Zhoudynasty

You know what’s really annoying? Trying to pretend to be your parents so that their bank/cable company/utility company/whatever company will do business with them. Nothing bugs me more than having to call one of these companies to take care of business. Here are the scenarios that play out:

Scenario 1, I feel like being honest
After entering in a sequence of numbers just to talk to a real person…
Automatic operator: Please enter your account number or social security number.
Me: ######-###
Operator: Hello, my name is Sally and I will be helping you today.
Me: Hello Sally.
Sally: Can you please tell me the account number you are calling about?
Me: #####
Sally: And who am I speaking with today?
Me: Bill Zhou
Sally: Are you the account holder?
Me: No, my dad is.
Sally: I’m sorry but he’s going to have to call back.
Me: Oh really? His English is really bad and you wouldn’t understand. He has put me in charge of handling these things.
Sally: I’m sorry but he’s going to have to call back and we’ll have an interpreter for him.
Me: Thanks Sally. (hang up phone, get pissed off)

Scenario 2, I don’t mind lying today.
After entering in a sequence of numbers just to talk to a real person…
Automatic operator: Please enter your account number or social security number.
Me: ######-###
Operator: Hello, my name is Dorothy and I will be helping you today.
Me: Hello Dorothy.
Dorothy: Can you please tell me the account number you are calling about?
Me: #####
Dorothy: And who am I speaking with today?
Me: TJ Zhou
Dorothy: Great, how can I help you today?
Me: (liar liar pants on fire)

Can you imagine what it’s like to do this on a regular basis? When my mom can’t figure out why the phone company charged her $5 this month and not last month, she asks me to call them and find out. “It’s so easy, just call them.” I then pull my hair out.

I took my first boxing class yesterday and I’m sore as hell this morning. I didn’t think I would get so sore from throwing punches. Now that winter is coming, we’ve been looking for some activities to do. We’re going to try some Bikram yoga, which is like doing 90 mins of yogo inside a sauna. It’s always fun to try new things.

It was very inspiring. If I had kids, I would definitely want them to watch and listen closely. I can’t believe there are schools that won’t broadcast the speech, what a bunch of bs.

My favorite parts of his speech was about what it takes to succeed…

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. That’s OK.  Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures…

He goes on to talk about examples from JK Rowling and Michael Jordan. He then explains this…

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

How can anyone deny school children such an important lesson in life?

If you’ve ever been to a drive-in movie, you probably already know they’re fun. Just got back from a drive-in with Ying, Mom and Moomoo. It’s awesome how laid back the whole experience is. You can just sit in your car with blankets and snacks and just chill. Some people even brought their grills and a whole picnic tables. Next time we’re gonna have to bring more food. We watched Star Trek and District 9. This is the first time that we have been able to talk during a movie and tell Mom what’s going on. It made it such an enjoyable experience, we’ll have to come back again with Dad.

Last night I realized that the ocean cod I bought from Costco on Thursday was stinking up the fridge. I didn’t want that $10 pack of cod to go bad so I battered it up with Shorelunch and pan fried it. Pan frying that bad fish made the surface smell go away but as soon as you bite into a piece, a different stench appears. This stench wasn’t the typical fish smell but it was more of a chemical fume that penetrated into the deeper regions of my nostrils. It was awful. I threw away all that fish after cooking it. At least it wasn’t a total waste of $10, it taught me that fish should be cooked right away. Hopefully this smell on my left hand will stop reminding me of the same.

Yay I finally got my iPhone to work, sort of. Another night of tinkering should solve the last few issues.

Ying is in Chicago now, eating Korean food, yum!

Moomoo had diarrhea today. When I got home from work, there were two piles of shit in the corner of my basement. That’s the place where she usually goes when she just can’t control her bladder anymore, though it’s only happened twice. Anyways, I got home, saw the shit and almost puked. I went up stairs and Moomoo had already put herself in her cage, giving me that sorry ass puppy look. She was excited to see me but deathly afraid to show it because she knew I was pissed off. You just can’t stay mad at a dog for very long, especially when they try to hard to please you. Anyways, I spent most the day trying to get that shit out of the carpet. I tried different methods, even putting bread with vinegar on the stains. No, it didn’t work and I’m going to give a 1-star to the YouTube video that suggested the idea. What a stupid idea.

I need to shower again and go to bed. Tomorrow is another Friday, the day that you try to redeem yourself because Monday through Thursday was so crappy and you felt like you should’ve gotten more stuff done. Good night!

Two posts in one day? Why not?

Kenneth asked me for the recipe of this pasta that I made. He said I should write down all the recipes that I like so that one day, my kids can learn how to cook for themselves. What a good idea! So the first recipe I’m going to share is for a simple pasta, a classic tomato-basil-garlic dish. This idea was inspired by John, actually a lot of the things I cook are inspired by him. So here it is…

Ingredients

- handful fresh basil, not dried
- half a clove fresh garlic
- 3 handful of grape tomatoes, those small ones you see at a salad buffet
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- pasta

1. Chop and mince the basil leaves and garlic.
2. Wash and cut the grape tomatoes into halves.
3. Put everything in a large mixing bowl and pour lots of olive oil on it, make it all oily. Add salt and pepper so that it tastes salty.
4. Put lots of salt a pot of water and bring it to a boil. Lots of salt, to the point where the water tastes salty.
5. Add the pasta and a dash of olive oil and cook it until it’s done. Eat a pasta noodle to see if it’s done.
6. When it’s done, drain all the water out and put all the pasta in the mixing bowl with your basil and tomato mix.
7. Start tossing it all together and add olive oil, salt and pepper while you’re tossing everything. Try to toss as best as you can. Taste it as you’re tossing so you know if you should add more salt or olive oil. You’ll probably use almost a half cup of olive oil by the end.
8. Serve it, throw some shredded parmesan cheese on it, eat it.

Damn it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. I’ve thought about blogging for a while but was always turned off by the idea because it had become so mainstream. My contrarian nature must’ve been steering me away from contributing to zhoudynasty.com.

It’s hard to pick up from where you left off, especially since the last post was over a year ago. I’m just going to pretend like my last post was yesterday…

Did I mention how much I hate my damn iPhone? I tried upgrading to the latest firmware but iTunes failed me half way. I’ve spent the last 2 nights trying to get it working again, hopefully tonight will be my lucky night!

Ying is going to Chicago tomorrow night with Julie and they’re going to hang out with Diana. Alan is coming over and we’re turning my place into a man cave, awesome.

Man I can’t believe I just sold my motorcycle! I actually feel sad. I feel like I just sold away my youth and I can never go back and if I did try to go back I would just be faking it. I feel like I just had a break up with someone I loved and I know that they’re never coming back, ever. I feel like I need to replace this void in my life with something, maybe a PS3, but whatever it is, it can never replace it.

Man I feel old. Right after I sold my bike, I went to Target and bought an apron so the splatter will stop getting on my shirt when I cook. How freaking pathetic is that!? As I walked through Target, I noticed my eyes wandering around looking at furniture, cooking accessories, and outdoor lamps. It’s weird that my focus in life has moved so much in the past 3 or 4 years, I know because I can just read back in my old blog entries. Speaking of blog entries, I haven’t written one in a long ass time, and I’ve forgotten how fun it is! I think it just fell out of my routine after work started getting busy. I remember when I used to write more regularly, it was because something happened to me that inspired me to write. The sad thing is that I haven’t felt many inspiring moments to write because most of my time is now spent on work and when I’m not at work, I’m trying to just recharge my batteries. Nevertheless, I should find more time and events to write on.

I’ll end today’s post with a link to the first entry I wrote about my motorcycle, “I wetted myself, and then I wetted myself again.”

Here are the last set of pictures I ever took of my bike, they were all for the purpose of selling it.

I’ve been in Gothenburg for three days now and here are some things I’ve noted…

- Lots of station wagons and hatchbacks
- Coat check is required and costs 20SEK
- Swedish women, hot
- Ikea everywhere
- Looks like northern Minnesota