Death of a Marine -- Truth about the war

As we mark the coming of the 9/11 anniversary, I can't help but think about the war this government is still fighting out in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Being a foreigner who just barely arrived in the country, I was sitting in front of the TV eating breakfast, watching people running for their lives in the middle of NYC. At the moment, I thought Arnold was making another movie, but wondered why it's covered by CNN. Only hours later, I found out, it's 9/11.

Shortly after that, Bush declared war on terrorism, and we started this painful "Vietnam War #2". Every once a while, we get a coverage of young soldiers who lost their lives overseas, and never come back home to their beloved family. But it never gets personal, and never gets me thinking much.

A while back, AP covered a story about a Marine who died in mission in Afghanistan. The journalist embedded documented the short period of time that transformed his life. One of the pictures, was him laying on the ground suffering, while two of his comrades trying to help him.

Apparently, this picture has gotten a lot of controversy. On one side, we have the pentagon and the family begging AP not to publish the photo; on the other side, we have the journalists, some of the military, and liberals argue that: this is war! There's nothing pretty about it, and people in this country needs to get educated about the consequences of wars.

Personally, I don't understand why there's such a big fight over this between AP and Pentagon, the picture wasn't that great to be published nor was the story. I read the story, it isn't that great. Though, the NY Times' blog covering the photo's author, Julie Jacobson's diary actually tells a much better story, and made a very compelling case of why this picture is so valuable to the whole story. I think she wrote a much better diary than coverage story.

War is ugly. It's unfortunately a very horrible chess game played with real human, and by horrible players. It is a sad truth that many times, these young men died unnecessarily, because of some politicians' poor judgment. As someone who come from a country/ethnicity that suffered a lot in the last century, I can say for sure that war is not an answer to everything.

Think about all those wars/battles fought after WWII, how many of them were well fought, well received? Yes, it all started with a great mission: to save the locals from XXXXX. But did the local really appreciate what was done? Not really. It's not the case in Korea, it's definitely not the case in Vietnam, not to mention Serbia. Yet, we suffered great losses. Family lost their dear ones for good, for a "good cause".

Then fast-forward to x years/months later. The enemies in the wars start talking, and all in a sudden, it seems like: all that was suffered during the war is down the drain, and doesn't matter anymore. The dear price paid by all those family who lost their beloved ones seem to go to waste.

An ancient Chinese scholar once said, "there's no 'friends-for-ever', and there's no 'enemies-for-ever'". Losing a life over an temporary "enemy" is so not worth it.

What Happens When the State is About to Bankrupt?

Being a resident in California, you know, I know, we're not the best drivers in the universe. We'd drive at 75mph (limit 65mph), making illegal U-turns, turning into the wrong lane, rolling stop at a STOP sign, not yield to fire trucks etc, just to name a few common minor offenses. On the other hand, how often were we caught in act? Not very often. (Maybe just those days of the month, when the road is all in a sudden full of cops)

So when I was driving the other day, 6:30am on a weekend, and noticed 2 highway patrol car passed me (within 5 min), I was SHOCKED! One of them apparently just came back onto the freeway after ticketing someone, and immediately the lights went on and went after a Hummer H3. I quickly glanced at my speedometer, thank goodness, I'm only at 70mph. Plus I'm driving a very understated car, just blends right into the background; unlike that Hummer, the brand new silverish hue is probably shouting "ticket me! ticket me!".

Then couple days ago, I was coming home from Thousand Oaks. I took a detour and went for a less "popular" freeway to go home. The road was pretty empty, and I was talking to my mom while driving. Then I looked to my left, and noticed a CHP right by my side. My first reaction is to glance and check my speed. Lucky me! I was at 65mph again. I guess I was talking to my mom, so I just drive slower than normal. Anyways, the cop passed me, and went on and hunt for other preys. 10 minutes later, in the middle of a valley, the car in front of me suddenly hit the brake. I whined and hit the brake as well, only to realize in 2 min, a cop was on the shoulder and ticketing someone.

I guess.....with the states now starving for money, these cops are just fishing for the easy money...afterall, it seems like they can catch someone doing something wrong almost every 10 minutes.

A quote from Elenor Roosevelt

Many people will walk in and out of your life,
But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.

Anger is only one letter short of danger.
If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.
Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
He who loses money, loses much;
He, who loses a friend, loses much more;
He, who loses faith, loses all.
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

Friends, you and me….
You brought another friend….
And then there were three.
We started our group….
Our circle of friends….
And like that circle….
There is no beginning or end..
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
Today is a gift.

Is It Worth It?!

I did a charity bake sale at work couple weeks back. I baked cookies, I also asked my co-workers to donate delicious sweets to raise money.

One of the manager's wife donated a bunch of panna cotta (per my request...hahaha....she's very famous for her dessert). At the sale, I maked it $3 a piece.

Stranger 1: What's this?!

Helper 1: It's panna cotta, we have different toppings. $3 a piece.

Stranger 1: What?! $3 for such a small cup, while the cookies are $1 a piece? It's so expensive.

(Stranger 1 walked away with cookies. )

Later, Stranger 2, 3...etc all walked away with something else, commenting panna cotta is too expensive.

Helper 1: The panna cotta is not selling. Should we lower the price?

Helper 2: Yeah, $3 items on bake sale is a bit expensive, no?

Me: But it's panna cotta!! It's so pretty!! Hm....I wonder how it taste like, I can't even describe it to people. Let me try one.

(I grabbed a mango toppinged panna cotta and start digging in)

Helper 3: But then we'll have one less to sell, if you just start eating like this.

Me: Just put it on my tab! Then we won't be wasting food.

(Several bites later)

Me: Oh...this is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!!! It's really creamy...and the mango is a little bit tangy and sweet at the same time. Anyone wanna try it?

(The cup was passed around, and many helpers had a bit too)

Me: It's too good to mark the price lower.

Helper X: Yeah...I agree. We should have this at a higher price range. Otherwise it's not fair for this delicious and pretty dessert.

Me: Worst come to worst, we now all know that it's really good. We can just buy them ourselves and take them home.

Helper X: I'd totally buy everything.

Me: I have a feeling that you won't take it home, hahaha.....

A little bit later, some more people stopped by and started asking questions about what we have.

Stranger x: What's this? (pointing at panna cotta)

Me: Oh this is called panna cotta, it's an Italian dessert, like a cream pudding. It's very creamy and silky. We have 3 different types of toppings here: XX, YY, and mango. They are all very good.

Stranger x: Yeah, they look really pretty.

Me: Of course! They're not only pretty and delicious too. They're $3 each. They're kinda expensive, but think of it this way, these are high end dessert made from scratch. If you go to those really fancy bakeries, they'll charge you at least $5 each. Here, we only charge you $3, which is steep discount. Plus, all your money goes to charity, for a very meaningful cause. You should try it.

Stranger x: Hm....really?! Are they that expensive?

Me: Trust me. These are not cheap. Just look at the presentation, it's so nice. I just bought one myself, and I really loved it. In fact, a few of our helpers tried it, and bought some already. It's very smooth, and creamy. The topping has a nice contrast to the creamy flavor, and gives a very refreshing note.

Stranger x: You made it sound so delicious. Okay, let me try it, and see if it's as good as you described.

Me: Hey! I mean it. And I can guarantee that you'll come back and want more.

(Stranger X walked away with a mango topping panna cotta)

Before long, more people are convinced that the $3 panna cotta is a very good bargain, and started buying multiples of panna cotta.

Some of the earlier crowd came back.

Me: Did you like the panna cotta?

Stranger Y: Oh yeah....it's just as you described. Do you have more?

Me: Sorry, it's all sold out now.

Stranger Y: That fast? With a $3 price-tag?!

Me: It's really delicious, and it's still a bargain compare to the out-side bakery. Of course people will start buying as many as they can.

Stranger Y: Okay....next time then....I won't only buy one.

Me: Yeah....next time you should trust what I tell you.




(After the bake sale, the manager called me to ask how it went)

Manager: So did you sell them all?

Me: Yeah, of course. Yours were among the first to be sold out.

Manager: Yeah? How much did you charge?

Me: $3 a piece

Manager: What?! And you sold them all?!

Me: Yeah...every single one of them.

Manager: I was expecting you to tell them for like $1.50 or something like that

Me: Hehehe...we sold every single one of them for $3 each

Manager: I need to tell my wife. We can't believe you can market it for so much.

Me: It's really delicious, isn't it?! Of course it's worth more. By the way, thanks for the donation. We made more than $500 in 2 hours, and we sold every single piece we have.

Manager: No problem. Good job.



(Couple days later, I ran into the manager again)

Manager: I told my wife, and she cannot believe you charged so much and people actually bought them all either.

Me: Hahaha....you should tell her to sell it for this much should she decided to ever start her own dessert business

Manager: Yeah...now you have totally got her thinking






Is the panna cotta worth $3?!

Well, it all depends on how you look at it.

If you look at it as the regular cream pudding you find in grocery market isles, then most likely, it's not worth the $3 I charged.

On the other hand, I marketed those panna cotta as a discounted high-end dessert. I know, perfectly well, that this is probably a little bit too expensive. But with a catchy exotic name of panna cotta (Italian), it already gives off the impression of being something very special.

With the persuasion of a good sales person (i.e. Me! =p), many of the buyer truly agree that this is indeed a high-end dessert at bargain price.








p.s. For the bake sale, I actually raised $602 for American Cancer Society, thanks to everyone's generous support and donation. I'm very happy that things turned out so well. I even got people telling me that they'll totally help out for the next charity bake sale. =D

I Got Carded, and Rejected at the Door

~I AM ABOVE 21!!!~

And NO, I did not use any fake ID or what-so-ever.

I simply.....forgot to bring my ID. Period.

Yes, that's exactly what happened to me today.

So the story goes, a friend of mine is leaving town, and moving to the Big Apple. I got invited for happy hour/dinner to say goodbye. As usual, I got stuck at work, and didn't leave until much later that I want to. By the time I rushed to the bar, I was already almost 2 hours late from the start of the "happy hour".

As I rush to the bar entrance, I was stopped by the bouncer (or whatever they are called), asking for ID. I was like...."sure." digging into my bag for my wallet. As I opened my wallet, I noticed that one of my credit cards is missing. My mind goes...."%$@! I probably don't have my ID with me"

Sure enough, the slot for my ID is occupied by a business card of a frozen yogurt place. I quickly dig through it, and my ID is nowhere to be found. I then remember I took my ID and credit card out during the weekend, because I didn't want to carry a heavy wallet around.

So I go..."Sorry, I think I forgot my ID"

Mr Bouncer: "Then sorry, I can't let you in without an ID"

Me: "Okay, I think I'll go back home and get it"

Mr Bouncer (laughing a bit): "Take your time, I'll be here when you come back"
(BTW Mr Bouncer, don't I look older than 21 to you?! I know I'm Asian, but I'm not THAT type of ageless Asian, right?)

I started walking away, and decided to call my friend, just to make sure that they haven't left (and won't leave any time soon)

The call went straight to the answering machine.

My mind: "Great....that's exactly what I need at this moment...the person I want to reach is not reachable"

I walked back, Mr Bouncer got all "in the working mode"

Me: "Uh....before I leave, can you check for me if my friend's party is actually here. I don't want to make a trip for nothing. My friend's name is XXXX"

Mr Bouncer nodded, and went inside to check. As I was peeking through the narrow alley of where he went, I saw a girl (back facing me) sort of look like my friend. BUT, Mr Bouncer passed her, and went into another room.

My mind: "Hm.....what is he doing? There's a big group right in front of him. Why he didn't ask them?"

Couple minutes later (which seemed like forever, and I look so lame standing in front of a bar and cannot go in), he came back.

Mr Bouncer: "Nope, We didn't have any reservation made under your friend's name"

Me: "But.....I think I just saw her right there....."

Mr Bouncer: "You can come inside if you want, and I can look for her with you. I just can't let you stay"

So me and my "bodyguard" -- Mr Bouncer entered the place. Sure enough, that girl that I suspect being my friend, is whom I'm looking for. She got all excited that I was able to make it, only to find out seconds after that I can't stay stay due to ID issues.

My friend to Mr Bouncer: "But we're all over 21, and legal."

Me: "Yeah, I'm way past that border line underage look, right?"

Mr Bouncer: "But I can't admit you without proof."

My friend: "But we're not even drinking now anymore, and we promise we won't drink"

Mr Bouncer shaked his head

Me: "Fine...I'll go home and get my ID."

I said goodbye to everyone at the table, walked out with my "bodyguard", and went home to find my ID.

When I got back with the ID, Mr Bouncer just skimmed it, and let me in.



All that trouble for almost nothing!!!








p.s. But I'm very glad that I didn't get into any trouble today. I drove without an ID to and from work, 25 miles!!