The Argyle Sweater

Hillary - Dad's twin

This is a photo, courtesy of Vallerie's facebook profile, of Mom and Dad at Uncle Bruce's wedding. Could Hillary look ANYMORE like Dad? Wow! Practically twins.

Sign of Weightloss!

I ordered a couple of stretch pants online - but was concerned as to whether they'd fit. I'm a size 10(ish) and these pants are the combo size of 8/10. But since they were stretch pants I thought I had a shot of fitting. I am happy to report that they FIT! Granted it'd be nice if I lost an inch around the mid-section, but oh well.

I am happy about this because I'm taking this as a sign of my weight loss progression. Hopefully I will soon lose even more weight! Really, if I could just lose my belly I'd be a happy girl - regardless of what clothing size that puts me in.
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Malcolm X

I was speaking with another mother from Jazzmin's school about how the only thing they teach about the civil rights movement is Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. Ignoring all the other things that happened during that time and the people involved. It came up because for about the 4th time in their career at this school they have to write about MLK once again. Never learning anything new - just re-hashing the same facts they already knew about MLK.

Malcolm X is a hero of mine - probably the only person in history I look up to. Which is not to say I don't appreciate all the other great heroes in history - but he is the only person who evokes my sincere reaction of admiration. So today I bought a children's book for Jazzmin so she can read about Malcolm X, since I'm sure her school won't. Here is a video of Malcolm X below.


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Finding A Way Out of Debt

An idea occurred to me over the holiday break re: how I can get myself out of debt. I've opted to take money out of my 401K, once I pay off my bills with that I will increase the amount taken out of my check going toward 401K. I will put an additional $100 a month in my 401K and with my company's matching program my job will also put an extra $100 a month in. So basically my job will be helping me pay myself back for the money I took out to pay my bills. Not only will doing this rid me of the hastle of paying bills every month but I won't be paying their APR rates.

With my bills paid off I will have a decent amount of money to live off of and there will be no temptation to charge on the cards I paid off. My desire to not have to pay a bunch of vendors ever payday far outweighs my potential desire to buy things. And now I am in a good place in my life where I have a decent amount of clothing that I actually like - so no temptation to clothes shop when I don't have the money available. I've got my apartment decordated and to the point where I really have to stop no matter what I want because then it's going to start to look 'over' decorated. So no temptation there - and those are my primary temptations.

There's an old SNL skit where the mother bought this new financial budgeting book that is one page long. All it says is - don't spend money you don't have. Everytime a family member wonders aloud whether to take a loan out for a boat or whatever they refer to the one page book, "don't spend money you don't have". OK, not the most funny skit you ever saw but it's extremely sound financial advice - advice I plan to take.

Most of miy debt was really incurred when I was broke and not necessarily because I couldn't resist the urge to shop. But having my bills all paid off - I won't be broke and thus, I won't need to go into debt and have to pay off credit/store cards again. In a way I feel guilty about withdrawing money from my 401k account but on the other hand I have also made plans to pay myself back. So as long as I stay on the plan of paying myself back it will be all good!
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Tae Yang sings "Don't Wanna Try" in ENGLISH

Tae Yang sings "Don't Want Try" in english - he's very good.

R.I.P. Eartha Kitt

I always admired and appreciated what a survivor she was and what a great spirit she had.

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Videos of Atticus

A Very Ramones Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Ramones....

Officially Orange Belt in Gumdo

I guess I am moving fast up the ranks in Gumdo - I suspect it's just the nature of the art that you get promoted to the next belt sooner then you would in Taekwondo. I messed up when doing the white belt form - it's super easy but I guess I wasn't thinking about what I was doing and just wanted to get it done. My mistake was stepping with my right foot first instead of left at one point. Not a major mistake.

my teacher's teacher (Master Estrada) was at the Gumdo promotion test as he has to be present at the promotion for it to be valid. So he was there along with a student who was a lower ranking black belt, she administered the testing. She used full phrases that we were not acquainted with so it made somethings confusing at first. But then we all got the gist. She didn't give me the full test as she did not test me on the second form of drawing technique and short form. I didn't realize this until after the next person had gone up, otherwise I'd have reminded her. I guess that's good for me - less I had to do.

One of the guys in my class had started taking classes a month before me, but he and I are the same belt. But when we line up by rank he insists on being ahead of me due to his month seniority. I always give him a hard time about it, which shames him into relinquishing the first spot - but I don't take it. I'm bringing this up because I thought it was a little amusing during testing that there were 3 orange belts (me, friend & 1 other) and a yellow belt testing. So the yellow belt could've sat at either end of the line and been at the correct position. But when the yellow belt sits on the end my friend is on he sends the yellow belt to the other end because he presumed he was to be first in line being that he had 1 month seniority.

At the end of the belt promotion test Master Estrada commented on what had transpired and he singled me out stating that I had greatly improved. Which is great coming from him.

The only bad part of the promotion test was that I was told to be there for 3:30pm since it was to start at 4pm. I had rushed from an appt. to get there on time and as it turns out not only did I not need to rush, but Gumdo didn't get to start testing until 6pm due to the fact that the kids in Taekwondo were testing before us. So Jazz and I had to wait a loooooong time.

At the end of the promotion, when it was time to go home, I said good-bye to Master Estrada and let him know that my daughter was going to start Gumdo soon and how eager she was. She is always doing different forms to show me what she knows and talks about how much she wants to take Gumdo. He asked where she was and I called her over. Without my promting she greeted him with the proper hand gestures and said "Haidong" - which is how how we're required to greet him. I was proud of her for doing that on her own.

Today Jazzmin is going to get surprised with the fact that she is going to get to start Gumdo in February, which is a Christmas present from me. She's not starting until February because she has basketball games every Saturday for the month of January. She is going to be SOOO excited. I am having the teacher call her into his office in such a manner that she thinks she's in trouble. Then he's going to present her with her wooden sword and inform her she'll be taking Gumdo soon.
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Tonight we're going to be cutting bamboo tonight using a REAL sword in Gumdo. To date I have only used the wooden sword. On Monday I got to use the real sword for the first time when doing paper cutting. Seeing how the other guys use the sword I didn't expect it to be so heavy. It also didn't help that it was far too long for me. So it's awkward to hold due to it's weight, awkward to take out and put back 'cause it's too long and it has a functioning blade on it that could dismember. I didn't even do a good job cutting the paper with this extra sharp sword. I didn't cut it at all. If you don't swing it straight and put too much force it's not going to cut. So if I can't even cut paper with the sword - how am I going to cut bamboo.

And not only is it awkward to handle and my technique not up to par but these swords cost hundreds of dollars. In fact, the one he's going to have us use is $1,000. So what if I break it and have to pay for the repairs (break as in cause the blade to chip). This is all a bit overwhelming to me. I sent my teacher an e-mail asking to paper cut with the real sword again tonight and give the bamboo to my fellow classmates to use. But I also stated that if he still feels I should cut bamboo despite my concerns that I would. We'll see what happens.

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I See Crazy People

About a year ago the location of where I set at work was changed. I was on good terms with the assistant I was paired up with previously but it's not like we would chat or socialize too much. Once I got moved I was cordial saying 'hello' when I passed by but never stopped to chat with her. She's nice enough but we have nothing in common. I found out the other day that she has decided that because I don't stop and chat with her now, it means I don't like her. So it's either gossip and share my personal life or become and adversary. I don't get it - I never chatted or joked around with her when I sat near her so I don't know why, since I moved, this has come to mean I don't like her. People are strange.

I also found out the she and this other assistant have been talking negatively about me behind my back. This is all so childish. But the worst part is when people have stupid reasons for taking issue with somebody and then want to go to people in power to get you in trouble. I don't think there is really too much they can say about me - haven't heard of them trying to get me in trouble as of yet. Though I know they've done it to others.
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Slave to the Pump

Today I had to breakdown and order a refill of my Symbicort. I've been feeling better and it's obvious that I will soon be fully recovered from the ill effects of asthma, so I didn't refill when I initially finished with my last inhaler. I was hoping to save myself the expensive added expense of buying more asthma medication. But I've noticed that the lack of Symbicort has adversely effected my performance in martial arts classes. If I didn't take those classes then I wouldn't need to order the inhaler because I am doing fine when not exerting myself. It seems I will have to be a 'slave to the pump' for a little longer. I will take it for another 2 months and stop taking it to test the waters again. Well, at least there's light at the end of the tunnel - at least the asthma will eventually be gone.
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Update on the Re-Design at My Job

While I was initially really bothered by the change in my title and assignment at my job, I have come to terms with it. What makes it better is that the Partner I support is making a concerted effort to ensure that who I've been newly assigned to changes. He is trying to get my assignment to be filled with people that work closely with him. That way I still will be doing work for him even if I am no longer officialy his assistant.

I must admit I went into his e-mail inbox to see what he wrote and what kind of response he received (I can access his e-mails from my own laptop). And he didn't write a quick one liner - as he is prone to do. He wrote a paragraph about how much there is going on with the client he is global relationship partner for (I don't want to mention client on my blog) and the work would be too much of a strain to transfer to his new EA. He built me up to sound like such an asset, I realize that is partially to ensure he gets his way. But it still felt good that he would make effort.

They made changes but it wasn't exactly to his liking so he wrote another e-mail and detailing what he want changed. He said he said that if there are hurdles getting in the way of her effectively changing my assignment to his liking to let him know what the hurdles are and he'll see what he can do to get them out of the way. He also added that "as you can see I'm not going to give up". He's really making a concerted effort to keep me around - so I can still assist him.

It makes me feel good that he's making this kind of effort. I am also glad that while who I technically support and report to has changed it's basically going to be the same as it has been. I worked and interacted with these people already when I was my Partner's EA so it's really not going to be much different.
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Argyle Sweater Comic