The saga continues

Episode 2 - The Relentless Saga Continues

Quote of the Day (or month or year, however I so choose):
"They didn't learn me that yet."

My Wonderous Christmas Eve
(Tuesday 12/24/02)
I am infuriated. I cannot believe my luck.
I
cannot
believe
my
luck

So I'm leaving to the mall today to find my last, special Christmas gift for Gamie. Not more than 4 blocks from my house, I stop at a red light where I need to make a right turn. I bring the car to a stop.

On my left there are cars parked all across the curb. I can't see the passing traffic. So naturally I ease out to make my turn. Still no cars - so I make my move and go. As I am accelerating I make one more glance to the left to double check the oncoming traffic, only to notice a car approaching me too quickly for me to do anything but stop. So that's what I did. Thankfully the other car came to a stop too - so there was no accident. But there's one more detail I have yet to explain.

The car that had to stop for me.... was a cop car. He akwardly stopped for me in the middle of the tiny intersection. I figured he meant for me to go ahead and finish my turn. I made my turn, and (which I should have seen coming) he immediately, and conveniently pulled me over.

Apologizing did nothing. Excuses did nothing. The cop didn't even listen to me. Without any wait, he asked for my license and insurance. After the longest damned five minutes of my life, he comes back with a ticket that says, "Violation: Red Light." With an emotionless face, his last comment is, "Drive more carefully or you're going to get yourself killed."

It was the most confusing feeling in the world. I had no intentions to get in the way of that cop. It was an accident. I stopped, looked both ways, and yet a car came. Even though it wasn't on purpose, I was treated like a criminal - as though every molecule of my body wanted to give the cop a hard time. I didn't know if I wanted to punch him, or find a corner and cry.

It was not the best Christmas news ever. I have heard of "red light" tickets costing nearly $300. I am already broke.

I hate cops. And I always will.

Pre-Christmas Exhaustion
(Friday 12/20/02)
It's amazing how life becomes extremely hectic right before there's a calm. That calm would be Christmas break.... which has just begun for me. But everything up to it has been unpleasantly eventful.

Monday began with a bang - literally. Gamie and I went out in the evening to grab some take-home Pho from a small, family-run Vietnamese restaurant down the street. After placing our order, we just sat at a table and talked. There were several tables occupied - a young couple and their baby, a few white dudes hanging out on one side, and in the corner there were about six vietnamese guys all talking together.

Everything seemed fine, until everyone in the restaurant heard a plate shattering on the floor. Or maybe it had shattered on someone's face. Without any warning, a drunken fist fight began between the six guys in the back corner. They punched and wrestled each other and fell into tables, spilling food and drinks all over the floor. Immediately everyone else in the restaurant abandoned whatever they were doing and rushed out the door. The manager tried to stop the fighting, but they all ignored him. Standing outside in the cold, I could see the fight happening through the front window. It seemed like it lasted several minutes. One guy smashed a beer bottle on another guys face right in front of us. The couple with their baby was calling the police on their cellphone.

The six guys left the store, but continued their fight out on the sidewalk right where we were standing. Again, we all spread out and waited for them to stop. One guy fell and rolled out onto the street - his attacker pinned him down and continued punching him. Cars came and waited for them to get out of the way of traffic.

Only then did the fight stop. A couple guys drove away (half-drunk I think), and the rest just walked or ran into the night. Going back into the restaurant was overwhelming. We were greeted by broken glass, blood trails on the floor, and waitresses in a mad rush to clean a store that was, quite literally, trashed. Gamie felt nautious, but more surprisingly, I felt a little sick too. The manager came over, gave us the food we had been waiting (oh so patiently) for, and begged for our forgiveness. He told us that he didn't know any of those guys and had never dealt with anything like this in his six years of business. We told him we were okay, but in our minds we knew we weren't ever going to go back there again.

It was a wake up call... I guess to the stupidity and fragileness of life. Gamie and I sat in our car with locked doors. We tried to forget what we had just seen, but it was hopeless. We were completely shaken up. The images wouldn't leave our heads. We prayed to God for protection and that His will be done. We rented a movie to get our minds off of what had just happened. Even though we barely did anything that night, we were exhausted. I'm more than glad that we will be moving out of downtown Long Beach soon.

The rest of the week wasn't all fist fighting, but it was still exhausting. I worked full-time this week and it was horribly tiring. Every night I came home knowing that I had to study for finals, but my body wasn't up to it. Without fail, I ended up falling asleep before I could ever get to my back pack. When the tests finally came around (today), I ended up settling for last minute cramming (didn't I have aaalll week?). Last night I kept telling myself, "I'm screwed... I'm screwed..." I didn't study for my exams until 5 a.m. this morning... the tests began three hours after that at 8 a.m. My math test was going to be a breeze (I thought), until I got to the testing room and realized that I was 15 minutes late for it. Damn it. Didn't the teacher say 1:45??? Pressure is my worst enemy during math tests.

*Sigh* ... God knows I need a break. At least I don't have school again until the 20th of Jan... I think. Now I can just sit around and do.. nothin'.

The Final Chicken
(Tuesday 12/10/02)
Dude, this morning I checked my bank account over the phone while I was driving to work and my balance was at 20 cents!!!!! I quickly deposited the cash I had on hand ($8), and so I think I'm out of the danger zone for now. My paycheck comes on Thursday, so I hope there aren't any mysterious charges between now and then.

I've gots a few finals this week and next - I hope I make it through alive. I am hoping to pass everything with A's, but we'll see what really happens.

Dude, black people and their soul food - Gamie and I went to the Albertson's here in Long Beach because we decided we'd finally try their fried chicken combo for the first time in a long time (chicken + 1 lb. potato salad + hawaiian bread = pure ecstacy). On Saturday evening at 6 p.m. - it was packed. There must've been a mob of some 30 black people all waiting around the fried chicken counter (and one Cambodian guy - seriously). We pulled a number at the counter so we could wait to be served - after 10 minutes only two people were helped... so we were outta there.

We ended up going to Jollibee's because I've always wanted to try it after watching John eat it all the time during his work breaks at Nickel Nickel. We went in and I couldn't get a feel of what type of food they served. They had fried chicken, spaghetti, egg rolls, meatloaf, hamburgers, omelettes, sausages... ?!!? Well, we just ordered the fried chicken 'cuz that's what John always bought (I think), and it was pretty tasty. Really crispy skin, good gravy dip... yeah. I mean, all fried chicken generally tastes the same to me, but Jollibee's chicken was on the better side.

Now I just need to try Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles... but I'm a little scared because I heard from a couple of people that they will kill you or something if you put your elbows on the table while you're eating. Well, I guess there's only one way to find out..... (insert evil chuckle here).

The Bum Life
(Wednesday 12/04/02)
With my consistently dwindling bank account, and near religious use of "Coin Star", I have come to the realization that I am more comfortable with my financial problems than I thought. Part of my realization came to me when I talked to Gamie a few nights ago about our dire financial situation, which made her freak out - but I felt fine. The other half of my realization occured to me a few weeks ago when I was forced to play chicken with my checking account (for a couple days I only had 75 cents in it) as my paycheck was in the heavy fire of incoming bills - still, I wasn't pulling my hair out or anything.

I suppose I have been in financial troubles for so long now that it's no big deal anymore. Yeah, I used to stress out all of the time with late bills, credit cards, and sweating it out until payday.... I guess my situation isn't any different now - but I don't really care as much anymore. I just do what I can, and that's that.

I hope I'm truly better at dealing with it... and I'm not actually just in denial or something, and I'm going to crack someday and drive off a cliff.... Nah. Heh heh. Heh....

Why God Created Korean Markets
(Monday 12/2/02)
'Yello. We Asians really know how to make good stuff that's cheap. In the little Korean area in Garden Grove, Gamie and I have been buying ready-to-make packs of food, like udon, and some other tasty, noodley things. For $2.99, the udon comes in a baggie containing two packs of udon noodles, several sauce packets (which equal "bliss" when combined), two tasty udon treats (ex: the "tofu udon" comes with a 1 inch square of sweet, fried tofu in a little, clear baggie) and makes two hefty servings. What a deal! And if prepared right, you can't even tell the difference between this instant udon, and the $6 udon found in Japanese restaurants (and that's $6 for only one serving).

And who doesn't love Korean BBQ? They sell this infamous beef at the Korean supermarket, raw and pre-marinated, in the deli section for $1.99 a pound!!!! What's the point in going to a BBQ restaurant to pay $15, when you can pay half the price, get nearly 4 pounds of beef, and just cook it by yourself at home. Incredible.

I'm telling you - the Korean supermarket is the answer to any poor college student. Why buy a frozen T.V. dinner for $5, when you can buy two servings of udon for $2.99? And why pay $2 for one can of Campbell's soup, when you can just get a pound of Korean BBQ? I am still discovering more affordable eats, but from what I have found thus far, I can tell that great potential lies deep within the bowels of the Korean supermarket.

Gassy Kimchi and Other Topics
(Tuesday 11/26/02)
Sometimes after a long, stressful day, the best thing is to sit in front of a computer with some home-baked cookies, a tall, cold glass of Hawaiian punch, and a gallon jug of gassy kimchi. Today is one of those days for me, and my only complaint is that the kimchi isn't quite gassy enough. I'd best let it age a few more days.

I was able to get promoted to the "student assistant" position at work today. I get a nice 80 cent raise, and probably 80% more responsibility. But hey, money's money. I should be working more hours in a couple of weeks to hopefully (by a miracle from God) make enough money for next month's rent. My budgeting shows that Gamie and I will still be short about $400. As usual, I will end this somewhat concerning paragraph with: "Eh, whatever..."

In other news - Gamie and I have officially decided to move in with Cathie and Dave in their new house which will be ready in mid-December. Why? Well, one, their house is really nice. It's sort of a mini-mansion with its four bedrooms and spacious living areas. Secondly, by living with them we'll be saving somewhere in the ballpark of $600 every month in rent and utilities. Once we move, we pretty much won't have to worry about money... at all - which I've had to worry about for the past four years since I moved from Thailand. The main bummers are that we won't have our place anymore, and we're gonna' have to pack everything up again and move all over again (along with making lots of address changing phone calls). Well, it will all be worth it in the end. We will move out and get our own place eventually, but we're going to wait until we are financially stable first.

I'd also like to say that scientists (and everyone else) are taking this whole cancer prevention thing wrong. So far, there are a jillion things that have been found to cause cancer. I mean, it's just silly now. One of my high school biology teachers said, "It seems like anything can give you cancer if you have too much of it. I'll bet that drinking too much water causes cancer." I won't take a view quite that extreme, but I do think there are so many found causes that it does seem a tad overwhelming. It's almost as if there are more things on earth which cause cancer, than things which don't cause cancer. *** Therefore, I propose that scientists don't think in terms of "what will cause cancer" in their research, but instead: "what won't cause cancer?" That way, we will find those things which don't cause cancer, and just cling tightly to them with dear life.

Does MSG really cause cancer or something? I've been using it in nearly everything I cook and the stuff is great. Eh, whatever.

Getting Locked Out and Hating Utah
(Tuesday 11/19/02)
Immediately after I had typed my last entry, I managed to lock myself out of the apartment. Gamie came home from work 2 hours later... so I didn't get to do quite as much homework as I had anticipated that night. Eh, whatever.

Oh yeah, as a reminder to myself - the Denny's by my house sucks. I went there while I was locked out so I could sit somewhere warm (and of course I ordered an entree so I wasn't loitering), and the waitress told me to leave after a half hour or so.

What's up with that?! I'm tellin' you - I've experienced some of the worst customer service in the universe. One bad place to go is the "Ikea" over in Carson. Man - the employees working the information table act like they don't see you, and the checkout people roll their eyes and make sarcastic remarks at everything. I was so pissed once that I went and complained to the manager about it (which proved to be absolutely useless).

You know what else I hate? UTAH. I friggin' HATE Utah. When Gamie and I were road tripping through there, we stopped at a little Chinese restaurant for dinner. We were craving some hot and sour soup, so we asked the waitress, and she responded, "Sorry honey, we ran out of hot and sour soup earlier today at lunch." So we just ordered some other stuff. Five minutes later, a group of people came in and sat in the booth right behind us and ordered some food. Eventually I heard the people on the next table talking about some soup they ordered. Their discussion was something like this:
"Here, have some soup! We ordered way too much."
"Really? What kind is it?"
"Oh, it's my favorite. Hot and sour soup!"

AHGAHGAHGHAGLSJFHIAUYEPOEIHF!!!!!!!!!! Gamie and I were SOOOOO pissed. We left the restaurant that night without leaving a tip, but we should've left WITHOUT PAYING!!!! ARRRGHH!!!!! It makes me mad just thinking about it! >8( Gamie and I think the waitress did that because she was anti-Asian or something. She was white and the people at the next table were all white too. Damn it - I'd never experienced anything like that before. I will never go to Utah ever again. That lady ruined it for the whole state.

Okay. Calm down. Deep breaths. Unclench fists. Put down shotgun...

Ahem, anyway, it seems that everyone I know will be getting Pottery Barn products for Christmas since Gamie gets a nice, juicy 40% discount.

Oh yeah, meeting up with the guys on Sunday was nice. I actually did more listening than talking during the meal because I was feeling kinda tired from the whole being locked out of my own apartment thing. I didn't take any pictures, but I'm sure we'll all meet up again sometime.

Oh yeah and Dave, if you're reading this - you asked me how much a cheap/decent guitar costs. I answered about $200, but actually what's more important is that you buy a NAME BRAND guitar. It can be really cheap, but as long as it's a name brand, you're okay. Some reliable brands are Yamaha, Gibson, Epiphone, Oscar Schmidt, Ibanez, Washburn, Fender, Squire... um, and there are probably others, but I can't remember. If you're serious about getting a guitar, let me know and I can shop with you sometime to find a good one.

Anticipating Buddies and The Boat
(Sunday 11/17/02)
I've got lots of homework, but I don't care anymore.

So Davis called me today, and asked if I'd like to hang out with the Nickel crew at The Boat tonight - YEAH! I'm so freakin' bored, and I've wanted to hang out with them for a while now, but I live so far away and always have a bunch of homework to do on Sundays (which is no different today, except for the fact that I despise school and don't care anymore). Can't wait! ;p

Oh yeah, last night was cool too - Dennis came over and we hung out. We played a dumb little game on Gamie's computer - kind of a "Mario Kart" rip-off. Anyway, we were playin' it for a long time and screaming and yelling at each other... it kinda' reminded me of the old days in Bangkok. I'll never forget playing two player computer games with friends all day and night on the weekends. Man I miss those days. It's not like we don't have it in us anymore, it's just that we live too far away from each other. And I guess school and work too. Or maybe we just need a Playstation 2. Oh, whatever. Someday I'm going to become a rich old fart and do nothing but eat, sleep, and play games all day with my friends. Yeaaaahhhh.....

Sick of existence
(Thursday 11/14/02)
Okay. I talked with my manager and it ends up I can stay at my same job, but just work more hours. Problem solved. I guess... for now. I got the new Jurassic 5 album, which I believe is splendid. I shall find a way to put their tunes on my site for ambiance reasons. *Sigh*. I really should be studying right now, but shouldn't I always be studying? Why do I always feel like I need to be studying? So I can get a degree? And then what? A job? Money? So I can buy stuff with money? Food? A house? Cars? Home theater systems? A swimming pool? In an attempt to skip the toiling and stresses of life, I will find a way to arrive at "stuff" without the studying, degree, or job. I don't know how, but I will. I remember Toby and I would talk about how the whole wasting-twenty-some-years-of-life-on-education thing is lame. I mean, think about it - that's twenty years!!! There should be some way to educate the mass population more efficiently. We need to invent some kind of knowledge transplant chip which can be installed in a human brain and will include all of the information necessary to succeed in life. I suppose the problem behind that is what if someone breaks into the system, and knowledge chips become corrupted in some manner, we could end up creating crazy caniballistic homicidal .... oh nevermind.

Change of Plans. Big Change.
(Sun 11/10/02)
Well, realizing that my mother and Gamie's mother have stopped supporting us financially has placed us in a pickle. And this motha pickle's tight. Basically at the rate we're going, we're barely making half of our monthly expenses with our two part time jobs. Soooooooo - the overall decision has been made that I need to place school in the backseat, and get a full timer job. Now where should I work? My brain keeps going back to asking Nickel Nickel for a management position, but I don't feel like working late nights and holidays, shoveling endless bags of nickels (and picking out the pennies), and dealing with incompetent and inconsistent upper management. I would rather work at a larger company who can provide benefits, tolerable working hours, and well, you know. A real business. I figure Target is always good, Best Buy, all of the larger department stores... I wish a Fry's was around here too. Eh, I'll see. To be continued! I have also found that I'm starting to grow tired of school. I'm beginning to not care about homework and studying. I dread waking up at 7:00 every morning. Every thought of school sends shivers down my spine. Why does this happen? Why can't I hate school after I'm done with it? Or right before finals? I dunno, I just feel like it's a tad early for me to start hating school again. I'm a freshman in my first semester!!! What's wrong with me?!?!@?^

The 710 didn't kill me, and other fun tid bits
(Mon 11/04/02)
My, that was some fun fog yesterday morning. Gamie and I left for church at 6:30 am because I had to play guitar for worship. The fog was incredibly thick. On the freeway everyone was going about 60, which I felt was a tad fast, but I didn't think too much of it. Driving in the fast lane, I suddenly noticed the cars ahead braking, and swerving to the right. I slowed down considerably to see a nice line of cars on the opposite side of the freeway, and then a semi poking its head out into our lane over the center divider. A little jerk of the steering wheel and everything was safe again. My, what a sight. I noticed a blue civic just like mine was pulling over onto the shoulder with its front dented and hood popped open - they weren't as fortunate as we were. Only after a call from my brother-in-law that evening did I hear about the magnitude of the situation that morning. Apparently some 40 cars were smooshed in a foggy pile of scrap before the freeway was finally closed down. Crap. What if we had left just an hour later at 7:30? (Pause for sigh and deep contemplation) Thank you God. In other news, Gamie just got a job at Pottery Barn which is really cool. They have really nice, overpriced home decor and hopefully she will recieve a hefty discount. I, on the other hand, have had nothing happen to me other than mind-numbing reports and exams at school. Oh yeah, and I still have 6 hours of Slam Dunk and 5 hours of Robotech left to watch on VCD and DVD (respectively).

I Need to Get Out Once In A While
(Fri 10/25/02)
Well, I dunno. I'm bored and I wanna type, but my brain is nearly empty. And that small, non-empty part cannot be disclosed or I'll be forced to kill you. So anyway, um, this week has been a whole lotta' school work. I managed to survive, so that's nice and all. Gamie and I have been into watching Survivor Thailand. We never really watched any of the other parts of the Survivor series, but with this one being in Thailand, it's hard to resist. It's been unsurprisingly addictive to watch. Hmm, yeah. We both want the older team (Chuay Gan - which means "help each other") to win because they're older, wiser... and well, whatever. I don't even know why I'm writing about this. I'm here on a campus internet computer and there's a line of students waiting behind me, and I'm just typing pointless jibberish. So the last Survivor episode was pretty cool. The Chuay Gan team won immunity, and the Sook Chai team (which means "happy" or "content") started to open up to each other and they were all crying together and stuff. Guys, girls, whatever. Like chicken soup for the soul or somethin'. Man, that's just too good. I should go to the market and get some chicken soup.

Restroom Music
(Sat 10/12/02)
Everyone should know that any good public restroom must have music playing in it. It doesn't matter what kind of music, just any music. It is unacceptable to have a restroom where bowel sounds can be heard echoing freely through the stalls. It's horrible. Just horrible.

I Love Mom
(Fri 10/11/02)
Okay. I seem to have somehow magically made it through this week alive - but only barely so. I managed to study my brains out on Tuesday night and I'm pretty sure I did A/B quality on my music exam the next day. I have a math test in a coupla hours, but that's a big joke. The hardest part of this week has been keeping my mom from driving me completely nuts. It feels like each day that passes by gets worse with her. Last night we argued about the stupidest stuff. Tomorrow I'm driving my cousin Joe (who doesn't have a license yet) from his house to his youth group meeting as a paid favor for my aunt. Anyhow, added up, we're going to be driving in the car for some 4 hours. So I told my mom she could just stay at my apartment while we're out. Now, isn't that just the logical thing to do? Isn't it just polite to not DRAG people with you to sit in a car for 4 hours? Well, my mom took it as an offense. She figured I was trying to (in her words) "...lock her up in my tiny little apartment all day." She continued by saying that she doesn't want to be a burden to "anyone" (which really refers to me), and then threatened me with the usual 'I-don't-have-to-be-here-so-I-can-just-change-my-plane-tickets-so-I-leave-tomorrow' bit. ARRRGH! what?! What? WHAT?! What did I say wrong?! I didn't COMMAND her to stay home. I just SUGGESTED that she stay home since (for most human beings) it's not the funnest thing in the world to sit around in a car for several hours. Yeah, so, I don't know what's going to happen today. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a crap before my next class.

School & Life Force
(Sun 10/06/02)
Well, it's as if my school has decided to "krank it up a notch" because it I have a good ton of work and studying to do tonight. *sigh* And I thought I could just breeze through this semester. One of the bigger pickles is that I have a music test on Wednesday and yet I know very little about the entire section that we learned. It's okay. Stay cool. Don't crack. That's just what they want me to do, but it's cool. I'm cool. I think. Otherwise things are ok. My mom's here and things have been all right. Yesterday we spent about an hour at a health vitamin store trying to decipher the ingredients on the back of a bottle of medicine called "Life Force". Eventually my mom bought four bottles of it at $30 a pop.

Better Time Management
(Mon 9/30/02)
It's 3:30 am, and I just finished my homework. I hate school. With a vengeance. I need to wake up again in three hours. This sucks. And now I'm wasting precious sleeping time by typing on my webpage. K. Bye.

Cheap Anime, Expensive Anime, Mom Anticipation
(Sat 09/28/02)
Life's been peechee I suppose. I've gots me n' me wife in me new place, and it's all good. School hasn't been too difficult. My only hard class is English, but it's gratifying. We've been writing papers and I find that my writing skills are up to par. I think I have this webpage to blame! My math class is just a big joke - we're starting the fourth week now and I have yet to open my math book - so I just returned it to the bookstore yesterday. Hey, it was $80, and I asked the teacher if we were ever going to use it and .... he said, "Maybe?" So yeah. I figure if I really need it then I'll just buy it again. Um, my momma's coming next week - we'll see how that goes. It seems that she will be staying with me + Gamie for most of her two week trip here. I have no idea what to do with my mom once she gets here, cuz, well, she can't drive anywhere by herself. I can't wait for her to see the ghetto apartments that I live in. Maybe she'll feel bad for me + gamie and get us a new place in Melrose or something. Oh yeah, Gamie and I went to see "Spirited Away" at the El Capitan Theater last night in Hollywood. Dude, it was dope. It was really really good stuff. I don't know why, but it seems they are showing that movie in very few places in California, but it's awesome. It's this anime by the same dude that made Totoro and Princess Mononoke and stuff. It's kind of an Alice and Wonderland of anime. This little girl and her parents get stuck in a secret spirit world, the parents are turned into pigs (long story) and so the little girl has to stay in the spirit world in order to get her parents back. In the process she gets a job at a spirits' bath house, and all sorts of neat stuff goes on. there are lots of weird spirit creations that the artist creates and they're all really cool. I don't know - you just have to see it to experience it. gamie and I are planning to buy it some time on DVD. It's already out overseas, but hopefully Disney will come out with the DVD with English dub. The English dubbing is quality stuff, by the way. Speaking of anime - I found a website that had the anime "Slam Dunk" that I've been looking for for a long time. What's cool is that the anime isn't licensed yet by any U.S. distributors, so i was able to buy a bunch of fan-subbed episodes for only $3.50 per six episodes!!!! That's like $3.50 for 2 hours worth! And to imagine - I've been buying cowboy bepop DVD's for $25 a pop! Anyhow, slam dunk is really funny stuff. Some of the best anime I've watched in a while. "Slam Dunk" is about this dude who goes into his first year of High School hating basketball because the last girl he liked dumped him for a basketball player. He sees this beautiful girl and the girl really likes basketball, so the main character ends up trying to learn basketball to show off to her. Eventually he joins the b-ball team and stuff (I haven't gotten that far, but that's what I hear from people on the net). The humor is sometimes very witty, sometimes dry, and sometimes straight out slapstick. I like it a lot tho. maybe someday I'll put up little clip of it, but I doubt that because I'm way too lazy these days. So for now you will just have to imagine. Wooh - man, it gives me goosebumps. Woooh! ;p