The wisdom(s) of my life - Part 1

I'm writing this short entry right now because I can stay awake and focused for long enough time to complete a well constructed article.  And I promise that vegetarian post is coming, Jerry.

All I can say right now is:

Taking my wisdom teeth out is the single most painful thing I have ever experienced so far in my quarter-century life.  It's worse than getting a tattoo.  With a tattoo, it was much less painful than how I had imagined it.  With this wisdom teeth procedure, all I want is to swallow every single bit of my pride of manlihood (along with a bunch of saliva and blood) just for the pain to stop.  It is at least twice as painful as how I thought or anyone who's ever tried to describe the procedure to me (Yes, that includes you, Elizabeth An).  If you noticed in the photo, there are more than four wisdom teeth, with is the maximum number of wisdom teeth a human being can possibly have.  Wonder why it shows five in the photo?  Because Elizabeth An said they might have to cut my teeth in half to extract it, being that I'm so "old". 

So guess what?

They f*ing cut one in half before extracting it.  

So thanks Elizabeth An, you are the profit of the year, no one can predict other's pain better than you can.  You win.

Part 2 to be continued...

2007 Year in review

Yes, I know.  This is a terribly cliche'd thing to be doing.  After all, perhaps at least 90% of the people in the world who blog would have posted this same entry, in a form or another.  And I was always one of those presumed 10% blogging population who never did write about my 200X-Year-In-Review.  Well, here it is.

Before I begin though, I just want a chance to explain for myself on what made me sit down on 8 a.m. New Years day and write an entry on something as cliched as a Valentine's day rant on Craigslist. (Update:  my friend Tess has since popped in the movie "The Holiday" and we ended up falling asleep to that until Ben and Jess woke us up 3 hours later, hence this post being published 2 days after the New Year celebration.)   As a kid, my parents would ask me about MY year in review.  Mainly on Chinese new year, but it serves the same purpose.  Back in high school, my review generally is surrounding my then aspiring swimming career.  I would say something like "I got 2nd place in whatever event in some important swim meet of the year" to my dad.  And usually the response I'd get will be "So...when are you going to be 1st place".  You get my point.  It wasn't too bad, since part of being a kid is that there's always endless possibilities and I always, ALWAYS believed that I was going to see my rival in the next important qualifying time trial and beat him, even by a touch.  And that was fine.   What was not fine was when my mother started asking me the same question, but will not allow me to rejoice in the positive happenings but instead, to dwell in my mistakes.  And I remembered hating that, but subconciously, I was slowly getting brain washed into having the same exact pessimistic philosophy my mother held.  To be quite frank with you, I can see why she did that.  As much as I hated it, part of growing up and looking back also made me realize the pros and cons on methods my parents used in the upbringing of my brother and I.  She wanted me to keep competing, even with myself, and never feel like I've done enough right in life, and never feel like I've ever trully won.  I get it.  But this type of thinking is becoming increasingly harder and harder to live with.  I am not the best just yet.  I'd like to be, but I'm still getting there.  Yet everyday I feel like I'm not good enough, not for myself, not for my surroundings, never...for my parents.

I believe I'm slowly getting over the fact of feeling not good enough, and I believe that making myself write a review on my year will help.  This doesn't mean I've accepted second-rated work from myself, it just means..I can see the positive elements in my life and build on that.  So, without further a do, here it goes.

2007:

-Bought a new car, paid full premium insurance for the first time in my life, and managed to always get a full tank of gas.

-Paid off all my debt.

-Got a promotion at work (technically it was late 2006, but the raise didn't kick in until 2007).

-My uncle passed away, and that actually brought me back closer to my aunt.

-Became eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship and realized that I need to find the extra $600 to do it (Anybody want to contribute?)

-Still, did not lose weight.

-Statyed single

-Hung out with the brother more often than 2006, which is something I meant to do.

-After more than 10 years of separation, my sometimes very childish parents finally started filing for divorce.  Keyword:  Started.

-Lost some commitment toward my church due to the new increasingly busy schedule.

-Wisdom teeth's been hurting since summer and for some strange pathetic reason, it is still in the back of my jaw and is currently hurting as I type.

-Played through the Rabbit game on Wii within 5 days, and watched the entire season 3 of Grey's anatomy in 2 days.

-Rocky and Joce got married, Vincent got married, and a crap load of others got engaged.

-I turned a quarter century old.

I know some of the above listed items are definitely random and completely irrelevent to the topic.  But I tried.  I never remember what  happened when I'm trying to look back.  All I know is, this is definitely a much better year than the previous 3.  Wait for the new year resolutions to come.

P.S.  I had a pet peeve just for this "P.S."  that occured while I was stuck in traffic today, but now I can't remember.  So we'll have to come back to that.

P.S.S.  I had something else here specificly for this "P.S.S." but I can't remember that either.

...more to come.

Happy Holidays....!!!......Screw you....!!!....

Thanks to the very generous Christopher, during the annual very un-surprising Kris Kringle with the gang.  This below right here, is what I got:

So yes, after a year of waiting, and not wanting to spend $59.99 at Fry's when the DVD  rolled out in September, I finally got re-hooked on the show I once was addicted to.  So, yay.

Holiday season drives everyone nuts, including yours truly.  Next to the mandatory family visits, church attendances, and optional new year resolutions (which always sound ABSOLUTELY mandatory when you repeat it to yourself).  However, I'm seeing this holiday season quite differently.  I'm being pushed into a promotion I desperately do not want, picking up extra duties at church to fill in parts for things missing from my peers due to illness while trying to balance it with my side projects which are quickly climbing my list of priorities.

But it's good, it's very good.  I got something to look forward to, a self-set deadline on projects I care about, and definitely a motivation bigger than ever to keep the deadline alive, keep the projects going, just to hope for a chance NOT to work for somebody else again.  I'm doing much better than last year, the year before, and most definitely the year before that.  And I'm glad to look back on 2007 and say "Hey, I did much better than a year or two ago!"

That's all that counts, to my brother, my dad, my dear friends, and most importantly..myself.  I hold myself accountable to people around me and myself, and that's what counts.

To quote Ben, Jess, and the poor traffic lady at the mall on Black Friday:

"Happy Holidays...!"

"F*** YOU!!!"

Re: Unmentionable Politics

Refer to my "Unmentionable Politics" post and then proceed to reading this entry.

You got fired, I didn't. Thanks to all your rude comments and logistically incomprehensible arguments and excuses, it just makes this moment for me (among others) so much sweeter. Even though I don't know why it's happening now, a month or two after you finally figured out how to do your job.

But yeah, I'm an asshole who kept my job and you're an asshole who didn't. Too bad.

You pissed me off!

I'm known to be quite an ass, both by my friends and the general public.  But in reality, not many things in life really offend me.  

Not many = there are still just that one or two little things that bug me.  And as long as you stay away from those two little miniscule things, we're good and cool and all that groovy crap.

But you couldn't keep your damn mouth shut, you just couldn't.  What drove me even more angry was that you deliberately triggered one of the issues I get offended about the most right in front of me, with no pretence or even an inkling of consideration for me.  You just showed me that you don't really care that you're burning bridges and you'd pour the gas right on me and burn me too if I was dumb enough to let you do that.

So you know what?  Kiss my ass and don't expect another word from me.

No England for me!!

Ever since the immigration process started with my family, we try what every foreign families do. We try learning the language, the custom, the culture (though in Los Angeles, that's a broad word). And for us kids, it's alot of learning how to dress, how to utilize our already developed language skills, and of course, reading and translating for our dear folks on all those groovy insurance and tax documents.

I'm not exactly what most people call a "twinkie". I'm kind of a hybrid, crossed between a fob, and an actual twinkie. I'm not exactly a fob, I'd like to think I have enough command of the current pop culture and speak with enough ease. Yet I can't honestly say I qualify for a twinkie. I make random grammatical mistakes during conversations, and am absolutely clueless with "Scene-It TV Edition" being the fact that most shows included in the game was before I had arrived in this country. My friends exchanges looks and says "Before his time" when something that had been mentioned in the conversation pops up and I look clueless, all in good humor though. But you get the point.

In the office, on the e-mail. With more than sufficient time to think, re-think, write, re-write, revise...I am more than capable to construct a professionally structured e-mail. With just the correct tone, enough sophistication in my choice of words, sometimes even just a hint of sarcasm mixed with a touch of humor. This has carried me long and far in my stay with my current company and in some cases, have made me an extremely likeable person (at least on e-mails) or even gotten me in a bit of trouble at times. Nevertheless, the office looks at me, treats me, and I think, trully believes that I was born and raised here.

Through high school, as my brother has stated perhaps more than once in his respective blog(s), that most of us as an identity issue. I've had it, he's had it, the kids I mentor at church has it. Very few people are lucky enough to escape this grasp of nature that just seems to grab hold of you as your puberty comes rushing in one morning during your morning piss. One day, somehow, I just woke up though.

"I'm a Taiwanese boy"

I am. And that took a lot of burden off my shoulder. I didn't have any problems admitting the fact that I speak 3 other languages fluently besides English. I didn't have any problems admitting that I in fact, love chinese food. I love ground pork marinated in soy sauce on rice. Yes, rice. I don't get what the deal is making fun of Chinese people eating rice. Brazillians eat rice, so does Spanish, Mexicans, and Indians. We don't make fun of Americans eating Potatoes, or Europeans eating bread, so why the Asians VS. Rice?

Anyway, that's off topic. So, self realization brutally yet mercifully ripped me from my juvenile identity crisis. And I've been blessed with my new found pride with my own race, my own culture, even my own stereotypes.

So today, the boss woman calls me in:

Boss Woman:  So we have a client in the UK

Me:  Yeah?  (seemingly unaware what that fact has anything to do with me)

Boss Woman:  They'll be going through meetings and will need an interpreter

Me:  Yeah?  (I'm busy as hell and what does that have anything to do with me)

Boss Woman:  Can you go?  Or recommend someone to go?

Me:  Oh..when is it (fighting hard to supress my rising excitement)

Boss Woman:  This Sunday

Me:  Oh yeah, I think I have enough time to get things done, I can make it

Anyway, that's the jist of it.  The fact is, the company doesn't even know if they want to send me, or find some clueless poor soul locally in the UK to do the job.  Either way, I was excited that I "might" go.

Then it hit me.....visa issues.

I came home, got on the UK embassy, found the list of the countries that are required to get a Visa when entering the UK.  And what the f* do you know, Taiwan's on that list.

On the other list, which lists all the nationalities not having to obtain a Visa to enter the UK, US is number 1 on the list (well of course, everywhere but the Middle East takes US Citizens).  Then a few other huge countries like Australia and such.  Then at the very bottom...Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was lent to the UK for 100 years since 1897 by the dumb ass China who loses a war and lends out different parts of countries as compensation to kiss ass (Taiwan to Japan in 1897 but Taiwan had since fought their own land back on 1911 during World War I).  

Taiwanese people needs a Visa, but our cousins over in Hong Kong is free to enter and leave.  This is the first time I ever hated holding a Taiwanese passport.

Rant over.

This is me

This is Peter

This is Jenny

This is Rocky, and his wife Joce in the back seemingly unaware of what her husband is doing up front.

And of course, the liars gang

I often wonder, with a personality like mine, along with a temper worse than Mike Tyson if Holyfield had forced a french kiss on him. How did I come to keep my friends over the years. Let alone these friends who'd actually stick with me after all these years. And I think the recent Mastercard/Priceless commercial speaks best of it.