I hate stupid people!

I hate a lot of things, and one of them is stupid people. They annoy me to no end. You can try and break it down to them, but they would just look at you with a blank expression.

A while ago, I had gone to KFC with a $3.00 off coupon. I picked a family meal with sides that was on the menu for $32.49. I asked the girl behind the counter if she took the $3.00 coupon, which I printed off the KFC website. She said sure. She took the coupon, wrote $34.11 on it and did the math for the $3.00 coupon, bringing the total to $31.11. Simple enough; the $34.11 was obviously the meal price plus tax. She then proceeded to manually type $31.11 into the register and hit the pre-programmed total button. The screen flashed $32.67. She looked at me and asked for my payment. What ensued boils my blood till today:

Me: Why is it $32.67?
KFC idiot (looks at register then at me confusedly): Oh, we add tax.
Me: But you already added tax. (points at coupon with math)
KFC idiot: No, I didn't.
Me: Why did you write $34.11 on the coupon?
KFC idiot: That's how much the meal costs.
Me: Wait, how much is the meal? The menu says behind you says $32.49.
KFC idiot: Right, $34.11 is the meal plus tax.
Me: Okay...then you take $3.00 off for my coupon, put it into the register. How did it become $32.67?
KFC idiot: That's plus tax.
Me: But you already added tax!

At this point, the girl next to her is listening to the conversation.

KFC idiot: I don't understand. That's how we always do it for these coupons.
Me: Okay. How much is my meal?
KFC idiot: $32.49.
Me: Okay, why did you write $34.11?
KFC idiot: That's the meal plus tax.
Me: Fine, you take $3.00 off for the coupon. You type it into the register. Why is it $32.67?
KFC idiot: Because you add tax.
Me. You just said it! You added tax twice.
KFC idiot: No, I didn't. That's how we always do it.

Now the girl next to her is beginning to suspect something is wrong. She mumbles something to the idiot about what I'm trying to say. I am getting pretty heated now, but I don't want to lose my cool over something sooooo effing stupid. KFC idiot tells me she'll get a supervisor/manager. What's worst than dealing with a stupid person? Dealing with TWO.

KFC idiot supervisor: Sir, that's how we always do this with the coupon.
Me: But you're adding tax twice. (At this point, I don't understand why they can't press the button for the meal, total it, and use a coupon function. I used to be a cashier, though not at a KFC. But it's simple procedures.)
KFC idiot supervisor: No, we're not. This is how it works.

I go through the whole step-by-step thing. It's so simple, it hurts. They look at me like I'm crazy. At this point, I wish I had a pen and paper and I could write the stupid steps for them so their stupid heads could understand. But I had stood there for 10 minutes over $1.57.

Me: You know what, I don't care. It's a dollar something, just get me my food. I'm wasting too much time.

They get me my food. I look at the girl who's still pretty confused about the whole thing. I tell her not to worry about it and that I don't even care for the dollar something. As I leave, I contemplate writing to KFC. Or contacting the IRS or Attorney General, because if they do this to everyone that uses a coupon, they are cheating people out of their money and they are way off on their meal taxes that they pay. But I think to myself, that this is a battle I'm not gonna pick and that I'll let it slide. Besides, that KFC if pretty close to me and they haven't disappointed me in the past. I'd hate to to have to drive farther for my heart attack in a bucket.

I guess what gets me is that the girl behind the counter is at least high school age. What is so hard to understand about the whole thing? It bugs me to no end who stupid she was. Then her supervisor? Man oh man... But whatever. I feel better ranting about it.

Starting rehab

I'm quite frustrated at the rate of recovery for my shoulder. What frustrates me more is that I can't seem to find a stretch that hits the spot. Thinking back to a neck injury I sustained back in college, my doctor had told me to strengthen the surrounding muscles so they would take off some strain in the injured muscle. So that's what I decided to do. Isometric exercises are cool and all, and I will continue to fit them in during my mini-workouts, but they're just not the same.
I decided to start rehabbing the shoulder. I still feel some pain during certain movements, but instead of starting at 15lb dumbbells, I got my hands on a pair of five-pounders. Used in high rep sets, I can give my muscles a good burn without stressing the injured muscle. Besides, I'm way overdue for switching to a workout that targets the endurance/slow-twitch muscles (should try to mix my workouts more often). I'm hoping these exercises with the high-rep sets and light weights will strengthen the surrounding muscles in my shoulder and take some load off the injured one. Here's the breakdown:

Monday: Squats (40)
Tuesday: Counter pushups - less weight (40), various isometric exercises w/focus on chest and triceps (220 total)
Wednesday: Lunges (20 each), squats (40), various isometric exercises w/focus on back, biceps, and shoulders (240 total)
Thursday: Calf raises (90), one-legged calf raises (20 each)
Friday: Squats (45), various isometric exercises w/focus on chest and triceps (240 total)
Saturday: Hammer curls (10, 10), Biceps curls (10, 10), lateral raises w/5lbs (20, 20), rear lat raises w/5lbs (20, 20), eyebrow kicks (10 each, 10 each), front raises w/ 5lbs (20, 20), bent-over rows w/5lbs (20, 20), shoulder presses w/5lbs (20, 20), shrugs w/5lbs (20, 20), hammer curls w/5lbs (20, 20), biceps curls w/5lbs (20, 20), standing external rotator w/5lbs (10, 10), diagonal raises w/5lbs (10, 10)
Sunday: Dumbbell press w/10lbs (20, 20), triceps extension w/10lbs (4 sets - 20 each), chest flies w/5lbs (20, 20), ab work

After the high-rep sets, my shoulders do feel tighter (like they normally do after a good workout). I seem to have a bit more range of motion, but it's really too soon to tell. We'll see how it goes.

Last weigh-in:
179.5lb

Soup and poultry!

I had the pleasure of being able to cook dinner the other day with a friend. We made a soup, roasted cornish hen, roasted potatoes, and a quick salad. Didn't take much effort and was very cheap. I think the dinner for two wound up being $10 total (I did have some veggies and stuff in the pantry, but still). Anyways, I figure I should quickly put the recipes down. It's unbelievably easy. I don't really measure much, but I'll guesstimate:

Chicken Noodle Soup (though we skipped the chicken)

2 cans chicken broth (low-sodium recommended, can always add salt)

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1/4 lb cooked chicken

1 tbsp olive oil or butter

oregano

basil

salt and pepper

In a pot over medium heat, saute onions and celery in oil/butter until tender (about 5 min). Add chicken, carrots, herbs, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then simmer for at least 20 minutes. Done! If you're adventurous, make your own chicken broth!

Herb Roasted Cornish Hen

I wanted roasted chicken, but didn't really need all that meat from a 4-5 pounder. So I went and got a 2lb cornish hen. Perfect size!

1 cornish hen, about 2lb

1/3 lemon

dried rosemary

dried thyme

dried parsley

kosher salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Cut cornish hen in half and remove backbone (you can try to make some stock/broth with the bone and the giblets, but I doubt the small amount would produce a good enough stock. Maybe freeze it with other carcass bits until you have enough?). Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over chicken. Add herbs, pepper, and lemon juice. No salt yet, don't want to draw out the moisture from the meat. Let sit for an hour (Do this before you prep the rest of your meal so you're not just standing there doing nothing). Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat a skillet/nice frying pan to high. Add the other tbsp olive oil. Salt both sides of the cornish hen halves. Add to pan and sear till brown. Throw the whole thing into the preheated oven (don't have a pan that can go into the oven? Go here or here! Or you can transfer the halves into something oven safe) for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven (use mitt!) and let sit at least 5 minutes for juices to settle back into meat. Serve!

Herb Roasted Potatoes

I got this recipe from my coworker. When I asked her what she added to her potatoes, her answer was "whatever I got." I use this answer now when people ask me about my potatoes.

Potatoes, cleaned and cut into pieces (as much as you want. I prefer new potatoes, but will settle for red potatoes)

kosher salt

pepper

olive oil

whatever else you want

Drizzle oil over potatoes and add the "whatever I got" ingredients into potatoes. I like to add basil, Italian herbs, dill, a bit of Cajun mix, and onion powder). Don't be shy about the salt. You'll need more than you think. Arrange in shallow pan or casserole dish in an even layer. I would oil the pan, but I normally season the potatoes in whatever I plan on roasting them in, so it's usually coated. Throw in a preheated oven (450 degrees). Half hour should do it. I would mix the potatoes a couple times while they roast to get the entire surface area exposed.

Move over Dom!

Over the New Year's, I had the fortune of having a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin La Grande Dame in my possession. My cousin was generous enough to give it to me before she had moved. At the time I didn't think much of it, but when I went to open it, I noticed it had a vintage year on the label. 1995. As I studied the label, I realized that this was more than an ordinary bottle of champagne. With a little research, I realized this bottle ranked up there right along with the Dom Perignon.


I also had the fortune of having a bottle of Dom before. A friend had given it to me (what luck huh?). I remember not being overly impressed with it, at least not impressed enough to spend $200. I mean, it was a great brut; not too dry, good flavors. Just not a $200 bottle to me. But anyhoot, I had some company over and we opened the Grande Dame. The cork came out with a very small, very disappointing pop. But man, it tasted nice! Just enough bubbles to dance on your tongue. Just enough dryness to cut to the palate. Just enough sweet to satisfy. This bottle, I could clearly see why someone would pay $160 - $200 for. Would I? I wouldn't say for sure I would go out and get one. Maybe for a special occasion.

I have heard that Veuve Clicquot makes a very nice Rose Champagne, and those go for $65 - $80. I'll probably try that in the near future. It's just that for me, if I were to spend $60+ for a bottle of liquor, it should be a long lasting type of alcohol like a nice single malt or a premium hard liquor. But as I've said, for the right occasion, I wouldn't mind splitting a bottle. Last bottle I split was the "Black Bubbles". Mmm...that was tasty too.

It's official, my shoulder's busted again.

So I think it's safe to say that my right shoulder is busted. I tried doing some lateral raises to test my shoulder integrity, and it's not there. I've tried lying to myself by saying it was "tweaked", but I must've pulled a muscle deep in my shoulder. I'm suspecting rotator cuff, but whatever it is, it's not major muscle I can feel, but it plays a major part in supporting my other muscles during other workouts. I can feel it ache a bit during pushups. I feel it when I apply lotion to my back. I feel it when I lift my arm a certain way.

The only thing I can do is let it rest. I've tried lightly stretching the affected area, but I can seem to quite locate a stretch that hits that area. I've tried shoulder stretches, upper body stretches, biceps and triceps stretches. Can't seem to get it. So I'm going to let it rest. Then slowly strengthen it again by dropping my weights to 10-15lb each. Meanwhile, I'm going to find exercises that doesn't require any shoulder rotation. I'm going to start isometric exercises again. I did those a lot during my days in Aikido during college. They work, but you really need to concentrate, and you get what you put in. When the shoulder gets better, I really need to focus on getting into a routine workout regimen. I'm thinking I've been too lax and I tweaked it doing something as mundane as shadow boxing. Phooey. Here's last week's breakdown:

Monday: Squats (40)

Tuesday: Calf raises (90)

Wednesday: Lunges (20 each), neutral grip pullups (10)
Thursday: Hammer curls (10), biceps curls (10), calf raises (90), pushups (40)
Friday: Iaido cuts (150), lateral raises (10), hammer curls (10, 10), biceps curls (10, 10)
Saturday: Pushups (40 on knees)
Sunday: Various isometric exercises (160 total), roundhouse kicks (10 each, low and medium height), side kicks (10 each, low and medium height)

Last weigh-in:
180.0 lb

Workout update

So this shoulder of mine is bugging me more than I thought. Last week I managed some mini-workouts. Trying to control my diet a bit more again by cooking/bringing my lunches. But this shoulder thing is really making an effect. I haven't been able to do my other upper body routines. I need to be creative and find exercises that don't involve the shoulder too much so I can let it rest. I'm trying to stretch it out a bit more too and do lighter exercises that would slowly build it up again. Here's the breakdown for last week:

Monday: Lunges (20 each)

Tuesday: Calf raises (90)

Wednesday: Hammer curls (10), Biceps curls (10), Squats (40), neutral grip pullups (10)

Thursday: Pushups (40)

Friday: Neutral grip pullups (10)
Saturday: Skiing
Sunday: None

Last weigh-in:
179.5 lb

Work ethic or just genes?

I was out to dinner last night, and my sister was telling stories about high school and stuff. You can probably imagine a lot of drama there. Anyway, there was a pretty funny moment when she mentioned that a neighboring city's high school doesn't seem to rank as high as our city's high school. She mentioned that A's high school's 2008 valedictorian only (haha) went to Brown University, whereas B's high schools top three went to Princeton, Harvard, and MIT. As a joke, I plainly said that cause B has more Asians:

Me: Is B's number one Asian?
Sis: Yea...
Me: Is B's number two Asian?
Sis: Yea...
Me: Is B's number three Asian?
Sis: Yea...
Me: Is A's number one Asian?
Sis: Yeah...
Me: Is A's number two White?
Sis: Hahaha....Yeah...

And there you go. Now, before you go off and claim I'm racist, I am NOT racist. I'm just pointing out a fact. Currently, Asians seem to work harder right now. Even when I was in high school. The majority of the top ten of my class were Asian. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are fresh immigrants rather than the other "Americans" who immigrated here much much earlier. Because of our "fresh" status, our parents whip us to strive and succeed in school so that we can make a place for ourselves and our future generations. The others already have their place.

You know what it is? They gone soft. I mean, how else can you explain that 75% of my high school English AP class was Asian. Shouldn't the real "Americans" be kicking our butts in their own language? Shouldn't we only be doing well in math? Just based on B's high school graduation results, it has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with where the kids grew up. It has nothing to do with genetics (I know, my post title was misleading, but I've met some stupid Asians too so you can be rest-assured that the world won't be taken over by Asians who will then proceed to kill themselves because they got too jealous and competitive by each other's accomplishments). The reasons I think Asians do well is because 1) our parents really kill us if we get less than an A. Seriously. And 2) people look down on us.

I'm not deaf. I'm not stupid. I know not all "Americans" like us. I hear things. I read things. "Eww...City of B is going down. There's too many Asians." Or "Don't move to B, or your kids might wind up speaking Mandarin." Who's racist now? The funny thing is, most of the Asians I know are Americans. Whether naturalized or actually born American. But people don't see past our yellow skin huh? Well, because of this, we work harder, faster, better.

So if you sit at your kid's graduation this summer and wonder why the top ten of the class are mostly Asians, don't kid yourself. It's not because we're Asians and it's in our genetics. It's because we work harder and your kid is stupid. Well...maybe we're smarter too.

By the way, you're racist if you do the following:
-Ask me where I'm from and then be surprised when I say "Boston". What did you expect? "Oh my motha come from Hong Kong, but we weely like Amelica!" Do I ask you where you're from and then go, "Oh, I meant your great-great-great grandfather that immigrated here on a steamboat. Was it Italy?"
-Tell me that you had a Chinese kid stay with you for some foreign exchange student program, as if that makes you cool.
-Tell me you knew this Asian person once. Do I go up to you and go, "Hey, I used to live near this Caucasian family. They were really nice."
-Tell me you like Chinese food and order chicken fingers and General Gao's chicken. We made that stuff so you people would buy it and feel special that you're so culturally experienced. At least smarten up and know it's really American Chinese food:

(At my part-time job during college)
Coworker 1: Hey Dan, how come I never see any Chinese people at the Chinese restaurant down the street?
Me: 'Cause that's not Chinese food...
Coworker 1 to Coworker 2: I told you!

Locally produced food at The Local

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by a cool little restaurant/pub in West Newton. My friend took me to The Local based on recommendations she received. But the main reason was to go check out some fried pickles! Haha.

The Local is a pub/restaurant with a menu that includes locally produced foods. Tucked into a section of Washington Street in West Newton, it's practically on the Mass Pike. Atmosphere is pretty casual, cool, and very lively with the bar taking up the left third and the dining area the rest of the place. The wait was pretty long on a Friday night, 45 minutes on that particular night. But I think it was worth the wait.

The Local has a pretty good list of appetizers and small snacks. We ordered some fried pickles and their warm potato chips. Very tasty, though the fried pickles weren't really my thing. For entrees I had a salmon that had a wonderful crunchy crust on a bed of bacon mushroom salad and some roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I gulped down a beer from Maine to wash that food down.

This is a place I will definitely go again. If it was closer, it would be an awesome place to gather up some friends for drinks and yummy snacks.

Check out more of my posts on food here!

Pepsi = No Good

You might now know it, but I'm a Coca Cola fan. I've always been. Yeah, Pepsi is oh-so-cool with the ad campaigns. They even got quite a few Hong Kong pop stars on their ads and stuff. But it's about the taste, man. Coca Cola is awesome. And less sugar too! So, I'm here to spread the word that Pepsi is bad. I know Coke isn't much better; it's still sugar water. But I no like Pepsi. So check out this guy's rendering of the Pepsi logo. Haha.

Tweaked my shoulder

I've come to a realization. Ever since I started my moving process, I wasn't as religious about cooking/prepping my own lunch. I was able to some soup and lean pocket weeks, but after I moved, I got lazy with that too. Just these past two weeks, I ordered out with my coworkers. Though I gave each lunch order some thought as to what impact it would make, I still managed to go up in weight. Obviously, the answer to that is make/bring my own lunch. I can control my caloric intake and see what I put in my system. Anyhoot, here's the breakdown.

Monday: Squats (40)
Tuesday: Calf raises (90), pushups (40)
Wednesday: Lunges (20 each), shadowing boxing
Thursday: Calf raises (90), pushups (40)
Friday: Horse stance (1.5 minutes), neutral grip pullups (10), squats (40)
Saturday: none
Sunday: Horse stance (1.5 minutes)

Squeezed in some horse stances at the end of the week. I somehow managed to tweak my right shoulder doing some shadow boxing on Wednesday. I managed to contract a muscle deep in my shoulder and cramped it a bit. Then I aggravated it doing pushups in my cubicle. It was quite tight and I tucked my elbows more than usual, putting more stress in the tweaked area. It's feeling kinda weird right now, but it should heal soon I hope. I did some pushups yesterday and it seemed fine. Blegh.

Last weigh-in:
179.5 lb

Audio from US Airways Hudson landing

The FAA released the transcript and the audio conversation between Flight 1549 and controller at TRACON, which handles air traffic after they depart from New York airports. Captain Chesley Sullenberger and first officer Jeffrey Skiles were very calm and smooth. Captain Sullenberger even did the honorable thing and walked the aisles twice to make sure nobody was left on board before he evacuated. We need more honorable and courageous people like the crew out there. Play the audio as you read along with the transcript. Riveting.

Print with coffee...why not?

One of the top entries in the Greener Gadgets Competition is a printer that prints with the used grounds of coffee. Pretty cool huh? Wonder if it'll make it off the design table.