I don't see the resemblence at all..

What Famous Leader Are You?

My sister is Hitler. I am Saddam. And Jeff is... Gandhi??

Jeff, if you ever piss the Chen sisters off... we'd crush you.

How hard is it really to mix friends with business?

Today at work my buyer had a lunch meeting with a vendor.

The vendor represented a line of products that have recently been performing very poorly in sales. She arranged this meeting in hopes of working with my buyer to increase current sales as well as selling her more jewelry from their product line.

An hour later, not only did this vendor treat our office to lunch, she ended up not selling anything at all, and was told Foley's may have to cut the line entirely from their stores. Of course, all this was said very very cordially, but the vendor practically left in tears. I had heard her during the conversation mentioning something about not wanting to lose her job.

After she left, my buyer was talking to the rest of us (her assistant buyers and I) and revealed she and this vendor rep were actually good friends. I was so surprised; their relationship had seemed totally business related until now. Turns out they even hang out on the weekends, and their kids play together - this woman used to work at Foley's.

This made me thinking of how fine a line it is between business and pleasure. The politics of the business world is complicated enough as it is without throwing friends and their feelings and your relationship with each other into the mix.

I guess learning where that line lays just takes experience...

Is the divorce rate in America really 50%?

I find that so hard to believe.
Yet I'm realizing that for every co-worker I hear about that's getting married or is currently married (happy or not), I know just as many that are divorced. How can everyone around me be getting married, yet so many are divorced? Half the interns have step-parents, and I hear about 'I get the kids this week' all over the office.
It's very disheartening.

My sister begged me not to post this:

My sister and I are in our study online and she's having a discussion with Jeff about Christianity or something due to his blog. She turns to me and asks:

Her: Who's Christ? Jesus? Or God?
Me: BwaHAHahhAhAHahA.
Her: What's the difference?!
Me: HAHAHAHAHhahahaHAHa!!

hahaha I thought that was so funny. I still can't stop laughing.

speaking of which.. this was also funny:

eKWEIzn: i really hate the smell of candles though
Demona848: like scented candles?
eKWEIzn: yeah
eKWEIzn: and incense
eKWEIzn: blech
eKWEIzn: if i can smell something, i damn well [should] be able to eat it
eKWEIzn: except for women
Demona848: hahahha

Hallelujah.

It's like your first breath of air after having your head held underwater for a long time.

Like the first rays of sunshine after a long winter.

The first drop of rain after a draught.

You truly don't know what you're missing until it's gone...

I am so blessed ... we have internet again.

I don't understand why overweight people are treated with so much more sensitivity than underweight people.

Today at lunch I passed by an extremely obese woman carrying two bags from chick-fil-la and munching on a fry as she walked with a co-worker. I made a glib comment about how I couldn't understand why she was eating all that food plus fries, and was immediately labeled insensitive.

Now I admit I probably shouldn't have said that out loud - it was totally unnecessary. But I do not feel the comment renders me an insensitive person. If I had said to someone with lung cancer "you really shouldn't be smoking" - no one would see anything wrong with that.

Yes, you can argue that her weight problem may be genetic, but odds are if she's extremely obese and eating fast food (and two bags of it), her lifestyle choices probably have a little something to do with her figure. The fact that "obesity rates have increased by more than 60 percent" among adult Americans in the past 10 years proves that it's definitely not a genetic problem, unless the larger people are breeding at a much faster rate - which I doubt because in 2000, over 16 percent of all deaths in the US was weight related.

It disgusts me people won't take responsibility for it; they're suing McD's instead. So in conclusion, I was commenting on the woman's lack of will power, not the fact she didn't have a perfect figure. Not that I really care about her health. I just don't want to have to pay for her medical bills in 20 years with my tax money just because she couldn't control herself.

Does that make me insensitive?

I despise anonymous comments.

I figure if what one has to say is important enough, it's worth the 30 seconds signing up. So now you have to sign up to comment.

It took me 2 hours to get to work today.

The HOV lane was flooded and all traffic had to be directed off it. It was horrible; the 59 HOV lane has cement barriers on both sides of hte one way lane, so no one could get off. Then there was an accident on it so by the time I got to work I was very frazzled. Yes, I was frazzled.

Speaking of which, this is the coolest site ever.

You can see actual footage of the roads and everything!
Geez I am such a dork.

I have a new template.

Blogger is so much better than xanga.
I can't believe you called Chris a sellout and then switched, Jeff.

Last night I had another movie like dream.

The dream started out with me touring a sculpture/art museum. Instead of cluttered and colorful like I expected, the hallways were expansive and the walls and art were all pale colored. Everything was white or beige. There wasn't much traffic, just my mom and sister, and some few other random friends. We wandered around by ourselves instead of in a large group, and I was so focused that at one point I looked up and everyone was gone.

Seeing no one around, I started towards the curator's office to see if I could page my party. When no one answered my knocking, I went in. I saw that the 'closet' door behind the curator's desk was open - but instead of a closet, it was another room. I went in room after room, following hallways and staircases until I came to what looked like living quarters.

It was a large, almost a mansion. The style was very old, but everything was very clean. Unlike the museum, this place was full of clutter. There were all sorts of junk and antiques scattered all over the place. Being a packrat and junk collecter myself, I wandered around, opening drawers and picking up everything.

Then I came to a room overflowing with more stuff and a hand written sign that said "take whatever you want." I clapped my hands with glee and started filling a bag with stuff. Then I noticed something strange; every time I wished a certain object I found was in another color, or another size, etc, I would find exactly what I wanted a few feet later. I thought it was weird that the later object was exactly how I envisioned it. I decided to wish for something very specific, and this time paid attention to the whole room. Sure enough, the object appeared in the middle of a pile.

I was very creeped out and as I started to back out of the room, I noticed the statuettes and paintings' eyes followed me. Chills shot up my spine as I dropped everything and started to run. As I ran down the hallways and burst through doors trying to find my way back, objects would appear in front of me to block my way. Not scary things, but all the things I ever wanted; yummy food, clothes, even the rooms were molding themselves to tailor to what I'd design my home to be someday.

I got the distinct feeling the house was trying to keep me there; why, I have no idea. The statues all beckoned to me and the paintings all looked sad. This only made me want to get the hell out even more.

I actually remember thinking in the dream that this was all very much like that movie The Haunting where these people stay in a mansion and of course, scary stuff happens. It turns out the dead owner of the house wanted to keep one of the women in the group in the house because all the kids he'd ever had with his past wives had died, and he wanted a child or something. At one point in the movie, she wanders into a room full of mirrors and when she looks up, she sees her reflection's belly swell as if she was pregnant. As I was remembering this scene during my dream, I woke up.

I must've had goosebumps for half an hour.

I FINALLY got caught up reading all these ABSA people's blogs/xangas (I've been MIA the first part of summer) and it makes me miss everyone so much.

I can't wait till school starts again...

Did I really just say that???

I saw this and thought it was funny:

2004 VOTER's GUIDE
Follow the NO CARB rule:
NO C-heney
NO A-shcroft
NO R-umsfeld
NO B-ush

and absolutely NO RICE

Seeing as how gas prices are ridiculous these days, work is almost an hour commute and parking in a garage downtown costs 100 dollars a month, I was lucky enough to find 2 other people who live in Sugar Land to car pool with.

One of these guys is a very white white guy (no, I'm not being redundant) with both UT and A&M decals on his car, has one of these Jesus fishes, and won't eat anything unless it has meat in it. Oh, and he hates the French.

The other is this Indian guy who lived in Singapore for the first 5 years of his life, then in Australia for another 12 or so. They are as different as can be, but we all manage to get along very well.

Today I had to stop by Chinatown to pick up some stuff I was getting hemmed from a tailor, and for their trouble I treated them to shaved ice. The Aussie had it many times and knew which places were bad (Star Snow), which were ok (Coco's in Austin) and now knows that May's Ice is the best. The white guy was teased the whole time to Chinatown about how we were going to force feed him beans with sugary ice and taro root and peanuts.

I think it's been awhile since I've been exposed to such diversity; honestly, ABSA may hold everything else my heart could ever desire, but it sorely lacks cultural diversity. At work I'm the only Asian; everyone else is white black hispanic indian. It's kind of nice. Don't be surprised if next year ABSA has some non asian recruits.

As we were driving back home, I apologized for the detour we had to make, and The Aussie mentioned something about it being ok, he was just 'hanging with his homos.' The American and the Asian laughed hysterically as he tried to correct himself "I meant homies! I meant homies!"

I never realized how much you enjoy work depends so much on the people you work with.

Why is it guys can't stand losing to girls?

I mean, I understand if a guy gets beaten by a girl in arm wrestling or basketball or something. That's not to say that there aren't really strong or athletic girls out there; just on average, males are stronger, bigger and faster.

Yet with things like card games, or billiards, that don't require strength or speed, most guys will still throw a fit when they *gasp* 'lose to a girl.' If another guy wins, they pat each other on the back; it was obviously a fair game. If a girl wins, they take it as a personal attack on their manhood.

The fact that men are so insulted by losing to a female insults females even more. Are we not logical enough to calculate the odds in a winning hand, observant enough to catch a tell, or skilled enough to get the eight ball in the side pocket?

It pisses me off because if I win, I can't gloat like a guy - the neanderthal is mad enough already. If I lose, I have to endure his bragging. What a crock of sh*t.

On Friday, Foley's treated all the interns out to a few hours at Jillian's as a 'group activity'. They reserved 4 pool tables. I hadn't played in a while, and practiced even less, but I managed to do well, and actually beat 4 guys in a row. This is not to gloat, because while I clearly enjoy winning, this time I definitely did not have fun doing it. In fact, I was extremely irritated the whole time.

Each time they lost it was the whole 'I can't believe I lost to a girl.' 'It must have been a fluke - play again' 'Are you hustling me?' NO, moron. Hustling is when I pretend to play badly and then coax you into playing for money and then beating you by a lot. BEATING YOU ALL THE TIME IS NOT HUSTLING. One guy even stopped talking to me for an hour. Whining idiots.

Either way, they just kept sending over more and more skilled pool players and I lost. But did I cry about it? NO. None of that "Wah. I lost to a boy! poopoopoo!" Geezus.

But on that note, it's not too bad to be a girl too. Sure, you have to deal with stereotypes and crap, but it's only a disadvantage if you make it so.

I made up for it when we went to happy hour by not drinking anything, saying how I was underage, and didn't want to drink, and my throat hurt anyways, and blah blah blah until I was bought drinks. It's amazing how by acting like a stupid girly girl - "Oh I couldn't possibly drink this" - you can get guys to fufill their own stereotypes and have them buy you stuff. It's even funnier because they think you're a girl, they think one drink will knock you out, so they keep trying to buy you more. Not only am I a girl, I have to be a friggin little girl.

I don't recommend this, by the way. I was just angry and wanted to test out a theory. I can't believe men are perfectly happy to buy you things (which I think is stupid - I don't believe the guy should ever have to pay for everything) as long as you don't pose a threat to their 'manhood' and pride. Screw that - I'll earn my money and theN take down their pride.

Either way, I don't feel bad for what I did, because by losing those all those games some of those guys technically still owe me their paychecks. I let them off easy.

Just got back from a weekend in New York. A cousin got married. It was very pretty and nice. I don't think I would ever want to live in a city; it's too crowded and rushed and impersonal. It's hard to explain. It's nice to visit and all, but I'd never live there.

Lately all the conversations I've been hearing at work have been about engagements and marriages and baby showers. One of my co-workers is only a few years older than me, and she's engaged. Everywhere I look in the office the women are sporting diamond rings. It makes me very uneasy. Everyone's pregnant. One of my other cousins who was at the wedding just got married a few months ago and is only 26 and they're pregnant also.

It seems I never seem to fall into a category. During college hearing all the upperclassmen talk about interviews and internships and jobs, I felt so young and unexperienced. Finally I feel like I'm somewhat catching up in school and now I'm thrown in an enviroment where I know nothing and feel oh so young again. It's frustrating.

This is the first time in a long time I'm going to spend my whole summer in Houston, and the first time ever I'm living alone for so long. In the past two weeks traveling back and forth from houston to seattle and seattle to houston and houston to new york and back again, I realized how I've really never been on my own - kind of sad.

Shanna, I don't know how the heck you went to a foreign country last year for the whole summer. But one thing Shanna did say is true - traveling alone as a girl, there is always someone very nice who offers assistance with pulling your luggage off the conveyor belt thing or putting your stuff in the overhead bin. Little things like that always make me feel better.

I guess lately I've had a lot of time to think about things. I used to constantly want to speed ahead in life - learn more quickly, do things faster, grow up sooner, graduate noW. I think for the first time I've finally let some of that mentality go and have learned just to slow down and take things in.

I've been learning so much about so many different things and it's so hard to have to keep it to yourself during the day. Even if I could talk to someone all the time, so many things are so hard to explain. I don't know what I'm talking about.

I should go to sleep and I'm not sleepy.

Holy crap I'm never going to complain about school again. I changed my mind about wanting to get out and start working. WOrk SUCKs.

No play time. wake up at 6:30 in morning and get back at 6:30 at night. Driving downtown is so not fun.

I did laundry! I washed all the dishes! I grocery shopped and made my own chinese food. I did invoices for my mommy! I ironed! My day was so productive it makes me sick thinking about it. *sob* I miss Austin. 4 hours of class a day is nothing. NOTHING.

And now it's 10 o'clock and I have to go to sleep soon or I'll be dead tomorrow. WAH!10 more weeks!

ok no more whining. bedtime.

I'm back after a week in Seattle. I'm the only one in boring, lonely suburbia; my entire family is in China. I arrived home alone, went to two grocery stores alone, made food alone, ate alone. I think this will be the first summer completely on my own. I start work today. I have a lot to blog about. Maybe I can spend work time blogging. Haha. Just kidding.