OakMonster’s Den

I just now realized after reading Frenchy’s plugging the Lesser Weevils on his blog again, that indeed it has been 10 years that we’ve been friends.

We met in Writing 101 class for international students. I don’t remember the exact title. I was taking Mr. Cunningham’s College Commandment to heart–I don’t remember them all–and was going to introduce myself to my professor at the end of class. Before me was Chris, telling the teacher about using IRC to chat with people in class outside of class. She gave him a look like, “Get the hell away from me, French boy. Your idea sucks.” I didn’t get to introduce myself to her after all as I turned to Frenchy and asked him about IRC.

So, he introduced me to the world of geek from that moment on. He was in a different dorm on the opposite end of campus, so we’d be chatting through IRC most of the time, and once in a while he’d show up at my lab to show me how to do other things. Like coding in HTML.

Sophomore year, after we did our usual chat we found out that we both lived in the same USC-owned apartment complex, a few buildings from each other! That was when we hung out a lot. That following summer, he and my then boyfriend Kit–whom he introduced me to–housesit/subleased my new apartment while I was in Thailand. When I got back, they moved 2 blocks down the street. 2 years later, I moved into their building, 2 floors up. More adventures ensued.

Of course, we eventually parted ways, but still we still keep in touch the best way we could.

It was with Chris that I made my first web page, started his blog that inspired me to start my own, recorded my first “demo” (Oh, god, please don’t start singing…), slept next to on the sidewalk outside of Mann’s Chinese for Episode I, saw my first galactic lightshow that was the meteor shower up in Antelope Valley somewhere, went to a strip joint for the first time (with me in drag as a boy…yeah, it was such a hoot!), and went to the Derby for the first time.

Oh yes. We were dancing fools that evening at the Derby. Chris and me goofing off. Then after that, he practically lived at the Derby, and became the swing dancing god he is today.

Ahhhh…the memories!

Christopher Holland. I do so treasure our friendship.

Remember the PeopleFinder Project? Well, they are needing data entry volunteers. Instead of slacking off at work doing absolutely nothing, why not help people find people??

Follow the link to sign up and help. I’m working on it myself.

http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/PeopleFinderVolunteer

Katrina may have just been the kick in my philanthropist ass I needed.

As I’m trying to lead my little AIDS Walk Team, I inquire about volunteering with local ONE Campaign. And of course, with Chris Holland as my inspiration, moved to volunteer to do data entry for the survivor database project.

And here I am, searching the internet high and low to find some place that would take the clothes I have here to folks affected by Katrina.

I wish I’m a millionaire right now. I’d buy every child affected by Katrina a teddy bear. I’d take a leave from my job and go down there to do something about it.

I REALLY want to do something to help people. Enough of watching my time idly go by and not a damn thing changed about the world. It makes me feel good, like some kind of high, from knowing I’m making a difference. Doesn’t matter how tiny that difference is.

Me, the insignificant little Oak, can make a wee bit difference. And that’s better than nothing.

That’s my signature–although I can’t vote–on the ONE Campaign letter to the president. That’s my $20 in the billion dollars bucket. Fine. I’ve just fed a family of four for 2 days, according to the Salvation Army. That’s my $10 to buy, what, half a petri dish to find cure for breast cancer and better medication for mental illness.

THAT - is making a difference. And I want to do MORE!

BTW - YES! Please support my American mom Bonnie Wilkinson at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Walks for the Mind of America. She’s walking in Huntington Beach on October 1. Click on the NAMI Walk banner on www.namioc.org then click to support a walker and look her up!

So the trouble with my eyes, as my new optometrist said, is because my Acuvue contact lenses don’t breath that well. Plus, with the AC in office building, my eyes also got dry out. Not to mention the eye strain from reading in low light on the train.

Back to the lenses. I guess after having used them a few years, my eyes got to a point of early suffocation. Hence the recent redness and blurry sight in the afternoon. So she put me on new lenses that “breathe” better and also compensating for astigmatism. I have a week to get used to these new ones.

So far, I’m still blurry at this hour in the day. And here I am, trying to blog. Is that dedication enough for you?
Also, she said my glasses were too strong. I saw briefly the computerized measurement and it said: Left -3.75. Right -3.5.

Okay the last time I have my contacts done it was Left -4.0. Is my left eye getting “better”? Or am I entering old age and starting to develop farsightedness. It happened to my dad after all.

Yep, Dad is wearing 2 pair of glasses at the same time. Dad went to get new glasses made for his nearsightedness, and his optometrist told him that he needed weaker prescription. Apparently, the nearsightedness seemed to have “reverse” itself somewhat. But a few months later, dad has to come back to get reading glasses made as well. He tried bifocal but damned near kill himself walking down the stairs, so his optometrist suggested he switches out when he reads.

I wonder if that’s happening to me now. I mean, why not, right? At almost 29, I already have a few grey hair. My sight might as well just go with it.

Anyhoo. Ow. My. Eye. Must. Quit.

Accelerated Learning Group (learngroup.net), based in Atlanta, did not give us the refund the promised after dragging me around for a few months and ended up cancelling the class on me.

In May, we paid $695 for Quark Xpress training class, promised for the end of the month. A few days before training date, Greg Parker called to let me know that the class has been cancelled because there weren’t enough people in the class. He would get me into a private 1-on-1 class instead.

So I waited. And waited. He kept promising a date, and then cancelled the last minute a few more times. By July, he sent me an email apologizing for not being able to provide me with training class and referring me to another joint in Los Angeles. He said that he would offer us full refund.

A few weeks after that, there was no refund. We called. He was surprised that accounting has not sent us the money. And he confirmed that the situation has been fixed.

By August, we called again. And he said that there had been a miscommunication, and that the record showed a refund had been sent, but accounting hasn’t sent out the money yet.

Last week, Tiffany has it and called directly. Greg Parker *is* the owner, the instructor, AND the accounting department. It’s a one-man show!

So, where the fuck is our money, Greg???

He was supposed to call us back on Friday. Nope he didn’t. Then Tiffany called again today, and he dodged her all over the place. We are moving to file a report with the credit card and Better Business Bureau as well.

Spread the words around, folks. You may save a few bucks going with Accelerated Learning Group instead of Sterling, but they will take your money to go float their business, give you empty promises, and then drag you along so your money would stretch a while for them while you’re waiting for your refund.

TELL EVERYONE. DON’T USE ACCELERATED LEARNING GROUP!

*UPDATE* Thank you everyone who posted and voiced their opinions here about Accelerated Learning Group. Just want to give a quick up date that we did get refunded by the credit card company as further inquiry with ALG and Greg Parker went unanswered. Still no words from Better Business Bureau, but will follow up now that I got encouragement from others who’ve been cheated by ALG.

I have also sent in a complain to Quark who said they would look into the ALG, and offered to give me a discount at one of their authorized training facility. On Friday, per your suggestion, I also submit a complain to Adobe. Hopefully, someone would get this guy shut down real soon before more people get hurt.

Mike - Wishing you the best in your lawsuit. I hope you get the bastard for the rest of us.

Los Angeles Times: Legislature OKs Gay Marriage

Governor Ahhhnold is leaning toward vetoing the bill. But that doens’t mean it all ends. You can help by writing to the Governor and SUPPORT GENDER-NEUTRAL MARRIAGE AB 00849 bill.

Today is now officially the Cosmically Warped Day by my book.

#1 : A freight train derailed in Orange County, sending a ripple effect through the MetroLink system. My coworker Celeste was stuck out at the platform for 2 hours. And her train was also towing another malfunctioned train so it was literally crawling into LA.

#2 : My train was acting weird. He kept stopping a short distance from the platform for 5 minutes at the time for some reasons we don’t know. Did that a few times.

#3 : Tiffany and Amy are scrambling to find people attend an event happening tonight. Most people on their list are on vacation. For others, it’s just too last minute. They have 15 minutes left to find 4 people.

#4 : My eye sight is changing at an alarming rate. I couldn’t focus on the screen more than a few minutes at time. When I switched to my 10-month old prescription glasses, the pair that worked perfectly only a month or so ago, I can’t see crap. It seems the astigmatism has gotten beyond what my regular contact lenses and new glasses can handle. Thank goodness I’m going to see the optomitrist on Thurday and getting all of this figured out.

#5 : Out of the blue, Brandon called to let me know that one of the OC sheriff captains he knows, a USC Trojan fan, offered to look into getting us the USC/fucla tickets. Awefully nice of him, and it would totally kick ass if we could go. But the thing is I CAN’T go to the Game!! I’ve gone to the Game all my 4 seasons of football, and even on our best years, we lost. The year of my grad school, I didn’t go. And BAM! We won. I haven’t gone to the Game and we haven’t lost since. If we end up with the tickets, we MUST go as to not offend the captain. If it comes to that, then I would have to burn some sage or sacrifice a chicken or something…

[UPDATE]

#6 : Brandon’s captain, technically his direct boss, announced his retirement. And…

#7 : As an update to #3 - LA Dodgers won. An official seal that the day was truly cosmically warped.

[/UPDATE]

So yeah. It’s all weird in my universe today. How about yours??

I can’t fucking believe people are already using Katrina to scam money. (Kudos to Frenchy for a link to this post.)

My dearest readers: I know you are all decent human beings and must have already donated to help out the victims in the South.

If you haven’t, here’s a chance to redeem yourself.

FEMA’s list of agencies you can donate through.

Donate, people. Donate.

*UPDATE* Software engineers and other tech savvy people, WE NEED YOUR HELP with coordinating Katrina survivor information.

I joined the ONE Campaign to fight global AIDS and poverty. So should you. Doesn’t cost you anything or that much work.

I am also thinking of signing up to volunteer if they do anything down in Long Beach. It might as well be the teachings from my school growing up, but I do truly enjoy community involvement and services.

You see, the motto of Mater Dei is SERVIAM. It’s all about serving others as a way of serving God. Although it is Catholic at the core, but it applies to Buddhism as well. Kindness and being selfless is not just religious for Thais but also cultural.

Actually, it’s humanity.