November, 2005

“If anything can go wrong, it will.”

Probably, the best well known one of Murphy’s Law. I’m sure many of you have experienced this law first hand, at one point in your life. This law governs everything on this blue planet and it never fails.

Today, I had to go with my friend to work because I had to take his car back so his wife can use it for her road test. We were supposed to leave my house around 6:00am. I woke up around 6:00am, expecting a call from him but nothing. Around 6:30am, I gave him a call, only to get the answering machine. Five minutes later, he calls to say he’s rushing out now. He gets to my house within a few minutes and we take off.

He speeds down the street at like, 100km/h in a 50km/h zone where there are minor constructions taking place. He drives like this all the way to work. No matter how much I tell to take it easy, he doesn’t seem to hear it, maybe the radio was on a bit too loud.

Once we hit the highway, Murphy’s Law comes into effect. You can guarantee that when you’re in a rush on the highway, there is bound to be an accident somewhere down the road, just pray that you are not the one in the accident.

Traffic is slow as soon as we merge with the 403 Eastbound to Toronto. Sure enough, there was an accident that blocked the right lane. We managed to avoid that. Later on, down the road, we merge with the QEW and some idiot wants to switch lanes into the slow lane. To the right are cars that are merging into the QEW because their lane is about to end and she, yes it was a woman of course, decided to cut them off. The cars that are merging have nowhere else to go because their lane is going to end in about 10 meters. She turns in while another car tries to merge. Luckily, she managed to switch back to her lane and avoided an accident. All the better, because all this was happening right in front of us and my friend can’t afford to be stuck in an accident because he’s got to get to work in 10 minutes.

My friend switches over to the fast lane. Again, Murphy’s law comes into play. The fast lane is for people who are going fast, makes sense right? We’re going 100km/h behind some guy. Average speed on the highway is 100km/h, the guy in front of us wasn’t going fast, he was going at a normal rate. Everyone on the highway should know by now that, if you are driving and there is another car right on your ass, switch lanes because the guy that’s on your ass isn’t going to do it. One way to prevent accidents from happening is to let the crazy drivers pass you because there is no knowing what they will do. It’s easier to just switch over to your right, let him pass and then switch back.

Further down the road, there is another traffic blocking the left lanes now. Because my friend is driving like a maniac, I’m scared that the next one might be us so I reach over for my seatbelt. I never wear my seatbelts when I’m riding in the back. There are few more traffic jams on the way but that didn’t stop my friend from still driving like a crazy. He finds a gap in the traffic and manages to cut through to the exiting lane. We exit the highway and we run into a traffic light that stays red for about two minutes. The two minutes wasn’t bad because there was a blonde in the next lane that was very attractive. In a hectic world where chaos is everywhere, somehow something as subtle as this manages to weave its way into existent.

But anyways, my friend manages to get to work just in time. After all that, in the end, I didn’t think he had to rush. During our trip, he rarely went over 100km/h, there was just no room on the highway for him to hit any speed above that. The way I see it, if you are in a rush, don’t be, because there is just no reason you for you to be in such a hurry. If you are late for something because you slept in, there’s not much you can do to get back the time you loss. If you have to be somewhere at a certain time and you’re going to be late, just give them a call and let them know. But if you’re running late and it’s only your second week on the job, the least you can do is pray. As for me, I take it as it is and I don’t let it worry me.

I really hate waiting for things, heck I really hate waiting for people too. Well, hate is such a harsh word, how about I don’t like waiting. There’s no reason for anyone to be waiting long for anything. It’s just unacceptable. If you have to wait longer than five minutes for anything, or anyone for this matter, you’re wasting your time.

Recently, I had an interview with Cogeco in Burlington. The interview was for 2:00pm but it didn’t start until 2:15pm. In the meantime, the receptionist asked me to fill out some form to take with me when I go into the interview. I filled it out fine until I got to the education section, which said to fill out the most recent level of edication only. I accidentally filled in the secondary school section so I had to white it out. The receptionist gave me white out, only it was the kind that you roll over the mistakes with. I’ve never used that kind before so I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. I found out later that I was doing all wrong because the strip of white out was coming out but the other end didn’t roll back in. The reason for this was because I’m left handed and the receptionist was right handed, so that didn’t help much.

Now the strip of white out was getting longer. I didn’t wanna make things worse so I asked the receptionist if I was using it right. She told me to press down on it and drag. I told her that, that is what I’ve been doing. I also mentioned to her that I’m left handed and she just stared at me like I told her I was an alien or something. So I made some hand guestures and continues to solve the problem myself.

I know I’m rambling on about nothing but during the whole time I was doing all that, the interviewer still hadn’t come to get me. I finished correcting my mistakes and sat for a good five minutes before she finally came. She took me up to the Human Resource department and I had wait another five minutes before the interview started. After the interview, she asked me to fill out some more forms and then she left the room. I waited another five minutes before she came back.

The whole process felt like it lasted, at least, half and hour. When I left the building, I checked my watch. It was 3:30pm. I was inside the building for and hour and a half. If you do the math, the interview lasted just over an hour.

Now I had to walk to the bus depot which took about five to ten minutes. When I got there I had to wait ten minutes for the next bus to Hamilton. Usually I wouldn’t mind the wait because it was nice out. But that day, the bus depot smelt like pest! I’m serious! I thought it was just the area that I was standing in but the whole depot stunk! Well, just outside. I guess whoever it was that was going around peeing all over the place was kind enough to only make sure to pee outside becuase if he was indoor, he might as well as went into the washroom. I’m saying he because I don’t think girls would go around peeing outside in a public place. Speaking of which, the guy that went into the washroom before me didn’t flush and I had to change out of my dress pants. It stunk in there too and I had to flush the toilet with my foot before the smell killed me.

So anways, back to the waiting thing. I’m getting to the point where I’m losing my patient when it comes to waiting for things. I’ve spent a big chunk of my life waiting on things and I don’t think I should be doing that anymore. A lot of people get pretty mad if they have to wait in line for longer than a minute. Now I’m not gonna go that far but I think i’m gonna lower the amount of time I’m willing to wait for things, depending on the situation, of course. For instance, I don’t mind waiting for things to come in the mail because the postal service is always slow. And, whatever it is I’m waiting for is probably from out of town, maybe even out of this country.

Word of advice: Wait if you have to, but if you gotta go… you gotta go.

Remembrance Day is a very important day. It is the day we remember those who gave their lives so we can have the freedom that we have today. We take our freedom for granted sometimes. There are those who don’t have the kind of freedom we have and we are fortunate to have it.

On November 11th, the poppies grows again. You can see them on the collars of war veterans. So on November 11th, wear a poppy to show the veterans that you are thankful for the freedom that they have fought for. Remembrance Day should not be thought of as a holiday but rather as a time to reflect.

November marks the 25th anniversary of the puzzle that drives many people mad. Yes, I’m talking about the cube with all those pretty colours. The object of the puzzle is to get all six sides of the cube the same colour. So if you’ve been working on this since the day it came out and you still have solved it, you can try your luck at randomly solving it by blind folding yourself and rotating a random side.

I’ve been playing around with the cube since I was in highschool. I found it fascinating that there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible combinations and yet only one of that combination is the right one. You’ll have better odds at winning the lottery before randomly solving this by chance. A lot of people are amazed when they see this thing solved because they’ve never seen it in person. I was amazed when I first saw my friend solve it. Although I can solve the cube, I never get bored with it. I keep solving it over and over again, juss for fun. Goes to show how much of an exciting life I’m living eh?

For your entertainment, here’s a little video I made to show you that it doesn’t take a lot to solve the cube, featuring Bare Naked Ladies in the background. Mind you, I’m not that fast. The video was compressed to save on download time. I can usually solve the cube within five minutes. I think my fastest time was juss over two minutes.

Edit: Lost the video…

I am not one to believe in fate or destiny. I refuse to believe that my life in being influenced by an outside power beyond my control. There can be some good in all of that, but there is never good without some the bad.

Here’s what my future scenario that has the potential to become true. I was told that I’m going to be wealthy and I will get married twice. The wealthy part I have no problem against. With the way things are going, I can see that coming true. But getting married twice, I’m not so sure about.

The premonition about me getting married twice was told by two different people.

The first was by a girl, whom I had a crush on back in grade five. I conjured up the courage to talk to her and we slowly became friends. One day, she took my left hand and told me to make it into a fist. Then she did the same with her right hand and compared her fist to mine by placing her hand next to mine and looking at a certain spot. If you have your palm facing you, look at the area juss outside the pinky. You should see some wrinkles. Depends on your fate, the number of wrinkles will vary. The large wrinkle represents your spouse and the wrinkles above that represents your children. According to my hand, I’ll have a wife and three kids.

Now, if you take your other hand, make a fist and place them so that the pinkies are next to each other, those wrinkles should match. My hands don’t match. On my left hand, I’ve got a wife and three kids. On my right hand, I’ve got a wife and two kids, hence the two marriages.

The second person to tell me about this was my friend’s father. He does a little palm reading on the side. He told me about numerology and stuff and how the positions of the star at the time of your birth determines how you live your life. He took a look at my palm and described my character. And he was pretty close too. Then he told me about the two marriages and stuff. That’s the part that I didn’t want to hear.

In my culture, it’s rare to have more than one marriage. When you get married, you stay with that person until death do you part. And even after they part, it’s rare for the widow to marry again.

So, back to the predictions. I think that, once someone knows what the future holds for them, they have the ability to change what they see fit. Lately, I haven’t really done anything to start up a relationship because I have other priorities in place. I took care of school and now I’ve got take care of finding a full time job. Once that’s taken care of, then maybe I can look into a relationship.

Watch out ladies! Don Juan is gonna tear it up in this heezy for sheezy.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog. I’ve juss been busy trying to finish up some projects, working at the library and looking for a full time job. You know how it is, that’s life.

Recently, I’ve been trying to pay off a bunch of bills. Mostly, the dentist bills. I’ve been throwing all of that onto the credit card and making up for it on payday. It wouldn’t be this hard if I wasn’t paying for someone else’s bill.

Some time last year, a friend asked me to co-sign for a car audio system. At the time, he was making twice as much as I was making, so I thought nothing of it. He couldn’t get the deck because he couldn’t get approved for the credit. So he asked me to co-sign and he’ll pay me monthly. I apply for the store line of credit and got approved. Payment wasn’t expected until next year, so I thought my friend would pay me the money before that date, so he wouldn’t have to pay the interest rates. Months goes by and not a single payment was made. The first payment for the bill finally came in so I forwarded the bill to his house. Next month comes and I did the same. By the time the 3rd bill came, I get a phone call from the creditors asking why I haven’t made any payments. I explained to them the situation and told them that I’ll make a payment on payday.

I try to get in contact with this friend because I can’t afford to be paying this extra bill. I’ve got my own bills to worry about. No matter how many bills I sent to his house, he didn’t do anything about them. He’s supposed to be making a lot more than I am, but he can’t afford to pay the minimum? That doesn’t sound right, does it?

After a year or so of chasing him around, I gave up. I don’t think I was gonna get the money so I paid off what I could, to save my credit. If I can afford to pay the minimum, making the wage that I made, I don’t understand why he couldn’t do that when he’s making twice as much.

And last night, I get home from work to find him in my basement. You think I was mad? No, I felt sorry for him. Seems he’s going through a lot right now. Words has it, that he’s been running away from his problems instead of confronting them. A lot of people are looking for him because they want their money but he’s got nothing to pay them back with. He’s got payment to make on his car but he doesn’t have money for that either. I don’t know why he won’t return the car and start working on his priorities. I’ve got a friend who recently started a family and he’s working like crazy to provide for his family.

That’s the thing with world. Money drives everything. I try not to spend to much or go out often and blow it all on useless junk but it’s hard. There’s so many things that you don’t have and you want. Usually when you see it on sale, you go ahead and buy it on impulse.

A lot of people in this country think they have it bad but that shouldn’t be the case. Canada is not a 3rd world country so why are there people living that way? Back in Cambodia, I hear that the police officers are making $20USD a month! $20! How much can $20 get you in Canada? You can go to McDonald’s for a few days and it’s gone. You can go catch a couple movies and it’s gone. You can go clubbing for a night and it’s gone.

If you think about it, the people who think they’ve got it bad, don’t have it that bad after all. They should try living in another country where things are worse. Maybe then, they’ll get off their ass and do something about it.