Blood. It's in you to give.

After thinking about it for several years, I finally took my first step in becoming a blood donor. The radio broadcast an immediate need for O- blood, so I figured why not, this was as good a time as any! (While in Taiwan, I wanted to join CompanyM's blood drive, but hadn't been back from Cambodia (2006) or Vietnam (2007) for a full year.)

Yesterday around noon, I went to the Canadian Blood Services clinic on Oak St. The receptionist gave me a "1st Time Donor" sticker, and the next girl tested a drop of my blood to ensure sufficient iron content. Then after filling out a questionnaire, a registered nurse came and talked to me, measured my heart rate and blood pressure, and then I was off to get a needle stuck into me.

I was in the chair for maybe 15 minutes, and managed to fill a unit, so now I'm 480cc and 610g lighter. No side effects - no dizziness or anything, I felt absolutely fine. (The RN had insisted, 'cause I look so "tiny", to let them know if I felt faint at all and they would stop immediately.)

Had some water and a couple of Peak Freans, and got my 1st Time Donor pin! :D

I'll get my blood donor card in the mail next month. Since I'll be away, my dad will see it first, so I just told him at dinner. Surprisingly, he was pretty okay with it. The only concern he had was that 480cc seems a lot for someone my size. :P

Here are a few interesting things I learnt:

- BC has a constant need for blood; we often have to import blood from the other provinces.
- Three components can be harvested from blood: red blood cells, plasma, platelets. White blood have viruses and bacteria, so they're discarded.
- The shelf life for RBC is 42 days.

So anyway! 56 days until the next time I can donate. :)

Under the table

"King one still there on the whole bar! And I'm in a soundproof room...!"

That was the line that we kids would call out at each meal when we were younger. It was the statement that granted us the deed to the forked legs at each end of the table, so we could prop our feet on them for the meal.

First you had to get your feet on the bar, and then you had to say the whole statement without the other siblings speaking simultaneously. You could throw out one word at a time, but if they caught you right when you were talking, you had to start the whole line over again. When you got the entire line out, then and only then could you claim the table leg rest for the duration of the meal.

Don't ask me how that titular statement came to be the way it is. You just can't account for some of the things kids come up with.

In Loving Memory

Excitable and Humorous
Everyone who has met my mother undoubtedly knows her for her playful energy and zest for life. Indeed, Mom was more excited about my first date, about my prom, and convocation than even I was. And she loved to hear about any new activities I was trying – hiking, swimming, rock-climbing. I could always count on her to start deliberating about what I would be wearing to a special occasion months in advance. Sometimes I would find an outfit already laid out for me. Thankfully she was a smart shopper, with impeccable taste.

My brothers and I would often kid around with her at the dinner table. Mom would raise a hand threateningly, but graciously accept the high-fives we offered instead. Occasionally she would retaliate successfully with a well-placed pinch on the thigh... but it was always delivered with a smile. (Though, not necessarily always received with a smile.)


我喜歡妳以前煮的菜
我母親都為家人著想。 這幾年我爸爸很注意健康，也對煮法的要求提高：不能太鹹，不能太油，各個方面的營養要足夠，等等。 我前幾個月跟媽媽講電話，談搬回溫哥華的事。 我說我想念媽媽煮的菜．．．。 隔了幾秒鐘，我又補充了一下："我想念妳以前做的菜。 New cooking 一點都不想念。" 媽媽就笑著說："好啦好啦，趕快回來啦，媽媽煮好吃的給妳吃。"


Favourite Child
Her love for the family was apparent in all she did. We each had a part in her heart: Dad, her partner in life; Ben is the oldest child in the family, Kev the youngest, I the only daughter. We were all special to her. She treated each of us children like her favourite. Mom would slip me earrings that she found to match my dress, she would pay for a jacket that my brother had his eye on, other little tokens of motherly love. She loved us equally, each in our own special way, each her favourite child.

But deep down inside, we all know who her reeeeal favourite was....


最後一聲 "我愛妳"
這三年多，孩子們都在遙遠的台灣工作，生活。 因為工作時間長，活動充實，我就比較少打電話。 媽媽都會哀怨女兒怎麼沒打電話，怎麼都不想媽媽呢；她一直羨幕別人家的孩子常常跟父母聯絡。 去年，得知同事的父親過世後，我就養成了一個習慣：每次講完電話都會跟媽媽說一聲 "我愛妳"。 無論那通電話聊到什麼，氣憤如何，我最後會喊一句："媽，我愛妳"．．． 免得哪一天後悔沒跟她多說了幾次。

媽媽往生的那一天，我在上班接到爸爸的電話。 我父親把電話放在媽媽的耳邊，讓我們跟她告別。 我那時震驚中，只知道跟她說："媽，我們一定會讓妳驕傲。 媽，我愛妳。"

所以，在今天的最後．．． 我也要跟媽說一聲："媽，我愛妳。"


Mom, I love you.

Not so bright, Part 2

6. I met up to shoot pool with a friend in Taipei, after dinner with my aunt. I couldn't find my key to get back into my brother's place, so he left his set with me, and said he would figure out another way. He called me later, rather peeved, because he couldn't get into his parking garage (sensor was with me now).
   
   The next day as we were heading out, I returned his keys. "Where's my mailbox key??" "Oh, I dunno. Ohhh, wait...... that's my set of your keys. Here's yours.... <duck and run>"
   
   I don't get my own set of keys to his place anymore.
   
   
7. I want to be organised. Honestly. So I buy plastic stackable drawers, and paper organisers, and clothes hangers. They now all sit on the floor of my room, alongside the rest of my mess.
   
   My coworker got me a book "No More Clutter" (by Sue Kay) that takes a deeper look into the whys of clutter before the actual riddance. And yes, that book now adds to my clutter.
   
   
8. I grew up drying my laundry in the clothes dryer. I like the extra perk that, if you remove your clothes not too long after drying, they are soft and virtually wrinkle-free. It so happens that one Saturday, I got home unexpectedly late from work, and found my clothes removed from the dryer and scrunched down into my a-bit-too-small bucket. Completely scrunched, dress shirts and all. I was livid. (When I remove someone's clothes from the dryer, I half-fold their laundry - hang shirts and pants over the side of the basket - so their clothes aren't crumpled, because hey, I'm considerate like that.)
   
   As it turns out, that person's load was done, and I wanted to unwrinkle my clothes (by putting them through another cycle). So I removed his stuff and scrunched it into his slightly-too-small basket.
   
   I'm such a bad ass. =P
   
   
9. I can swim over 2000m without any problems... but my calf cramped up when I was getting dressed and trying not to let my pants touch the wet changeroom floor.
   
   
10. I can scooter for almost 10 minutes before making a left turn and being rudely reminded that I forgot to flip up the kick-stand.

Still more to come...

-er or -ee?

I was looking up a synonym for the verb "to manage" at one of my favourite sites, Merriam-Webster, and among other definitions, it offered

1b: to treat with care: husband.

Huh? Intrigued, I clicked and found the transitive verb "to husband":

Main Entry: ²husband
Function: transitive verb
Date: 15th century

1 a: to manage prudently and economically b: to use sparingly : conserve
2archaic : to find a husband for : mate
— hus·band·er noun

Interesting..... So, who husbands who in a marriage? Is the man labelled the husband because he husbands or because he is husbanded? Husbander or husbandee.... All a mystery......

You take that back!

So we happened to have the "pleasure" of sitting with my two-up manager, and conversation starts out about marriage and sports, and then the 3 managers at the table start talking about... management. My two-up is saying how different people have different ways of dealing with stress, and each person has to figure out their own method.

"For example, Nk and I have a habit of leaving everything until the last minute, creating unnecessary stress on ourself, and..."

Excuse me, but wtf??

What exactly were you expecting when you assigned me work on Friday afternoon and wanted it by Monday? It was already "last minute" when you assigned it. Did it even occur to you that I might have plans for the weekend? Or is my 24-hours-a-day-7-days-a-week completely at your disposal? And for what -- a few lousy dollars of OT pay, a foul mood, and sleep deficit?

Considering that my work schedule is dictated by everyone else's deadlines and by when work is submitted for review, the latter has a slight impact on when I can complete an assignment.

If you assign a task with a Monday deadline, and by Sunday evening, I still haven't received more than half the slides I need to review, then hell yeah, I'm going to have some difficulty completing the task. Even if you notify the persons a week in advance, if they don't submit their work until the last instant, I'm the one who pays for it. Don't fvckin' tell me that I leave it all until the last minute and then am not able to make the deadline.

Stupid slave factory.

Not so bright

I am, by far, not perfect.

I know, I know. I'll give you a minute for the shock to subside.

Here are a few oh-so-bright moments, most deserving a laugh, some deserving a smack upside the head. (I actually wrote most of this over a year ago, but these have all happened during my time in Taiwan.)

1. Locked myself out of my dorm - with a bag of laundry, and three 10NT coins. No wallet, no phone, no scooter keys to get myself anywhere. At 1AM. I had to drag my big bag o' laundry to the convenience store and borrow the clerk's phone card so I could call someone to come save me.
   
   
2. After recovering from a scooter accident (open wound and not-so-happy ankle), I finally healed enough to swim again. Yay! Then two days later I was running home, and as I sprinted to catch the traffic light, I tripped and sprawled head first into the street (no cars around). And scraped my elbow and knee up nicely.
   
   
3. I was meeting up with family friends. Suddenly realising that the train I was about to board was heading south (wrong direction), it then dawned on me that I had actually watched my train leave just 3 mins earlier. So I patiently waited for and boarded the next train on that first platform. Then the next train stop told me that I'd boarded a southbound train! By the time I made it to my destination, I'd been commuting for nearly 3 hours, instead of the anticipated 1.5 hours. But what a deal for 85NT! =D
   
   
4. My coworker sent out an away-on-a-business-trip notice to the entire department. To which I promptly wished him a smooth trip and good kimchi. Only, I replied-all. (I'm only thankful I didn't jokingly tell him not to ogle too many Korean girls.)
   
   Actually, I've replied-all on two other occasions as well.... Oy.
   
   
5. On a particularly wet and rainy day (cats and dogs and hippos), I rode through the night market in search of food. Someone's scooter horn was blaaaaaaaaaring annoyingly. I scanned the vicinity, like others around me, looking for the source. And 5 minutes later, I found it.
   
   Yep, it was my scooter. Apparently it was complaining of a couple of electrical shorts.

More to come....

Evolution

There's something to be said for the evolution of the written language.

I saw a character 雦 the other day, didn't know what it was. So I asked my coworker and we started doing some research (okay, she searched while I sat next to her), we found the following ensemble:

• 隹 (zhuī) - kind of bird
  
• 雔 (chóu) - pair of birds
  
• 雦 (jí/chóu) - to gather; archaic form of 集 (jí)
  
• 雥 (zá) - flock of birds
  
• 雧 (jí) - to gather (birds in a tree); another archaic form of 集

Isn't that neat?? Two birds? Just double the radical! More than that? Add another bird! And then put them all in a tree (木)!

How clever is that! =)

(Okay, maybe only a language buff like myself would fully appreciate this.)

I'm awake.

07:23.

I've barely slept an hour the entire night so far.

Why?

Because of ONE mosquito.

I am so tired....

Wake up and smell the java.

My coworker passed me a news article, about how in Austria, housekeeping and child-rearing are still widely regarded as women's responsibilities.

(The article's in Chinese but you can get a crude translation by running the URL through Babelfish. The general gist of the article is that 75% of Austrian men consider housekeeping and child-rearing a woman's job, compared to only 14% who believe men should share part of the burden.)

I'm not surprised that there are still places like that. I'm really not. But as I glanced at the article content, I suddenly became rather weary about why he had made a point of sending me the link. I mean, obviously it was an article of interest, but in what way?

It soon became apparent.

"In comparison," he remarked, "Taiwanese men are pitiable (可憐). They have to help clean, do laundry, take care of children... and they're not allowed to complain."

Come again?? Alright, alright, don't jump to conclusions. It's just a statement, and probably not his personal opinion. I cautiously asked if he thought these chores were the woman's responsibility, even using the ^o) emoticon as a subtle hint that he should answer with care.

"在台灣，只能認命吧。" ("In Taiwan, you can only submit to Life." / "C'est la vie.")

I was livid. And when I reprehended him, his counter?

"In Asia, Taiwan is already pretty good [in terms of male and female equality in society]." He actually did not find anything wrong with how the Austrian men thought, even envied the culture. I wanted to kick the sh!t out of him.

I told him to move to Austria.

I was so pissed off that I stopped MSN'ing him for the rest of the night. Before leaving work, however, I forced myself to be the bigger person and MSN'ed him saying that he was entitled to his archaic opinion and all the power to him if he found a partner who shared it. (He then blankly asked what I considered more "modern". I chose to ignore his cluelessness and closed the conversation window.)

I know that people are entitled to their own opinions, and we should all be open to different perspectives instead of chastising someone because they don't share your views. But honestly, some people's beliefs make you want to disassociate yourself from them.