And before you get all up in arms about how it’s all new info to you, think that I have talked to some people at points about one thing or the other… le sigh. Plus all I want to talk about at this second is my new love Mr computer… lol such a techno whore.

Well I guess I’ll just go back and look at the last thing I wrote and then wrack my swiss cheese memory for details from then (I have time and nothing else to do because I’m sitting in the lazer clinic waiting to wait some more for the shortest procedure ever… the lazering itself take.. 5? 10? minutes but the waiting, and then the waiting to wait etc takes fucking hours..  Stupid.

Ha so I just went back and looked … no wonder everyone is so grouchy.. not a personal post in yonks.. But in all fairness just before Regis arrived I was yapping on the phone to anyone who would listen to me… lol so I felt like I had communicated a lot. Hmmm Regis decided to come back to Taiwan because he wanted a chance to try to see if there was any possibility with us and I decided that it was ok, because while I am a coward he really was doing the hard part.

The weeks leading up to his arrival were fun with the anticipation but I really didn’t know what to be expecting.  Then he arrived, I took the afternoon off to go meet him at the airport and I was fine until waiting for him to come through security, then I was basically standing there trying to look pretty and not panicked.   Once he actually arrived it was a little weird but significanly less scary than I thought.

The language issue was and still is a problem, but from day one it wasn’t as bad as I had envisioned.

This ends part one……

tee hee

Ps… the lazer clinic blogging ended pretty much as soon as it happened because the chick dragged me in the other room.

So today I went to dinner with Tony and Joel, and played a game after dinner.  Then rushed over to 3C, a local electronics store, to try to by a new laptop (netbook).  Now here is the things about 3C, they have this silly membership thing going on and then you supposedly get much better prices on electronics.  Now the reality is they are a little cheaper than many other stores, IF you get the member price (membership isn’t free mind you, you have to pay for it).  But if you don’t get the membership price then it ends up a bit more expensive than another store.

So every time I go there I play the stupid foreigner card, like I cruse up to the till and then seem deeply perplexed that the price isn’t as advertised.  They explain it’s due to the membership price and as I don’t have a membership I don’t get that price.  Now at this point I used to continue to play stupid and pout a little until they gave up and gave me the member price, but honestly I don’t have the patience for that anymore.  So, when they ask for my membership card I tell them I don’t have one, followed in the same breath with, but they always give me the membership price.

I do it so quick they usually don’t have anytime to think about it.. and merely blink a couple of times… say… “oh Zhan zhi? Uh.. Hao” Which basically translates to “oh, it’s like that? Uh.. ok”.  They look a little unsure for a second and then completely fold like a house of cards in a stiff breeze.  :D  On occasion I run into a hardass or a wannabe hardass who is a stickler for the rules, at which point I just point out that I don’t have to buy my things here and if they can’t be co-operative I won’t.  They almost always cave then, honestly I think in ten years there has been one occasion where I just left the store not buying anything… and simply went to another of their stores (it’s a huge chain).

On occasion they have very good prices and especially after Chinese New Year, you know how after Christmas back home they clear out old stock, same deal here just it happens after Chinese New Year I guess.  Anyway They have a web page that they guy at the store showed me and I spend a bunch of time pootling about on there.  www.tkec.com.tw, it’s actually pretty good if you read Chinese or your browser translates for you.

I was supposed to buy my new computer (a new small laptop) in France because Regis found a some really good prices online in France.  But the computer that I wanted went up in price in France and dropped here.  So VOILA I get a new toy right now! Win.

As I said I went to 3C and unfortunately they didn’t have the exact model I wanted new, so I could have a display model or get a new one a little bit less pimp (sniffle) and save 3000nt (hundred dollars Canada).  But again it’s the membership price, but I rolled over him right at 10pm (just as they were closing) and just informed him that I always get the member price. DONE.  And I got an extra 1000 nt off (well actually the price online was 1000 less than the posted price in the store), WIN.  And when I asked at the original store they told me that it would cost 1500 to upgrade the ram from 2gig to four gigs, but this guy upgraded my ram to 4gigs for only an extra 600nt.  So that means, 10999 plus 600 for a total of 11599 yay, WIN.  That ends up being 3600nt (120cad) cheaper than the computer was going to cost me in France, for a computer that’s a bit better (slightly upgrade CPU, bigger hard drive).

I love getting a deal, possibly more than I love having new toys.  So I get double joy here, new toy to play with and I totally scored a great deal.  Tralala.

Ok it’s Friday which means that a few things are open now and I need to run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything done.  :D  Hopefully will post again this weekend.

fuck you very much wordpress .. dont’ know when i’ll have time again… sigh..

things are going well.. sorry I’ll try later this week.. grumble

Anyway it was a bit of a mess, and when I tried to talk to them about it, all they would do is spout parroted bullshit with out any thought.   That’s assuming they would talk to me at all and not be incredibly rude and condescending.   So I ended up just writing it off, I’d make a payment when I was able to send money home.  Normally that would be in a month, two tops… but because of Chinese New Year it ended up taking 3 months to get enough money together to be worth sending home.

My card got cut off, and no one called me or informed me of what was happening.  The only reason I even found out was because I couldn’t update apps on my ipod, and when I called the bank, everyone I talked to was unbelievable rude.  Like I was some sort of  degenerate who had be accumulating mountains of debt and paying nothing for years, as opposed to I missed two payment I live overseas and I contacted then and let them know in advance.  Assholes.

I got pissed off with the rudeness and  asked to be transferred to someone else with manners.  After much BS I finally got someone who didn’t have their head in their ass, got everything sorted out and then I specifically asked if I was going to be running into any other issues or problems in relation to this situation.  I was assured that I wouldn’t and happily went about my life.

Oh another unforeseen shit fest was, I applied for a loan online but wasn’t able to complete it, it would have paid off my credit card and been at a much lower interest rate.  I needed to be in Canada and walk into a bank to sign the papers, but then all this happened and temporarily screwed my credit rating so I couldn’t get the loan while I was home.. most annoying part?  My credit rating corrected within 2-3 months when I was no longer in the country… annoying.

Then, in August they jack my interest rate.. ASSHOLES.  I pay for a low interest rate card and then they bump my interest up…dicks.  I call, pitch a fit and am again treated like a complete piece of shit.  I progressively get more pissed off, and finally get someone polite who agrees that the bank actually screwed up, but she’s not high enough up to change or fix anything.  She promises to talk to people and call me back.  No call, they have completely failed at communicating with and getting back to me.  GRRR

So I call again, pitch a bit of a fit, and insist on speaking to manager, they have taken another installment of interest at this ridiculous rate and everyone is so rude.  There is no manager on, but this girl takes the whole story down and swears someone will call in 24-48 hours max.  Four days later no god damn call.

Now in this time, it occurs to me that I really should just tell them to stuff it.  I mean if I let the card default, let it go into collections, wait a while then contact collections  I can pay it back at 30-50 cents on the dollar.  So I get to keep my money now, don’t have to borrow money from my friend and i’m kinda debt free now.  BITCHES.  sure it messes up my credit rating, in a country I don’t live in and have no intentions of going back to anytime soon.  Shrug, what do I care?

And if I wasn’t such a god damn goodie two shoes…. that is exactly what I would do.  So lame, I wish I was badder…. but given how badly Visa was behaving  I was ready to be bad.

But.. sigh… this week I called and actually got someone intelligent and polite on the phone, who listened to me rant and actually tried to fix things.  Returned the last interest payment (the interest rate had already been fixed) so they returned all they money they took illegitimately plus some.  When I said wasn’t really enough, I got a genuine apology and he offered me a different card with some points that would give me some merch.

Honestly, it still isn’t enough but I’m damn well taking it, I will pay my visa off.  But I am definitely going to investigate other banks credit cards and what they can do for me.  I’m a good customer, and they don’t seem to get that.

I have paid the thing off, but I’m completely unimpressed.

Having had some time to think about it.. everyone has daddy issues in one way or another.  It’s just  a fact of life.

Mine are of a slightly different flavour, and recently I had an interesting thought or observation on the same topic.  So what’s my deal?  Well I’m sorta daddy free, I grew up without him in my life and I didn’t meet him until I was an adult.  To be honest I don’t think I was missing much, I am not very fond of him and because I didn’t grow up with him I don’t have the tolerance for his garbage.  It’s a lot different when you have history with someone, you’re much more likely to put up with them and their crap or craziness.  But if you just meet them one day and they annoy the hell out of you and have all these expectations on you… well why  would you stick around?

This is not to say I didn’t grow up with strong male figures in my life, I wasn’t actually raised in a single parent home… more like a three or more parent home.  My mom and I lived with my aunt and uncle for more than a year when I was little, my mom’s brother (other uncle) was in and out of the picture  around then too.   Then my mom moved to Smithers with her parents, so for most of my life I grew up with three parents, my mom, grandma and grandpa…  The Aunt and Uncle I lived with came out every year… my other uncle lived with us all on and off for years.

So I basically had two moms and like 2-3 dads.  Or three halfs.. which still adds up to more than one .  Score!  Anyway, clearly this all adds up to daddy issues of a sort.  What it really means in the grand scheme of things I have no idea.. but it brought up an interesting question for me.

Have you ever noticed that most people tend to date versions of their parents?  Not in a creepy sense, but just aspects of their relative’s personalities.  Honestly reflect on your dating perspective… think on your type.. are there certain personality traits that you are attracted to over and over again?

Most of my friends have commented that even though the people they date are different in many ways, on some level they seem to be dating the same person over and over again.  That when you dig a little deeper, that they often have some common thread.  Or if you step back.. you can see a pattern.

Interesting… while a friend and I were chatting about it all..  She was telling me the main traits.. the ones that all these guys have had that she finds attractive.

They ultimately, she meets guys who she should be interested in (they seem to meet all the criteria) but they are missing one of the primary elements, she’d even thought about it enough to narrow it down.  She’d even identified them, and while she was describing them to me… it dawned on me.  Hey dude… doesn’t that sound like anyone you know… ?

I swear, it’s her frickin’ dad… I mean not really but when she busted it down to the bare bones of every guy she’s ever dated..  I swear to you.. all the same guy.  Now it’s not like I’m the first person to make that observation… I mean 3 seconds on google turned up this… [ See even CNN says it] not a bad read actually.

Honestly it kinda makes sense, I mean our type or the traits that we are randomly attracted to aren’t things we actively think about or seek out… so where do they come from?  It would totally make sense that we would unconciously mimic or seek out the relationships that we saw as children.

This also would  explain something about me, why I don’t seem to have a type.. how I seem to bounce around completely alternate types of relationships, traits and men.  People are always asking me what I’m looking for in a guy and I can’t for the life of me pin it down myself. I’m also very malleable, in the kind of guy I can date.  I mean look at my ex’s  the big ones.. Petr, Mike, Eric, Casey…. all completely different, not a damn thing in common.  They’re so different that trying to find anything to compare and contrast about them, feels almost insulting like mention that one of them was more educated makes the others sound stupid or the fitness level or one or two make the others fat or unhealthy… bizarre.  But really they are nothing a like, the only common thread they have (and Mike is even kinda exempt from this) is they in the end (in my eyes at least) were shitty to me.  Or at least the common thread is it didn’t work out… but that’s hardly a personality pattern… anyone who knows even just two of them can attest that they are completely alternate people.

It’s almost as though I keep trying on completely different styles looking for one that suits me.. and every time I seem to alter or meld into it.. and it’s PERFECT.  Sigh but allas it isn’t.

So I wonder.. I do have a type that I find attractive, but my boyfriends haven’t even all fallen into that category….  I’ve dated outside of the type…   I even shirk away from traits that are too much like the ‘last guy’…

Is it another ‘daddy issue’ if you will?  Do I not have that solid type, because I don’t have a dad?  Because I grew up with several stable male influences in my life, but none so steady or interacted with my mother that I just didn’t pick one up?  Curious…. I’d love to read or see a study on this topic.  Do kids from single parent homes, who didn’t have the other parent have a type?  Or do they just meander around and tend to more meld to different types looking for an interesting match?

Well  I’ve just realized that I’ve totally been girl-ed … lol.. I would be pissed but it’s just so damn amusing.   Plus it’s not necessarily a bad thing.  I just kinda can’t believe I didn’t see it.

Someone, those of you in the know already know who, has been putting up a certain amount of resistance and making arguments to the contrary but ultimately has been agree with me.  Or even when they haven’t been agreeing with me, they have at least conceded to my point.  Expressing that while they might not agree with my point or perspective, they can see my point and will go along with xy or z.     Telling me that they would like, it a different way but they will go along with my way.

Ha.. I win.. excellent as it should be.  And I didn’t need to use trickery or any of the like to get it either.  Tralala….  I can do whatever I want, regardless of what that means.  :D

But somehow.. I’ve been completely manipulated into a corner.. and the most obnoxious part? I don’t even really mind.. that’s the part that really chaps my ass.  Not only did  I get snaked  into a situation that I very clearly said I didn’t want to be in, it’s one that I actively disagree with.  In general and in principal…. yet… balls.  Here I am.

I have been completely womaned…. They agreed with me every step of the way…. and somehow they have gotten their way. Completely.

Son of a Bitch… maybe I should really consider this technique for myself… it’s bloody effective.  :D

So amused that I’m a complete and utter failure to my sex. GRIN