Anti-robot. Quasi-

Freelancers Union often posted their posters on NYC subways. Their symbol is a bee hive surrounded by three bees.

Being a freelancer means busy not just working, but busy changing jobs too. I cannot say how many times I have changed employer in the past few years. I changed my employment yet again. I do not always have something lined up when employment takes a break, because I always feel the need to take a break myself. I am the opposite of a robot---I do not like working repetitively; I need to be entertained even at work. 

I do not even want to remember what I did at the last job. I think I forgot already. I am only glad I do not have to work there for too long. It is like going to bathroom --- it is okay to be there for a little bit, but not too long. Life is out there, not in there.

I will never ever work for a southern Chinese company again, Cantonese or otherwise. I do not like their way of living, working, talking, thinking. There is no way around it for me. I think it is personal. Why am I even mentioning them, for they are not even worth mentioning. I know I am seemingly generalizing, but it is fair to say at least some Chinese are very shamefully annoying. Chinese is a overly large group of people of all sorts. Unfortunately they were horribly represented in America. Tragically horrible --- slave jobs, tax evasion, dirty floors, ugly accent, worship of money, yelling and screaming, and many more. 

The point is, I am fed up. 

Would it be discrimination to say I am not like them? 

I am ethnically northern Chinese. My family is from the middle of the Middle Nation. Middle Nation is the literal name of China since 1911. 

But in America there is no community of middle Chinese. Most East Asian here are south coast Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans. 

Most of my friends are not Asians. 

I am Asian, but I am not like Asian.  

10 year anniversary of 9.11.2001

   Today is 9.11.2011, 10 years anniversary of the infamous attack. Right now, I am wearing jeans for the first time since summer begun. I just came back from the Ground Zero wearing shirt and shorts, and I felt the wind getting too cold for my skin. I am going back there later tonight with Victor, a friend of mine I met at Ground Zero after Bin Laden was wiped out.

   Do you remember where you were 10 years ago?

   People of older enough remember where and what were they doing when John Kennedy was shot.

   I remember I was driving on the freeway, near my home to go to my morning class in Hayward, California. I was enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Studies of Letters and Science program, consisted of long lectures in the morning and discussion in the afternoon.

   There is a 3 hour time difference between New York and California. When I woke up the news was already out. I found out about it in my car, driving, turning on NPR, my usual channel. I was shocked but school would go on and I needed to hear what my professors have to say in the lecture.

   Mr.Albert, the oldest of the four professors in the program was the lecturer. Even he, at the edge of retirement, an ex-special force, a UC Berkeley graduate, who grew up in Up State New York, had not prepared to give a speech for such an event. Albert was commenting in a calm manner, but the emotions were surging among some students. Some students were angry, others were pleading guilty on behalf of the nation, and the rest seem to be in denial. At least it looked like denial when you were too shocked to say anything thoughtful.

   The beautiful morning view of the freeway 13 in front of my old 1988 Honda Accord's wind shield, and the classroom where Mr.Albert stood and tried to make short comments were the only two moments I could remember on that day.

  California is a liberal state where most people are not as angry as from the mid west. In one of my UC Berkeley classes, two young White students who said 9.11 needed to happen so Americans would wake up to their wrong-doings. I did not like their statement, neither did it come true in a public way. Most TV stations and newspapers still consist that Americans have never done anything wrong to deserve such attack.

  A few people have asked about my opinion about 9.11, and I never had much to say. It is too over-whelming.

   A friend of mine said she cried on that 9.11---she said she cried when she saw a man jumped out of a window. I think that sums up what 9.11 is to me. It is a sense of lost innocence.

   I never thought that I would come to live in New York when I was watching the burning towers on TV. Towers have often represented military power in history. The sacking of the twin power ushered in this new era to our time. It put New York back to the map, to be the frontier, the fortress. But I prefer it to be just another city where peace and love reign. I will do my part.

  Tonight, let us honor the dead.

Barbara Yung --- rediscover her, my childhood star.

  It has been a hard work day for me today. So when I came home my mind was pretty blinded.
  For some strange reason, maybe a sense of nostalgia, I thought of an actress that as kid I used to watch on TV.
  Her name in English is Barbar Yung, her Chinese name is Mei-ling.
  She was the main character in the famous Hong Kong period TV drama "The legend of condor heros". A story about a Han Chinese grew in Genghis Khan's Mongolia, returned to China and tried to help the Sung Dynasty. The character she played was the witty girl who was in love with that hero and helped him along the way. It was very long TV series, and one of the best ever came out from Hong Kong if not the best.
   I had to admit that I am not a Hong Kong commercialized TV or movie fan anyway. But when I was a kid and when they dubbed everything into Mandarin Chinese, I did enjoy a great deal.
   I still remember vividly Wong Mei-ling (Wong in Mandarin) in her period customs. She looked well and very, very charming. I think she is the most charming character ever on TV, to me, at least, and probably to many others too.
   Maybe I thought of her because I was nostalgic of my childhood, maybe it was the charm that I missed in those serious working days.
 Anyhow after a shower and feeling settled down, I googled her up. At first all I found were people's facebook accounts, etc, people share the Meiling name. I tried to put "-" as in Mei-ling, and it worked --- I found her Wikipedia page, which led me to discover her life and her past relationship in England.
   I really did not know much about her, except that she died of carbon-monoxide sucide from disappointment in life at the prime of her act career.
  According to Wiki, her death was a mystery as there is no confirmed reason except rumors. I found out she was 26 at that time.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Yung


 Most importantly thing to me however, is that I realized the reasons she was so charming. She actually lived in England for long period of time. I could relate to that experience as I moved with my mother across the continent, leaving behind friends.

The English life style, like southern California, is very relaxed. People know how to have fun and enjoy life. Barbara embodied that, and it was completely shown in her acting.

What even amazed me more, was that when I looked for her on Youtube, I found picture slide shows taked from her old boyfriend in England whom she went to school with. It daunted on me that she had a completely different life than most people who watched on TV before her career on acting. That is why she was such a star---her charm was a life of only child having to cope with a new environment and keeping the innocence while coming in age. That type of charm can become so ingrained in a person that it masks other hidden feelings.

http://www.barbarayung.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=7&Itemid=67

Rob, her boyfriend in England, has this website dedicated to her. On there he shared his memories.

It is an excellent webpage, and a great discover for me. I have not read through it yet. It already made my evening.

Renaissance Fair was more than fair---it was awesome!

It's been a few weeks since I last blogged. Why did it take a long time to blog again? Well, I started working again. It should feel good, right? I mean, working is making money, however little that is, still better than not earning for a living. Here is the thing though---how much do a person have to make to be making a living.

I honestly don't think American small businesses pay their workers any thing they deserve. Often the hardest workers get little pay, unless they work for the government, in which case they are taken care of most of time.

I know I am whining, but that's because I am a mild proletariat revolutionary. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but you get my point.

I don't want to talk about politics now; it is a year away---more than an eternity in politics.

I do want to talk what I did this summer so far before I completely forget:

Start from last weekend, we went to the Renaissance Fair in Tuxedo, NY, one a hour and a half from the city. I went with my Lutheran buddies---Dan, Kelly, Kate, Kelly's friend Missy.

Kelly drove the rented minivan. First thing on the road I noticed Interstate 80---it is the interstate that starts from one coast to another coast, east to west, the whole 3000 miles. I used to drive on it all the time in California Berkeley. I almost felt home sick. Oh boy.

We knew in advance that it was going to rain that day. For that reason, Kristine even canceled her trip with us. But the rest of the us braved on---I am glad we did, we had a lot of fun:

I have never been to Renaissance Fair, though I have heard of friends talked about their experience in it. It was really better than I thought. Tuxedo actually has the better RF than some other places, I heard from Missy, and it was really so nice to me, very calm and yet exciting. I guess folks in the middle ages were quite like that, you know, without TVs, radios, cars, etc, just idyllic, rustic, country life.

I saw so many things; too many to list one by one. People were dressed in their funny medieval/pirate addresses. (Why they dress their pirate suits? Beats me but I adventure to say those were left-over dresses from some Halloween.) We did dress up, we were not that serious about this event but if we ever go there again maybe I will suggest that we do bring some customs to make it more fun.

I am watching College Football USC playing Minnesota as I am typing. It's the Labor Day weekend, and I have worked pretty hard in the past few weeks. I want to type it down before I forget---sometimes work can get to you, make you forget about fun things. So watch out I'd better.

I think they were getting some falafels---yes falafels in the Renaissance. To make my Renaissance experience more authentic, I decided not to eat that or hot dogs.

USC just scored the first touch down.

Back to the story, okay while they were waiting in line to get food, I went across to the leather shop for some window shopping. Nothing was on sale, well everything was hand-crafted, including wrist guards, mug holder, quiver, chest plate. I tried the wrist guards. But I realized I don't have a sword or a bow to go with it. Later in the day I would get a bow as a souvenir.

We went the glass blowing shop after that. Kate was lost for a second, Kelly had to make a call. They were glad to have cellphones in our fake Renaissance time.

I hadn't seen how they make glass that way, not the whole process at least. It was actually a half-hour work, involving several trips taking the glass in and out of the furnace. You can probably find the correct and detailed information on how to make blown glasses on line, so I won't get into it here. What surprised me were:

1, you don't blow the glass that much, you spin it.

2, you can add color during the process by crumming it dye crystals.

3, you add the buttom of the glass in the end.

4. glass opening can be very small until the end.

Next, to the...uh, I forgot where we went. I think we stroke along the Renaissance park, or kingdom. We walked passed a purple-roped wizard, complete with pointed hood and stars patterns, reading someone's palm; investigated a zoo keeper with a small California King snake on him. I stroke the King snake. As I did so the zoo keeper said that King snakes are immune to other snakes' venom and which allow them to eat them...wow!

Next Kelly and Missy got themselves some dessert. I went around and found a hat shop, saw a suede leather archer's hat and decided to collect it---it was beautiful with the long feather on. I am a Robin Hood fan---one of the original proletariat heros before they were called that.

I caught up with the gang; they were drinking in the beer garden. "A cherry wheat Sam Admas please." I said to the bartender in his long dress.

We were talking and waiting for the chess game show to start. While we sat and talked, the bangs started their show in the back. One of the bands was a royal band---the Queens was among them.

All was good when music was on.

On our way to the chess game, I saw a tomato throwing ground. You can buy tomatos and throw at the guy on the other end hiding behind a wall except his head.

We also saw birds in cages---an owl, a vulture, a hawk. There was also a big cage of white parrots/macaws.

The chess game was not a chess game, instead it was a theatrical play and staged sword fightings, which was fun and entertaining for everyone. But it was longer show than we had time for it as it turned out--- I thought that baby boy sitting behind me was kicking my back as he did earlier and it was Kelly poking me with her umbrella signaling retreat. I thought I was killed by the kid.

We came across a little bridge over a beautiful pond. Over at the foothill of the forest was the knife-throwing show. The two knife throwers are pretty funny. A father and a son supposedly. The father of course sacrifices himself by being the target. The son did not disappoint! I hope they will never ever miss. Now I think about it, William Tell had to shoot an apple over his son according to the legend. Now it is the reverse, and funny.

What next?

The final game was the jolting knights. To save the best for last we had to wait until the end of the day. I went around the swords shop. They had a beautiful Holly Roman Empire theme-colored broad sword---red, gold, and black. When I have extra money one day I will hang one on my wall, to ward off evil spirits, according to Chinese folk traditions.

Dan had to pull me out of the shop.

As we all sat down on the bleacher to wait for the jolting to start in...half hour/eternity, the rain started to came down. Umbrellas were up, no problem; temperature still good, no complains.

But the knights were soaked when they finally came out of the castle. I guess getting wet was not the first thing you would worry about if you were getting jar in the front with a spike by a knight galloping on a horse.

There were total of of 4 knights I think, could be more since there several rounds of jolting. I saw the wood chips from the disintegrated spikes the flying off in the air. After a few rounds, the winner (Robin Hood) put down the rest. Just as the Queen was about to honor him, an uprising!

....if you want to know who won, you should go to the fair!