Archive for

December, 2007

...

December 31, 2007 5:19 PM

See you soon

1 comment
by    in Relationship

Tomorrow morning, my girlfriend will be on a plane en route to Hong Kong. She’s been counting down the days leading up to her departure but I keep telling her that I don’t want to be reminded of the fact that she’ll apart from me for a long time. She has a contract to teach in Hong Kong for six months with the possibility of extension if she does well. I knew this day was coming since the start of our relationship but I thought nothing of it because I didn’t know that we were going to last this long but little did I know, ten months down the road, we are still together.

Long distance relationships are hard and I’ve never been any good at it but my girlfriend and I are going to try very hard to keep the fire in our relationship burning strong. With the amount of technology that we have available to us, it shouldn’t be hard for us to keep in contact. We have instant messaging with video chat capability so I can talk to her any time and not worry about the cost of long distance. The only trouble that we might run into is the time zone. Hong Kong is about thirteen hours ahead of Canada so when I’m waking up, she’ll be getting ready for bed and vice versa. I got into the habit of calling her around lunch time but with her being in Hong Kong, that might be a problem.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing while she is away. I’ve gotten so use to the fact that she’s always around. The house is going to feel so lonely with just me and the cats. Our bed will feel emptier without her lying beside me. The winter months will seem much colder without her to keep me warm. The days will seem so much longer and I see many restless nights ahead worrying about her.

The longest we’ve spent apart was a day but even that felt like a long time. During the summer she was working out in Toronto. She would stay over at her brother’s for the night instead of commuting back and forth to Hamilton. I preferred to drive out to Toronto to pick her up and bring her home rather than spend a night by myself. Even after my friend’s wedding I didn’t want to spend the night out of town. I came home right after the wedding. I was surprised that she was still up at three in the morning. But it felt really good to see her.

After work, I usually come home to an empty house because she’s usually at work or at rehearsal. During the hours that she was away, I caught a glimpse of what it would be like when she’s overseas. I would sit around and wait for her to come home. Sometimes I would go out and get some errands done but that’s rare. I don’t go anywhere unless she’s with me. It’s going to feel odd going from one place to another alone.

Six months is a long time but I think we’ll be able to endure it. It’s going to be hard during the first few weeks but with time, we’ll be fine. I’ll be looking forward to the day when I go and visit her. I’ve got a lot of things to do in order to get ready for that day. I’ve got a passport to apply for and I have to save up enough for a plane ticket. I don’t think I’ll be going out a lot without her so I can save up for a plane ticket in no time. When I get to the airport, I won’t be saying “Goodbye”, I’ll be saying “See you soon…”

1 comment...
12:55 PM

What time is it?

Comments Off
by    in Fashion

For our first Christmas together, my girlfriend gave to me, a nice little piece of accessory. It’s something that I’ve been wanting for the longest time but could not afford because it was a bit pricey. My girlfriend is good at finding deals and this deal was the big one.

My girlfriend wanted to get me a watch for Christmas but not just any ordinary watch, a Seiko Kinetic watch. But not just any kinetic watch but a Kinetic Chronograph watch. This watch is driven by kinetic power which delivers power to the quartz crystal. This means that it does not require a battery change at all. When the battery is full charged, it will last for five months. If I want to charge the battery, all I have to do is swing my arms. I do that every day when I’m walking. So as I’m walking around, I’m also charging the battery in my watch. The motion of my arm is converted into a magnetic charge and then converted into electricity. The electricity is then stored into a Kinetic Electricity Storage Unit.

Seiko Arctura Chronograph SNL003

Usually, I would buy Fossil watches because I like their design. I don’t normally buy a watch that’s fully analog but this watch is an exception. The technology that’s incorporated in it is a bit fascinating. First of all, the watch is powered by human movement so it doesn’t have to rely fully on a battery. The capacitor can hold up to five hours worth of reserved power so I can let it sit on the table for that long without having to worry that it will lose track of time. There’s an overcharge warning on there as well and a warning if the battery is about to be depleted.

The chronograph feature is displayed separately from the time. The red dials represent the chronograph while the steel dials are for telling the time. Right now, it’s taking me a while to tell the time because I’m used to using the whole face of the watch to tell the time. On this watch, the outer rim is used for the chronograph. The hour section is located on the lower part of the watch while the second hand is located on the upper left. The upper right section is for keeping track of the minutes that has elapse when the chronograph has been started. The chronograph is only good for forty five minutes. After that, it stops counting. It probably could count higher but there isn’t enough room on the face to hold more than forty five minutes. To the right of the hour section is the calendar. The thing about the calendar is that it has thirty one days so when it comes to months that has less, I’ll have to reset the date or else I’ll be behind.

I find this watch to be the coolest watch I have to date. It doesn’t have as much functions as my previous watches but it does the job. Even something as small as not having to change the battery is a cool feature for me. As long as it continues to tell the time, I will wear it. I try not to buy expensive watches because I’m such a klutz and I’m afraid that I might scratch it. I don’t know how but I tend to scratch the covering on the face. With something as expensive as this watch, I’m going to take care of it better. I don’t want to ruin something as valuable as this. And what makes it even more valuable is because it’s a gift from my girlfriend.

Comments Off
December 30, 2007 1:26 PM

Ghost of Christmas past: Part II

Comments Off
by    in General

It’s now the second day of this strange ordeal but things are starting to look better. I wanted to stay with my parents last night but my dad told me to go home. I wanted to stay but at the same time I was afraid to stay. I would be lying there on the couch when I would hear noises from down the hall. My grandma was sleeping in the room at the very end of the hall and my dad went in to check up on her. After he was done, he came back into the living room with me. As he was sitting there and doing things on the internet, I heard a door close. I assumed that someone had walked into the washroom but when I looked up, the washroom door was wide open. A door had closed but it wasn’t a door that I could see. The door that goes into my parent’s room was already closed. My brother had his door already closed as well. The only door that could have closed was the door to the room that my grandma was in.

I didn’t want to go check because I started to get a little spooked. I started to hear crackling voices from down the hall. I couldn’t sleep without hear the voices every minute or so. I fell asleep for a bit but woke up shortly after. My dad saw me fall asleep and told me to go home. I told him that I was staying the night. He asked if I had the car with me and I told him that I didn’t. He offered to drive me home so I accepted.

The next day, I dropped by the house again to see if things have cleared up. My grandma was lying down on the couch in the living room now. She was still saying things but it didn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary. I assumed that she was back to her normal self again. But the more I spoke with her, the more I doubted that she was back to normal.

Me: Hi Grandma! Are you feeling better?
Grandma: Oh Doeun! Come give your grandma a hug.
Me: How have you been?
Grandma: I don’t know. There are some things that are confusing me.
Me: Things like what?
Grandma: Well, for some reason I can speak Thai. Do you know how to speak Thai?
Me: No, I’m sorry but I don’t. I know a little bit of it.
Grandma: Like what? Say something in Thai for me.
Me: Well… Sawa dee krab.
Grandma: Oh! Sawa dee kah! You do know a little.
Me: I think that’s about it.
Grandma: Can you translate some Thai for me?
Me: I don’t think I know enough to translate.
Grandma: Then can you explain to me why I know Thai?
Me: What do you mean?
Grandma: I shouldn’t know how to speak Thai but if Khuth is still here, I can.
Me: …
Grandma: If Khuth is gone then I wouldn’t be able to speak Thai but now I know Thai, Filipino and English.
Me: …

After a while she would start switching between Thai and Khmer. She would look at the portrait of my brothers and I and start speaking in Thai. It sounded like she was chanting something because the last words would rhyme. After she was done, she would look at me and ask what she had just said. I told her that I didn’t understand what she was saying. She would respond by asking how she could understand it. She said that she’s been living in Cambodia for the longest time and shouldn’t understand any other language and yet she can understand two more languages.

But that’s not all that’s weird. As I was playing Halo 3 with my little brother, my grandma was mumbling a few more things. The only thing that caught my attention was when she mentioned an event that happened a long time ago to one of my brother.

Grandma: Where is the one that fell off the roof of the house? Where is he now? He shouldn’t have fallen. It was all my fault. If I had only loved him more and be there for him more, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Where is he now? Ha ha ha!

My grandma shouldn’t know about this little accident because she was in Cambodia at the time but my late grandpa would know because he was there. Way back in the late eighties, my brother was climbing on a roof and trying to get to the grape vine. The roof was top of the basement entrance and was about eight foot high. He was trying to get a piece of grape when he lost his footing and fell to the ground. I don’t know how he landed but the fall gave him a black eye.

When she mentioned the accident, I started to believe that she could be really possessed by my late grandma but believing it in sort of defies by belief in the paranormal. I didn’t think that ghosts were real but I’ve seen videos on YouTube where people have caught ghost sightings. Some of those videos can be very frightening.

As of yesterday, my grandma appears to be back to normal. My dad asked the monks to stop by the house and bless it. I arrived at the house shortly after they left so I wasn’t there for the whole ceremony. They left a chalice of holy water behind with a string in it. That string was for me and my grandma was supposed to tie it around my wrist. As she wrapped it around my wrist, I noticed that she wasn’t has noisy as before. When my late grandpa was in her, he would be talking a lot. But now, all I see in front of me was a quiet old lady. I hope that things are back to normal and I hope that we don’t get any more disturbances.

The souls that are wandering this planet in the afterlife should stay in the afterlife and not cross the border to enter our realm. But there are some souls that cannot go in peace because of something that happened during their life time. I don’t think my late grandpa had anything that might cause him pain in the afterlife. He was an alcoholic and drank a lot. He somehow managed to get alcohol from the LCBO after we requested that the not sell him any. He might still be drunk after he passed away but I hope that he can rest in peace now.

Comments Off
December 27, 2007 11:07 PM

Ghost of Christmas past: Part I

Comments Off
by    in General

I was hoping to spend Boxing Day like everyone else, shopping. It’s the one day of the year where the malls are jammed packed and people are practically touching each other. If you’re looking for parking at the mall, you can forget it unless you’re there very early in the morning. But instead of shopping, I was called on due to a little family issue. It was regarding my grandma so I feared the worse. She’s been a bit ill the last few days and has eaten much. When I arrived home, the complication wasn’t what I had expected. It was a bit scarier than I thought.

I was walking around in Futureshop looking for a plasma TV. I had recently purchased one for my dad for Christmas but now it was on sale. Futureshop has a price protection plan that will refund the money if the price drops. On Boxing Day, the price dropped $300 so I was hoping to get a refund for that amount. If I can save $300 somewhere, I’ll do it. I walked over to Customer Service and inquired about that policy. The representative informed me that they did not have any more of the TV in stock so I couldn’t get the refund. It was hard to believe that this store would be out of stock on the day that they plan on selling a lot of these TVs. I found out later that they did have it in stock just not in the store but in the warehouse. My brother spoke with the guy that we bought the TV from and he said that the one that we purchased was a lot better than the one that they were trying to sell. The TV that was on sale was a lower model and was a lower quality than our TV. They didn’t have it on display because people would see how bad it was and not buy it. So in the end, I was happy with the TV that I bought and the price was reasonable.

As I was heading out, I received a phone call from my parent’s house. My mom was on the line and asked me to come home and bring my girlfriend with me. I told her that my girlfriend was at work so I can’t bring her along. She told me that my grandma was having some problems and then she went quiet. I asked what was going on but she didn’t answer. Then my brother got on the line and told me to come home because my grandma was ill and she was speaking to my grandpa. It sounded like she was hallucinating and speaking to her late husband but when I arrived at home, that wasn’t the case.

When I got home, I saw that the living room was full of people. My mom, brothers, uncle and cousin was over and they were sitting around. My brothers were playing video games but everyone else was sitting on the couch. My uncle told me to go see my grandma and greet her because she wasn’t herself. I thought maybe she was a little sick since she didn’t eat much a few days ago. When I get into the room, my mom told me to ask my grandma if she recognized me.

Me: Hi Grandma!
Grandma: Hello!
Me: How are you?
Grandma: I am fine.
Me: Do you know who I am?
Grandma: Yes, you’re my grandson.
Me: What’s my name?
Grandma: Your name is Doeun. And you’ve grown a lot
Me: Oh, I’ve only grown a little bit.
Mom: Tell Grandpa to go away and leave Grandma alone.
Grandma: No! I will not go!

At this point, I was a little confused and a bit scared. I had no idea what was going on but it seemed like my grandma was possessed. From what everyone told me, my grandpa had taken over. This is the late grandpa that lived with me. My grandma was sleeping in his old room and in her weakened state, my grandpa supposedly possessed her. She was saying things that only he would have known.

This whole ordeal started the night before. My mom, dad and brother could not sleep because she was mumbling so much. All of the mumbling was directed mostly towards my dad. She was saying that my dad did something wrong and he’ll have to pay for it soon. We wanted to set things right but we had no idea how. We asked how to set it right but she wouldn’t tell us how.

Everyone around the house was trying to get a hold on things and figure out what’s going on. I’m not a believer in the paranormal but when I see things like this with my own eyes, I tend to believe it a bit more. There could be a scientific explanation for something like this but how do we know what is actually going on? I don’t want to believe that there could be a ghost in the house but after what I’ve seen, it’s hard to deny it. Something is making my grandma act the way she’s acting.

Comments Off
December 20, 2007 5:53 PM

My childhood: Part 2

Comments Off
by    in Life

This is a continuation from my previous post about my childhood. I moved around a lot and ended up having to attend many different schools. At first it was a bit hard to make new friends but after a while I learned to cope with it. Making new friends and taking to new people wasn’t a problem for me anymore.

Sanford Avenue School

Sanford Avenue School was located about seven blocks from the house that I lived in at the time and it wasn’t the first school that my parents wanted to enroll me into. Located about three blocks from my old house was St Brigid Catholic Elementary School. My dad wanted to enroll me there but we were declined because we weren’t Catholic. At the time, I didn’t see what the big deal was whether or not we were Catholic. All I wanted to do was go to school and I didn’t have any preference as to which one I attended. My preference changed when the winter months came. My dad had to work so he couldn’t always drive us to school. Even when it rained we had to walk to school. There was one day when my brother and I had to walk to school in a rain storm. My mom gave us what she thought was a raincoat. By the time we arrived at school, we were soaked from head to toe. The coat that she gave us wasn’t a raincoat but a windbreaker. Those things will keep you warm on a windy day but it does absolutely nothing to keep you dry.

Sanford Avenue School

When we get to school, we didn’t use the main entrance. I’m not sure why we did but we used this side enough instead. I think it had something to do with the fact that our home room class was located right by the stairs that this door lead to.

This area is the area when I got into my first fight and it during my first week at the school too. There was a kid in my class who had a brother and they were wrestling each other by the stairs. The kid was about my size and his brother was a bit smaller. I saw that the kid in my class was losing to his brother so I had a comment that I could probably take on his little brother. I was a bit bigger than him so I assumed that I was strong. We wrestled for a bit and he somehow knocked me down and got on top of me. He pulled on my arm and locked it which hurt a bit so I started to cry. A teacher came out and saw that we were fight and I was crying so we were sent to the Principal’s office. The Principle assumed that I was being picked on since I was the new kid and made the other kid apologize to me. After that day, I stopped “judging a book by its cover” because even though this kid was little, he was also older than me.

Sanford Avenue School

On the opposite side of the school was another entrance. Kids who arrived to school from that side would use this entrance. I always arrived at school from the north end so I barely used this entrance. The only time I used this entrance was to get back into the school after recess.

Sanford Avenue School

Of all the times that I’ve spent at this school, I can recall most my activities during recess the clearest. My first few days at the school were very lonely days since I didn’t know anyone. I remember sitting down under a tree and crying because I had no one to play with. All of the other kids were running around playing tag and having fun except me. I felt so sad that I began to cry.

Sanford Avenue School

A girl saw me crying so she came up and asked me why I was crying. I told her that I didn’t have any friends. She immediately smiled and said that I can play with her. I stopped crying and began chasing her around. I don’t know why I was chasing her though. Kids seem to like to chase thing in hopes of catching it. Once I caught the girl, I grabbed her and gave her a big bear hug. I even managed to lift her off the ground. She liked the feeling of being in the air so much that she asked me to do it again. After I did it a few times, she called over her friend and I lifted her into the air. From that point on, I didn’t have many problems making new friends.

Sanford Avenue School

I didn’t stay long at Sanford Avenue School. The following year, I had to transfer to Robert Land Elementary School because my house was located in its district. I still remember the friends that I made at Sanford. There are some of them that I still talk to every now and then. I caught up with a few when I entered high school. My days at Sanford help shape me into the person that I am now.

Comments Off
December 11, 2007 6:04 PM

Back on the grid

1 comment
by    in General

I am in the process of slowly getting all my identification back. I think it’s going to be a long and tiresome process since I have a lot of running around to do and I don’t a lot of time. Most of my financial cards have already been taken care of since all of the calls to the credit card companies resulted in them sending me a new card. The identification cards are the one that are probably going to take the longest.

Spending a couple of weeks without access to money is a bit of a downer for me. My girlfriend had to pay for most of the things that I’d normally pay for. Being the traditional guy that I am I believe that the guy should be paying for everything and not let the girl worry about the financial stuff. But in this day and age, both guy and girl split the responsibility. I don’t want my girlfriend to pay for anything since she should be saving up for her trip at the end of the year. I don’t want her to have to worry about the financial stuff. That’s my department.

So far, I’ve managed to get back my bank card and a couple of credit cards. The credit cards that came in aren’t the ones that I normally used. Those accounts are more for balance transfer since they have a lower interest rate. The cards that I normally use are the CIBC, Canadian Tire and Royal Bank credit cards. I use them mainly because they give me something back in return.

The CIBC credit card gives me a percentage back at the end of the year. This is the first year that I’ve enroll in this reward plan so I wasn’t sure what to expect back. In the fine print, it says that I had to spent a certain amount to get the 1% back but I don’t think I spend that much every month. But to my surprise, I received a ninety dollar rebate. At first, I thought that I overpaid my monthly invoice since there was no sign of a rebate apply to my account. But the online statement is a bit slow and it takes a day before anything is processed. The next day, I saw that a ninety dollar credit was applied to my account.

CIBC Rebate

The Royal Bank Visa card gives me reward points that I can use to redeem merchandises. I can use my points to buy a plane ticket, an iPod, gift certificates or even donate my points to charity. It would be nice to redeem them for a plane ticket because I’ll need to get one soon but I have a feeling that there’s going to be restriction on the places that I can fly to. I would use the points to get an iPod but those things are a little over rated now. It seems like everyone who’s anyone has one already. Gift certificates would be nice around this time of year but they’re a bit tacky an impersonal.

RBC Rewards

With some of the financial stuff out of the way, I still need to get some of my identification cards. My driver’s license is one since I do quite a bit of driving. At the moment, I have a temporary one which should be replaced with the real thing. Unfortunately, I won’t be getting a new one since my driver’s license was recently suspended without my knowing. I received a letter in the mail from the Ministry of Transportation. I assumed that it was my driver’s license but it turned out to be a notice informing me that I won’t be getting my new card. My driver’s license was suspended due to unpaid fines. There was that ticket that I received when I was pulled over for no particular reason and a speeding ticket. That’s a total fine of $200 that I have to pay before I get my driver’s license but that’s not everything. Because my driver’s license was suspended, I have to pay an addition $150 to get it restored. What kind of administration fee is that to restore a driver’s license? With outrageous fees like that, it makes me not want to restore my driver’s license but I have to since it’s the one piece of identification that’s accepted almost everywhere.

Just when I thought it was going to be easy to recover my lost items, the government has to step in and make it harder on me. It’s hard to get free time this month so I can’t be going from one government building to the next. I know that it’s important to get all of my identification stuff now so I’ll have to find some time in my busy schedule to get those done. Christmas is just around the corner and I’m nowhere near done my Christmas shopping. On top of that, I have to prepare for a Christmas party that I’ll be host so I’ll be scrambling around and getting ready for that. Sometimes, I feel that a day goes by in a blink of an eye.

1 comment...
4:49 PM

Christmas tree

Comments Off
by    in General

Christmas tree

Comments Off
December 7, 2007 12:54 PM

One is enough, thank you!

Comments Off
by    in Rants

Every week, the Hamilton Spectator hands out a smaller and shorter version of their newspaper. I think it’s a couple of pages from their Go section. I don’t mind receiving them since it’s free and it contains some local advertisement but lately it’s getting to be a pain. Receiving flyers can be a pain in itself since there’s so many and it’s most likely that you’ll be satisfied if you get them once a week. But I don’t get them once a week. I don’t even get one for that matter. I get more! But I don’t want more. I want one!

The delivery guy usually delivers one Free Press to each house on the block. If you’re a subscriber to the Hamilton Spectator you don’t get one. I buy my newspaper in the morning but I’m thinking of subscribing. Since I’m not a subscriber, I get a Free Press at my door step. I’ve been getting one copy for the longest time until one day, I received two. At first, I assumed that I was getting two because the delivery guy probably thought that there were more tenants. The houses in my area are rented out to people so it’s probably safe for the carrier to assume that there are more tenants in the house. But usually those houses have more than one mailbox so why am I getting two?

I thought nothing of it until one day, I started receiving more. This time, I got four copies! What am I going to do with four copies of the same paper? All I need is one. This is starting to get annoying now because it’s getting colder out and I don’t have any room for more paper in my recycling bin.

One Saturday, I left the house to find a whole bundle of paper on my door step. There must have been ten copies or so. It’s as if they guy brought the whole bundle and left it for me and me alone. It’s not my job to deliver those flyers so I shouldn’t be getting that many. After seeing that, I was getting fed up. This guy is getting paid to deliver this to each house but instead, he’s dumping it all on my door step and skipping everyone else. It’s the holiday season so he should be sharing the newspaper with everyone on the street. I don’t want to seem like I’m greedy and taking all the newspaper. He’s probably leaving me all of them because I’m the first house he stops at but that doesn’t mean I should be getting everything. There’s a bar right next to my house and they have a few recycling bins out in their parking lot. He could have at least stashed it there if he didn’t want to deliver them.

My girlfriend and I plan on staking out by the window and waiting for the guy. We want to catch him in the act and ask him to stop giving us so much garbage. His next delivery date is tomorrow but there’s a chance that we won’t be up earlier enough. If he gives us a lot of copies again, I’ll have to resort to complaining to the Spectator personally. I don’t want to have to do that since these guys get paid by the paper but it’s not fair for me. He’s basically littering on my property by doing that and something needs to be done about it. If he doesn’t stop, I’ve got a few snowballs with his name on it.

Comments Off
December 2, 2007 1:21 AM

This day in history

1 comment
by    in Relationship

It was a cold winter day on Saturday December 2nd, 2006. I had been sleeping all day because I work the night shift out in Mississauga. When I woke up, I decided that it would be wise that I start my Christmas shopping now. I hopped into my car and drove up to Limeridge Mall. I was looking to buy gifts for the family but I didn’t expect to find a present for myself.

I met my girlfriend for the first time on this day of last year. I can’t believe that it’s already been a year since we first met. Oddly enough, I still remember the day we met as if it was yesterday. It takes a while for my memories to kick start itself but this one particular memory is one that I will never forget.

It all started that one Saturday night when I was at the mall doing some Christmas shopping. I must have done a couple of laps around the mall before giving up. Before heading home, I stopped by Bubble Tease to visit my friend Carole. She was working that night along with a couple of other coworkers. One coworker was sitting to the side and it didn’t look like she was working. The other coworker had just got in from getting something to eat. He offered me some of whatever he bought but I declined. Later, the girl coworker offered me some cupcakes that she baked for her fellow coworkers. I wasn’t a fan of sweets so I politely declined but she was persistent and I accepted. Who would have known that later that night, I would be dreaming about the girl that offered me a cupcake.

Memories

A year later, we are living together under the same roof. We’ve had our shares of ups and downs (more downs than ups) but we’re getting through them. She’s had to put up a lot with me lately because of what an ass I’ve been. Sometimes it feels like our relationship is hanging by a moment and it could be over any second. I pray that, that day will never come. Part of me loves her too much to let her go but another part of me love her too much to allow myself to continue to hurt her so. What’s a guy going to do?

1 comment...