Do you believe in Karma?

I was born into Confucianism. You know, respect your elders and other social ideals. That has served me pretty well.

I was introduced into Christianity in my early teen years, mostly Methodist/Presbyterian tradition. This has also served me well. I mean ten commandments are pretty good rules to live by.

I no longer associate myself with an organized religion, but I subscribe to a notion of Karma. Do good things and good things happen. The best thing about my belief is that I am more introspective.

I was stuck behind many red lights yesterday when I drove home. I was a little upset at this phenomenon. Realistically, series of red lights will happen periodically. It is just probability. Instead of continuing to curse my bad luck, I started thinking to myself if I have been bad lately.

I don't know if I am a spiritual person, but I like the fact that I examine the way I live. Karma rules!

Hold on firmly ...

I am still smitten with my iPhone. I don't have a buyer's remorse although I think the AT&T plan is a little pricey for how I use it.

I imagine many iPhone owners are having a similar problem, so I am writing to let new iPhone users or soon to be owners about it. IT IS SLIPPERY. I personally almost dropped it several times. A friend drop it into a tray full of dip. Luckily, it was not a wet dip. It cleaned nice enough.

I might have to get a case for it.

I WON ...

Lousy $3. I only managed to hit one Powerball number. Apparently, more than 300 mil prize will be claimed by one Indiana ticket.

That must be why I felt an urge to drive to Indiana to buy a ticket. No, not really.

Thumbs down ...

I like to watch Roger Ebert's show. I find it informative and entertaining to listen to so called movie intellectuals discuss contemporary movies. Mr. Ebert has been missing for quite sometime now due to his illness. I guess the show's distributor is trying to move on without him.

I became aware of the distributor trying to obtain Ebert's thumb up/down trademark. Read this funny article. I wish I had a trademark to sell. Sigh!

Worst product name ever?

I was reading fakesteve.blogspot.com when I found this article about a digital music player from Germany. I mean, WOW. I am thinking this will be renamed, but who knows. I don't wnat to get into trouble, so I am not even mentioning the name. Follow the links.

I met R2D2 ...

I ran into R2D2 in front of my local Bestbuy. It never feels real unless you actually see one. Well, I actually saw a R2D2 mailbox. It was not as nice as I thought, but cool none the less. I just wished Princess Leia was there to deposit a piece of mail.

I maybe burning bridges ...

I hope not. I have been putting in long hours at work. Teaching AP Physics for the first time is quite the challenge. I am trying to stay one chapter ahead of the class and add in labs. I am challenging my students act like beginning college students. I hope it works out.

I am not very good at keeping in touch with people. Long hours are not making my inadequacy any easier to overcome. I should call some people and say hi!

Hanging with boys is hard ...

I went to Cards game yesterday. One of the teachers I work with invited me. I have never been to the University of Phoenix stadium, so I thought it would be nice. I spent the time drinking enough not to get called out, but not so much I would get wasted. We drank beer from 11 to 7! That is like putting in a full day of work drinking beer. Not to mention, heat advisory day made drinking extra hard. It really is hard trying to keep up with big boys.

We had a good time. Drank and ate like kings. Here is to football!

Superbad is super exellent ...

I just saw Superbad today. I felt like seeing a movie, because it felt like a nice lazy Sunday morning thing to do. I sure chose to do a fun thing, because Superbad was very FUNNY movie.

It is about three geeky high school seniors and their last day of school. Many funny things happens as they get invited to, attend a graduation party, and try to hook up with girls.

The movie did not feel like a rehash of an old high school movie, which is rare. Just think about how many decent movies about high school adolescents already exists.

I am not usually a big fan of a childish humor movies. This movie once again proved to me that people should not buy into a genre, but watch quality movies.

Go see this HILARIOUS MOVIE!!!!

My first bad news ...

When I decided to become a teacher few years back, I thought about many benefits, but not so much about job hazards. Well, it turns out one of those hazards is losing his/her students to violence.

I lost my first one. I was not very close to the student, but I keep wondering if I should have been nicer. Maybe gotten to know him better. The student was not stellar academically, but nice and cordial.

I feel bad, but not overwhelmingly sad. Does that make me a bad person? I feel like I should be feeling worse.

Tivo, where have you been all my life?

Do you remember the good ole days when we used to record shows on VCR? Well, some of you do. I cannot remember the last time.

Everyone has been telling me how not having cable and DVR is like being a caveman. I keep on telling everyone that I watch too much TV as is, and don't believe in paying for TV shows. But I have always been envious of their cable DVR.

Well jealousy is gone. I just bought a Tivo HD. It is capable of recording HD. I don't have to have a cable service to use one. I am in heaven. I started to record Scrubs, Poker After Dark, etc.

It does cost to get Tivo service, but it is like renting a cable DVR. After buying the hardware and prepaying for service, it is like $17 per month. It is a little pricy, but I am very happy.

Visual voice mail ...

I thought Apple was the only one offering visual voice mail. What is a visual voice mail? Since you can see a list of all your voice mail on iPhone, you can choose to listen to the ones you want and in the order you want. I really like that about my cell phone. Wait, it gets better.

Cox is offering visual voice mail via a website called Phone Tools. I guess it pours when it rains. I can now visually check voice mail on my land line as well. Bravo, Cox!