Dim Sum Diaries
Neato mosquito/Interesting things that have occured or are upcoming:

--Via Angry Asian Man (very cool site btw, its where I keep abreast of the latest topics/issues relating to Asians/Asian-Americans), Beau Sia's video response to the whole Rosie ching chong debacle, An Open Letter To All Rosie O'Donnells:



Quite well done, imo. Apparently Rosie has seen it and actually posts an apology of sorts on her own blog.

--Yay to be living in San Diego! Aaron Sorkin's new play, The Farnsworth Invention is playing at The La Jolla Playhouse. Tickets have already been purchased, and I am keen to see it. However, if I ever do win the Lotto, I will be buying a mansion in London too for all the cool stuff...

--New books to buy soon:

1. Gone With the Windsors by Laurie Graham.

2. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman.

***

More later!




You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I've been meaning to write a post for awhile, but with work and real life commitments expanding furiously (like bread dough??), I don't get a lot of time just to sit down and blog for the pure pleasure of it anymore.

So, what's been going on? Passed an amiable Chinese New Years with my parents' and sister in Los Angeles. Took them out to a New Year's dinner in which I demanded early on that I pay the bill. Good food, but then brother-in-law took a suspicious bathroom break near the end (the sneaking and grabbing and paying the bill on the way to take a wee gambit).

"BIMPOLINA!!" (my nickname for him...don't ask) I said, fixing him with a killing look. "You better not be doing what I think your doing!!!!!!!!"

Needless to say, BIMPY let me pay the bill. :p

I think have inherited a bit of my parents' habits when it comes to CNY as well. Though I live in an area where there are only pockets of Asians here and there, I found myself tipping the Vietnamese lady who defeated the beast that is my eyebrows quite generously, wishing her a Happy New Year.

So during this CNY dinner, my parents continued on this theme and gave a packet of red envelope money (lai see) to our waiter. Then they gave the head guy who seated us one as well.

"It ensures that they remember us and then they give us great service all year long," Mom & Dad explained (they frequent this restaurant bloody a lot).

Apparently though the news of our red envelope generosity spread through the restaurant like wildfire because suddenly every waiter/waitress, busboy and even a cook???? rushed to our table to serve us dishes, napkins, forks, water or whatever excuse they could think of.

When yet another smiling waiter popped up, "Have we even seen this guy before?" Dad hissed to Mom while she frantically stuffed another $5 in a lai see envelope she pilfered from me.

"No, but we have to give him one now," she whispered back.

"What happened to our policy of only giving lai see to the guys we know???" Dad wanted to know.

"Dad said that, but he's a big softy," Mom muttered to me as she passed me the newly recycled lai see envelope to pass to my Dad.

* * *

Working has done a lot for me on a personal level, I must say. Its great to be contributing something and to get paid for it (did I mention that before?)! Mo money also means paying off bills (yay) and finally able to plan some family events that we weren't able to afford before. Kids will get a bigger birthday party this year, we can take a couple of mini-vacations this summer, etc etc etc, so its pretty nice. I seem to have switched to "super-charged" mode. My hair had grown ridiculously long during my two year unemployment period. I went to my hair stylist and had it chopped boyishly short (much to the chagrin of Hubby). Also had kids' hair cut short and bought a vacuum cleaner (Dyson) with the help of lai-see.

Do we see a CNY trend of cleaning here? The vacuum, mass hair cuts and eyebrow waxing....

Hmm and to mention a little more about work...the thing I've been doing lately is writing marketing text to make computers and computer bits sound more appealing (sexy?). So for example, if my company wanted to sell a mouse, have to make it sound state of the art, cutting edge, awesome, yet a sound business decision etc etc. So have turned to various high end car websites (Porshe, Aston-Martin, Mercedes etc) to study how they advertise, present their products. Apparently must make this mouse sound really sexy to get people to buy it...

Introducing the GizmoMouse 2007, with its large, throbbing, pulsating, sleekly designed mouse...body and...buttons you can push which will take you effortlessly to your next porn site in under a second.....manuverable with your right hand, so your left hand is free to...


Something like that...

* * *

The book that I've been reading lately is Frank Luntz's latest Words that Work, in which he talks about how words are used to influence and motivate and such. Crappy cover, but interesting stuff. For example, don't say drilling for oil, use exploring for energy. It sounds less evil somehow (even though it isn't).

* * *

And finally, I'd like to pose this question to my dear readers. What book do you find yourself reading again and again, year after year, so that the pages become dogeared? What book do you love that much?

My pick?

Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons. Its a lightly, brilliantly written comedy that I can reread and laugh every time. I find solace in its pages...I don't know why...

Oh god, I better log and go to bed before I get even more maudlin then I already am...
Happy Chinese New Year!

Food was great, nice spending time with my parents and sister (go see the movie Music & Lyrics its divine). Sister and Bro-in-Law and Dad took the children to the Faire afterwards (for CNY)...daughter calls cell, "Mom can we have turtles????"

"No" is the firm answer.

Apparently being grandpa trumps motherhood, as now we have 7 pets!!! 2 new turtles...*sigh

Now I have to figure out how the hell to take care of them....

With advent of first paycheck, have finally gotten myself a new phone (old one was like 3 years old). Its the new Motorola MOTOKRZR K1M along with that bluetooth ear piece thingamajig. Since work business is conducted mainly via telephone, email and im, DA MAN (aka boss, but also a rl friend) kept complaining about my old cell's speaker phone. Now though, can walk around the house self-importantly, look all sleek and modern whilst conducting DA BUSINESS (in my pink flannel reindeer pj pants to boot), imagining myself saying in a rather bored, yet cosmopolitan way:

"Why yes, Don Carlo, that shall be arranged with no problem at all...."

Then I flounce my hair and do the cool, I'm hip and with it laugh...

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

In other news, as a freelance technical writer (aka independent contractor), I have found several things/websites that are rather handy:

1) Saw Freshbooks via The Deck one day, and bookmarked the site. Have found it to be great for billing and tracking hours, etc. and it looks professional. I'm really glad I found this.

2) Was also able get a daytimer from Franklin Covey. Has proved useful so far for making notes, tracking appointments, etc.

Other observations:

Now that am working, am starting to let loose the unbridled lust...a monster really...which has been deeply buried for the last two years. :p

Still a little nervous after being out of work for so long, but everything seems to be going well so far.

Have been able to spend quality time with kids. Son is finally able to read some books on his own. Daughter's math homework just proves that I'm growing dumber as I get older. Stared at some matrix math problem where you had to guess numbers based on clues??? I couldn't figure it out...luckily Hubby is a science/math geek so I can handily pass off annoying math problems to him...it took him awhile, but he finally got it. Daughter is also turning out to be a good writer. She shares my penchant for telling humorous stories and APPARENTLY overusing adverbs to an amusing degree.

Hubby and I have been talking about how rough the last couple of years have been...each in our own way. But it seems like this year is gonna be a good one. Here's hopin...
There is so much I would like to write about...so little time. Mayhap I will post snippets of the various compartments of my life...rather feng shui imo!

WORK:

This is going rather well. I just rec'd my first paycheck in the mail and man...it is a good feeling! Have been tending to work late nights, like 11-4 am...pretty bad because I crash the next day (not so good), esp. if someone needs to talk to me about work. Its satisfying to finally have something to focus on (and get paid for it)...

Also notice that I give totally given up cooking...now the fam mostly goes out or does takeout...

PETS:

Whoever said male ginuea pigs are able to cohabit the same cage peacefully is utterly full of shit. One morning I foolishly decided to pair Truffles (still the baby and male) with Fluffy so they could play, socialize, bond or whatever. Bloody big mistake apparently. As soon as I put Truffles in the cage, Fluffy immediately mounted Truffles and blew his load all over Truffle's back...omfg...

Of course I did not realize this until I smelt some strange, musky odor I couldn't identify. I took Truffles out of his cage and my HANDS WERE COMPLETELY COVERED in ginuea pig jizz. And damn that shit smells nasty! Needless to say, I washed my hands about 20x....

ENTERTAINMENT:

Went to visit parents the other weekend, and trekked all the way to bloody Pasadena to see Miss Potter, laughed and cried...loved it so much. It was superb!

I also am quite enjoying the new Norah Jones CD.



Very laid back and the lyrics are rich. Her voice is tres sultry.


AND FINALLY....

I leave you with this...how to determine whether or not you are a prostitute: