Friday Food For Thought
Items in A's office:
2 cans of Sprite in drawer, together with bottle of Tums
Toy ball in drawer
Map of world on back wall
Display of golf things on second desk
Picture of ownself in bar, followed by picture of random statue
Mini-calendar directly in front of keyboard, contributed by insurance agent named Robert Goh (not related to me, by the way)

FFFT:
Can you judge a person by what one keeps in one's office?
What do you have in your office?

Who was Bingo?
I'm sure you all know the timeless kid's song, Bingo.
There was a farmer who had a dog
And Bingo was his name-o
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o

Cast your vote: Is Bingo the name of the farmer or the dog?

Make sure you read the first couple of sentences thoroughly before you cast your votes. And also, don't discount Bingo as not possibly being the name of a farmer -- in redneck-ville, there could be worse names to farmers than Bingo.

My thursday lunch buddy
Background: I was complaining to my lunch buddy last thursday that someone accidentally scratch my car bumper and left a red paint mark... and then monday morning, we were on the same stretch of north highway drive.

The emails later that morning:

My email to him:
-----Original Message-----
From: Soon, Angeline
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 9:30 AM
To: C****, P****.
Subject: rsx

Hey there,
Saw you this morning zooming down the road on your RSX, you were doing what?, 70 mph before making a sharp right into the parking lot? hahaha.
-A.S.

His reply:
-----Original Message-----
From: C****, P****
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 9:40 AM
To: Soon, Angeline
Subject: RE: rsx

Ok, let's see now....math was never my strong point, so I could be wrong here...but I feel it necessary to note that I did see a gray blur go by me -- or should I say I felt the jetstream caused by your wake as it rocked my vehicle -- so if I was indeed marginally infracting on the speed limitations set by the good citizens of Missouri by "doing 70", then I can only imagine what a judge in traffic court would say about the landspeed record you were setting as you blew past me at 90+ mph...

So do geese make a mess when you hit them head on at 90? At least now I know the true story of how you got that ding in your front bumper, and why there's some "red" on the scratch. Gross. :)
-P.C.

Hilarious. Tomorrow's thursday. Yippie!

Morning non-routine
The windows were left open last night before I went to bed. Despite the down comforter, it was freezing when I got up this morning. Finally haul my behind to the shower after the snooze went on and off for about 5 times. Had the shower on full heat. It's weird how the hot water is hotter than the cold water is cold. Heh.

All these hot vs. cold evil business is no good for me. I feel a fever coming down.

Nuts
One of my task this week is to help train Scott who's office is diagonally across from mine. At the corner of his desk there is a huge bowl of salted peanuts. On the floor at the same corner is the trash can.

Since Monday, I've spent more time in Scott's office than I ever had in the past 3 months. Most often than not, I'm in there wrestling with the peanuts to get it out of its shell. I don't think the cleaning people are very happy about the amount of 'leftovers' that I accidentally dropped on the floor because it missed the trash can.

Speaking of which, peanuts have a very intense flavor zone, it's when the saltiness hits your taste bud. Goes perfectly well with the hot chocolate I'm having now.

Time Zone
I was recently put on a project that requires a huge amount of collaboration between our office in St. Louis and the one in So.Cal.. Scheduling conference calls is a huge pain in the rear, no can do before 11am CST because it's 9m PST over there, and these people just started rolling in at 9. Then there is lunch time. They love to schedule calls during their 9.30-11am period, which runs smack into the middle of my lunch time. Grrr. Looking forward to lunch time is the only thing that gets me through the morning, and if you're gonna take away my lunch time, then I might as well stay at home because I ain't gonna get stuff done. Or, they'll schedule something at 2-3ish their time, which then, is time for me to go HOME over here!

To add fuel to my fiery schedule, I'm now consulting a design team that works out of our U.K. office. Gosh, I don't even know the time difference off the top of my head. We haven't had any official full blown meetings yet so I'm waiting to see if this will flip flop my work schedule once again.

I'm in a bitchy mode this morning. Gotta go get some hot chocolate now. I'll be forced to miss lunch today because of a dang conference call with So.Cal.

It's all up to me
Was reading Erin's blog and to quote her 11/12 entry, "I've learned that some people like having fun dropped at their feet. Others have fun in seeking it out. Saint Louis is a seek out kinda' town. It has everything you could want but it's not in your face."

That is so true. I remember when I first moved to St. Louis from Lexington, I was glad that this is a bigger city, but as months, years flew by, I find myself complaining bitterly about the lack of activities and happening places in the St. Louis city and county area. I was craving for a differently life in NYC, Philly, D.C.... But recently I find that there are actually pretty fun things to do and places to hang out at if you can find the right crowd, and I just happened to stumble upon some pretty fun-loving people for the past couple of months. Erin's blog literally voiced out how I felt, and really, it's all up to me to want to go out and experience St. Louis, and not just sit back on my couch on saturday nights complaining that there's nothing to do.

So right now I am happy. Happy to know all the people I know here, and happy that I'm coming to terms with myself and my lifestyle. It's all good.

Family Affair
I was at the West Olive AMC 16 theatre this weekend, sitting in the back row, waiting for 8 Mile to start. Now, bear in mind that this is an R-rated movie, so I really didn't expect a bunch of star struck giggling high school girls at the theatre. None within the 4-row radius. Good.

But imagine my horror when I saw an entire family of dad, mom, a 3-4 year old girl, a teenage girl w/ her date (both looked like they were barely 14 years old) walking into the theatre. I guess in Missouri it is okay to admit underage movie-goers with parental consent? Since when is it okay to have a 3 year old girl sit through a movie that's filled with cursed words, middle fingers, violent behavior... etc.

I agree that exposing children to different facets of life is a method of education that can actually help them recognize right or wrong more easily, versus sheltering children from the bads of the world, which makes them more fragile. But this is a little kid we're talking about here. There are better things in life that should be shown to her before exposing her to what is evidently an inappropriate human social behavior for a kid that age.

Bits and pieces of my weekend
My weekend was jam packed. Went to West County mall after work to help a friend pick out some stuff, then we headed out to meet up with a bunch of friends for dinner at the Big Sky Cafe. The food and wine were good, dessert was delicious, and the company was great! Later, couple of them went to Churchills down at CWE, I decided to head home instead because I was tired out.

Saturday was a busy day. Woke up early in the morning (not that early anyways) to meet up with Don and the STLVW gang for a fall scenic drive up to Grafton/Alton, IL. I didn't drive my car, instead, I car-pooled with a friend. A great way to get the adrenaline pumping on a saturday morning was to ride in a twin turbo Audi S4, doing 110 mph in 4th gear, with a whole bunch of Corrados, GTIs and Jettas zooming by in between. I took along my new digital camera, and you can check out some of the photos on the STLVW forum site. After the drive we all pigged out at Fast Eddies. Okay, I gotta say this, I felt rather intimidated being the only asian in the thick of a bunch of rednecks, but hey, the food was good, beer was cheap and the place is known to be a famous burger joint. Gotta try it out at least once. heh.

Saturday night was filled with hilariously weird questions, 6 inch platform high heels, and surprisingly acrobatic female, lotsa smoke and beer. It was definitely an eye-opener for me - my first time over at the East Side. Now I can proudly say: been there done that.

Sunday was spent at the theatre. Went and saw 8 Mile starring Eminem. The story was good, plot wasn't too bad, rap was awesome, but the ending was too abrupt. It left me going "uh, ar, huh? that's it?" Sunday night HBO is always good. Sopranos has an interesting twist, though I always hate it when somebody die. The Mind of the Married Man was exceptionally good this week as the plot hit very close to heart. I can't believe it's the season finale next week. Just when it got me hooked...