2010 in Review

Really, this is for my own purposes since my memory seems to be getting shorter and shorter as the years progress.  A year from now I'll hardly remember any details, like my photo organizing debacle earlier this month.  Tried to organize all my photos by date and realized that between switching computers and platforms, all the EXIF data had been changed or lost. So now the baby pictures are all jumbled and I have absolutely no concept when they looked like what.  I suppose it doesn't matter too much as long as the photos are intact.

Trying to recap the beginning part of the year is already a struggle for me... Well, I suppose we got to a very good start by visiting Bev and my cousin Jasmine during an impromptu visit to Portland.  It was partially inspired by Dick Van Dyke, whom we were watching during one of the reruns on Netflix.  He had a long weekend and wanted to take the family to Connecticut, and I thought to myself, we should be able to do something like that.  So we picked Portland since CT was just a smidge too far to drive.  It was a good visit, since we hadn't seen Bev for about 10 years or so and I hadn't seen Jasmine since she visited us a while back.

Then some stuff happened, and in March we went to Disneyland.  It was also about 10 years since we went, back when Jael was just 11 or so, and it was the first time for the kids.  It was pretty much the right age for them, except my children have a pretty unnatural fear of anything dark, fast, or loud.  So we had to either wait or wince through a lot of the rides.  All in all it was a pretty good trip, though it might be the last time I decide to drive to Anaheim.  It's a long ways for one driver to cover.

I suppose the biggest thing about Summer was that we had a few guests, and some stayed more than a few days.  Sam came over something in the summer, a product of a few bad decisions, and it was up in the air if he was going to stay - at least that's what the wife told me.  I think she had it all mapped out, but just wanted to give me the illusion of choice, but after a few weeks, he was a keeper.  This goofy, shaggy, timid little stinkball was going to be the new addition to the family.  He's been good mostly for Daisy, keeping her busy by wrestling with her and allowing her to lick the inside of his maw for countless hours.

The other guests was Joseph and Jane, who came over for a couple weeks when their parents went off to Costa Rica.  Handling four kids were not too bad, since those two are pretty good kids.  They were a little unfamiliar with certain routines and were probably confused on all the hand holding we were involved in.  But it was a good visit overall though the first day without them felt very, very empty.

Perhaps the biggest change this year is my work change.  It's fairly significant since it's a drastic promotion, sort of like moving up from the mail room to the lobby or something.  It also meant that I take on far more stress - since my job doesn't technically end when I come home from work.  From that moment on, I was on the fast track to learn a lot of things in a very short amount of time.  I had to earn my keep fairly quickly and though none of my peers really put that kind of pressure on me, my manager does and rightfully so.  I have noticed a few more white hairs on that head and noticed that my dreams have gotten much more work oriented.

There is of course, a very bright side to that career change, the biggest thing being the more consistent hours that I do work.  There is still "overtime", but it's more time that I can choose to work around.  It a job that has more challenges and possibilities, and feels more like a career than a job that I just show up for.  I still can't really shake the feeling like they could let me go anytime, but I suppose in today's economic climate, it's not an unfair thought to have.  

In the last month though, I'm pretty sure the job has taken a toll on me.  When I went in for my doctor's appointment, my blood pressure is noticeably higher, and the flu did hit me pretty hard.  I think my immune system dropped when I was working overtime to get caught up.

Anyway, all that culminates to right now, when I'm just sitting here alone on the laptop, recapping the year while the kids are sleeping and the wife is working.  2011 looks to be another year of big changes, definitely a sweet vacation and moving in store for us.  

 

Sam

This is awesome!

http://kotaku.com/5714995/shoot-up-any-web-page-asteroids-style

Zoe

Snowflake Lane

Download now or watch on posterous

p41.mov (11506 KB)

Untitled

Test two

Posterior test

Supposedly this will post on Flickr, Twitter, and my blog all at once. Funny thing is I saw "The Office" yesterday and they had a similar concept.

Great Dead Redemption

Wasn't thinking about Red Dead Redemption much when I put it into the PS3, wasn't quite sure where the story was going since it took an unexpected turn, but after playing about an hour of it the game took yet another turn that got me quite by surprise. And when I thought that the game would be over by then, it once again kept going. Those writers at Rock Star really have something going. If they turned screenwriters they would do well for themselves, though one would believe they're making far more money with games then they ever would with movies.

Had a good day with the family today, just going down to the park and spending time with them made me think about how much I've missed them. In a way, my crankiness and impatience really just seems like a cloak that I pull over my eyes to cope with how little I see them and spend quality time with them. When I have an extended amount of time with my family, I do genuinely enjoy them, as they seem to do with me.

But another week appears, and we all have to contribute to our respective roles. I'm hoping in the new few weeks, I will be able to get positioned somewhere else in the company because I'm sick of the same old thing. I'm more or less ready for some change because currently I'm just an able body in an underrated job. I'm valued but not appreciated.

Anyhow, let me try out this new video thingie here.

Issues

One of my biggest challenges right now is probably homework with the kids. Never cared for it much myself, always a procrastinator when it came to my own assignments. Not that I wasn't expecting to do any with the kids at all, I just thought I would have a couple more years before the homework started flooding in. But no, Lake Washington school district coupled with Alex not finishing his work at school and having to finish it at home has made my evenings a little more stressful. I'm probably whining a bit about my part, but on work days I usually am just glad to come home, relax for 4 hours, and then go to bed. I suppose if Alex was more cooperative with school work it would help a lot. Arrrrggh I hate homework.

Today we just went to Walmart mostly just to pick up essentials, nothing in particular in mind. How we ended up with with a 450 dollar, 2 sided receipt blows my mind. And we didn't even purchase any big ticket items. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of our biggest shopping bills ever.

Alright, this was a boring blog post. I'm done here.

Wake Up Call?

The assembly was packed full of students, all seated on the floor waiting the a game to begin. There are white and blue uniforms in scattered groups, chattering noisily when the game then begins. Visible groans fill the air when a ping pong table is rolled out swiftly and unfolded - seems like it was not the expected event for the majority of students. The match begins oddly, not the high-tension serious match one would expect. The boy and the girl who are meant to be opponents to the death are goofing around. They are doing tricks with the ball, shooting it too far, making the ball do curves around the table - the sense of competition is absent from their match. They are simply goofing around, and I get agitated. In classic passive aggressive manner,I stand up along with some other kids and exclaim loudly to myself that the game is not watchable, and that they're just goofing off. Even though I had no concept to ping pong rules and regulations, that they're just bombing hard at it. I hear cries of protests that I can't leave, but I reassure them that I'm not, I'm just going back to the classroom to wait it out.

I wake up, and the things in the room are trying to line up from their trailing images. The magazines and books all over my room tell me that I'm vastly disorganized, and that I'm no longer in school, but back in my room. I can tell just from the books and magazines that I have various periodicals, comic books, and just clutter all about.

I wake up again, this time in a dark room. I'm almost sweating despite that it's rather cool in the room. It's 3:36 and then I realized that it was all just a dream in my head. Then this overwhelming sadness overcomes me because I realized I'm not in school anymore. In an odd manner, I really do miss school. I miss St. Andrew's in Singapore because it was just pure school - I was who I was, and I looked forward to everyday because there was soccer to be played, jokes to be told, personalities to be developed. I miss Hazen as well, though I had to be fiercely guarded, and being Chinese was suddenly a huge factor to who I was. Still, I had something to prove, there was the excitement of a new experience and yet a harrowing paranoia that I was going to be racially singled out by some jock. Still, there was a potential of new things coming my way. College was exciting as well, so many paths and options, and suddenly for the first time, I could decide which fork to venture down. Unfortunately, I was terminally insecure and indecisive, and after a couple years of blazing Journalism, I went the way of the Independent Filmmaker, proving that passion and responsibilities don't always mix. But it was still such a great culture - a place where people are together to learn, share, and there's a certain transitional feel about college.

I miss all those things so much. Not I'm working at a rather respectable place, though it is certainly not my first choice of ideal careers. It lacks the culture I seek, a place of creativity, learning, excitement, and the median age in my company is seriously in the range of 45. Everyone is self-absorbed and serious. As well as they should be. But I stick out like a sore thumb. I need to reconsider my life a bit and bring some of that excitement back into my life because right now it simply feels like I'm coloring by numbers. I need to write more, create more, and hopefully my day job will change to allow that more naturally. There is so much I feel like I'm missing out by just doing the bare minimum to go to work, pay my bills, be a good family man, and keeping myself distracted by popular media. I need to start molding, writing, creating, fabricating, and leaving some kind of legacy besides the memories I leave in people's minds. Something tangible that can be experienced by others. Otherwise there will be not cure for waking up at 3:36 in the morning in a sweat, then blogging about that jolt to the system.