Love . Christmas

True meaning of Christmas? I am not sure.

The value of Christmas:
Merry Christmas = $$$$$
Good Christmas = $$$
Bad Christmas = $

Christmas have become so commercialized that for the not-so-fortunate people, it is a burden. I admire the courage of some people who are very willingly to make others' Christmas a memorable one even though it might be embarrassing for them to even give the gift that they bought. Some people value the gift based on the monetary value, not the thoughts, which is very sad for both parties.

I am very lucky. I was invited to numerous Christmas dinner (at least 8) but I turned them down. When I told some of them I already got plan, they don't believe me and I have to convince them with all the details. I can feel the love and care from all these people around me. Some of them call me up the night before to make sure that my plan hasn't change and that I wont be left alone on Christmas. I felt bad because I had to turn them down twice.

I did 2 things on my Christmas break that make me happy:

1. I spent all day fixing a friend's computer (guess what, my 1st time too), setting up a photo booth (sorta), teaching her how to use her camera, computer, internet and how to sell things on eBay. I am hoping that I could help to get her life started before I leave since she is 50++ now without a job and in debt for her son's tuition fees. That had put her into depression the whole summer.
   
2. I chose to spend my Christmas day with this lady who had lost her son a few years ago, suffered from 2 strokes, lost her job due to her stroke and is somewhat disable. My friend thanked me for doing that because she hasn't had a good Christmas for several years.
   

After this Christmas, I found out that the true meaning of Christmas is to show your care and love for the people around you. This is the first Christmas's Christmas for me as we know that I don't celebrate Christmas.

I started to wonder...Shouldn't CNY be the same thing? Shouldn't we care for people around us during that time as well? How sad would it be to be left alone? Has anyone committed suicide because of that?

Cheers.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
May all your wishes come true!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my GM's birthday. In order to surprise him, we placed his gift, Diet Mountain Dew and Fritos and TP-ed his office when he went out for lunch. Hehehe..Should have used 2 rolls of TP instead of 1..

At first, we were going to stuff his car with Fritos but due to some unexpected incident, we ended up put his gift in his office.

How many people would have a chance to do that to their boss? Glad that I did..Haha..He was actually quite happy that we didn't treat him as a boss today.

**************

Happy Birthday to another person, RT! Guess you are too drunk to answer your phone? Hehe..Hope you have a good one as you are aging now.. ^-^

每當彈著琴的時候，就會想再回去讀書。
我永遠都不會是個鋼琴家。發現到，我不喜歡被節拍束縛著，喜歡快，就快；想慢，就慢。太過自我了。其實，在不傷害他人的情況下，自我點又何妨呢？
人生，就那麼短暫，或，漫長，就開心點地活下去吧。

Bold

GM came and told me today that J decided to resign his responsibility as Safety Director because, it is too complicated and he doesn't know where to start and, I will have to take up his responsibility, again!

As pissed off as I was, I gave a very bold comment:
"He is 50 something, I am 20 something, when I faced challenges, have I ever just walked away?"
I left both GM and PM in awe and speechless.
I spoke my piece of mind, for better of worse, I don't give a damn.

Confronted my assistant today. It was, ugly. I am being very bold. Oh well, life goes on.

PM once said to everyone in the meeting, "To her (me), there is no such thing as gray area. It is either black or white."
Well, for me to be either black or white, is the only way to assure you that your job is secured. Imagine if I always picked the gray, problem might escalate someday and the company might go out of business. Trust me, it is not easy for me to stand firm on my feet when I am the only person who pushed for the right thing and have to argue with everyone all the time.

Urggghhh...This place is driving me nuts! Can't even take any vacation until after Jan 3rd! Stuck..

ME

NH gave me a hard time today because I did not notice that she recolored her hair and remove all those blonde highlights. +_____+

I think I will never survive well in this female world.

I will not notice if you cut your hair by 1 inch, ok?

I will not notice if you dye your hair from blonde to blonder, ok?

I will not notice if you put on new makeup, ok?

I will not notice if you have a new purse, ok?

I will not notice if you have your medicure and pedicure done, ok?

I will not notice if you put on new clothes, ok?

I will notice if you go from waist length hair to boyish hair cut.

I will notice if you go from brunette to blonde.

I will notice if you have a black eye caused from some fight.

I will notice if you have new pair of boobs or liposuction.

I will notice if you have sex change.

I will notice if you come to work in your bikini.

I will notice if you have new cellphones, new PDA, new camera, new laptops, new GPS, new iPod, new car...any new cool gadgets you can think of.

After so many years in the US, I still haven't learn the woman social world. Too fake..Too many twist and turn..Too many:

"Oh my god! You look so cute!!"
"Woowww, that is such a cool purse!"
"Oh my god! You have such a nice hair cut"
"Oh..I just love the way you look!!"

The worst part is, no matter how bad the hair cut/purse/dress/whatever look, you always have to start with "Oh my god! + good comments"

I rather spend my time in figuring out new technology or knowledge than paying attention to those things.

I will never survive among woman. >__<

Assistant?

Finally, I sat down with my GM and have a good talk with him about my assistant. I wanted him to look at it from an outsider standpoint and tell me what can I do to become a better mentor. I understand that I really don't have patience when it comes to teaching people but, she is not stupid!!

If having an assistant is going to add more troubles and distractions to your job, what is the point of having one?

Felt like I have to babysit her all the time. Woke up at 5am 2 days in a row because I really can't trust her nor leave her working alone. Debated for 15 minutes before I decided to go back to sleep. Sigh..what do I care? +___+

You should be appreciative when your boss gives you the freedom to let you work independently and give you the freedom to adjust your time accordingly. An assignment that takes me 2 hours to complete, it took her 3 days to finish it off. By all means, I only taught/gave her 20% of my workload, imagine giving her 50. I don't want to sound mean by pointing that out to her but, it had came to a point where I started wondering what she is up to everyday at work.
Whenever I page her, it took her forever to come to the office. Whenever I went out looking for her, the one place that I have the most luck of finding her, is the smoking area. The sad part is, she is pregnant!! What is going on with people these days?!?! Aren't you suppose to stay off alcohol, tobacco and possibly caffeine when you are pregnant??? I am not trying to judge but I can't help it! Don't you want what is best for the people you love especially your own child? Sigh...poor little unborn child suffering from brain damage.
Was that the reason I am so dumb because my mum is a 2nd hand smoker? Hehehe.. ^-^ j/k..

Anyhow, now I really have to learn/use/train my management skill. I guess typing out a work schedule for her would help? At the same time cover my own behind?
Please, give me a job before her 90 days introductory period is up. I really don't want to have to be the one to let her go.

The more I step into this position, the more power I have, the more I learn how to cover my own behind. Realized that 40% of my working time were spent on covering my own behind. Sad, isn't it? Part of growing up, I guess?

Sigh..watch your S, my dear friend. >__<

Buzzed...

Ok, you don't drink anything with empty stomach. So buzz now.. +__+

Don't ask me why I am drinking at this time. I am just having a good time right now despite the failure of my new inventions.

The pistachio cranberry biscotti did not turn out as good as I thought it would have been. No wonder I have been using almond on this recipe. You can't used shelled pistachio because they tasted like crap!! I have been opening pistachio for the past few hours to try the recipe again. Alright, I did eat some of them as I was opening them. That's the reason I never used pistachio!!! It is so hard to stop yourself when they tasted so gooooooddd...hehehe..

The banana rum loaf cake, my stupidity caused me to overfill that loaf pan. Now I have the "Over the Hill" Banana Raisin Rum loaf cake. I should have known it better with all the baking experience I had. Sigh..stupid me..

Well, at least, my Soon-do-bu turns out to be pretty darn good! Muahahahaha...Ooo...nice hot warm tofu soup in a cold snowy day..

When I shopped around this weekend, I just realized that by working in this field, I have worked with some of the most finest ingredient you can ever get from the market! Or, you can't even find it in the market. The price for those ingredients are so much cheaper/less expensive (my GM forced me to not say cheaper) than what you can/cannot get from the market! Some of them are just exclusive for the industry! It is such an honor to be able to work /play with them! I am loooving my job now!!

Got some new suggestion from a customer I worked with this week. Hopefully, I got a chance/ time to try his suggestion later. It should be pretty good...just..the amount of time to spend on those scones...hmmmmm....

It was snowing so badly yesterday but I was driving around town despite slightly losing control for once. My phobia of snow caused from last year's experience have gone, I guess? Need an AWD car soon if I still wanted to live in places like this.

Interesting Monday..

Despite all the fun we had on Saturday, we have another fun today!

---> Food Poisoning

Around 50% of the people who attended the Christmas Party ended up sick and as usual, how could I miss out the fun?

5 am

Woke up by stomached, thought that it was because I didn't eat a lot yesterday and I was hungry. So, I went back to sleep.

7 am
Woke up and felt dizzy. Thought that it was hunger too. Ignore it, drink a glass of milk and go to work.

8.45 am
An employee was sent home.

1o am
My Production Manager went home.

11 am
Department of Public Health called me. Apparently, one of our employees had called and told them about this.
2 pm
General Manager went home.
4 pm
Director of Department of Public Health called. Wanted me to send all those sick people home. Yeah, all of them are either didn't come or already went home, except me.
5 pm
Posted notice to all employee to prevent sick people from working on the line.
5.30 pm
Finally got home! Changed into my long pants and thick sweater --> Headed to bed. Passed out immediately. Just woke up 15 minutes ago.

I was feeling hot and cold the whole day at work! I wore a sweater + Columbia jacket and my hands are still ice cold while my face is burning hot! I was pretty much in a non-working state and curled up in my chair trying to make myself feel better. NH even talked about sending me to ER..Hmm...
Don't ask me why I didn't leave early. I didn't drive to work --> My car is buried in ICE! Hahahah...Took me 15 minutes just to be able to open the doors, not to mention the 3 inches ice on my windshield and my tires that are stuck in the ice.

What an interesting Monday..Haven't ate anything the whole day.

Ahhh..Milo tasted so goooooddd!! So glad that I finally feel like eating or drinking something. It is bad when you stared at the food and water, you just know that you needed them but you can't have them because they make you feel like throwing up.

Food Poisoning..Food Poisoning..
Actually, before the party, GM, NH and I were just talking about they spit into our food because we made them come to work when the weather was so bad. I guess it might have really happened!

Alrite..going to dig for more food that I can eat without making the condition worse.

Christmas Party

The Christmas Party that I was dragging my feet to go to, turned out to be a very fun night!

Thanks to Bill and Shelly, otherwise, I wouldn't have make it to the party. We had 7-8 hours of ice rain, follow by rain. Imagine the road. It was several inches of ice slush when I walked outside my apartment and a layer of solid ice. I have to stomp hard to break the ice so that I wont be slipping around when I walk.

My partner couldn't make it due to the weather. It would have been more fun. When we started dancing, I just realized that I have forgotten most of the steps! I was trying to do Swing with SB and...urgghh.. It might have been that I never lead before, but...

I wished that KH was there..Haha..At least I don't have to worry about leading.. We did a lot of different dances. From regular swing, modern dance, clubbing type of dance, folk dance to chicken dance. I really wished that KH was here. He would have fun if he was here and I would have a dancing partner too!!

Guess what song was my GM trying to sing? "I Want a Man"

I video recorded part of his singing..MUAHAHAHA..a tool against him. ^-*

It was a great night. We had fun and danced till the DJ decided to go home.

Thanks to those guys who agreed to go with me even though I was just joking with you guys when I asked. Hehehe..I wouldn't make anyone come to this city just for a Christmas party. Should be glad that I didn't make you guys flew in. Otherwise, you might ended up stuck in the airport.

Just realized that dancing, is still one of the things that make me happy no matter what! Haha..my long lost LOVE!! I found you again!!!