Katrina Kombat

My heart goes out to the people in the southeast. I just can't even imagine to fathom the situation that millions of people are in due to Hurricane Katrina, Category 4. Possibly the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Millions homeless. No power. No water. Martial law. National guard coming in to bring order. What do you do? The widespread looting that's happening. You don't have food water clothes. But it's wrong to steal. Do you starve. Your kids are hungry and thirsty. What is right? Pop quiz, hotshot. What do you do? Is this justified? Makes you look at what you have right now and be thankful. Sure I don't live in the biggest home nor drive the best car, but I'm blessed that I have a place right now. Puts things into perspective. Be thankful for what you have. And help people. One man can make a difference. Michael Knight knew this.

Here's how we can help:

Red Cross
Salvation Army
Operation Blessing
Mercy Corps

Here are some NASA before and after satellite images of Katrina's wake.

Zen and The Art of Automobile Maintenance

Car was in the shop for 2 days. It's the first big maintenance expenditure on my car since I got it few years back. Maybe it's about time. The only things I've done on my car was oil changes every couple thousand. A tire rotate there. New tires here and there. So I got a check engine light. Big deal right. I check the diagnostic codes on my car by flipping my ignition key off and on several times. So I have an evaporative leak. Whatever that means. Well that's apparently an emissions issue. Which there is a federal emissions warranty for most cars 8 year/80000 mile or 10 year/100000 mile, depending on the vehicle I guess. A hidden one. Make sure you ask about if you ever need your emissions systems worked on. Catalytic converter is covered believe it or not! But apparently that doesn't cover the evaporative vent valve apparently. Nor the labor. Blah.

So that's what's getting fixed along with my oil change. My trunk lid won't stay up, knocked me upside the head several times. Right, I wait until after the fifth bruise I decide to take it in. Stupid moi. So that's that, getting those trunk struts hydraulic lift thingies changed. Along with my front brake pads. Yeah. It's about time. Apparently they're really thin. I guess it's nice to be able to stop your car at will, so I decided to just go ahead and get it fixed even though it seemed pricier than going to your local brake shop. At least they use the OEM parts here. No third party brands here. I guess that's better. And they are gonna rotate the rotors on the car and not remove the rotors from the car which apparently is better? You brake people correct me if I'm wrong. So anyways that's the deal.

Hopefully this car will last me a couple more years. I need to find something to sell to offset this arm I paid for fixing everything. Kinda sucks. I probably got ripped, but I have to do some travelling might as well fix it all at once and not peace meal fix one thing after another at different places. Anyways, oh well. Safety first I guess. So like yeah I'm thinking I probably should get the rest of my engine or stuff checked out when I near a big mileage benchmark coming up. Get a thorough inspection of everything. Or something. I really haven't done much maintenance to this car the past couple years. Which is good I guess right? Harbinger of things to come, hopefully. A bellwether if you will. And no, I don't have that much experience working on cars, not a car guru. I think everything is cool, I think but I could be wrong. What do I know? Anyways, more later as it happens...

Give It a Rest, Will Ya

It's been a long time since I really got some good sleep. This morning I actually felt rested. Like refreshed. My heart felt like it was rested. Every inch of pericardium renewed. Like all my systems were rejuvenated. It's been a while. I guess I haven't had good sleep in recent days. Not enough REM sleep I think. One of the first mornings where I was up like at 7 something awake and not struggling to wake up with eyelids that weigh 100 lbs each. A nice change actually. I think I went to bed at 11 last night. Woke up like 7 something. Maybe it was the way I laid down. Hope it's not apnea. So anyways, sleep is one thing I think I take for granted sometimes.

One of the most neglected things in life, sleep is such an integral requirement in well being that we often overlook it and deprive ourselves of better being. I and the rest of my family are night owls so it's not rare that I stay up and hang til late in the morning doing whatever. In fact it's at night where I can concentrate more when I'm workings or whatever. Or maybe it's attritubed to my predilection for procrastination prevalent in my previous years. I remember working on various projects throughout junior high and high school, and especially college, up at all nights of the hour, going to Taco Cabana at 3:30 in the morning for some good beef fajitas. Working on a computer program. Or goofing off with friends at IHOP. Or crawling around in the underground tunnels under the university for fun. Well that's another story.

Yep so that's the deal. I guess I'm gonna try and get more rest when I can, since I'm no longer the 18 year old who could pull all nighters all the time. Especially to avoid muscle atrophy too. If you work out and not get enough rest, then it's kind of pointless since you don't give your self repair time so to speak to build yourself back up. Anyways, peace.

Here's The Deal, What I Feel, Like A Heel

Learn to say No sometimes. Someone once told me that you can't always say Yes to things. And I think that's true. If you said yes to everyone asking for favors and yes to every activity and event, yes to every fundraiser you can think of that are out there, yes to everyone asking for financial support, you won't have time for the person that should be the most important to you, which is YOU, and be out tons of dinero, Robert, too. Besides if you constantly say Yes to people, people will think you're a pushover and expect you to support them all the fricking time. You don't really want that.

Case in point a little boy about 7 years of age knocked on my door which I opened thinking it might be someone important. Of course, not understanding what the 'No Soliciting' Sign means on my door, he proceeds to solicit his item, pitching a coupon card of sorts. A book of coupons, I don't know what he's selling. It's like for school, blah, you can get discount at your favorite local eateries blah. I usually don't end up using it. In fact it makes you spend more money because you think you are saving by buying this and that to get a something free or cheap, when in fact without a card you wouldn't have gone to Fast Food X in the first place and go home and settle for a pack of Ramen or Spaghetti-O's. Or drinkeable pizza. Anywho. Most of these fundraisers are ripoffs anyways. A candy bar for like $8.00. Right.

So anyways, I took a look at his catalog, pretending to be interested, but in fact just buying time to think of a good excuse, as I didn't have any cash nor checkbook on me. I asked my coworker who was in the same room at the time, and he nonchalantly said a firm "No". And what do I do? String this kid on thinking I was gonna buy, briskly give the catalog thingie a thrice over, but I end up saying I probably wouldn't use this. So of course he walked out awkwardly. Maybe I should have said No from the get go to save the guilt. Ah social niceties. I guess sometimes it's better to get straight to the point and say like uh No and not make em think you're gonna buy. Oh well, it's not like I did it on purpose and derived any enjoyment from this. Ah well. C'est la vie mon cheri.

*Any man who hates dogs and children can't be all bad. - W.C. Fields [attributed]

* This does not necessarily represent the view of the author.

Jury's Out, Got Framed

So anyways, I get my first ever in my life jury duty summons on Saturday. I'm like uh OK what am I supposed to do. Terra incognita. To make matters worse, I see the summons date is for the Monday which I'm gonna be out of town on my extended weekend getaway. So I'm like what to do, since I'm not going to cancel my vacation for this. Yet I don't want to be held in contempt of court or whatnot and pay some biggie fine. I call some friends up for advice, googled to see if I can glean any helpful info on how this system works. I forget to ask Jeeves though.

Anyways I end up just calling the district clerk this morning and she transferred me to the district person guy whatever, and I just calmly told him that the summons date fell on my pre-planned vacation and if I could reschedule or something, and he was like, oh ok, so I picked a date in October. And he wished me happy vacation. So I guess I worried for nothing. Well, anyways I postponed the inevitable though, but hopefully everything turns out well. Just that I really don't know what to expect. You that feeling when you gotta do something but you've never done it before so it's like uh like yeah. Like you put Ramen noodles in first into the boiling water and then the flavor packet. Right.

Sure I think I've seen enough episodes of Matlock and The Practice and the like to kind of show me a semblance of what it's like, right? Jacko's ordeal. The Petersen trial. OJ. Lance Ito. Hey he's Asian. Fancy that. I should be OK. I haven't seen a lick of Law and Order nor its 15 spinoffs though. Law and Order: CSI: LA. TV is just too jam packed with these cookie cutter shows and stuff. More overly saturated than a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. What happened to originality these days? It's just about finding the money making franchise and milking this cash cow for all that it's worth. And then the whole reality TV debacle. C'mon people. A little creativity goes a long way. I digress.

The ethics and the moral grey area quagmire that lawyers must wade in, even submerged in at times, is just beyond me to comprehend about dealing with, a plain unsettling aspect of that life which wouldn't appeal to me even if my salary was 6 or more digits. The moral dilemma would just be too uneasy. It's all about trade offs. Do you trade your conscience in for money and power. Some would. I just soon rather not deal with it. Yes it's about protecting an individual's constitutional rights, but you know we live in an imperfect world with an imperfect system, and ay, there's the rub my friend. Heck my former roommate is a flesh eating lawyer now (no offense dude). He can probably vouch that he's seen stuff happen that isn't cool which I'd rather not hear about. Anyways.

In other news, I finally got myself back to the optometry store and picked out some new frames that I think will be cool for me, a new look. Something that screams, hey Mr. Trend. Or not. Maybe. I got every possible upgrade on the list, or almost. Yes I gave in and got Transitions lenses. The cool thing is that this is the fifth generation of their technology, so it's like really advanced technology. Like the method of the coloring the lenses is like super fast now and you can't even tell the lenses are modified, like you kinda could my first pair several years back with like Transitions 1.0. Coming back in from the sun, my glasses looked like they were micturated upon. I embellish. They had a funky yellowish jaundiced tint to them that were quite off putting but oh well. I got past it and my insecurity issues. So anyways, that's that. I should be getting these frames in a couple weeks so that'll be cool. Yes these are frames, but rimless, which is about the same weight as my drilled down lenses now. Alright folks, duty calls, take care.

An Eye For An Eye

Today I went to get my eyeballs checked out by the local eye guy besides I was a dork and hadn't used my vision plan this year yet. Nor last year. Idiot me, why deduct from my pay then. Don't ask me about the dentist. Yes I have had dental deducted too. But many many shiny instruments just remind me of a time that I just don't want to remember. Right. Mmmm sodium pentothal. Tastes great with crackers. Anyways so I finished the exam during my lunch hour and quickly browsed the available frames at the store but didn't end up choosing one yet since I am picky and want to at least get something that doesn't make me look like the geek I am already.

Maybe I can look more intellectual. I've had these frameless frames for a bout 2 years now, and they're a mixed bag. It's like, sure it looks kinda cool, but all the tensile stress is now thrust upon the 2 side and the junctions on the lenses where the bridge is drilled in connecting the two lenses. I'm actually on my second pair actually, luckily I had warranty and claimed it before the year was up. Like the lenses started cracking at the screws where they're drilled in. Kinda sucks. I've had the left over the left ear thing break off twice. You know you'd think these glasses would have gone through QA through and through, and the frames themselves, NON frames cost a blaring $300 ish. And that's with my vision plan discount, frames, Transitions, UV coating, scratch resistant, tint, sunroof, rims, turbo charged, nitro inject.

I've had Transitions lenses for the longest time now, within like 30 seconds of going outside or inside, they fade to black and then clear, respectively. It's pretty cool. Probably still more of a novelty thing since I don't know many people who have this feature on their glasses. It's like having one of those "Space Pen"''s that write underwater. Who the heck needs to write something underwater. Unless you're like a shark watcher taking notes. Ah he bit my arm off. Somebody please help if you read this. I'm writing with the severed arm. Take me to a second hand store down the street. In fact I don't know anyone who has Transitions, hey maybe I'm just way too cool, before my time, or I maybe I really just don't know anyone since I'm such a social butterfly.

Anyways they're cool and all but I'm thinking about not getting them this time. Aside from the fact that they are an unwelcome egregiously expensive addition to the final bill, it's just that taking pictures outdoors you actually never get to see my full face since it's all blacked out. Eyeballs that is. It's like automatic, not controllable. Wouldn't that be cool though to switch on the fly. I'm not talking about those weird looking magnetic sun visor lenses that go over your lenses. Then there are the ionized lenses which are kinda cool but unnecessary. What about night vision lenses built in. That'd cost an arm. But I digress. So anyways taking pictures sometimes I'd have to take my glasses off and it's so frickin bright that I'm super squinting so bad you can't see my face either. So I'm in a quandary. The dilemma. See what kind of problem I have . Y'all are worried about world hunger, peace and all that, and I have to worry about this!

Anyways, my friends all have contacts and stuff, and maybe I'm just a wimp since there just seems to be so much lead time required in maintaining that whole setup. Daily cleansing, can't fall asleep in them. Hard or soft. Exposure to noxious gases that might cause irritation. Getting too close to the campfire making your s'mores and accidentally melting your contacts onto your cornea from too-close proximity to the flame. That and the hair on your knuckles get burned off. Playing B-Ball outside of skool in West Philadelphia where you was born and raised and then having an accident and your eye gouged and the contacts lodged up in your ocular cavity threatening to sever your optive nerve. Yeah myopia would be the least of your worries at this point. Uh no, the horror, the horror. Don't wanna deal with that.

In conclusion, what was I saying. Well a lot of things. Optometrists. Opthalmologists. Oprah. Anyways, tomorrow I might get a chance to go shop and choose my frame and all the fixin's. So in honor of this occassion, I bring thee farewell with a haiku and may you see 20/20 in foresight, highsight, blindsight. See you later.

Hyperopia
Or myopia I have
Don't call me Four Eyes

Reunion Schmunion

Well so I just recently signed up with classmates.com. (I've been a longtime reunion.com member though). So I just hear we'll have a 10 year class reunion with about a week's notice. Well I'm having seconds thoughts about it. It'd be kinda fun to see where everyone was. But there were so many people I really didn't know. The bottom 90% of the senior class (about 487) so it'd be pointless to show up and just meet these strangers. Most the people I hung out with was of the nerd crowd, some a year or two younger, some older. The rest were just acquaintances, you know passing friends. Those you talk to exchange notes, shoot spitwads at, yadda but that's about it. Besides I wasn't really that social. I wasn't in the popular crowd nor in any cliques.

I'd rather remember what all the good times that I had and let my old friends live in my memory, and I don't need this faux get together to help me remember or remind me of what was high school, the acne, insecurities, peer pressure, and me as a young geek cultivating his geekness for the future world. So call me a stickler, party pooper. I just don't think it's worth: the $35 for dinner a person, bring a date, another $35, hotel for the night $100, rising gas prices $40, and the time and energy for a pretentious night of spouting faux social pleasantries while greeting a bunch of former classmates I didn't know (existed in some cases) and try to converse with those I kinda knew but didn't really share anything in common or what not that I don't really care about knowing about now or ever? Priceless. Well not really. It's my time, energy and money. I don't know, anyhoo. I just can't imagine how lame it'd be and I don't want to.

Besides I hate awkward conversations. Imagine what kind of dialogues would ensue. Like what are you gonna say, "So like yeah, high school, that was g-r-r-eat. My favorite subjects was recess and lunch. So like what do you remember? Detention hall afterschool. The action packed fights in the hallways. Hey who'd you have for History? Coach Carter? How bout our ol football team. No, I was gifted and talented and I didn't associate with those of your kind. I was on various state and national academic teams, making the school look good all the time. Putting everything I had afterschool and outside of school on competitions. Next question? Well this catered food is kinda good. What do you do? Small talk. Don't really like it. Can't say I'm the master of it. Or if I actually care at all. Maybe even apathetic. Boring. Anyways that's my take. I don't see what the big deal is. I occasionally email some of my old friends, but you know we're all busy and doing things now and moved on with our lives. You gotta put your behind in your past. And that my friend is the circle of life.

Hakuna Matata y'all.

Holy Lower Back Pain Batman

Dude I must have slept on my bad side or somethin. This morning I woke up with my back feelin funky. Not like I've done so much with my sedentary nature. Maybe it's all the aggregate exercise of getting up from the couch to go to the refrigerator that's doing it. Dunno. So naturally, I am blogging here about it. If anyone has any ideas for me, that'd be great. Anyways, I think I'll be fine.

I've gotten up before with a pain on the side of my jaw before and realized I had slept on it or cut off circulation on it. Oh yeah I slept on my arm accidentally one time and woke up and had no feeling in my arm. It was weird. I'm like, something ain't right here. Like you're swinging around dead weight, like a mannequin arm was attached to me or something. A little Bob Dole action going. Yikes. But then I do the locomotion or Hokey Pokey and turn my self around and the blood eventually returns to the arm. At least I didn't have to go to a second hand store. That's what it's all about.

Zero If By Land, Three If By Sea

Suddenly life doesn't really suck as bad as I thought...




















Anyone spot a Knight Rider reference in one of those pictures? I'll give you a cookie (or not) if you know.

Flash : Them Duke Boys Riding Again...

Hollywood has been Remake City of late, with Bewitched, Herbie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to name a few, so it's no surprise that a remake of Dukes of Hazzard would be around the corner, premiering tonight. With mixed reviews all across the board , most leaning towards the negative, it's tone is less family friendly, fueled by less than wholesome comedy actors as the beloved Duke boys and a slew of named cameos to fill out the other roles including those Daisy Dukes.

Regardless of the reviews, longtime fans will probably see it, though original Cooter actor Ben Jones opposes the new movie and deems it a travesty and urges fans not to go. I for one will see it, just to see the glorious General Lee ride again, Turbo Boosting that would make KITT proud. It'll be cool to see how stunt choreography has improved over 20 years. Anyways, that's the 2006 Dodge Charger that just came out, painted in the vein of the General Lee, which was originally a 1969 Dodge Charger. The movie uses the 1969 version. Yeehaw!

Taiwan: Rome Away From Rome

Guess what, I just found this post has been sitting in as an unpublished draft in my blog. (Originally edited Mar 19, 2005) It's a little dated, since my trip to Taiwan was back in March, but hey better late than never. Think of it as uncovering an unpublished work of Mark Twain or something. Or not. Without further adue. The Top 8 Comparisons. Forget the usual 10, let's try an even number of 8 for once. Who needs filler entries anyways. Look at Letterman's Top 10's. Normally 4-6 are kind of mediocre to lead you up to the top 3. Alright, I'm through now.


Comparisons to The Eternal City.

1) Traffic lights are a mere suggestion.
An optional thing - however should you choose to proceed on a red light, look both ways before crossing! (which you should actually do as well if you are following the rules)

2) Scooters everywhere like cockroaches
Constantly weaving in and out of traffic, parked in rows by the street. Since gas is expensive and traffic is so dense, this is the best way to get from your Point A to Point B. Just make sure you strap on that helmet and hold on tight as you Evil Knievel your way through the cars like a game of Frogger on steroids.

3) Steep hilly narrow alleyways
Probably more so in the smaller towns than Taipei. The small town 30 min away which I stayed at a couple days, reminded me with their little alleyways, lit orange a la Rome at night. Ah, Bella Italia.

4) Open air restaurants and marketplaces
This is what I'm talking about. Mosy around, and look, eat, buy, or whatever makes you happy.

5) Mass rapid transit system (MRT) efficient, fast, and clean
Awesome way to get around the city. Akin to Rome's Metro, London's tube. Also the buses are handy as well.

6) Hustle and bustle seems to never stop, growing more as night progresses
Hang out at night, go to the night market and shop and eat all nght, or go to a 24 hour dim sum, chill outside with a Caramel Macchiato at a local Starbucks. Ah. OK, so Rome doesn't have dim sum. Go grab un panino con formaggio e pomodori.

7) You follow the LLL (Local Lemming Law) when crossing major streets.
Why risk your life when a handful of locals will do it for you. Follow them when you need to cross the street. They know when the grace period is over between red lights and green lights.

8) Largely a food culture - everything revolves around the stomach.
This is so true. Romans and Twinos alike. Man it's always, what's for dinner, lunch, breakfast, etc. I'd like to take y'all out tonight. I probably gained 10 lbs. that first couple days, as we were treated to like 12 course dinner parties every meal. We were treated out by the county commissioner one time. Not that I minded or anything, but man my stomach was working overtime. Big time.

CiCi's: Pizza Not Worth Not Worth Dishing Your Dough Out For

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to duly divulge the lacklusterness of service, to assume the responsibility to heed thy fellow man regarding that which is unpleasant.These are the times that try men's souls...

What kind of restaurants, fast food nor otherwise don't accept credit cards as a method of payment these days? Even McDonald's and your chains do now, even offering Wi-Fi hotspots in the dining room. Not so at CiCi's pizza, the large pizza buffet chain known for their low prices. Well let me tell you, they better get with the picture because my last visit this Sunday was far from a pleasant experience. Let me regale you...

I walk in, line is kinda big, and come up to the register and I realize that they don't accept credit cards. I'm like escuse me, isn't this like 2005 and like we're a legit establishment, not to mention a national chain, why aren't we accepting cards. What's our target demographic, the common folk who can't afford the credit card? People don't always carry a large sum of cash anymore, and rely on their trusty debit card wherever they go for their financial needs. I'm at the counter, and there is this little POS terminal (Point-of Sale) and this is what they dubbed their mini-atm. For me, I ordered their buffet and a drink, and that totaled a $5.17. So I didn't that much cash on me. Sue me.

So I swipe my card at this POS, and it only lets you "withdrawal" 10,20,40,50. I chose 10. It took forever for it to dial up and approve the card and then print out the receipt to sign. I signed, then I had to give it to the cashier girl, who then opened the register and hand to give me the difference of the amount, $4.83. Oh, not to mention the use of this ATM is $.99! What a hassle. I grab my plate and drink and I'm off, hoping to eat off this feeling of dissatisfiedness brewing in me.

I get to the pizza bar, and there are nary any slices of pizza there. Isn't this a buffet? I grab what few slices are available, some funky flavor this and that, and fill up my tea, hoping that they would hurry up and restock the pizza. The line keeps getting longer, and the pizza less. There is definitely something wrong with the process here. This needs new management, or more efficient workers or something. I'm not one to claim to know much about restaurant business or pizza or whatever, but the customer to pizza ratio was pretty bad. Imagine a band of hungry rapid dogs looking for food and all there is a flavor of Cheerios.

Well long story short. I finally get the sausage pizza I was looking for, at the tail end of my meal, which of course what's the point of enjoying when you're already almost full. I had like 6 glasses of iced tea to help fill the cracks that the pizza (or lack thereof) didn't fill. Anyways, let me end by just saying that I probably won't be visiting this establishment again, yeah it cost $6.16, but it wasn't worth it, and I had an upset stomach that evening, doubling the blow on me. I'm sticking with Chinese for now. For real pizza I'll go to Pizza Da Baffetto near the Piazza Navona in Rome, where the service is excellent and the pizza is authentic.

Ciao kids.