I call myself a commitment-phobe.

Today one of my friends called me adventurous.

Hahaha. Two sides of the same thing.

I like her description better.

I haven't been blogging lately. Maybe that's why I'm feeling all off. I've been crazy-busy lately, which is exhausting, but it sure beats sitting around on my azz wondering if I'm gonna be able to make rent this month.

Update on the battle against the clogged sink (9/30/05 post): thanks for all your feedback! This is what I did:

1) Tried to poke through the clog with chopsticks. The chopsticks were not long enough.
2) Used a plunger. That sent nasty water splashing everywhere, but did not work.
3) Got discouraged, and busy, so my procrastinating nature took over. Avoided the issue (ie. brushed teeth in bathtub) and hoped it would go away just as mysteriously as it had appeared.
4) Could no longer avoid the issue as the sink started filling up by itself with water (coming out of the drain - EWWWW). But yes, as a professional procrastinator, I of course found a way to continue avoiding it - I just scooped buckets of water of it out (these sinks don't seem to have drain holes) and emptied it out so it wouldn't overflow.
5) Finally decided sink was too gross to continue ignoring. Borrowed a book from parents called "Basic Plumbing: The Complete Beginner's Guide" by Time Life. Yup. That describes me. Saw a picture on the page of dude using plunger. I was like, "That doesn't work", so got discouraged again and didn't do anything.
6) Tonight I came home and the sink had EMPTIED ITSELF OUT!! Doing nothing had WORKED!!

But then I tested it out by turning on the faucet and it was the same ol' thing.
7) I finally decided to READ the text beside the pretty picture describing how to do it, and discovered that there is actually a RIGHT way to plunge so it's most effective. ("Make sure there is enough water in the sink to cover the base of the plunger cup. Spread petroleum jelly on the cup's rim. Lower the plunger at an angle and compress the cup to push out air. Then seat it over the drain. Without breaking the seal, pump the plunger up and down 10 times, then quickly pull it away. If the drain stays clogged after several attempts, try an auger (below).")

So I went at it. And boy was it gross. After my first attempt the sink filled with brown vomit-like chunks. But I persevered. And finally ...

I WON.

And there you have it. A story of trial and tribulation, of hopes and dreams, of losses and disappointment and success ... all in the name of unclogging my sink.

[bows]

PS - I didn't have petroleum jelly for the plunger cup, but I can see how that would be helpful.

Happy birthday to my favorite male cousin in North America, Andrew (not to be confused with Andrew, the Bachelor. Go Andy, iss yo berfday, go Andy, iss yo berfday ...

(from my blog post back on 5-19-03)

AND, miraculously, he's still single, ladies! How can you resist that stunning, sparkling smile? That sincere, warm gaze? Hahah OK, I'm shutting up now, before I really ruin his chances of meeting a nice, non-crazy girl ...

Andy's done some pretty cool things in his short time on this planet thus far. In previous lives, he's been a hardcore stunt inline skater dude, and an inline skating T-shirt designer. And now he's an orthodontist on the sunny shores of San Diego.

My fondest memories of hanging out with him have to be when we were bored as kids and would try to translate popular kids' cartoons' theme songs into Chinese literally and crack ourselves up doing it. If you know any Asian language, I highly suggest you try this. It is highly amusing ... haha, but then again, I am easily amused. It was probably Andy's idea - he's always been good at making up fun games to pass the time. Love ya, boy!

I dig on staring at the progress bar as things install themselves. You know the Windows automatic installer thingy, where it says, "You may continue working on whatever while your updates are installing, to see details click on this here tray icon" or something to that effect? Well, I HAVE to click it. I can't just sit there and continue on with my merry life and just let it do its thang in the background. I'll click it. Double-click, even triple-click, just to make sure that progress bar pops up. Some programs just show it by default, which is fine by me. And then my eyes kinda glaze over as I start getting mesmerized by its millimeter-by-millimeter progress, as my computer goes crunch, crunch, crunch ...

Yup, I'm anal. Perhaps this is a minor symptom of N.A.D.D.? (I somehow found this by way of Alex King's blog.)

C'mon, there's gotta be other progress-bar-lovers out there! Or at least other computer users with anal-ish tendencies! Um, right?

Last night was a blur of drinking and barfing. I think I must continue to get completely wasted once every 2 years to remind me how not fun it is to get completely wasted. And how my alcohol tolerance is slowly waning, probably due to aging, which is not a bad thing.

Very thankful to all my friends who took care of me last night. I called them up today, embarrassed and apologetic and grateful, and each retold bits and pieces from last night, much of which I had no recollection. That is probably the most amusing part of the whole fiasco - the weird things I said or did while totally not in control of my faculties.

I'm gonna stay dry for a good long while.

Wow. Not a single photo from last night. At least not from my camera. I don't remember any other cameras going off after I reached critical saturation - but then again, I don't remember a whole lot to begin with. Hahaha, anyone have pics from last night?

- edit: I was reminded that I'm currently on a get-wasted-once-a-year schedule.

Hi everyone. I have a question about simple home maintenance, and am openly ashamed that I don't know how to do this at this late stage in my life:

My sink is clogged - the water drains out really disgustingly slowly. I can't see the problem looking from above. How do I unclog my sink?

I hate these kinds of tasks, but it's presently pretty darned grody, so I really need to deal with it. There's just something about wads of loose hair not attached to people's heads / bodies that utterly grosses me out and makes me nauseous. The only thing worse is loose wads of hair encrusted with stagnant waste water. [SHUDDER]

Oh yes, and environmentally-friendly methods would be preferred to chemical ones. But if liberal dousing with "Hair Monsters B Gone" is what it takes, so be it.

Thanks in advance!

Update: Thanks for all your feedback! Please see my 10/08/05 post for details on how I battled the clog monster!

My girl Thi (pronounced "tee"), a physical therapist, has long been generously giving great massages to her friends (me included), but just recently decided to add registered massage therapist (RMT) to her credentials. She needs 50 hours of internship, so hey people, get a feel-good massage AND help my friend out! The skinny:

1 hr massage is $30 (usually $50-60)
1.5 hour is $45 (usually $60-75)

Special package is buy 4 get 1 free [can share with others!]

Says Thi: "i recommend the 1.5hour if you really want total body work, or if your neck or back needs extra time, or if you really like foot rubs "

The school is near Harwin/59. Starting Oct. 1, her schedule:

Wednesdays 10am-5pm
Saturdays 10am-6pm
Sundays 1pm-6pm

Personal testimonial - Thi is excellent. She combines her theoretical and practical expertise in everything she does, with massage being no exception. Friends, let me know if you want in on a package of 1.5 hour massages. If you wanna go solo, shoot me off an e-mail and I'll give you Thi's phone number.

Foot rubs sound GOOOOOOOD. I miss them frequent visits to the foot reflexologists in China, yo ...

Is an overdose of cuteness bad for me?

Well, if it is, I don't care. I'm lovin' it.

(A) (B)

(C) (D)

(A) Happy and Nana passed out on the couch.
(B) Perking up at the slightest sound. And then promptly passing out again. Lazy butts.
(C) Happy hogs the remotes.
(D) Good thing I had this ferocious guard dog to keep me safe during the whole Hurricane Rita hullaballoo.

Here's the latest (and last) "Really Important News"! (Windows Media Video, 1min 47secs, 6.5MB) Actually all the scary stuff happened last night, and I was too chicken to go outside and do any filming, so you'll have to settle for this lame footage.

The storm has passed, and there was no damage except for my neighborhood's power going out. Thank goodness for us, but too bad for the people who got hit and will get hit by Rita ...

And so ... I am over at Eddy's hanging out and leeching off of his electricity and air conditioning and internet connection. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have had a hot dinner, nor a cool place to hang out, nor been able to refrigerate my food, nor been able to complete my Really Important News, which we all know is uh, really important.

The 24-7 coverage of Hurricane Rita on TV/radio is getting irritating. I've been disillusioned in general with the media since the overhype that came with SARS. Well, since I've decided to stay put, I'll be able to see how much of this is hype and how much is for real. That is, if I am able to "be safe" (aka "not die").

The people who have gotten stranded on the side of the highways because they ran out of gas now need to be ushered to shelters. There are supposed to be tankers of gas coming to their rescue, but so far there has only been 1 tanker who was giving out 10 gallons of gas per vehicle. Highways have opened up converting southbound traffic into northbound, but that doesn't seem to be improving the flow by much.

So at this point, fleeing will not really reduce my chances of getting majorly screwed over.

In the meantime, I'm processing pics I've taken over the last couple of days. I hope my "borrowed" wireless Internet connection lasts me awhile.

It also strangely comforts me that I'm not the only one staying put, which I guess tells me that I am not out of my mind, unless we're all out of our minds. Today Eddy came over to hang out and we just watched some DVDs. I know a couple of people personally who actually turned around and came back (gas shortage and traffic frustration). Thanks to everyone who called / e-mailed to wish me luck and to offer comfort. I'm actually a little scared, but refuse to give in to unproductive hysteria.

Today I was extremely moved because of an act of random kindness that happened to me (again). I went to HEB to procure some food. No bread, so stocked up on tortillas to throw in the freezer. A couple jugs of drinking water to add to my stockpile at home. Cans of corn 'n beans. Bananas. They ran out of shopping carts so I picked up an empty box laying around and lugged all my stuff around in it. As I checked out, the bagger offered to carry my stuff to my car. I declined his kind offer, since they were busy as anything. While stumbling out with my box o' stuff, a man in the passenger's side of a passing car jumped out and spontaneously helped me with my box! I asked him if he was leaving town. Turns out he is part of our "First Response" unit. "Someone's gotta stay," he said with a grin. So here's a pic of Dan and I after getting to my car (parked in the farthest possible spot from the store; I couldn't find any parking anywhere closer). Thank you, Dan, and all of our First Responders, for all that you do for this city and all that you will do in the coming days. And for helping me with my groceries.

But most of all, for providing me a bit more emotional comfort for what is to come.

Holy batman, look! Some REALLY IMPORTANT NEWS! (Windows Media Video, 1min 10secs, 4MB)

That's right, folks. I have decided to try my hand at journalism, banana-mic and all. I even sang the background music.

In the meantime, winds are really picking up, and it is EERILY DARK outside. [shudder]

I'm going to go make myself some gourmet [vegetarian] Ma Po Tofu for dinner while I still have electricity.

Pics from my "Housewarming" party (aka Independence party) are up! In this set: plenty of video footage of out-of-tune drunken singing! (As if that's supposed to make you want to look at the pics. Oh well.)