Hurry! Click!

Freebies, everyone wants them, especially when you make it into a competition.

Take for example, crowd goes wild when parade participants throws out bits of candy. It's a peppermint for crying aloud! No need to poke someone's eye out to get to it. If that peppermint wasn't thrown into a crow and instead placed in a jar on the side of the table somewhere, will we see the people do a mad dash for it? I highly doubt it.

So what is it that makes us go ga ga whenever there's free stuff handed out but in limited supplies? Perhaps it's more of the rush knowing that you beat out others, making us feel somewhat superior.. even if it's just for a wrapped candy.

American Express brought the fun to a whole new level with their introduction of My Wishlist.

Now it's like participating in a lotto.. instead of picking the numbers, you click and click with your mouse and test your typing skills to fill out the information in time to gain the prize.

I got all 3 coupons today. Amazon, Best Buy, and Home Depot.

Dam I am good!

True Cost of Time = More Time

Today was one of those days that timing really screwed with me...

Morning sun made its way through my windows to conspire with my bladder to wake me up from my slumber. It was 8 am. I turned on my celly to hear the voicemail of a friend that today's meetup is on. Since it looked like a clear, sunny, but brisk day out, I thought a walk to the post office to pickup my certified mail would be a good idea. Then I can come back and catch the 9:35 am train into the city.

Mistake #1. I got there around 8:30 am only to find that the post office does not open until 9. What to do, what to do.. do I run back or just hang around the empty parking lot until the gates are lifted? I opted to head home to shower and then drive back. Mistake #2.

Although my friend would appreciated my clean scent, it sure did cut things tight. By the time I drove back to the post office, it was already 9:17 am. As soon as I stepped in, I silently cursed, "Are you F* kidding me?" To my horror, there's already a line with at least 5 people in front of me and 2 of which had at least 6 boxes to ship out. So I thought to myself, "Okay, let's see the man is going to the back room, maybe to ask for a 3rd person to help in the front."

Noooooooo........ instead of putting another man up to the front desk to help with other customers, yes, customers, the long line continues to accrue more and more people as we watch the 2 front desk people manage each box. Let's just say 5 minutes per box X 6 = 30 minutes at least. That's 30 minutes at least of waiting time for the rest of us.

Inefficiencies... a good business manager would've put another person to help out with a line that has 8+ people in it. Do you think Kinkos would let a line get 8 people long when there's others around to help? Most likely not! Perhaps this says something about the efficiency within the US government.

When my brain finally gave in to the idea that I am not going to get my mail today, it was already 9:25 am. Due to no parking is available near the train station without permit, I had to park on residential streets. By the time I ran down the hill, my train was whizzing by. "Great, F* great." To catch the next train, I ran back to my car to drive it to the next train station hoping to beat the train.

I finally released a sigh of relief as I stood on the platform, ticket in hand, waiting for my 10:10 am train to pull in.

10:05 am - whohoooo my train arrives!!! Mistake #3.

It was not my train. Yes, unfortunately I found out only after I heard the announcement WHILE sitting on the train which is now taking me further away from the city. Great, this is turning out to be a nightmarish day.

That one I had no one to blame but myself.

I made the best of my time as I waited at the next station to catch the city bound train this time. At 10:36 am. The train finally came. The old lady confirmed that this is the train to get on. Thank goodness for old ladies. They don't judge.

Finally, I made it to the city and just in time to submit my name in the lottery drawings for Wicked and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This would be my 3rd attempt to get lottery tickets for Wicked. Long behold, I wasn't surprised when my name wasn't called for Wicked. Still we had one more chance at getting cheap tickets. After spending 30 minutes at Cosi's for lunch, we were back in front of the door for the drawing. Names after names were announced, sorely defeated I was ready to walk away when my name was called out!! Whooo!!! I did a little hop "that's me!" yeaaaaaahhh... finally I won something!

See that little pin? Each of the lottery winners gets one for keepsake. Aww......


One word to describe the show - cozy. It was a small theater staged as a school's stadium which is really great cuz I hate it when big head sit right in front of me. Not that I would have problem this time because as lottery winners, some gets front center, others get first row on the sides.

For $25, I can't complain about seeing mostly the side profile of the actors.

Fun show to go and if you go for the lottery, you have a really good chance of getting picked due to the small number of people that actually show up for the lottery. Dunno why.


Even though I wasted a lot of time waiting this morning to get to my final destination, the day turned out pretty good. Saw a show, spent time with 2 friends, and had a filling dinner in Chinatown.

A Good Day

What a gift! Today was the most perfect November day ever! Well at least the most perfect for me when I do venture outside.

Ahh.. that breeze .... you know the day's gotta be great when you walk out and immediate enveloped by this most warm feeling... kinda like the powers telling you "Hey there! Go have fun now. It's a good day."

A beeeeauutiful day. This is the kind of day where every creature comes out of hiding... the 4 legged critters, the 2 legged ones, the old, the young, even the ones that can't even walk yet. After some box moving, it was time for a short hike!

My hiking buddy found a little park that was in between our locations - Lord Stirling Park. The description on the site mentioned some swamp land and level trails. Since we had limited daylight now that sun sets quite early, a short hike for today is perfect.

We got to the park at 2:40pm and got out of the park by 5:15pm.

During those brief 2 hours, plenty of pit stops were made to allow for proper picture taking time. We traveled across swamp patches on boardwalks and by the end of the day it was more like trudging through mud patches. Squish.. Squish.. the sound my sneakers made as I attempted to walking through another wet muddy section of the trail. By the end of our 3.5 mile leisure hike, I satisfied my outdoor exposure for the day and was happy with some of the shots that I took. A digi SLR and a tripod would've made me a lot happier but hey it's all good.

Thanks to the Garmin, we found a place to feed our tummies - Thai Thai. Aptly named, the Thai restaurant was surprising good and very busy.

I hiked.
I took.
I ate.

A very good day indeed.

In The Name of Greater Good

Channel surfing after Smallville ended when I saw a PBS documentary presentation on chimpanzees once used as lab animals for various medical products and procedures.

For the next 40 minutes, I watched as the camera showed the chimps in their man-made habitat, which, for the most part consisted of concrete floors and metal bars. I listened as the narrators and their caretakers re account the harsh life these animals endured. It was absolutely heart wrenching to see these creatures, humans' distant cousins, so used to living in cages that when given freedom to explore green pastures, they were afraid to step off the hard concrete.

In the name of greater good, we have done so many things.

Survival of the fittest, I get that. The strong shall survive and get the bragging rights to write history.

Will I stop using modern medication? No. But when I do take it next time, I'll think of those that made it possible for me to suffer a little less and live a little longer.

Personal Productivity

How does one measure personal productivity?

Work? Work productivity is easy to calculate. Someone has already setup metrics, goals, target dates, billable hours, and other standards to which you are to meet to be deemed productive. But what about in our own lives? Who decides when we are productive and when we are just globs taking up space?

Me, I say me. I get to decide. Some days I give myself a big pat on the ass just for getting up to shower and eat. Other days, when the nagging me takes over, I force myself to make up TODO lists and do them (or try very hard). Today is one of those days.

The notepad is full of items to cross off by the end of the day. It's funny how the most important and the most pressing items are always passed over until all the easier, minor tasks are finished and you have no excuse but to tackle the big ones.

I did a lot today I have to say. Balancing accounts, scanning in sheets (joyful task but not for 5 hours), financial research, browsing, and lastly the most important item - sending out the referral form. Phew... I was drained by dinner time. Sorting through records really takes a toll. During one of my many mini breaks to keep sanity in check, I found a pretty cool site - 37signals.

The founders of the site are developers for simple, and intuitive software. One of which I found useful right away - Ta-da List. It's an online ToDo list keeper. How convenient. Now I can be reminded everywhere I go that I got crap loads of things that are yet to be finished. Do I really need additional stress?

Tomorrow, tomorrow will be play day.

What Did I Miss

I am an emotional mess.

Just finished watching Click and blew my nose 3 times already. If I wore make-up, I would be streaking like those 80s rockers. This, was a total surprise of a tear jerker. Adam Sandler's recent movies do do justice to the word "dramadey".

Armed with a brilliant script, Adam Sandler leads us through a refreshing premise to reiterate the important things in life....

- family comes first
- live and engage each moment

I identify with Michael Newman - the main character of the movie 100%. Well not so much the part where he has a gorgeous wife, 2 cute kids, and a humping dog, but with the work part. Where work monopolized all his time and focus. To get work done everything else takes the back burner; let it be personal projects, family, friends, ... life. Years later, like Michael, I am asking myself what did I miss and how can I miss all that. Everyone got older, including myself, the little ones grew up and the old... passed on.

Not to reveal too much of the movie, we often don't appreciate the things we've got until they are gone.

I shook my head at a lot of the scenes in the movie. Why? Because I see myself doing the exact same thing everyday. What a schmuck.

Great movie. Shame on me.