Kitty Buddha

After spending days contemplating about the email correspondence between Dr. D and I, I've arrived at the conclusion that those Buddhists had it all wronged. Let me explain to you what I mean by that.

Buddhism believes that, to the best of my knowledge, the ultimate goal in life (or many lives if you'd prefer) is to achieve enlightment and became a Buddha, thus escaping further reincarnations, which is said to be full of pain and suffering. Now I don't have a very clear picture on what exactly is it like to be in this Buddha state, but for as far as I could tell, it really doesn't sound all that appealing. (Granted, my opinion could change once I get there, if ever. But this will go back to my original point that what its like then is not comprehensable at our stage now. I can only speak for what I know and how I feel at this point in this life time.) What's the sense of working not just your entire life, but life after life after life, we are talking about a LONG time in a geological sense, or possibly longer, in order to achieve something that I didn't even care about?

So, for argument purposes, let's say the Buddhism viewpoint (of reincarnation) represent the truth of the universe. And that the goal is to "escape all pain and suffering (associated with being alive)," the best alternative is not to become a Buddha, but to reincarnate as a spoiled pet. Yes, I said pet. And by that I don't mean a fish, or a rat, or snake, which you'd have to keep in a cage. I am talking about more like a cat or a dog. Note, I said a spoiled one, obviously the life of an abused pet is not much to be aspired to.

Let me use my Kitty to illustrate to you why a spoiled pet's life is what we should aspire to be:

(1) Kitty is spoiled rotten; how many humans can say that about themselves? If I have kids, I would not spoil them remotely as much as I spoil my cat. Why? Because one day they'll have to go out into the real world, and survive out there.

(2) Take the life of a regular person, he/she will have to keep a job in order to pay for all the expenses incurred for the basic needs in life -- shelter, food, other amenities and comfort in life. Does Kitty has to worry about any of those? No! She takes everything I provide for her for granted. By the Buddhism viewpoint, I must have owned her lots from my previous life (lives)!

(3) Most humans, even the lucky of all lucky ones, will find themselves in occasions that they'd rather not be in. For instances, most individuals, as I understand, do not enjoy their work, or at least wish they could work less hours at times. People who actually enjoy what they do are a rarity, and even those, I'm sure, have parts of their jobs that they'll rather not have to deal with. Do you think Kitty had ever done anything against her wish? The most horrible thing that has happened to her was probably being picked up when she doesn't want to, for a few seconds before she struggled free. (Sure, she's fixed and deprived of the pleasure of intimacy, but Buddhism was never about advocating intimacy. Monks don't have intimacy; by the same token, nor do Buddhas, so we are really comparing oranges with oranges here. :)

(4) Demanding: Kitty wants to be fed; Kitty makes lots of noises. Kitty wants attention; Kitty makes lots of noises. Kitty wants to play; Kitty makes lots of noises. Eventually you'll have to choose being caving into her wishes, or going insane from her persistent meowings. (Did you know that cats are not naturally vocal? Pet cats acquired that ability to better boss around their owners. They've learned from experiences that owners reacts better to noises. Who do you think is the true boss in this house?

(5) Her life literally is consist only of eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep, play, eat sleep, play. How many of us would die for such a lifestyle?

Therefore, the Buddha state described in the scripture, in my humble opinion, must be very closed to that of my Kitty. I shall rename her Buddha from now on, if she feels like responding to her newly adopted name.

Funny Things my Ex-Roommate's Mother Used To Do To Him

My ex-roommate had a few gripes about things that his mother used to ask him to do; some of them are funnier than others.

(1) Grocery shopping:

She'd ask him to stand in line first when she went and "grabbed just one more item." Of course she'd also never made it back in time. Poor kid will stand there, items all rung up, cashier looking at him, others in line looking at him. He has no cash on him and mom was nowhere to be seen.

(2) Parking lot:

She'd see a spot, but couldn't manuver over there right away, so she'd ask him to go and stand in the spot to hold the spot while she manuver her way over that. This one always make me laugh.

Hubby, on the other hand, have the tendency to get himself into situations like that. Grocery shopping with hubby is a pointed mission: stop ONLY at points that we KNOW we need something from. Oh, and hurry! Immediately before the last item, he'd say, "I'm going to stand in line, why don't you go grab it." Have you ever try to find an item in a grocery shop that you were there for the FIRST time? With the stop watch running? It's literally like running a 500 meter hurdle! So boy did that to me again today.

"What else do we need?"

"Green bell pepper."

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

"I'll stand in line then."

Rolled eyes, "Okay." Do as you wish, like I could stop you.

After the green bell pepper, just like any other good woman, I thought of something else that I'd like to get -- lotus, which the store carry only intermittenly. While I was taking my time (hehehe) looking for lotus, I heard whistle from behind me -- hubby's signal for "I'm over here." Apparently he had already unloaded every thing we had (which was hardly anything) onto the conveyor bell and it was his turn already when he realized I was nowhere to be seen. LOL. Needless to say he had to put everything back into the basket then came looking for me. Ahahahahaha. Suits him fine. "I'll stand in line while you go grab the last item"! :D

This is hilarious

Check out this link, especially funny were "class" and "swim meet." :D

Karma

On a different note from my previous blog, why bother to be a nice person if I don't have a religious believe, you might ask. (Let's not even delve into whether all religious folks are necessarily "nice" people.) There are a few reasons: (1) education and upbringing. I don't need to have a fear for punishment in order to be nice. (2) I am still able to tell right from wrong. And I also believe in karma is a smaller scale. Many a times in my life, I've had people that offered me a helping hand when I most needed and less expected. And those incidents had very profound effects on my life. I do not have a way to repay these people in my life, so I figured that if I am nice and try to help others when they need it most, hopefully they'd do same later on when they were on the other end of the table, and so on and so forth. Yes, in a corny way, it is very similar to the movie "Bring it Forward." Except I wasn't the person who started it. I try to help others because I have already received assistance. I am not afraid to admit that I'm not the first person in this chain; (3) and a more selfish approach at things, since we don't really know (some would argue that) what it's like after death, it doesn't hurt to be nice and have all basis covered. :D

On Religion

(Yeah, I know, I've already written a few entries by the same title, but I assure you, my dear readers, this is not going to be "just another one of those." :)

When I was in my twenties, I was happily an atheist. By that I mean (1) I don't believe there is a God, or Gods, or ghosts and (2) when people die, it's like falling into a deep, dreamless sleep -- there is nothing, literally nothing, no feelings, no consciousness, you are not even awared that you are asleep. For the longest time, that's what I hang onto. I believe that religion is what makes one feels comfortable, and that's the only belief that makes me feel uncomfortable.

Let's look at the Bible-oreinted religion. I attended a Catholic school when I was a kid. Back then it was taught that good people go to Heaven and bad ones end up in hell when they die. What disturbs mehe the most about this school of belief was the concept of eternity. I find eternity scary, heaven or hell. No matter how good one thing is (think of the happiness incidents in your life, let it be a party, gathering with friends, a movie, even your wedding), but imagine being stuck at that moment for all eternity. How's that for a concept?

Later on, I've learned that some Bible-oriented religion is even simplier than what I was taught: those who believe in God/Jesus will go to heaven and the non-believers will end up in hell, after judgement day (or something similar to that effect). Now that's plain mind-boggling. It is as if saying that whether you believe in the existence of something that you can't see or feel or prove is the single most important thing in life. Imagine that! What about those that never had the opportunity to encounter this certain religion in their life? Are you just going to tell them that they are SOL? (For my non-English readers: SOL = shit out of luck.)

At least the version I was taught focus on encouraging people to be nice people. Although I must say that the very first things that turned me off this religion in the first place was the sisters - alleged servants of God - at the Catholic school I've attended really practiced "do as I say, not as I do." (Not unlike all the pedophilic Catholic priests.)

But I've digressed, my atheism belief worked out perfectly for me for the last decade, until I've met my husband and became very emotionally attached to him. Then my atheism belief can no longer do it for me. "There has to be something more than existence on earth," I thought to myself. Why else would we have feelings and grow so attached to another individuals? Shouldn't there be more to it? Essentially, I've became greedy? Even without knowing whether we can make it through this life time together, I want some sort of guarantee that there's a way for us to be together after we've "passed on."

Well, the western Bible-related religions are not going to give me the answer that I want to hear. I think the gist of it (correct me if I am wrong) of them all is the fact that those who ends up in heaven is "happy" because they are now with God. Not quite the answer I was seeking.

Therefore, I've turned to eastern religion to see what I can find in that respect. I accidentally came upon D's blog, who claims he is a Buddhist. And even though he's a doctor by trade and his blog really has nothing to do with Buddhism, I've decided to email him to see if he can answer my questions about "life, death, and the meaning of the universe."

After a few emails back and forth, I've came to the conclusion that Buddhism is not any more or less disturbing than the western religions. To put it simply, Buddhism believes in reincarnation. And to the best of my knowledge, Buddhism believes that life is full of sufferning, and the goal is to achieve "enlightment" and escape the fate of reincarnation (gross generalization). Buddhism also believes in this concept called karma. What it really means is your fate in this life reflects your past sins or good deeds, and whatever you do in this life (along with those from previous lives) will carry on to the next lifes, and so on and so forth. Well, I have a decent life so far. A few things I've like to have been different, but overall, I'd consider myself a lucky person. In my opinion, being born in the western civlized world and have the opportunity of higher education in and of itself is a kind of blessing already. But the catch about reincarnation is that you do not bring your memories with you. You start fresh everytime, and you do not remember past deeds and relationships. Again, it does not provide me with the answer that I am seeking. In addition, I can't shake the feeling that if you reincarnate without knowledge of what you've done in the past, you are practically a different person. Is it fair that one has to be punished for sins committed by a stranger, namely yourself in your past life? It's a concept that's very hard to grasp.

From what I can tell (barely touched the basics of what Buddhism truly represents) it differs most from western religion in the sense that it takes into account all other organisms in the world that we share, not just focusing solely on human. Yet the concept of reincarnation after reincarnation after reincarnation is about as disturbing as heaven or hell for all eternity (could one really commit a crime so heinous that one needs to be punished for all eternity? Is God, who preaches forgiveness, really that unforgiving if you failed to confess before you die?).

I have read this book when I was young, I believe it was a science fiction book, in which the author toyed with the idea of fusing eastern and western religion together -- heaven = good life after a life of good deeds; hell = vice versa. Perhaps there is the way to integrate these religions and get an even better picture. Or, is there really a meaning? Perhaps there isn't one. Just because we are capable of thinking, we want to know what's the meaning of life/universe. Who is to say there is one?

So in the end, neither eastern, western religions (those that I've somewhat explored so far), nor atheism provide me with what I want to hear (yes, I admit. It might not necessarily be the truth that I am seeking. I am seeking peacefulness of mind during this lifetime). So I guess I'll have to settle for "I don't know." Perhaps "afterlife" is really a concept that one will not be able to grasp until one is there. Perhaps it's like trying to understand "5th dimension," or explaining the concept of "internet" or "television" to someone from the 16th century. Perhaps "the truth" is something completely beyond our comprehension at this state, at least that's all I have to hang onto, for the time being.

My New Addiction

Okay, I must confess. I've got a new addiction. Is it illegal drugs, you might ask. No, of course no. Smoking? No. Drinking? Hell no. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! One of those Yahoo mini games? Nooooo. It's cooking for the hubby.

You see, for the past two weeks, my life has resolved to nothing but want ads scanning, cover letter and resumes rewriting and submitting, other than when I ponder, "What should I make for dinner tonight" (and occasionally, what can I get from Blockbuster today :). Don't I wish hubby's paycheck is fat enough so I can be a full time permanant kept woman. :~( But that belongs in a different entry.

My friend B said I've became "domesticated." I don't like the term "domesticated." It sounds so... demeaning to women. My friend E thinks I enjoy cooking. She couldn't be more wrong. If I have unlimited monetary resources AND always able to find a decent place that serves my craving, I won't be cooking. Most of the reasons that I cook were because I cannot count my enjoyment of food in the hands of others. Why pay exorbitant prices for something that I can make just as good or even better at home?

Aren't you contradicting yourself, you might ask. No, no, no. I didn't say I'm addicted to cooking, I said I'm addicted to "cooking for the hubster." What's the difference, you asked again. My, don't we have a curious mind. Let me give you an analogy. Most people don't really enjoy going to work; they merely enjoy the moment they receive the paycheck, or at least the moment they are blowing away their paycheck. My joy came not from the preparation of food, but hubby's excitement when I make him his favorites. His eyes will light up and his face glows like a golden retriever just saw his owner picking up a ball and a stick.

This particular joy does come with some sacrifices. First of all, I have to give up some of my favorite Chinese cuisine, including but not limited to squid, sea cucumber, thousand-year-old eggs (Yeah, same kind they served in Fear Factor. Were I on there I'll be asking for a second serving). After all, I have no heart to ask hubby to have dinner, Fear Factor style, after he came home from a long day of work. :~( But for that look of his, everything is worth it. :)

[Some truth has been distorted or exaggerated for the smooth flowing of this entry. All complaints and request for "correction", with the exception of typos or spelling errors, will be disregarded.]

Strength and Weaknesses

So I've been doing practically nothing but browsing/screening want ads and sending out resumes and cover letters lately. For the very first time in my life, I actually take into consideration to look for a job with growing potential. I don't want just another dead end job to tie me over the next few months. Let me tell you something about a mid-age career change -- it's awful. Everything (even entry level jobs) want "1-2 years experience." Oh, for the love of God, I can do filing and data entry and create letter and schedule appointment WITH or WITHOUT 1-2 years experience.

"Light Math" -- Well, I studied calculus 10 years ago and it's a bit rusty, but I'm sure I can brush it up quickly, how does that sound to you.

"Knowledge of IE preferred" -- O - MY - GOD! Preferred? Any job that remotely comes CLOSE to the computer should REQUIRED IE knowledge. After all, how hard is it to use IE???

"Complex travel and meeting calender"? -- Oh, c'mon. How complex could that be? Can you do it this date at this time? No? Okay, how about this date at this time? Like someone had once said, "There's no such thing as a stupid question; just stupid people."

Here, let me just lay it out for you.

My strength, my real strength -- I can boil anything and everything down to the "gist of it," assuming that I have a grasp of the subject matter. So we can effectively rule out nuclear physics right about now.

Henceforth:

"Briefly state your interest in this job."

Money!! Hello!! What do you think? Not exactly the most meaningful job we are talking about here. You try posting the ad soliciting services for free, see how many responses you get.

Last but not the least:

"Why should we hire you." (They usually don't put it in exactly those words, see my strength above.)

Because I can do this damned job better than your everyday morons out there, and that probably include half of your employees that have already been at your company for five years and still clueless and I need the money. So there! Just hire me, okay?

My weaknesses:

There isn't any. I'm perfect. If there are any weaknesses that I am awared of, AND can be fixed, it'd already have been fixed so it's a non-issue. Duh! How many more times do we have to go through the obvious?

My Blog

It has came to my attention that couple pals of mine actually hit my blog occasionally. Finding that out was short of mortifying. Not that there's anything on here that I don't want them to see. Quite the opposite, there is nothing here to read. I wish I could say "this is a blog about nothing" and still be as successful as Seinfeld. It takes a certain type. What started out as an affort for more substantial entries had turned into a blog of mindless rambling. To think that any one other than (1) hubby and (2) unsuspecting victims who were querying for how to grow/transplant/kill/picture of banana tree would actually voluntarily come here and suffer through my rambling. Well, folks, I'm touched.

For that, I'll try my darnest to put stuff with substances on here, maybe, perhaps. :)

Rain. Rain. Rain.

It's raining again, from Saturday all the way through Tuesday, at least that's what the weather channel says. I guess the saving grace about rainy days in the bay area is that even on an overcast day, you get these "breaks" where the sun will actually comes out from time to time.

I feel lethargic when it rains. Doesn't help that I'm unemployed. Doesn't feel like doing anything. Doesn't feel like going out. This continues (unemployment + overcast), I'll be ordering groceries online soon.

Hubby complaints about the rain too. Funny it'd affect him. On hindsight I guess it's lucky that we didn't move to Seattle, where it rains some 40% of the time... No wonder it's suicide capital...

Thanks GOD!

A judge ruled Monday that California's ban on same-sex marriage violates the state's constitution, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman

It is so nice to see that there are still VOICES OF REASONING exist in this country and that we are not yet overran by vile and hateful fundamentalists.

To those who are trying to defend the institution of marriage, for the love of God, please go crucify those HETEROSEXUAL COUPLES who were married and divorced MULTIPLE times. So people make mistakes, but three PLUS times? Oh, c'mon. I personally met this guy one time, a successful guy in his career, I presume, phD holder, owns his own company, yet looks and talks like Howard Stern, IN A REGULAR WORK ENVIRONMENT. Personally, I think that was quite unacceptable (it's not a radio show, I couldn't tune him off). Regardless, that wasn't the point of bringing this gentleman up. He has been married FIVE times, twice to the same women. I couldn't help but blurted out, "Why?" Yeah, one of these days (if not already) my big mouth is going to get me into a lot of trouble. He said, "Because I was taught to marry the person that I am in love with." Um... okay. If the getting married and getting a divorce is NOT devaluing the institution of marriage. Ladies and Gentlemen, you want to talk about defending the traditional one man one woman value.

Oh, and what about that guy who married FOUR different women WITHOUT divorcing any of them all in the name that he "loves them all"? You want to talk about "protecting the institution of marriage." For the record, I'm married, to a man, and I have yet to figure out how others getting married can have this magical negative effect on my marriage. If that's how you feel, start looking for a marriage counselor. You have no business messing with the law.

Movie Spoiler: The Ring

Not part 2, I haven't seen part 2 yet. I've sworn off movie theaters until cell phone usages are banned.

Just this thing I've been thinking about ever since I've watched "The Ring." (Do not read on if you haven't seen the movie yet.) I think the entire problem of the ring can be solved by adding a small bit of instructions in the copies -- make copies, and include at the end to "make a copy." Ta da, problem solved, no more people will die from watching the movie. Copies get made, girl in well is happy. End of story. Wonder why nobody thought of that? :D I'm so smart.

Movie Review: Ladder 49

It was an okay movie, very much like Backdraft. The flash back scenes really interupt the build up of the movie. The extra part about his wife and such were warm and fuzzy, but, like I've said, can't sustain the pace for an action film. It was, however, a good movie for one to get a glance at what it's like to be a firefighter and their families. Might make a better documentary if it's "based on a true story" or was it?

Movie Review: The Incredibles

Simply incredible. Need I to say more? Well exceeded my expectation.

Pixar rocks!! Now that Pixar is no longer working with Disney, I wonder if we'll ever see a part 2. :( Then again, most part 2's suck anyway.

Soft Ice-Cream

My birthday is coming up. Think I'll get a soft ice-cream machine? :D~~

Movie Review: Flight of the Phoenix

Thanks to unemployment, I am back to my two-movie-a-day life style (okay, maybe just one, but I am working on it).

The movie delivered exactly what it promised, nothing more, nothing less. The story premise was a plane crash stranded a group of individuals in the Kobe desert and they were going to build another plane out of the old one to fly themselves out of there. It was pretty much a predictable movie -- accidents happened, they were set back, squabbling among the group, lost a few people to various incidents, and finally the ones left made out alive.

Following are the spoiler part. Do not read any further if you plan on watching the movie:

The part that irked me was how the group reacted when the found out the "engineered" whom directly them to build the plane actually built remote control toy planes for a living. They felt for sure that they were not going ot make it out of the desert in the plane that they build. Oh, for the love of God, they were all going to die anyway, what's taking a chance? I have no idea what was there to bitch about.

Other than that, a solid movie.

Movie Review: 2LDK

"Envious roommates in a duel to the death" said it all, right on the DVD itself. It was a dark comedy about two actress wannabes fighting over the same role and the same guy, till death.

I foudn it funny, in an excessive violent kind of way. Hubby completely disliked the movie, said it was a dumb movie. And need I to remind you that this is the same hubby (as I have only one) who LOVES mindless comedies and thinks "Eight Heads in a Duffle Bag" was the best comedy made.

Amazon patrons rated it 4 stars out of 5. Wait till hubby sees those reviews. :D

An Old Story

I remember this sci fi story that I've read when I was a kid (it's a Japanese manga). It is very interesting to read science fiction from different cultures. They vary in their own very distinctive ways. I'll give you an example.

Common theme in US animation: heroic protagonist came into contact of nuclear waste and gained super power. It is very interesting interpretation that (1) nuclear waste always glow green (see The Simpsons) and (2) protagonist gained useful super ability instead of merely being deformed. There's some misunderstanding here on how mutation work, but we could chalk that all up to suspension of disbelief, I suppose.

Common theme in Japanese animation: aliens or evil forces attack earth. A team of 5 (always 5. The 5 will include one normal, average size male -- protagonist -- generally color-coded red, an exceptionally skinny and tall male -- sidekick #1 (blue), a male who can "lose a few pounds" -- sidekick #2 (green), an attractive female (pink, of course, sexist!), and a sometime genius kid (yellow)) were always selected to defend earth. Now why would alien/evil forces pick Japan, an ity bity, island to start is beyond me. Again, suspension of disbelief.

Like my friend in Hong Kong commented after watching Independence Day, "It's always the Americans who saved the world." Well, of course, it's a movie made by Americans. It's called "Independence day," alias ID4. It's released on July 4th. Of course, the Americans were going to save the world. Would we make a film only to make the French or Chinese take the spotlight?

Anyways, I digressed, I've been doing that a lot lately. Back to this story that I started out saying. :)

It's a story about this high school boy picking up what looked like an UFO model with an open top one day. He brought it home with him. And when he stared into the open top, all he could see was darkness. It was as if there was a voice telling him to do it, he placed his hand over the top. Soon (days?) a nebula began to form inside the black hole. At some point down the line, boy freaked out over it and wanted to get rid of "the universe." But some guy (?) appeared and said he needed to finish off what he had started. So he continued to nurture the universe. At the end, the universe was formed, and he could hear small voices of prayers occasionally. He said every once in a while, he'll reply "okay." Then he'll hear back, "Oh, thank you, thank you." So essentially he had became God, but he was still a normal high school boy.

I just thought it was a cute little story. :)

Blog of the Day

Thought I'd do my own version of Blog of Note as I blog surf. =)

garden of peace

Absolutely beautiful website although the writing is a bit hard to understand. I especially like the picture of what appeared to be father and daughter. =)

Oh, And Then There Was This:

In the article titled Rave: I love you, Average Boyfriend.

average boyfriend, it annoys me that you have come to expect me to prepare not only all of our meals together, but also to wake up early and make your breakfast, to pack your lunch, and cook an extra snack for you at two in the morning...

That's average?? Really? Is that the expectation of an average man? I always knew I was lucky in the man department (only with the current hubby, don't even want to think about the horrendous experience prior to him), but I didn't realize I was that lucky. :D

Recommended Reading of the Day

Yeah, I know, I've already exceeding my daily recommending quota by one. This one really should belong to yesterday, but I was far too stressed out about writing my stupid resume along with a stupid cover letter to be blogging. Now that I've got those earthly stuff out of the way, I am free to go visit BlockBuster Video tonight. ^_^ Hurrah to their no late fee plans.

So I've always enjoyed job browsing (only serious hunting recently) on Craigslist.org. They always have some odd end jobs that I've never seen elsewhere, i.e. extras for TV shows/commercials. I almost could have been an extra on Memoirs of a Geisha, one of my favorite book! T_T

Hubby is a bit skeptical about postings for CFO or Scientist on Craigslist. Well, he's just a skeptic, what can I say? I think by posting on Craiglist, one has already eliminated a handful of undesirable candidates. Who still look at want ads on a traditional newspaper? It's an equivalent of using snail mail instead of email. That's so yesterday!

Interestingly enough, since I've only been going to Craigslist for job postings, I never realized that the left 2/3 of the homepage existed. :D Speaking of tunnel vision, huh? Evidently there are a lot more to Craigslist than job postings and items exchange.

Hubby kindly pointed out this "best-of-craigslist" section to me one day. And because of the slow working situation at my current temp job (4th one since I've started this blog), I suddenly found myself having all the time in the world to explore this site.

So I came across this article yesterday. I am not going to transpose the entire article onto my blog, here are part of the article:

2. I have a dent puller suction cup thing I bought to pull a dent on my car, worked great, so now I pull dents out of stranger's cars when they're not looking, I find this quite satisfying.

Don't ask me why, but I found that statement absolutely hilarious. And

9. I still eat Cocoa Puffs and watch cartoons in a tent in my living room sometimes.

I suppose if you are in love with the guy, you'd probably find it cute that he'd still eat cereal inside his tent in his living room, but Cocoa Puffs?? What poor choice of cereal! :D

I want to read the rest of the rant and raves on Craiglist but because of the potential unsuitable content, I was afraid to read them at work. T_T

Fifth Week, Still Surviving the Bay Area

We have officially survived four weeks of bay area. And I was not exaggerating when I say "survive." Last week was arguably the roughest week I've ever had with hubby since we've known each other. He was exhausted and I was edgy most of the time. The one thing that's worse than knowing you've inherited all these bad genetic material from your family is to not be able to do a thing about them when they were freely expressing themselves.

It's sort of like in a dream, where you were both the protagonist but you were not. You were experiencing what was going on both as the first person but also as a third person witness. On one hand I could feel the irritation building up inside of me, but the rational (3rd person) self was acutely aware of the fact that my irritation really had nothing to do with what hubby had done or said and it was simply not something that's worth throwing a fit over. Sometimes I was more successful than others at controlling my temperament.

I'd hate to think that our relationship is so fragile that by merely relocating to the bay area can put dents in our relationship. Guess we've got to work harder at figuring out a routine that we can achieve balance between work and a pleasant and healthy life.

Speaking of which, Hubby purchased a '04 Miata last Friday. When I said he purchased it, I meant I didn't know it ahead of time. Okay, that wasn't entirely true either. He's been talking about buying another car for a while now. But since shopping for big ticket items (predominantly houses, cars) is like a hobby of his, it's hard to tell when he's really going to do it. And I accidentally left my cell phone at home when I went to work on Friday. By the time I got hold of him he was already on his way home in his new (used) car.

For reasons beyond understanding I found his purchase of this particular car very distressful. Poor hubby even offered to sell it if I really hated it. Now I've never received/acquired any useful interpersonal relationship advices from my family, but I do have a set of guildlines of what kind of wife that I don't want to be. I don't believe I should be able to tell him what kind of a car he can or cannot have. I certainly would not like it if he interferes strongly on my choice of a car. More importantly, I couldn't even pinpoint what was it about the car that distresses me.

Fortunately, as the weekend arrived, and we drove around town in his little Miata with the top down and the weather was gorgeous and hubby was playing ALL the songs that were my favorites, I've made peace with the car. At least it is green. And now that hubby has the crappy car of the house, that'd free up monetary resource for me to get my brand new GREEN 2005 Prius. ^_^

Recommended Article For the Day

I'm sure Gersh Kuntzman gets enough readership without my faint effort
to help, but hey, this is my blog. I can recommend whatever I damn
well fell like. :D

Just How Many Commandments Are There Anyway?

And if the article is no longer available through that link, you can
always find them on Gersh's personal website.

And I hate to be a spoilsport on another score, but there are far
more than 10 commandments in the so-called Ten Commandments. Not to
quote a God in which I don't believe, but in Exodus, chapter 20, I
count at least 19 demands that come directly from God.

That kinda reminds me of book 4 and 5 of the trilogy, yes, I
said trilogy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. :D

For argument purposes, hubby (who's a self proclaimed theist, which I
tend to block that fact out of my mind for the most part) believed
that the 10 commandment display should be allowed to stay because of
"historical value." That's such bull! Yeah, historically the "founding
fathers" were all bible-thumpers. It is no longer the case in this
country. The beauty of this country (some would argue that) is the
fact that we are made up of immigrants from a variety of cultures and
with different values/religious belief. What's "historical" needs to
change with time!

Then again, this is a country that favors going backward. We
have a president that's picked out by God ("a calling from beyond the
stars"). People are working on banning aborption again.
Forget about modern day contraception, we are going to go with the
abstinence-only route (and no pre-marital fornication! Does the fact
that divorce rate is HIGHER in bible states mean anything to these
people? Obviously not. Anything not mentioned in the bible is probably
beyond their capability to comprehend. Duh!) Oh yeah, and don't forget
to take evolution OUT OF the syllabus, why would our next generation
even need to know of that concept?

Perhaps we need to introduce the concept of progression
before moving onto the "historical value" of displaying the 10
Commendments.

For what it's worth, here's a version of the 10 Commandments that I've
fond online:

ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.'

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth.'

THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'

FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'

FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.'

SIX: 'You shall not murder.'

SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.'

EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.'

NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet
your neighbour's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant,
nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour's.'

Average Length of Being in Love?

I read this interesting blog today in which the author/blogger quoted some statistics that she read elsewhere -- "experts said that the actual time of being in love is only one year and eight months." That's a statement, a very scientific one at that. That's just like saying, "the incubation time of AIDS is 7 years." It's a precise length of time, not even an average.

An intriguing question is: how did these so-called experts (and who are these experts anyway?) determine whether someone is "in love"? I'd think that the only way to scientific determine whether an individual is in love is to meaure his/her brain chemistry. But since that is unheard of, I am going to assume that we are not yet able to do that. So they arrived at this startling conclusion basing solely on self-reports?

Once I've been asked the question of when I fell in love with my husband (during the course of dating). I didn't have an answer for that; I still don't. Is it even possible to pinpoint that? It's not exactly like catching the flu -- "Oh, I got it some 2-3 days ago from this guy who was sitting next to me." Better yet, how do you even defined what is being "in love."

One year and eight months? That was by far the strangest remark I've ever came acrossed. (Completely irrational statements such as "God showed Himself in front of me on a grilled cheese sandwich/potato chip/fence in my backyard" not withstanding.)

I couldn't help but wonder how they arrived at that figure. One year and eight months? So what do you call couples who've been married for thirty years and still hold hands when they go out? Did they really only stay in love for one year and eight months, and then stayed together the rest of the time for reasons other than "real love"? How odd! And how sad!

Time for a New Mop? T_T

This is a completely stupid entry but it's important for me. As a woman (sexist as it might sound), I am very attached to some of my kitchen/cooking/cleaning wares. I am highly susceptable to advertisements on new products in this area, especially when the word "disposable" is included.

The only item I want to snatch from hubby that he brought into the marriage is his potato peeler, were things not work out between us. My "baby" was a sharp knife that I posses, until it was replaced by my new "baby" - a $5 bargain from the outlet that can cut anything like tofu (and if don't know what that is like, you should buy a brick of tofu today and try to cut it. No really, try it. Tofu is not that expensive).

But this blog entry is not about tofu, it's about, that's right, as the topic might have suggested, mop. I am highly distressed that upon finding the perfect mop -- Scotch Brite Butterfly map -- they have discontinued the product, leaving with the mop but no refills. T_T Perhaps I shouldn't jump to the conclusion that I'm stuck with a headless map. I did, afterall, find a picture of these mop heads on an Australian website...

Ebay Advertisement

I'm sure you've all seen those eBay advertisements that came up with practically any commercial merchandise searches you've ever done. I'm sure the wordings are standard, "New and Used on eBay." But I was looking for mop refills. Do I really want to buy a lot of 8 used mop refills from eBay? :D

Kitty Translator

A while back I've read that some Japanese company (?) had invented these kind of dog collar that'll interpret what the barkings were suppose to mean.

Ugh. Much as I love my cat, I don't want to know what she has to say. I'm not sure what my cat has to say is necessarily warm and fuzzy like she is. I guess in a sense, I feel guilty towards my kitty. What if she ask me why I had her fixed? Granted, I chose to be child-free, but I didn't exactly poll her opinion before I took her to the vet. Okay, even if she was so protected she doesn't know what mating is exactly. What if she wants to know why she's always stuck with the same type of cat food? Or that I always forget to open up the shades for her when I go to work. What if she expresses that she doesn't like the fact that we move a lot, and make her endure the horrible car ride every time? Or worse, even if she doesn't complain, what if she starts to have a lot of requests in the future? It'll be like having KIDS!

No, thank you. I think things are just fine the way they are. Now that she and I cannot communicate. I can continue to tell myself that I'm being as good of a owner as I can and try my best to make her a happy kitty. :)

Blogging No-No's

Oh my! After blogging for a whole year, I just discovered this list of 10 no-no's on Blogarama on what NOT to do if you want to build readership to your blog. To make a long story short, I must have done 8 out of the 10 on the list.

The very top one? Have a topic. I believe my very first entry said there is no theme to this blog. Seinfeld, by his own admission, said his show was a show "about nothing." Forgive me for trying to be the next Seinfeld. Of course it's only been a year, and I am, quite frankly, not seeing some 10,000 hits a day, who would have thought? I thought I'd have readship like that of Stephen King by now, while living out of my $2 million beach front house. To quote a Chinese saying: it's not that I don't have talent; people just haven't learned to appreciate it yet!

So I am contemplating revamping my blog, maybe separating it into different sections: personal rant, knick knacks, and others. And while I am at it, I can maybe even fix all the broken picture links from the past. They were only scattered over 3 different computers and over 5 directories. Not like it's a chore or anything. But now I am turning my hobby into a project. :~(

Japanese Grave Stone

I'll try to put some pictures on in the near future. Hubby has already set up BananaTreeHouse.net for me. :D Let's take a vote on whether I should fix all the broken pix from the past. Any one?

Check out these interesting looking Japanese grave stones. I particularly like the hippo in the 5th pic down, and the doremon in the 6th pic. Look also at the strange creature in the lower right hand corner of the last pic. I want! I want! Looks like there's a kitty one hiding in the left side too, behind the big "buddha."

Interestingly enough, I've seen statues like these in US for backyard or even indoor decoration. Wish this place will have a website to sell to oversea. Hehehe. Looks more creative than the brown bear cut out of a tree trunk!

Travel Cuisine

Travel Cuisine in Cambodia. Producers of Fear Factor need to check this out. I wonder what animal group activists would say about eating fried tarantula.

A Spoiled Brat

I was reading this blog yesterday. This girl was explaining how she and her mother had a "conflict of personalities." She expressed that her mother could not accept her viewpoint that she consider life temporary and unimportant and refuses to take on a job that she hates and regretting by the day she die that she had not live her life. At first I sided with the girl. Sure, to me financial stability is very important. Roof over head and food on table comes before dignity (it's a Chinese saying). But who is to say that everybody must succumb to a life like that? However, as I read on, I've lost respect for her when I found out that she was complainting about her mother kicking her out of the mother's house.

Ugh. If you want to live up to your belief of not wanting to go to a job that you hate everyday, either find a job that you enjoy (Yes, they exist, far and in between, but some lucky folks actually like their jobs. I hope I'll be one of them some day.) or live a low cost life-style, of course even a low-cost life-style needs money. But one loses her rights to complaint when she chose to leech off of someone else so that said someone (or society in general if you draw from one of the many programs available) can live their ideal lifesyle of not having to worry about financial stability, then it's not all that noble after all.

I can respect others' lifestyle choice. One can choose not to take up a job that he/she doesn't like. Not everyone has to climb the corporate ladder and hope to get rich some day. Others can choose to live in poverty temporary (or permanantly) with only very basic supplies in life in order to go after a dream of one day becoming a successful artist/actress/screen writer etc., but there shouldn't be talk about dignity and idealism before one has attained financial independence.

Be Careful What You Wish For

It is nice to be able to surf some (legitimately even!) at work. I've came to realize that there's only so much time one can spend blog-hopping until one's mind begin to turn into a glob of bubbling goo.

I should install some kind of chat programs. At least banging away on the keyboard will make me look like I am working. Alternatively, I can bring my laptop in, that would make me look even more important.

Bay Area III

Yet another slow day at work, so I have decided to sit here and blog till everyone who'll sit and read my blog for more than 3 minutes to tears.

I never intend this Bay Area subject to go on part III. Then again, who plans on sequential blogs? It's not like a horror flick, in which you have to leave at least one monster undead in case you have the budget for the next sequel.

Fourth week in Bay Area. To quote the hubby, once you learn to overlook the fact that one may never been able to afford a house in this area (within reasonable distance, being defined as 60 miles), it's not a bad place to live in.

Still no words on the couch that was supposed to take 6-8 weeks. :~( Also no words on the chairs for the dining room which was supposed to come in 7-10 days (way past).

My cookies came yesterday but nobody was home so all I got was a yellow slip from UPS. :~( Or maybe it was FedEx or USPS, same difference.

I've only had my new Gateway M210 laptop for three weeks and I already need to send it back for repairing. The DVD drive is only reading every other DVD that I put in. This sucks. And their return policy was only for 15 days, not the regular 30. Else rest be sure, I'd be swapping it for the 12" Dell laptop.

Last but not the least, we seem to have less time in the Bay Area as compared to San Diego. :~( It seemed we always have time to go out and have some fun in the evening back in San Diego, but here, I had to start dinner as soon as I got home from work, and after some TV it's already bedtime. T.T Hubby and I need to learn to pace ourselves so we don't get burnt out or get onto each other's nerves. :D

Speaking of which, I'm contemplating maybe writing some relationship tips on my blog. Why not? There was never a theme to this blog and it's not like the subjects are not already scattered.

Coooookies

Food is very important to me and hubby learned that fast shortly after we started dating. I even coined the term "fooding," which hubby finds very amusing. (I don't know why he finds that so amusing, after all, it's easy to create new words in English that way.)

Now imagine how happy I was when I found these McVities Chocolate Covered Digestive Cookies on the English Tea Store website!!!

It's not coming in till TOMORROW. I can't wait. :D~~~

My Blog

Can't wait till hubby to set up new account for me so I can start littering random pictures all over my blog again. :)

Bizarre Company Policies

One advantage (?) of having many, many temp jobs was that I have also read many, many different company policies. And quite frankly, each one just gets progressively more bizarre than the last. It's amazing how what you think of as common sense is not so common sense after all. What is wrong with this society?

Dress Code in Company #1 (not too bizarre)

After all the basics are covered, it threw in this last blanket one that says to not wear anything to work that you'd wear to a trendy bar. Okay, I guess that's a blanket coverage for styles that are beyond your wildest imagination.

Code at Company #2:

"Please leave your weapons at home."

Dress Code at Company #3:

"Undergarments are required."

I don't even want to know how #3 came by...

Speaking of the Obvious

Don't you always feel like giving a sassy response instead of a straight forward one when you were asked one of those obvious questions? Let me give you an example: Hollywood Videos. Their cardless membership access takes some getting used to (most of the day I prefer to not have interaction with many livings. I can do a transaction at Blockbuster without opening my mouth at all, albeit it might seem a bit on the rude side...), but it's quite convenient once you get the hang on it. Anyways, whenever I go there, they'd always pull up my account which has both my name and my husband's on it, and ask, "And what's your name?" On hindsight, they are probably just verifying that it was, indeed, the correct account that they pulled up. But for the longest time, it just seem so painfully obvious the difference between an Asian female name and that of a white male. So I have honed my skill by saying, "xxx-xxxx (phone number), and I am not xxxxxxxxxx (whitey hubby's name)." In retrospect, even if I give him hubby's name, I'm still verifying the account. :D Nothing personal towards the clerks who work there, majority of their employees are actually very cheerful and friendly, just something to make the routine a little less mundane.

Yesterday, MCI called. MCI is very likely the sleaziest company I've ever dealt with. I've had one of their sales representative point blank lied to me. And I mean point blank, quoting me plans and prices that didn't exist, rephrasing in a misleading way, you name it. Okay, that could be an individual who were just overzealous about making sales. I've talked to 5, FIVE, of their reps after that and none cared about their rep's blatant lie. That told me something about the company. So I am especially rude and creative (or so I think) when it comes to MCI's sales call. I think the very last time I told them, "Not a chance in hell" before I hang up.

It was very unfortunate that I didn't get to answer the call last night. :~( I could have so much fun with that. I didn't know what hubby said to them, but I would have personally said to them, "Has hell frozen over?" Hubby was instructed to say, "My wife says when hell freezes over" next time they call. Oh, whence is MCI going to call again?