Fail #1
I felt an oncoming cold sore yesterday-ish, which prompted me to curse for two reasons: a) I don't want New Guy on the Block to see me at our game/post-game celebrations tomorrow with a cold sore, and b) I'm in the wedding of of a high-strung girl next Thursday, and I'm not sure she'd be able to handle my having a cold sore ruining her wedding day. Fail #1a ... at life. Forces of nature always work against me to give me cold sore at the most inopportune times.
After some online searching, I dashed to the local CVS for some 10% docosanol cream. 0.07 oz costed $21. Fail #1b.
Fail #2
With it being National Cheesecake Day and all, I convinced Broadway to dine at the Cheesecake Factory and to take advantage of $1.50 cheesecake slices. When we showed up around 8:45pm, we were told it would be a 1-1.5 hour wait for two people. Fail #2a.
We happened to run into three friends who were equally dejected and in line for cheesecake, and together we decided to eat at the nearby California Pizza Kitchen instead. Our strategy was that we'd finish dinner just in time to be seated for cheesecake dessert. We hit Fail #2b when the Cheesecake Factory buzzer went off right before our pizzas arrived, and we had to give up our spot in line.
Not ones to give up on cheesecake, we went back to the Factory after dinner around 10:30pm, thinking the lines would be shorter--they weren't. One of the guys did some sweet talking the hostess, who miraculously bumped us to the front of the line. This cut down our wait from 45 minutes to 15. Success? Think again ...
After taking our drink orders of 5 waters, our waiter told us that cheesecake slices were on a 45 minutes delay. ????? Resigned to our fate, we did order. Our cheesecake finally arrived an hour and fifteen minutes later. At 11:30pm, I was too tired to eat cheesecake anymore. How could we have failed so badly at cheesecake?
Fail #3 (or really just one contiguous fail from the previous two)
Our waiter forgot to punch in the cheesecake discount when he brought our bill, so we didn't get the $1.50 promo price after all. After a bit of complaining, the bill was corrected, we paid, and finally headed home.
When I got home, I dug through my CVS bag, only to find that my $4800/lb cold sore ointment (that's right, I did the math) was in fact no longer anywhere to be found. I think it fell out while I fidgeted with it during the 1hr+ of cheesecake waiting. It will probably go out with the July 30 National Cheesecake Day trash at the good ol' Cheesecake Factory.
Fail. Fail. Fail.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
new guy on the block
Just when things had been going so well with Broadway, this new guy joined our frisbee team.
It's weird how attraction works. It's either there, or it's not. It's hard to predict how it happens, or when it will happen. I meet plenty of new people every day, many of them guys around my age. Some of them are married, living with their girlfriends, etc.. Others are single. Either way, within a couple of minutes of talking to them, I breathe a sigh of relief that I'm with Broadway and not any of them.
He is different.
My first encounter with him was platonic enough; there certainly wasn't any out-of-the-ordinary attraction on my part. He was just another guy, albeit cute. Very cute. I picked him out of the crowd for being cute, and maybe we made eye contact. I can't remember. That's how forgettable he was. I never expected to see him again.
The next day, last Thursday, he showed up on my regular summer frisbee team, as our new recruit. Our captain felt that we'd need an extra guy, since quite a few of our male players were on vacation. Then it took only one look, and I knew I was hooked. I knew I had a crush on the guy. From the way he looked at me, I knew that he had also remembered me from the day before.
Why do coincidences like this, these mutual rememberings, never happen when I'm single?
By the time we finished the game last Thursday, I knew only his name and that he can run really really fast. I knew nothing else at all, yet all weekend long I anxiously looked forward to tonight's game, so that I could see him again. I prayed that he would come out to dinner with us after the game, so that I could actually talk to him. He did.
Inconspicuously, I hung back for just the right amount of time such that the only open seat at the restaurant table was next to him. I took it.
Reading over menus, I leaned in and asked him questions. Whether due to circumstances--we were short on menus, so I asked to use his after he'd picked what he wanted--or perhaps he too was interested, he revisited the menu several times after I had borrowed his, used it, and closed it back up. In revisiting, he always placed it a bit too unnecessarily in front of me, so that he too could lean in, read the menu, and almost graze my shoulder with his. One time, he did.
Age comes up a lot on our team, since most players are much older. I quickly took the chance to ask his age. 26. Which means I am still the youngest player on our team, and more importantly, that he is older than me.
I am way too distracted for being not single.
This is not good.
It's weird how attraction works. It's either there, or it's not. It's hard to predict how it happens, or when it will happen. I meet plenty of new people every day, many of them guys around my age. Some of them are married, living with their girlfriends, etc.. Others are single. Either way, within a couple of minutes of talking to them, I breathe a sigh of relief that I'm with Broadway and not any of them.
He is different.
My first encounter with him was platonic enough; there certainly wasn't any out-of-the-ordinary attraction on my part. He was just another guy, albeit cute. Very cute. I picked him out of the crowd for being cute, and maybe we made eye contact. I can't remember. That's how forgettable he was. I never expected to see him again.
The next day, last Thursday, he showed up on my regular summer frisbee team, as our new recruit. Our captain felt that we'd need an extra guy, since quite a few of our male players were on vacation. Then it took only one look, and I knew I was hooked. I knew I had a crush on the guy. From the way he looked at me, I knew that he had also remembered me from the day before.
Why do coincidences like this, these mutual rememberings, never happen when I'm single?
By the time we finished the game last Thursday, I knew only his name and that he can run really really fast. I knew nothing else at all, yet all weekend long I anxiously looked forward to tonight's game, so that I could see him again. I prayed that he would come out to dinner with us after the game, so that I could actually talk to him. He did.
Inconspicuously, I hung back for just the right amount of time such that the only open seat at the restaurant table was next to him. I took it.
Reading over menus, I leaned in and asked him questions. Whether due to circumstances--we were short on menus, so I asked to use his after he'd picked what he wanted--or perhaps he too was interested, he revisited the menu several times after I had borrowed his, used it, and closed it back up. In revisiting, he always placed it a bit too unnecessarily in front of me, so that he too could lean in, read the menu, and almost graze my shoulder with his. One time, he did.
Age comes up a lot on our team, since most players are much older. I quickly took the chance to ask his age. 26. Which means I am still the youngest player on our team, and more importantly, that he is older than me.
I am way too distracted for being not single.
This is not good.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
i seldom actually get angry
Until today, after this conversation:
That Guy: So what were you traveling for?
me: Oh, I went to Denver for a workshop thing
That Guy: What was the workshop for?
me: It was this healthcare and business thing
That Guy: Oh, were you there just tagging along with your boyfriend?
me: ??????
Where is the logic in his train of thought? In fact, WHAT is his train of thought? As this was a short conversation while we were lined up waiting for a pull during our ultimate game, I didn't have a chance to react strongly. Not to say I would have otherwise ... I'm not really sure how to react to something like this.
And here I thought I've never encountered sexual discrimination.
That Guy: So what were you traveling for?
me: Oh, I went to Denver for a workshop thing
That Guy: What was the workshop for?
me: It was this healthcare and business thing
That Guy: Oh, were you there just tagging along with your boyfriend?
me: ??????
Where is the logic in his train of thought? In fact, WHAT is his train of thought? As this was a short conversation while we were lined up waiting for a pull during our ultimate game, I didn't have a chance to react strongly. Not to say I would have otherwise ... I'm not really sure how to react to something like this.
And here I thought I've never encountered sexual discrimination.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
peachy
My parents are in town for the week and staying with me, so Broadway's been made to sleep at home since Asian parents are sensitive about the whole sleeping together thing. My parents and I also went to Maine (Acadia) for the weekend and Monday, so it had been a few days since I'd seen Broadway.
He promised that he'd come see me at work today at some point.
Around 11:30am, there was a knock at my door. Broadway walked in with a silly grin, and I'd never been happier to see him. He also had two peaches in his hands. He said he thought of me when he left his house this morning, so he brought two peaches with him, one for him, and one for me.
It was a delicious peach :)
He promised that he'd come see me at work today at some point.
Around 11:30am, there was a knock at my door. Broadway walked in with a silly grin, and I'd never been happier to see him. He also had two peaches in his hands. He said he thought of me when he left his house this morning, so he brought two peaches with him, one for him, and one for me.
It was a delicious peach :)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
revival!
It's been a while. My life is generally uninteresting. Sometimes I compose posts in my head, trying to make a mental note to remember the phrases for when I'm actually at a computer. That never happens. When I do sit at a computer, the process of regurgitating the happenings in written form creates a serious mental block, and I say "forget it" and surf the intertubes instead.
Some brief updates on various fronts:
- My knee got worse to now also include issues with my knee cap cartilage, but I still play frisbee. Just trying to take it easy when I play ... but when is running at 60% effort really possible? Either you chase it down, or you don't. There's not really any in between.
- Best Friend left Boston yesterday. I really didn't see her all that much while she was here ... I'm in the city, and she's at the end of the train line. Driving her to the airport, I realized how much I missed talking to her, and cried inside that it'd be my last conversation with her for a while to come.
- Broadway and I teeter between being ridiculously affectionate/loving with each other and harboring contempt. Or maybe the contempt is just on my part. During the low points, I question my judgment of being with him. During points of affection, I think I want to be with him forever. Who knows what will happen, and I may just end up going along with the flow.
- That annoying guy in my office finally left. Hurrah.
Some brief updates on various fronts:
- My knee got worse to now also include issues with my knee cap cartilage, but I still play frisbee. Just trying to take it easy when I play ... but when is running at 60% effort really possible? Either you chase it down, or you don't. There's not really any in between.
- Best Friend left Boston yesterday. I really didn't see her all that much while she was here ... I'm in the city, and she's at the end of the train line. Driving her to the airport, I realized how much I missed talking to her, and cried inside that it'd be my last conversation with her for a while to come.
- Broadway and I teeter between being ridiculously affectionate/loving with each other and harboring contempt. Or maybe the contempt is just on my part. During the low points, I question my judgment of being with him. During points of affection, I think I want to be with him forever. Who knows what will happen, and I may just end up going along with the flow.
- That annoying guy in my office finally left. Hurrah.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
three weeks ago ...
My manager comes to me to ask how my progress is going on this project we need to deliver this summer, sometime in July.
manager: how's the progress on Project X?
me: oh, I think we're on track for July. Thanks for prioritizing out some of that stuff with me last month.
manager: no problem
A day later, I get an email from him:
"Seine,
Wow, it turns out that we need to submit our client report by May 1!!!!!!
-Manager"
Yikes. So that's where I've been the last few weeks.
manager: how's the progress on Project X?
me: oh, I think we're on track for July. Thanks for prioritizing out some of that stuff with me last month.
manager: no problem
A day later, I get an email from him:
"Seine,
Wow, it turns out that we need to submit our client report by May 1!!!!!!
-Manager"
Yikes. So that's where I've been the last few weeks.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
it's all in the numbers
I happened upon this post today, which I presume was written to "raise awareness" and to promote discussion, but read more like "here are some numbers to raise your temperature, and we welcome all rants about the the current, military-centric, fiscally-irresponsible US administration."
Whatever the argument, I believe in convincing others with the merit of my point, and the gross misrepresentation of the numbers here utterly frustrated me. I'm not denying that the US spends an incredible amount on defense, but a key point was left out of this post: these numbers are ABSOLUTE numbers. The US is a much bigger country than France, which stands #2 in absolute standing. Normalizing to population, the US spending is ~$1900 per capita, whereas France stands at ~$1150 per capita. Yes, the US spending is still almost twice is high, but not so egregiously off-balanced as the original numbers would have you believe.
Because I have nothing better to do on a Sunday, I normalized the list for spendings by country and re-arranged the list by per-capita defense spendings:
Whatever the argument, I believe in convincing others with the merit of my point, and the gross misrepresentation of the numbers here utterly frustrated me. I'm not denying that the US spends an incredible amount on defense, but a key point was left out of this post: these numbers are ABSOLUTE numbers. The US is a much bigger country than France, which stands #2 in absolute standing. Normalizing to population, the US spending is ~$1900 per capita, whereas France stands at ~$1150 per capita. Yes, the US spending is still almost twice is high, but not so egregiously off-balanced as the original numbers would have you believe.
Because I have nothing better to do on a Sunday, I normalized the list for spendings by country and re-arranged the list by per-capita defense spendings:
- United States - $1919
- Israel - $1300
- Saudi Arabia - $1255
- France - $1158
- UK - $1137
- Australia - $974
- Netherands - $730
- South Korea - $568
- Italy - $549
- Germany - $543
- Canada - $516
- Republic of China (Taiwan) - $457
- Spain - $349
- Japan - $326
- Poland - $284
- Russia - $281
- Turkey - $214
- Brazil - $136
- China - $44
- India - $23
Now what's immediately interesting is that Israel and Saudi Arabia are right up there with the US in per-capita defense spending. China and India, with their huge populations, are all of a sudden at the bottom of the list (though China's is probably still lower than actual). More over, developed countries overall spend a lot more on defense than developing countries.
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