Double-bar: To have one person pull shots of espresso and fill the cups with syrup while another person steams the milk, tops the drinks, and calls out the drinks to the customers.

Ideally, the two should work in tandem so that the milk should be added right after the espresso is added. However, since steaming pitchers of milk takes longer than adding the syrups and pulling shots, usually the first person is quicker than the second, leaving a row of half-done drinks at the bar.

The lead, being the first person and having completed his part at the bar, says to the other barista at the register, having no customers at the moment, to help out on bar.

The other barista comes over to the bar, looks at me, the second person at the bar, struggling to steam milk, fill cups, top with whipped cream and mocha/caramel sauce, place lids on cups, clean off milk drips on cups, call out name of person and drink, and place them on the bartop with the oft-requested cardboard sleeves. She then looks at the half-done drinks, now numbering to almost double-digits, sitting in front of the espresso machine, sees that there's no need for putting syrups in cups or pulling espresso shots (the first person's duties of double-barring), and proclaims:

"There's nothing more to do."

Imagine that.

Meanwhile, a gaggle of customers wait. A pitcher of milk takes 20-30 seconds to steam, a third of which requires direct handling to create foam, and there must be a separate pitcher for whole, skim, and soy milks. Whipped cream takes 3 seconds per cup. Pouring on caramel/mocha sauce takes from 5-10 seconds per cup, more for extra. Meanwhile, the "rule" is that milk must be added to the cups within ten seconds of the espresso shot. Do we always follow that rule? Hah.

"There's nothing more to do."

If I wasn't so busy, I would have yelled at her to help me steam milk, top off drinks, or for heaven's sake just help out by calling out the drinks. Luckily for her, a customer came up to the register and she was off the hook.

"There's nothing more to do." I mean, I may be lazy at home, but I'm never so at work. Cuz for one thing, we're too damn busy all the time. Even during lulls, there are tons of things that need to be done. And here is this girl proclaiming, while I am literally struggling with my tasks, that there's nothing more for her to do and she could just relax until the next customer comes.

Not since the Stickler-Lead had I ever gone through a shift so pissed. And the irony? Sticker-Lead has left the company. She "wasn't suited for it." She may have been bitchy, but at least she wouldn't have tolerated incompetence. Seriously, why should I care so much about drink quality and keeping the store running smoothly when so many others don't? Especially from the higher-ups. I swear, if I don't get a raise or if I get a reprimand during my next job review, I am so going to sue. Or squeal. There's no way I'm taking any crap from this store. Not for what they're paying me.

Schedule for rest of week:

Tue -- 1:30 to 5:30 pm
Wed -- going over to aunt's in the afternoon
Thu -- Happy New Year! Time for rice-cake soup! One hopes.
Fri -- 1:15 to 5:45 pm, church web-team meeting at 7 pm (tent)
Sat -- 7:15 pm to 12:45 am
Sun -- church at 10 am, then 5:15 to 10:15 pm

So how was that for Christmas this year! I'm happy for the rain, but it sucked that the water mixed with the burnt areas caused mudslides. We spent Christmas Eve/Christmas Day at a cabin in Big Bear that one of my dad's customers lent us. Beautiful place, but we didn't do much 'cept watch a lot of TV. (They have cable.) But it was very low-key. If it didn't rain, then we coulda done some inner-tube sledding. On a funny note, even though the cabin was lent to my dad for us to use, our aunts jumped at the opportunity and "joined" us the day after we left. The kids, I hear, had a blast sledding down the mound of fresh snow deposited in the back yard the night before.

**** FEM ALERT: ALL MEN IGNORE THE NEXT ITALICIZED PARAGRAPH!!! ****

So after a long absence, my "Aunt Flo" is visiting again. For those of you that know of my freaky biology, y'know that she's been visiting only every 3 to 4 months since the beginning. Remember how in the beginning of this year when the visits "normalized" to about every 45 days? Well, apparently, what's "normal" for others is "freaky" for me. Cuz y'know how long it's been since Aunt Flo's come a-calling? Well, I seem to recall a time in late May, and then I was worried that she might come during my sister's wedding in July. Of course, no fear. But it's friggin' December! That's seven months. Some girls are jealous that I only have to deal with this a few times a year, but it's buggin' the heck outta me since I have no idea when she'll be coming, nor how long she's staying, and if it's going to affect me in the future. I mean, even if my mom had it similar, she was only a year than me right now when she got married and subsequently popped out the three kids. I have no idea if this means that I'll be able to have kids in the future. Sigh.

***** END FEM ALERT: MEN MAY CONTINUE TO READ ONWARDS ******

I bet no one actually skipped the above paragraph. :)

I didn't get many presents this year, but that's normal in my family. Besides, I'd rather my parents not waste the money on useless things. However, I did get Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition DVDs as well as Firefly: the Complete Series. I loved that show. But as Robert mentioned, it was too complex to hook a large audience. Pretty much, you had to start watching from the beginning to see the complex story arc beginning for each character, though I thought the individual episodes had enough clever writing to make a complete episode. Anyway, it was one of those series that required a commitment on the part of the audience, and that's somewhat unrealistic. But I can't wait for the feature film!

Finally, other people's blogs seem to include a "Year in Review" so I thought I'd hop on the bandwagon:

2003 began the way 2002 began: unemployed. Well, technically, I was under the employ of Kaplan but just didn't have any classes to teach. I really liked teaching for Kaplan. I would like to go back if something can fit my schedule. I did teach for a hakwon (after school academy) and learned that those places are a bunch of crock. But they did pay so well....

I began attending Santa Monica College, and I'm pretty happy about that decision. Sure the commute sucks and the lack of resources is discouraging, but I've learned a lot and I feel like I'm making some sort of progress towards my career goal.

I got in a car crash in February. Erg. And according to the insurance company, it was 100% my fault. And well, technically it was since the other cars swerved and missed that truck. But hey, is it wrong of me to assume that parked cars won't be parked half-way in the driving lane? I did learn an important lesson, though. Do not ever take your eyes off the road. Especially in a city like Santa Monica.

Funny story, though. I'm deviating from my Review blurb. Today, someone from my church threw a "women's luncheon" at her apartment in Bellflower. We ate ddukbogee, odang soup, kimbahp, and fried mandoo, as well as creme brulee. We played Taboo and had a general good time. I left an hour before my shift, but luckily traffic wasn't too bad. I did, however, have to change in the car and then run to the store. I got there a minute before my shift started. I was able to change my shirt while driving (during the slow moments). As I was doing this, I was thinking what people would think if they saw me. And then I thought if other people also did that while driving. And then it reminded me of an episode of Mr. Bean that I caught on PBS recently, where he actually did change in his car where he placed a brick on the accelerator, sat in the backseat and steered with his feet (it was a mini) while he put on his outfit, brushed his teeth and used the windshield wiper water shooter to rinse and spit.

Anyway, this year I became involved in my church. And when it split away from the korean church last month, I went with it. And resolved to serve the church as much as possible since now it needs all the help it can get. It is pretty tough attending a rather conservative church, and it's been a struggle to reconcile my personal beliefs with that of the church. And while there are some quibbles I have, I do think the Bible is a good guide for life and as long as our motives are Biblical, then it would be God's will. But I need to pray more and study the Bible.

Being involved in my sister's wedding this summer was great, as well as seeing my relatives from Korea. I've gotta figure out when I can visit over there. I also learned how stressful a wedding can be, and I can see the reasoning behind eloping.

And most notably, I started my job at Starbucks. This certainly isn't the most important aspect of my life, but it's the most influential. After all, I spend more time at work than any other activity, except sleeping. And since it's my source of income, it affects the other parts of my life, too. I shouldn't reminisce about my previous jobs, though. With the exception of that brief stint at Disneyland, I've never worked harder for so little money, and I get a bit nostalgic at my Facility Coordinator pay at W&MF at Cal. Sigh.

Resolutions/plans/hopes for 2004:

Grow spiritually.
Become healthier.
Work on my demo reel.
Get a job in the industry. (This is a major hope.)
Vegas trip!
Korea trip?

And finally... God-willing, to find someone whom I could possibly share the rest of my life with. But this isn't that great of a desire, since God knows the desires of my heart better than me, and perhaps singlehood (at least for the time being) is better for me than couplehood. I just have to trust that God is preparing me for that day someday, perhaps never, and I just hope I don't miss it when He's pointing something out to me.

Meanwhile, I hope to become a better daughter, sister, friend, and witness. This part, I figure, I give up all to God, since I haven't been able to do it by myself.

Okay, this has been a long one. Thanks for bearing with me. Happy New Year everybody!

Net Portrait. The hair is longer, of course, but I figure this is what it would look like if I pulled it back into a low ponytail you couldn't see. I had a hard time picking the features that looked like mine but were of different scale. If you want to also give it a go, click here. Really interesting website.

I hope y'all had a merry Christmas! Details about mine later.

Feliz Navidad. Feliz Navidad. Feliz Navidad, prospero año y felicidad. I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas. I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas. I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my he-a-a-art.

To y'all I haven't spoken to or seen in awhile, Happy Christmas.

Off to family jaunt. See y'all in the new year.

Sooo busy tonight at work. My feet are killing me. Last Thursday at work, someone I knew came into the store. We were the same year at college and went to the same church and therefore hung out together at group events. And I knew she lived in Chino Hills, too. And now it turns out that she's working at the Borders in the same strip mall. Weird.

Why? Well, I haven't seen her in years (literally) and I haven't been to any of the get-togethers of late. It's not that I don't like her or my former church classmates. I guess it came down to, once we weren't in the same school, church, city, etc, it became too hard to maintain ties that were pretty thin to begin with. I don't mind. I mean, we should be so lucky to maintain all our friendships that we have ever made. But I do have to say, it was good to see her (even though we could only chat for a few seconds cuz I was suppose to be working) just because it reminded me that my life in Berkeley did exist, that it wasn't just a dream, and my life didn't always involve hours of driving and making coffee.

We had a ton of leftover pastries tonight. We ran out of bags, so I took 'em home in a garbage bag. It looked like I was the pastry Santa. I should stop eating these things. But... mmmm... peppermint brownie....

My schedule for this week:

Sun -- church, 7 to 11:45 pm
Mon -- free day, hanging out with Robert
Tue -- 7:15 to 11:15 am
Wed -- free day, Christmas Eve!
Thu -- day w/ family, Merry Christmas!
Fri -- 4:15 to 8:45 am
Sat -- 4:15 to 9 am
Sun -- church, 6 to 10:15 pm

The next week, I'll be working every day, even though two of those days will be baby-sitting for my cousins. Well, I could use the money.

So I saw the midnight showing of Return of the King last night. My reaction to the movie? Two words.

HOT DIGGITY!!!

I mean, there's a problem with highly-anticipated movies in that they rarely live up to the build-up (case in point, The Phantom Menace). But not only did this movie live up to the hype, it surpassed it. My only complaint? It wasn't long enough. (Yeah, cuz 3 hrs 20 mins is just the blink of an eye.)

I won't go into details here cuz I would like my faithful readers (hahahahahaha! I'm funny) to have a chance to see the movie before I go all fan girl on it. But if anyone wants to call or e-mail me, we can drool together. Droooooooool.

Okay, Legolas is hot (and Orlando Bloom is not, as I've said before), but I gotta say, Aragorn really stepped up in this movie. Whoo-whee. I can see why he makes the thirty-something women swoon.

On other news, I turned in my final project for my last class on Tuesday at 4:45 pm. Actually, it wasn't completed. Basically, it's part of a scene from a Neil Simon play that we had to storyboard, and for animation storyboards, they have to have a panel for every five words, about, cuz you have to provide the acting yourself. Anyway, for anyone of you that's seen or read a Neil Simon play, you know how wordy this guy is. So thirty-one pages later, I get through a little over two pages. Out of five. If I had the time and paper to do the entire thing, it would have been about 70 pages long. Daaaaaaang!

Anyway, so I finally take off from school at 5 pm (took a little time to check e-mail), and of course, driving from Santa Monica to Chino at the height of rush hour, piece of cake, right? I normally drive around 70-80 mph back and forth, so it takes me a little less than an hour. But with stop-and-go traffic, it took me 2 hrs and 20 mins. Ugh. It was grueling. I had thought about signing up for some morning classes next semester. After this, I think not. How can people do this five days a week?

Anyway, I haven't posted my schedule this week, but suffice it to say, I've got late shifts for the rest of the week, except Friday when I get off a little earlier. But I'm glad for the work. After all, it's the season for spending. And this Jesus-guy that I keep hearing about at church. :P

My winter holiday projects: watch DVDS, watch DivX movies, read books on my list, work on ideas for animation projects, and hopefully do all these things with friends (though the reading may be hard to do so). Happy Holidays!

Okay, I deleted that last post because I realize that I was being a bit harsh. I mean, my dad is a great man and he's done a lot and sacrificed a lot for our family. Sure he frustrates me in many ways, but what dad doesn't? My biggest frustration was that he just didn't see that the book he was reading had a lot of faulty reasoning. And yeah, it's true that I'm very cynical about these "new sciences" and that might prevent me from accepting new ideas. But having seen enough infomercials with quack science, I was frustrated that my dad didn't also see it.

Anyway, yeah, my dad has his own brand of quack science, stuff either he thought up on his own or read from quack doctors. (Remember the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and how he could come up with the Greek derivation of every word? Yeah... like that.)

Okay, enough about that. Project due in 11 hrs.

I promised now, didn't I?

It's just one of the Flash projects I did this semester. If anybody remember my old website, this is like the old mouse game only slightly more sophisticated. Slightly.

As much as I would like the money, I think I might have to ignore the phone tomorrow (er... today) should the store call. There's a reason why have it set to a different ringtone. :)

Comments, please!

BTW, I guess the Red Cross is getting desperate again cuz they actually called me to schedule a blood donation. I set something up for Monday after this coming Monday, so I'll have a full report afterwards. No school, so I should have more access to fluids. Which leads me...

PLEASE DONATE BLOOD! I don't know why I'm so impassioned about this considering that I don't know anybody personally that needed a transfusion. I think it's because it's such a raw act of giving a physical part of yourself to someone in need. Since I'm A+ I asked if they ever threw away my blood type leftovers since it's not as useful as O. They replied that they never have leftovers of any blood type. They always run out of every type. Kinda humbled me so whenever they had a blood drive at school, I tried to stop by. They had one a couple of weeks ago at my current school, but I was just getting over a cold (or the flu?) so I couldn't.

On a similar note, American Bone Marrow Donor Registry. I remember in elementary school, a teacher's daughter had leukemia and she died before they could find a donor. I remember the school holding fundraisers and such in her name. If you're of Asian decent, they especially want you! Well, actually, if you're of any ancestry other than European, they really want you. One of the things I did when I moved back home was to update my info with them. The chances of finding a match is slim, but the newsletter was full of stories of those stranger-matches. I mean, what could it hurt (other than the needle prick, I guess) and you might end up literally saving someone's life. That's pretty cool. I mean, I want to be an artist in the entertainment industry. That has nothing to do with life and death. This is one way of giving back.

Okay, something's wrong with the comments link so that the counter does not work. But please keep commenting!

I went to DV Expo West today. It was an interesting experience. There certainly is a lot of software as well as hardward for DV. Lots of spiffy things. The most spiffy was this cloth that reflected back green slight at all angles, so that anything draped with that could be green-screened out fairly easily. That was really neat. I sat through a demo of Avid Xpress, and for those of y'all that don't know, Avid is the computer program most used to edit films. It's a really high end, expensive program, stuff you can't really do on your desktop. Avid Xpress is for the average souped-up desktop. Oh boy, the program looked awesome. Geek talk. Sorry.

I'm soooo tired... yet again. Having woken up at 5:30 this morning is finally hitting me. Perhaps I need to get some caffeine. I can't stand vending machine coffee now, though. Well, not that bad, but basically it don't taste right. Two projects, one final to go....

I've turned out two opportunities to pick up extra hours last week. Yet, I feel pretty good about it.

Due to my misplacing the Babalu Music of I Love Lucy soundtrack, I have changed the music for my video project. It will be from O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and I'm deciding between "Big Rock Candy Mountain," "Down to the River," and "I'll Fly Away." Humor-wise "Big Rock" is the best but quality-wise it's the worst, "Fly" has a better beat (and a pain to crop!) but "Down" has a pretty quality to it. I guess the thing is that I do humor better than somber (mainly cuz my somber tends to turn corny) so I guess I'm afraid to do "Down." That and I'm not sure if the final product will be as good as a more humorous piece.

And yes, I'm done babbling about stuff you don't care about. Hey, I forgot to mention that I won a free Alias shirt last week. No, not the TV show. It's the company that makes Maya, the premiere 3D program. And to be fair, they were here first. Okay, gotta go.

My schedule this week:

Mon -- school
Tue -- no work... 'cept homework!
Wed -- school (last day of Wed classes!)
Thu -- 6:30 to 10:30 am
Fri -- 5:45 am to 1:15 pm
Sat -- Work Holiday Party, then hanging out w/ friends
Sun -- church (pray I won't be late... again!), then 7:30 to 11:45 pm

Soooo tired... and procrastinating like crazy.

Wow, it's been awhile (for me at least) so I'll try to be as brief as possible:

I went to an Alias User's Group Meeting (basically 3D geeks) and listened to a presentation by a small studio as well as from Sony Imageworks and their spiel on The Haunted Mansion. Visually, it seems a spectacular movie. Main thing I learned, though, is not that there aren't enough jobs out there (though I think the large studios are going through a lot of down-sizing also), but that that there is more work than jobs out there. Basically, the typical work week of a 3D artist in the middle of a project is 10 to 12 hours a day 6 days a week, and right before a deadline, it's not uncommon for 48-hr work days. Which of course is making me wonder how the heck you fit 48 hrs in a 24-hr day. Anyway, so it's making me wonder. I love this stuff, but do I love it enough? I mean, while I was watching the Primetime special this past Thursday where they went on the set of pick-up shots for Return of the King, I was just going nuts (as you do when you're watching TV by yourself... it's lame, but y'know how some teenage girls go nuts when they see their fave boy band on the TV? I get that way about behind-the-scenes stuff of my favorite movies.) and wishing I could have been a part of it. I mean, it's gotta be passion (or ignorance) to want to be a part of it that much, right?

Anyway, so it was a bit of soul-searching to figure out if I'm willing to take the bad with the good. I asked one of my teachers who used to work at Sony Imageworks (the one who told me about the work schedule) how anybody has a life or sees their family. He looked at me and said, "They don't." Maybe my joking about how I'll never get married will come true.

I'll post my schedule tomorrow. I gotta be working on my project anyway. For the soundtrack, I'm thinking "We'll Build a Bungalow" though I'm not sure what to do about images. Should I get Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel, or do something completely different?

I told the assistant manager not to call me in for work today if it gets busy (like they normally do) just cuz I'm so tired. It worked. Lots of sleep. Though my recent paycheck showed the difference. But I worked enough in the past three months to qualify for stock investment options. Perhaps I'll get something for insurance sometime soon too. Though I wonder if it would be worth it to pay for medical insurance considering how little I used it when I did have it. 'course, I'm not as young and strong as I used to be. I'm even debating about whether dental would be worth it. I'll have to see. I mean, it's not like they've even offered it already.

I gotta say, as illnesses go, this one seems be easier than others. 'course, I did get a lot of sleep, but so far I only had to take medication to do stuff on only the first day. I even worked tonight without the need for drugs. Though... drugs are good. Just say yes. :)

I worked with Stickler-Lead again. She apologized for being off tonight due to an oncoming sickness. Well... my shift had never been easier. She has also started taking leftover pastries home now, so I got a nice batch tonight. Lots of muffins. My mom will be happy. Is it wrong to wish Stickler-Lead was sick more often?

The Italian Job. It's a pretty good movie. No need to stretch for Mark Wahlberg, which is a good thing. Seth Green was hilarious. I like Seth Green. I caught Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me on TV, and I forgot how funny he was during his short scenes.

Anybody want to join me for midnight showing of Return of the King on Dec 17th? (Well, technically night of Dec 16th to Dec 17th.)

Thanksgiving was pretty good. I tried to pawn off some shifts on other people but no bites. Sigh.

I had a major headache on Thursday, so in the middle of the day I took a three-hour nap while the kids around me played. Well, the headache was probably due to not getting enough sleep the night before. But I guess my immune system was weak enough because that night my throat started to tickle, and Friday I woke up with my head splitting open and major nasal blockage. To make it worse, I switched shifts with someone to do her a favor, and so I ended up working two more hours than scheduled. And yet, no one will take my Sunday shift off my hands.


Why don't people return calls? It seems like I've left so many friggin' messages and not a one has called back. When someone leaves me a message, I usually call them back. And if part of their message is asking me to call them back, then I definitely call them back. Usually right then and there. There was this one guy at work who I asked to take my Friday shift, and he said that he would call back the next day, and he didn't! He thought he would wait until the day before (Thanksgiving Day) to call back. I mean, wouldn't that be worse? I asked people to just leave me a message yet no one did. How hard is it to just say, "sorry I can't" ??? Maybe it's because they are all young'uns, but this is one life lesson that I will definitely have to teach them. After all, if I was their boss or a potential employer, I would not put up with that crap.


Anyway, I think I just have a cold and not the flu (though they say if you've had the flu shot, then if do you get the flu, the symtoms are milder), but I'm trying to stay away from medication. Hopefully, this will mean that I won't get sick again for months, and perhaps avoid getting sick all winter. One can only hope.

My schedule this week:
Mon -- school
Tue -- 12:15 to 4:30 pm
Wed -- school, though skipping last class to go to 3D seminar
Thu -- 2:30 to 10:30 pm
Fri -- 11:45 am to 3:45 pm
Sat -- no work, though they might call me
Sun -- church, then lots of homework

Okay, okay. For those who actually commented, thanks. I shouldn't get all worked up over that.

Homework due tomorrow. Sigh. It's gonna be another long night.

I had an interesting experience last Saturday night. I went with a few friends to watch a hypnotist show followed by an improv show. When the hypnotist was asking for volunteers, one of my friends and I just high-tailed it for the stage. It's not that big of a stage or audience. Anyway, so it was my first time ever getting hypnotized. What does it feel like? Well, my heart was pounding cuz I was really nervous, but other than that, I was just really, really, really relaxed. I don't think I went under as deep as I could, though. At the very beginning, they had you imagine that your hands are filled with helium and rising through the air. Well, I was trying, but it wasn't working, so the guy just lifted my right hand, and it started to float! But that was about the last time that my body did something without my control. Alright, I'll admit it, I did fake it a bit. But I'm not sure if that's really faking it. Mainly, you can hear everything that the guy says, and you're fully conscious and aware. So whenever he implanted suggestions to me, basically, it came down to, well, y'know what, I think I'll do what he said to do. Pretty much, if I didn't want to, then I wouldn't have. I hear that to be hypnotized, you have to want to be hypnotized. And I really wanted to, too. I guess I just wasn't as under as much. Anyway, pretty much, when he told me to do something, I just decided, okay, I will. And my body just complied, like it was just itching for me to do it. So that's why I think I was half-hypnotized. My friend had barely any memory of the performance, though. That's probably why she was a lot funnier. There were a couple of guys that were really under. They were hilarious.

I'm going to try to go again, and next time, I won't have a martini before the show. I think being slightly under the influence kept me from fully going under. Well, that and they took my glasses and I couldn't see him. But then, it was dimly lit, so maybe no one was suppose to and it doesn't matter if you can see him or not. Anyway, I felt really good and relaxed afterwards (and they say that a lot of people feel the effects hours or days) but it wore off after the improv show afterwards (an hour).

The other people were asking me if I remember doing this or that. And you know what? Yes I do. Everything. Even what other people did. My other friend that went under barely remembered anything. I want to have a period of blacked out memory! Hee hee.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Hey, no one's commenting!!!

I know there are lurkers on this blog. C'mon, roll call! Just a quick blurb (you don't even have to use your real name)!

Dang it.

Schedule next week:
Mon -- blah blah
Tue -- 3 to 7 pm
Wed -- blagety blah
Thu -- THANKSGIVING
Fri -- 12 to 5:15 pm (tentative)
Sat -- Gettin' jiggy with the fam (one assumes)
Sun -- 8:30 pm to 12:45 am (I guess they're closing at midnight?)

I mean it! Comment, folks!

Dang it. New item for my shopping list: a battery-operated alarm clock.

I stayed up late finishing a project last night (sigh... why do I procrastinate so? And why do I let myself get distracted by the web?) so of course my internal clock (which barely works, btw) didn't wake me up for the usual Wednesday morning schedule. That wouldn't matter so long as my alarm clock and TV (it has a timer) worked. But... around 9 am this morning, there must have been a short blackout, because it was 2 pm when I woke up. My class starts at 12:30 pm.

Sigh. I'm normally late to this class, but never this late. I just got ready as best I could and tried to beat the traffic to Santa Monica. I don't think it was worth it to make it to the last half-hour of a four-hour class.

I could try to post my project for all to see, but it's just a video of a script I didn't write and footage I didn't shoot. I'm just the editor. I will, however, post my Flash project that was done a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I get around to it. Which might be never.

Gotta go. Here's hoping for no parking tickets.

Last night I had one of those... epiphanies? I'm not sure if that's the right word.

So after being late to work (again), one of my co-workers invited us to his house afterwards to hang out. I wasn't sure if I was actually wanted or if they were asking out of politeness (mainly due to my being late that day, and it's the lead that I get a less-than-warm response from) but I went anyway. I was only there for a little over an hour, but it was good. I just listened to them talk about people I didn't know. Anyway, one thing came out. Everybody else (or at least the four other people there) didn't like the Stickler Lead. So... a part of me was happy, so I knew it wasn't just me. And it was kinda fun listening to them complain about her. But then they made fun of her for being a "church girl." (Well, it was a little more explicit than that. Basically they were laughing at her for being the v-word.) That's when I stopped laughing. Suddenly, I realized that the others were faulting her for her "good" qualities. And that's when I examined my dislike of her, and I realized that, while her methods are brusque and condescending sometimes, they were essentially "good" qualities. I mean, how can you call "following the rules" a bad personality trait?

So tonight, when I worked with her, the shift went by a lot better. Well, for one, I was making less mistakes and she seemed less "peering-over-my-shoulder." But mainly, I accepted that with her there will be no "giving of breaks," "cutting of slacks," or even good old-fashioned camaderie. But those are not bad qualities and she is not a bad person. Now, it will still frustrate me when she corrects my every little mistake or throw away those beautiful leftover pastries, but I just have to accept that as the kind of character she has. Weird.

Y'know what bugs me? I wish I had spoken up, saying that being a "church girl" isn't a bad thing. That it's a good thing. But, alas, my human's sinful desires (acceptance and belonging) kept me from doing so. It's that whole, evil persists when good men stay silent thing. Sigh.

It's not my fault. Mea culpa.
I'm not to blame. Mea culpa.
It is the gypsy girl the witch who sent this flame. Mea maxima culpa.
It's not my fault. Mea culpa.
If in God's plan, Mea culpa.
He made the devil so much stronger than a man. Mea maxima culpa.

On a side note, the official church split happened today as we held the first service of the newly reformed Pillar Bible Church. I was able to attend both Dong Shin EM as well as Pillar, but next week... no more Dong Shin. Kyrie Eleison.

My schedule this week:

Mon -- school
Tue -- 12:30 to 4:30 pm
Wed -- school
Thu -- 6:00 to 10:45 pm
Fri -- 2:30 to 8:30 pm
Sat -- NO WORK (but maybe will be called in)
Sun -- church (11:00 am service)

Batman Fights the Joker, an Alien, and a Predator If that ain't cool, I don't know what is. You need broadband to access the movies (unless you want to download overnight). The "Making of" featurette is pretty cool, too. The premise? It's comic books come to life. Those of you at ComicCon this year might have already seen it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I started that paragraph a coupla days ago and thought I'd get back to it a little later. Well... it's now two days later. But it still holds true.

I came into work this morning to find that Santa came and exploded in our store. Sometimes, there is such a thing as too much red. We started playing holiday music, too, and want to take bets on how long it'll be before I go completely nuts from hearing it over and over? And who are we kidding? Hannukah is over long before Christmas, Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism and many other major religions have no holiday in December, and the only other religion to have a holiday in December is the Wiccan Yule, which the Catholic church took over to keep the masses from celebrating a pagan holiday in the first place. So when we say holiday decorations and holiday music and holiday coffee blend, we mean Christmas. Though they do package 'em in different colors other than red for those "other" holidays. And what about Thanksgiving? What happened to that? Well, being thankful for what you have doesn't inspire you to shop.

We hired two more people at the store, plus a new assistant manager and a Retail-Management Trainee, mainly because several people were suppose to leave to start up the store in Pomona. Well, the opening date got pushed back several weeks, so now we all don't have any hours. Sigh. The least they could do is give me an extra hour a week devoted entirely to just deep cleaning. I got assigned two tasks instead of one, and I don't even have any time to do one during the week. In fact, I haven't been able to do any at all since I got hired. What do they want? I'm thinking they're expecting us to come in on our own time to do it. Off the clock, I mean. Hell no. Not for seven bucks an hour. Our last week's tips came to be only 92 cents per hour (of which 50 will be taxed come April), and it looks like the 6 hours I worked at the Chino Hills one won't let me get a chunk of their tip bounty. Sure, it would only be about 6-7 bucks, but that would have bought me lunch (at school) for a week.

Anybody else get more of the Six Degrees of Denise Richards?

Denise Richards to Eugene Levy:

Denise Richards was in "Wild Things" with Matt Dillon who was in "In & Out" with Joan Cusack who was in "Gross Pointe Blank" with John Cusack who was in "Serendipity" with Eugene Levy. Five. Whoo-hoo. My secret weapon? IMDB.

I got a flu shot yesterday. It's still a bit sore. Boy, I'm getting poked a lot by my school. But this morning the lead was sick with the flu, but since nobody came to cover for her, she ended up coming to work after I called her. It takes 3-4 weeks for the flu vaccine to take effect. I just hope she wasn't contagious. I made a conscious effort not to touch my mouth and nose.

BTW, peppermint white mocha -- pretty good.

Skedool fer wiek:

Mundey -- skool
Toosdey -- 4:15 tu 8:45 am
Wensdey -- skool
Dursdey-- 4:15 tu 8:45 am
Frydey -- 4:15 tu 8:45 am
Saterdey -- 8:00 pm tu 12:15 am
Sondey -- cherch, den 5:00 tu 9:30 pm

I am now officially certified to handle food in San Bernardino County. Whoo.

Actually, it was rather enlightening, the class. A lot of the prevention methods were pretty obvious (keep hot foods hot, cold foods cold, and keep meat, eggs, and dairy away from other foods), but some of the specifics of the county health code was pretty interesting. For instance, everyone is suppose to keep their hair covered. And did you know that 2/3 of all botulism cases end in death? And ordinary cooking heat can't even kill it. Oh, and there's no such thing as a "24-hr flu." It is most likely food poisoning.

Thank you to y'all that have given, or tried to give, blood. The next time I do, I'll share all the painful details here.

It was a crazy week. I had two projects due (one of which I took all night Sun night/Monday morning), as well as half a storyboard that I couldn't finish last week, and I've been really tired due to not getting enough sleep from early work schedules. Well, early enough that I don't get enough sleep but late enough that I can't nap afterwards. Last night was the first night in days that I got a full rest. But you know what's the sad part? Some of that was self-created. I gotta stop keeping up with certain shows. Well, that and I'm fascinated by David Letterman's new baby.

I'm closing again tonight. Let's see if I come home with any pastries. The last bunch was eaten with great gusto. They may be pricey, but I do have to say, they are delicious. The new eggnog latte is pretty good, but I'm not too crazy about eggnog. Not too crazy about gingerbread, either. The peppermint mocha was pretty good, but I prefer white mocha. Perhaps tonight I'll try a peppermint white mocha. Peppermint chai? Hmmm.

My schedule for this week:

Mon -- School
Tue -- 8:15 am to 1:45 pm
Wed -- School
Thu -- 7:30 to 11:30 am
Fri -- 7 pm to 12:15 am
Sat -- 12:30 to 4:30 pm
Sun -- Church picnic from 9:30 am and on

Grrr. Due to Stickler-Lead, all those lovely leftover pastries... in the trash. Blech.

Thanks Erica for your willingness. Now for the rest of you, please donate blood!

It's been a long time since I've dressed up for Halloween, but I thought everybody at work was going to dress up. Turns out, I was the only one for awhile, and then an hour after my shift started, someone else came on dressed as a cat. Well, more like she was dressed sexy with cat ears.

I know that a lot of Christians (or at least conservative or reform Christians) think that Halloween is a satanic holiday though it's roots are pagan pre-Christian and early Catholic. I suppose the only reason to not celebrate it is for 1 Corinthian 8 reasons. But it's really fun to dress up, and since I came to the US when I was six and didn't actually go trick-or-treating 'til I was eleven (and then stopped at thirteen), I've never had a chance to do costume-y things. So as a Christian, when else do I get a chance to wear costumes?

Party City was jam-packed today. I ended up spending more money than I should on stuff that I couldn't use. The only thing I really needed was a $2 make-up kit. Argh.

It's hard to believe that at one point, our house was only about ten miles away from the fires. I've been watching the news and reading the newspapers, and it's pretty bad. Starbucks is organizing volunteers among the partners, and I'm going to see if I can help out. The Red Cross is asking for a lot of things, one of which I really want to give but can't.

Since it's been less than a month since I last gave blood, I can't for another few weeks. But San Bernardino County is really short. So I'm asking you all to help:

Please donate blood.

I know some of you can't, but for those of you who can but won't, please consider this as a favor to me. Thanks.

New updated schedule (accurate this time!):

Wed -- school
Thu -- 2:45 to 6:45 pm
Fri -- 6:30 pm to 12:15 am (anybody have a good cheap costume idea?)
Sat -- 12:30 pm to 4:45 pm
Sun -- church, then 7 to 11:15 pm

So now that I'm finally working (somewhat) why am I still keeping vampire hours? It started with catching up on some taped shows from last week, and then I expected to sleep in on a Tuesday morning, for once, but then at 7:30 I get a call from work asking me to come in. So I work for 3.5 hours, and then I come home, crash, and wake up in darkness. I know I said that December is my favorite month and that I prefer winter over summer, but there's one thing about winter that I absolutely hate. You'll probably read me rant about it for weeks on end, which usually happens after the time change, but I don't like the early sunset. Maybe it's because I tend to suffer from mild SAD (seasonal affective disorder) around this time.

Nothin' much more to say, so I'll just rant:
The new Toys-R-Us commercials: There is no helium in a hot-air balloon!
Justin Timberlake: It's "with you" not "wit chu"!
Beyonce: No rant, I just really hate the song "Baby Boy," and what the heck was she doing at the RMAs?
The RMAs: That was a really really REALLY pointless awards show!
TV movies: I can't believe they've already greenlighted a movie about the Cubs fan who caught that ball!

'kay, that's it.

So the sky is falling in Southern California. Flames lick at our borders, a rain of ash falls steadily, and today's setting sun was an eery bright red. I think the Apocalypse has come. The first sign was when we elected an inexperienced action movie star as governor.

Recent spending has left my finances stretched to the limit. Perhaps I shouldn't have bought that Wacom tablet from Ebay. I don't necessarily need it, but drawing with the tablet versus the mouse is like the difference between a sable brush and a crayola poster paint brush. *sigh. If only being an artist could be cheaper. My biggest expense? Entertainment. I mean, I don't regret any of the spending on that, but boy, it does take its toll.

I saw Mystic River for a class assignment. It's pretty good. We had a long discussion about who was the hero, because from the beginning, Sean Penn's character is seen as the hero while Tim Robbins's character is the villain. But the story is complex, and we had a long discussion about whether or not the hero of a story has to be a good guy.

Last week's Smallville was a letdown, after all those commercials about Clark and Lana skinny-dipping. I mean, it was classic Smallville, but I was expecting something big. Waiting for sweeps, I guess. Angel was pretty good, too. The writing was classic Whedon, with such gems as Fred pretending to be scared by Spike to spare his feelings, and Spike crying out, "Hey, I invented what-goes-bump-in-the-night." I still have a few more hours of TV to catch up on. Sad, yes, I know. This is why I shouldn't start watching new shows. X-Men: Evolution is coming along interestingly in terms of storyline. I liked it better when it was more "mutants in high school" cuz otherwise it's going to be too much like the early 90's X-Men cartoon. (I really hated the voices on there, esp Xavier and Wolverine cuz they sounded all squeaky.) But they had a preview of Rogue's new powers (it'll be interesting how she develops them, since in the comics she's supposed to have got them before she came to the Institute), as well as Jean's turn as Phoenix. I just hope they won't go all soap-opera-melodramatic-exploded-universe like the earlier cartoon. Ach, too much TV.

My schedule for this week (it's not exact as I don't have it written in front of me):

Mon -- school
Tue -- no work!
Wed -- school
Thu -- 4:15 to 8:45 am (I'm not sure about this one)
Fri -- 8:15 pm to 12:15 am (It may start earlier)
Sat -- 11:30 to 4 pm
Sun -- church, then 7 to 11:15 pm

I learned an interesting thing last week that I haven't posted yet:

I am the oldest person at my store. Well, there might be one other girl who is also 24, but otherwise, I am the oldest. Yes, I am older than my married-with-a-4-year-old-daughter store manager. Apparently, she' only 23. Everybody else is 19 to 22, except one guy who is only 17. At the Chino Hills store, I think the ages of the baristas are a bit higher on average (there are a lot more married women) but it's still pretty young. When I had that temp job in Ontario, I met one 24-yr-old who was married with a baby, and one who seemed younger than me who already had two kids (she had her first at 15). It's really weird for me and I can't relate cuz when I was 19, I was barely growing up but these girls were having babies. But I realize that that's the norm more than the exception. But we don't see that on TV cuz, with the exception of Roseanne, working class people just ain't funny.

The Albertson's strike is causing the Holiday rush to start early. The morning rush started early today, and it was absolutely crazy. But at least that means I'm getting more hours. I'm scheduled to work the closing shift on Halloween. Fun. They're encouraging us to dress up, but I'm not sure what to wear. I was thinking of just drawing a lightning scar on my forehead and putting tape on my glasses. Anyway, from past experiences, they say that it'll be quiet early on while the parents are out trick-or-treating with their kids, but afterwards... mad rush to wash the evening away with coffee. Yikes.

Okay, so tired... and Erica where are you???

Christine, I know you like to lurk around blogs w/o leaving comments, but this is for you:

1. WHAT IS YOUR Middle name?
Officially, it's Jin, which is what I went by 'til college.

2. WHAT kind of PANTS ARE YOU WEARING and what color?
Lounge around shorts, though earlier I had milk-splattered black corduroy pants.

3. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
I am one of the millions who bought Clay Aiken's CD last week. That's right, I ain't ashamed. I like it, 'kay? If you's got a problem wid dat, well, now, we's jus' migh' hafta do sumptin' about dat.

4. WHAT ARE THE LAST 4 DIGITS OF YOUR PHONE NUMBER?
Uh... why? Oh, for those of you that don't know, I got a new cell phone and number. E-mail me if you don't know and wanna know.

5. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE:
Venti Iced Soy White Mocha. Oh... ate? Turkey jerky last night.

6. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Hot pink, cuz I'm neither.

7. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW?
Why the heck is it so hot???

8. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Two of my bestest friends. And no, it ain't you. (J/K!!!)

9. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Height... and build....

10. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT YOU THIS?
Technically, I wasn't sent this.

11. HOW ARE YOU TODAY?
Tired.

12. FAVORITE DRINK?
Iced Soy Chai Latte, Tazoberry Creme Frappuccino, and Bailey's Fizz.

14. FAVORITE SPORTS?
To do: leisure bicycling, hankido; To watch: Figure skating

15. HAIR COLOR?
Dark brown with blond highlights with black roots with strands of gray hair

16. EYE COLOR?
Brown

17. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Sometimes, though if I can save up for LASIK soon enough, then never!

18. SIBLINGS AND THEIR AGES?
Sister -- 27
Brother-in-law -- 28
Brother -- 25

19. FAVORITE MONTH?
December, cuz there's holiday music on the radio, holiday decorations everywhere, and the weather is nice and crisp.

20. FAVORITE FOOD?
Galbi, sul-lung-tang, hwe-dup-bap, sushi, in-n-out burgers, steak, cheesecake, black cherry ice cream, the aforementioned drinks, clam chowda, chocolate... shall I go on?

21. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Holes -- watch it!

22. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR?
Christmas

23. ARE YOU TOO SHY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT?
Yep, though from what I hear, I can appear too intimidating for other people to ask out. Which only strengthens my theory that I will be single forever. And surprisingly, I'm not unhappy at that thought.

24. DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING.
Happy ending, definitely. Scary movies, cheesy as they are, just ain't entertaining. I am not one of those people that have fun getting scared.

25. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter all the way. Has anybody else experienced an Inland Empire summer? I didn't think so.

26. HUGS OR KISSES?
Sure, just not in public... unless it's me. (Hypocrite alert!)

28. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?
Yes, please.

29. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO WRITE BACK?
Y'know, it'd be a lot easier just posting it to your blog. And if you don't have a blog... then get one!

30. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
The regulars will comment (please)?

31. WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
The strangers that lurk this site.

32. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?
The Writer's Journey, Understanding Comics, and Becoming a Titus 2 Woman, for school and church, though I hope to go through the Artemis Fowl books during break.

33. WHAT'S ON YOUR SCREEN SAVER?
Nothing.

34. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Monopoly and its various incarnations.

35. WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT?
Came back from school, snacked, talked on the phone, watched TV. The usual.

36. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Vanilla, coffee, fresh laundry.

37. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
I'm so tired... I can't believe I have to wake up.

This week's schedule:

Mon -- School
Tue -- 7:30 am to 12ish (forgot the exact time)
Wed -- School
Thu -- 4:15 to 8:45 am
Fri -- 4:15 to 9 am, church activity at 7:30 pm
Sat -- nuthin' though I've been called in to work the past two weeks
Sun -- church

I am soooo old now cuz I've hurt my back... again. I think it was when I reached for something high and I over-stretched a muscle. Ouch. My dad massaged it last night (more like abused it) but it felt ok this morning. It just got worse in the air-conditioned school building.

Last Saturday I picked up a shift at the store in Chino Hills. Even though we're only like a mile apart, there's a big world of difference. For one thing? People tip better. I can certainly understand why they figure it's an additional buck an hour. The last two times I picked up my tips, it was less than that. The clientele there is different, too. The ethnic makeup of our two cities are similar, but instead of Mexicans, they have Asians. And lots of Koreans. I've never seen so many Korean customers in the six hours I was there.

There's also news regarding my church that most of you won't care about. But nevertheless, I have to write about it. Though it's still tentative, there may be a split at our church. More like, the EM (English Ministry -- basically the 1.5 to 2nd generation English-speaking Koreans) is going to split away from the church. Oof. I'm leaning towards leaving with them but not without hesitation. After all, I do have history there, even if there isn't much loyalty. And my parents attend the KM (Korean Ministry), even though from what I hear things ain't very Christian. One of the things that Paul (the apostle, St. Paul to the Catholics) really frowned upon was gossip, and unfortunately, Korean culture is rampant with it. It would take severe, conscious effort to get rid of it, and they haven't made any move towards it. Even my mom hates that the only thing they do whenever there's a get-together is gossip.

But I thought, ok, we're separate ministries, I think ours is very Bible-oriented and people are making a big effort at Paul's request (Romans 12:1-2), I feel people are actually growing spiritually there. However, we learned that the politics of the KM have been leaking into the EM, and things have come to a showdown.

I really hope we don't have to tear our congregation apart.

BTW, yes I'm a hypocrite. I'm not like the church I attend. But I'd rather attend this church than a more liberal one, just cuz I know this church can keep me from going overboard. But I like my role as wrench-thrower just so that the other people around me aren't just taking the conservative stance cuz the church is.

************

(huff puff) Whew, dodged the bullet there! I forgot that my parking meter had run out an hour ago. I rushed out and luckily, no parking ticket! Whoo-hoo! I think I'll end my blog on this happy note. :)

Actually, Beno, it's not stolen since we all get a free pound of coffee per week. But it's suppose to be for personal consumption, not for selling. I think. And Count Whateley, yes, I'm thankful for your generosity, I'm just saying I don't think it was worth $40 in general.

Update on this week's schedule:

So I didn't go to the meeting today cuz my manager let me skip it and go to the Chino Hills store meeting instead. So...

Thu -- 6:45 to 10:45 pm (I found out the actual time)
Fri -- 4:15 to 9:00 am, and then meeting probably around 6 or 7

But... I'm still open Saturday, so please come visit me! Let's hang out! Unless you're a creepy stalker!

BTW, the link Count Whateley provided is sooooooo creepy. They actually have memorials to Matthew Shepard and Diane Whipple about them going to hell. I felt really angry and really sad. Such Pharisees.... That, ladies and gentlemen, is why Christians are not trusted in this country. Those bigots and hatemongers give Jesus a bad name.

On a lighter note, we saw Casablanca in class today. It's so weird. I've never seen the movie before, yet I knew so many of the lines cuz they've been quoted so much. Our teacher said to take a closer look at it again to note the way the filmmaking was done. There's a lot of subtleties in filmmaking that go virtually unnoticed. It's kinda hard when we're storyboarding just how it's so easy to mess up, yet when the finished product comes out, if it's well done, you hardly notice anything. Perhaps one day I can call myself an expert in this field.

Ok, I'm getting kicked out of the computer lab now.

Last Saturday night I went to Knott's Halloween Haunt (more commonly known as Knott's Scary Farm) with Robert and his date. Our group was supposed to include her friend and her boyfriend, but they ditched us, so it ended up being a threesome.

I so need a man. (ha ha... ha)

Anyway, it was a fun experience, though I don't think worth the $40 ticket. I'm thinking it would be fun to work as a monster there, though as the kind that walks around, not the kind stuck inside a haunted house. The lines were rather long, though some weren't as long as they claimed. The show we watched was pretty good so I think if I ever go again (which... will be in another 10 years?) I'll watch the shows rather than go through the haunted houses. I started pre-emptedly screaming before a turn just to prepare myself for getting spooked. But towards the end, I figure out, they're more likely to jump out at you if you look them in the eye or touch the walls.

I came home at 3:30 am, crashed, and woke up in time to be late to church... as usual. But afterwards, I felt odd -- I was tired but I couldn't fall asleep. I did fall asleep around midnight and woke up around 10 am. So now I've got one of those slept-too-much headaches. Such ironies.

Y'know what sucks about Knott's Scary Farm? Too damn many couples making out in lines. You know who you are!

Schedule for the week:
Mon -- school
Tue -- 4:15 to 8:45 am
Wed -- skipping school, meeting 5:30 to 7:30 w/ betta-be-worth-four-dolla dinner
Thur -- afternoon shift (forgot the time)
Fri -- 4:15 to 8:45 am
Sat -- forgot... nuthin', I think
Sun -- church in morn

Short post in regards to comments:

Thanks for the link, You-Know-Who, but it's not helpful as I am not living in the Bay Area. The entertainment industry, for the most part, is in Los Angeles.

Anyway, as for the work meeting, it's on everybody's schedule, so we're getting paid for it, it's like a shift, yadda yadda, I just hope it's worth it. They say that we're going out to dinner afterwards. I wonder if enough people wanted to donate $4 out of their tips to pay for it. I certainly wasn't going to donate. Let the leads, who have more hours and higher wages, make the donations.

Speaking of hours, due to the store manager's daughter being sick today, I got extra hours. Now that's a new experience. I actually got 8 hours, though I may end up getting an extra five minutes in overtime. One bad thing? I think I got jacked out of a 10 min break. What's the law for 8 hours, cuz I just got a paid 10 and an unpaid 30-min lunch?

One thing I figured out, the rate of fun at work depends on who you're working with. I figured that out. Even Starbucks can be bearable with the right people.

Stupid enetations! You can't click the submit button more than once, or reload the page, without it posting your comment multiple times. Erg.

Anyway, I don't know how God works, and I'm not sure if he's telling me something, but it turns out, the two classes I have on Wednesdays does not physically require my presence next week. I mean, I'd be missing out on valuable work time and I'd have to call other people for the homework assignment, but I don't have to turn anything in next week. So that means that I can skip next Wednesday to attend my store's holiday meeting.

Yep, I'm skipping school to attend a meeting. Aye caramba.

The store manager stressed that it's reeeeally important, and that if I do miss it, then I'd have to spend a couple of hours with her one-on-one to make up for it. Other people are just going to skip their classes, but they don't drive all the way out to frickin' Santa Monica.

Funnily enough, the guy who I sit next to in my Storyboarding class turns out is a lead at a Starbucks in Culver City. He's a lead there, but he says that he's been there too long and looks at it with the same cynicism that I'm starting to cultivate. It makes me feel better, though, cuz it seems like 4 out of the 5 leads at my stores are waaaaay too gung-ho about Starbucks. And the one lead that's not is the second-in-command, so he can't really express his cynicism.

What Dante, the guy in my class, told me was that in his store, and at various stores around Hollywood and LA, they get celebrity regulars. For instance, John Travolta used to be a regular at his store. So when he asked me if we had any celebrity regulars, I just replied, it's Chino, the closest person we've got to a celebrity is the mayor. (Not that I even know who that is, though he did come on the news when that whole thing about The OC was going on.)

Y'know what I'm thinking? I oughtta transfer to a store in Hollywood or LA. Cuz in addition to celebrities, producers, directors, and scriptwriters are regulars at some stores. And as I've learned for weeks at my Storytelling class, the key to getting employment is networking.

But... I'm sure you see the problem here. There's no way I could afford to live on my own on Starbucks wages. Even if I do sell my pound-o-coffee-per-week on the side.

Okay, so Holes the movie isn't as good as Holes the book, but since Louis Sachar also wrote the screenplay, it's pretty damn close. As my brother can attest to (and he's pretty finicky when it comes to movies) it's a good movie. And I attest, it's a damn good book. Damn. Hell. Yeah. (Geez people, do I have to buy them for you for Christmas?)

Well, there is one problem with the movie and basically it's why a book can't completely translate into a movie. The story is about Stanley Yelnats (it's a palindrome) and his adventure, but there are tons of backstories on his great-great-grandfather, his great-grandfather, on his friend Zero, and the history of Camp Greenlake, and the clever thing is how they all inter-relate. But when you translate that into a movie, you've got a ton of characters and a lot of explanations that you have to make sure gets understood. So a lot of the subleties were lost. And it's the subtleties that make it a great book.

Changing the subject, the wedding yesterday of a church member was pretty good. It was the first "Korean" wedding where I actually knew the people getting married and they weren't relatives. All you Korean people know what I mean when I say "Korean" wedding, but for you non-Korean-folk, basically, the main difference is, it's usually held at a church, the mothers are in han-boks and light the candles in the beginning, the bride-and-groom have that unity candle-lighting ceremony, they both wear gloves, there was a Korean buffet, and no dancing. It was all quick and over with in under 3 hours, though I came early and stayed later to help.

I had woken up at 4 am yesterday, actually, to be at work by 4:45. After I was done, I wanted to take a nap, but I couldn't because of errands and whatnot, and I was trying to get to the church as early as possible to help. At the end of the day, I was so tired that I fell asleep for a second on the exit ramp for home. I watched a bit of TV, but I was so tired that I ended up going to bed around 9:30, though I was interrupted twice by phone calls. (Sorry Erica) I was hoping that going to bed early could help me wake up earlier to do my Bible study before church, but I ended up waking up later than usual, so not only did I just throw on some clothes and makeup, but I was so late that I missed out on praise. And I'm feeling tired still. Bleh.

My schedule for next week:

Mon -- school
Tue -- 4:15 to 9 am
Wed -- school
Thu -- 4:15 to 9 am
Fri -- 2 to 6 pm
Sat -- nuthin' (maybe I'll go hiking in the morning)
Sun -- church then homework

Saturday's shift had a lead that I haven't worked with, because otherwise I would remember her stickler-for-the-rules attitude. It seems like every move I made required correction. She did complement me once, though. The thing is, it didn't seem any more than usual, but it just seemed that way cuz the way she talked was a lot like how the boss guy did in Office Space. I don't know if they train leads to talk that way, but there's another one that talks like that, too. And since it's snapshot season (snapshot=secret shopper report), it's going to be worse.

I wouldn't mind getting out of retail. If only tutoring was more steady. Like if I could get 10 to 20 hours of it a week or something. I'm seriously considering whether or not medical, stocks, and discounts is enough of an incentive to stay.

That bruise on the donation spot isn't so big. I have a slight soreness in that elbow joint, but I think that's from work and not the needle. Sometimes, when I'm tamping the espresso grounds (which means that I'm using this little thing to press down hard on the individual brewer) and my arm is at a 90-degree angle with my elbow facing up and my upper-arm parallel to the ground, I feel a little tingle right above my elbow. Kinda like when you stretch and your joints pop. Anyway, it doesn't hurt, but I wonder if it will lead to something. There was this whole thing about repetitive-stress injury prevention that we had to read, but a lot of it is hard to put into practice. The only one we seem to be doing is not working the bar for more than 30 mins at a time, though I think that has to do more with the customer flow than anything else. And they kicked me out 45 mins early yesterday, and an hour and 20 mins early today! This sucks. It seems like an obsession with the manager/leads to save labor hours. So meanwhile, I'm getting less than 18 hrs a week, and next week it's even worse. Sigh.

On a different note, I watched Bowling for Columbine last week (Robert's DVD), and it's a really good documentary. And it raises a lot of thoughtful questions. What was especially an interesting point was that of the developed countries that have less than 150 gun-related deaths (or is it homicides) per year, Canada doesn't have strict gun-control and in fact has more guns per capita than the US. Yet the US has over eleven-thousand gun deaths per year, while they have around 115.

I also rented a couple of DVDs cuz I had a coupon that expired on Tuesday. I've only watched one, which is Bend It Like Beckham. It's a pretty good movie, though I had to turn on the subtitles after 5 mins cuz I had a hard time understanding what they were saying. Reminds me of Kelly Bundy taking an English-to-English dictionary on their family trip to England. I think it hit home with a lot of young people, because no matter which culture you come from, especially if you are dual-cultured, when what you want and what your parents want are different, problems (and possibly hilarity) ensues. I did learn a new term, though. Slag is British for slut, I'm assuming. So perhaps I'll go around calling people bloody slags. Heh heh.

One more thing, there is a reason why Starbucks is making bank. A tall drip (the small size) is $1.40. The cost of the coffee is approximately 8¢, and the cost of the cup is 10¢, and if we assume the lid and the sleeve add up to 5¢, and since it takes 2 min for a Barista to take the order and fill the cup and give it to the customer (which is about 22¢), then the profit for each tall drip is 95¢, or 68% profit. (BTW, this is a low estimate, since one of the leads said that the net profit from drip coffee is the price - 8¢, which would be a 94% profit.)

Next time, I'm getting soy in all my drinks. Normally they charge 30¢ extra. I think for my slightly-above-minimum-wage wage, I deserve soy. Besides, I don't need a reason for my lactose intolerance to flare up.

Boy do I have a story for you today. So I actually picked up the SMC weekly newspaper The Corsair during the break of my first class. Well, in there was an article about how the refridgeration system of the Irvine Red Cross Blood Bank had failed and they ended up with a blood-shortage crisis. Anyway, in order to restock the supply, they are holding a blood mobile drive on the main campus today and tomorrow. Well, not having given blood since 9/11, I figured this was a good enough cause to take the shuttle to the main campus and impart some of my precious bodily fluid.

One thing, I don't know why, but donating blood takes a minimum of one hour, even though the actual donation process takes only about 10-15 mins. It's not even just answering the questions, filling out the paperwork, and taking your vitals. It's that there's a long wait in between each step. Anyway, I only had an hour to donate before the last shuttle left, so it was cutting it close, but I felt convicted about this cause.

Anyway, while I was waiting, I had my sandwich and some water. And after an hour, I finally went in to donate. (At which point I realized that taking the shuttle back was now out, and I'll have to walk the 1.25 miles back.) Well, here's my mistake. You're suppose to be well-hydrated, but the only water I had up to that point was the half-liter bottle water with my sandwich. A half-liter is approximately a pint, and a pint is what I had to donate.

For those of you medically inclined, you might have guessed it. I tend to bleed pretty slowly. I normally have low blood pressure. And I didn't drink enough water. So, after a painful 30 mins, I had just 43 mL to go 'til I filled the bag, and the plebotemists were massaging my arm and hand to get my circulation up, when my vein collapsed.

Argh. All that pain and trouble, and they can't even use that bag. (Which sucks cuz even though it's not regulation-sized, it's still good blood.) And afterwards, I had to sit around with an ice bag strapped to my arm while the nurse told me that I'm going to have a big bruise tomorrow.

The lesson? Drink a lot of water while waiting to donate blood!

I kept asking complete strangers if they could give me a ride to the Academy campus since I didn't want to pass out in the middle of my 20-min walk. But in the end, I didn't pass out, although I was more than a half-hour late for my class.

But even though this donation was a lot of trouble, I will donate again! There is always a blood shortage in California, and even though I'm A+ and therefore not as useful as an O-, I will try to give whenever possible. So for you sissies out there (you know who you are!), the pain is minimal compared to the good you'll do, so donate! They've already got so many limitations on who can donate (just added SARS and West Nile, in addition to Mad Cow which eliminates western Europe) that if I can, I'd feel guilty if I'm not. Besides, they give you cookies!

On a different note, fun links:
Map to Mordor
Project Genesis

Congrats, Count Whateley. You will be known as the evil-LPCA-guy from now on, though the managers will more likely call you Golden Boy. And yes, at Starbucks, we are allowed to have free syrup in our drinks. Today I got a cup of coffee (Guatemalan/Antiguan, which is supposed to be smooth, rich, and complex, it tasted like... coffee) and added a pump of vanilla. Well, that and my breakfast consists of a Tazoberry Creme Frappuccino. I coulda had a lo-cal version by not adding the creme, but c'mon, no creme? That's what makes it tasty. I'm thinking of experimenting with a half coffee/ half creme concoction. Or maybe creme base with a shot of espresso.

The guest speaker last night was a literary agent. Well, more like he represented scriptwriters and producers. He looked a bit like David Boreanaz. It was really interesting the stuff he had to say. The main point? The way to work in the entertainment industry -- any position -- is to schmooze. And 90% of an agent's job is to schmooze. Anyway, he said some interesting things about how to work as a writer (for TV and film) so if any of you want to know, just ask. What was hilarious was that even though the coordinator said no scripts, people still pitched him ideas. Well... not per se pitch, but more like, hey, I've got an idea what do you think, and hey, can I talk to you sometime about some of my projects.

One rant that's going to make me sound like a bee-otch: There's a handicapped girl in my class who I think has cerebral palsy. She talks reeeeeeeeally slow. But here's what makes it worse, she takes forever to get to her point. She doesn't just ask the question, she starts out with, "I may be being redundant..." or "Sorry to bother you..." or "I have a question that I would like you to answer..." or the worse "I'm sorry to bother you and I may be being redundant but I have a question that I would really like you to answer...." Now picture saying that at a second per word. And add a pause before and after every phrase. And here's the thing, because she's disabled, we can't say anything about it! Whenever she pauses to think up the word she means (and this happens a lot) the teacher or other students tend to jump in with assumptions. Like last night, she asked, "I'm sorry I may be being redundant (pause) but I have a question I would like you to answer (pause). I have a brother (pause) who's a writer and he written a script (pause) and what was that movie (pause) with the two boys (pause) I can't remember (pause) (someone jumps in "Good Will Hunting") (the speaker "Oh, Project Greenlight") and so on" and basically, the question she asked was, "What should he do to break in since he's gotten a well-received script?" And I'm probably being insensitive, but it just bugs me when she asks a question because I know it will take forever for her to spit it out. She reminds me of a guy that I knew in college (Erica will know who I'm talking about) that had slight physical disabilities, but basically, he just could not shut up, and it took forever to finish a conversation with him because when you think it will end, he'll jump in with more stuff. Anyway, am I right to be annoyed or am I just an insensitive bitch?

My schedule for this week:

Mon -- School 1-4 and 6:30-9:30
Tue -- 4:15 to 9 am
Wed -- School 12:30-4:30 and 6:30-9:30
Thu -- 7:15 am to 12:45 pm
Fri -- 1:45 to 7:30 pm
Sat -- 4:45 to 8:45 am, then wedding of church member
Sun -- Church 9:15 am to 1-ish pm

Will rant later during class.

I had a long shift today, but instead of actually eating a meal during my meal break, I just had a drink. Well, it was a Chai Creme Frappuccino that I accidentally made again for a customer. So my day's nourishment, until dinner time at 8 pm, was a tall Vanilla Creme (vanilla syrup and steamed milk), a grande Chai Creme Frappuccino, and a venti Mint Brownie & Creme Frappuccino (this is a special recipe that someone else showed me, which is pretty good, consisting of creme base, mint syrup, and brownie chips blended together).

I haven't figured out the nutritional content of those drinks, but I'm pretty sure they were bad. But on the plus side, I'm getting plenty of calcium. And lactose-intolerance? Psssht! Well, actually, I overdid it a bit and ended up with a bit of delayed-reaction runs. (Oh don't you groan at me, missy!)

On a more serious note, the work environment at Starbucks is... a conundrum. I mean, so far, of all my jobs since Cafe (at Berkeley), this place has had the best work environment. I think mainly because the people around are either near my age or younger (mostly younger), and there's a lot of personal interaction. When I was working at Kaplan, I was by myself mostly, and while I had great rapport with the students (at least in the second class), it was somewhat lonely being at the top. At the hak-won (the learning academy), it was even worse because they called me Miss Kang, instead of Jeanna. That and I had absolutely no support from the director. Anyway, I'm getting along okay with the other people of Starbucks. It's easier with the newer people, though. Mainly because the older people there are part of a cliche. And when I say older, I mean, those that have been there for awhile, even though the store's only a year old. Actually, the ages of these people are younger than mine. The second-in-command is only 20 years old. They go drinking together after work. Anyway I think they see me as either too old (i.e. tired), too square, or too shy. I don't want to appear shy, but I can be quiet. Anyway, it's not like I want to go drinking with them (I am too tired, and I can't afford the drinks, and I don't like beer) but it would be nice to have that same camaderie. Well....

Anyway, gotta sleep, I've got an early shift tomorrow followed by Korean BBQ outreach at church.

Printed on the side of a grande hot cup:

What Does it Take to be a Starbucks Barista?

Baristas are trained thoroughly at Starbucks. To earn this important title, every barista-in-training must first attend Starbucks Coffee School where the art of coffee preparation is mastered.

Umm... that's sorta true. In the end, we're still grunts. But since technically I do have skills that the common populace does not have, I guess I am a master of coffee preparation. I didn't learn it at "Coffee School" though, unless you call messing up dozens of drinks "Coffee School." :P

Thanks for all the bread tips! I didn't Subway it today, though. I grabbed a dollar chicken sandwich from MuckYuck's (as Beno would say) but I ended up eating it early cuz I forgot to grab a banana for my breakfast and I was starving. I think I'll be vending machine-ing it today. Mmmm. Packaged rice pudding. (Assuming it's still there this evening.)

Anybody watch the Emmys? Since I had to work, I recorded it and watched it later. But since radio and TV news spoiled the results for me, I ended up fast forwarding through most awards. Well, it ain't the Oscars. The Emmys will never win... an Emmy for the show they put on. No songs (except for Martin Short's thing), Wanda was sad, and Conan O'Brien shoulda been given more screen time. And the kiss... well, it was funny the first five seconds. Then it just got gross.

Oh, speaking of work, I know I keep on forgetting to post my schedule. Since I'm at school right now, I don't have the exact times, but here's how I remember it:

Tuesday: opening shift
Wednesday: school
Thursday: closing shift
Friday: I think a mid-morning to late afternoon shift
Saturday: opening, and then church outreach event in the afternoon
Sunday: church and then free

My early New Year's Resolution (or perhaps a New School Year Resolution):
Get enough sleep

Work was really busy tonight. I joked that it was because they didn't have live music there outside to scare away the customers. We have three new people at the store. I'm no longer the newbie. It was funny cuz in the first half of my shift, there were three other people there, the lead, the girl who was hired a week before me, and the new guy. Hy-larious. Between the three of us (not including the lead, obviously) we had less than three months experience total. It's kinda funny seeing the new guy screw up with stuff I was screwing up with. But everybody did their fair share of screwing up. The main thing was that we were just packed until about 11 pm. A line out the wazoo, a crowd of people waiting for drinks, and tons of mess-ups.

Sooo tired. I woke up this morning (technically yesterday morning) at 7 am to go hiking with my family. My parents have been going pretty regularly during the weekends since they got the pass in July. Basically this one place in Azusa. It wasn't a long hike. About three or four miles roundtrip. And being nestled in the mountains, we were mostly shaded from the morning sun. There were more strenuous paths, but I think we're saving them for the "younger folks" come Thanksgiving or Christmas, depending on when los Keno plan on visiting. Which means that I will definitely be lagging behind since I won't have a coupla fifty-somethings to keep company.

On a different note, thanks for all y'all's comments! And thanks also for not sinking into despair with me. I mean, yeah, we're losing jobs to foreign countries (and yes, it will happen w/ 3d, as soon as the ppl over there are trained enough), and studios and game companies (more the latter than former) are sprouting up and dying off faster than you can shish-kabob. But... I'm not being optimistic. The market's still there. And if enough people band together and fight collectively, we might even be ok.

And finally, last week I did the subway foot-long for two days thing. Nice on my wallet, tasty on Monday, but soggy bread on Wednesday. Any ideas on how to keep the bread from soggy-ing up in two days? I was thinking of just putting it in a container instead of keeping it in its wrapper, but I'm not sure if that'll work. The bad thing about subway sandwiching it? It takes time to take the shuttle to the main campus (the Subway's out front) and then take it back to the Academy. It's time taken away from precious high-speed internet!

Okay, so basically, here's what happened w/ parking. There are meters around the school (and since I come early enough, I will always get a spot), which costs $.35 an hour, which means that I would be spending around $2 a day for parking. So that's $4 a week, and with a 16-week semester, that came out to $64 for the semester, which is cheaper than the $75 semester parking pass. Anyway, then I discovered a little gem -- a tiny strip of curb where there are no meters. Yep, free parking. Anyway, other people must have discovered them too, cuz now it's starting to fill up early. So, on Monday, I came, parked at a meter, and only put in enough money for until class ends, intending to come back to see if any free parking space had freed up before putting more money in the meter. Well, I had forgotten that I had signed up for a counseling session, and that took an extra 30 mins, and by the time I came back, I had a ticket under my wipers.

*Sigh. So that is why my quest for a free spot, when I coulda just put another quarter in for another 42 mins, landed me a $35 ticket. (On a brighter note, I got a free spot today.) Anyway, I would have to get a free spot 10 more times to make it still cheaper than the parking pass. *Sigh.

Oh, and yet another rant: my counseling session was bunk. Pretty much. The main thing I wanted to get cleared up was that I didn't want to take the "Intro to Graphic Computing" class. (See this entry for my description of it.) Basically, it starts out w/ the basics of the computer, and then basics of the web, and then the basics of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash. So, I know already about 90% of the class material already. (The other 10% would be Illustrator.) I mean, I'm currently taking a Flash class (and it's pretty easy right now since they're going over stuff I already know), I've taken a Photoshop class and gotten an A, but it's not "proof" that I can use a computer, so I still need to take that stinkin' class in order to get into the other classes that I want. (I could crash them, but crashing is too damn hard if I had to do that for all of my classes.) The counselor said that he was a student, he understands, that he'll bring it up at the next meeting, but I doubt that will help me. Even if anything happens, I wouldn't be able to benefit from it. I think I'll just have to suck it up and sit through that stupid class. That stupid impacted class that everybody and their mother want to take cuz they also need it to get into the classes they want.

Okay, this entry is getting long, but one good thing I want to rave about: on Monday we had a surprise guest speaker, Tom Sito, best known, perhaps, as the animation director for Osmosis Jones. He was great! He answered a lot of questions, and raised a lot of issues regarding animators today, and he was just a funny guy. It made me really want to be an animator, yet also not. It's a tough time for animation nowadays, despite all the stuff coming out nowadays. The main thing? All the jobs are going oversees to India and South Korea and Japan. It's tough enough having a glut of animators in Southern California, but if there are less and less jobs... well, it's gonna be a tough market. (Hey, it's still not too late to become a nurse! Or a lawyer! OMG. Shoot me now.)

My plan has backfired. Instead of saving money, I'm now wasting it since I got my first Santa Monica parking ticket. Damn. Stupid quest for free parking spot! An additional quarter could have saved me $35.

It started with intense pain in my left ear on Wednesday night, it spread to my throat on Thursday, and by Sunday, my nose got stuffy. Apparently, for some people, they develop colds in this manner. I usually don't have to deal with the earrache and just go from sore throat to head cold, which might progress to chest cold.

The thing about the earache is that it caused my inner outer ear to swell up, so now it's still swollen, and if I massage it, then it hurts like hell and fluids start coming out of it.

But I did cover a shift for a co-worker, and I definitely needed the hours. This past week, I was sent home an hour early two times cuz of lack of business. Tonight, the other girl on was sent home early. So even though I was feeling stuffy (which, surpringly, wasn't too bad during work, and only got worse towards the very end). In fact, despite my sickness, I was on fire, crankin' out drinks one after the other!

I finally picked up my tips today. Ooh... nice. It's quite a bit of money, actually, but then it encompasses several weeks, so I'm not quite sure how much extra per hour. I have to make sure I don't go spend-crazy. After all, I still need to recover financially from the wedding expenses (at my end), car expenses, and I want to save up for LASIK, and perhaps even a fun trip in the winter. Oh, and there's also school expenses, too. But being a US citizen and a California resident makes it not as bad. There are a lot of F-1 Visa students there, and they are going through hell. For one thing, they have to maintain at least 12 units, which doesn't seem so bad except that a lot of them have to work to pay for their keep, so it leaves little time for study and socialization. Tough noogies for them.

Homework awaits. Procrastination sucks.

Business was slow tonight, so we closed the store early. It was coming home that I realized probably why.

Essay: What I Was Doing When the Buildings Fell

By the time I awoke to start the day, it was already 10 am, 1 pm on the East Coast. When I started the day, the whole country had been in turmoil for hours. I never turned on the TV in the mornings since I'm usually running late. Erica had called that morning, left a message asking if we were alright. I was clueless. I mean, what could be wrong?

I went to Korean class at 11. Half the class was absent. The teacher conducted the class as usual, and I didn't see anything odd, other than that a lot of people seemed to have played hooky. After class, I went to work (at the computer center). I checked my e-mail, and someone asked if the University was staying open despite the jets in New York. The reply was that the University's official position was that they were staying open. All I could think was, what happened?

I began checking the news on the internet. I read about the planes crashing into the World Trade Center. It took me a few more stories to find out that it might have been a terrorist attack. By then, the latest news was that the fourth plane had gone down in Pennsylvannia. But it was information overload, and I had no idea what was going on.

The only other class I had that day was Art. Funny enough, the Department cancelled all classes that day. Or perhaps it's only the Korean work mentality that kept that language class open. I talked a little with the class aide and another student, but I didn't fully grasp what was happening. Then I went to work. I chatted a bit with the supervisors, but I still didn't know what had happened. I had scheduled a meeting for my project team that afternoon at 5 pm. No one showed, except for one person. I wasn't surprised. If I had fully understood what had happened, I probably would have cancelled that meeting.

Finally, I went home and turned on the news. CNN, Fox News, CBS News... every channel. Someone reported that the FDNY had lost three hundred of their firefighters. I was clueless and wondered why and how.

Y'see, I didn't know that the buildings had collapsed.

I just kept asking myself as the news broadcasts kept repeating the same footage over and over was, why weren't they showing some live footage of the towers now? It wasn't until the next day that I realized the full extent of what had happened.

OMG, how clueless am I? Suffice it to say, I joined the rest of the mourning community in the next few days.

Sooo tired. Too much running around today. Basically, I had to take the shuttle to the main campus so I could late-add a class, and then grab something to eat before rushing to the shuttle stop so I could take the last shuttle back to the Academy campus.

In an effort to eat more healthily, I got a 6" chicken pizzioli sandwich from Subway. It was very delicious, but that dinky sandwich cost $3.99 (plus tax)!!! And that didn't include the dollar I spent on the soda! (I know, soda != healthy, but I was on a quest to get some vanilla coke.) (BTW, != means "does not equal", it's a programming thing)

So now I'm at a loss. Spend more money and eat healthy, or spend less money and eat garbage? I was even debating getting the foot-long so I could save the other half for later, but while that may work on Monday to Wednesday, it doesn't work for Wednesday to Monday.

The veggie sandwich was cheapest, but... I'm not too crazy about vegetable sandwiches. Though I do hafta say that Subway is crafty. They print the fat and cholesterol content of their subs as well as a Big Mac and a Whopper on their napkins, and yes, they do have a lot of each. So... anybody have any ideas? (BTW, it would have cost me about the same to get a burrito and nachos at the food truck. But... food trucks are nasty, ain't they?)

So I got that class I was crashing. But now it means that I've actually gotta do the homework. I don't have a lot of techno stuff (mainly due to my lack of finances) but I would really like a Wacom tablet for this class. (Flash animation) The thing is, I don't really need it in order to be a success in this class (I think), but it would make things so much easier. I've resisted the temptations for awhile now (hence why it took me so long to get a cell phone, and also why i don't have a palm or an mp3 player, etc) mainly cuz I can't afford 'em, but this thing is sorta... necessary in my field. But I'm not a professional yet, so I feel guilty about getting one, esp since by the time I do become a pro, there will most likely be a better one. Or am I just being cheap? I could get a decent one for about $65 on Ebay....

Okay, I'm really just rambling, aren't I? But it would be nice to get your opinions on all this.

BTW, that weight gain's only been about 4 lbs (so far). But I think it's a combination of frappuccinos, less exercise (due to school), and more fast food (cheap lunches during school). But this current weight is what I weighed all last year. It's only been this summer that I've weighed less (by 4 lbs). So... maybe this will be a cyclical thing? And why the heck am I discussing my weight on my blog???

Thanks for all your comments!!! And thanks for all your enlightenment, too. As soon as my uncle mentioned "lawyer," the Korean part of me did consider it for a second. But the truth of the job rather than what's shown on TV (and I wouldn't even want to do what's shown on TV) has overridden my deep-seated desire, at some primal level, to seek glowing praise from my family. So I will trudge on, seeking something (I'm not quite sure of) that seems to involve art and computers. I'm kinda lame, but your comments do cheer me up. :)

And it is funny how the BlogSpot ads reflect my content. Maybe if I start talking about cats and donkeys I'll get some x-rated ads. ;)

Oop, gotta go, break is over. One thing I gotta say before I go: all those Starbucks drinks (cuz I get 'em for free during shifts, so the cheapo in me gets one every single shift) is making me gain weight!

Current musical taste: Hubbilubbarubby Dubbuff (stop laughing!)

Schedule for next week:
Mon: school (1-4, 6:30-9:35)
Tue: work 7:15 to 11:45 pm
Wed: school (12:30-4:30, 6:30-9:35)
Thu: work 7:45 to 11:45 pm
Fri: work 1:30 to 6:15 pm
Sat: work 4:15 to 9 am, then X-Men Evolution 9:30-10:00, then sleep
Sun: church 'til 1:30ish

So Starbucks (I don't know if it's just my store or it's district-wide) has decided to start opening a half-hour earlier and close an hour later. Hence my Saturday shift will begin at 4:15 am. That means that I have to get up... really early. I think I'll just set my TV to go off at 3 am, which is when ST:Voyager is on. Hah. Theoretically, I could even watch the whole episode before heading off to work.

Baby-sitting for my cousin (I should make a correction, he is 3.75 yrs old, not 4) was... well, hard in its own way. He's not a hyper kid, so he's not really the type to run around. In fact, I'm kinda worried that he doesn't run around more. He's the only toddler I know that claims to be "tired." Even after breakfast, he likes to play in bed. But that doesn't make it easier. Instead, he's a constant chatterbox. He likes to tell stories and show you stuff and ask questions, and you've got to respond to all of it or else he gets more pesky. I tried reading around him, and he doesn't like it when you're not constantly paying attention to him. So yeah, no running around, but no free time, either. At least he's toilet-trained now.

Hey Keno, if I ever visit you in SanJo, I'll show you how to make a caramel macchiato (one of the more popular drinks). You just need to get vanilla syrup and caramel sauce. And if you get mocha syrup, I can show you how to make a mocha or even a hot chocolate.

My aunt and uncle suggested I think about becoming a corporate lawyer cuz they thought I really liked to study. And while I do like learning stuff (hey, Discovery alone would be worth it to get cable) I told them I don't like having to study things I don't like. I mean, I had a pretty hard time writing those research papers in college. Not a hard time thinking up what to write (Queen of the BS) but more of getting the motivation to do it. I told them I was considering becoming a computer graphics artist. My uncle responded very positively, which he usually does (I think mainly due to being white and having been a teen in the 60's.) My aunt, on the other hand, responded in her usual stoic manner. She obviously wasn't going to insult my choice, but I could tell that she thought that was beneath me. No matter how white-washed she may get, deep-down she's still a Korean mother. However, as we were watching The Two Towers later and I mentioned how Gollum was entirely computer-generated, she said, hey, you could do that. If I told her what the average salary for that was, she'd probably get that stoic look again. Anyway, how cool would it be to work on a movie like The Lord of the Rings! Anyway, since in the past they have suggested that I become a teacher (due to my having worked at that academy and Kaplan, and my "natural talent" with children), I realize that they probably don't know me as well as they think. But... at least they're trying to help. Quite ironically, for a few months after I graduated, my mom repetitively suggested that since I like to read and write I should become a lawyer. Perhaps Erica can enlighten me, but isn't 80% of lawyering generating paperwork and filing a buncha stuff w/ the appropriate government department, and 20% public-speaking? I don't think enjoyment of reading novels and writing pulp means you'll enjoy being a lawyer.