OakMonster’s Den

And some of you thought I was kidding about Asian kids killing themselves over grades.

Teenager commits suicide because of poor school grades - The Nation

And this is just one case. I should’ve shown you how it was after Thailand’s university entrance exam in the spring. That’s the time of year when suicide rate skyrockets.

For us in the 3rd world country, education is highly valued. With education, you get better job. With better job, you have a better life. Sure, that standard is true for everyone, but for families who are living in the slums, it’s the only way out. For families on the farm, their sons and daughters returning with agriculture knowledge would literally save the farms.

Higher education also goes with the higher social status. Your getting into respectable universities like Chulalongkorn proves to the world YOU are good enough. You’re the elite. You’re the ones who would be successful down the road. You’re the one who will have a career and a bright future.

The Entrance exam IS the first measure of success in our culture. Fail the entrance exam, and you’ll end up at private university or worse, community colleges. That shows the world you just can’t hack it.

And your schooling up through then will determine the outcome of college. This boy is not just concerning about his current grade, but how his Entrance exam will come about.

I too ended up with at 2.75 at one point in my life, transitioning into the Math-English program of Thai high school (10th-12th grade). Calculus was killing my grades (plus a spat with one teacher that didn’t help my grades much)! I never liked math anyway but forced into this program because everybody knows kids with bad grades are the one ending up in English-Foreign Language-Arts program. (Actually, that WAS my choice!) This whole high school program is guiding me to the Entrance exam. And with 2.75, that path wasn’t looking too good.

Hence, I turned right around and came to the US! Where a math idiot like me suddenly became a pre-calculus goddess. And I did well with everything else and ended up with high enough SAT scores and GPA to look good to USC admission office.

Of course, my option to jump the continent isn’t available to everyone.

And some of them would rather die than knowing they’re not getting into college.

I don’t remember the first song I’ve played in the Lowrey but I’m pretty sure it was “And so it goes”. So that was the first song I play tonight. And, of course, we ended with the Looney Tunes theme.

I can’t believe I’m crying.

I’m not only parting ways with the piano, but a few other stuffed animals as well. I have about a dozen of them on the piano so I decided on donating some of them.

That may be worse than actually parting ways with the piano. At least one of them I hauled from home, the Beethoven puppy. I am sure some children somewhere would enjoy these guys more than I could ever do again.

I can’t believe I’m crying over that too.

Imagine what a mess I’d be in when I returned to Thailand to donate the rest of those guys in my room. I kid you not, I probably have almost a hundred stuffed animals and dolls. And there are less than 10 here that I put into a bag tonight!

Do you know that I cried every single time I watched Toy Story 2 when Jessie tells her story? I even got the music for “When She Loves Me” and I can’t even sing it.

Tonight, it’s like another passage into becoming an adult. Say goodbye to stuffed toys and rental piano. Saying hello to being a piano owner with fewer stuffed toys in the audience.

Growing pain. No kidding. I hate being an adult sometimes…

My best friend is leaving in a few days. Around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, to be exact. If I’m lucky, I may get to see her leave. If not, I would come home to an empty room.

Good bye, my best friend since 1998. The beautiful Lowrey upright piano.

Kit went out and rented the Lowrey for me as a birthday present back in the days. You bet your behind I’ve shed a few tears on the ivory keys afte we broke up. I was going to give up the piano at one point because I didn’t want it to be a reminder of the past relationship. But the piano was the only thing that has kept me sane through the ordeal, and gave me hope to keep on going. So I continued to pay the rent for just about $28 a month.

I know, I could’ve bought a piano with the money I spent renting, but I could never get enough money together.

When I moved to Long Beach, I was going to stop renting her again, but Brandon encouraged me to just spend some extra money to have her moved in with us. And I did. Although we haven’t gotten around to getting her tuned since the move. Hehehe.

The first year of rent was supposed to go toward purchase, so when we had money from the wedding, I called to see how much I would have to pay for the piano. It was an Italian sounding guy on the phone who told me I could have it for $900, but if I walked in the next day with cash, he’d let me have her for $600. Knowing that I would be out of job until the INS paper came through, we decided to keep the money instead of spending it. Lucky we did since I was out of job for 9 months.

A few weeks ago, our friends James had mentioned that Aurora’s mom and sister were moving from a bigger house to a smaller one, and they had no room for the piano that was once belonged to Aurora’s grandmother. We offered to buy it. Later on, we heard from Lee, Aurora’s sister, that the piano was already spoken for by another set of friends. Bummer.

But then a few days ago, James and Aurora surprised the hell out of me when they told me that grandma’s piano is mine. For free. It was a family concensus. Early birthday + Christmas + new apartment warming present!

Hell, you guys. You NEVER have to buy me another present for anything EVER again!

I am about to own my own piano. That’s HUGE!

So, Tuesday after 5 p.m., the rental piano is being returned to the store. And I will have to get a mover to Sage & Lee’s house to pick up grandma’s.

I’m so frelling excited, y’all!

So, tomorrow night for at least 2 hours, it’s just going to be me and Lowrey. We’ll have to take some pictures together too!

1. It’s good to start the day with “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. Well, it’s especially grand when it’s the Spamalot! version.

2. Even though that is a great song to open the day with, but there is no other joy in my life right now that becoming a piano owner! Did I tell you that I’ve inherited a piano from our friend’s Aurora? Aurora’s sister and her mom are moving into a new house which is considerably smaller than the one they’re vacating. There’s no room for grandmother’s piano. So, as an early birthday + Christmas + future housewarming gift to me, they’re giving me the piano as long as I can move it out soon! No more rental piano. Ever!

3. We just realized that our department has become an infirmary. Tiffany just returned from being out with a nasty cold still stuffy. Celeste is still out with the spider bite that got infected and turned into cellulitus (loooooooong story). And me with my defunct eyes. My follow up appointment is Monday. I’m still blurry through the day but not as bad as before. I can’t wait to see clearly again!

4. I’m getting a new direct boss! The brand new director of marketing starts in a few weeks! So I will now have the uberboss Steve, demiboss Amy, and a boss.
5. Silent birth?? WTF?? This would be as good time as any to get off the Cruise’s crazy train, Katie. No screaming nor drugs during childbirth? Fuck that. Shoot me, and C-section out the kid. Sheesh.

6. Scorpios are passionate people. And we can get emotional because of that passion. So, I’m passionate about making music, writing, dancing, and all that even though I’m not very good at it. So I’d start to get jealous of people who are good at it, but then again, the optimist in me kicks in. I believe in the goodness of people. I realize there is no reason to be jealous of them. The problem is not them, it’s me. So I turn right around and hate myself for not having the talent like other people. Yeah. I hate myself for not being able to learn bar chords, for not being able to read music very well, for not having the wordsmithing skills of Jason Mraz nor the sharp wits of Rude Cactus, for not having the personality that transfer into my writing like Amy Silver Girl, for not pocssing the geek knowledge like Frenchy, for not being able to write original songs any more…. And worse, for not having my sight. And then, that goes with my hating myself for being able to see better than Jessica Callahan and I’m here bitching about not being able to see. I really don’t like me today.

7. On that note, I will resurrect my 1994-1995 show piece inspired by Dr. Peppers commercial: Meatloaf’s creation “I would do anything for love (but I won’t do that)”. This time, I’ll learn the vocal too.

I’m sure there’ll be more randomness through out today so I’ll keep updating.

Matt of Nip/Tuck is probably the most fucked up teenager on television today. So here’s the list of why Matt’s life sucks.

1. You found out your dad isn’t your dad, but his best friend is.

2. Your real dad is the one who took you to a strip joint and tried to get you laid with a professional. (But you didn’t know you’re father and son then.)

3. Your first girlfriend wouldn’t do it with you because you’re not circumcised.

4. So you tried to circumcise yourself, bled out, fainted, and your dads have to fix your penis.

5. Your parents fought, seperated, got back together kind of, then divorced. But then you came home one day and found them taking post coitus nap on your bed.

6. While seperated, your mom took too many pain pills and too much alcohol, fell through sliding glass door, and almost died.

7. You found out after everyone else that the lover, the first woman you ever slept with, is a man…

8. …after he/she dumped you, and moved out of the country…

9. …and then you found his/her “son’s” rotting corpse in her house.

10. You tried to score with another transexual but got a chick with a dick.

11. You got beaten up by said chick and his friends.

12. Your grandmother smoked out with you. And what you didn’t know is that, your mom joined you grandmother later to smoke your stash in your room while you were gone.

13. You found out your real dad did your lover and that was how the parents came to find out about the lover being a man.

Nip/Tuck fans out there, what else am I missing here?

That’s my daddy on the left.

My dad is one of the people behind the Tsuami Memorial Design Competition, as covered here on Yahoo! News.

Poor dad has been shuttling all over the south and running all over Bangkok to pull this off, on top of his regular job and projects.

Go, daddy!

Overheard a few cubicles down:

“Oh…today is going to be a bad day.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Oh it’s just going to be one of those horrible, horrible day, Bob. I know it. I can feel it.”

“Well, let’s look on the bright side. You don’t live in New Orleans, and you’re not starving in Congo or in the WWII concentration camp.”

…A long pause…

See it. It’s awesome.

Then rent the series. Then you’ll get all the little jokes and what not.

LOVE THE MOVIE, by the way. Then again, I’m one of the late convert. When it was first on TV, like a lot of people, I didn’t get it. Aurora turned us onto the show once the DVD came out and we’re hooked.

Now, for those who wants to read my reaction to the movie, I’ll spout off right here. But will leave spoiler in the brackets so you can highlight that at your own risk.

[ WHY WASH!?!?!?!?!?!? Goddamn it. You cannot NOT have Wash!?!? Shepherd, I can understand. But WASH!

And not a word about Blue Sun Corp? No Two By Two Hands Blue action here? I guess that would be too much for people who aren’t familiar with the TV show. Just like downplaying Kaylie. Other than playing the cute girl who gets the doctor, they don’t really showcase her talent as much.

And yeah. The engine room gets some action again. Heheheee. I’m glad they resolve that for the two of them. Good for Kaylie! And boy, isn’t our little doctor nicely built? ]

Oh, and look at the good captain, speaking of beefy? Compare him in the movie to the naked Mal on the rocks. He’s definitely leaner and beefier here. [ Why won’t they let him lose his clothes again for the ladies? Come on. You have Inara in her little Amazonian with a bow gitup. Oh well, bare chested with a hint of butt from the captain is as good, I guess. ]

Oh, Nathan Fillion. How you manage to knock my socks off when I least expect it. To tell the truth, I STILL find myself looking at his butt. Since the naked Mal on the rock. I can’t get it out of my head. His butt. It’s so…bubble-like.

I think Joss did good enough to bring in the crowd and keep the fans satisfied. [ I can’t say that the die hard fans would be 100% happy, but this will do. ] Until next time, I guess.

Oh, and fans of the show. Stick around through the credit. The instrumental version of the Ballad is at the very end of it. Arm yourself with lyrics and sing along!

We sort of did since I only know the first sentence (Take my love. Take my land. Take me where I cannot stand), and Lee the one of after that (I don’t care. I’m still free). But we never miss “You can’t take the sky from me”!

Fortunately for us, there were less than a dozen people in our theater by that point. Unfortunately for them, we sort of sang.

So yep. There you go. Love the damn show. Love the movie. Go see it!

The Trojans escaped and schooled Arizona State.

I called SG Amy up real quick and we were screaming at each other. Pretty much this close of a game, we might as well have 911 pre-dialed just in case we had a heart attack.

Whatever the hell Pete Carroll say at the locker room during half time ALWAYS work. Holy shit…