It’s been a while since I blogged about Snoop, my American Staffordshire Terrier cross. This time I thought I’d highlight some of things that Snoop likes to do besides his #1 favourite pastime of running around.

He likes chewing on things that he finds in the backyard. Like my neighbour’s kids’ tennis balls.

He likes lying down outside.

He likes lying down inside.

He likes eating fruit, like bananas and rockmelon.

So it’s been one whole week since Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American to do so. And for a very short while there, late night TV show hosts and comedians were probably wondering how they can make jokes about the new president without being racist or offensive about it.

Well, they didn’t wonder for too long.

And here’s another good one touching on white liberal guilt, except now that there’s a black man in the White House … it’s black people’s turn to be condescending and patronising. Heh.

Last night, my parents arranged for me to speak with their financial adviser to get an idea about my mortgage options. In a nutshell: for a single person earning comfortably but not that much, not a lot. If my parents weren’t helping me out, I wouldn’t even consider buying a house.

That’s because I am not looking to buy a cheap place that I can rent out, and I’m not looking to build a place that’s bare minimum for now and upgrade later. If I am to buy a property now, it’d be a place that I’m gonna stay in and which pleases me aesthetically.

So I’ve figured that for me to go down this path, I will need to manage my disposable income a bit better. A lot of little things that I take for granted will all have to be re-evaluated. These include:

• $6-7 lunches every day, with a $3 coffee or energy drink in the afternoon,
• going out twice a week spending about $80-100 each time,
• having an annual holiday which cost about $2000 or more

Within limits, I have never minded spending on food and drinks, and intangible things like going out and on holidays. I will have to consciously wind down this area of spending a notch and maybe more.

Conversely, I am a bit more tight when it comes to material goods. I buy clothes at most 3 times a year, I buy CDs and DVDs only when they’re cheap, and any other frivolous purchases are mostly funded by my blogging. Plus I take public transport to work so I don’t spend a lot on running my car.

In documenting my spending, I realise that it’s the mandatory things that take a big chunk out of my finances. These are things like medical and car insurance, Snoop’s veterinary bills and pet insurance, mobile phone bill, and when I start living in my own home, home insurance, electric/water bills and council rates and taxes. All of this plus the monthly mortgage payments will eat up most of my pay, leaving me very little as savings.

And oh, then there’s the cost of the furnishings and appliances for the new place. Yeah, bye bye disposal income indeed.

When I voiced these concerns to my parents, my mom as usual uses the matrimonial angle. “What woman these days would want to marry a man who doesn’t own a house?” Funny that, because I won’t be able to afford to date anyone when I’m paying off the place by myself. Hahah!

That said, I suppose if I keep dissuading myself from buying a place I probably never will because I’m so comfortable where I am. This is a good push by my parents. And you all will be here to watch how I progress through this.

There are some people in my life whom I consider light weight friends. In the past, I had treated them better than I would acquaintances, and thus expected more of these people. But I’ve come to realise that by doing so, it makes them worse than acquaintances.

With acquaintances, you don’t expect much from them and because of that, they can’t possibly disappoint you. With friends however, you’d expect a certain level of behaviour and courtesy. So when these light weight friends inevitably fail to live up to your expectations, you feel disappointed and sometimes resentment.

These are friends who, although they are not malicious by nature, fail to deliver on their promises, who’d blow you off for something or someone else they think is more important, and who are flaky and blow hot and cold with you. Most importantly, they are not consistent.

And that’s my basic criteria for a good friend: consistency. I don’t want to have to figure out how to deal with you every time the situation changes. There are enough uncertainties in life that I don’t need more when it comes to friends. I choose to have stable friends in my circle and that I believe is good for my sanity.

So in conclusion, light weight friends, if you can still call them “friends”, should be treated no better than casual acquaintances whom you don’t expect much from. If you expect less from them, you’d get disappointed less and you’d definitely not get pissed off by their bad behaviour so much. Your time is precious, so those so-called friends who do not deserve it? Downgrade them to be hi-bye acquaintances instead.

Barack Obama is the 44th US President, and the first African-American to reach the highest office of that land. Woo. I haven’t been this excited since when I voted for the first time here in Australia, when we too aching for change, ended the long reign of a politically conservative leader (John Howard, 11 years) and installed a fresh government led by Kevin Rudd.

By electing a black man for President, America has shown that it has turned around a very large corner. And by choosing a calm and intelligent person, American shows that it is ready to engage the world in a way that is vastly different to how it has been for the past 8 years.

Hopefully at the very least, it is ready to engage with the rest of us in a more inclusive and cooperative manner. And that is why I eagerly followed the election results today, and it is why I’m so excited about this truly historic win.

The Promise – For Many Abroad, an Ideal Renewed – NYTimes.com

However, the honeymoon will be short-lived as the US is still reeling from a huge economic crisis, with two foreign wars draining its coffers daily. As McCain had said of himself, and had implied that Obama couldn’t, he will need to show that he is capable of handling problems both domestic and international on day one.

Hard choices and challenges follow – Washington Post- msnbc.com
CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – Little rest for Obama, analysts say

But today has been a joyous day indeed.

(originally by Patrick Moberg, thanks Phil!)

When a woman is telling you her problems, she doesn’t necessarily want to hear your solutions to them. Most of the time, she already knows what she has to do; she just needs to vent. Furthermore, women think differently from men.

At times, a woman’s thoughts are governed more by emotions and may seem illogical to us. And some would say that they are better lateral thinkers. In any case, a woman does not need to hear your attempt at a logical solution because you are not viewing the problem like she is. She just needs you to listen.

And why is this a good idea? Because looking bored, or getting caught pretending to be interested is better than arguing back and forth about a problem that wasn’t yours to begin with.

Thursday night: signed on an agreement to purchase 352 square metres of dirt, rocks and weeds. Felt strangely nonchalant about it. Deposit will be paid next week, the deed will be passed to me May or June next year, and then it’d bye-bye disposable income!

Friday night: drank so much that I didn’t remember parts of the night until friends reminded me the next day. And luckily I was looked after by them. But oh what a hangover! Never again?! Erm, yeah.

Saturday night: got dragged by friends to go to Connections, a gay and lesbian friendly bar. It was my second time there. It was quite alright actually. Turns out that the very first time I went a few years back was on their weekly gay night – which was a bit more overwhelming than their “normal” nights like last night. Explains why it’s only now that I have returned to the place.

Sunday so far: woke up at 11am, had breakfast, played with Snoop, and have watched 3 hours of cartoons – Batman the animated series, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The rest of the day is a blank slate but in a good way and not like what happened on Friday night.