my memorial day weekend in a nutshell:
-hanging with family & having lunch with them
-joy's graduation dinner & hanging out with their LA friends
-two bbq's
-X3
and i am officially people'd out. i was actually people'd out halfway through the bbq yesterday, but couldn't leave since i didn't drive there. it was nice to finally get home and read in bed.
X3 was okay - as alinna told me, stay to the very end of the credits. it actually makes a difference.
i've noticed the newest trend in hollywood (both tv & movies) is to kill everyone off. are they going for the shock factor? if you think about it, it's seriously the "in" thing to do. lost, 24, and alias (the only three shows i watched consistently) all had major deaths. is america's attention span that short now that hollywood needs to do that to keep us interested? sad.
by the way, i have the address of the person who frauded me since i got a letter in the mail from the credit card company telling me that my address was sucessfully changed to xxxx. sooo... does anyone live or work near berkeley and want to check out the address? it's in san pablo. i'm interested to see who this person is.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Friday, May 26, 2006
happy birthday
to my knee. i forgot to wish it a happy birthday last week, when it turned one year old. unfortunately, it feels like it's 70 years old.
well, we'll see what the doctor says next week. although i can probably already guess: "give it more time." it's been almost four months, so it's got two months left to the six-month mark. my health insurance has been charged over $100k for all the treaments to my knee. it's been poked, prodded, cut open, sewn back up, cut open, sewn back up, and cut open and sewn back up again and again and again. i'm tired.
i feel like it's the thorn in my flesh, that God has a very specific purpose for this. i just wish i could figure out what it is. but for now, i must continue to wait patiently.
well, we'll see what the doctor says next week. although i can probably already guess: "give it more time." it's been almost four months, so it's got two months left to the six-month mark. my health insurance has been charged over $100k for all the treaments to my knee. it's been poked, prodded, cut open, sewn back up, cut open, sewn back up, and cut open and sewn back up again and again and again. i'm tired.
i feel like it's the thorn in my flesh, that God has a very specific purpose for this. i just wish i could figure out what it is. but for now, i must continue to wait patiently.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
alias >:(
I have two words for the alias series finale:
UTTER DISAPPOINTMENT
**Don't read on if you haven't watched it and plan on doing so**
What kind of ending was that? All the complicated Rambaldi plot twists, all the people dead, everything was just so that Sloane could turn immortal and make lots of money?! Why isn't Rambaldi immortal then? And what was Irina's involvment in all this? What was her end game? it was really to destroy the world and then make money off it?! that just totally ruined all her character development in season 2 and beyond. she was really pure evil? What was that Rambaldi little ball artifact thing that she gave up her life for? What about the prophecy and the passenger and all of that? And Sloane? Immortal but captured underground under a rock forever?? And Jack deserved a better fate than to blow himself up to screw over sloane. He deserved time with Syd & company. Not satisfying at all.
Don't even get me started on how one little girl could kill all of Prophet 5 in 5 seconds. Even though countless highly skilled agents had been tracking them their whole lives, following every step of theirs, and were unable to even come close to them.
5 years of our lives we'll never get back. I hope Lost doesn't end this way when it's time for its series finale.
24 was better, but i am not allowed to talk about it for fear of the wrath of alinna. besides, my brain was half asleep by the time we finished 24.
oh well, at least we had good food and good company last night :) thanks to everyone who came over to be entertained with me. i'm impressed mike made the trek from union city down to watch 24 with us until 1am.
p.s. my conclusion from my post below is that i hang out with a lot of introverts. how interesting.
UTTER DISAPPOINTMENT
**Don't read on if you haven't watched it and plan on doing so**
What kind of ending was that? All the complicated Rambaldi plot twists, all the people dead, everything was just so that Sloane could turn immortal and make lots of money?! Why isn't Rambaldi immortal then? And what was Irina's involvment in all this? What was her end game? it was really to destroy the world and then make money off it?! that just totally ruined all her character development in season 2 and beyond. she was really pure evil? What was that Rambaldi little ball artifact thing that she gave up her life for? What about the prophecy and the passenger and all of that? And Sloane? Immortal but captured underground under a rock forever?? And Jack deserved a better fate than to blow himself up to screw over sloane. He deserved time with Syd & company. Not satisfying at all.
Don't even get me started on how one little girl could kill all of Prophet 5 in 5 seconds. Even though countless highly skilled agents had been tracking them their whole lives, following every step of theirs, and were unable to even come close to them.
5 years of our lives we'll never get back. I hope Lost doesn't end this way when it's time for its series finale.
24 was better, but i am not allowed to talk about it for fear of the wrath of alinna. besides, my brain was half asleep by the time we finished 24.
oh well, at least we had good food and good company last night :) thanks to everyone who came over to be entertained with me. i'm impressed mike made the trek from union city down to watch 24 with us until 1am.
p.s. my conclusion from my post below is that i hang out with a lot of introverts. how interesting.
Monday, May 22, 2006
personalities
we were talking about personality types and the differences between all the myers-briggs temperaments and the nuances of different personalities at olivia's bridal shower. it really attributes to how God has created each and every one of us uniquely, and makes it all the more amazing how He knows every one of us, down to the very last detail.
anyway, i'm an estj, and have always been ever since high school (when i first took the test). i'm a strong s, and, which should be obvious to anyone who's traveled with me, gone on outings with me, done or planned activities with me, or um... in general, just know me, a super-strong j. also, interestingly enough, as i grow older, i become more and more introverted, to the point where i'm pretty borderline beween e and i now.
i remember my missions team took this test as a part of our preparation before going into east asia, and almost half my team was an esfj. there were so many strong extroverts, that i actually turned pretty introverted that summer. so it was interesting how the people i spent 24 hours a day with for 2 months straight kind of changed who i was - or at least how i interacted with people.
I do wonder how much of your personality is built on your upbringing, parents, and your environment growing up, and how much of it is innate. Any thoughts? It's kind of fun to guess people's Myers-Briggs temperaments. Some people are pretty easy to decipher while others are tougher.
i like this website in general, i think it gives a pretty good overall description of all the types.
on a totally different note... alias and 24 finales are here! i'm ready for the marathon tonight! i don't know if there's much alias can do to make up for the lackluster season, but i hope it closes off well. 24 better not disappoint.
anyway, i'm an estj, and have always been ever since high school (when i first took the test). i'm a strong s, and, which should be obvious to anyone who's traveled with me, gone on outings with me, done or planned activities with me, or um... in general, just know me, a super-strong j. also, interestingly enough, as i grow older, i become more and more introverted, to the point where i'm pretty borderline beween e and i now.
i remember my missions team took this test as a part of our preparation before going into east asia, and almost half my team was an esfj. there were so many strong extroverts, that i actually turned pretty introverted that summer. so it was interesting how the people i spent 24 hours a day with for 2 months straight kind of changed who i was - or at least how i interacted with people.
I do wonder how much of your personality is built on your upbringing, parents, and your environment growing up, and how much of it is innate. Any thoughts? It's kind of fun to guess people's Myers-Briggs temperaments. Some people are pretty easy to decipher while others are tougher.
i like this website in general, i think it gives a pretty good overall description of all the types.
on a totally different note... alias and 24 finales are here! i'm ready for the marathon tonight! i don't know if there's much alias can do to make up for the lackluster season, but i hope it closes off well. 24 better not disappoint.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
little ms. nosy
that's my new nickname for olivia.
why'd i have to be maid-of-honor for the nosiest bride on the face of the earth?! no one can beat her. i dare you to try.
why'd i have to be maid-of-honor for the nosiest bride on the face of the earth?! no one can beat her. i dare you to try.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
i've been frauded
i got a call from my credit card company wanting to follow up on some recent purchases charged to my card. it was for a credit card that i used to use as my main card, but haven't used in probably the last half year or so. apparently this fraud called and had all my information switched (address, phone number, etc) and asked for a reissuing of cards to this new address. then started charging all over the place - some of the charges they asked me to confirm if i made or not were at some drug stores (didn't recognize the name), macys, target, etc. i logged online to the credit card (hadn't done so in a few months) and sure enough, there were a bunch of charges. this is the only card i have that i haven't been keeping tabs on - all other cards, including ones i don't use anymore are linked to my checking/savings account, which i check pretty often.
i've always been pretty careful about all my information, so i don't know how it happened. i'm obviously not liable for any of the purchases, and i'm not as concerned about that. what i'm really concerned is that this person has my security information because otherwise they would not have been able to call and change all the information to my account in the first place. so they for sure have my mother's maiden name. scary. i've never given that info out. i don't know what to do now to protect myself. anyone have any tips?
learn a lesson from me, check up on all your credit cards, especially ones you don't use. or close them. there's not a whole lot i could have done to prevent this, though - the person called just this past thursday to change all the info, and made all the charges after that. the credit card company caught it faster than i ever would have, so major props to them.
i've always been pretty careful about all my information, so i don't know how it happened. i'm obviously not liable for any of the purchases, and i'm not as concerned about that. what i'm really concerned is that this person has my security information because otherwise they would not have been able to call and change all the information to my account in the first place. so they for sure have my mother's maiden name. scary. i've never given that info out. i don't know what to do now to protect myself. anyone have any tips?
learn a lesson from me, check up on all your credit cards, especially ones you don't use. or close them. there's not a whole lot i could have done to prevent this, though - the person called just this past thursday to change all the info, and made all the charges after that. the credit card company caught it faster than i ever would have, so major props to them.
nostalgia, part 2
okay... time for the rest of the pics!
i can't remember what year this is, but i had to put it in. when we were in youth, we had a christmas party, and instead of a white elephant gift exchange, we did a white elephant cookie exchange. the rule was that everyone had to bake it themselves. the story starts when eric calls me asking how to turn the oven on to bake his cookies. he flipped out when he found out that it'd take something like 40 minutes to bake everything, so he asked if he could just cut the entire cookie dough chunk into four large pieces, double the temperature and halve the time. i told him NO. that was the end of our conversation. well, that night, eric comes into my house with a plate covered in foil that totally reeked. in fact, my mom had to put it in a brown grocery bag and move it to another room because the smell was so strong. we brought it back out for the exchange, but obviously no one would pick up that foul-smelling package. ironically, the white elephant worked out in a way where eric was the last person and forced to pick his own package. so... the cookies came out of the bag, and this was the result. apparently, eric doesn't listen to my advice.
yes, those are froot loops on the cookies.
this was the senior banquet we put together for the class of '96 - bob, charles, joyce and eva. uh yeah, we were cruel.
okay, senior year and beyond is a mixture of canaan and other pics. our senior year, a bunch of us thought it would be fun to do the annual high school musical. i was a donut head (although i'm in my ballerina costume in this picture - yes, me in a tutu.), jenie was a conehead, alinna was a bunhead, and olivia was a jesterlet.
some pics from senior ball. i'm bummed because i can't find my favorite picture from senior ball - the one we took with the canaan crew. we managed to finangle our dates around so that we could bring in a whole bunch of people to our prom. it was a total blast. notice how much fashion has changed - look at our dresses vs the dresses the youth kids wear now to proms. maybe i'm just an old fart, but i still like the dresses back in our day better than what kids wear now.
i think this is senior award night.
me, chris, jean & mike with our parents & relatives at our graduation
this is one of my all-time favorite pictures. the expressions on dave's & mike's faces with p.dan - i think the picture speaks for itself.
more unidentified churches in socal. we went down to socal the summer after my senior year, although i don't have a whole lot of pictures from that music trip. i think these girls were kids of the pastor of that church - although i could totally be making that up. i remember they were super cute though.
this was at our senior banquet - we had to play a game with our parents. thankfully, my parents & i answered enough questions correctly. unfortunately, jean & her parents weren't so lucky. i think dave also got pie in his face. i love the expression on our parents' faces. look at amy's mom, dave's mom, and my dad. i think they're all secretly thinking they're glad it's not their kid! and joe in the back left, snickering that his sister got hit.
go bears! the future bears with eva & bob
okay, the rest of these are some random college & post college pics.
at cal, in our dwight wy apartments. i think this was for eva's birthday. we made bob come upstairs and take a ton of random pictures of us. i miss living in the canaan buildling. :)
reni & joyce came up to visit us, so we had a mini-reunion. i guess we liked hats.
post-college: i went out to the east coast o's first year in baltimore, and we made a trip to ny & boston. this was us entertaining ourselves because drew took so stinking long in the bathroom.
and i just had to post this picture. we went with drew to the middle of nowhere, aka south hamilton, to visit gordon conwell before he started seminary there. they had this huge room with a ping pong table - i played a game against drew, and this captured the moment i beat him. what a great victory.
and just because i felt like i had to post a picture of peter, this is me & olivia with peter in LA in front of the hugest bush i've ever seen.
phew, that was fun - brought up many great memories! sometime in the future i'll do non-canaan pics.
i can't remember what year this is, but i had to put it in. when we were in youth, we had a christmas party, and instead of a white elephant gift exchange, we did a white elephant cookie exchange. the rule was that everyone had to bake it themselves. the story starts when eric calls me asking how to turn the oven on to bake his cookies. he flipped out when he found out that it'd take something like 40 minutes to bake everything, so he asked if he could just cut the entire cookie dough chunk into four large pieces, double the temperature and halve the time. i told him NO. that was the end of our conversation. well, that night, eric comes into my house with a plate covered in foil that totally reeked. in fact, my mom had to put it in a brown grocery bag and move it to another room because the smell was so strong. we brought it back out for the exchange, but obviously no one would pick up that foul-smelling package. ironically, the white elephant worked out in a way where eric was the last person and forced to pick his own package. so... the cookies came out of the bag, and this was the result. apparently, eric doesn't listen to my advice.
yes, those are froot loops on the cookies.
this was the senior banquet we put together for the class of '96 - bob, charles, joyce and eva. uh yeah, we were cruel.
okay, senior year and beyond is a mixture of canaan and other pics. our senior year, a bunch of us thought it would be fun to do the annual high school musical. i was a donut head (although i'm in my ballerina costume in this picture - yes, me in a tutu.), jenie was a conehead, alinna was a bunhead, and olivia was a jesterlet.
some pics from senior ball. i'm bummed because i can't find my favorite picture from senior ball - the one we took with the canaan crew. we managed to finangle our dates around so that we could bring in a whole bunch of people to our prom. it was a total blast. notice how much fashion has changed - look at our dresses vs the dresses the youth kids wear now to proms. maybe i'm just an old fart, but i still like the dresses back in our day better than what kids wear now.
i think this is senior award night.
me, chris, jean & mike with our parents & relatives at our graduation
this is one of my all-time favorite pictures. the expressions on dave's & mike's faces with p.dan - i think the picture speaks for itself.
more unidentified churches in socal. we went down to socal the summer after my senior year, although i don't have a whole lot of pictures from that music trip. i think these girls were kids of the pastor of that church - although i could totally be making that up. i remember they were super cute though.
this was at our senior banquet - we had to play a game with our parents. thankfully, my parents & i answered enough questions correctly. unfortunately, jean & her parents weren't so lucky. i think dave also got pie in his face. i love the expression on our parents' faces. look at amy's mom, dave's mom, and my dad. i think they're all secretly thinking they're glad it's not their kid! and joe in the back left, snickering that his sister got hit.
go bears! the future bears with eva & bob
okay, the rest of these are some random college & post college pics.
at cal, in our dwight wy apartments. i think this was for eva's birthday. we made bob come upstairs and take a ton of random pictures of us. i miss living in the canaan buildling. :)
reni & joyce came up to visit us, so we had a mini-reunion. i guess we liked hats.
post-college: i went out to the east coast o's first year in baltimore, and we made a trip to ny & boston. this was us entertaining ourselves because drew took so stinking long in the bathroom.
and i just had to post this picture. we went with drew to the middle of nowhere, aka south hamilton, to visit gordon conwell before he started seminary there. they had this huge room with a ping pong table - i played a game against drew, and this captured the moment i beat him. what a great victory.
and just because i felt like i had to post a picture of peter, this is me & olivia with peter in LA in front of the hugest bush i've ever seen.
phew, that was fun - brought up many great memories! sometime in the future i'll do non-canaan pics.
Monday, May 15, 2006
nostalgia, part 1
a couple of conversations i had this weekend made me nostalgic, so i went through my old pictures (pre-digital) and discovered: 1) i need to file my pictures better. they were originally filed, but i always pull pictures out, mostly for people getting married who ask me for some pics for their slideshow, and then i never file them back. so i have huge piles of random pics. 2) i've been truly blessed - i look back at the pictures, and not only do they bring back great memories, but i realized that God continues to bless me with long-lasting friendships with a majority of the people. and though i've obviously made more friends since those good ol' days, sometimes it's so great to be with old friends, you know? even though we don't get to see some of the people often, when we do get together, it's like nothing has changed, and there is no awkwardness or distance in the relationships.
so i decided to embarrass all those friends and post some of the pictures. :) hehe. this first batch is mostly canaan pics, from all our summer musicals & trips to seattle/vancouver or socal, and various other activities. sometime in the future, i'll do other pics, like high school (non-canaan) and college.
please excuse the ghetto-ness of the pictures, i was too lazy to scan them in, so i just took a picture of the pictures. so all those white spots are from the flash since i couldn't take clear pictures without flash.
so let's start waaaay back in elementary school. i'm not sure what grade this is - my guess is third or fourth grade? my birthday party at my house.
poor amy - i still remember this moment. my mom had cut all of us a piece of cake, and we were all happily eating it. couple minutes later, amy quietly pipes up, "um... mrs. chiu? can i have a piece of cake?" hahahaha. my mom accidentally skipped amy, and she just sat there with just a fork!
i think this was fifth grade - my piano teacher would have a "special" recital every other year, where she would ask just a handful of her students to play multiple pieces. amy & i were both in the recital, and jean came to watch. yes, you like my stylin' plastic glasses?
okay. skipping on to eighth grade - that summer, the youth group did the musical "revival" and traveled & performed at various churches in oregon & seattle. i'm going to be posting a bunch of performance pictures from all our music trips - i can't remember for the life of me which churches we performed at. anyone who can identify any of them will win a prize.
i think this church was in oregon. i distinctly remember this church because chris and i were playing around with the big doors in the back before our performance, and somehow while we were playing, he opened one of the big heavy doors and it slammed right into my face. i was so shocked and in so much pain, that i just burst into tears. (do you remember that, chris?)
this was at crater lake in oregon - i picked this picture just to show pastor dan's gear. you thought i was styling with those big plastic glasses? i think he beat me with his shorts & blazer!
just so that everyone can see p.dan, here's a close up :)
i don't know where my pics from freshman year are, so unfortunately, nothing there. that year we did "people need the Lord" but only performed locally. no music trips anywhere.
summer after sophomore year, we did "salt & light" and went down to socal for our music trip. all of these are from performances at churches down in socal - my guess is most of them are at various EFC branches.
i have a lot of pictures from our performance at this church. look at us... holding hands :)
i also have a lot of these pictures - basically me & reni... and random people i don't know or remember. i don't know which church this was at either. notice a theme? haha.
i picked this picture because it caught the cardboard car. that had to be one of the best props we ever had - almost an exact replica of john & william chen's car. awesome. again, unidentified church.
summer after my junior year, we performed "last chance" for the first time, and went up to seattle & vancouver. that was the music trip that totally turned our youth group upside down. the memories from that trip are still very vivid, because the Spirit was very obviously working in all the members. not only did we see one of our own members accept Christ, we also saw walls that had built up between friends completely torn down, brothers reconciling, and a unificiation that we had never experienced before. everyone came back from that trip changed & touched by God, and it was very evident. even all our parents could sense it immediately. i still remember that last night in vancouver with the girls - we didn't sleep a wink, but not because we stayed up late talking and giggling, but because there was very evident spiritual warfare going on. we wrote down everything that happened that night on some tissue paper because that was all we could find. i wonder where that is...
this was the group + counselours at canaan, probably the sunday before we left on our trip. we all look so young! see how many more people you can identify!
most of the drama (for lack of better word) happened in vancouver when we stayed at this church. i also remember this church had no showers, so we had to wash our hair in the sinks - or in the guys case, grab a hose, wear their swimming suits, and shoot ice cold water on each other.
that church also had a full indoor basketball court. obviously the guys were super excited, and played basketball well into the night - even past midnight. p. dan had hurt his knee in oregon, at a church that had an indoor half-court. so in vancouver, the girls wanted to play a game, so we played guys vs. girls. and the guys handicap was that they had to play one-handed and limp like p.dan. sadly, the girls still lost.
okay, this is getting long. i'll finish the rest up in another post later. this has certainly brought back a flood of memories, though.
so i decided to embarrass all those friends and post some of the pictures. :) hehe. this first batch is mostly canaan pics, from all our summer musicals & trips to seattle/vancouver or socal, and various other activities. sometime in the future, i'll do other pics, like high school (non-canaan) and college.
please excuse the ghetto-ness of the pictures, i was too lazy to scan them in, so i just took a picture of the pictures. so all those white spots are from the flash since i couldn't take clear pictures without flash.
so let's start waaaay back in elementary school. i'm not sure what grade this is - my guess is third or fourth grade? my birthday party at my house.
poor amy - i still remember this moment. my mom had cut all of us a piece of cake, and we were all happily eating it. couple minutes later, amy quietly pipes up, "um... mrs. chiu? can i have a piece of cake?" hahahaha. my mom accidentally skipped amy, and she just sat there with just a fork!
i think this was fifth grade - my piano teacher would have a "special" recital every other year, where she would ask just a handful of her students to play multiple pieces. amy & i were both in the recital, and jean came to watch. yes, you like my stylin' plastic glasses?
okay. skipping on to eighth grade - that summer, the youth group did the musical "revival" and traveled & performed at various churches in oregon & seattle. i'm going to be posting a bunch of performance pictures from all our music trips - i can't remember for the life of me which churches we performed at. anyone who can identify any of them will win a prize.
i think this church was in oregon. i distinctly remember this church because chris and i were playing around with the big doors in the back before our performance, and somehow while we were playing, he opened one of the big heavy doors and it slammed right into my face. i was so shocked and in so much pain, that i just burst into tears. (do you remember that, chris?)
this was at crater lake in oregon - i picked this picture just to show pastor dan's gear. you thought i was styling with those big plastic glasses? i think he beat me with his shorts & blazer!
just so that everyone can see p.dan, here's a close up :)
i don't know where my pics from freshman year are, so unfortunately, nothing there. that year we did "people need the Lord" but only performed locally. no music trips anywhere.
summer after sophomore year, we did "salt & light" and went down to socal for our music trip. all of these are from performances at churches down in socal - my guess is most of them are at various EFC branches.
i have a lot of pictures from our performance at this church. look at us... holding hands :)
i also have a lot of these pictures - basically me & reni... and random people i don't know or remember. i don't know which church this was at either. notice a theme? haha.
i picked this picture because it caught the cardboard car. that had to be one of the best props we ever had - almost an exact replica of john & william chen's car. awesome. again, unidentified church.
summer after my junior year, we performed "last chance" for the first time, and went up to seattle & vancouver. that was the music trip that totally turned our youth group upside down. the memories from that trip are still very vivid, because the Spirit was very obviously working in all the members. not only did we see one of our own members accept Christ, we also saw walls that had built up between friends completely torn down, brothers reconciling, and a unificiation that we had never experienced before. everyone came back from that trip changed & touched by God, and it was very evident. even all our parents could sense it immediately. i still remember that last night in vancouver with the girls - we didn't sleep a wink, but not because we stayed up late talking and giggling, but because there was very evident spiritual warfare going on. we wrote down everything that happened that night on some tissue paper because that was all we could find. i wonder where that is...
this was the group + counselours at canaan, probably the sunday before we left on our trip. we all look so young! see how many more people you can identify!
most of the drama (for lack of better word) happened in vancouver when we stayed at this church. i also remember this church had no showers, so we had to wash our hair in the sinks - or in the guys case, grab a hose, wear their swimming suits, and shoot ice cold water on each other.
that church also had a full indoor basketball court. obviously the guys were super excited, and played basketball well into the night - even past midnight. p. dan had hurt his knee in oregon, at a church that had an indoor half-court. so in vancouver, the girls wanted to play a game, so we played guys vs. girls. and the guys handicap was that they had to play one-handed and limp like p.dan. sadly, the girls still lost.
okay, this is getting long. i'll finish the rest up in another post later. this has certainly brought back a flood of memories, though.
Friday, May 12, 2006
for the second year in a row, my parents decided to go on vacation during mothers day. so last year, i went to a giants game to celebrate my last weekend of freedom before my surgery. this year... MI3. is anyone else motherless and want to watch it with us? actually at my last pt session (sigh), some of the patients were talking about how they're going to boycott the movie because they think tom cruise is crazy. i think he's crazy too, but... JJ Abrams! how could you go wrong?
tagged by alinna.
1. Four Jobs:
a. reporter/layout artist for our high school newspaper (ok, so not a real paying job, but i've only had two of those.)
b. cash register/food frier/joyfest usher/ticket-taker at great america in college for various fund raising events, like UiC, missions support, etc. (you work for a day and great america pays the non-profit organization you're volunteering with some $ amount.)
c. marketing assistant at my dad's company when i was in high school (funny thing - my pt clinic, or should i say ex-pt clinic now, is on the exact site where my dad's company used to be. it took me 8 months to discover that, even though i used to work there!)
d. my current one. business ops slave for my company.
2. Four Things I Wish I Had Done Earlier: (interpreting the same as alinna, i actually haven't done these things. yet.)
a. live somewhere outside of norcal for an extended period of time
b. go on another missions trip
c. learn how to drive manual
d. wake up every morning
3. Four Places I Have Lived:
a. saratoga
b. berkeley
c. mountain view
d. cupertino
wow, how's that for variety. haha. that's kind of sad. in fact, my entire list consists of only two additional cities: los gatos, and san jose, both of which i lived in before moving to saratoga. unless you count china for two months. maybe it's really time for me to explore outside of norcal.
4. Four Countries I Have Been To:
a. china. uh, i mean "east asia"
b. spain
c. france
d. taiwan (only twice in my life though. once in kindergarten, and once in high school.)
5. Four Countries I Would Like to Visit:
a. japan (been there once, in kindergarten.)
b. greece
c. australia
d. italy (yes again. i love tuscany/florence area.)
6. Four of My Favorite Dishes:
a. any kind of korean food
b. in-n-out
c. any dish at tanto & gochi
d. taiwanese food (ba-wan, etc)
7. Four Sites I Visit Daily:
a. our work intranet
b. google reader
c. xanga pages
d. not everyday, but when i get a chance, the san diego zoo panda webcam. thanks to mary, the founding member of the panda club.
8. Four Software Applications I Cannot Live Without:
a. microsoft excel
b. SAP
c. aim
d. firefox
9. Four Things I'll Never Forget:
a. if you give a moose a muffin - my muffin bday. incidentally, on wednesday, chris happened to mention the whole book series, so i dusted off my book, pulled it off the shelf and started reading what people signed in the book. most people addressed me with "hi gimp" "hey cripple" etc. i love what eric wrote: "hi karen. happy birthday. nice acl. oh you tore it. never mind." funny how not much has changed over the last 7 years. i'm still a gimp, and eric, well, is still eric. :)
b. missions trip to east asia
c. being pulled down the mountain in tahoe last februrary by ski patrol
d. uhh... hm. maybe winning best senior industrial engineering project at cal with sanj, dave and amyn. actually, even more memorable was when i went to second harvest to volunteer a few years ago and saw that they had implemented & used parts of our project. it made our project more than just a college assignment. i think we were given a couple hundred dollars by the ieor department for winning, too. go cscs!
10. I Tag....
a. byria
b. the kittoe household (hehe i cheated)
c. reni
d. eva
tagged by alinna.
1. Four Jobs:
a. reporter/layout artist for our high school newspaper (ok, so not a real paying job, but i've only had two of those.)
b. cash register/food frier/joyfest usher/ticket-taker at great america in college for various fund raising events, like UiC, missions support, etc. (you work for a day and great america pays the non-profit organization you're volunteering with some $ amount.)
c. marketing assistant at my dad's company when i was in high school (funny thing - my pt clinic, or should i say ex-pt clinic now, is on the exact site where my dad's company used to be. it took me 8 months to discover that, even though i used to work there!)
d. my current one. business ops slave for my company.
2. Four Things I Wish I Had Done Earlier: (interpreting the same as alinna, i actually haven't done these things. yet.)
a. live somewhere outside of norcal for an extended period of time
b. go on another missions trip
c. learn how to drive manual
d. wake up every morning
3. Four Places I Have Lived:
a. saratoga
b. berkeley
c. mountain view
d. cupertino
wow, how's that for variety. haha. that's kind of sad. in fact, my entire list consists of only two additional cities: los gatos, and san jose, both of which i lived in before moving to saratoga. unless you count china for two months. maybe it's really time for me to explore outside of norcal.
4. Four Countries I Have Been To:
a. china. uh, i mean "east asia"
b. spain
c. france
d. taiwan (only twice in my life though. once in kindergarten, and once in high school.)
5. Four Countries I Would Like to Visit:
a. japan (been there once, in kindergarten.)
b. greece
c. australia
d. italy (yes again. i love tuscany/florence area.)
6. Four of My Favorite Dishes:
a. any kind of korean food
b. in-n-out
c. any dish at tanto & gochi
d. taiwanese food (ba-wan, etc)
7. Four Sites I Visit Daily:
a. our work intranet
b. google reader
c. xanga pages
d. not everyday, but when i get a chance, the san diego zoo panda webcam. thanks to mary, the founding member of the panda club.
8. Four Software Applications I Cannot Live Without:
a. microsoft excel
b. SAP
c. aim
d. firefox
9. Four Things I'll Never Forget:
a. if you give a moose a muffin - my muffin bday. incidentally, on wednesday, chris happened to mention the whole book series, so i dusted off my book, pulled it off the shelf and started reading what people signed in the book. most people addressed me with "hi gimp" "hey cripple" etc. i love what eric wrote: "hi karen. happy birthday. nice acl. oh you tore it. never mind." funny how not much has changed over the last 7 years. i'm still a gimp, and eric, well, is still eric. :)
b. missions trip to east asia
c. being pulled down the mountain in tahoe last februrary by ski patrol
d. uhh... hm. maybe winning best senior industrial engineering project at cal with sanj, dave and amyn. actually, even more memorable was when i went to second harvest to volunteer a few years ago and saw that they had implemented & used parts of our project. it made our project more than just a college assignment. i think we were given a couple hundred dollars by the ieor department for winning, too. go cscs!
10. I Tag....
a. byria
b. the kittoe household (hehe i cheated)
c. reni
d. eva
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
who is karen chiu?
finally... work has slowed down some, so i thought it'd be fun to find out who google thinks karen chiu is.
apparently, she:
won third place in the 13-yr old category for USA volleyball (front right)
is a doctor for the mayo clinic (second from left)
is the external liason for a volunteer group at boston latin school
is a home loans officer for lockheed federal credit union
worked at a plant bio lab at uc berkeley (ask me a funny story about this sometime. we had the same name, same middle initial, were the same year at cal. the story involves icq and my floormate freshman year.)
and lastly...
apparently she's this girl who went on a trip to spain with a bunch of crazy asians. who's that one loner who wouldn't pose like everyone else?? :) (and yes, this came up on google, i didn't stick this in myself)
that was fun and entertaining, all courtesy of google. let me know if you want me to do you next!
apparently, she:
won third place in the 13-yr old category for USA volleyball (front right)
is a doctor for the mayo clinic (second from left)
is the external liason for a volunteer group at boston latin school
is a home loans officer for lockheed federal credit union
worked at a plant bio lab at uc berkeley (ask me a funny story about this sometime. we had the same name, same middle initial, were the same year at cal. the story involves icq and my floormate freshman year.)
and lastly...
apparently she's this girl who went on a trip to spain with a bunch of crazy asians. who's that one loner who wouldn't pose like everyone else?? :) (and yes, this came up on google, i didn't stick this in myself)
that was fun and entertaining, all courtesy of google. let me know if you want me to do you next!
Friday, May 05, 2006
denied. again.
strike two. was denied by my HR again, no surprise there. what irritates me is their only suggestion is to put more money into my flexible spending account next year. i don't need help in 2007, i need help now. that was their suggestion to me last year too. i did put money into my FSA for this year, a couple hundred dollars, but i used it all up by the beginning of April. I didn't know back in November of last year (when we had to determine the amount to put in) that i'd have a third surgery. they did say that they were trying to re-negotiate the therapy coverage for 2007, which again is not helpful to me, but all employees who'll need the coverage in the future should hopefully benefit. i'm almost 100% positive it's because of me they're doing it. so at least something hopefully positive is coming out of my never-ending story.
my computer officially died. many thanks to hanlin who tried to resuscitate it back to life, but the motherboard is gone. at least the hard drive is still intact so i can pull what i need to off it, and the computer did last me a good 4-5 years. desktops are pretty cheap, although i may have to buy a ... big gulp... computer with an ati card. all the cheap computers have ati cards, and if i want one with nvidia, i'd have to have my brother build me one again (which will end up being more expensive) or shell out way more $$. i guess i'm not loyal enough to my company to be willing to pay an extra couple hundred of dollars.
alias is really disappointing. at this point, i'm only watching to see the series out, but otherwise, i'm disappointed in the writing, how they're trying to close up plots, just everything in general. i could care less who dies, and if sloane really is evil or not. sad that the series has become this - i would have thought its last season would have been awesome.
lost. all i can say is OMG. that was a total shock. total. i hope libby lives, i need to find out what she was doing in the insane asylum with hurley!
my computer officially died. many thanks to hanlin who tried to resuscitate it back to life, but the motherboard is gone. at least the hard drive is still intact so i can pull what i need to off it, and the computer did last me a good 4-5 years. desktops are pretty cheap, although i may have to buy a ... big gulp... computer with an ati card. all the cheap computers have ati cards, and if i want one with nvidia, i'd have to have my brother build me one again (which will end up being more expensive) or shell out way more $$. i guess i'm not loyal enough to my company to be willing to pay an extra couple hundred of dollars.
alias is really disappointing. at this point, i'm only watching to see the series out, but otherwise, i'm disappointed in the writing, how they're trying to close up plots, just everything in general. i could care less who dies, and if sloane really is evil or not. sad that the series has become this - i would have thought its last season would have been awesome.
lost. all i can say is OMG. that was a total shock. total. i hope libby lives, i need to find out what she was doing in the insane asylum with hurley!
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
onwards
i had my second-to-last physical therapy session yesterday. next week i "graduate" - more like i'm forced to "graduate," thanks to my health insurance. yesterday, i brought three pairs of crutches to donate since, you know, i don't really need four pairs of crutches lying around the house (one set from my toe surgery, one from my left knee surgery, and two from my first two right knee surgeries. i finally remembered to bring my own crutches to the hospital for my third right knee surgery.) wow, i really am an orthopedic doctor's dream come true. or, er, nightmare, depending on how you think of it. five orthopedic surgeries in my life so far - at least i keep them in business. :)
so i'm kind of sad to be leaving, one because i'm not healed, and two because it's really been an integral part of my life for the last year. i've gotten to know my therapist(s) and aides and even the patients pretty well. for this entire year, it's practically been the same regular patients every time i go in, so we always chat and catch up while staying late and doing our exercises. it's nice because they actually have an understanding of what i'm going through that others don't - especially the regulars.
so it's time to bid adieu to my therapy clinic. i have one last plea in with our HR, but haven't heard back from them for two weeks, so i'm not counting on it. espcecially since i was denied last year.
time to finish out on my own. i've been doing that anyway, so we'll see. six months. onwards i go. (side note: there's a meeting that i have to go to every monday, and the manager who runs the meeting likes to do things fast. so every time after we talk about one issue and close the item, he says, "okay. onwards." every time i hear him say that, i want to break out into song and start singing "onward christian soldier... marching as to war." olivia thinks that i should actually do it one day.)
so i'm kind of sad to be leaving, one because i'm not healed, and two because it's really been an integral part of my life for the last year. i've gotten to know my therapist(s) and aides and even the patients pretty well. for this entire year, it's practically been the same regular patients every time i go in, so we always chat and catch up while staying late and doing our exercises. it's nice because they actually have an understanding of what i'm going through that others don't - especially the regulars.
so it's time to bid adieu to my therapy clinic. i have one last plea in with our HR, but haven't heard back from them for two weeks, so i'm not counting on it. espcecially since i was denied last year.
time to finish out on my own. i've been doing that anyway, so we'll see. six months. onwards i go. (side note: there's a meeting that i have to go to every monday, and the manager who runs the meeting likes to do things fast. so every time after we talk about one issue and close the item, he says, "okay. onwards." every time i hear him say that, i want to break out into song and start singing "onward christian soldier... marching as to war." olivia thinks that i should actually do it one day.)