Mild Amusement

So, I have an Asian last name. I understand some of the cultural mores and a small amount of Cantonese. I can even  pronounce some of it surprisingly well . While no one is going to confuse me for the most traditional Chinese person ever, I also don't feel like I'm out of place with my Chinese family. Heck, I even manage to surprise people every now and again . Of the limited Chinese I do understand, though, there are a few that have come up in amusing ways. I have a friend who will occasionally respond to IM's (side note: the phrase "IM messages" just seems wrong to me, because the second word is redundant) with a "hai!" She's basically just saying "yes" in another language. It's simple enough language that I understand it, but I'm always amused. It's a little bit like someone who will say " danke " or " grazie " instead of "thank you." It's sort of endearing in its own way. However, the...

A while back, I was asked to work on a project at work. The details aren't particularly important, except for one things. The application allows users to approve or deny a request that can potentially affect our department significantly. You wouldn't think that this would be particularly amusing, or even interesting, but trust me on this one. Sometimes, there are quite a few laughs to be had for work-related matters . So, let's start with some background information. One of the things you try to do when building a web site/application is to use common patterns that people are used to. It makes it easier if they don't have to re-learn everything. The icon for saving something is often a floppy disk , for that very reason. People just know what that means. You wouldn't pick an arbitrary image, since that would just confuse your users. Okay, so you pick patterns that people know. Basically, you copy off of other people. And if there's already a similar appli...

I am at the age where a bunch of friends either have kids or are due to have kids soon. For the most part, this is not a big deal for me, since I am quite used to being around munchkins. I'm going to be kind of confused when they grow up, since that'll be a new experience for me. For the moment, though, I get to see lots of munchkins. One thing I've noticed, however, is that some of these kids are WAY more stylish than I ever was. Yes, yes, the parents obviously have a hand in this. But some of it is also the kids, right? I mean, you could slap the latest Paris runway fashions on my body and I'd look preposterous. You still have to pull off the look. And man, do these kids have a head start in that department. Let's start with a birthday party for some munchkins I happened to attend. One little girl, probably about 5 or 6, came running up to her mom at one point and asked if she could take off her shoes. We were in a playground thing, so I figured she just wante...

I walk funny . Or at least that's what I've been told. It's not exactly like I can watch myself while walking, so I just have to take other people's word for it. If enough people tell me that I have a bit of a strut, then I have a bit of a strut. Luckily for me, it doesn't come up all that often. Aside from the anecdotes in the linked post, it's not a daily part of my life. About the only thing that comes to mind was that one of the Mild Exes once asked me to do a "pimp limp" version of the walk down the runway. Otherwise, it's just not something I think about. In fact, I'd pretty much forgotten that anyone has ever told me this before. That changed recently. One day at work, I had to talk to my coworker so I stopped by her desk. We chatted about the issue, and then I wandered off to get some water for myself. Now, I should note that there is a fairly high wall surrounding her cubicle, so as soon as I walked away, she couldn't see me. I...

I am no stranger to colds and the flu. I get sick every now and again , and it leads to a surprising amount of laughter  ("sick juice" still cracks me up). As I've said before, it's actually a minor miracle that I'm not sick more often than I am. I'm around kids quite a bit and I get up quite early on a regular basis. About the only things that would make me more prone to being sick would be getting old or having a compromised immune system. Luckily, neither of those two things have happened. Regardless, I do keep myself armed with a box of tissue and some cold meds, just in case my body starts acting up during the middle of the day. Generally speaking, I just try to sleep it off. In some cases, that's all it takes. If I simply sleep in for three or four hours, that's often enough to get my sinuses to calm down and get my body back on track. In fact, I often spend the rest of the afternoon trying to be productive (i.e., getting some work done). So...

I remember the first time I had dinner at a friend's house. It was actually unintentional, because my parents were running late to pick me up. They called ahead and apologized profusely, but my friend's parents said it was no big deal and said I could just have dinner with them. The reason I remember it so well was that this was before I had started to realize that I eat really quickly ( fast enough to get myself sustenance 15 minutes before a show ). So, a young Sam ate at the speed he normally did, without thinking anything of it. I think there were a few jokes about how I actually enjoyed the food more than anyone else did, but even these remarks went over my head. Besides, even if I had slowed down at that point, I was still going to finish before everyone else. When I had cleared my plate, though, I looked around to see that others were still eating. What now? This was when I realized that I didn't quite know what to do at this point. If I had been at home, I could...

Like I've said before, I tend to eat a lot . Many of the things I like happen to be carb-heavy, and I've often described my favorite meals as "hearty." This is nothing new, and the fact that I've written about it before is proof enough that this is a long-standing habit of mine. However, there are a few new twists to this story. Let's start with an unintended Sam meal. There is a set of food trucks that stop by our offices every now and then,  and a coworker and I decided to grab lunch from one of them. Now, there are some really well known food trucks (e.g., Chairman Bao ), but the one we decided to patronize wasn't one like that. Honestly, I don't remember the name. However, I do remember what we both ordered. It was a giant helping of nachos. I actually saw some lady walk by after she had ordered that, and it immediately appealed to me. So, I got the same thing. To give you some idea of how big these nachos were, I carried it with two hands at s...