Geisha School Dropout

Working Mom Saves "Toy Story 2" From Extinction

Every programmer has a story about how someone on their team (it's never them, of course) typed in "rm *" and deleted the entire code base.  Usually, you strap that person to a post, and everyone takes terms kicking that person in the balls while IT restores the system with back-ups.  You might lose the day's work, but you still can recover fairly quickly.

But what if the back-ups were corrupted?  Then you have a fucking situation.

"Toy Story 2" almost disappeared from existence due to this worst-case scenario.  Check out this story and french-kiss the next work-from-home mom you meet while I try to stop my heart from palpitating.

Working moms unite!!!

I So Needed This, Like, Yesterday

So I was going to do another blog post highlighting all the literal and figurative aunties and uncles we visited on the East Coast yesterday, but I ran into some technical difficulties and I was so pissed off by the end of it, I just gave up.

The technical difficulties in question?  Look at this bullshit:

This is Jae-Young Imo!  No, her face isn't all blurry in real life.

This is Uncle Art!  Well, his face is actually pretty busted in real life, but not melted for goodness' sake (Just kidding, love!  We all know you got beauty and I got the booty.)

And this is my daughter paying my little sister back for all those years of torment by biting her boob!  Apparently my iPhone was too busy drinking soju to care to capture the moment. 

Sigh...Tim and I, like most of this generation's parents, are picture-taking fanatics.  We try to document everything for fear of losing any memories.  We obviously want good-quality pictures so we do own a digital SLR, but more often we just want to be able to quickly take a picture and then immediately  share them via blog or Facebook so people can experience what we're experiencing while we are experiencing them.  That means our phone cameras win 99% of the time.  Too bad phone cameras SUCK and we don't do justice to so many moments  (i.e., anything that involves indoor lighting).

Well, when the Clever Girls asked around the network for people who would write about this awesome new WiFi camera from Samsung, I was like "Girrrrrls, ish just got real" because now I don't have to complain during 100% of my post!  I now can suggest a solution!  Leave it to a Korean company to  fix my life!

The Samsung SH100 takes 14 megapixel pictures and HD video with all the nifty settings of a real point-and-shoot camera plus smile and face recognition software, THEN lets you share them via WiFi connection.  Booyah!  But the coolest part is how they're promoting this camera:

The Samsung SH100 is a great camera for those who enjoy sharing their adventures on-the-go, which is why Samsung is taking this camera on a month-long road trip across America in the month of May! The mobile team is going to record all the amazing people they meet and the fascinating places they visit with the SH100, and the best photos and videos will be shared on the Samsung USA Facebook page.

I already checked out the Facebook page, and it looks like so much fun!  They seem to still be in LA, so maybe I'll catch a glimpse of the Airstream trailer and be able to try out the camera for myself.

I was compensated (for the very first time!) for this opportunity by Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity.  All opinions are my own.  But ultimately I will lose more money than I earn because I am SO buying this camera.  Sigh, this is precisely why I'm not a millionaire.

Google is Playing with my Heartstrings, Again

Okay, Google, now this is just cruel.  You continue to transform me into a completely useless blubbering pile of ectoplasm with your commercials featuring adorable Asian American characters!  

Remember this one?  Now check out the latest and greatest, featuring Sophie Lee and her dad, Daniel:

Now stop it!  No, don't stop.  Argh!!!  Pass the tissues, please.

Extra credit question: How many Daniel Lees do you know personally?  I know 3.

Happy Valentine's Day! You are Beautiful.

Nope, no snark here.  Just a simple message for all the ladies in the house tonight:

Every time this video is played, 4 cents will be donated to Becky's Fund, a non-profit whose slogan is "Freedom from domestic violence.  It's our right."  How gorgeous is that?  So, watch it multiple times, feel the smile grow on your face, then share the video with your friends.  They will definitely appreciate the message.

(Big props to bigWOWO for the heads-up!)

Swallow Your Pride, Open Your Eyes

Emi really hit one out of the park today.  When I arrived to pick her up from preschool, she took my hand and said, "Let's dance, Mom!"  We joined hands and twirled around, singing a nonsense song that eventually led to "I'm wishing...for the one I love...to find me...today" from "Snow White."

On the ride home, I cranked up my favorite Yeasayer song, "O.N.E.," and she wrinkled her nose and asked me why I like it so much when it is so loud.  I asked if she wanted to listen to something different, and she replied, "City of Love!"  

The City of Love?  I had no idea what she was referring to.

So I went track by track on the mix CD I had in the car and we finally figured out that she was referring to "Sowing the Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears.  

"Ohhh!!!  SEEDS of wuv!  Are you kidding me?  Seeds! Of wuv!"

"Why do you like this song, Emi?"

Then, no joke: "I like the part when they sing 'Time to eat all your worms'!"

I follow @curtsmith on Twitter, so I had to pop him a little note informing him of his 3-year-old fan.  And guess what?

Emi got RT'ed!

Very impressive work, little bee!

Emi vs. Talking Carl

Talking Carl is an iPhone app that features a wide-mouthed, red monster who records what you say to it, then repeats it back in its own little voice (basically your own voice on helium).  We've been playing with Talking Carl for a couple weeks now, and we have noticed that Carl sounds the cutest when repeating a cute voice.  For example, my voice isn't that cute, and so Carl sounds like a whiny bitch whose face I want to punch when I talk to him.  But with Emi, he turns into a mewling little kitten and it never fails to make me giggle.  Here is a taste:

So cute, right? Although it did disturb me that something about Talking Carl made Emi revert to infant babble.  So I asked her why she didn't talk to him with words, and she looked at me like I was an idiot and said "Talking Carl doesn't talk like that, Mom.  He talks robot."

Geez, well excuuuuuuse me!

A Little Wednesday Tear-Jerker

This Google ad made me WEEP, mofos:

I know it may touch me more than the average viewer because I am an Asian American who immigrated with her parents, parents who worked their asses off for me like the unseen user in the ad.  But there is so much life and emotion hiding between one search and the next, and in a way the story arc is so quintessentially American, I think this would touch many more people than the current immigrant population.  

What especially tickles me is with this commercial, Google has humanized the immigrant struggle, which is a brave thing to do right now, when immigration is such a divisive issue.  They didn't have to contribute to the debate, but they did, and in high style.  Hopefully, because of media like this, people will start thinking of the person washing their dishes as something more than a resource-hogging, tax-evading drug mule.  Sigh.  

Bravo, Google!

(Props to Bicoastal Bitchin for the heads-up!)

Enquiring Minds Want To Know

Google search suggestions never fail, don't they?  They first became famous when queries starting with "Why do Chinese" or "Why do Koreans" return nifty suggestions such as "Why do Koreans have big heads?" and "Why do girls wear thongs?".

So today I was trying to Google "what happened in Spanish" in order to get the phrase "qué pasó" with all the nifty accent marks and everything.  After I typed in "happened," here is what I got:

I laughed out loud at the first (and therefore most popular) suggestion.  SERIOUSLY?  I guess I've wondered that myself at some point.

Do you want the answer?  It's lupus.

Give Him Something to Believe In

(You're welcome for the Poison reference.  You can watch the music video here.)

Isaac has been convinced lately that he is a bad kid.  He does have a mountain of evidence, since everyday we get on his case about something: for forgetting his jacket at school, for splashing in the puddles after we told him 5 times not to, for interrupting us when we're talking, etc.  It's not like we are totally hard on him, but he's taking the reprimands more to heart now, and even more disturbingly, he rejects positive feedback.

Anyway, with the holidays quickly approaching, Isaac asked me one day if he was on Santa's nice list or naughty list this year.  I asked him what he thought and he said without any doubt that he was naughty.  "Oh I dunno, Isaac, Santa doesn't care if you do naughty things from time to time, he just looks for whether you WANT to be good or not."  But no, Isaac said he doesn't even want to be good.  So all I could promise him was that I'd email Santa and maybe if he had time, Santa would write me back and let me know.

Coincidentally, my blog friend Renee alerted me to these free videos from Santa. She lives in Canada, so the URL for us Amurcans is http://portablenorthpole.tv/home. The video is very well-done, and you can customize it with your child's name, your hometown, and you can upload a picture and tell Santa what your kid wants for Christmas, among other things.  Even cooler, if your kid's name is common enough, Santa will even SAY his/her name, which is ultra-magical.  There are even separate versions for younger and older kids, as well as teens and adults who could handle actually being on the Naughty List.

So Saturday morning, I excitedly woke Isaac up and told him Santa had something to say to him!  He looked so nervous, bless his heart!  And the video started, and when Santa said, "Can you hear me, Isaac?" he stammered, "Y-y-yes, Santa!"  There was no room for skepticism when Santa showed him on a map that he knew where we lived; Isaac was thoroughly convinced. 

Then, when he saw his picture and his name in Santa's book, he started to cry.  And when Santa confirmed that Isaac was indeed a good boy because he tried extra-hard this year to be nice to his sister, Isaac started bawling with shock and relief.  When it was done, I asked him if he wanted to hear Santa's message again, but he said no, he didn't want to bother Santa during the busiest time of the year.  And we hugged and kissed and snuggled and laughed.  He was absolutely transformed.

I was deeply moved as well!  I guess we've gotten to a point where Mom and Dad's approval doesn't appear to be completely unconditional anymore, and since we don't worship a God or any other impartial judge of character, Santa just rose to the occasion and did so beautifully.  I learned that Isaac needs a "From a Distance, the World Looks Blue and Green" type of all-seeing, all-loving, all-forgiving eagle eye in his life in order to have a sense of self separate from us.  That is some major food for thought right there.

You can watch Isaac's video here!

A Message from the Greatest Generation

 

Hey Maine!  You raised a fine man in Philip Spooner.  He is an 86-year-old WWII veteran, and he's showing us how it's done.  And by "it" I mean "how to make your point so your opponents seem like gnats."

The woman at my polling place asked me do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?

No on 1, Maine!