Mild Amusement

A while back, I had some friends ask me if I wanted to go with them to the opera. I have no qualms about occasionally going to events that are a tad more refined , so I didn't immediately dismiss the idea. In hindsight, that one decision was completely worth it. First off, the two friends who invited me weren't sure that I would be interested at all. They would later confess that they were both iffy on whether or not I had the requisite amount of class to be interested in the opera. In fact, there were some Facebook posts to this effect. Well then, gauntlet thrown and challenge accepted. And as it turned out, I'd actually signed up for an account with the SF Opera when I did Opera in the Park a few years back. I was more than a tad amused to (re)discover this fact, so I triumphantly reported said fact. Well then, I'd agreed to go see the opera. That's when the fun really started. When I said I'd go, I was met with, only slightly paraphrased, "OMG, real...

I like to listen to music at work , but I work in a cubicle environment. Ultimately, that means I have to wear headphones in order to listen to music. However, I also work for a large enough company where I work with lots of other people. It's not uncommon for someone to stop by my desk to ask me a question, or for me to have a discussion with other people in my cube. So, I have to make it easy for people to get my attention, even though I wear headphones. My usual answer to this dilemma is to only use one side of the headphones. The particular set of headphones I use are of the over the head style, so I simply just brush one ear pad back so that it doesn't cover my ear. That way, I can still listen to music, but I will also be able to notice if someone calls my name or otherwise tries to get my attention. My coworkers have noticed, too. One lady noticed when she walked by, and she commented that she thought it was a good idea. I hadn't really thought about it much ...

I have this habit of rolling up my sleeves. I don't really remember why I started doing it, but I do know that it's become second nature for me. If I'm not wearing a short-sleeved shirt, I will almost automatically roll up the sleeves. I do this with all kinds of clothing: dress shirts at work, sweaters, sweatshirts, athletic gear, you get the idea. I pretty much never keep my sleeves rolled down unless I have to (say if I'm wearing a suit at a wedding). I also like to be active, so I will occasionally go on hikes or go on runs. One day several weeks back, I decided to go for a hike before hanging out with a buddy of mine. I specifically remember thinking that I should bring a hat to limit the amount of heat I lost and to protect myself from the sun, so the sun's effects must have been on my mind. I also intentionally wore long sleeves so that I wouldn't have to worry as much about wearing sunscreen or getting sun burn. Here's the thing, though, despite ...

Generally speaking, I can be convinced by a good argument. It's a natural outcome of being such a fan of logic and reason and having an engineering brain that relates problems to known ones , really. If you remember any of my "moment of truth" posts, (about forks and knives or about hugs ), this should come as no surprise. It's how my brain works, and I am constantly trying to learn new things that I can put to use. However, there are also some very interesting side effects of this particular trait. A while back, I had an appointment with  my dentist and she was going through the usual motions. All in all, my teeth were in pretty good shape, and she said as much. She did suggest that I could probably keep my teeth even cleaner by using mouth wash more often, though. When the technician finished up by cleaning my teeth, she repeated that advice. Except for she actually said that I could use hydrogen peroxide to do that cleaning. Now, I really didn't think too...

Remember how I like to listen to music over and over again ? And how I tend to do this at work as a means of helping me concentrate ? Well, those two facts are back in order to add just a little more amusement to my life. A while back, I was working away on something at the office, and I needed to listen to something to help me concentrate. I had heard a new song on the radio that morning that seemed like it'd do the trick, so I fired up YouTube and pulled up " Problem " by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea. The song has enough of a beat and up-tempo energy that it would provide useful white noise while I chugged along. As is my wont, though, I ended up listening to that song repeatedly throughout the day. That's all well and good, but since I listened to it so much, I figured out a decent chunk of the lyrics. Specifically, I heard enough of the rap verse to realize that I thought it was decent. It conveys the feeling of the song pretty well, I think. Anyhow, I was pl...

Let me start by recapping the story so far: There is a word in Cantonese that I've spelled as "kwai." It is an adjective that means, roughly, to be a good son or daughter. It has a lot of connotations of being obedient or doing the family proud, if that helps at all. During an exchange with the Mild Ex's mother, she declared me to be "kwai-er" (e.g., more kwai) than the Mild Ex. Everyone laughed Okay, so with that little bit of explanation out of the way, anyone who knows me should realize that this is precisely the sort of thing that would make me chuckle quite a bit. Given a choice, I'd probably throw in during random conversations for even more hilarity. It's a little too perfect to pass up the opportunity: I beat the Mild Ex at her own game (being a good Chinese kid), I actually understood the Chinese, and there was some creative language involved. This should be the source of banter for days. Note, also, that I kept saying this "...

I think I've mentioned it before, but I do speak a tiny bit of Chinese. It's usually just enough for me to pick out when people are talking about me, but unfortunately, that's not enough for me to really understand what people are saying. There's not enough context at that point for me to piece together what's being said. When people are talking about me, at least, I have the advantage of knowing the subject matter (read: me) better than anyone else. But other than that, it's very much a crap shoot. Luckily for me, I grew up with my Chinese grandmother around, so I managed to pick up some of the various words that she would say to us. Most of that is what I consider "table talk" (think along the lines of "pass the salt"). However, there was one word that I learned to appreciate quite a bit: kwai. Now, that's my English bastardization of the Cantonese, so if you actually speak Chinese, that might sound weird to you. Regardless, that...