A Few Damned Phillies become Damn Yankees

They got Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle yesterday. They now field an All-Star team. Their payroll is like a gabillion dollars about now. The Yankees are going to score 10 or more runs a game and break the bank. But guess what? They don’t field All-Star caliber pitchers so they’re still going to give up 11 or a more a game ha. Thank god the evil empire has no brain. 

An Eye for an Eye…

Why does the the Bush-led administration ALWAYS have to be completely blind in the arena of diplomacy? 9/11 can’t be an excuse anymore…this is not about mistakes on the U.S. side of things anymore, this is about mistakes in other countries now, 3 years and Iraq is still in the same state as it was since the beginning of the occupation!  While the rest of the world is set on a resolution to call for a cease fire in the Israel-Hizbollah conflict the U.S. is still set on giving the Israelites time to root out their enemies. 

Sure, Hizbollah is responsible for many terrorist acts but for gods sake this ”war” is being held on innocent soil, but unlike the Afgan-Al-Queda war, the Israels aren’t about to rebuild Lebanon after all this is said and done are they? And Givin the fact that these people do support this organization does it justify the events that took place in Qana on Sunday, where 34 children and the remaining adults were killed in their sleep? There was even a report where a ONE day old baby was killed during Israeli missle strikes, how could it fathomable that this all started because of 2 kidnapped Israeli soldiers? It’s not and it shouldn’t be.  And all the while Israeli officials continue to stand steadfast on their goals to destroy Hizbollah, giving out petty apologies and the “unfortunate” nature of so many innocent civilians that were killed during their extermination campaign…the crazy thing is now they are allowing people to evacuate, and this could’ve been done, oh I don’t know, before a single shot was fired?

But there shouldn’t be any surprise from the U.S. reaction, because their diplomatic strategy is actually one that requires none. You can sum it up in a few things: 1. Bush gives damn good massages 2. Rice’s “spazzing violence” speech. That’s democracy at its best right now people, enjoy it for the next two years. Enjoy the incompetence of the government officials that run the most powerful nation in the world being nothing more than puppets brewing hatred. Watch as the world strikes back one day. You would think the U.S. learned something from their past mistakes, maybe trying something different like empathizing with other cultures and maybe figuring out why their are organizations like Hizbollah and Al Queda in the first place could serve as a better solution? But I guess some things do leave the world blind. 

@work blog (ver. 0.07)

Here is some stuff that I saw quite interesting from the short time I’ve been working with Microsoft’s sales department selling their business accounting program to U.S. businesses:

~ Our division has already acquired the sense of “minority” targeting. We literally start frothing from the mouth and go into a rabid frenzy when we see the Lee’s, Hajim’s, and the Jimenez’s on our database lists, sadly.

~ Washington state buyers sound like everyone else from the rest of country, a bit irritated that they have to go through a sales call during their work day, until I mention I’m calling from the almighty Microsoft then they literally transform into open minded, spineless zombies, SCREAMING AT US TO TAKE THEIR MONEY….and I just get the sudden urge to boom at the top of my lungs, “KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!” On that note, everyone else from the rest of the country just treats us like aliens…

~ Is it just me or is there a large influx of cleaning services in Arizona? WHY IS THAT?! I don’t know whether to see this as people who are really clean or people who are really dirty…

~ I HATE PEOPLE WHO ENTER THEIR INFO IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I JUST KNOW THAT THEY’RE EITHER SOME CRAZY HICK, SOME STUCKUP PERSON IN UPPERMANANGEMENT, OR SOMEONE WHO NEVER FIGURED OUT HOW TO TURN OFF THEIR CAPS LOCK!

I work adjacent to a call center so a lot of times I overhear a lot of quips that are really out there. And now…Quotes from the Call Center! (M/F defines the gender)

(M) Rep1: “So, what would you rather have, an extra eye, arm, or leg?”

(F) Rep2: “An extra eye…..so I can go <spins finger in circles while being cross-eyed> wooooooooot”

***awkward silence***

(M) Rep3: “I think I would want an extra arm, then I’d become a boxer…I’d be soooo good and become the world heavyweight champ!!! I’ll be famous!!!”

(M) Rep1: “I think that would sorta freak people out yo’…”

~Strangely, no one opted for the extra leg.~

This is a pretty ironic quote and made me smile….inside…

“I just got off the phone with a lady with the most horrible english, and she got angry at me when I tried to correct her! If she can’t speak English she shouldn’t have called-ed me!”

Yea, so just in case you were wondering what customer support reps talk about after you hang up…

The Evolution of Video Games

As a kid, I owned NES, Genesis, and SNES during the “Golden Age” of video games, and classics like Contra, Battle Toads, and NBA Live 96′ will be etched in my memory forever, Then, I remember the first time I played Tekken 1 on the original Playstation and was like “Wow, the graphics are 3D… THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!!” Now kids today, if they saw Tekken 1 in action they’d be like “When did LEGO come out with a Tekken game…DID NAMCO AND LEGO MERGE…OMG WHY DOES JULIE’S CHEST HAVE ONLY FOUR POLYGONS!?!?!” If you think about how video games have evolved, it’s pretty mind boggling considering just 4-7 years ago I was playing the original PS and I thought that was state of the art. And now the XBOX 360 and the PS3 is about to blow away the PS2! How life-like can video games get before there’s a ceiling? Nintendo’s next generation system probably holds the truth more so than its competitors….the ability to interact with the real environment but still be playing a video game (No, I don’t think that glove nintendo came out for the NES counts or the Virtual Boy horror). But seriously, pretty soon maybe companies will come out with compact, small virtual reality projectors or something, because there’s only so much you can fit on a console and display on a TV screen. Imagine…a day when the XBOX 360 is considered as prehistoric as Atari, it’s something you can only imagine.        

Pepsi lends Coke a helping hand

While reading the July 17th issue of Time magazine,I read an excerpt where it explained how Joya Williams, a secretary at Coca-Cola, somehow managed to get a hold of some of Coke’s secret recipes for a few of their drinks and afterwards tried to sell them to Pepsi. Not only that, she along with two other conspirators were requesting an asking price of $15,000 for sensitive info regarding future promotions and a whopping $75,000 for a recipe of a drink that hasn’t even been released to the public yet. I can’t help but imagine someone just waving a little piece of paper with a list of ingredients scrawled in chicken scratches and asking Pepsi officials for 75k in cold cash. Consequently, Pepsi did contact Coca-Cola about the deal, and in turn Coca-Cola contacted the FBI where they were able to locate these no gooders and promptly arrest them. It just goes to show how morals can still exist even in cut-throat rivalries such as Coke and Pepsi. Oh, and the article also brought up the age old question…was cocaine an ingredient in the original cola? Coca Cola officials have always denied this accusation, and the recipe for the original cola was not among the recipes that were stolen so it looks like we still can only speculate…but one things for sure, Coca Cola owes Pepsi one.

Shawn Kemp busted for weed possession

Oh no, here we go again. I heard that the “man-child” was making a comeback on an ESPN special that aired a few months ago, documenting how he had overcome his past weight, drug, and child custody problems so that he could make his grand return to the NBA. I even got my hopes up because the guy actually looked like the Shawn Kemp of old back when he was with the Sonics, he even gave a decent Rocky immitation running up steep hills while dragging heavy weights on his back and around his ankles, saying how he cleaned up his act and was focusing strictly on basketball. I dreamed of ferocious tomahawks and sky-high alley-oops again. Unfortunately it looks like his comeback is going to fall short unless Canada’s professional basketball league has a drug policy like the CFL. In any case, the man is 36 years-old so the comeback was at most optimistic, and most fans would probably be paying attention to see whether or not he was setting up Jelly rolls to eat instead of pick n’ rolls on the court, but come on people, this was one of the most exciting players to play in our era and it’s just sad to see him go down again. And sadly, he will most likely be remembered more for his off the court problems than for the tremendous player that he was. Oh well, once a man-child, always a man-child.

“Because It is There”

By Hans Tan

Mallory said.
“It” was the mountain of a war to come,
A war without borders.
Where death was chosen by the
Hand of nature and not by man’s own will.
Yes, he was familiar with both.
Mount Everest seemed a myth, unlike war,
Tales spun from Earth’s most isolated peak
Never left the lips of those who tried and fell.
While the mountains laid among the clouds
Mallory seized the wings to rise above
And when he rose, he rose with the angels
Until his waning strength gave no more.
And as he softly knocked on heaven’s door
He felt the caress of Geraniums and
Button flowers that remind him of Ruth,
The wife he loved but never truly knew.
Within the green, Himalayan valleys
His charming eyes quietly cry, asking
For the chance to see his home one more time.
The air shrills with his cold fears that soon will
Drift away to a different time and place.
Slowly, eyes that have seen what few only
Can hope to imagine or dare to dream,
Close without remorse, still as the candid moon.
Winds bawl like sirens, caressing the snow,
Blanketing the shell of a soldier as
Tired arms fade away in the snow.

*This poem written in reference to George Mallory’s climb of Mount Everest in 1924, supposedly he made it to the summit, and if this was the case he would have been the first person to have reach its peak without the use of oxygen tanks. However, conflicting reports may have suggest otherwise and in fact he may hae perished along with his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, after they reportedly “were going strong for the top”.

Celestials Built the Transcontinental Railroads

By Hans Tan

I heard celestials built the great railroad
That crosses the Sierra Nevada,
Where east meets west.
I imagine other worldly beings
Too alien to interpret through humans senses
Dotting the naked landscape of chiseled earth
Within low, high, and in-between crests.
Marching through merciless desert dunes
So dry that even the air itself is lifeless.
They make way for miles of steel ties and tracks,
Speaking in their own galactic gabble
That would make the average American man back then
Question.
Question their baked yellow skin.
Question their slant-riddled, dusty brown eyes.
Question their skinny crossed up legs.
Question their humble bows and gestures.
Question their mud stained bamboo hats
Question their porcelain rice bowls
Question their delicate chopsticks
Question their ching chang chong.

Question these celestial Chinese men
Who brought East and West together
Without answers.

*A poem dedicated to the Chinese immigrants who sacrificed everything to build the Transcontinental railroad across the Sierra and beyond during the late 19th century in America, these workers did not request any recognition or need for it, they represent the true meaning of being patriotic and doing what was right, that is, serving a cause without question or asking for anything in return.*

“File Lodge: Return of the Uploads”

Someone please tell me if this message makes any iota of sense because the first time I read this my eyeballs literally popped out of my eye sockets and my brain went into extreme backburner mode…I just opened a File Lodge account (where i can store some files and images), so I’m not too sure how much faith I have in them “maintaining” my completely empty and useless upload folder if they can’t come up with a half decent error message or at least one a normal person can understand without getting a coronary:

User folder for htan21 is currently offline. July 26th 06:30 EST – Essential maintenance is currently being carried out on the storage device looking after your files. This work is likely going to take all day until the evening of 6th July. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Honestly, I really tried to understand this message, really I did, but the more I tried to grasp around the concept of having my account back up and fixed before the problem actually occurring and then trying to comprehend how the technicians could be working on it now except in the future that is July 26th, completely blew me mind away. So, yea, as of right now I still don’t know when I can get my stuff uploaded and I’m too lazy to find another place to store my files…

Goodbye Sonics, I will miss thee…

Well, it has finally happened, the worst nightmare come true for me and all Seattle basketball and sports fans…the Sonics are heading to Oklahoma City. Grab your pitch forks, light those torches, and boycott Starbucks, because if the our beloved Sonics are indeed relocated no amount of coffee, mocha, or latte will get rid of your sleep deprivation, so why waste your money on it and why give your money to the man responsible for running the Sonics out of town? Sure, they’ll still be here for at least a year, but it’s like seeing the movie “Old Yeller” you love the dog to death (no pun intended) but you know whats going to happen in the end. Done like dinner.

For me, basketball is my favorite sport, I’ve played it since I was 9 and it never ever gets boring. It gives me peace for both body and mind…it’s almost like a form of meditation at times. A plaque of Gary Payton hangs on my wall, an autographed picture of Ray Allen and a group photo of he and my friends sits on my desk, heck, I still have a Evergreen t-shirt with Shawn Kemp’s big head plastered in the front and I can probably still wear it for godssake! I saw the highs of this team, when Big Smooth Sam, GP, The Reign Man, Detlef, and Hawk lost to MJ’s Bulls back in 96′, in fact I’m still looking for my left lung, and I’ve seen the lows (Vin Baker lives up to his last name, GP gets traded, the horror that was Jim McIlvaine, and now the sale). With that said, I still can’t fathom how or why Howard Schultz would do this to the most prominent sports franchise in Seattle, by selling the team to the sports starved Oklahomans he basically showed how much he doesn’t give a rats a$$ (Yes, it’s suppose to be subliminal, thank you very much) about the Sonics, the history, and the importance the organization has for the Northwest itself. And what he said regarding the purchase of the team five years ago could be the most heinous understatement of the century:

“I think there was some naiveté coming in,” Schultz said, looking back on the day his group bought the team.

YOU THINK??? The head honcho from Starbucks has talked big all this time, of championship rings and a return to past glories..but only now does he realize it isn’t as easy making a contender than making a cup of joe. He didn’t look before he jumped and this is what we deserve? Because of one man’s ignorance, we all have to suffer? What an absolute shame.

Sonic Green and Gold Forever.

Click here to sign an online petition to keep the Sonics in Seattle.