evil monkey

i LOVE the evil monkey - anyone know if the dvd-only family guy movie is any good?? anyone wanna go see a chick flick? :)

the knees go first...

so bootcamp kicked my butt yesterday. although fellow bootcamper was going to write to our trainer saying to turn up the intensity cuz he thought Jon was too easy on us. the guys says "we didn't PAY for 'EASY'!!!"!!! he's a project manager here, and i promptly reminded him that "working until failure" was only applicable to work here, and shouldn't be a philosophy we're carrying over to bootcamp!

my knees hurt yesterday - i was limping up and down the stairs. is this what it feels like when u get old?! i can move horizontally ok, as long as i wasn't trying to twist, turn, or bounce up/down the stairs. i managed to walk it off at the shopping mall after work (who says shopping isn't therapeutic?!) i mean i've fallen (A LOT) in hockey, but my knees were always ok.. after a "light" bootcamp circuit training, my knees made me limp! thankfully it's all recovered today - although it did humble me a little to be more sympathetic to friends who had previous injuries, it hurt like a MOFO.

(a slight tangent, when i was young, every time i heard the "circuit" training i mistakenly thought they said "circus" training. to be fair, it all sounded so much more exciting when i was young. another incident, shortly after moving to Toronto from HK, i was in ESL class, my teacher Mrs. Blume, was so nice and encouraging. in HK we were told that ppl from the "Western World" were more affectionate than chinese ppl, so i wasn't entirely surprised when i hear Mrs. Blume always saying "good my dears!" ALL THE TIME. it wasn't until that summer, long after school's finished, that it occurred to me my ESL teacher were saying "good ideas" all along - which was logical given the context of when she would say it... now that i'm edumacated, hopefully i have a slightly better grasp of the english language. however to this day, i still say papier mache, and pronounce CHAR-LES DAVID in the french accent... it JUST IS)

i'm in transition at work because the manager of another team would like to take me over there, and i'm waiting for an 'interview' with him/his group - so at this moment i am neither here or there. i feel like i'm the black sheep of the dept - like they think i'm ungrateful for the "opportunity" and that i am "defiant" and "hard to manage".


i love this puzzle: http://www.planarity.net/# works my mind and also makes the work day pass by quicker.

defiance

yes, thanks, i know i've been defiant the past week.

one of my fave quote is on my sterling silver bangle:

"Well behaved women... rarely makes history"

i've always been defiant, i contribute it to the all-girls-private-catholic high school. i think that i learned my attitude that i can do whatever i want from there... which makes me feel i need to stand up for myself, and not let other ppl bully me.
i guess speaking of defiance, i'm at -3 for the week. defying their 'lowered expectation' of my bug count.

somedays i just forget...

not to take the topic lightly, but between hockey and bootcamp, some days i forget that i get misc bruises on my body... i don't even feel them anymore, here and there... someone might mistaken me for an abused teen...

so i didn't even think about it, until i was walking to SB, thinking, u can totally see 2 bruises on my leg when i am in my Chun Li skirt!
no, i didn't fall down the "stairs"!!

this girl from my hockey rink, she got a hockey scholarship for a school on the east coast. on her vacation back here, she told of how she went to florida beaches for Spring Break, and this woman came up to her at the beach, and said "Honey, be brave, you can leave him - you DO NOT have to take the abuse!" and before she knew what was happening the woman had already scurried off. then she realized that she had misc bruises that was especially highlighted since she was in a bathing suit.

speaking of beaches and bathing suits, my friend KW backpacked in Europe a few years back. one of the memorable stories (at least memorable from all the ones she told from that trip) - happened on a nude beach in Nice, France. now, lots of people perk up (no pun intended) when they hear "nude beach" - but really, the boldest, most naked ones are invariably the ones who SHOULDN'T be... asethetically unpleasant, to put it nicely.
my friend was on the beach, trying to get some sun, looks over not far away this old fat french man was on his tummy getting a tan.

not only was he sporting a speedo...

because that's just too much material.

the man had pull & tucked the "extra" materials into the crack and made his own speedo-thong.

yeah, i know u are visualizing it.
you're welcome.

Chun-Li jean skirt

apologies to my loyal readers that my recent blog entries haven't exactly been uplifting; the ranting does help in form of free therapy for me though - free is always good.

on to other random topics, a while back i was shopping and picked up a Calvin Klein jean skirt, which is going to be fondly referred to as the Chun-Li skirt (famed Street Fighter character, as if i need to tell u). Everytime i wear it some woman always compliments it... i'm not even sure it's work appropriate. the slits (one on each side) actually go pretty high when i'm sitting... when i am walking i'm ok, pulling it down here and there... it's probably not appropriate for work, but what the hey, i work in high tech in the Valley. they should be thankful i am not in an oversized free tshirt, baggy unfitting sweatpants, sporting glasses and bad hair/breath/hygiene.

which actually brings me to the topic of Halloween - y'all already see the stores decorated and trying to push it down our throats since it's the next commercial holiday. any idea for costumes? now that i don't feel like a big fat cow, i actually am thinking of maybe dressing up and making a cool costume.. got no party or plans yet, so no point of going through the trouble if i were going to just stay home. will u invite me to YOUR Halloween parties??

My friend JM just left for a 30-day cartrip cross Canada... at her bon voyage party we ended up on the topic of Halloween costumes and her and her friends were thinking of being a Puck Bunny, with a T-shirt printed "Puck me!", bunny ears & tails... sounds interesting (at the very least, probably lots of weirdos would come approaching thinking the t-shirt message is especially meant for them!

for a while, yearly we'd do the dress-up Halloween thing, that's cuz my friend AL's bday is near that day and every year we'd make time to get together. we always ended up at the frat house Halloween party (which isn't as exciting as it sounds, and unlike all the hollywood movies involving frat house parties - we would go since they always host the party to raise money for charity). we'd run into these HUGE football playing students, dressed to the 9s, in chunky tall heels, boy do they have LEGS going going gone... fishnet stockings, full makeup and hair... they were always so friendly and gushingly happy :)

oh yeah, we'd always give AL smack because she'd usually dress up as a "witch", which means she's in a black sweater and black pants, and have a black hat in her hands. when we walk the streets downtown, she can take off that hat and look like a normal human being while the rest of us look foolishly over/under/inappropriately dressed in Frankesteined costumes. the only reason we'd let her do this year after year is because it is her bday timeframe, afterall..

another emotionally gruelling day...

who would've known. i broke down today in my one on one meeting, because i've sat through too much this week of ppl telling me i don't do my job well.
add to that i sent out the comprehensive guide on an area of the site no one has any documentation about, complete with hand holding to guide u through, screenshots etc etc - i got great feedback from dev MANAGERS etc.

part of me almost didn't "publish" this helpful document, partly out of spite because they don't think this stuff is "as important" as bug count. partly because quite frankly, in MY opinion, that email, and all the kudos, make my dept look GOOD, as if this is planned, pre-mediatated, ENCOURAGED even - totally NOT the case. I scrape time by to create these docs and tools to help others, because i truly believe in teach others how to fish. i get penalized for them because i can spend the time filing bugs instead to up my personal and our org's numbers. i look around, identify what is needed and not yet there, create it not only as a document but as a tool, with bells and whistles and a nice looking UI, functionaly, pretty.

the dev managers probably think we are an org that fosters such "initiatives" and "creativities" and "innovations". in the end, i wonder how much they really know.

i'm at -5 for the week so far. filed a few p4's which may seem ridiculous. like "should be lower case isntead of upper case" or "should be singular instead of plurial" - fantastic genius stuff.

someone asks, why do you go negative, why not start at 0 and count UP to 15 bugs/week?
i find the negative count more accurately reflect the connotations and spirit of the quota - afterall, i'm not held accountable for how many MORE bugs that 0 i file a week. i am accountable for how many bugs LESS than the required 15 a week, that's the important number.

in the positive light, i can't do worse than -15 count a week...

adding insult to injury...

as if it's not enough to get rejected by Mickeyplace (i am sure it's coincidence or karma, or both) but we have mice in the house - again. (i refer to them as Mickeys, obviously named after a more beloved mouse)

last year around this time we caught about 10 of them one by one, setting traps under the sink with peanut butter (i had to play nice and share MY jar of peanut butter, cuz i'm about the only one in the house who loves it).. (funnily enough, back home in Mtl my dad used to roast cuttlefish/squid on the stove as mouse-food... he thinks they love the scent of roasted cuttlefish. even though our mice went after our bag of rice at the time. it's funny how much time and labour of love my dad poured into food for the mice)

the Mickeys have just started visiting again, and i'd be seeing a tail~ or two as they scurry across behind the TV to find that nook between one of the stairs and squeezed itself through to their nest.

i opened the pantry and realized the mice has dipped into anything carb i had in there - extra bag of flour, flexseed flour, oatmeal, rice noodles, coutons... threw away all of them, i guess the mice are just trying to help me maintain a low-carb diet!!!!!!!! not only did they take the food, they also left souvenirs, and even poo-ed on the vaccum cleaner, adding insult to injury.

i think they're cute as long as they don't visit my house. Or eat my food. Or carry diseases.
my fave mouse is still Gus-Gus from Cinderella, which happens to come out in a week on DVD.
random thoughts, but speaking of DVDs the Family Guy special DVD is supposed to be out today...

every tactic in the book...

work has gotten suckier cuz of the politics - i don't know what it is and why i get stuck. one theory is that i seem friendly doe-like easy target.

i had a conversation this morning for an hour in which i was insulted, praised, threatened (about not going to get promoted, in the foreseeable future) AND bribed in one sitting. (i had identified almost every tactic in the management/negotiation books) - in the end i was NOT bullied into taking the offered "shiny new and awesome opportunity" (which seems an eventual dead-end me right in between different jobs and not sharpen my skills in any one direction) - but i did exhaustedly let the other person allude to that i was nervous and scared and irresponsible for my own career growth. i also had another conversation where i had to explain my bug count again, and really i am not excusing myself, but i have a valid reason for everything i've done (or not done).

i've been caught in the turmoils of politics here, and i don't know how to untangle myself. i can either do what i feel right in my job and perserve my integrity (quality over quantity) - and suffer the consequences of being told i'm not a superstar, that my contributions widespread across organizations and teams does not help my immediate organization (like numbers would). or i can play by their rules, their little game, and stop writing needed tools and documentation that i think is necessary not only to have smarter ppl working in the company, but also a personal growth for these folks to still be able to LEARN something rather than just go through the motions withuot understanding.

maybe i'm too idealistic. many times i am forced to choose between my work integrity and the carrot they try to dangle in front of me. i don't care about the carrot, most of the time i just want to make it easier for my manager not to have to defend me all the time, so i give half an effort on finding the bug numbers they want. in the end, i have to live with myself, and i want to perserve as much of my own work ethics as possible. maybe this is shooting myself in the foot type of career move, but at least i know i am better than just numbers.

asian parents

I've got some time to kill so why not. How many of you actually have a relationship with your parents? I can only dream of having the closeness that 'becca has with both her parents. Good or bad, the first person she wants to call after winning a race, or feeling miserable are her parents. She tells them almost everything. Its really weird.

And yet, at the same time I still haven't told me parents about my bike (and injuries), the car (damn tree) or even this whole job situation. I assume my mom knows how happy I am with 'becca etc. The other day, my mom called to see if I was alive, and I had to call her back as I was already on the phone with my sister. I call back, and (surprisingly) my dad picked up. He knew I was gonna talk to her all I got was a "she's in the shower" and then I was like "ok"... 'do I say anything? chat?' dad:"ok, I'll her you called". *click* Its kind of sad, I don't know why I'm even more closed up to my dad. Even at the dinner table, when my sister is around, 80% of the conversation is between my sister and I, maybe 70% with our mom, and maybe 20% involving, facing, talking towards the direction of my father.

I'm looking back since I rented "Shower", a Chinese story about a father who runs a bath house and his relationship with his two sons. One who is mentally challenged, and the other "successful" one who left to go to the "city". I have been lucky in my life, with my dad being able to get past his illness over the years - and recently, with the death of my aunt (his sister) I know that as much as he jokes about dying, it will come sometime. How do I talk to him? There are many things we differ on but at the same time, there's so much I don't know.

For instance, (did I talk about this with some of you?) How many of you know the history of how your parents hooked up? Got married? (Heck, I don't even know where, or when, even an anniversary - and don't say "cuz you're a guy". Neither does my sis.) I've never been exposed to much about "them". I don't see the affection the way people do here...

Last week I ran into a childhood friend's mom. She was really happy to see me, as was I. The girl and I were never close, but I remember her mom, always being around, taking care of us. I thought about asking for her number but at the same time, where do I start? Its not like we were close before? She's just one of those very small links I have to the past... I suppose having children helps. The mother seemed really happy about having grandkids and was telling me my mom was probably really sad that I moved out of the house.

Anyway, I might as well end this by saying I've only talked to my dad once. And I mean really talked. It was fascinating - but getting to that point took a lot of fighting, which I don't need to relive. I know I'm supposed to respect him, and some are even to be treated like kings, or "Masters". I dunno...

just rambling. Going to my parent's tonight. I'm sure the conversation will end once the news/tv does. And back home I will go, without knowing any more about my parents lives than I already did.

lyrics quote...

I'm never gonna be good enough for you...
I can't pretend that I'm alright...
I'm sorry I can't be perfect

~ Simple Plan "Perfect" ~

coconut in car cup holder...

... just don't fit!!! they don't make my car's cup holder big enough to hold my coconut with juice in it...!

was at mickeyplace for lunch with Faye - i'm on a mission: if they don't want me, then i want to eat them out of food, one meal at a time ;)
huge huge HUGE line of ppl lining up at different kiosk, apparently it is the Last BBQ of The Season and FoodNetwork was onsite to cover this as well. general confusion as to which line goes to where, but hey, free food - so just get in line...

i had poke salmon (yum!), strange taro-in-sauce thing, bbq short ribs (TASTY!), grilled seabass (dry, and isn't seabass on endangered list of seafood we shouldn't eat?!) and curry-sauce on corn on the cob (weird). because of the long lines, we basically lined up, repeat, repeat sat down and ate and then had to run... oh yeah i finally got my coconut juice in the coconut!!!

(short tangent, a repeat for some who've heard the story, but when i was living in vancouver for my 8-month internship, i had bought a coconut cuz i wanted the juice and meat... came home, tried to open it... didn't know how... tried a screw driver... then decided the corner of my chinese-rectangular cleaver might do the job... guess what? the coconut dented my cleaver!!! i even threw the darn coconut on the ground from above my head, and it still wouldn't open.
So in the end, i threw the coconut away, in spite, because it was just sitting there mocking me, i hear the swooshing of the juice when i shook it but i can't get to it!!! ever since then, whenever i see vendors selling coconuts that they will open for you, i can't resist buying it. it's a matter of principle...)

ok as i am typing this i'm sipping on my coconutand dialed into a phone meeting. the juice is gone, and i am once again left to ponder how to get into the coconut to extract the meat... it's there again.. mocking me, since the only entry point is the straw size hole drilled into the top...

any ideas? has to be things i can find around the office...

***UPDATE: i now have a dented letter opener at my desk. i've been scraping bits of coconut meat with the end of my straw... go straw go...***

Making up words...

Well, this is a blog, right?

So Joey and I were just talking nonsense, as we usually do we were are lounging around the TV and computer, with nothing better to do or say...

We decided that we would put the words 'chillin' and 'relaxin' together and make a new word: chillaxin'. You really need to emphasize the 'n' at the end, so it's like... I'm chillaxin-en.

Problem is, the more you say it, the more it sounds like a brand of laxative... "If you really need to go, Chillaxin' Yo!"

Hey, if we were actually good at coming up with jingles, we'd be doing advertizing by now.

SB with a straw...

i drink my SB with a straw... and no i'm not preparing for old folks home habits early (yum, prune juice smoothie!!)... nor am i those fifi-glamourous divas a la Sex in The City...

they never tell u, but drinking SB through a straw has many benefits. for example, if u were the type to be wearing makeup, it keeps your lipstick/gloss intact (whenever i wear lipstick/gloss, i'd eat it all within 10 minutes anyway cuz i never realize how often i bite my lips... so this is not an issue)
mainly, the straw is to keep from dribbling... for a long time i never realized why all my shirts were ruined with coffee stains when i know i don't spill my coffee.. apparently when i drink coffee, it dribbles a little!!! anyways, just some random thoughts as i was walking back from my first SB visit of the day

Miss Congeniality...

* names changed to protect the not-so-innocent*

the day continues to go to the dogs, i had written this blog entry before and on submit, ran into the blogger maintenance timeframe, where EVERYTHING i typed here was lost. so now re-writing this entry, with a more sarcastic/angry undertone...

alright folks, i did get the call, and true to my pessimistic prediction, it was bad news (Mickeyplace rejected me) - they wanted someone "with more scripting experience". From the comments though, if i were running for Miss Congeniality, they may have picked me... In any case, it's not totally bad to be at this stage - to have resolution, even if it's bad, put an end to a chapter, close the book and move on. The really good thing that came out of this experience (besides the jerk who said that i have the prestige of having had an onsite) is that i met a cool new friend Faye* who fortunately do NOT think i'm too dumb to talk to!

anyways, through some link on some system somewhere, Faye helped me discover some feedback from my onsite; at least it will help put a perspective of how things went, not just from my end:

well from a quick glance, it seems you only got 2 "bad" reviews. gee, i wonder from whom ;-)
but it seemed like everyone else really liked you... i'm just really surprised that you got 2 very high scores (excluding phone screen) and you still didn't make it. they said they loved your enthusiasm and energy, one complained about your server/tomcat knowledge also he complained about xml? wow, many of them said "she had a great personality" "really nice to talk to"

the third person u interviewed with, said u were a fast learner u didn't know what inner/outer join was but with hints u were able to figure it out. it says you are a fast learner and then the *last* interviewer said u didn't know inner/outer join at all...? something's not right here but if it makes you feel better, u got really high scores from D. & S. like *extremely* high it's hard to impress D. - i know

i'm a bit peeved cuz the last person i talked to was a regular QA Engr, she was pretty tired from interviewing, she seemed cool with me, i answered all her questions correctly, she didn't ask anything i couldn't asnwer- i hope she didn't mix me up with all the other ppl she interviewed!!!!!!!!!!!!! but i think she kind of did, but what can i do now??

i'm not really sure how i feel about all this.. disappointed, unwanted and unloved certainly; relieved in some sense, since i do have friends here where i am at that i like, relieved that it's over. unsure about what's ahead, there are projects here which are opportunities being offered to me, but mainly i've been feeling like the politics here just ruin everything to make it seem too little too late.

still, i'm one of those pessimists but blindly oblivious people who runs into walls and still thinks everything happens for a good reason in hindsight. so far in life it's been that way... it was good that i got rejected by the ever-prestigious-at-the-time Andersen Consulting back in the day (only passed 5 out of their 8 round of interviews)... wasn't that for the best?! where else would i be now if i wasn't rejected then...?

enough for talk, let's go drinking/eating good food to drown my sorrows.. ANYONE? ANYONE??

* side comment, Teri Hatcher didn't win her best actress nominee at Desperate Housewives either for the Emmys... teehee misery loves company - at least her rejection was MUCH more public than mine today. this is just a random comment*

lousy references

so, apparently the company I work for is not viewed very highly in the local job sector. Remember the job fair at bonaventure? Its still going on... a co-worker of mine went and was told "oh... you work for company X? We had a number of people from there for interviews recently and they don't know how to code." HAHAHA. Maybe I should change the name of that company on my c.v...

a country club ad...

i'm wearing a navy polo top today, with a pair of white semi-casual cotton pants.
coming back from my first SB (starbucks) trip of the day, i realize that i look very much like someone from one of those polo ads - just bring on the yatch in the background, add a "husband" and "son" and we can pose in front of your country club. *SMILE*

*ADDED: i just realized my outfit matched the Bic pen i was walking around with!!!*

i decided that i needed comfy (yet not frumpty looking) sweat pants to wear on weekends when i mainly go to my hockey games. there is such a thing as too-dressy for hockey... weird to be hauling your hockey bag on one shoulder and walking ladylike delicately in a skirt... yes, i shopped at Abercrombie, the teen dept. and i bought XL pants that fits me just fine (and i STILL have to cut the pant legs shorter!!!) but they are comfy cotton and i love the feel - i just wish i can wear it to work... EH joked that the XL pants are for fat kids... i still think sometimes that *I* am a fat kid. maybe that's why i fit into fat-kid-clothes...

word of the day: unctuous

the word of the day is: UNCTUOUS

i was doing audio-book-on-amy on the way to hockey the other day, and in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince that word came up... weird word, so i looked it up.
this morning while brushing my teeth i was continuing reading Wicked, and this word came up again... at least this time i know the meaning.

UNCTUOUS
Main Entry: unc·tu·ous
Pronunciation: '&[ng](k)-ch&-w&s, -ch&s, -shw&s
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Medieval Latin; Middle French unctueux, from Medieval Latin unctuosus, from Latin unctus act of anointing, from unguere to anoint
1 a : FATTY, OILY b : smooth and greasy in texture or appearance
2 : PLASTIC
3 : full of unction; especially : revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality

i think this is an interesting word, mostly because i didn't know how to pronounce it or how to dissect it to guesstimate a meaning. it's like one of those words would would make up in the game of Balderdash!

by the way Wicked has been a pretty funny book... i'm half torn in thinking maybe i should actually sit down to watch Wizard of Oz first to get the "original story" before proceeding the rest of Wicked... no i've never watched Wizard of Oz, it's on every holiday Thanksgiving/Christmas time period, i know. i manage to not watch it every time it's on. sure i know the quotes "we're not in Kansas anymore", references to the red ruby slippers, "...i'm melting..." screech... i've just never WATCHED the whole thing. why is it such a popular movie anyway??

what the F*!@#

Sorry Amy, but I have to rant.

Last night, I come home at a reasonable time and decide I'm going have a nice dinner and rent millenium season3 which I saw at the video store. I'm relaxing, icing the leg and enjoying the evening. As I'm about to go to sleep, I look out the window... and there's a FRIGGIN TREE BRANCH the size of MY CAR on TOP! (This is what I get for no
t taking it to work.) I go down, lift the LOG (it was heavy) and at first notice surface scratches which I can wipe clean. THEN, I see the fist sized dent on the roof. Then, another on the side of the body above the gas tank. My heart just sank. I don't care about the car but I have to fix this crap and its on the BODY! (damn lease). Add to this the fact that I didn't switch addresses on my car insurance yet, I didn't apply for home insurance yet etc. After getting a run around from some crazy idiot this morning, I'm talking to a person who knows what she's doing. Unfortunately I don't have my digicam anymore (ug) but I should take pics and they'll try to pin the deductible on the neighbour next door (tree). I really don't need this. First my bike, now the car. What I find painful about the bike is that its gonna take weeks, if not months and by that time I won't be able to ride outside anymore. The car, I could care less about - but the monetary value sucks. They're saying once I make the claim my premium is up about 140/year. I guess that's only 10/month but still. I can't wait to get rid of this damn money pit. I could be buying a new bike every friggin month with these damn payments.

Fcking nuts. Me and my gddamn mouth. Now that I'm living downtown, my premium is going up ANYWAY!@#*!@ By 190!!! That's it. Car is gone. Piece of POOP! I'm going to just wait on the phone here as this woman calculates my home insurance. ... I wonder what a surprise this will be. I'll add more later. Thanks for listening.

10:20am. So I got myself home insurance - and it brings back my car insurance back to where it was yesterday. The only thing I'm fuzzy about with this is that the lady was telling me that they would "replace" my belongings as opposed to cutting me a check. Small items like my tv, well, I wouldn't want a zenith BUT I certainly don't want no made in china bicycle to replace my custom Serotta. ... I'm going to have to go over the details with a fine tooth comb. Also, theft outside of the home is only covered up to 20%... Worst case I get multiple bikes stolen at the same time but that does suck. Sigh... at least I have the insurance now... ttyl

i like my chocolate...

i like my chocolate dark, smooth and over 70% cacao. i just bought a tiny chocolate bar from the work cafe, i can't help it, i need the endorphines today.

as tiny as the bar is, i walked away thinking, WOW this is TWICE the size of a Nano. dude i want one!

as i am writing this blog, i realize how much it's been about ME ME ME this year... i want to say that i know the world is more than just me. my usual rants and complaints are mostly for fun; i am lucky that i have family & friends, a stable job, health... there are bigger miseries out there than me not making my silly dept's bug quota for the week.

just a moment of clarity/sanity amidst an ego-centric day/week/year

Fushigi Yugi

i've watched this anime series way back, at nathan's place with dom & cathy...
been meaning to pick up this series to own... it's got good story, love & romance, fighting and demons & gods...

Fushigi Yugi

been watching Robot Chicken on Adult Swim lately - it's so random and hilarious! perfect for ones with short attention span, like me.

on related topic, i've sat through half a Baby Einstein DVD - that's totally a "trip" for kids, no shots more than 5 seconds worth of action: you see kids playing with toys, then some random nature footage, then you see close up of colorful moving blocks, then giggling children....

my leg hurts like a motherf....

So last wednesday on my way home to work I got broadsided by a car while riding my bike. Not just any bike, my damn race bike. Cars were backed up on cote st catherine, I was hurtling through on the right BUT cars up ahead opened some space so that a car from the oncoming traffic could turn left into an intersection (which I don't have a stop for). Anyway I'm just going straight, all I remember was seeing that damn mercedes grille (its burned into my head now) and thinking "sh-t! brake!", and flying in the air. As soon as I was on the ground I wanted to jump up and check my legs but a crowd of onlookers urged me not to move. (Apparently I flew a good distance). Someone called an ambulance (ug) so as I laid in the middle of the street I decided I had to get up. I was relatively ok. I could walk... my left shin felt banged up but nothing extraordinary. Anyway, FFWD, I think I freaked out the driver more than myself. He was a nice guy and in hindsight I have to admit I was really really lucky. I was thinking I would be able to ride again this weekend but that's looking unlikely but I'm walking, and I'm talking. I could've ended up paralyzed like a guy I know (last year, swimming accident). The bike is totalled (yes, another one) but the frame & fork are covered under an insurance coverage I bought with the bike. Front wheel needs to be completely rebuilt, but worst case I'm paying abuot 500$ for a new bike. (Deductible, wheel rebuild etc.)

It didn't really hit me until maybe yesterday - I see the bikers on the road and I miss it. I'm feeling slightly depressed. I'm going to miss out on some good riding weather, and I doubt I'll be able to bring up the mileage to do a comfortable half marathon in October... I feel lazy and fat right now...

Burnout Revenge and Asian Driving...

bought Burnout Revenge yesterday... i love the games in Burnout series, they rock.

and truthfully, my personal asian driving instincts gives me an unfair leverage for these games... the latest edition of this game allow you to hit same-direction traffic for boost - the cars u hit just explodes and disappears!!!! there's the Road Rage mode where you take down X cars in Y seconds, there's the Traffic mode where u try to get as many points as u can damaging traffic going your direction, the Crash Mode where you try to get as much damage crashing and exploding involving a target car, then there are the burning laps and races championships.

i like the Road Rage mode best. recently i was at the arcades racing multi-link-player Daytona, and i rubbed the other guy out against the wall to make him flip... then was accused of cheating, since we were "racing" (i say hey if you can't do that in a game they shouldn't allow your car to flip...)
i challenge u to road rage against me!!! *insert evil asian driver laugh*

my workout songs...

the latest songs i like to when i'm working out are posted... i like to start and end with something mellow, and air-karaoke to the words of these songs as i am jogging and pushing my heart >100% of my maximum heart rate... have you heard the Nickelback song "Figured You Out"? i love the lyrics, it tickles my funnybone every time i hear it. i've been meaning to get some Metallica songs back onto my Shuffle, i just keep forgetting to rip the CD when i am home. What songs r u listening to nowadays?

• 2am Breath - Anna Nilack
• Photographs - Nickelback
• You and Me - Lifehouse
• Behind Those Hazel Eyes - Kelly Clarkson
• Figured You Out - Nickelback
• Perfect - Simple Plan
• Untitled - Simple Plan

mighty mystery meatloaf...

hello boys and girls, today's lunch was the mighty mystery meatloaf!!! *cheer*

i was so restless today, so went to the work gym to get 1.5mile jog under my belt, figured it would help the day pass by quicker. ran to the cafe to grab food, nothing looked appertizing - the meatloaf looked the least offensive. by the time i got back to my desk i was 5 minutes late to a meeting in another building, wolfed down 2 bites of meatloaf, and ran off.

i did wolf down the rest of the meatloaf when i got back to desk - as i eat i wonder, what IS meatloaf? growing up u hear 'oh no, meatloaf night' - but my parents always made chinese food for dinner... i liked meatloaf drown in the sauce. it tastes good when i'm hungry - do i really care what goes IN it?

as a chinese, having eating many unmentionable "delicacies" in my life, watching Fear Factor doesn't even faze me most of the time. "cow tongue"... "chicken heart"... "pig brain"... have you BEEN to a real chinese restaurant?? the only thing i think about when i am watching those Fear Factor challenges is - why don't they salt & pepper and flavor this stuff? it would taste decent if marinated and prepared right. what, like u never thought that...

with a carwash, now i have a new car...!

my white car's been gray, i was so ashamed of it every time i drove it anywhere - what would people think?! it's like some people's fear of taking their kid out to public and having the kid yell and scream - would people think u were a bad mom if u let them cry/yell a bit?

i wrote about getting a flat the other day, went to replace my tire, had EH talk me through and supervised changing my own tire yesterday - it really isn't as hard as i thought - if i were stranded somewhere with no help, i'm pretty sure i can do it again.

since we were working on my car, i finally gave my car a delicate and loving SPONGE bath... and now i feel as though i have a new car. there's something peaceful about washing your car on a nice sunny day... and amazing peace when you drive a clean car!!! it's like new, and i SWEAR it feels like less drag so my car go faster.
i used to clay-bar my car, so it even FEELS perfectly flawless... my car has a new shoe (right front tire), i got a pair of new shoes, my car's been hand washed... it was a good weekend...

donuts are like trapped air...

i love krispy kremes... since i played 2 games of hockey today, i figured a trip to krispy kremes on the way home was warranted.

i recall taking ange to krispy kremes when she visited here, she was so excited watching the fresh donuts being made, and we even took a photo of her with the paper krispy kreme hat...

i must admit, i too enjoy the view of watching the donuts ride up and down the vertical escalator... then they roll along and gently slide into the Hot Oil Bath... they come ashore equally gently and glide gracefully under the Waterfall of Glaze and voila, all shiny, still warm, soft and melty... a hot krispy kreme donut looks so innocent - how can it be so bad for you?
it taste like air trapped in very light dough.... yum...

speaking of which, where does the name "donut" come from? who's the "nut" part of the word?

Carmen is sooo not sexy!

the late night is when i find my inspiration for creativity...

i finally remembered to bring my Carmen Electra stripe-tease lap-dance aerobics dvd to a coworker. yes, yes it SOUNDS like a great idea - so did solar-powered flashlight. i bought the dvd out of curiosity - i was also in a dvd-workout mood, trying to find inspiration to keep me motivated to burn some calories and get off the couch. this was shortly after i bought and did the billy tae-bo bootcamp workouts for a month which i liked...

in any case, i thought, ok how bad can Carmen be? maybe i can learn a few sexy moves on the dance floor, at worse it's a workout video, at the very worst, i'm sure some guy friends might find just that dvd of Carmen sexy so i'll even donate the dvd in that case...

not only was Carmen not sexy in the dvd, her moves aren't sexy or coordinated when she was TEACHING u, she forgets to tell u the instructions half the time, the other half she mutters something semi-intelligible and flailingly demonstrates some sort of move, the moves she did demonstrate require u to coordinate to the exact song in the background for the chreography. it's an awful, awful dvd, negative workout values, not sexy or fun to watch, nothing to learn from.

i own it and continue to do so, so i don't shatter any guy friend's disillusion about Carmen's sexiness; and so my girl friends don't go out and pay for this worthless dvd. I WILL LEND IT TO YOU, we can take the money u were going to spend on the dvd, and bury it under the tree to disintegrate over the years, and that money would've gone to a better cause than to Carmen.

shoes, boots...

went shopping today looking for a pair of fabulous boots to wear with nice jeans...
ended up buying a pair of fabulous sandals perfetct for evening... far far stretch from a pair of boots, i'll tell you.
but it was fabulous and on sale and in my size...

i am Cinderella when it comes to shoe shopping. the stores stock 1 pair of size 5 in each style, if any that makes that size, and i fight tooth and nail with the other size 5 women out there in a race of time to who is willing to dish out full price and buy that new style of shoe in the single size 5 pair in the store.

i've walked into a shoe store and said 'i'm looking for heeled sandals like this style, i wear a size 5, can u bring me what u have' - the salesgirl comes back with 3 pairs only, in the whole store - one is plastic see thru material, the other is shiny metallic silver (not the matte kind that is stylish now, i am talking about shiny industrial gold-lamee sparkly metallic silver), and the last pair was tan-brownish. unless it's horrendously ugly, when i find a pair of size 5 shoes, i HAVE to buy them, otherwise i can't find any shoes to wear.

poker face...

i don't have poker face, JL says i don't bluff enough, or bluff a high bet to bully and take the pot...

we went to a friend's place for a Texas Hold'em tournament to raise money for the hurricane victims, since friend's company matched 200% donations (we ended up raising 500$, which is decent considering we all had a fun night of poker)

anyways, a total of 10 players, eventually i was the 6th out. hung in there for a long time, even though i had crappy cards. JL was my not-so-silent partner, even before we see our 2 cards, she'd be like "all in girl, all in!" all evening.
poker is interesting, i like the game, not only because it's got rules i understand, but also because it's about the behaviour of people as much as what cards u have in your hands. although i always see things more clearly when i'm not the one betting. also i'm a sprint poker player, not a marathon player... i do ok for about 3 hours, then i start fading... in one hand i didn't even know i had a straight with A high.... at the 3 hour mark i start making stupid calls and decisions because i just lose concentration and want to go home...

perhaps it's like training for a marathon run, you just play more and more and build up endurance to sustain clarity of thought for more than 3 hours.

oh, why the heck am i up at 2am blogging? is my life that sad?
i had a starbucks mixed sugary drink during poker, now i'm both tired and wired. i recall these hours in the wee of the night are the ones most peaceful and quiet when i was cramming for final exams. i love the hours between 2 and 7am, i am one with the darkness and dawning of another morning. kind of miss those days, crazy as they were...

every girl should have roadside assistance...

in a hurry and a bit of post work-week daze, i was meeting up with JL for dinner and as i distractedly round the tilted parking area a bit too sharply, i nudged the curb ever so not-as-gently with my front right tire - thankfully i just rolled the car into the first parking spot, got out and saw the flat tire.

knowing our priorities, JL and i sat down for dinner first (which was yummy indian food, btw). when dinner was finished, we were outside looking at the tire, debating between changing the flat ourselves (i had purely theological knowledge, JL's changed tires before but it would've been difficult since it was nighttime). JL's brilliant idea was to call AAA, since she was a member... I never knew this but AAA membership (membership, NOT car insurance) - doesn't seem to be tied to a particular vehicle... so she called, their estimate was 45 minutes, and they arrived within 5 minutes!!! FIVE!!!!!
In another 5 minutes, the AAA guy changed my flat tire, all is well (I got to replace the tire tomorrow, but at least i made it home)...

the lesson learned is, amy, get some freaking roadside assistance.

especially since murphy's law remain in effect, that i had to have a flat tire on the day that my friend who lived 10 minutes from where i was at that moment was out of town. darn u, murphy...

bunnies...

alright, let's end the week with more cute cuddly photos (last ones for a while, i promise)











Meet Tigger, my surprise birthday gift for May 2002 - Cathy, Dom and Steve blindfolded me and we went to pick her out. i love rabbits, but we all forgot to tell me that this wasn't a dwarf rabbit, Tigger was the real deal - huge!!!

Tigger was very affectionate though, it was unfortunate at that time i was living with 2 roommates, and working 14 hour days. Tigger outgrew cages like there was no tomorrow, and when it came down to it i only had an hour a day to spend with her before my bedtime, and she's alone when i was at work.

i ended up finding her a good home with a student in Berkeley where she owned another bunny (it was so sad, Tigger didn't know how to defend herself, the other bunny was a bit aggressive of another bunny being in her playarea backyard)

i remember when ange came to visit, we were hanging out on the sofa, Tigger came bouncing by, and started licking her face and then licked mine!
Tigger got a bath, because of her size, well poo would stick to the fur and she'd be stinky. it's a funny picture to see a wet bunny - beneath all that fur Tigger was stick skinny!


This is George, a valentine's gift from 2002. he IS a dwraf bunny, and no i did not name him, but the name was from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men ("I want to see the bunnies, George") George is a bit anti-social, not that affectionate; a loner.

the salvaging grace was that i was bigger than George so sometimes i can bully him (take a big towel and wrap it around him to make a bunny burrito, then he will have to let me pet him)

i owned both bunnies while i worked at that small company, which meant horrible long hours and unpredictable schedules. i was rarely home and had little time to devote to them, as i should've.

i found George a loving home where 3 asian girls adored him, age ranging from 6 to 12 years old... they reported back that he loved sitting with them in front of TV just chilling...

i think i wasn't responsible enough to own bunnies, which required a lot of time and effort spent with them when they are babies... didn't help that i worked too many hours, but that's another blog post for another day.

pandas...

someone says: amy, you remind me of a panda bear... looks so soft and cuddly, until they ferociously attack...

my fave panda reference was in Mulan, when the cricket and dragon were pretending to be a war officier, riding a "black & white" panda instead of a horse.

someone else says: amy, you have weird thoughts.
yes, yes i do.

i used to say TGIF, but have learned a new term WTFIFF
which stands for what the f___ it's friday fool
(try it with a Mr. T. accent)

salvaged poetry... rescued from my old website

Love's Philosophy - Percy Bysshe Shelley-

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things, by a law divine,
In one another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?

- T.E. Lawrence -

All people dream, but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,
Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity.

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people,
For they dream their dreams with open eyes,
And make them come true.

my short-lived showgirls career...

this picture was taken grade 1 in HK... back in the day i guess i was pretty outgoing and involved in 2 plays that year. One of the plays, involve us dressing up as candles (above) - it was a catholic school, St. John Baptist school in Kowloon. Anyways, we were singing along merrily, in our little papier marché costumes, and the audience would chuckle every so often... (how weird, i thought, this is a serious song with religious morals and lessons here we're singing about!)

anyways, throughout the song, the audience would chuckle and laugh more and more. the other girls on stage with me didn't know what's going on either - the only thing we knew was, the show must go on - we sang to our heart's content.

finally, when i met my parents after the show, i pestered them until they tell me why everyone was laughing. Turns out that being a hot auditorium, if you look closely at the picture, you may see a sliver of a fan in the back, between the piano, the back curtains, and the row of us Candles. well it was an OSCILLATING fan... every time it moves, about half of our coustume would fly up in the air behind us, exposing our little bums.

yeah, that's me, in the blue, i was closest to the fan... now thinking about it, that's pretty good reaction from the audience... who knows, maybe i should've pursued a different type of career path afterall ;)

my first website...

the quote says: I only want to make some crazy memories with you that belong to us... as long as we have the memories, even if we're not together in the future, we will still have something we can miss and think of...

one of the salvaged graphics from my original web site here at http://tane.com/~amy
i can't believe half of the content is still there. i'm travelling down memory lane right now, keep in mind i designed most of the graphics on this site, and we're talking about PRE-FrontPage, Photoshop4 era. i'll update this blog entry later if i fine anything of interest from my first website.

dilbert's right...

the sad part is, we all recognize this coworker...

random thoughts on friendships and such...

*more rant alert*

as the days go by, i get decenlty positive feedback from my readers on my blog (that's you, my friends)... it reminded me of how much i wanted to publish a book before my life's end, and i do tremendously enjoy writing for an audience (i know, split infinitive clause in that last sentence).

anyhow, if it makes your day to read my random thoughts, then i have done a good deed for the day (i'll collect those brownie points, to give me a free pass for all the not-so-angelic things i might plan to do in the future).

lately, a lot of my thoughts have revolved around friendships... and how that definition's changed as we grow up.

*disclaimer: if you identify with a character mentioned in my blog, it is strictly coincidence. Ok, maybe not, but it's my blog, and if you're not ok with it, then screw u!*

scenario at hand: i'm good friends with person A (m), who's roommate and good friends with person Z(f). Apparently Z is going through some drama with her family, etc etc, and also has "personal issues" (not disclosed to me the specifics). Anyways, to make a long story short, Z doesn't like me, and "it's not personal". In the past there has been outing(s) where i wasn't invited because Z was there. i've semi-met Z ONCE when i went over to A's place to watch a movie, haven't spoken anything to her.

i know, you are probably saying: "amy, tell them screw it, if they can't accept and like u for who u r"

insert person B(m) - new friend, who's become a friend to person A and myself. As far as i know B was never that close to A until recently, and did not have a seperate friendship with Z. but lately B seemed to be approaching Z to make friends, and am involved in outings and events with A and Z.

the question i want to know, is why is B making friends with Z, when B knows the story, which is that Z has problems with me for no fault of my own?? what is the motive? is it to cover all grounds, so that regardless if person A one day may or may not be friends with me anymore, B will still know A's friends? is it merely to expand the circle of network connections, since Z might have more interesting "contacts" in the area?

what do i expect - am i truly valid in expecting person B to take sides and agree that it is stupid for someone to not like me because of their own damn problems? i'm not expecting him to stand up for me like that, certainly not. however, i guess i feel wronged, that B would still seek out Z to associate with, knowing what he knows... it's different since A and Z were friends and roommates long before *i* was friends with A, but it feels MORE wrong that B would START getting closer to get to know Z after that i consider him to be my friend...

which opens up a can of worms: the closer B gets to know Z the more frequent inevitably that it's going to happen - there will be events and outings which i will continue to not be invited to because Z's problem with me. i guess i just feel someone ought to champion for my behalf, since this is through no fault of my own, i haven't done anything to merit the treatment except for living and breathing on this earth.

why can't we all just get along? i wish we can, and in this case, LITERALLY there's nothing i can do since i haven't DONE anything except i continue to exist. sometimes i think, it might just be easier and less painful for me to walk away from A and B, before they could hurt me too much fruther by allowing and accepting the stupid situation that Z continues to create since the only path we're converging towards seem to be the one where i don't exist in that circle...

A tells me, the situation is improving, and soon Z will begin to accept me; he's championed my cause all along to the best of his ability. i feel it hasn't improved, at least on my end, because it's open ended. it's been 5 months since i am friends with A, there's no target date of when the resolution will come. i can be looking a year down the road, and if Z doesn't freaking resolve her problems and accept me, so what, i don't think A would hold her accountable, so nothing will be different for anyone else's life except mine.

sometimes i think:

i'm too old to deal with this high school-esque crap. i'm supposed to be this confident working professional who knows i'm likeable, who knows i'm a good person, who shouldn't care about this shit and rise above all this - be the Better Person, be the Bigger Person. (the way they taught us to be, in our catholic private all-girls school)

but i've been burned in the past on all this stuff and it's made me tired and weary, afraid of getting hurt.
Case in point, let's travel down my memory lane:

ex-bf (#2)'s mom threatened my life; threatened to kill me then herself and then it'll all be his fault.
amy's solution a la King Solomon's biblical story - be the bigger person, walk away and don't make them cut the baby in half; and that's how we ended that relationship, but his mom is happy.

ex-bf (#4) is psycho-bipolar - after he dumped me a week before valentine's day (classy guy) he sent out emails and had talks with our common friends saying how i wronged him and all kinds of bad rumors - he gave them ultimatums that they need to choose, if they remain friends with me, they're out of his life.
amy's solution - be the bigger person, toldl the friends they have my support either way, i refuse to make them choose, tell them they can do whatever they feel they need to.
result - lots of friendships lost, they chose to be his friend, so his rule is they can't be my friends. salvaging grace is that if they were truly choosing that, then they weren't good enough friends with me to begin with, and i needn't shed tears over those surface friendships i lost. (but i did shed tears, because it hurt)

so you see, maybe one day i should just walk away. i know it's my self-preserving instint, because i lack the faith that people involve would truly stand up for me. because i'm afraid to explore that path to the end, in case they might disappoint me. when i walk away first, i will never know in case they don't follow through, in case they accept the crap of the situation - if i knew then not only would i feel bad about the situation, i would've lost faith of the person.

thanks for reading my rants... if you're still reading, and you're still in my life, know that i appreciate your friendships very much, even if i don't say it everyday. and i know, a lot of you have been through thick & thin with me (and not just talking about my yo-yo weight issues!) i love u for being here, i hope it's been a worthwhile ride to have me in your life. hugz & kisses.

more waiting, results next week, folks!

talked to the guy from the Mickeyplace today, he said they were backlogged so he can only present me to The Committee next week, so i'll hear the results on wednesday, a week from now. at least he's keeping the lines of communications open...

i guess no news is no bad news... now i got to figure out a way to keep myself busy and not think about it. Any ideas? anyone want to go do something fun for a week to keep my mind off things?

mind wanders onto other topics - we won our championship stanley keg game on sunday mixed coed levels in hockey: bragging rights and our team logo on the championship t-shirts.


we really were the best sportsmanship team, and we had 3 female players of which 2 are beginners, and the team we played did not have either. plus we all wanted to win it for Raph. who started on his scholarship-paid for school this week; the team called him and left a msg telling him we won.
thanks to friends who showed up to support, i've usually never have fans at the game since my family and old friends are so far away.

i'm -10 for bug count this week so far... it's like a factory here, we're supposed to file 15 bugs/week (that's a minimum of 15 *EVERY* week, NOT an AVERAGE over week-to-week!)
so every week i start out -15 and for every bug i file i get closer to 0. not that i really care, i just like to count it that way so when people ask me, they really get a feel for how stupid it is to have a quota on quality. wait, maybe the "Q" in QA stands for Quantity now.

will i ever be one of the boys...

*more rant alert*

don't know what it is, i've attributed it to going to all-girls catholic school where they taught us we can achieve what we want (without taking sex or race into consideration) - and then going into a field where guys to girl ratio averages 7 to 1... but i've always roughed and tumbled with the boys, just like any of them do. espeically since i've never been a girly-girl (*puke*), i can chat CPU process speeds and i can parry u in geeky bad puns and jokes. we suffer thru mad scientist-like bad profs together and i can differentiate your equation as well as the next guy (back in the day).

so it's still shocking to me to find out in this day and age, i am NOT considered one of the boys. (!!!) i take pride in that. i don't want to be treated like a girly-girl, i don't want to pretend that i'm not drooling over the latest high tech toy (the Nano!!) or that i don't love shopping at Best Buy almost better than shopping for clothes. now that i PLAY hockey, and i watch some football (have always followed the SuperBowl games), i can even speak coherently at times about some sports tidbit.

which leaves me hung out to dry, because all my life i've gotten along great with the boys, i'm considered one of the boys - at least i've always thought so, and felt i was treated so, and now i'm not - but the girls i've met don't get along with that geeky-boyish side of me. i am neither here or there...

the waiting game once again...

well... i thought preparing for an interview, studying, as the day of onsite looms over all the other days... i thought that was the hard part...

but now i'm back to the waiting game, and believe it or not this is difficult. i'd been having talks with myself, saying, ok, pretend the worst case has happened. move on, concentrate on work tasks... who cares.... but in the back of my mind when a moment's peace escapes the task, it wanders back to thinking ~ am i worthy? when will they tell me? how will i feel if they've decreed that i am unworthy? what's my plans next?

i wish i can forget that i'm waiting for a response. i'm trying to distract myself the best i can... but my body betrays me. i guess the grass is always greener, when i'm rejected, i might wish that i didn't know yet. just thinking out loud.... it's my blog and i can rant if i want to...

misc topics...

being from Montreal, a lot of the stores/restaurants' names are pretty bland... the names has to be meaningful in both french and english; or french at the very least.

i passed by santa clara the other day, and remembered the place where i laughed myself silly when i saw the name: Casket Outlet.

i mean, how do they get them so cheap? who shops there? are they last year's models which are no longer in fashion? would it be a faux-pas to get the combination oak-elm with the double-double beveled corners? i hope they're not recycled... i'm thinking, you can't take your money with you into the afterlife (if u believe in afterlives) - why are my living relatives trying to save a buck to shop at the outlet? granted, it's the asian blood in me to get a bargain... but it's a big occassion.. why cut corners?

i guess if i had children/grandchildren, and they can save a few hundred bucks on my casket so they can pay for a colledge education... maybe the Casket Outlet is a good idea. then again, i might just dictate directions in my will to tell them to just go to school in Canada, pay < $5k for a good education.

cool link :)

courtesy of Sue:
http://www.hanzismatter.com

this was actually very funny, because tuesday i was at my poker night, and one of the round-eyes whiteboy from Austin was asked about the tattoo on his forearm. i looked at it and it was a chinese character with the left side a root character for "speaking" and the right side was my last name! combined together i don't think that word MEANS anything, but maybe i'm wrong...

thinking back, i recall people coming to the Dep asking my dad to write out the chinese character for such-and-such so they can tattoo it on their body. i was the auditing editor of what my dad would write and what the person wanted. come to think of it, if i were really twisted, i could've totally had fun encouraging wrong L10N of the phases.... ;)

stupid questions asked...

of course, there are all kinds in the world. I was asked a few stupid questions (server, network stuff, that should be asked if i were looking to work as a sys admin...)

this one guy Suresh who talked to me (he flipped his stapled pages of paper over to write on the back, making sure a blank page "covers" what he's writing in case i would secretly go read it from across the desk)... at the end of our talk, he asked "so i was meaning to ask, did you really want to work for us here, or are you just interviewing - because a lot of people want to interview here for the prestige - they can't believe MickeyPlace called them in for an onsite..."

after being shocked i muttered something like "yes, i'm serious about it here..."

the whole time i thought, "yes, there's nothing i'd like to do MORE than spend my work hours being here being told that the PSEUDO CODE i scribbled on the whiteboard to answer your PROGRAMMING questions had 1 logical bug and AT LEAST several SYNTAX bugs"

but 3 of the 5 people who talked to me technically were nice, and asked me questions without making me feel there's absolutely no right answer that i can provide.

and if things don't work out, i shall always have this Prestige that the guy was talking about ;) (and my bidet experience)

the other guy Ashwin, asked me stupid sys admin type questions, i think mostly because where i am working right now (he said he had to choose between my place and MickeyPlace a few months ago) - i think he saw my resume and think he can show both of us why he is better and his choice to work at MickeyPlace was better.

Given that he asked me questions outside my domain of knowledge, when i told him i wasn't familiar with the servers, or didn't know, and i asked him what the answer was, he said that he is not supposed to give me the answers. I'm like WTF?!?!?!?!?! if you ask me unreasonable questions, and i admit i don't know the answer, but want to know, i think ethically u owe me a half-ass answer at the very least. "what is the difference between Testing and QA?" well that could be a subjective, philosophical question, like at my current place where we only have QA and we use the terms almost synonymously, but at his place they may distinguish the two - how, i don't know.

ugh, sorry, just wanted to rant, now i can let it go...