Pet Peeve #1

I really dislike dishonest people. Here are cases I've come across in the past few days.

1. I went to a Giants game last Friday and found a parking lot advertising their $5.00 flat rate. I parked my car, and checked with the attendant (or maybe owner) about the flat rate. He said, "Yes, $5.00" As I was getting out of my car, he asked what time I'm planning on leaving. I said, "I dunno. In a few hours. After the game." "Oh, it's going to be $10.00." Confused, I asked him "But you just said it was $5.00." His reasoning is they raise their prices for special events. Whatever. There is no way I'm going to give this thief an extra $5.00, so I drove across the street to another lot, never mentioned anything about going to the game, and just paid the $5.00 rate.

2. I always thought that my place of work is a pretty safe place. The parking lot is out in the open with plenty of people and car traffic. So yesterday, I got into my car after work and started the engine. There was a loud VROOOOMMM!! What the heck? Is that my car? Sounds like a Harley. Turned it off and started it again. VROOOOMMM!! Oh my! There's something wrong with my car. I called my dad. He came and slipped underneath the car to take a look, and immediately exclaimed, "WAAAA!!! Someone stole something from your car!!" (All in Chinese, of course.) He continued clucking his tongue in disbelief as I bent down to take a look, and yup, a big part was definitely missing. So it seems like someone slipped underneath my car in broad daylight and with an electric saw, dismembered my catalytic converter and ran.

I learned a few things yesterday and today.

1. I learned what a catalytic converter is. It basically makes your car exhaust cleaner for the environment.

2. Catalytic converter thieves are on the rise. There have been many cases reported in the bay area. The main reason why they steal this is because of the precious metals that can be extracted from this, i.e. platinum, rhodium, and palladium. They're shipped off to other countries where this process takes place.

3. There really isn't any way I could have protected myself from this. Apparently, these horrible, nasty, slimy thieves target Toyota SUVs and trucks because they're particularly easy to get to. They're easy to get under, and they're only screwed on with four bolts. But if it's harder, it doesn't deter them in any way if they have an electric saw handy.

4. It can cost up to $1300 to replace.

Yeah, this sucks big time. I think I'm having a "black" year so far. So many unpleasant things have happened. Well, some good things happened too, but as of now, the bad outweighs the good. Ugh. At least I'm healthy and have my family and friends. =(

Dilbert - The Green Consultant #2

Okay, THIS is my favorite Dilbert comic so far. It's green with bathroom humor! My kind of humor!!








P.S. The sun has come out!

Taking a Step Back

You can feel really good and think that everything is great, but something tiny happens, so small that it seems completely insignificant to everyone else - It's not even a "happening," more like a "ha-" - and boom, you've taken a huge step back. And things aren't as good and everything isn't as great anymore. And now, you gotta continue trudging through what you've already worked so hard to get through, and just look forward. If you look back, it's like drowning yourself in a sand pit. The longer you stare, the deeper you get. But you just can't help it sometimes. So in a sense, it's suicide, but not really, because you eventually get out of the sand pit, but with a lot of scars... I know I'm being very vague, but I'd like to keep it like that. And besides, like Annie said "The sun will come out tomorrow!" And it better, or I'm gonna have to go kick the sun's ass! Just kidding. It's too hot over there, and you all must know I hate being hot. =D

Dilbert - The Green Consultant

I love almost anything that touches on the "green" issue. Check out the Dilbert comic I received today...

Geek Moment #3 and #10 - Silicon Valley

Okay, I'm not sure if this is considered to be a true geek moment. You can be the judge. Well, every time I drive down/up 101 and see the giants of the dotcom era sprinkled alongside the freeway, a rush of excitement washes over me. It's just so exciting to see these HUGE companies that are responsible for so many innovative ideas and have revolutionized the use of technology, and they are just sitting in our backyard! Just off the top of my head, I remember seeing Yahoo, Intel, Webex, McAfee... gosh, I really don't remember a lot. Here is a list of Fortune 1000 companies in the bay area including their rank and location (taken from CNNMoney.com).

14 Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto

62 Intel, Santa Clara

77 Cisco Systems, San Jose

121 Apple, Cupertino

167 Oracle,Redwood City

187 Sun Microsystems, Santa Clara

241 Google, Mountain View

243 Solectron, Milpitas

274 Applied Materials, Santa Clara

357 Yahoo, Sunnyvale

360 Synnex, Fremont

383 eBay, San Jose

387 Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara

407 Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale

515 Symantec, Cupertino

610 SanDisk, Milpitas

640 Nvidia, Santa Clara

658 Electronic Arts, Redwood City (ok, not quite techie, but it's gaming...)

725 Spansion, Sunnyvale

727 Adobe Systems, San Jose

776 Intuit, Mountain View

787 Juniper Networks, Sunnyvale

817 National Semiconductor, Santa Clara

837 KLA-Tencor, San Jose

838 Network Appliance, Sunnyvale

864 LSI, Milpitas

899 Maxim Integrated Products, Sunnyvale

942 Xlinx, San Jose

960 Novellus Systems, San Jose

997 Palm, Sunnyvale

Quite an impressive list of high-tech fortune 1000 companies we have in the bay area! I'm so proud to live here. There are a few other companies that didn't make the official list, but I still think they're cool. I will continue with an honorable mention list later. To see a full list of the Fortune 1000 companies that we have in California, click here.

I started this entry by questioning whether or not this can count as a geek moment. After taking the time to type out each cool company that resides here, and having fun doing it at two in the morning, I think it's official. I have just experienced another geek moment. Congratulations, Josephine. Good job.

Dream 7 - Do You Need Any Help?

A few years ago, I went to Europe with a few friends. One night, in our Paris hotel room, my friend got up from bed to use the restroom. She was trying to be as quiet as possible because I was sound asleep. Or so she thought. As she was tip toeing towards to the bathroom, I sat up in bed and asked with my eyes closed, "Do you need any help?" Completely startled and a little scared, she said, "Nooooo..." I responded with "Are you sure?" Getting more freaked out as each second of our conversation carried on, she said, "Yeah..." "Ok," I said, and plopped back onto my pillow.

The next morning, she told me what happened and asked if I remembered doing any of that. Well, I didn't. Ho ho ho... So many memorable stories came from that trip. If I had a drink in my hand, I'd toast to good times.

Geek Moment #9 - Two Computers

You know that feeling you get when you're having a lot of fun, and your heart is beating a little faster because what you're doing is so fun and exciting?? Well, I certainly hope so... Anyway, I felt that way one night when I was doing stuff on my computers. Yes, that's right. Plural. And not two monitors, but two COMPUTERS. I was a simultaneous computer user virgin before that point. It was absolutely exhilarating, clicking on one keyboard and quickly focusing my attention on the other. I felt like such a computer geek. So cool! I told a fellow computer geek about this, and he sure was proud of me! Sharing the excitement with someone who completely understands if also very fulfilling.

But I'm actually not really a computer geek. A real computer geek is super smart and would know a bunch of other stuff like how to fix hardware and software issues, security issues, programming, blah blah blah. And I don't know any of that...

Charmaine's Cookies

I should really be working right now, but I NEED to share this with everyone. I bought a little bag of Charmaine's Moa Betta Cookies from Matsumoto in Oahu a few weeks ago and finally opened it. These are crispy bite-sized chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. With the first bite of my first cookie, I was already in heaven. It was airy with the perfect crunch, the perfect amount of chips and nuts, and the best part was the wonderful burst of buttery flavor. Mmmmmm... This was one of those experiences where I had to close my eyes for so I could really concentrate on one sense - taste. And when I was done with that first cookie, I just sat there for a minute, allowing everything to sink in and hopefully allowing my brain to store this memory somewhere in my internal hard drive.

I just tried doing a quick search on google to see if I could order them online, but no such luck. Okay, time for another one! Yippee!!

Blue and Harry Potter

There's only one person in this whole world who may care a teeny tiny bit about this paragraph, so sorry if you feel like you've wasted your time. But I'll make it short. I think I'm taking a liking to the color blue. For me, this is kinda major because I used to NEVER like anything blue... okay, not never, but you know what I mean. I changed the color choices of my blog. (Doubt you guys noticed.) And I chose a couple of shades of blue! Ho ho.

Okay, now, a more interesting topic. The final chapter of the Harry Potter saga "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is coming out on July 21! Woohoo! I know this is old news, but I simply cont wait to get my greedy little hands on that bloody book. (That last sentence was supposed to be said with a British accent.) But when it's all over, I'll be so sad. My version of the magic kingdom will be gone - disappeared like magic. Boo hoo. Boo hoo hoo. Hoo. And I liked reading Harry Potter more than Lord of the Rings. It's an easier read. But Orlando Bloom as Legolas is so freakin' hot! Those pointy ears, his cryptic way of speech, and his skills with the bow and arrow... Rarrrgggh!!! Ho ho ho...

Okay, I just admitted that I've read all the Harry Potter and LOTR books. Is this a geek moment??? Hmm... =)

Geek Moment #5 - Addictions

My friend and I were talking about smoking and the difficulties of quitting. I was telling him that he KNOWS it's bad for him, so why doesn't he just muster enough will power to quit! He agreed with me, and he said he's tried to quit, but it's so extremely difficult. It's an addiction. It's hard. Then he asked me, "Have YOU ever been addicted to anything??" I thought hard for a couple of seconds, trying to think of something I've ever been addicted to... Drugs? No. Alcohol? No. Stealing? No. Food! Ummm... no. I finally thought of something. "Well... the only thing I've ever been addicted to is... reading." I don't think there's a geekier answer out there. We laughed so hard, tears spewed! But it was true at the time. Books were all I could think about. I couldn't wait to get home and start reading. I knew I had to stop reading when the wee hours of the night started creeping up on me, but noooooo, I was ADDICTED. Ho ho ho. But yes, reading is an easier habit to quit than nicotine. The two can't really be compared.

P.S. This is pretty obvious, but no, I did not have a boyfriend at the time. =D

Bathroom Etiquette

I never thought this would be something I would do, but it is my duty, as a woman who uses public restrooms, to share with those of you who don't have common sense when it comes to bathroom etiquette.

A lot of guys out there, I've learned, are shocked when I share horror bathroom stories with them. BTW, I was never the cause of any of this "horror," just a victim (because I follow my guidelines below.) When I tell them my stories, they're wide-eyed and shocked. "REALLY?! I thought ALL women are clean!!" No no, boys. Bad things happen in there. Things you may want to cover your ears and eyes... and many times, noses for. There are gross things like finding a pad in the waste basket that is wide open with not the expected menstrual blood soaked in there, but a huge smear of poop. Or being surprised by finding little, er, big, surprises in the toilet. I'm sure many women have experienced finding the toilet seat covered with pee, but sometimes it's worse - it's all over the floor as well. You have to do a balancing act while trying to pee, and when you're unlucky, your coat or hand bag, falls on the floor! Or once in a blue moon, you'll actually even think someone exploded in there, and traces of their poop can even be found on the stall walls. Come on, ladies! Not all of us are delicate flowers, but... come on! That's just gross!

So here are a few things EVERYONE, including men, should practice when using public restrooms. No actually, when using ANY restroom.

1. Dispose of your trash properly. Make sure any poop stains, blood stains, whatever stains are not visible to the next person using the toilet.

2. When doing a #2, flush immediately after you unload. Don't wait around for the wonderful aromas to waft around. You may like smelling the kids you've dropped off at the pool, but I'm sure no one else does.

3. Ladies, if you must squat to pee, please wipe off any excess pee you've gotten on the toilet seat. Sitting on a wet seat is not fun.

4. Make sure you've flushed your toilet seat cover down the drain along with your business.

5. Before leaving the stall/room, check the toilet. Did you leave any skid marks in there? If so, flush again.

6. And one last thing that some people do that annoys me. Why do you need to flush the toilet when you come in? There's nothing there. And these are not low-flow toilets, so A LOT of water is being wasted. (Water levels are low this year.) Please don't do this unless you have to.

7. Oh! This is the last thing - WASH YOUR HANDS with soap and water! MANY people do not do this. You may think that your hands are not dirty, but think about all the things you've touched that other people have touched. And I bet some of those people didn't wash their hands... Eewww...

If all of you would just follow these simple guidelines, our bathrooms would be so much cleaner. But then again, I wouldn't have any new bathroom horror stories to tell...

I'm Complaining A Lot But...

Okay, just two complaints today... so far.

1. I hate traffic. We just moved to a new office which is closer to home (yay), but for some reason, well, the reason is good ol' traffic, it took me LONGER to get to work today than before!

2. There's this client I'm working with who is the pickiest and most anal SOB... EVER! I'm so ready to kill him already!!

Okay, no more complaining... no more complaining...

Hidden Personalities

There's this person I know, whom I will call my "friend," who is usually really soft spoken and speaks properly ALL the time. You know, always saying "thank you," using "may I" instead of "can I," and saying "certainly" instead of a common "sure." Stuff like that. And by soft spoken I mean you have to ask this person to repeat things all the time because the voice is barely audible.

I was with this person one day and were hanging around some black guys. These guys were young, really outgoing, and fun. Here comes the interesting part. My friend does a total 360. My friend starts speaking loudly, with incorrect grammar, and wild arm gestures. I found the quick transformation so incredibly strange. I understand some people can act a little differently around different groups of people, but moving from one end of the spectrum to the other with a snap of the finger was quite amusing to watch. Confusion completely washed over me. I didn't really know what to make of this. Is this a subtle form of stereotyping? Or a poor attempt to assimilate? Or maybe this is my friend's true personality? It was just so weird!

Fraud and the Pissed Off Me

I am so pissed off right now. Steve and I went to Mexico in January and someone there got a hold of my credit card number and got $1700 from a Western Union type place in Belize! I got a call from Citibank asking if these transactions were authorized, and of course, NO. We never went to Belize. So I had to cancel my credit card, go through the whole affidavit and notarizing process, thinking it'll be taken care of, and I won't have to worry about anything else. A few weeks later, I receive a letter saying that if I STILL don't recognize these charges, sign the goddamn letter and mail it back, otherwise, they'll put the charges back on. I thought this was ridiculous because I had already signed the goddamn affidavit saying that I didn't, but I signed it and mailed it back right away. Luckily, I've made copies of everything I've done for this annoying ordeal. SO! I find out that the charges are back on my card because they said they never received that ridiculous letter I signed saying that I STILL don't authorize the charges. This is so goddamn annoying. I already said once that I did not authorize the charges. Must I say it again?? I hate repeating myself. It seems to me that this may be a way of making either lazy or unaware credit card holders pay for unauthorized charges. Shame on them!! They are supposed to offer protection when they give out the goddamn plastic, and now that customers get ripped off by frauds, they make the victim pay?!?! That's outrageous. This process is sneaky and unethical. I totally feel victimized! Well, I'm calling again tomorrow morning to complain. This better have a good ending. God! So pissed off...