Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Rambles of the month

"變靚D" is sad! 河國榮's Perfection, lie of the century. I had a run-in with "變靚D" several years ago in a food expo when I was vacationing in HK. They stopped me in the expo and stated that I should try their free health screen. It's free, so why not? I was trapped. Basically, they identified that I was chubby and I was a targeted customer for their slimming program. I left the counter without even getting my health screen results.

I have been thinking about finding my Jay Chou CDs, Jay, his debut album in 2000 and Fantasy from 2001. Yes, life is lonely in L-town and I am desperate.

Richard said Annett & her bf, Mike is going to moving back west. Yeah, I hope to see them soon. Remember Richard: "Friends don't let friends live in Toledo". He recommended Urban dictionary, UD in wiki. I couldn't stop my link to wiki, help!

What is REIT? Big W is thinking about it. What will happen to the paper mill business?

Huskies R loves sweaters, she loves them so much that she bought 5 sweaters from Freddy in one visit. She has been modeling the sweaters at work. Very interesting esp. when she asks me for comment! I am not a sweater person.. Hence, no comment!
She has a sweater sale antenna and regularly I would receive updates about sweater sale from major clothing outlets. It’s a great plus to have the sale news without doing actual work to search for them.

I have a new nickname from a vendor, Process bosswoman. No one call me a grunt yet. Let's negotiate. I gonna miss Doug's smiley face and I don’t want to be a bosswoman.

I can't wait to make lo bak go. Here is the recipe.

I read that Chinese Automaker Chang Feng is making their debut in auto shows in NA. The SUVs look strange.

We gonna help each other! APA!

Another HK food safety scandal from Park N' Shop. Here is the article from The Standard.

An Unthinkable Crime, Until Someone Finally Thought of It from NY Times. Why rob them?

HK health news Mainland women, back off. More articles from BBC: Hong Kong limits pregnant Chinese, HK's draw for pregnant Chinese

My long-lived Ichiro story is still in circulation but I expect things will get quieter by February. Oh, it’s tomorrow.

W-N achieved a milestone on 1-27-07 9:12 AM: 1 Million hours without a lost time injury, there were cakes and congratulation banners everywhere and maybe SMT safety awards lie somewhere on the horizon. Even without awards or any honorable mention in W-newspaper, it’s still freaking awesome.

Scary market update:
Two big players decided to merge, Newsprint Powerhouse Merge on Monday 1.29.07, my instant feeling on the subject: Future Market Domination? Hopfully, the market Council will tell us more but as analysts predict the big ship will still sink, slower.

Cubicle shuffle continues. My scheduled move is this Friday. Brian just got moved and he is passing on to me the first shipment of old files. I got 3 boxes so far, there will be more.

APA movie: Red door. I would like one in my future house.

Countdown for Doug, 2 days to go, remember trust no self-proclaimed expert, so he said. G100 & C&OPS- Chemical Cost is driving me insane.

Earl the squirrel is W_N mascot. Earl has a pal named Merl. Ain’t we cool? I got a T-shirt with Earl on it.

W-News update
1. Shuttered ‘Cosi’ mill may still reopen, as I previously reported in week 2. They are talking to another potential buyer.
2. Realities hurt, wood mills were being curtailed/closed/on market for sale/sold and workers are losing job, the news came every week.
3. A wood mill is being built on Longview compound. It showed W-N long term sustainability.

張二小姐的冬日急救架撐. I think she gave great tips, girls we should try it.



向左走·向右走

CNY is about 3 weeks away, 髮菜 is in the headline. 食環署驗髮菜不理真偽 只測化學物 5年17樣本全無問題, HKfehd has some explainings to do, again.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Adam! Belated!

Friday, January 26, 2007

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Healthy Eating...

Not on the label. That's scary, to think what we eat daily is full of crap. Ok, that's the news from the past, but why didn't we change at all? I feel guilty now... I had french fries last week... they were so bad for my health (trans fat, saturated fat) but it tastes so good.
Super size Me, a compelling movie, but bad habits are hard to be rid of.

Interestingly, Dr. Steve Davis from OSU's Animal Science Dept. was mentioned in this wiki: Vegan. He is definitely not a vegan.

Speaking healthy eating, in the recent years, HK (famously for her gourmet food) has no luck in putting a stop to its food safety scandal, hence mostly caused from the import of city’s main food supplier: Mainland China. The problems vary from virus found in meat (beef, pork, and poultry) to chemical contamination & pesticides found in fish, shellfish, fruits and vegetables, To make matters worst, there were “fake food” liked dumplings, eggs, bean burds etc, see this breaking news article. There is an another article from GreenPeace-China about toxic fruits sampled in HK local produce markets.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Korean boy band invasion

Buddy J has been giving me some enlightenment in the music pop cultural. She introduced me to Joey, Janice etc and now the Korean boys. Maybe now I can talk intelligently to my cool cousins about the music that they listen to because I know who the heck Super Junior, Fly to the Sky & Choi Si won are.
崔始源 reminded me of Jimmy Lin林志穎
Lin at 17Lin at 32

Week 3

Week 3 ended with several hits on my head. The biggest hit was that my process manager decided to jump ship, he announced on causal day that he quitted N and he would start swimming across the river to OR and work for MR. Cleaner. I guess the neighbor lawn is greener after all.... I was sad with tears to see him go but still, I wish him the best. It should be a good opportunity for him as I told myself when I first came to this pacific. I ran to Sara and cried like a baby. Taka finally have all his stuff moved to his new cubicle across the room. I gonna miss him.

What else, well? A former co-worker is engaged. ok-somewhat predictable...I am happy for her though. 1 recordable injury with 4 stitches in the head ended the N-dream of zero RIR, very disturbing news actually, but he is a OK. Snowstorm in Portland and SW WA was very nerve-racking, no school, no work and continued with my emotional problems...Tom has the week off, almost! Come on, give me more stress! I don't want to think about any exams! No work on Saturday Brainwave-that was good! Old HR talked to me about Lisa, oh no another headache....I feel bad. Had another REAL moment to be a MER on Monday. Roof saga continued. I am sure glad that there is another round. It was truly a roller coaster for my little brain to handle....*pout*

On the upside, I went to Local Boyz Fri nite, and surprisingly the comfort food did not energize my spirit. I had dinner with J Sat nite and skipped out on Dave's cool party. His friends are too cool for me to handle. The visits to B&N and Pie cow with J were really fun, Thanks, Pal. My tummy was so happy.

J and I 's heart sank when we were stopped by a law enforcement officer in B-town. I was humble in response and I learned a very valuable lesson, I still couldn't believe it.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Princeton University is racist against me, I mean, non-whites

Quote from Angry Asian Man:
This article, by "Lian Ji," ran yesterday in the "joke edition" of the Daily Princetonian. I'm not laughing: Princeton University is racist against me, I mean, non-whites. The piece is obviously meant to mock rejected applicant Jian Li, who is reportedly suing the university for discrimination... but also manages to offend the sensibilities of Asian Americans on multiple levels. Joke or not, the writer takes way too much pleasure in recalling every offensive Asian stereotype possible for the piece. Contact the editors and let them know what you think, and spread the word. Don't let them hide behind their "joke issue."

What do you think? Should APA just let it slide?

My Job Description

Mr B explained to Brian, Roberta and myself:
Actively pursuit any technology to improve profitability
Duh. I feel enlightened. On the dark side, I may have to go to work this Saturday just for that, with free lunch or dinner provided! The update is on the way from the higher authority (aka Mr. B). Think back when I was a nobody, I like my old duties better. (Just keep the sheet on the reel and keep the machines running!)

Boringfish gone wild in wiki

Interesting Read:
Catholic, Buddhism, Scientology, Mormon, Judaism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity

Connection:
Buddhism, Confucius 孔子, 儒家思想, Confucianism, Nichiren 日蓮大聖人, SGI, Hundred Schools of Thought, 諸子百家, Chinese Philosophies

Origin of life, where do we come from:
Mitochondrial, Single Origin, Yuanmou Man from 雲南省, 元謀人, Lantian Man from 陕西省, 藍田人, Peking Man from 周口店, 北京猿人, Homo Erectus 直立人,

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

墨攻~ぼっこう~ A battle of wits

日本版
中文版
AL's character is a Mohism Strategist.

Snow, freezing rain days in SW WA and Portland, OR

With the chains, I am prepared now. The road conditions in Portland Area was very bad for driving, 2 days off for school kids. There were 2 to 5" of snow on the ground, depending where you are. At 67th, there were about 3, and the ice was terrible. There was no comparison in L-town, things were calm and quiet as they got little precipitation.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Sunday, January 14, 2007

包二奶

Came across the wiki and it documented how many Chinese men 包二奶 in Mainland.

RumorLand & Headache for the weeks to come

HK Police, I hope things are going well with Vincent as he is attending HK Police College soon. Meanwhile, Eric is on the way......

Another rumor control is: 2007 Grandma visit.....

More insurance stuff to deal with after the fallen tree in Feb, a structural engineer should be calling me shortly.....

Trying time........

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Hot Pot Marathon

JSR decided to continue the hot pot madness this Saturday. The party was expanded because J's family decided to host one hot pot gathering for her uncle birthday as well, so two parties were combined. S bailed out of the party because she felt ill. We invited Davie to join, he bailed out of it because he is shy. J and I ate a lot and our stomachs were very satisfied. Yo, BoringFish got a cuttlefishball from the snapshot. You caught me!
After dinner, we had Cheesecake with the birthday boy's monogram. J made the monogram with ovaltine powder, very talented. Next time she needs to bake the cake.

The girls continued to have fun by watching TV and sipping beer. We were beat and had no more energy left for bar-hopping or playing mahjong. Ting's husband-created brake failure stopped her quest to the east side, so we were missing players anyway.

Happy Birthday Richard!

Belated.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Week 2

Week 2 turned out to be quite hectic. Seriously I shouldn't be whining about it considering how I need to work hard to earn my keep. The highlight was definitely the trip to Seattle (see report below). I have several projects that will keep me busy for the 1st quarter. They are the black dye project, dry end pulper shower modification project, starch survey and starch dosage change. After going to TImes, now I really want to see Register Guard's pressroom in Eugene, esp. after I make chemical changes that will impact sheet properties and press runnability. Defect group is chunking along, we just came up with some recommendations on how to operate my fave: DAF clarifier. I used to be in charge of three of those in W-Alb, but over in W-N, we have different strategies to handle fines, stickies and white water.

Industry news: Hong Kong based Lee & Man's North American division, Evergreen has made an announcement that they are considering a purchase of Cosi pulp mill, Big W shut down the plant last September, and I know quite a few people who worked there. It is somewhat interesting that Evergreen had purchased a pulp mill in Samoa, CA back in 2005. The Chinese are definitely penetrating into the paper markets on our soil. Business is not as usual any more. The link is here.

The weather in NW continued to be very cold. Perfect for hot pot party! Chicago is warmer than Portland, what happened to the windy city?
Count down to Jan 22nd. I hope Tom will do well on his exam. GO Go go....

Happy Birthday, Perry, Big 40!

A nice guy from work

Thursday, January 11, 2007

ST/SPI Report

Seattle Times and Seattle PI
My first trip to a pressroom in Bothell was very educational! The journey was fun with the beautiful snow scenery on I-5. Once we got to the Seattle area, it was hailing at 3-ish.
Let's talk about the good stuff. Weather: it was beautiful as Seattle suburbs turned into snowland.
The soccer field across from the press building at 5-ish.
The parking lot of a grocery store at 6-ish.
Front Entrance after the night run. That was like 12:30 AM
The next morning
Traffic: Washingtonians learned from the pain & suffering in the last snow storm (It took 11 hours to go from downtown Seattle to Federal Way), folks were panicing and traffic was a-okay. With all the meetings that we had, we were able to avoid the circus on the freeway and stayed close by for meals and lodging. The hotel was in Lynnwood. We were in rush hour traffic on the way back but we managed to be on I-405 and made it home in reasonable times.

Real work: Many meetings but the press room visit was fantastic. The robots are my fave parts, whom all have cool names. My top three are Godzilla, Elvis and Sunshine. The presses are big and relatively clean. The picture was taken at the ground level where the rolls were being threaded upwards.
Godzilla, my fave.
The fleet of 12 is working hard.
Difficult work: The 3 meetings went ok and somewhat awkard and embarrassing for me as a new comer when my team was under attacked. I wasn't approached as the RED target practice despite the fact that I did not wear purple or gold. I did have to tell them my W_Albany "rise to fame" Ichiro-summer softball leauge legacy and that I like the Seattle Mariners. Overall, the visit was a success as we managed to have the other parties agree to run some questionably "mis-labeled" rolls and they turned out fine.

On the way home, I saw the tip of Mt. Rainier from the road. Not a great shot, but I tried. This is for my mountain man.

Hot pot part II

J*BoringFish
Miss E
Miss E*Fish

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Seattle Times

I am on the road, heading North. It's gonna be cold with the snow showers. I will keep you posted. we aleady saw 1 car fipped to the side.


Random thoughts, pictures and articles for your reading pleasure.

I had a mango bubble tea with J on Saturday. She was loaning me some cantonese soap opera DVDs, that should ease my lonely nites in L-town.
Confession of Pain. Another movie made by Infernal Affairs's Andrew Lau. There gonna be an American version of it. Should be good!
Confession of Pain in Wiki, Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi, 徐静蕾.

I don't have PBS.


The lessson in my son's death
. An article written by Spencer Kim. His son was found dead in a creek in Southern Oregon after Thanksgiving Holidays. he was looking for helped when he and his family was stranded and lost in Southern Oregon logging country.

Little Asia on the Hill. Apparently, affirmative action did not hurt APA.

Liger: a hybrid of a male lion and a female tiger. I saw that on TV.

I have been thinking alot about the air quality in the town that I lived in. Check this out about 揮發性有機化合物=VOC.

The year of 2006 ended with a RIR 1.21. We had 6 recordables. Zero for now.

Food for thoughts!
Embrace uncertainies (yes I am a copy cat) and give it a shot in 2007!

Snowing in the lowlands Wednesday morning

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Life time Ambassadorship program, sound serious?

My supervisor just informed me that I fit the profile of a candidate in a Big W Ambassadorship program. I am excited and hope that they would pick ME! Sponsorship is worked in progress...

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Exciting morning:car trouble

Right rear tire went flat, Mel and Les Schwab came to rescue.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Hot Pot night with the JSR!

Miss J's hard work to prepare the feast

Enjoying hot pot with wonderful company can be a great comfort after a long day at work in a cold winter. A game of mahjong is always suiting after the meal. More pictures are coming soon!

WA pictures

Timber from Mt. St. Helen
Enormous Huskies

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Week 1 of 2007

The new year started with many bowl games, frankly I did not care much except for the Sun bowl, because OSU was in it. USC won the Rose bowl.

Big W_N started the new year with the 0.0 RIR, so does everyone else. (Mr. Cooper's quote: The slate is clean and we need to focus on remaining injury free. Don't let down your guard!! Stay focused and take the time to think before each task.) Yes, I am preaching safety! Folks are still trying to figure out if we had a recordable at the end of the year or not (see blog Week53 for details). Anyway, the operator is fine and he went back to work the next day!

My fresh new year at Big W_N, I better work hard! Speaking of that, the first machine shut is on Jan 4th, Thurs, a 12 hours one! Not too bad, except we will be doing an acid boilout, my first one! I am busy scrambling for the last minute preparation.

Co-worker Roberta has invited me to go on a Caribbean cruise with her in March. 7-days cruise for $800 bucks, excluding airfares to Miami! I thought she was kidding, but it turned out she is going for sure, I think I may reserve time and money for my "other" vacation.

New resolution: actually I have a few of those, who doesn't?
1. $$$$$= sell my house, top priority!
2. Fitness= trimming
3. Job= Gonna earn my keep
4.
"Wink"


Then, here comes the Shut Day Saga! The day started at 5:15 AM. There were lots of confusion over "the lack of communicated" acid boilout with the stock prep operators, the "unprepared but expected" caustic contamination of the water source made things just a little bit difficult. We managed to complete the mild success boilout; since it still did not digest all the residual that was sticking to the headbox wall.

The week has been filled up by drama: the shut fever and the love turbulence. I was distracted for a good second when I was told that I am going to Seattle Times next week. I will be staying in the press room in the morning hours to see the run!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Lands of the LDS, Days of the M-lives.

Congratulations! Adam has arrived at 84101! It's snowing, have Fun and dress warm!

Man on a stick!

David started his new year on a "LOW" note! He broke his leg when he was boarding 1:30 AM in the morning on New Year Day! I will spare you the details, but we sure do hope that he is getting well soon! He is on a stick!

Monday, January 01, 2007

A brand new day! Almost a brand new year!

My fantastic new year break!



With the Chocolate overload, it was a sweet ending to my Hiatus.