Daily Musings

This winter, something new will be happening in Times Square (other than, of course, New Years). As you may have heard, Times Square will be getting its very first environmentally friendly billboard, powered 100% by wind and sun.

As you likely already know, Times Square is a one of many world famous New York landmarks featured on numerous films and books and postcards, especially of it at night. Until I read this New York Times article, it never really occurred to me that powering up all those lights must cost a lot of energy.

Although the billboard may dim up a bit on a calm, cloudy day, it’s designed so it can stay powered for days without substantial wind or sun. We’re always talking about being more environmentally friendly - and whether you believe in global warming or not - I think it can be agreed that using renewable resources whenever possible is a great idea.

This billboard will be ready by early next month, which subsequently means that it will be the center of attention when the shiny disco-like ball drops in front of it during New York’s annual New Years celebration. The eco-friendly billboard will bring something new this year. May 2009 be filled with more eco-friendly news!

I am a big fan of renewable resources, can you tell?

Note: This post was written at 7:21pm ET

The wait is over, and election day is here.

I personally support Obama, but in general I love watching political elections and analyses on TV. While some are saying that the race will be called early, I think it’ll go until midnight at least. If it weren’t for a special event I have tomorrow morning, I would watch the television all night if it were necessary.

Interestingly, the anchorwoman on CBC News just informed us tv-watchers of a “recent study” that says 97% of Canadians would vote for Barack Obama, if they could vote. I guess that means I know a disproportionate amount of McCain supporters. How odd.

I’ve also recently learned that polling stations in some states close as early as 6pm. Isn’t that a tad early? Quite a bit of people work 9 to 5 jobs, and judging by news reports, there are long, long lines for voting today. Here in Canada, or at least where I live, polling stations for the last federal election closed at 9:30pm. Lots of time to vote. Now that’s a democracy.

Today, or early tomorrow, we will find out of America has its first African-American President. Or will McPalin prevail and disprove the polls? I’m so excited, only a few more hours!

(P.S. If there’s a repeat of the 2000-election Fox News scandal, I will not be a happy person tomorrow)

Have you ever thought about how many products you wear on you every day? How many of them have scents? What, really, is the point of something having a scent if it’s just going to be thrown into the mix anyway?

Earlier today I passed by one of those warehouse sales, and having a little spare time, went to go check it out. There were a bunch of women crowded around a few bins of discounted supposedly-designer clothing, fighting to squeeze through and aggressively picking through the piles.

Just for the sake of seeing what all the hype was, I pushed through one of the crowds and got a glimpse of what was being offered - well, let’s just say it wasn’t my style. The first thing I noticed after trying to get through the big crowd was that firstly, it was hot. Secondly, it smelled bad.

The strong scents worn by all those women were all mixed together, it was disgusting. At one point I was shoved into the back (and long hair!) of someone else and could easily tell the scent of the woman’s perfume and the shampoo. I wanted to get out of there so bad, as soon as I could get an idea of what was in the bins.

People wear so many products each day, on their body, on their face, in the hair, and on their clothes. It got me thinking, how many scented products do I use? Here’s a list of them:

• Shampoo/Conditioner
• Body Wash
• Shaving cream
• Facial Cleanser + Moisturizer (though the scent in those aren’t too significant)
• Lotion
• Deodorant
• Eau de toilette
• Fabric Softener on clothes

And occasionally:

• Sunscreen <- EXTREMELY REPELLING SMELL 90% OF THE TIME
• Hair Mousse, Gel, or Hairspray
• Foundation

I realize that in half of these products, no one can tell until they are really close to you. But still, it’s a lot of scents, that will all eventually fade away or be jumbled into a mix of other scents that clash with it. How many chemicals do they use to make all those scents?!

My Starbucks coupon for “free oatmeal” is going to expire in a matter of days.

Since I’m pretty sure that Starbucks only offers their breakfast oatmeal during breakfast hours which is naturally during the morning, and I never have time in the mornings to go there, I decided to snatch an opportunity yesterday. Everyone knows that oatmeal isn’t exactly the most appetizing thing to eat. Naturally, it does not sound like something a place like Starbucks would offer. But who knows, maybe Starbucks has the capability of making it taste somewhatly good.

You may notice that I am only speculating what it may or may not taste like, because my “opportunity” yesterday to go to Starbucks in the morning did not work. Oh, I went there, alright. They were “out.” (or the lady just didn’t like the coupon?)

I’ll elaborate. I had a day off yesterday, so I was meeting up with some friends at the mall at 10am. I get there a little early and head to the Starbucks that is right next to the main entrance. As I’m waiting in line, I see a pretty little card sitting on counter that says something along the lines of “Try one of our delicious breakfast oatmeals today. Available in dried fruit/nut medley/brown sugar.”

Finally, I told the cashier lady I wanted the oatmeal with nuts. She rung up a total for me, around four dollars, and then I asked her if I could use the coupon. She reads it real closely, tells me it’s valid, then goes to the back counter to go get some oatmeal. Immediately, she turns around, tells me there is no oatmeal left. None. Not one flavor. She asks me in a high and fake sweet voice if I’d like anything else in substitution.

“No, thanks, I already had my coffee today. I just wanted to use this coupon.”

I bet that lady just didn’t want me using that coupon. I received it in the mail, as one of the occasional promotional offers I get for having the Starbucks card.

I’ll try and wake up earlier tomorrow and grab some at my local Starbucks. I hate getting coupons and letting them go wasted, especially if they’re the type in which you don’t even need to buy anything for them.

I was StumbleUpon-ing earlier today and I came by this site dedicated to stopping Walmart and other big box stores from checking receipts at the exit . I haven’t been to a Walmart in who knows how long, but I do go to Costco regularly and they have a similar practice.

I’ve always found it quite frustrating having to wait in line to exit the store. Costco says that they do it to ensure you have all your stuff and everything has been paid for, but it looks to me like the person at the door looks at your receipt, looks at your stuff, draws a line through the receipt, and then gives the receipt back to you. The whole process takes less than five seconds. How does this work, concerning most people at Costco have a cartful of items?

Firstly, the system is not very effective with checking items. It would be impossible to check each item, dollar by dollar, on the receipt with what’s in the shopping cart. Secondly, it’s questioning the honesty and integrity of people who just need to get in, buy what they need, and get out. No one wants to spend precious minutes of life in a dim and ugly warehouse like Costco. How often do they catch someone, anyway?

StanduptoWalmart.com shows stories from people who have “stood up to Walmart” and refused to show their receipts at the door. It tells of people who have been detained, who have had the police come, and who have been physically stopped/attacked by multiple employees. I’m not saying these people are right to do this - but it has made me think more about it.

Apparently, this receipt checking policy is “store policy.” To make sure you haven’t stolen anything, to make sure you’ve paid for everything, to make sure nothing accidentally found its way onto your cart. Heck, maybe it’s to create jobs.

Before, I just thought, “Ugh, this is so pointless.” I probably still will. This site has just given me some perspective. Maybe sometime in the future I will gain the courage to run out the store with my unmarked receipt, hopefully faster than they can catch me.

I’ll admit I’m not the best goal setter. I get new long term goals all the time. Way too often. I wouldn’t say I "forget" about them. I just don’t exactly make it a priority.

Well, here’s my latest one, and I really hope it lasts. Because it doesn’t sound too hard.

Rent and watch a movie - preferably one of those "critically-acclaimed" famous ones, or at least those that have "stood the test of time," as my mother would say - once a week, every week.

It doesn’t sound that hard. Two or three hours every Sunday, I figure.

So what is this point of this seemingly meaningless goal?

1) I want to actually make a goal. And accomplish it. Not a "to-do" kind of thing. A long term thing.

2) This goal isn’t hard. It’s not like, running three times a week. I hate running. I have no place to run other than those horrible-for-your-knees sidewalks. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Well, I happen to love watching movies. It’s enjoyable. It’s easy. You can multi-task and do other things like file papers, eat, while you’re watching. I own a DVD player. I live very, very close to a Blockbuster AND a library. No excuses. Other than time. But then again, there’s never enough time.

3) I haven’t watched very many movies. But I love movies. Not only that, I want to understand what makes Oscar movies… Oscar movies. I want to watch all those famous old movies so that when I read the paper and movie critics refer to them I know what they’re talking about. Instead of watching parodies of them on SNL and the Simpsons, I want to watch the real thing.

4) See if I can actually commit to something.

I started last week with The Queen, from I think one or two years ago, starring Helen Mirren. I’ll spare you my review. This weekend, I watched The English Patient. Loved it.

If this can last at least three months, I’ll be tremendously pleased with myself. Goes to show how hard committing to something is if there’s no one else pushing you to it.

On a nature walk this weekend, I couldn’t help but think about all my mosquito bites: The ones I had prior to my three-hour adventure, the freshly bitten ones, and the ones I knew I would get from the mosquitoes presently buzzing around me. (Note to self: Bring bug spray next time)

I earned myself no less than twenty new mosquito bites and of course the itching feeling all over. It made me quite annoyed at both the mosquitoes and my foolish self who forgot to bring bug spray.

This past summer, I’ve received easily over 100 mosquito bites, some of them in the worst places. The elbow, the heel, and the tip of the nose are just some of the awkward spots I’ve gotten them in.

My wonderfully traditional Asian parents always suggest me to apply one of their orange colored balms or creams (or whatever it’s supposed to be called), or the green or clear or orange oily liquid in the little container. Well, they don’t always work, and I’ve tried at least 10 different kinds of those old herbal medicines.

So from tipnut.com, here are a few mosquito bite itch relief "remedies", although I really don’t know if they work or not. If you want all forty-plus tips from the site, click here .

• Nail Polish
• Toothpaste
• Baking Soda + Water
• Rubbing Alcohol (<- I’ve tried this and it works okay)
• Hot tea bag (<- I’ve tried this too! Although it’s a little harder when you have twenty bites on a leg alone)
• Banana Peel
• Lemon Juice/Slice
• Honey
• Nail Polish (??)
• Calamine Lotion (<- I’ve tried this and… it isn’t too effective)
• Ice Cube
• Hot Water

Well, if any of you find this list and have tried them at some point, leave a comment and tell how well it works!

In the mean time I’ll do what I usually do. Nothing. That means no scratching either, they say it just makes it worse. Well sometimes it makes me feel better. Temporary relief and then longtime regret. Oh what the heck.

I have, most recently at the Chicago Board of Trade.

It was on a recent weekend visit to Chicago (right after my trip to Yellowstone). My first time there, I thought I’d go check out the Chicago Board of Trade, or CBOT, where agricultural commodities are traded everyday. As a child, I had watched my dad trade these. I didn’t understand what futures were or how they worked, but I understood he was losing money. Childhood memories really stick with you, eh.

According to the CBOT website, the general public isn’t allowed into the viewing galleries to the trading floor. So I was only prepared for the visitor’s center, which had a few neat items and old pictures for show. But we came across a nice old man with membership there and he let us in (to the disapproval of the viewing gallery floor secretary) to the viewing galleries. I was extremely excited to see the trading floor, and see with my own eyes all the fascinating hand signals (practically a sign language!) that they use to communicate. It’s almost like how you see it on popular culture, for example this year’s comedy “What Happens in Vegas.”

Here’s the embarrassing part. Everybody that was in the viewing gallery was wearing formal clothing. All the men were wearing suits. The two women both had a skirt, a blouse, and a blazer. My friend that was with me at least wore business casual pants and a plain t-shirt. I dressed like a tourist and wore short shorts and flip flops.

I never felt so under dressed in my life.

It was so hot yesterday, I was willing to spend even more time under the sun walking to my local Starbucks to cool down with a nice and cold frappuccino. Only to find:

“Temporarily Closed. Please enjoy your favorite beverage at another one of our locations.”

I was shocked. I walked all the way in that grueling heat for a closed sign? I peeked through the window and it looked like they’re getting renovations done. They’re closed for another week and a half or so. I WANT MY STARBUCKS! These better be really good renovations.

Frappuccinos, if you haven’t tried them, are a blend of ice, water, coffee, milk and various flavored syrups. In my opinion, they taste kind of like milkshakes. I believe Starbucks divides their many, many varieties of “frapps” into two categories: Blended coffee and blended crème. The latter offers you a sweeter taste because it has no coffee (it’s cream-based) and there’s no caffeine, so kids like to enjoy this beverage as well.

My favorite flavor is the vanilla bean. It’s sweet and creamy and it tastes like vanilla ice cream, only better. To save calories and a little guilt, I skip the whip cream. It’s still really good; I’ve wasted way too much money buying this stuff. One day I’m going to learn how to make one myself, although I’m sure it will never be as good. Alternatively, I will go work at Starbucks for a month and learn all the tricks.

Or maybe I should believe that the closed Starbucks is a message from God telling me that I need to start drinking more water and less overpriced high-cal stuff.

Save money, save calories. It sounds like a pretty good incentive to stop going there, even though I know I won’t. I love Starbucks too much for my own good. Is anyone else addicted to that place? Could you live without your Starbucks?

It’s hard to write every day, but when you do, it’s benefits are enormous. It’s not easy squeezing in that time to write. There’s also the question of what to write about, because inspiration does not strike us every day. However, ideas and thoughts do pass through the mind every day and with practice, you’ll learn to use them to inspire you - every day.

Here are seven reasons to write every day, for you, for me, for everybody.

1. It makes you a better thinker. They say you should “write, not think” but when you’re writing, you are thinking at the same time. You’re thinking about what to write, when to write it, how to write it.

2. It makes you more organized. Every day, feelings, opinions, ideas, and other things pass through your mind. When you’re writing them down, you’re organizing these ideas in your mind into words on paper.

3. It improves your communication skills. Elaborating on the idea above, thoughts in your head don’t always translate well into words. Some things are just hard to explain. However, as you write more, you’ll get better at communicating your thoughts and ideas for others to clearly understand.

4. It lets YOU remember YOUR ideas better. Maybe you don’t need the rest of the world to know what you’re thinking. But sometimes, you just need to remember it, without keeping the thought floating in your mind. They say that if you write something down, the odds of you remembering it are significantly increased, even if you don’t reread what you wrote.

5.It makes you a better reader. If you write, you will be able to appreciate a text you are reading from a reader’s and a writer’s perspective, and they aren’t always the same.

6. It inspires you. Writing a little will inspire you to write a little more. One idea will inspire many others. And who knows, one of those ideas just may be one that will change your life, or at least how you see it.

7. You get better at it. In one month, your writing will improve drastically. In one year, your writing will get much, much better. It’s not necessarily about what you write about, it’s how you write it. If you’re writing to an audience, you’ll get better at captivating that audience. If you’re writing privately just for yourself, you’ll get better at making it seem personal. As you write more, writing will be like second nature. If you keep what you write every day and keep what you’ve written, you can look back and see how you’ve grown as a writer.

And to help you write every day, here are 7 things to keep in mind.

1. You don’t need to publish everything. You can publish some stuff and not the rest. You can even just not publish anything at all.

2. You can write to anybody. This includes yourself, someone else you know, some person you made up, the people on the internet, the rest of the world… or nobody in particular.

3. They say you should just write and edit later, but I think it’s perfectly okay to edit as you go along. Just don’t be a self-editing freak, that’s all.

4. Write about anything. Your life. The world. Opinions. Ideas. Feelings. Something that you saw today. A place. An event. You can write a story. A fantasy. About a dream. Anything.

5. Set a goal. Some people say forcing yourself to write don’t help. The truth is, however, that although you may have to force yourself to write in the beginning, you’ll build that momentum and eventually write because you love it. So set a goal; it can be by length or time per day. Start out small, but stay consistent with writing every day.

6. You can write however you like. It doesn’t need to be boring, dry, and seemingly sophisticated. You can try out different writing styles and voices until you develop your own distinctive one. Remember that this is your writing, and it can be however you like. And you can use whatever words you choose to use.

7. Go out and live life. Make your life interesting. Eventful. Don’t sit around at home all day doing nothing. Go out and see what there is in the world and see it from different perspectives. Your life inspires your writing, so let them both be interesting.

And here’s one more as a bonus (I guess the title no longer makes sense now).

8. WRITE EVERY DAY. WRITE THAT DOWN. AND DO IT.