Sidekick Cunt's constantly leering backwards at me and giving me some sort of a sign language. I don't get why they just can't enjoy the concert.
With only two more songs to go for Too White Crew, Fat Chick decided to leave the crowd. Of all the ways she could have left, she had to walk by me and shove me one more time as she passed! What a bitch! Thank God it was her shoulder this time, not her trunk. And right after Too White Crew finished, Christine turned to me and said, "Let's go now! There is a security guy!" I simply replied, "Why? I have done nothing wrong."
The security guy, John, was a good six and a half feet tall with a huge frame and could pass as a linebacker. He spoke down on me and said, "I've had a complaint about you, and I just want to tell you that one more from you, I'm kicking you out." I asked, "What complaint?" Then I noticed Fat Chick behind John. I quickly interjected, "Oh, that fat girl? You must be kidding, right? She has been trying to cause trouble!" "No, I've also heard from another person that you were causing trouble." Hmm... He gave no details as to what I did. So I told him, "Look sir, I understand how you can be concerned if I was really causing trouble, but look at that mess. She's drunk, I'm not, and I have more witnesses here who can tell you who tried to start a fight. For Christ's sake, she wanted breathing room, I gave her two feet, and yet she kept on moving back and shoving me!"
Then all my friends finally jumped in and told him the same story, and that there were other bystanders who could say the same. Christine added the final touch, "Well, in that case, we would like to file a complaint against her, because she tried to start a fight."
John finally said, "Well, it's New Year's Eve, and everybody should be having a good time. Try to avoid her, okay?" Then he turned around and gave Fat Chick a good long lecture. Then we walked away to one of the bars.
Honestly, I simply don't understand why some large people behave like that. This incident totally reminded me of the time when a large woman shoved Aarthi on the subway one time. I wondered if they are the same person. But seriously, if Fat Chick needed so much space for herself and cannot bear to stand next to other people in close proximity, perhaps being at the nosebleed section near the stage of a live concert is probably a place she shouldn't be at in the first place. Since Christine took a picture of Fat Chick, now we have a record of the bitch for future reference.