Festivus for the Rest of Us

I must say that this Christmas feels a little different than the rest of the thirtysomething which I've had in my lifetime. And I'm not suffering any aftereffects from the first 2 days where I was actually fighting off a nasty flu.

Some things of course are the same. My parents are still the most awesome hosts ever, and have been indulging our spoiled brattiness upon our return. My sister D is perpetually lounging around like a total slacker. She's usually the hyperactive globetrotter so when she comes home she just flops around on the family room sofa. When she's not doing arm curls, toning, or some 4 mile run avoiding surly neighborhood dogs.

This year feels a little unusual because of a lot of uncertainty. The economy has taken a toll on everyone in not so mysterious ways. D is now in the frozen city of Chicago with her 2nd employer of the year, my Dad is still working trying to recover from the hits on his 401k, and I am not sure what company I'll be working for next year since mine merged and the word 'consolidation' is not so friendly when you're an employee there, where I'll be living, whether I'll even be coming home for Christmas since my life is changing so dramatically. The 'm' word is still sometimes hard to comprehend, even though L makes me very happy and I do miss her very much. Next year will even give our country a new leader, and we'll see if all the optimism pays off.

For now, for all of my friends, family, and acquiantances that add me as a friend in Facebook, twas the night before Christmas and all through the house....Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Will that make any goddamned sense?

I'm not sure what the motive is behind the attacks on innocent people in Mumbai, but this entire episode is sickening. I was very disconnected on 9-11 seven years ago because I was in Beijing with my mother and we were mercifully asleep as the tragedy unfolded. However, as I am on vacation at home with the parents for the Thanksgiving holidays, and having at my disposal 24 hour news and the internet, I have been mesmerized like the stupid driver rubbernecking upon seeing an ambulance on the other side of the road. What precipitates this insanity?

I'm compelled to post a link to the David Letterman monologue on his first show after the 9/11 tragedy.

David Letterman's Monologue after 9/11

Superhero

I was talking to my friend A and we were talking about all of our past relationships gone awry, and that opened up a floodgate of memories of girls gone bad that now I can laugh at since I ended up finding my special someone. I don't believe in that "Good things come to those who wait" - I really believe it was my superpower. Superman can fly and has x-ray vision, Wolverine has adamantium claws, and I attract psychotic women. Woohoo!

Here's part of our AIM conversation:

Edited (to change the names only to protect the innocent and the superfluous)

[12:55] w: in fact i seemed to have the uncanny ability of attracting the psychotic women
[12:55] a: it's your super power
[12:55] w: my superpower of attracting psychotic women
[12:56] a: you're supposed to eradicate them after you've attracted them
[12:56] w: ah
[12:56] w: i thought sleeping with them was punishment enough
[12:56] w:
[12:56] a: you're like the reverse black widow
[12:56] w: i attract them into my lair and they kill me!
[12:56] a: yup. use it for the force of good
[12:57] a: you should attract them to your lair and then knock them on the head
[12:58] a: or have a balloon battle royale
[12:58] warrenlee729: my own personal NaNoWriMo
[12:59] roaddogrunning: vanquish them and then dispose accordingly
[13:01] warrenlee729: ay there's the rub

Audacity of Hope

Obama!

24 Hours Until D-Day

So we are now at the cusp of an election that will tell a lot about the future of America.

Normally, I would have my usual blase/laissez faire attitude toward the outcome of an election, with thoughts like "Alright, we elected Bush again? Seems illogical, but I guess we seem to be really picking winners here. Check with me and in 4 years and you can judge the results"

However, this election cycle is like no other. One party in particular has reverted to the basest, lowest common denominator, implying that the other candidate is, among other things, a terrorist, Muslim, un-American, and socialist. I am dismayed by the viciousness and inability for this party and their top two candidates to articulate any coherent economic and foreign policy that would truly have our nation's best interests at heart, all while draping themselves in the American flag, and questioning the patriotism and associations of the other candidate. While McCain / Palin may or may not be at the center of the negative advertising which state the other candidate's middle name or the mass mailings / heavy advertising which talk about supposed connections to Ayers and Wright, by condoning and trying to bring up this instead of articulating ideas (even if they are flawed) on how to go about economic recovery is incomprehensible.

I am very proud to be voting for Barack Obama from whom the jury is still out for me on whether he will be a good President, but he offers optimism and judgement and hope. And we as Americans need a little of all of those.

Stiff upper lip

People have been asking me what to do in the stock market these days. For some reason, they think since I work for an investment bank developing technology for traders that I'd know what to do. If I knew what to do, I certainly wouldn't have a job here anymore, and I'd be a professional daytrader instead of realizing grimly that I'll be working an extra 10 years as a corporate drone as I have lost $$$$$$$$ myself.

I can only offer up this quote (and also to the politicans who blame Wall Street)

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too..."
-Rudyard Kipling

My First Meme

S at 52Faces tagged me for my very first meme. I'm touched.

Here are the Rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is UP.

yi - I'm even more allergic to cats than S
er - For the life of me I can't float on my back...although I can swim on my stomach
san - I have the 15 years of Sports Illustrated magazines accumulating in many piles in my apartment
si - I like setting my alarm early and listening to the news for at least 30 minutes in the morning before I have to get up.
wu - I throw a football, shoot a basketball, and play Guitar Hero left-handed, but I bat and write right-handed.
liu - I suffer from amazon-itis. I buy books much faster than I read them, so I'm about 20% as well-read as my friends think I am.

Well I don't have 6 friends in the blogosphere now, so that will be a work in progress...

Rock the Vote

My latest addiction has been this 2008 election cycle. Normally, I'm fiercely proud of my indie status, and several of my politically aware friends tag me with pejoratives such as "fence-sitter" as I try to sort through the drivel and rhetoric and make a decision...contrary to popular opinion, I do not shake the magic 8 ball in order to draw my conclusions.

In this election, there is a very clear choice for President. As the country backslides toward the Great Depression, and perhaps not so ironically the two companies which I sold my soul to lost 20% in stock value, guranteeing that I will now retire 10 years later than my master plan, there is one candidate who offers a real chance for America to once again be the land of opportunity where my parents in their prime wanted to go to for a better life.

So tonight, as I was heading to Madonna's Sticky and Sweet concert, in the back of my mind I felt terribly guilty as I was missing the 2nd Obama-McCain debate. Should I have sold my ticket? Wasn't it the fault of the Commission on Presidential Debates for scheduling this well after I had purchased my tickets back in May? My uneasiness was mollified when Madonna showed a sure-to-be-controversial video interlude comparing one candidate to Mandela and Gandhi and the other candidate was interspersed with cuts of violence and war. She also gave a clear message of her absolute contempt for Sarah Palin. Only in America can we have a partisan political message at a popular rock concert. By the way, for those who read this someday, Madonna's performance was electrifying. And I got carded when buying beer - uh, it's been 15 years since I could legally have a beer, am I really that young-looking?

I'm now at home, drinking a Coors Light, and absorbing the debate thanks to wonderful DVR. Life is Good.

If you only knew the power of the dark side

Inspired by a friend, I decided to use this forum as a much more introspective look into the darker recesses of my mind, as opposed to the much more cheery (and fluff-filled) xanga that I manufacture carefully scrubbed and sanitized for public consumption.

Hopefully, this won't turn into a full-fledged snivel-fest because I do have that sweet purple bracelet from acomplaintfreeworld.org and I wouldn't want to switch bracelets every two seconds while writing.

I'm not particularly deep right now as L had given me that terrific rise-and-shine wakeup call at 730am.

Random Cool Link of the Day - Kung Fu Election - Mortal Kombat meets 2008 Election.

My good friend R from Philadelphia got engaged yesterday. His creativity in doing so was pretty remarkable - taking a "random" boat ride in Central Park, and then rowing near a violinist who on cue started playing their song. I took them out for congratulatory drinks later that evening. His fiancee is very nice, but thanks to her fussing I ended up taking 1241735319 pictures of them until she got the perfect picture at this dark classy bar. I ended up reinforcing the typical Asian stereotype of being trigger-happy with the camera, and it wasn't me.

Of course, I perpetuate it myself since I have amassed a large collections of cameras and photo albums. I have always had a love of the camera, but not with natural shots. I like the concrete jungle, and the people in it. This is probably due to the fact my memory isn't so fantastic, but I can make a connection once I see a picture. Since my apartment is cluttered to the point that it's now an unofficial fire hazard, I'm still behind 3-4 years on my pictures. I like printing the very best of my digitized pictures because of the infamous hard drive crash of 2006.