Public Skating, Thanksgiving

I left a message for MDC with a request for information on public skating hours. Someone from the department responded to me the very next day. I am so sad about it - due to budget cuts, the public skating rink in Cambridge is not open during the weekend as it was in previous years. It is open daily for about two hours every morning, but there's no way I can go during the weekdays with my work schedule! Talk about Massachusetts budget cuts. Blah. Talk about how the overrun costs of the Big Dig project is going to cost the residents in Massachusetts for years to come - in the form of higher highway tolls, increased fares on the MBTA system, and probably a higher income tax percentage (though the newly-elected Repulican governor, Mitt Romney, pledged no increase in taxes). We'll just have to see, won't we? (And isn't it interesting that most tax cuts usually benefit the wealthiest the most?) Can I say "special interest"?

And now, this. The closing of the skating rink during the weekend. It's disappointing, to say the least. Talk about politics. It's disgusting. Actually, I take that back. Politics can be interesting - it's the beauracracy behind the politics that's disgusting.

What else? Oh, it snowed yesterday and it was very pretty! It still is (just much colder). Fortunately, I have a break from work. Next week is December already. Can you believe it? Time flies! In December, I am looking forward to watching the movie: Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers. Fellowship of the Ring is my all-time favorite movie, though Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ranked a close second. (Yes, I am a sucker for fantasy movies).

The first movie of LOTR, in my opinion, is better than the book. Likewise for HP and Sorcerer's Stone. I thought the second movie - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (which was one of the two movies I saw last weekend) is worse than the book. Then again, I might be biased because there was this lady in front of me who coughed every three seconds literally , so I missed almost all of the beginning. Eventually, I had to change seats because there was no way I could concentrate on the movie. I felt bad for the lady, in some ways, because she got a lot of annoyed looks from peope (several actually left the movie). But, in other ways, it was very inconsiderate of her to ruin the theater experience for all of us who are only trying to enjoy a movie after a long day at work...

And, of course, have a happy thanksgiving!

Posted 1:57 PM by hiu k.

Some updates

This has been a crazy week. Beginning with last weekend, I met up with a good friend, caught the movie Ghostship, and went out to lunch. Later in the week, my siblings and I went to the Fleetcenter to watch a basketball game - Celtics (we won!) vs. Philadelphia 76ers, and we didn't get home until almost 11 p.m. We went to Burger King across the street after the game, even though we had hotdogs, popcorns, and drinks at the game. Besides, the entrance to the Green Line was jammed as people waited to get to the trains, so it made little difference. Luckily, we made it just in time for the bus ride home - which only comes once every half hour. Then on Friday, my family went to my Grandmother's birthday dinner - which was fun. I saw lots of my relatives who I haven't seen in months (some as long as a year or two!) It was nice to catch up on things with them and relax, and I know I would see them again soon. :)

This has been in addition to my - well, attempt - to help out by being the chauffeur with laundry and grocery shopping. Those tasks are also more time-consuming than I thought. Fortunately, even with a full-time job, I still managed to squeeze some time to read my mostly-business magazines. I hope I will be able to allocate more time to fit more reading time into my schedule. I also want to spend some time to learn computer programs (video-editing, specifically), because well, that's something I am interested in.

Oh yeah, I watched parts of Star Wars Attack of the Clones today while shopping at Costco. I watched the first episode already, but have not watched this one. I caught the conversation between Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, and it was just so... blah. Sappy can be cute and romantic, but they did it in such a bad acting kind of way that I wondered, who the heck made up those lines, anyway? Oh well, at least their acting was amusing enough that I couldn't help but smile at the chessy lines and the little emotions and expressions on their faces as they delivered them.

I don't have time to write some details as I'd like, but I'd anticipate some time in the near future. Also, the public skating rink has yet to open, which I am eagerly waiting for. I am serious. Eagerly. :)

Posted 5:54 PM by hiu k.

There and back again

I am back. I guess it didn't take me long to get my perspective cap back on. Yep, my last post was incredibly petty, in the grand scheme of things.

I have a tendency to bounce back from gloomy/upset moods quickly. Of course, I could be upset for a longer periods of time if someone did something, or something happened that might warrant such reactions from me, but that'd probably be very severe situations.

I know that things aren't always black and white, and not everything is fine with the world (i.e. the current conflict in the Middle East is just one of the many issues that demands attention). But for now, at the very least, I still have many, many things to be grateful for. And you know what? I don't need to wait for Thanksgiving to roll around to remind me of them. Not in the past. And certainly not now. Because I am truly thankful for the people in my life - everyday.

Posted 9:27 PM by hiu k.

My Greivances

Not all my posts are happy and dandy. Bear with me while I quickly go through my list of greivances.

Yesterday, I had a little argument with both of my siblings and it ended on a not-so-friendly note.

Anyway, this morning I drove to Chinatown to do some grocery shopping with mom, probably not in the best of moods.

You know what?

I. really. hate. grocery. shopping. in. Chinatown. Especially on a weekend.

For one, the market is always crowded and you hardly have space to move around (maybe I am just claustrophobic), let alone trying to navigate through the place with a shopping cart that made these annoying shrieking noises. Visualize this: Long fingernails scratching across a blackboard, except a more bearable sound.

The people can be frustrating too. Most people would push you lightly (with the cart) to try to get by or to "hint" that they want to get through. Some of the nicer ones might say "sorry", but that's often rare. Like today. I mean, is it really THAT difficult to say a quick "excuse me" or something to that effect? Also, today, the lane to the cashier lines today was jammed. The people behind us couldn't move, nor could we move ahead since there were people in front of us who were also trying to move along.

Then some idiot behind us mumbled loudly in chinese, "Why are you all jammed here? There are some open cashiers up ahead". Well, duh. Was she blind or what? That's precisely what everyone was trying to do. GET there. Now, in the meantime, should we all just push and shove everyone to get there? Is it going to kill her to wait just another 10 or 20 seconds? I probably sound like a big jerk right now, but you have to be there to see how un-timely and idiotic her comments were. Have you ever heard of the saying, "there are no stupid questions?" Well, that may or may not be true, but there are certainly plenty of stupid comments out there (And I am not ashamed to say that I am probably guilty of some as well).

The only one person who was polite enough was this lady. We were both moving at exactly the same time, and I let her go first, when she smiled and said the same thing. I smiled politely and said a thank-you before I moved on.

Likewise, driving in Chinatown just makes me want to strangle somebody. Grrrr, can I say road rage? The intersections are always jammed during the weekends, and every now and then, there's honking. If you want a parking space, you might as well start looking for a garage/parking lot. Then again, there are some incompetent operators who work at those places too (you would need to hand over your car keys to them).

Last time, we came back to find that our vehicle was moved (so other cars can get out), but that the emergency hand brake was pulled out of proportion! It was pulled above and beyond what was allowed! My sis and I had to "force" it down, literally. We then got out to examine the vehicle for damage. That was the time when my sis drove me to the doctor. I would have sent a big complaint letter to the management of that company if it weren't for the facts that I was sick at the time and that the hand brake was still work-able. We do need to bring the car to the shop in the near future, because the maintenance kept kept flashing whenever we revved up the engine.

I guess I am mostly complaining about the lack of courtesy. I am a polite person for the most part, and I would like others to extend to me the same courtesy that I extend to them, or at least the same courtesy that they would also want to receive. Is that really that much to ask?

I know. When I am upset, my putting-things-in perspective cap is off and I tend to get frustrated with the other things that aren’t quite “right”. I am frustrated that I can't go to graduate school just because there are some "issues" that the average person my age doesn't have to deal with. I am frustrated that sometimes, no matter how good I might be at something or how hard I might try, it just won't be good enough. I am frustrated at the double standards. In fact, sometimes, I feel so frustrated that I think it might just be easier to ignore all "responsibilities" and just go party and waste my life away. (Ok, quite frankly, I am zero interests in parties and have no intention of wasting my life away, so that might not work well). Maybe I could just move to another country - all by myself - and start over.

I know most of this sounds crazy. I am sure once I got back my perspective on things, this would all sound very petty. It probably is. Still, I just want to vent, just because it helps me to feel better. As for now, I just need to keep reminding myself how lucky I am - because I am, despite the frustrations - and that I already have more than I need.

Posted 1:21 PM by hiu k.