Home | Portfolio | Who Am I | Art | Multimedia | Installations
Cat Chow | Raggedy Ann Collection | Resume | E-Mail

Friday, December 14, 2007

You swooped me? I'll swoop you right back! 

Some of you may know that I'm a fan of ebay. According to my ebay stats, I've been a member since January 14. 1998. Wow - that's a long time. Being a collector of a few different things, I often follow auctions to see what things are going for, and I will occasionally participate in one as either a buyer or a seller.

When I'm serious about trying to "win" an auction, I do my best to "swoop" in during the last minute or few seconds of the auction. You know the drill: you wait until the last few minutes, constantly refresh the browser, watching the minutes/seconds count down, then, during the final 60 seconds or so, you put in your bid, hoping that once you've completed all of the steps, you will have come out victorious! It's all very exciting - just as they intend it to be. :)

Last weekend, I was trying to swoop on a particular item. My theory: bid as high as your comfortable paying, and if you get it great, but if you don't, you can't feel bad, because you already decided what your limitations are. So anyway, here I was, swooping at the last second with my high bid, my bid is accepted, and I'm the high bidder. But wait: there are a few mere seconds left. Refresh one more time, and damn, someone named "iluvebay" swoops in and wins the auction. (okay, that wasn't really their ebay name, but you get the idea.) And then you curse out loud: "Damn you, (insert ebay name here)".

This happens more often than not, which is okay, because I still follow my rule of knowing how high I'm willing to bid, and not to be to upset that it goes higher.

So there were two more auctions that I was following ending this afternoon. These were both similar items to the item that I "lost" last weekend. (I always try to remember that these things do have a habit of coming back up for auction if you're patient, and wait it out.) I did the swoop again, with about 45 seconds to go. Again, i was the high bidder with a few scant seconds left, then...... "Sorry, you've been outbid".... by the same person as last weekend! "Damn you, (insert ebay name here)".

8 minutes later, the second auction was ending. "Okay, (insert ebay name here)I'm on to you now!" This time, I waited even longer - perhaps 25 seconds before the end. Hit my submission, and....."Congratulations, YOU are the high bidder." Refresh once more, and it is verified that I had WON, and yes, the bidder-who-shall-not-be-named tried to swoop me once again, but I managed to be one up on them this time.

And now you know the crazy antics that I will go through to win an auction on ebay. It's quite hilarious, actually. Dick has watched me in the process a few times, and he gets all into it, too.

Just another day-in-the-life.

Labels: ,


Saturday, September 29, 2007

Thank Goodness for good Health Insurance 

...any why our health care system is so screwy....

I just got the "Explanation of Benefits" from our health care provider today for the coverage of my Appendicitis episode. The first sentence of reads: It's not a bill.

In other words, it breaks down the billed charges, and the amount that our health care plan covered, as well as any balance that we owe.

I've said it before: one of the great benefits of marrying Dick (and there are so many!) is, well, great benefits. Before we married, I had my insurance through Kaiser. I can't complain, as I had my fair share of emergency room visits, test, etc., with them, and I always received top notch care. It wasn't cheap, by any means, but well worth the monthly premiums to know that I was covered.

Dick's health care benefits through work are outstanding. We're very grateful for that. It is one of the things that crossed my mind when I was staying in the hospital earlier this month.

So, how much does an Emergency Room visit, an Appendectomy and one night in the hospital cost?

$33,500.00.
Holy crap.

Now, here's the thing. Everything is broken down in this "Explanation of Benefits".
The cost that I just listed is the "Charges billed by provider".

The next column in the form is called "Provider's fee adjustment" which is: Difference between "charges bill by provider" and the amount providers have agreed to accept as full payment.

The difference? Anywhere between 10% and 50%. (the big ticket items were generally around 10%)

Then, there's the "Total amount eligible for benefits", "Total benefit paid by your plan" and "Amount you're responsible for".

Happily, the amount listed for us in the last column was "$0".
But, that didn't stop me from gawking at the rest of the statement.

This is why our health care system is so messed up: someone without health insurance would've been billed $33,500.00. If someone has (certain types of) insurance, the insurance company is only billed 10-50% of that amount.

There's something seriously wrong with this system.
As someone who has had many friends without medical insurance, it makes me sick to think that the people who can't afford medical insurance would be the ones who are gouged beyond reason. I've taken friends to the emergency room a couple of times who held off until the bitter end because they knew they wouldn't be able to afford it. In the end, the bill would come, and they'd be in debt for months or years trying to pay it off.

I know I'm really lucky to have married someone with great medical benefits, but that's just it, isnt' it?

I'm just lucky.

Labels:


Friday, August 03, 2007

MyHeritage Celebrity Look-Alike 

Okay, this is hysterical.

I just found out about the MyHeritage Celebrity Look-Alike Match off my cousin Bruce's blog. He had mentioned that he was worried that he would be matched up with every Asian Celeb in the database. Well, lucky him: he got matched up with Robert Downey Jr! (not bad, cuz!)

So, I thought I'd give it a try. I know it largely depends on which photo you upload, but I decided to just go with the most recent front-on photo that I had from my night of picking up Harry Potter at Safeway.

So, I upload the photo, waiting to see what it comes up with...

..and what it comes up with as my highest match lands me in hysterics:

With a match of 76%: Michelle Kwan



This cracks me up.

I mean, I knew that.
I've been told this on more than one occasion.

I even blogged about it before.

I've had the side-by-side comparison:


But, I didn't think that that was would be the number one choice for this program, too!

After it tells you of the #1 choice, it also gives you a few others.
The others? Well, they are, in fact, the "every Asian Celeb in the database" that Bruce was talking about. I don't even know who any of them are. Do you?

update

Here are Dick's matches.
(Robert Downey Jr. seems to be popular!)

Labels: , ,


Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Food Quirks 

I've come to realize that I have a few quirks about food:
I'm sure there's more, but these are things that popped into my head just now.

Labels: ,


Tuesday, June 19, 2007

MacDreamy 

That's what I've decided to name my new Mac.

seriously.

:)

Labels: , ,


Monday, March 19, 2007

S.L.S. (Short Leg Syndrome) 

Just how short are my legs?

Having just returned home on a cross-country flight, I'm reminded that my legs get really sore in the upper thighs after flying for a few hours.

This is not for lack of leg room, as one may think.

Quite the opposite, actually.

I think my legs get sore because they are too short, and don't reach the floor when I'm sitting properly in the chair. Because of this, there's no support, and my legs just kind of dangle for hours on end.

Does anyone else have this problem?
(Dick certainly doesn't, so I can't ask him to relate)

Labels:


Wednesday, February 21, 2007

webTrina: At Your Service 

Thank you for calling webTrina. How may I help you?


My friend Blane just called me.
He was in South San Francisco, looking for the Costco on South Airport Blvd. He had printed the map and directions before he left his house, but he still couldn't find it.

So, what did he do?

He called webTrina!

Our friendly customer service agents at webTrina were able to help him out! We stayed on the line with him, giving him street-by-street directions, until he reached his final destination. Once he was in the Costco parking lot, he wondered aloud where the tire service center was. We instructed him to continue to the left side of the building.

Thank you for calling webTrina. We look forward to working with you again in the near future.

Labels: ,


Friday, February 16, 2007

Cheap Date 

Last night I had dinner with my great friend of 22 years, Diana.

Diana lives in San Jose, and works in Palo Alto. We try to get together for dinner/catching up at least 2 or 3 times a year. I usually drive down to Palo Alto to meet her after work, and we almost always eat at Chili's. (We used to each at Fresh Choice at the Stanford Mall, but it's been closed.) We go to Chili's because it's cheap, convenient, and more importantly, because they won't mind if we hang out for a few hours. (We warn our server early on that we plan to be there for a while, and we tip big when we leave.)

Neither of us goes to Chili's on a regular basis, and I'm pretty sure we only go with each other. It's like our "thing". It's probably also because that's the type of place that we would go to together when we were teenagers, and old habits are hard to break.

When we first arrived, I told Diana that "Dinner is on me!" because I had a gift card for Chili's (or Macaroni Grill) that I had received as a Christmas present from one of my Uncles.

When our bill came, we were amazed when we saw that it was only around $13.50. (My gift card was for $30) I had ordered Chicken Tacos (with fries and steamed veggies, instead of beans and rice) and a Sprite. Diana had ordered a Chicken Fajita Pita with water. So, yeah, that makes sense, but really.... when's the last time you went out for dinner for two for less than $15.00? What a deal!

Afterwards, we walked around downtown Menlo Park for a while. We stopped for dessert at Baskin Robbins, where I had my favorite sundae: Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with marshmallow topping! Mmmmmmm.......

I think we got out of the whole evening for around $25 - including a hefty tip!

Who says you have to spend a lot of money to have a fun evening out with a friend?

Labels: ,


Tuesday, February 06, 2007

It's a Jammie Kind of Day 

Wow. Check the time: 6:38pm.

I'm still in my jammies! Oops! How did that happen?

Dick had to fly to Seattle this morning, so we woke up early (6:15am). After he left, I ate breakfast, then started my work.

I had several projects to work on today. I did work for 4 different clients.

I had all intentions of working out today, but somehow the time slipped by, and I didn't get around to it.

Luckily, I'm having dinner with Philip (in 45 minutes) so that will be my cue to take a shower and put on some regular clothes!

Dick doesn't come home until later tonight.

He doesn't have to know about my all-jammies-all-the-time day.
I won't tell him, if you won't!

PS: I LOVE my Karen Neuberger jammies :)

Labels:


Monday, January 22, 2007

Naming my new iPod 

On my way home from Pilates this morning, I had a sudden a-ha! moment, and came up with a name for my new iPod Shuffle:

Fizzgig

Now, I think this is very clever, but I'm wondering if anyone else will get it?

clue #1: Pod People

I also love that my Shuffle has a capacity of 1 gigabyte, and that its new name has the word "gig" in it! :)

How big is my iPod? Why, it's a FizzGig!

I am such a geek.

Labels: , ,


Monday, December 18, 2006

We all look the same.... 

Oh, my. This is a little embarrassing...

I just found this site through Kimi's blog.

It's a site called "All Look the Same". It's a quiz that shows a dozen and a half faces non-mixed Asian-Americans in NYC. The test subjects are either Chinese, Japanese or Korean. The quiz tests to see whether or not you are able to tell the ethnicity of the subject, based solely on a photo of their face.

As some of you may know, I often joke that "We all look alike". Seriously, I've had Kristi Yamaguchi's Dad (and other random people, for that matter!) tell me that I look like Michelle Kwan. I jokingly told him, "Jim, we all look alike! People in the Mid-West used to tell me that I look like your daughter!" (We look nothing alike. And yes, she's Japanese, and I'm Chinese.)


Trina & Michelle - do we really look alike?

Of course, I joke when I say this, but honestly, I just don't pay much attention in trying to guess the ethnicity of people. Perhaps I'm just being naive in thinking that it shouldn't matter, as I see all people as "the same". Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Perhaps that's just a cop-out. Maybe it should matter to me.

Anyhow, it's no surprise to me that I scored very low on this quiz. The evaluation of my score was "hopeless".

I'm a bit relieved to know that Kimi (who is half-Japanese) scored low as well. I'm trying to figure out what this says about us, if anything...

If you have a moment, take the quiz and let me know how you do. It's quite an interesting idea.

Update
After thinking about this overnight, and especially after reading Bruce's blog on the topic, I feel the need to be very clear about something...

What I am saying is that I am not good, or don't try to be good at looking at an Asian person and guessing which ethnicity they are. And, when I say this, I also want to make it clear that I am proud of my Chinese heritage, and that I'm not ignoring it. I just don't make it a habit of trying to guess someone's ethnicity. Just as I wouldn't look at a new Caucasian friend and try to figure out what their original European (or wherever) descent is.

With that said, I'm wondering if the question that this site is trying to suggest is whether or not the average Joe-Blow (say in the Mid-West) thinks that literally, All Asian people look alike. Bruce mentions in his blog that he is often confused with one of a handful of Asians American Pastors in his church. Okay, that would become really old, really fast.

Here's a line from Bruce's post:

When a white person comes up to me and says, "Hey Rodger", mistaking me for Rodger Nishioka" I always want to say, "Hey Chandler, how's Ross?" But alas . . . I do not.

Bruce, just once, and maybe just once, I'd really love for you to say that.

I used to teach 80 kids at a high school in Union City. They were predominantly Filipino. For the record, I had no problem "telling them apart" and knew all of their names within the first couple of weeks. (with the exception being the set of identical twins - always had a hard time with them!)

So, what's my point here?

While it may be true that it's difficult to tell the ethnicity of one Asian-American from another (we are all living in the Great American Melting Pot, after all) that is not to say that "All Asians look alike".

I really don't look a thing like Kristi Yamaguchi.

Labels:


Thursday, December 14, 2006

WebTrina Strikes Again! 

The bacon vault has been running low, so I've been checking out the grocery adds waiting for Oscar Mayer bacon to come on sale.

The ads came on Tuesday, and lo, there it was: Oscar Mayer Bacon 2 for 1 sale at Safeway.

Dick worked from home today, and I managed to talk him into taking a break to go to the store with me so he could experience a 2 for 1 sale for himself.

We went in with 2 things in mind: Bacon and Christmas cards. (i just needed two)

First we noticed that Cinnamon Rolls were on sale for 4 @ $1.50 each. We bought 4 and saved $7.40.
We also picked up a coupon for an extra $.75 off when you buy 3.

Then we passed by the yogurt. On sale half off. I bought 5, and saved $3.00.

Dick's favorite coffee, Starbuck's Verona was on sale for $2.00 off. Alas, it wasn't 50% off, but on sale, nonetheless.

Christmas cards: we find two, along with a coupon for a free 12 pack of Coke with the purchase of 3 cards. I found another funny, generic card that I know I'll use soon, and picked up our free box of Coke.

Finally, we made our way to the Bacon section. Dick was simply amazed at the 2 for 1 savings. We picked out 8 packages of bacon for the bacon vault and saved $25.96.

We made our way to the checkout, and found we had saved a whopping $41.60, which is the equivalent of 49%.

Impressive, isn't it?
Dick was in awe and amazement as we walked back to the car.

update
Dick and I had went out to dinner that same night . We went to our local seafood joint, which was serving fresh, Dungeness Crab. Dick had a salad, I had a cup of clam chowder, we split a whole crab, and each had wine. Our dinner came to just under $45. Dick mentioned that it cost as much money as what we had saved at Safeway earlier that same day. So, we owe our thanks to Safeway for treating us to a delicious dinner!

Labels: ,


This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours? & Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway --- oh right, I *am* my own employer! ;)

© Copyright 2003-2007, Trina Chow