Leader of the Pack

Move over Golden Pig. We won't see the pig for another twelve years. Further, no golden pig for another 60 years.

So what animal am I? If I tell you, then you know my age. In Chinese/Asian cultures, it's ok to ask what animal a person was born in. Depends on whether the animal is before or after you, you can more or less figure out the age. Clever, isn't it? But, you do need to know the 12 animals and the order they finished in the astrological race.

The rat ushers in Year 4706 tomorrow. It leads the other 11 animals to start this new 12-year cycle. New parade of animals. New beginning. New hope.

To learn more about the rat and his friends, check out: The Year of the Rat .

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone. May this brown rat bring you joy and prosperity!

Hello Out There!

Read on today's paper that NASA is beaming Beatles' song, "Across the Universe" to the North Star. What amazes me is that even traveling at the speed of light, it will still take 431 years for any aliens living on the North Star to receive and hear the song. The North Star, Polaris, is 2.5 quadrillion miles away.

That's 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (24 zeros) miles!!!

Just think, by the time the aliens receive the transmission of this song, we will all be history. What will our world be like 431 years from now? Will we know that some aliens out there finally hear us? Will they like the song?

Likewise, what if we receive a song from another distant planet now? How long did it take for it to get to us? What was their world like back then and now? What is Past, Now and Future??? In the space continuum of the universe, it doesn't seem that important.

My brain hurts...

Mini R&R

Fourth visit to New York in 12 months: Although I'm out here for business, I felt like I'm on vacation. I don't have to worry about cooking, cleaning, helping mom, and, my goodness, I have time for TV!!! I actually got to watch the whole 2 hours of American Idol last night. Wow! Good life!

Cold but not frozen. I'm lucky that I have yet to experience the real New York winter. So I can still do my little nightly walk. I'm getting a hang of the streets around the Grand Central Station but spin me a few times and I still get my East and West all mixed up. I visited the grand New York City Public Library on 42nd Street/5th Ave. last night. What a majestic building! I wish I could spend more time there. I felt I gained more brain power just by walking through it.

"On the Road": The library exhibition is on Jack Kerouac's work. Pardon me for being shallow, but who was Jack Kerouac? Well, I learned about his writings, his philosophy, his life and his dreams after touring the exhibit. The Beat Generation. Heard about it but knew nothing about it until last night. Hit the road, Jack!

I Want Happy

Can happiness be bought? One study says yes and I agree. Yes, money buys some kind of happiness. Just look at all those lotto winners – everyone has a big smile - no sad winners. Heck, I’ll be very happy too if I win the lotto and I can count all kinds of happiness that I can buy. But, the happy that I really want don't require purchase.

My Happy: mom continues to improve; dad and the rest of the family stay healthy; everyday goes by uneventfully; everyone I know is safe and well, and I get to be carefree.

Simple. Priceless.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow you down

Big winter storms stacked up and poised to pound our area one after another. Weather forecasters have been busy screaming hazards and warning heavy water pouring down from the sky, but the one that hit yesterday was a wimp. I can sense a trace of disappointment among news broadcasts – no big weather news to report after all the build-ups. Oh well, back to the Iowa caucuses….

Sometime during the night, the second storm hit and it was a mighty one, I think. I slept through the great one. When I woke up, it was very dark inside and out. For few moments, I thought the night was awfully long (good for beauty sleep). But, augh! It was because no power!!! My alarm clock, luckily not AC-powered, said I’M LATE!

En route to work: gray sky, thick clouds, cold rain, fierce wind, down trees, nonworking traffic lights, wet smells, steamy windows, stop and go trains... hey, what happened to that sunny, bright, pleasant weather just three days ago?

But, good to have big storms now and then. We need to fill up the reservoirs and a good cleansing to start the new year. More importantly, the news people have something to talk about now.