.:shy:.

texting and phone use during dinner

so this blogger basically entitles his post, "I Will Check My Phone At Dinner and You Will Deal With It."

i would comment on his post but wordpress has this really annoying thing of keeping you on the email subscription forever so that if the blog post is very popular, anyone who makes a new comment will force that blog at the top in your 'my comments' page. ever months after you've lost interest in that post.

[if anyone knows how to stop this, please let me know. and if there's no way to stop this then wordpress should really consider fixing this problem. man do i miss vox!]

i think my comment would have basically been, "wow - you've spent a lot of energy justifying why it's okay to be rude."

he refers back to his mother a lot and basically goes on and on about how the older generation (or any generation) needs to basically just deal with it and change. well, i'm not from that older generation. i'm a total geek - and a bit of a gadget geek. i'm also a mother and i know one rule that will stick in our household - there will be no texting or using one's handheld device at the dinner table. not at home nor when we go out to a restaurant - even if it's a pub.

i'm not saying this should be everyone's rule within their household, but i don't at all see why it's a negative rule, as this blogger seems to make his point around. or... maybe he's yet again, making justifications of his rude behaviour, well... basically to his mother. because really, he's going on and on about how surfing/texting enhances the social experience. right... true to some degree on those off-hand occasions that don't last more then a few minutes. because if you're having a meal with peers who all do the same thing, i can somewhat see that if the surfing involves the discussion (i.e. looking for information). i can't, however, see how his reasoning here applies at all to his mother. and really, if you're hanging out with friends and spending all the time surfing - together or not - i question how deep the friendship really is. but more on that later.

if he, as he puts it, has to text under the table, pretending all the long to be looking at the menu, then i would like to ask this person, 'how exactly is this enhancing your social experience with your mother?" he claims that talking on the phone and engaging in texting where it obviously takes up a good amount of time at the table, excluding others, is the exception to his rule. so in the scenerio where he's secretly texting so that he doesn't get in trouble by mommy... how does that escape this grand 'exception to the rule' of his? there sits a person who wasn't born into a generation where being rude at the dinner table is socially acceptable.

and lets face it - as the world lets go of such rules of good manners, we're seeing less respect for our each other. it's becoming a truly sad world.

what ever happened to taking in the account the background of the person in which one is dining with? it's the same as certain cultural traditions - you're the bigger person to try to abide by such guidelines in hopes to not offend the person/people across from you at the table. is age/generation all of the sudden not something he should factor in?

personally, i don't have any patience with people who want to be glued to their phone or mobile device. when i make time to go out to dinner (being a full-time, working mother, it's not like i have all the time in the world to do this), the last thing i want is to sit there and try to have a conversation with a friend only to get interrupted a dozen times because they get a call or an incoming text. if this is the way of the future, we're going to have a much harder time with meaningful relationships - it's bad enough that we're communicating to each other through 140 characters (not that that is bad in itself, i mean the people who do not use any other form of communication - or very little of it).

on a side note, i use to head out with a colleague who was like this. i was amazed with how many times her phone interrupted us. it was hard enough to get a time to go out together. after months of finally setting a date, i felt like she wanted to be left alone with her phone. meanwhile, the plethora of people who texted/called her on that phone during that dinner date, aren't even part of her life anymore.

simply put - their relationship wasn't even real. how can a relationship be real if it's based purely on text messaging or updating one's twitter/facebook status?

if this blogger feels that this is actually enhancing his social skills, i would like to challenge him to go out with friends and leave his mobile device completely off. i would no doubt predict he will have a hard time to communicate.

and if this is the case, i would further extend my prediction to issues he will have in his interpersonal relationships in the long run. i.e. marriage or even his communication skills with his children.

such things, regardless of the of device, has not changed in how it effects how we communicate with one another.

i can say one thing - i have dinner with my parents and other close family members about every two to three weeks. we sit down and eat with no tv or anything else that we are hooked up to anyway throughout our waking ours of the week. we sit there and we talk. like really talk. and it doesn't matter what we talk about - it can be serious, entertaining... whatever.

it's the best. not just because we're spending quality time with one another, but we're not aided by devices which eventually is used as a crutch that mimics the appearance of 'enhancement'. the converstations stand on their own - natural and strong, and not limited to character space where short-form gibberish is required to get a point across.

valentines day for everyone but me

no, this isn't a pity-party. just a very accurate description of how my valentines day went.

it started off like any other monday. except perhaps that i had to pack a bag of mini, veggie spring rolls for chaeli's valentines day at school. and then of course her little ziplock bag of tiny v-day cards.

which, by the way, i'm now embarrassed to have given. why? because chaeli didn't get ANY back. rather, she got little presents and loot bags instead. one was a miniature box in a shape of those chinese take-out cartons famously seen on retro sitcoms such as friends and seinfeld (do chinese take-out places really use those? because i've never seen one here in canada). it was so pretty that it alone was a more lovely gift then the iron man or tinker bell cards chaeli gave out. the little box was a translucent, plastic-like material with hearts all over it.

but seriously - it's not the amount of money put into these gifts but the time.

I'M A FULL-TIME WORKING MOM WITH A HUSBAND WHO EITHER WORKS LONG HOURS OR HAS NIGHT SCHOOL TWO TIMES A WEEK PLUS FULL WEEKEND DAYS WHERE HE IS OFF DOING FIRST AID OR OTHER SCHOOL STUFF!!! i mean... how can i ever compete?

anyway... so other then the whole v-day preparations to pack up, everything else was normal.

until... i stepped outside to our back patio/townhouse phase common area with hobbes so he can do his ritualistic business. and that's when i was greeted with a very unpleasant discovery.

to backtrack here, doug has been sometimes tying up hobbes to a very long rope and just setting hobbes out free. which has always lead to the argument of how doug then doesn't keep track of where hobbes is doing his business (number two, to be exact). still, doug swears that he'll collect it at the end of the day or first thing in the morning if he happens to be off or it's the weekend. which i always counteract with, "yeah, well, why is it that i have to pick up old piles of poop the next morning? like my morning isn't rushed already when you've already left the house?"

now, up until now, we've been having bouts of snowfall and very cold temperature. the past 48 hrs, however, has graced us with a warm front, thereby creating massive melting. so when i went outside, i saw to my horror about 10 or more piles of poop that had been covered with snow up until now... all melting and no longer solid anymore.

i know, it's gross, but i just HAVE to share this story because i feel justified to. see, doug's reasoning was that if he left the poop out for a bit, it would freeze and would be easier to pick up. well, true - IF HE HAD PICKED ALL OF THEM UP! evidently, he either missed a few and as mentioned above, the rest was just covered with fresh bouts of snow by the time he did go out, which he would come back claiming that hobbes must have not done his number two business earlier ithat day because he didn't find anything.

this is where i let out a big fat, HA!!! YEAH RIGHT!

so there i was, in my work clothes, trying to scoop up soggy, old dog poop for the next 10 minutes. i used 3 poop bags, realized THAT made a mess and switched over to regular grocery bags (at least you can say that we recycle). i ended up using in total, 5 bags. you might wonder why i just didn't leave it for doug. well, as mentioned in a previous entry, we have a leaky roof situation. the common area is just that - a common area. people use it to cross over from one neighbour to another and there are plenty of grandparents who are home taking care of toddlers and preschoolers while the parents are off working. it would only take one to notice the filth in our backyard and complain directly to property management.

now is especially not the time to piss management off - we need them to quicken their very snail-like pace in recitifying this leaky roof issue. it was a question of vindiction or taking the responsible path in making sure our house doesn't collapse on us.

as for the rest of the day, i was definitely not in a romantic mood. and felt even more pathetic when hobbes came home from doggy daycare with a valentines card for himself. i mean, he's a dog. and he got one, not from the people who work there and care for him, but from another dog.

i was all like, "seriously? the dog gets one and rather then just getting nothing for myself, i spent the first part of my valentines morning picking up old, soggy dog poop? has it come to this?

that's when doug said to me, "i'll get you a card!"

"and that's going to make up for it? getting me a card after valentines day is over? do me a favour - leave me alone for the rest of tonight."

i'm sure you can decode what i meant by that last statement.

randomnous valentine

• i'm not a big fan of valentines and if it weren't for chaeli, i would do anything for this day. but like a good mom, i did whatever needed to be done to prep for her valentines day party at school - including a 30 mini spring rolls contribution for their food list. as for doug and i, we did get a chance to go for sushi this past saturday while chaeli stayed with my parents. it wasn't for valentines - just a regular date-night/outing because we haven't had one for so long.

• i'm glad that justin beiber didn't win last night. nothing personal against the kid - well, except for his hair - but it felt good to see esperanza spalding take the award for best new artist. she might have not won the hearts of teenie boppers more interested in getting a date with bieber, but her talent and lovely personality was definitely dserving of such an award. bravo, esperanza! bravo!

• so i got chaeli to point out her new boyfriend - i must say, he's the best looking kid in class. way to go, chaeli! but i learned that he's also one of the students that gets into trouble often. so young and she's already going after the bad-boy image.

• our roof is leaking again - propery management didn't fix it as they said they would two years ago and so now, we're looking at a worse leak then before. i've been spending a lot of my free time communicating back and forth with them - and basically nagging them to do it right this time. they are responsible for not only fixing the roof but also fixing any water damage the leak might have caused (and not just the cosmetic parts of our interior - but any material inside the walls and/or attic that the water has touched so they are not hotbeds for mould spores).

• we have now acquired an ipad and have been wasting our time with plants vs zombies.

one of the cons of being ill (as if the pros out-weigh the cons)

i've been back to the daily grind after being home sick for 3.5 days.

about five people in the span of just this morning alone, have told me to keep away from them in fear of falling ill themselves.

how comforting.

 

snubbed ubb - day 2

i stayed home again today. feeling a smidge better then yesterday but only got my voice back (sort of ) near the end of the afternoon. both days, i actually had to email my manager to let him know i was still off sick because a voicemail from me would have just sounded like some random squeeky noise.

i got a chance to watch 'the switch' which was definitely a nice movie to take in while one's head is fuzzy (both from the sinus congestion and cold meds). i normally do like jennifer aniston but she wasn't at her best in this movie. no, no - she wasn't bad. just not one of her shining moments. i suppose the spotlight goes more to jason bateman. and even jeff goldblum (though his character was like a lot of past characters he has played - the neurotic, playboy-like friend, trying to talk some sense into the main character - still, very likeable).

it just got me thinking - i'm so happy jason bateman has been having such a better come back. he's come a long way since 'the hogan's family'.

so i am back to work tomorrow.

and i really wish i could have some bailey's irish whiskey right  now - but apparrently, one mustn't mix cold meds with alcohol. damn. it's robbie burns day, too.

missed the top ten list by just a smidge

after posting my top ten annoying famous faces of the decade, i decided that it would be more complete if i also shared some of the ones that didn't quite make the list.

5. the kardashians

i think out of all the socialites, these ladies top the cake for me in that the way they became famous was just simply lame. maybe i just don't understand this whole subculture of socialites. growing up, i don't think there were as many out in the media. so this whole nicole ritchie, paris hilton and now the kardashians... ugh. it makes me a bit sad that our society is so hung up on these people's lives.

4. kanye west

i admit i went back and forth on this one. i actually do enjoy a few of his tunes. but at the same time, i'm almost at awe with his stupidity. i think, though, the main reason he didn't make it on my top ten list was because, well, i'll admit it. his stupidity has also resulted in some great entertainment.

3. ke$ha

it's not that she's weird and out there. that doesn't bother me at all. if it did, lady gaga would have made it on the number one spot of my top ten list. it's just that everytime i see kesha, all i can think of is, "dirty!" i don't mean in the perverted sense. i mean, like, just dirty. as in... "i'm sure she showers but she just doesn't look like she does."

and i hate the whole $-sign instead of an 's'.

2. olsen twins

this was also a toss up to some degree. and it's not that i despise them or anything. in fact, i kind of get this hunch that they are very sweet and intelligent girls. which actually makes me more mad when i see them posing not just in a seductive, sexy way... but pressing their bodies into each other! they're sister! i don't get this... why should they need to feed on the perversed fantasy of many minds out there just to get attention? in fact, i see this often. i once use to know these twins (very pretty) and when we went clubbing, they were practically grinding up against each other. i don't have any siblings but i'm going to guess that this shouldn't be considered normal behaviour.

1. bruno mars

i just can't stand his smooth face. he's too... pretty.

annoying salesman

me: "hello?"

guy: "hello mam. i'm calling you to offer an opportunity for your business to be in our directory. a survey in your area showed that your company would be benefit greatly from our services."'

me: "what servies?"

guy: "we will make sure you are in various, popular directories so customers can be directed to your business."

me: "this might not be the best time - we're transitioning and moving locations."

guy: "mam, this offer will expire soon - it's important that you take advantage of it now."

me: "okay... but..."

guy: "i just need to confirm your address."

me: "go ahead, then."

guy: "123 somewhere drive. is that correct?"

me: "no it isn't... what city?"

guy: "mam?"

me: "what city do you have for us?"

guy: "sorry, mam. i don't understand. i gave you the address already."

me: "yes, but we have many locations and i need to know which city and province you are refering to."

guy: "um... i don't understand."

me: "okay, well, i can't talk about this right now because as i said, we're busy with our move. just email me and i'll read everything for myself."

i gave him my email address, he repeated it back, taking it down totally wrong and i decided not to correct him.

something tells me that he's calling from overseas and that i should be leery of this offer. but at the same time, what person does not know what the word 'city' means? do they not have cities where he's from? i am not trying to be disrespectful to another culture... but honest, i can not think of a country where they do not use the word 'city' as part of their address.

maybe i am wrong?

top most annoying famous faces of the decade

The following is a list of my personal pet peeves of annoying famous faces. It's purely just for fun but if I had to create a top ten of people I would like to leave behind from the media, these are my picks.

10. Dr. Phil

Strangely enough, I didn't despise Dr. Phil at the very beginning of his career. In fact, I even watched several episodes of his show and felt that some of his advice made sense. Well, of course they made sense - it was common sense, really. It didn't take long to get sick of him.

9. Larry King

I know, I know - the man has had some really important interviews in the past. I should have some level of respect for him. But he doesn't age well. Just look at him - he belongs more on the radio.

8. Sarah Palin

It's not that I would have voted for the democrat party if i were american. I just am still at awe that this lady was appointed as the possible VP of the free world. What made it worse was listening to my ex-boss go on and on about how amazing she is as a leader of the people.

Really? Amazing???

7. Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton

It was a tie between these two mug shots. I don't know what it was that bothered me more - Lindsey looking more and more used as the drugs and alcohol started to take over her or the fact that Paris was riding on the coat tails of her fathers fortune. Either way, I was just sick of listening to celebrities getting arrested and these two topped the list!

6. Tyra Banks

I use to admire Tyra Banks for her guest role as Fresh Prince's girlfriend and long time buddy from the hood. Plus, she was and still is gorgeous. Then she had to do the America's Top Model thing, open her mouth and basically make me question whether or not this show was really about modeling or exposing would-be models for endorsing the stereotype of being airheads for not seeing how completely fake Tyra is.

5. Rachel Ray

Her own show on the Food TV Network? Was some one on crack with this decision? And who the hell is this Rachel Ray anyway? Where did she come from?

Though I do think her existence has done one good deed for me - Anthony Bourdain is anti-Rachel Ray. It's one thing that bonds me closer to Bourdain (whom I love). Other then that, if I have to watch her eat one more bite or take in one more spoonful while exhagerating a "mmm... this is SO GOOD!" I may have to hurl a brick at the TV.

4. Jamie Oliver

I still love The Naked Chef series and wish they would bring it back as re-runs. But sometime, during my pregnancy while I was green for the entire first trimester, Jamie's face started to look more swollen. And his lips started to take over the focal point of the screen. As i watched those lips move, almost too big to even close properly, I could almost envision the spit drooling out the sides of his mouth.

And that's when I went from 'Love him!' to 'Ugh - I can't stand looking at him!'

I do still stand by his recipes, though.

3. Kate Perry

I think she's got a strong voice. And I do like some of her songs. Some. Actually, just two. The rest is just so-so to me and I often wonder how she ever gets to the top of the charts. Is it her boobs? She does have nice ones. But why do her eyes always have to be so wide?

She also ruined it for me forever when she appeared in Sesame Street wearing what I can only describe as lingerie.

2. Tom Cruise

I will admit it. In grade 9, like many young teens, I had the hots for Tom Cruise. And it was mainly because of Top Gun. When I watch that movie now, I realize why I have spent so many past years falling for jerks and arrogant idiots - why did I crush after a character such as Maverick who acted and believed he was god and that all those around him must bow down to him?

As the years progressed, Tom Cruise himself started to look like an elf of some sort. I've actually been told he's a very nice guy and I believe people I know who have met him. But since I've never met him, I can safely say that his face truly does annoy me.

1. Justin Bieber

I'm really not sure if I need to explain myself here.

But one of the saddest things about welcoming 2011 is that this kid is still hot on the charts.

Fine, fine - I'll try to live with it. But some one please - at the least - give him a haircut!

and on to the next...

finally.

the christmas decorations are down. funny thing about christmas decor - i love it all the way up until christmas day but then the day after? i'm immediately itching to just take it all down and store it away for another year. i don't miss let alone yearn to keep it up a minute longer.

and now? chinese new year decorations are going up pretty much as we speak.

as for what's been happening lately, it's just been so crazy-busy at work that i don't seem to have energy to do anything else. plus, i'm still trying to shake this cold.

i've finished one full week with my new promotion. strange thing is that now, i'm already thinking about the next step - another promotion or new skills or... something.

i'll be back here hopefully sooner than later to write something better... for now, just checking in.

and now - a hot shower, cold meds and my bed all await me.

 

it's hard being lazy

sounds weird, but honestly, i find it exhausting just to try and relax. not that i haven't been relaxing but after 3.5 days of it, my skin was starting to itch. and i'm not even sure if my reference to being lazy constitute as true laziness to others because since monday, on my week off, i still got up at 6:15am to work out every morning.

a recap of this week:

sunday was sheer laziness. as mentioned - it was a day of video games.

monday, we did go see tron and then had dinner at my aunt's place. chaeli baked me a birthday cake with her new easy-bake oven. the cake was split amongst 6 adults and one kid. in other words, we all had a bite-size - more symbolic, really. and you know what? best birthday cake ever! simply because chaeli enjoyed making it for me.

tuesday, i got more into sims 2. i purchased and downloaded three expansion packs as they were all on sale for $15 ea. and each of them actually contained 3 expansion packs in them. other then that, i really can't remember what else i did that day. eat? sleep? poop? not much different from hobbes' schedule. wait - i did do some work in the morning. i suppose that counted as being productive.

wednesday, in the morning, i went grocery shopping. and mid-afternoon, we went to see disney on ice and then out to dinner. my parents came along. it was fun but the coolest part was on the way home. doug took a detour to show them parts of downtown they have not seen in almost a decade. it was interesting to see their excitement - and surprise. they both said that it was like they were seeing a whole different city. my father said that one day, he's going to come down by himself just to walk around and explore the downtown area all over again.

and finally, today. yup, today. today was the breaking point. sure, as you can see, i did get out of the house for some fresh air. but in between the outings, i was mostly in my pj's. and i just couldn't take it anymore.

so after lunch, i cleaned chaeli's room (it was a mess), reorganized it and put her jewelry in her very nice, new jewelry box which she got from my PIL. i'm gearing up to also cleaning up and storing away some of our christmas presents and finally, this weekend, taking down and putting away all our christmas decor except the tree. doug wants it up for one more week so he can enjoy his train set around the tree. he had made a winter village to go below it.

fine, fine - the boy needs his geek-outlet, too. his train set and the village to go with it is like my sims. only i have much more control over my manufacturered people.

anyway - i also did the laundry today and so there's a sense of me that doesn't feel as bad. i'm also not feeling sluggish.

the universe is on route to being normal again.