Cow’s Life - Thinking Outside Of The Barn

Although I am hoping Congress will find a way to legalize majority of the 12 million illegal aliens who are already here instead of pursuing a massive deportation, my “not-so-generous” side was pretty grumpy about offering those law breakers an easy way out. Simply because I went through hell and long 8 years to obtain my US citizenship.

A Personal Financing Blogger “How to be poor” wrote a post about his opinion and the post pretty much said what I had to say:

As a newcomer to this country, I had to follow a set of rules established by the people of this country. I had to cut through miles of red tape on my own. I had to drive out of state to complete physicals, fingerprinting, and interviews. My wife and friends had to write countless letters of support. We had to prove beyond all doubt that we are married for real, and not for the Green Card. Our lives were scritinized and documented right in front of us. Did I mention thousands of dollars in fees we had to shell out?

The side effects of being an alien are even more significant. I had to pay double everything in college - my tuition instead of being a couple-three grand per semester was always hovering around six. I could be deported for any misdemeanor normally punishable by a slap on the wrist if I were a citizen.

I believe the process was put into place to single out those motivated enough to complete the naturalization. The process is not perfect, but jumping the fence (breaking the law) and using the excuse “Oh, sorry, I’m just looking for a better life” is bullshit. Just because the U.S. borders Mexico does not enable citizens of Mexico enter the U.S. whenever they please. Citizens of any other country have to become parts of the process, so why should it be different for those enjoying the proximity?

I do agree with the President for once - the illegal immigrants already here must be given the chance to apply for work visas. Given the chance, not given the visas.

Nobody gave me a break when I was naturalizing. I believe I am here because I was more persistent than the countless thousands who apply, get rejected, and quit.

I have to agree with every word “How to be Poor” said in this post. Although I didn’t have to pay extra tuition because I went to a private college, I did have to pay about $60000 international college tuition for my ex while a local student only needed to spend about $25000 for a 4 year education.

Since my citizenship application got lost by the New York office when I moved from New York to Tennessee, my parents and I had to wait for days outside of congressman’s office looking for support to re-file. Not to mention the FBI hassles that left me feeling like a criminal for years.

Being said, I am still supporting a less harsh resolution (i.e. a worker visa) when dealing with the illegal inside of the border, however, I think anyone who wants to be naturalized has to follow the existing rules and being a Mexican shouldn’t be an excuse to bypass the process.

This is no laughing matter. It happened in the 30’s when America suffered from the Great Depression. As the result, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans got deported, 60% of them were US Citizens and many of them were children born in the US.

Now, if the Congress passes this bill to align the illegal aliens with the murders and rapists as criminals, then the horrifying history is going to repeat itself. Those American kids would either be forced to live in a foreign land where they have no ideas about, or check into orphanages.

Keeping our border safe is one thing, but kicking these people out who have already had roots here is just totally wrong! Forget about the American Value, the congress better start funding social services ‘cause they are going to need a lot of orphanages to house those kids without parents.

12, 13 years ago at the dawn of the first Internet boom, we transformed the way we share and deliver information by moving them online, graphically. Now, we are moving human interactions, communities, and user contents into the Web space and the results have been phenomenal. There is even a name for it: Web 2.0

Newsweek has done an interesting article to talk about the new era of the Internet: The Living Web. . Check it out. A few of the biggest new kids on the block:
1. mySpace.com
2. Digg.com
3. Flickr

Along with the massively exploded numbers of blogs out there, we are really entering the era of the Living Web. If you have never played with any of these, you gotta ditch those reality shows and enter the 21st Century.

I signed up with digg.com a few months after the site was launched. I have never thought that in less than a year, Digg has joined other big boys and became part of the icon of the new Web 2.0.

I am really excited about this new stage of the Web development. I really think that we are at the early stage of this exciting new era and there are plenty of opportunities out there if we can come up with some great ideas. So where to look for these opportunities? It falls back to the good old golden rule: Supply and Demand. As a web user, what do I want? What do the people around us want from their Web experiences? Now we have ways to allow users to present their own contents and share with others, but how should we organize this massive amount of information? How can we utilize the new information that has never been available before? Seriously, if you think about the output from 30 million+ blogs, 60 million user profiles from mySpace, gazillions of pictures from Flick, great things can be done with these user generated contents which used to be only in the individual’s head. I have been thinking about these questions lately and got quite a few ideas. A simple example: the marketing research groups can filter mySpace and have a tons of information as what products are in demand, how to reach the potential customers and what are the most effective ways to market them. Because? These information are spelled out on these webpages. It’s matter of who is going to turn that information into useful data. GREAT! I just shared my million dollar idea with the public!

Some Silion Valley frontiers are already putting their ideas into actions. Check these guys out: (Who is Building The Next Web)

To those stock-pick lovers, keep your eyes open too because one of these new players could be tomorrow’s eBay and Google.

Yes, the original Yuna’s Village is suspended and got moved over here as my historical museum collection now. If 500 years later our future great great …great grand kids want to build an Ancient American Blog Museum, I know I can contribute quite a bit.

Anyway, I finished the design work last night to migrate this site into Free The Cow Project to have a new fresh start. Yes, it is a sequal of my beloved Yuna’s Village…. It’s also a new chapter of the next phase of my life.

• new job
• new city
• new side gigs
• new home (soon)
• new friends….

Gosh, I am starting from ground up again and live my life in a totally different way. Although everybody is seeking for stability, but this change might not be a bad idea… it could be a turning point…

So here I am , Yuna is turning into a cow and trying to fight a way out of the barn. After running the Free The Cow Project for 3 weeks, I truly believe that I can succeed one day. When you really put your foot down and do something, everything is possible. See! I have made about 40 bucks already from the side gigs!!

Usually I have no patience to sit through the Oscar show listening to 10,000 “thank you”s. Since I feel a bit of “anti-social” tonight, I decided to be a couch potato and eat a bag of potato chips.

I noticed that there were lots of black dresses on the red carpet this year. Check out my personal collections:

Queen Latifah in Carmen Marc Valvo and Hilary Swank in Versace.

Felicity Huffman in Zac Posen and Zhangziyi by Giorgio Armani.

Rachael Weisz by Narciso Rodriguez and Jennifer Aniston in Rochas and Bulgari.

And Yuna’s Best Black Dress Award goes to…
Charlize Theron in Christian Dior .

Ok, this might come a bit of shocking. Just a few months ago, I was SO TRILLED to work with the brightest bloggers I admire and joined b5media blogging network. Now, I don’t even have time or energy to read the posts from my favorite blog sites such as Darren’s Problogger.net.

A few of my loyal readers/friends also emailed me and hinted me that my posts don’t read the same anymore.

Well, they ARE NOT the same anymore. When I am spread thin across a few blog sites instead of just one while working on a full time job, things have to be different. A blogger has to have fun to be able to run a successful site with quality posts … I haven’t had that kind of fun lately. Everyday, I am reminding myself, “Christine, you gotta blog now. It’s time to write a few more posts. Christine, you are behind on schedule…”

So, in order to get my blogging spirit back, I have to cut down on the quantity. And in no means that I would give up my beloved Yuna’s Village. So here I am, just wrote my second resignation letter in 2006… It was a painful one because I really love this network and the people in it… I wish b5 the best of luck. Finally, I will have time to keep up with all Liz’s and Darren’s posts again.. Hew…

I personally don’t like V-Day that much simply because it is so commercialized. And I feel bad for the guys getting ripped off by those floral shops. Ok, chocolate is still good! And I just had the best chocolate musse from Target for 5 bucks a box!!! Yum Yum!!

Anyway, I have a gift for ya too! Another Yuna’s Blog!!! This time, it is all about love!!

It’s another b5media professional blog. We actually started to sketch the ideas last year around Christmas time. Then my shitty job took every bit of my energy in Jan when the site was launched. Gayla, a girl from Indiana has been taking the sole responsibility ever since. Thanks girl!

I am glad that I am finally able to jump back in!

The site is targeted at couples who are dealing with relationship issues and the older singles who have been there and done that and for whatever the reasons have to jump back into the dating scenes all over again. There are about 30+ posts already including the two I wrote last night.

Have a great Valentine’s Day! And if you don’t have a valentine, tell your mom, dad, sis, bro, dog, cat, bird how much you love them… It’s a day about giving your love to your love ones!

I took my first step today by submitting a informal resignation letter to my manager. Informal meaning that I didn’t state the exact quitting date… Here are a few paragraphs:

I am considering quitting ABC Company and this job because I can tell that I am physically and mentally tired. And I feel that without a break, my current condition does not allow me to take on the challenge as a senior IT consultant regardless how much I want to perform. As my long term manager, you know all the history in the past including my medical issues and lost eye sight.

I truly think that in order to be responsible to myself, I need some time to manage my health and person life so that I can continue the next phase of my career. I also think this is the right thing to do to step down from consulting career right now before I start to under perform or jeopardize the projects.

I have already talked to my project manager and gave him a heads up that he needs to look for replacement so we can still deliver the project on time.

….

You can tell that I don’t want to burn the bridge. But I am very clear on making the point that I can’t do this anymore. Since this a public website, I can’t disclose too much more information. I can tell you this much: I had a conversation with my manager after this letter is submitted. And he is trying his best to work out a couple of exit options to reduce my financial burden.

Just a few hours before I had the conversation with my boss, I was called into another management meeting to receive a cash reward for all the weekends I worked last year in Denver. It’s funny how these two events happened on the same day. The extra cash I received is very nice, however, my life is worth a whole lot more than that check.

I will stop traveling and leaving my current project in 2 and half weeks. Soon, I will have my life back! Yeeeeha!!

My Grandmother in China has 8 children. Last time when everybody was together in the same room was 1959. 3 Weeks ago, almost everybody in the Zheng’s family gathered together in Shanghai, China to celebrate my Grandma’s 90th birthday. I and my oldest cousin were the only two absentees. I probably haven’t seen a few of my cousins for more than 10 years! I am kicking myself for not making any efforts to go to the event. Although I can use “7000 miles away” as an excuse, I feel pretty bad that I missed this once in a life time opportunity.

This is a historical picture : my grandma with all of her 8 healthy children ranging from 71 to 51 years old. Can you tell which one is my father?

My first cousins from the Zheng’s family. I spent my early childhood with my older cousin Xu-Nan (the only girl in the picture) and I can’t believe that she still looks the same after I last saw her in 1995!

If you have a chance to see your family, GO and don’t let distance become your road block. Hey! It’s Christmas!

After messing around with my site PHP code that Miko Cyco wrote earlier, I managed to re-arrange the left bar on Yunasville to include the headlines from Blog Fabulous.
Since I am writing on two, I figured it would be easier to list the new entries here for your reading pleasure.

I also wrote an introduction page on b5media if you are interested :
Christine Yuna

Now it’s time to blog my brains out again..