December 31, 2010

Some what of a wasted day. Woke up late.  Worked on a few things that I need to be working on.  Went to eat at Pizza Hut with Reuben.  Shopped around Wal-Mart, Jusco, and near the fancy hotel looking for 围巾.  I found the one I liked on the street near the apartment.  A friend took me to a western restaurant that I have never been to before.  Met up with Reuben and his friend at our "Central Perk" (for you Friends fans, or "Monk's" for you Seinfeld fans. If you don't know what those are, then you are too young.)  Played a board game, talked to friends, played some music, and said Happy New Year to my dear friends here in China and back at home.

Goodbye 2010, hello 2011.  Another year in an odd numbered year. 哈哈

Musings

[first entry]
I walk past the gate. I hear the sound of footsteps pitter patter behind me. I use my access card. I turn to see my attacker. Nope, just another resident of my building. I hold the door open for her. "Thank you" she says in Cantonese. We enter the elevator where she asks me something in Chinese. The only word I understood was "floor" or "story". I reply "qi lou". Should I have not understood anything, I would still assume she asked me "which floor". She got off the 2nd floor. Too lazy to go up a flight of steps.
[/first entry]


[second entry]
The elevator doors open and a little kid stands there gazing at me. He walks out of the elevator as I walk in. I ask him to come back in "guo lai" but he resisted; he began to cry. The doors shut. The doors open back up on the 2nd floor with a girl standing there with a surprised look. She says something to me but I don't understand. I simply say 'qi lou, qi lou' while making the hand gesture for seven. She runs up the stairs and everything was okay.
[/second entry]


[third entry]
I lean to the side to put my book of Chinese phrases in my cargo pocket. A million images flow past my mind that I've dreamt prior. "Deja vu" I utter. I see the yellow towel, flowered ironing board, white cold tile floor; I feel my hand grasping my book in my pocket. I see the alley way, the gate, and the building. I have dreamt this before I saw this. I knew you before I met you. I've already done this before. But this time, this time it will be different than the last.
[/third entry]

Untitled Poem

Walking down the street with a sweet sweet innocent girl. I'm walking her home from work at 2am. We walk past a club. I see some expats that I know, but I turn my head and go incognito. A boy and girl fighting. She is angry and the boy grabs her arm but she jerks her arm free. Another boy dragging his, I assume, girlfriend, helping her walk; she is probably drunk. I want to tell my friend that's the reason why I don't drink. But the language barrier is too great.

Here in China

It's day four of being here in China. After two days of sleeping off and on, I finally stayed awake and entire day. The first night here, I dreamed of my friend and her sister and some house with me crawling up a bookshelf for some reason. The second and third night I dreamed of my house in TN but also on the third night I dreamed of a wedding and my GPS messing up. Not sure what that means. Last night I can't remember what I dreamed. I finally got use to this bed. It's not soft like back at home but more practical than comfortable. It is made out of some kind of fiber used to keep you cool not keep you comfortable. Perhaps now that I've recovered from the journey here, we can finally explore outside more and I will enjoy our adventures in China!

In China

In China

Well, to those who follow my blog.  I am in China. Yup.  It is totally different here. Everything is different. Make sure you follow my adventures in China by going to Burnt Fortune Cookie. We plan on updating it every Sunday but at first there will probably be a flood of posts. So, until next time.

6 Month Catch-Up

I began writing this post in Jan. It sat in my drafts folder. I added to it near the end of February. It sat in my drafts folder. Rinse and repeat. So here it is to you, finally after gathering digital dust...if there is such a thing.

January
The day before my birthday I find out that I can move some stuff down to GA. So, Mom and I went to town looking for a Uhaul to rent. However, the address of the Uhaul renting center forgot one little detail: South. I cannot remember exactly which road they were on, so take for example that they were located on Houston street. There just happens to be a North Houston Street and a South Houston Street and they are about 8 miles apart. So, Google Maps pointed us north. After exploring the wonderful northern part of the town, I decided to call them. I forget that my phone can make calls (b/c I mostly text) so I called them up and in a southern voice asked where they were located; I like to blend in when I can. Indeed they were on the south street. It would be nice if they provided their correct address.

Nevertheless, I wanted to get a trailer to tow with the truck. But I have never driven a truck with a trailer so we got the smallest truck that they had: 10 foot mover. I have not driven a vehicle that big in a long time, but it was great getting behind the wheel of an eight cylinder engine. Vroom vroom.

For the next six hours I hurriedly packed stuff and took it out to the truck. Amazingly, I am proficient at moving things solo. Why, because I know physics and geometry. Not really. I just wing it. It also snowed that night.

On my birthday, I got to drive this massive truck with a graphic with Vermont's own Lochness Monster: Champ. Oh, and the license plate was from our old state of residence: Arizona. The drive was not that bad. Mom caught up with me as soon as I hit Atlanta. It was nice to know that she was behind me in case anything happened.

By the time we arrived, the room in which I now reside was not ready to be moved into. It needed another coat of paint, not fur. I helped put another coat on by cutting paint while Reuben rolled the walls. The next day we moved everything inside. As usual, I setup my room by applying Feng Shui principles.

From scratch, Aunt Pam made me a coconut cake for my birthday. It was good.

Ironically enough, we had some trouble returning the Uhaul in GA. This time they forgot to include the "Old" in their address; as in Hwy # as opposed to Old Hwy #. I suppose they do this to try to get renters to go over their mileage, or under their gas tank mark.

I switched cell phone providers because ATT does not provide service where I am in GA. The funny thing is that when we first bought cell phones, we went with Verizon's services. So, now I am back on Verizon. I port forwarded my number so my number is the same.

February

At the end of February, Mom bought her an iMac. She bought one of the newest ones (at the time) so it comes with a wireless keyboard and the new wireless Magic Mouse; the entire mouse is a button, it has no physical scroll wheel, and its entire surface is like a touchpad/trackpad on a laptop. I am amazed at how easy it was to set the iMac up. Pull it out of the box, plug it in, put batteries in the keyboard and mouse, sync the keyboard and mouse, run updates, and done. The only wire is the power cable. Practically ready out of the box. And no, I am not an Apple Fan Boy. I would only recommend an Apple to you depending on what programs you use and how you use your computer.

March
March 1st was a bright and beautiful sunny day outside and I wanted to start running again. While sprinting, my knee gave out and I took a tumble. I first injured it in 2006 during Taekwondo and had to have physical therapy. It healed well. But this 2nd injury was strange. I wrote a blog about it somewhere on here. I now have the treadmill to run on so hopefully the treadmill should have an even running surface.

April

The only major thing that happened in April is that I went to a concert with Kelli, one of my close friends that I met in college. Her favorite band, Relient K, was playing with my favorite band, Paramore. But she likes Paramore too. I did not really listen to Relient K before, but I checked them out so I could get familiar with their music and they have pretty good music. They fall in the genre of The Academy Is, Unwritten Law, and The Starting Line; at least in my opinion. I will probably write a more extensive post about it...sometime.

May
[Edit] I forgot to mention that my cousin, Steven, graduated from college! How on earth could I forget to mention that. It was probably the four hours of sitting there that made me forget. Just kidding. But after 5 long years of college, he made it through. Just like me.

I attended a birthday party of one of my high school teachers who is a dear friend of mine. It was her 1/2 Century birthday and she requested a lemon meringue pie. So, I made a lemon meringue pie from scratch from my Dad's old cookbook. And it is a very old cookbook. It is falling apart held together by duct tape and box tape. But at least there was not scrambled eggs in the pie filling this time.

Aunt Pam joined a co-op recently and every week we receive food. I do not know the details but hey, we get food inexpensively. We received a bunch of bags of limes. Uncle Jim made a key lime pie. It was a bit too tart. Then I made one similar to the lemon meringue recipe. Then Aunt Pam made one. They were all good, but I like my homemade crust the best.


June is a whole nother blog post.

Old Injury Re-injured

March first came around and I thought, it would be a great day to run outside. So, I did. I was so blissful to run outside in the sunshine and trees. Unfortunately, I did not adhere to the first rule of exercise: warm-up. Instead, I jogged a few laps back and fourth along the dirt trail. Then I decided to sprint. I ran as FAST as I could. Nearing the end of the trail, I slowed down. My muscles relaxing and then I heard a POP in my left knee. I remember thinking, "that's not good', as I took a tumble. So, I sat there for about a minute to recover cradling my freshly injured knee. Then I hobbled into the house to rest and recover.

March 1, 2010: At first the injury was not that severe, but I knew in about 10 or 12 hours, my leg would be stiff. I could not lift my leg under its own power.

2000 hours: That night it was stiff. So, if you have ever seen a zombie movie featuring the slow moving zombies, that would be me.

March 2, 2010: In the morning, my leg was better. It was not as stiff, but it just takes longer to move. I can lift my leg under its own power, but it is slow. On the standard doctor Pain Scale of mild, moderate, to severe: it is mild.

And that is all I documented. But for the first week or so, I could straighten my knee just fine but I could bend it to about 30 degrees before it would hurt. During my research on knee injuries, medical sites said the same thing: 30 degrees. This type of injury is a medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain. The MCL is the ligament is on the outer side of the knee. And yep, that is where it hurt. Which meant I couldn't squat.

I did leg stretches everyday twice a day for about two weeks. After that I began to ride the stationary bike to help build my muscles back up. April is now here and I am doing more leg muscle strengthening exercises.


Now if you have paid attention to the title, it says "Old Injury Re-Injured". So that means I have injured it before. I think. Right. Anyway, the first time I injured my knee was in 2006 in Taekwondo class. I did some fancy spin kick, landed improperly, my knee bared all my weight, and I heard a pop. The pop did not hurt but the after effect sure did. It was fine for 20 minutes; which was enough time to get me home. It was a good thing, because my leg became stiff by the time I got home and I was driving my Dad's truck which was a clutch.

So, with my first injury, my knee was weak. I could not stand on it nor could I straighten it. I could bend it just fine. But I had to walk (hobble) across campus the very next day with a heavy book bag filled with, oh you guessed it, bricks. I mean books. I ended up going to physical therapy for about 3 weeks. I did stretches and strength exercises.

This time though, with my second injury, I injured it when I was slowing down from running. I read some medical sites that said MCL injuries can occur while slowing down from running. As for why, I did not research that. One thing I can guess is that the muscle around my knee wasn't as strong as they use to be, I didn't stretch, and I wasn't accustomed to sprinting. This time, I could straighten my knee, I could bear my weight on it, but I couldn't bend it past 30 degrees, and it bothered me if I wasn't constantly moving my knee around. So, it was difficult to sleep for the first week or so.

My cousin said that the body can adapt to many things. Perhaps my body repaired itself in a way that it would prepare for a 2nd injury. Who knows. But I've recovered and I will keep it in shape, but it will never be 100% again. .. until I get a T-800 endoskeleton that is (Terminator reference).


But I made pretty good time during my sprint.

Ten Years of Service

For the most part, I am the type of person who wear something until it just isn't presentable or just falling apart. I still have hand-me-down clothes that my parents have worn; that means those clothes could be older (or old as) me!

But in this particular case, this was a special article of clothing. In the year 2000, I went on a church trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama. It was my first trip away from home sans my parents. As I watched the terrain, I was amazed how the mountains had disappeared and everything was flat. I cannot recall when I noticed that I forgot to pack a pair of sandals!

I remember stopping by a wal-mart so everyone could grab last minute items before we arrived to the camp location. I definitely bought me a pair of sandals...for $1.99. It was the best 1.99 that I had ever spent.

I knew these sandals were deteriorating and that the strap would soon break away from the sole. It finally did, when I tripped and the sole caught on to something and ripped the strap away.

Now either bring me the duct tape! Or it is time to retire these babies.

January's Letter 2010

December began with giving Mom early birthday gifts. A BluRay player and all the Star Trek movies on BluRay. We watched the new Star Trek movie and Reuben commented that the sound was more clear. I wasn't even paying attention to the sound. I was all focused on the picture quality. When we watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it was like I had never even seen the movie at all. You can see the stitching in the fabric! I am just amazed by BluRay. I decided to finally get BluRay because they were finally selling BluRay Discs at DVD prices and the players were at a reasonable price too. But BluRay has a short amount of time to catch on because On-Demand Streaming is becoming popular. Luckily, Mom's BluRay player has streaming Netfix. Which means she could watch almost any movie any time for 8.99 a month (not a plug).

Mom, Aunt Pam, Uncle Jim, Reuben and I went to P.F. Chang's for Mom's birthday. P.F. Chang's is an Americanized version of Chinese food; but it's still good. The waitress was fantastic and suggested our meal for us. We made a few modifications, but for the most part we didn't really have to read the menu. Dessert time came and we seemed to not want anything but eventually we gave in and a few of us got dessert.

I also gave Mom a birthday card that I bought her a few years ago but it got lost from moving stuff around. I found it and put it some where I would not lose it: my car's glovebox. The card is about the size of a LP Record sleeve (yes, I know what an LP record is). On the front it says "A long time ago...", in the Star Wars style font. Open the card and BAM, it plays the opening theme to Star Wars. Mom kinda jumped when she opened it. The inside reads "...you were born."

I attended Tech's winter graduation (the college of which I am an alumnus). I went to see four of my friends walk that long walk, but it turns out that there were ten people I knew that graduated. It was quite cold that day and there was some snow on the ground but not a lot. There were about 700 graduates total. I caught up with a good friend of mine, Robby, who's step-sister was graduating. And I got to sport my new suit.

Christmas was nice. It was the first time we attended the Aunt Pam's and Uncle Jim's Christmas party. There were a lot of people there, but they said they usually had more. They give presents to the kids, read the Christmas story, and even have a small music recital. I am not really the gregarious type but I enjoyed watching everyone. When I attend a party I usually hang around for an hour and then sneak out.

For Christmas I gave Mom a customized 2010 Calendar. It contained pictures of our family over the years. I went through six boxes of pictures, scanned about 200 pictures, and made it all in Photoshop. If you are reading this on my blog site, then you will see a sample from it. If not, go check it out. Like now.



I finally got to see a good friend of mine that I have not seen in 5 years. Leah has been in England going to school for the past few years. She developed a British accent. I asked if she could fake an American accent and she could not do it. I also got to meet her British boyfriend. If you want more details, check out the following post: http://tangentdave.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-across-pond.html

Oh yeah, Happy New Year! I hope you didn't miss Palindrome Day: 01-02-2010 and 01-11-10. Although, February 2nd would work to if you prefer the: DD/MM/YYYY format.

Until next time.

Wedding Etiquette

Rant

A friend of mine got married and I attended the wedding (and briefly the reception, which was fancy by the way). The bride and groom and the wedding officiant at the podium was well microhponed. No matter how good someone is microphoned, the shrill cry of a baby resonating throughout the stone floor and brick walls will always overpower the sound system.

I believe that small children and babies should not be brought to a wedding. Either do not bring them or they should have a nursery at the wedding.

I cannot remember, but I think a cell phone went off too. But cell phone etiquette is another blog.

As far as cameras with flash, it is up to the bride and groom. Usually the photographer gets dibs on taking pictures but it is always up to the wedding couple. I have been to weddings where it was like a red carpet event. Flashes everywhere.

As for my wedding, I do not want any flash photography from anyone except for the paid photographer and no young children or babies. I will have bouncers to enforce the request. But I am in jest. I will cross that bridge when I reach that destination. I will probably end up embarrassing myself by pausing the wedding to tell someone to take their baby outside, turn off their cell phones, or to turn off their flash. HA.

From Across the Pond

Back in 2005, a good friend of mine, Leah, went to England for school. It has been quite a long time since I last saw her. She came back to the States for a short visit but for some reason, I did not have a chance to catch up with her.

She must have been assimilated into the British culture because she has a British accent now; I wasn't surprised though. However, I still have no accent even though I have lived in the south for 13 years. I guess I don't blend in well.

I finally got to meet her British boyfriend, Ollie, and he finally got to meet me. He said that I was an enigma because I was always mentioned in Leah's stories; especially when it came to computers: "Oh, David would know how to fix that." In the above picture, Ollie is pointing at me because "I do exist".

While she was here in the States for her short visit, we looked at old photographs and yearbooks from high school. We looked at all our senior pictures and pointed out who was doing what these days. ie. if they were married, had kids, where they lived, where they work, etc. It was quite entertaining.

We caught up with some friends and spent New Years 2010 at some club playing billiards and darts.

It was fantastic to see her again and meet Ollie. Someday, I hope to visit them in England.