Tooth of Wisdom
Oh gosh kill me now. Just kill me. What in the world is this kind of pain? Actually, I'm just kidding. It's incredible pain but it's still nothing compared to my normal run-of-the-mill headaches. I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled out Friday after work. Nah, they didn't put me to sleep. I don't have the $300-$400 it would cost for general anesthesia. One thing of note is that my dental assistant caused me more pain than my dentist. I don't think my dentist is great but he's alright and it's easy to talk to him. But gosh, his assistant needs to go. She says she is getting used to new equipment. I don't remember anyone being that bad. All you do is suck. Don't make me gag. Even this one dental assistant who rested the tube on my lip over my teeth didn't cause me this much pain. But anyway, good riddance, you nasty teeth.
Richmond Pho
Finally some good news about Richmond. Every Monday, I get news of someone who has been shot over the weekend. Today, my carpool decided to go get a bowl of pho for lunch. We found this rustic looking restaurant that I thought might not be that good given the clientèles. THe only Asian people I could see when we walked in were the workers and my carpool. I was pleasantly surprised by cheaper pho than San Jose and it was very good! If only I wasn't on my diet.
Where has all the money gone?
More mundane news. As money comes pouring into my bank account, I imagine myself swimming through the dollar bills. Think of Scrooge McDuck swimming through his money bin. That's what I am doing. I have been working hard saving up like a squirrel for winter the past couple of months because I don't have to pay mortgage until one of the families in my house moves out. This money will be a starting point for an emergency fund that my sister suggest I start up to cover any expensive repairs that might be required. Like roof repair or other kinds of damage. It's all just sitting there doing nothing. So sad. Unfortunately, further calculation leaves me at an every month starting next year. I'm supposed to be adding to that fund to grow it to a respectable number. That number is whatever makes my sister comfortable. I always thought if something happened to the house, home equity can pay for it. I'd rather pay extra on the mortgage. Even if you can claim home interest on your taxes, it's not 1 to 1. So it's better to just pay it off. And further more, this deficit also means I will be living like I am in college. So meanwhile, I imagine myself rich in my savings. It'll all be gone soon. Actually it should last until I get a raise. I think I will have to make cuts somewhere in the meantime. I will just have to go to a lower plan for my cell phone. Most everyone I know is on Verizon. Shouldn't be too much of a problem.
My Head
Two months. Do you think I can do it? Six times a year. Will I look overgrown. Will I look homeless. Anyway, that's my plan. I don't like doing it. I don't have time. It always looks like crap right after. But I am working now. It might not be good enough if I have to meet clients. Grooming one self is so tedious. But I guess if I saw someone that is a total, I wonder which side of the bed he fell off of. I hope this bi-monthly haircut works. I was doing quarterly previously. My head feels so free right now.
Yogurt Tummy
I went to the doctor on Monday. Not very good. I'm fat. High blood pressure. I like my doctor but his office is in downtown wth no parking. It's extremely annoying. I parked way like 5 blocks away because I am too cheap to pay the meter. So he gave me 5 things to be aware of:
1. Eat less Carbs - darn, no more noodle and rice
2. Eat more fish - This one is gonna be tough
3. Avoid seafood - not easy but not too difficult
4. Avoid sunlight/Use sunblock - My face is too red
5. Eat yogurt - Easy to do
I'm gonna add in lose 25 pounds or so. Things in my life has been happening complimentarily. Meaning at work today, HR sent an email for an online virtual health fair for all employees. Normally, people would just delete the email but there were some prizes to be won. Off I go and I find my Body Mass Index is too high. Now I have to lose about 25 pounds.
Also a few coworkers are going on a diet challenge. 5 of them going to see who loses the most weight in 3 months. Winner takes the pot. $100 buy in. I'm gonna challenge myself as well but I don't think I can go against some of the heavyweights in this challenge. Besides, gambling with money is not my thing. Had they said dinner, then I would have gone for it. But dinner for 6 would probably be more than $100. Here we go yogurt lunch!
HDTV Candy
I am so proud of myself. I didn't buy the HDTV. I didn't buy the PS3 controller for $20. I almost got the controller but then I thought no one is gonna be playing with me on the PS3 now or in the near future. Kinda sad I know. A lot of the Black Friday deals were still lingering over the weekends. Not sure why. Maybe it's because it's gotten so big that there just isn't enough demand for all these deals. Who knows. But I almost did it. The prices were so sweet. I just could not justify my 20" working perfectly fine. Can't replace a perfectly working product. There were no good digital camera deals this year for some reason. Well, there's still my Amazon Customer Vote on Wednesday for a 42". Failing that, there's still my company raffle for a 50". There's still opportunity in candy for my eyes.
Black Friday Memories
It was a bust. I didn't feel well. Nam didn't feel well. Y-Y insisted that I had made plans with. But she's the one who turned me down to buy a TV. She wanted to go line up at Circuit City or Sears to buy TV. I wanted Gilroy Outlet. Simple, we part ways. Nam with me. Jack with her. What? What? Nam called and offered me Halo 3 a couple hours before midnight. On the one hand I could freeze and probably buy like a pair of pants and some socks or on the other hand, shoot the crap out of aliens online. The choice was obvious. It was incredibly fun and brought me back to the good ol' days. I laughed until tears ran down my sides. I cursed at the more agile computer opponents. I'm so thankful that I can still enjoy times like this with friends. It ended far too early at around 3:00AM or so. We old people can't stay up too late any more with TPS reports to fill out, or design review meetings, or any other myriad deadlines in the adult working world. We used to stay up until the sun came up.
No pictures for thanksgiving in Vietnam
You may have noticed a lack of pictures on my posts the last couple of months. See, I gave my camera to my brother to take to Iraq. Or rather, it was my feeble attempt at giving him something he could use since he left so much schwag to me. Anyway, I wasn't gonna leave my blog picture-less but my old trusty Sony camera developed lines. I used to be able to shake it a bit and it would come out of its funk. But it's being really naughty these days. Anyway, let's hope I score a new one during Black Friday.
Thanksgiving was a good day. I woke up like any other Silicon Valley nerd. I went online to see if there are any cool Black Friday ads. I saw a few interesting items. HDTV's, XBOX's and digital cameras. Nothing really piqued my interest though.
I went over to my sister's place in the afternoon for our second annual crabbing dinner. Some of you may scoff. Crab? Didn't you hear some barge dumped 50,000 gallons of oil into the bay? Yeah, and how many crabs will be affected? Where do crabs live? Where does oil float? My brother-in-law insisted on a traditional turkey though, so we obliged. Our family has tried over the years to make a proper turkey. It often turned into porridge the next day going dry and untouched the night before. That's why we switched to crab.
My grandma came by with a very interesting proposition after dinner. My sister had a falling out with my grandma many many years ago. It was further exacerbated when housing prices were brought up over the recent years. My grandma actually took the first step at reconciliation by asking my sister to come to Vietnam with her next year to see our grandpa.
When I had decided to spend a lot of money to go back to school 3 years ago to come out and make less money than what I was already making, my grandma thought I was foolish. I told her 3 years will go by quick. She said you're supposed to take care of me when I am old. So I said, "Fine, I will take you to Vietnam." There's more to it, but that's the important part of it anyway. So she seized the opportunity since I would be there too to convince my sister to go. Although my sister's reply was shaky at best. I don't know if she'll actually go. Who knows, strange things could happen.
Brrrrrr
There was frost on my car this morning. It wouldn't wipe off. I had to pick at it. It was hard as ice. It was ice. Don't know how cold it was tonight as I am Scrooge. My dad kept turning on the heat the past few days so I did what any wannabe Ebenezer would do. I ripped off the control panel for the heater. Hey heating costs money and we don't have any. You don't see me turning on the heat. Well, you only see me turn it on for 30 minutes after I take a shower. Wouldn't want to freeze and get a cold while I am still wet. Still, it's tough seeing my cousin sniffling and thinking that I may be the cause of it. Tough! What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. I rarely got any heat while I was growing up. Now I have a strong immunity to cold. I like the cold. Just think of all the extra change in your piggy bank when you don't have to turn on heat! Bah humbug!
My sister's gifts
OK, I'm scared now. I told you how my watch died right? My sister gave it to me. And now my electric toothbrush is dead. She also gave it to me 4-5 years ago. If you know me, I like to count things in 3's. So what's next? I don't think there is anything else my sister gave me that I am still using on a daily basis. That toothbrush is awesome though. Even at 4 years of service, it's quite a bargain. It died at the perfect time for Philips because I was gonna go the cheap route and buy a cheaper replacement. But I had just purchased two replacement brush heads. Time to fork out some more money... ooohh and $40 off for buying a shaver also? I like you Amazon.
I guess if I am to stand back and look at it. It's a good time for my things to die or turn holey. Talking about socks and electronic equipment here. They served me well through college. Except for that damm Motorola RAZR. It is the suxors. Oh, I love my Juke. Got complimented twice already. Yes, I live on the approval of others on my good tastes. Terrible.
Death's door
Ack, please kill me now. I am so sad. I have run out of my expired Nyquil tablets. That's how sick I am. It's hard to breathe! Help me! Now how am I gonna sleep if I can't poison myself? I refuse to go buy more.
Monday Blues
Yup, I was right, full on cold. I took a nap in my car after I got to work. Took another nap at lunchtime. And nearly died on the way home trying to focus. Grrr... need to drug up real good. Wish I could take a day off.
Amazon Customer Vote
Remember last year when I won that 26" LCD TV for $200? Well, the promotion is back. But this year it seems like popularity has exploded. My brother-in-law got to buy a Nintendo Wii through this last year back when it was impossible to find. So I don't think I will win anything. I do need a big screen TV. Gotta stop myself from this whole black Friday business. My TV works just fine albeit small. Why am I so poor? Considering my job I could buy anything I want. But I'm investing up to the government limit on retirement which puts my monthly spending at poverty level. Some people like to splurge while young. They can easily make more money. I like to splurge when I no longer have to worry about finances. The earlier that happens, the better. Also, why not take advantage of the natural effect of compounding interest? I found a website where a couple were able to retire at 37. They have a website to show how you can also retire early and a lot of posts on their forum are late 40's. Imagine that? I can still ski and climb mountains at that age. Retire at age 50, that will be my goal.
Piano
Oh no, finals already? I'm not ready. I have a recital in two weeks. Can you imagine? It's like I am a grade schooler again. Should I go dress up in a suit too? I can play a couple of pieces now. It's not bad. I don't think I put enough effort into this endeavor. Just plum too busy. Run out of time. I think I will take next quarter off to reflect a little. Wish me luck in my finals.
Sick under the surface
I can feel the sickness bubbling up. This is gonna be a terrible couple of weeks. Wish I could take a few days off to recover. That way, I won't feel terrible for 10+ days. That's what happens when your works uses that archaic separation of sick day and vacation day. My company needs to changeover to the Paid Time Off (PTO) ways. That way, I don't have to be in the vicinity of people who have run out of sick days and are forced to go to work. I can't really complain though. I'll continue to go to work spreading the sickness that I got. Such a hypocrite, I know...
Customer Service
Ok, if this is how Verizon is gonna be. Then that's it. I'm done. I'm not going to tolerate it anymore. I'm never gonna switch back to AT&T. Like how I hooked you in and totally through in a curve ball? Anyway, I had some major headaches getting my Samsung Juke set up to work. I like to do things the self service way, online and by myself. But for some reason the system was being annoying. Kept saying I had to call customer service. I dreaded when I used to have AT&T where I would sit on hold for 25 minutes and be transferred from person to person and be placed on hold again. My gosh, Verizon has fantastic customer service! Hold times were less than a minute each. Yes, I was still transferred from person to person but that was only because I had multiple problems to take care. But each CR was kind and helpful. Most importantly, each one was extremely knowledgeable and capable. They actually live in the United States. Go figure, customer service that isn't off shored to another country where proper American English is not butchered. I am pleased to say my phone is now set up and working. Kudos to you Verizon. You have earned my continual business.
Bills, Bills, Bills
So many bills come in at the same time. This sucks. December is when everything auto related comes back to haunt me. I bought most of my cars at this time so registration and insurance comes at the same time. If I were alone, this isn't too big a deal as I stash away a little every month. Unfortunately, I have to pay for my parents as well. I don't really but left to their own devices, they'd probably pay late and it either comes back to haunt me in late charges or worse yet get into an accident with expired insurance. So I pay it off first and have them painstaking slowly pay me back. That's over 1G gone. Ok, I'll look on the brighter side, at least I don't need the money like I did last year. It's just sitting in my savings anyway. Last year, I needed it for rent. So it's all good but annoying how bad my dad is at finances.
People Personalities
Yes, another work-related post. It's where I am at all the time. Anyway, I'm such a newbie. I'm getting more and more exposure to this corporate experience. Dealing with people and getting papers pushed through various departments is just as challenging as doing the work itself. Gosh, I hope this gets easier later on. I remember when I first started a couple months ago, I was struggling with two individuals. I had to go through them to get my work done. I used to think, they are so angry. Why are they so angry? I admit, I was little afraid to even approach them. But you know, a smile and a friendly attitude goes a long way. Now, I feel perfectly comfortable talking to them. Now I've met another "angry" person and I have to learn how to deal with him. The first two were just angry at the volume of work they had to do. So I never felt anything personal when I had to give them more. I mean, come on, this is work. This new "angry" person looks at me as if I don't belong. It seems he wants me out of his process. I didn't go through the proper training model matrix he made up and he thinks I circumventing his policies. He wants me out but he can't do anything about it because people higher than him placed me here. At least this is how I feel when I converse with him. So as with what I said previous post, he's right, I don't really belong in his process. I'm not a mechanical engineer. Oh well, he has to deal with me poking around his policies for the next 4 months until I finish.
Solid weeks
Busy, busy like a bee. Can't keep up much with anything outside work. I was given a project to model a few tooling parts this week. Looks like they are sticking me straight in the pool with the sharks. They being my bosses. Have to work hard and show them what I am made of. I'm quite overwhelmed because my Solidworks skills are self taught after all. Should I really be doodling around with a multi-million dollar contract? Well, it's not that daunting. This future project is similar to another that we're currently running. All I do is modify existing drawings for the new part. A coworker just came back from a two day workshop to learn Solidworks. I gotta wonder why I wasn't asked to go as well. I could really use some guidance in my current project. But then insanity left my mind as I realized, what the heck? Mechanical stuff isn't in my future. Granted, this is an enjoyable and valuable experience. But I don't see this as my job at this company. I want to be more involved in the optical side of the equation. I'm only doing modeling right now because the mechanical engineering staff is swamped with other work. So it's sorta a good thing I didn't go the the workshop. It means they're only using me temporarily as a mechanical engineer.
Why was I late yesterday? It's related to a previous post. I was cheap and still don't have a reliable alarm clock. I've been using my friend's freakishly loud clock. It's actually pretty reliable as long as you remember to set it. The problem is that I have to set it after 5 PM. You see it's a standard 12 hour analog clock. If I set it before 5, it will ring at 5 PM. I want it to ring at 5 AM. So my back up alarm is my phone. Piece of crap Motorola RAZR. It's one of the worst phones I have ever owned. Lots of functions, I'll give it that. But it's hard to use and settings gets warped or jumbled. I can't get the phone to shut up on SILENT mode and I can't get it to speak up in LOUD mode. Sometimes, it gets into its own mode and refuses to care what I do. For example, not waking me yesterday. No idea why it didn't ring. And only one shortcut key? What gives? So off I go to get a Samsung Juke. It's not a very good phone from reviews but it's an odd shape. The shape is supposed to be trendy but I don't think it'll last long in post iPhone days. Oh right, I was supposed to get an iPhone but I just don't want to leave Verizon.
Late Accident
I've seen car accidents before. Lots of them. It's the American life. We're practically born and raised on the highway. I don't know what the statistics are but I currently waste 1/8 of my life on the asphalt jungles of northern California.Today I woke up late to work today. Of course. It just started raining meaning traffic was bad. Of course, I have an early morning meeting with upper management. So I was going through a skinny construction zone and I see a white BMW coupe smack into the right side of the freeway and then ricochet to the left into the meridian and slide into the left lane where I was currently traveling. For rush hour traffic, he did an impressive job in not getting hit by other cars. I've never been this close to an accident. Scratch that, never been this close without being injured. I stared at that Asian guy sitting dazed in his car. A moment later he backs up off of the roadway. All I could think of was, "Get out of my way, you stupid driver." Where was my sense of compassion? Where was my good Samaritans attitude? He was obviously unhurt since he was able to put his squashed car that amazingly still functioned into reverse. And I made it to my meeting just in time. My boss called my cell phone as I entered the door and said, "Really bad traffic today? Do you want to have the meeting at a later time?" He probably just checked that I wasn't at my desk. I said, "No, now would be good." Phew...
Black Socks
Socks aren't that interesting. They smell. But mine don't really smell. I always wonder why people say socks smell. Mine don't. Or is that just what everyone says about their own sock. Anyway, I'm talking about socks because it's been of some concern to me over the years. It's fairly stupid really. It tells you how cheap I am. Anyway, I wake up every morning dreading the sock hunt. I have 4 maybe 5 different pairs of socks. It's so annoying trying to find matching pairs. Why is this? Well, many moons ago, I had a single type of sock. As some grew old with holes or what not, I replaced them. But the ones I was using are no longer sold so I replace with something similar. And of course, I tend to wear the newer socks more often than the older ones. So pretty all my socks have the same consistency and pretty soon I have 4 or 5 different pairs. All these years, I've been too cheap to go buy a whole new set of socks. Until today. I got fed up and bought myself 12 new pairs. Wow, it feels nice to pick out socks in the dark. Why did God make me so cheap?
10 Years
My watch broke today. Refuses to turn. It never worked very well after the first year I owned it. It's one of those perpetual watches that get power from a purple crystal that needs to be shaken. As long as you keep wearing the watch, it will have enough power. However, stop for a single day and it runs out of battery. Even at that, it was slow about 2 minutes a day. I kinda just wear it so that I can make snide remarks when people see it. "No one wears watches anymore." Anyway, I looked at my dead watch and thought, ten years. It's been a good ten years. Later in the evening, M said to me, "It's been ten years." I've known her that long. Okay, give or take a couple years... I thought it was a nice gesture anyway. Bye bye watch, you won't likely be replaced because people don't wear watches anymore.
Pushed again
Maybe, I wanted a good reason to be pushed. But eh, I think I am more susceptible to the female persuasion. Had dinner with Linh tonight to just talk. The conversation led to my inner turmoil and her take on the situation seemed so much more reasonable. I have to wonder why I couldn't think of it on my own. She gave me a good possible route of action. Something I can live with. Something where I don't feel pushed... But I wonder about how easily I am manipulated by the opposite sex.
Push
Not a very good day today. I was pushed to do something I don't want to do. I'm trying to do things that I love but apparently, that means I have no direction... as far as the church is concerned. My buffet style of Christianity is causing me to miss out on close knit relationships. Fine, I can commit. I will make a decision. I can grow.
Don't meet me
Penny introduced me to her friend Grace at after BSF snacks. Meeting people. I used to like doing that. I think I've been "meeted" out. I have the same repertoire of questions. It comes out so rehearsed now. I'm so tired of asking them. I'm not as comfortable as I used to be. So I just stuffed my face with food. That works.
Dependance
I was asked to attend a membership and baptism class today. I didn't want to be there but you know me, can't say no to people. I suffer from commitment issues of all kinds. I don't want to commit to this church. I mean, in my heart, I am already committed. I don't see a reason to declare it formally. It brings up expectations and letdown. See, I come from a life full of failed expectations. I don't know if my dad was intentional or not but when I was young, he would promise me things. More often than not, he would be MIA where he said he would be. It would totally slip his mind sometimes. So I developed a defense strategy. Expect nothing. If he actually lives up to his word, FANTASTIC! If not? No skin off my back. And the application of that with the golden rule makes me expect nothing from others. In return, they should expect nothing from me. Self-deprecating, I know. But of course, I do realize when it is necessary for me to commit to something. But the less people that depend on me, the better I feel. Potential failure is lower.
Run
I'm not sure why I put myself in a position to get hurt. I'm not sure why I firmly believe I was created for suffering. For some reason, I always place myself in vulnerable situations. It's coming at me and I stand there like an idiot. Why don't I run? I'm not happy with myself at the moment. Sadly, I don't think I've learned my lesson either. When it comes to social relationships, I am a glutton for punishment. It's about self-esteem maybe. I don't feel good enough about myself to see myself as worthy. So maybe I think I have to take some name-calling in order to be accepted. I know this is not true anymore but my behavior hasn't changed. I need to be more proactive. Today, I walked up and left. It's a far cry from rebuking the individual. But it's progress... right?
Graduate School
It's almost time to revisit this subject. So I get $7500 a year for tuition reimbursement. A fellow coworker is currently doing a distance learning masters degree at University of Arizona. He is only required to be on campus for one semester ~15 weeks to fulfill the lab requirement. The rest of the course can be done online. Each class is $3200 so I can take 2 per year. This will take about 4 years to finish. A little long. I talked to my supervisor and he thought it would be a great idea for me to do it. Let's see if I can work out the logistics.
Halloween
Did I mention that I love where I work? Have I already asked that question? Anyway, for Halloween this year, we had a Pasta Cooking contest. 10 people participated and winner walked away with a $100 gift certificate. All employees got to have a free dinner. Although, I didn't think any of the pasta was any good. It was the cheese thing. I don't like cheese and all contestants had mounds of it. Still free food is delicious. Having lunch with 60 some odd people is brilliant.
Later we had an obligatory costume contest. Batgirl looked hot but winner was a guy who took pieces of hardware off the machinery taped to his body. He had a big sash that read, "Biggest Tool." He won by a mile. Only five people dressed up. I think the odds are good for me next year to win the $100.
