Shoes That Don't Fit

What I'm listening to: Lily Allen - Littlest Things

This song doesn't necessarily apply to me, but I really am listening to it on loop right now and have been for maybe the past couple of hours. I hadn't known there was a music video, but I think I'll post that instead.



She also has a video for Smile, her first single, which isn't bad. This one is probably the only mellow song on her album and I happen to like this one more. In case you haven't heard of Lily Allen, then it's probably because you don't use Myspace or you missed it by chance, but this is how she made her way to fame:


Because of the above article, it is now necessary for me to post PaxilBack by The Gray Kid. I was really pretty crazy about this video:



I was pretty crazy about this video and his music when it first came out. I hope he makes more videos soon or puts up music free for download like he did before.

Side Note: I just noticed that this is Post #50 and it happens to be May 10th. I thought I'd just share that today.

I hadn't really intended on posting today, but I'm feeling kind of melancholic, which might explain why everything has suddenly seized up and hurting. Where is the thunderstorm that was supposed to happen today? The hip itself doesn't usually ache, it's almost always the joints and parts connected to it. Today, the actual hip is really bothering me and I think I twisted my neck wrong or something. I got some Robax Platinum samples that I requested in the mail, so I think I'll take that now. Being a Thursday, I spoke to my GP and we've decided to discontinue Celebrex, because it may be causing cardiovascular problems in some people, mainly seniors, but I'm sure it will have ill effects after taking it consistently for a long time. It doesn't help anything, so I don't want to take it anymore.

I was going to finish up my latest bear and take pictures of the completed one, but I haven't gotten very much accomplished today. I've been trying to sort things out for credit cards and online payments, but it's not going so well for me. Haven't really felt too down for quite a while.

When I visited Taiwan a few years ago, I dropped by to meet with some relatives. My family can get to be kind of complicated, because my dad has three brothers and three sisters, all of them older than him. His oldest brother is 20 years his elder and his oldest son, who would be my cousin, is roughly one year younger. All of his children are older than me, but I still have the status of 'Aunt'. My dad's oldest sister-in-law is the aunt who taught me to make the peace ball and lotus flowers I posted about before. Her daughter, my cousin, came to visit me when I was in the hospital in Shanghai and brought me a lot of interesting books and Buddhist CDs to listen to. She's very environmentally-conscious and we chatted about sustainable development, organic foods, holistic remedies, and food properties, such as their vitamins, minerals and health benefits. Fascinating, common interests.

My cousin works at Texas Instruments as VP of Human Resources, so she was on a business trip and stopped by to keep me company a couple times. We used the TI-83+ calculators for AP Calculus, but I happened to have already bought the TI-92+ about six years ago for $300:



My calculator got discontinued almost as soon as I got it. Wonderful. At least I didn't have to buy another one, because a friend of mine lent one to me for about two years. Last year, I got a Casio fx-7400G PLUS-GY from my high school for being the top overall math student over the four years:


That's even more incompatible. Tell me, why would they give me one of those, especially a Casio calculator, when we clearly use Texas Instruments calculators? Answer: It's only $40. A TI-83+ currently costs about $130, but I'll bet it was more at that time. I tried selling it, but nobody wants it. It's still unopened, so let me know if you're interested, which I highly doubt.

When I visited Taiwan, her daughter was dating a guy whose family owned a Nike factory in China, but they're now married and had a baby. No, it was not a sweat shop. It was actually more like a small village. They provided accommodations and food by the truckloads. Nike would only let them make basketball shoes and sourced from a number of different factories for their other styles. However, they were also contracted to make baby shoes and they gave me two pairs, which have been sitting in the box and on my desk shelf:


I don't think both pairs are meant to be fit in that small box, but that's how they were given to me. I don't think I'd ever owned a pair of Nike shoes before these ones.


I like the white ones better, because they'd be ones that I'd actually consider buying for myself if they were my size. I really like the wrap-around velcro and the quality is pretty good. I think they have little dots and a Nike logo on the soles for a better grip, but I forgot to take a photo.


These shoes are pretty soft and I would imagine they'd be comfortable for babies to wear in comparison to those stiff patent leather ones. I don't think babies really want to wear shoes at all. These ones are pretty unique, because they're plaid. Have you ever seen a pair of plaid basketball shoes? Exactly.

My dad went back to visit them about a year later while he was on a business trip and he called back to ask for our shoe sizes. I got one black pair and another one that was really quite similar to the first red/white/navy blue ones if you can imagine. I know my brother got a pair of silver-grey basketball shoes, but I can't remember for sure the colours of the other ones. My dad got white and blue shoes. I don't believe my mom got any at all :(

Quite frankly, I don't really like Nike shoes very much. They're very obviously informal, as if I should be in a gym or running track. Basketball shoes bother me even more because they look very chunky, but I still appreciate the gifts. They were very exciting at that age and I think I might still have them somewhere, but I don't think I'll be wearing them anymore.

I also saw mini PUMA shoes on sale at one of the stores for athletic gear at Vaughn Mills. I think it would have been nice to own a couple, but I would have rather saved that money to buy a pair in my size. I now have five pairs. I'm still going to work on extending the life of the ones that I wear frequently, but I think I should stop buying them for a while.

Driving

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it, but this is the colour and model of the car that I was using.

As means of getting to the gym, my GP’s solutions are to take public transit or maybe I could drive there, to which I said I could go with my dad when he gets back from work. The problem is that it would be late, about 7 PM and when would dinner take place? Indeed, maybe it would be best if I drove there, which is what I thought in the beginning, but my parents don't trust me driving. Neither do I. My uncle learned to drive and taught driving lessons in Japan, where he says the standards to pass an exam are enormously higher than Canadian ones. He very kindly offered to give me free lessons, but even when I'm driving in residential areas, I'm nervous out of my mind with his older Toyota Corolla and him beside me. It's also hot, the sun is in my eyes, and, well, my reflexes are very slow. On a side note, his car used to be my mom's car until we sold it to him at a very good price, because his either broke down or was completely crushed, but I can't remember. I'm not good at parking and his instructions are incredibly vague. He only tells me when it's too late. Instructions like, "No, no. Turn it a bit more." and "No, no. Let it go. Turn the steering wheel back. Earlier!" He keeps talking and pointing everywhere so that my head spins, as if it weren't spinning enough when I started, and I don't hear what he's saying or know where to look, so I'm backing out while looking forward or vice versa. I think the worst part is how he selects the parking spots, and I'm not talking about the actual ones he picks - he tells me far too late and says I missed it. Did anyone else's instructor say that it was okay to be in the 'opposite lane' of the parking lot? Even for 'just a moment'? Mine really put a stress on that. After maybe fifteen failed attempts and a few that he made me get out of the car to examine and discuss, I said I was tired before he was able to choose another spot. I feel pretty bad about complaining, because he is taking the time and paying for the gas. In all fairness, he's quite nice about it, even though it's rather difficult to read him. I just can't tell, but at least he's not yelling at me. As I'm writing this, I have a growing suspicion that I'm more poorly coordinated than I had thought and his instructions would probably work on someone else. My former instructor had formulas for where the car had to be, how much to turn the steering wheel, how much to move forwards or backwards, and repeat for every new exact position of the car. I had trouble remembering all the steps, but I think I like that better than having to freestyle. I don't think my judgment is good enough for that.

My Dad :D

Intensecure caught this post during the 30 second duration that it was published, then taken offline almost immediately. Amazing.

I guess I have to publish it anyways and I don't know why I obsess over things concerning numbers, as described below:

I was going to post this right after writing about the iPod case, but I wanted to cap the posts at exactly 40 in the first month of writing for this blog, which would be April, the fourth month of the year. Besides, I didn't have a picture to go with it at the time anyways. [I want to have all my posts go with a picture, but I don't really feel like turning on my desktop just to get a photo of my dad then turning it off. Here's a temporary one that I have on my camera, even though I thought I deleted almost all of them.]


What a funny picture of him yawning while driving. In fact, now that it's been uploaded and doesn't look as awful as I thought it would, I might even keep it. In case you're wondering, I believe we were driving our Toyota Corolla and not the Camry, as I had thought originally. I can't remember where we were going or why I took it either. Well, I took it because I was probably bored and laughing maniacally while keeping myself entertained. They don't mind having their pictures taken as much as I do, so it's all in good fun. That's our garage door opener clipped to the mirror on the top.

My dad went on a business trip last week, where he bought me the iPod case. My mom has been worrying about this trip since January and she's been on his case to shorten it every single day. These trips usually last about three weeks, but he ended up having to strategically shorten it to seven days, one week including plane flights, to HK exclusively. I don't think it's very fair, because that's what he was essentially hired to do - accompany his boss on business trips, namely to Asia. On his business card under his name, is written New Buisness Delvelopment. Yes, both Business and Development are spelled incorrectly. My dad has had maybe over several thousand business cards made very recently, because he never brings enough with him to foreign countries, where he always seems to get caught working on business affairs. Typical of my workaholic father. I checked his other ones and they were copied from the original so they're all incorrect.

To be more specific, he is a buyer or a product manager, as described at his previous company. He picks items that he thinks will sell well, but instead of choosing them for a mail order catalog targeting senior customers, he is selecting them for infomercials to be shown on television and, more recently, online. I am so glad they updated their sites for the company and for online shopping. They also sell the "As Seen On TV" products in stores, such as Walmart, for people who don't like calling in and giving their name, credit card number, expiry date and address over the phone. I wouldn't. I've worked at a customer service call centre and I know how easily that information could be abused. Before my dad joined the team, they were a distributer, sourcing from another distributer in the US. Why pay another distributer when you can buy directly from The Source - China, where everything is or can made. I'm told that they don't like the label "Made in China" anymore and they're trying to change it to "Made by China". China as its own proper entity, as if it were a specific person. Strange thinking.

Let's say my dad picked out an item in HK or saw a unique but interesting one here in Canada that Northern Response (International) Ltd. wants to sell on television as a revolutionary, state-of-the-art product. First of all, it has to undergo a long process that now seems very similar to a bill becoming law in Parliament: My dad will present it to his boss and some other people, who will either pick it up or reject it immediately. The other option is that they will laugh, make fun of it, mess around with it at the office, reconsider and...probably reject it again later. If it does go through, he will go and contact either the original supplier or find his own sources to compare for the best price. Sometimes his sources actually look for other suppliers for him or they find factories to make it for themselves if it's very unique or they think they can sell it elsewhere and they send samples, wherever they get it from, so he can present it again. Then the sales people (the guys sitting next to him at the office) make a sales pitch to companies like Walmart or Showcase, which sells all the "As Seen On TV" products in-store, regardless of it supposedly being "not available in stores". If all goes well, my dad places an order and agrees upon the method of payment with the supplier. I forgot how they do it exactly, but it's a clever, conservative way to ensure that they don't buy thousands of pieces and end up over-stocking, which was a common problem at the other company. Eventually, they might hire some celebrity or a bunch of attractive models, who did not get that way through their product but actually started out that way to get the job to advertise it in stores. My dad looks out for other items in stores or at product shows (hardware shows, toy shows, etc), like he did in HK, but this time the focus was more on visiting the factories and suppliers, because they were so pressed for time. Here, the sales people also attend product shows, where they demonstrate the product and try to convince other stores or companies to source the product through them, just like they used to do before.

A large portion of this work used to be part of the sales department, but it is now part of product development, which is mainly composed of my dad and so he answers directly to the president/founder of the company. Big assets that put my dad above a lot of people were his experience and language abilities. No, not English. The "tremendous experience", as his boss tells all of his acquaintances he has and met with overseas, is mostly referring to the 28 years he has worked with factories and suppliers in Asia. Another important component was, at the moment when a former colleague recommended him, his boss was looking to hire someone to solve the problem with the middle-man and source directly from China. He was really quite desperate to find a travel guide/translator to take him to Asia, because he's gone a few times before in the past but came back with nothing, as he couldn't communicate and didn't know where to even begin.

A lot of people thought he would never be able to find a job at his age when he lost his old one when the other company went bankrupt. Age and experience really does come in handy, even if it looks unappealing on a resumé, because he only had a few jobs on it and his BA in Commerce, as they came to call it, was completed in one of the top universities in Taiwan, but they don't know that. All they see is a foreign one, an old guy with 'not a lot of job experience', probably with poor language skills - more specifically, English. I wrote those cover letters and put together his resumé for him, so there's no reason for the prejudice.

As you can probably see, I'm very proud of my dad. And as you would probably guess, my dad's the best and it's not even Father's Day, haha XD