Voluntary Tax

I received a letter asking for voluntary taxes for the city.

It says, "You may pay all or part or none. Payment of any or all of these will be used to directly support the services indicated."

Could someone explain the logic behind people like to pay tax voluntarily? Why don't they just increase the sales tax and make it mandatory? Isn't that more effective? Who would pay for it? Sounds like wasting postage and paper to me. I never like these 5 letters together; either "T-A-X-E-S" or "T-E-X-A-S", but you can't escape from them.

In my opinion, "Taxes" and "Voluntary" are two contradictory words. However, I have a conspiracy theory on why the city sends out these voluntary tax letters. I suspect that the city may try to take advantage of people who don't understand English. As we have lots of non-English speakers living in this town, they pay everything that comes with the "tax" word.

My Confession

Bless me Father, for I have sinned… On Oct 25th, 2005, (the same day we went to the David Crowder Band Concert in Tulsa) my company had organized a bake sale to raise money for United Way. I missed a planning meeting three weeks prior to the bake sale, and guess what: someone signed me up to bake cookies without my consent.

I still don’t know who did it. I was ridiculed and paranoid about it. I know how to cook rice and ramen noodles; I should be pretty good at building railroads and walls, but I haven’t baked anything from scratch in my entire life. My pride told me that I shall not seek help from others, and if I can make popcorn using a microwave oven, I should be able to bake cookies with an oven.

I went to WalMart neighborhood market the day before the bake sale, and the whole environment suddenly becomes very foreign to me. I don’t know where I can get flour, or sugar. There are a million choices of eggs to choose from: different sizes (jumbo, large, medium, and small), different grade (A, B, C), different color (brown and white). We have more varieties of eggs than the different races of the people in that neighborhood market (Chinese and non-Chinese).

With all my frustrations of finding the ingredients and concerns that I can’t make good cookies (as people often say that it sucks the first time), the pressure and stress started to build up. I begin to think about the abused children and abused women that depend on the funds raised from this bake sale; I told myself that I really can’t mess it up. When I was looking for butter, I found the Pillsbury Dough Boy from the “ready to bake cookies” package smiling at me.

He said to me, “Feeling abandon and alone? No girls to help you bake? I understand you and your situation completely. It is not a sin that you are single. You don’t need women to bake good cookies; I am a boy and I make good cookies…”

But, I said, “In Genesis 2:18, the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.””

Pillsbury Boy, “I don’t see a helper next to you. How come they never call back, and are busy all the time? How come they didn’t show up when you need them the most? Remember the jail time you serve on your graduation day? The good news is that technically, nobody knows my gender, and all they did was poke at me. So, I guess I could be your helper for tomorrow bake sale.”

I said, “That makes sense.”

I pondered for a while, and I asked the question, “How much?”

He said, “2 dollar and seventy-tree cents…”

Being Chinese, I haggle with the Pillsbury dough boy, “I give you 5 dollar for two. 5 dolllla!!!!”

He said, “two seventy tree is very cheap; can’t go lower or I will close down tomollow.”
Suddenly, a voice from the back said, “I take your 5 dollla for two; ready to eat. No baking for you.” The WalMart cookies have spoken.

I know I have a tough decision to make, and I am so confused that I can’t think. I try to listen to my heart, but my stomach voiced his opinion, “Me so hungry; NEED food NOW; you go Home Now and cook me some rice.”

So, I follow my stomach feeling, and pick out a chocolate chips and white chocolate chips cookies to the cart, and head to the check out lane. While waiting at the lane, I was thinking why do I pick 1 regular and 1 white chocolate, but not both regular, or both white? What would affirmative action say about it? How come we can send men to the moon but can’t have a working thermostat at the office. None of the thermostats work correctly, they are either too hot or too cold, and coworkers get mad at each other when someone changes the temperature. Why do we have abused children and abused women? Why do women fall in love with the wrong guy? Is attraction a choice? If so, there is not a whole I can do if I like someone but she doesn’t like me. If I try to do something, am I manipulating her? Why am I getting eggs and flour?”

I went home and took the cookies out of the package. I put 2 cookies in each Ziploc bag, and took them to work. My cookies sold for $1 per bag; it’s a great deal. They sold out in the very beginning. People love it so much and they ask me for recipe. I smiled and didn’t say anything.

I should have told them the truth, but I didn’t have the courage to do that. I’m so thrown; I don’t know what to do but to give you my confessions.

What takes so long?

This blog is intended for my friends in my community group, but it is interesting to know that many of my coworkers know about this blog and checking for updates frequently. I am proud to say that the influence of my blog is changing the way we do things and how we think. The reason what takes so long for me to update my blog is a good example of how this blog is changing the world. The issues that I speak to are becoming more and more complex. Such as, why an airline flying from Los Angeles to New York can find the airport in the dark but then the airline can’t seem to find my bags?

Several of my coworkers are touched with my writings about “how Americans compete?”, and they decided to do something about it. One of my recommendations is to send distractions like TV games and movies to children in China and India, and they will be so occupied that they don’t have time to study; hence, they competitiveness will drop. One of my coworkers has sent me his six boxes of Video games and game systems including the Game Cube, PS2, GBAs, N64, Super Nintendo, Atari, Sega, etc. Six full boxes of them for six months. He is in the midst of moving to a new house and need a place to store his game system, and my house is the perfect place of storing his games. My favorite is Mario Kart Double Dash; I can play that game all day. I am so good at it that I make my mama proud. Mario Party 5, Monkey Balls, Castlevania, and Metal Gear Solid are the ones I play. There are so many games that I haven’t even had a chance to try it. That’s insane.

Also, I have been catching up with movies that I missed out when I was in school, and so far I’ve watched Aviator, Hostage, The Jacket, iRobot, Coach Carter, Madagascar, Shark Tales, Wimbledon, Time Machine, Machinist, Ladder 49, Crash, Alone in the Dark, the Hulk, Longest Yard, a Million Dollar Baby, 7 Seconds, Kung Fu Hustle, Saw, Guess Who, Mr. 3000, XXX State of the Union, Hitch, and etc. The following are the ones I plan to watch: Ray, Alexander, Shall we Dance, Phantom of the Opera, Intolerable Cruelty, The Pacifier, the Notebook, and many many more.

My strategy works, and I haven’t socialized or studied much. Not to say that I didn’t even write my blog. I am taking some counseling with my addiction to TV games and movies, but nothing seems to work so far.

It’s about time…

As you all probably know the last four or five weeks has been hell. It seems that everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Disaster after disaster; disappointment after disappointment, but look at the bright side…..I’m back and writing my blog. It’s about time for me to write something in my blog because depriving you of my genius is unkind of me.

There are too many things happened within this month; two hurricanes, graduation, a best friend’s wedding, more weddings, and random stuff. I should have more time to write especially since I don’t have to go to school anymore, but like tonight I got so much in mind that I don’t know how I will begin. I want to write about my goal and direction after graduation, thoughts with my daily experience, and my view and feelings about natural disasters like hurricane Katrina and Rita. Yet, the only thing that seems to hurt me the most is that I, Roger Hui, deprived my loyal friends and readers of the entertainment that is my life.

I agree there should not be an excuse for me laying aside my writing; I am asking my dear readers to be patient for the next post and to be tolerant with my randomness. My blog is currently experiencing power and water outage. I apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment of your experience of no new blogs, and thank you for your continuous support and cooperation. I am not trying to make any guarantee, but I will do what I can to rebuild this blog. Help is on the way.

It is finished -- part III

Thursday, the case has a big leap. My coworker turned herself in and pleaded guilty. She told me she was sleep-walking, and when she saw the brownie, she ate it out of instinct. She provided me an egg roll to compensate for my lost brownie. I forgave her because it would be hard for me if I see the delicious brownie sitting alone, being lonely and feeling ignored. However, I was offended by the egg roll because she thinks I like egg roll because I am Chinese. It is like you would give fried chicken or water melon to a black person to exchange the brownie. Is she going to ask me to build a wall next? In the end, I ate the egg roll; it was good.

The biggest regret in my life is that I should have eaten the whole thing. I realized that every moment of our life is precious; especially the moment of eating the Kamikaze. Seize the day and eat the Kamikaze. Telle la vie.

The End...

It is finished -- part II

Many of my friends wonder why I was late on Tuesday Community Group. They probably don't really care why; they may just want the drinks as I was the one to bring drinks. I was shocked and confused as I just got out of the police station. I was robbed in my office Tuesday afternoon. Someone took my Kamikaze from my donut box. Kamikaze is a big piece of chocolate brownie from Rick's Bakery topped with Marshmallows, white and dark chocolate chips. It is a master piece and a dessert to die for. I took a small bite during lunch, and wanted to save it for later. So, I left it in the refrigerator at work, and it was soon missing.

To be continued...

It is finished -- part I

I completed my final on Wednesday night, and it is finished. Last night was my first night I tasted freedom. I felt liberated. I thank you for those who prayed for me and supported me throughout my suffering. For those who didn't, I thank you too because I am in a good mood. This moment makes me want to reminisce the past. What I have done wrong and what I could have done better. It has been a very strange week. I made several mistakes in this short period of time. I will use this opportunity to describe one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made.

To be continued...