Its a stereotype because its true

Last night I was talking to my friend (til freaking 4am) who is leaving to teach in South Korea on Sunday. My hopes of making out with a Vietnamese girl (again, I brag) were dashed since she was too busy to come to Norman, but the conversation was pretty fantastic.

Now notice how I mentioned she was Viet, thats important to the post. During the conversation we were exchanging stories about traveling and studying abroad. She had gone to Vietnam on a family vacation a few summers back. Yeah, yeah, there's the communism and such, but what of to eat?

Dog, if you want.

I was thinking maybe every so often someone just grabbed a stray and through it into a pot of pho. Nay, I tell you I was too naive. The reason her family was "terrified" of possibly being served dog was that people in Vietnam actually raise dogs to eat. Like how someone might have a bunch of chickens with the intention of butchering them for a family meal, ditto goes about canines in the land of the Viet.

Even though "Asian", or more correctly Oriental, is still fairly trendy I don't think this will catch on.

She also said she had to had her tooth pulled in Vietnam, dentistry is something I can go without in the Second World.

At least I'm consistent

First off: this is the ONE HUNDREDTH post for the sometimes treated as a stepchild, Easilyamused. Clap hands, go throw a party, its a special day.

A few days ago i get a random facebook message from an old friend over the years I stopped keeping in steady contact. I think the last time we communicated in any form was probably around December. So anyway, in his message he explains that he's gotten something like a "traveling scholarship" and apparently I'm the person he's decided to be his travel buddy. So immediately I tell him I'll go with him, without really even asking any questions at all. Pointless story short, I'm going to Europe for 6-8 weeks with my housing paid for.

Now here's where I start wondering: did I just completely jump into this without fully considering actually what the hell I'm doing? It'll be fun, but maybe the summer before Law School I should be working and planning. You know, be in the country. Maybe not jaunting around and making out with other American tourists.

But this does give me the chance to reawaken my old blog, Team Khateer. I'll be able to do a running comparison of this trip with my last one with ol' Paris*.

*another name change

I can't commit, because I'm leaving soon

So we all have probably either had a friend or have found ourselves in a relationship we/they aren't entirely excited about. It starts out by them meeting some person kinda "okay" but mostly douchey, and peppered with asshole qualities. But sure enough, as time moves on, and they don't exactly have a lot of other options going on at the time, your friend finds themselves in some retarded relationship. Ridiculous incident after childish fight is forgiven in the hope that one day things will get better, that their now significant other will change. All in all, the time and emotions spent will one day pay off. All the while everyone is sitting in the wings, watching the repeating train wreck and eating popcorn. Waiting for the time they'll get to remind their friend about how they dated that jerk for so long, and your friend will say something like "Shut up. I was soooo dumb back then"

Now I must admit something. I'm in that relationship!

Except its with a cat.

I bet you thought I was launching into some Sex & City type of introspective narrative didn't you? I mean, I like Sex & the Ivy, but I'm not like her.

But yeah, actually everything started out pretty innocent by feeding this stray black cat. Then I named it 'Antarah'. Then it started just sitting outside our back door all day long wanting food. I became frustrated when realizing our relationship was a lot more give on my part, and a lot more take on his. But he actually will come if I call out his name, so thats entertaining. And over this weekend I saved him when he got into a fight with another cat. As much as I hate putting up with all of his petulant demands, and getting little back, it still goes on. There's not any other cats hanging around outside my door anyway.

Someday he'll change. Someday he won't just take the food and run away. Someday he'll let me pet his soft, fuzzy belly and purr. Someday everything will pay off. If you guys were there to see his little eyes, you'd understand.

Debbie Downer

I know, I know! I haven't posted anything in a really long time. So here we go. There's a lady at work named Debbie, who is our office manager. She really lives up to the name, Debbie Downer. I think I'm just going to start posting the emails she sends out to staff.

Example #1

Please remember to delete old employees and add new employees to your calendar list in Microsoft Outlook.
To delete:
1.pull up outlook calendar
2.right-click on the name you want to delete
3.select and click on "remove from other calendars"

To add
1.pull up outlook calendar
2.scroll down to "open a shared calendar"
3.type name of person in the field (can enter any part of name as long as it is unique)
4.press ok
name will be added to the bottom of other calendars list

if you want to organize names, click and drag the name to place it where you want it to be located

Debbie

Wow, I'm really glad she clarified for us how to use Outlook.

Example #2

We don’t want to discourage anyone from using supplies in the first aid kits and expect you take supplies when someone is hurt. However, some of the supplies appear to be disappearing faster than expected since we got the new first aid kits.

Of course, Cintas will have to replenish supplies on occasion but we did not anticipate the level of expense we have incurred in the last couple of months. Therefore if you need a supply of band aids or antiseptic wipes/antibiotic ointment for your office space, please let me know so that I can purchase what you need from another source as this is much less expensive than having Cintas replenish supplies for us on a frequent basis.

If you happen to be working at the front desk when Cintas arrives to inspect/organize the first aid kits, please refer them to me so that I can verify and approve items to be replenished. If I am not available, please ask Myrna or Ed to help with this so that we can monitor our expenses
more closely.

Thanks and if you have questions about this, please let one of us know.

Debbie

Once again.... wow.

Example #3

Several of you have received an email from timmsdavid2002@yahoo.co.uk which in case you did not know is a scam/fraud. This email is a variation of other email scams that are sent to people on a daily basis trying to get you to send them money. I asked Appnuity to block the email domain (@yahoo.co.uk) that this person is using so you should not receive any more messages from anyone using this domain.

In the future, you should assume any email or phone messages you receive from a bank asking for personal information or a person asking for money is a scam. Banks will not contact you via email or via phone unless you initiate the communication with them. Also, anyone asking you for money to help them transfer funds to or from the USA is a scam artist out to get all of your hard-earned money. You should be very cautious when it comes to this type of email message or to phone calls from anyone asking for this sort of information.

Never respond, open any attachments or click on any links in the body of these messages as the people who send these messages often embed computer code into these messages to steal personal information from you.

Also, do not forward these messages to anyone. If you want, send me an email with the person’s email account so that I can contact Appnuity to have them blocked and then promptly delete the message from your inbox or junk email folder which by the way you should empty on a regular basis.

Thanks.
Debbie

I think I'm going to make this a regular thing, posting emails from Debbie Downer.

Fake Stroke

So the last month or so I've been preoccupied with my stepfather having a stroke. Yeah, It happened all sudden one day. He couldn't speak or write so well, but everything else was okay. He could still think well, didn't have saggy face, he could only not speak and not write so well. So, the day this happened my mom took him to the hospital. He was there for 4 days. No one could really figure out what had gone on, except that he most likely had a stroke. After 4 days and tons of tests insurance didn't cover, he was released. My mom quit work, he started speech therapy.

This morning my mother received a phone call... from my stepfather. He could speak. Like, 90 percent as well as he had done before the "stroke". He lost his ability to type also... so communicating anything at all was super difficult. But his mental ability was unfettered. He had been researching the symptoms he had been feeling.. and found that there are a few side effects to the pills he takes, Plavix and Ambien. So, last night, he just didn't take his pills... and now he can talk and write and type again. Over 15,000 dollars in tests, consulting the doctor that prescribed the pills, everything, no one even thought it was his medication. The medication even has a warning that it may have this effect. And we suppose the combination made it ultra bad.

So have you heard of this ever happening WFH? Its totally confusing to us. Telling everyone he had suffered from a stroke.. his father even came to town a few days ago to see him. Now he's just better? from not taking his meds. insane. So I guess my mom is building a case against the doctor, and whomever else she can. At least for money to cover the stupid tests that they ran... Its really really strange. Its like.. all the sudden he's back to normal.. in a day. wtf indeed.

The evil genie kind of wish

So I come home from the library, hungry and able to recite a concise history of Tibet, I flip on the tv with a delicious plate of spaghetti. What weird movie do I see for a preview? The one with Seth from the OC in it, and it goes by In the Land of Women.

The next thing thats happening is me picking up my face off the floor. Apparently the movie's title brought back some repressed memories of when I spent two harrowing years living with four girls. It was like living in some remote sand bar with a tribe of forgotten people. Except the witchcraft practicing and murderous islanders were more rational.

People's reaction to when they found out I lived with four girls was always "Thats AWESOME!". No. No it wasn't.

Ummmmm.....yeah

I'm not even sure what to say about this. I'm still left with a confused look on my face.

but its HD!

So one of my roommates last week went out and bought a sweeeeeeet 42" LCD HDTV. He generously placed it above the fireplace in the living room. I immediately thought "doing yoga is going to be more sweet than ever!"

What I did not count on though, is that both my roommates are complete and unapologetic HD whores. You see, previously Ive never seen any of them watch a animal doc, never.
But now, since we have an HD tv, and the new digital cable box where you have HD channels they just watch them. ALL. THE. F'ING. TIME.

What's ridiculous is they watch DiscoveryHD purely because its HD, as if the channel might go away if they leave the room. My recorded episodes of Namaste Yoga go unwatched as there isnt a time I actually can ever watch them.

Peaceful Nature

Walking over to the Business College today with a friend we noticed a crowd of people as we approached the building. Its not that uncommon to see groups of people huddled around, but its usually a preacher or something of that nature. What people were looking at though, was nature. Perched in the tree, on a long thick branch was a hawk eating a newly caught squirrel! Of all days I didn't have my camera.

It was pretty entertaining, as you don't generally see these birds around in developed areas. Much less giving a prey-predator lesson in open view.

Bad Timing...Probably

So Argentina is still whining about the Falkland's. They may have not been reading the news, concerning Britain is a little preoccupied with a hostage situation in Iran. What Argentina might not count on is the U.K. blowing off some steam and practice airstrikes on the insolent crybabies.

The other day Rainn Wilson, that is, Dwight from the office, was hosting SNL. I mentioned to Alison that he reminds me a lot of GOB from Arrested Development.

As it turns out, Wilson was almost GOB.