Month: January 2010

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Saving Connor

Sue and Connor

That’s Sue, Connor’s mom (my cousin-in-law)…

No it’s not about the Terminator series… rather, it’s a personal request.

You see, my cousin Steve has a 5-year-old son, Connor.  He has a rather rare condition called X-linked hyper IGM. This clinical sounding disease is a devastating immuno-deficiency. The 1 in a million diagnosed usually succumb to liver cirrhosis or lung infection at an early age, the lucky few may survive into their mid-20’s.

So he needs a matching bone marrow donor to cure this condition.  So I have started, on their behalf with their permission, a Facebook fan page called Saving Connor in my nephew (technically first cousin, once removed)‘s honor in order to:

  • Help spread awareness of Asians’ lack of registering on the bone marrow donor listing
  • To get people registered, especially Koreans, to help find a matching donor

So please join the bone marrow registry. You can register online at www.aadp.org or www.bethematch.org (use promo code TeamConnor) – it takes 10 minutes to join.

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Lego Short Film

I have always been a big Lego person and a supporter… it is by far the single best toy a kid can have! So when I came across this video short, I was immensely pleased and just HAD to share it! Enjoy! And if you have kids, get them some Lego!!

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Anna’s Second Birthday

So on a positive note, upon coming back from work, my wife tells me the best news I can hear!  That our duaghter, Anna received Christ at school that day!  Before you freak out what kind of public school allows this, it is an after-school program called “Good News Club” that meets every Wednesday at her shcool.

And I must say, they must have done an awesome job!  So we celebrated her “second” birthday by giving thanks… it will be somewhat easier to remember this day since it’s our pastor’s birthday.  Oh on that note, happy birthday again Pastor Shawn!  😀

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WordPress 2.9.1 Boo

Well, I do love me my WordPress, the free blogging software.  It has been awesome for me ever since I decided to blog… however, upgrading has been…  less than ideal…

Last night was a prime example.  Either the “Upgrade” tool or “InstantUpgrade” plug-in would usually take care of this process… however, trying to go from 2.8.5 to 2.9.1, neither of them worked…  so what did I decide to do?  Upload directly to the site via good ol’ FTP.  Well, when I did, I got the following error message….

sql_version

So I was upsql_version until wee hours going back to 2.8.5.  Sure it was my fault for not checking it to be compatible.. but it would’ve been nice if such key requirements were more visible…  *HINT HINT*  😉

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Bittersweet Change

Well, it’s a bittersweet month or something!

After my sharing about the bittersweet parenthood, I am sharing yet another bittersweet event in my life.  Of all things, I am parting with someone (or something) that I have been together with since I have been in high school… What in the world am I talking about?!  It’s my auto insurance company, State Farm.

It is rather true about brand loyalty.  I have been with them for my auto insurance for almost 20 years!  Sure I started under my parents’ coverage when I was in high school but I have since moved on… and while they haven’t treated me all that badly, their rates have not gone down.

Ok, so I do have an accident from July 2005 under my belt that is labeled as my fault (even though that is not the case and will hold onto that till I die!) and my wife’s accident from November 2008 is not her fault.  Yet our rates have not gone down.  If anything, it has slowly crept its way up.

When I went home for the holidays, I was rather suprised to find out that both my parents and my brother had switched from State Farm!  😮  I thought they had retained the same insurance over the years!  So after I recovered from my shock, I looked online and over the phone, got some rates to compare with.  Full coverages on both of our cars, both Geico and AAA quoted about $600 per year below State Farm price!  That is with renters’ insurance as well.

So after much reluctance (trust me, I was just as suprised as you were about how loyal I was to State Farm! and trust me, I do have at least one bitter story to tell but will save that for another time), I decided to switch.  And for the record, I am switching to AAA only because my parents have that and my co-workers seem to have good experience with them.  What finally won me over?  This question…

Is my loyalty to State Farm worth $600 per year?!  You know the answer to that one… 🙂

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Chrysler Burning the Bridges

CNN Money Article

It’s one thing to cut your losses but it’s totally another to burn the bridges in the process.  I swear that when financial folks are involved, they take the humanity out of the process!  So we all knew that GM, Ford, and Chrysler were planning on cutting off a slew of dealerships throughout the country but there’s a right way to do it and then there’s a wrong way.

GM did things decently at least.  They gave out the notice in October and gave them decent amount of time to close out their stores.  Chrysler, however, have been less than helpful.  They gave only 30 days to sell off the cars and parts!  Many that were told to close ended up losing a lot of money due to time constraint.

GM seemed to go through arbitration process at decent pace bringing back some of the dealerships.  Chrysler however made the process expensive and with no guarantees that dealers that were shut down seemed to refuse to even consider the arbitration.

Where’s the decency in that Chrysler?!  Chrysler is not learning.  They don’t seem to realize that bad news travels way faster than good news.  Now that the people know how Chrysler treated the dealerships by burning the bridges, I am fairly certain that the consumers will have even more bitter taste in their mouth and stay further away from them when their pockets and auto needs meet.  Seriously, nobody seems to look at long-term effects anymore…  Sheesh…

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Bittersweet Parenthood

Before I forget, happy new year…

I have now been a parent for almost 8 years now… and it surely has been anything BUT boring!

I wanted to, however, share some key learned lessons in becoming a parent. Most will tell you to 1) sleep as much as you can before you become a parent and 2) your life as single independent will be over. Those two are very true. However, that is not all.

Once my kids were out of baby stage, my life was bit more… relaxing. They began to sleep at more normal hours (except my daughter who just can’t go to sleep before 9 pm anymore!) and they are able to do some minimal things on their own (eg. tooth brushing etc and dressing themselves etc.). However, with that comes their own state of mind. It may not seem such a big deal at first but lately, I have noticed few things about my kids.

My daughter has become super-sensitive to others and will apologize at the smallest of things. My son has been causing more and more ruckus lately. Oh scratch the second one. That’s just being a boy. 😛 But seriously, both have started to ask questions. An they are never-ending! I give them credit for wanting to learn… but now I understand why you can’t teach your own kids!! >.< Along with these, they have been developing their own preferences and a sense of who they are in the ways of what they like and don't like. My daughter goes through daily morning war in choosing what to wear to school. My son only likes to things just the way HE likes them. And I as a parent, am finding myself trying to come up with new ways to teach them how to be human. Yes, it's important that they develop sense of who they are but it's a balance that they need to practice. If it's 30 F outside, shorts are not practical. And with the latest craze of Bakugans, we've come to conclusion that my kids are not ready for the animated TV series as the shows seem to make them behave more... violently. With this came realization that I no longer live for myself. For next 12 years, my life's schedule will have to adapt to theirs, and spend more time in familiarizing with their environments and friends (no problem with watching cartoons!). Addressing some key questions/issues like when can we get them started on video games? How do we limit on their friends? I get my mind blown away at these things that I have to deal with as a parent, but it's all bittersweet. Sure it's complicated. Sure I don't have as much "free" time. Sure I get more and more tired, both mentally and physically. But each time I see their smiles, and each time I see them enjoying life, it seems to be all worth it. So what if it gives me headache thinking about how grumpy they get when we tell them to get ready for bed? The ending punch line is that my life is no longer just my own. I am responsible for 3 more people now. It's not just me who needs joy and happiness, but my wife and my kids as well. And you know what?! I am ok with that.