Friday, April 30, 2010

selfishness versus fairness

I do not profess to be the most unselfish, generous and altruistic person. I admit that I look after myself and my family first before others. I think most of us do. And that is being selfish to a degree. But I always try to be fair to others and not let my selfish tendencies to overwhelm my personality. I feel that if I did not cause the woes of that other person, I have no problem in being a little selfish. If my actions results to the woes of others, then my fair side overrules my selfish side.

This past weekend, I saw one example on how some people can be selfish. While boarding the plane home from LA, the flight crew repeatedly announced not to put the second smaller hand carry bags and coats on the overhead compartment so the people boarding late will have some space for their main hand carry luggage. It was advised that smaller bags and coats be placed under the seat in front. But still I saw people who boarded earlier putting their coats and secondary hand carry bags in the overhead compartment without care or thought to the late boarding passengers. Their actions affects the other passengers cause they are in effect taking the spaces allotted for those passengers. That was selfishness that I do not subscribe to. It was not fair. I do not wish to be that selfish.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

If they cheated in 2000, why not in 2008?

I blogged earlier that I thought China cheated by sending under-aged girls for the 2008 women gymnastic event. So far my doubts are not yet proven but it has now been proven that China cheated before by sending under aged girls in the 2000 Olympic gymnastics events. Now it is just a matter of time when the truth will surface. I still believe most of those girls in the 2008 gymnastics events are under 16 years of age. Once a cheat will always be a cheat.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

allergy, sneezing and sarcasm

> Stinky people with BO ought to be allergic to their own stink.

> People who uses loads of strong perfume in a plane ought to be sealed in a closet with me while I fart endlessly!

> Have you ever wondered why people always seem to be sneezing near you?

> I often wish my enemies have allergic rhinitis (hay fever) reaction to their own scent.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Being indifferent to a sick coworker.

Once in a while, I get some vexations from my coworkers. This one particular coworker did something on a false assumption and she was defensive about her action. Also, her defense made her a hypocrite cause it was inconsistent with her past actions. So we had a confrontation of sort about what she did. That left me kind of annoyed with her. Normally we get along well enough but we are not really friends so to speak. Recently, she fell ill and have to take several days off even up to this day. Because of our recent altercation, I do not feel sorry that she is ill. Normally I would wish her to get well soon but in this instance, I just can not honestly say that I do. On the other hand I do not wish her to get sicker. I am just dead to any emotion about her illness. I am indifferent to whatever happens to her. It is not as if I caused her to get sick nor does my feelings have any bearing on her illness so I am quite at peace with myself being indifferent about her situation.

Does it make me a bad person for being indifferent about her situation? I dare declare not. I am just being human and being honest about myself.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I won't say I'm in love.

One of my fave song from Disney's Hercules.


If there's a prize for rotten judgement
I guess I've already won that
No man is worth the aggravation
That's ancient history, been there, done that!

Who'd'ya think you're kiddin'
He's the Earth and heaven to you
Try to keep it hidden
Honey, we can see right through you
Girl, ya can't conceal it
We know how ya feel and
Who you're thinking of

No chance, no way
I won't say it, no, no

You swoon, you sigh
why deny it, uh-oh

It's too cliche
I won't say I'm in love

I thought my heart had learned its lesson
It feels so good when you start out
My head is screaming get a grip, girl
Unless you're dying to cry your heart out
Oh

You keep on denying
Who you are and how you're feeling
Baby, we're not buying
Hon, we saw ya hit the ceiling
Face it like a grown-up
When ya gonna own up
That ya got, got, got it bad

No chance, now way
I won't say it, no, no

Give up, give in
Check the grin you're in love

This scene won't play,
I won't say I'm in love

You're doin flips read our lips
You're in love

You're way off base
I won't say it
Get off my case
I won't say it

Girl, don't be proud
It's O.K. you're in love

Oh
At least out loud,
I won't say I'm in love

Monday, April 12, 2010

Blogging and me - the relentless spammers.

Once in a while I will received some random comments in my blog from random people. Often their comments does not even seem to reflect the blog itself or it is too generic to be sure that it refers to the particular blog entry. And one thing that is common about these random comments is the link in their comments. Sometimes the link will be on some random word or even on the punctuation marks that are repeated several times. It is obvious to me that these random comments are from spammers. They are either trying to trick people into inadvertently clicking on the link that leads to some website being promoted. Worse if clicking on these link gives people viruses and spyware. It is amazing and annoying how these spammers are so relentless in promoting their website. They won't stop at nothing. First they infiltrate friendster and myspace, now even my personal blogs are being targeted. Of course I never allow these comments to be posted. I want my blog to be spam free. And I have even configured it now that people can not include links in their comments. Hope this will be the last I see spammers in my blog.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

The titans and Sam Worthington


Even prior to seeing this new Clash of the Titans, there were already two things that appealed to me. One is the fantasy aspect of monsters/gods and the other one is Sam Worthington. After watching the movie, I was not disappointed. Sam was absolutely adorable in a hunky hero kind of way. Besides Sam's good portrayal of the demigod Perseus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades and Liam Neeson as Zeus were very apropos. Ralph almost looks scary and Liam was radiant and godly with the bright aura of lights around him. And the special effects of medusa, the gods, the Kraken, giant scorpions and pegasus were all very realistic. It was not like the old Clash of the Titans were it was so obvious to be camera trick. This new adaptation of the myth of Perseus did change a bit from the old movie adaptation but the basic story plot of Perseus saving Argos from the Kraken and his adventure to the blind witches and medusa remained the same. This movie in fact poked fun of the old movie via the golden owl cameo role. The story may have changed a little but the action and adventure that made the old movie so entertaining to watch is still there. If there is one thing that left me dissatisfied about the movie, it would be the lack of gratuitous shirtless scenes from Sam.

Overall rating? 4 stars out of 5 I say.

Friday, April 09, 2010

are the uninsured willing to die?

Those who opposes Obama's Healthcare plan says it is unconstitutional for congress to force people to buy healthcare insurance. Well said. Indeed in our land of freedom, we have a choice what to buy and what not to buy. On the otherhand, if those uninsured gets sick and are brought to the ER, the hospitals are obligated by law to treat them until they are stable regardless of their ability to pay for that service. In effect, the government and those insured covers the treatment they received. Those who have health insurance will received higher bills to cover the expenses of those that do not have insurance. So perhaps those uninsured who refuses to buy insurance, since they are free to do so, should be left to die if they get sick. Why should those who pay for their insurance have to cover the medical treatment the uninsured receives? Where is the freedom of the insured to refuse paying for the uninsured???

All that talk about the government curtailing their freedom to buy or not to buy health insurance is bullshit until the uninsured are willing to die if they get sick. Cause we all know, if the hospital do not treat and stabilized the sick uninsured, there will be more scream and talk about the government not taking care of its constituent.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Aquarium and fresh water fish

Having an aquarium is a learning process like any other endeavors. And I have learned so much this past several years in maintaining a 10 gallon tank. As I have upgraded to another 20 gallon tank last month, I have acquired more fish of different shape, colors and temperament. These are a few of my observations about some freshwater fishes.

> Fish can be trained like Pavlov's dog. I always turn off the water filter and air bubble prior to feeding them. So now every time I turn the filter and air bubble, they know it is feeding time. They start to crowd the surface in anticipation for food. They even approaches every time I come close to the tank. They have associated my presence to food.

> Gold fish are not the easiest to maintain. Fantail and comets alike. They seem to die on me. Perhaps I keep too much of them in so small a tank. This is an ongoing experiment with me.

> Male Betta does not need to be solitary as thought. They may not be mixed with other betta but they can mix with other fish like the neon tetra. They do not seem to bother each other.


> Neon tetra are nervous fishes. The like to hide behind the rocks and plants. They stay in the bottom mostly and are even too scared to go up and get the food in the surface during feeding. Perhaps the other big fish scares them too much.


> Lamp eye tetra or red eye tetra are fin nippers. They nipped the fin of my gold gourami resulting to its eventual death. They even nipped the fin of the glass fish. But despite their unbecoming behavior, they are pretty to watch schooling together with their silver scales glimmering as they swim in groups.


> Black skirt tetras are such hardy fishes. I have had mine for years now. They are good eater but also nervous eaters. During feeding, they like to swim very fast to the surface to snag the food and return to the safety of the bottom. They remind me of piranhas during a feeding frenzy.


> Blue gourami are very territorial and are such bullies. But they somehow leave alone those fish that swim about too much like the danios. Perhaps it is too tired to bother chase a fast swimmer. It also seem to leave alone the small fish like the neon tetra. Too small to bother?


> Gold gourami on the other hand are more peaceful than the blue gourami. They are not bullies like their cousin. And they are just as fancy and pretty to look at.


> Guppies are very easy to breed as people say. Indeed just put a male and female together and you will eventually get babies. I had 5 babies already from my 2 males and 4 females. Baby guppies are voracious eaters. Feed them constantly and they grow and grow.


> Glass fish and rose barb are perfect community fish. They seem to be the most docile and peaceful fish. They are pretty when they school and do not bother others. Although they seem to be less hardy and may suffer more with less than optimal water conditions.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

you are just the wife, not the doctor.

Today is one of those bad day at work. At least I have my trusty blog to vent it out.

I called a doctor's office to follow up on the report I faxed April 2. The woman who answered have nothing to offer but "I don't know". She asked me to call at 11:30 for someone who knows. So I did and this other woman who spoke with me does not seem to know any better also. She went to look at the chart and it was not there. So I asked if it is in there "in" box of faxed documents cause I have a fax confirmation that the fax went through. Then she asked me to hold and talk to their office manager. After waiting for several minutes, I got the office manager on the line. As I explained that I have a fax confirmation here that confirmed the fax went through, the office manager got defensive. "Are you insinuating..." she said. Well yeah, if the shoe fits I thought. She is obviously running an inefficient office. How else could a confirmed fax document not be there? Only if it was lost, misplaced or covered by piles of documents. Of course I did not say that to her. I did think it. So after some more discussion, I offered to refax the report. And I just did that.

Two hours later, I got a call from my director. The office manager called him. So I went to talk to my director. After he heard what I have to say, he was not upset at me nor did he reprimand me. He obviously see what really happened. He just advised me next time to be the bigger person and just refax the report. He told me that the office manager even went as far as "threaten" withdrawal of referrals from their office. Evidently, the office manager is the wife of the doctor. My director just sort of laugh off the situation and just reiterated his advise when dealing with difficult doctor or doctor's office.

All I can say this doctor's wife/office manage was having a major power trip. She is obviously a nobody that she used her husband's station to exert respect and authority. She hated what the situation brought on by my call says about the kind of office she runs that she took it out on me. What a looser! Of course I know that her threat was empty. Her husband has little choice but refer patients to our clinic. We accommodate most of their spanish speaking patients with spanish speaking staff that referral to other clinics will only lead to dissatisfaction from their patient. I don't think there are other clinics out there that speaks better spanish than us.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Are you a hoarder?

I personally know a hoarder and have heard of stories on hoarders other people know. This is how I came up with this list. You know you are a hoarder if:

- you wear the same set of clothes over and over again cause you can not find your other clothes from the pile of stuff.
- you do not welcome people in your home cause you are too ashamed to let them see the mess from all the stuff you have.
- you eat in your bed cause your dinning table is full of stuffs.
- you can not even take in your old sick mom cause you have no space in your house from all the stuff occupying your spare bedroom.
- you have to park your car in the street cause your garage is full of junk.
- you keep pile and pile of newspapers or magazines from the previous century.
- you can barely walk around your house cause the floor is littered with stuff, boxes and junks.
- you can not let anybody ride in your car cause it is full of stuff and junk.

Complusive hoarding of junk/things is a mental illness. The reason why so many of people who have this are not being helped is because most of these people are functional in society. They have jobs and seemingly normal social life. But if you peel behind the obvious, you will see their compulsive hoarding. The bottom line is if you are a hoarder, please seek psycho therapy to help you rid of this unappealing habit.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill.

Late last year, there was an anti-homosexuality bill introduced in Uganda. This bill has the following key provisions:

1. Gays and lesbians convicted of having gay sex would be sentenced, at minimum, to life in prison.
2. People who test positive for HIV may be executed.
3. Homosexuals who have sex with a minor, or engage in homosexual sex more than once, may also receive the death penalty.
4. The bill forbids the "promotion of homosexuality," which in effect bans organizations working in HIV and AIDS prevention.
5. Anyone who knows of homosexual activity taking place but does not report it would risk up to three years in prison.

This bill is nothing but a product of hatred and ignorance. It is plain idiotic and if passed, will lead to genocide. There is only one provision in the bill that I agree on. That is the punishing of those (homosexual or not) that engage in sex with minors. The rest of the bill are moronic.

For a nation where an estimated 940,000 people are living with HIV and a roughly 1.2 million children are orphaned by AIDS, this bill will only worsen the condition. If this bill gets passed, everybody will be too scared to get tested for HIV. Be it with the gay or straight population, HIV will spread. And to think that most international organizations has praised the way Uganda was able to effect a decline in HIV/AIDS infection these past couple of years, this bill will only be a step to the opposite direction.

And personally, this bill only diminishes my sympathy to the plight of the African nations. I will never part with my dollars for charitable works that will only help a stupid nation. They can all starve to death for all I care.