Should I go to work?

Whenever I found out my boss will be on PTO (paid time off), and I have no meetings that same day, it feels like a godsend holiday!! Tomorrow is one of those days. It's already late Sunday night and I am still debating if I should go to work or just "work from home" tomorrow. :-P Yah, work from home... ahem...

I just finished catching up on many of my bookmarked links and am really enjoying all the new updates I am reading. Work is like the farthest thing on my mind. The work will not go away whether I go on vacation or not. Whatever is mine will always be on my plate. That's why as I have said (many times), sometimes I wish I work for Taco Bell or 7-Eleven.

Being the usually dependable and reasonable me, I think I will be going to work afterall. :-(

Anyway, here is a pricey ramen place at Omotesando Hills with good reviews I read about today:
MIST
東京都渋谷区4丁目12-10 表参道ヒルズ本館3F M316
TEL. 03-5410-1368
11:00～24:00(LO 23:00)

Go for their Sio Rahmen (塩柳麺)

War of the Worlds

I never wanted to watch this movie to begin with and I was right all along.

This has to be the dumbest movie I have ever seen. So stupid, nothing is believable. I absolutely hated it. I was yawning all the way and wanted to skip forward but my silly husband would not do so. I wasted 2 hours of my precious time. I am in a lot of anger right now. What an all in all STUPID MOVIE!!! I don't care about those effects if the story is not there. This should have been a video game instead.

One of my favorite things to do

is to read food blog and then check out the official website of those places.

This cafe is one that I keep coming across. Even my co-worker Ricky had been there and told me about it last year.

I hope I will go there the next time I am in Japan.

Address:
古桑庵
東京都目黒区自由が丘 1-24-23
TEL. 03-3718-4203
OPEN 11:00～18:30 水休

July is almost over ...

just like that. Have you traveled anywhere this summer? It's not too late to plan something still.
I always can't help to feel a little sad when it's end of July. I guess I have been like this since I was a little kid. (I guess it's important for me to mentally evaluate if I have fully utilized my precious time off from school!) In Hong Kong, the summer vacation starts from the end of June till September 1. It used to be the best time of the year with many activities planned. As a full-time employee now, with no kid, everyday of July and August is just another work day. I have to be nuts to travel to Asia during the summer months. Just a few dry, hot days in California were unbearable ... imagine if moisture is added to the equation.
But going to places is still important! So far, I only have 1 day planned for August. :-( Need to come up with at least another 3 days of activities, inspite of the training and studies I have lined up. Oh, my precious August!! I need to plan something!!

もう疲れた

私の家族がどうした?

この部屋は酸素がありませんか? :-)

無茶苦茶な ...

むちゃくちゃ
Confused...jumbled...mixed up....unreasonable ...

Exactly how I am feeling right now. I think I am being taken for granted at work... I am starting to feel all those so called appreciations are nothing more than lip service. I don't like to have to spend time strategizing how to sell myself to move up in the company. I do good work and that should be recognized and remembered when it's reward and advancement time. I should not have to create opportunities in front of a big group to show what I am made up of. My work should speak on my behalf. I hate having to run a champaign to be elected for an "eXcellent" performance rating. It sucks!

Effective Meetings

I was told in my performance review meeting today that I am a strong leader and chair very effective meetings even when I am just substituting for others. I am definitely glad to hear that, but actually, I don't like meetings at all. Despite meetings being useful as a way to communicate to a large group of people and all, I feel meeting is just me sharing and gathering information for a large group of people which often time I am already aware of it through other means. So the reward for me is probably the smallest among the team, and on top of that, I am stuck with providing the long meeting minutes which everyone likes.

This is the time when I would rather be told I need to improve on my skills.

Another feedback is of course 1) to learn to delegate and 2) to learn to balance work and life. Yah, sure. Delegate takes a lot of trust and time and I could start balancing my work and life if I am not involved in everything!

The company's goal for me this coming year is to create 10 more "Me". I can't believe I am responsible to create 10 more "Me" in the company. Aren't we supposed to be all unique? If you don't have the drive, how am I supposed to create drive (and motivation) in you? My God! I think my company is asking the impossible... I have to lead projects and teams, drive changes, execute work and teach others, give technical presentations, attend training, come up with new ways to do things more effectively (do more with less), introduce new tools, influence design and interface with customers. What is it that I don't already do? And my rating this year is not even among the top 10%. What the?

Maybe it's a good time for me to just take my effective meeting skills somewhere else. Shoot.

5-day work week

I am slowly realizing having to work 5 consecutive days is just too much for the body and mind. I need to somehow break up the mundane schedule by doing something else during the work week. Biking, going to gym can help but some sort of real entertainment is really necessary. So this week, I watched 【Perhaps Love | 如果‧愛】and 【Shopaholics | 最愛女人購物狂】 on weekdays around 10pm. Both are pretty good movies in terms of entertainment and I feel the week is going by much faster than usual.
I had wanted to see Perhaps Love for the longest time and I am happy the story did not disappoint. But I am really not crazy with Jackie Cheung's role/acting/singing and the musical part in general. I would much prefer the singing and music be played in the background than making the movie part musical.
I love to watch Cecilia Cheung even though I have only seen a few of her movies. So I am glad that she is in Shopaholics. I found it quite funny even though some people called it predictable.
Zhou Xun is another one of my favorite actress. Recently, I also saw her other movie 【A West Lake Moment | 鸳鸯蝴蝶】

You can watch the beginning of the movie here, but the story is interesting only towards the middle.

茶、茶、茶

This is a popular email that serves as a useful reminder to a lot of us when making the tough decision everyday as to what free drinks to get.

知道自已該喝什麼茶嗎？
這可是有醫學證明的喔～～～
大家好好的參考一下吧～～～^_^

1.每天用〝腦汁〞工作，或常熬夜苦讀的讀書人----應該多喝茉莉花茶、茶。
2.經常運動，或是從事體力勞動量較大工作的人----適合喝烏龍茶及紅茶。
3.需要經常騎摩托車，或常受髒空氣荼毒的人----可以多喝綠茶。
4.整天坐著不動，平時也不做運動的人----就要喝綠茶、花茶。
5.煙酒不離手的人----多喝綠茶。
6.肉食性動物者【一天不吃肉就會感到精神晃忽的人】----喝喝烏龍茶。
7.每次上廁所都覺得是一件苦差事，經常便秘的人----多喝蜂蜜茶喔
8.膽固醇過高、血脂數高的人----烏龍茶、綠茶
9.每天和電腦〝搏鬥〞的現代人----就真的要多喝茶【只要是茶都可以喔！】

正當妳在和電腦搏鬥時，不妨泡杯茶，有空就喝它幾口，不但可防止輻射線的危害，而且可舒活筋骨，消除倦怠和疲勞，是保健養身的方法。

Love and Peace

These are the 35 Levi's 'Love and Peace' 501 jeans selling in different flagship stores around the world for $1000.00 a piece. Personally, I am not impressed with the design idea at all and will not buy one of those five in the San Franicsco store even if I am filthy rich. But I guess from the collectors' point of view, it is going to worth a lot down the road.
I think it looks more like a Tsunami provoking the feeling of Love and Peace...

BlogHer?

Someone mentioned this upcoming event to me, maybe because it will be held in San Jose, CA:

BlogHer Conference '06

*not providing any link so I don't direct traffic to it

I have absolutely no interest whatsoever to be a part of it and I am definitely not promoting it in any way. I just can't believe people are serious about this "conference" and actually flying in from different part of the world to attend! Do they just want to attend some sort of a conference so badly to prove they "attended a conference" or these women just need an excuse to leave home and co-mingle with other women? This is completely beyond me.

LOVE

I did not know there were different "LOVE" sculpture by Robert Indiana around the world besides the one in Shinjuku. The one above is in Singapore and there is also one in US.

That one thing you won't do

I have been doing the same thing for the past 12 years. Well, not exactly the same but work of the same nature, you know what I mean.

Recently, one of my coworkers decided to quit her job and take some time off to figure out what she wants to do in the long run and what it is that she wants to achieve and how she wants to live her life. We sat very close to each other at work but we seldom see or chat with each other. It was until she told me that she is leaving that we had lunch together and chatted. (Sad, I know)

She has taken some time off last year to help out with a very stressful family situation and it was then she sees that she is not happy with work and being single at late thirties just shows the more for her that her life is not going towards the right direction. She was shocked to find out I got married last year and how I kept it so low key. Anyway, after her leave of absence from work, she decided to quit her job and make time to think about what it is that she really wants to do and that would make her happy. It turns out she has no clue and needed some guidance. So her friend introduced her to meet with a Career Counselor which she has to pay and gradually get to the point where she is clear of what it is she wants to do. She has so far only met with the counselor twice but she swears by it that the counselor is a natural genius in her field. She felt quiting her job was the best decision she ever made.

So I asked her how this Career Counseling works? She basically told me she has to answer a bunch of questions like "what is it that you love to do most, even without getting paid", "what is it that you can't stand working on", "what kind of work do you feel most comfortable with regardless of the pay..." etc. So it's basically a bunch of self-assessment questions if you ask me. Really nothing too special. But my coworker friend insisted that it was all those questions when asked systemically that helps her sorted things out. She just has to answer them honestly and the counselor will gather what it is that suits her most based on the discussions. It was the immediate reckoning and feedback she got from the counselor that reaffirms what she already knew subconsiously but had no way to retrieve it otherwise. So I guess as long as the goal of 'knowing yourself better' is met, it is worth going to see a career counselor. But for me, I probably will not go to one, especially now that I knew the whole approach.

So what is it that I like to do even without a paycheck? (learn Japanese, travel, go to cafes, read something...)
What is it that I just won't do regardless of a fat paycheck? (to be on the Fear Factor show, to perform surgeries, to have coffee/lunch/dinner with someone I dislike...)
What is it that I wish I could do but lacks the know-how? (sing, photography, tennis, comingle with a roomful of people ...)

So looks like it's saying I am a natural born loafer/loser?!

Anyway, these are just many of the questions we each need to go through to figure ourselves out, I guess.

IMA

Look at this floor. It looks very impressive already from the top.
But look at it from the side.

Tell me you are not amazed by it! :-)

Here is a perspective of its actual size.

Rambling...

I was at Best Buy for 3 hours on July 4th. Got the 32 inch Bravia. I like it a lot but my husband thinks it's overpriced especially it's just sitting in the dining room. Well, I will have Starbucks pay for it.

Rode our bikes to see the fireworks near our house on the 4th, this year the fireworks are not that great compared to what I have seen in San Francisco and Hong Kong. But I do like this particular one.
Kind of cool!


Today was my first day at work for the week (oh, and for the month, too!) I was so sleepy in the morning and had to literally drag myself out of bed. Luckily there weren't that many email to read through (I just deleted most of them based on the headline) but my to do list just keep growing anyway. By the time it's around 4:10 pm, I was almost ready to pass out. So I decided to surf a little bit and check out some air ticket prices. Looks like September is the month to travel!! That's when all the ticket prices starting to go down if you booked by July. Japan and Shanghai are the two places I checked out. Hong Kong, too, but with very minimal interest. Then I happened to see some information about buying stuff in Shanghai, the article has the exact information of what my new cube neighbor just told me in our earlier chat. He said when he was in Shanghai, things were offered to him at a price 4 times of what his local friend could get it for. The article said the exact same thing! I am starting to wonder if his 'experience' is based on what he read on the net. There is nothing wrong with sharing news or interesting facts you read from somewhere else but hmm... passing it on as your own experience is just like kids lying to gain popularity. This new cube neighbor tends to always want to start a 15-min conversation with me everytime he walked by my cube, and the way all these 'travel to Asia experiences' would just keep coming. He was in Taiwan when they were having the Oct-10 celebration. I have been to Taiwan at least 20 times and I had never been there on Oct 10 to see the celebration... He was in Hong Kong during Christmas - ok, I can buy that one but he has CID friends who did this and that...hmmm. (Could those friends be the characters in some HK action movies?) Then he was in Vietnam and his friend own this 1 million dollar house (a million dollar home in Vietnam, I am sure there are some but the chances of HIS FRIEND being the owner of it...hmm...) Anyway, I am probably just losing my focus on work (bored) that I become over-critical of him and that I am envious that he is more sociable and well-travelled. :-)

Is it time to go home yet?

最新の収集

ついに全部の(Lightning Mcqueenも)集めました!

Superman Returns

今晩家族とたまたまRenee's Place を食べに行きました。 (初来店)
このお店はまあまあなので、 多分また行かないですね。
実は、夫の母がSuperman映画の懐かしメモリ沢山ありますから、
Emeryville のAMC Bay Street 16 Theater に
'
Superman Returnsを見に行ってきました。
残念ながら、映画もイマイチでした。
前半は単調に進むストーリーが、後半はOK。
ＭＩ－３ははるかに良い選択でしょう。 (; _ ;)