Package Waste

Tagged as: Food, Rant, Seen-Around Feb 07

I don’t like how it’s impossible to get every last bit of semi-liquid type substances out of their container. Even more than that, though, it disappoints me that this slight irritation happens so often!

So as you probably know (or at least can guess from my blog’s name) that I’m Chinese. The stereotype is that Chinese people specifically (and Asian people in general) are a little bit stingy. Now, there are quite a lot of times that I can heartily agree that this stereotype has roots in reality. Maybe it’s because in China everyone has to fight for their own rights and properties since there are so many people vying for the limited resources. Ah communism at its best.

But another thing that you should know is that I’m, in general, not very Chinese. Now what does that mean? Well I don’t even speak the language, let alone act out the whole stereotype. I am, for all intents and purposes, completely American. Nevertheless, I do have a frugal side to me. (I mean, I did share 3 Little Tips To Save before.) And that frugal Chinese side of me doesn’t like that products are placed into packages that don’t allow me to utilize all that I’ve paid for!

There are just so many of these items that we use! Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well what about:

• yogurt
• mayonnaise
• toothpaste
• shampoo
• lotion

And that’s just to name a few! There are obviously many other things that could fall into this category. One would think that after so many years of production and perfecting the whole process, a better solution would have been reached. But no. All we get are cheap gadgets like the toothpaste clip that will ensure that as much paste as possible is pushed towards the opening. Ah!

What’s a society to do? It’s time for a change. It’s time for a revolution.

Get My Name Right

Tagged as: Life, Rant, Relationships Jan 30

I know what it feels like to be unknown, and I don’t like it. I’m talking about people getting my name wrong.

Generally I actually do think that I’m a bit forgettable. That might sound sad, but it’s the truth. I don’t make terribly flattering first impressions. That’s just how it has been. It’s gotten better, I think, as I’ve grown into my skin, but it’s probably fairly true still.

Names are our unique key to life. It has a bit of our heritage in our surname, and it is the first gift that we are given. It’s a marking that we will have for our lifetime (that is unless we legally change it at some point). And it’s how we are known. Life would be different if we had a different name.

Considering all of this, it’s not exactly pleasant when someone forgets your name. It makes you feel (and probably accurately so) that you’re not important enough to be remembered by the one who forgot. Nobody likes to be reminded of how unimportant they are. Everyone wants to be special and being known is just the first step.

There have been a few instances where I’ve noticed this occurring to me. Thankfully it’s not exactly stuff that’s affected me, but it’s still noteworthy because I’m sure that there are many out there who wouldn’t take kindly to this happening to them.

1. At work we had a going away brunch for someone, and people from all different departments were there. As I was standing there, someone was loudly saying someone else’s name and looking at me. Now usually, it is a very bad idea to respond to these greetings in your direction that might not necessarily be for you. You know the wave from strangers who are actually waving to the guy right behind you. That kind of thing. In any case, I was not responding to this girl because I figured she must have been trying to get someone else’s attention. She eventually turns to her friend and says, “He’s not responding to me, I guess.” Then she gets even closer to me and says this other guy’s name.

   Granted I was sideways so she only had a profile view. I turned to her, and I said that I was not who she thought I was. She realized her mistake and fell silent. That’s right, lady. You’re wrong.

2. The same day as the first example, I was walking by someone’s desk, and he said, “What’s up, —–?” This other name was another Asian guy in our department. I knew that he was talking to me because nobody else was around, and I said, “It’s Derek, not ——.”

   The bad thing is that he does know the difference between us. We traveled for quite a few days together! And we work in the same department! This one was probably a more honest slip of the tongue, but I still thought it pretty amusing considering that it was the same day. To exacerbate the matter, the same guy cc’d me on an e-mail and spelled my name Derrick. And we’ve been working together for about 15 months. Lovely, just lovely.

3. So another instance where forgetting a name can be bad is if you remember the other person’s name, and they do not remember your name. Bad beans. If you both forget, it’s acceptable. But if you both do not, all is not right.

   So I recently went to a fellowship group again after not going for a couple of months. I remembered a few of the people’s name because of talking to them or because I secretly actually knew stuff about them. Haha creepy as that might sound, it was more like an “I know that they asked my friend out, but they don’t me” kind of deal. In any case, it was no good for me to remember their names since they forgot mine. Boo hoo.

So basically we all need to learn these things:

• We need better memories
• All Asians do not look alike
• Get more confidence so you don’t care if people forget your name because you’re above that
• Don’t respond to women who are yelling, no good can ever come of it

Proud Of Nothing

Tagged as: Christianity, Life, Political, Rant, Relationships Jan 13

People will get proud over anything. Even those that have nothing to be proud of will somehow find themselves becoming proud of something. It’s rather amazing really. When you stop to think about it, none of us really has anything to be proud of.

There are a wide variety of things that pride is claimed. I think that the most ridiculous ones are those things over which we have no control. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Nationalism/Patriotism/Geographic devotion

   This is rampant around the world and throughout all of time. However, it’s rather silly to be proud of where you come from simply because that’s where you came from, don’t you think? Sure it’s a great way to connect to people when you first meet them, but how much do you really have to be proud of if you grew up somewhere? Usually it’s not too much.

   I think that perhaps the only thing that I could understand about this is if one had to grow up in a difficult environment. It shapes a person to be able to grow up in that type of surrounding. But for all of those people who are proud of where they grew up, what country they were born in, what their heritage is, and so on, you better rethink it. Because you had no hand in that.

   And to think that people get into wars over this issue all of the time is mind boggling. You mean to tell me that you hate that guy because of where he was born? But he had no control over that, he didn’t choose to be born there!

2. Height

   Have you met people who were proud of their height? I think that might be one of the most ridiculous things ever because you absolutely have no control over your height. You can lose or gain weight, have plastic surgery to fix your looks, and any number of things to modify your physical appearance.

   But what can you do about your height? Diddly squat, I do believe. Unless you have that limb lengthening surgery. Anyways, once again you have no control over how tall you are/will be. You can hope for good genes, but it’s much more impressive to just be able to deal with those that you’ve been given. And better yet, it’s impressive to be able to overlook (no pun intended) it in others.

3. Discovering Music Artists/Clothing Brands

   I mean really? You’re going to be proud of the fact that you found out about a band before anyone else did? You had no hand in their success. You’re not playing bass or pounding those drums for them. All you did was take a little listen.

   Okay sure, it’s very nice that you spend the time and try out different artists than the popular fare served up to the masses. Maybe you even spent a little bit of money to try them out. But when the band becomes popular, if you find yourself bringing up the fact that you listened to them for years, I’ll have you know that I think that you’re a lame-o.

   Same thing goes for clothing brands (and probably a slew of other things). You’re not making the clothes, you’re just buying a sweater. $20 bucks. You daredevil you.

4. Age

   Whether you’re young or old, what can you really say about your age? It won’t change a lick no matter what you do. You can lie about it, you can deceive others by changing your appearance, but this is an absolute in this world that you have no control over.

   I think it’s so interesting when people see their age as something to be proud of. In the past I’ve seen it because people think that they’re immediately wiser for the simple fact that they’ve lived more days. I grant them that it’s generally true that wisdom comes with age. But isn’t that usually more like decades of experience?

   Growing up in school, I was meeting people with years or less worth more days who thought that they were somehow wiser than I. I thought (and still do) think that is just ludicrous. It’s like they can’t find anything to be proud of so they just grasp for something that nobody can change. How about instead of doing that we go out and actually gain some of that useful wisdom by getting a life, huh?

5. Salvation

   Well I’m a Christian. Maybe you knew that, maybe you didn’t. Now you do. Anyways, I’ve got a bone to pick with those people that speak of their salvation with an air of superiority, as if they did anything at all except believe. This might stir up the pot a little bit, but there isn’t much that separates you from that unsaved guy next to you. I boast in Jesus Christ, too, but He did the work, not I. I just said, “Yes, I’ll believe.”

Cut Up And Not Loving It

Tagged as: Rant Oct 10

There’s not much more annoying in life than those small things that are seemingly insignificant but turn out to be extremely noticeable. Wonder what the heck I’m talking about?

So I burned myself while eating a few days ago. And now it’s a bit of a cut (or something that feels like a cut) on the tip of my tongue. This can also be called an apical cut of the tongue. And it’s really annoying.

Everytime I move it against my teeth or eat something salty or anything at all, I’m reminded that it’s there. It’s like a little kid who keeps tapping you on the shoulder saying, “Here I am, play with me.” Not that playing with little kids is bad. So maybe it’s more like a little kid tapping you on the shoulder saying, “Here I am, clean up my poo.”

So what solution do I have for this? Nothing. I’ve got nothing. But here are some points that I’ve thought:

• It’s on the tongue inside of your mouth so that eliminates the usual antiseptic and bandaging for cuts to the skin. Since the mouth is well-known to be full of germs, it is really unfortunate that they’re nothing that can be done about this. Maybe saliva protects it? Maybe not.
• It’s supposedly the strongest muscle. How do they know this? I have no idea. Whether it is or is not doesn’t matter so much as the fact that it is almost always moving. That makes it hard for the cut to really settled down, kick back, and recover.
• It’s necessary for eating. We can’t just bypass the tongue by sticking a feeding tube through our nose or veins, can we? Okay I guess that we could. But we won’t because that is just unreasonable.
• How do people that bite their tongue in their sleep deal with this?!

So you understand that a cut in the mouth must be annoying. But you know that there are a lot of other annoying things out there such as:

1. Cold sores. Especially if they’re big. Especially if they’re in the crack between your lip and your gum. Especially if you’re at a celebration banquet with lots of good food but which when put inside your mouth actually gets stuck in the cold sore and pokes it, aggravating it even more until you’re at the point of torture. Yeah that’s never happened to me.
2. Paper cuts. A million of these would be absolutely unbearable torture. One of them is pretty bad, too.
3. Pinched nerves/muscle knots. Whether you slept wrong, you exercised too much, or anything else that you did, these are so annoying as to make you think about them constantly for the day or two that they last. You almost can’t do anything but complain about it (whether out loud or in your head).

So after all of this, the conclusion is that either I get annoyed very easily or there are a lot of annoying things out in the world.

Pull Your Pants Up, Boy

Tagged as: Amusing, Gross, Rant, Seen-Around, Work Oct 05

Alright so we had a fire drill the other day. And it was annoying. The sirens were piercingly loud. I guess that’s good because you don’t want to have your earphones in and listening to music so that you don’t hear the alarm when it goes off. Nevertheless the fact of the matter was that there wasn’t a fire and it did hurt my ears.

When you go down the stairs for the fire drill, it’s mild because nobody is actually trying to get away from a fire. I can only imagine that some people would panic in the case of a real fire and try to run by people. These are probably the same people that need to learn what I have to say On Driving. They’re the ones zooming by, cutting you off, and still getting to the destination not a minute or two faster than you. In a fire drill they’re gonna run as fast as they can, knock people over, and cause general pandemonium. Great.

But those thoughts weren’t the most disturbing of the day.

Many people exited the building (it’s a 5 story one with multiple companies), and as we’re standing in the grass I see someone (from my company) who is standing there with his arms raised. They’re resting on his head. Maybe he was stretching. Maybe he was subtly trying to get someone’s attention. Maybe he was trying to touch the sky. How do I know? But whatever he was doing, all I know is that his shirt was too short (so it raised along with his arms), and his pants were sagging too much. And there was a great view of his man hair (if you know what I mean, pubic hair if you don’t) if you’re into that. But I’m not into that. Not at all. And I don’t know too many people who are. So that made me unhappy and disgusted.

So remember, kids, to pull up your pants. Especially if you’re at work. Especially if you’re raising your arms up and trying to grab birds out of the air. You know who you are.