Graveyard Shift

This past Saturday, just as I expected, I had to work the dreaded "Graveyard Shift" from 6pm to 6am. I had never worked a 12 hour shift before, let alone a graveyard shift. It was something I hope I don't have to do again.

It takes a certain kind of person to work the graveyard shift: insomniacs, night owls, teenagers and twentysomethings hopped up on speed. These sorts of people can handle it. I can't.

As I clocked in at 6pm, I told myself "OK, just think of this as taking a long flight back to Taiwan."

To fly from L.A. to Taiwan takes nearly 14 hours, and when you're flying economy it's next to impossible to get some sleep. So I just resigned myself to the fact that I would be awake for quite a while, and that I'd just have to catch up on my sleep later.

By 8:00pm, I knew it was going to be a long night because I already started yawning regularly.

"Uh oh, this is not good. I've still got 10 hours to go."
At 10:30pm, I took a meal break and drove home, since I don't live very far from the hospital. I had to take a quick shower to refresh myself for the remaining seven hours that I had left.
By 12:00am, the place was as dead as a morgue. I hadn't seen any patients in quite a while and none seemed to be coming in. One of my colleagues advised me to page the supervisor, and maybe because it was so slow I would be able to leave early. So I paged her, and she called me right back.
"This place is pretty slow." I told her. "I've only seen about two patients in the last 6 hours."
"No, unfortunately we need you there." she replied in a drowsy voice, dashing my hopes of ending the night early.
I spent the next few hours reading newspapers, magazines, internet stories, and writing in my notebook. It just wasn't busy at all. Doctors, who also have to work long shifts, at least have the option of going to empty patient rooms and sleeping when there isn't any work for them. In my department, though, we can't do that.
At 2:30 a.m, Christy called me from home, telling me she couldn't sleep well because I wasn't there. Awww. That made me feel a little better.

By about 3:30a.m., things were getting bad. I had a headache. My wrist hurt, and for some reason my gums were aching. When a patient finally did come in, I had trouble typing simple commands into the computer. I was making mistakes and numerous typos. When I started to talk to a patient, I was forgetting things I needed to say, and I was slurring my speech. They probably thought I was drunk.
At 5:00a.m., I walked to the hospital cafeteria (which was closed) and I ate an egg sandwich that Christy made for me. It gave me just enough energy to make it through the final hour. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I crawled straight into bed and went to sleep. I managed to sleep for about 6 hours, but was awoken numerous times by noisy kids (my own and others.)

It would take me two days to recover from this experience, just as it does for me to get over jet-lag. Having done it, I really have to admire those people who work these hours all the time. They're truly brave.

Christmas Eve

As a parent, I know that there are only a limited number of Christmas's that the kids will really enjoy before they become disillusioned. Right now Sara pretty much believes anything that we tell her. She thinks that Santa Claus will come down our chimney tonight and leave her lots of presents under the tree. She believes that she has to be asleep when Santa comes, or she won't get anything. These are probably the best years as a parent. Kyle is still a couple of years away from Sara's sense of wonder. Right now he'd rather knock the tree over and try to eat the ornaments.

Speaking of the Christmas tree, it's gone through all kinds of abuse these past few weeks. It's been knocked over countless times. Many, many ornaments have been destroyed. The tree used to filled from head to toe with ornaments, now I'd say only about 50% remain. And you just can't say "No, don't touch that!" to children. It doesn't work. They can't help themselves, they have to touch everything!

We made the decision early on to hide all the presents in the closet out of reach. Had we put them out earlier they'd be ripped open and the paper would be in shreds all over the floor. Tonight, Christy and I will assemble Sara's easel so she can start drawing right away tomorrow morning.

I have to admit that Christmas for me had lost it's excitement over the last several years. It seemed like every year I stayed at my brothers house, each year was worse than the last one. Last year, for example, I had to take Sara to the ER on Christmas day because she was really sick. Then there was my brothers wife who told us that we'd have to start staying in hotels if we want to visit again. That they couldn't make room for us in their two-story, 4 bedroom house. It was getting a bit sad. Now that Christy and I and the kids are celebrating the holidays as a family of our own, I feel a lot more excitement about Christmas. It will be a lot of fun to see them wake up tomorrow morning and see all the gifts under the tree. That kind of stuff is priceless.

(Picture: Sara posing by the tree.)

Month # 5 at the New Job

Unfortunately, I have to work on Christmas Day from 2 to 10:30pm (my regular hours.) I knew this was inevitable, as I've only been here for 5 months and I'm still considered "the new guy." I've been told that everybody has to work the holidays their first year here. I'll have Christmas off next year for sure, but that doesn't really make it any better. To make things a little nicer, Christy and the kids are planning to visit me during my lunch/dinner break at work, and we'll have leftover turkey, stuffing, etc. That should be nice.

Starting on Friday the 26th until Sunday, I have to go "on call." This is something that every employee has to do one weekend per year. I have to carry around a pager for 72 hours, and if they call me, I have to report to work right away, and at whatever time they happen to call. It's very possible I could work some God-forsaken shift like 6pm to 6am. It's entirely dependent on the other people that work here. If everyone shows up and works the shift that they're supposed to, I won't get called. However, this being the weekend right after Christmas, I'm expecting to get called, as this hospital is filled with slackers. Actually, I find it kind of amazing just how many slackers work here. (actually, no, I don't find it that amazing. I forgot I was back in America.) People are getting fired left and right for not reporting to work, and not calling in. They're just not showing up regularly. Frankly, I just don't get it. You would think that with the economy the way it is right now, people would be afraid of losing their jobs and be a little more responsible. Unfortunately, many here don't seem to give a damn.

After five months working here at this hospital, I've found it to be simply okay. It's not a great job, but it's not the worst I've ever had either. The pay is a lot higher than I expected to make in Austin. The hours are convenient. As I'm not a doctor or nurse, it isn't particularly high stress, and the patient load lately is pretty low, so I find myself with a lot of free time for reading, writing, or just going for long walks around the hospital grounds. So yeah, it could be a lot worse.

The negative side though, is the lack of having any time off other than weekends. We have what is called PTO, which is "Personal Time Off" that we accrue every pay period. We have to use these hours for sick time AND vacation time. They're not separate. Like I mentioned before, we have to ask for this time a month in advance. If something comes up, and you need a day off, and you haven't given the proper notice, you'll get written up. If you get written up 7 times in a year, you're terminated. I could really do without this type of management style.

I also have to deal with supervisors who like to micro-manage a bit too much. For the most part, they don't bother me, but I'll often get emails from them with ideas that are just not practical. I guess this comes with the territory. Once you enter the white-collar world of office work, you have to deal with irrational management. C'est la vie.

(Picture: this is the type of pager I have to carry around all weekend.)

Schlitterbahn

On Saturday we drove to a city called New Braunfels (about 45 miles south) to see a place called Schlitterbahn. In the summertime, Schillterbahn is a waterslide park, but in the winter, they turn it into a sort of a Christmas Winter Wonderland. In their advertisements, they promise "over a million Christmas lights!", "snow!" , "ice skating!" "sledding!" and much more. Most of it was true.

We arrived as the park opened at 5pm. Admission was $14.99 for me and Christy, and $12.99 for Sara (Kyle was free.) Luckily for us, Saturday was a warm day here in Austin. The temp got up to 82 degrees out here. (As I'm typing this now, the temp is only expected to be 48 degrees, with a low of 29, quite an amazing change from one day to the next. If it rains sometime today, we may even see some snow.) The place wasn't too impressive in the daylight, so I can understand why they don't open until close to sunset. Once it became dark, it was much more impressive. There probably was a million lights there, and the kids seemed to be in awe.

The "snow" that they mentioned wasn't actually real snow, it was a machine pumping out bubbles over everyone. Bubbles that looked like snow. I'm not really sure I liked this idea. The bubbles started to get into our drinks so we ended up throwing them away. Then the bubbles were in our hair so when we got home we had messy, sticky hair. Maybe they should just import real snow.

The "sledding" was true, but it wasn't slow sledding. It was simply riding a sled down one of the waterslides. They did have ice skating though, but it was so crowded and the line was so long that we didn't even bother with that.

One of the highlights was when Kyle and Sara got to meet Santa Claus. Sara seemed really excited to see him. She kept telling me that she was going to tell him all about the kind of toys she wanted for Christmas. Once we finally got up the Santa Claus, she freaked out and didn't even want to get close to him. Her excitement suddenly turned to fear and she didn't want to see Santa Claus. Kyle, however, didn't mind, and he posed for a picture with Santa. So this is the second year in a row I waited in line with Sara to see Santa and she chickened out at the last minute. Maybe next year she'll be able to handle it.

Overall it was a pretty fun time. After going to so many places that proved to be disappointing, this place was pretty nice.

(Pictures: 1. Schlitterbahn's. 2. The overcrowded ice-skating rink. 3. Klye meets Santa Claus for the first time. 4. Sara (with her new glasses) runs away from the park-mascot dog. 5. Klye walking through a tunnel of lights.)

Dubya Dodging Shoes

I had to laugh when I saw the video of George Bush dodging shoes thrown at him by an Iraqi reporter. The reporter, it seems, was expressing his dissatisfaction with our president, and in the Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is supposed to be an extreme insult. If this is the worst punishment that Dubya receives for his failed and criminal presidency, he should consider himself lucky. Frankly, I think the guy who threw the shoes will receive a much harsher punishment.

In some ways I feel kind of sorry for George Bush Jr. Except for the brief moment after 9/11, he's never really been a popular president. At his inauguration, people were throwing eggs at him and the limousine he was riding in. It was a cold, wet, and rainy day. There was still much doubt about whether he legitimately won the election. Since he had lost the popular vote to Al Gore, many of us simply did not accept him as the "real" president. Now, as he prepares to leave office, his approval ratings are the lowest of any president in history, even Richard Nixon! His fellow Republicans are are avoiding him like the plague, since just being associated with him will damage their careers. Indeed, the Republican party has pretty much been decimated because of this man. Most of the country now eagerly awaits for January 20, 2009, when Bush finally gets the hell out of office.

"January 20th cannot come soon enough!" is a comment that I see quite often on political blogs. How true it is.

Bush must be feeling some envy for Barack Obama. Once Obama takes over next year, you're going to see an entirely different scene come inauguration day. Much like Obama's election victory in November, it's going to be a major celebration. People will be crying tears of joy once again. There is finally light at the end of the tunnel and the country will finally be able to heal itself from the damage of the past eight years. I'll probably get an email from someone out there telling me that nothing will change, and that Obama is just as bad as any other politician. Whether that's true or not, the point is that Obama is not Bush. For a lot of us, that's all that's important. Let's see if Obama has any shoes thrown at him in the next 4 to 8 years. I'm guessing he won't.

Wall-E and the Strange Behavior of Children

I often get the feeling that my children are stranger than other children. I'm sure their behavior is perfectly normal, but I still feel that way.

I recently bought the movie "Wall-E" for my kids to watch, and for some reason my son Kyle has just become obsessed with Wall-E. Every morning when I take him out of his crib, he starts to say "Walleee! Walleee! and he will go and grab the dvd and carry it around ALL DAY.

I have "Wall-E" on blu-ray dvd, which, for those who don't know, is a high-definition dvd. It's kind of expensive, so I don't really like Kyle playing with it as a toy. However, when I try to take it away from him, he goes crazy and starts crying. He won't be quiet until I give the dvd back to him. I tried to think of a solution to this problem, so I printed out a picture of Wall-E on the computer. It didn't work. He just threw the picture on the floor. For some reason he only wants to hold the dvd. So I decided to buy him a five dollar Wall-E doll which I bought from the Disney Store. I'm hoping he will take to the doll the way he takes to the dvd and forget about the dvd.

So now I've got a daughter who's obsessed with her "Night Night" blanket and a son who's obsessed with "Wall-E." Oh well, I guess it could be worse.

(Pictures: The real Wall-E and the Wall-E doll that I bought for Kyle.)

Christmas Parties - Round 2

On Saturday night, we attended another company Christmas party. This time, it was for my company. Fortunately, both me and Christy were able to attend this time, instead of one of us having to stay and watch the kids. We found a babysitter, and they agreed to watch the kids for $12 an hour.

Unfortunately, finding the babysitter's house proved to be a total nightmare. We were driving at night to the city of Round Rock, following directions that we got off the "Mapquest" web site. We got lost, and we ended up driving on toll freeways four different times. On two different occasions I was in the wrong lane to pay the toll, and a camera snapped a picture of our car, no doubt to send us a bill in the mail in the near future. I didn't really Texas had so many toll roads. I wasn't used to it. In Taiwan, all the freeways require you to pay a toll (about every 15 miles or less), but I thought most freeways in America were actually "free." Eventually, after turning around a couple of times (and therefore paying the toll again), we finally found the babysitters house, and we got to the party about 30 minutes late. No big deal anyway, since most people don't show up to parties on time anyway.

The hotel was nice, but the food was surprisingly simple (pasta with marinara sauce, or ham were the main entrees.) We stayed for a little over two hours, until they gave away the four "door prizes." The "door prizes" were four $50 gift/debit cards that you can use anywhere. So the company gave away about $200 in free gifts to 4 people (out of at least a thousand people there.) Not exactly big spenders, but I guess that's just a sign of how bad the economy is right now. I remember the last company I worked for in America, many years ago, used to give out thousands of dollars worth of prizes, to at least 20 different guests. Times have really changed.

(Pictures: 1. A blurry Santa. 2. Christy and two co-workers. 3. One of my co-workers with her husband. 4. A view of the crowd. 5. Another co-worker and her husband (this couple is pretty interesting, actually. She's from Panama City, and her husband is an ex-Army soldier who met her during the American invasion of Panama.)

Riding Out the Recession

It seems like everyone is affected in some way by the economic crisis that's happening here in America. My ex-wife just mentioned on her blog that she was laid off. My friend Jerry Yen told me recently that his company is laying off over 3,000 employees, and he may be one of them, after having worked there for over 10 years. Even Christy and I have doubts about the security of our jobs. I got an email from a supervisor recently that said our hours may start "flexing." This means that, although we may keep our jobs, we might get sent home if there isn't enough work to do.

I've often thought about moving back to California, but currently the unemployment rate there is 8.2%. It's one of the highest in the country. I think if we had stayed in California when we first arrived here back in May, we'd be out of money by now and heading back to Taiwan, feeling depressed that our relocation turned out to be a total failure. Moving to Austin probably saved us from this.

I can't see myself living in Austin forever. Frankly, I can't see myself here five years from now. While Austin has its charms here and there, it's not a very exciting place to live. On the other hand, I absolutely hate moving, and the last thing I want is to be stuck living out of hotels while I'm out looking for a job again. I've been there and done that, and it's not something I would want to repeat anytime soon. For those who read my blogs during the month of June of this year...oh man, was that a stressful time. It's one thing to write about tough times after you've already lived and survived it, but writing it while it's happening is not fun at all.

At the very least, we'll stay in Austin until this recession is over, though God knows how long that will be. We're going to try to ride it out and hope we get through it. Going back to Taiwan isn't really much of an option anymore as it used to be, as their economy is just as bad as the US. I still keep getting emails, though, from schools that want to hire me in Taiwan. I guess I could still find a job in Taiwan, but for Christy it would be tougher. Besides, Christy doesn't seem to have any desire whatsoever to go back to Taiwan. I don't blame her.

Horseshoe Bay

This weekend we travelled to a small, lakeside town called Horseshoe Bay. It's about an hour or so Northwest of Austin. The company that Christy works for was having their annual Christmas party at the Marriot Hotel. No kids were allowed at the party, so I offered to watch the kids in the hotel room (which was free, thankfully) while Christy went to the party. The hotel offered babysitting service, which was actually just a list of about 15 names I could call. I called every number on the list, hoping someone could babysit so I could go to the party. It didn't happen. Every person on the list was either a.) not in town b.) busy or c.) didn't answer the phone. So my Saturday night was spent watching two kids pretending to be rock stars and trashing a hotel room.

I generally like to go to company Christmas parties. It's the one time of year when your employer decides to be generous and give you a lot of free stuff. The dinner is usually good, and then they give away a lot of expensive gifts as door prizes. Christy didn't win anything, but they did give us a pretty nice gift basket.

As for the town of Horseshoe Bay, I couldn't find any place where the lake was accessible to the public. It was all attached to condos and private residences. If you're rich, it seemed like a pretty nice place to left, but for the rest of us, kinda boring. There were also several golf courses out there. Again, though, this was a place primarily for people with expendable income. Had the hotel room not been free, I would see no reason to come here.

Still, the hotel was nice (as most Marriots are), and there was a lot of nice scenery surrounding it. I guess if Christy still works for this company next year, we'll probably be back. For now, though, we've got one more Christmas party coming up next weekend. My company is having one in Round Rock, which is not nearly as far as Horseshoe Bay.

(Pictures: 1. The Marriot Hotel in Horseshoe Bay. 2. Christy and the kids. 3. The "Oriental Garden" outside the hotel. 4. Christy and her boss. 5. More Horseshoe Bay scenery.)

Pet Peeves

I think one of my biggest pet peeves has always been poor spelling and grammar in a professional situation. I'm not talking about typos and grammar mistakes that you come across regularly in personal email (and blogs!) I'm talking about big, written displays in retail stores and restaurants, as well as "company-wide" email that is sent by supervisors and CEO's.

In Taiwan, where the English language is distorted and destroyed on a daily basis, one could go crazy trying to decipher all the bad English. I'm still scratching my head over the giant sign outside of Taipei 101 which read "COMMING SOOM!" Taipei 101 is probably one of the most visited tourist attractions in Taiwan, so this is pretty embarrassing. To see more examples of this, you can check my old blog entry here: http://kenberglund.blogspot.com/2008/04/taiwans-wacky-english.html

Taiwanese people, though, are not native English speakers, so you really can't blame them for trying. What bothers me is, here in the USA, I continually receive company email from management and so called "superiors" who can't seem to put two complete sentences together. For me, it's a bit frustrating to work under people that you feel should be under you.

I remember back when I was working for this company called SCAN in the late 90's, I got "talked to" for correcting a fellow employees email. I didn't do it in public. I sent a private email explaining when to use "there," "their," or "they're." This employee got furious and told her supervisor, who then complained to me. Had it just been a one time thing, I would have ignored it, but this particular person made the same mistake over and over. In my mind, I was just trying to save her from further embarrassment, but it wasn't taken that way. Some people are extremely offended if you try to correct their English. To this day, I still get email at the hospital from someone who reminds me to "tell the patient it is there responsibility." Now I just sigh and click the delete button.

When I was in college, there was a Taco Bell restaurant on campus. This was during the days of the "Yo quiero Taco Bell!" talking chihuahua doll. They had an enormous display which read "THEIR BACK!" (referring to the dolls). I told the cashier about it.

"Oh, we don't have anything to do with that. Management sends us those." she told me.

"But, you know, this is a college campus. It looks bad." I reminded her.

"There's really nothing I can do about it." she answered.

And so it goes. The dumbing of America continues.

Losing Weight the Chinese Way

It's very difficult to find an obese person in Taiwan. They do exist, and I have in fact seen a few, but it's a rare sighting. It's like trying to spot a celebrity in Hollywood. They're there, but it takes a lot of looking.

I've often wondered how the Chinese people stay thin. The things they eat are often deep fried and do not look healthy at all. When I first arrived in Taiwan, the food kind of scared me at first. I would walk by these blue trucks that were selling food, and it just looked awful. I didn't want to eat chicken feet or deep fried duck heads. So for quite some time I was just eating noodles and sandwiches that I would buy from 7-11. So basically, just out of pure disgust of the local food, I started losing weight. Not exactly a great plan, but it worked. I went from 205 lbs to 179 over the course several months.

So today I'm reading a story about three obese Americans who moved to China to try and lose weight, and it seems to be working:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081202/hl_afp/healthchinausoffbeat_081202081540

I thought this story was kind of funny, since I've been telling some of my overweight friends for years to try living in Taiwan for a while if they want to lose weight.

Now that I've been back in America for 7 months, I've gained some of that weight back. Not all of it, thankfully, but about 10 pounds. I'm trying to be careful, though, and not fall into bad American habits of wanting to eat too much junk food. In a state like Texas, where restaurants boldly and proudly claim their portions are "Texas Size!", you really need to be careful.

The First Christmas Tree

I try to avoid the shopping malls on the weekend after Thanksgiving. It's too insane. I was reading in the news about an employee of Wal Mart getting trampled to death by insane shoppers trying to save a few extra bucks. It's just not worth it to me to be among that crowd. My shopping list is pretty short, anyway. It's not like I've got a gigantic family to shop for.

Instead, we decided to put up our first Christmas tree this weekend. We picked up one of those fake, 6 foot "Sierra Fir" trees that they sell at Target for around 25 bucks. It's small and it fits well in our apartment. We don't have much space for a big tree anyway.

I let Sara and Kyle put the decorations on, although Kyle would usually take them off just as soon as he put them on. I'm just waiting to see how many times the tree falls over before Christmas, and how many times we have to pick up the ornaments.

The kids love the tree, especially when it's all lit up. I kind of envy their excitement. Seeing them brings back memories of my own childhood at Christmas. My parents never had a big, fancy tree. It looked very similar to the one we have now, and I remember we used to decorate it with ornaments that we made in school. Some of the stuff we made was pretty ugly, but it made the tree more personal.

So this will be our first Christmas we spend together as a family of four. No more long plane rides from Taiwan to California. No more sleeping in the freezing cold kitchen of my brothers house, or having to crash on Jerry Yen's sofa. No more dealing with in-laws who are just counting the time until we leave. It's just us now. It feels a little strange to be deviating from our normal routine, but this way is better.

(Pictures: Sara, Klye, and the Christmas tree.)

Thanksgiving

This is the first Thanksgiving for the kids in America. Last year, when we were still in Taiwan, we made an attempt to celebrate Thanksgiving, but it didn't turn out quite the way it was supposed to. It's hard to find traditional Thanksgiving food in Taiwan, like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, etc. It's not impossible, just hard. We were living in Taichung at the time, and I remember I had to drive out to Taipei to a specialty store that sold American food. None of the stores I went to sold whole turkeys, so I just had to buy slices. All in all, we ended up with a decent, if not great, Thanksgiving dinner.

This year, because of my work schedule at the hospital, we decided to eat a little earlier than normal. The kids really loved it, and we had more food than we could possibly eat. My wife Christy told me that she prefers to eat the turkey leg over the breast meat.

"In Taiwan, it's the leg that's popular. That's what we like to eat." she told me. It's true too. If you go to Taiwan, you'll find the price of chicken legs much, much higher than chicken breasts. It's exactly the opposite of the way things are here in America.

I can't say I really like working on holidays, even though I'm making more money by doing it. If previous holidays are any indication, the hospital is going to be dead tonight, so they'll basically be paying me for doing absolutely nothing. Still, I guess we can use the money. Christmas is coming up next.

(Picture: Sara and Kyle getting anxious to eat)

Sara the Artist

When Sara and Kyle were in the daycare center, I used to have all morning to myself before I would have to leave for work. Then when I got home around 10:30 at night, they'd be asleep. I'd only see them for about 30 minutes in the morning and that was it. I'll have to be honest and say that sometimes I appreciated my break from them. It's a tough and frustrating job to watch two kids. But after a while I began to miss them. So, although I knew that once we pulled them out of daycare, my mornings would no longer be free, I still welcomed it.

The problem with watching two kids all morning is that you have to find something for them to do. Sure, I could just turn on the tv and let them zone out all morning (which I'll admit I've done.) But you also need some activities for them as well.

Sara's favorite activity seems to be drawing and painting. She can't get enough of it. She's got dozens of pieces of artwork all over the apartment. Some of it is on the wall, some in the bedroom, some on the refrigerator. Much of it is just scribbling, but others look pretty good, considering her age.

We're thinking about buying her an easel for Christmas, along with crayons and paint and lots of paper. Of course, we could be inviting catastrophe. Sara turned our last apartment in Taiwan into a living art exhibit. I'm sure the landlord wasn't too happy when she saw the walls after we left. We've also got Kyle, who seems like he would prefer to eat the crayons and brushes rather than use them to paint or draw. I guess we'll still risk it.

(Pictures: 1. Sara. 2. Sara's art. 3. More of Sara's art)

Holidays

Having lived in Taiwan for over 4 years, I knew I'd be giving up most of my American holidays for strange Asian holidays. Instead of Christmas, they have Chinese New Year. Instead of Independence Day, they have "Double Ten." Instead of Memorial Day, they have "Dragon Boat Festival."

Now that I'm back in America, I have all my old American holidays back. The only problem is...I have to work on every single one of them!

Yes, unless I actually request to have a specific day off, I am required to work on every holiday unless it happens to fall on a Saturday or Sunday. This is one of the drawbacks of working at a hospital. And being a new employee, the older employees who ask for time off for the holidays are more likely to get it than I am.

I'd been working on Thanksgiving Day for years while I was in Taiwan, so going to work this coming Thanksgiving isn't really anything new to me. We're still planning to have a Thanksgiving meal, except we're going to have it at noon instead of the evening, since I have to start work at 2pm.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are a bit different, though. I've always been at home for these two days. I've never had to work. However, this year is different, as my definition of "home" has changed. To me, "home" used to be the house I grew up in in Downey, California. I spent my final Christmas there in 2004. The following year, my brother and his wife sold that house and had my mother move in with them. My mom took the money she made from selling her house, and used it to buy my brother and his wife a house. It was in this new house that I spent Christmas for the last 3 years. It wasn't quite the same, and "going home for the holidays" just didn't have the same feeling for me that it used to. Of course, it didn't help that my brother and his wife always treated us pretty badly each year (all of which I have documented in my other blog, An American Teacher in Taiwan.)

Even if all the bullshit with my brother didn't happen this year, I doubt I would want to go there again. I mean, why pay thousands of dollars in travel expenses to go somewhere that you're not wanted?

Here's a story that I didn't tell on my last blog that I still think about to this day: About two years ago I when I was staying at my brothers house, my mom invited to take the whole family out to dinner at a pizza place. Only my brother knew how to get to the pizza place, and we would have to take two cars. Me, Christy, Sara, and my mom were in one car. My brother and his family were in the other. We had to follow him to get to the restaurant, and it required getting on the freeway (in Murrieta, you pretty much have to take the freeway to get anywhere.) Once we get onto the freeway, my brother starts driving like a freaking madman. He speeds up, swerves around cars, and does everything he can to try and lose us in traffic. I mean, he tried really, really hard to lose us. I don't really understand why he did this. We weren't at the point where we hated each other yet, so why was he treating us so badly? I'm his only brother, who he only sees once a year for maybe a week at most, so why does he want to act like a total asshole? It's things like this that I think about if I ever start to feel bad about our falling-out this year. It just makes me realize that I don't need a brother like him.

So this year I have a new definition of being "home for the holidays." That home is now me, Christy, Sara and Kyle. We bought our first Christmas tree this past weekend, and we'll start decorating our apartment shortly after Thanksgiving. I know they'll enjoy it.

Rudy's

If there is one restaurant I've been to more often than most in Austin, it's Rudy's.

Rudy's is by no means a "classy" restaurant. You sit at benches, and your food is given to you in a basket. There are no plates, only white pieces of paper. All the silverware is plastic. They don't give you bread rolls with your food. Rather, they give you an entire loaf of bread that looks like it was just bought up the street at the local HEB market.

So why do we go there? It's cheap. The meat is really good, and their homemade bar b que sauce (they misspell it as "sause", deliberately I hope) is excellent. We often order the beef brisket, but occasionally we've ordered the sausage or the pork ribs. They're all pretty good. As a side, you can get cream corn (good), baked beans (very good), or cole slaw (which I don't like).

Every time we go there, we spend less than 20 bucks for a family of four. Normally we spend anywhere from $14 to $19 depending on how many side dishes we get. It's a good deal. It's gotten pretty expensive these days to take your whole family out for dinner somewhere. The other day we went to Marie Callendars. We had a coupon for a free dinner, and we STILL ended up paying over 30 bucks (with the tip).

Rudy's is basically a typical Texas kind of place. Big slabs of beef and bar b que sauce all over the place. This is the kind of place I'd take my Taiwanese in-laws to if I wanted to introduce them to "Texas cuisine."

(Pictures: 1. Rudy's. 2. Inside Rudy's. 3. Sara and Kyle. 4. Kyle 5. Christy, Kyle, and Sara)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", which was filmed right here in Austin, is one of the great horror films. I saw this movie when I was a kid and it freaked me out. It was shot on such a low budget and the picture looks so grainy that you feel like you're watching a documentary. There are other great horror films, "The Shining" and "The Exorcist" for example, but none of them seem as real as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

I met three members of the cast, some of whom live (or use to live) here in Austin. Paul Partain, who played the annoying character "Franklin." Gunnar Hansen, the guy who played the most famous character in the film, "Leatherface," and Edwin Neal, who played the Hitchhiker, who cut himself up at the beginning of the movie. They all signed my dvd copy of the movie, which I'm now selling on Ebay (I'll post the link to it below if anyone out there wants to bid on it).

The movie claims to be based on a true story, and I actually believed that for years. It's actually only vaguely based on Ed Gein, who was a graverobber and was convicted of murdering two people in Wisconsin, not in Texas. He never used a chainsaw, either. True or not, the movie had a big impact on me, and as my family were driving through Texas on our way to Austin last May, we saw a lot of ranches that reminded me of the movie. We took some small highways and back roads, and I remember telling myself: Man, I hope we don't break down around here. It looks like Leatherface lives out here.

The only reason I'm selling my old dvd is because I recently upgraded to blu-ray (high definition dvd, for those who don't know). I probably won't sell too many more signed dvd's on Ebay. Ebay charges too much, and your profit margin is so small that it's not even worth it anymore. It was worth it about 10 years ago, when I used to get anywhere from 60 to 120 bucks for a signed dvd, now I'm lucky to get about $20. Either it's the economy or there's just too much stuff on Ebay these days, or both.

Anyway, if anyone would like to see what will probably be my last auction for a signed dvd, here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-TEXAS-CHAINSAW-MASSACRE-DVD-SIGNED-BY-3-XLNT-Con_W0QQitemZ130266418500QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray?hash=item130266418500&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1406%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

(Picture: Leatherface)

Strabismic Amblyopia

My daughter Sara has been diagnosed as having "Strabismic Amblyopia." What the heck is that?

According to Wikipedia:

"Amblyopia, otherwise known as lazy eye, is a disorder of the visual system that is characterized by poor or indistinct vision in an eye that is otherwise physically normal, or out of proportion to associated structural abnormalities. It has been estimated to affect 1–5% of the population.

The problem is caused by either no transmission or poor transmission of the visual image to the brain for a sustained period of dysfunction or during early childhood. Amblyopia normally only affects one eye, but it is possible to be amblyopic in both eyes if both are similarly deprived of a good, clear visual image. Detecting the condition in early childhood increases the chance of successful treatment."

We noticed that Sara had a problem with her eyes last year (see picture above for a good example), but now we actually got the diagnosis. The doctor told us that if this symptom is not properly treated, she could lose her vision (although that is the worst case scenario).

The pediatric opthamologist we contacted informed us that one form of treatment would be surgery.

Oh great, another child that needs surgery! Could it get any worse?

My son Kyle just had surgery on his ears a few weeks ago, now my daughter might need surgery on her eyes. I have yet to receive any bills from Kyle's surgery, but I know they're coming. Luckily we do have insurance for the kids, but even with insurance it's quite expensive. When a surgery costs thousands of dollars, and insurance pays 80%, that 20% can still be a lot more than you can afford.

I was reading an article in the local paper about Austin residents flying to India to have hip replacement surgery. The surgery, I read, costs about $50,000. With insurance, it's about $20,000. In India, they're doing it for $8,000.

Is this what it's come to? Flying to foreign countries to have operations? Sad, sad, sad.

"If one of us ever needs to have a major operation, we should just go back to Taiwan." I told my wife. Maybe she thinks I'm joking. But I'm not. Not really.

(Picture: Sara in January 2007, with her "lazy eye)

Victory

"Oh, in America

The land of the free, they said

And of opportunity

In a just and truthful way

But where the president

is never black, female, or gay

And until that day

You've got nothing to say to me

To help me believe."

-Morrissey, "America is Not the World", 2004

Now, we can all believe.

After eight long years of what will probably be considered the worst presidency ever, there is finally hope at the end of the tunnel. Hope that things are going to change. America's reputation with the rest of the world has been severely damaged. Now that the country has elected its first black president, those who came to hate us will start to take another look. If there's one thing this election has taught us, it's that anything is possible. People have put their prejudices aside and looked beyond race to elect the best candidate for the job. This is really a day to be proud of this country.

Unlike Bush, I kind of liked John McCain. Had he won, I wouldn't have felt the intense anger I had when Bush won in 2000, and then again in 2004. Bush, and especially his VP Dick Cheney, were just total selfish, arrogant pricks who had their personal agendas, and were going to follow it no matter what. I remember when GMA was interviewing Dick Cheney, they were talking about the war in Iraq

(here's the actual video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SypeZjeOrY4)

"Two thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." the interviewer asked

"So?" Dick Cheney replied.

SO?!

I can't tell you how angry I was when I saw this. Couldn't he at least be phony and say something like "I understand their concerns." ? The arrogance of this man.

I think the biggest problem with McCain's campaign was his choice of Sarah Palin as VP. I think that sealed his fate. Maybe if he had chosen Romney or Huckabee, the outcome would have been different. Palin just came across to me as a character out of the movie "Fargo." Of course, it also didn't help when he posed with Bush outside the White House shortly after he announced his candidacy. Those pictures of him hugging Bush were a democrats dream.

I really wish I could have voted in this election. From what I hear in Texas, my case was not an isolated incident. Many people who moved here from other states experienced problems when trying to vote. I guess the best I could have hoped for was a provisional ballot. I noticed that in the city of Austin, Obama beat McCain 64 to 35% If you look at the Texas map, most of the southern part of Texas is blue, while the north is completely red. Obama still ended up with 44% of this state, which for Texas isn't bad (in Wyoming Obama only got 33%)

I hope Republicans will give Obama a chance. As I said before, if he does a terrible job, just vote him out in 2012. Personally, I'm not beyond voting for Republicans. In my voting history, I have voted for a Republican candidate twice because I didn't think the democrat in office was doing a good job. The first time was when I voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California. It bothered me that the current governor, Gray Davis, was increasing the vehicle registration fee to pay for the energy crisis. I know the energy crisis wasn't his fault (it was actually Enron), but he could have found other ways to handle it. The other time was when I voted for the district attorney of LA (I'm pretty sure his name was Steve Cooley). Gil Garcetti was the democrat and current DA, and since his team was responsible for losing the OJ Simpson case, that was enough for me to vote him out. So...I'm not a total diehard democrat. I'll cross the line if I want to. :)

So, let's all try to wish Obama good luck. He's going to need it.

Halloween

I always liked Halloween as a kid. Next to Christmas, it was my second favorite holiday (although it's not officially a holiday.) This year will be the kids first Halloween here in America. They don't celebrate Halloween in Taiwan, and many Taiwanese people have asked me about the meaning behind this holiday. To them it seemed pretty strange.

Having moved to the night shift at work recently, I'll be working this Halloween night, unfortunately. Although, had I been home, I'm not sure the kids are ready for trick-or-treating yet. Kyle can barely walk, and Sara is is still extremely shy around everyone except for me and my wife. I doubt she would want to walk up to peoples doors and yell "trick or treat." I'd end up having to do everything for her. I think next year she'll be ready. 4 years old seems like a good age to start.

So this year we'll just be carving pumpkins and watching scary movies. I like to play John Carpenter's "Halloween" this time of year. It's probably the best, and most classic of all the "Halloween" themed horror movies. It relies more on tension and suspense than gore and simple shocks. If you've never seen it, rent it, but avoid the 2007 remake by Rob Zombie. I was really disappointed with it. Although I liked Rob Zombie's previous films (House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects), his style just doesn't work here. His remake isn't scary in the slightest.

Halloween brings back a lot of memories for me when I was a kid. My friend David (the one in Taiwan) and I used to dress up and go to the local park in Downey (Apollo Park). We use to scarf down on the free hot dogs that they would give away on Halloween, and then we would enter the costume contest. On separate years we each won first place in the costume contest. David won when he dressed up like Admiral Ackbar from "Return of the Jedi," although he called his costume "A Spokesman for the Reagan-Bush Campaign." I won the following year, dressed as a bag of McDonalds french fries. After that, we would go back to my moms house and annoy her with Halloween pranks. David would ring the doorbell, wait until my mom gave him some candy, leave, and then go back again to try to get more candy. My mom, not knowing that it was David, would start to get irritated and say "You've already been here several times! No more candy for you!"

Yes, those were fun times.

(Picture: Sara, Kyle and the Halloween pumpkin)

Voting Shenanigans

I've been wondering why I haven't received a sample ballot at my apartment here in Texas. Now I've figured out why.

I am not registered to vote.

After logging into a couple of Texas government websites, I have found out that they have no voter registration info on me. It's a bit strange, because I did re-register when I first moved here. When I changed my address, the US post office sent me a packet, which included a small yellow card to update your voter information. I guess for some reason, that card never reached its destination.

Could this be an example of voter suppression by the Republicans? Who knows. Probably not, but you never know. It's kind of pointless to suppress the democratic voters in Texas. Obama will lose by a landslide in this state. Texas hasn't voted for a democratic president since Jimmy Carter in 1976. My only purpose for voting was to add to the popular vote for Obama.

I believe Obama is going to win this election, and it won't even be that close. November 4th is going to be a huge victory for the Democratic party. Not just for the president, but for the Senate seats as well. Under a government that is completely controlled by democrats, we may actually see change. I know that frightens the hell out of some people, but change is really what we need in this country right now.

McCain, of course, is saying that he "guarantees" victory on Tuesday. Does he know something we don't? At this point, the chances of him winning are next to none, unless the Republicans have some new tricks (or old ones) up their sleeves again. They'd have to have the manpower to rig the vote in all the battleground states that Obama is leading in, and right now that's quite a few.

As for me, I'll just sit back and watch as the numbers come in, and hope that everyone and everything that I would have voted for succeed. After that, I'm going to go down to a local government office and register to vote....again....for next time.

The (Famous) People of Austin

I ran into Austin pseudo-celebrity Harry Knowles the other day at Best Buy. I was with my daughter Sara at the time, looking for the blu-ray version of one of her favorite movies, "Ratatouille" (which they didn't have, by the way.) Knowles was also browsing the blu-ray movies, already carrying a handful. He was in a wheelchair, which I assumed was because of his weight problem, and his wife was with him. I didn't talk to him, as there wasn't really anything I wanted to say, and I didn't think he wanted to help me find Sara's movie, anyway. :)

Harry Knowles, for those of you out there who don't know, is a well-know movie critic who runs the website http://www.aintitcool.com/. When a new movie comes out, I tend to read the reviews on his website before I go to see it. I also read Roger Ebert's website as well. If they are both in agreement that a movie is trash, I probably won't see it. What's different about Knowles website, though, is that he will publish reviews for movies that aren't even out yet. Many of his readers are movie-industry spies who often get into advance screenings of movies, so you'll sometimes get reviews months in advance of the movie actually coming out.

I already knew that Knowles lived in Austin, so I decided to do a search of who else lives here, either former or current residents, and this is what I found:

Harry Anderson: the guy from the old TV show "Night Court"
Wes Anderson: film director
Lance Armstrong
Sandra Bullock
George W. Bush (Austin can feel real proud of this former resident....'snicker')
Walter Cronkite
Farah Fawcett
Ethan Hawke
Tobe Hooper: film director
Lyndon B. Johnson
Janis Joplin
Terrence Malick : film director
Willie Nelson
Dennis Quaid
Robert Rodriguez : film director
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Owen Wilson
Renee Zellweger

Some of the names seemed obvious (Willie Nelson, Tobe Hooper), but I was surprised by some of the others. Austin isn't Hollywood, that's for sure, but there are some pretty big-name celebs here. I think the only one from that list that I'd like to meet, though, would be Willie Nelson.

(Pictures: Current and former residents of Austin -Sandra Bullock, Lance Armstrong, Dennis Quaid, Willie Nelson, Harry Knowles, and Dubya)

Why I Became a Democrat

I don't normally like to talk politics on my blog, but since it's getting close to the election, I figure why not. If I happen to have any conservative Republican readers out there (although that's not very likely), I've probably lost them by now. hahaha

I haven't always been a democrat. During the mid 80's, I figured I would be following in the footsteps of my conservative Republican father. He had me convinced that all the democrats want to do is raise taxes and let the government control everything. He boasted that the only democrat he ever voted for was John F. Kennedy. However, when George Bush Sr. was up for re-election in 1992, my father, shockingly, voted for Clinton. He couldn't stand Bush, and I remember he used to complain about the amount of time that Bush spent at Camp David. As I have stated before, once hardcore conservatives are voting for the Democrats, you're party is in trouble. I see that trend happening again with McCain. My family, who are mostly all Republicans, are voting for Obama this year.

When I was a teenager I used to watch this conservative talk show host named Wally George. I thought he was hilarious. I loved that show so much that I even went to a taping of it once out in Orange County, California. I don't really know why I liked it or even if I agreed with his politics, I just liked all the weirdos he had on the show. It was like Jerry Springer before Jerry Springer was even on the air. Now when I think about his show, I feel quite different. I think Wally was a bit of a doofus, and he always put himself in a position where he would be right and his guest would be wrong. One example of this was when he had a guest on who was very well-informed and educated, and had brought notes to help back up his arguments.

"You can't have notes on this show!" Wally yelled at him, and he proceeded to take the guys notes and rip them up. Whenever the guy had a fact to back up what he was saying, and Wally didn't have a rebuttal, he would just say "Well I think you're a liberal jerk!" and then he'd bang his hand on the table, and the audience would applaud. Very unprofessional.

It wasn't until around 1990-91 when I was in college that I turned to the democrats. I was talking to my friend David (the one who lives in Taiwan) at the time, and he started asking me questions about why I was a Republican. After I answered, he said "You should be a democrat. Just about everything you said is what the democrats believe."

So what did he ask me? Just basic questions like "Do you believe in trickle up economics or trickle down? I believe in trickle up. Meaning that the poorest people should get the most tax breaks and the richest people the least.
"Do you think gays should be allowed to get married?" Yes, of course I do. I think that gay people should have all the legal rights that everyone else does. I also think this country should have a public healthcare system. Having lived in countries that have public healthcare and don't have it, I can tell you for a fact that public healthcare is better. What's the number one cause of bankruptcies in America? Medical bills! This one is a no-brainer for me.

David also asked me about gun control, and I believe in very strict gun control. Again, having lived in a country without guns, and one with guns, I do feel a lot safer to walk the streets at night in Taiwan than I do here in my own country. I also believe in a womans right to choose, I think more government money should be spent protecting the environment, and I don't think prayer should be allowed in public schools.

So I probably sound like a bleeding heart liberal, right? Not exactly, I still believe in the death penalty for people who commit murder, and I don't support affirmative action. I think everyone should be treated equally, no matter what gender or race. If two people are applying for the same job, and one person is more qualified than the other, that person should have the job. I also don't think amnesty should be granted for illegal aliens. My wife, a legal alien, feels the same way. It's not really fair for those people who go through all the time and expense to get here legally.

The Republican party, at least in my opinion, just seems to represent the interests of the elitist, wealthy minority. They don't believe in equal rights for everyone, and they don't seem to care much about the environment. They claim to cherish life and are against abortion, but they support the death penalty for juveniles and retarded people. The Democrats seem to be on the side of the average, middle class person, which is what the majority of Americans are. I know there is good and bad on every side, and if any Republican out there wants to rebuke anything I've said, feel free to write and I'll publish your response.

For anyone reading this who would like to take a brief quiz on whether they are Republican or Democrat, I recommend this website:

http://www.selectsmart.com/plus/select.php?url=americanpolitic

I took the quiz, just to see if anything might have changed, and I'm still a democrat. :)

President Palin? I Don't Think So.

I've recently been seeing television ads for Barack Obama here in Texas. I was a bit surprised.

"Why is Obama wasting his money on advertisements in Texas? Is there doubt in anyones mind that he isn't going to win Texas?" I asked my wife.

My wife, who is Taiwanese and not even eligible to vote yet, agreed with me. We both think that Obama is the better candidate, and that VP nominee seems totally out of her league.

I saw the debate between her and Joe Biden. While she didn't seem as stupid as she did during her interviews with Katie Couric, I could tell that her answers were all pre-programmed from her "debate training camp" in Arizona. She had memorized all the words she was supposed to speak, but didn't understand the meaning behind them.

I really wonder what John McCain was thinking when he chose this woman as his running mate. I'm guessing he chose her to appeal to the Hillary Clinton supporters who don't like Obama. Here's another woman for you disillusioned Clinton supporters who don't want to vote for Obama!

If this was McCain's intention, he must really think that American women are idiots and are easily fooled. Clinton and Palin are about as different as two people can possibly be.

During the interviews with Katie Couric, Palin didn't know what the "Bush Doctrine" was, nor could she name a single Supreme Court case other than "Roe V. Wade." No big deal, right? Well, just because the average American can't answer these questions doesn't mean that the candidates who want the highest job in the country shouldn't be able to.

One thing that really bothered me about Palin was when she made the remark that she represents the "Average Joe Sixpack." This is ridiculous. We want our leaders to be better than the "Average Joe Sixpack." Much better. The President and the VP represent the entire country. We have a president right now that represents the "Average Joe Sixpack" and look where it's got us. Our candidates need to be the most intelligent and experienced people that we can get. These are the people that are going to be making life and death decisions for all of us.

Some may say "It's no big deal. It's only the vice president job. They don't really do anything anyway." This is true...BUT...this election is different. The VP for Obama and for McCain have to be seriously taken into consideration. McCain is a 72 year old man with health problems. Obama would be the first black president in a country that still has homicidal racists. It's very possible that either one of these VP's could be president during the first term. Can you imagine this country being run by Sarah Palin, the hockey mom from Alaska? It's a scary thought.

Ear Infections

As if daycare center fees aren't bad enough, it seems like every week I'm taking one of the kids to see the doctor.

Thankfully, both kids got put onto my health insurance as of September 3rd. We have an $800 deductible. I've only been paying office visit copayments, so I'm expecting a boatload of medical bills in the mail next month.

Here in Austin, they have a medical clinic that is open on weekends, so this Sunday I had to take Kyle in. He's got yet another ear infection (or it's just a continuation of the same one, I'm not sure.) He's had this freaking ear infection for the last two months, and he's been on three different antibiotics (augmentin, amoxicillin, and cefdinir). This time they just gave him a shot of something called Rocephin. This is supposedly the strongest antibiotic they can give a child. If Kyle still has problems, they told me he might need "ear tubes," which would require surgery. This surgery would allow ear drops to go directly to the infection, rather than resort to oral medication. I have no idea if insurance would even cover this, and it stresses me out just thinking about all of it.

We started thinking: how is he getting all these ear infections? Probably from the daycare center. That place just seems like a haven for disease. I've seen kids vomiting there, sharing each others food and water, etc. Viruses are probably flowing left and right.

Just more trials and tribulations of being a parent.