Friday, March 30, 2001
Lethal Lefty. Hubby found this article on ABC.com. Pitcher Randy Johnson killed a dove who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time with a lethal pitch in a baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants on March 24.
See the video of the killer pitch at ABC.com Sports.
NOTE:This is not for the weak of stomach or for you animal right's activists.
posted by Donna, 3/30/2001 02:25:36 PM
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Wednesday, March 28, 2001
Low Maintenance. Shopping with Joyce today prompted me to ponder my buying habits. It gave me insight as to why I could never be a fashion plate.
Things I look for when clothes hunting:
1) Color: Black preferrably. Black always catches my eye first. Why? Because it's slimming, of course! Well, aside from that, black lends a nice contrast to my pale skin tone. I also look for dark colors like burgandy and navy. I also prefer muted hues like grey and brown. I'm trying to add a little more color into my life, so I've been trying to buy stuff in mauve, powder blue, and lavendar.
2) Absense of Patterns: For some reason, I tend to lean more toward clothes without patterns. Solid colors are preferred, although I have a few striped items (despite the horizontal stripe rule). I like flowers and other patterns, but they don't seem to look right on me, so I stick with the solid colors. You can't really go wrong with that.
3) Size: Size does matter. Well, at least when shopping for clothes. I always seem to have a difficult time finding my size. No, I won't tell you what size that is...
4) Material: "Cotton, the fabric of our lives." This seems to be a good rule of thumb for me, although I've been opting for cotton-blends recently since they tend to be more wrinkle-free and less prone to shrinkage than 100% cotton items. Also, the material can't be sheer or thin because of the unmentionables showing. Unmentionables = invisible ink.
5) Low-Maintenance: No dry cleaning. No ironing, if possible. Wash, dry and wear. That's my motto. If it needs to be dry cleaned, I'll wear it once then I'll never get a round to taking it to the cleaners. Or worse yet, never pick it up. If it needs ironing, I'll always find something else in my closet that doesn't need to be ironed first.
6) Comfort: Most of all, it needs to be comfortable. That usually means that skirts and dresses are nixed for daily wear. I hate wearing slips and I despise nylons and would rather not wear pumps. (Sandals and slingbacks are not allowed at work, due to safety concerns.) This kinda narrows it down to pants and cotton-blend shirts, mostly long-sleeved.
How boring, eh? That's me. The poster child for the GAP and Banana Republic.
posted by Donna, 3/28/2001 10:12:04 PM
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Banana Madness. The power went out for about 2 seconds this afternoon at our facility and created havoc around the office. The surge that followed the blackout blew out the boards in the air conditioning unit that feeds our office. Users freaked out when their computers restarted and that dreaded blue ScanDisk screen came up. Loss of data. "The IS Office must fix!" We'll just wave our magical fingers over their CPU and recover what they lost when the power went down. :P
By 3:00 pm, the lack of conditioned air was getting to us. According to Dave's thermometer, we were closing in on 79F. Great environment for germs to fester. Joyce and I called it a day at around 3:45 pm hoping that they'd have the air conditioning fixed by tomorrow.
So to make use of our time, what did we do? We went shopping! Actually, we had intended to go shopping before the blackout happened... we just moved our schedule up a little bit.
We ended up at Waikele Outlet Stores. First stop: Banana Republic. They had a great sale... a lot of the stuff I ended up getting was 40% off. I kinda went nuts. I'm a $ucker for a good $ale.
We also visited BASS Outlet where I picked up a couple more things, including a pair of black Capri pants that fit me like regular pants. Now if that ain't sad, I don't know what is. My legs are so short that capri pants fit like regular length pants. Regular length pants usually have to make a pitstop at the alteration place before ending up in my closet.
I think there needs to be a store that carries exclusively Asian-sized clothes. You know, sizes 2 - 8 with pants that come in short lengths. I always end up going shopping, seeing stuff that would look really nice -- if they came in my size. Also, being that I usually shop in Waikele, all of the busloads of Japanese tourists clear out the small sizes before I get there.
Buying tops usually isn't a problem. It's pants. So, I came away with a TON of tops and one lonely pair of Donna-length (capri) pants. Joyce noticed my strange shopping habits: Find a top that I really like, then buy 3 different colors of the same style. I don't even realize that I'm doing it until someone points it out to me. Hubby is usually the one saying, "Um, Donna? Why do you need 5 pairs of the same style shirt?" I don't know. I just do.
posted by Donna, 3/28/2001 09:15:06 PM
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::Byte Me::
Breakfast: Peanut Butter + Jelly Toast, Hoji-Cha
Lunch: Garden Salad w/ Oriental Dressing and Won Ton Strip bits, 2 slices of buttered whole wheat toast, red Jell-O, iced water
Dinner: Garden Salad and Chicken Soup
Post-Dinner Yumminess: Sweet bread and a Pepsi One
posted by Donna, 3/28/2001 08:47:55 PM
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Tuesday, March 27, 2001
Tummy woes. For the past several days my stomach has been on the blink. It's been feeling like pre-Prevacid days.
Those were the days that I suffered with this gastritis condition without medication. I would pop TUMS like breath mints and simply grin & bear it. However, it got to a point where I could no longer deny that I had a real problem on my hands -- possibly a grave problem. The imagination ran wild for a bit: Bleeding ulcers? Stomach Cancer? So I went to a gastroenterologist several years ago and he ran me through a gamut of tests and determined that I simply suffered from overactive acid production in my stomach (gastritis). This was mostly likely caused by stress and could easily be controlled with the proper meds (Prevacid). After switching jobs, the stress factor was greatly reduced and I could slowly wean myself off of the meds. Until this weekend, I had been taking 1 capsule about once every 2 weeks. Initially, I was taking 1 capsule a day.
Since Sunday, I've been taking a capsule every day. I have a feeling that this Guam trip is the cause of the acidic stomach. So much to do. So little time. So many demands on my time and the clock continues to tick away toward my departure. Only 9 more days. Make that 6 days that I can actually get stuff done. I have 100+ booklets to bind and lesson plans to go over. I also need to create a new module on using the web. (I'm an expert at that, that's for sure.) I also need to condense four 4-hour classes into 2-hours each. No easy feat, especially for a group that is supposedly not as computer literate as most here in Honolulu. Aside from that, I wasn't getting any feedback from the Guam folks. My worst fear was ending up there with no schedule and no interest in training from the staff there. Oh, of course, there are other fears weighing heavily on my mind... but let's not get into those. That might take me all night to detail.
Oh, and all this stuff is on top of my "normal" workload which is starting to pile up on my desk. My messy desk in itself is enough to give me an ulcer. (I can't stand working on a messy desk... it literally freaks me out.)
At any rate, I've been doing a lot of walking the past several days. It's good stress relief. 2-4 miles per day. Hopefully it's good for other things too (weight loss). Bleh...
posted by Donna, 3/27/2001 09:45:55 PM
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Overly ambitious for a Tuesday Nite. I'm sick of my stupid page taking 5 minutes to load. For some reason it takes forever to call the Blog page and it ends up loading only the bottom menu initially, then the main page about 4 minutes later. (Okay, slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.) Bleh... Heck, I get tired of waiting while I'm pulling it up using a RoadRunner connection, I can only imagine how long it takes for a modem user to load my page. I actually started on recreating my front page, but realizing that it was already close to bedtime, I decided to stop and take this effort up when I have more time. So I'm sorry, folks, I hope you don't mind suffering along with me for a little while longer...
posted by Donna, 3/27/2001 09:27:24 PM
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::Byte Me::
Breakfast: Blueberry Bagel with Cream Cheese
Lunch: 1/2 of a Mini bowl of Pork Long Rice (sucked) and a toasted Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich (to compensate for the suck long rice bowl)
Post-Lunch Chocolatey Goodness: Chocolate-covered Espresso Beans
Dinner: Garden Salad and Chicken Soup
posted by Donna, 3/27/2001 09:21:59 PM
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Angels watching over me. There were lots of cars on the road for a day that promised light traffic as a result of school being out on Spring break. I finally left the office, almost an hour later than usual. I drove home, not in any particular rush. I just wanted to be home with at least 30 mintues of sunlight left in the day so that I could take my 2 mile walk before twilight. I sang along with the radio, feeling good about the fact that I was on my way home.
In the last mile or so leading to my home, I must traverse a 2-way highway with no median and only a bumpy yellow line separating oncoming traffic. This stretch of road has claimed several lives in years past. It's usually a result of someone crossing the center line and running into oncoming traffic. This always weighs heavily on my mind as I drive this highway, cautiously watching the oncoming cars as I pass them.
Today, however, I wasn't as attentive as usual and took it for granted that everyone was going to stay within their own lines. My eyes were on the cars directly in front of me, until suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw an oncoming car crossing the center line. As if in slow motion, I watched as the car inched into my lane. I was frozen, unable to react. I just simply watched as this car approached. The driver was leaning over for his glove compartment. I was close enough to see the reaction on the alarmed driver's face as his tires hit the rumble strip that separated the lanes and he quickly veered back into his own lane.
My heart was in my throat as I realized what could have happened if the driver didn't change his course. I might not be writing this entry right now. Although he didn't cross dangerously into my lane, I saw his left tires cross the line and they were headed my way. If he hadn't jerked his steering wheel to the right, there just might have been an ugly accident involving yours truly.
I lifted up a simple prayer thanking God for dispatching his angels to watch over and protect little old insignficant me. Thank you, Lord! *^.^*
posted by Donna, 3/27/2001 09:14:39 PM
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Monday, March 26, 2001
Something is wrong with my stomach. I didn't even crave chocolate today. No, not once. Here's today's ::Byte Me:: section for today.
::Byte Me::
Breakfast: Fried Rice + 1 egg
Lunch: Toast with Peanut Butter and Jelly and Green Jell-O
Post-Lunch Snack: Raisins
Dinner: Garden Salad
posted by Donna, 3/26/2001 05:12:38 PM
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*gasp* Derek Updated. Oh my goodness, all of that nagging and dropping not-so-subtle hints has finally paid off and Derek has updated. Go get your fix of Vitamin F today!
posted by Donna, 3/26/2001 05:01:22 PM
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Sunday, March 25, 2001
The clock has struck 10. Putting you out of your misery for today at least. Time for bed.
Oyasumi.
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 09:49:32 PM
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/verbosity on The verbosity factor was turned up high today. I had much to say about nothing, but that's okay, it's Sunday. I must be entitled. I haven't been doing my ::Byte Me:: entries and I really think I should since it helps to discourage me from eating bad things since I know it will be posted on the web for the world (albeit my "small world") to see. So here's today's entry:
::Byte Me::
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Round Turkey Sandwich, cup of Chicken Noodle Soup, and Pink Lemonade from Subway
Post-Lunch: Pepsi One
Dinner: A box of raisins and a cup of Houji-Cha
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 09:19:22 PM
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Confucius007! Imagine that. I found another Online Journalist who is a Christian! I stumbled upon his site by accident while I was browsing through the Asian Journalist web ring directory. I actually did a number of searches on AllTheWeb looking for fellow Christian Journalists and found none. His writing is very entertaining, so check it out. His site is here: Confucius007.
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 09:07:47 PM
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Waiting for updates. I think I may be obsessed. I've been cycling through the bookmarks in my "Journal" folder, hitting reload, hoping for updates from my favorite journalists. No dice. How pathetic. It's time I get off this chair and do something else. My near-sightedness is getting worse from staring at this screen all day. Why, oh why, am I so lazy today? Probably because I'm feeling overwhelmed by my impending workload at the office, anticipating Monday and wishing that it were Friday night instead of Sunday night...
Aw heck, I'm going to go take a shower now and get ready for bed. Or maybe come back and do another unit of VB studies. Who knows, maybe the water will invigorate me. Maybe not. Or maybe I'll just come back here and jot down more senseless musings for my own amusement. The latter is most likely.
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 08:08:49 PM
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Completely unproductive. This weather is not conducive to productivity.
As Sundays go, this is probably one of the most unproductive ones to date. Sure, we went to church and had our usual Subway lunch with the family, that was all good. I have to admit though, the guest speaker at church kinda ruffled my feathers when he used an analogy of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and likened it to discpleship. You know, how the war was won -- and how the world can be won to Christ. I mean, I got the gist of it and I enjoyed his message up until that point, but for some reason that just rubbed me the wrong way. It was probably because he was a white retired military pilot and there were folks from Japan in the congregation. WWII and the destruction in Japan and Okinawa always seem to hit a nerve with me. I tried to shake it off, but it still bothered me. Aside from that, I enjoyed his message -- and the PowerPoint presentation to go along with his message were pretty spiffy. Worship was an experience, too. If I didn't know better, I would've sworn that it was the Maranatha singers up there this morning! (By the way, for those of you who don't know who the Maranatha singers are -- that was a compliment!)
Then came the afternoon. I only got up from my desk chair to get liquids and pee (in that order). The rest of the time was spent aimlessly wandering the web in search of... nothing. I just surfed journal sites and clicked on link upon link upon link. Found some cool stuff, but mostly the mundane consumed my bandwidth and for some reason it felt like the RoadRunner was running a little slower than usual today. Or maybe that was just me and my impatience.
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 06:39:38 PM
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Running through the rain. Being that we've been experiencing rainy weather these past couple of days made me dig through my e-mail in-box for this "fwd". It's a very touching story. You'll like it.
She had been shopping with her mom in Wal-Mart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful brown haired, freckle-faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the tops of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the Earth it has no time to flow down the spout.
Drains in the nearby parking lot were filled to capacity and some were blocked so that huge puddles laced around parked cars. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal-Mart. We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day.
I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I get lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child come pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.
Her voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in. "Mom, let's run through the rain! " she said. "What? " Mom asked. "Let's run through the rain! " she repeated. "No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit". Mom replied. This young child waited about another minute and repeated, "Mom. Let's run through the rain".
"We'll get soaked if we do", Mom said. "No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning". the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm. "This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet? ".
"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said if God can get us through this, He can get us through anything! " The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes.
Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh if off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith. "Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If God let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing". Mom said. Then off they ran.
We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and, yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads, just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.
I want to believe that somewhere down the road in life, Mom will find herself reflecting back on moments they spent together, captured like pictures in the scrapbook of her cherished memories. Maybe when she watches proudly as her daughter graduates. Or, as her Daddy walks her down the aisle on her wedding day. She will laugh again. Her heart will beat a little faster. Her smile will tell the world they love each other. But only they will share that precious moment when they ran through the rain believing that God would get them through.
And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing. Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories. So don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories every day!
I hope you still take the time to run through the rain.
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 05:18:25 PM
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Ju's Hit List. It's great to see that I'm near the top of Ju's hit list, third only to TV Guide and iWon -- and those sites provide relevant information (unlike mine)!
I would plug her site, but it appears that she'd probably still like to keep her journal under wraps. I know the feeling. Sometimes it's just easier to have a closed journal and not have to worry about who might be reading your thoughts -- and who might be offended by them. You're not supposed to have to censor yourself in your own journal, but being that we have chosen this medium (the web) in which to host our entries, we accept the risks associated with it.
Some online journalists will post disclaimers warning potential readers that if they know the author, that they should kindly opt not to enter the site. Others will just say, "these are my thoughts and feelings, if you don't like it. Too bad." But sometimes these disclaimers are not enough. You may write about something/someone and the wrong person will read it. Then things change. People turn ugly and cold all of a sudden and then you find yourself wishing that you never expressed it in your online journal. But then, what is the sense of having a journal if you're not going to be able to write what you want in it? This is the constant battle that online journalists wrestle with. I think the ones that can simply write candidly what they feel and say "screw it" to the repercussions are the ones that truly thrive in this media.
Others, like me, just choose to write those controversial entries in invisible ink.
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 05:07:38 PM
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Humidity. This weather makes me think of Okinawa. The day after the rain has brought an oppressive cloud of humidity over the islands. Currently, we're looking at 91% humidity. I checked Guam's weather outlook and found that it's less humid (85%) in Guam right now. Whenever you ask anyone about Guam, the first thing out of their mouth is the word "humid." Well, if it's less humid than it is here, then I think I'll be in good shape. I just checked Okinawa (also known for its muggy weather) and it's hovering just about 68% with lots of rain in the forecast. The mugginess makes me want to jump into a cold plunge. Well, for lack of a nice bathtub to soak in, I think I'll go take a cold shower just to get this sticky feeling off of me. Ah, gotta love this tropical weather... :P
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 03:24:42 PM
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Apprehension, Stress & Anxiety. The 3 Stooges. Written in invisible ink, as it should be.
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 02:38:47 PM
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Recap. I haven't updated since Thursday, not because there wasn't anything to say... it was because there was no time in which to write it. So here's a little recap of the past few days of my life...
::Friday:: Perhaps the busiest day I've experience at work thus far. We were under the gun to install software for an Attendance Control program that was set to roll out on Saturday. The whole installation process can take anywhere from 20-35 minutes per workstation depending on the computer and how many problems you run into along the way. I recruited Joyce and had her assist me with the installations. We finished the last computer at a little after 4:00 pm... by the skin of our teeth. But we made it.
As a reward, we decided to go shopping and out to dinner. We shopped at Ala Moana for a couple of hours, then went to Okonomiyaki Chibo Restaurant for dinner. Of course, I had my usual Bacon with Mochi & Cheese Okonomiyaki, while Joyce was a little more adventurous and ordered a Sirloin with Vegetables Okonomiyaki. I made it a point to say "hello" to Bob, our favorite Chef/Manager, and he returned the "hello" by providing us with the super-deluxe seafood salad and an appetizer called Mushroom Foil. We met another chef there named Vaughn who was very friendly and entertained us with lively conversation about his other full-time job at the airport while we ate. I was hoping to save a little room for Green Tea Ice Cream for dessert, but found that I couldn't even finish my Okonomiyaki. I had the last piece wrapped and brought it home for Hubby who was more than happy for the leftovers.
Before leaving Waikiki, Joyce and I decided to check out the Galleria which recently opened. It was convenient since it was right across the street from the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, so we left our car in the parking garage and trotted over. The main attraction was the walk-through aquarium. It was an interesting concept, although I thought that they should have more fish. Well, I'm sure they're working on it... it's still quite new. We wanted to take our pictures on the Galleria webcam unit, but some girls were there occupying it and didn't look like they were going to move anytime in the new future. It's a spiffy deal though, you take your picture and you can send it to any e-mail address. Oh well, there's always next time. After browsing through the stores and seeing every Hawaiian touristy thing known to man (baskets of shells for three bucks, hula dancer dolls, etc.) we called it a night. A great end to a very productive week.
::Saturday:: Woke up feeling "bleah" so I figured that I'd stay in bed and sleep in a bit more. I woke up again at 11:00 am and still felt "bleah" but decided that I better get up and get some stuff done, like laundry. So I did several loads of laundry while I did another unit of Visual Basic studies. When my last load was done, I fell back into bed to take a nap. My plan was to sleep off this bug or whatever I had. Hubby woke me up at 5:00 pm and we headed to his parents' house for a dinner party with the family.
The house was packed and kids were everywhere, screaming and running around. I was surprised that I actually didn't get bent out of shape about all the noise. We watched Shanghai Noon (Jackie Chan) and a couple of Jet Li kung fu movies on DVD amidst all of the chaos. Although I couldn't really hear the TV, at least I got to watch the fight scenes. That's all that matters in a kung fu movie anyway, right? We were the last to leave at 10:00 pm. It was a nice night with the family... *^.^*
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 09:00:54 AM
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After the rain... It rained hard last night. Rainstorms are few and far between where I live, so I relish in it when I can lie in bed and listen to the pattering of raindrops on my roof. We had some lightning and a few crashes of thunder, which caused Toby to paw at our door at around midnight. We didn't let him in to sleep on our bed, lest he become spoiled. The electricity blinked off for a split second at around eleven and I was glad that I wasn't on the computer writing an entry.
I was awakened this morning by birds chirping. It seemed as though they were louder this morning, announcing a new spring day -- without the rain. Sunday morning... it's going to be a wonderful day. *^.^*
posted by Donna, 3/25/2001 08:31:54 AM
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