Injury and food

10.25.04 (9:09 pm)

Well, I hosted a night of BBQ and Karaoke on Saturday night it went extremely well. I had prepared some great BBQ stuff as well as a nice Jicama based slaw with a kick. All the food turned out nice to my satisfactions. The Karaoke set up worked out well also. I just bought a mic stand and TV stand to go along with my current set up and everything worked except for a wireless microphone, which was not useable due to intereference. Grrrrr. I suspect my wireless phone is at fault because it shares the same frequency. So my backup was wired microphone which worked fine except for the cords which was a bit shorter than I would have liked. One thing that made it difficult was my ankle injury I suffered Thursday night playing volleyball. I landed on someone's foot while blocking and came down hard and result was a high sprain. I will be off the courts for a bit. This is 3rd time I suffered this type of injury on my right ankle and despite having Active Ankle on, it still was pretty painful. At least with Active Ankle, I was able to walk, gingerly, to my car and drive home. By Saturday morning, some nasty bruises showed up on sides of my foot. It was as comical as it was painful trying to get up for the BBQ. I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. I managed to set everything up and the clean up was easy as well so it was not as bad as it could have been. I definitely enjoyed the weekend. Thursday morning, I am off to New Orleans for 3 days. I am looking forward my first vacation in nearly a year. I intend on eating and drinking myself silly. Good thing I am only 3 blocks from the French Quarters. I guess I can walk (or more like stumble) home after late night parties. Will keep you updated on it. - eben

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Star Wars

10.18.04 (7:19 pm)

I went and bought the new DVD set of Star Wars episode IV-VI a couple of weeks ago. I finally had a chance to see if over the weekend. Watching it brought back a lot of fond memories from the 70s. I remember in 1977, I was in 8th grade. Star Wars episode IV came out that year and my friend Matt's mom took a bunch of us to the Coronet theater in San Francisco to see it. I have never really seen a Sci-fi movie before, except for the cheesy black and white movies from the 50s (made with a minimum budget and they showed it). I remember sitting in the 2nd row of the theater (Coronet theater had one of those large curvature screens so you were almost surrounded by the movie in the front rows) and just being awed by the movie from the first shot. I never forgot the first line of the movie spoken by C3PO "Did you hear that?" I remember the scene near the end when all of us were leaning to one side in our chairs to the direction of the X-wing fighter as it swooped down in to the trench. It was a truly a magical moment for me. Those were the innocent times I miss now days. I don't remember hardly any crimes in school. We never had metal detectors at the door. No one brought a gun to the school, let along shoot anyone. May be it happened in other schools but not at schools I attended. Maybe we were too innocent and naive. Our idea of good time was getting together on Saturday night to play poker, drinking root beer and eating cookies. Worst things we did was to toiler paper our favorite teacher's house. Well, there was this one time toilet papering Russian Embassy (or was it a consulate) in San Francisco but that's whole another story. If any of you watched the movie Dazed and Confused, you probably can understand what it was like in those days. Althought I rarely took to the vices of those days, others have. Drugs? Yes, there were drugs in those days. Drinking? Yes. Fast cars? Yes. Sex? Yes. Violence? Not much as I remember it. I think that is one of major difference between now and then. Too much violence in schools. Anyways, it was a nostalgic moment about the whole thing and gave me a good, glowing feeling for the rest of the weekend. - eben

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Busy

10.14.04 (6:16 pm)

Well, it's been so busy at work, I hardly had time to breath. I like working hard and able to see the results of my work making an impact on the company. However, it's hard to pull several 12 hour days in a row. My body, at my age, really wears out. I have been missing out on regular workout and I have gained weight. I don't feel healthy at all. I hope things will calm down in a few weeks and I can take it easy for a bit. I hope. Another news, I will be going to New Orleans at the end of this month for 3 days. I have never been there. I will be sure to take a lot of pictures but mostly I will be drinking and partying so I am not sure how much of it I can get done. I will be staying a few blocks from the French Quarters. My trip to Los Angeles this weekend was cancelled last night. Kind of close call. I was going down there to help a friend with a video project, working as a camera man. However, something came up and he postponed the shooting. Oh well. I was looking forward to getting out of town but I guess I will have to work instead. Well, meeting is called and I have to get going. Will post more later. - eben

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Lessons I have learned

10.04.04 (9:15 pm)

Well, over the last 42 years, I have learned some valuable lessons. I am sure many may disagree or think it's too obvious but I thought I'd share them with you. 1. Carpe diem, carpe nocturn: Live the day, live the night. This is my personal philosophy. I have learned that I can only change my perception of the world, not anyone else's. I used to go to a party, gathering, BBQ, whatever and try way too hard to fit in. I used to be so self conscious about myself and what I look like and try to impress others in to liking me. I have learned that harder I tried to be someone who I thought others wanted me to be, more isolated I made myself. Now, I try to live for the moment, just enjoy where I am, the food, the music, the surroundings, whatever. 2. Don't treat others as you would like to be treated. I used to try to be nice to everyone. Too nice in fact. Once I issued my credit card to a co-worker's name so she can shop with a credit card. She never paid me back on a lot of the money. I used to volunteer lending my cars, books, DVDs, CDs etc., only to see them returned less than the condition they went out. I used to volunteer to do the hardest job in a group because I wanted it get done just right. Well, I learned that all that did not give me the satisfaction I thought it would of helping others. It's good to be selfish sometimes. Matter of fact, you don't have to be nice to everyone all the time. I found that old girlfriends seems to be more interested in me if I treated them indifferently or even sometime not nice. It doesn't feel good sometimes to do that but it help me with my personal psyche. 3. You need to know what you have and what you don't and use your strength to your advantage. I used to be so envious of those men who can pick up any women they want. It's not always the looks or the money, they just seem to have a natural knack of approaching a stranger and taking them home with them. I heard stories from a few who had these talents and used to think why can't I do that? I used to be depressed about it. Well, I learned that that's not who I am. I don't have certain talents but I have some skills that others don't. I learned to use those skills to my advantage and not worry about things I was not borned to do well. 4. If I don't get it done, it won't get done. Being still a single male, I have learned that dishes, clothes and stuff don't get done by itself. I used to be lazy and just leave it until it gets pretty bad, I mean how many times can you wear the same underwear? I learned to do priotize my things to do and get them done in orderly fashion. This is a big step for me since I am world's worst procrastinator. I will put off anything I can to tomorrow. This is one lesson I learned that really helps me in real life. 5. Never stop learning. Even since I was little, I have been a very curious person. I learned to read when I was 4 and never stopped. I enjoy reading new things more so than old things. I won't be able to quote some poetry from Poe but I have pretty good perspective on world events, specially outside the US. I learned to read something before I go to sleep in my bed for at least 15 mins every day. That helps me keep up with many subjects, not in depth but width of knowledge. The benefit of this is that you can connect instantly with just about anyone you meet. Once you have something common to talk about, it's really helps breakdown the barrier. 6. Learn the both sides of the argument. I learned that to know how others are thinking I have to understand their point of view. I mean I love to discuss (read argue) about anything. Any subject will do. I hate admitting that I am wrong about something, although I do often. The best discussion is understanding both sides of the issues and able to counter any possibility the other person may bring up. It's even better if you start up the discussion with their point of view and counter it right away. No response, case close. 7. Try it, not just read about it. Pretty obvious here. Don't just read about something, experience. I hate people who oppose something yet they have never experienced it. Good example of this is when a controversial movie comes out, ie Passion of Christ, some group vehemently oppose it without even seeing the movie. That's exactly what happened to it, people started to protest the movie before even the movie was released. It took a good review from some religious leaders before the controversy died down but come on, seriouly, how can you oppose something you have never seen? Many will argue that you don't have to see/experience since they know in their heart it's the wrong thing. Like pornography, I have heard from many that says that I don't have to see it, it's just wrong because I heard it was. A typical reponse from very closed minded people. I will always try to form an opinion after I have experience it rather than before. Well, I have more but this will do for now. Will post more. - eben

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