Have I been mugged?!...

A couple of days ago, I went to a laundromat for the first time in my life. I never thought I would go to a laundromat simply because I had always stayed at somewhere with a laundry room, a washing machine or laundry service up until now. To be fair, Radisson, where I'm staying at the moment, does have laundry service. But who would pay $2.50 to wash a pair of socks? I am not cheap, but I do have a lot of socks. So my friend, Eric, and I decided to do our laundry at a local laundromat, which turned out to be not so local. We took 3 different freeways to get to another middle-of-nowhere, and mysteriously there's a laundromat. 

So at this point, you might think that I would have brought quarters with me, right? No, I didn't. I don't carry coins, remember? Eric came well prepared with loads of quarters, but he had got a whole lot more stuff to wash. So I thought I would use the change machine to get some vital quarters. I didn't think that was a problem since it was a laundromat, so there must be a change machine. I was wrong; there were two change machines. So I picked one. Those who know me well know I suck at multiple choice and true/false questions. And there's no exception this time. I took out a $10, and put it right into the carefully selected change machine. I thought nothing could go wrong. But it did. It didn't give me any quarters, and gave me $5 back. Not a regular $5 as you would think though; it's this ->

I was looking at the half of a ten the machine gave back to me for 5 seconds, and I was speechless. Then I asked forcefully "really?!" Eric looked at me and tried to figure out what's going on. He saw the "$5" I was holding in my hand and the face I was making, he laughed.

"Have I just been mugged?!" I asked. 

"Yea, I think so," said Eric.

Nashville, TN

I should've stayed in LA with him

I shouldn't have come to Reno.

Reno, NV

Update:

I got a surprisingly important call from Kai at the airport when I was boarding the plane back to LA. He said that the LA Animal Services called him and told him that they found Lucas in the neighborhood where he was last seen. I called the department of animal services immediately, and the news was confirmed. On the phone, the officer asked me, "do you wanna come and get him back?" I said, "I spent $2000 to find him, so yea, I am flying back to LA to pick him up. And he's grounded forever."

Follow-up:

Lucas is now in Texas with Kai. He has lost a lot of weight; he has a small body with a big head - a combination of the two of us.

At the airport, everybody loved Lucas, including the TSA.

Left: Lucas in flight  Right: Lucas sleeping on/with his mom, Kai

放手

捨不得落日的餘暉，忘不了燦爛過的痕跡，放不開逝去了的夢想，在那離不開的路口徘徊，癡想我的執著能留住昨天。從不甘到不捨、從不願放棄到不想糾纏，你與我都因為那個他失去了太多。當記憶寫成了文字、當感覺變得模糊、當對錯不再重要、當心已倦了，原來那年已是那麼遠。那改變不了的、拋不開的、得不到的、走不進的、留不住的，請放手，讓我走。願我們終有一天能找到各自的自由。

Alexandria Ave, CA

Zesentwintig

XXVI - het enige natuurlijke getal dat ligt tussen een kwadraat en een derde macht.

Gelukkige verjaardag.

Voor Kai met liefs van Cedric

S Alexandria Ave, CA

The difference between Hong Kong & China

Three journalists from Hong Kong were beaten by Chinese police in Urumqi, Xinjiang, a troubled city in western China last Friday. The three TV journalists were doing legal news reporting covering the recent unrest in China. When they were reporting on site in Urumqi, local police kicked, punched, and shoved them to the ground. The Hong Kong journalists were taken by force and detained for three hours.

The incident has been investigated by the Chinese authorities. And the result was disappointing, but not surprising. According to the Xinhua News, the one and only official Chinese news agency, the Hong Kong journalists were “asked” to leave repeatedly by local police without success. Therefore, under the circumstances, they detained them. A Chinese official accused the three TV journalists of breaking the law as they reported on the protest. And of course that was not it. The three Hong Kong journalists were also accused of instigating a group of demonstrators to protest against the government.

As expected, the beating part was not mentioned at all. However, we must give commy some credit this time for being creative. Instead of admitting beating journalists up for reporting the truth, they called that “something that everybody doesn’t want to see took place.”

The story would’ve ended here if the three journalists were from mainland China. Well, journalists in China wouldn’t have committed such crime in the first place since they understand completely that protest is evil and reporting it is morally wrong and means hard labor camp or life sentence if lucky. But sadly or fortunately (depending on which side you are on), Hong Kongers don’t get that (yet). Hong Kong media rejected the results of the investigation and the accusation and issued separate statements. “The allegation of inciting public disorder by the relevant Xinjiang authorities is wholly a fabrication.” said Hong Kong news organizations in one of the statements.

In my opinion, “fabrication” is an understatement. If I were the one issuing statements, I would’ve called that “complete bollocks” and the people who made that accusation “tossers”. Oops… please forgive me. I always wonder how my life would’ve been if I were born and lived in China, not long I guess.

Alright, now let’s get back to the subject matter – What’s the difference between Hong Kong and China? According to the Associated Press, “Unlike mainland China, Hong Kong is promised Western-style civil liberties and is home to a vibrant media industry known for its aggressive, uncensored coverage of the rest of China.” And according to my parents and some of my friends, most (if not all) Hong Kongers know that commy can’t be trusted, whereas people in mainland China don’t have a choice (they might know that too, though).

S Alexandria Ave, CA

I'm married

"I'm married" said my mom.

I didn't know how to respond to such short but powerful sentence. Afterall, I don't get this very often, not from my mother at least. And you gotta admit telling someone you're married is not the best way to start a conversation; however, it's different this time.

My mother and I haven't had a nice conversation for years. Ever since I left home, we have our seperate lives - I've been working my ass off to undo the damages she has caused me while she's persuing her new life in Hong Kong, the city she loves the most, the place she has the best and the worst memories.

Hong Kong is such a special place to my mom not just because she's from there. It's also the place she met her first love and had her heart broken into pieces. And who's that lying basterd who broke her heart? That'd be my father. It was a typical "country girl meets rich bachelor" story. And like most movie plots, the rich guy married another rich girl, and the poor country girl ended up pregnant.

A lot of people called my mom stupid. Well, she didn't make the smartest decisions in her love life. But honestly speaking, relationship is more complicated than making the right choice; no matter how smart you are in life, you can still get hurt.

In my 24 years of memory, my mother was never trully happy. When I was a kid, I just thought we had too many problems that we had to deal with, as she always said - life sucks. Life has sucked for her because she was always hopelessly waiting for something, like my dad's call, my dad's promises to come true, my dad's comforting lies, my dad's annual visit. One time, I caught her sitting on the floor in the kitchen crying. I never realized how hopeless and lonely she must feel.

After 20 years of waiting, she finally realized my dad's lies she believed in were not going to happen. The relationship between her and my father was officially a failure. It might sound like my dad was a lying asshole and a cheating basterd. He was. But the failure of their relationship was no one's fault. It's just unfortunate my mom fell in love with a person who's incapable of love. I don't think my father knows what love is. From what I know about him, he doesn't know how to love anyone but himself. Or maybe he does, but he loves only himself. Regardless of what the real strory lies behind this mess, my mom hasn't been loved the way she deserved, not until now.

"I'm married, finally. I'm really happy. I'm loved. Are you happy for me?" she sounded genuinly happy for the first time. "Yes, I'm trully happy for you" I responded. Everybody deserves to be loved, so do I. But how many of us actually get what we deserve. So I am really glad she has found her happiness she deserves after all these years.

I am happy she is genuinly happy at last. I hope one day I will be too.

Starbucks, Weyburn, CA

公義長存

一九八九年民運時期，本人因護照問題在香港濟留十個月。當年自己只是一個不懂國家大事的孩童，但小人當道政客橫行的恐怖和天安門大屠殺的畫面，讓我有了對原則、信念和真相的執著。

去年與一位Princeton畢業的朋友討論到"六四"這個敏感課題，我們各執己見。他認為中共政府在過去五十年帶領中國脫貧富強經濟起飛，利多於弊，宏觀之下，為了整體利益和發展，不計手段對錯也在所難免。站在不同的立場，我明白他說的，但不能認同。

小弟愚見: 小人惡行、戾橫折曲，從日常瑣事到國家政事，不公義之事經常發生。但公義是不能用金錢購買、以武力強搶、從強權奪得，這是從個人到國家以致世界的不變真理。經濟利益與是非黑白是兩回事。

修身齊家治國平天下，在下愚昧，沒有從政的智慧，當然也沒有能力像當年在坦克下捍衛民主的英雄烈士般以性命保衛公義到最後一刻;雖不能兼善天下，小弟還能自善其身，能做的就是將所知道的事實以文字記錄下來，毋忘六四，等待平反。

不向歪理妥協、不向強權低頭、堅守信念的重要，是世界華人在八九民運"血染的風采"下學會昂貴的一課。

白紙黑字圖片錄像記載，親眼目睹，事實就是事實，豈能一句"沒有發生"就當沒事發生?
難道二十年來爭取平反是假的?抗議遊行又是搏世人同情?

封鎖傳媒以威嚇蓋口亦不能改變真相，公義長存。

小弟無知，不會政治亦不懂世情。以上純屬本人在生活上和近來在身邊領略到的愚見。

Alexandria Ave, CA

Tella

It's been a while since we parted. I thought I had forgotten, but it all came back in a dream I had after nights of being self destructive. Everything seemed so real, so vivid down to the smallest detail, the scent of you, the feel of your skin against my lips, the way you taste, and of course, the juice I liked to suck out of you, the juice of the forbidden fruit; everything was just like the way I remember it.

The dream was so real that I was confused at first and had to think for a couple of minutes when I woke up from it. Was it real or was it just a compilation of some recycled memories I burried in my subconsiousness that I haven't been able to let go? Do I miss you or do I just miss the me I used to be? Perhaps I just miss the past, the past when I was able to feel the euphoria you brought into my life. Do I wish I could go back to the past? Perhaps a better question would be "have I ever left?"

Maybe the dream wasn't that real. Maybe it's because my senses have become numb from the excruciating pain of sorrow I put myself through, so reality seems less real to me.

Alexandria Ave, CA

Rain

The long awaited rain arrived this morning. Unlike where I grew up, rain doesn’t happen very often in Los Angeles. But when it happens, Angelenos enjoy every single drop of it. I used to find it quite annoying. I guess I just took it for granted and neglected what it has to offer: a new beginning, a chance to refresh our minds and a hope that somehow by the end of the rain, the despicable stains in our lives will vanish into thin air. Yes, we all have some harsh stains on our souls we wish we could get rid of, like the consequences of our mistakes, the anguish of great loss, the addictions we gave into, the doubts over their innocence, the scars of their betrayals, and the toughest of all, the memories of their kisses; therefore, some of us wait quietly for the rain to pass, and hope it can liberate our souls. Sadly, some stains are so indelible that no rain can ever wash them away.

Weyburn Ave, CA

The other guy

I understand everything you said, no matter how tactfully you said it; I know what you really meant.

It was not worth it that the love we shared has been damaged because of some misunderstanding that’s hard to unravel.

There is nothing to blame though. I have attempted to salvage this relationship in every possible way. Nonetheless, no one is obligated to be with anyone. And having a change of heart is not an unforgivable sin. Even though I am devastated, I understand. Letting him take the blame is not right.

Hey, listen. There are competitors in every love. And I won’t be jealous of you two being happy together. Although my life has become tortuous because of this.

You are great; his choice and mine were not a coincidence. He bet his youth on you. And I’ll have to live the loss as gain.

Hey, listen. There are competitors in every love. And I won’t be jealous of you two being happy together. Although my life has become tortuous because of this.

Alexandria Ave, CA