Monday, July 30, 2007
Hello Mobile World!
This is my inaugural entry created from my Nokia N91 cellular phone, posted directly to my blog. I finally turned this feature on! I'm such a goofy nerd! :)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The Last Day's Luck
Seriously! What the hell?!? Saturday night was going to be my last overnight work with my current client, as there were only 5.5 hours left in the contract. It kind of sucked that I have to spend my last remaining hours of this gig alone in a non-air conditioned building in the middle of summer. (Cheap bastards, I tell ya! They can't even turn on the air conditioner after 19:00 during the weekdays, or all day during the weekend, unless some department pays through their internal funny money for the service with days in advance, which my client's department was unwilling to do so.) But fate has a funny way of screwing around with me.
With the current project since January of this year, I have had to come in to Schaumburg in all sorts of hours: early morning rush hour, 10:00 post rush hour, afternoon pre rush hour, evening hours, all of which were both for weekdays and weekends, and late night hours (anything past 22:00). Save for late night hours, I have never had the luck of making it to Schaumburg faster than 48 minutes. First, there is the horrendous road that I have to trek across from where I live to the highway, littered with traffic lights and dumbass drivers. Then there is the I-90/I-94/I-190 traffic which seems to be omni-present. I suspect the reason for that is because O'Hare is the busiest airport in the United States, and there never is a lack of people going to pick up someone or dropping off someone at O'Hare at all kinds of hours.
So I've been dealing with commutes that have ranged from 48 minutes to near a couple hours every day I go to Schaumburg. It typically is worse during the weekend, because people tend to want to drive to God-knows-where in the weekends. But earlier today, with my drive starting at 20:01, a time typically at the height of its worst, I somehow made it to the highway in 20 minutes! And mysteriously, the highway was flowing at a respectable 70 miles an hour (in a 55 mph limit)!
It was as if I had suddenly entered a magical world, where irritating drivers and annoying traffic just suddenly disappeared. Better yet, I was blessed with pretty much all green lights on my way to the highway, a practical first! So rare is something like that to happen that I'm sure that the odds makers in Las Vegas would have pegged better odds of doomsday occurring before something like what I experienced today! All in all, my drive to Schaumburg took only 36 minutes.
Yes, I almost shat my own pants too! And I wasn't speeding any more than I normally do too! Granted, I did have to press the pedal to the metal a couple times to beat the yellow lights. And I can admit that I totally blew a red light in one of those attempts! But still...
In all of the seven months that I have been driving regularly to Schaumburg, why didn't fate part the red sea for me a couple times, especially when I was running late, or during a stressful time? Nooo... Fate has to bless me with this eight wonder of the world ON THE LAST DAY OF MY PROJECT! When I didn't need it. And when I actually left the house super early just so I could go shop and have dinner. WTF?!?
Seriously, I think fate is not on my side. I think fate likes to make my life akin to Jon Arbuckle or Dilbert, with a minor adjustment: all the sucky stuff without the humor. Or maybe all my satirical life events find you amused as you read my blog. So yeah, this totally blows. When I realized it took merely 36 minutes, I instantly hummed the tune of Ironic by Alanis Morissette. Sigh...
Well, given the fact that this is quite possibly my last day at this project (while I'm secretly hoping that the client won't sign the new contract in time), I began to think of the things I've experienced because of this project. In no particular order:
GOOD: I have more of a reason to dine at Todai more frequently.
BAD: The weight gain as a result of being constantly peer pressured by client to go out to for lunch.
GOOD: The ability to almost always wake up at 08:00 and having only to be at work by 10:00.
BAD: Waking up late for work just feeds my night owl habit, which I admit is totally bad.
GOOD: The sudden need to use the toll roads around Chicago finally forced me to purchase the I-Pass transponder, especially after frustrated waiting in only two lanes to pay for toll during rush hour.
BAD: After only having put in less than a thousand miles in the first year I've owned my Land Rover, I suddenly had to change the oil on a regular schedule! And instead of filling up the gas tank once every two months, I now feel lucky if I only have to fill up once a week!
GOOD: I no longer fly out of town, and can enjoy sleeping in my own bed every night.
BAD: I no longer fly out of town, and because Schaumburg is so far away (in terms of commute time), the only free time I have left besides work is simply to go straight to my own bed every night!
GOOD: I get to do what all white trash folks love to do: illegal dumping. Well, sort of. Since my condominium doesn't really recycle, I bring in my empty bottles of sports drinks and rebottled municipal water to work once a week and dump them at my client site's recycling bin. I have never felt better doing something illegal while thinking it was the absolute right thing to do.
BAD: I now have to buy toilet paper more often, and worse, do the dishes way more often.
GOOD: Meeting new people (client employees) that I actually like and have hung out with during personal time.
BAD: Having to risk my life every day when I drive. I've seen beautiful college-age girls drive during rush hour with a textbook in her lap, stupid men driving during rush hour while reading the paper, stupid women driving during the evening rush hour putting on mascara so they could go straight to a date, dumbasses who gave me many opportunities to test the efficacy of my Land Rover's braking system who don't know how to use the mirror and turn signals and sideswipe you at 80 miles an hour, and people who ignore their stop sign and nearly t-boned me. Yeah, this last seven months have given me near heart attacks more alone than combined during my teenage years.
GOOD: I finally got to join basketball leagues and play pickup games of football.
BAD: I couldn't enjoy the basketball leagues I've joined because I had to work weekends.
GOOD: I discovered some authentic and cheap Chinese food out here: Asian Noodle House and Hong Kong Café.
BAD: Realizing that after today, I might not be able to enjoy cheap food at Asian Noodle House or Hong Kong Café, especially when factoring in the cost of gasoline used to get to Schaumburg.
GOOD: Discovering cheaper gasoline, usually at least 25 cents per gallon than the cheapest gasoline within the city of Chicago, at the I-90 oasis.
BAD: My cheap ass made me play the Kramer game, testing how far I could go on Empty, just so I could save a mere couple of bucks. (14 gallon tank times 25 cents per gallon.)
GOOD: Taking charge of a small project and perfecting my own process.
BAD: Working weekends and totally screwing up my sleep pattern.
GOOD: Shit... I'm running out of good things to say about this project.
BAD: Having to drive home delirious and tired after pulling an all-nighter. Health experts believe that tiredness like that has the equivalent mind acuity as driving drunk.
GOOD: Still can't find anything else good to say.
BAD: Poor restroom etiquettes such as other people peeing on the floor despite urinals with rather large drip lip and people sleeping on crappers, not to mention some inconsiderate people who don't give warnings.
So yeah, there you have it. It sure was good to reminisced about this long-ass project that was supposed to end in June. I think I'm ready to fly now and see the world. If not the wide world, at least the Midwest region. I wouldn't be opposed to going to Wisconsin for a change. =)
Stupid fate.
Labels: career, fate, irony, life
Friday, July 27, 2007
Bad Server, Bad!
Today was the opening night of The Simpsons movie. I admit I was rather excited about the whole affair. So before heading down to the friendly downtown Cineplex, I decided to have dinner with Jane* and her youngest brother. After some brainstorming, we all agreed to Café Mysterious**, one of my favorite restaurants. If you don't know me by now, Café Mysterious is the place I take all my first dates to, if not the second. Because the restaurant is simply that good, I also take my visiting friends from out of town there as well.
Anyway, my friend Jane is not exactly one to know her wines. I do, but only to the extent of red wines. Ask me something about white wines, and the most I know is that they probably have to be served chilled. As a result, Jane always rely on me to pick out red wines, and tonight was no different as she told me to pick one out while she left for the wash room.
After Lauren***, our designated server, brought us our wine and appetizer, we all started enjoying our food and fresh, warm sourdough bread. The first thing I noticed was that our wine glasses were not clean. For the most part, they were dried on, indicating they were probably harmless water spots. Save for mine, which had a tiny greasy streak. But having confirmed that it was on the outside of the glass, I simply forgot about it.
Before our main course arrived, I suddenly noticed something as I was tipping my wine glass back after having had four or so sips of the 2005 Chateau Ste Michelle Syrah. Sediments! That's not unusual, but it warranted an investigation nonetheless. I gently swirled my glass around, tilted it, and watched through the ambient light cast by the dining room. Gasp! What a pity that such a good tasting wine was contaminated by excessive sediments! Some sediment is okay, but a lot of it is not exactly good for the aftertaste.
So I promptly picked up Jane's glass as well, and surely enough, hers was just as bad. I explained briefly to the table that our wine had excessive sediments, and that possible reasons may include poor quality corks breaking down, or that whoever opened the bottle broke the cork in the bottle. Of course, the only exception to this is when you have really old wine, when decades of years have naturally broken down the cork little by little. Alas, our wine was only two years old though. And Chateau Ste Michelle is by no means a vintner with poor quality products, as it was named 2005 Winery of the Year by Restaurant Wine Magazine!
When Lauren returned to ask if everything was okay, I did not hesitate for a second to mention this problem to her. Instead of promptly taking care of the situation and understanding such a simple and common problem, she actually took the time to talk back at me. I was not sure what could possibly made her think that she had the audacity to drop her poor customer service skills, but I suspected that she thought we were all young kids. First, we had an underage boy at the table. Second, I was wearing a Dave Matthews Band t-shirt and jean shorts with brightly colored shoes. I did have reservations about the age-inappropriate clothing that I had selected before leaving the house, but it was a hot day so I went forth with it.
Without batting an eye, her response was, "That's a Syrah, and that's how it is." I was so shocked at her response, that I simply just stared at her in disbelief. After a few seconds, I snapped myself out of the unimaginable that a server actually flat-out lied to me. I countered, "What? No, that's not."
Instead of asking how I would like for the problem to be resolved, she just asked what was wrong. I tried to explain why it was a problem, but she interrupted me to ask if I would like another glass, or have another type of wine. I replied that this is such a menial and common problem that I would like to still enjoy the same wine, but just without the sediments. After all, the only other Shiraz/Syrah wine they had was a 2005 Rosemount Estates, which I am a proud collector of, from 2001 onward. I even suggested that this was a common problem that I'd be happy if she returned with an empty glass and a strainer. (I didn't expect a restaurant with limited selection of wine would have a decanter.) But she insisted again if I would like another glass or another type of wine. So we decided to get another glass of the same wine.
Before Lauren left, she made sure the remaining party was doing well. That was when my dear friend Jane decided to slowly enunciate, "My wine is perfectly fine. Thank you very much." Lauren asked again, "Are you sure?" because we both had the same wine. Jane again enunciated slowly, "Yes, thank you very much. My wine is just perfect." Not only did she totally undermine my discontent with the bad wine and poor customer service, I thought I detected some underlying attitude that hinted at: "Unlike some people who just like to be difficult, I'm just fine."
I could have been wrong and misinterpreted the purpose of the slow enunciation, but I was still not pleased that she undermined me. My appetite began to wane, despite the fact that I had woken up around noon today and had not had anything to eat all day.
When Lauren finally returned, she handed me another glass of wine and said, "There is nothing wrong with the wine. It was the last bottle, and I was told that if it was bad, it would have smelled bad." I noticed that the wine glass was spotlessly clean. Then she hit the final nail into the coffin: "We opened up another bottle, and it was exactly the same. Like I said, this is normal."
WAIT A MINUTE! So was it the last bottle that I had, or was there another bottle all of a sudden?!? I immediately suspected that she probably just poured the same wine I had into another glass, and in the process did not even use a strainer! After a short thank you, I drank out of the new glass and surely enough, there was just as much sediment in there. By this time, I have lost all my appetite. Not only did Lauren do nothing about it, but my friend who knew nothing about wine totally wine-blocked me with her undermining (think cock-blocking, except for wines, if that even make any sense).
Anyone who knows me well will understand that I love food. Some friends even call me either the bottomless pit or the garbage disposal, because I will also eat their food that they couldn't finish. I even eat when I am sick! In all of my adult life, I can only think of just one other time when I totally lost my appetite seriously. And that was March 11, 2006, a date that will live forever in infamy in the history of my life. It was the fifth and final date with a certain someone, when we broke up after a huge argument. It went something like this: Why haven't I spent the night at her place by this time? I was bombarded with either I like her or don't like her, and that there was no such thing as taking it slow to know each other more. I was given the ultimatum that if I wasn't seriously in love with her, it was over. My empty response did us in, because I liked her, but I wasn't ready to start thinking about marriage. When someone asked, "What are you waiting for? My ass isn't going to look like this forever!" you tend to think that she was looking for a long term relationship. It didn't help that she was a few years senior of me, although it didn't bother me at all initially.
Anyway, I digressed. So Lauren and I began to debate. Who the hell in their right mind will have a little debate with the customer? Seeing how Jane just rolled her eyes, I finally gave up, and proclaimed, "Well, in that case, I guess I know absolutely nothing about wine, and you do." I really wanted to quiz her on two questions: 1) What is the difference between Shiraz and Syrah, and 2) What makes Shiraz/Syrah a different kind of red than anything else. But I was so upset with her un-professionalism and unwilling to rectify the problem that nothing she could do would revive my lost appetite. I simply wanted her out of my sight, so I just thanked her again, set my wine down and watched my friend and her brother eat.
I really wanted to just up and leave because I was upset at the server and my friend, but I couldn't. I couldn't possibly show my anger in front of a 13 year old boy (although I think he probably knew I was upset). I really wanted to say, "Fuck this shit," but that would then cast the appearance that I was the unreasonable person in front of all the other patrons. Besides, there was no point in ruining other peoples' dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, which I still plan on returning (while making sure I don't get served by Lauren P #213 ever again). Furthermore, even if Jane's brother wasn't there, I didn't have the heart to leave my friend there all alone, just because I had some beef with a lying server.
Of course, other reasons why I couldn't just leave were because I had The Simpsons to catch right thereafter, and for the mere fact that sitting next to us, which I had a great view of, was the hoochy girls recently graduated from high school. Damn, I tell ya, the short, short skirts they were wearing. And the one purposely bent over with her ass sticking out at me? Those hooches were just craving attention, and I was more than happy to oblige. If they weren't there, and Jane wasn't a good friend, I would've been out the door right there with just enough cash to cover the food.
What I didn't get is why would Lauren lie to me with a preposterous statement without thought? Not only was that an instant dead giveaway that she knew absolutely nothing about wine, but she felt the need to argue with me! I felt like a poor girl at a used car lot being taken advantage of by some slimy used car salesperson: "Oh, that isn't rust. That is the new, popular coat of paint that just came out!" If that was some other kind of wine, like Zinfandel or any white, then I would have totally believed her without a heartbeat. But here we were, talking about red wine, and not only that, but my absolute favorite kind of red which I am extremely knowledgeable about no less! Grr!
Lucky for her, Jane paid the bill, for otherwise I would have left Lauren no tip and a long letter to management a week later. In my many years of traveling for work, I have been nice and friendly to the wait staff just because I was in that profession at one point in my college youth, and yet I rarely met anyone who would flat-out lie. I have come across some, including bartenders, who didn't know what a Shiraz/Syrah is, but they were pretty straightforward about their lack of knowledge and were willing to learn, because I honestly believe they wanted to know more so they can impress the next customer. But Lauren P Server #213? She was by far leaps and bounds worse than the next worst server I have ever encountered. I think she may have created a whole new class of shitty servers!
Let's just hope she was unique and unlike the general populace of the smart, if not decent, servers in the food industry out there. And I hope when she graduates from college, she better not enter into any kind of client-facing profession.
* Name changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
** Restaurant name changed to protect the secret location of my first/second dates.
*** Name not changed to expose the poor, lazy liar.
Tips, just for your information
When opening a bottle of wine, pull the cork out slowly. Right before the cork is completely removed, hold the end of the cork closest to the bottle and gently twist it out instead of pulling it straight out.
If there is excessive amount of sediment, or if the cork breaks up in the bottle, then you can filter the wine into a decanter. If nothing else, use a coffee filter and a funnel.
When opening red wines, especially older ones, it is a good practice to always decant it for up to half an hour. Before opening, let it sit upright for 24 hours. When pouring into a decanter, stop pouring when any sediment starts spilling into the neck of the bottle (best seen with a light source behind the bottle).
Forget all that jazz you memorized from the movie Sideways. Those things they look for are extraordinary professionals and enthusiasts who can detect miniscule levels of TCA contamination in wines, as well as separating all the flavors and scents that encompasses the wine. Normal people like you and I should try not to pretend to distinguish such tastes, other than the primary and underlying flavors. It only makes you look like a wannabe and a fake. And I hate it when I see people my age who have only begun drinking wine in the last few years talk about tannins and other shit.
Labels: food, service, stupidity
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Spanish Inquisition
I just got off the phone with my parents. I haven't spoken to them in almost three weeks. But it wasn't entirely my fault, you see, because I didn't know they took a couple weeks off to do some vacationing. And of course, despite the fact that I have had my current email address since 1999, my dad always seem to send me emails to my MSN account, which is used only for chatting online with my parents, while the email feature is blocked. Never mind the fact that I have told him for the better part of the last three years to get his address book updated. Aarrgghh!
So anyway, it was quite inevitable that the subject of a steady girl came up. While I was on the phone with my dad, he didn't want to rile up my mom so he broached the subject by asking, "Do you have a friend yet?" (Note, the underlined part was in English, whereas the rest of his question was in Mandarin.) I replied to his question with a question, "What do you mean by friend; I have lots of friends," knowing full well what he meant. Then my dad complained about how he couldn't hear me.
The next thing I know, my mom was talking. The first words out of her mouth? "You know, 30 is a good age to get married." What the... "How come you don't have a girlfriend yet?"
Great, here comes the Chinese Inquisition. Again. Maybe I should have waited another week before deciding to give them a buzz.
As I failed to make them understand that I had to work weekends on this project, I simply started thinking about that Spice Girls song. I think it's called either Be My Lover or Wannabe. Whatever the title is, I began mouthing the words: "So tell me what you want, what you really really want." And before I could restrain myself, I found myself asking her, "So what do you really want? A wife or a baby?"
Of course, in her excitement, she revealed that she wanted a grand kid. But instead of telling her that Szu and her husband have been trying this year, I simply responded, "Well, in that case, I can make it happen without a wife. All I need is to give up something to protect me (as I didn't know the Mandarin word for protection as a noun), and you will have a baby in nine months or so. But you have to be willing to put up with some random girl whose beauty may be questionable to you."
My mom obviously got embarrassed, and laughed it off. All of a sudden, instead of wanting a grand kid, she decided that she wanted me to have a proper wife.
Sigh... Any takers out there? This will purely be a matter of practicality just so I can get my parents off of my back. I'll even pay you! I'll even be willing to lie to my parents that I shoot blanks! Please, someone put me out of my misery.
Zigazig ha!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Say It Ain't So!
I suppose I have to face the music sooner or later that my little love affair with a mistress would end abruptly. And it has been a good two years affair. It is just so sad that the inevitable had to happen. Two years is such a short, short time, in my opinion.
It all started on July 14, 2005. My love for running that day got extended to include Fun Runs hosted by Momentum. Yes, the guilty mistress is Momentum. Ever since that day, my running fix has never been the same. She has taken good care of me from time to time. Ridiculously early morning pancake runs, where we were always rewarded with home-made pancakes and mimosas; wickedly fun evening runs capped with beer, pizza, or other foods that match the themed runs. It was also that day that I got to meet the people who have later became my friends: Erin M, Myke K, Amy R, Chris R, Liz H and Amy H.
I suppose I may have burned a bridge with my mistress at the last visit. Instead of showing up on time for the Mardi Gras Fun Run, I waltzed right into Momentum a day later, all decked out in winter tights and Mardi Gras beads. (Full story here.) As if the embarrassment itself wasn't enough, I swear I could've heard the crickets chirping loudly throughout the rather empty store, save for the owner and an employee.
And I'm sure I didn't make matters better with the mistress when I continually get bogged down with work, thus unable to attend other fun runs. And before long, it has been five months since I last saw Momentum. Like any neglected mistresses, she finally decided to break the sad news by email. And it came untimely today with "Over and Out" as the main title.
Sadly, the final Fun Run will be this Thursday, which I think the proper thing to do is go. After all, the mistress has been good to me many times before. Besides the beer and mimosas, she has routinely put me on the local running crowds' radar by using my picture in several magazines and newsletters year after year. Granted, I may not have won any raffle prize in the many times that I have gone to see her, she still treated me well, despite my lack of patronizing her. After all, she did sponsor my team for the Hustle up the Hancock climb this year.
Better yet, many of my friends and I were featured in her Fun Run promotional video that was posted on the Momentum website. You may recall my mentioning about it a year ago. And before she shuts her doors, I decided to copy the video so that it will live on forever. Why don't you try and find out how many times I popped up in the video?
I guess this is my way of saying goodbye to a great love affair. I'll continue to run, of course, but after this Thursday, probably without my mistress ever again. Sniff, sniff.
Solution to Our Overcrowded Prison Problem...
Hey, instead of feeding our incarcerated three square meals a day, providing them entertainment, all of which have a higher standard of living than a lot of law-abiding folks down on their luck, why not put them to good use?
I mean, they can still continue churning out license plates for us, but come on, how hard is that? And what value does that really provide us, other than some piece of metal that is strapped to our beloved vehicles? Why not get them to do something that will entertain us?
That's right! One idea may be to have the incarcerated perform roles in popular Broadway shows, thus bringing down the cost of tickets.
Another alternative? Follow the lead set by Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu, Philippines! Check out what they were able to accomplish below!
Obviously, we'd have to spend about a quarter of a penny extra in resources per prisoner to ensure that no sharpened toothbrushes get smuggled into rehearsals. =)
And what I really want to know is, the prisoner playing the role of Michael Jackson looks like a really tough goonie. How the hell did they convince him to strut and dance?!? It's like asking a rough, weathered biker dude to sing My Little Pony at a karaoke bar...
Labels: funny, music, politics
Monday, July 23, 2007
Where's the Principle?!?
I really don't get this. We Americans worry a bunch with this notion of "freedom," especially that of other nations. All while disrespecting the balance of the different types of sovereign rule that exist in the world. Surely, do we really want to convert all nations in the world into a democratic rule? Is it really the only way to rule sovereignty, and simply the best?
There is this organization founded by prominent Americans, including Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1941, called Freedom House, which publishes an annual Map of Freedom. It is more or less a report card that a bunch of ethnocentric think-tankers put together grading other nations based on an ethnocentric approach to the definition of "free." Sounds noble at first, doesn't it?
Well, undoubtedly you will see one of the headlines in today's edition (Monday, July 23, 2007) of USA Today that Americans are now worried about the newly elected Prime Minister of Turkey. Apparently we are concerned that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan may have an Islamic agenda against the mostly secular, pro-Western rule since adopted by Turkey national founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Really! And this concerns us because?!?
It seems like a lot of Americans are simply jaded at the notion of freedom and democracy. We say one thing, and act differently. We want other nations to be more secular, yet our own nation is heavily influenced by Christians, an overwhelming majority. When I hear politicians mention the words "family values," all I can imagine is a pandering for votes from the religious Christians. We are against theocracies, especially those involving Islam. What if Turkey was to adopt a theocracy based on strict Christianity? Would we have been against it? I doubt it. Personally, I think this is just an extension of the centuries-long holy war between Christians and Muslims, only that it is modified to fit the modern political climate.
Seriously... And we call ourselves a good democratic government? Our government is so heavily based on a two party system, even though it is unofficially so. Our national mandates all boil down to either pro-GOP or pro-Democrat. How polarizing. Green party? Or any other? Ha ha, good luck with influencing any kind of public policy with such an alignment.
Consider this. Not that many years ago, Americans fought to break away from the tyrannical rule of the English, all in the name of democracy and freedom. Cool. I like that. But the resulting United States government will not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, because it wants to appease to the communist Chinese so that we can make money in their emerging, hot market. Never mind the fact that Taiwan's government was the original Chinese democratic body kicked out of China by then emerging Communists!
As Taiwan battles for freedom and democracy, China continues to make threats against us that if we were to recognize Taiwan as an independent, democratic state, then there will be repercussions. And as Americans, we actually listen and dance our public policies around this? Whatever happened to the policy of not negotiating with staunch opponents? We stand for democracy, but when it comes to potentially making lots of money, screw democracy. Screw the basic principles we were founded on.
Wow. And yet, we managed to continue criticizing other governments. Isn't that just plain shady, if not fucked up? Our government is the biggest flip-flopper there is!!! The point of all this? Whenever I read something like today's USA Today headline, it irks the crap out of me. It elicits the same reaction from me as when a convicted pedophile criticizes other countries for not have strong enough laws to protect their little children from sexual predators. Rather hypocritical, huh?
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Twilight Zone
Oh, other than the fact that I just had quite arguably the worst day/night at work where the "project manager" failed to coordinate and communicate, it seems like I was doomed from the beginning to be in this twilight zone.
After working 12 hours straight, I finally got things done despite said "project manager's" shortcomings. So I headed home around four in the morning. Although we are in the dead of summer, I couldn't believe that I had to turn on the heated air vents AND the butt warmers in my car! The last time my butt saw such fiery action was back in early March! Hello, it's almost August!!!
Then luck would have it, I was forced to stop by the oasis along I-90 to get gas, as the empty fuel tank indicator started blinking. It's just fate's way of tinkering with my sleepy head. Seeing how there was a McDonald's right there, I decided to swing by the drive through window after filling up.
Worn-out John: Hi there. Are you serving breakfast?
Barking Intercom: No! We're only serving breakfast right now!
Wait... What...? Hey, stop screwing with my fragile mind! I'm tired! I'm hungry! I'm sleepy! It literally froze my mind for a few seconds before I could even respond and order a McMuffin.
Dumbass!
And fate has a poor sense of humor, I tell ya!
Labels: food, random, stupidity
Friday, July 20, 2007
Crushing My Sliver of Hope
I'm tired. I'm worn. I'm discontent. But please don't get me wrong. I'm not complacent, nor depressed. But I'm no longer happy. My current project, worth $495,000, was supposed to be from January through June of this year. I was ecstatic to be working "locally," as this was the first time I didn't have to fly to another city in over six years of my colored career. But after having worked the grave yard shift on weekends and having my "days off" on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the past three months, it has taken a toll on my life.
No social life whatsoever. Well, mostly. Definitely a non-existential dating life for the past seven months. It is kind of hard to ask your friends to go have a cold mug of beer on Monday or Tuesday nights, when all your friends have to be in bed by 22:30. And not only that, I have to flip back to normal shifts during the weekdays. So my sleeping pattern is all shot to hell. Even a six hour sleep is causing some serious baggage under my eyes.
Of course the client got rid of the I B M project manager just so they can stretch out the remaining hours for me, the person doing the actual technical work. When they did that in May, they estimated that they could keep me around through the end of July. In the back of my mind, I thought I could stick it out, and still have at least a month of summer left to myself.
Somehow, I managed to convince my direct line manager to grant me access to the project management tools at I B M. I started gathering the financial data on this contract. And what I discovered was exuberant news! After today, Friday July 20, there will be just 41.5 hours left in the contract. I was ecstatic. I was mentally thinking about all the street festivals I will be able to go with my friends; return to normal training schedule for the marathon; have normal sleeping patterns back; looking forward to waking up at 07:00 instead of 11:00; et cetera. I had to force myself to look sad and concerned seconds before talking with the client regarding this "pressing" issue.
When the client director and I finally got together to discuss this "concern," I had the former project manager on the phone. In just a matter of seconds, the sliver of hope in escaping this hell hole was completely crushed. Just like, snap, that! All I remembered hearing was the client reacting happily to something like this from the former I B M project manager: "Bla bla bla, your company previously had a huge hardware contract, bla bla bla, you may have some credits from that, bla bla bla, I B M salespeople are trying to shift those credits, bla bla bla, worth $300,000."
Holy mother of God! If the client managed to stretch half a million dollars through mid July, then I can only imagine that if the salespeople can successfully pull off their magic, how much longer the client can stretch out 300 grand! The project originally had a target completion date by the end of June. Then in June, they revised it to July. And a couple weeks ago, revised yet again to the end of August. At this rate we're going, I may possibly have gone a full circle back to winter before I am done. That would've been a year of my life where I simply lost my weekends.
Aaarrrggghhh!!! Someone please put me out of my misery!
I'm Moving to Memphis! Buying a House With a HUGE Front Yard!
So I decided on a whim today to sell my condominium here in Chicago, pack up my shit, and just move on down to Tennessee. Memphis, to be precise. And I'm looking for a house with the biggest front yard there possibly can be had. Preferably with a nice front porch with a great view overlooking said yard. I know I hate doing yard work, let alone lawn mowing, but it is not gonna matter in Memphis.
Why? About twice a month, I'll just make myself a nice, spiked pitcher of lemonade, pull on some bad ass looking sunglasses, and lounge out on the porch. And watch other people do my lawn. To be precise, the fine employees of Tiger Time Lawn Care business!
I almost shat my trousers when I read the news about Tiger Time lawn Care... And I was definitely paying attention when I watched the news clip from WMC-TV Memphis! Just watch the news below for yourself!!!
After all, who wouldn't mind watching a little bit of this?
Seriously though... Who the hell rides a lawn mower while squeezing her boobs together?!?
Labels: funny, girls, news, stupidity, travel
RTFM
I have spent a considerable portion of my career writing clear and concise documentation for projects that I have completed in the past, status reports and specially commissioned reports. As I'm rather anal about my written skills, I typically don't throw together a piece of junk like so many people do. Believe me, most people in the IT field tend to enjoy doing the technical work and loathe all other aspects of it, such as documentation.
I get especially annoyed when after spending so much sweat and blood in an important document, the person for whom the report is intended for comes to me and ask a bunch of basic questions, all of which are included in the report AND in the executive summary portion as well. Or when I wrote a instruction manual on how to make use of a relatively simple product with a table of contents, someone comes up to me and asks If I want to do this and that, how do I do it? My response has always been unequivocally the same: RTMF. Or in laymen's terms, read the fucking manual. Of course, if the person is someone important or my manager, I'll actually spend the time answering him/her, while hoping I don't Freudian-slip the choice words floating concurrently in my mind about him/her.
And I've been like this forever. And it seems so funny and ironic that today, I realized that I have been the kind of person I loathe so much for quite a long time now. You see, there is this really awesome image viewing application tool that I have been using for over five years now called IrfanView. It is simply the best, with so many things you can do, and it loads images the fastest of any other image viewing applications out there. Best of all? It's free. Of course, the purpose is not intended as something like, say, Adobe Photoshop, but provides quick and easy image and file manipulations typically desired by those who take lots of pictures and want some easy way of organization.
Anyway, for the longest time, I couldn't figure out how to crop out a section of the image and still maintain a desired standard width to height ratio typically found in standard prints. The typical standard keyboard/mouse combination methods employed by many other applications didn't work in IrfanView. And to work around that, I have been using other applications to do just that, and it was a pain in the ass. But this time, since I have recently reinstalled everything on my computer, I have yet to reinstall some other applications other than the critical ones. And I need to do a special cropping with a fixed ratio. But I couldn't find the other application to install, so I was a bit irritated.
Then the unthinkable happened. I opened up IrfanView, went to the Help manual, and did a search on keyword "crop". And what do you know?!? Number two in the hit list was the instructions on how to do the common standard ratio-locked cropping. Although it may not be the same procedure as other applications, it is quite intuitively simple. This feature has been there all this time, yet I have never used it for years. Or simply put, never bothered to spend 30 seconds to look up how.
Then I shook my head in disgust and whispered to myself, "Read the fucking manual; read the fucking manual."
Labels: funny, photography, random, stupidity, technology
Thursday, July 19, 2007
My Online Pet Peeves
Aside from the usual suspects of multiple pop-up adverts that never seem to stop and flash-based adverts that look integrated within the web page but manage to float around and suddenly enlarge to cover up the entire article, I have a couple other pet peeves that I wonder if anybody else shares my frustration.
As you may already know, I am a member of the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook. I have yet to leverage their potential to meet other girls, and I sometimes wonder why I'm on MySpace period. As for Facebook, most of my friends are mostly all high school friends with whom I have lost touch in over 10 years and finally reconnected.
Anyway, Facebook allows you to access their speed-centric version of the website for free when you visit their site from a cell phone. Likewise, you get to choose between that and the full-blown version of the website if you have a smart enough smartphone like my Nokia N91 or the Apple iPhone. But MySpace? Unless you're lucky like me and other advanced Nokia and iPhone owners, you can't even get to MySpace by mobile means! Instead, you have to pay three dollars a month to Cingular-is-now-the-new-AT&T to get the watered-down version of MySpace! This pet peeve is such because of two reasons: 1) same reason as that of reason number eight of why I hate the iPhone, and 2) have you noticed how heavily subsidized MySpace is by advertisements?!? Why would anyone still want to pay three bucks after having to put up with the gazillion adverts that litter MySpace? I'm not targeting MySpace, but using it as a prime example of the many other websites that have this kind of business practices.
The second online pet peeve is how they collect information when you register for things online. This morning, I tried to register in a Sweepstakes at Mercury for some neat prizes, but I was having a difficulty submitting the registration form. Click on the picture below to see the full details of the "error" and the form I was submitting (personal data changed to protect my privacy):
What in the name of hell is that error all about? There is no red asterisk next to the email address field, meaning that field is not a requirement. I filled that in so that I could get notified by email if I win. But what prevented me from submitting the form was that I had to click on the checkbox asking if I want to be notified of new product information, offers and incentives! What? Why even provide the choice of opting out if I am being forced into it just so I can enter some stupid sweepstakes? This kind of marketing practice is not limited to sweepstakes administered for huge companies like Ford's Mercury. Remember the Put a Gun to My Head, Won't You blog in which I was forced to receive information from LaSalle Bank? That was while trying to register to run in the Shamrock Shuffle 8K race, which happened to be sponsored by LaSalle Bank! Let's see... If you want to participate in a race sponsored by us, you must endure the bombardment of product and service offerings literature from us! No if's, and's, or but's!
Oh, I can only feel my blood pressure rising, thanks to some shrewd marketing kid who don't know how to make good adverts in the first place and must resort to such brute force. Sigh...
Labels: adverts, ethics, stupidity, technology
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Is This Even Legal?
Once in a while, I have a craving for Korean cuisine. And a few days ago, it was that time of the month. So rather than driving straight home, I stayed on the highway past my regular exit, and headed towards Korea Town. Destination: Ko Kee Ri.
When I got there, I was really surprised to see that they have changed their menu. Most of the food items were still there, sans sushi page, as well as less English description. Not wanting to get something I always had, I decided to venture out.
I thought to myself, "Hmm... This looks interesting. Seafood Bi Bim Bop. Korean mixed vegetables and seafood over stone hot rice." I decided to try it. After getting my food, it became a long journey home. I had worked late that night, and it was nearing 22:00. And home was about another 15 minutes away. It made for a torturous trip because I could smell the food the entire drive home!
When I opened the Styrofoam box, I gasped in despair. Oh no! They didn't say anything about bloody hell ass-burning hot sauce all over it! As I sat in front of the television, I licked my thumb and stuck it in the air. I decided that I would need to turn the thermostat of my air conditioner a couple notches towards the "Coldest" indicator.
Despite not having had any food since normal lunch hour, I had to stop after eating barely half the food. Why? Maybe the thousand words below will make sense:
The source? See below:
Is this even legal in the world of culinary wonders? All I could think of was how terrible I was going to feel all night, and the impending torture in the morning when I go relief myself. And to no surprise, I did hurt the next morning. Badly.
D&D is Bad for You!
Seriously! What is wrong with people today? Consider the Straws, a couple from Reno, Nevada.
Michael and Iana, 25 and 23, met online when she was 16. They married, and had two children: a boy nearly two, and a daughter just 11 months old. The couple shared a common bond: computer games and the Internet.
The couple spent all their time playing the online game Dungeons and Dragons that they totally neglected to feed their children! The boy was starved to near-death, and did not have the muscle development to even walk. The baby was so dehydrated that she couldn't cry or pee, and did not have the muscle development to even lift her head.
Worse yet, the daughter has cat urine matted to her hair, that health care workers had to shave her head after being taken by social workers. The baby was born six pounds, but weighed in only 10 pounds at 11 months. Holy shit!
Even worse? The couple had baby food at home!!!
I'm surprised that they even found the time to mate! Some kind of people simply should not have the right to knock uglies and reproduce!
Click here to read more about this amazing story.
Labels: babies, stupidity, technology
It's Finally Official!
Some time between 01:00 and 02:00 this morning, I noticed that my Nokia's carrier banner no longer reads Cingular. It is now a huge AT&T in all caps!
Labels: technology
Alarming Japanese Birth Rate Decline Discovered!
Labels: culture, girls, life, sex, stupidity
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Have you seen the new Harry Potter film? I have. It was pretty decent, except for the fact that I had no idea about who all were, except for the obvious three stars. Having not read any of the books, I have throughout the entire anthology of the Harry Potter misjudged who the antagonist was, until it was revealed way later.
At one point, and I don't remember which year, I honestly thought that Professor Severus Snape was a bad guy. After all, he looks pretty menacing, especially when he is a tough teacher who was not kind and constantly suspiciously looking. And I've always thought Draco Malfoy was an important antagonist, causing bewilderment on my part as to why he was still a Hogswart student. Now I understand he is just a pain in the ass at school.
All this time, I never really realized that Lord Voldemort is the big, bad evil guy in the whole thing. And I just learned exactly what the hell a Dementor is! I think... And all this time, I had no idea that Patronus is some kind of an all-powerful magic, or charm. I thought it was the Hogwart's version of the Patron vodka. But can someone please explain what the hell are Muggles and Death Eaters? My friend Sabine talks about Harry Potter as if I should already know what these or who they are.
Oh, and one final thought. Was it just me, or did anybody else notice lots of similarities of cinematography or dialogue or situation between this and many other popular movies? Not sure what I'm talking about? Let me elaborate:
ONE: Doesn't the opening scene with the dark clouds coming over remind you of that Psycho Tom's movie, War of the Worlds?
TWO: When Harry Potter was rescued by Advance Guards from Privet Drive, they all got onto their magical brooms and started flying. Didn't that scene look reminiscent of the opening sequence of the original Walt Disney's Peter Pan?
TWOpointB: Why do magical brooms make sounds akin to turbocharged, fossil fueled engines? You'd think magical brooms would be quiet like the stealth planes, instead of loud, crude engines that go vrrrooommm.
THREE: When Harry was roaming about in the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, he happened upon a little housekeeper. As soon as I saw that little hunched fella, I immediately thought of the little scary looking fella who always say, "My Precious" in the Lord of the Ring movies.
FOUR: Seriously... For those of us who are older, did Rubeus Hagrid's "big" half brother strike a similar resemblance to Alfred E Neuman from MAD? Honestly! Just take a look!
FIVE: Were you just like me, when during the climax (hee hee, I love the word climax) of the whole movie, did the whole mind thing between Potter and the Dark Lord remind you of Star Wars theme?
SEVENminusONE: I thought a franchise as popular and profitable as Harry Potter would not need to depend on product placements. But did anybody else notice in one scene in the mess hall or cafeteria a box of cereal called Cherri Owls, with colors that are strikingly similar to that of Honey Nut Cheerios?
Yeah, call me weird... I may not understand the big picture of the story and lack the skills to follow who is who, but I notice silly little shits like the things I've mentioned above. Sheesh...
Labels: movies, oddity, random
Do You Understand English?
Si, por supuesto.
I had previously made plans to go watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on IMAX at Navy Pier. The plan was simple: wake up early, go to work, and rush back to Chicago in time for the 17:00 showing. Despite having a rather crappy day at work, I maintained my spirited mood even though I had been yelled at by a rather frustrated client. Until this...
When I finally got to Navy Pier, as I drove east on E Grand Ave along the pier, I had the choice of using the West Parking Garage (closer to the IMAX) or the East Parking Garage (closer to the end of the pier where the big halls and convention center were located). And a few yards from the West parking garage was a huge portable sign that read: "EAST GARAGE FULL!" Seeing that I didn't want to get stuck and have to turn around later on, I decided to park at the West parking garage. As I turned right in an attempt to enter the West garage, I saw a traffic management "officer" standing next to the sign, waving subtly at me. But I kept on driving so that I could get into the West garage.
Then he began yelling at me, to which I stopped promptly and rolled down my window. He told me that the garage was full. I replied, "I know, that's why I'm going here." Then he asked me, "Do you understand English?" By this point, I realized he must have thought that I was some sort of an Asian tourist or something.
"Of course I understand English. Why?"
"Because you can't park here. I told you it's full."
"But that big sign you're standing next to indicated the East garage was full!
"Just go to the next one. This one is full.
By now, I've had enough of this douche bag's idiocy, so I backed up and continued on down E Grand Ave. Of course, by the time I got to the East parking garage, there was yet another similar sign: "EAST GARAGE FULL!" What the... Instead of whipping my car around and having to argue with the douche bag, I decided to just go in there, thinking at least one car must have left the garage between the time they put that sign up and when I entered it. I got lucky.
I suspect the guy I'm indirectly paying for through my city taxes have an intellectual quotient of a squirrel's. Or he simply didn't know how to read. In either case, how dare he look at my skin color and assume I didn't understand English when he can't effing read English!
Or he simply was directionally-challenged.
Wait, isn't that kind of a prerequisite to a traffic management job?!?
Friday, July 13, 2007
Paranormal Activities From the Interweb?!?
So yesterday, I had a horrendous dream about getting bald. Then I got a an email after I woke up from WebMD about hair loss! Coincidence? I thought so. But not anymore.
Last night, or technically super early this morning, I watched Pursuit of Happyness. And today, Facebook's gift of the day is a Rubik's Cube! (If you have no idea how the two are related, then I highly recommend watching the movie.)
If these two strange phenomena are not coincidence, then hell, I'm going bald!!! But I'll gladly take that, because in some years' time, I'll be selling a minority stake in some business that I in the future will create, thus providing me with a healthy profit!
While I'm at it, I better make sure I have Chinese take out for dinner tonight. Who knows what the Fortune Cookie will predict for me. =)
That Funny Guy
Have you ever encountered that special person in your life who is so unique and can make you blow soda out of your nostrils when you laugh? No, I'm not talking about the special someone in the romantic sense. Just some regular person, be it a friend or coworker or whatever who have just the quirkiest sense of humor.
I have encountered many funny people in my life, and it is their funniness (holy shit, funniness is a real word as my spellchecker just approved without haste!!!) that has morphed me into the little package of uniqueness that I am. But I have never met someone who is so dry, funny and insulting till I started working at my current client site. Worse yet, I don't know him personally, and we don't hang out after work.
For some odd reason, he is only funny when he insults me. Even odder is the fact that instead of getting all worked up and upset, I laugh my ass off! This guy makes it a point to insult me at least once a day. If he didn't and it was near the end of the day, he'd come by and ask, "I haven't insulted you today, have I?" before going into deep thinking mode.
I've tried to compile a list of what he had said to me that were funny, but he only say funny shit when I'm busy working and couldn't write them down. And my memory isn't all that great to begin with. Maybe it is because he is older, way older than me, that lends him the great choice of words and delivery that makes it funny and thought provoking.
For example... Lately I've been taking the lifestyle path like Al Gore following his presidential bid loss to Dubya: I decided that shaving was overrated. After all, work has been super busy and I didn't think I would have the opportunity to date anyone while I'm engaged at this current client site. So yesterday, out of the blue he popped up along my cubicle, and asked, "What's the matter? Having troubles at home with your girl?" Of course it took me a while to figure out what he meant. And most of the time, he would have to explain. In this case, he was referring to the existence of my long overdue peach fuzz pine pricks on my face.
Other smart things he had insulted me on, but with a funny twist? My pink shirt, my "ugliness" whenever I decide to sit in another client's cubicle (belonging to another Asian), my sports injuries on Monday mornings after a weekend of brutal sports, etc. Well, today, while discussing a serious technical issue and possible remedies, he quipped: "Now I know you're a true consultant. You know what they say about consultants?" Of course, curiosity got the best of me. And I have only myself to blame for asking why. "A consultant knows how to fuck a girl a hundred different ways, but doesn't have a girl to fuck with."
Damn! How can you possibly be insulted when it is so funny? Damn...
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Riddle Me This
Alternate Title: Today Dubya said something stupid. Again.
How many times have you seen George Walker Bush claim that he is a patriot? After all, he did sent our troops to Afghanistan (good) and Iraq (bad) to fight a war he claims to defend our rights and freedom. Pretty patriotic, you would think, right? Even when this clown dons denim, cowboy hat and boots, and a big buckle, it conveys the very image of a patriotic American. You can't get any more American than that.
But then, what exactly was there to defend our nation from Iraq? To defend oneself, one needs the presence of an imminent aggressor. Saddam and his regime were in a totally different part of the globe. They didn't have any way of disseminating terror to the United States; their longest distance missile could barely leave the Middle Eastern region. But Dubya continued to claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, despite the fact that we already had good intel from head of United Nations inspectors Hans Blix. After all, the United States government contributed funding to the UN, which also created the massive inspection team. The UN team had conducted 731 inspections from November 2002 and March 2003, and stated that no evidence of chemical and biological weapons stockpiles exist, or that there was any active weapons programs! Dubya's response? Like an unruly teenage girl, he simply said something along the lines of: Whatever.
So we sent in our troops, invaded Iraq, fucked up their rather decent and peaceful country (as compared to Iran and other nations in that region), and destabilized the region. As if what the "Western Nations" did to Palestine and created the clusterfuck that is now known as Israel weren't enough. With our thumbs sticking at the UN inspectors while we escorted them out of Iraq, we sent in our own "better" inspectors team headed by David Kay with possibly bigger and more advanced magnifying glasses than the tools that were at the UN's disposal. All after we invaded Iraq. Talk about shoot first then ask questions later.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly criticized the war and accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence on Iraqi weapons so that Dubya has the justification needed to go to war. A funny thing happened next, as shortly thereafter, Ambassador Wilson's wife Valerie Plame's identity was leaked as a CIA operative. Backlash from the White House? Ambassador Wilson definitely thought so. This was so scandalous that even Dubya himself said he wanted to know the whole truth on how such a treasonous act could have happened, not to mention putting an American's life in danger as well as risking the operations of the CIA! Dubya swore that if the leak came from within the White House, he will fire anyone who leaked the information.
Time went by, and guess what... Weapons inspector David Kay finally concluded: "We were all wrong," in regards to the allegations we have made against the Iraqi regime. All wrong?!? Wait a minute... Everyone was wrong, EXCEPT for the UN weapons inspectors! How dare he claim that we were ALL wrong?!? Then the finger pointing began, and it all boiled down to bad intel, or funnier yet, no real, credible, HUMAN intel. Wait another minute... Weren't the UN inspectors humans? Weren't they actually present in Iraq? Yet we ignored them. Worse yet, Dick Cheney even threatened Hans Blix before the UN inspector began his round of inspections: "We will not hesitate to discredit you." Sounds to me like we have a very trigger-happy person in the White House. Why else would someone threaten to discredit another before they begin their work?!?
So all the backlash at leaking Valerie Plame's name was a total waste at a ridiculously high price of a life and our national security. But that did not stop the judicial system to assign Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into the whole CIA leak scandal. And after two years of investigation, the truth finally came out as to who leaked Valerie Plame's identity: White House Advisor Karl Rove, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. They all admitted to leaking the name to reporters. All of who are important enough to maintain our national security. They leaked the information so freely as if they were sharing their grandma's not-so-secret recipe! A matter of national security, an act of treason, and nothing happens. What's funnier is that the only person charged in this whole scandal was I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, not for the act of leaking, but obstruction of justice!
And the story gets even funnier... For lying to special investigators in the matter of treason and national security, Scooter was fined $250,000 and sentenced to jail for 30 months. That's barely anything, considering the weight of the matter. Yet, our old American patriotic pal, defender of American rights and freedom, commuted the jail sentence, while saying that he still respects the grand jury and the judicial process. Isn't that the same thing as when your mom told you that she loved you and yet continued spanking you, even harder as she said that? Or similarly, a bad guy raping a woman while telling her, "I love you, and I don't want to hurt you." Wow...
Here is where the confusion is, my friends. If patriotic Dubya is willing to spend billions upon billions of our hard-earned money to go into war in Iraq under pretense, to defend our rights and freedom, then how the hell did he go from:
1. Pledging to fire whoever leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's name, to
2. Only willing to fire someone who "committed a crime" (meaning someone who is charged and found guilty of a crime), to
3. Taking a wait and see till the full investigation concludes before doing anything, despite the truth trickling out bit by bit as investigation wore on, to
4. Totally dismissing the whole scandal by saying today, "It's run its course; now we're going to move on." With no further action.
Riddle me this... Exactly how patriotic is Dubya, who won the re-election (or should I say, real first election) against John Kerry while labeling him a flip-flopper, when he was initially all about firing anyone in his administration found to have breached our national security, today decided to call the whole scandal old news and want to just "move on?" Are responsibility and accountability to our country qualities of patriotism? Maybe I just don't know what the hell a patriot truly is then.
Update 2007.08.27:
Well That Was Awkward
I had a stressful day and night yesterday... Instead of leaving work at a normal time and hitting a bar with BBQ buffet and all-you-can-drink domestic beer, I ended up working. All night. Till 03:30 in the morning. It is now around noon, and I had just woken up. And what am I going to do? Eat breakfast, shower and go straight to work. Is this okay? Is this even legal, where all you do in your waken moment is work? Sigh...
Anyway, for some odd reason, I had a terrible dream. I suspect it had something to do with the stress I endured yesterday. I dreamed that I woke up and got in the shower to get ready for work, and once done, found myself screaming in front of the mirror because A) I was in the bathroom of the old house in Indonesia where I used to live as a kid, and B) I had a tiny shiner on top of my head! It was as if someone had shaved a tiny circular spot on the top of my head, and it was pure white while the rest of my hair remained intact.
I began to frantically worrying and did everything I could to figure out why I had suddenly gotten male pattern baldness. I looked through pictures of my immediate families, and we are not exactly stricken by this genetic "problem." Then I began to question whether or not my dad is my biological father, and suspect if he had been the victim of paternal discrepancy. I was so worried that my heart was beating faster and faster.
Then my eyes opened wide. Staring at the ceiling, I slowly readjusted half a globe back to Chicago, while some loud music was playing on my alarm radio clock. Sweat was beading throughout my body, and although I was still tired and groggy, I forced myself to get up and look in the mirror. Phew! My top mop was still all there...
Then as usual, I ran through my routine activities immediately after waking up: log into MySpace (rejected some jerkoff pretending to be a hot girl with links to porn sites wanting to be my friend), Facebook (another high school friend found me), Google News (Springfield, Vermont is the winner of all 14 Springfields in the United States to premiere the Simpsons movie), and email. When I finally got to my personal email, I was shocked to see this from WebMD:
Is this a harbinger or mere coincidence? The worry continues...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
iPhone (finally)
I’ve been meaning to write about the Apple iPhone since June 29, but I had been unusually busy that I simply neglected to write anything at all. I’ve been working on the weekends, hanging out with recently-engaged Lucy while she visited Garth, playing sports and getting seriously hurt subsequently, watching the famous fireworks in Chicago before Independence Day, celebrating the holiday itself, throwing a dinner party, going to the Taste of Chicago festival, hanging out with friends till 03:30 in the morning, and tailgating before and attending the Dave Matthews Band concert with Guster headlining.
Phew! Even thinking and writing all that down pretty much drained the shit out of me. But now that I have some free time (sort of), I guess I’ll write something useful instead of snippets of news and what not. Remember on January 9, I wrote in my blog that I wanted to get the iPhone in less than an hour from when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone? Well... June 29 has come and passed. What came of it?
On Friday, June 29, I rounded up Sabine and Cesar for a happy hour at McCormick & Schmick’s on Wacker. The whole point was to check out the iPhone, which was released that day at 18:00 at the Apple store as well as some AT&T stores throughout downtown. But I’m not one to wait in line for any huge launch, like Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, who actually waited nearly 15 hours in line to get the tech gizmo while ignoring his civic duties. Knowing that a store can’t possibly sell out on the first day, I wisely decided to spend my early evening drinking beer and eating finger food at happy hour, and waited till the news crews have packed up their cameras.
As I walked by an AT&T store along State Street after happy hour, I laughed at the people waiting in line to purchase the iPhone. Before heading over to the Apple store, I also managed to go shopping at Nordstrom Rack to kill some time before diving into the mosh pit that was the Apple store iPhone frenzy. Lucky for me, I found myself a new pair of work shoes and a pair of casual shoes. Nice!
Finally, when I went to the Apple store around 20:30, the line of people had disappeared, and all I could see was the temporary crowd control ropes along the sidewalk all barren. I simply walked right into the store, and waited behind a rather short line of people waiting to check out an iPhone on display. I would say that there were probably 20 or so iPhones on display. But I was smart, as I went to the back of the store where there were less people congregating around the display devices unlike the front of the store.
I have read and kept up with all news related to the iPhone between January 9 and June 29, and have decided that perhaps it was worth spending the 599 dollars with the known limitations and pitfalls. I was so ready to whip out my American Express Gold card and wait in the ridiculously long line of people waiting for the check-out register. But after just a few minutes waiting for some non-technical folks drooling over the phone, I was amazed that it was finally time for me to hold the much talked about device.
After playing with the iPhone for a little over 20 minutes (hey, if I was going to spend $600 that night, I was going to dig deep first, because after all, it was my very own hard-earned $600 I’ll be plunking down), I was simply disappointed and irritated. I realized quickly that this revolutionary gadget was not all that revolutionary! I thought the concessions I was going to make in order to purchase the iPhone was all the disappointments there were, I quickly found out that what I knew beforehand was simply 90% of the pitfalls. The other 10% of the pitfalls, which were not reported by early reviewers and rumors from Apple insiders, simply tipped me over the delicate balance between making the purchase and not.
Obviously I walked out of the store empty handed, save for the two pairs of shoes I had been lugging around since visiting Nordstrom Rack. Otherwise, I would have written a review with pictures of the iPhone the very next day.
Here is the list of all the new disappointments that I discovered that fateful night, which I will call the 10% factors:
1. Screen re-orientation: Despite what was said as revolutionary and shown in numerous television adverts, the automatic screen re-orientation based on how you hold the device is an utter piece of crap. Rather than building that functionality into the operating system layer, it was only a function of three applications: iPod, YouTube and Safari (web browser). And even worse, this function did not behave the same!
In the iPod application, the Cover Flow view would get turned on when you turn the iPhone 90 degrees in one way or another. But the sad thing is that if you turn it 90 degrees clockwise, the Cover Flow view simply became upside down, instead of being smart enough to turn it right side up. It was only designed to work if you turn it 90 degrees counter-clockwise! What the...?!?
Then the YouTube application or any video viewing application only allows you to watch it in the 90 degree counter-clockwise mode. Not regularly held mode. Huh? That doesn’t make sense to me, and shows how inflexible the iPhone can be when it comes to the extremely basic functionality!
2. Ring tone selection: For years, Nokia and other manufacturers have learned what consumers and end users wanted: setting our own ring tone based on any music file we have on the device, whether it be MP3 or a midi file. But what do you know? The iPhone only allows you to set ring tones based on what came with the iPhone, and what you can purchase from AT&T! What the...?!? You would think a revolutionary phone would take great ideas that have been around forever and improve on it, not take away bits and pieces of a culminated pool of great ideas!
3. Bluetooth that is utterly useless: The great thing about Bluetooth is that you can connect with other Bluetooth-enabled devices and do cool and fancy things together. One of the most important things about Bluetooth is the ability to transfer files wirelessly. For example, while at happy hour, Cesar sent me a picture of a cute chick he saw on the train from his Sony Ericsson phone to my Nokia phone. Just like that. And similarly, he liked a song that I had on my phone, so I sent it to him via Bluetooth. Just like that. Cool, right? This has been a rather useful feature of Bluetooth that has been around for years, yet for some reason, Apple decided to turn off the file transfer profile of Bluetooth! What in God’s name were they thinking?!?
4. Google maps without GPS: So what if you can use Google maps to get directions and find locations? It is not exactly revolutionary and something to brag about if the iPhone does not have GPS capability, something which several other phones already sport for over a year! Hell, my Nokia N91, which is a smartphone based on the Symbian operating system, is capable of running Google maps! All I have to do is go to Google and download the exact same application for Symbian! Likewise, people with Windows Mobile phones can download the same thing for their Microsoft operating system! So, uhm, exactly what is revolutionary and cool about this if I don’t have GPS like some other mobile devices?!?
5. Virtual keyboard that is not so smart: Seriously, I knew that people would have to get used to the virtual keyboard that is without any tactile feedback through time to learn how to use it. And as an Asian with way smaller fingertips than the average American, even I had a hard time typing away. I’m not exactly ranting against this particular design, but rather I’m disappointed that they didn’t take advantage of the re-orientation feature of the iPhone. You would expect that if you turn the iPhone 90 degrees counterclockwise, you would get a wider keyboard that is spaced out more, right? No way! Oh wait, I remember now... The screen re-orientation feature is NOT part of the operating system! Doh!!!
6. Useless camera: What can you do with the built-in camera with the iPhone? Nothing except point and shoot! Wait, this coming from the company that included built-in cameras in their top-of-the-line notebooks and LCD screens for a while? I asked an Apple employee why I couldn’t zoom in on shots. His response was that the camera didn’t have optical zoom, so it wouldn’t have mattered if it had digital zoom; you could always crop it later on. Well, if there was a stupid answer I have ever heard, it was that. I know that the picture quality on digital zoom is not that great, but the biggest benefit of being able to zoom in digitally before snapping the picture is composition, the most rudimentary aspect of photography! Apple, with their super smart programmers couldn’t include some basic software to take care of that?!?
Worse yet, it cannot record videos... Even my previous Nokia 7610 could record unlimited length videos as long as your memory has the space for it! And the 7610 isn’t exactly an advanced phone. Although it was based on the Symbian operating system, it was a precursor of the current generation of smartphones. And the Apple iPhone is supposed to be the next generation of smartphones? Come on!!!
7. Select, copy and paste: This is what irked me the most. A revolutionary phone based on the powerful Mac OS X operating system did not have any way for users to highlight, select, copy and paste text from the address bar of the web browser (or some other applications)? What the hell?!? This is so basic of any operating system that you would think a smart eight grade programmer can add! If I happened upon a very cool site, but it had a long URL like the City of Chicago’s website for the "Things to Do" section like so: http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalSubChannelAction.do?
BV_SessionID=@@@@0706582129.1184139159@@@@&
BV_EngineID=cccfaddlghdjikjcefecelldffhdffn.0&
channelId=-9004&topChannelName=Residents
I would like to be able to select just a portion of the URL sans Session ID that I can copy and send to my friend. But no, I simply can’t do that. Why? Please don’t make me state the obvious...
8. Financial raping in the ass: When I first heard the news of the iPhone, I was particularly surprised at the unprecedented announcement of the exclusive partnership with AT&T for five years. Although exclusive partnerships are nothing new, the fact that it is five years is extremely unusual! I didn’t know what was to come, as pricing information of rate plans were under tight seals. Although my friend Changren pointed out that this is an issue with the wireless carrier, not Apple, I believe they are both equally at fault here because of this exclusive deal they have going on. Why do I have to pay an extra $20 for an unlimited data plan if I have the iPhone? My current Nokia N91 phone has both 3G and EDGE data technologies and my current regular unlimited data plan already allows me to browse "just the Internet." So why then is it more expensive to access the same data pipeline if I’m using the iPhone? After all, my Nokia N91 doesn’t render web sites in the "watered down version of the Internet, or the mobile version of the Internet, or the kinda sorta looks like Internet Internet" either! So if you take out everything my phone can do, then the only difference you’re left is that you are paying $20 a month just for the video voicemail service. Holy shit! Talk about an ass raping and fleecing of the American consumers!
Worse yet, the iPhone is not even capable of running on 3G technology, which allows you to have faster download speeds. You are forced to use the older EDGE technology! Granted, AT&T only has 3G networks in five major metropolitan cities (Chicago included) and EDGE everywhere else where GSM is available, but I cannot imagine that consumers are being forced to pay extra for slower shit! It’s like $35 a month for cable or DSL modem service at your home, but to get regular phone dial-up service by itself, you will have to pay an extra $20 on top of that! Especially when there is no need for AT&T to recuperate the cost because the iPhone is reportedly 100% unsubsidized! And all those people walking out of the Apple store with the iPhone in hand are okay with that? I’d say they’re idiots!
After experiencing and learning of the aforementioned eight additional pitfalls, I was so frustrated as a user that I stopped exploring the iPhone and realized that my Nokia N91 allows me to have a more intuitive user interface experience with more technological punch than the iPhone. To me, the iPhone’s only revolutionary advancement is multitouch user interface. Other than that, it failed miserably in all points of user interface basics. All Nokia and any other phone manufacturers have to do is to add a similar multitouch user interface to their existing phones and that in and of itself would have leapfrogged the iPhone immediately. And it isn’t all that hard to do. That is a pretty sad thing for a "revolutionary" smartphone.
It’s like sports cars that can go really fast, but incapable of performing the most basic tasks such as turning and stopping. Sheesh...
Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t want an iPhone. After all, it does have a cool factor that no other smartphone can touch. But I’m just waiting for the next iteration of the iPhone which will hopefully have 3G, GPS and full Bluetooth technologies; as well as radio, motion picture capture and multi-format music playback capabilities; and improved software that will take care of the severe limitation in functionality of the phone. And even then, I will still not buy an iPhone until the GSM SIM card locking mechanism is breakable. After all, I could care less about the video voicemail, and would prefer I not spend the extra $20 and still maintain my regular unlimited data plan with AT&T.
Update: Good news! Apparently most of the software issues that I have been griping about are rumored to be fixed in conjunction with the release of Mac OS X Leopard. Let’s hope this pans out, as this will be a step towards the second iteration of the iPhone.
Labels: technology
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Will No Longer Be Careful...
For the most part, about 99.99% of the time, I have always practiced safe sex. I routinely get myself tested, just to make sure that I continue to stay clean and healthy. It is the fear of a sexually transmitted disease that drives me to be careful and not be the victim of some girl’s “oops, did I forget to mention that I have...” syndrome.
Well, today I think I may have a renewed fear that will actually drive me to be completely opposite of my longstanding way of life. From now on, I’ll make sure I won’t wear protection in the hope of contracting herpes. Why? Turns out herpes can kill cancer cells. And I’m more afraid of cancer than some stupid herpes!!! Lucky for Paris Hilton, she definitely will never get cancer! ;-)
Okay, I’m totally kidding. At least about purposely increasing my risk of contracting herpes. But news from the cancer research community brought some promising future in the fight against cancer. A German biotech company based in Munich, MediGene, reported on Saturday at the annual European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Switzerland that a modified version of the herpes simplex virus will kill cancer cells (of colorectal and liver) while they grow on them, at the same time leaving healthy tissue alone. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the United States.
Obviously, this is good news!
Labels: biology, health, research, technology