I love Korean food. That's my Chinese New Year pig-out in Flushing, NY. Last night Michael and I went out for Thai food. After a very satisfying meal, I ordered Mango Sticky Rice as dessert. Michael said he didn't want any. But I really wanted to try the Green Tea Fried Ice Cream cos I heard it was very good. So I kinda talked him into ordering that by telling him we would share in case he couldn't finish it. But I knew Michael was not a dessert person. So I ended up having both. Whoo... Good ol Michael, he knew I was too embarrassed to order two desserts for myself, so he kinda went along with it. BTW, the mango sticky rice was delicious. I rented a Mainland Series called "断肠剑" on my way back. Hope it's good. Ciao!

小时候最盼望的节日就是过年，因为那几日不但可以随便吃，尽兴地玩，还有红包收，而且呆到多晚也不会挨骂。跟随父母走亲访友更是不亦乐乎。“哎呀，囝囝都架大啦，越来越聪明懂事啦。” 亲友的一番客套话倒也哄得我爸爸妈妈眉花眼笑的。长大后，对过年逐渐失去了那种期盼，再加上自己又赚了钱，对过年的概念越来越淡。刚才给爸妈打电话拜年时，略微感到妈妈语气中的不快与伤感。追问之下，方知我在上海的阿姨和舅舅因为生意上的事，闹得非常不愉快，破口相骂不算，连过年都不相往来。妈妈夹在中间，里外为难。我虽从小在上海长大，但一次回去比一次觉得那里的人情淡薄如纸，物欲充斥，人欲横流。为了钱，和亲人众叛亲离，大打出手的在我光在亲戚熟人中就有多少个。记得第一次回去，当时只有十四岁的表妹冷冷地看着我送给她的几本书，漠然不作声，连道谢一句都没有。过了阵子，又突然间听她叫“Levi, Levi". 诧异间，见她两眼放光地指着我身上穿的裤，方才觉悟到她讲的是裤的牌子是“Levi's"。 第二天，我便把这条裤子洗净后，送给了表妹，她高兴的什么似的，而我送她的书却被扔到一个角落。心里不由感到一丝伤悲，我没告诉她，我这条Levi's的裤子，不过是区区二十来块，而我送她的这几本书的价值远是这条裤子的四倍不止。

妈妈说，今年春节的气氛格外浓，因为禁了几年的鞭炮，终于可以重见天日大放异彩了。电话那头，鞭炮声此起彼伏，原来过年就是知道自己的亲人此时平安健康的在温暖的家中看着电视的安心；过年就是三餐不忧，回家时见到亲人给你点上那盏灯的暖意；过年就是一家人团圆在一起吃团圆饭的那种融融浓情；而此时的我，看见小可爱蜷缩成一粒球睡觉的憨态，不禁开怀大笑。大家过年可好？

给大家伙儿拜个早年！


P.S. Thanks Steve for the effects and funky characters.

因为今天早上要去趟医院,所以趁机请假一天，装病在家(偷笑)。浮生偷得一日闲，难得可以无事人般的呆在家里，打打游戏，上上网，发发呆，这种感觉真好。想想今天早上打电话请假的时候，心里居然有种当了一回小偷的愧疚。嗨，正直人的悲哀呀(呵呵)。跟老板讲话时也虚亏得很，半死不活的。请假理由：吃错东西-----所以嘛...拉--肚--子。当然后面半句diarrhea 种种是不能送进文明的耳朵里去的，所以略去不提。但如果你是(或曾是)我老板，就知道我这个人不是眼睛有问题，就是八成脑子有水，经常因为吃了肮脏的生牛肉，生鱼片，生菜等等进了医院而旷班。但想想啊，感冒发烧，除非你装咳嗽装到要翘辫子，否则很快就穿帮。车坏了，有些好事之徒(多半是男人，我老板是男人)一定会问长问短，答错或漏洞百出，形象受损。厚着脸皮据实相告吧，”呵呵，我懒病发作了，不去行吗？ “可以啊，算personal day, 从vacation days 里扣"。太划不来了吧。唯独这肠胃有病来得快，去得也可快。理直气壮的“ 需要证明是吧，来来，跟我走”。不是我狡猾, 这是一种游戏,其实公司里每个人都会玩,只是玩得各有巧妙不同而已,叫CMA---Cover My Ass.

CMA其实是种技巧,把屁股藏得严严实实的，自然就不会变成众矢之的。CMA 是门学问，用得过火，反到弄巧成拙。上学时，不交功课，最喜欢用的借口就是“电脑荡机，文件未存”。刚开始还可蒙骗过关，但用的次数太多后，反倒令人起疑。所以另想 CMA 借口。上班后， CMA 更重要. 工作圈滚得越久的人，CMA的功夫就越精湛。而且爬得越高的人，造诣尤深。为何？爬得越高，目标就越明显嘛。注没注意到，下雪天，生病的人就格外多。真的生病还是趁机偷懒，只有天知地知，你一个人知。真真假假，虚虚实实，自己心知肚明，别人也不便一语道破。千百种理由,所谓游戏规则之内，你又能柰我如何。今天你CYA (Your Ass)了吗?

Our GM came back from a business trip to China yesterday. He brought back a DVD for me. He said it was a gift from Maja. Maja is the FD in our China facility and we are now working in a special project together. It is a recent Mainland production called The Promise starring Cecilia Cheung and some Japanese guy I am not so sure of. Maja had asked me during the conference call the other day whether or not I have watched the movie. Naturally I didn't. But she didn't tell me she was going to send it to me via Rick as a gift. So it came as a little suprise to me. Haha. How thoughtful of her. I haven't watched it yet. With due respect, the female lead Cecilia Cheung (Cheung Pak Chi) is like a walking skeleton with no appeal whatsoever. Grrr. She used to be so pretty when she had some meat on her face and body. Now her eating disorder made her look so old and haggard. I will do a write-up if I like it.

Went to the mall in the afternoon. Bought two pairs of jeans from Hydraulic and a top from Baby Phat. All the spring clothes are on the shelf now. Express is having a huge clearence sale on some of its items now and all the on sale items are below 10 bucks. I was glad none of my previous purchases were in the box. Last time I saw a 60 dollar tank top marked down nearly 90 percent to $10. I had paid the full price a month before.

I was talking to one of the guys from work about baseball yesterday. We both agreed on the boring nature of the event and its failure to evoke the kind of boisterous reactions during a game that are even close to those generated in other sports such as soccer or basketball. I kinda commented on its lacks of fervor and interest in Asia as compared to soccer and other sports. This guy, in his usual eagerness to show off his knowledge, responded, "But baseball is a very popular sport in Japan. But then,you can't really say Japan is in Asia, can you? Because it's commerialized, advanced and capitalist...." When he detected my immediate silence and puzzled look, he concluded with : "Of course it's just my perspective."

Last month during Christmas time, some woman in my office was searching a CD to listen. I happened to be there and was flipping through her collections. When she saw me checking out Kenny G.'s, she asked me,"Oh, you know him?" I hesitated and replied,"Yeah, Of course. He is very famous." I guess she was very surprised and then she said,"Oh, I thought you don't have his CDs in your country."

It's very amusing to see the surprising look on a man's face when I told him there are just as many traffic jams in Bangkok as in say, NYC. People in China now own cars? No, dumbass, they own automobiles. For those who have no interest in world events or have never set their feet on a foreign land before, China,Vietnam or Thailand is just another dot on the map that is of no relevance to them.

I don't hate people, I hate ignorance. I don't dislike Americans, I pity them. The American education systems are now under attack for producing hundreds of thousands of students who are completely ignorant about world affairs and reluctant to find out. How many American adults these days can identify Malaysia or Laos on a map? To many school children, Malaysia is probably another state that belongs to the U.S..

Frightful, isn't it? But as one famously puts it,"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action."

前段时间pretty 不但把我心爱的兰花的花花踩掉了，还把它刚刚长出的嫩芽咬掉了，令我着实心痛了好一阵子。想想，我精心灌溉培育的植物居然被deflower, 罪魁祸首还是我最疼爱的那只鸟精，真是打也不是，骂它也不懂，只好打烂牙齿往肚里咽。没想到，前几日我浇花时，居然看见我的兰花枯木逢春，又暴新芽，心里真是高兴得很。这次把兰花放在pretty不及之处，嘿嘿，看它还怎样把我的兰花当作午餐。

I haven't been working out lately due to my ahem, busy work schedule(a lousy excuse I know. I know)I guessed I've gained some weight (sheepish). So when I was in the gym today, I didn't even want to step on the scale for fear of ruining my mood. Standing in front of the mirror,I could definitely see the "excess baggage" around my stomach area. Argh. Anyway, I made a pact with myself that I need to lose an extra 3-5 pounds by the end of March. Since I don't want to accomplish that by starving myself to death, I'd have to cut back sweets and start exercising more.

My work out for today:

45 minutes jog on the treadmill, approx.4 miles
30 minutes bike ride, approx. 12 miles
3 sets of sit-ups, 12 rep for each set
3 sets of squat with 5 pounds dumbbells in each hand, 12 rep for each set

My treat after the work out:
applebee's $13 three-course dinner combo with dessert. Oh boy, was it salty. But for a lousy 13 bucks, what more can you ask for?

Sad truth for the day: I ended up taking in more calories than I had burned.
Conclusion: If you are watching your calories, don't eat out. Restaurants these days are supersizing our meals to give you more bangs for the buck, thus making weight loss extremely difficult. Hmm...green tea diet anyone?

I received a note from my boss yesterday, it says I quote:

"....I want to thank you for all of your support, hard work and diligent effort you showed during the year end close. As a manager I am fortunate to be able to work with an employee such as you."

(grins) I took it as a big compliment especially coming from him. I don't mean to brag, but I worked so hard for my job and don't mind a pat on the shoulder once in a while.

Went to one of my friends' house for brunch today. His aunt cooked for the gang--total 14 of us. She is a good cook. The food was delicious. We ate,talked,laughed and ate some more. Steve made me laugh so hard I almost choked on my food. I should have taken more pictures.

Pretty is literally making a nest out of my shoe. Saw his boo-boos somewhere?

绷了整整一个礼拜的弦，在作完我05年最后的 journal entry 后慢慢送开。 我长呼了口气，整个人顿时就象只泄了气的皮球般松软下来。I need a vacation--somewhere under the warm sun of Mexico enjoying the Caribbean sea breeze. 压力能让人变成兽，兽变成魔，此话一点都没错。但我还是非常之佩服有些人颠倒黑白，转眼就能把责任推卸地一干二净的这套功夫，然后还能摆出一副纯洁无邪的姿态，让人觉得反倒是我理亏她了。如此女能把她用于欺骗一半的功夫用在确实的工作上的话，她的业绩也绝不会止仅于此。恕我愚浊，这样的道行我是几辈子也修行不来的。公司是个缩小了的社会，其中千丑百怪，无奇不有。我们组不过十余人,但是非真是多的一箩筐. 如果说生活这几年教会了我一些东西的话，那它给我上的最重要的一堂课就是要学会抛开---保存所有美好的积极的东西，而把那些不好的负面的，就像丢垃圾一样统统丢掉。这样我们就不会变成我们周围有些只喜欢抱怨的人.一个人能改变困境的能力实在有限，唯一能改变的是对待困境的态度。我不能改变这个愚蠢女人，也不能改变这个女人已作出的愚蠢的行为，但我唯一能做的就是：画下这个穿着G-string 的猪的模样，然后狠狠地扔进垃圾袋 “Hasta La Vista，Baby."

我的好友小梅昨儿三更半夜从台湾打国际长途给我贺岁。幸好我因跟Buffet刚刚作完“肉搏战”正闹着消化不良，所以也没睡。闲聊了一会儿，小梅突然间来了这么一句“还是美国好” 后来便提到可能要跟老公回来U.S 发展的打算.。 我一听没当时就折过去。嘿，我说小梅呀，你还挺难伺候。当初不知道是谁，整天哭着嚷着要回家嫁人，而且要嫁个有钱佬，在家当少奶养肉。这一切都如君所愿了吧，回家不到两年，又要打道回府。瞎折腾个啥，小梅？再说，美国有啥好的？穷乡僻壤的，除了医疗科技上比人进步以外，其他方面不比其他国家先进多少。论吃的方面(我的强项啊)，就
更甭提了。什么好东西，一到美国准保变味儿。远的咱不提，就先讲中国国粹之一的中国餐。中国多大，菜系就有多多，各地方都有自己独特风味的小菜，正所谓吃遍大江南北，没重样的。问这里的老美，
'Do you like Chinese food?"
十有八九会回答，"Oh yeah. I like Chinese."
"What do you like the best? What's your favorite?"
"Oh, the Wanton soup is delicious. I also like beef with broccoli and general
tsao’chicken."
OMG. 我晕~~~。如果我告诉他，他所说的chinese food，根本就不是正宗的中国菜，而且还相距甚远. 而他赞不绝口的馄饨汤=白开水+色素添加剂+ loads of MSG，吃多了，还会掉头发，他准保也会晕菜。难怪一个从未受过任何正当训练的墨西哥amigo 也能在中国餐馆作外卖当厨师。我又晕~~~ 还有那pizza，那可是意大利人的灿烂瑰宝,所以也犯不着我跟他犯急。但跑这儿来，味道欠佳也就算了，一拿起来，还滴滴答答地往下滴油。还没吃，这光一看，就饱了！咱虽没去过意大利，但风闻那里的食物实在是美不胜收，而且味道绝对只有一个字“赞”！这里的牛排不是刀切不动，甩过去能打死人，就是血淋淋地让人作呕。从点完菜完到菜出来，前后不超过二十分钟。这样的牛排不是“ NG” 才怪。我在欧洲吃牛排，跟服务生交代要“well done"，出来的牛肉切出来中间不带一点红色，但又不焦，可谓鲜嫩可口.

看到这儿，各位看官不禁要问，你这儿把美国骂了个狗血淋头，但为什么还有那么多人削尖了脑袋，哭着喊着往美国钻呢。在这里我要申明，美国并不是一无是处，美国是个"民权至上" 十分开放自由民主的国家，“自由”在许多国家可能还是个奢侈品。这也许就是美国最吸引人的地方之一。另外就是一些向我这位好友小梅姑娘那样，永远觉得“The grass is always greener on the other side". 引用钱钟书先生的话来说就是城里的想跑出去，城外的又想跑进来。按我的话就是，Basically you get the same shit, but under different names.

My blog had a total makeover on the first day of the new year. I made a header using the images from Here and I also fixed the charcter coding problem that had beening driving my friend Junny nuts. LOL. It kinda gave me a sense of accomplishment as well and bode well for the year ahead.

If counting down the time until 2006 is your idea of kicking off a new year, then there is no better place to get into the holiday spirit than Times Square. Each year, tens of thousands of tourists, drunkards and maniacs gather in Times Square to witness this event in the teeth-chattering cold, crammed shoulder to shoulder with dozens of others for hours with very few bathrooms. It is a very stupid holidy tradition to begin with, but I was almost alluded to it yesterday afternoon. While I was on my way to NYC, it started to snow-- hard. I told my friends "forget it,I am not going." I watched the ball dropped nevertheless in the comfort and warmth of a home--in the midst of 4-round mahjong game. I went to bed around 2am last night (or this morning)and woke up around 10. I've finally got my eight hours, Hallelujah. That was the longest sleep I had in the whole week.