New Years, A Year In Review

It's now officially 2010!

What a great way to end 2009 than with a few parties and gatherings.

So last night I spent New Years Eve with the guys just chilling at Tutti.

Got a call from Cathy and we ended up at the Embarcadero to watch the fireworks.

Interestingly, this marks the second year that I hung out with Cathy on New Years Eve.

Hanging out with Cathy these past few weeks have been really helpful to me. In some ways I admit that I had fulfilled one of my 2009 New Years resolutions to a further extent.

One of the 2009 resolutions was to put my past relationship behind me as far back as possible. After hanging out with Cathy and hearing what shes gone through and having her ask me about what happened between 2007 and 2008, I realized it doesn't hurt to look back at those problems because in the end, you realize that fixing the problems of the past can help make yourself better as a person.

In general, that's what I felt like I've conquered at the end of 2009. A better self and I'm pretty sure third time would be the charm and it doesn't necessarily have to be 2010.

What I want out of 2010 is very uncertain. Cathy asked me that the other night and I really had no idea what to answer with. I don't like to lie but the truth is, after this year I realized I can do without a girlfriend but at the same time, if I do manage to find that one, I would want us to simply start out as friends for a long time and let a relationship develop from it.

I might finish this off with a part 2 but in general, I am grateful for having supportive friends and family and a long term commitment I want is to return the favor and be as supportive as I can.

Work Never Seems to Get Any Easier

In case you were wondering what this is a picture of. This is the Hco. stockroom as of Sunday.

Yeah, looks like a tornado blew right through it. Crazy thing is, that's almost the same way it looked like last night before I left work.

I guess its just the mass sales that the company put out for the post-Christmas weekend but damn was I lucky to not be working on a Sunday.

Last night on its own was insane. 200 USR's (Unit Sold Report) per gun and there were around 4 to 5 requests of it.

I can only imagine how much more or less there were for today.

This is one mad shopping season compared to last year.

Credit to Cheryl for taking this gruesome image. xD

Merry Christmas!

It's that special time of the year AGAIN!

You know for Christmas in San Francisco, it was pretty damn bright out today.

So I celebrated Christmas by having lunch with my mom and dad at an ABC cafe.

Surprisingly at the cafe, I spotted my grandaunt and I guess you can say a distant uncle and aunt and their kids enjoying lunch so I crashed their table to say hi and wish them a merry Christmas...they paid for our food without us knowing again and their kid said my face got older...good to know I'm not fat =]

So I guess this week has been an interesting week so to speak. I've learned a lot from others and understood more about girls than I have ever had from a usual chat.

I look back at 2008 as a year where I struggled with keeping a relationship and struggled to get used to single life again.

2009 is a totally different story and is not even the opposite. It was a very neutral year. I didn't concentrate on having a relationship and simply worked and concentrated (to an extent) on school.

It is in these final weeks of 2009 that this whole girls and relationships thing that I've ignored for a long time is starting to catch up to me. In no way shape or form am I in love right now and in no way shape or form am I certain it'll happen anytime soon.

But there's always 2010 and...oh wait I am in love at the moment. Lime Popsicles are AWESOME!

Politics in my Daily Life

So I'm currently lost with what political standing I am at.

I'm a registered voting Democrat but my values are not at all liberal.

Yet, I can't consider myself a Republican because my values are not at all too conservative.

So I'm caught in the bind here.

I don't approve of conservative values of religion and business practices yet I don't approve of the idea of abortion and gay marriage. (gay rights sure, just not marriage)

I remember the time when I asked my friend about the "One Child Policy" in China. He said, "I don't approve of it because the government encourages abortion."

Then I find out he approves of adolescent abortion which is a bit of a hypocritical statement.

On a side note, the guy supports the freedom of Tibet because he doesn't like it when a military puts their tanks into land and tortures the people there. Well, it turns out due to the elevation of the Tibetan plataeu, tanks can't even get up there and the altitude is not fitting for a majority of the PRC Army. An American education is only good if you filter out the bias and unfortunately, the youth of these days don't do their research before jumping onto the bandwagon.

Looks like I just wrote a small paragraph bashing liberals but I'm just highly critical about a lot of things.

I don't approve of tax-breaks for major corporations and I find off-shoring jobs because there aren't a lot of Americans with the right skills as an invalid excuse.

You can blame Bush for the reason why I'm not a Republican and I am glad Gavin Newsom is not running for governor of California. I'd rather have them kick out Schwarzenegger and bring back Grey Davis because that guy actually cares about our education and doesn't think "we are not paying enough for college nowadays." (and I quote Schwarzenegger on that)

The point that I'm trying to make is, I can't stand it when people automatically generalize a person based on their political party.

I'm obviously too conservative to be a liberal yet I'm too liberal to be a conservative.

Just call me moderate, or better yet, label me as a Republicrat.

Aging

This has never crossed my mind until a few months ago when my friend and I were looking through old pictures and new pictures.

He noticed that I looked a lot skinnier back then (4 years ago) and out of my curiosity, I went took a further look.

There's a lot of through in that. My face is skinnier and my jaw outline was more visible and a bit plainer and neutral face.

Nowadays, I see more lines beneath my eyes and my jaw-outline is a lot more firm. And I guess my cheekbones protrude a bit more.

I can only assume that its just been years of stress.

Then compared to now and I feel like my personality has changed a lot more. It's either matured more or I just became a bit more conservative. Who knows? But then again, those lines beneath my eyes are a bit...hard to look at.

Vitasoy

Because of my failure to find a decent image of a box of Vitasoy. I have decided..well, pressured by Nelson to just take an original picture of it.

Anyways, I had endured a long and painful week of a cankor sore that had to be strategically placed on my left tonsil.

To remedy this, I turned to 2 solutions to numb the pain.

Congee and Vitasoy.

Must be the ingredients but I'll take Vitasoy over that Costco Kirkland Soy Milk stuff anyday.

Money: Make and/or Break

So I figure I move onto a more interesting topic of choice for tonight. Money

People say money is the root of all evil but I disagree.

That argument is invalid in the sense that there can be other things that are the root of all evil.

If it is one's love for money that becomes evil, then we can generally conclude that love is the root of all evil.

But anyways, I was with the guys at a lottery place a few nights ago because they have a new interest in scratchers.

So I'm sitting there looking at older couples walk in and out buying ticket after ticket.

You can tell they come in with a lot of hope and ambition hoping they can either do one of 3 things. Win it big, break even, or simply gain.

Unfortunately, that's not the case for most of them. Like my friends, a lot of them ended up losing more.

My philosophy on the lottery is this. If I was to win the lottery, I would be winning at the expense of all the hopes of the people who bought lottery tickets. In fact, it is their money put into a pot and me taking the giant pot. But who can't say the same about the ones who win right?

And then there's the thought of charity. In my eyes, there are two types of charity givers.

1.) Average charity givers who simply care or at least decided to donate unneeded belongings who at least took the consideration into making the decision of donating to the needy.

2.) Rich charity givers. It's hit or miss. They either care about others or they care about their own personal image. Just because a millionaire or celebrity gives money away doesn't necessarily make them a good person. (ex. Sharon Stone)

I respect those who are the first type of charity givers. Now I steer the subject towards the recieving end of the charity.

There are two types of charity receivers that I see in my eyes.

1.) Poor needy people who need the basics in life to try to stabilize themselves into finding a way out of their situation. (Needy college student who can probably afford books but not tuition or both)

2.) Decent low-wage individuals who get something (ex. gov. grant) but use it for the wrong purpose. (College student who gets enough to cover books, education but decides to buy a new handbag or a car or whatever that is not relevant to the cause).

I don't respect the second type of receivers. I label those people as charity cases who are more than likely NOT to give back.

To wrap this all up. Nothing is free in life but then again, I'm wrong. Don't be a charity case.