Vampire Dream

A week ago I applied to be an extra as a vampire for a local film. The day of filming has come. We were to meet at the shooting location in Oakland at 10 A.M. on Sunday. I arrived there about 7 minutes after 10 A.M.  I was surprised to find that most people have already arrived and some have already started setting up equipments. That meant they took the movie work quite seriously. Some of them have been making film for a while. Some of the actors and actresses are pursuing their dreams as professional actors. Some of them are planning on moving to Los Angles for more opportunities. The makeup artists (MUA) on the set were all volunteers, but some of them are quite experienced and do work on TV, commercial, and movie sets.

It was a very long day. As an extra, my scene wasn't shot until much later in the day. I had the opportunity to chat with the makeup artists, other actresses, the wardrobe girl, and other people working behind the scene to make things go smoother. I later on found out that two of the lead actresses' mothers were on the set working as well. One of them explained to me that MMTB (Movie Making Throughout the Bay) has provide many opportunities for people who are passionate about movie making to get together and practice their art and skills.

The director shot every scene several times. I could see that she wanted to have extra shots so she could put together the best footage for the final movie.  I was very moved by everyone's dedication and passion for what they love to do. You've got to really love it otherwise you wouldn't be able to get up early on a Sunday to work on it all day without getting paid.

By the end of the day, some of us have become friends, and we will keep in touch via Facebook until the next casting call.

Step 2: Spend Wisely. Save Wildly.

Leonard McCracken

I saw a headline called View of Retirement at 107 a few days ago. It's about Leonard McCracken, who has been living in retirement since about 1969. The article explains how he has done it in great details, but the key points are:

Thrift
Real Estate Investments
Use Debt Well
Work Even When Jobs Are Hard to Find
Save and Invest Conservatively
Stay Healthy

I understand that being thrifty can be extremely difficult to do for many people since credit cards are so easy to apply. You can buy all kinds of stuff you don't need with no money up front. When I finally paid off my credit card debt, I wanted to put the money for my monthly payment into a savings account. Not only I wanted to put it in a savings account, I wanted a savings account that's not easily accessible. I found ING Direct Orange Savings. They don't have branches all over the place, so I wouldn't be able to just go to an ATM to withdraw cash. Additionally, I was also offered a $25.00 bonus to open a savings account with a minimum balance of $250.00.

The bonus is not automatic. In order to get the $25.00 bonus, you either need to have a bonus coupon or have an existing ING Direct account holder email you a referral link. You MUST use that referral link to open the account in order to get the bonus. A friend of mine jumped the gun and opened a savings account through ING website after I told him about the bonus. He didn't realize that I had to email him a referral link first, so he wasn't able to get the bonus. I have been an ING Orange Saver since November 25, 2003, and I never had any issue with ING. By putting the money far away, I can't make impulse purchases. They have never ever charged me a fee for anything. One time I messed up in making a deposit transfer from my checking account when there wasn't enough money in the checking account. ING didn't charge me anything for insufficient fund. The deposit simply didn't take place. That was all.

If you decided to start saving like I did, and ING Direct looks good to you, email me at squirrelliving@gmail.com to get a referral link for your bonus. I do not work for ING. I am just sharing my personal experience on what worked for me. It may work for you as well. You will have to decide.

How to Stretch One Free Meal into Three Meals

A few days ago, a friend of mine treated me to Plouf to celebrate my soon-to-be-free life. Plouf is located at 40 Belden Place in San Francisco's Financial District. Belden Place is a very short dead end street hidden between Bush and Pine and between Kearny and Montgomery. The little block is filled with European style restaurants, and they are all a bit fancy and quite good. A squirrel like me wouldn't normally go there, but my friend was treating me, and it really is an occasion worth celebrating.

I ordered "Plouf Mussels." The Mussels were cooked in a broth with shallots, pastis, roasted garlic (lots of it!), chili flakes and fine herbs. I think they also added cream and butter. It was excellent. I ate almost of the fries and all the mussels. When I was done, there was a bowl of that awesome broth. I couldn't leave the broth there. It would just be a shame to throw away that broth. If you were traveling and have no way of taking it home, then I would forgive you; otherwise, you would be a damned fool to leave it there.

The restaurant also served complimentary French baguette that was crunchy outside and soft inside. I had to take that with my broth. You know they would just go into the garbage if you don't take them. The sweet waiter even gave me an extra piece of baguette to take home.

I took some of the broth and the baguette to work next day for lunch. For the rest of the broth, I added some water and cooked rice noodles in it. I added water because you know everything from a restaurant is high in sodium. Even though I added water, it still tasted perfectly seasoned. I also added more cayenne pepper and some chanterelle mushrooms to the soup. It was a great dinner.

So, this was how one awesome meal was stretched into three awesome meals.

Still Eating Out of Pantry

Over a week ago, I stopped going to the grocery store. I wanted to see how long I could last without going shopping. Now over a week later, I still have plenty of food in the pantry and in my garden. I do have to get a bit more creative than usual. I bought some Knorr's Chicken Bouillon a while back from 99 Cents Store. 99 Cents Store is great if there's one near you. They even sell fresh produce now. In the summer, I bought many packs of blueberries from there for 99 cents per package. They are usually about $3 in regular grocery store. You do however have to refrain yourself from impulse buys since everything is 99 cents or less. If you can't control yourself, you may end up with a bunch of things you don't really need or eat. Try stay away from those mini candy bars.

For dinner tonight, I boiled a pot of water with a cube of chicken bouillon then added some rice noodles into it. I bought the rice noodles a while back and had been too lazy to cook them. You need to soak dried rice noodles in water or warm water first. When I tell people that I am eating out of pantry, people may get the impression that I didn't have any fresh produce. The mini produce department is actually right outside of my backdoor. One of my favorite vegetables is broccoli. I grow broccoli De Cicco, an Italian variety with open heads and long stalks. The leaves and stalks are all edible. They are smaller than regular broccoli and a lot more tender. I got some seedlings from a local grower over a year ago. Initially I thought they weren't going to survive, but they made a come back and flourished and seeded. They even survived the winter frost last month.

I clipped some broccoli De Cicco for my noodle soup.

I also have some mushroom blocks in the back garden, and some shiitake mushrooms are growing now. These might be the last of them for the season if it doesn't rain again soon. The mushrooms went in the soup, too. I think I eat quite well. I much prefer what I have over a box of frozen dinner. I will see if this can last another week.

San Francisco City Tour on a Budget

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States. I took BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to San Francisco to spend a day there with a friend. I got off at Powell Street Station, which is the stop where Westfield San Francisco Centre is located. You can exit the BART Station and go straight into the food court of the shopping center without going outside. Normally, I would go straight to the food court to grab something to eat. Today I didn't want to spend more money than I had to.

I remember when I went to Tokyo two summers ago, I was so grateful that my cousin, who has lived in Tokyo all her life, took me to the restaurants which local people go. They were good and much cheaper. I used to come to the city when I was a teenager before I had a job, so I certainly know where the cheap eats are. I got out of the Westfield Mall and walked down Powell Street, passing the line of people waiting to get on Cable Car. There is a Blondie's Pizza at 63 Powell Street. I got a slice of their daily special for $3.75. If you must drink something with your meal, water is free. The reason I mention this is because some countries in Europe charge you for regular water, too. Not here in California. I don't normally drink anything when I eat anyway. However, I did feel like having something sweet after the pizza.

I headed back down Market Street toward 4th street. There is a 7-11 located at 711 Market Street that I always stopped by if I wanted something cheap to drink. On a hot summer day, I would get a cup of Slurpee. If you are really tight on your budget, you can have an entire meal at this 7-11. They have everything - fresh fruit cups, salad bowls, sandwiches, burgers, hard boiled eggs, red velvet cupcakes, hot dogs, Cup Noodles, sushi, etc. There is a large selection of self serve hot beverages, too.

During those days when I was paying off my credit card debt, I never went to Starbucks. If I needed to get coffee before getting to the office, I would stop by a 7-11 with my own mug. You could fill it up at a fixed price. I think it was about $1.00 back then. It's probably a little more now. Now they have this latte machine that makes 3 different kinds of latte and hot chocolate. There is even a whipped cream dispenser at no extra charge. I got a medium size vanilla latte with whipped cream for $1.69.

As I sipped my latte and headed back down Market Street, I heard someone playing drums - rock style. I love loud and fast rock drumming. I attempted in taking some drum lessons when I was a teenager and immediately realized that I don't have that kind of coordination to move my two hands and foot altogether at different timing. What was a girl to do? I dated a bunch of drummers instead.

There is a sign next to the drummer. It turned out that he's a traveling musician from Japan. It is awesome that he came all the way here and already set up his drums on Market Street to be a part of the scene. There were other people gathering around to enjoy the show. I wanted to help him out but I didn't have much cash on me, so I emptied out my coin purse into his box. I had a brief chat with the drummer, Masakazu, who hasn't decided which town he's going next; however, he will be touring with the pillows as their backup drummer later this year.

How cool is that? This is one of the reasons I love this area. You never know who you are going to meet when you go out there. All those years of being trapped in cubicles made me a recluse. I started to talk less and less and stopped talking to strangers completely. Talking to people is another thing on my "To Do List" for this year.

Masakazu is the one on the right giving the toddler a quick lesson

My friend and I walked up Stockton to Chinatown. We reminisced last time we came to Chinatown and other parts of the city. From Chinatown we continued on to North Beach. At Broadway we made a turn and headed toward the pier for the Ferry Building. It was quite a warm day for January. I was totally overdressed and overheated from all the walking. We got some gelato ($3.65 per scoop) from Ciao Bella and sat outside for a break.

After heading back up Market from the Ferry Building, I hopped on the BART from Embarcadero Station to take me back to Berkeley ($3.90 each way). Spending a day in San Francisco can be as cheap as $16.89 (not counting the change I gave to Masakazu) if you are not into buying things you don't need.

View of the Bay Bridge from the Ferry Building

Step 1: Become Debt Free

If you are interested in quitting your job, the first thing you need to do is to be debt free. Only then, you will have the option I had - to walk away from a job when it is time to move on. My family is not wealthy, and I wasn't born rich. My paternal grandfather passed away suddenly when my father was ten years old and left nothing to his pregnant wife and five children. My father, being the second oldest of 5 children, had to try to take care of his mother and siblings along with his older brother. My father often tells me those difficult days when all of them had to share little food.

Because of those days, my father has always been frugal. He provided all life's necessities when my brother and I were growing up. My mother managed the finance and took care of us at home. My brother and I were never put in daycare. We learned to save our money when we were little kids.

That all changed when I went away for college. On the first day of college orientation, I passed by one table after another of credit card promoters. They offered me free t-shirts or free mugs just for filling out an application. They told me how convenient it was to have a card for buying schools supplies and paying tuition. I said, why not? I saw other students buying nice brand new things with their credit cards, and I did it, too. Why not? I would get a good job when I graduate, and then I would pay it all back.

I attended college on state grants, so I never had to apply for a student loan. However, by the time I graduated, I was at least over $80,000 in credit card debt. I had about 10 credit cards and many of them maxed out. I was only able to make minimum payments on most of them. I was worried. I always had a job, but I couldn't keep up with the high interest rate. I thought about filing for bankruptcy. Other people were doing it, but I couldn't. That seemed wrong to me. Besides, my credit would be ruined for at least 10 years. I looked into credit counseling for debt consolidation. I hesitated for a while because I knew that I would have to stop using credit cards. I wasn't sure if I could do that, but I had to try. After a payment plan was worked out, and I agreed not to use credit cards anymore, I was finally making progress on paying off my debt.

I was working in Silicon Valley for start-up companies during those years. I made decent money, but I rented a room with other housemates. I often cooked at home. I had a modest car. I always visited local libraries for entertainment material. I almost never went out clubbing or drinking.  Luckily, I wasn't interested in that type of activities to begin with. I often had a part time job on the side. In the evenings and weekends I would work as an event photographer, sales associate at Macy's, or caretaker for someone with physical disability.  I signed up to participate in user studies with Yahoo!, served as a mock juror for research, evaluated new skin care products, etc. to earn extra money in order to make extra payments on top of the regular monthly payment. I became debt free after about five years. I do use one credit card now, but I never use it to pay for anything that I can't pay off on the monthly due date.

Credit Counseling is a free service. You just need to make that first call and talk to a counselor about your debt and determination to pay it off. Secondly, you need to kill the temptation of buying things that are not necessities and spend the money that you don't have. Believe me, being able to tell your overly demanding boss that you don't need the shitty job is much, MUCH, more satisfying than having that flat screen TV. By the way, I have never bought a TV in my entire life so far. People are always giving away their fully functional TV.

Staying Up Late and Getting Up Early

I woke up at 7:40 this morning. Normally I'd just roll around and fall back to sleep. Not today. I can't be wasting time sleeping. I can do that when life is over. I jumped up and headed over to the auto shop down the street. I tried to get there round 8 to beat the crowd. There was just one woman in front of me when I got there.

Emily at the counter knows me by now since I have most of maintenance  done there. I asked her how long she's been working there. Almost five years. She has to get up early every work day in order to get there by 8 am! She said that she feels like she's been working there since birth and people around the neighborhood recognize her now. She often has people greeting her when she's out and about.

Rialto Theatre is just across the street. The woman before me who was waiting on her car started saying that she's interested in seeing True Grit, which is a remake of a John Wayne movie. However, it is more true to the book, which she has read. I told her that I saw True Grit at Rialto two weeks ago, and it's excellent. I have never seen John Wayne's version or read the book, but the girl in True Grit amazed me. The story moved me deeply, and it also contributed to my decision on living one year.

The girl's performance was phenomenal. She portrays a 14-year old girl in the movie. I thought perhaps she was older in real age and was surprised that she really is 14. The story itself reminds me how fast time flies. I remember my days as a 14-year old quite well.

I shall log off now as my brother and sister in-law will be here soon.

One Year to Live

What would you do if you have one year to live? Would you spend that year sitting in a cubicle and stare at the computer monitor? I sure hope not. I am not dying yet, but I want to spend a year living as if I am out of time. Actually I really feel that way quite often. It freaks me out thinking about all the dreams I had when I was a child and when I was a teenager. Maybe it's mid-life crisis. Maybe I came to a realization that I don't need much money to live. I just know that I want to be free for a while to do some of the things I always wanted to do. I do not want to live until 60 years old and be stuck to some mundane job.

I already turned in my two-week notice.  After that, first thing I did was enrolling in animation classes. Become a graphic novelist was the first thing I ever wanted to do as a child. Sitting in the cubicles for years has demolished much of the creativity I had when I was younger. I wonder how much of it can be regained.

Second, I started looking at craiglist for creative gigs and applied to be an extra in a vampire film. If I could be anything, I'd be a vampire - not because I wanted to suck someone's blood so badly. I wanted to have the legendary super power vampires have and be immortal without aging. I would patrol the city at night and get rid of murderers, serial killers, and child molesters and maybe some crooked politicians and corporate executives. Since I can't imagine I'll become a vampire anytime soon, I guess playing one in a film will have to do for now.

Third, I am finally going to use Facebook. I have a profile for many years, but I wasn't interested in doing much on it. I created the profile just to see how it works and what the fuzz was about. Now I am going to network and reach out to as many people as I can since it's my "last year."

Forth, I am making this blog public right now.

No Part Time

Chipmunk returned from his business trip on Monday. He had seen the email announcement about my departure. When he heard about my offer to work two days a week, he seemed relieved and was happy about the idea. He told my manager to work out the details with me.

On Tuesday morning, the manager called me from home to tell me to meet with the HR manager about working part time. That was when I heard from the HR manager that my pay rate would stay exactly the same. There would be no performance review for last year to give me a raise however tiny it was for the previous two years. I notified my manager that I would not be able to work part time at the same pay.

Chipmunk told me that afternoon that he cannot pay me any more money because they can't afford it. I don't know how that logic works. I reduced from 40 hours to 16 hours with no benefits, and they suddenly couldn't afford to pay me a couple dollars more an hour. Let's not forget that my salary was written into both of their government grants. I pointed these facts to him. Did he think I was that retarded?

No matter. He insisted that he just couldn't afford to pay me a penny more. For the rest of the day, he was trying to figure out the work I have been doing for the last two years. I prefer to archive everything electronically - it saves paper, reduces storage space, and I can find my documents from my desk. Chipmunk is old school. He has physical file cabinets that are filled with papers inside of folders. He asked me where the paper files were for the projects. I showed them to him. He was surprised how small those files were. He wanted to know where all the non-disclosure agreements were. I emailed him the path of the folder on the shared server.

Seeing him typing ever slowly on his keyboard, I had to shake my head. Perhaps he is really struggling financially. I have been handling their finances and have seen many $200 (or more) dinner receipts for two people. I have seen the purchases on his credit card statements. I know how many iPads they asked me to order using the grant money.

No, I do not feel sorry for him. I know another person will come along and take the job although the last person they hired after extensive interviews only lasted 2 weeks. She quit.

How Long Can I Go Without Grocery Shopping?

Most people I know have their pantries fully stocked, but they still go grocery shopping saying that they have nothing to eat at home. I am no exception. Since I decided to live with almost no money, I am going to see how long I can go without shopping for grocery. The photo above is not my pantry. I don't have a big pantry like that. I also don't buy boxed macaroni and (fake) cheese or canned fruit. In my small pantry, I have a lot of dried wild mushrooms that I foraged and dried. I also have a couple bags of dried figs that I picked from my garden and dried. I have a lot of spices and different kinds of flour. I have rolled oats and steel cut oats. I have a few cans of tuna, sardines, chicken broth, coconut milk, and evaporated milk.

For tonight's dinner, I chopped up a couple onions and a daikon radish from my garden to make a pot of soup in my Crock Pot. I cooked some rice and opened up a can of King Oscar Sardines in fish oil that's been in the pantry for years. My father gave them to me years ago which I stored in my previous pantry for a year. I brought them with me when I moved into this house four years ago. I was sure they were still good. I I always hesitate to open a can of sardines even though I actually think they taste good. It's the way they look. They just don't look too appetizing, you know, with tails and skin. However, Sardines are one of the few foods that contain Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a nutrient found the body’s cells. In a nutshell, it’s believed to have antioxidant properties and is said to enhance physical energy. Studies have also found that CoQ10 benefits those with cardiovascular diseases, particularly hypertension and congestive heart failure. In addition to CoQ10, these little nutritional powerhouses are also ample sources of vitamin B12, selenium, omega-3 oils, protein, phosphorus and vitamin D.

I ate the sardines with steamy Japanese rice right out of rice cooker. It was simple and tasty for me since I love fish. The soup was good, too. I had to stop myself for finishing the entire can of sardines. I am saving some for tomorrow.

Mother

Momma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Momma's gonna put all of her fears into you
Momma's gonna keep you right here under her wing
She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing 

- Roger Waters

I was feeling pretty good today. I felt that the light at the end of the tunnel wss near, and that I would be able to give a shot at what I always wanted to do. That was until Mother called. I was just finishing up dinner, so I asked her to call me back in 10 minutes. She called back, and I had no idea what she wanted to talk about.

She told me that she had been thinking about it since I mentioned to her a few days ago that I would quit my job to enroll in an Anime program in Tokyo. She thought it was not a good idea to quit my job. She thought I should stay with the job while looking for a new job since I don't like the job. She talked about how difficult it is to find a job now. People have spent years trying to get a job. My uncle has not been able to find a job since he quit his job. She said it would be more stressful if I didn't have a job.

I didn't tell her that I had already turned in my 2-week notice. I didn't tell her that I had murderous thoughts from all the anger and frustration with the job. I didn't tell her that I didn't feel life was worth living if I had to enslave myself to a job that was completely meaningless to me. I told her that I will be taking night classes and be very busy. I didn't want to stay on the phone with her anymore.

I thought about Mother by Pink Floyd. In regard to the song, Roger Waters said, "If you can level one accusation at mothers, it is that they tend to protect their children too much. Too much and for too long."

It doesn't matter whether you are a teenager, an international rock legend or a mother yourself, you can relate to one another on this - your mother can drive you crazy and depressed with their good intentions.

Two-Week Notice

I was hired as a software development administrative assistant in August, 2008. Prior to that, I worked in technical support for eight years including five years as a web technician.

After Chipmunk's personal assistant quit last summer, I became the default go-to person for all of Chipmunk's random requests - a ride down the street, printing out his email, making hundreds of copies of his financial statements and be sure not to talk to anyone about them or read them, making deliveries to San Francisco, etc., etc. In the meantime, he was clearly not happy with my "performance." For my end of the year self evaluation, I listed all of my responsibilities, listed all 10 websites I was managing, included some "kudos" from customers and internal employees, pointed out that the position of Chipmunk's personal assistant was imposed on me whether I wanted it or not. I demanded for a pay adjustment. That was turned in before Thanksgiving. In early December, Chipmunk sent out an email and cced my manager, the HR Director, and the CFO:

"...this is not acceptable job performance on your part...Please do not let a mishap like this happen again or I will need to put a memo in your personnel file..."

My immediate reply was (also cced my manager, the HR Director, and the CFO):

"...In this case, I do not believe it was a mishap on my part. I did not forget about the delivery and it was on schedule according to the contract...the client just now told us that he needs it by December 17."

I was furious, and I was furious for days. If Chipmunk had been in the office, I would have to quit right there, so I didn't have to kill anybody.

Last year ended and new year rolled around. On Tuesday, Chipmunk was again unhappy with the fact that I didn't remind him of something he wanted to take care of on Monday. He emphasized about how I needed to have some kind of system to remind myself to remind him. The truth is, I didn't forget. I didn't remind him because I didn't want to spend time "working" with him on whatever it was. It turned out that he just wanted me to print out two copies of a contract and have him sign them. If he had said so, I would have printed them out and had them on his desk before he came in. Unfortunately, in his forwarded email, he only said to remind him about it so we could work on it.

I don't like naggers, and I don't work well with micro managers. For months, I contemplated on quitting the job since I know I would not get laid off any time soon if ever. I briefly searched for a new job and applied for a few. I received an invitation for an interview but decided that really wasn't what I wanted to do. Some of my friends tried to talk me out of quitting because the economy is still in the shit hole. When would be a good time to quit? I couldn't quit during dotcom years because the money was too easy. It was almost impossible to think of quitting when the pay was 3 times higher and the work seemed easy.

On Tuesday night, I got stuck in the office until almost 6 P.M. I was about ready to leave at 5 P.M. then Chipmunk came in. There was this outstanding issue that is still unresolved since last September. The IT people in Germany we corresponded with simply just stopped responding. They got tired of it, I am sure. Someone brought it up again to Chipmunk, and I got stuck with the task of "get it resolved."

That was the last push. Today I handed in my two-week notice. When I got home, I actually remembered that tomorrow is garbage day.

P.S. Chipmunk is the owner of the 10-people company I work for.
P.P.S. All graphics in this post were taken from Google Images.