The Mailbox: Volunteering
It is that time again when I would dig through my made-up pile of random questions.
Why is it that you sometimes like to volunteer on the weekends? -Anonymous
I have five answers for this, and all of them have some truth to it.
1. I want to attain whatever it is that is the opposite of eternal damnation.
2. It backs up what I do for the health industry, only I can do it outside the lab.
3. I get to meet cool new people who have the same interests as me.
4. It balances the rest of my week when I would waste hours on games.
5. I have nothing better to do.
So this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of helping out the Stanford Asian Liver Center with some free hepatitis screening and low-cost vaccinations in San Jose. Besides setting up the projector to play informational tidbits in our makeshift waiting room, I also served as traffic flow director and translator. Boy, was I put to shame though when I found out that one of the younger volunteers there knew better Mandarin than me! Now normally, that would not be too much of a surprise, but then I learned that she's half German. Yeah..
Later that afternoon, I went on my second Make-A-Wish interview in San Leandro. It was a "bilingual" wish since the family only spoke Cantonese.. and some other random dialect that was really difficult to understand. I swear, getting that ten year old kid to talk was like pulling teeth. Luckily, I have a way with children, and especially boys since, well, I used to be one. Once I started talking to him about video games (since I saw him playing with one), he started opening up! Alas, his mother rejected the idea of having the organization get him a Nintendo DS since it is not seen as productive, so the whole process of trying to figure out what he wants had to start over again. And this time, we had to deal with a really mad kid! I wonder if my parents used to be unnecessarily harsh on me? I mean, come on, this was their kid's *only* wish; how can you not allow it? When I have kids, I am so making them play video games. And I will be harsh too, only in a different way. I can see it now:
"But Dad!! I.. "
"No! Don't even come talk to me until after you've beaten Final Fantasy 26."
Anyway, so what else does Felix like to do on his Saturdays aside from meeting multilingual high school girls and helping pissed off kids with cancer? Why, shop at his favorite store Target of course! Where else can you go for socks and then end up buying Rock Band, or go to find some Kleenex, only to come away with a brand new shower poof ball? And yes, I use poof now.. all real men do. Soap is so boring! Seriously, it is going to be a new thing. You watch.
Oh, and my car's battery also died this weekend. If this is karma, I do not want to know what lies ahead for me next.
Why is it that you sometimes like to volunteer on the weekends? -Anonymous
I have five answers for this, and all of them have some truth to it.
1. I want to attain whatever it is that is the opposite of eternal damnation.
2. It backs up what I do for the health industry, only I can do it outside the lab.
3. I get to meet cool new people who have the same interests as me.
4. It balances the rest of my week when I would waste hours on games.
5. I have nothing better to do.
So this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of helping out the Stanford Asian Liver Center with some free hepatitis screening and low-cost vaccinations in San Jose. Besides setting up the projector to play informational tidbits in our makeshift waiting room, I also served as traffic flow director and translator. Boy, was I put to shame though when I found out that one of the younger volunteers there knew better Mandarin than me! Now normally, that would not be too much of a surprise, but then I learned that she's half German. Yeah..
Later that afternoon, I went on my second Make-A-Wish interview in San Leandro. It was a "bilingual" wish since the family only spoke Cantonese.. and some other random dialect that was really difficult to understand. I swear, getting that ten year old kid to talk was like pulling teeth. Luckily, I have a way with children, and especially boys since, well, I used to be one. Once I started talking to him about video games (since I saw him playing with one), he started opening up! Alas, his mother rejected the idea of having the organization get him a Nintendo DS since it is not seen as productive, so the whole process of trying to figure out what he wants had to start over again. And this time, we had to deal with a really mad kid! I wonder if my parents used to be unnecessarily harsh on me? I mean, come on, this was their kid's *only* wish; how can you not allow it? When I have kids, I am so making them play video games. And I will be harsh too, only in a different way. I can see it now:
"But Dad!! I.. "
"No! Don't even come talk to me until after you've beaten Final Fantasy 26."
Anyway, so what else does Felix like to do on his Saturdays aside from meeting multilingual high school girls and helping pissed off kids with cancer? Why, shop at his favorite store Target of course! Where else can you go for socks and then end up buying Rock Band, or go to find some Kleenex, only to come away with a brand new shower poof ball? And yes, I use poof now.. all real men do. Soap is so boring! Seriously, it is going to be a new thing. You watch.
Oh, and my car's battery also died this weekend. If this is karma, I do not want to know what lies ahead for me next.
Labels: games, humor, life, mailbox, volunteering
"...what else does Felix like to do on his Saturdays aside from meeting multilingual high school girls..."
And you thought *I* was bad... At least in my case, they have high school diplomas.
Posted by
Unknown |
March 17, 2008 at 1:48 AM
poof?? go to a korean market, buy a scrub there. it will revolutionize your shower experience... in fact, i'm going to mail you one.
Posted by
Unknown |
March 17, 2008 at 3:35 PM