Dec 8, 09

A particular family quarrel had recent taught me a hard lesson on fairness...

Matt 20:1-15
For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work...At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’
They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’
The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’
That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?

Is a father not entitled to leave his material goods to whichever offspring he pleases? What if one, say, an older son, feels entitled to a little something? What if this has caused the father and son to quarrel? Or worse, what if the whole family is quarreling because of some money -- yes, a significant amount of money -- but just money, nonetheless?

What if you're a Jesus follower who happen to be somewhat in the family but have no swaying power whatsoever? What now?

Nov 13, 2009

Have my literary taste changed as I age? Or has Atwood mellowed out as she ages and Coupland’s plots rapidly deteriorate over the past few years?

Since reading Edible Woman some 15 years ago, I never thought I'd ever say this about any of Atwood's books(and believe me, I've tried - I've read almost all her novels, even the ones I didn't have to); but I can't seem to put The Year of the Flood down. A couple of pages in, it enslaved me with an addictive necessary to know what happened and what's going to happen. And not that I'm into cults, but if I ever run off to join a cult, God's Gardeners seems like a logical choice.

On the other hand, I've been looking forward to Generation A by Douglas Coupland for some months before its release. I thought Generation X and Jpod were hilariously real; especially the hugging machine for mildly autistic computer scientists -- it'd be a great investment for all computer labs in universities across the continent. However, Generation A, I must say, has the thinnest plot line I've read in my adult life. The story has such great potentials; it's one of those books that starts off great, you keep expecting something amazing to happen and suddenly, realize that there are only a handful more pages 'til the end. Then, you come to the dreadful realization that maybe everything will be loosely wrapped up rather like a messy salad made from left-over leafs by a Chinese grandmother. Or, maybe you still have hopes; maybe it's one of those books that gives you a password in the last page and refers you to a website for the real ending. Alas, after a few more pages, it's the messy salad -- and it doesn't even make any sense.

Oct 12, 09

Addiction - being abnormally dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming

Thus describes my recent relationship with Agatha Christie's works.

The addiction started, a little more than a month ago, with a copy of "And Then There Were None" lying around at a friend's place and I spent the next five hours on it.

A couple weeks later, while helping another dear friend move, I brought home the Agatha Christie 100th Anniversary Edition set and spent the next four days on them.

Last week, I brought home The Mysterious Affairs at Styles after work for the next day's subway reading. That night, I had trouble sleeping, tossed and turned all night and got up at 5am to start the book.

Around 6:30am, I correctly guess, not only the murderer, but also how the murder was carried out and who his accomplice was.

I should perhaps stop before my addiction runs my life.

Aug 14, 09

Taking frugality to the max…

An elderly neighbor needed help the other day to move her broken freezer to her backyard. Her plan: to give it a good clean and buy a padlock in the fall so when winter comes, it will act as a natural freezer.

July 30, 09

I've been having temper issues recently; contributed mainly by night classes and an abundance of raccoons.

6-9pm classes are tough -- why do I pay to be punished term after term?

Worse yet, i managed to upset my instructor on the first day of class (by calling him a retard by accident) and the girl who sits next to me on the second week (by thinking that she's pregnant when she's not).

Now, to the raccoons.

One would think that a city worker strike would be paradise for raccoons in the city – garbage piled high up, compost bins brimming. But no – their territorial nature keeps them troubled and hostile to each other. For the past few weeks, the neighborhood raccoons would break into rambunctious combat every night at midnight, 2am, 4am, and 6am. While fun to watch, their nightly fights are impossible to sleep through. Every fight would begin with a few loud thrilling squeals, followed by successions of pitter-patter raccoon footsteps across the roof, then more squeals; then if I’m lucky, a series of loud “thuds” as the losing raccoons fall off fences / hydro-lines and land hard in my backyard. Sometimes, some of neighborhood dogs would stir and bark the night away (I’m in no position to complain about that – my dog would more often than not join in the chorus) and wake the entire block. All would be quiet for a bit and the uproar would resume in a couple hours.

Co-workers and friends have been the most sympathetic and enthusiastic with giving advices. So far, the best idea I’ve received was to get myself a BB gun. Maybe I’ll think about it if this strike doesn’t end soon.

Mar 22, 09

Spoiler for "Knowing" staring Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne

An atheist pastor's son finds out hours before his death (and everyone else's) that scientology is the way to go. Except the aliens don't particularly care about human race.

Mar 12, 09

I don't know about other Chinese (or non-Chinese) parents, my mom and grandma used empty threats to their fullest potentials during my childhood.

"If you don't take your nap, the police will come and get you." (thus, I napped round the clock; to this day, I sleep 9 hours a day and can still fall asleep on demand anywhere anytime)

"If you don't eat your rice, we'll disown you and take you back to the public toilet where we found you." (my folks also weren't the greatest with sex ed, they found it easier to explain my existence with the public toilet story..."one day, mommy was in the washroom at the wet market when she saw a crying baby inside the squad-hole. The baby was in her way so she picked it up and brought it home.")

"If you don't do your homework, you'll grow up to be a homeless panhandler and we won't take you in cuz we just picked you up from the toilet."

It's been years since I've heard threats like these (apparently threats are a form of emotional abuse in Canada so my sister had not the privilege to receive any). So imagine my surprise last week, when I was in a restaurant, minding my own business, when I heard a woman's voice behind me saying: "eat your rice or I'll leave you on the street."

Very discreetly, I turned and observed the source of the threat. Just as I imagined, it was an older (more than middle-age, not quite senior) lady with a 5-years-old-ish boy (I assumed grandson). He was holding onto a drumstick (it was really very greasy and gross) and the lady was feeding him spoonfuls of rice; though from the look on the boy's face, you'd think that he was being force-fed poison. Quiet observation over the course of the meal led me to another finding: Chinese parents discipline their children into submissiveness and away from risk-taking from an early age. Nex time you have a chance to observe Chinese parents, note how often they say "don't" and their reasons.

(The boy finished eating his drumstick and beat the chicken bone against the table) “Don’t play with the bone, you’ll poke your eyes out.” (What?!)

(After some minutes of power struggle, the boy put the bone down and continued to beat the table with his chopstick) “Don’t play with the chopsticks, the waiter will get mad and call the police and put you in jail. See, the waiter’s coming now.” (It sounds much more natural in Chinese.)

(At a later point during the meal, the boy was drinking a cup of tea. I swear, he was just drinking tea like normal people in restaurants do) "Don't hold your cup like that. You'll spill your tea and make a big mess." (again, I swear, he's just drinking tea in a normal way. There's really not many different ways one can hold a teacup.)

(At the end of the meal, the boy refused to leave the restaurant) "Let's go home! If you don't come along, I'll leave you here and you can be a homeless panhandler." (This homeless panhandler theme must run deep in our culture. Either that or this lady's my grandma's long-lost sister or something)

Don't you see? From an early age, we (the boy and I) are trained to don't do stuffs. If one of the Full House kids beat a chicken bone around, I imagine Danny or Joey would say "boy, we've got a drummer in our family!" (insert canned laughter) Not only are we not allowed to express our musical creativity, we also are discouraged to question logics such as "why would the bone get in my eyes?" or "if I was abandoned in a toilet, why didn't I drown?" because you know the conversation would end badly.

I feel for the boy; and if I ever have my own kids, I swear I'll teach them all I know about law enforcement and sex and urban poverty when the time is right. Though I still love my grandma the way she is. =)