 |
|
|
|
Archives
|
|
Archives
|
|
|
06-30-2003
12:18pm Yesterday was a very interesting day. A person called me out of the blues. Someone I thought was more or less out of my life due to unforeseen circumstances. Yet, she called and we talked about things.
The iron bars are finally up on my balcony. I can't remember if I had mentioned this incident or not but the bars that have been placed on the balcony are there for a particular reason. A few nights ago around 2 or 3 in the morning I was up with my roommate and another person silently watching a movie. When all of a sudden, we heard this noise coming from the balcony. It sounded as if someone was climbing on our balcony. Not even a second passed after we heard the noise when my roommate and I ran onto the balcony to check out what was going on. Oviously, we weren't thinking very well for if it was an intruder, he could have been armed yet, it is our home and we were certainly going to protect it and not idly stand there waiting for the uninvited guest to leave of his own accord. As my roommate and I sprinted outside with me in the lead, I saw this shadow of a figure moving around through our clothes and naturally, instinct took over and the man did not get any further. Believe it or not, it was an old man in his 50s and he was definitively high on drugs. We got rid of the intruder but we did not like the thought that he could have just climbed onto our balcony from the roof. Seeing the man leave,(we didn't even bother calling the cops but made sure he got the message not to ever come back here again) by way of the roof tops, we realized that something needed to be done about our home security. Yes, something needed to be done for it is certainly too easy for anyone to climb onto the roof of a house and jump from roof to roof onto the back part of our balcony and enter our house. Thus, we now have bars on the back of the balcony.
In other news, I am slowly beginning to reply to all of the e-mails I have received over the past few weeks. What a job I tell you but it must be done. Another topic I want to trim over is friendship. It seems like you can always tell when someone is your friend in your time of greatest need for they always seem to know if something is wrong with you no matter how well you are able to hide it from the rest of the outside world. It doesn't matter how often you hang out with them or how often youtalk to them. The next time you see them and you are having internal problems they just seem to know. They do not have to be able to solve the problem for you. All they have to do is look at you and know that something is wrong and that is all it takes to know that they are your friend. This particular person would not be considered the typical friend but he is a friend nevertheless. He'll steal your women, your booze and your cigarettes without blinking an eye and think that everything is jolly and funny. Yet, when things matter,he'll have your back. Now that's a friend you can trust for you know what to expect and what not expect from him. 06-26-2003 11:39pm For your viewing pleasures here are a few pictures to keep you busy. Oh and I do not feel motivated to answer any e-mails right now but whatever had to be sent out was sent out a while back. So cheers and thanks for caring!!!
06-25-2003 10:10pm These past couple of weeks have just been dreadful. I just have no motivation to do anything. Instead of exploring my Costa Rican surroundings I just sit at home and do nothing. I don't even care to work on the video, the art show or the media project. I wonder what is going on with me? Is this a sign of depression? I am not even sure if I am depressed or not. I just feel like I don't want to do anything. I also got my dates mixed up and thought that my sister's birthday was going to be on the 26 of June while it was actually on the 23rd of June. I know because I just got an e-mail from my brother telling me that she called him to let him know that everybody remembered her birthday except me. Wow, that's two birthday in one month that I forgot about. You will also noticed that I haven't posted any pictures up in a while. That is because Mike borrowed the digital camera. However, have no fear, as soon as I get it back, more pictures will follow. Yes, I am just rambling to let people know that I am still alive since I do not feel any motivation to reply to my e-mails. 06-23-2003 12:18 As you have probably noticed, I have been making a few changes to the layout of the site. Just experimenting at the moment so please bare with me as I play around with it. In other news, I have just finished reading, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and the only I can say about it is that I am stupefied. In the meanwhile, let's talk about drugs in Costa Rica. Did you know that it is legal to smoke marijuana in Costa Rica but it is illegal to sell it? This basically means that you can be caught by a cop with 2-3 joints or less and be fine but if you have more, then you will get arrested for distributing it. Pretty interesting eh? Needless to say, drugs are plentiful here and very cheap compared to the U.S. For example, one ounce of marijuana can be bought for an average price of 4000 colones which is about $10 USD. 06-22-2003 12:39pm Yesterday was June 21st and can anybody tell me what that day was so special? He he he, the new Harry Potter book was finally released after 3 years. And so ladies and gentlemen I present to you, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"!!!!
 I actually got the English from England version because in that was the only version available. Not that it makes a big difference or anything but I know that a few rare words used are a bit difficult to decipher considering that England has a few words that are not used in the US or have different meanings. No problem though and it was well worth buying. I am on page 390 which is chapter 21, "The Eye of the Snake" and I must say that so far the book has blown me away!!! I first became interested in Harry Potter when one of the projects KO had was Harry Potter. You see, when the movie was about to come out, KO became one of the sponsors for it which involved a lot of stuff that I won't get into but one of the great benefit was to get all of these Harry Potter knick knacks and even got to see the movie before it went out in theater. Thus, I had to read the books to study up on Harry Potter and I am certainly glad KO decided to be one of the sponsors for the movie. It was interesting when looking at the stats from the 1-800-GET-COKE line how many people were interested in Harry Potter and the people that thought that KO should not be sponsoring the book saying it was related to witchcraft, satanism, and so on. In the end, the Potter boy overcame all!!! In other news, my website got reviewed by www.theweblogreview.comIn general it was a pretty good review considering that they mostly criticized my weblog over the layout and the color scheme which I personally think could use some major improvement. LOL, they more or less strengthened my fears and I suppose that the review has motivated me to finally change the layout of the weblog. So keep tuning to my weblog and look for changes. 06-20-2003 8:22am Man, I haven't slept in four days. I really have a bad case of insomnia. Now, I wonder the reason why I cannot sleep. I am certain that there is a logical explanation for it. Is it because I am stressed out? Very unlikely considering that I really don't do much. Is it women problem? Seriously doubt it since I am not in a relationship and don't really plan on ahving one any time soon. Is it financial problems? Very unlikely since I am not in need of anything. Is it because I am not doing anything productive with my life? Now that could be a possibility since I am tiring of just kicking back and enjoying the Pura Vida. It certainly is odd the things you think about when you just can't sleep. I was tihnking about money. I mean, the world is based on money. Seriously for if one day all of the money in the world would disappear, the whole world would be in chaos. The majority of us work to make money and the one that do not work to make money still need a basic amount for the necessary things in life. Yet, money is the most useless thing in life. I mean seriously, what can you do with money? You can't eat it, you can't ride it, you can't use it to cook, you can't mow a lawn with it so what good is it for? Yet, when you trade it with other people you can get so much out of it. It's like a ticket to something magical. We made money and it now owns us for without it, we could not do anything in today's society. Of course you can't just get rid of it and in a way, we created a type of god. The Money God for a god would not exist without believers and thus for good or bad, we are stuck with it. LOL, now you get to see what I think of when I have insomnia. Hopefully, I will be able to sleep tonight otherwise, I may have to change the name of this blog to "Is Kotigre Asleep?" 3:45pm I was just browsing the internet and decided to check on my old Coke alumni and found out that they will donate RM50,000 to charities all across Malaysia once they get 100,000 clicks on there site. So why not go over there yourself and help out. Just follow this link www.coke.com 06-14-2003 11:39am I certainly have been writing a lot in this journal lately. Today, I will write about what I do. Not out of boredom but rather out of laziness for I am tired of answering e-mails from people asking what it is that I do in Costa Rica. I know that through my posts, it seems like I don't do much of anything except work on personal project and in all honesty, that is the jist of it. By the way, no offense to all of the people that have asked me these questions. I certainly appreciate the e-mails. Here goes, presently, amongst the many things that I do I am in the sportsbook business. To some, that is enough of an answer but to the more innocent people a longer explanation is needed. Just Just think of me as a professional bookie. I am not going to go into details as to exactly what I do but let's just say that people who want to place a bet on a sport comes to me. Yes, it is a dirty business and many people have lost there livelyhood from it. I keep telling myself that it is an adult choice that was made freely but it is odd when you see people losing a 10s of thousands of dollars betting on a stupid game when they cannot afford it. It is certainly helping me either when I know that the majority of these people are using funds that were meant for other tihngs to bet and it is a must that privacy be observed. Especially when they have there family to contend with. When people play on credit(which is very rare but it does happen) and they are unable to pay is another story that I will not go into since that is not my department and even though I am aware of it, I choose to ignore it. Here are a few things you should know about sportsbook and gambling on sports:
In theory, the sportsbook does not make any money from people losing. The sportsbook makes money from the juice it charges people. The goal of a sportsbook is to make lines that will even out the bets and win or lose, it still makes money from the juice. This is in theory mind you since people always lose more then they win. Only a small 5% are actually consistent winners. They are known as handicapper, cappers, wise-guys, etc... Here are some gambling terms:
They are many more terms but I just thought that I would give you a taste of sports gambling. It's a dirty business and one that I am not proud of but it's a living for now and I keep telling myself that it is just temporary. Especially since I have seen it destroy so many lives. Hum, I wonder if that is why I have problems sleeping at night. 06-14-2003 1:30am I need to get back on a regular/normal sleep schedule. These past few weeks, I have been having problems falling asleep at night. Last night for example I woke up at a decent hour of the morning and when I went to bed that night around 1:00am, I fell asleep right away. However, 2 hours later I wake up and just cannot fall back asleep. I end up reading for a couple of hours until I fall asleep again but then, another 2 hours later I am once again awake and even though I felt exhausted, I just could not go back to sleep. And it goes on and on until I decide to just get out of bed. What happens is that I end up taking power naps in the afternoon. Especially when I drink. I think I will have to either stay up a whole night and a whole day or just wake up early one morning and not take any naps during the day. But as I think about it, if I do so, what is the purpose of having a normal schedule? It's not as if I have to get up early in the morning and go to work or anything. Is it society that makes me want to get a regular schedule and be a regular person? On Friday the 13th, I did not really expect to do much of anything. I knew that mike was suppose to drop by in the morning to borrow the digital camera and that Phill would also come over for a pick-up. Mike never showed up but I am to meet him later on today and Phill was right on time if not early. Phill came along with a girl I had never met before which is really something that I am used to since in my book he is the ultimate player. Just a usual get together with an old friend I had not seen in a while. He brought beer and we ended up getting drunk and as time passed by cooked a bit of dinner. Nothing noteworthy happened that day except for one thing. Phill told me that the girl he brought over is his girlfriend. Talk about a mindblower. He was the last person on earth that I would imagine falling for anyone. I am talking about the guy who prides himself on being single and loves to have different girls all of the time. I mean the guy has his moves down to science and I have nver seen anyone who is so good at picking up women. And now, he has a girlfriend? Not that I am against it mind you for she is actually pretty cool and all and whatever he wants to do is fine with him it was just such a shock to hear it. Am I a dying breed as one of the few single person left amongst my friends? On another note, why is it that everytime a friend gets a girlfriend, the girl tries to set you up with one of her friend or even her sister? Is it because the new girlfriend sees you as a threat and a bad influence and feels that the only way they can make sure that you do not lead there new man on the wrong path is by putting you on the right path by getting you a girlfriend? I wonder if there is any truth to that... 06-12-2003 11:20am Yesterday I got two e-mails. One from my friend Angela in Atlanta who used to be one of my co-workers. She sent me an e-mail pertaining to people we know getting promotions. It seems like so much has happened since I left the U.S. and that I am missing out on it. Along with the list of job promotions there also was a list of all of the people in the department I used to work in. Wow, so many people that I worked with are gone and so many people that had left the job came back for more. I wonder, will I be one of those that will come back to the company? I wonder whether it if I do come back to KO it will be a good thing or a bad thing. What I mean by that is whether it will help me grow as a person or if I will just come back to the same stagnant pool. The next e-mail was from Linh. I have never met her but I belong to a list of Vietnamese adoptee and even though I do not know who she is, we have corresponded once or twice and I know a bit about her. The e-mail was about the anger she felt while visiting a Vietnamese boutique in NYC at the Nolita neighborhood. She was upset because they used "Fortune Cookie dialect" to promote there wares. Things that you would hear in movies such as, "Ho Chi Mama", "We love Vietnam Long time", "Amy Chan", and "Cake-O". At first, I thought that it was really no big deal. So many companies have used such ploys to sell there goods to give it a sense of fun and exoticism. A common practice amongst companies. Yet, I thought that perhaps I should think a bit more about the situation since from what I know so far about Linh is that she seems to be a very intelligent person and certainly would not write an article and start a petition on a whim or without a good reason. The more I thought about it the more I thought she was right for I realized that due to all of the media, movies, and marketing ploys I became kind of desensitized to racial remarks about Asians and in particular Vietnamese people. I was so used to hearing it that to me, it just became part of life. Yet, she is correct in saying that it is degrading and is a portal for stereotyping and racism. One day, I will have children and do I want them to feel that such jokes about them is just part of life? I don't think so because they will take the abuse thinking it is normal and in return, they will think that making fun of other people for there race, religion, and looks is ok when it is not alright. I remember the first time I ever experienced racism. It was when I had just moved from Canada to Kentucky. I was walking from the hospital to my father's office. It was a beautiful sunny day until I heard from behind me a couple of people yelling at me remarks like" Ching Chang Chong" and "Bruce Lee" and "Go back to China". Ouch, I had no idea what to think about it but I knew that I did not like it. So many thoughts went through my mind such as why are they doing this? I'm not even Chinese and I can't help it if I am different. That day, I did not go to my father's office for fear of embarassing him for the way I looked for I did not want to hurt his business. I went straight home and locked myself in my room and cried for being different. I hated being Asian and wish I had been born white. I never told my parents or anyone in my family about what happened for I was ashamed that I would bring such dishonor to my family. I did not think that my parents would understand since they are white and never had to go through such an ordeal. I became older and placed the whole incident in the back of my mind. I am now older and maybe a bit wiser and I see that such blatant bigotism should not be allowed for it can lead to a lot of pain and anguish from people who think it is just a big joke and they are not hurting anyone. So, feel free to visit the petition site at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/hochima/petition.html
|
