My Satelite Radio Saga V - The Finale (Yeah Right)

So after all the struggle with my satellite radio I STILL have to take it back. Don't get me wrong, I have no ill feelings for XM. In fact, you'd have to pry it out of my cold, dead fingers if only I can get a semi-decent signal. (Once again, I won't blame this on XM because it does say on their website that the antenna needs to be placed at "South facing window with a clear view to the sky.") As it stands, I get about 2 stations on a good morning and a few more stations in the afternoon, for some odd reasons reception always tend to get better towards the evening. On a cloudy/rainy day I can't get a complete sentence from ANY stations. So it's back to the store it goes. :(

And I found this on the XM website today:

Oh, NOW they came out with it. Okay, it's actually not available till December. Without this chitty job that I have right now, I am not sure how much time I'd spend listening to radio. It's going to cost $349.99 along with vehicle accessory kit, home accessory kit, rechargeable, integrated battery, headphones, remote controls, the whole kit and kabudo. I wonder how good the reception is going to be.

***
Countdown: 25 Days, 581 Hours

Respect For the Big Burly Black Man A/K/A J's Stepfather

So this guy at work, J, who allegedly will not be returning to work tomorrow, shared this little piece of information with us on Friday: his stepfather, who is a big burly black man according to him, said once that he is willing to be Bill Gate's bitch if only he'll give him some of his money.

My respond to that: I have a new found respect for your stepfather.

"Why?" J asked.

The reasons are very simple, apparently this said man knows what he wants and is willing to do what he needs (within legal limits**) to get what he wants, albeit the fact that it's only hypothetical. In the light that heterosexual males generally find the idea of two men being together utterly repulsive, a normally masculine man automatically gains bonus points for making such a statement. (Granted, whether he would follow through with it should the opportunity arise is still debatable.) So hurrah to J's stepfather, the man who knows what he wants!! :D

**Except in states where sodomy is still outlawed, but since I don't believe that the government should have a say in what goes on in the bedroom between two consensual adults REGARDLESS of their genders, sodomy is within the legal limits as far as I am concerned.

***
Countdown: 25 Days, 584 Hours

Hooters Restaurant

Hooters Shanghai, their first chain in China, is opened for business. They are planning to open eight stores in all, but are still testing waters currently. For some reasons, Hooters in China is just an amusing idea to me. I sure hope they can make it business-wise.

Information source: The Sacrament Bee (but I cannot find this particular article online, at least not in the free area)

***
Countdown: 25 Days, 586 Hours

Moans and Groans

After my moaning and groaning about my blog count not being updated, it mysteriously happened. Maybe not so mysteriously because I've also tried to re-arrange all the drafts, perhaps that has something to do with it.

I like blog-hopping. I used to do that a lot at work (we are allowed to use the internet when it's slow, thank you). I accidentally bummed into this blog and didn't get down the URL thinking that I wouldn't want to visit it again. Well, I do now. I wonder what's the odds of me finding it again. Now it had turned into a quest for this blog.

It's a blog about this girl living in NYC. The one entry I read she took the subway to go have dinner with her boyfriend, it was raining so she bought an umbrella, then they went to the restuarant and saw this woman at the next table drinking from a boot size mug and getting wasted. She even anlyzed how much the tab was at the end. Any one? Any one? :D Maybe one day I'll accidentally bum into it again. :(

***
Countdown: 25 Days, 592 Hours

My Fortune Cookie

Today my fortune cookie says:

Your love life will be happy and harmonious. :)

***
Countdown: 26 Days, 606 Hours

Chinese v. Relationships

Yesterday I was acutely reminded of why I don't have a lot of Chinese friends.

I made this new Chinese friend, A, at work. I haven't really comingled with Chinese Chinese (as opposed to Chinese Americans) since college, when I first returned to US. It was the whole mentality of congregating with my own kind. Why I stopped comingling with them is a long story that belongs in a different entry of its own. I didn't have the purest intention when I started hanging out with her -- I needed desperately to practice my Chinese language, especially Mandarin. When I took the oral exam for the linguist position, I scored higher in English than in Chinese. I'm not sure if that's pathetic or not.

Anyways, its not entirely unfun to hang out with A. I have picked up this new habit of asking people for their email address or chat nickname if we get along well, after all, I am working a temporary assignment and never know when I'll be let go with a phone call. Plus internet chat and/or emails are a lot less personal than, say, a phone number.

A said she doesn't have any chat programs installed on her home computer and here's the reason: her husband types really fast and she wants to make sure that he will not pursue an online relationship with some other girls.

Although I feel that a couple should have more faith in each other, I refrained from commenting on that.

Yesterday she discovered that we have a renter, which brought on a volley of questions:

"Do you rent to an individual or a family?"
"An individual."
"Male or female?"
"Male."
"Just a room?"
"A room and he shares the office with us."
"How much do you rent it for?"
"......"
"What's his nationality?"
"......"

I had NO idea what's the relevancy of the renter's gender and upon finding out the renter is a single male she said, "Your husband is okay with leaving you alone with him for months?"

I was speechless to that remark. Then she went on, "But you are not interested in Asian men, so nothing will happen between you two anyway."

I was too disgusted at the tasteless remarks that I didn't know how to begin explaining to her that a relationship in US, at least in my mind, is based on trust, not circumstances. If I want to cheat on my husband, there are certainly many more ways than the convenience of a single male renter. Same question can be asked of my husband, "How did I know for sure he didn't cheat on me when he was in port?" (Hubby said his buddies can be his witnesses. Ahahahaha. Have you ever known a male buddy who won't lie to cover up for another guy's track? Especially when it comes to cheating on their partners?) The answer is: I don't. It all comes down to either I trust him or I don't. I do not believe that a relationship can be without trust. And once the trust is gone, the relationship, in my opinion, is already over.

And I was, once again, acutely reminded that the tremendous, almost unpatchable cultural gap was why I stopped comingling with Chinese Chinese many years ago.

***
Countdown: 26 Days, 613 Hours

Half Way Point. Four Weeks Down. Four More To Go.

Two Days to Halloween (End of October)!!
Four Days to Presidential Election!!

Sutter Medical Group Rocks

I feel the need to advertisement today. Today is by far my happiest day since hubby has gone on deployment. Why? I had a doctor appointment. Why would that make it a good day, you might ask. Well let's see:

(1) I didn't have to wait two months from an appointment, which for some reason I got the previous few times I tried to go see a doctor.

(2) EVERYBODY, and again, I mean EVERYBODY -- the receptionist, the assistant, the doctor, the receptionist at the lab, AND the phlebotomist -- are extremely cheerful and friendly. And that doesn't happen very often.

(3) I didn't have to wait for two and a half hours at the waiting area before the doctor was available to see me. That, too, was a first. In fact, I was still filling out my medical history form when they called my name, "Just bring that with you and finish it up later"!!! Holy cow. I thought I was on a different planet.

(4) The doctor was friendly AND she LISTENS AND answers my questions!!! And none of the staff were condescending and stuff and make you feel like you are subhuman.

I used to work for UC Davis Medical Center and also went there as a patient. Oh boy. You didn't feel like you were going to see a doctor, you think you were there asking a loan shark to postpone the return date the way you were treated. So I must say: Sutter Medical Group Rocks!!!

***
28 Days, 673 Hours

From Bath Oil to Japanese Bathrooms

Many years ago I loved this Neutrogena Body Oil product. It's has a nice fragrance and makes your skin feels soft and smooth. Then I run into the problem of applying it. Check out the application instructions:

After a shower or bath while your skin is still damp, smooth on a few drops to help seal in moisture. Then treat yourself to a few pampering minutes while your body dries naturally, or simply pat dry with a towel. In the bath, add to water and soften your skin while you bathe.

Now, it's just too cold in the winter time to be standing there naked while applying this product on your body after a shower or bath. Adding it to the bath water seems to make a lot more sense, hence the next problem. Don't you still have to SOAP yourself after you sit in the tub of water (if you don't, EW!) hence washing all the oil away and defeating the original purpose.

A traditional Japanese bathroom (ofuro) seems to be the best alternative:



Notice that the shower head is OUTSIDE of the tub? In fact, the entire bathroom is the shower, there's drainage on the floor. Traditionally Japanese (or anyone who goes for the style, I guess) will sit on the stool (see picture) and do all the soaping and showering in that portion (using the bucket to wash themselves off at the end, why not the shower, I don't know. Traditon?) THEN soak in the bathtub. It's almost like a ritual. :) I'd DIE to have one of those bathrooms.

Lucky for me, the newer houses in US (at least in the Greater Sacramento area) is starting to follow that trend!! Separate bath and shower!! Though not as elaborate as the entire bathroom as a shower, but for all intents and purposes, they are identical, to me.



This one is a particularly pretty design in which the shower stall is not actually attached to the tub and that the two sinks are on each side of the stall. Majority of them look more like this:



You can't see the entire stall in the picture but you get the idea.

I can't WAIT till I get a house with this design. ^_^ Then I can get these pretty bath products from the Ofuro-bath website.

***
Countdown: 32 Days 758 Hours

Looking On the Bright Side

The plus side of hubby being gone:

(1) No body to nag me!! :D

(2) I can have Asian food every day every meal!! (Of course that last for about two weeks, then I resolved to stock piling TV dinners. I SO would not mind a chest freezer for that purposes. But where am I going to put it??)

(3) Pizza Hut Pizza!! No more compromising on Round Table!! (My fav is Pizza Hut (only one in Hong Kong) and his is God Father, so Round Table became the middle groud. Odd huh? AND they deliver to my house!!)

And the down side... let's not even go there... :(

***
Countdown: 33 Days, 778 Hours.

I Want My Pizza!! :((

Owing to my committment of keeping my blog clean and family-oriented (hahaha) I have refrained from using any inappropriate language to describe the situation. It's hard on a girl when she can't have the pizza of her choice on a Friday night.

Please look at my illustration underneath. (Can you just feel my desperation when I'll go through the hassle to draw a diagram to explain the situation?)



Here goes: Pizza Hut A won't deliver to North of Street A (and I live two blocks from street A) and Pizza Hut B won't deliever to East of Street B even though I am practically right OFF of Street B. I feel like Elaine in Seinfeld, perhaps they can deliver to the waiting SUV ON Street B... (Notice that my map is backward in the sense that South is UP. Leave it to a woman to draw a map...)

***
Correction: Pizza Hut A turned out to be a STEVE's Pizza that just took over an old number for Pizza Hut, but nonetheless still listed as Pizza Hut on Yahoo. Makes me feel better that I am not just out of the area of TWO Pizza Huts... Got to remember that it's a Steve's Pizza and STOP looking for it. :)

***
Countdown: 34 Days, 797 Hours.
Countdown at revision of blog: 33 Days, 784 Hours.

Three Weeks Down; FIve More To Go

My blog post counts are not updating. :~( I am bummed. :~(

My Satellite Radio Saga IV aka The Finale, I Hope

Was that XM receiver + tuner combo the end of my quest? No! Don't you WISH sometimes life could be that simple?

I brought the combo home. Hook it up. Thanks God (figuratively speaking again) the XM guys didn't give me any hassle for switching the service between devices. (Maybe there IS a God out there?) Then turned it on, and then what?

The tuner made this horrible hollow, windy echo noises the minute I turned it on like a cheap boombox WOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo. Even when I mute it. The instructions said I had to leave the receiver on for an hour or two to get all the stations. But I could not BEAR listening to that hollow echo for an hour or two so... you guessed it. It's back to Good Guys I go again.

Thanks God, again, I was able to exchange the boombox without too much ado. I am not sure how much I can handle this before snapping. So all in all, after 5 days, $199 for receiver + turner + $10 activation fee + $9.99 monthly subscription, I now can have satellite radio for work.

Have I mentioned that the quality is less than superb because my window faces West instead of South?

***
Countdown: 35 Days, 841 Hours.

The Twilight Zone Collection

When I was still a kid back in Hong Kong, there was only four TV channels. They belonged to two competing TV companies, each having a Chinese and an English channels. Needless to say, there are subtitles on the English channels. Twilight zone used to be played at 11 PM (2300 hours) on Sunday night and I'd always wait up to watch my Twilight Zone. :)

The only episode that I remember now is "Button." The reason I remembered it was because I told the story to a friend and she loved it and asked me to tell her more. But I could never come up with one that had a same impact.

After some researching, I finally bought The Twilight Zone Collection 1 today:

In case you are curious, this particular collection includes:

Volume 1:
Night of the Meek
The Invaders
Nothing in the Dark

Volume 2:
Time Enough at Last
The Monsters are DUe on Maple Street
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
The Odyssey of Flight 33

Volume 3:
Steel
A Game of Pool
Walking Distance
Kick the Can

Volume 4:
Mr. Dingle, the Strong
Two
A Passage for Trumpet
The Four of Us Are Dying

Volume 5:
Long Distance Call
I Sing the Body Electric
The Lonely
Probe 7 - Over and Out

Volume 6:
The Passersby
The Grave
Deaths-Head Revisited
The Last Rites of Jef Myrtlebank

Volume 7:
Perchance to Dream
The Hitch-Hiker
King Nine Will Not Return
Shadow Play

Volume 8:
Third from the Sun
The Shelter
To Serve Man
The Fugitive

Volume 9:
Nick of Time
The Prime Mover
It's a Good Life
The Mind and the Matter

If you are contemplating adding this to your collection. I suggest checking out your local Walmart first (not their online store). I bought this set for a whopping $44. It goes for an average of $78 anywhere else. But the one I sent to only has Collection 1. I am not sure if other ones will have the rest. So far there's 5 collection sets. The episodes are obviously NOT in any chronological orders, unfortunately. Some say Collection 1 through 3 arguably have all the good episodes. Seeing how I haven't even started watching the first episode, I really couldn't comment on that.

***
The name of the last episode reminded me of a joke this guy at work used to say:

"Mind over Matter" = "They don't mind and you don't matter." ^_^

***
35 Days, 841 Hours

My Satellite Radio Saga III aka Is This Ever Going To End?

I woke up and it was rainy and windy. Typical Sacramento winter weather. I've decided against lugging the heavy and bulky boombox to work with me even though I had already grew fond of it after playing with it for one night. And thus my quest continued.

I returned to Good Guys again after work, even though they had given me such wonderful customer services the first time. I remembered seeing this smaller set up there that might work for my purpose.

This time round the first JERK that helped me and knew utterly NOTHING about the product was NOT there. Thanks God (figuratively speaking)! Another guy was made to help me. Made because some guy that looked like Mr. KFC was standing by the door and immediately asked me what I need when I was trying to figure out whether to turn left or right upon entering the store.

Well, this second guy knew ever so slightly more than the first guy BUT he was listening to me.

This is the product I returned to look at, where Guy A (guy who helped me the OTHER day) said he thinks I can plug a headphone in. Note the think part. Have I mentioned that he kept telling me that he did not know the answer to my questions BUT he'd go ask someone else but never did? Instead he just stood there and sort of wait for me to, like, um, leave?

My question was whether I can plug a headphone in for work. He kept trying to explain the concept of a RCA cable and a boombox to me. He even kindly pointed out to me what a boombox looks like. I guess I should appreciate that fact that he didn't try to speak LOUDLY and SLOWLY to me like I can't understand English.

Except that my question was whether it can be connected to a boombox via RCA (Thanks God Robert at Best Buy has already prepped me on what RCA cable is. Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you.) He wasn't answering MY question of whether the product can do what I want it to do. I am not lugging a BOOMBOX to work. I might as well just go for the one I bought at Best Buy.

Then we discovered the Sirius receiver and tuner combo:

Which was half the size and weight of the XM Boombox that I purchased a day prior. Allow me to add that THIS was sitting there THE WHOLE TIME. Had Mr. I-don't-know-crap pointed it out to me the first time I was there, I would have saved much gas driving all over town.

Then, you guessed it. They are out of the tuner for Sirius and it would take them two weeks to get new order in. Mind you he wasn't particularly eager to offer trying to locate or order one for me. So I had to settle for the XM receiver and turner for XM instead:

The tuner for XM.

***
Countdown: 36 Days, 865 Hours.

My Satellite Radio Saga II aka The Finale

So instead of Circuit City I returned to Best Buy (the place with the blasting car stereo) because it is closer to my house. I was starting to grow tired of driving all over town pleading to spend my money at some store that does not understand the concept of customer service. I've made up my mind to actually WAIT till I get service this time. There was only one guy at the car stereo section, and he was patiently explaining some product to two other guys. So I waited. I finally grew impatient when I heard the customer started telling a story about HIS SON to the sales person. Was he blind? He simply COULDN'T see the line forming behind him? (I wasn't the only person waiting to ask questions.) The other guy and I closed in so the nutcase finally let the sales person go. *rolls eyes*

To my surprise, this sales person was HELPFUL, FRIENDLY, AND KNOWLEDGE. I was closed to TEARS for that kind of service. (I later heard that Fry's employees are on commission. I find that hard to believe judging by their sheer eagerness to please and make sales.) So I bought this brand new product from him:

And it was LOVELY. In addition to satellite radio, it can also receive FM/AM AND play CD. I hooked it up at home. Crystal clear sound quality and I was in love. The only downside? It's a bit on the bulky and heavy side...

***
The VERY helpful person is Robert at the Elk Grove Best Buy store at the car stereo section!!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

***
Countdown: 37 Days, 889 Hours.

The Beginning to the End

Hubby was in port for a few days and I got to speak to him on the phone. It was nice to hear his voice but it would be better if he's calling two weeks before coming home instead of two weeks after leaving home. It was hard to say goodbye to him again over the phone today. The next time I'd be able to hear from him is right before he comes home. It was like parting all over again. :( Looking on the bright side, today is the true beginning to the end.

***
We are one-third way there.

My Satelite Radio Saga

Man, some research/marketing company should be paying me for this entry. (Other than the usual "blah blah blah" at the beginning of the entry, that is. :)

So I got this stupid new temp job at a big title company. To make a long story short, the temp agency that I have been working for for years is getting progressively worse, espeically the Sacramento branch. The agency (employer) is treating us like shit. The client has all these strigent rules that make me feel like I'm working in a factory at some third world country. Why do I keep the job? Well, the hours are okay and the place is close to home. ^_^ Figure I'll just stay till I find something better, or when hubby returns, whichever comes first. :)

So, since it's a stupid, boring, and mindless job that actually let us listen to music (with headphones even) at work (I think they really do that to minimize talking and get the most of us, think factory), I figured if I get myself a satelite radio, the job will be more bearable. Hence the search began.

First stop: Fry's Electronic (4100 Northgate Blvd, Sacramento, CA)

Asked the guy to point me towards the direction of the satelite radio, he asked me, "Home or car one?" I said I thought they were the same. So he went on to explain to me about the home/car kit that's required to work with the receiver. I said I thought it was like a radio and it's portable. He gave me the what-a-stupid-woman smirk and said, "of course not, you'd need an antenna to receive the signal" and that perhaps I can "walk around with the antenna on my head." What an ass. Besides, both mounting stations and the receivers are in the same area, what difference does it make wether I was looking for the home or car setup? Regardless, I took a look and decided these folks here are useless for my purposes (who expects services at Fry's eh?), I left. Thinking that I can always get it elsewhere.

Second stop: Best Buy (9131 W Stockton Blvd, Elk Grove, CA)

They put the products right next to the car stereo which was blasting so loud that I couldn't even hear myself talk. I decided against screaming at the top of my lung at a sale rep to try to have my questions answered.

Third stop: Good Guys (7020 Stockton Blvd, Sacramento, CA)

A sales rep actually approached me as I walked into their car stereo section and offered to help. Unfortunately he knew almost nothing about the product and kept saying, "I'd ask someone else," but never did. The XM radio looked like I might be able to plug headphones in and make it work the way I wanted it to. Regardless, they don't have the mini home kit for the Sirius receiver so I was unable to give them my money.

Fourth stop: Back to Fry's Electronics (4100 Northgate Blvd, Sacramento, CA)

This time keeping in mind to avoid the butthead I encountered yesterday at the cellphones section, I head straight towards the products of desire. I grabbed the receiver AND the home kit, then found the guy(s) who looked like they worked at the right section and asked them my questions. They told me I won't be needing to install external antenna on the roof (they didn't look like the believe me, but that's what it says on the Sirius website. Guy also told me that I will NOT be able to put headphones in. I find it odd that you can hook it up to speakers but not headphones, but I was not about to spend $170 to find out.

So, two days and 3 stores later, I have yet to buy the product(s) that I want. Granted, $170 is not exactly a $70,000 home theater setup, but you'd think a store would care a bit more than that. They don't even need to convince me to buy the product(s), I was more than ready to make the purchase. All I need was to have a few questions answered!!

Tomorrow, stop #5: Circuit City (7272 55th St, Sacramento, CA). Hopefully I'll get some decent treatment as a customer and get to spend some of my hard earned cash.

***
38 Days, 913 Hours left.

I Dreamed a Dream

I had a weird dream the other night. It went like this:

Hubby bought a new house in West Sacramento (a city between Sacramento and Davis; Davis is between Sacramento and Vacaville; and Vacaville is between Sacramento and San Francisco. I hope that makes some sense to some of you. :). I was gone running around with the roommie J so I never even saw the house until we moved in. I asked hubby how big the house is, he said 2,500 sq ft -- a tad smaller than the 3,000 s.f. I originally wanted but it looked very spacious and bright and has two story. AND the previous owner left all the furnitures behind because she ran out of the time packing. So I was going around the house trying to decide what to keep and what to throw/give away. They are very nice furnitures too. I thought I'd keep the dining room set but get rid of the living room set, the couch just wasn't my taste. Then two guys came to buy car parts from hubby. I didn't realize they turned out to be my cousin and this guy, Barry, whom I went to junior college with. While Barry and hubby were discussing details about the transaction, my cousin and I went to look around the house. We discovered this room that was full of cradles. All the walls were lined with two rows of cradles and two more isles in the middle of the room. Think library except replace the bookshelves ith cradles. I had to walk sideway in order to get into the room then discovered that there were babies in each of them and they were all sleeping. I suspected the woman drugged them to put them to sleep. The best we could make out of was that she took the daycare money from all the parents then ditched, which was also why she couldn't move her furnitures with her (parents would get suspicious at empty house. Although on hindsight what she made off of daycaring can't cover the furnitures she left behind :). Hubby and I then went to the management (real state agent?) place to try to hunt down the previous owners before the parents show up to pick up the babies.

I never get to see the master bedroom. :(

Strange dream huh?

***
40 days, 941 hours left.

Two Weeks Down, Six More To Go

A Woman Needs a Man like...?

One of my many (few?) hobbies is to nab interest pictures from the internet - pretty ones, funny ones, cute ones. And I absolutely love to turn news article into pdf for keepsake. :D (Not everything I read, just some of them.) For the most part I just keep them on my harddrive. It's a collector's mentality -- it makes me happy just knowing that I can go back and look at them whenever, though I really do. I've lost an entire batch of pictures that I've spent days to download one time, and I am still sad over that. :~(

Here's one that I've nabbed from This Fish Needs a Bicycle:



Upon further research, I've learned this time term was coined by Irina Dunn , a distinguished Australian educator, journalist and politician, back in 1970 paraphrasing a philosopher "A man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle." (Source: The Fish and Bicycle Page) Hehehe, that would make a very good slogan for an atheist group. :) My roommate J was making fun of me that by having "atheist meet," we are turning atheism into an organized religion. I suppose it is in a sense, depending on how you look at it. But then again, by his definition, any gatherings can essentially be called a "religion": book club, knitting club, alchohol anonymous...

***
Countdown: 40 days, 962 hours

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

It's not until my returning from a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment to our 3 bedrooms 2 bath 1,500 sf house and have to unpack on my own did I realize how much crap we own. The double sided closet in the masterbedroom is clutters. I never understood why (probably because we try to park BOTH cars in the garage instead of using one spot for storage). Man, hubby has two boxes of random, miscellanous cables, a monitor that I am not sure whether it still works, AND a broken lamp in the closet!!! Anyway, I digressed.

After the moving scene came the job-hunting scene (still better than the dating scene, I guess), so I run into the same, 100-year old question again. You know one of those standard questions that they ask during an interview?

What are your weaknesses?

Many years ago, I've asked one of my "personal consultant" (someone who helped me with my hopeless people skill), and he told me that a standard answer is, "Oh, I am obssessive compulsive and I have to finish the job I started" or something to that effect.

I think it's stupid so I am thinking about trying a more creative and maybe even somewhat more honest approach this time around, "I dislike the lazy and the incompetent." (Truth be told, I hate the livings, but they don't need to know that. Hehehe.)

My new advisor Mike said the O-C approach is NOT the standard answer, and that the employers are really looking for something that can be addressed and resovled in the work environment.

Ugh, I think "stupidity" is an understatement in this situation. Now let's look at this question (my overanalyzing personality totally working overtime here):

Suppose I have a weakness (for the sake of the argument, cause I really don't have any. *ahem*) AND that I am conscious of it (obviously, how else can I tell them what it is?) AND this said weakness CAN be addressed in the work environment AND that I have worked many times before, why does this said weakness still exist?? Or do I just mysteriously HAVE a new weakness every time I go on a job hunt. Can these people be any more STUPIDER?

Someone, please, tell me WHY do they keep on asking this particular standard question at interviews? (Maybe I can continue to rant and rave about other standard questions and make a series out of this subject. ^_^)

***
46 Days, 1084 Hours.

Job Hunting

I tried to busy myself with job hunting and some house cleaning so I don't think about the husband obssessively. The whole job hunting process is short of depressing (I heard that a lot from others too, wonder why?). What I was doing in San Diego and absolutely loved doesn't pay remotely close to the same amount here in Sacramento. But I guess how can I expect to be paid what I deserve when I keep looking at jobs that I grossly over qualified for? I've asked the hubby multiple whether I can just stay home and be housewife, but the Asian greed for the big house, nice cars, and all amenities got the better side of me. I'm most likely going to work till 65 years old. Hahaha.

Check this out, I guess it can always be worse:



Photo credit: unable to locate. I nabbed it off a blog but lost the link. I apologize in advance if said blog owner happened to venture here.

***
47 days, 1128 hours.

One Week Down; Seven More to Go

Highway of Life

Frank and Ernst has got to be one of my favorite comic strips. I also enjoy Dilbert, Cathy, Foxtrot, and occasionally Baby Blues. This is one of my favorite Frank and Ernest strip:



It's sometimes how I feel when I think about my life with my husband after he quits (discharge from) the Navy. Sure, he'll no doubt be able to find himself a fairly decent job, but it will no longer be what we Chinese called a "golden rice bowl" (meaning: guaranteed job security). From now on he'll be entering the civilian world, and subject to recessions and layoffs and all the other goodies. Granted, it's his employment, not mine, but once you are married, our lives are no longer separable.

Thank you Bob Thaves for the extremely searchable database on the website so I was able to nab my favorite strip off of the site. :) Much appreciated.

***
Day 7, 1167 hours.

Tuesday, October 5th (for lack of a better title)

I've been itching to write lately but you know what the ironic thing is (other than life itself)? Now that I have all the time to write I have nothing to write about. :D My life consist of unpacking and cleaning and some job hunting. How sad. Just when I was getting back into the whole blogging thing.

I attended the Sacramento Atheist meetup today (technically speaking, yesterday). The experience was alright. Nobody made me feel overly unwelcomed, but nobody made me feel particularly welcomed either. Evidently a few guys among the group think that we should take the word "atheist" out of the group name to be "less confrontational." I mean, HUH? Does a knitting club take the word "knitting" out of its name? Or a book-reading club taking the words "book-reading" out of it? I thought the purpose of these meetup groups was so that like-minded individuals can meet each other. Merely living in the same general area is not exactly the same as "like-minded" is it? Doesn't that just defeat the initial purpose of this group? The last thing I want is to get into an argument with some fundamentalist over our "religious" believes during one of these what was once known as "atheist" meetup.

As for being "confrontational," I have a few comments on that. First of all, it's our name, if anyone is offended by the name, that's just too bad. After all, we are not going door to door preaching to people the value of being an athesit, are we? Do knitting club or a book-reaidng club change their names for fear of offending the sewing club or movie critique club? This is whole point was simply bizarre. I had, of course, voiced my opinion on that subject. I think that made me not so popular among some of those attended today. ^_^ Perhaps I should learn to be less opinionated, NOT!

I think I'll attend the next meeting too and see if more show up and if the conversation gets any better. If it's pretty much same as today, "Sacramento Child Free Meetup Group," here I come.

***
Day 6, 1199 hours

Artist III -- Glass Studio Borowski

Stanislaw, Pawel, and Wiktor Borowski. Here are some of their works:

Their artworks can be purchased at Art Glass by Gary Gallery.

World According to Americans/Texas/Bush

This is funny. I've came to find out (through my husband) that if I put links on instead of the pictures itself, less people will click on them. Or am I wrong?

So here goes (click on image to see larger picture):

World according to America:



World according to Texas:



Source: Jigsaw Lounge

World according to Bush:



***
Day 2, 1284 hours

My Religious Coworker -- III, The Confrontation and Resolution

So I had a bad week last week, well, bad second half of the week, seeing how my bad streak really didn't start till Wednesday. It's one of those small things -- I've overwritten a file that I need -- that started the streak. I was frustrated at myself, and every small things that happen after that annoyed me. I asked the nice IT guy to see if he can recover the file from the backup and generally running around in distress. When the kind hearted, Roman Catholic P asked me what was wrong, I was literally afraid to tell her about my bad day for fear that she'd pray for me again. I just knew at my state of mind I would have snapped if I hear about praying one more time. I thought she sensed my distance and was a little upset.

Thursday wasn't much better and neither was Friday, BUT the IT guy was able to recover the file for me on Friday so I was pretty happy. Then I made the mistake of telling P about my happiness and it came to an abrupt end with, "Oh good, I said a spacial prayer for you." And that was the last straw for me. I tried to explain nicely to her for the nth time I'm an atheist and I understand that it's the thought that counts but I don't see how saying a prayer helps anything. She said, "I know you don't believe, but can't I just share?" Um, NO! Do I share my view point on reglious constantly? No! I was so overwhelmed (by work) Friday that I wasn't able to come up with a good return to that. Truth be told, I was completely caught offguard. She hasn't prayed for me since our last talk and I was under the, apparently wrong, impression that she has finally gotten over it.

You see, this is why I hate Roman Catholics (the fundamentalists anyway). I'm cool with individuals having a religous belief and all that. More power to them. But certain branches are just more incline to forcing their believes on others, constantly. Each time she says, "I pray for you" it's NOT a nice guesture. It's rubbing in my face that "my religion is more correct than yours (or lack thereof)." But they don't perceive themselves as doing anything wrong. "Oh, I'm just saying a prayer for them, how could that be wrong." Well, let me tell you, it's nothing but obnoxious. I didn't make a point of telling her some 30 times that "there is no such thing as a God" since I started working there, do I? I have Muslim, Buddhist and Mormon friends, but they don't ever tried to force their religion on me. What is wrong with Catholics? (Maybe it makes you a bad Catholic if, God forbid, you'd forgot to preach one day.) Had I share my viewpoint on religion, I am most certain I'd be labelled an "anti-Christ." It's that self-perceived attitude of innocence that annoys me the most. Not the praying part. Pray all you want for me. In fact, I don't care if anyone observe any kind of religious rituals for me (unless, of course, when it involves human sacrifices, or other animal sacrifices). For all I care he/she can dance naked under the moon to some creatures, real or imaginery as long as they don't come back and tell me what they have done for me. Try lending money to a friend and remind him three times a day how nice you are to loan him money. Bet you anything you'd lose that friend really fast.

That conversation left me furiuos (Yeah, I'm a radical atheist. What can I say?) and with a throbbing headache. With two days left at work, I thought it's polite to withold making further comments on her behavior. But I was so angry that night I wasn't able to sleep, and I knew something had to be done. Otherwise, the very last thing I heard before leaving the company on Tuesday would be, "I'll pray for you." Which would infuriate me for the months to come.

I spent an entire weekend rehearsing what's the mildest way I can get my point across and first thing Monday morning, I said to her (after a nice short speech, imitating her Roman Catholic style of how nice a person she is, how much I enjoy her company etc. etc.), "I really need to ask you to not pray for me again, or at least not tell me anymore." She said she was cool with that and that she "apologizes if she offended me." Well, I was offended so I did not respond to that remark. Surely religious folks are always offended when you tell them their believes are wrong? Why shouldn't I be? I think she was still hurt a little by my comment but didn't I feel much better knowing that I won't hear another one of her "I prayed/will pray for you."

***
Day 2, 1287 hours.

Day 1, 1297 Hours

And thus the count down begins.

Day 1 is "uneventful," I guess you can call it. We finished packing ahead of schedule and had spared time to even go take a walk along the sea front. It was nice.

Hubby did something silly in the apartment manager's office. *Rolls eyes* I think I learned more about his quirks during this move than the three years we've been together. :D But nothing that I can handle. :)

I didn't even cry my eyeballs out after we've parted and here's why:

As soon as he took off, I got into my SUV and was about to head back North to good ol' Sacramento. I had to take the cat back (it's about eight hours drive) and she tends to act less crazy if I *don't* put her in a cage. I laid blanket nicely down on the passenger side floor and thought I could have her quarantined there for the trip back. WRONG! As soon as I saw hubby off, the cat figured out a way to got out of her designated location and started roaming the inside of the SUV "freely." I said "freely" because the SUV was SO packed there the only spaces left is the driver's side, her little cubby hole that I have created for her, and some on to two foot distance between the top of the boxes and the roof of the car on the passenger side just so that I could see the side mirror. Through the rearview mirror I could see, um, yes a box.

We've travelled with the cat running loose in the car a few times before (mainly back and forth from SD and Sac, this was her forth trip :) but we had two people. I never let her sat on the driver's side floor because it restricts my room for the gas and break and it makes me feel uncomfortable, and not to mention, very dangerous. Hubby let her to that since he could still drive comfortably with her there. I've told him multiple times to NOT encourage her to do that, or she'd think it's okay when it's I drive back to Sacramento. Well I was right, and have you ever known a man who listens? I am only glad it wasn't a kid-raising issue that we were dealing with here. :)

I tried to take the cat and shove her back in her cove but like those bad comedies that you've seen, I had, of course, forgot to close the driver's side door so she ran out from the other side when I shut the passenger side door. So all of a sudden I found myself chasing after my cat in front of my empty apartment. Boy did I think I was screwed. Luckily she was never a very adventurous cat and jumped back over the fence into our patio (thanks God we lived on first floor and the patio fence can be opened from the outside. I was able to get hold of her again.

I finally resorted to driving with her on my lap. The drive from San Diego to Irvine was short of dangerous. A few times I had to try to stop her from getting underneath me and the car swerved. It seriously crossed my mind if I would be able to drive back to Sacramento in one piece. It's funny how when one's life was at stake, all of a sudden crying over the separation with the hubby for seven weeks seemed very trivial. By the time I had a nice long "talk" with the cat and had her under control at Irvine (again, thanks God, else I would probably get into an accident when I pass over the mountains), I no longer feel sad. And the countdown thus began.

***
Correction: My calculation of 1297 hours was actually off by one hour. I forgot to take into consideration the daylight saving time, (kinda like how they've forgotten about the International Date Line in "Around the World in 80 Days" and how the kids who went bungee jumping off a building and forgot to take out the 13th floor that didn't exist) so the total should have been 1322 hours. The appropriate correction has been made to the countdown.