Today marks my 20th year in the U.S. Time flies. I'm not feeling particularly nostalgic though -- life has a tendency of taking your attention away from deeper thoughts when there are other things that must be tended to OMG RITE NAO. So here's a bullet list of random thoughts, not necessarily related to my bi-decade anniversary:

• Neopets also had an anniversary recently -- Year 10! And for those wondering, yup, I'm still playing ^_^;;
  
• It's only Wednesday and I've already spent almost 40 hours at work this week. It's insane.
  
• I love my job though. Never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing now, but life usually works like this.
  
• I'm thinking about buying an apartment. In NYC. Just submitted the necessary documents today for a credit check to be performed on me. It's such a grown-up thing to do. It's kind of scary but exciting.
  
• Co-worker C, who works directly under me, is awesome. While I was stuck in the office furiously trying to finish up a federal grant proposal last night, she went to Best Buy and picked up the two-disc version of the Star Trek movie for me :)
  
• Boy Cousin was selling cheesecake for his fundraiser and I bought two. I don't know why I'm so excited about this, but I am. *g*
  
• I love to read The Economist. But why is it so darn expensive?
  
• I finally got a library card (since I no longer have access to a university library), but all I've checked out so far are DVDs.
  
• The Samsung SL620 is an amazing camera. I bought one back in September after reading excellent reviews about the product, and now I'm joining the bandwagon of singing its praises.
  
• One day I'd really like to have a pet. A cat, maybe. Or a hamster. A goldfish. Anything.

Moving onto more important matters...

HOLIDAY CARDS!!! Who wants them? Leave your name and address in the comments (screened) if you want one, and some prompts/keywords if you want me to write a little something. Domestic and international are both ok.

And if you have a card post I've not yet responded to, point me your way! :D

From NY1: De Blasio, Liu Claim Victory In Primary Runoff
From New York Times: Liu and de Blasio Win Primary Runoffs

This is big for the Asian Americans community. John Liu was the first to be elected into City Council back in 2002, and now he's the first to be elected into a city-wide office*. And the best thing? I like John Liu. I've been receiving his newsletters for almost two years now, and have always found his responses to various political and social issues tactful and appropriate.

Actually, all four candidates running for Comptroller were solid choices. While I'm definitely glad that John Liu won, I can honestly say I wouldn't have minded having Yassaky, Katz, or Weprin as the next NYC Comptroller either.

And in an extremely biased, yay-for-a-former-co-worker-and-distant-relative way: Margaret Chin won the primaries for City Council representing Chinatown

Gosh, I never thought I'd get this excited over City politics. *g*

*Yes, I'm aware that this was only the primaries. But the Republican candidate slated to run against Liu is not expected to pose a challenge for Liu to win the post.

Within the last week and a half, I managed to set foot on all five boroughs of New York City. Finally.

Go me.

Thank you very much for all the wonderful birthday greetings! The warm wishes, ecards, and beautiful birthday graphics brought big smiles onto my face :)

So this marks my final year as a 20-something. The next "decade" definitely doesn't feel as intimidating as it used to be, and looking at my life right now, it's so full of blessings that makes me believe 29 is a very good age to be. *g*

- I am more or less "settled" by definition of a single individual living in a large city full of other non-married people. The apartment I just moved into is shiny and sparkly (and shall remain so with my OCD-level obsessive cleaning of the place). I have my own place, and as a rent-stabilized apartment, it's conceivably a place I can stay in for a long time.

- I have a steady job that I love. Not many people can say this about their profession, especially during this time of massive lay-offs and economic downturn. I dove in head-first into a field I initially knew nothing about and have come to like it very much. There are tedious, hair-pulling, frustration-worthy moments, for sure. But by and large, I have really enjoyed working at and learning about the field of community and economic development.

- I enjoy and have a fun-filled outside-of-work life that still allows me to have introverting time for my own. I'm still getting used to living by myself (it's weird not to be watching TV with sunnydlita during evenings and getting nervous over reality TV eliminations), but I have plenty of social activities to keep me busy :)

All in all, a very good start to a new birthday-year. Here's to hoping for a wonderful 12 months ahead!

Tiananmen Square, 20 Years Later

It's still hard to believe that it's been 20 years. Part of me really wishes to be there with those gathered to remember the anniversary, to not let this day pass and be forgotten. So I will continue the tradition of remembering this day on the Intarwebs...

World Journal: 紀念六四 眾院396：1通過

Ming Pao: 六四遊行 人數16年新高

VOA: US Urges China to Openly Examine Tiananmen Square Events

Bloomberg: Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Vigil May Draw Double Last Year’s Turnout

毋忘六四、繼承英烈志、薪火相傳、接好民主棒

It's been a month full of many activities for me. Work has eated my brains as usual. On top of that, I've been gradually moving into my new (and very shiny) apartment, corresponded with and interviewed about 10 people until I finally found a subletter to take over my current lease, furnished my new apartment from scratch (i.e., many trips to random people's homes buying cheap furniture via Craigslist), had to go on three business trips in the span of a month, and did a bunch of family things with my mom visiting from 3,000 miles away.

Tomorrow is the D-Day of my apartment saga: new subletter is arriving in the morning with her movers. This means starting tomorrow, I will no longer be straddling between two apartments in two different boroughs of NYC. I will, for the very first time since, well, ever, have an apartment all to myself.

Said apartment does not yet have Internet connection. I shall have to remedy that asap.

Part of me fears that once the initial rush of moving house is over, I'm going to feel at a loss of what to do. Every day for the past two months, I've had something to do after work until well into the evening, be it going to Home Depot to pick up tool-y things or scouring Craigslist for the piece of furniture I had needed to acquire. Between house stuff and hanging out with friends and family, I literally have not had a moment to myself. I'm utterly exhausted, but have never felt so productive in my life.

And now the only items left on my "To Get" list are two A/C units and some bookshelves. After that, I might really have to buy the Wii Fit to keep me busy. *g*

See you all on the other side of getting Internet access at my new apartment!

There was a huge fire in Chinatown last night not too far from where I work. My boss was in the area last night and actually took a video of the fire with her phone. She showed the video to us this morning. It looked like those action movie fire simulations, with blazing flames and buildings engulfed in smoke... very unreal.

As of this morning, only the charred skeleton of the burnt building remained. The FDNY taped off the entire area and closed down the sidewalk. Right above the (barely recognizable) Hone Kong Supermarket was a blackened façade of rectangular holes where windows used to be. Today is a sunny, beautiful day, but that entire street corner was very somber.

Then around half an hour ago, the remains of the building COLLAPSED. One of my co-workers happened to be outside and saw the entire structure went down.

To think, I've just been to Hong Kong Supermarket not too long ago to buy their 59¢/lb bananas...

One of my two sponsor children have graduated from her program. And here I thought some random life circumstances had forced her to quit. Nope. The life circumstance that happened was that she grew up. She's now 17 (!). For some reason, I still think of her as perpetually 12.

From her letter (translated, of course):
"...I am very thankful to you for your help, love and all the good things you have rendered to me... I have developed in spiritual, social, physical and educational activities through your help. I am self supported only with you [sic] help. I shall never forget your help in my life. My parents conveyed their hearty thanks to you."

I'm getting teary-eyed just by typing this.

Good luck, formerly sponsored child!

Got three weeks' worth of laundry washed and dried, and it's not even 10 a.m. yet! Ah, my day is done ;)

A little update on my lottery apartment: I went to see it, and it's beautiful! A real one bedroom -- not like the ones they advertise on Craigslist. All new appliances, temperature adjustment thingy in each apartment, spacious living room/kitchen area, closets, laundry on-site, live-in super... all those nifty things. I'm still not going to consider the place "mine" until I have the signed lease in my hand. I'd hate to be disappointed if for whatever reason the deal can't close as planned.

This means I'll need to look for a subletter to take my place starting May 1 or so. Maybe I'll stagger the move just like I did when moving out of 6K. I still feel like I've just moved and don't really fancy hauling everything from one place to another again. Having a month-long moving period makes it look less daunting to me somehow.

---

I've been feeling sick all week. Caught some sort of a stomach bug Monday and couldn't keep in anything I ate... except oatmeal. My body seemed to have declared oatmeal its bff over the past few days. Slept a lot and paid a lot of visits to the bathroom. I finally felt better yesterday and began to eat normal food again. Even managed to try some of the meatloaf that sunnydlita made!

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Every once in a while, I'd surf random articles on Yahoo HotJobs or similar sites, just for fun. Lately I've been reading some articles on how to have a good interview. I suppose I was trying to do my "homework" now that our organization is trying to hire development staff and I get to interview potential candidates. Boss Lady still does 90% of the interviewing, but I don't want to sit next to her feeling like a third wheel intruding on a two-person dialogue.

There are always lighthearted articles on what to do/not to do at interviews. I'm always amused by the anecdotes that HR experts share in these articles about disastrous interviews, and would think something along the lines of: "Nah... who except for a few special cases would sabotage their own interviews like that?"

I think you can all see where this is going. I now have a Very Odd Interview Experience story of my own to share, featuring one potential part-time job applicant who committed a hefty sum of job interview faux pas and in the end still believed they were perfect for the job. It was a painfully awkward interview, trying to get the applicant to give anything other than a one-word answer, to share their experience, to give a reason other than "I need the money" for why they want to work at the organization. I know when Boss Lady and I look for new hires, we try to find someone who would be a good fit personality-wise as much as skill-wise. The person's tendency to overuse large, intelligent-sounding words (when small words would more than suffice) aside, I just... didn't get a good vibe about their self-portrayal as someone whose only goal in life seems to be to collect trophies and go for what is conventionally accepted as "good" without giving thought to whether that particular something matches their ultimate goal in life.

Anyway. I'm still processing the experience ("odd" was the first word that came to mind as soon as it was over), but my gut reaction from the interview was similar to Boss Lady's, so I don't think I was being overly critical. More than anything, really, I'm just amused. In a headdesky-for-the-job-applicant way.

If you can only read one post today, go read this one.

First it was my grandma, now even Boss Lady is wishing me to "find a boyfriend soon" in her New Year's greeting to me. Um, am I that obviously walking around with a I'm Single sign flashing above my head?

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

I have today off (w00t!). It's been a nice weekend spent in NJ. Not much going on except lots of food and TV, both of which are always nice. I don't think I've had so much candy in a long time ;p

Work is still consuming the majority of my time. Most of the time it's challenging and fun, with new projects and possibly new staff joining (yes, our organization is hiring!). But this also means it's been very busy -- new contracts means lots of new reports, meetings, performance "quotas," etc. The good news is that our phone has been ringing off the hook with new clients. The bad news is that many of these clients are seeking foreclosure help. Sigh.

On the home front, I've finally started playing my Christmas present -- Animal Crossing: City Folks! I've named our town New NY, in a humble tribute to the City in which I live and to another City in the far, far future, where a beloved Doctor and two of his companions had traveled. New NY is currently inhabited by about 10 animals and two humans: ziasudra and sunnydlita (a.k.a. SunnyD). The ubiquitous Tom Nook is still scamming money out of us all, but it's a good town, with fishes and fossils and K.K. Slider airchecks. Does any out-of-towners want to visit us? *puppy eyes*

In Real Life, I've been trying to catch up with different friends in the City. The l00bs met for a weekend a few weeks ago, which was a lot of fun. I'm also hoping to finally get together with so_severus and sparkly_stuff sometime this week, after months of having vastly different (and incompatible) schedules.

So, Happy Lunar New Year to all! I hope the Year of the Ox will be a good and joy-filled one!

President Obama.

That guy can inspire hope like no one else. Just scanning through my flist alone is making me feel all squeeful and emotional, seeing all of you post such inspirational entries about your thoughts and excitements and hopes and apprehensions for the next four years to come. Today is a day to celebrate. Tomorrow, it'll be the first day in a long string of days to get to work.

The realist in me is already fearing the onset of disappointment -- disappointment due to unrealistic expectations such as Client A who truly believes Obama's stimulus plan will give him instant money so he can save his home from foreclosure. Or Client B who keeps on insisting "Obama will make it better" as if the new president is the panacea to his personal finance mismanagement.

But I do hope in (realistic?) hope. If Obama stays true to his words and will cut out government programs that don't work while giving more money to those that do, then I'm hopeful that programs like the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Funds will be utilized and receive more support for the effective work that they are already doing. As for the current housing crisis, I cannot be more pleased that the (now former) NYC Housing and Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan is now the Secretary of HUD. We -- collective we, referring to my and other housing/community development organizations in NYC -- have worked with him and the common verdict I've heard over and over is that he knows his stuff. After all, one didn't serve in NYC with the task to tackle the city's affordable housing problem without possessing the required "chops." If Donovan's tenure at HPD left him with only five foreclosures among 17,000 of new homeowners, then I am hopeful that this Foreclosure Crisis will have an ending at some point, with some possible solutions shining down on the other side of the tunnel.

We did help a senior client solve his subprime predatory lending-induced delinquency recently. We helped him apply for reverse mortgage so he didn't have to lose his home. That felt really good.

Happy Holidays, flist!!!
To those who celebrate Christmas -- Merry Christmas!

To those who celebrate Chanukah -- Happy Chanukah & Mazel Tov!

To those who celebrate Solstice/Kwanzaa/other wintry holiday of choice -- have a wonderful holiday season!


Holiday cards are on the way -- in moving to my new apartment I had inadvertently lost a box of cards. Need to go back to my old apartment to pick it up :p This means some of you will be getting New Year cards ^_^;;


Thank you to accioslash, dementordelta, dracofiend, smilie117, sparkly_stuff, vain_chan and venturous1 for the wonderful cardses, and to spike7451 for the Christmas cookie! They are all wonderful, every single one of them!

Enjoy the holidays, everyone. Stay warm and eat lots of good food :)

I'm so glad to have computer/Internet access again! Been without my laptop and functional Internet signal for two nights and I was feeling the withdrawal right from the beginning XD

So I feel like I'm waaay behind the times, but...

HOLIDAY CARDS!

If you'd like to receive a holiday (of your choice) card, please comment with your contact info (screened) or email it to me at ziasudra @ gmail . com. I'd love to send them out to whoever wants one! In turn, if you're offering cards, please link me to your card post :)

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!

Had the traditional Thanksgiving meal tonight, and now I'm all full up on turkey and stuffing. Boy Cousin is resting from eating too much a lot of food, and Girl Cousin and I are thinking about lining up early at Best Buy to snatch up some Black Friday goodies. We're planning to camp outside the store before it opens... unless there's already a long line by the time we get there. I'm feeling tired already though, and I totally blame it on the turkey ;p

Maybe I'll take a nap before we leave, heh.


ETA: Didn't end up getting what I was in line for (the $379 Toshiba laptop), but Girl Cousin and I came away with some pretty cool loots, including DVDs, toys and video games for our other cousins. Went home and sleep... now I'm contemplating another nap, haha.

Life has been mostly taken up by work lately... looking at working part of yet another weekend, eep! At least this time I'll just be tweaking a proposal from home before sending it off to a consultant. I love it when we use our consultants :)

In happier news, I am moving! I will be living with sunnydlita and her current housemates in Astoria, Queens! Moving out of Manhattan is definitely going to be different, but I think it'll be a good change. I've already stayed 4.5 years in my current apartment -- practically a lifetime in terms of New York City rental length of time.

Roommate A is getting married in a little over two weeks. She and her fiance went to get their marriage license today, so technically they're already married! Wow, hard to believe that not even two years ago, Roommate A was still single and talking with former Roommate D about dreams of getting married. (Which was a conversation I didn't bother to join, heh.)

And to sum everything up, dragons! Click them if you want, but I'm just posting them to gather unique views. You guys looking at them with your unique ISPs are their food :)

( dragons behind the cut )

Ganked from aliciajd. This has got to be the funniest video I've seen recently, comparable to all the Tina Fey!Palin SNL skits (I'm partial because I like cats *g*) but infinitely cuter!

This is why your printer doesn't work:

I saw this video posted on my flist multiple times today. As I mentioned on Tuesday night/Wednesday early morning, right after Obama's victory speech I went with Roommate A and her fiance to Union Square just to be part of the celebrating crowd. When we got there (at around 12:30 a.m.-ish), it was the tail-end of an earlier round of "Star Spangled Banner." Very similar to this:



Glad to know that the pot-banging dude was still around an hour later ;)

But seriously. The spontaneous gathering thing was kind of cool. I'll definitely remember it for many years to come, long after I will have moved out from living in the Village.

President-Elect Barack Obama.

Wow.