Universe is Coming Together

Almost everything I've been looking at or paying attention to, is telling me to follow my dreams.

However, I've got a question.

What the heck IS my dream?

Charged Twice

Today, I hear of a case where a woman was bitten by a rodent. She calls up the advise nurse who tells her to go to "urgent care." However, when she was seen by the doctor, she was told that the rabies shot ISN'T kept there, there is none there, and she will have to go to emergency services, which she does, and gets her rabies shot there.

Fast forward to a month later when she receives a bill for the emergency treatment AND the urgent care visit. She's explained the situation to her carrier, but apparently the carrier has turned down her request to remove the charge for the urgent care visit even though she received NO TREATMENT there.

So, it seems that if you take the advice of an advise nurse, you can get dinged twice, even if the advise is WRONG!

Yet another episode in "Insurance Woes!"

She's Doing Okay

I've noticed someone coming on this site, who cares really deeply about Bratworse. I know she's incommunicado with a bunch of you, but that's just where her state of mind is right now. She's doing okay - keeping really busy with many art projects and other stuff.

If you're coming on here to read my writings or hers, great! But if you're coming on here cause you're concerned, I just wanted to ease your concerns. :)

Don't worry, I'll take good care of her - we know how to communicate even if sometimes that communications requires screaming. *grins*

Her biggest concern right now is that the State of California might null and void our marriage.

The Tide is Finally Reaching Our Shores

Just this week, three customers gone. But in the meantime, both my boss and I are hurrying to get new customers in, but the tide of the recession/depression is now lapping at our shores. Ugh.

The next few years shall be interesting indeed.

Timing is Everything

So, we've been applying for a new loan - to cover the student loans that are about due for Bratworse. We were supposed to get money before Jan. 31st, but our loan broker was apparently not very aggressive in chasing down some documents and so it came about that we fired him and found another.

Well, just yesterday, our new loan broker called and said the paperwork will go in tomorrow. In my mind, I was like, why aren't you putting it in today? What's wrong with you?

But then, I got home and Bratworse shows me $20,000 for another loan she didn't realize she had gotten. I quickly called up the new loan dude and asked if it was okay to attach another $20,000 on top and he said no problem.

Had the first loan gone through, we'd would've had another $250 of bills every month. Instead, we added only about $90 to our bills.

So indeed, we were caused consternation, and yet things worked out in our favor in the end. I still believe that all the good karma we try and strew about, does come back in little blessings like this.

I can't wait until we get the money for the new loan. I can breathe a hell of a lot easier then.

Setting Down Limits

Last week, we helped out Lady Embalmer with babysitting chores as she took in six neighborhood kids. Since Art Teach's two were included in the mix, and we had already established a bit of relationship with the other four kids, we just thought four other adult hands would make the day just a tad better.

We watched with amusement when the kids, ranging in age between 2 and 5, asked permission to go upstairs. Lady Embalmer rattles off a litany of don'ts - "No kicking, no biting, no taking each other's toys, no hitting, no pinching..."

It appears adults are no better, are they? All those lessons about "Hey, don't take more than your share," or "Don't rob," apparently just doesn't take with some adults, as evidenced by these chief executives of companies who ask the U.S. taxpayers to bail them out.

Here, Senator Claire McCaskill is putting forth a sensible bill. If you are going to ask the U.S. taxpayer to bail you out, at least have the decency to not make more than the POTUS (President of the United States). But since they've pretty much shown themselves to be an indecent lot, Sen. McCaskill is putting this decency into law.

AFTER you pay back the money, you can do whatever the hell you want. Pay yourself 18 quadrillion dollars if you need to, but if you ask for bailout money again...

Redistributing of Wealth

I had dinner with a friend just before the elections. I never saw my friend as a Republican or conservative, but I saw her husband as fairly conservative and Republican.

Somehow, the subject of Obama came up and my friend just repeating to me, "Is it true that he said that he wants to 'redistribute the wealth'?"

I just kept blinking at her stupidly all the while thinking, 'First off, the wealthy he is talking about would NEVER influence you because none of my peers would ever be in that group of super-rich, not even my good friends who live in Atherton. Secondly, there are TONS of other problems other than wealth/taxes.'

None of these thoughts crossed my lips, because my brain just could not comprehend that my friend was getting angry over the POSSIBILITY (hardly probable in this case but she couldn't see that) that her taxes might get influenced.

For me, considering that the super-rich has gotten super-duper rich over the past 30-40 years and minimum wage earners have gotten GRUDGING raises... it's only fair that the winds should blow in the other direction for a while.

But my friend has little knowledge of how government works - all she heard is 'Redistributing of wealth' and that Obama's threatening to take away her money.

I wonder how she and her husband feels today.

An Interesting Exchange

The following is a transcript in an AIM exchange between a friend who is white, lives in NC and has a hippie mom and a very very republican Dad - about the Inauguration

Me(10:48:38 AM): I can barely focus today... woke up happy and didn't know why since I had to work. Then remembered!

Friend (10:48:39 AM): I am getting my permit to carry a concealed weapon and we are making survival kits

Me(10:48:48 AM): You serious?

Friend (10:49:00 AM): Flash lights, Ammo, Canned foods, water, Skittles

Friend (10:49:04 AM): all the necessities

Me (10:49:07 AM): lol yeah

Me (10:49:15 AM): well, I feel like I can unpack mine

Friend (10:49:24 AM): hahahahaha well hand it over!

Me (10:49:27 AM): rofl

Obama's magic is starting - I'm able to laugh with a semi-conservative about survival.

Time Wastin'

So, I've been reading Andrew Sullivan's site (shhhh don't tell people I'm actually reading a conservative albeit gay albeit who voted for Obama) and he leads me to this site today. It's call Pretty Loaded and well, it's a seamless panoply of loading animations.

You know, the animations that happen when your program/video file/website is loading?

My first thought before entering the site: "How good can this be?" Other thoughts of endless circles of death persisted.

And then the first animation happened and I thought, "Cool!" and before I even knew it was over the second one started, then the third one...

Five minutes of my life. Gone. Poof. Just like that.

Enjoy!

Cementing My Geek Street Cred

The fact that I actually laughed out loud at this, really cements my geek street cred, doesn't it?

FYI, I showed my boss the above picture and zip, nada, nothing. Meant absolutely nothing to him.

I've been neglecting posting up here because well, I find little links and post them on the facebook page and since I have a feed coming from here to there, I don't double-post. But today, I turned off that feed. So, anything that's posted here don't necessarily get posted on the Facebook. Which is good I think. It'll make me want to post here more often.

Anyway, I'm back and will be posting a lot more.

AAH

The turtle has requested that I put this up on my blog, and offer a small prize to the first person to recognize me on the photo. The turtle is under the mistaken impression I can afford a small prize.

However, I think the more interesting contest would be to see which of the following nicknames belonged to me: Flea, Turtle, Cock (Turtle uses this name. I think I prefer Rooster), Snail, Dog, Duckling, Teddy Bear, Piggy, Chicken Egg, Elephant, Hippo, Crow, Sheep or Ox.

Oh, and the title of this post? AAH stands for Asian Animal House. No, we were NOTHING like Animal House the movie. In fact, we were a studious bunch (well except me of course.) We just realized almost half of our group already had animal nicknames and by giving the rest animal nicknames, AAH was born. College silliness.

Anyone willing to guess?

Music Lists

Ever feel like just cause you didn't listen to a certain band, they'd oust you for not belonging? For example, I have no Indigo Girls. *listens for the collective gasp in the lesbian community* Another example, I have only one Peter Gabriel song. However, I do have some Phil Collins, does that count?

I'm sorting out the list I want to listen to, because I have a good 5 hour drive, then a 14 hour drive on Saturday, so I don't want to keep paying attention to forwarding music that won't put me in the driving zone. But looking over my culled list, I find that my tastes in music really has no cohesion... It literally jumps all over the place from corny Carpenters music, to musicals, to Punjabi dance music, to Canton Pop from the 70s.

Perhaps it's because I'm a visual person and thus the three common things through my music are: good beat, has a story, or it makes me laugh. If it accomplishes all three, like Alice's Restaurant Massacree, it quickly rises to the top of my list.

What ties your music together, do you know?

Owed a "Hot Chat Topping Session"

So last night, I had the fortune of spending 45 minutes on the phone with Scarlett O'Hall. This is the friend I first made on my own, when I moved up here to the Bay Area. Scarlett (Name have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent) was a fascinating character I really had to good fortune to meet through a BBS.

Okay, for you youngsters fairly new to the internet, a BBS was a Bulletin Board System back in the dark ages of the internet, long before there were images, ebay, amazon or even AOL. Yes, I was an early geek. Anyway, back in the 90s when I first moved here I was a lonely 28 year old and longing for any sort of company. When I found out there was a BBS for lesbians, well I jumped to log on.

Scarlett was the first person I met through the internet and our friendship was fast, furious and funny! Her apt was on the way home for me so often after work, I'd drop in on her, calling through the intercom "Short girl bringing Tall Boys". Tall boys were the long tall Buds. I used to get soooooo drunk with Scarlett.

It was through Scarlett I met Lone Wolf who remains a close friend to this day.

Anyway, Scarlett was a bit down in the dumps because it was the anniversary of a memorial service for a close friend of hers, one I had known. We talked, and I was able to commiserate with her, due to the sudden death of JoEllen when she had just turned 30. Apparently she and her significant other has experienced a ton of deaths lately and she was wondering if that was all life had to offer anymore.

I pointed her gaze to the future, where her little girl was poised to take over. Her child is 4 and there are so many more firsts in her life... that's where the future is. Death is inevitable... the 80s and 90s taught me that. To see it as the future is to condemn yourself to a future of closing doors. Yes, it will be that, but that's not all.

Oh, the title of the post? I was telling Bratworse about Scarlett's and my history together and I told her how I stopped playing on the BBS when my GF at the time asked me to, but before I stopped, I engaged in a "Hot chat" with Scarlett and how I was promised a return chat which never occurred.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that anything like that will happen nowadays, with all of us older, wiser AND more tired. lol

Pages of a Dusty Book

That's what this feels like, like reading pages from a dusty book.

Lives intersect at different junctures and there are lives that interweave throughout time. Perhaps it happens more often to someone like me, but right now, many lives are intersecting with mine due to the tool called Facebook. Some are current friends, some are old friends popping out of different periods in my life.

The one that's just jaw-dropping to me is the one connection to probably one of my closest friends as a child, back in Singapore. As I read about her, I realize her world and mine would only have intersected as children and now, through this tool. We run in vastly different worlds.

I hope the fondness we both feel evaporates any differences. I feel like though we have differences - here I go again with my feelings of alienness - both of us seem to have the philosophy of live and let live... a philosophy that should lead to a somewhat harmonious life.

Anyway, this contact with her... the tentative reaching out, it's been feeling like reading pages from a dusty book. Some words stand out, others obscured, and with each contact, more dust is blown off and more words become readable. The memories start to stitch together (how's that for mixed metaphors) ... bah, I derailed my own thought.

All this to say, I'm enjoying myself.

You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

My mother just called to apologize for last night's phone call saying she was upset at losing her glasses and she took it out on me.

I'm trying to pick my jaw off the ground. This old back just takes its time bending nowadays.

God Gave Me TWO Daughters

Called Mom today just cause. After her greeting, she told me it was okay that I wasn't coming to visit her for Christmas. "Oh?" I asked while thinking since when was I asking permission not to visit?

"Oh yes," she said almost triumphantly. "God gave me TWO daughters."

A soft snicker escaped me despite my best efforts. "I'm glad you're thinking that way, Mom."

"Yes, so you go and stay in Oakland. I've got two daughters."

"Yes Mom."

As I hung up the phone, I found myself counting the minutes until next week when I surprise her on Thanksgiving. Part of me is being pure Chinese and thinking, Oh, so you're going to look down on me, eh? Well, I'll show you.

Trust me, it sounds *much* better in Chinese.

A Tale of Two Jewelers

So we have two jewelers as customers. One's retail, the other is one that handmakes jewelry... probably in the under $200 range. The retail store on the other, deals with jewelry in the thousands range.

I get calls from both of them today. One of them tells me to keep the plan going even though there are layoffs because well, the people need their healthcare. The other one tells me to cancel their plan for all their employees.

And guess which jeweler did which? And people wonder why I don't want to work for rich people.

Frustrated Scorpio

Ugh! I made calls to both Boxer and Feinstein saying Kick Lieberman out of any leadership positions. Nothing says "WUSS!" more than being kicked and then saying "Here's your reward for kicking me." I wish Barbara Lee was my Senator and not these two. I hope there's a better choice for Democrats in our primaries for Senator next times. Damn it, I wanted retribution against Lieberman!

so what's the song

on my iPod this morning? You really fucked up

Facebooking

So, after several people had asked if I was on Facebook, after watching Stephen Colbert tease Jon Stewart about being out of it... I succumbed to the forces of conformity and signed up.

The first thing that popped up upon signing? Alison Blanchard's face greets me and wants to be my friend.

Awwwww!

So not being able to resist a gorgeous red-head, I accepted of course. Well! Numerous faces greets me upon this acceptance and amongst them I spy tons of faces from my past, from acquaintances long-forgotten, to ex-clients to friends no more. Wow. A name... seemingly familiar when the memory snaps into place and I am transported to my past, somewhere in L.A., on a hot summer day. Another name... and again I am transported, this time to a crowded convention floor.

I start choosing people to ask to be my friend. Safe choices at first, ones that I know will welcome my advances. Weasel is the first to accept. It'll be nice to stay in contact with Wease and his wife.

Part of me is screaming at me, How will you maintain hermitude???? The other part is soothing me, It's okay, time to come out of your shell. I guess time will tell if social networking will work for me or not. But damn it, I am not going to be ignorant about these types of programs any more.