Investment for a Rainy Day

If I had enough money and enough time, I would definitely inquire about investing in the stock market. It's fun, first of all, and you're supporting US economy. Since many have extra cash, due to the recent tax season, it would behoove you to invest or at least save with some sort of interest.

Pointers? I think to succeed in the stock market (and I don't mean the Martha Stewart way... just the regular Joe way) you need to have patience. Companies like Microsoft or Coke didn't get blown up into multi-billion dollar empires overnight. I like to recommend satellite and internet radio stations and companies. Like XM. With the FCC getting stern and strict with progressive and thinking-outside-the-box DJ's, many will inevitably have to switch stations. For example Howard Stern. If he decides to move his 15 million fanbase to an internet radio station, I will have to assume that that radio station's stock will rise logarythmically, extremely fast at first, and taper off. So earlier you put in the dough, the faster and larger your return. That's just my two cents... of course if I were to invest, all I have would be those two cents...

VPL vs. Up Yo Ass

I am all about being comfortable. So the search for the ultimate thong continues. As a woman with more than just a mediocre sense of fashion, I realize that VPL (translate: visible panty line) is the ultimate faux pas. And as a woman who has tried numerous thongs of varying sizes and shapes and brands, wearing a thong comfortably is harder than reaching nirvana. Or perhaps finding that fab thong is nirvana. Either way, I am glad that the search has ended!

My best friend is a thong-lover. She likes wearing fashionable underclothing. She's hip. She's thin. She's well-tanned. She's more of a sex-on-the-beach, chilling in Malibu type. So I take heed when she says thongs are comfy. I try it. I fail. It seems impossible. Basically it's the rear portion of it that is so irritating. With my expertise in the human anatomy, having a thong irritate that portion of the body is not only uncomfortable, it is also just asking for an infection. You're basically rubbint E. coli, among other bacteria, up and down. Not a pretty picture, eh? So I'm a geek.

I opened up an Angels card with Vicky's, and received various coupons. I went and found a great deal on mesh panties. I'm not fan of mesh, but since it was a pretty good deal, I decided to give it a go. Who would have known, mesh thongs would work for me? It's cute, it's pink, it's comfy. Yesterday was my first attempt, and mission was accomplished. I am now a converted thong person.

Not many men know the pains women go through. They just shudder when women mention bits and pieces of the ordeals, like getting used to a thong, or plucking eyebrows and etc.. But it's reality. You know, there are thongs for men. Perhaps any men would like to give it a go?

Long Time No Blog

Here's the update:
My home PC is getting rejuvenated (aka formatted) so I haven't had internet access at home for a while. For important stuff, I burrowed my mom's computer a bit. Even my work PC's have some glitches, and I haven't had the time to blog at work either.

But hopefully next week, as I do return from my Spring Break (which always lacks the "girl's gone wild" motif) things will settle to some state of normalcy.

Idol Underdog, William Hung

The American Idol underdog, William Hung is supposed to appear at the Hollywood Bally Total Fitness sometime soon! Ain't that sumthin'?

What's My Motivation?

I am trying to hit the gym at least five times a week. In addition to my usual 30 minutes of cardio, I am adding some weight-lifting exercises, mostly using machines, but still, the fun factor is virtually non-existent. At one time, trying to make myself run one more minute was fun, but that got tiring when you're trying to run half an hour. To fit people everywhere: what does your mind do when you're exercising? I'm a highly intellectual being -- my brain needs to do some information processing revolutions, all the time! Even when I'm watching TV, data is being fed to me, albeit mostly useless.

I guess I can stay longer than half an hour on a treadmill or the bike, but what can I tell my brain to do? Reading is virtually impossible, although I've seen many admirable people sweating and reading the Wall Street Journal. I can't focus on such tiny writings when I'm in motion. And magazines with mostly pictures... how I can expect myself to turn pages every other second when I'm jogging? I try to watch the TV, but the radio station we're supposed to tune into (for the sound) doesn't tune well in the building.

So because of the boring-ness, I am losing motivation very quickly. I had to debate for nearly two hours whether or not I would go to the gym. Finally, I had to resort to the Victoria's Secret's catalogue for motivation. Gisele is hot!

Reality TV just got Real, for Realz

If there's anything that can make the joy of watching The Apprentice even greater, it is reading about it. I have never been much of a reality show fan, despite the numerous hours spent in front of my telly. Most of the time, I'd rather watch sitcoms and teen dramas, such as Gilmore Girls, even though they are rather cheezy. But the Donald's "You're Fired," which will soon be, "You're Fired™," just caught the figures on my remote and is not letting me go.

One of the reasons why I am hooked on NBC on Thursdays is because this show, above all other reality show, is actually real. Even the Donald's notorious comb-over hair is real. I mean, how real is putting a bunch of people on an island and seeing who survives? How close to our reality is that? The Apprentice reflects the real world that we currently reside in; it is a mirror of our society. Trump's unrealistic amount of wealth isn't quite tangible to average joes and janes like You and Me, but that's the cynical, cold, hard truth, isn't it? How many of the people who watch this show can expect to make so much money in their lifetime?

Another "real" (the term, "real" has been just done and re-done and killed over and over -- I feel like banning it from my list of vocabulary) aspect of the show is how the women only got so far. In an article in USA Today, Irma Herrera writes, "The Apprentice has only one woman left standing beside three male peers for the final rounds. At last, reality TV is starting to look like reality." And she has the numbers to back it up. Although about 50% of all law school graduates are female, and yet they represent less than 17% of partners in major law firms. Although women are approximately 30% of graduates of MBA programs, they are only 2.7% of the Fortune 500. I seriously doubt that all the women are out there doing just pro bono work.

It is a sad reality. I found Amy to be an extremely clever individual. I sincerely thought that she would make a better candidate to run a Trump corporation than Kwame. And it's not just cuz she's a woman. I honestly think that Bill present himself better, and Troy, who was fired a bit earlier, although without fancy college degrees, would have made an excellent CEO.

How much of this is set in stone? Are women doomed to carry inferior positions and receive less pay than men forever? I don't think anyone believes that women are innately incapable of doing intellectual work that men are capable of, or that women are less adequate than men in performing any intellectual brain-work task. Evidently, the glass ceiling does exist, and while more and more women are out there proving that this can be shattered, one has to admit that this is a lengthy and tiring feat, making the labors of Hercules seem very trivial. But as The Apprentice subtly portrays, the reality isn't the sunny-side up happy face we pretend it to be.

Portrait of Haemi as a Student

Taken randomly, just now, while Operation Desk Clean-Up™ was in progress.

Nabee

My cat frequently sits on my window sill and looks down (I'm on the second floor). She hates the outdoors, but she's always sitting by the window with her tail curled, watching. She's a indoor housecat looking out. What is she thinking...?

Cookie Monster

Is this:

So bad...? Each cookie has 140 calories, a total of 7g of fat, 2.5 of which is saturated, and 16g of carbs. But the yummy factor... mmmmm....

Vodka

As a former hardcore Soju-drinker, I have never had vodka. In fact, I've never had cocktail drinks (other than cocktail soju, which I used to make!) such as white russians or mai tai. Actually, that is, until recently. My first time at a bar, I didn't know what to order except beer. I mean, what is Mai Tai? What is Sex on the Beach? Would they be something I would be able to drink? Would they be tasty? And of course, I don't have any casual drinkers in my social group (just other soju-fans) so I had no one to ask. I'll tell you the memorable story about my first time at a bar.

There's a first time for everything, and the first times are the times when you usually goof up or don't turn out the way you want. Let's just say I've pulled off other first times a lot more gracefully than this one. As an agent for T-Mobile, I was invited with some friends/colleagues to a promotional event at the House of Blues in Anaheim (I believe the city is Anaheim -- either way, it's pretty far south from where I live -- approx. 40 miles). But the House of Blues is a very nice, and it is located inside of Downtown Disney, which is a modest hodgepodge of shopping areas and restaurants/bars. Inside the place, we were given a buffet of very nice foods (there were more than five different blocks of cheese -- some where bright yellow, some were ivory, some were almost green!).

After dinner, we headed to the bar to get something. It was extremely crowded, and the bar was packed with people waving their money in the air and screaming out stuff. My friends all clamored to get beers, and were surprised that I would want something else. I was craving something fruity. I didn't want beer -- I was already too stuffed. But I lacked the savvy knowledge of these mixed drinks. So I decided to see what the person infront of me would order and if it looked good, ask them what he/she got. As you know, I'm just so logical like that.

A rather tall and large gentleman of African American (or is it just Black now? I'm just so not PC) descent was infront of me. He got his drinks and I saw that they were something orange and something yellow. Looked fruity and sweet enough, so I asked him what he got. Of course it was very loud and crowded and busy. But instead of telling me what he got, he told me what I should get. He told me that I should get "gold rusher." What this gold rusher is, I will perhaps never know, because when I got to the bartender, he said that he was out of the gold rusher. But he said he could get me a J?germeister, which of course, I spelled as "yay-girl-meister" back then. From what he said, I assumed that this J?germeister was similar to the gold rusher, which the original gentleman in this story recommended to me. So I said ok.

The bartender passed onto me a pastic cup, perhaps a 12 oz cup. At the very bottom of this cup, there was about 2 ounces of dark, mirky black liquor, and the smell was very offensive. I didn't want to look stupid (which is actually the source that makes us appear even more stupid, if I may add) so I pretended that I knew this J?germeister was supposed to be like this and walked out to meet my friends, who all had their bottles of Coors light in their hands. And I was stuck with the J?ger. I'm sure this can be a wonderful drink, and I'm sure many love it. But I was expecting something like a fruity margarita, and this, which seemed like a watered down tar, was very very not what I wanted.

Then I decided, like everything I buy, I will need to learn about it. So I actually did some research, and found some fruity drinks that seemed harmless enough, and went to places and ordered them. Now I can order a midori sour and know what I am going to get. So this brings me to my life, 2004.

I was once an alcohol-aficionado. I loved to drink. I'm no alcoholic, unless to be an alcoholic means to love alcohol, which then, I'll be an alcoholic. But along with my sudden growth spurt of lactose intolerance also came a lack of tolerance for alcohol -- I couldn't drink half of what I used to drink, and hangovers and vomiting became more frequent. Which became bad, because when my friends meet, we usually meet and drink. We don't go watch movies, or check out new gallery openings. We go to a Korean version of the pub and drink and talk. But when I can't drink, the whole point is missed. In Korean societies, you must drink -- not drinking makes you an outcast. You are excluded. So I find this a problem.

I was working on a new blog template -- something I can submit to Blogskins.com as my first piece. I wanted a vodka theme, so I checked out some vodka websites, like Absolut.com and so on. Then I got a craving for vodka, although I've never had straight vodka. And vodka is expensive. But I became crazy and went to my local Ralph's after doing my laundry, in my matching top and bottom periwinkle track suits which I only wear as pajamas and when I run out of clothing as I did last Friday (huge run-on sentence!). I bought a Skyy melon (notice that all major vodka websites are beautifully done in flash and animation and sexy music.). This is tasty. It's fruity, but it's got kicks, like a hard liquor should. I'm concocting several recipes and drinking them. I'm starting to become a vodka aficionado and I think I'm loving it!

Beautiful Sunday

Somewhere between 11AM and noon, I woke up to find myself, receiving a stream of cascading sunlight which flooded my bed. After over a week of overcast days, the sunshine brought me back among the living -- quite frankly, I felt like a zombie puttering around the last couple of days. Finally, I can use natural light for my room, instead of turning on the electrical lights, which stinks in my room. The halogen is too dim, and the fluorescent is too bright (enough to keep me zoned out for days!). But anyhoot, it's a lovely lovely terrific fabulous day.

I Love Coffee, I Love Tea

I do. I really love coffee and love tea, and these days, I prefer'em over alcohol! I usually have tea in the evenings, especially green tea during the nights I have to burn the midnight oil. I drink coffee throughout the day, but mostly in the morning and after lunch. But these things, as wonderful as they are, never taste quite as good when consumed leisurely. For example, now. It's a Sunday. Sunday is my only day off from the week, and even this holy day had a long To-Do List™, such as laundry, cleaning the bathroom sink, reading the dreaded Beowulf, filling out nursing program applications, etc. etc. etc. But I did my laundry on Friday, and next week is Spring Break (I'm off from school). The nursing apps are done, so on this fantastic Sunday, I have leisure. And coffee this morning (actually it's a bit past 1PM, but feels like AM because I just got up two hours ago!) is just fabulous.