Tom at work told me that his family in Texas have conversations similar to this:
First: Can you get me a Coke?
Second: Sure, what do you want?
First: Dr. Pepper.
I use the brand name Q-Tip to refer to all cotton swabs, but I find calling all sodas Coke to be bizarre. Do you?
Click on the map below to see what the rest of the country thinks.
Generic Names for Soft Drinks by County
Credit: Mickie
You know you are living in 2008 when ...
Credit: Mickie
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm.
This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?
Credit: Mickie
Memory was something you lost with age.
An application was for employment.
A program was a TV show.
A cursor used profanity.
A keyboard was a piano.
A web was a spider's home.
A virus was the flu.
A CD was a bank account.
A hard drive was a long trip on the road.
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived.
And if you had a 3 inch floppy ... Click Here.
Credit: Sean
Take a good look at this picture. The car broke through the guardrail (where the people are standing and pointing), flipped end-over-end across the culvert outlet, and landed right-side-up on the left side of the culvert.
Click on the image to see the second photo.
Credit: Sean
One day, my mom was out and my dad was in charge of me.
I was maybe 2½ years old and had just recovered from an accident.
Someone had given me a little "tea set" as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys.
Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of "tea", which was just water.
After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my mom came home.
My dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was "just the cutest thing."
My mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up.
Then she says, "Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet?
Credit: Sean
As I mentioned before, Arnon and I caught the flu in late December and passed it onto Wes. Thus, the three of us missed out on New Year's Eve festivities, which would have included dinner at Lime, followed by drinks and dancing in the Castro.
A couple weekends ago, we had a New Year's Eve re-do, if you will. We started with a three-hour dinner at Lime, which consisted of countless small plates and was simply fabulous. Unfortunately, Arnon and I had spent the day tearing down the patio cover in the backyard, so we had little energy for drinking and dancing into the wee hours.
The guys, however, carried on without us.
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Can we do a New Year's Eve Re-Do re-do?
UPDATE: more photos from Jason
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 Yesenia, Andy, Colin, Yayoi, Marc, Tobia and Arnon at Sushi Hunter (February 2008) |
 Liza, Andrew, Elina, Anthony and Arnon at casa de Khaymovich (February 2008) |
 Margaret, Lisa and Tobia at the Melting Pot (February 2008) |
 Ryan, Ya-Wei, and Steve's Birthday Lunch at Kobe (February 2008) |
 Fong's Birthday Lunch at Kabul's in San Carlos (February 2008) |
 Fong |
Have you ever wondered how a woman's brain works? It's finally explained here in one easy-to-understand illustration:
Every one of those little blue balls is a thought about something that needs to be done or a decision or a problem that needs to be solved.
A man, of course, has only 2 balls and they take up all his thoughts.
Credit: Sean
My car died this morning and had to be towed to the shop. It's really surprising because I had a lot of work done on it in December and I was sure I would have no further problems for at least a few years.
But twelve-year-old cars are temperamental.
I thought about getting rid of my Honda and buying something newer, but that would involve shopping and I'm still worn out from the whole house-buying ordeal.
Oh unforgiving universe, what did I do that was so egregious as to incur such bad car karma?
Whenever I give a gift, I tell the recipient that he is free to do whatever he likes with the item except return it to me. Sometimes, it makes for an awkward conversation. This Re-Gift Receipt is perfect for such occasions.
Credit: Lupi
I am a deeply stubborn person. I blame it on the fact that I was born in the year of the ox. But even I know when I'm putting up a fight out of habit rather than in defense of principles that have long since faded.
Alright, so I'm not actually that astute, but I'm fortunate to have friends like Anuj who point out that I'm being lame and uncompromising and help me change.
Anyway, to make a long story short, for Arnon's birthday last Thursday, I gave him my name. Actually, I took his name, but it's what he's been wanting for years so it was the perfect gift for this occasion.
One day, a few years back, it got into Arnon's head that he wanted me to take his last name, and he's been bugging me about it ever since. I told him that if he wanted our names to match, he should change his to Arnon Chung. He refused.
So I suggested that we both change our names to Jung, which is a more accurate transliteration of my name from Korean to English. He scoffed.
At one point, I offered a compromise of Chung-Ziklik, but only if he took it, too. He thought the idea ridiculous. (And I'm always seen as the unyielding one. How rude.)
Recently, Arnon and I were driving home together and having a pleasant conversation when he suddenly said, "You're a turd."
Excuse me? A turd? Are we in the fifth grade again?
Apparently, calling me a turd was his way of letting me know that he was resigned to the fact that I would never change my name and that it was now a closed matter.
As frustrated Romans might have said, oyus vayus.
