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February 3, 2000 |
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I had started exchanging e-mail with Christy a couple of days ago. We decided to do
lunch and we had made plans to meet today. She picked the restaurant and I
drove. We went to Azteca and got there uneventfully despite my driving.
We had a wonderful lunch. I got to learn quite a bit about her. She was
more charming in person than she was in e-mail. And she had an absolutely
mesmerizing smile. I was really quite enchanted; I'm having a hard time
holding back my optimism.
Want more details? Well… get used to disappointment.
On the way back from lunch we managed to run into an abnormally high number
of people I knew, which is fine… really. Except that I'm sure that
many of them wanted details and I really didn't want to elaborate just yet.
Not that I was ashamed to be with her (on the contrary), but we're bound to
know a number of the same people at work and… well, what we do is
really none of their business.
I've been listening to music in the office more frequently during the last few days. Well, while I was listening to the Marc Anthony disc and realized that I wanted to play it back in random mode. Unfortunately, this is a function that is only available on the remote control.
Note: Who designs things this way? Whoever you are out there… Stop It! It is very irritating and lacks common sense. Okay, I could maybe understand some things that can be done in a number of different ways, like reaching a particular track. Still I find it a bit distasteful that I have to locate my remote control or get up and walk to my table to get it before I can do a relatively simple task. I can understand some of the design decisions on why this is done, but I still find it quite annoying!If you've ever seen my office, you'd understand that it would be anywhere… literally anywhere. I decided that it was maybe time to start cleaning up this monstrosity. This was, however, still the middle of the day, so I would chip away at the different collections of things, when I had spare moments and was taking some breaks.
You know what? I'm a slob. Okay, I'll own up to it. Many people say that my office has charm or whatever. And naturally, I think it does, but there's not getting around the cold hard facts. It's a messy office. The last time I moved offices I packed twenty-five boxes of stuff… that excluded the stereo, speakers, futon, etc. Yeah, I'm a slob.
I still haven't found the damn remote.
Lastly, I'm an awful Chinese person. You know what? I don't really care.
Today is Chinese New Year! You know how I found out? I got a e-card from my friend Lino wishing me a happy Chinese New Year. This, among Chinese, is similar in popularity to Independence Day for Americans. Then again, I'm not really Chinese culturally. I'm Chinese-American. Yes, there's a difference! I know that many people, including my mom, dislike the idea that I refer to myself as Chinese-American, since I'm genetically all Chinese, but there's no accounting for the cultural differences.
There's another reason why I happen to think that the concept of Chinese New Year is silly. This is one of the long debates that I get into with Terry. You see… the Chinese year goes on a Lunar cycle. This means, among other things, that the year will start on a different (Western) day every year. Granted it doesn't normally vary by much, no more than a few days, but it still seems silly. Why? A year is a unit of measure, is it not? What does it measure? Time. If it measures time, then it doesn't really make sense that this "unit" of time can vary depending on the year. This would be similar to saying that a yard is on the average thirty-six inches. Some yards may be thirty-four inches; some yards may be thirty-eight inches. That doesn't make sense does it? Why should we put up with years that way? Yes, I know what you're going to say… months are not perfect either. So? Look at legal documents, they typically don't say "a month" they typically say "30 days". There's a reason for that.
Yes, I know that in the Western calendar there's still the concept of leap years. So even it is not perfect, but it is not quite as whacky as the Chinese one. Oh, incidentally, it is the year of the (blue?) dragon. Woo Hoo! Although technically, I'm actually born on the Year of the Monkey. This is the reason I wear a Monkey charm on one of my hoop earrings.
Oh, one little tidbit for those of you who happen to have birthdays early in the year (January or early February), you probably noted which year you were born and thus picked your Chinese zodiac sign accordingly. You may have picked the wrong year. The Chinese year doesn't normally start until some time in February. Just thought some of you might find it interesting.
February 3, 2000