We ruined George’s Thanksgiving, but probably made someone’s day for Black Friday. Mental note – I may never ever venture out for Black Friday ever again. At least I got to see it and get freaked out by it first hand, I guess.

Please George, forgive us.

Tooooo many people at Best Buy. TOOOO MANY!!!!!

Thanksgiving stories? Black Friday triumphs / losses? Hope none of you got maced in the face … or shot … what is wrong with people these days …

Do you remember where you were 10 years ago on this day?

I was studying in acupuncture school, renting a room from a dear Taiwanese family who became a second set of parents to me. When I woke up:

Landlord: "Today a plane crashed into the Twin Towers in New York and they are burning and falling down."
Me [still rubbing eyes]: "Huh? Are you joking?" [seeing TV behind my landlord broadcasting the flames and destruction] "Wait ... this isn't a movie?"
Landlord: "No, it's real."

There were heavy hearts at school that day, including my own.

As nonsensical as some of our country's policies are, as bizarre as some of our country's politicians are, those who died that day were needlessly and cruelly sacrificed simply to make the point that we are hated. And sadly, as backlash, various degrees of xenophobic attitudes emerged. With roots of hatred, we can never grow and foster peace; may that be the ongoing lesson of 9/11. May we always strive to love our fellow human beings, who only want to be happy, just like we do.

[a respectful moment of silence] ~ 阿彌陀佛 ~

I haven’t posted in awhile – I’ve been MIA in general thanks to helping out with Kollaboration Houston 2 (it went down July 23rd this year and went pretty well). I got a message the other day from an alert reader:

“I was just thinking that you don’t have any pics of Aaron on your iHatePink site.  What’s up with that?

Some serious rectification is needed here  =)

I did see the props for Howard so I guess you are not completely without a heart.  When are we able to buy his calendar?”

Well, dear cousin I mean Alert Reader, I am in the process of putting up an album of my wonderful time in California. But your request is definitely valid, as I wouldn’t want to be THAT auntie who seemingly favors one nephew over the other. So, here is a pic of me and Connor and … us trying to get Aaron to join us in the picture.

As for the calendar, thanks to all of you who contributed and helped my brother Howard get 2nd place in the calendar competition! I will be posting when the calendar goes on sale, so stay tuned!

While browsing cameras, saw this image and I immediately snickered like a middle schooler.

Yeah, so I’m silly and immature. As if you didn’t know that already!

Bottle squirting. Innocent? I think not!

Such a positive group of people at Store 185 (Westheimer @ Voss). Thanks for reaching out and inviting me to your April Health Fair!

L-R: AcuForLife.com, Gilbert, Sarena, Naturholic.com, Beau, Guillermo

And den, just bc I saw the cool “stickers” function in piknik.com, I defaced the photo heheheh:

Hi all,

The blatant pimpage up front: Git yer dolla billz out and throw them at my bro, Howard Chen, at https://www.aaja.org/aajamobcalendar/ (secure site)! Each vote is $1, and you can put in as many votes as you want at one time! LAST DAY APRIL 10TH!!

The details:

My brother Howard is a TV sports anchor currently at a FOX station in Toledo, Ohio and has been working his way up, slowly but surely. Like all Asian American faces on the news, he has definitely faced unique struggles in the business. He's actually the one who inspired me originally to volunteer with Kollaboration Houston; I know that everything we do affects him also. I know that the more we push to break down stereotypes, the easier it will be one day for him to find jobs in more cities. He's been a supporter of Kollaboration Houston from day 1, hands down.

He's a member of AAJA, the Asian-American Journalists Association. They're kind of the Kollaboration of the journalism world. They're currently doing this zany [non-swimsuit] calendar fundraiser (I would NOT be supporting it if it WERE; who wants to see their bro in a speedo? Not me). The public votes for their fave Asian American journalist - each vote costs $1 - and the top 12 will be featured in a calendar that will later be sold to raise more money for their association. My brother would be more than honored to be featured in the top 12, but hopes more that this will raise both money and awareness for the organization. I hope you'll take a minute to chuck a buck at them in his name - selfishly, I want to make fun of him about it for the rest of his life. :)

So if you can, please take a minute to vote for him, time’s a-running out! He's in the 8th row from the top, middle dude. I've been told that I look like a girl version of my bro. Feel free to weigh in on that opinion. :)

Much thanks,

C :)

I know it’s suburbia and all, but I still thought the reflection against the darkening sky was cool from inside Souper Salad. (Reuseable $4.99 coupon for the win!)

If you’re with T-Mobile and have been for some time, some of you might be like me and feel that their service has been pretty decent if not downright exemplary, and would never hesitate to dial 611 (that gives you free calls to customer service without deducting any minutes). I remember a time when dialing 611 sometimes got me through to a real human being in a couple rings (that surprised me); then they instituted one of those automated menus, which was still not too bad; then they stopped being full-service round-the-clock; and that brings me to today. I basically have gotten hung up on 5 times so far between the hours of 10a and 3p each and every time I tried to call for an issue that in the past was a non-issue.

I feel pretty sad about the decreasing quality of T-Mobile customer service.

Dear T-Mobile: I really want to stay with you. I have been with you for ~7 years now and have only started to have any complaints about your customer service in the last half year. What’s goin’ on?

Update later in the day: I have since gotten the tip that I should say "Cancel" at the prompt to get directly to the Retentions department, and perhaps receive better service.

What I tried:
- hitting zero several times got me "I'm sorry, T-Mobile is closed for today for the holiday"
- saying "Cancel" also got me "I'm sorry, T-Mobile is closed for today for the holiday"
- doing exactly what I did in my video got me a "we apologize, we are unable to answer your phone call, please try again later"

You know, T-Mobile, next time you're closed for the holiday, why don't you put the holiday closing message UP FRONT in ALL your menus so I'm not wasting >3 minutes enunciating to the voice menu and entering my phone # and last 4 digits of my social just to find out I'll be hung up on. Fail.