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.)