The St Halcyon Chronicles

There is absolutely no doubt that there is no logic in Asia

2009-11-10T19:18:00.004-06:00

I'm usually pretty good about vetting my friends. I usually ensure they're generally good people who carry no bigotry and share my view of the world in general. Otherwise, they're just acquaintances to me, or simply people I don't care.

So what brought this topic to light? Well, this morning, a 'friend' of mine posted a status that was pretty usual. She's someone who has been living in Vietnam. LiHd* wrote on her Facebook status: LiHd might be incommunicado via Facebook soon if Uncle Ho decides to block it.

And below are the comments that entailed throughout the day... Anything in smaller fonts just means that they're insignificant to the blog topic.

JeHa: oh brother! C'mon Nam! Get with this century! What's the reasoning behind this one? Oh nevermind, When in Asia, don't ask why.

LiHd: exactly. i have heard it from a couple of sources but who knows!! no logic, no logic, no logic...

LiHd's friend #1: NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

LiHd's friend #2: What?

LiHd's friend #3: good ol' uncle Ho.

LiHd's friend #4: One thing I learned after living in China is that no matter how much the government tries to block something, there's always a way to get around it using a proxy. I'll help you out with that if Uncle Ho decides to block facebook.

LiHd's friend #5: Oh noes! Say it ain't so, Uncle Ho!

LiHd's relative #1: nothing better then the good old US of A.....and Facebook!

VaHa: Yikes. keep me posted

LiHd's friend #6: I keep hearing this ... when will this happen?

John Ho: Just wanna throw this out there... Asia includes many other countries like India, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan. Most Asian countries don't have censorship, except for China or North Korea. So let's not categorically put Asia together into a place of illogical decision making. And as with the century thing, you do realize that Japan, Great Britain and South Korea are far more advanced than the United States, right? Not only that, the ol' US of A is the only advanced civilization to preach human rights but at the same time manages to enjoy prosecuting those under 18 as an adult, which all other G20 or EU countries condemn as inhumane. C'mon, USA! Get with the freaking times! And let's not forget, it is 2009 and we had Judge Keith Bardwell who will not marry interracial couples in the USA.

But then again, if another "normal" American at a bar here in the US asks me if I also speak Asian after telling him/her that I speak Mandarin, then I'll totally take my entire first paragraph back! =)

LiHd's friend #7: let us know if there is another way to keep you in the loop here...lol..as if there is anything to happen exciting..but i must tell you went to cinci for a conference and went to see uncle bill a and aunt janet...and they live less than a mile from NKU!!!

LiHd: jho...again you missed the point

everyone else: so far they are only rumors that i have been hearing from students...i am not sure if or when this will happen. but if you don't hear from me for a while on fb, that's most likely why.

LiHd's relative #1: i would be lost without my fb....and my business would most likely cease to exist...

John Ho: I was more directing that comment at JeHa's comment when she wrote: "Get with this century! What's the reasoning behind this one? Oh nevermind, When in Asia, don't ask why."

LiHd's friend #8: oh no, that sucks. Well, if I go to Seoul you can come visit me and use my interwebs :)

LiHd: jho: it's because we have both lived in asia for a bit of time; i am in my third year and JeHa was here last year and is in malaysia this year...there is absolutely no doubt that there is no logic on this continent. if you start to apply logic or ask questions it only confuses the issue more.

LiHd's friend #8: you never gave me the 411 on your move to seoul!! when are you leaving? where are you teaching?

John Ho: Let me get this straight... Asia is one of the biggest continents comprising of so many different countries and more distinct cultures than there are number of countries. And because of the illogical experiences you two have encountered in a few countries, you can categorically say Asia as a whole has no logic. I'd like to see you and your friend tell that to a Japanese or Taiwanese or Singaporean citizen. Hmm... I'm glad you're not letting your education get in the way of your ignorance.

VaHa: 9 years in Asia. Agree with the gals.

LiHd, I read a bit about it. Something was said in August and some people reported FB blocked then.

LiHd's friend #8: LiHd, I don't know yet. First up: try to sell my condo. As soon as that happens, I will decide where I go. It may depend on the time of year and how much I get for the condo.
I will def. let you know where I wind up, esp of it is Korea.

LiHd: jho: i am speaking from experience, you are speaking from the point of view of someone who only comes here on vacation or business. why are you insulting my intelligence?? ridiculous and almost unforgivable comment on your end.

John Ho: Maybe you didn't know this, but I was not born in the US. I didn't even come here till 1996. I have lived in five Asian countries while growing up. Not on business or vacation. And I renounced not one, but two previous Asian citizenship when I became naturalized in the US.

Just so you know, there are 47 countries in the Asian continent. How many of the 47 countries have your friend and yourself gone to, to make such a generalized statement about Asia? Even I, who have lived in more Asian countries and longer than you, would not dare make such a statement such as your friend Jennifer's or yours.

I was not insulting your intelligence. Your blanket statements did.

----------########## END TRANSCRIPT ##########----------

So after all that, I was going to remove this ignorant friend of mine from my Facebook, and you know what? She saved me the trouble! Now I don't have to worry about the guilt of "Was I too harsh on my friend when I removed her from Facebook?"

Simply put, if anything, I was more shocked than anything that someone who I thought I have known for almost five years can have such a narrow-minded viewpoint. As a friend of mine who was following the whole chit-chat wrote over instant message: "most ppl tend to compare new experiences with things that they are used to; any deviation from it, they consider 'illogical'; especially for those not so open-minded fools" [sic]

True that!

* Names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

Check and Mate?

2009-09-25T13:24:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I haven't updated my blog for a while. It's mostly because since joining Facebook, I've been using the status updates to write tidbits of my thoughts more often. It is so much easier, since I'm limited in length as to what I have to share, and blogging, well, takes so much more time and energy.

Anyway, this post is a relatively easy one, because it's mostly a copy-and-paste job. On Wednesday, both a Facebook friend and I found out about this horrendous news regarding a raid on a dog fighting ring here in Chicago. I posted a status update, as usual, with a funny twist: "John Ho just learned that we have an 'Animal Crimes Unit' here in Chicago!!! When is NBC going to add Law & Order: ACU?!?"

My Facebook friend also posted something related to this a few minutes later. And from there, a heated discussion ensued in the comments section, which I have detailed here below. Of course, names have been changed to protect the strange.

Status update @ Wed at 1:54pm:
Daniella just found out that police busted another dog fighting ring in the Chicago area. I'm really starting to hate people - how can you be so cruel to an animal?

Following below are comments on said Facebook status update:

Daniella's Friend #1 @ Wed at 2:00pm: boooooo!

John Ho @ Wed at 2:05pm: It wasn't just an animal. 9 dogs!!! They even used 4 puppies barely a month old as bait for the fighting! And it wasn't just a house, but the neighbor next to the day care is also in on it, because they found a modified treadmill used strictly to train fight dogs! Disgusting what people can do, huh?

Daniella's Friend #2 @ Wed at 2:10pm: The guff was empty the day they were born. First dogs, then people!!!

Daniella's Friend #3 @ Wed at 2:10pm: They should put the culprits between two angry pits that don't know who they are as punishment and see what it feels like to be torn apart!

Daniella's Friend #4 @ Wed at 3:10pm: i have a pit. sweetest, most loving (and intelligent) dog i have ever owned. a dogs character is that of the owner. most fighting pits are intentionaly inbred so they are born all eff'd up. the others you hear about attacking have ignorant, dumb ass owners. furthermore, you never hear about other breeds who attack, which happens all the time. ... Read Moreonly pits...the media, as usual, warp the reality for shock value. pits have a bad rep. on a related note...michael vick should still be in prison much less on a football field! he killed his dogs my hanging, drowning and slitting there throats. hes a piece of shit as a human being...hes evil. theres my rant of the day! lol

John Ho @ Wed at 7:52pm: So what I'm understanding here is that even after someone has paid his/her dues for the crimes he/she commits, it's still not enough? Sure, Vick did something that is very detestable in my books, but he served his time. Why are people still harping on that? Sounds to me like even after someone has paid his/her due for a given crime, you simply can't forgive. Nobody is perfect. But he did his time for his crime. Let's just get over it. For otherwise, capital punishment would be in place for every petty crime, including the kid who steals $2.

Mutual Friend #1 @ Wed at 7:52pm: How can people be so cruel to other people?

Daniella's Friend #5 @ Wed at 8:23pm: What John said!

Daniella's Friend #6 @ Wed at 8:47pm: Hate people? Wow. How 'bout hate people's behaviors? Ya, it's pretty disgusting what things are done.

Daniella @ Thu at 9:09am: John - Vick didn't serve time for animal cruelty, he served time for federal racketeering. I don't care if this makes me sound like the biggest bitch, but if someone kills another living being, they should not be able to go back to their cushy NFL job. He sucks as a QB anyway...

Daniella @ Thu at 9:09am: And I just realized that my above statement doesn't make me sound like too much of a bitch - but sorry, yes I hate certain people AND their behaviors. He's a piece of shit.

John Ho @ Thu at 9:19am: Then you're a mass murderer! Think about the number of living beings you have killed every time you killed a bug, or poisoned a bug with bug sprays, etc. Think of how many living things you have killed when you de-worm your dog. ;-) In some religions, that is considered bad, because whether it's a bug, fly, or whatever, anything that is a living thing has a soul. Think about that...

Daniella @ Thu at 9:34am: Wow, really reaching for an argument aren't you?

Daniella's Friend #4 @ Thu at 10:10am: bugs??? holy hell. soft, bleeding hearts. some sick rapist kidnaps your child, rapes then murders them? lets see how forgiving you are then. There are white souls, grey souls & black souls in this life. The black souls are just shells, their job, unbeknowest to them, is to try and smother the light of the others...the good in this world. They bring anxiety, depression & anger into our lives when they are near us - like moths to a flame. There IS evil in this world, and punishment is justifiable. When it comes to evil, they are NOT our equals! If I would get a DUI, my time would be much longer than Vicks. If it was I who did what he did, rest assured, I would still be in prison. Who gives a fuck hes an nfl player. Our society is so addicted to celebrity its sick...this countries ablility to turn a blind eye to cruelity and immoral behavior by these assholes amazes me. again...bugs?!?!? come on man

Daniella's Friend #4 @ Thu at 10:16am: by the way daniella...you dont sound like a bitch. you sound like someone who'e passionate about their convictions and beliefs...

John Ho @ Thu at 10:26am: Nope, not reaching for an argument. Just using your argument, that's all.

Hey, I'm not saying that when I'm a victim, I will have the mentality to keep things in perspective. If my child is raped and murdered, I can't say for sure that I'll let the judicial system work it out for me. But I also can't say for sure that I'll just go grab a shotgun and kill the rapist in the courtroom. I won't know what I'll do until it hits me directly.

But for now, I'm taking the route of letting the judicial system work its way out. We all have an opinion. Your opinion is that there's nothing he can do to return to his "cushy" job. My opinion is that he served time, and he is working extra hard to use this experience to talk to kids and others in the public community to discourage animal cruelty and dog fighting. I think, in my opinion, that this is good. Learning to forgive is not easy, but worth a damn. Hating forever, well, is kinda sad.

Daniella @ Thu at 11:12am: A) Once again he did not serve his time for animal cruelty. B) The talking to kids about what he did thing is the biggest piece of PR bs I’ve ever heard of. C) I’m a huge supporter of rescue organizations,and the things I hear about what people have done to dogs, cats, etc is enough to, yes, make me hate other human beings. I’m sorry, but I just can’t forgive the guy for what he, and so many other subhumans like him, have done. Forgiveness is not easy in my book and if that makes me a sad person, then so be it. It’s not sad to have a passion or have convictions, sorry. We’re just going to agree to disagree I guess. I’ll make sure to hug my dog, who was starved, dehydrated and living in filthy conditions for a year extra tight for you tonight, John.

John Ho @ Thu at 3:40pm: Good for you for rescuing your dog. We need more people like you.

But let's make the facts clear. In federal criminal case number 3:07CR274, he is indicted for dog fighting, including the money, gambling, transportation and animal cruelty aspects of dog fighting. And on August 24, 2007, he pleaded guilty to all charges, and the judge sentenced him (which, by the way, exceeded the sentencing guidelines). So I'm not quite sure where you got the fact that he did not serve his time for animal cruelty.

Here's the indictment document: http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/sports/usvick71707ind.html
Here's the plea agreement document: http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/sports/usvick82407plea.html

Let's not forget that double jeopardy doesn't apply in the state of VA when it comes to charges coming from state prosecution. So he also pleaded guilty there and paid his dues as well on state level.

John Ho [cont'd from above because Facebook has a text limit]: Dog fighting is an underground activity that, unfortunately, is more widespread than ever. Not only is the "sport" itself cruel, but it is often tied to other vices, like gambling, gangs and criminal activities. It is a sad, sad thing that despite tougher laws enacted, this activity still continues.

You have to look at the silver lining though. Without the NFL's most highly paid player's case in the matter, dog fighting as a public issue would not have gotten such attention and awareness. And on top of that, Michael Vick not only apologizes and has paid his dues to society, but he is working with the Humane Society in speaking against the "sport." Because of this, more police officers than ever have elected to get special law enforcement training related to animal cruelty.

Even after all the good that can come out of him, you still can't forgive? The Humane Society has. Let's focus on the positive outcome of this so that more dog fights can be stopped with his message.

Just Some Sunday Thought...

2009-04-12T20:41:00.000-05:00

please be philosophical please be tapped into your femininity please be able to take the wheel from me please be crazy and curious papa love your princess so that she will find loving princes familiar papa cry for your princess so that she will find gentle princes familiar please be a sexaholic please be unpredictably miserable please be self absorbed much (not the good kind) please be addicted to some substance papa listen to your princess so that she will find attentive princes familiar papa hear your princess so that she will find curious princes familiar please be the jerk of my knee I've fit you always you finish my sentences I think I love you what is your name again no matter i'm guessing your thoughts again correctly and I love the way you press my buttons so much sometimes I could strangle you papa laugh with your princess so that she will find funny princes familiar papa respect your princess so that she will find respectful princes familiar papa love your princess so that she will find loving prices familiar papa cry for your princess so that she will find gentle princes familiar please be strangely enigmatic please be just like my

The Name's Müller. John Müller.

2009-04-10T14:54:00.001-05:00

Friends, I am livid. Very much so! It has only been 77 days since the first black person was sworn in as the President of the United States and some Texas lawmaker unwound the progress made in minority acceptance. And that Texas lawmaker is no other than Betty Brown, a Republican State Representative.

Representative Betty Brown, during a House testimony on voter identification legislation while questioning Ramey Ko, suggested that Asian-Americans should change their names because they're hard to pronounce.

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese--I understand it's a rather difficult language--do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"
...and later added...
"Can't you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that's easier for Americans to deal with?"

What the...?!?

Let's frame this discussion in the proper light. This question was posed to an Asian American, just like me, who is an American citizen. So, what is up with the "you and your citizens" and "we" separation? Clearly, Rep. Brown has some sort of an inclination towards racial divide, for otherwise she in her mind wouldn't dare use such divisive language. Can you imagine if someone you know tells a Hispanic hired help, "Why don't you people learn more English?"

Now, let's look at the context of the discussion: House testimony on voter identification legislation. Key word on identification.

I'm sure you have heard jokes about going through phonebooks and complaining about how everyone is a "Chang" or "Wong," right? Well, let's flip that around. Have you ever tried looking up someone in the phonebook who is either a "Smith" or "Brown," and how thick that section is? Right...

Let's say, for the sake of argument, poll workers truly have a hard time identifying Americans of Asian descent. And for the expressed goal, all Asian Americans will change their surnames to something like "Smith" or "Brown." Now, do you honestly think that it is easier to identify people at polling stations? Instead of lines for last names beginning with "A-H," "I-P," and "Q-Z," they probably will have to have a line just for "Smith," another for "Brown", and finally a line for "Others."

So really, is it truly "easier?" I don't know, but I'd like to ask poll workers what they think about living in a district where there were many Smiths in the community...

Finally, there's the whole "American" thing. Apparently, for Rep. Brown, an American is defined as someone who is either Caucasian, or someone who has a Caucasian surname. Otherwise, anybody else is not an American. I mean, she addressed the question to an American who happened to be not white, and addressed him as if he wasn't an American!

Like I said, I am livid. Just for that, I might consider changing my surname from "Ho" to "Müller." I mean, it should be easier to pronounce, right? But good luck to the poll workers in trying to write that down correctly, cos you don't want to confuse "John Müller" with "John Mueller" or "John Muller," with the latter two being bastardized by the immigration officer at Ellis Island who didn't know "ü". Maybe Betty Brown is related to those uneducated immigration officers?

Come to think of it... Isn't "Brown" the bastardized version of "Braun"?!?

Anyway, if you are a Texan and find this extremely offensive, voice your complaint to the ignorant representative by emailing Brown. Sorry, my Texan friends, but this is yet another reason why I have a distaste for Texas...

Here are the ongoing articles regarding this dumb person: news.google.com - subject "Betty Brown"

Below is the video of the testimony uploaded by KXAN, an NBC affiliate from Austin (if you want the racial comments, fast forward to the 3:30 mark):

I Love You, AT&T! Sort of...

2009-04-03T18:24:00.001-05:00

Well… How about that? About eight minutes ago, Engadget received a statement from AT&T, stating:

The language added on March 30 to AT&T's wireless data service Terms and Conditions was done in error. It was brought to our attention and we have since removed it. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

I guess that's reason to celebrate after just posting a blog about how upset I was. But as my friend Changren pointed out, which I suspect as well, the error wasn't done by AT&T in poor judgment, but rather that the error itself was being discovered by angry users.

How the hell can you write something in error, especially when it was extremely detailed and broad, covering almost everything? Oh well, apologies accepted.

AT&T, You've Outdone Yourself!

2009-04-03T17:33:00.000-05:00

Congratulations, AT&T! You have yet outdone yourself when it comes to f**king over your customers! It was barely two years ago when you changed your terms and conditions to include a threat to suspend/terminate any customer contract if you think I engage in conduct that you believe "tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries."

Well, thank you very much for not terminating my service with you when I wrote that blog entry criticizing you for that s**tty terms of service. But just so you know, I'm going to criticize you yet again today.

What the f**k is wrong with you?!? Last night, you updated your Terms and Conditions, and I have beef with your 2. WIRELESS DATA SERVICE TERMS AND CONDITIONS chapter, I. 8. Prohibited and Permissible Use section, to effectively disallow "downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, customer initiated redirection of television or other video or audio signals via any technology from a fixed location to a mobile device, web broadcasting, and... any applications that tether the device... to Personal Computers or other equipment."

Seriously, no tethering, even if I don't use more bandwidth than I would otherwise normally use natively on my N95 smartphone?

Seriously, I can't install applications, such as Google Maps or Skype, since these applications are software that "maintain continuous active Internet connections" whenever I'm driving around or VoIP'ing?

Seriously, I can't set up my N95 smartphone's email client to stay connected all the time and check my email every minute?

Seriously, I can't use my N95 smartphone to take a picture, and instantly upload the picture using my "unlimited data plan" to Facebook via Mobile Uploader, or the Flickr application, because "applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts" are strictly prohibited?

What the f**k?!?

I love you, but I truly hate you. Really. But I'm going to continue using my N95 as I have always, and if you cut me off, I'll see you in court!

What a Shitty Weekend...

2009-03-30T02:46:00.002-05:00

Don't get me wrong. The fact that I ran a rather decent race in the Shamrock Shuffle 8K race in a nasty, cold and slushy winter storm had nothing to do with my God awful weekend. And neither did the fact that I lost my company pager during the race contribute to my shitty weekend. In fact, the race in the increment weather was probably one of the few highlights of my weekend!

It all started on Friday. There is this one person, who we shall simply call AM, who I consider a friend. More so as an acquaintance than a friend, but if asked to join her for beer, I wouldn't turn her down. Anyway, AM learned of an alumni reception event that I was attending from a mutual friend who I invited. So on Friday, AM invited herself by asking if she could tag along.

Despite having RSVP'ed already, I had to go through a couple hassles to add AM to the guest list. I figured, why not? The more the merrier. Now, mind you, I have never attended one of these alumni receptions before, so I was nervous and excited. If you know me well, you will know that I have had no qualms about attending events on my own. But this was so exciting that I actually asked a friend to tag along. Plus another one who self-invited.

Come Saturday. The event started at 17:00. My friend and I were already there by 17:15. But guess who decided to show up a quarter till 19:00? AM. This alone was not a problem whatsoever, but the problem is this. She came upstairs, sat at our table, and the first thing out of her mouth was: "The Pitt game starts at 19:00."

And so it began...

In the five minutes she was up there at the reception, she would not stop talking about the game, and wanting to get real food at the bar downstairs, despite the facts that there was plenty of munchable appetizers that were a couple cuts above other receptions, and her mentioning this when the Vice President of University Advancement who was the host of the reception was standing near our table. Worse, AM kept on talking about not wanting to miss the game, but end every statement of her wishes with, "But no rush, John."

What the f**k?!? Here was a guest, who showed up nearly two hours after the reception started, who didn't even attend Missouri State University, who invited herself without being asked, who had the audacity to enter her name in the door prize, started acting like an immature girl! Worse, AM attended neither Pittsburgh nor Villanova.

AM was so annoying, who by the way is 30 years old, that I simply told her that she should go downstairs and I would join her later. This, after trying to appease her by having the bartender turn on the TV so that the game could be viewed, followed by, "But this isn't basketball atmosphere" from her.

Oh man, what a bitch! An immature one at that, too. And sadly, this wasn't the first time AM pulled an immature act on me either.

Fast forward to Sunday. After running the wet and cold Shamrock Shuffle 8K, a few of us went to Fireside Inn for lunch. Everything was hunky dorey, and when we were done, I gave two of my friends a ride to their homes. First stop, AE.

Oh, let me interject here with a quick side note from when I picked up AE to lunch. I had asked which way to turn when we got to the end of her street, and her delayed response was, "Oh, turn right. Sorry, I'm not very good at giving timely directions." End side note.

Not knowing her neighborhood well, and she had been joking about how she only lived "a couple blocks" away from the restaurant, I kept on asking for directions on which way to go. AE started talking about "Clark-y" when we turned onto Ashland, because she thought it was Clark. She told me to cut over whenever, and I did, while she continued talking. But she neglected to tell me to turn on Clark.

Thinking that she only lived "a couple blocks" away, I thought it wouldn't hurt to go on down the side street, and turn into the alley and drive the "couple blocks" to her street. When I got through the first alley, and began to turn into the second alley, she yelled at me with, "What are you doing?!?"

Mind you, during this whole time, she did not give me any directions as to which way to turn. Turned out, now that I've looked at Google Maps, we were nine blocks away from her street!

So, after lunch, without asking, my friends got in my car, assuming I would give them a ride home. True, I was happy to do so without being asked. But I did not need to be yelled at when I was lost. Worse, after explaining that I wanted to go through the second alley to get to her street in the next block (which was really nine blocks away), she kept on yelling at me with nonsense such as, "Why did you want to turn that way," and "Well, that's not the way to go to my place." Instead of yelling, maybe she should've given me directions?

What really pissed me off was that we were driving in a car. In her neighborhood. If we had turned the wrong way, what's the worst that could happen? Take an extra 23 seconds and 0.05 miles out of my way to get to her house, right? Did it warrant the yelling, and the continued badgering like a grumpy mother who is never satisfied with her children's accomplishments of an A- grade point average?

Seriously, it was a shitty weekend. Shitty, shitty, shitty.

But I did 44:44 in the 8K race, which netted an average of 8:59 pace. Not bad after being sick and injured, and not running for a while now. At least that, I'm happy about, despite not being anywhere close to last year's 39:01 finish.

Let's hope this new week gets better.

You Think You Can Dance?

2009-03-21T15:46:00.000-05:00

Well, judging by the video, I don't know if Anna Kasprzak can dance or not, given the incomplete video. But one thing's for sure though: She definitely can't measure her sense of depth perception. Ouch...

I'm surprised that the producers of American Idol have not followed suit with such a stage design, what with the pit and all. You would think that the pit would be a great defense system against angry contestants who choose to storm towards Simon Cowell...

Robert's Rules of Order Neglected This...

2009-03-21T15:12:00.004-05:00

Not too long ago, I wrote about a close encounter of the gassy kind with my boss, and how I was utterly unprepared of the rules of conduct in such a situation. I mean, Emily Post left this one out of the books, I think.

Well... Apparently, city council members of Medina, Ohio, had a similar situation. Almost, that is. Whereas my encounter was all in private, their encounter was in public. What does Robert's Rules of Order state when someone farts in a meeting?

Click here for the news article. Below is the video recording of the council session.

So what does that say about Ohio, a former fattest state in the union? Tee hee...

A Reason Why I Hate Apple

2009-03-12T17:23:00.000-05:00

When the car was invented, one of the first interfaces between man and machine was the steering device. The original cars came with tillers, but it was quickly replaced by a steering wheel. This basic method of interface revolutionized the entire automotive industry.

Imagine if the very simple steering wheel was patented. Or worse yet, the whole concept of an adjustable direction wheels in a vehicle was patented. If that had happened, there won't be as many automotive manufacturers out there today as there are, simply because someone patented those and hampered innovation. But the means of achieving automotive steering has always been patented, such as worm and sector, recirculating ball, rack and pinion, and variable rack and pinion. In fact, if either the steering wheel or the whole concept of adjustable direction wheels were patented, all these innovative ways of doing the same thing will never come to fruition, and we will be so far behind the technological curve as it stands today.

Now, think of that analogy, and apply that to Apple's interim CEO Tim Cook and his recent hint towards possibly suing companies that produce multi-touch screens. In my point of view, that is akin to patenting the steering wheel, or the whole adjustable direction wheel concept.

Seriously? Yes, Apple can patent, as they did, how the multi-touch works, and its approach. But simply calling other companies who happened to have multi-touch behavior a rip-off? That's going slightly too far. I am pretty sure that the Palm Pre has totally different ways of achieving human-machine interaction with its multi-touch screen than Apple's iPhone, despite having the very basic conceptual idea. The same is probably true with Samsung's TouchWiz system.

I think the whole idea of calling others ripping off Apple's multi-touch system is completely out of line. If they truly believe that, then the first company who came up with gestures should sue Apple for stealing that idea. If that were the case, I'm sure Apple will fight back with something like, "Well, the logic and magic behind how it translates from physical to system interaction movement is totally different." And that would be acceptable, and Apple can rest easy.

In my analogy, the multi-touch input is the steering wheel input. The different mechanisms that allow the multi-touch in the iPhone is the underlying software, and its counterpart in the analogy is the different steering mechanisms such as the worm and sector, recirculating ball, rack and pinion, and variable rack and pinion steering methods.

Bottom line? Apple's got to stop being a greedy little bitch and stop making all these outlandish threats. If they decide to sue others for emulating multi-touch interface, albeit in different methodologies as Apple's, then I sure hope that this silly pursuit of greed will bankrupt their tight asses. (The tight asses reference will be discussed more later with another reason why I hate Apple blog entry.)

And thus my one reason why I hate Apple.

Both Emily and HR Neglected This...

2009-02-16T16:39:00.002-06:00

I don't proclaim to know everything that Emily Post had written, but I can say with 90 percent certainty that Emily Post failed to mention how to handle one particular scenario for which I desperately needed to know earlier today. And I know with a 100 percent certainty that the employee handbook didn't cover this either...

What do you do when you are greeted with a foul smelling air lingering in the restroom when all you needed to do was tingle; and while you make audible gagging sounds and hurry through your tingle, the toilet flushes in a stall and out comes someone you work with? And what do you do when you go to wash your hands and you realize it was your boss's turd aroma responsible for the stench, and he asks, "How's it going, John?" while he dries his hands with paper towels?

Do you make short little acknowledgments? Or do you try to carry a normal conversation pretending you're in his office? And do you keep eye contact at all, or focus on the lather on your hands? Or is it simply best to look at him through the mirror?

Help?

Who's the Wuss Now, Huh???

2009-02-16T15:53:00.001-06:00

2009 had been kind of strange for me so far. In a good way, that is. When I went in to renew my driver's license with the state of Illinois back in January, I thought long and hard about some of my life choices in the past while waiting in line. No, not my choice in sexual orientation, but something profoundly deeper.

For the longest time since being licensed by Pennsylvania, Missouri and Illinois, I had always left that little checkbox that read "organ donor" blank. My thought process was that if it was time for one to leave the world of the living, then it was time. Why should some doctor get to play a higher form of deity and take one of my organs to extend the life of another?

Well, suffice to say, I decided to check that "organ donor" box this past January. Change of heart? Possibly. I realized that playing a form of deity was not a problem of mine in this whole thing. I also realized that it was entirely selfish of me to take my healthy organs to the grave should I be lucky enough to become brain dead in some kind of a freak accident. (Preferably involving two hot naked chicks...)

In that same train of thought, I decided without hesitation to give blood when my company sent out an email informing us of an employee blood drive. The 10th of February is now forever sketched into my electronic calendar as the day I first gave blood for the very first time in my life.

The reading materials warning me of the gazillion reasons why I may or may not be a suitable candidate as a blood donor? No big deal. The 369 questions (or so I thought) in the questionnaire regarding my history, such as if I had ever slept with a person who received or made payment for sexual favors? Believe it or not, I actually struggled with this questionnaire. I thought, what about one night stands, and I had worn protection? Was that any less critical than being in sexual cahoots with a "person who received or made payment for sexual acts?" LOL

Okay, so I wasn't really struggling with the questionnaire, but I did chuckle to myself with ethical minefields I was conjuring up in my wickedly twisted mind. After all that hustle, I finally sat in the waiting area for a free lawn chair that looked like the ones the American Red Cross had stolen from the poolside of some imitation swanky hotel pools. Except these came with the hooks to hang your blood bag with.

As an athlete, I am always subconsciously competitive with most trivial things. I had overheard the big guy who had already started giving blood that it wasn't his first time. Again, in my twisted mind, I created a little competition to see if I could give a pint of my blood close to the time this big guy got done.

Unfortunately, the competition quickly faded because suddenly all my manhood momentarily seeped away when the nurse took out this ginormous needle with a needle hole large enough to fit a Tic Tac! "This will only sting a little," was all I could hear before I thought I was going to pass out. Remember, I'm the kind of guy who enjoys watching the needle pierce my skin and muscles. Like I said, I'm kind of twisted.

Thankfully, the sting was indeed little, even though it lasted a good second too long. And before long, I was focusing back on the competition. I don't remember how many times I must've done this, but I turned my head to look at the big man in the eyes, followed by looking deeply into his pint bag. If only I could see what he was thinking every time I did that. But soon enough, my pint bag was bursting in the seams before the big guy gave a pint. Ding Ding! I had won. In fact, I even had enough time to get the nurse to take pictures of me before the big guy finished.

As I proudly walked over to the snack table, I read over the list of things to do or not do in the five hours after giving blood. I sat down to chug two boxes of apple juice, and that's when the big guy came over. He drank some orange juice, and we both snacked away. The guy kept on sitting there, eating slowly, and taking his sweet ass time. I thought I could copy that, because what can possibly be better than to waste productivity on company initiatives, especially when free food was involved?

But before long, the moral person in me whispered in my ears, "Get your ass going! You have a couple things you have to do before you leave for work!" So I did. As I left, I snickered to myself thinking of the big guy still sitting there snacking away slowly, What a wuss! Big giant guy can't take it like a man for just a pint of blood?

Of course, after walking back hurriedly to my desk, I started feeling dizzy and wobbly. Turned out that yeah, you really need to take your time to recover after giving blood. So who was the wuss now?

Damn!

Hello, 2009!

2009-02-16T15:01:00.001-06:00

It sure has been a long time since I last updated my blog, hasn't it? To be accurate, it has been 225 days and some change since I last updated my blog. I guess it is a good thing that I am unlike most other bloggers who tried to bank on blogosphere, eh?

Admittedly, my last entry was somewhat boring in nature. I was taking a little break to go to the west coast to see my new niece and family, and since my dad had passed my blog address out, I thought it would be fitting to update family members new to my blog with a ~~diary~~ journal of sorts to highlight my father-and-son trip up and down the western seaboard.

So why did I stop writing in the midst of the trip? Well, you should know that the whole journaling during the trip was all done retroactively. So by the time I wasn't on the train anymore, I stopped writing. I mean, if you're in Seattle, would you rather go out and have fun, or stay in and write? =) As you can tell, being cooped up in a train car for days on end without much mobility really made a dent on my humorous writing. Okay, maybe I wasn't humorous, but it sure got less humorous right after I started the train ride.

By the time I got back to Chicago, I had to catch up with so many things. The most important of all, which is in the order of livelihood, not personal passion ruler, was work. August 17, 2008 was the date for which all the hard work I had been putting in ever since starting at the hospital hinged on: Go-live date. And of course, once we successfully went live on IBM servers, it was a bit of hell to take on full responsibilities for the daily operations, when pressure type changed from ensuring project progress toward maintenance so that the systems don't go down.

Next up: The 2008 Chicago Marathon training. Seeing how I had missed the first, fourth and fifth week of the marathon training for being out of town, I thought it would be best that I finally get into the thick of things. I mean, that was my first ever to volunteer as a group leader for CARA, and I had close to 30 runners I'm responsible for. And naturally, as the weeks go by, the higher the mileage of the runs. So more running meant less personal time. This in turn meant no time to blog for me.

Of course, you can ask me why I didn't get back into it once I have completed the Chicago Marathon. Well... I went and ran the Seattle Marathon afterwards, followed by falling almost deadly ill for three weeks straight. Since then, I have yet to stop my lazy ass from becoming a total couch potato.

But no more of that! It took seven weeks of 2009 for me to finally realize that I got to get my lardy ass and second-trimester belly with A-cup manboops in some sort of a shape and get back into my normal routines.

Ta-dah! Here I am! (Only because blogging is hell of a lot easier than running...)

Disclaimer: Despite declaring my return to normal routines in such a transparent media, I sure as hell am not guaranteeing that I'll eat my own boxers if I fail to update this blog as often as when I was traveling for work. =)

Day 2 of West Coast Trip (Part A)

2008-07-05T20:13:00.001-05:00

"It's cold in here!"

I slowly roused up, only to find that my cellular phone read 05:55. As I was sleeping on the top bunk with only a foot and a quarter of space to the ceiling, I slowly flipped myself around so as to avoid bumping my shoulder or hip on the ceiling and causing some unforeseen severe internal bleeding. When I successfully turned my torso to face the cabin instead of the wall, I hung my head over my bed to find my father wide awake with one of the curtains open. I asked, "What?"

"It's really cold!"

"You woke me up just to tell me that?"

"I think we're in the mountains."

Still in disbelief that my father actually woke me up to tell me it's cold, especially when his second blanket was tossed aside, I sheepishly responded, "If it's cold, why don't you cover yourself with the second blanket?" Then I tried to return to sleep. But then curiosity got the better of me. And of course, it didn't help with the curtains open either. So I fired up Google Maps on my Nokia N95. Within seconds, I got a triangulated fix on my location on the map, and surely enough, we were passing through Mt. Shasta, a little bit south of the California and Oregon border. I dipped my head to look out the window, and I saw a beautiful creek with snow-covered rocks. But like a groundhog, the sight disappeared behind the trees by the time you turned on the camera.

And of course, when you thought it was impossible, the scenic view of the creek returns the moment you shut off the camera. Urgh!!!

I tired to go back to sleep again, and my dad mumbled something. I tossed and turned, and finally looked down and said, "You know what, since there are only two of us, I don't know why you're talking but I have to assume you're talking to me, and you're keeping me awake. I might as well wake up, even if I only had four hours of sleep."

After putzing around in the stateroom and getting it prepared so that it is habitable by sitting passengers, I finally got my father to change into regular clothes. But because the Dining car did not take reservations for breakfast, we walked down there to put our name of the waiting list. But it didn't take long for us to get seated anyway, so we found ourselves having breakfast with two lovely girls.

Knowing my father doesn't have any inclination towards French toast, cold cereal or omelets, I went with the safer route by ordering scrambled eggs. I knew he loves scrambled eggs and I definitely knew that I love scrambled eggs too. But with all that anticipation, we were quickly let down when I found out that the scrambled "eggs" were nothing more than powdered eggs mixed with water and left to steam. Yuck. And the weirdest part of all? The croissants had an round bottom that stuck out by about an eight of an inch, as if the chef had mistakenly baked them in some kind of a cupcake pan!!! At least the croissants were tasty.

Then for some odd reason, the girls and I began talking politics. This time, I wasn't really bashing Republicans. I simply mentioned that we should never trust conservative Republicans, as they are typically the most hypocritical of them all. And so thus began the whole political discussion. I noticed that in all of my conversations, I always tend to talk about human excrements, human anatomy, or politics. Weird... Thankfully, that political discussion ended quickly when we started going along the Upper Klamath Lake. We had overheard someone who rode this route several times mention that if you looked real hard, you might catch the Klamath Falls. But when I pulled up my Google Maps, I was quickly disappointed that we would not see Klamath Falls, because by the time that experienced Coast Starlight rider mentioned it a few yards away from us, we had already passed it.

Despite having a built-in shower in our stateroom, my father had long declared that he would not shower for two days, instead opting to shower by the time we get to our hotel in Seattle. I agreed with him yesterday morning when I saw how small the combination lavatory and shower was, but this morning, for one reason or another, I changed my mind. Maybe it was due lack of sleep, or sheer rebellion in me, I decided that the full Amtrak experience can only be had if I take a shower in this tiny two and a half feet by one foot square space. After all, we paid for this upgraded room, so why not use the amenities we paid for, right?

Let me keep this paragraph short. I had the hardest time taking a dump and a shower (not necessarily at the same time) in that tiny combination lavatory/shower. I can't imagine girls taking a shower and having to shave their legs, because the moment you bend down, you smash your head against either one of the three walls or the door. If you instinctively switched lifting your leg up instead, you would end up banging your knees. And add to all that complexity, you have to deal with holding the shower head, lathering yourself, and hold onto something to keep you from tipping over!

But in the end, yours truly prevailed. I stepped out of the lavatory feeling mostly refreshed, followed by a good teeth brushing. Ah... Now I was ready to tackle the Lounge car and take in the scenery. I saw Odell Lake, the rocks, then Lowell Lake right before getting to Eugene. My goodness, Lowell Lake is huge! And filled with party revelers. I saw many boaters out there having a good ol' time.

It didn't take long before it was lunch time. If I had known that the lunch and dinner menu would be the same every day, I would not have made lunch reservation at the Dining car. I tried to see if I can squeeze ourselves into the more upscale Lounge car dining, but we were promptly greeted with disappointment that it had been booked full already. So back to the Dining car we marched. I really did not want to eat another cold turkey with gravy, or another burger, since my father and I switched plates yesterday. So my father got the angus beef burger, while I got the yucky tuna salad. I'd much rather have yucky than a repeat.

Because the Coast Starlight was unusually on time, a fact I learned from all the crew members, the wine tasting event today would be started earlier, followed by similarly earlier dinner in anticipation of arriving in Seattle slightly early. But this time around, the company wasn't as great, and there was a self-proclaimed wine snob who clearly didn't know what he was talking about. Although he may be construed as annoying, at least he was flamboyantly gay and full of character. Believe it or not, he livened up the crowd. But before he could finish the second tasting of wine, he promptly ran off to the theatre room below to catch The Wizard of Oz. Again. Only because I knew he made a scene with the kids yesterday afternoon exclaiming how much he loved The Wizard of Oz and ran downstairs in similar fashion.

Unfortunately, not only was today's wine tasting not as fun in terms of company, but the wine selection was not as good either. I'm not quite sure why, but I suspect the fact that I was getting pours of half the glass, unlike yesterday when I had pours that filled almost to the brim, may have something to do with it. Regardless, I had the following wines... Hogue Cellars Chardonnay from Columbia Valley in Washington, bottled in 2006. This was one of the driest white wines I've ever had, and the sweetest Chardonnay too. I didn't like it. Next up was the Snoqualmie Whistle Stop Red 2006, also from Columbia Valley. It was a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and it tasted pretty decent. Unfortunately, it was way too fruity for my liking, especially when two of my favorite red wines are concerned. This was followed by yet another red, the Columbia Crest Shiraz Grand Estates, also from the state of Washington in the Columbia Valley. Now, this one I loved. I know Shiraz is one of my favorite types of wine, but even if I did not know it was a Shiraz, my taste buds would have told me that it was extremely agreeable. And I asked for "another" tasting, which Scott happily obliged.

Before we could conclude our wine tasting event, we pulled into the Portland station. At first I didn't think it was Portland, considering the grisly sight that welcomed us. Then I saw a junk car shop with a blazing sign that read "Portland Auto Repair Shop." Damn... I thought Portland was supposed to be this beautiful town much similar to Seattle. But I suppose I have to give the Board of Tourism kudos for doing a good job painting a picturesque view of the entire city. But one thing was for sure though... The light rail and bountiful bicycle paths were clearly visible throughout the city, even from the station all the way through the city as we pulled away.

Finally, the last wine was nothing to write home about. It was a Rieslings from Columbia Winery, located in Yakima Valley which is also located in the state of Washington. Again, like yesterday's Riesling , it was super sweet and didn't taste like wine. At least I didn't drink it like wine. I didn't finish that, instead opting to save the last flavor to stimulate my palate with the second glass of the Columbia Crest Shiraz Grand Estates. And mmm... I've been milking that baby out for the last hour and a half while sitting up here on the Lounge car writing this blog at this very moment.

I tried to get my father to come join me in enjoying the beautiful scenery touted by many as beautiful between Portland and Seattle, but unfortunately he fell asleep. So I thought it best to let him rest, despite having a momentary lapse in temptation to wake him up by proclaiming out of the blue, "Wow, it's cold in here." Instead, I am enjoying the view by myself. The weather for sure is much akin to Seattle, with constant gray haze overcast. That's not to say that this is the only kind of weather that prevails in Seattle or Portland, but more like the popular notion that many people hold in their mind as the only weather that exists.

Well, I must stop now, as it is only twenty minutes till our dinner reservation at the Lounge car dining room. Mmm... Scallops... At least I won't be having a repeat dinner like yesterday...

Day 1 of West Coast Trip (Part B)

2008-07-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

Uhm... Yeah... Wine ~~tasting~~ drinking. Yum... And that took up most of my afternoon. Who could possibly refuse to partake in ~~tasting~~ drinking two glasses of red wine and another two of white wine for five mere dollars? To top it all off, they threw in cheese and crackers!!! While in the Parlour car participating in the wine tasting, I sat across from a nice couple from Oregon. Kind of like hippies. But they were really nice and fun to talk with. Especially during wine tasting. I mean, drinking. There is absolutely nothing better than drinking wine with a has-been hippie couple while discussing politics. Lucky for all parties involved, we all bashed the conservative rights. We talked so much crap about the Republicans that some dude who was sitting next to us had to get up and leave. We didn't want to sit by Republicans anyway. ;-)

The wine tasting is interesting in the fact that the conductor selected specific wine from regions that the Coast Starlight passes through. Not only did we get to see the beautiful scenery of the California Coast, we also got to complement our visual sense of natural beauty with the taste of the land we saw. We started out with a glass of white from the Santa Barbara County, which was featured prominently in the movie Sideways. It is called the Taz Pnot Gris, bottled in 2006. For someone who generally doesn't like white wines, this was actually pretty good. Only because it carried strong hints of lemon, lime and other spices. The next one was the Estancia Pinot Noir from Pinnacles Ranches Monterey County. I didn't get a chance to hear the conductor slash wine enthusiast talk about the wine because I went back to my state room to check on my father who was taking a nap. But all I know is that it was bottled in 2006, and this type of wine is considered the "holy grail" of red wines, only because it is the hardest grape to grow. Although it carried a price tag of $25 per bottle, I didn't like how it had hints of cherry and flower.

Next up was the Greg Norman Petite Sirah from Paso Robles, again from California. No surprise here, considering the Coast Starlight only goes through three states: California, Oregon and Washington. And I don't suppose Oregon is exactly well-known for its wines. And I suspect that the second day of the journey will include wine from the state of Washington. Anyway, I have never liked any of the wines from Greg Norman the golfer's vineyard in the past, but I admit that this was one of the best Shiraz-type wines I've ever had. Maybe it's the grape, maybe it was the aromatic hints of blackberries that sweetened the wine. Nonetheless, it was good enough that I bought a whole bottle after wine tasting.

The final wine was a Riesling from Monterey County, called the Jekel Riesling bottled in 2006. I don't care if Riesling is the most popular white wine with phenomenal growing demand all over, I don't care so much for it. Riesling tastes too much like white grape juice with no alcohol, which often leads me into drinking too much of it too fast. And the inevitable would happen: getting smashed a good hour later. But this Riesling provided for the wine tasting was crappy anyway that I didn't bother to finish the glass. Instead, I opened the bottle of Greg Norman Petite Sirah instead. And fortunately, it was just in perfect timing as my dad woke up and joined me at the Parlour car, so I served him a glass. And I was able to pawn off the conversation with the hippies to my father while I go and take pictures.

Suddenly, all the good times had to come to an end. It was dinner time, and we had to go to the Diner car. With an opened bottle of wine in hand and a good buzz going on, we sat down salivating over the featured menu item: flat iron steak. I knew this meal would redeem Amtrak in my father's mind, considering after he disliked the turkey and gravy earlier in the day. And boy, was I right. The steak was good. The only issue I had was that my steak came out medium well when I had asked for medium. Our server promptly took care of the situation, although I secretly wished she would have left my half eaten steak on the table just so I have something to nibble on while I waited for another steak.

During dinner time, we went through Salinas, a city known as the agricultural capital of California. Any produce you see in your local grocery store, be it in Chicago, Kansas City, New York City or New Orleans, chances are you'll find at least five different vegetables that were produced at and shipped from Salinas, California. For miles and miles and miles, all we could see was acres upon acres of farm land with so many different kinds of vegetables. You name it, I probably can say I saw it. =)

Before long, nightfall came upon us. As the scenery began to dwindle into the dark, I decided to head to the lower level of the Parlour car to catch National Treasure on the big screen. I was thrilled to be in a tiny movie theatre in moving train. Half way through the movie, some kind came downstairs to exclaiming that we could see fireworks passing by. I tried to look, but it was futile, as the fireworks were mostly set off by individuals, and not quite exactly spectacular, especially when you see it once and within a second it disappears because the train was blowing by too fast. So I returned my concentration on the large forehead on Nicolas Cage's head and his expressionless large eyes of his. I honestly think he only has one expression, much like Tom Cruise. But nonetheless, the movie was still fun to watch.

With the movie nearly at its conclusion, we pulled into Emeryville, a station that serves Oakland and San Francisco. We could see tons of traffic along the road, as it was apparent that the big fireworks show must have just ended and everybody was trying to get out. Apparently the Emeryville station is in a nice part of town with many things to do, as the area was called the Jack London Square. Nice condos, lots of shopping, a variety of bars, and a hot singles scene. Too bad I'm old now. And furthermore, too bad I couldn't get off the train to have a pint.

After we caught the last three minutes of the movie, I retired to my stateroom, only to find out that I became a glorified secretary. My father wanted to me to transcribe a letter for him, and it took longer than his estimation of "just twenty minutes." When the transcribing was done, it was time to polish up the letter. But with my father's constant nagging and questioning whether or not I'm doing it right per his intentions, I grabbed the half full bottle of the Greg Norman Petite Sirah and headed out to the Parlour car.

When I got to the Parlour car, there was only a couple there finishing up their nightcaps. As I sat down with my drink, I let out a sigh of relief and relaxation, before I began tackling on my father's letter. An hour and a glass of wine later, I returned to the stateroom and gave my father the revised letter on my laptop. Before he even started reading it, he already began nagging me about my inability to write good business letters. I just ignored him, and soon enough, he realized that the letter was really good. I asked him what he thought, and he said, "Not bad." I asked again, saying "not bad is just that, not bad, but not good either; are you sure?" He chuckled and finally admitted that he really liked it. Of course, it was subject to fine tuning, because there were a few lost-in-translation moments, as I didn't quite understand his Chinese words.

Finally, I was able to go to bed. Tried as I may, I had to sleep through my dad's constant snoring. Funny how before we turned out the lights, my dad wanted to get a heads up from me to see how loud or often I snored. And I was the one who got woken up at two in the morning. Out of spite, I whipped out my Nokia N95 and recorded a good two minute audio clip of his wondrous sound of music.

You know, purely for the sake of archival or evidentiary purposes. =)

Day 1 of West Coast Trip (Part A)

2008-07-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

[This entry updated at the San Luis Obispo stop, where 3G service is available on the AT&T network...]

After just a few hours of sleep on Thursday night, the alarm clocks on both my cellular phones rang. It's time to get ready! Having lived in the United States for 12 years, I have experienced the Greyhound, modern airline and the all-Americana road trips. But in all those years, I have never had the experience of taking one of the oldest celebrated forms of transportation that started the Industrial Revolution: the railway. And here I am, in the Lounge car of the Coast Starlight, taking in the scenery of the wild west (or I'd like to think so), and enjoying such natural beauty.

The first piece of marvel we got to see was the Los Angeles Union Station. Although smaller than some of the other Union Stations I've ever visited such as the Kansas City or Chicago, it definitely was different. Instead of tall, arched ceilings with the familiar echoey (yes, I just made that word up) white noise, it is tall and angular made of wooden beams styled after the southwestern mission architecture. After boarding the Coast Starlight #14, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of inner Los Angeles, where beautiful worn houses were adored by neon-colored decorations, presumably left behind by rival gangs of Los Angeles. Ah, nothing beats such inner city gang scenery while enjoying the complimentary Champaign. Of course, I had to ask for the complimentary orange juice to turn it into a mimosa, but it was only fitting because it is still morning...

Otherwise, the scenery definitely picked itself up after we headed out west to Oxnard where we started turning north to go up the coast. For the longest time, we saw miles of beautiful beaches, all untainted by crowds the like of Santa Monica or Valentia beaches. As we choo-choo'ed alongside the Pacific Coast Highway, we saw numerous cliff-ends, fishing piers, and RV campgrounds filled with people who had driven there for the Fourth of July weekend.

But one thing I didn't like was the numerous off shore oil rigs out in the beautiful ocean. There was at least three you can see in the horizon, and they were never ending. For a good hour, you see an oil rig out there. And Dubya wants to allow more OCS in our seas? Hell no!!! Destroying picturesque scenery with such environmentally dangerous machines that will at best alleviate five cents per gallon (in today's demand) but won't be able to start producing any oil for 10 years, I think that is not the way to go.

Given that we had bought first class tickets in the Sleeper car, where our room included convertible beds, a sink and a combination shower/toilet, we had full access to the exclusive Parlour Lounge, where glass windows go from the side up to the ceiling, enabling us to have better view of the west coast along the way. We saw many agricultural fields, such as rice patties, cabbage fields, flower fields (now I know that the flowers I bought every Valentine's Day were probably shipped from California), orange groves, and cattle ranges. This is definitely the part of America that I never got to see, despite knowing they existed.

Then 12:30 arrived, with our lunch reservation at the Dining car. My father and I shared a table with a lovely couple named Ray and Tamara. Given the limited choice of food available to us in the inclusive meal, I had a tough time deciding what to order for Dad. I knew he wouldn't like the Tuna Salad sandwich, and probably the create-your-own burger was not as appetizing for an old-fashioned Chinese with distinctive palate, I thought maybe he would enjoy the traditional turkey and gravy over biscuits. But when it came, it was of the cold variety, not the warm type you and I are accustomed to in those dinky diners or during Thanksgiving dinners when economic times are down. My dad gladly ate my turkey burger instead. I guess when all foods are not appealing, there is at least one that is the least unappealing that will satiate the appetite.

After a good and lengthy chat with our lunch buddies, we decided to go lounge in the Lounge Car. We promptly passed the Tasmania country, where we spotted a coyote out in the fields. If you asked me, it looked like an oversized German Sheppard, or an oversized wolf. But as the conductor has worked this route for years on end, I kind of believed him. We also saw many abandoned oil rigs, like the ones you see in movies set in Texas.

Oh wait... It's almost 15:30, so it's about time for wine tasting. For $5, I get to enjoy the different kinds of wine found along the route from California to the state of Washington. So I better a break here from blogging, and really enjoy the scenery while getting lit. =)

I Pity The Girls

2008-07-02T23:59:00.000-05:00

Well, today had been a day like no other. After two weeks of grueling hell at work, I am finally embarking on a westward journey towards regaining my sanity Or at least that's the hope. With gifts in tow, I am finally getting to see my brand new niece, who was born on June 1. The week and a half ahead is going to be hectic and stressful, I'm sure. But it is definitely going to be a welcoming stress, unlike the stress induced by my workplace of late.

Because I was unable to secure any reasonable fared flight the day before Independence Day, I was forced into flying out tonight instead. So I'll be working remotely from Los Angeles tomorrow. So let's see how many times do I have to recharge my cellular battery during the whole course of the day. After the work day, I am hoping that I'll get to enjoy dinner with my parents, who had flown over to the United States to celebrate their first grandchild in their lives.

The fun begins on Friday morning, when I take my father on the Coast Starlight, an Amtrak train that links the entire western coast between Los Angeles and Seattle. Supposedly, it has been billed by most fanatical train travelers as one of the top 10 train routes in the world, mostly for its scenery. Really, the scenery is best when traveling southbound, but I heard from others that northbound is just as great. I suppose it has something to do with the time of day when the train passes certain parts of the coast.

After we arrive in Seattle late Saturday evening, we'll be relaxing at the Homewood Suites in downtown Seattle, an abode I have frequently rested my weary soul when I had my long term assignment earlier in my career. I'm not quite sure what Sunday morning will bring after a good night's rest, but I do know that I'll be taking my father to the Mariners' game on Sunday. As typical Asians that we are, I'm sure food will be a priority before the 13:00 game, as well as afterwards.

On Monday, we'll be taking a long car ride north to catch a ferry to Orcas Island. I have already reserved a few seats on the Orcas Express, which will take us on a whale watching tour. I'm hoping that we'll get to see much of the wildlife, and this is something I'm especially excited about, because I have not done this myself. Because the drive itself is going to be in the hours, the whole day will be spent on this little trip. But on the way back, I'm sure I'll stop by Facing East in Bellevue for some delicious, authentic Taiwanese food.

Before heading for the airport on Tuesday, I'm going to take my father on a short little hike towards the iconic Space Needle. If time permits, probably ride the Emerald City's claim to international fame, the aging monorail. And probably show him the fish market too. After all that fun, we'll be flying down to Las Vegas and checking in at the Bellagio.

Then Wednesday will just continue the travel madness with an bright and early trip to the Grand Canyon west rim, with a stop at the Hoover Dam, a past symbol of American prosperity and power, followed by a trip to the Skywalk. We'll also have a helicopter ride that will take us down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and take a boat ride up and down the Colorado River, before taking the bus back to the Bellagio. All that will take up the entire 11 hours of the day.

But it doesn't end there. We also have tickets to the Cirque du Soleil "O" show at 22:30 later that evening! Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? I just hope my father have the energy to do all that. As all good things must come to an end, we will flying back to Los Angeles the next day. This will definitely be a welcome reprieve, when I rejoin my sister and mother to coo at Savannah, my niece. Of course, like all Asian families, when things such as family get together become rare, we absolutely must have a family portrait taken. I can't wait to see the results of this.

So as I sit high above in the sky in a steel tube called the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, I'm thinking ahead of this trip. And here is the unusual part of my day; I apologize for the seven paragraph digression. In all of my travels in the past seven years, I have never ever gotten to the airport with ample time to spare. My time has always been a treasure, so I try to cut it close as much as possible so I don't spend too much time on the road and away from my friends or condo. Of course, the exception has always been when flying on international flights, and that is only because security procedures are different, and the boarding time is significantly longer than on domestic flights when planes are typically smaller.

I actually made it to Midway today with two hours to spare!

Well, don't start emailing me with words of congratulations or anything like that yet. I have to admit that the reason why I arrived early was definitely not by design or forethought. I honestly thought that my flight departs at 19:05. When I finally read my boarding pass, I realized that it was actually 19:50. Oops!

But the evening just got weirder. While waiting at the gate on a rocking chair beside a wall receptacle, a stunning woman walked past me. Of course, seeing stunning girls at airports is nothing new, but I think she is one of the tenants who bought a condo in my building. I wanted to stop her in her tracks and say hi, but I was on the cellular phone unfortunately.

And the final thing that's weird today? As I sit in the second row at the forward galley of the plane, I'm observing the party of four taking up the first row on both sides of the aisle ahead of me. It's a father, a son, and two younger daughters. The sad part is that each and every one of them, father included, had their own little gadget. Everybody has an iPod. Everybody has some kind of a portable gaming system. The boy's got the Playstation Personal, the middle girl's got the Nintendo DS, and the youngest one's got some hot pink gaming system, presumably a cheapo.

Anyway, the boy is always messing with the younger ones. And he is definitely a boy with no manners. He demands things from the flight attendant, and it bothers me slightly that she just sits there and take his crap in like a person of servitude. But what bothered me the most was when he got up to use the lavatory. Not even a full minute had passed before he emerges from it and returns to his seat without shutting the door, leaving us passengers in the front to enjoy a nice shit and piss stink in the air. At first I thought he only needed to check something, like young curious boys typically do. But when it was my turn to go use the lavatory, I was greeted with a big pool of stinky, yellow pee staring right back at me!

That dirty mofo not only failed to flush the toilet, but he obviously failed to wash his hands on top of shutting the door! And the dad is not slightly fazed by all this. I had to tap the boy in the shoulder to ask him to shut the door earlier!

And as he sits there, he continues to mess with his sister, like blocking the screen to her gaming system, or nudging her in the face, or sneezing into his hands and wiping the snot all over her, or something. And all I can think of is that he's smearing his sweaty, stinky penis juice all over his sisters!!! That is just not cool. I don't even want to know how they're like at home. Kind of reminded me of this kid who likes to dig his fingers into his ass through his pants and shove it into my face to make me gag when I was growing up. And the worst part of it all? I couldn't do anything about it because he was the son of my father's boss!

I hate disgusting boys... And so, I pity the girls...

How All Violent Crimes Should Conclude

2008-06-11T10:52:00.001-05:00

Jay Leno have claimed time after time that he loves stupid criminals. Well, I'm sure he'll chuckle about this, although probably not publicly.

There was a man who habitually enjoys robbing retail stores, by the name of Leonard Hudson. Unfortunately, his sweet life was snuffed out in an instant, cutting short his not-so-promising career in retail store heists.

Yesterday, Hudson robbed a fishing & bait store with a weapon (armed robbery) near 31st and Canal. As he was chased by employees, he ran down the street and jumped onto the huge expressway known as the Dan Ryan Expressway (the part of highway in Chicago where I-90 and I-94 temporarily converges). By some miracle, he was able to run across many lanes of this highway unscathed, to the median separating the south and north-bound sections.

At this particular section of the Dan Ryan Expressway, not only is the median just a concrete barrier, but it also opens up with two tracks for the CTA Red Line tracks. Well, Hudson scaled the concrete wall, and jumped onto the El tracks. Just like magic, or fate slowly catching up, the petty robber got hit and run over by a Red Line train.

Considering he was pronounced dead at the scene, it's pretty safe to assume that this repeat criminal won't be robbing stores and terrorizing business owners anymore. This happened so fast that even the police did not have a chance to respond to the call when the guy got killed! This is what I call karma at work.

This is how all violent crimes should end, with the perpetrator dead, without police involvement, without the victim involvement, and certainly without taxing our judicial system. Although it is still kind of sad that someone had to lose his life, but this is probably better for society at large. The only cost? A couple hours of inconvenience to the hundreds of law-abiding Chicago citizens stuck on the Red Line trains near the scene of the sweet justice.

If only all violent crimes conclude by solving itself out...

That's Thinking Forward

2008-06-11T10:18:00.001-05:00

Planning. At the place where I work, planning occurs everyday. Planning is a good thing. But sometimes, those who do the planning (obviously not yours truly) are just plain stupid. They plan for the obvious, and leave craters of holes everywhere. But let's not talk about work. Let's talk about Arizona.

Back in 2004's general election, Proposition 200 was approved by a majority of voters. Proposition 200 basically is law that spells out that when someone is registering to vote for the first time or in a different county, or merely casting a vote (if registered), he or she is required to provide specific documents of identification along with proof of citizenship. Seems harmless, doesn't it? Sounds like a good law for the voting system, doesn't it?

But what the hell do you do for those people who were born before birth certificates were issued? And those people who never left the country in their lifetime, which meant not having a passport? Well, that's exactly what happened to Shirley Preiss, of Surprise, AZ.

Shirley Preiss had been voting in every presidential election since 1932, and has never missed a single election. But this time around, she was stripped of her right to vote!!! The reasons? She was born in 1910, before birth certificates were issued as standard document. She never had a passport because she never left the country in her life. She no longer have a driver's license because of her inability to drive due to age. And to make matters worse, the school she attended as a young child no longer exist, so she couldn't get any kind of academic records.

Shirley Preiss is screwed!!!

Now, although this is a pretty freaking sad thing, consider what State Representative Russell Pearce (Republican), who was responsible for Proposition 200, had to say: "To get a movie, you have to prove who you are. To go rent a car, you have to prove who you are. That's part of life."

What the... Sure, leave it to the f*cking Republicans who hate the very idea of minority rights to enact laws so stringent that it leaves certain legit people out in the cold. If the Arizona governor cannot intervene in this matter, I wonder what will US Senator John McCain (Republican) has to say about this, considering he is the presumptive Republican nominee for this year's presidential election, representing the very Arizona state.

Have I told you how much I hate stupid people for planning without forethought? Yeah, I hate that very, very much.

A Legal Question

2008-06-10T16:10:00.007-05:00

So... A friend forwarded me an email wanting to know if the following falls within a certain legal framework:

"Is this statutory rape???"

I Like Bobbies, But Not Today

2008-06-07T15:13:00.001-05:00

Note: This blog was written on Sunday, June 1, 2008.

Sleep... It is one precious little thing that I can't seem to get enough of. Generally, it is the holy grail to which I seek on a daily basis. And when weekends come, I seek refuge from the tiredness of the workweek and steal some sought-after Z's by sleeping in. Like the shitty economy we're in, I try to gain ground on this whole sleep deficit on the weekends by sleeping in as much as possible.

But on this Sunday morning, I got woken up at freaking 0730 in the morning! No, it wasn't because I had forgotten to turn off the alarm clock. And no, it wasn't because I had a nightmare. And definitely no, I didn't have a hung over woman wake up next to me and hurriedly get dressed to bail out. What woke me up from my deep slumber were loud motorcycles revving up their engines. And cars honking. And lots of women cheering and hooting.

Repeatedly.

I looked out the window, and saw a bunch of women wearing pink walking by my building on the sidewalk. Thinking it would end soon, I tried to go back to sleep. But more motorcycles and more honking and more hollering continued. It was so loud that I simply couldn't go back to sleep.

I decided to get online, and guess what? Apparently the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer was happening. Great! I typically support events like this, especially when it is for a great cause, for because I love boobies too. I don't want anybody being forced into cutting such mammary wonders off to save their lives. So yeah, I support such causes.

But dammit! Not today! The damn booby walk woke me up. And it made me cranky. So for 2008, I'll claim to enjoy boobies for 364 days, with June 1st as the exception for the year...

Damn boobies...

A Letter to the High and Mighty

2008-06-05T13:38:00.001-05:00

"Seriously?"

"Yes, Seriously!"

Let's take a moment and go further back in time. I woke up later than usual this morning, and I had to go to the gym before going to work. As usual for situations like this, I would browse through my BlackBerry on Nokia to see what's on the docket for the day, and ensure that I have the flexibility to work out and shower. If not, I'd just shower and go straight to work. But this morning, I was all clear.

Throughout my workout, I constantly kept an eye out at my BlackBerry on Nokia, checking it routinely to ensure no new meetings pop up for the day. Everything was fine, so I went to the locker room and showered. As soon as I got out of the shower, as luck would have it, my cell phone and pager rang off the hook! Apparently, the vendor had set up a conference call, and I was a critical person for the call, and the vendor forgot to add me into the invitee list. Great...

As I stood in front of my locker buck naked, another fellow gym user came in from his workout. His locker happened to be next to mine. I paid him little attention, other than to get out of his way so as to provide more room for him, and started dialing into the conference call on my cellular phone's speakerphone.

As the call progressed, I continued to dry myself and put my clothes on. And finally, when I was doing my hair, the last thing of my getting ready for work, the aforementioned guy (henceforth to be called The High and Mighty) returned from the shower and started getting dressed next to me. Throughout the entire time, The High and Mighty kept on giving me the eye, and like a spoiled rotten girl throwing a temper tantrum, did things loudly while using his locker.

When The High and Mighty got dressed and prepared to leave, he slammed his locker as hard as he could, then finally opened his lips to say condescendingly, "Seriously? Speakerphone in a locker room?"

I knew it wasn't the best etiquette I've displayed, but considering the situation, I had no choice. So I responded, "Seriously, yeah. When you get paged for an emergency, I'm sorry. What else should I do?"

The High and Mighty shot back, all the while walking away from me, "You could've gone downstairs."

Just then, I had to unmute the call and respond to some of the discussions, so The High and Mighty left the locker room. But I was nearly done with my routine, so I hurriedly responded to the discussion, muted the call, and then put on my coat jacket. I tried to catch up with The High and Mighty, who was about 15 yards ahead of me, but he had his iPod on. He would look back at me once in a while, but not want to continue the discussion. And judging from the way he was dressed and the heavy backpack filled with leather bound books that he carried, I assumed that he was probably a law student at Northwestern University.

When he stepped out of the gym, The High and Mighty turned east. Alas, my work is westward. So in the interest of getting to work in a timely manner, I gave up on him. Hence this letter to The High and Mighty now.

Dear High and Mighty,

My many apologies for my social faux pas at the locker room. I want you to understand that I normally and typically would frown on people who carry on a phone conversation (or conference call) in the middle of a locker room as well. I knew it wasn't right, and my sincerest apologies.

But mothereffer, what bothered me was the fact that you saw me buck naked, and you heard and saw my phone and pager going off, to which I was frantically trying to respond to. Please don't flatter yourself into thinking that I like to show off my personal package instead of prioritizing putting on my underwear first.

When you returned from your shower, you saw me half naked, but you also clearly saw my badge that clearly stated that I work for a hospital. You of all people know that a majority of the patrons at this gym are employees of this hospital: doctors, nurses and technical staff like myself. It is not like their badges (and pagers) are always hidden from view when entering or leaving the gym. Northwestern University law students come in at a distant second when it comes to patron demographics. You knew that. It was in your gym discount orientation package. In fact, the entire make up of the patrons at our gym are affiliated with either the hospital or your school!

Here's the thing. You have every right to feel offended that I was on a conference call on speakerphone, but seriously, do you have to behave like a little pussy ass girl with a temper tantrum? I gave an honest response, asking what I should've done if I got paged into an emergency. Your response was ill thought out, and without any forethought. How can you expect me to just "go downstairs" when you clearly saw me get paged while I was buck naked and all wet? Your response was so f*cking dumb that I wonder how much your precious daddy had to donate to the school for you to get in.

I know the odds of getting paged in an emergency just as I have stepped out of the shower are pretty slim in the future. But I do know that the odds of this happening to someone in a professional walk of life are higher. So I hope that you will write a project plan on how to deal with this situation when you, The High and Mighty, have become a professional yourself (assuming you graduate some day) and encounter the very same dilemma as I had today. If you can make a better decision and act better than I have given the situation, please do share this with the world. Obviously, just "going downstairs" buck naked cannot be considered a good action plan, because it would involve having the risk of getting arrested for indecent public exposure.

So seriously, I am very interested in how The High and Mighty can act better in this situation.

Sincerely,

John.

PS: I am also sorry that your penis is smaller than mine.

PPS: I hope that when you get old and fat (should you develop some kind of a health problem) that you'll suffer a massive coronary heart attack while your doctor (or the ER doctor) is buck naked in his gym shower, and that he will take his sweet ass time to get dressed and "go downstairs" to respond to his/her nurse's emergency page regarding your health because he/she believed that proper etiquette trumps emergencies.

The Miniature Earth...

2008-05-29T23:28:00.000-05:00

The Trouble With Sandals

2008-05-20T14:53:00.001-05:00

For as long as I can remember, I have always been a socks and shoes kind of a guy. The thought of wearing a pair of shoes without socks? I'd rather eat your grandmothers lacy panties than ever entertaining the thought of wearing a pair of trainers or dress shoes without socks. And it is for this very reason why I have for the longest time in my life avoided wearing sandals, or any kind of footwear that involves open feet.

Well, I do have to say that there was a brief moment in my early adult life that I actually wore a special kind of sandals, which was all strappy; one that had multiple straps that go over your foot from either side. Nothing got in the way between my toes. But even then, and my friends from that era of my life can fully attest, I still opted to wear socks along with that strappy sandal. Thank God I was nowhere near the fashion police. Was it fear of my feet getting exposed to the elements, like say, air? I don't know. Was it my desire to keep my feet nice and smooth to the touch, so that there aren't huge calluses built up on top of the sports calluses I had already built up in high school varsity basketball years? Not sure either.

But in either case, I have always avoided sandals. A hot August day in extreme humid Chicago? Socks and shoes. A stroll down the beach in Florida with my friends while vacationing in the summertime? Socks and shoes.

Until...

Well, some time near the end of last year, a friend and I were strolling through a running expo when we encountered a booth run by Crocs. Unlike myself, I'm sure most of you have heard of and bought Crocs years ago before they became a fad among teens and mothers unwilling to let go of their yuppie youth. Much like how I joined MySpace and Facebook only after they were no longer the in thing to do.

Anyway, I finally gave a pair of Crocs sandals a shot, and oh my gosh!!! They were scooshy and comfortable. They were nothing like the sandals I have ever owned as a kid, or the one and only kind I had in my young adulthood. Despite its exorbitant sticker price, I bought a pair! Only to sit in my plastic bag for months on end...

But when the day finally came for me to wear my new Crocs sandals, I began loving it. By then, it was already winter, so my chance of wearing them were as frequent as giving your little kitties a bath. But for every moment when I had to wear them, such as going down to the laundry room, or a brisk walk here and there, they worked marvelously.

Of course, sometimes I forget things given the span of time. Until today. I knew after running my half marathon, my feet would want to do some sort of rest and relaxation. What better way to pamper my own feet after they had helped me accomplish what I did than by going through the travel day wearing the Crocs I had bought the previous Fall?

Everything was hunky dorey. The drive from Fredericksburg to Baltimore was comfortable. The ride from the airport rental car station to the airport terminal was not so much comfortable. As the shuttle turned a corner, a luggage tipped over towards me. As I would usually do as if I was wearing regular shoes, I used my feet to prop the luggage back up. Only problem now was that when the heavy luggage got on top of my feet, it crushed a couple toes. And boy, did it hurt!

But that alone wasn't the problem. After snaking through the dumbest bright idea TSA came up for BWI's security checkpoint, I decided to head to the restroom and rid myself of some liquid that I had held in for hours. There were about six urinals open, and a guy was already using urinal number two. So being the smart gentleman, I went to urinal number four so as to give him some space. You know, this is a silent code of conduct that every man knows in regards to urinals. But as soon as I began letting my stream go, an old man (which, by the way, I have nothing against old people; it was simply an observation) came up to the bank of urinals and picked urinal number five, which was right next to me. When of all other urinals, he could have still maintained his code of conduct without being next to me.

Urgh!!! I mean, that bothered me somewhat, but not nearly to the extent of what happened next. I don't understand this, as urinals typically have a drip lip at the bottom, but sometimes I have always wondered why there were so much pee on the floor despite the innovative urinal design. And this old bugger somehow managed to splash his pee all over the place! And being right next to me, guess where some of that splatter landed?

On my exposed right foot. Which happened to be wearing my Crocs sandals. Open... Feet...

My jaws dropped to the ground. I was in shock. I was in utter disgust. I have never for once splattered myself while using the urinal, but how the hell did this old fart manage to pee and splatter onto me? As I muttered a muffled "mothereffer" and shook my head, I was then reminded of a similar incident over a month ago when I wore the Crocs to a movie theatre.

God, I need to remember lessons like this. So yeah, the trouble with wearing sandals is that although they are comfortable as they expose your feet to the elements, they also expose your feet to the unwanted elements, such as other peoples' pee. Or if you wear them to a bar, other peoples' drinks. Or the hot drunk chick's puke, whom you've been bumping and grinding the last half hour. Of course, other than the pee incident, the other scenarios are simply conjectural in nature. But one cannot help but imagine...

So yeah, I'm not sure if wearing sandals really suit me anymore. Of all the benefits I get from wearing them, I think the thought of being peed on is quite a rather turn off. Not even if I got stung by a jellyfish, which would necessitate someone peeing on me.

So yeah, that's the trouble with sandals.

Fool Me Once, Shame On...

2008-03-30T23:50:00.001-05:00

What's that saying, that Dubya claims to have originated from both Tennessee and Texas?

Anyway, about a month ago, I was working late one evening. Around 19:00, I decided to pack up and leave. As it was a cold and wintry day, I decided to cut through the hospital on my way to my parking garage. The hospital, at least the Galter Pavilion part of it, locks down the door to the public at 19:00, I was hoping that the security guys didn't make their rounds on time.

That night, my hope yielded. As it was already 19:05, the doors were still unlocked. As I crossed the street from my building towards the Galter Pavilion, some black guy came up to me, steps before the revolving door. As I was about to brush him off, he started giving me a spiel about how he was a patient at the hospital, and that when he left near closing time, he realized that he had left his wallet at the doctor's office. He couldn't retrieve it, because the office had already closed, and that he was told by security that he would have to come back the next day. Then he proceeded to plead with me that without his wallet, there was no way for him to get home.

I thought to myself, what the hell. So I gave him five dollars, and proceeded to go on my way. For the most part, the story sounded legit, as the Galter Pavilion is an outpatient facility. And plus, he didn't really look like a bum. In fact, he didn't smell like one either.

Well, fast forward to this past week. As I was leaving work late again, I saw him out by the Galter Pavilion. As I crossed the street, he began to target me. I recognized him right away, and he did too a few seconds after he repeated his spiel. Then he walked away.

Damn right, bitch! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And I wasn't about to let this guy fool me twice, cos I would've raised hell and demanded a fucking refund! Now you know why I'm not always generous with strangers.