House Centipede Extermination

Craziest shit happened. I was watching my TVB at 3 in the morning and I was hit with the munchies. I wanted some nacho cheese so I went downstairs to get the cheese salsa out of the fridge. I like to microwave my cheese so that it's warm, just like the ones in the movie theaters. As I went to reach for a bowl in the dish rack, I saw a huge ass bug about 1.5 inches long with ~30 legs in the sink. I've seen these bugs trapped in my sink a couple of times, when I get my midnight snacks but I was too pussy to kill them so I just ignore it. This time, I wanted to give it a try to exterminate it.

I thought it might be fun and expose the least risk to me if I burn it, so I got my dad's lighter on top of the fridge and I was like, "naw chill. There's not enough reach with this lighter!" The bug is gonna pounce on my hand and crawl up my arms. So I searched through my cabinets and found a lighter that has about an 8 inch reach with a large flame. I tried chasing him with the lighter but he runs so fast when the flame goes near him. I gave up with burning it because the flame was getting short.

That hopeless thing kept trying to crawl up my sink. I went to the bathroom to get some bleach and that jug was too heavy to aim with so I just poured a little bit at the corner and knew it wasn't going to work. I opened up my fridge and found some lemon juice and splashed a capful on him. I thought the acid would burn him, but he seemed more energized than ever. I gave him another capful and it was laying at the corner of the sink.

I took a spoon and poured a capful of salt on him hoping to dehydrate him. I watched him for 10 minutes and he was still moving as if nothing happened! I lost my patience and then I saw the hot water dispenser. I got a good amount of hot water in a cup and splashed it on him. The poor thing lost about 20 of its legs from that splash. He was still trying to swim out of the steaming water alive.

I let him sit for a while and after another 10 minutes, I presumed he was dead, but he was still moving! I had no idea how to clean up the 20 loose legs and the body lying in the sink. My dad would be pissed and question my manliness if I left it there. I went to grab 2 sheets of Bounty (because 1 is not enough), folded it up into a thick package (in case any of its juices manage to squirt on me), and laid it on top of him. I took off my slipper and dabbed the Bounty a few times and saw his black imprint from THAT many layers of paper towel. I finally mustered up the courage to pinch it and flush it down the toilet.

I went back up to my room to do research on what bug it was and found out it's a house centipede. I also found out that often times, they get trapped in the sink. They feed on cockroaches, spiders, and a bunch of other bugs. I don't know if the lemon juice, bleach, or salt weakened his legs or not, but the hot water really did the job in immobilizing him.

I wish I had something to videotape this 1-hour murder.

Relationship Statuses in Chinese

The Chinese language uses "separation" as a key word to describe relationship statuses. I never thought of deconstructing Chinese phrases, because I learned them as individual vocabulary words when I was a kid, as opposed to the construction of how the phrases came to be. I was taught to think like an optimist in school, but the foundation of relationship in the Chinese language rests upon the pessimistic word "separation". I thought it was confusing at first because I grew up in a society that teaches optimism in school. Here's my analysis:

Kit Fun means married, which literally translates to "[the] end [of the] separation", as if there was a norm of "togetherness" that everyone is expected to have since the very beginning of life.

Ding Fun means engaged, which literally means "stabilized separation". I first thought, 'why would there be separation in engagement?' I think what they're trying to say is that they're still separated, but in a stable relationship as well. But in English, a "stabilized separation" is not the same as "separated, but in a stable relationship."

Fun Sow means to break up. It literally translates to "separation [of] hands", as if it's normal for people to have someone's hand to hold to begin with.

Lei Fun means to divorce, which literally translates to "come separation". This is like saying, "Our separation has come", like it's something expected to happen sooner or later.

I was taught by many writing teachers/professors to change my writing into a more optimistic view as opposed to the pessimistic view. For example, they would tell me to change the product is cheap to the product is inexpensive. Professors penalize me for writing in a pessimistic view, opposed to the expected optimistic standpoint. I blame Chinese for making me write the way I do. Too bad I'm a conformist.

But still, I love how I use Chinese metaphors all the time without realizing how funny their literal meanings are.

My favorite:
Gwai leen how - Describing someone screaming as if a ghost is choking one by one's throat. I ask my mom "Gwai leen how ah?" when she speaks :)

Bruno Mars

These songs wouldn't be as good without Bruno Mars!

Pulling Out Huge Earwax

And I thought I held the record for pulling out the biggest piece of earwax...

Father and Son: Generational Differences

...continuation of Relationship Arguments

The problem with my dad is that he grew up in China with a filial Chinese boy state of mind. He believes that when dinner is ready, everyone has to drop whatever they're doing and rush to the dinner table. I have a completely different view on dinnertime. I like to finish doing one thing before starting another. Dropping my work to force food in my packed stomach doesn't sound quite logical to me.

My dad values family first. I know he wants the best for his family, but sometimes his efforts of trying to solve our problems only makes it worst. Rule of thumb: When it's not your problem, don't attempt to solve it unless you're asked for help otherwise you're a nuisance. For example, my brother bought a new car and it only comes with one key. My dad has constantly bothered my brother to get a spare key in case he loses this one. My brother has delayed this task for several months and my dad complains to my mom about my brother's problems.

My dad takes his anger out on my mom for our problems. He never comes to me or my brother to complain or start an argument because he knows we can bat every pitch he throws. So instead, he takes the easy road and complains to other people about our bad habits instead of solving it with us face-to-face. Instead of creating drama and commotion, it would be much easier if he stopped being such a worry-wart.

Being the only one employed in the family, my dad has been working hard to put food on the table for his family in the larger portion of his life. He is hardworking but he doesn't realize he is getting old, clumsy, and fragile. He can't randomly run into things anymore, hoping his wounds will heal the next day. His injuries get him even more mad because it makes him feel incapable of functioning normally.

After working for so long as a robot, he has lost the purpose of enjoying life. He does not know how to find enjoyable things to do in life. He watches the news and soccer from time to time, but I think he should occupy his time by finding more things that interest him.

My uncle told me that I looked a lot like my father when he was a teenager. Even though we have different values, I find that I act a lot like my father. I have a strong feeling that I will be like my father, following a lot of his footsteps. I will continue giving advice even if other people take it as a scolding because that's just how I am.

Because I have a high level of tolerance and open-mindedness, I tend to believe a lot of people are like me, but I realized there are still a lot of stubborn, close-minded people out there. It is very hard for me to cooperate with these type of people, but I'm learning.

Relationship Arguments

I was born a couple of months after my parents decided to purchase the house in which we currently reside. They thought that since mortgage was almost as expensive as rent that it would be a good idea to invest in a house than to pay off rent in an apartment. Of course they were thinking about the well-being of their family's future also.

Now, thinking back on the past 20 years, my parents think the purchase was a mistake. It has caused more problems than I can articulate. The endless amounts of work they had to go through and the stress they have accumulated over all those years has caused them to think that there is nothing that can be done to cure the many years of unhappiness that has occurred. The drama king and drama queen would start arguing over the littlest things that result in leaving nothing but an unhappy couple.

After hearing my mom's complaints about my dad's "yelling", I've found relevance between my parents' relationship and my relationship with my girlfriend. I am guilty of committing some of the annoyance that my dad commits and my mom has brought it to my attention. We both like to give advice on "the right way" to do things.

For example, here's a kitchen scenario: my mom is making dinner in the kitchen and my dad decides to stroll in.

From my mom's perspective, my dad, out of boredom, comes into the kitchen, trying to pick out every little bad thing she does. Whether it be time management between cooking three dishes or the order of the cooking procedure. He only tells her the bad things that she is doing, and rarely complimenting her on the good things that she is doing.

(This act sounds familiar. As if it was something I would do.)

I was trying to explain to her that maybe his way of doing it is better! Like me, my dad likes giving advice on making work more efficient, but the other party might think of this advice as "yelling".

I truly give my mom props for tolerating all those years of scolding and being a housewife is not easy. It is a 24/7 job and for the most part, she doesn't get a salary. I would also like to give my apologies in advanced to whomever that may take my advice the wrong way in the future. Words can be interpreted in many different ways and you have to understand both party's perspectives to fully understand people's post-actions.

There's really no point in regretting the past because at the time, they thought their decision was the right decision. The purchase of this house was a mutually agreed decision and I'm sure they weighed the ups and downs. They just didn't expect all the variant obstacles that has come along with it.

This has also made me realize that many people work hard in hopes of passing down their assets to their offspring to increase the likelihood of their success. My parents bought this house so I wouldn't have to live in a cramped apartment and so I wouldn't have to deal with investing my money in a house in the future. Now I have to find a way to make a good investment so I can pass down my successes, along with my parents' success, to my future child(ren).

Achieving Your Wants

A while ago, I overheard a boy having a conversation with his father on the train. The boy was playing with his Nintendo DS and asked his father if he could buy a new game. His father responded "No. I bought you this game a week ago. If I buy you another game, you're not going to appreciate it anymore." I agree with what the father said. Keeping your kid from getting what they want will teach them to be wiser with their money as they grow older. It did for me at least.

When I was a kid, I always thought that I didn't have as much as my other friends. My toys were the ones my older brother lost interest in, my clothes were the ones he couldn't fit anymore, and my computers were the ones that weren't fast enough for him.

I never asked for much as a kid. Nor do I ask for much now.

I remember when my birthday rolled around, one of my older cousins would take me to Toys R Us or Best Buy and demanded me to pick out something. I really had no interest in anything but he told me I'm not leaving the store until I pick something out. One year, I picked out this video game with the biggest 12"x10" board controller, where I can draw and play mini-games on the big tube-TV. To connect the TV to the system, you have to line the pins up correctly. As a clueless kid, I just kept trying to jam the plug in the console and the pins inside the plug eventually broke.

The next birthday, I got a Neo Geo Pocket Color from him. I thought it was the coolest thing ever because everyone had GameBoy Pockets. GameBoy Pockets didn't even have color and Gameboy Advanced was not released yet. I was one of the few who had a horizontally-held portable game console. Sonic the Hedgehog was my first game and I got a few more games after that but eventually, Neo Geo stopped releasing games. Now, when I mention Neo Geo Pocket, people don't even know what it is.

My parents, on the other hand, was a whole different story. They were the complete opposite of my cousin. When I was around 9 years old, I went to Queens Center Mall and I spotted a Super Bouncy Charizard Ball. I wanted it! I cried in hopes of getting my parents to buy the $8 rubber ball for me. After what seemed like 10 minutes of crying, they finally gave in and bought it.

Thinking back, I wasn't even crying for the toy. Since I do not ask for much, I simply wanted to test them to see if they would buy the toy for me. I know it's hard for parents to not give their kids what they want because they can't afford to waste money on useless toys, but when I compared myself with my other friends, their gifts on their Birthdays, Christmas, and Chinese New Year were incomparable to mine. The Charizard Ball was the biggest waste of money ever, but after this experiment, I found out if I try hard enough, I'd get what I want. I always wonder how I would feel about them if they didn't get it for me though.

Now that I'm older, they would ask me to choose a restaurant where I'd like to go out to have dinner on my birthdays. Most of the time, I'd respond with, "anything is good" because I think my birthday is not really anything worth celebrating. Plus, midterms usually come around my birthday so I'd rather spend my time studying rather than going out for dinner.

I never feel like I need any presents either because if I want something, I'd do research on it and buy it. I don't wait for it to be my birthday so I can feel good about buying it.

I realized I don't need much spending money except on my life necessities.

How Do Internet Radios Grow/Fail?

I used to be addicted to streaming Asian online radio stations on Winamp ever since I first started tuning in around 7 years ago. These Asian radios consist of "DJs" ranging from ages 13-25 that play the music they have on their playlists to their listeners. These DJs don't mix beats on a turntable, but they do however play the music you want to hear. Singing contests are hosted, with DJs and listeners as contestants, which really brought out people's personality in whoever had a nice voice or whoever is the humorous one. This tightened up the community because people will always stick around friendly people providing free service.

I remember staying up late at night going in the radio chat rooms to chat with DJs and request songs. The first Asian internet radio community I was introduced to was afRadio. I used to stay in their AIM chat rooms all day to chat with DJs and it was fun to request songs. Not long after, they realized AIM chat room limits the amount of people in there so they moved onto #afRadio on mIRC, where I hung out for a while. After some time, most DJs left because it was interfering with their academics, they lost interest, or they moved on to other radio stations. afRadio started to die down because it wasn't as interesting anymore. The DJs that left were the ones that kept the community together. I followed one of the afRadio DJs to a new Asian radio station, Sky Radio.

Sky Radio had the best forum! The forum was awesome because I was able to download my music and Asian movies from direct download links. I used to play catch-up on TVB series, so I counted on these people to provide me an episode a day to satisfy my addiction. Direct download links are hard to find and were easy to download from. After a while, people stopped putting them up and gave us torrent links instead. After a couple of years, they started to die down too because people got bored.

After that, I gave up on Asian media for a while and started to listen to the top 10 on Shoutcast.

Just recently, I started tuning into Big B Radio and noticed they have 3 radio stations within themselves. They have a main station where they play all Asian music, a Japanese station, and a Korean-Pop station. They have been doing a good job in keeping my ears company as for now. I haven't encountered any DJs on this station yet, but I'd prefer it to stay this way. If you're into Asian music, you should definitely go check it out.

P.S. I always liked Cantonese music but I don't know what caused the decline in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. They don't even hire singers for TVB theme songs anymore. The members of the cast sing the theme songs to TVB series.

Recognized DJs:
DJ drag - Head DJ and first DJ I tuned into on afRadio. He got me hooked! He's very innovative and always fun to listen to because he's so energetic.
DJ sora - The sweet talking Texan girl that every guy was hitting on. Her screenname was xsorax and a good friend of mine used to make fun of her name because that was the time when there was the anthrax scare. Good times!
DJ laydeeD - DJ that moved from afRadio to Sky Radio. I downloaded off of her on AIM all the time! She gave me most of the music that I wanted.
DJ fob - Humorous guy and known for singing Notorious MSG's Dimsum Girl in a fob accent. Epic!

Life is Not Pointless

You have the power to increase the likelihood of your desires.

CUNY as backup

Am I the only person that thinks CUNYs are good schools? It seems to me that every Baruch student I encounter say that the CUNY they currently go to was a backup plan. I am one of the few students that didn't bother applying to other schools, partly because I was lazy during senior year of high school and because I love being in the city. I'd also have so much extra work without my parents around! I do not regret it partly because I get spending money and the school I currently attend can hook me up with more jobs than state universities because there's more recruiters. Students from CUNYs get the same jobs as the students from SUNYs, except recruiters would much rather travel to the city colleges rather than miles away to state colleges.

Going to school in the city is great because the tuition is cheap. Tuition is about $4,600 a year and eligible students get $11,000 in financial aid a year. You can use that money on your expenses, which is even better than a job. Your parents will always be there to help you out with some chores when you run short of time to meet your deadlines. There are more recruiters in city schools because most companies would rather not travel so far into the state universities to recruit. There are more job opportunities and more clubs/fairs than most people think. Although Baruch is a commuter school, you can get involved with a lot of clubs if you're willing to devote your time for it. When you join the clubs, they hook you up with jobs, create more networking opportunities, and even invite you to parties (hosted every week). It depends on what you want to get out of college.

If at any point you feel like going away to study, the school offers study abroad programs that allow students to go to school in another country. This way, you can travel, learn their culture, their language, and network with new friends in a totally different place.

I know that going to state universities give you the whole college experience and all, but I always get mixed opinions about living in dorm. Some say dorms are mad fun and some say that dorms are overrated. Some say they go just because the college is more prestigious than CUNYs. But learning-wise, I think CUNY students are taught the same material as the teachings in private colleges. Grades solely depend on how you compare to the people around you. Since CUNYs tend have lower standards of acceptance, there are other people that deserve (and will get) lower grades than you. That doesn't mean you're smarter than the student population; it just means you're smarter than the dumber part of the student population.

Some say going to out-of-state universities are good because it helps a person develop skills on how to be independent. Living in dorms will probably make me more independent, but why can't I learn how to be independent when it's necessary to be independent? So are you saying that I would be fucked when my parents aren't there for me because I never had the experience of being independent? I think that people are capable of taking care of themselves when they have to. If I was forced to move away to live, I think I'd manage just fine. Does my independency learning curve have to be gradual? I think not.

I understand that you don't have your parents to bother you all the time when you go away, but they save me a lot of time from work that they can help me out with. They peel the fruits, buy the groceries, cook the food, clean the place, and do the laundry. In return, they don't have to pay for my college tuition because the city got me covered =). I never even have to ask them for expense money.

Of course scholarships and tuition costs play a big role in decision making. What is your view of CUNYs before and after this post? Did I change your views in any way?

Chikirin Takudotoji

What's your ninja name?

Please do not hold the car doors open while the train is in the station

I take the N train to and from school every day. My round-trip commute takes about two hours; maybe a little more because of rush hour traffic. The only problem I have with the MTA is when it is super crowded and they still provide slow service. Instead of spending all our fare-hike dollars on making bus stops appear more luxurious, the money should be allocated on providing faster and more frequent service. Everyone is trying to catch the crowded train and delaying the trains because passengers try to hold the doors open, trying to squeeze in. Other than that, I have very little to complain.

If I manage to get a seat on the train and am not traveling home with friends that keep me awake, I wind up at Coney Island 1 out of 10 times. The N train has become a comfort zone for me to sleep. I was never a victim of being robbed while sleeping on the train and I never feel insecure when I doze off. Riding on the train is actually very productive for me because I get most of my work done there. If I decide not to do work, I can catch up on my Z's, especially now, during midterms week, when sleep is a luxury.

Driving a car to work or school with rush hour traffic can actually take you longer to get to your destination. Plus, even when there's traffic on the train, you can use your time to read a book or sleep. When you drive, you always have to keep your eye on the wheel. Of course it's more comfortable being in your own car, but the travel time is longer, the money economy is more expensive, and you can't direct your attention to working on-the-go.

Many of my friends complain about obese people on the train, the seat-seeking Chinese ladies, and the stinky bums, but I've grown used to it and it never bothered me as much as it bothered them. One thing that does bother me are people that take up the whole walkway when they tread slow. If I had to choose one thing that values most to me, it has to be time-efficiency.

Do you like traveling through public transit? What do you like about it? What ticks you off? What should the MTA do to improve their services?

Honor system

Business students are generally ambitious and willing to do anything to get what they want. The question is their likelihood of suffering the consequences. Coming from a Baruch College student's point of view, I see students getting away with cheating everyday.

Just to name a few acts of cheating I have seen students commit during exams:

• Having a whole textbook on the floor in front of them
  
• Sitting on their textbooks and/or notes
• Asking for help when the instructor steps out of the room
• Asking for help from students in the previous classes that just took the exam
  
• Having notes written on the labels of their water bottles
• Sticking notes inside pens with the clear tubes
• Storing information in their graphing calculators
• Whispering between test-takers
  

Baruch requires students pursuing a B.B.A. degree to take a lot of humanity courses as part of the core curriculum. A lot of these introductory courses have at least a chapter on ethics. Attempting to get students involved, Baruch also hosts a lot of ethics discussions. The original purpose of Baruch mandating students to take these humanity classes is so that students do not enter the society as heartless and money-hungry cheaters. Not very effective.

Most instructors that believe in the honor system are just too lazy to take action. The most they do is say "keep your eyes on your own paper" when they catch someone taking a peek. As business students in the 21st century and possessing the luxuries of electronic devices, ethics is out of the question when the low-risk opportunities arise. If they're not going to take measures in preventing cheaters, I don't see how anyone could possibly fail their class.

I'm not saying I'm not guilty of these acts. As are most other students, I'm careful about it. What still baffles me is the amount of trust instructors put on their students by implementing the "honor system".

Earwax

Not long ago, I found out there are two types of earwax.

One is dry, flaky, and gray-colored. The dry type earwax is recessive and are found in mostly East Asians and Native Americans.


The other type of earwax is wet, gooey, and honey-brown colored. This is the dominant type of earwax and are abundant in Africans and Europeans.



People from some sort of Asian descent have a 30-50% chance of having the dry-wax. I have the wet-wax. I wonder how having dry-wax feels like.

Dental Visit

I haven't paid my dentist a visit for 3 years, so I decided to stop by for a checkup.

I told her my tooth aches when I bite down hard. She looks at my x-ray and spots my wisdom tooth on a slant, adjacent to my other tooth. So if I bite down on the adjacent tooth, my wisdom tooth pushes my gums, causing a lot of pain.

After that, I told her that my gums bleed when I brush my teeth. At first, she said not to brush so vigorously and that I need to come in for a cleaning every 6 months. She said my gums were very unhealthy. You know when your gums are bad when they swell up into a bubble and it's red instead of the regular pink color. I had two cavities and ended up getting two fillings.

After they finished with my cleaning, I was told to brush day and night, floss every one or two days, use a tongue scraper, and rinse with mouthwash 30 minutes after brushing. The only treatment I provided my teeth was a brush a day, floss when something big is stuck in between, and mouthwash when I have a canker sore.

Do you go through all these everyday procedures to ensure good dental hygiene?

Make It a Good Day!

Are our lives predetermined or are we in control? If we're in control, how much do we control?

You would expect a person working at a fast food franchise to say "Have a nice day!" when he/she hands you your change. This saying supports the philosophical view of determinism. Determinism is a belief that says things happen because of something that occurred before it. Most people who work at fast food franchises are trained to say "Have a Good Day" after handing you your change. This saying give customers a positive attitude when they hear it. Of course you want to act civilized so you respond, "You have a nice day too," even when you don't mean it.

"Have a nice day" has become a cliché so widely used that it is understood by people all over the world, including those who don't even speak English. The question is, do they really know what they're saying?

Many people don't understand what this cliché means. If you use this cliché, you're promoting the world to take you where it wants to take you. You have no control of how your day will be like. You become reactive of your environment instead of proactive. That is, waiting for a miracle to happen instead of increasing your chances of making it happen. The world would have no innovations and there would be no such things as leaders.

Since there are innovations in this world, and there are people that possess great leadership skills, we are all guilty for using this cliché. There is another belief called free will, in which a person has complete control of his/her future. But that is unlikely because of the glass ceiling limitations that would stop you.

The glass ceiling effect is when you climb up a ladder, you see all the opportunities, but you can't get ahold of it because a glass ceiling hinders your way of reaching to the other side. Such limitations include discrimination against sexes, races, or disabilities. It can also be interpreted as being limited to time, money, and resources.

An alternative to the cliché would be "Make it a good day!" since you do have some control of how your future would be like. I believe we have control of ~50% of our lives. How much of our lives do you think we control?

Internet sharing

The problem with teaching your mom how to use internet is sharing bandwidth with her. But what's worse is that she does not stop, which makes a gamer very angry!

So it seems that every time my mom streams, Optimum Online caps our bandwidth so that I spike up to 10892ms latency when I'm trying to play with my Warcraft III. It is horrifying to watch my irresponsive hero die, despite my effort to click it back at 500 clicks per second.

She is a stay-home mom so she is either on the internet streaming those HD Chinese videos or talking on the VoIP. Either way, she eats up all the bandwidth. Not only does she stream HD videos, she thinks the videos load slow. So while she waits for the stream to buffer, she goes to talk on the phone or do some household chores. Because we pay for VoIP, she complains that the other end of the phone hears jitter. Maybe if she noticed the effects of streaming, she will stop for a while? Seriously, how can someone possibly stream videos for the whole day?

I prefer her not to stream HD videos, but finding another site to satisfy her streaming addiction is hard. On top of that, I'd have to teach her how to search for the videos, find out the English name of the HKTV series through research, click on the links, and verify that she's a human through CAPTCHA's turing test. Not gonna happen.

Instead of her calling me through the telephone's intercom all the time to teach her how to download her media, I thought of another plan. I figured since all my friends paid $30 for their 3Mbps line from Verizon DSL, I should just fork out $30 a month so I can actually use the internet without having my Shoutcast buffer every 10 seconds and getting dropped from every Warcraft III game. So I went on the Verizon site to check what they have in store for me. I found out that $30/month service is only available to those who already have Verizon phone lines! The 3Mbps service costs $40 by itself. FML!

Optimum Online promised us with unlimited bandwidth but it is apparently capped now. Wiki says,

"After being throttled, there is no notification by Optimum Online other than reduced bandwidth performance. The customer must call Optimum Online to find out what has happened. Only then does Optimum Online inform the customer of the cap and tells its customers that after the fourth incident of throttling, your service will be terminated permanently."

So the initial cause of the bandwidth capping is all because of her excessive streaming. (Great!) At least we know that Optimum Online is smart enough by not terminating our service because they are still making an extra $50 revenue by providing $30 service.

Sharing internet with people in the same household sucks!