Pandemic

I have not posted here for a while but I am going to write something about this COVID-19 pandemic.

I think it has become obvious to everyone now that a country with a totalitarian regime like China is much better at dealing with a crisis like COVID-19 than the USA. Americans love their freedom and will fight everything and anything ordered or recommended by authoritarian figures, including political leaders and scientific experts, and that is a real problem when trying to establish national best practices in times of crisis. Even simple measures like enforcing the wearing of a face mask has resulted in people getting killed by angry dissents. On the other hand, one might simply conclude that Asians are just more used to wearing face masks.

So the following is the logical conclusion of the above, that the US needs to either end its democracy, or import more Asians, especially Chinese, in order to better combat COVID-19. The end.

City Employee Badge

I have been working for the city for a while now, and just finished my 6 months probation period last month. After this probationary period, I have to say something about my city employee's badge.

During the orientation an HR lady asked us new employees to think about what the city badge may represent in the eyes of the public, and we should act accordingly. For example, if we were offered a cup of coffee free at a local business, maybe we ought to refuse it.

What I have to say is that my personal experience has been quite the opposite. I have been carrying my city employee's badge everywhere I go, just short of brandishing and flaunting it in everyone's face, and I have yet to receive my free cup of coffee.

I think I am going to ask her where she gets her breakfast and try my luck there. Her name is Jill. To avoid my question becoming a city public record, I will ask her in person instead of sending her an email. I will keep you guys posted if I ever received my free cup of coffee.

Happy almost new year everyone!

Internal Guilt

Today I would like to make a confession about all the things I have felt guilty about in life:

1) Not learning to play the piano
I have felt guilty ever since my mother bought a $4,000 piano 12 years ago and told me I could play it at their place when I have learned how to. This guilt has always been on the back of my mind. It has pretty much stopped me from playing any video game that required finger dexterity because I kept telling myself that I could use the opportunity to learn the piano instead. This is the reason why I have only played Splatoon twice on Wii U after I got it. This guilt has grown with each passing year. As a result I am thinking about taking a makeup class because that will give me an opportunity to work with my fingers.

2) Not getting a perfect SAT score
I have been studying the SAT for the last 20 years due to this. On my last practice test I got close. The plus side is that this continued study helped my GRE score. I scored perfect on GRE math and 90 percentile on verbal. That was quite a few years ago. I am pretty sure that I can do better now if I tried again. I also became a SAT math tutor because of this.

3) Breaking up with my ex-girlfriend
I have felt so guilty about this breakup that I still have not thought of a good way to tell her yet. I have to break it to her soon as the wedding date approaches. My fiance does not know about my ex.

Okay, that's all for now. Happy Assumption Day!

P.S. I am not Catholic. I just looked that up.

Turtle

I have had my turtle for a while now. I like him a lot, so I am dedicating this poem "To Yellow bellied Slider" to him:

O little yellow green turtle,
your shell is hard but not brittle.
Always hiding and seeking,
what are you finding?
All the minnows have been eaten,
though I feed you pellets quite often.
A slow crawler of the riverbank,
Now the king of an entire tank!

Suicide Squad

I saw the movie "Suicide Squad" last weekend. I am not sure what excited me more, seeing the movie on its opening day, or finally catching a Venomoth in Pokemon Go in the movie theater's parking lot. The critter had been eluding me for several weeks now. That is all I can remember and will write about my weekend movie experience.

By the way, it is pouring today and the entire Tampa bay area is under flood warning. I have no problem with it really, as long as we get a chance to catch more water based Pokemon inside the flood zones. Maybe I should organize an event with the local players driving out to the flood zones, it will be spectacular.

Trip Back to Florida

I just drove back to Florida with my dad after having attended my cousin's wedding in Ohio. My car was breaking down pretty badly, the steering wheel shook hard when it hit 50 mph. This reminded me a movie I saw back in Ohio, The Finest Hours. For those who haven't seen the film, this is the description on IMDB -- "The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952."

So while my steering wheel shook, I thought to myself, what would Chris Pine's character Bernie Webber do in this situation? Press on of course! If Bernie Webber wasn't stopped by losing the compass in a hellish storm under frigid temperatures, we are sure not going to be stopped by our car falling apart! With that in mind I stepped hard on the gas pedal and maintained a 75 mph average speed, and me and my dad made it back home in no time.

Ant-Man

I saw the movie Ant-Man on Saturday night. It made me think about what I would do if I had an ant-man suit. I think maybe cellphone repairs, because cellphone internal parts can be handled much easier if our hands were smaller. I would advertise my service on Craigslist and get mad street credits, then I would be known as the best cellphone repairman there ever was and make loads of cash. Also I think the name Ant-Man was a misnomer, because he was really more roach-sized than ant-sized, and he was as hard to kill as cockroaches. The movie should have been called Roach-Man.

Battling Mosquitos

I got a mosquito bite today. It is a constant battle with these pesky bloodsucking insects everyday at work now, somehow they keep getting into the building. Dr. Lu who sits beside me tried to get them but without any success. I overestimated his recent improvements in eye-hand coordination from all the paper toss exercises he does when he gets bored at work. Mosquitos are like clowns, they just keep coming and there is no stopping them.

Leonard Nimoy & COPD

I heard the news on Leonard Nimoy and he died of COPD today at the age of 83. It made me very nervous until I found out that only smokers can get COPD so I am safe. That is the best news I have heard all day. Yay me.

Spammed Savings

I have been getting some weird spams lately. One of them kept asking if I wanted to cure my "tinnitus," which means "a ringing or booming sensation in one or both ears." The other spam says I qualify for a 40% discount on life insurance from AARP "today only." Somewhere out there, there is a database in which I am listed as a senior citizen who has hearing loss. What's next? Maybe I will get a discount on assisted living or a grave plot also. It is never too soon to start savings.

A New Story: Little Girl Story #2

Many years ago in a place far away, there lived a little girl who wanted ice cream. She had never had ice cream before but she had seen other people having it, and they looked like they enjoyed it very much.

The little girl told her mom that she would like to have ice cream while inside a grocery store, but her mom said "No, little child, you cannot have any ice cream!" But that just made the little girl want it even more!

When her mom was not looking, the little girl grabbed a little cup of frozen yogurt and hid it in her backpack. After they got home, she ate it in her room. It was good, but it had melted. She knew that was not what ice cream was suppose to be like. She vowed to have real ice cream the next time.

She would not have that chance for quite some time, because her mom was strict and watched over her 16 hours a day, but eventually the little girl would have the chance to taste ice cream again. It was at her friend's house. Her friend's mom offered her ice cream, and she ate it all. It tasted good, but not as good as the frozen yogurt, even though this time it was really frozen. The little girl did not want to have ice cream anymore.

Moral of the story:

1) Things taste better when you get them for free;
2) If you want something, try to get it from a friend instead of a relative;
3) Many times you only want something because you are told you cannot have it;
4) The real thing isn't as good as the substitute sometimes;
5) Girls can get away with everything.

Bicycle

I haven't posted anything lately, because I've been having too much fun with the new graphics card. The guy actually sent it to me and it works perfectly.

Gasoline price has spiked lately, so I bought a bicycle from Wal-Mart. One of the reviewers from Wal-Mart's website expressed her concerns that due to her heavy weight of 350 lbs, the bicycle might fall apart on her, but I am taking my chances.

I calculated that I could save $3 daily in gas if I rode my bicycle for two and half hours round trip to and from work. Granted I won't be riding my bicycle everyday, it should still save me about $30 a month, this will also result in a greener earth. As for the saving, I will use it to buy more gasoline.

Saving Plan

My driver's license got renewed last weekend, and it has the inscription "safe driver" on it. I have decided that I would buy a new graphics card for the now aging 4-year old computer in order to celebrate my continued "safe driver" status, a sort of reward to myself. This guy from an online forum said he'd sell me his old graphics card for $65, so I sent him the money this morning. Hopefully I will have a new graphics card soon.

There was cake at work today, but I got there too late and it was all gone, so I ate some leftover icing instead. The sweet cake icing made me think a lot about my new graphics card and how it will rule, and it will rule even more if I had a whole new computer. I need about 500 dollars to build a new computer and in order to raise that much money I need to start saving right away. If I saved 2 dollars and 50 cents a week, then in 4 years I will have enough money and change to assemble a whole new computer. I am going to open a savings account at my bank and start this saving plan today.

Woohoo! I can't wait just thinking about what I will have in 4 years!!

New Year's Resolution 2012

As with the beginning of every new year, I am going to have a new year's resolution, because every person needs a worthy goal for a fine new year. Being the highly self-driven individual that I am, I will have a long list for my new year's resolution.

1) Exercise as much as humanly possible and stay in the best physical shape that I can.

Okay I broke this one already cause I skipped gym yesterday, but I still feel good because I slept thru the day. I think sleeping is worth at least as much as exercise for perosnal health, why? Because I woke up feeling really good. I will just get to the exercise when I am not sleepy.

2) I haven't thought about #2 yet. Since I broke resolution #1 I think I will just wait until next year for #2.

Okay, that's it for my new year's resolution. If you have any please share with me.

Christmas Presents

It's the holiday season again. I need to pick a present for my mother, and Libman's wonder mop 2000 just won't cut it. I think I will get her some chocolate as well as free perfume samples from the mall. I hope she won't be jealous of the $600 tablet I am getting my dad. On the other hand, Libman's new Tornado mop seems quite nice. I'd want one myself if I actually did any mopping at all. Maybe you guys can get your moms this wonderful mop for Christmas.

Big Moon

Someone told me that the moon tonight is the biggest it's ever been in 18 years, so I checked it out. It was a full moon, but I couldn't tell if it were bigger or smaller than usual. It is disappointing when you expect something big but get something normal or even small, kind like those sloppy burgers I've been getting from fast food restaurants; they are never as big as they appear on TV. I am going to start calling them moon burgers.

Happy New Year

Happy new year everyone. I heard a story about how a pianist in Idaho blew three of his fingers off with a potato gun earlier this week, and it has made me glad that I am not a pianist. I mean, if I had lost three of my fingers, it would really suck, but it probably wouldn't suck as much as it would for a pianist. Anyway, the moral of the story is that if we want to do something in the new year, like a new year's resolution, it is probably a good idea not to involve a potato gun from Idaho.

Tooth Extraction

I got my left wisdom tooth extracted this morning and it was completely painless. I am not sure what the dentist put in my gum but whatever she used was way better than vicodin. Woohoo! After the tooth extraction a nurse came and instructed me on what should be done afterward, and that is no hot drink or solid food for a day, also apply cold to cheek when possible. Nothing hot and solid? Apply cold to cheek? Woohoo! Finally I have a legitimate reason to live on ice cream. Two woohoo's in one day! Tooth extractions rock! By the way I don't consider ice cream "solid" because it melts in my mouth, and if anyone disagrees, too bad, I am having ice cream anyway.

Vandals

I was awoke by a loud noise this morning at approximately 4:30AM, and the noise came from outside. I got up and got out of my unit on the 3rd floor to see what was going on, and saw that there was a large amount of water shooting out from the 4th floor up to about 20 yards away from the apartment building. The water came out of a fire hydrant. A fire truck came and fixed it, and later in the day I learned that some vandals had come and wrenched all the fire hydrants loose. I am going to make a sign that says "Vandals Beware! Building Guarded by Bowman!!" That's right, I have finally found a fair and just purpose for my 180-lb pulling strength heavy crossbow, and that is to guard my home against vandals.

Avatar

I saw the movie Avatar recently, but the movie theatre cheated on me and my best friend by not playing the film on the IMAX screen. Even though the movie theatre had an IMAX screen, it was playing some 3D Christmas film, and Avatar was played on a regular screen. Furthermore, the ticket seller didn't bother to inform us of this. We were so furious that it drove us to the blink of madness, that's why we decided to suck it in and watch the film anyway, and the movie was okay. We might not remember the movie ten years from now, but we will surely remember how angry we were that night.