Merry Christmas
I wonder if I am supposed to get Christmas presents for any of my supervisors. The head manager of my division has been super nice to me ever since I started working. She stops by my desk all the time just to make sure I'm doing alright, when I know she is probably one of the busiest people there. Always going on business trips, conducting interviews, holding project meetings, etc. Plus she is a 3-star top secret bigshot so most of us 1 and 2-star suckas are supposed to fear her. So I feel like I should get something for her.
Also the secretary lady who wishes everyone "Happy Monday" through "Happy Friday" was real good to me too. Anytime I needed anything at all, she would order it for me or dig it out of her personal stash of goodies and give it to me (haha it sounds like I'm talking about weed but I'm not). Not to mention free M&M's, Sour Starbursts everyday and doughnuts or danishes on fridays.
Hmmm.... too bad I suck at buying gifts and I'm too lazy.
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Shortest Blog Ever
With all the long blogs I write, I was due for a short entry. I'm too tired today to write much.
Woke up, drove to work, worked, drove for almost 2 hours to Chicago, held Olivia's bags for her while she shopped at Water Tower Place, ate Quiznos, came home, read people's sites and ESPN.com, now time for bed.
That was the first time I've ever had Quiznos. It was simply breathtaking, I can't believe I went so long missing out on the freshly baked goodness. Never going to Subway again. Maybe next I will try Chipotle (CHAI-POTEL as I call it).
With all the long blogs I write, I was due for a short entry. I'm too tired today to write much.
Woke up, drove to work, worked, drove for almost 2 hours to Chicago, held Olivia's bags for her while she shopped at Water Tower Place, ate Quiznos, came home, read people's sites and ESPN.com, now time for bed.
That was the first time I've ever had Quiznos. It was simply breathtaking, I can't believe I went so long missing out on the freshly baked goodness. Never going to Subway again. Maybe next I will try Chipotle (CHAI-POTEL as I call it).
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Down With The Sickness
For some reason yesterday morning I woke up feeling like crap. But I went to work anyways. Well, that turned out to be a mistake.
So it got worse throughout the day until I got home and after dinner I started coughing up some nasty bloody stuff. Not good. Went to sleep at like 7, woke up at 10, watched an hour of football (haha Greg) then passed out again till this morning.
Good thing my immune system is like a tank cause in the morning I woke up feeling much better. Although I have to admit that I gargled with salt water before I went to sleep and that might have helped. It's kind of wussing out, but not as bad as taking medicine. I still say medicine is for losers.
Oh, I also have to admit that I wore a scarf and gloves this morning. It's the same scarf that my sister bought me last Christmas and it was still folded, sitting on my dresser with the tag on, until today. I guess I decided that staying warm and not getting any sicker today outweighed the negative of looking and feeling flamish. At least for today. I doubt I will wear it tomorrow, it's supposed to be 50 degrees anyways.
Nice, 50 degrees baby. Have you guys ever seen that commercial for some airline when they just have two guys standing at a bus stop all bundled up, and their comversation is something like this:
A - So, how was Florida?
B - Nice
A - Was the weather good?
B - Yep.
A - Were there a lot of pretty girls there?
B - Yep.
A - I bet the girls were wearing bikinis, huh?
B - Yep...
Well yesterday I was in a meeting with one of the higher managers at our division, and his wife called from Miami. Their conversation reminded me of that commercial, minus the talk about girls in bikinis. More in the whole, Chicago weather sucks thing and we all wish we were in Miami. Even though I don't think I mind the cold as most people. I think it would suck if there was no snowy weather during the winter. Just wouldn't seem right.
By the way, I've noticed it before but it never fails to amuse me how you can always tell when a guy gets a call from his woman. This manager guy I was meeting with was this big 3-star hotshot (top-secret clearance) meaning that pretty much 95% of the people in the building automatically respect and fear him at least a little. But here he was, as soon as his wife called, his whole tough corporate image melted in front of me as he started using his tender-loving-care voice like "hi dear....". Of course I had to pretend like I didn't notice and stop myself from snickering out loud but I can share this here. I don't think he reads my blog, at least I hope not.
One other thing happened at work, I got a new cube mate. He is this quiet kid and I'm basically showing him a bunch of basic stuff, like where's the cafeteria, employee store, how to login to the network, etc. So even though I have only been here 2 months, I'm no longer the baby of the group. Got some fresh meat to take care of already...
Oh yeah, I should put pears up there with tangerines as the elite class of fruit. I think eating those pears last night were clutch in helping me feel better. In fact, why don't I just take the chance to rank some fruit in the order of how much I like them:
1. Tangerines - Nuff said.
2. Pears - Originally, not that high on my list, but after they helped me feel better last night, jumped a few spots.
3. Oranges - Like tangerines, except bigger and harder to peel.
4. Peaches - Peaches come in a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown... If I had my little way, I'd eat peaches every day (remember that song?)
5. Lichees - People who have had these things canned in syrup know what I'm talkin bout. But if you have never had these off a branch and peeled this stuff yourself, you are missing out.
6. Cherries - Everybody loves cherries. Including me.
7. Mangos - It's an awesome fruit except kind of messy.
8. Watermelon - Messy like mangos. I ranked it below because these guys are more inconsistent as far as taste goes. I get a lot of bland watermelons, more so than bad mangos.
9. Grapefruit - The best way to eat grapefruit is to chop off the top, dump a teaspoon of sugar in, and start carving it out with a spoon. Does anybody else do that, or is it only a Chen thing?
10. Lemon - No, I don't eat lemons straight up, but they do make quality juices. Or should I say, they make quality "ades"? Anyways, I like how fresh lemons smell, almost more than any other smell in the world. If it was socially acceptable, I probably would've traded in my bottle of Polo Sport years ago for some lemon juice spray. Too bad it isn't... Maybe one of these days I can convince Olivia to trade her Estee Lauder Pleasures stuff?
11. Apples - The thing about apples is, sometimes they are awesome, but a lot of times they suck. They are too easily dented, have rotten spots, plus once you cut it open, you can't leave it out or else it turns all brown and nasty. Hence the low ranking.
12. Grapes - If there's one thing I hate, it's the taste and texture of grape skin. The inside is not bad, but just not worth the trouble of getting through the skin. Its only saving grace is the fact that they make good raisins.
13. Plum - Same as grapes. Replace "raisins" with "dates".
14. Strawberries - It's weird how strawberries can make such a fab flavor for Starburst, but they're otherwise way overrated. I hate how the seeds get stuck in your teeth, and unless you get a really good bunch, the taste is pretty worthless too.
15. Pineapples - Doesn't matter if they're chopped fresh, in a can with syrup, or made into a juice, I don't like them.
16. Kiwi - I don't like fruits with hair.
17. Banana - Like I explained before, only the really fresh green ones are worth eating, and only if they have no dark rotten spots too.
18. Durian - Nuff said.
I know this doesn't cover all of the fruits. But I am pretty sure everything falls between Tangerines and Durians.
For some reason yesterday morning I woke up feeling like crap. But I went to work anyways. Well, that turned out to be a mistake.
So it got worse throughout the day until I got home and after dinner I started coughing up some nasty bloody stuff. Not good. Went to sleep at like 7, woke up at 10, watched an hour of football (haha Greg) then passed out again till this morning.
Good thing my immune system is like a tank cause in the morning I woke up feeling much better. Although I have to admit that I gargled with salt water before I went to sleep and that might have helped. It's kind of wussing out, but not as bad as taking medicine. I still say medicine is for losers.
Oh, I also have to admit that I wore a scarf and gloves this morning. It's the same scarf that my sister bought me last Christmas and it was still folded, sitting on my dresser with the tag on, until today. I guess I decided that staying warm and not getting any sicker today outweighed the negative of looking and feeling flamish. At least for today. I doubt I will wear it tomorrow, it's supposed to be 50 degrees anyways.
Nice, 50 degrees baby. Have you guys ever seen that commercial for some airline when they just have two guys standing at a bus stop all bundled up, and their comversation is something like this:
A - So, how was Florida?
B - Nice
A - Was the weather good?
B - Yep.
A - Were there a lot of pretty girls there?
B - Yep.
A - I bet the girls were wearing bikinis, huh?
B - Yep...
Well yesterday I was in a meeting with one of the higher managers at our division, and his wife called from Miami. Their conversation reminded me of that commercial, minus the talk about girls in bikinis. More in the whole, Chicago weather sucks thing and we all wish we were in Miami. Even though I don't think I mind the cold as most people. I think it would suck if there was no snowy weather during the winter. Just wouldn't seem right.
By the way, I've noticed it before but it never fails to amuse me how you can always tell when a guy gets a call from his woman. This manager guy I was meeting with was this big 3-star hotshot (top-secret clearance) meaning that pretty much 95% of the people in the building automatically respect and fear him at least a little. But here he was, as soon as his wife called, his whole tough corporate image melted in front of me as he started using his tender-loving-care voice like "hi dear....". Of course I had to pretend like I didn't notice and stop myself from snickering out loud but I can share this here. I don't think he reads my blog, at least I hope not.
One other thing happened at work, I got a new cube mate. He is this quiet kid and I'm basically showing him a bunch of basic stuff, like where's the cafeteria, employee store, how to login to the network, etc. So even though I have only been here 2 months, I'm no longer the baby of the group. Got some fresh meat to take care of already...
Oh yeah, I should put pears up there with tangerines as the elite class of fruit. I think eating those pears last night were clutch in helping me feel better. In fact, why don't I just take the chance to rank some fruit in the order of how much I like them:
1. Tangerines - Nuff said.
2. Pears - Originally, not that high on my list, but after they helped me feel better last night, jumped a few spots.
3. Oranges - Like tangerines, except bigger and harder to peel.
4. Peaches - Peaches come in a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown... If I had my little way, I'd eat peaches every day (remember that song?)
5. Lichees - People who have had these things canned in syrup know what I'm talkin bout. But if you have never had these off a branch and peeled this stuff yourself, you are missing out.
6. Cherries - Everybody loves cherries. Including me.
7. Mangos - It's an awesome fruit except kind of messy.
8. Watermelon - Messy like mangos. I ranked it below because these guys are more inconsistent as far as taste goes. I get a lot of bland watermelons, more so than bad mangos.
9. Grapefruit - The best way to eat grapefruit is to chop off the top, dump a teaspoon of sugar in, and start carving it out with a spoon. Does anybody else do that, or is it only a Chen thing?
10. Lemon - No, I don't eat lemons straight up, but they do make quality juices. Or should I say, they make quality "ades"? Anyways, I like how fresh lemons smell, almost more than any other smell in the world. If it was socially acceptable, I probably would've traded in my bottle of Polo Sport years ago for some lemon juice spray. Too bad it isn't... Maybe one of these days I can convince Olivia to trade her Estee Lauder Pleasures stuff?
11. Apples - The thing about apples is, sometimes they are awesome, but a lot of times they suck. They are too easily dented, have rotten spots, plus once you cut it open, you can't leave it out or else it turns all brown and nasty. Hence the low ranking.
12. Grapes - If there's one thing I hate, it's the taste and texture of grape skin. The inside is not bad, but just not worth the trouble of getting through the skin. Its only saving grace is the fact that they make good raisins.
13. Plum - Same as grapes. Replace "raisins" with "dates".
14. Strawberries - It's weird how strawberries can make such a fab flavor for Starburst, but they're otherwise way overrated. I hate how the seeds get stuck in your teeth, and unless you get a really good bunch, the taste is pretty worthless too.
15. Pineapples - Doesn't matter if they're chopped fresh, in a can with syrup, or made into a juice, I don't like them.
16. Kiwi - I don't like fruits with hair.
17. Banana - Like I explained before, only the really fresh green ones are worth eating, and only if they have no dark rotten spots too.
18. Durian - Nuff said.
I know this doesn't cover all of the fruits. But I am pretty sure everything falls between Tangerines and Durians.
Monday, December 16, 2002
Finals
Blogger was being a biatch the past couple days. The dumb thing is that I was writing this thing on how I have stayed loyal to Blogspot for 6 months and not switched to Xanga like everyone else. Such as, every single Asian person, plus Michelle Branch.
So I am not gonna post my thing about blogger and instead I am writing about finals week. Not for myself, of course I graduated last semester and I will probably not have to experience finals for at least a few years.
A lot of the younger people I know are going through their finals week though. I remember back then those were some of the most stressful times I have ever been through and it is definitely one thing that I will never miss about college.
Some finals week stories come to mind:
1. Freshman year, with a ECE final the next morning, I stayed over at IT and for some reason we were both up early. So instead of taking the opportunity to study, we played some Starcraft and I ended up doing awesome on the final. I think that might have been the last time I could say I did awesome on a ECE final. That's probably why I still remember it right now. Plus it can be a good argument to support the playing of Starcraft.
2. Junior year, me and the boys went to Denny's at like 3am. Me and Rod ordered skillets and while we had our books open, we didn't study at all cause P and Chras were too busy teaching me how to "deke" in NHL for Genesis. If I dig into my old notebooks, I could probably find the diagrams they drew for me. Too bad I still can't deke effectively. Oh yeah, the next time I tried to go to Denny's, it was closed and there was a sign on the door saying how the next closest Denny's was in Bloomington or something. That sucked, cause after that we could only go to Perkins and the skillets there are weak sauce.
3. 2nd semester Junior year, I had to go to this Driving School class for my speeding ticket and being the disorganized fool I am, I ended up accidentally scheduling it right before my CS 257 final. It was pouring rain that day and I barely made it to the exam on time. Good thing I am awesome and I ended up smoking that test too and getting an A in the class.
Speaking of this class, this was one of my favorite classes in my 4 years of college, not because of the subject but because of the stories from that semester. First of all, the teacher (Ponce) was this girly French dude with a thick accent, who was a nice guy but couldn't teach. You could sit through a whole lecture and not learn one thing. That's even worse when you consider that these were the 75 minute lectures, not your normal 50. Ok, but the real problem came when me and Will decided to make this retarded bet about who would miss class first. So I guess out of pride and the value of $10, both of us went to class every Tuesday and Thursday for almost the whole semester. I think eventually I caved and I had to pay for a game of pool at the Union or something. That experience taught me that self-inflicted misery is the worst. I could've slept in all those weeks but no.
That was also the semester of the "dudo" thread the day after my 21st bday in our CS257 newsgroup which we were reprimanded by the TA for. That's a pretty entertaining story but too long to share here. Maybe the Goods would care to recall the incident in his blog (hint hint).
One other thing I remember from the class was the rampant cheating during exams. The funniest incident was during the final, when Jimmy was looking all over the place and copying people's answers left and right. Then the TA came by our area and started accusing Will of cheating. This was the exchange:
TA - Stop copying off of other people
Will - I wasn't
TA - Don't copy!
Haha reminds me of my first traffic stop. I think I wrote about that story before. Let me find the link. Ok Click Here
4. (this story I just told a couple days ago so it is fresh in my mind) My second-to-last semester, I went to Grainger with my sister and we got hungry so we decided to go grab some Taco Bell. It was late so only the drive-thru was open, and we just picked up some tacos and drinks and headed back to Grainger. But she was scared to go in because "you're not supposed to bring food into the library." I told her it doesn't matter, don't worry about it. So she was trying to hide her taco in her coat pocket or something and asking me if I could tell she had a taco in her pocket. I was like no, let's just go. Finally she gets up the courage and starts acting like James Bond trying to sneak in with her one taco in her pocket. Meanwhile, me and Greg just stroll in with our bags of tacos and extra-large drinks in hand like the upperclassmen we were. If you don't find this story amusing, maybe you had to be there. Or maybe you have never met my sister and don't understand that she is the same girl who thought pep rallies were cool in high school. haha sorry mei but that story cracks me up so I gotta tell it.
I think later that same finals week was the Dave Chan tacos and 40s experience too. Good stuff.
Oops, I wasn't planning to write all that just on finals stories. All I wanted to say was that when I look back, all of us were so stressed out about this stuff like it was the last thing that mattered in life. (Ignore some of the stories above for the sake of this point). But now, I doubt that any of that stress makes any difference in my life today.
Ok, so I'm not recommending that people don't study for their finals, but my point is that if you mess up on one final, it's not the end of the world. No point in making it a bigger deal than it is.
PEACE - I'm outta here...
Blogger was being a biatch the past couple days. The dumb thing is that I was writing this thing on how I have stayed loyal to Blogspot for 6 months and not switched to Xanga like everyone else. Such as, every single Asian person, plus Michelle Branch.
So I am not gonna post my thing about blogger and instead I am writing about finals week. Not for myself, of course I graduated last semester and I will probably not have to experience finals for at least a few years.
A lot of the younger people I know are going through their finals week though. I remember back then those were some of the most stressful times I have ever been through and it is definitely one thing that I will never miss about college.
Some finals week stories come to mind:
1. Freshman year, with a ECE final the next morning, I stayed over at IT and for some reason we were both up early. So instead of taking the opportunity to study, we played some Starcraft and I ended up doing awesome on the final. I think that might have been the last time I could say I did awesome on a ECE final. That's probably why I still remember it right now. Plus it can be a good argument to support the playing of Starcraft.
2. Junior year, me and the boys went to Denny's at like 3am. Me and Rod ordered skillets and while we had our books open, we didn't study at all cause P and Chras were too busy teaching me how to "deke" in NHL for Genesis. If I dig into my old notebooks, I could probably find the diagrams they drew for me. Too bad I still can't deke effectively. Oh yeah, the next time I tried to go to Denny's, it was closed and there was a sign on the door saying how the next closest Denny's was in Bloomington or something. That sucked, cause after that we could only go to Perkins and the skillets there are weak sauce.
3. 2nd semester Junior year, I had to go to this Driving School class for my speeding ticket and being the disorganized fool I am, I ended up accidentally scheduling it right before my CS 257 final. It was pouring rain that day and I barely made it to the exam on time. Good thing I am awesome and I ended up smoking that test too and getting an A in the class.
Speaking of this class, this was one of my favorite classes in my 4 years of college, not because of the subject but because of the stories from that semester. First of all, the teacher (Ponce) was this girly French dude with a thick accent, who was a nice guy but couldn't teach. You could sit through a whole lecture and not learn one thing. That's even worse when you consider that these were the 75 minute lectures, not your normal 50. Ok, but the real problem came when me and Will decided to make this retarded bet about who would miss class first. So I guess out of pride and the value of $10, both of us went to class every Tuesday and Thursday for almost the whole semester. I think eventually I caved and I had to pay for a game of pool at the Union or something. That experience taught me that self-inflicted misery is the worst. I could've slept in all those weeks but no.
That was also the semester of the "dudo" thread the day after my 21st bday in our CS257 newsgroup which we were reprimanded by the TA for. That's a pretty entertaining story but too long to share here. Maybe the Goods would care to recall the incident in his blog (hint hint).
One other thing I remember from the class was the rampant cheating during exams. The funniest incident was during the final, when Jimmy was looking all over the place and copying people's answers left and right. Then the TA came by our area and started accusing Will of cheating. This was the exchange:
TA - Stop copying off of other people
Will - I wasn't
TA - Don't copy!
Haha reminds me of my first traffic stop. I think I wrote about that story before. Let me find the link. Ok Click Here
4. (this story I just told a couple days ago so it is fresh in my mind) My second-to-last semester, I went to Grainger with my sister and we got hungry so we decided to go grab some Taco Bell. It was late so only the drive-thru was open, and we just picked up some tacos and drinks and headed back to Grainger. But she was scared to go in because "you're not supposed to bring food into the library." I told her it doesn't matter, don't worry about it. So she was trying to hide her taco in her coat pocket or something and asking me if I could tell she had a taco in her pocket. I was like no, let's just go. Finally she gets up the courage and starts acting like James Bond trying to sneak in with her one taco in her pocket. Meanwhile, me and Greg just stroll in with our bags of tacos and extra-large drinks in hand like the upperclassmen we were. If you don't find this story amusing, maybe you had to be there. Or maybe you have never met my sister and don't understand that she is the same girl who thought pep rallies were cool in high school. haha sorry mei but that story cracks me up so I gotta tell it.
I think later that same finals week was the Dave Chan tacos and 40s experience too. Good stuff.
Oops, I wasn't planning to write all that just on finals stories. All I wanted to say was that when I look back, all of us were so stressed out about this stuff like it was the last thing that mattered in life. (Ignore some of the stories above for the sake of this point). But now, I doubt that any of that stress makes any difference in my life today.
Ok, so I'm not recommending that people don't study for their finals, but my point is that if you mess up on one final, it's not the end of the world. No point in making it a bigger deal than it is.
PEACE - I'm outta here...
Friday, December 13, 2002
Eminem and More Thoughts On Life (not as long, but still pretty long)
I think Eminem has something to say about my blog last week about life:
Some days I sit
staring out the window
watching this world pass me by
Sometimes I think
there's nothing to live for
I almost break down and cry
Sometimes I think I'm crazy
I'm crazy oh so crazy
Why am I here?
Am I just wasting my time?
But then I see my baby,
Suddenly I'm not crazy
It all makes sense when I look in her eyes
(from Hailie's Song)
Well, I don't have a baby daughter yet, but maybe when I do, I will understand... Maybe it will all make sense then.
But as I dare to think more about the subject, isn't all happiness temporary? I mean, even when we reach one goal and it makes us happy, isn't there always something that follows next? Some examples I can think of:
Bill Gates has billions of dollars, and Microsoft has an insanely large market share in the operating systems market. But he continues to push for more. Microsoft X-box to break into the video game industry, Pocket PC to dent Palm OS's share, MSN to challenge AOL.
Michael Jordan, he could have retired once and for all in 1993 at the top of his game, become a living legend and known as the greatest basketball player the world had ever seen. Same with 1998, after hitting the game winning shot of the Finals and winning every possible award once again. Still not enough, either time.
Hugh Grant had Liz Hurley, but he had other thoughts. I mean, if having Miss Kensington isn't enough, what is?
Or, when we fill ourselves with an awesome all-you-can-eat meal at New China Buffet, it feels great. But inevitably, we all end up getting hungry again, right? Or, you get a Nintendo game that is awesome, so it makes you happy for a few weeks, but after that, you need a new game, and a new game after that, and maybe an entirely new system in a couple years.
So the thing is, we might think it would be great to have Bill Gates's money, 6 NBA championship rings, or to come home to Vanessa Kensington every night. We might think all-you-can-eat is the answer to all our needs, or that Playstation 3 is gonna be the ultimate end-all and be-all to video game consoles. But obviously none of those will ever bring true and lasting satisfaction.
Think about the movie Memento. The guy's #1 goal was to get revenge on whoever ruined his life. But even when he reached that goal, he had to keep making up new missions for himself. I guess for him, it might have been because he didn't know what was going on. Even for us, though, we can never accomplish one goal of ours and be happy forever. If we find happiness reaching one point, it's only a matter of time before we have to look ahead to the next point and how to get there. Life always goes on. And a life without direction or motivation is a life not worth living, isn't it?
Now, I don't talk about religion too much in this blog. I don't profess to be the best Christian out there; in fact, I know there are far too many ways in which I fall short. I also know that being a Christian doesn't make me better or holier than anyone. I don't think that is the point of Christianity anyways, and hopefully people don't mistake this to be my attitude, like "I'm right, you're wrong, I'm going to Heaven, you're gonna burn in Hell."
But throughout my life, I have honestly found that the answers to so many of my questions come in the last place I think to look - in no place other than in a book written thousands of years ago. Even if you don't believe in God, I really suggest that everyone read the Bible if they get the chance. Try to take that statement as a recommendation to you from a friend, not as a challenge from someone who is trying to dispel your atheism/Buddhism/Islam/whatever and brainwash you into becoming a high and mighty church-goer. That kind of thing ain't my bag, baby.
Anyways, the this is what I read:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for your treasures up in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasures are, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21
What does this tell me? I can pursue the things that bring happiness all I want in this life, but it won't last. Well, I came up with that conclusion myself up there, a few paragraphs ago, albeit after some roundabout reasoning and random talk about Bill Gates and Hugh Grant. But yeah, it's saying to me that instead of chasing worldly happiness, "heavenly treasures" are the way to go.
But this can't mean that just because I believe in Heaven and eternal life, that life here isn't worth living, and I should just pray for death to come and for me to go to Heaven. I think it is just pointing out that I am essentially wasting my time if I happen to reduce this life to a mere series of pursuits, chasing one thing after another in search of happiness.
Another passage in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30) has the parable which I will summarize as the following: A master leaves his 3 servants each with some money before leaving on a business trip. While he's gone, one servant invests his money and doubles his equity. Another one puts it in the bank and earns 6% interest. The third guy takes the money, buries it in the ground somewhere, and sits around till the master gets back. Well, when the guy returns to his servants, who do you think he was pleased with and who do you think he wasn't pleased with?
To me, the point of this story is this: Life is a gift to each and every one of us. Whether you believe it is a gift from God, your mom and dad, or random evolution is up to you. But we should make the most out of the gift of life that we are given, and not let it waste away to the point when someday, lying on your deathbed, you look back and realize that 80-some years passed and you didn't do jack.
Still, it's one thing to profess these beliefs, it's quite another to live them out. I have to say that a lot of the kinds of things I mentioned above do bring me happiness and that they are the motivation for a great deal of the things I do on a daily basis.
I honestly don't know whether the things I just wrote will drastically change the way I live or the choices I make. Realistically, it should motivate me to work hard at what I do and seek to make a difference in this world in some way. Who doesn't want to make their contribution and leave their mark on this earth before dying? But I mean, we can't all be Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, or devote our lives to discovering the cure for cancer, right? Or can we?
I still don't have the definitive answer to all these questions. But I hope that writing down and organizing these thoughts is doing myself some good at least. And hopefully it makes some amount of sense to whoever took the time to read it. I think only in this blog here would you ever see someone start out with a quote from Eminem and end up talking about life and the Bible, kind of weird isn't it...
I think Eminem has something to say about my blog last week about life:
Some days I sit
staring out the window
watching this world pass me by
Sometimes I think
there's nothing to live for
I almost break down and cry
Sometimes I think I'm crazy
I'm crazy oh so crazy
Why am I here?
Am I just wasting my time?
But then I see my baby,
Suddenly I'm not crazy
It all makes sense when I look in her eyes
(from Hailie's Song)
Well, I don't have a baby daughter yet, but maybe when I do, I will understand... Maybe it will all make sense then.
But as I dare to think more about the subject, isn't all happiness temporary? I mean, even when we reach one goal and it makes us happy, isn't there always something that follows next? Some examples I can think of:
Bill Gates has billions of dollars, and Microsoft has an insanely large market share in the operating systems market. But he continues to push for more. Microsoft X-box to break into the video game industry, Pocket PC to dent Palm OS's share, MSN to challenge AOL.
Michael Jordan, he could have retired once and for all in 1993 at the top of his game, become a living legend and known as the greatest basketball player the world had ever seen. Same with 1998, after hitting the game winning shot of the Finals and winning every possible award once again. Still not enough, either time.
Hugh Grant had Liz Hurley, but he had other thoughts. I mean, if having Miss Kensington isn't enough, what is?
Or, when we fill ourselves with an awesome all-you-can-eat meal at New China Buffet, it feels great. But inevitably, we all end up getting hungry again, right? Or, you get a Nintendo game that is awesome, so it makes you happy for a few weeks, but after that, you need a new game, and a new game after that, and maybe an entirely new system in a couple years.
So the thing is, we might think it would be great to have Bill Gates's money, 6 NBA championship rings, or to come home to Vanessa Kensington every night. We might think all-you-can-eat is the answer to all our needs, or that Playstation 3 is gonna be the ultimate end-all and be-all to video game consoles. But obviously none of those will ever bring true and lasting satisfaction.
Think about the movie Memento. The guy's #1 goal was to get revenge on whoever ruined his life. But even when he reached that goal, he had to keep making up new missions for himself. I guess for him, it might have been because he didn't know what was going on. Even for us, though, we can never accomplish one goal of ours and be happy forever. If we find happiness reaching one point, it's only a matter of time before we have to look ahead to the next point and how to get there. Life always goes on. And a life without direction or motivation is a life not worth living, isn't it?
Now, I don't talk about religion too much in this blog. I don't profess to be the best Christian out there; in fact, I know there are far too many ways in which I fall short. I also know that being a Christian doesn't make me better or holier than anyone. I don't think that is the point of Christianity anyways, and hopefully people don't mistake this to be my attitude, like "I'm right, you're wrong, I'm going to Heaven, you're gonna burn in Hell."
But throughout my life, I have honestly found that the answers to so many of my questions come in the last place I think to look - in no place other than in a book written thousands of years ago. Even if you don't believe in God, I really suggest that everyone read the Bible if they get the chance. Try to take that statement as a recommendation to you from a friend, not as a challenge from someone who is trying to dispel your atheism/Buddhism/Islam/whatever and brainwash you into becoming a high and mighty church-goer. That kind of thing ain't my bag, baby.
Anyways, the this is what I read:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for your treasures up in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasures are, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21
What does this tell me? I can pursue the things that bring happiness all I want in this life, but it won't last. Well, I came up with that conclusion myself up there, a few paragraphs ago, albeit after some roundabout reasoning and random talk about Bill Gates and Hugh Grant. But yeah, it's saying to me that instead of chasing worldly happiness, "heavenly treasures" are the way to go.
But this can't mean that just because I believe in Heaven and eternal life, that life here isn't worth living, and I should just pray for death to come and for me to go to Heaven. I think it is just pointing out that I am essentially wasting my time if I happen to reduce this life to a mere series of pursuits, chasing one thing after another in search of happiness.
Another passage in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30) has the parable which I will summarize as the following: A master leaves his 3 servants each with some money before leaving on a business trip. While he's gone, one servant invests his money and doubles his equity. Another one puts it in the bank and earns 6% interest. The third guy takes the money, buries it in the ground somewhere, and sits around till the master gets back. Well, when the guy returns to his servants, who do you think he was pleased with and who do you think he wasn't pleased with?
To me, the point of this story is this: Life is a gift to each and every one of us. Whether you believe it is a gift from God, your mom and dad, or random evolution is up to you. But we should make the most out of the gift of life that we are given, and not let it waste away to the point when someday, lying on your deathbed, you look back and realize that 80-some years passed and you didn't do jack.
Still, it's one thing to profess these beliefs, it's quite another to live them out. I have to say that a lot of the kinds of things I mentioned above do bring me happiness and that they are the motivation for a great deal of the things I do on a daily basis.
I honestly don't know whether the things I just wrote will drastically change the way I live or the choices I make. Realistically, it should motivate me to work hard at what I do and seek to make a difference in this world in some way. Who doesn't want to make their contribution and leave their mark on this earth before dying? But I mean, we can't all be Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, or devote our lives to discovering the cure for cancer, right? Or can we?
I still don't have the definitive answer to all these questions. But I hope that writing down and organizing these thoughts is doing myself some good at least. And hopefully it makes some amount of sense to whoever took the time to read it. I think only in this blog here would you ever see someone start out with a quote from Eminem and end up talking about life and the Bible, kind of weird isn't it...
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