Happy Birthday Hayden

Hayden with proud parents

Today is my nephew, Hayden's 1st birthday. We celebrated it with a party at Ryder Court Park in San Mateo. For parents looking for a fun place for their kids, Ryder Court Park is an excellent choice - it is a newly renovated park with nice grassy areas, picnic tables, and an aquatic playground, which is always popular among the children.

The park also has updated play structures as well as a nice trail along the shoreline. What a beautiful day to spend a day outdoors in the sun. Here are some pictures of my nephew - the birthday boy!!

A Tough Day

Today was a tough day at work. We got called into an early group meeting and our Prez made an announcement that some of the buying functions will be re-locating to Hong Kong, specifically the Watch & Jewelry, and Liquor & Tobacco teams.

About 4 years ago, our CEO, CFO and a team of execs relocated to HKG and established an executive office there. Since then, there had been an array of speculation that the SF merchandising office would soon move there. Years have passed and rumors soon subsided. But today, the news surprised us all. They are moving 2 out of the 4 categories to HKG.
What struck me hard are 2 things:

(1) Not too long ago (10 months to be exact) I WAS in the Watch & Jewelry team, which means if I HAD been still there, I could possibly (a) be asked to relocate to HKG, or (b) get laid off.

(2) Now that I am NOT in that team and unaffected by this move, I lose all my old friends and collegues. They will all be leaving soon and I am just so sad!

This is perhaps the 3rd major relocation announcement since I've been with the Company. Each time, the affected department is the exact one I WAS previously in. I don't know if I'm considered the "lucky one" who get spared of the relocation/lay off or the "unlucky one" who cursed the department.

The topic of the day is "would you move?" To be hired into our company, the first question the recruiter asks you if you are relocatable? If you are not, then you will automatically not pass the HR round. Yep, it is that simple. But you can say yes, but would you really move?? Would I move? I thought about it, and at this point in time of my life -- and if it is to Hong Kong, I would say yes. I really don't mind spending a few years in Asia, specifically HKG and China, and be part of the growing economies and experience the changes. I think it would be very exciting. But nope, not moving ... at least not yet.

End of August

Today is the last day of August. It's so hard to believe that we're stepping into Fall already. There is something about Fall that gets me a bit down. I don't know if it's because the sky turns dark earlier or the cold weather. Soon enough the orange pumpkins and brown leaves will show up in empty corner lots. And then in the blink of an eye, the Christmas trees. Another year, and another year older. Time just passes by too quickly.

Anniversary

Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of our first date. I still remember what a disaster it was!!

July 28, 2000 landed on a Friday and SQ had previously asked me out on a date that Tuesday of the same week. He had made dinner reservations at Baker St. Bistro for 7pm. He was working in Alameda and living in Berkeley at that time, and I was living with my parents in the Sunset. 5:30pm - he called and said he was running late because he needed to finish some things for work before he could leave. 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30 came and went. I was getting furious and really hungry. He ran late at work; he got stuck in traffic; he got lost on his way to my house. He finally arrived at 8pm. He brought me red roses. But what's the use? We blew our 7pm reservations at Baker St. Bistro. I was super hungry and we ended up going to Yummy Yummy, a local restaurant near my house, to eat Pho. Yep, a bowl of Vietnamese soup noodle - a $6 dinner. I got a stomach ache because I didn't eat at the time I should have eaten. I wanted to go home. He didn't know about my stomach ache and didn't want to end the date so early. He took me to Eclipse in downtown SF to have drinks. As we waited to get in, I revealed to him that my stomach really hurts. He drove me home. What a night. What a first date! Judging on how distratous our first date went, I sometimes wonder how we still ended up together?! But I am so glad that we did.

Dish #7 please

I went to San Jose this Saturday with 4 girlfriends - purpose was to look for bridesmaid dresses for IT's upcoming January wedding. But what is a trip down to SJ without a stop at a Vietnamese restaurant?? We stopped by lunch at Tay Ho, where they serve one of my favorite dishes, Banh Cuon. It is a steamed rice roll with ground pork inside, served with the veggies, the Vietnamese sausage, Cha Lua, and the Vietnamese fish sauce. It was soooo yummy, not to mention that I have been craving to eat this dish for a couple of weeks! In fact, just thinking about it makes me want to eat it again!!

SQ's birthday

Friday was my hubby, SQ's birthday. We celebrated the day with a nice dinner at Plumpjack Cafe on Fillmore and Steiner. We got there around 7pm and found a parking space right outside the restaurant! SQ ordered sea scallops for appetizer and the Rib Eye for his entree. I got the cream of corn soup and a Roasted chicken. Right as we were enjoying the food, Gavin Newsom walked in! He wasn't dining there, but walked into the rear of the restaurant (where we were seated) to wait for his takeouts. As you know, Newsom owns Plumpjack, so he was merely in his kitchen getting his dinner. He waited there and chatted with the staff for a while since the food wasn't ready. I took a few quick glances at him. He was well-dressed in a suit and tie, hair slicked back as usual, tall, and quite handsome. Ok, Ok, the birthday boy was handsome too.

Finally his food came and he walked out of the restaurant. It was one thing seeing Newsom on TV or in public event, but it's one thing seeing him in a private occasion. Odd. So we finished our food and shared an apricot tarte tartin. It was yummy.
Happy Birthday sweetie!

Family Camping

This past weekend, Sean and I went camping with my family at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenmore. It's located in the North Bay, about 7 miles away from Santa Rosa. It is a well-run and well-maintained campsite, with various hiking trails and beautiful scenery. They also have some modern conveniences such as a flushable toilet and running water. No showers though!


We drove there after work on Friday and got lost along the way. Nothing wrong with the directions given, it's just us. We weren't paying attention to the signs. We got there aroun 10pm - just enough time to set up tent!

The next morning, we did a short hike on one of many trails. We chose one that is well-shaded and not too long. This is one that is 1-mile long and shaded. It's pretty steep though as you can see in the picture. But it was good exercise. This hike is along a creek which also has a vista point of a waterfall. But too bad, it is dried up. We didn't see much water in the creek, nor any waterfall. We're definitely experiencing a drought this year.

After the hike, we went back to camp and grilled some hotdogs and hot links for lunch. Yum ! We rested a bit and played frisbees where we caught a record of 14 times without dropping the frisbee!! Yeah! That was tough! My sister MT created a scavenger hunt for us so we separated into teams for the challenge. We are graded for team work, creativity, and intelligence! And of course, our team won!!! We had to solve puzzles to get to the next clue, perform tasks and use our creativity to think of ways to accomplish the request. We are here brainstorming to solve the puzzles. We each won a gift certificate to Polly Ann Ice Cream!


After we were done with the game, we were hungry!! We cooked with our portable grill for our gourmet dinner! And I said Gourmet because we had chicken wings, steak, mushrooms, zucchini, and sea bass! It was delicious!! We were all so full!

Here is a picture with our tent, where we stayed for 2 nights. The ground was really hard because we didn't have mats. My back really hurts today, but it was still fun!

Group Shot (L to R):
Upper row: Ethan, Mary, Derek, Cindy, ME, and Sean
Lower row: Luck, Caitlin, Benny, Catherine, Bonnie, Carolyn, Cadence, and Crystal.
Missing from Picture: Herman and Evan

Pringles Reduced Fat Chips

Please, please take my advice: DO NOT BUY. It's not the same. 30% less fat, but 100% less the taste. Yuck.

Japanese anime

I think I've came to realize that no one reads my blog... but I guess that's OK. I tried putting a counter here once, but got too depressed to see that the only time it moved was when I logged on.




Anyways, I randomly looked into Japanese anime -- first on Wikipedia, and then watching the entire 6 episodes on You tube. This show is called I"S PURE. It's a sweet, romantic story about young love and crushes. The main character is the guy on top. He has a crush on the girl (pictured in the middle). Everytime he wants to tell her, he ends up saying something he doesn't mean. The gal on the bottom is his childhood friend, who went back to Japan to visit. And yes, you guessed it, she has a crush on him! Pretty interesting. The characters all have perfect features, why of course! Big eyes, nice skin, beautiful smile. It's nice to live in this fantasy world. I sometimes wish I can live in a fantasy world.

House Remodel II

Lesson learned this weekend: Too much variety = Bad idea.

My husband and I went to several construction stores along Bayshore on Saturday and were OVERWHELMED. There are so many tile choices out there - different manufacturers, materials, designs, colors, price ranges, etc. It is impossible to choose one. We finally decided to go to Home Depot and choose among the 9-10 styles they have there. We finally bought the American Marazzi tiles in Beige for the shower walls and a brown-tan-beige combo mosaic tile for the floor. I can't wait until I see the results!

We are also planning to replace all the doorknobs in our house so they all match with the new kobs that we have downstairs. We have a total of 12 knobs, not incuding the main entry! We bought the Pegasus solid brass round knobs in a satin nickel finish. Here is a before and after shot of our knobs!

The satin nickel finish makes our doors and overall look a little more modern. Plus, we have paint all over the old knobs. I know, little detail.

House remodel

When we first bought our 1-bedroom house 5 years ago, we know that we would need to eventually remodel the garage downstairs. Fast forward 5 years later to now, we are finally in the construction phase - or should I dare say that we're close to the end of construction. We are adding an additional bedroom, bathroom, utility room, as well as retrofitting the main garage area. And yes, all these are LEGAL. We got the permits for it, and will end up paying more in property taxes - but that's the trade off of going by the books.

It has been a 3 month ordeal so far... really hope to get everything done by June! Here are some pictures:


Mar 24, 2007.
Rough framing for the bedroom
Insulated floor, ceiling, and walls
Opened up an extra window to the backyard





Mar 31, 2007.
Re-routed and installed all new copper pipes throughout
New bathroom with customized shower stall
New tankless water heater






Apr 15, 2007
New Milgard double-pane windows installed in bedroom
New Milgard double-pane sliding door out to the backyard
Recess lights throughout

May 3, 2007
Photo is of customized shower pan
Built with layer of Durock Cement board for waterproofing
Porcelain tiles for the shower stall
Travertine flooring
Built-in case work for linens

x

May 20, 2007
Dryall all-round, including garage
Seismic upgrades, beam mounts
Solid bamboo flooring in bedroom & hallway

Badminton Sundays

I've been going to the Sunset Rec Center on Lawton 2 Sundays in a row now to play badminton. They have courts set up from 5:00-7:30 every Sunday evening. 5:00-6:00 is the family hour, so unless you have a kid under 18, you can not play. 6:00-7:30 is for everyone, so you basically sign up for 20 minute intervals of playing. The Sunday program is relatively new, because the Rec Center's badminton night is usually held on Thursday. They still have the Thursday badminton nights, so Sunday is an additional night. Sundays are definitely better for me since I don't have to rush leaving work and getting to the courts in time.

I haven't played badminton since high school, which is years ago. I am so rusty with my skills. Plus, I don't exercise on a normal basis whatsoever, so all the running around gets me panting in no time. But it's still fun. It's a form of exercising, in a fun way. I am less sore today than I was last week. That's always a good sign that muscles are being used...

Sur La Table

We finally ended our meetings on Thursday with a "team-bonding event," which is a cooking class hosted by Sur La Table. We got into teams and created one of the 5 designated dishes. The ingredients were half-prepared so all we needed to do was to finish up prepping and cook the meal. We then all ate each other's dishes. As fun as that sounded, after an intense 4 days of 10+ hour meetings, this is the LAST thing people wanted to do. Everyone was dead tired and hungry but we still had to "cook." I could tell that it was just something that people didn't want to do, but because we all had to be "PC," everyone just pretended to have had great fun. On the other hand, I must admit that the food turned out really good, mainly because everyone was so hungry by the time we ate (around 9:00pm). It was definitely a very long week.

It's Over

Whew!! I'm done with the presentation!! I tried to not get nervous until the very end. I could hear my voice crack and had to swallow to regain my normal voice back. I also spoke really fast and had to refer to my paper for the numbers. There are some words that I stumbled on, but it was good that I practiced a little bit beforehand. I didn't say some of the things I wanted to say. I think I was so nervous although people tell me that I wasn't. Only one person said I showed nervousness. I really hate giving presentations! I am so glad that I'm done. Now, I can sit back and relax a little bit for the remainder of the week. That's one of the good things about doing it first. Now it is other people's turn.

Presentations

I hate giving presentations, I mean I DEPISE giving presentations. I don't like it when I am at the center of attention. I don't like it when I'm the only one talking and all eyes are on me. The irony is that I am fine speaking out in a large group during a discussion. I am fine standing up to ask a question to the presenter in a large group. It just needs to be a two-way conversation. But when I'm the only one talking and other people are not responding but just staring at me, I totally FREAK OUT!! This is what happens: I stumble - my words come out sloppy and incoherent. I speak fast. I turn red. My legs shake. I get DAMN NERVOUS. It's written all over my face and my speech. I just don't have enough practice in giving presentations so I am very inexperienced.

So I have to give a presentation this Monday to 40-50 people, including very high-level people in my company. I am so stressed about it. I've been thinking about nothing but the presentation. I am so scared and nervous. I have butterflies in my stomach. Maybe I care too much. But then again, I don't want to end up looking like a fool. Why am I more nervous about this stupid presentation than going through jaw surgery? Dang it, it just doesn't make sense. I can't wait until this is all over. It would be such a sigh of relief. Hope I will do OK.

Executing my resignation

There are many times in my 7 years of working at this company that I think about quitting. Recently, it is more frequent than not. On my work roller coaster, I often go through valleys and peaks. Right now, I can only describe myself in the valley -- a deep valley. I find my current position so uninteresting, so unchallenging. I am damn bored. I've only been in this position for 3 months and I by no means know everything. But I'm still damn bored. I feel so sluggish and hate looking at the same stuff over and over. It's just unchallenging. So I have been thinking how the day would be when I turn in my resignation notice... how I would execute my resignation?? I will tell my boss first and then my assistant, and then down the list of people I like and hang out with first. I can already see people's reactions and their faces of shock. As in any gossip, the news of my resignation will fly in record speeds, so by this time everyone would have heard about it. Some nosy people will come to me and ask where I'm going. I might even get called in to the big boss's office to talk about why I'm leaving, where I'm going, and I should consider staying... but I would say no. My mind would have already been made up. My decision would be absolute, unwavering.

When will this day be??

My favorite Starbucks drink

I took a quick walk with my collegue during lunch today. It was such a warm day. Yep, one of those lazy Sunday afternoon feel. We went to Starbucks and I got an Iced Caramel Macchiato. It's my favorite iced coffee drink at Starbucks. In case you don't know, this drink is a creamy mix of vanilla and milk (whole milk please!) over ice, combined with espresso and topped with caramel sauce. It's a whopping 190 calories for a Tall, but it is SOOOO good, especially on a hot day like today. I love it when I suck up the caramel chunks. The sweetness of the caramel has just the right to balance the bitterness of the espresso. Yum!!

Bringing back old memories

Today is such a warm gorgeous day! Although we technically lost 1 hour of sleep but waking up to a beautiful, clear, sunny morning in the Sunset district is such a treat. We stayed in bed to watch our normal Sunday home improvement shows (i.e. PBS's "This Old House") before heading off to the newly renovated Westlake mall in Daly City.


You know how you always remember the good ol' days? Well, today, I remembered how great it was back in the college days, to eat at Strings Italian Cafe. They had one in Davis, in the Marketplace, near my apartment building. On special occasions, a bunch of us would go there for dinner and it would be the best meal ever. The entree comes with a soup or salad and fresh-baked bread. I love their bread the most, because it comes out like thin-crusted pizza, in a round pan, less the toppings of course. We all loved the food there. When you're in college, these restaurants are considered top-notch. The best thing out there. Of course, back then we've never heard of Chez Panisse, French Laundry, or Michael Mina, etc.

So, my husband and I went to Strings for lunch today. We were the first ones there, at um, 12:30. That was depressing. I ordered an Eggplant Parmesan which came with a side of Penne Alfredo (switched out to Penne Pesto). My husband ordered their "Award Winning Combo" which included Lasagna Pastry, Tortellini Alla Panna and Stuffed Mushrooms. The bread was still good although it is a bit thicker than I remembered them to be. The food wasn't as good as I remembered it to be, but it was still worth the trip out there to bring some old memories back.

Cartveyors

I love the fact that there are now escalators for shopping carts (branded name is called Cartveyors). It beats having to wait for the elevators to come, only to find them all full. I first saw them at the Target store in Berkeley and was very intrigued by them. Today I saw them again at Home Depot in Daly City.

The history behind it is that in the past, large retailers have traditionally located their businesses in large, single story buildings in the suburbs. The building requires 12 to 14 acres of land to provide enough space for the average 120,000 square foot store and sufficient parking. But now, many larger retailers are moving back into urban areas where property is more dense and expensive. Obviously space is precious so the retailers are forced to build multi-level stores. Because of this, there is a need to move both people and carts to multiple floors. Hence, the CARTVEYOR was invented!

Oscars

Tonight ABC is showing the 79th Academy Awards show, hosted by Ellen Degeneres. Here are the people I'm rooting for!

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Leonardo DiCaprio - "Blood Diamond"
Forest Whitaker - "The Last King of Scotland" WINNER

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Arkin - "Little Miss Sunshine" WINNER Guessed it right!

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Meryl Streep - "The Devil Wears Prada"
Helen Mirren - "The Queen" WINNER

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Abigail Breslin - "Little Miss Sunshine"
Jennifer Hudson - "Dreamgirls" WINNER

BEST PICTURE
"The Departed" WINNER Guessed it right!

DIRECTING
Martin Scorsese - "The Departed" WINNER Guessed it right!

SCREENPLAY - ORIGINAL
Michael Arndt - "Little Miss Sunshine" WINNER Guessed it right!

Let's see how many I get right?!
4 out of 7!

Mass Exodus

I am so depressed lately. I go back to work after a 6-week leave and the 3 people in my old team resigned for one reason or another. All of these deicisions were made independent of each other, but the timing is eerie. Including my move, there are 4 vacant positions within the immediate department. It is quite a scary thought. As always, I feel sad when I see people leave the company, even though it's always this time of the year that people tend to resign. First reason is that they've stayed until Dec 31 to fulfill the requirement to receive the previous year's bonus. Plus, outside companies already have their new payroll budgets finalized in Jan and will open positions up. So, there is a mass exodus lately. I don't like it a bit. This time, it's the worst because I am especially close to the people who are leaving.

I like steadiness and don't like changes. When people say that change is good, I disagree. It's not always the case. When things are going great, why change it? I am beginning to worry about further changes in our company. I wonder if other people will start to leave and more announcements be made. I heard that our senior VP might leave or get re-assign to another position. This will effect me personally because this person has watched me grow in this company and knows me, my performance, and track record. But if he leaves, I feel like I'll have to start over to prove myself. It's not that I want to be promoted, but there is a sense of continuity and stability there. I don't know, but it's really sad thinking about all the changes happpening lately... So people tell me, at the end of the day, it's just a job. It's all business, nothing personal. But the problem is that I get so emotionally attached to the people there. That's why I'll have such a hard time quitting this place, even though I know I'm currently overworked and underpaid. I've been there 7 years -- with the friendships I've made, it's not easy to just call it quits. Well, who knows? Maybe, just maybe, this day will eventually come...

So I return to work tomorrow after 6 weeks of medical leave. I didn't spend today any differently than I did for the past 6 weeks. Woke up at 10am, went out for lunch, roamed around running some errands, and then headed home, surfed the web, blogged. I am in the state of denial right now... and sad! I have to admit that I'm really going to miss this lifestyle -- the life of no worries, no stress, flexibility, and simply doing nothing! As boring as it sounds, it's a great change to my ever stressful job and long hours. I couldn't believe that 6 weeks went by so fast. But then again, time always go by fast. I can never say this often enough.

Tomorrow and the days ahead at work will be crazy. I will be returning to another department which means that I will have to re-learn processes and meet new people. I did not seek out this new position, but had been assigned to it. It happens when people go on leave for a period of time. Prior to the leave, I managed a good department. I like the team, the business, and the people I work with. So, it's hard to adjust to this change. I question whether this change will be for better or for worse. Wouldn't it be fantastic if people can tell the outcome before making a decision?? Then there would be no bad decisions.

My husband and I are moving along towards fixing our house. We've been planning that for the past 5 years. Right now, we plan to just add a bedroom and bathroom to our unfinished basement instead of extending the house out to the backyard or adding a third level. Those construction projects will be too costly and require a lot of work to obtain building permits from the City. I went to the Planning department this past Friday by myself and it was quite an experience. Despite long wait lines, people there were generally nice and helpful. I had zero architectural experience so I had a hard time answering questions they raised. But it was because I didn't have the Title 24 (Energy efficiency) report that they required so I didn't get the permit. Better luck next time! We hope to start construction during Spring.

Recycle & Reuse

Here is something I found interesting: A group of 10 environmentally-conscious friends, who called themselves, "The Compact" are going above and beyond normal recycling. They pledge to not buy anything new for a year. They vowed to reuse, reduce waste, and be anti-consumption for the better of the our Planet Earth. Of course, they have to exclude essential things such as food, toiletries like soap, shampoo underwear, etc. that fell under the categories of health and safety. But everything else, it was fair game.

Besides shopping at thrift stores and garage sales, the group also found that it was easy. There is a network of websites that offer freebies that others want to get rid of. Here are some of the websites where people post free things online. http://www.freecycle.org and http://www.garbagescout.com

They started the pledge for 2006 and it has been successful that the group is now continuing their commitment into 2007. They follow 2 basic principles, as posted on their Yahoo! Groups page.

#1 Don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)
#2 Borrow, barter, or buy used.

Honestly, I don't know if I myself can do this. It's hard not to buy anything...anyone want to take this challenge??

Happy 2007

Happy New Year, everyone! Another year... wow, where has time gone?

As tacky as it sounds, I wish that there would be world peace this year. I hope the government can finally come to their senses and withdraw from Iraq. America should mind our own business internationally and use our tax revenue to support programs domestically. How about free preschool programs or funds to improve our bridges and infrastructure?

Speaking of bridges, the Bay Bridge now costs $4 to cross. That's crazy. It was only as recent as 1997 we were still paying $1 to cross the bridge. Now fast forward 10 years, we are now paying $4. That's insane.

Brrrr.....

Is today COLD or what?

I'm back!

Dear Loyal readers,
Having survived surgery 9 days ago, I am now back on the blog scene. Recovering at home has been nice (sleeping in 'til 10 is always a blessing), but it can be also quite boring. The variety of activities available to me at this point are still limited. But Blogging is OK! So, here I am.

Haven't gone out to do Christmas shopping yet. I did buy for a couple of things on Amazon.com. To say the least, I am quite disappointed with the Navigation system on Amazon. I used their 1-click shopping, which is supposed to be easy and fast. But the prob is that they don't give you any indication that the item is bought. After 90 minutes, they then send you a confirmation email. So what happened? Because I didn't know that I actually "bought" the item, I went and bought it again!! Only until I receive 2 email confirmations for the same item did I know that I bought the item twice. I tried to go back to Amazon to cancel one of them. But nope! The system said that the item is now in shipping status and no cancellations are allowed. So of course, I received duplicate orders! I don't like navigating through Amazon. It's really not that easy (or maybe I'm just technically-dysfunctional). That 1-click shopping function of theirs suck!! Don't use it!!

Rome (HBO)

If you haven't seen Rome on HBO yet, rent it on DVD. The 1st season is out with a 6-disc collection. I was never a history buff, but I can't stop loving this show!! I can only describe this series with one word, "EXCELLENT !" Defiinitely one of my favorites, very enjoyable to watch. Beware though, it is a rated-R movie with excessive violence, nudity and sexual scenes...not really meant for kids. But the storytelling of ancient Roman history is incredible. You'll find it impossible not wanting to see more.

Anniversary

I have my braces on for exactly 1 year to the day. I can't say whether this is fast or slow. My teeth has straightened out considerably but I still have a long way to go. Hopefully, a year from now, it would be a better story.

Mochiko Chicken

Googi asked me for the recipe for Mochiko Chicken so I thought to share it with everyone as well. Mochiko refers to the mochiko flour used in the recipe. The flour looks very much like baking flour except it's whiter in color and finer in texture. It also has a slightly sweet taste to it. You can buy the mochiko flour is any major supermarket. Mochiko Chicken is a Japanese dish, and works very well as an appetitizer. It's delicious and very easy to make!


Ingredients:
2 lbs of chicken thigh or breast chopped into 2" cubes
5 TBSP mochiko flour
4 TBSP cornstarch
5 TBSP soysauce
4 TBSP sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup green onion chopped
3 cloves crushed garlic
Oil for frying

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (except for the oil) and add in chicken. Mix well and marinate chicken for 1 hour. Deep Fry marinated chicken in oil until golden-brown. Drain oil from chicken on paper towels and newspaper. Eat!

Super-easy Japanese Cucumber Salad

The weather is warm and you want to munch on some snacks while watching TV. What is better than chips and cookies is a quick, easy, refreshing and healthy cucumber salad! It is super-easy to make. Plus, it's cucumber season so they're selling like a dime each. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
5 Medium cucumbers (seeded)
2 tsps Salt
1/2 cup Lemon juice
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp MSG (optional)
1 tbsp White wine vinegar
2 tsps Sesame seeds (toasted)

Preparation:
1. Peel cucumbers lengthwise, leaving thin green stripes. Slice very thinly into a large glass or stainless steel bowl. Add salt and mix with hand until cucumber slices are quite limp. Set aside in fridge for 45 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, mix lemon juice, sugar, MSG and white wine vinegar. Transfer cucumbers to a strainer and squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the cucumbers. Discard salt water.
3. Add cucumbers to the lemon juice mixture. Ground the toasted sesame seeds and stir into the salad. Serve.

Comes out perfect each time. You can't go wrong with such a crowd-pleaser. ENJOY!

2006 World Cup

Having just been back from Hong Kong and Singapore, I inevitably caught the World Cup fever. Soccer (or as they call it football) is so big in Asia -- actually, it's big everywhere around in the world except for the U.S. People get so excited about the World Cup, since it only happens once every 4 years. Germany is hosting the games this year so people in Asia who want to watch the games Live must stay up at 3am! So you can guess how many "sick calls" employers get per day during the World Cup!

When you're in an environment that screams World Cup everywhere you turn, 24/7, you can't help but take a little interest in what's going on. So I watched the reruns whenever I have a moment. I don't even know all the rules -- just the basic ones. It is pretty exciting, but sometimes 3 hours can go by without even a single score! That can be frustrating. So, in case you're wondering, U.S. is out (no surprise). England, Germany, Portugal, and Argentina qualified for the quarter-finals. Other teams have yet to play to qualify. I do have a favorite team - England. That's because my favorite football player is Michael Owen. Forget David Beckham. Michael Owen is so much cuter! He's #10 on the field. Unfortunately, he injured himself during the game against Sweden and now he will not be playing in the World Cup games anymore. :(

Single gals - in case you're wondering ... Michael Owen is 27 but already married with 2 kids. He married his childhood sweetheart whom he met in Primary school (like when he was in 5 yrs old!) How adorable is that?!

Also in case you're wondering how I got to notice Michael Owen when I barely know any soccer ... He is the Ambassador (Advertising spokesperson) for a Swiss watch brand, Tissot. They designed a watch specially for him. #10. Limited Edition.

People Development

"People Development "- it's a term thrown out at us managers lately on a daily basis. What IS people development? It's our company's desperate attempt to get people in the organization properly trained, well-equipped with skills to get promoted and move to the next level. In recent months, our company is faced with a crisis: important positions left vacant for months. There is no one ready to be promoted. No one has the qualities and experience the position requires. A group of people think they are very qualified, but senior management thinks not. So, both HR and managers are getting the heat for not adequately developing their people. HR's so-called solution is to implement a myriad of training and development programs -- an overly-ambitious plan that is too much too late in my opinion. Developing people takes time; the programs might benefit the company some day, but it won't do a thing for today. The company is finally realizing that when they did those lay-offs 2-3 years ago (read Archive Blogs) and downsized the organization down to its core skeleton, they didn't take in account that there will be a time like now...hands tied because we simply don't have enough experienced people to do the job. It takes 5 seconds to let someone go, but at least 5 years to get someone trained enough to take on a managerial role and to understand the complexities of our company.

And by giving the us managers added pressure to develop our people overnight is not going to make things better. I, for one, am getting a little annoyed by the company's direction to implement so many programs that will do little, other than take up valuable time on real day-to-day job training. One of the programs launched recently include critiquing yourself on what is your weakness, share it with your supervisor and then come up with an objective in how to improve that weakness. Oooooookay... that's very useful. That will just pissed off people more like it!

What really pisses me off lately is the whole "increasing your profile with senior management," that is directly related to people development. I guess in order to be classified as being "developed" or "deserving of a promotion," one must increase his visibility and presence in front of senior management. This is getting too out of hand. It is no longer about being able to do your job anymore. It's not about getting things done anymore. It's about your presence, your visibility, your profile... and how all that sits with senior management. So, bottom line, you can be slacker or incompetent, but if you know how to talk the talk, walk the walk, you'll do just fine. It's ridiculous. I've seen hard workers leave because they don't get appreciated the way they should be. Dang it, one of them just might be me!

Wikipedia

I have a passion for useless fun-fact trivia - like what is the longest highway in America, why do we have daylight savings time and what on earth is Sudoku? These facts fill up memory space in my brain -- that may be why I have such bad memory for more important things! I guess I get curious when I run across things I've never heard about. So I go on the web and research on it. My recent favorite lunchtime hobby is reading random articles on Wikipedia. I love this site! It's by no means the authority on information, but it's a quick read fact-finder! You can also contribute by editing the pages and adding more information that you know about and willing to share with others.

Brokeback Mountain

Once you get over and see pass the nudity and some of the more intense homosexual acts in the movie, you will learn to LOVE this movie. The story is thought-provoking, mind-bloggling, and simply powerful. Pay close attention to every detail and you will notice there is a purpose for everything. This movie is full of symbolism and intriguing notations. Everyone did such a magnificent job telling this story of forbidden love...

If you're up for some after-the-movie discussions, email me!

Back Home

"No matter where I travel, or just how far I roam,
There's just no other place, quite as nice as home."

I'm finally home, after a 16-day trip to Switzerland. And boy it is wonderful to be back! Don't get me wrong, it's not like I didn't like Switzerland; the entire trip was a very enriching experience... a part of my journey that I will never forget. But being able to be home is a whole different ballgame. After the first week, I was already homesick and ready to come back. But I managed to stick it through! I tried my best to enjoy myself and made the most out of the time I spent there. Along the way, I've made some notes what I thought about Switzerland:

1. People here are generally nice. They are a lot nicer than I thought they would be. I guess I am drawing from the past experience I had with the French people in Montreal, Canada where everyone seems to have a staring problem. Here people still stare, but not as apparent. For the most part, people just mind their own business. Some of them are helpful and courteous. They do their best to help you.
2. Things are very clean. There’s no garbage anywhere. Even the public bathrooms are clean. The paid bathrooms in the train stations are exceptionally clean because they have janitors on site. Trains are older but still clean. People don’t litter, and they have janitors pick up any leftover newspapers and trash at every major stop.
3. There is a lot of graffiti. Somewhat ironic to the whole cleanliness deal. Every wall is marred by some sort of graffiti which is such a shame. I don’t know why there is so much graffiti here. I saw one guy actually spray-painting on a wall in broad daylight. Obviously, he’s not afraid to be caught.
4. They like to cook with high-cholestrol foods. Mayo, butter, chocolate and eggs -- in huge portions. The worst devil: Cheese Fondue. Fatty, but of course, tasty.
5. They are a big-on-dog country. Everywhere you go, people bring their dogs with them. I see dogs on buses, trains, in restaurants, everywhere. Most of them are so well trained. But it’s surprising to see so many of them in public places. That would never fly in San Francisco, even though SF is also a very dog-friendly city.
6. Things are very very expensive!! The starting rate of a taxi is 6.30CHF (which is about $4.15) That's more than NY! Vegetables at grocery stores are ridiciously priced. Everything from transportation costs to food to material necessities are so expensive. I wonder if people there make a lot of money. They must do, otherwise, everyone will be living in poverty.

These are the more interesting facts about Switzerland that I've observed during my time there. Until my next travels, I am glad to stay grounded for a while. There's nothing better than sleeping in my bed.

Interlaken, Switzerland

I played hookey from work today and journeyed off to Interlaken, located in the middle of Switzerland, between the lakes of Thun and Brienz. Interlaken is primarily famous for its ski slopes on the Alps with access to the lakes for non-skiiers. It is a 2 hour train ride from Neuchâtel to Interlaken, with a stop in Bern. It's also an expensive trip - tickets cost 78 CHF ($60 US) for round-trip... Despite the $ and the time, the trip is well worth it. The train ride is a sight-seeing experience on its own. Getting there is already half the fun. I was looking out the window on the train and enjoying miles and miles of green pastures, trees, the valley...and then just in a split second, snow-capped mountains appeared in front of the train. It was unreal! The mountains were so close and so pronounced. Very beautiful indeed! The Swiss Alps up close!

The train also swung around Lake Thun which had absolutely clear blue waters. More mountain ridges appear in the far background. Simply amazing! I also took a separate trip to Grindelwald, the ski center that also links to the remarkable Jungfrau Top of Europe ski slope. I didn't go to the Jungfrau because it would have taken 5 hours to get up there and I didn't have time. Interlaken is really meant for an outdoors escape... in the winter there is skiing, in the summer, there are a dozens of water-based activities. Although I didn't do any of these, it was still just as pleasant to enjoy the spectacular views.

This is random, but I had to share -- I just had one of THE BEST chocolate croissant. I bought it at, of all places, the Coop, which is Switzerland's version of Safeway. It has just the right amount of crunchiness, topped with bits of roasted hazelnut. The chocolate inside is mousse-like, smooth and creamy. Simply heavenly delicious! The ones we have in the States are nothing in comparsion... the pastry is usually oily and the chocolate is hard. The croissant here is soooo good!! Wish I could sneak some back to the U.S. without anyone knowing.

Neuchâtel, Switzerland

I took the train from Luzern to Neuchâtel yesterday, which was possibly the worst day to travel. It was snowing! The weather here is absolutely insane. The day before was beautiful, sunny, and clear. Then it just decided to snow! Worse than the snow was the fact that I had to change trains in-between with my 2 heavy luggage. There were no direct trains from Luzern to Neuchâtel!! I had 15 minutes to get off, dash to the right platform, and get on. I strategically sat near the doors, made sure I was ready 5 mins prior, etc. I have to say that the Swiss people here are genuinely nice people. Many of them offered and helped me with the luggage on and off the trains. I arrived in Neuchâtel, at the Beau-Rivage Hotel around 6pm. Neuchâtel is a small city in the west side of Switzerland and is known as the "Watch Valley." It is surrounded by smaller towns such as Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds where watches are manufactured. The population is mainly French-speaking. (Luzern is mainly German-speaking).


Neuchâtel

Today the weather was back to the beautiful, sunny and clear. How odd. I woke up around 10am, which is the first day ever that I got to sleep in and not have to wake up at ungodly hour. Casual day today, no work. I got a self-guided walking tour brochures from the front desk and journeyed off. I first stopped at a restaurant called Le Jura Brassie. I don't know the items in French, but I had the daily special which included a salad and the main entree was pork with a sausage inside. It was accompanied by zucchini with cheese and rice. Food was good. I followed the tour guide and was surprised how close things were. Along the way, a woman approached me and asked if I needed any help with directions. Again, I was pleasantly surprised that people here are very helpful and nice. I guess I has been skeptical because of my past negative experience in Montreal (Canada), which was my only exposure to anything close to European. I saw a lot of fountains. In fact, Neuchâtel is also known as the city of 140 fountains (some better-looking than others -- some are very plain looking).
Within 1 hour, the walking tour highlights were done. This is a very small town afterall. After my nice afternoon stroll, I stopped by a cafe and got myself a cup of cafe and a patisserie creme (coffee and chocolate cake). Tasted delicious and today was just the perfect day to people-watch and stay mellow...

Fountaine de la Justice

Luzern, Switzerland

After a 11 hour United flight from SFO to Frankfurt, Germany, my coworker and I land to find out that my connecting 2:15pm flight from Frankfurt to Zurich was canceled. Good thing we arrived early enough to quickly get onto the one leaving at 1:10pm. But that one was delayed and it was a bloody mess. By and by, we didn't leave Frankfurt until 2:30pm, which brings us back to almost the time of our original flight. We land in Zurich in 1/2 hour. We then had to carry all our luggage (heavy ones!) to the train station. By that time, we've met up with 2 more people who flew from Hamburg to Zurich and another 2 who took the Lufthansa flight from SFO. We all ended up at the same location, at the same time, taking the same train. It reminds me so much of Amazing Race, where 3 teams set out at different times and got onto different flights, but still back in the same game when at the train station.

We had to take a 1-hr long train from Zurich Airport to Luzern, where we will be staying 5 nights. Luzern is about 1 hour away from Basel, a city in Switzerland that attracts thousands of watch lovers, watch buyers, and watch makers with their Basel World Fair. The fair is what brought me to Switzerland. This fair is truly an amazing event. Very big scale! After a long day of meetings and a strained shoulder from carrying my bag filled with paperwork and reports, the first day is finally over! I have yet another full schedule of meetings tomorrow. Despite all this, I enjoyed a very nice authentic Swiss Fondue meal yesterday at this restaurant called Fritschi in Luzern. It was established in 1602!! Simply amazing! I really like Luzern. It's nice and quiet, and very picturesque. The population in this small town is 70,000 so there are less crowds and less traffic. But unfortunately I won't get a chance to explore this city!! The only thing I can, however, is to capture these pictures outside my hotel window. I have a corner suite in the hotel with a spectacular lake view. Here are 2 pics I took. Enjoy the beautiful Luzern.


Swiss Alps and Lake Luzern

RENT

Seasons of Love
Five hundrend twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundrend twenty five thousand moments so dear
Five hundrend twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year
In daylight, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee,
In inches, in miles, in laughter in strife
Five hundrend twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life
How about Love? how about love? how about love?
measure in love seasons of love, seasons of love
Five hundrend twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundrend twenty five thousand journeys to plan
Five hundrend twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man
In truth that she learned or in times that he cried
In the bridges he burned or the way that she died
Its time now to sing outthough the story never ends
Let's celebrate remember a year in the life of friends
Opening song from Rent, the musical and the movie (2005). Just finished watching this on DVD. I never saw the Broadway show, so the movie was new to me. Interesting storyline -- unique plot. I'm so used to watching musicals that are older and set in more historical times like Les Miserables or Phantom of the Opera. Nothing so modern and new. Fresh idea. I watched the special features and they did a story about the writer/composer, Jonathan Larson. I learned that Larson died the day before Rent's Opening Show at the age of 35, alone at his house from Marfan Syndrome. That was so sad because he had dedicated over 7 years in writing this play while waiting tables at a local diner because this was his passion, his dream. And he didn't even get find out whether this show was a success or not. (Of course this show was a huge hit). So Larson didn't get to enjoy the fame or recognition that he deserved for his work. Just soooo sad. His family used some of the profits from the show to start a Jonathan Larson foundation, which awards money to starving composers/writers who wait on tables, drive cabs, just to live to do what they enjoy most, so they too can fulfill their dreams. It is so inspiring.

Blockbuster Online

It's another wet and wild one out there today, so what better to do than to stay in the comfort of your own home, snuggle in your warmest blanket & enjoy a movie or 2 on your big screen TV? That's exactly my game plan this weekend. Ever since we joined Blockbuster.com, my husband and I have been watching movies, a lot of movies. I think we average about 4-5 movies a week. But that's because we haven't watched any for the past couple of years! I think the last movie we watched in the theater was "The Incredibles," back in Nov 2004 when we were in Wash DC with nothing better to do. Anyhow, you get the picture : haven't watched any movies in ages so there was a lot to catch up when we finally joined Blockbuster.com. It's this thing about monthly charge & unlimited rentals that make you want to watch & return as fast as you can so you can make it all worth the money.

We just finished watching the Johnny Cash's movie Walk the Line. Ok, sorry if I'm totally ignorant but I didn't really know who Johnny Cash is or was before this movie. His name sounds familiar but I had no clue. But now I know. I guess he was just as big of a star as Bob Dylan or Elvis Presley. I enjoyed the movie - both the acting and singing were good by both Jaoquin Pheonix and Resse Witherspoon. The love between Johnny Cash and June Carter was romanticized throughout the movie and also in real life. They were married for 25 years and that's probably very hard to come by in the showbiz world ... but I was still very disappointed to learn that Johnny Cash cheated on his first wife to be with June Carter. He left his first wife and his kids behind to be with June Carter. I didn't like that part... and no one seems to care about that!

Winter Olympics - Torino 2006

I love watching the Olympics although I am not normally a big sports fan. There is just something about the Olympics and the country-to-country competition that draws me in every night. These athletes train for years in their sport for only "that moment in time" to prove to the world that they are the best. What sets these athletes apart is the fact that they are not professional athletes -- they don't get paid for playing. They participate because they want to prove themselves. They participate because they love competition, they love their sport. I have so much respect for them -- it takes a lot of dedication.

The Olympics this year have a lot of new sport debuts this year such as the Snowboard Cross and the Snowboard Half Pike... all adaptations from the X Games. Very enjoyable to watch. These sports require a lot of training, skills and guts. For the most part, I like watching all the competitions, from Cross country skiing to Figure Skating. The only thing I just don't get is Curling. I really don't get it. What is the point of this "sport?" The players throw a stone onto the ice, trying to get the stone closest to the middle. Then the opponents use these broom-like equipment to brush the ice so the stone will lose its original projectory. Ok, so that is IT? This is a sport?! What the hell? Sorry if I offended all the Curling fans out there...all 20 of you. Curling is a game for fun and should not counted as a sport whatsoever.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

Bejeweled Anonymous

Ok, I admit it. I am addicted to Bejeweled. If you don't know what it is, it is a game that is very similar to Connect Four -- except it's more like connect three or more. You can switch the gems around and connect the three. They disappear and then the next row drops down. Some gems will automatically connect & disappear by themselves depending on where they're positioned. More gems drop down from the top and the screen is constantly full. You see that bar down on the bottom? Well, that' like your energy bar. When you are able to connect gems fast enough, the bar rises. When you've reached the bar fast enough, it wil go onto the next level. On the flip side, if you don't connect the gems fast enough, the energy bar decreases. The game is over if the energy bar is empty. You constantly have to find gems to connect or else you lose your energy bar. There is a time limit. The challenge is that you have to be quick -- both your eyes and fingers. It's actually a pretty stressful game -- which is ironic because I play this game to de-stress from work. Ok, back to my addiction. I am sooo addicted to this game. I can't get enough of it. I play at least 5-6 games whenever I turn on the computer. There's just a challenge to this game that keeps me on the edge. I guess it can be half mindless but half challenging. You should try it if you have nothing better to do. You can find it on Yahoo! Games. Just don't say I didn't warn you that this game is addicting.

** By the way, my highest level is Level 11. I passed Level 10 only once.

Bonus Calculator

Happy New Year! It's the first week back to work, and what is the first thing people do? Calculate what is their bonus!! The year ended and since our 2006 bonus is based on the 2005's results, everyone went straight to the report generator and whipped out their calculators and start crunching numbers. The bonus calculation is a complex tool on a spreadsheet but has been made easier by an Excel guru in our company. Just plug in the numbers and wah-la, it will split out your total %. Multiple the % by your annual salary and that is your dollar amount for the year's bonus!

Majority of the people work hard primarily for the bonus. But there are many times when you can work very hard but end up with a big fat ZERO for your bonus. Those are pretty depressing years. I had an EXCELLENT bonus year in 2005. For 2006, it is still VERY GOOD. I should be happy. I have one of the highest % among my peers. I have been lucky. I hope I remain lucky this year as well!! There is nothing more enjoyable than to receive some extra spending money!

Christmas is over

So Christmas is over. I almost have to say, "good riddance!" I think I wrote about this before in my previous blog, but I've learned not to like Christmas anymore. The expenses, the crowds, the traffic, the lines. There is nothing merry about all of these. I hate to admit that I'm becoming a grinch. The pretty lights, the fragrant trees, the carols, the jolly old Santa -- they just don't cut it for me anymore. I wish that something would change this feeling so I can enjoy the holidays again, but nope. Not this year. Maybe next year it will be different.

I'm taking 7 days off of work these 2 weeks as vacation. Didn't go anywhere out of town but sure love the fact that I can sleep in everyday until 11am. Wake up, go to lunch, mope around, and then it's more moping around. No schedule, no thinking, and no work. In fact, I love this type of lifestyle so much that I'm already dreading going back to work next week. The thought of going back to work a few days from now is stressing me out. You know, that feeling you get when you know you have to do something, but you're trying sooo hard to procrastinate not to do it? Yep, that's what I'm feeling right now. I just know that eventually that dreadful day will come and I will be dragging my feet into the office. Well, I guess, until then, I should just savor the moment now!!

Worker's Comp

I fell down yesterday evening as I was leaving off work. It is the only stretch of space that is not-carpeted and the only way out to the elevators. The janitor just finished mopping the floor and had pretty much left all the water and soap around the place. Despite the fact that the yellow "caution when wet" sign was up, and my every attempt to walk carefully, I still slipped and fell. I made a crashing noise that everyone who sat around the area came to see if I was ok. I was too embarrassed to admit that I fell so I said I "almost" fell and that I was fine. Low and behold, when I got home, my entire left side of the body became sore. My left thigh, which hit the floor the hardest, is now bruised and painful. My left arm, which I used to bear the brunt of the impact, is very sore. Throughout the whole night, I was unable to sleep on that side of my body, because as soon as I put any pressure onto my thigh and arm, I feel pain. I am also feeling a little of sensitivity in my lower back.

Today, when I came into the office, the first thing I did was to send an email to our facilities and safety coordinator, copied my boss and the head of HR. I told them that I fell and that the janitor should NOT be mopping the floor during those prime leaving time (between 5:30-6:30). I also suggested that he should dry the floor immediately, not just leave it and let it air dry. HR immediately opened a worker's comp claim for me and I was recommended to go see a doctor. I tried to make some appointments but unfortunately, was unable to get any today. I am actually very uncomfortable. It must have been a bad fall. I guess as we get older, our body just don't take falls well...

Home at last

I am finally home, at least for a while. My recent hectic travel schedules really took a toll on me. I am physically tired and mentally strained. Traveling to Asia for 2 weeks, then come back for 2 weeks and then leave again to New York for another week is not my definition of fun. It's torture. I'm glad it's finally over. No more trips scheduled this year. I am looking forward to my normal routine again.

* * *

This weekend passed by very quickly. My husband and I are currently in the market for a new car and spent this Saturday at a car dealership. We're planning to get the 2006 Honda Civic since it has good gas mileage. If you didn't know already, I dread car shopping. I hate dealing with car salesmen. They all have the same old sales tactics and strategy. The price wasn't right, so we walked out. Why can't it just be easier? No new car yet, so the saga continues...

* * *

It's interesting to see where people you know have gone and what they've been up to. I logged onto Friendster recently and read updated profiles of my friends, and their friends, and friends of friends. Some got married, some have new careers, some have kids already. It's very nice to know that all of us have grown and changed from high school and from college. Everyone is just walking through their journey of life, phase-by-phase, and so am I.

Daylight Saving Time

We move our clocks back one hour today at 2:00am as Daylight Saving Time ends. That may be why today feel so long. I'm not sure, I woke up around 11:00am today, which is actually 10:00am. By the time I finished dinner tonight, it was only 7:00pm. I'm not sure what happened, and what is this Daylight Saving Time (DST) anyways? I did some researching on the web and this site that provided some interesting facts:

• The main purpose of DST is to take advantage of the extended sunlight during Summer and save energy (we move 1 hour of daylight from the morning to the evening hour during the Summer)
• Spring forward First Sunday of April, Fall back Last Sunday of October (both dates at 2:00am)
• George W Bush recently expanded the period of DST to save energy and fuel. Starting 2007, DST begins earlier on the 2nd Sunday of March and ends 1st Sunday of November.
• DST is not observed in Hawaii, Arizona, and the most Eastern Time Zone of Indiana.
• World Wide, Japan is the only industrized country that have not introduced DST
• U.S. Legislators had always wanted to move the end of DST to after Halloween so it's safer for children to go trick-or-treating (it will happen in 2007!)
• Bar-goers lose 1 hour of drinking time when DST begins -- they need to stop at 1:00am! In Athens, Ohio, this actually caused riots!

Interesting...hope you enjoyed those little tibits of DST!

For those partying tomorrow for Halloween, HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

Okinawa

Gorgeous weather today and I took the day off from work. Wasn't planning on going anywhere or doing anything special but just wanted to be out of the office for once. I'm physically tired from the 1-1/2 week long trip. I was working 12-hour days throughout if not more. I guess I already had the better end of the deal since some of my co-workers ended up working more than 18 hours per day. That's why I don't like to travel for business. People see it as a perk, but I knew it was never that glamorous.

I visited Okinawa (in Japan) for 2 days. Getting there was cruel. I had to take 3 flights: from SFO to Nagoya, Nagoya to Fukuoka, and then Fukuoka to Okinawa. Total time: 18 hours. It almost felt like I was flown to Siberia and back. It was tough but I made it through. By the time I got to Okinawa, it was 10:00pm so just in time for a good night's sleep! I have to admit that I didn't really "visit" Okinawa, because I didn't go anywhere other than our company's office, the store, and a local restaurant. I didn't visit anywhere else. We were shuttled to and from, so I wouldn't be able to tell you anything about this place. I heard that Okinawa has some nice beaches, oldest people, and beautiful temples. Nope, I didn't see any of that. The highlight was the local restaurant we went to where we did eat some very local Okinawan food, such as rare horse meat! Ok, no, I didn't any.... people who ate it said it tasted like chicken. Then again, everything exotic tastes like chicken.

I didn't take any of these pictures, but here are some pictures of Okinawa.

Beach on Sesoko Island (below)

Memorial to Akainko (below)

Business Class

Now I understand why flying on business class is so darn expensive. It's because you really get the bang for your buck. I've flown on these 13-hour international flights from SFO to HKG for more than 6 or 7 times in my lifetime already. Everytime, I dread the experience. I never can sleep, seats are cramped, food is nasty. Overall, I hate it. But this time for my meeting in Hong Kong, my company flew me on business class. I was, for the first time, able to fall asleep, and I ended up sleeping for 6-7 hours straight, uninterrupted. The seats move flat like beds. What a great feeling! It was by far the most pleasant flight. I woke up just in time for a quick meal, and before I knew it, the plane already started its decent. It felt like only 3-4 hours but in reality, I was on the plane for more than 12.

Besides the comfortable seats, business class service is impeccable because we had 4 flight attendants servicing the 20 of us. The 1:5 ratio allows the attendants to tend to minute details. Food is not only better where you had a menu choice, but it is actually served on China, drinks on glass stemware and usable silverware. The attendants offer a good selection of newspapers and magazines, good wine, and a goody bag filled with useful toilettries. I love those socks that look and feel like shoes, the blindfolds, the warm towels, the choice of OJ or champagne. I enjoy the On-demand movie channels. I love priority baggage claim, shorter check-in lines, airline lounges filled with snacks and drinks and comfortable, sleepable sofas. I like the ample overhead storage bins and the ability to embark and disembark the plane first. I like long flights that feel short.

AND! On my flight from Okinawa to Hong Kong, I even had a famous Hong Kong singer-celebrity sitting a few seats away from me.

I love flying business class.

Highway Robbery

My co-worker and I went to try out this new restaurant called Medicine Eat Station for lunch today. It's a new, posh/hip restaurant, located inside the Crocker Galleria in Downtown San Francisco. Their "niche" is to offer a healthy, vegetarian menu, inspired by the cooking of Zen Buddhist monks in Japan, dating back 500 years. Their motto: Food so healthy that it has historically been called by a Japanese word meaning 'medicine.' Today in Japan, this cuisine is called shojin, a word that means "working to better oneself." Bottom Line: BULLSHIT. The food is so bland and tasteless that I wonder if they even cooked or seasoned it.

I ordered one of the 5 "Foundation sets," which is their healthy, ultra-simple foundation for a meal. Again, BULLSHIT. They offered an "artisan tofu" which is nothing more than a square of uncooked tofu off a box (aka Vitasoy Tofu). Not even a peck of salt on it. Tasteless. Then I got 4 pieces of extremely small pickled turnip. Hurray. My main course was a bowl of Soba (buckwheat noodles) in a Shojin broth. Okay, instant noodle is a lot 100x better than this. The broth tasted more like hot water, and the noodles, well, very buckwheat. I feel like barfing when I ate it. I hate to diss food like this, because I was taught never to complain about food. But believe me, this is perhaps one of the worst meal I've ever had! Charge for this bland, favorless and unsavory meal: $8.95

But this is not the end of it... on the bottom of the menu itself, these words, "For convenience, a service charge of 17% is automatically added to your bill. No tipping is accepted. " BULLSHIT! Convenient for them! No, don't get me wrong, this is not your typical, add 18% for party more than 6, etc. This is 17% no matter what. It is sooo ridiculous!! The service is by no means impeccable, but we (a party of 2) were forced to pay this 17% to a waiter who didn't even fill up our glass of water or drop by to ask how we're doing. Now, this is highway robbery.

Needless to say, I will never go back there again... plus, I need to spread the word and let everyone I know how ridiculous this restaurant is. Food is horrible and overpriced. Service is poor to warrant the mandatory 17% charge. I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone, even to my worst enemy. Yes, it is THAT bad.

Worked out!

Work has been crazy for me lately, actually for everyone in my office. Today when I left the office at 7pm today, everyone in my near vacinity was still there. I really mean, everyone. I thought to myself, how pathetic was that?! The company is beginning to tick some nerves with the employees. Everyone is forced to take on more work, yet of course, not truly getting compensated for it. We lost 1 headcount in our department. The workload of this one individual who left got re-distributed among those remaining. That is just so typical. And then they ask us why we can't be on top of things?! How could we? I'll be leaving for a 1-1/2 week long trip next Wednesday. I'll be traveling to Hong Kong for a team meeting. Up until today, I was thinking that maybe this trip would be cancelled. Who knows? Maybe that's just me dreaming. I have so much to do to prepare for this trip, but I haven't done anything yet. Needless to say, I'm freaked out!

New Weblog

I've decided to create a separate weblog to share my current experience with braces and eventually jaw surgery. It is going to be a long process so I don't want to bore you with the details on this stie. I'm going to keep this site to rant and share my thoughts on day-to-day things. If you're interested, the link to new website is on the side column.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The orthrodontist tells me that the human body is always very good at adapting to new things. Even with foreign objects (i.e. braces) on my teeth, my mouth will eventually adjust and naturally build up the strength and endurance to withstand the discomfort. The amount of pain and discomfort that I experienced the past few days didn't seem like his statement was true at all. The metals of the braces have been constantly scratching against the inside walls of my mouth. It is very uncomfortable and at times even painful. Especially on Monday, I could barely talk because one naughty bracket keep on scratching against one side of my tongue. That really hurts. But today I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My mouth feels a lot better than yesterday. Sure, the insides are still scratched up, but at least it feels like my mouth is finally healing. So far, the experience with braces is not too bad. I feel like it is more inconvenient than painful. But I guess the inconvenience is actually forcing me to eat better and to maintain better dental hygiene. I brush, floss, and clean my teeth immediately after I eat. Food get stuck in between the brackets and wires so I have to make sure the food particles are all out. And because cleaning is such a hassle, I try not to eat any foods with high sugar content because they will cause cavities, which will more likely happen to people with braces. Overall, getting braces requires a lifestyle change, but it's good change.

A Pivotal Day

I have ugly crooked teeth and an improper bite. I knew this for a long time. It was obvious. But for financial reasons, my parents were unable to pay for braces when I was in middle school. I grew up always self-consciously hiding my bad teeth whenever possible. I never had the confidence to speak up in the classroom or in a group setting, afraid that people will see my crooked teeth. I never smiled with my teeth exposed either. Almost every picture I had up to college I took with my lips tightly sealed. On some of them, I looked like I was mad at someone or something. Despite my bad teeth and severe underbite, I never did anything about it. I couldn't, financially-- it was still very expensive to get orthodontic treatment. However, the thought of needing braces never escaped my mind.

When I turned 30 this year and one day took a long look at my teeth, I thought to myself, if I don't do something about them this year, I should just shut up, move on, and don't think about it again. For God's sake, I'm 30 this year. So my saga started back in June when I made my first initial consultation with an orthodontist. I found out that not only did I need braces, I would also need a jaw surgery to move my lower jaw back into alignment with the upper jaw. This is not new news to me. I knew that from conversations with various dentists my condition was not something that braces could correct alone. The jaw surgery is a big deal. I read up on this topic on the internet, and I was honestly quite scared about it. I still am scared. But I still wanted to move forward with getting braces. What gave me a little positive push was the fact that my health plan at Kaiser covered the jaw surgery procedure. I wouldn't have to pay anything for the surgery, which if not covered, could potentially cost $20,000-$30,000. Then things began to move along. I had to get molds and X-rays done. Meet with the Kaiser physicians, first with my primary care doctor to get a referral, and then with the oral surgeon. Extract one of my upper molars. Wait for the Kaiser authorization to go through. And then FINALLY, after 3 months since the initial visit, I was ready to put on my braces.

Today was the day I had my braces put on. A Pivotal Day in my life. After so many years, this has now become reality. I finally DID something about my teeth but I know this is only the beginning. I feel fine so far but I have been forewarned about the discomfort, the pain associated with this entire process. I am a big baby so I know it's going to be tough, but I am ready for it. I've already won half the battle. My determination is strong enough to withstand any obstacles that come my way!

Pictures of the Past

I spent much of my time last week relocating my entire collection of photos from these old cheapy albums I bought many years ago to the more premium "archivial-quality" albums. The whole project started when I realized that some of my older stick-on albums are turning yellow on the side of the pages. Now, after being a scrapbook enthusiast since last year, I now know the definition of acid-free, pvc-free, and lignin-free papers. While the stick-on albums give you the flexibility of putting both vertical and horizontal pictures on the same page, they are harmful to the photos in the long haul. The stickiness of the pages attach onto the photos and can eventually do some ugly damage! Of course, these pictures are irreplaceable in many respects (i.e.I'm not good at keeping negatives!) Anyways, so that was how my entire project came about.

Honestly, I never knew I had THAT many pictures. My sister used to work in a photo-finishing store and has good access to printing out photos for free. The luxury of not having to pay for photofinishing (which can be very expensive) may be the result of me having so many pictures in the first place. I also attributed to the fact that whenever I go on trips, I go camera-crazy. And of course, back in the days of using 35mm film, 24, 36 pictures per roll get processed no matter what. Now, at least with digital photos, you can be selective in printing only a few here and there.

By the time I was done, 10 albums (each holding 300 pictures each) have been completely filled up. It's hard to imagine that I have that many pictures, but I guess I do. All the pictures (3,000 of them!) are all very precious to me. Going through the pictures gave me a chance to recollect and to remember the past... that particular point in life I was once at. They made me realize how far I've come and how much I had and have. They remind me of my childhood, my family and friends, my school and college years, my trips, my love, and most importantly, my journey in life. These pictures will forever be a memory of my past.