I just got back from visiting my parents in Illinois last night and I really had a great break. As I was taking a break from work and a chance to spend some family quality time with my parents, I realize I was also taking a break from computers as I didn’t really spend much on a computer during the break. It was what I needed; I’ve been on a computer too much. Now I’m back at work and on the computer, feeling refreshed and aim to finish the projects that I’ve started. I’m not good at finishing projects. Ahh.

I saw a number of people over the break—most of them I haven’t seen more than a year and it’s interesting to see how much we have changed and I remember I was pretty insecure back then but now I find myself more confident and able to discuss different topics that I wouldn’t have been capable of holding the conversation a year ago. Oh yeah, wearing a blazer really does make a difference.

Someone special is coming here this Friday. Yay. :-)

Heh cool. I can post from my sidekick using the web browser. It wouldn’t work before without javascript support. Now it does, and I’m able to post from here. Cool.

I’m on the last plane to bring myself home to springfield, IL. My mom is gonna pick me up. Usually, dad would also go but he has to work tonight, his last before he’s off from work for a week. So, mom and I are gonna have lunch when I get there.

I notice airports have gotten better as compared to last year, with the screening and new fed dept in charge of security. Check-in wasn’t too bad but I had to be alert and look for a shorter line or get into a fast queue. I thought I was a little late but I got to the gate in time.

The plane just moved, so I better hit the submit button before I lose wireless service. :-)

I pretend I’m in a movie, like that movie about a boy trying to get home for christmas and he was the “cute” boy in home improvement with Tim Allen. Only if I could remember the name… Know what I’m talking about? Yeah, you do? ok great…

There’s a few things I gotta do when I step inside my parents’ home. This is the longest time I’ve been away from home. Let me calculate… the last time I was home was uh may.. wow, I can’t remember exactly when. It’s been that long.

I realize I’m no longer a kid who asks dad for some change to play video arcale. How do I know? because this is the first time I’ve paid my own airfare without asking my parents for some help. One thing that will never change. The refigerator is full of foods and all free!

-My parents have tons of things in the house. I gotta find a way to get rid of the things. Selling on ebay is one way.
-I gotta fix my parents’ computer; it probably has more virus than the bird flu.
-I gotta test the cable speed and see if I can get the upload rate up to at least 256 kbps.
-Got a few projects to work on, in which two of them I’m hoping to unveil over the break.
-I plan to do all the cooking for my parents. I was already a chef before I knew it. I will talk abt that later.
-What better way to de-stress? snowboarding! I found out there is a snow resort not very far from my home, about 2 hours away. That means I can go riding where in the past, I thought I had nowhere to go.
-There’s a big poker tournament coming up on the 30th of Dec. This will show how much skill I have in poker. Details to folllow.
-I gotta spend time with my family of three—dad, mom, and grandma—and life is not getting any shorter. On other related news about family be sure to have infant nail scissors for your baby’s fingernail.

Oh, I remember the name of the movie now. It’s called “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and the boy’s name is Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Any of you ever watched that?

Warning signs slow cars better than cameras

Auto Express said checks in England showed 25 per cent of drivers speeding at speed camera sites, but only 16 per cent at flashing speed limit signs.

Now, this is something to consider! Do you have any idea how many cameras does DC have? More than fifty but not all of them are used for speed ticketing. The largest automotive organization, AAA, has declared DC as a top strict enforcement area, which is the first time in 105 years. Last October, DC fined $2.9 million dollars from flashing at speeding vehicles and since 1999, it has earned more than $122 million dollars. The officials keep saying it’s to make the area safer. Yeah right! Dear DC officials, what do you have to say after this article? Doesn’t that contradict your point of making the area safer? You’re just using us to take our money out for your own benefits.

Oh pul-eeze…

In about 6 months or so, I’m gonna be out of here!

I would have posted pics when I got back except I was too tired and exhausted from snowboarding for about five hours straight. Bummer, I forgot to charge my camera so the battery ran out when we got to the top of mountains (hills). Nonetheless, here’s the pics. :-)

I started learn how to snowboard three years ago when RIT offered a PE class in snowboarding with a discount pass, so it was a good time for me to learn and use the deal. But I didn’t even snowboard once last year as I moved to DC, started my first real job and was basically in middle of everything that’s going on. Now I’m more settled this year and after living in DC for more than a year, you definitely want to get out of DC whenever you can. So, last sunday was a great time to be out of DC.

I was really rusty when I started the first run down the slope and I told Blake that I’d read in a mag that about 1 in 6 snowboarders get hurt and I sure hope I’m not gonna be that person. He said not to worry and just take your time as u build up confidence. As soon as he said that, he went off, zooming down the slope. I was like holy shit, he’s already gone! I gotta try and catch up. Down the slope, I fell or slipped a few times, not really used to riding the board in a long time and I felt like I was a beginner all over again. I told myself to be in control of my board and take my time without going too fast. Eventually, I was able to pick up and after a few runs, I became a lot better and able to stay with Blake but he’s way up on a different level than I am. I have a long way to go to become as good as he is. He can jump high while my jumps are a joke, barely lifting off the ground.

One big drawback about this ski resort is that they don’t serve alcoholic beverage! Instead, we got some coffee. And overall, the entire resort is pretty small but is the nearest resort to DC. There’s a bigger resort in Wisp, abt 3 hrs from here. I’m gonna snowboard as much as I can and get ready for Colorado later this year! :-)

Life’s too damn short. I’m gonna go snowboarding at Whitetail!!!

Will post again after I get back. Can’t wait!

Someone is definitely right. “When in doubt, go.”

I’m glad I went to the Argonaut Bar despite the fact I went alone. Well, I realize there’s nothing wrong with that. Just go, and you might be surprised at what u’ll get.

I just learned that I may have a mild case of AHD or maybe a severe case at that but I hope not. Thanks, Blake, And hope we’ll go snowboard this weekend! Remember what I said: if we see a single snowflake falling, we go!

It’s funny. I did go to the GSA party last Saturday night and oddly enough, I felt somewhat alone there, although a good number of people went. But tonight, I didn’t feel alone, even there were less people who went but I happened to know more people personally and that’s what it made it worthwhile.

And I found someone who’s actually more serious at golf than I am and that’s gonna motivate me to play golf more often and be competitive.

Lastly but not least, I finally met someone who understands the myth that it’s completely untrue that someone who could hear doesn’t mean that s/he could speak well too. I’m one of those people.

:-)

Saw this on someone’s blog and thought I’d share with you guys. A good perspective on life and money.

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.

“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life.”

The American interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”

“And after that?” asked the Mexican.

“With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.

“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? Well my friend, That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?” said the Mexican.

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoying your friends.”

And the moral is: know where you’re going in life; you may already be there.

Monkeysphere. I beg you to click and read the article. It may be wordy and require a few brain cells to process it. If you get it, you get it. :-) Basically, everything is irrelevant unless it’s personal to you (by being in monkeysphere with you).

Some random thoughts:

I always try to remember Ben Franklin’s twelve rules and one of them is “Incentive is everything.” Want to see something done? You gotta give that person some incentive to do it. Most of the time, it’s money but it can be anything else (negotiating comes in play here) and everything can be an incentive, I mean everything, like sex. One example was that in the last few days, I had four people IMing me right out of the blue. They were the kind that rarely send me an IM or at least initiate a conversation so I immediately knew they wanted something from me. Sure enough, I was right. They were asking if I had heard about this apparently new money pyramid scheme – monavie. I told them I’m not interested and I heard nothing more from them after that. Again, incentive is everything.

Do you know that Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity not only applies to time or physics only but also to other things? Like a person is only blind WHEN someone else can see aka “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.” Einstein’s theory simply states that one object has certain qualities when in relation to another. When I think about it, it’s really true. We can’t say this is the best camera we’ve used till we’ve tested others cameras first. Or this girl is really hot-looking after we’ve looked at other women. In a way, theory of relativity is just like comparing and contrasting—finding these qualities that one has and another doesn’t.

I love learning.

Mom: Are you still at work?
Me: Yes, I am.
Mom: Do you know it’s snowing in DC area now?
Me: Really, it’s snowing hard?
Mom: The Weather Channel said around 1 to 2 inches of snow expected.
Me: Ah ok, I’ll stay here till 8 pm after traffic eases up a bit.
Mom: Ok, if there’s zero visibility outside, don’t try to drive. Stay at a motel.
Me: Mom! I’m sure it’s not that bad.
Mom: You never know. If it’s that bad in the broad daylight, imagine how bad it’ll be when it’s snowing.
Me: I’ll let u know when I get home.

An hour later and we’re on VP (videophone).

Me: I got home ok.
Mom: I can see that. Were the roads bad?
Me: No, it was just a wet road and there was not much traffic as I thought.
Mom: Ok good, I’m happy you got home safely.
Me: Yeah, oh, speaking of snow, could you send me my snowboard boots, gloves, goggle, and pants. I forgot to bring them back with me.
Mom: *shakes her head* ok, I’ll tell Dad to get them. Where did you put them?
Me: It should be either in the garage or in my closet.
Mom: Nothing new; can’t remember where you put stuffs.
Me: you know me.

Dad: Ok, I found them. So, do you want it to be fedex-ed or ground shipping through PO? (my dad works at a post office.)
Me: Uh, how long will the ground shipping take?
Dad: It’ll take abt 7 days.
Me: that long? could you make that in 3 days?
Dad: Ok, I’ll put it through first-class.

And I don’t mean it in a manical way or I’m a psychopath. You know, I mean as being sick with flu-like symptoms or common cold. It all started last Friday morning when I woke up and felt an itch or like having a tiny sandpaper in my throat, making it a bit uncomfortable for me to shallow. I can’t lie but admit that I do have a male ego (it’s a good thing that I admit it, right?) so I refused to believe that I was getting a sore throat. It’s probably cuz I was slombering, not keeping my mouth shut while sleeping (how male that was). I figured that a cup of Listerine will clear up everything in my throat and have a little Coke in my throat to fizzle them away. I got ready to go to work and when I got into my cube, the “sandpaper” in my throat just won’t go away and I decided to get myself a glass of water in a second attempt to free up the sandpaper’s coarseness in my throat. However, the sandpaper wouldn’t just get smoothed up and continued to become rough. Now, I was beginning to realize that maybe I do have a sore throat and in the defense of that, I popped a Hall lorengze into my throat and hoped that it’ll melt everything away.

All of the sudden, I don’t feel so good and started to feel a little hot despite I was wearing only a short-sleeved shirt. I had this imagination that my body was collapsing like an old building that was destructed into pieces by a set of intelligent bombs around the concrete columns except it wasn’t that rapid. If you still don’t get it, well, imagine it like the two WTCs crashing down on 9/11 but in a slow-motion and you get the idea what I mean. As I reached for the kleenex right before I sneeze, I suddenly thought—I’m having a dreadful cold and coming down with flu-like symptoms. And my thought said to me, “Yes, Nathan, you’re sick.” So much for my male ego.

While I was going through all that, I was reminded by this short story I read a while ago during in the college. The story is called “The Death of Ivan IIych.” by Leo Tolstoy and you can read all about it at this. It talks about a guy who refused to believe that he was sick till it was all too late and he learns how to deal with inevitable dying. Then he discovered something worse than dying, if that’s even possible, was the frustration that people can’t understand or fathom the pain he was going through. This struck me particularly because the little things you do could have an impact on your life. Here’s what I mean…

The Slip

He was so interested in it all that he often did things himself, rearranging the furniture, or rehanging the curtains. Once when mounting a step-ladder to show the pholsterer, who did not understand, how he wanted the hangings draped, he made a false step and slipped, but being a strong and agile man he clung on and only knocked his side against the knob of the window frame. The bruised place was painful but the pain soon passed, and he felt particularly bright and well just then. He wrote: “I feel fifteen years younger.” He thought he would have everything ready by September, but it dragged on till mid-October. But the result was charming not only in his eyes but to everyone who saw it.

What did he say about his slip

“It’s a good thing I’m a bit of an athlete. Another man might have been killed, but I merely knocked myself, just here; it hurts when it’s touched, but it’s passing off already — it’s only a bruise.”

They were all in good health. It could not be called ill health if Ivan Ilych sometimes said that he had a queer taste in his mouth and felt some discomfort in his left side. But this discomfort increased and, though not exactly painful, grew into a sense of pressure in his side accompanied by ill humour.

The pain prevails

She [his wife] said he had always had a dreadful temper, and that it had needed all her good nature to put up with it for twenty years. It was true that now the quarrels were started by him. His bursts of temper always came just before dinner, often just as he began to eat his soup. Sometimes he noticed that a plate or dish was chipped, or the food was not right, or his son put his elbow on the table, or his daughter’s hair was not done as he liked it, and for all this he blamed Praskovya Fedorovna.

At first she retorted and said disagreeable things to him, but once or twice he fell into such a rage at the beginning of dinner that she realized it was due to some physical derangement brought on by taking food, and so she restrained herself and did not answer, but only hurried to get the dinner over.

The realization of his condition

After one scene in which Ivan Ilych had been particularly unfair and after which he had said in explanation that he certainly was irritable but that it was due to his not being well, she said that he was ill it should be attended to, and insisted on his going to see a celebrated doctor. He went. Everything took place as he had expected and as it always does.

The so-called male ego

The pain did not grow less, but Ivan Ilych made efforts to force himself to think that he was better. And he could do this so long as nothing agitated him. But as soon as he had any unpleasantness with his wife, any lack of success in his official work, or held bad cards at bridge, he was at once acutely sensible of his disease.

The coming of the pain

The pain in his side oppressed him and seemed to grow worse and more incessant, while the taste in his mouth grew stranger and stranger. It seemed to him that his breath had a disgusting smell, and he was conscious of a loss of appetite and strength.

The inevitability of the pain

There was no deceiving himself: something terrible, new, and more important than anything before in his life, was taking place within him of which he alone was aware. Those about him did not understand or would not understand it, but thought everything in the world was going on as usual. That tormented Ivan Ilych more than anything.

Well, read the ending of the story to find out what happened to him!

This is something what I would call a “Butterfly Chaos Theory” that the flutterings of a butterfly in the East (China) can acculumate to a hurricane in the West (Florida). As he had a small slip that led to his dying. So, what is exactly my point? My point is that I realize I’m sick and I’m gonna do about something. Any suggestions?

One month and seven days since I turned 24 years old, I’ve arrived at a point where I feel I’m in middle of nowhere. It’s hard to describe how I feel but the best I can explain is that I feel like a fifty years old man who’s having a middle-age crisis. So, likewise, I’m having a mid-twenties crisis. It’s not like I need a Viagra to help boost my life or spend my retirement money on some miatas. It’s more like arriving at a dead end and which way should I go? I’ve graduated from college last May and have settled into a government job with steady paychecks. I didn’t go to a graduate school like most of my friends do. My friend told me that I should consider myself lucky ‘cuz I have a job while those who don’t—don’t have anywhere else to go but a graduate school. Yet my other friend said they want to go to graduate school cuz they want to advance in their major or that their undergraduate majors require them to go further in their fields. Like even being an elementary teacher requires you to have masters degree in deaf education, child development, or the likes. Or they just want to add Phd. degree to their names. I suppose I didn’t go to graduate school cuz I was tired of pulling all-nighters to cram on homework or projects and that I want to see some $$$ and spend it while I’m in my twenties.

Now, my job isn’t exactly the greatest job in the world and it’s catching up on me—was it worth the decision? Well, I’m an optimist and I didn’t write this post to whine about my standpoint in this life. I’m gonna do something about it. As you can see the subject above, I’m gonna self-educate myself. After all those years I’ve attended schools and colleges, I’m going to take learning into my own hands. What am I gonna teach myself, you wonder? Somewhere in my blog archives, I’ve said that I’m a descendant of Korean lineage. And I’ve been meaning to learn Korean or Hangul language since I found my real family 3 years ago. You might wonder.. why now? why not 3 years ago when I discovered my family? Well, my excuse was that I couldn’t find anyone who can teach me. Lame excuse, huh? That was my excuse and rather being stuck at the dead end, I’m gonna teach myself to learn Hangul.

It’s interesting. For the last 3 years, I have been expecting my family to learn English so we could communicate in English and my brother has been learning tediously. Now I realize…why should I expect them to learn English? Who says everyone must learn English? Even English isn’t the most used language in the world; that’s Mandarian, which is spoken more than 1 billion Chinese people. I have a brain, I have a degree in IT, so what am I doing here, waiting for my family to learn English? It’s never too late to learn a new language—I’ll be like an infant–absorbing every new word and form sentences in Hangul. That’s my goal and I’ve made the first step toward that goal. I’ve ordered an introductory textbook from Amazon.com. You can find this below:

My possible regret about this is that I could have done this 3 years ago and by now, I probably would have been fluent enough to write a letter and happily keeping in touch with my family–with my biological mother laughing at my little errors in writing like an infant falling down while trying to walk. And I’d have a several pen pals from Korea, learning all about the culture and reading news in Korean effortlessly. Neverthelessly, I’m gonna start now and I’ll be posting my progress here and maybe along the way, I’ll bump into someone who can help guide me.

*signing off*

See the subject above? I’ve stuffed my stomach with buffet foods (courtesy of Korean foods) in the two days span. One on Friday night and last Sunday. There’s something so American about buffets. If you wanna know why more and more Americans are becoming obese, look no further than buffet places.

We love the idea that we can EAT for all we want and with that psychological effect, we CRAM as much as we can into our stomachs so the money we paid for the buffet would be better spent. We love the word—unlimited—so we have unlimited data plans for our pagers, and remember when AOL starts offering unlimited hours plan? We all jumped on this bandwagon and remain logged till computer monitors get burned.

So, buffets also means unlimited foods and we pretend we have bottomless stomachs and fill them in. As soon as we realize our stomachs are no longer bottomless, we start spitting out comments like “I’m gonna throw up!”, “My stomach is gonna burst open!”, “Oh, I gotta make a dump! Where’s the bathroom!?”. Isn’t that sound sad, doesn’t it?

One pro thing about the buffet, actually two things, is you can try a small portion of the dish and see if you like it or not instead of blind-order the dish and pray that you’ll like the dish. Second thing is that you don’t have to wait for your order to arrive and you can quickly look at all the foods and decide which one you’ll eat first. My dad would often fall victim to a bad dish or wrong order—maybe it wasn’t large enough or it simply tastes awful—and you’re basically stuck with your order unless you’re bold enough and demand another order.

So, what’s my point? While buffets may be a convenient way to “preview” choices of dishes, it lies at the root why Americans are becoming heavier everyday.

Tonight, I gotta hit the gym and burn those buffet calories to avoid becoming into yet another obese American.

Today, I turned 24 years old. 24, just like the Fox show, 24. If you’re Chinese or an avid lover of Chinese astrology, you know I’m a Rooster. That’s something I learned today that you can easily figure out somebody’s age by just asking them what’s their Chinese horoscope. Unlike horoscopes which are monthly-based, it’s based on a year and Chinese has twelve different animals, so there are 12 years. (Duh!) Unless you’re really lousy at guessing people’s age, you have up to 12 years as a margin of error. So, if you were to guess my age, I can be 36, 24, or 12. I don’t think I look that young at 12 nor old at 36, so I’m 24. I dare you to ask someone and ask her or him if they know what’s their Chinese astrology and you shall have their age. :-) (so rude, I know.)

I remember someone who got so distraught after she turned forty years old. It kinda surprised me that she would get upset. Did she just wake up in her bed and say “Oh my god, I’m 40 today!!”. She oughta know that it’s coming, no matter what, and she’s gonna break out in tears when her birthday came? Well, she should know that she’s getting older not by every 40 years but every second. We all are getting older by this sound of tick-tock, tick-tock. What are you gonna do about it? Let each second passes? No, I don’t think so and we all should make every second counts. Life’s a game and you only get one chance.