Reacher and Settler

Great wisdom (TV show How I Met Your Mother) once said that there are always a reacher and a settler in any relationship. For those of you who does not watch sitcom either because you don't live in this country or those who lives in this country but are "too cool" for sitcoms, the reacher refers to the one who reached for the one above their league and the settler settled for the one below their league. Now I won't say that ALL relationships are necessarily based on this model, but certainly one can see the advantages of this model. If there's neither a reacher nor a settler in a relationship, perhaps a relationship between two highly independent individuals is just harder to maintain.

Just take a step back and think for a second here how a reacher/settler relationship model will make a relationship stronger? The reacher has already obtained someone above their league, if they know what's good for them, they'll strive to keep this settler instead of "exploring other options." What do the settle get out of it? You may ask. Ah, the answer is quite simple (I am starting to sound like a character under Chuck Norris). First you have to ask, "Why do they settle in the first place?" Answer: they prefer not to be with someone of their own league or above them. They have the need to be adored, hence it befits them to stay in the relationship with the reacher. If you look at it close enough, it's really a symbiotic rather than a parasitic relationship. ^__^

The Simpler Time

So I made Hubby watched Around the World in 80 Days (circa 1956) because he has obviously never heard the story before. T.T While watching the movie, not only was he awed at the awesomeness of movie production back in the 50's he also commented on how he think the "simpler days" (not the 50's, but the age the story was based in - 1800s). I am sorry to say that I do not share his sentiment towards the "good ol' days." I am a strong believer that modern days are better than "good ol' days," and the future will continue to be better. That is up to the point that finally succeeded in making the world uninhabitable and wiping out our own species.



Older days make me think of oppression. And I don't just mean for females and/or colored people. I mean for anyone other than those born to wealth. And even females born of wealth might not be able to fully exercise her free will. I feel that in modern days, at least in US, one can truly say that one can rise above one's birth through hard work. Sure, it certainly helps to be born with a silver spoon, but at least through hard work it's not impossible to become wealth, or at least attain a certain level of comfortableness. I don't think any of the now billionaires dot-comers started out as Rockefellers.

Don't even get me started on technological/medical advancement. Really? Do you want to choose between dying from appendectomy or having a surgery without anesthesia? Have you ever needed a cavity filled/wisdom tooth pulled? Okay, I rest my case.

Hubby said to not burst his bubbles.... =.=

Trust With My Life

As with everyone else, I have worked with my fair share of assholes and morons. Luckily for most of us, with the exception of the military, I do not need to trust these assholes and morons with my life. I only need to maintain a "professional" relationship with them so chit can get done and we all collect our paychecks at the end of the month, or bi-weekly, or weekly, or cash at the end of every day.

I used to know this one guy, who was in his early twenties, who would always want to be the driver whenever we go somewhere, because he didn't trust anyone with his life. He also insisted on sitting at the seat with his back against the wall whenever we went to a restaurant. No, he was not an immigrant from a war-torn country. Not as far as I know. Born and raised in US to the best of my knowledge. Well, perhaps he was from a bad neighborhood.

Back then I just thought he was a little strange, after all, his liking to drive and restaurant seating arrangement did not bother me that much. As I get older, I am starting to see his theory. Well, no, I don't think anyone will want to try to take me out in a restaurant, but I definitely would rather drive myself if I don't trust a person's driving -- same criteria insurance companies use -- single males in their early twenties. As much as I love you, guys, you just cannot gamble with my life.

Neutral

Once upon a time when I was young, innocent, and naive, I used to assume that everyone I met is a nice person, until proven otherwise. After way too many disappointments, I learned to withhold my judgment until the person has done something to convince me one way or another. Every new person I met starts with a neutral score of zero. Zero not as in on a scale from 0 to 10 and 10 being the highest, zero as in the point of origin (0,0) on a graph. I neither like nor dislike a person until he or she has convinced me of one way or another.

Religious fanatics - automatic 40 points deduction on their IQ chart. If I work with you, that's highly unprofessional, I do not need to know your religious viewpoint. If I do not work with you, our conversation ends right here, and hopefully I will never have to talk to you again. Amen.

Freecells

If you don't know what Freecell, the solitaire card game is, here's more than you will ever need to know at Wikipedia.

A week or so ago I got into a discussion with the Hubby who claimed that he had heard from various sources that ALL freecell games are solvable. Here's another thing you need to learn about men:- they will believe in all external sources except their wives! (Okay, to be fair to him, only on certain subjects and occasionally.) I had my doubts but was too lazy to look it up online until today. Evidently, a few are universally (and I use that term loosely) agreed to be unsolvable. For the fun of it, I'll post them on my random blog. :)

According to one Robert McMillan, there are 8 unsolvable games in the Window FreeCell game, and they are:

Games Nos.

11,982
146,692
186,216
455,889
495,505
512,118
517,776
781,948

Also from Wikipedia:

Game 11982

When Microsoft FreeCell became very popular during the 1990s it was not clear which of the 32,000 deals in the program were solvable. To clarify the situation, Dave Ring started The Internet FreeCell Project and took on the challenge of trying to solve all the deals using human solvers. Ring assigned 100 consecutive games chunks across volunteering human solvers and collected the games that they reported to be unsolvable, and assigned them to other people. This project used the power of crowdsourcing to quickly converge on the answer. The project was finished in October 1995, and only one game defied every human player's attempt: #11,982. Although this deal has defied every attempt to solve it, even by several exhaustive-search software solvers, no definitive proof has yet been offered that it is, in fact, unsolvable.

Several more presumably unsolvable instances were also discovered when Windows XP updated Freecell to 1,000,000 game instances, but 11,982 is still the most infamous of them.

11,982 is inherently difficult due to the large number of aces and other small cards high in the stack, as well as the high cards being relatively evenly distributed among the stacks, requiring one to use many of the cells to get to any useful cards.

Game 11,982 in Kpatience is identical to the one on Windows.

Awwwww man, how did I miss being one of the human solvers for this project? LOL

The Wisdom of The 70s Show

Red's wife in 70s show told her husband once, "When a woman come into the store (he sells home applicances), all she knows is what color she wants (as opposed to the actual features of the item)." She couldn't be more right. :D Specifically when I went to look for a hubby, all I know is he will be White. Hahaha.

Hubbies aside (polyandry?), that rule of thumb still applies, the cuteness of item matters to me. Features are important too... but cuteness plays a very big role. So as it turns out, Fry's and even Blockbuster sell these uber cheap headphones, and they are, you guessed it, CUTE. Did I mention uber cheap? So I had to buy them. I bought a $4.99 pair from Blockbuster. Surprisingly, it works! I know, I had my doubts. It stopped working after about a week or two. At first I assumed it's the integrity of the product, but lucky for the company Hubby came clean that it was him who broke it. No, I did not get upset. Quite the contrary, I was very excited that now I had the perfect reason to go try a different pair (cuz there are just SO many cute headphones out there)! I found the absolutely cheapest one possible -- the low, low price of $3.99! Still pink! Still pretty! Interestingly enough, it still works... depending on which way you twists it. For the most part it serves its purpose.

Lesson learned: $4.99 is the cheapest one can go for headphones, at least in the US of A.

I saw a couple more pretty pairs at Fry's... just waiting for the perfect excuse to present itself. :)

The Making of a Fanatic

Step 1: Identify a cause

Step 2: Convince self that cause is bigger than anything else in life, and sometimes life itself (be it themselves or others, especially others.) Irony is when pro-life peeps bomb abortion clinics or murder abortion doctors.

Step 3: Go far and wide and preach the said cause and make that your life.

Step 4: All malicious, violent acts stemming from the said cause are now justified.

What I don't understand is, having a cause should give one purpose not introduce anger, or are the bitter ones with lots of anger more inclined to becoming a fanatic?

Love Or Selfishness

I still remember this movie I watched when I was a kid. It was a movie about car racing ('cause us Asians just loooove that type of movies) in which the protagonist was speeding down the road (not during a race) and his girlfriend, as women are expected to do, asked him nicely to show down. To which his response was, "Don't worry, if we get into an accident, I'll make sure my side take the impact first." What? Was that meant to be loving or romantic? Was the girl supposed to feel better because of that?

Let's re-examine the statement and see what's wrong with it:-

First of all, he was okay with the knowledge of a possible accident, so long as he didn't need to slow down. God forbid, driving within the speed limit? How could she even thought about asking??

Second, he assumed he would have the control over which side took the impact.

Third, let's give him Second that he could, indeed, determine which side take the impact. The statement seemed to suggest that in the event of an accident, only one of them will die. Yeah, leave your love one behind to grief. Way to show your love, buddy! That's also making the assumption that she'd walk away scotch free. What if she's maimed and/or disfigured? She's the one that is going to have to live with that. Or worse, what if he's mained and/or disfigured. Since he did it for her, she's going to have to take care of him for life. I'm not saying one should ditch their loved one in a traumatic event, but bear in mind that in this scenario, all this could have been avoided if he'd only SLOW DOWN. In fact, one could even argue that he brought it on willfully!

Frankly, I think that's the most selfish thing one could say to the love one. I fail to see the romance in that statement. (And if they both survived, she should still dump him. His stupid genes did not need to be passed on.)

By the same token, I also don't get Titanic, which most women loved. Every woman wants a man who'd die for them, they say. Um.. not I, probably why I did not care for the movie. She watched her lover died in front of her, for her. What the hell was wrong with her?? How does one continue to live with that knowledge? As if the trauma from the boat sinking wasn't enough, how will she sleep at night after that? I can't do that. If it was me, I'd rather die with him. Or, be the one who goes.

Back to my original theory, we know that the surviving one will have a lot of grieving to do. If you pass on, there's a 50/50 chance that "life" would be better on the other side. Don't they always say that the grass is always greener on the other side?

In a sense, that's also a very selfish thing for me to say, because I do not want to be the one left behind to grief.

San Jose Girl Finds Herself Out of a Job Upon Returning from Vacation Because of Facebook Entry

Got you to look, didn't I? :)

So as you may or may not know, I am currently vacaying in Hawaii. WoohoO! I seriously contemplating posting (jokingly) on my facebook account (yeah, finally folded and got one of those) that I will no longer be returning. But I can just see myself on the Channel 2 news, which the title of this entry. Who knows, what you post on your facebook just might constitute a legitimate resignation in the day and age when people can be fired by voicemail, email, or even a text message. Better not take that chance till I win my lottery jackpot.

Ding Ding Gate II

Besides whether he gets me or not, the Ding Ding Gate also served a second purpose -- it's a great test as to whether he'll make a quality mate. You see, the biggest different (the definition) between a male and a female is the size of our gametes (eggs and sperms). A man can produce 2 million sperms at one time, and a female can only produce once a month, and for a very limited time. A man can impregnate a woman within minutes and move on; and a woman has to first spend 10 months carrying the baby to term, then raise it for a lengthy period of time. It is therefore more important for a female to be choosy... soon, I'll get to my point.

The light rail is NOT a freight train; it only takes a few minutes to pass, only a potential Darwin Award winner will be dumb enough to try to outrun a light rail train as the gates are coming down. Had he ran the gate at any given point in time, it's a very good indication to NOT REPRODUCE WITH THIS MAN'S GENES IN MY OFFSPRING. Can you imagine? Nineteen years of hard work (18 years of upbringing + 1 year of pregnancy), only so my child can be hit and killed by a train, due to nobody but his own fault! The hubby has, of course, never attempted to out run the light rail. :D The litmus test has been passed.

"I don't get white people...."

... says my Asian friend.

I don't know what is there to not get. I have been in the US for over half of my life now and have been married to a Whitie going on seven years.

"Like, I don't get how every houses have a trampoline in their backyard!" she says.

"It's fun!" I replied, "and it doesn't fit inside the house!"

"And they go drinking on the weekends, till they pass out," she says.

Okay, not being a drinker, I cannot answer that one. Anyone has an answer for that or anything else to add to the list?

Though I did not make the same observations as her, I do have a few gripes of my own:-

(1) Panda Express and any variation thereof are like Taco Bell style Mexican food. It somewhat resembles Chinese food, but not really.

(2) PF Chang is "Chinese fusion," or what my friend would call "whitified" Chinese food. The name and the shape bear some resemblances, but it ends there. E & O Trading Company is Eastern Asian fusion food. Do not mistaken them for real Chinese food. Also, China is a big place, trust me when I said there's more to Chinese food than sweet & sour pork, fried rice, mu su pork, and broccoli beef.

(3) By the same token, there are more than two genres -- horror and kung fu -- of movies. Watching a couple kung fu movies do not qualify you as "I watch Chinese movies." Houses of the Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is made for White people. It was observed that White people are very awed by the wiring technique for some odd reason, so the peeps in CTHD pretty much flew through the entire movie. I had no idea what the movie was actually about -- I'm not sure there was a plot. All I remember was people flying all over the place.

(4) Tattoos in Asian characters (my personal favorite). As my luck have it, I had ran into a few individuals who'd first ask me, "Where are you from?" "Sacramento." I said. Nope, not the answer they were fishing for. They wanted to hear somewhere Asia. After establishing the fact that I can read/write/speak the specific language, they'd roll up their sleeves and show me their tattoos, "What does this say?"

If you think about it it's a very interesting concept. Are they: (1) testing me my ability in said language? Because that really is somewhat annoying if not downright offensive, or (2) actually had no idea what they had tattooed on their body? Idiot! It says idiot, and stop showing it to me!

Blogger, Twitter, and Friendfeed

So I spent a weekend to buckling down to figure out what this Twitter thing is. Funny thing was, the Monday after the weekend when I was watching Chuck, it says 26% of those who are watching this commercial right now have no idea what Twitter is. A week ago I would have bee one of the 26%...

After discovering friendfeed and Twitter, I am still confused as to why I need all three accounts (friendfeed, Twitter, and blogger), especially when you can import literally everything, short of your grocery list (bet you there's a way to do it) into friendfeed. I have finally came to this conclusion -- it all depends on how long your message/random thought are. Here's the breakdown:

Below 140 characters (not to be confused with words): Twitter

Between 140 and 350 characters: Friendfeed

More than 350 characters: Blogger

Duh!

The Blogging Groove

My longest blog ever has 460 entries before I moved to the bay area and my blogging groove died a horrible death. I am 1/4 there again!! =D I feel that I have finally got my groove back... or am I just bored out of my mind being stuck in a rut? Let's just say I ran out of Veronica Mars to watch tonight, so I am going to blog to oblivious.

***

Gen Y should also be called the my-life-is-nothing-but-an-open-book generation. The transparency of their life is unbelievable. Then, of course, when the information they have willingly placed on the internet (a place of no information return) was viewed by the wrong individuals, all of a sudden their privacy was invaded. Huh?

Peeps don't understand how I don't have a myspace account. Simple: I don't need one. I like to keep my blog anonymous. I prefer my primary audience be strangers whom I'll never meet instead of acquaintances, or worse, coworkers. And if my friends' photos are only accessible on myspace, well, I will just have to live with not seeing them. Never was that big in pictures anyway.