Adaptation

“You are what you love, not what loves you.  That’s what I decided a long time ago.” – Adaptation

After talking with a friend the other day, I realized one of life’s most important processes is adaptation.  Whether adapting to a new environment, a current situation, or even just a way of life, adaptation is something we all go through, and yet, rarely think about.  Often times, it’s something mundane.  Adapting to somebody new at work, a change in temperature, a notion of switching gears.  But it’s only when we fear adaptation, that we actually realize how much a part of life it is.  When we lose a job and fear if we will find a new one, or moving to a new environment and fear not knowing anyone.

And then of course there is love.

I realize now, the hardest part of a breakup is not the idea of losing the person him/herself, nor is it the ability to find somebody new (although, some would debate that).  But to me, the hardest part is the daily influence your significant other had on your life and more often than not… it whittles down to the most trivial things.  That morning email you got just as you got into work, a daily phone call you may have received that was about nothing, or the idea of just having somebody to watch TV with or eat with.  These are often the simple things that remind us we are now alone and a change is occurring; and the more often these things occurred in one’s daily routine, the harder it is to adapt.   Probably why most couples that breakup try to get back with his/her significant other shortly after.  All out fear of adapting.

Adaptation can be a mundane process, but it can also be a scary one.  The important thing we must all realize is that we do adapt eventually and when we do, we are almost always the better for it.

…and the movie is pretty good as well.

What I Want For Christmas…

It’s funny because if you had asked me a few months ago I would’ve given a totally different answer.   Probably, something materialistic, something tangible.  But it’s hard to say now.  I mean I still like materialistic things (who doesn’t), but right now I would settle for just being full…if that makes any sense.

Moon

I was watching the movie Moon (and I’m not talking about the Twilight sequel) the other day and it got me thinking… how sane can one stay if they had no contact with human life for three years?  And lets say you could have everything else you could ever want, how much would somebody have to pay you to do it?   How long would it take before you felt loneliness set in?  Of course, the movie had nothing to do with any of these questions, but these were thoughts that popped in my head when watching…

I’m a Scrooge…Apparently

So I recently reversion-ed  a Christmas Special for work and apparently received two interesting viewer relation comments about it (for those that don’t know, a reversion is when a network takes an existing show, acquires it via large sums of money, and re-edits it to air on their network).  Here is what two viewers thought (NOTE: some details have been omitted):

Viewer Comment #1

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the dumb ass that decided to air the show OMITTED at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon. I thought that OMITTED was a safe channel to put on for my children to watch while I fixed dinner. Much to my surprise my 10 year old son came to me and began telling me how the show they were watching was telling them how there is no such thing as Santa and how the letters that are sent are fictious as well. That was a very welcome surprise for me as well as my 7 year old daughter and 10 year old son. Thank you again for ruining the magic of their Christmas.

Viewer Comment #2

As a second grade teacher, I was very disappointed that OMITTED would air a show during primetime (7pm) that simply stated that Santa Claus is not real and that parents are leaving gifts for the children and telling the children that the gifts are from Santa. Many of my students were very upset at school this morning due to the airing of this show. It is unnecessary to ruin the imaginations of these young children by showing a program of this nature during prime time viewing. I am also upset so see that on December 6th, the show will be aired again, this time even earlier (6pm) to ruin the excitement of Christmas for even more children. Thank you for taking the time to read my concern.

Wow, didn’t know 10-year olds still be believed in Santa.  I think I knew something was up when I was 4 and saw my mom leaving me a box of candy canes under the tree (we were poor back then)… the same box of candy canes I saw her buy at the Kmart a week earlier.  It’s also interesting to me that second graders actually have conversations where they discuss their feelings.  All I cared about at that age was when recess was and who I was gonna take down next in pencil fighting.

Man those China No.2’s were the bomb…

Changes That Need to Be Made…

…so I’ve had a lot of time to think about stuff over the last few weeks — by the way, I hate thinking.  It hurts my brain.  Maybe that’s why I’ve been pop-in Advil like M&M’s.   So would that now make me an addict?  Great, one more problem to deal with…

…so I’ve had a lot of time to think about stuff over the last few weeks and I’ve realized there are a couple of things I’d like to change.  First, I really want to start working out.  I’m pretty sure I’ve gained 15lbs over the past year and no one has had the balls to tell me.  Maybe I wear my weight well, but I feel it and it feels triffling.  The last thing I need to do is go into 2010 looking like a big oompa loompa.  Therefore, I’ve started working out again and although I hate running, lifting weights, doing sit-ups, basically, anything that involves any sort of will power, I know it’s something I have to do.

The next thing I’d like to do is drink more tea instead of coffee.  This will no doubt be my biggest challenge as I drink coffee more than water, which is probably not the best for my health nor my teeth.  Green tea, jasmine tea, chai tea, whatever, I just know that I’m Asian and I need to drink tea.  Okay, scratch the last comment, drinking tea has nothing to do with being Asian… or does it?

These are just some of the things I’ve thought about over the past few weeks.  Now that I think about it, these aren’t very enlightening at all, more trivial… and my head still hurts =(  Geez, I think my brain must be suffering from atrophy along with the rest of my body.

Back to the Square Uno…

…the square and the uno being me.  It’s been a crazy year.  It started with me getting laid off, then me meeting the President, and now just me… and this blog… and my thoughts…

So for the next four weeks until this unfortunate years ends (have I mentioned that I hate odd number years), I will try to write more posts then I did the 11 months before in a pathetic attempt to bring back the 5 loyal readers who continued to click on my blog week after week only to see the same Phil Ivey post I wrote back in June.

Lets see… where to begin…

Expiration

Somehow everything comes with an expiry date. Swordfish expires. Meat sauce expires. Even cling-film expires….  Is there anything in the world which doesn’t? – Chungking Express

We’d all like to think that things don’t expire.  Like the milk in our fridge that we hope is still good for another bowl of cereal or the leftovers from a week ago that we push off eating for another day.  We hope that these things, like many other things in life, hasn’t gone sour or taste stale; that they can magically stay fresh or feel new.  That it can give us that high that we once had, that pleasure we once tasted, or that energy we once felt.  But the reality is everything does expire…

…and all we are left with are questions and comparisons.