Look Away

After thinking and thinking about it, I decided not to buy a car.  I am going to drive the family’s old car until it ran down.   The great thing about this car is the stereo in it.   Got the car, left mom and dad’s I decided to stop by Lee’s store to buy a few CD to listen to.   After last visit to friends in Tennessee, I realized how bad my singing was.  So I will need to get back to singing again.  I look and look for a CD that has songs I can sing along to while driving.  I decided on love songs by Manit.  I bought Manit and Sombath CD’s.  Once back in my car I turned on the radio and there it was a song that shot me back to 1988.  Ok, 1988 is the story of “Look Away.”

No, I was not heart broken.  I just like the song because it’s passionate song by any person who want to tell his girlfriend to look away if they ever run into each other.  But here I am, I am going to tide this song to my history.  So it was 1988.  I joined the rest of the Lao world, in this case, Laotians in Georgia.

When all hell broke loose in Southeast Asia, Laos was in its path.  In Laos we have a lot of people and a lot of those people are a lot different cultural wise.  By the late 20th century land locked Laos was a home of so many people from so many root.  There were so many people who speak so many languages and they all have their own cultural.  Although the country was worldly recognized as a kingdom, as a country of many people of ethnicities living together as Laotians, many of those Laotians do not think otherwise.  They never agreed that they should be under any one rule or ruler.   Opportunity came  when  all hell broke loose  in  SE Asia as I  indicated.  Since when hell’s gate was closed.  So what happen after all hell broke loose in Laos.  Laos enjoyed their short live independent in which they declared from France.   So when all hell broke loose, everyone who was not part of the new regime fled the country.  All that fled first were the leaders.  After them everyone else.  It was then that the Lao(s) or the Laotians were clustered in one space called “soun” or zero.  Zero or soun is the new starting point for the Laotians of many faces, cultures, religions, and beliefs.  So all these people clashed.  They not only clashed there, they clashed again in the third country.  Each one of them, who were proud anyway, show their cultural and hold it dear.  They even promote it further.  Look around you, the people from Laos.

No, I am still on Look Away.   So what happen after this all American boy return home from the military service, met one of those Laos’ people, my girlfriend, sao Poo.  The Laotians called themselves this Thai and that Thai because the word thai simply means people of.   So sao Poo was a person from the northern province of Laos.  The story goes that her dad was part of the new Lao kingdom, joining the royal Lao kingdom meant you are Laotians.  But in reality they had their own thai name, thai Puan I believe.   How we met was through her brother’s soccer team, boy he got a strong northern accent.  Sao Poo did not have any boyfriend because everyone was scared of her brother.  I just want to date so I dated her.  We dated for a year.   At the end of our break up Look Away came on.  People who knew us thought Look Away was the song for the occasion.  Hardly I thought.   Meeting sao Poo and her family was when I see different culture, a different one I am use to.  After sao Poo, I went on to study the culture of many people from Laos.   I was fascinated by what I discovered.  People of cultures and colors too in Laos are very different from one another.  I am a Lao lume (lower land Lao), I always thought that everyone in Laos were one until the pile up in the second and then the third country anyway.

“Look away babe look away…”  What a great song!

P and P

When it comes to perspective and perception, I have an opinion.  I put my hundred percent into my work.  I expect the same from my co-worker who make the same amount of money I make.   Until recently that I realized I was so off. 

One, my co-worker who did not like to work hard took advantage of the fact that we have a lay back supervisor who let us sort things out ourselves.  Becaues we all cool with one another, we sort of let things slide.  I think I mention this young man once in my earlier post.  You know the one that almost die from a projectile shot at him.  What I learn from this young man before he was fired was, if you bring home the money, you are not lazy.  What happen was, my Indian friend was picking on him because he was really laying back.  One day the young man got really mad and wanted to fight.  My Indian friend shouted at him by telling him that he was lazy.  One reply was all it took to let us know he is not a lazy person.  The reply was, “How can you can me lazy when I take home 40 hours worth of pay every week?”

I was amazing with his mote of thinking.  After that we all take a step back and re-examine how we work.  The boss want the work done and done on time…and he want us to work as a team.  Being we don’t snitch on each other and the work is getting done, everything was fine.  It was us who got upset with the young man on our own.   His family don’t ask him if he was being lazy at work or not.  All they care was the direct deposit pay day.  How can we call a man lazy when he provide for his family?   He was let go on other charges, not for being lazy.

Two, we recently hired a few more employees from the temp agency.  A lot of them, I know, will not be offer a permanent position.  It has been two month since this older Hindi gentleman came on board.  So he is 59 but act as if he is 69.  He was one cocky old guy.  So they put him with me to be trained.  We have to show them how to do the work so they can help us effectively.  Normally, we would get a guy who has some to a lot of experience but this man.  I don’t know he got into the company.   He claimed he had work in this kind of field before.  He can’t even handle a simple tool.  He walked into the place expect special treatment.  It’s two months now.  What takes me 1 hour to do will take him 3.  Everyone on the department know he definitely came from a totally different field.  He seems to have a hard time whenever he has to focus on a task but when he is on break he is on a cell phone laughing and joking with someone all fine and good.  He seems to be using his age on me.   I help him as much as I can so he can be of help to us. 

It has two months, this man shows no sign of improvement.  I think because of the economy, the company decided to help out by give people job and let them stay on.  But for us who has to work for these people who don’t seem to appreciate at all what we had to put up with.   1 out of 4 is good now.   One guy got mad at me because I recomment him being move out of our department.  This guy move like pond water.   He took fours to do what we can do in 30 minutes plus he seemed to think he got all days.  We tried to tell him we do have time limit to get each job done.

Anyway my friend here are the same way, he shows interest in the job but he just has no skill or talents with tools and designs.  After we realized that our leadman, supervisor, and manager are ignoring the matter, we decided to do the same, just let them do what they can.  So what happen was, my Indian friend came and ask me what we can do about this.  I simply has to put him in his place and make him realize, “it is” is what it is.   I had to take him to a point beyond perception.  I told him to think about it.  I told him the older gentleman charge the company more money than we do to do a job.  He makes $40 while we make only $20 doing the same job meaning the longer it takes him to do something the more money he would make.   Why does he has to hurry when the job still getting done and done on time?  After thinking about what I said, my Indian friend got it.  He said to me in return, “So if I take longer to do the same task, my money will go up.”  I said, “That’s right.  You were complaining about the new hire works slower and do less but make the same amount of money or more.”  I agreed that he too can make more money by charging more for his time.  It just that he has to slow time on completing each task.  That way, he can feel he makes more or the same amount of money as the new people who just got hired.

You see, we got to go beyond the point of perception.  All the time, it was our mind that worked us.  The young man who screamed he is not lazy saw as long as he make money and bring home the bacon, no one at home will question.  Next, by looking deeper into the situation, we were able to realize that the old man did not work slow, he simply charge more for his time.  Since he is paid by time he work less.  

Both men work ethic is not important here.  They know that.   The young man actually thinks that his being at work helped out already.  The older man who probably had been there done that walked into the company with a determination to go through each day getting paid well.  Even paid well is the same as work less than his co-worker.  What works for him is he is charging more for him time being at work.

So I conclude that in order to be at peace we must look beyond our own point of perception and examine perspective of others.

Conditioning to Perform

I am in training for my major running event March 2010.  It is a function that is seeking performance.  To get the best performance I must condition my body.   I have to see to it that I made it safely to the finish line.

Running would not be the only thing I would have to do on this run.  I will be walking, jogging, shuffling, and whatever else it will take to get to the finish line.   The condition is hard just thinking about it.   The weather is going to be hotter,  the hills are going to be steeper,  and the miles are going to be longer than usual.  We who signed up for the heavy category will have additional 35 lbs on our back. What we are to pack  are can food to be donate to the food bank after the race. “Oh, that’s relief.” I thought it’s going to be bricks or something like that.

For a couple of months I have been walking up, down, and around the Stone Mountain. I felt the difference. My core is getting stronger. The thing is this.   I have not weigh my backpack.   I thought I have packed it heavy enough though for the training.   I thought it’s more than 35 lbs which it is but when I pack  a 35 lbs dumb bell, it is actually heavier than the pack I have been towing around. This could be a problem. So Friday I decided to do two laps which is 10 miles to find out where I stand. The most I have done so far was 7 miles. I wondered what it would feel like with this new pack after 10th miles. .

On Friday I got out of work at 3:45.   I fueled up at Wendy’s value meal number 1 with a coke and arrived at the base camp (base of the mountain) at 5 to begin my test. The factors were, I was up at 4:45 and have worked all day. I was not really tire tire but I was a little weary thinking that I never had a good training day. Never mind that. I timed my self using my cell phone. It has a split timing feature. Too bad it got erased somehow. I didn’t keep an accurate record of my training.

I struggled a little struggle with the new pack. I don’t know why it was so heavy especially going up the hill. I had to jog down to make good time. The first lap I did good. I started out slow since I just had a value meal. Yeah, a value meal for my pocket book only. The first mile was tough with a full stomach. But I always train under the normal condition. Whatever is consider normal to me. In my case, just ate, just woke up, waking up in the middle of the night, stayed up all night, or had too much to drink. Just had food? No problem. That’s normal. As a soldier, I can’t ask my enemy to “shoot after I finish eating, ok?” If I can condition my self to train in any condition, I am good.

My split time was 16 minutes for the first miles. I know that was bad comparing the Bataan Memorial Death March winner who did a 14 minutes split. Two minutes off would put me about two hours after the guy that do 14 minutes one. Realized that, I sped up after the 3rd mile marker. That brought be up to 15 minutes split. Felt a little better then. After the 3rd mile marker I had a short moment of joy going down hill. After the 3 1/2 mile marker it was going up all the way to the 5th mile marker. At the 4th mile marker and 5th mile marker I hit the split button, it said 15 something. I was nervous so I dashed from 4 1/2 mile marker all the way. It was a tough 5 miles. I thought what about the rest of the 21.2 Amphone?

After I took 5 to 10 minutes break I loaded up and start again. My cell phone battery was low so I decided to just look at the clock and divide the number by 5 later. The next 5 miles was a problem because of the new pack, the 35 lbs dumb bell was kicking my rear end. I reminded myself to double check the weigh on the scale at home. The thought of having a full day already was of no help, ” I had a full day already. I am support to be tire.”

Every hills, every slopes, every cyclists, every passed by runners, and walkers I came across were friendlies but my back, legs, and shoulders were not. I made it to the finish with averaging at 16 minutes per mile. It is what I was expecting without a little to no running. Running is something I am avoiding right now. I will run more when my knees, joints, nerves, and muscles tell me to.

So I walked about uninjured, which is number one goal at this stage of training. I checked the weight when I got home. The backpack it self was more than 3 lbs. I had some water, a pillow to wrap around the dumb bell. All that and the dumb bell, hmm. Not bad after all. Although I feel the pain, “but the pain was a different kind of pain,” I am good. Training went well.

My lung is good. My mind is great. I tried to stay focus when I am on the road. My heart is good. It’s at a good place.

TRANSFORMER

We are on the top of the food chain.  Nothing can kill us but disease and us.  Last night I joined the world in a fight to save mankind.  We the world showed up to give support to our braves men and machines as they fight against a common foe.  We needed everyone and everything we got to fight against this enemy.  This something does not discriminate.  It will kill us weather we are black, white, brown, or yellow.  We had enemies that destine to destroy us and wipe us out of our existence.

So we put up the fight.  We applied ourselves using what we’ve learned since birth of humanity.  We showed up with the best technology available.  We had the battleship, war planes, tanks, guns, and big guns.  All seemed to be like tossing a bunch of ants into a flame.  It all turned out that we needed the best weapon we got, ourselves.  We needed knowledge and wisdom.

It seemed Hollywood is the last stand against evil thus far.  Hollywood seems to be the best University to attend for just a small fee.  If we can get people at attention without interrupting for one, two, or more hours to deliver the message, if that is what it will take, we will continue our work.  Transform two times, Terminator three times, ok?  We are bringing GI Joe in August and we are bringing the Avatar next years.

At the end of the film a lot of us clapped our hands.  Last night we united in harmony under one roof and we won another battle.  All of us went home in peace.    I can only imagine what the little children got out of this movie.   Parental guidance has always been suggested not restricted.

Pieur Nong (For You)

The Band has not yet go on tour to promote their new CD. There is a talk of planning a tour.

I interpreted the song and posted it on youtube (for those of you that don’t understand Lao).  I hope you just listen to the music and forget about the video quality.  I am pretty bad at creating one.  Ha ha…I hope everyone enjoy the Chitpanya band’s Pieur Nong (For You). It’s sweet love song. I would recommend this song for a wedding or a special occasion. If you are a fan of Lao music, you can help promote this new CD by writing to the Chitpanya Band yourself.