As I was walking to my train this morning, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet. I was about a 7 min from home and decided that I would really be late for work if I went back, even though my Metrocard (train fare card) and my work ID was there.

Since I carry my ATM/debit card, driver's license and my cash in my money clip, it was still sufficient enough to make it through the day. Worse comes to worse, I borrow some money from Mrs. jigg.

A couple of years ago, I would have gone back for it. In fact, had I left my cellphone, I definitely would have gone back. These things are not so important to me anymore, especially when I went 30 days without a cellphone. I think many times, we put too much value and dependency on how important our phones are to us.

What do you leave the house with and which would you go back for, knowing it would make you really late?

** ** ** **

WWJD?

One of my readers PMed me last week, asking me to blog about what I thought about Amy Chua's book and WSJ article. Although I believe this topic has been beaten to a bloody pulp, it is a pretty important topic to talk about because I will be a parent one day.

Long time readers would know that I often discuss about the way my parents raised me. It was always different than from my friends and classmates, even amongst the Chinese families. I had relatively the same rules Amy Chua had for her daughters, even going as far as discouraging me from drawing and other arts, forcing me to focus only on academics.

During one summer before second or third grade year, I had to stay in and memorize the multiplication table. I had to recite it fast without messing up, from multiples of 2 through 9. My heart wasn't into it because kids were playing outside, but I had no choice. In the third grade, I received a "gift" from them, a complete set of encyclopedias. For three hours a day, for three years, I had to read it. After homework and such, reading it took up most of my time. Although I know a lot of things now, even in hindsight, I'm not sure if it was a good thing since I felt that I "lost" my childhood.

Throughout most of my academic career, many of the top kids of every class were Asian. Of the non-Asians, they were Jews. While I envied the freedom many of the other kids had, I was prideful of doing well. But even then, I felt that my parents were pushing me too hard, one time even criticizing me for coming home with a 107 on a midterm, and not getting the full 10 extra credit points.

Being pulled between East and West cultures, I rebelled against them, going as far as dropping out of school. I needed fun in my life, but that didn't fit into their plans.

It took many years for me to really get over what happened between us. It actually wasn't until a year after I graduated from college did I realize that my grudge was stupid. I may not agree with what they did, but what they did was done with good intentions.

Reading Amy Chua's article, I really felt a strong agreement with her methods. While I wouldn't go as far as forcing them to only play certain instruments or disallowing them to star in plays, I would be really strict with academics. I do believe that most kids can learn any material. Some just require more practice than others.

I truly believe that the modern child grows up with a sense of entitlement. They are babied by their parents. My parents beat me till I was 16. The modern child would have probably called the cops on their parents as soon as they knew how.  I won't beat my kids, but there are about 1000 ways to punish them. I would be the strict parent and won't be nice. I won't try to be their friends until they I feel that they are old enough to be.

I have quite a few friends who are teachers and they often tell me about how parents complain to them about giving too much homework or making the work too hard. It bothers me that these parents do not realize that they are failing their children. Children don't know better. If we want to give them more than what we had growing up, it starts with teaching them what hardwork is all about.

Thinking back, my parents never told me that I needed to be a doctor or lawyer or accountant. They just wanted me to do well because only then, are more opportunities open to us.  I'm surprised there are so many critics. Asians have the highest rate of being professionals in this country. Is it really a surprise that all it takes is being diligent and doing well in school?

While Amy Chua doesn't outright say her way (the Eastern way) is the better way, I will say that it is. Doing well academically, does in fact open more doors. And does it really affect the development of social skills? I can't say I'm socially inept.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

** ** ** **

WWJD?

Happy New Year!

Chinese people believe all sorts of stuff. Even in the modern world where many people are educated, traditions and old beliefs are hard to get away from, especially the ones for Chinese New Year. Growing up, I was told to not wash my hair on new year day because the word "hair" is a homonym with the word "fortune" and washing your hair would be washing fortune away.

If you can't wash hair, forget about cutting it. Supposedly, you're not suppose to cut it during the first 7 days of the year. Because of this, the busiest time to get a haircut is the week before. The salons are packed with people. I totally need a haircut, but will probably wait, not because I believe in losing fortune, but because my mom does and she'd totally ask me about it.

This year is the year of the Rabbit in the "metal" element, which means it's a bad year for the Rabbit. In fact, I read a very detailed horoscope a few days ago that pretty says this is a doomed year for all those born in the year of the rabbit. Upon further reading, both the Rooster (me) and the Ox (Mrs. jigg) will also be having a bad year. Luckily for us, neither believes in these things. Unfortunately, many do and it creates another element of paranoia.

One of my bestfriends is like that. He goes to a Chinese fortune teller for all his life decisions--when to get married, what kind of tattoo to get, job changes, etc. He is definitely the most superstitious person I know and he's only a few years older than me!

I think most Chinese people my age sort of play the "tradition" card and not really believe in the superstitions. The lucky numbers are "6" and "8," both because they are homonyms of words that symbolize wealth and prosperity. Many people would say that "4" means death, but it's just a homonym for it, which means the ultra-superstitious would hate to have the number "4" anywhere in their life, whether in house number, street number or phone number.

I love the number 4. Maybe because I am going against the tradition, or maybe because I actually believe in luck and it has not brought me any badluck. Either way, I try to follow certain traditions and "rules" simply to remain intact with my culture. In a world of globalization and assimilation, it's hard to preserve cultural ties. It sort of gets diluted along the way. My cousin's daughter is American 364 days of the year, but tells her mother she's Chinese on CNY.

Which reminds me--you're supposed to start the new year with a vegetarian meal. Good thing I ear oatmeal and fruits for breakfast!

How superstitious are you and how hard do you try to stick to the traditions of your home?

** ** ** **

WWJD?

The Chinese New Year is around the corner and Mrs jigg and I are cleaning up and preparing for it. I bought this candy tray yesterday and some candy so that guests would be able to have something sweet.

One problem we had was deciding how much money to give out. Now that we're married, we have to give out to those who aren't. Not that anyone really cares because you're just trying to wish them goodluck with the red envelopes, but there are a lot of of kids in the families and it adds up.

You never realize when you're a kid, how much money your parents actually give out. You only know how much money you get. I remember getting like $1 from some people and thinking how cheap they were. You never stopped to think that even giving out $1 per red envelope, you're giving $2 per couple (you're supposed to get one from each person). If there are 100 kids, that's $200 less money they have. The Mrs and I make a decent amount, but a lot of my parent's friends back then were only factory workers and waiters, making less than minimum wage.

With that said, it's definitely interesting being on the giving end. Mrs jigg is kind of whatever about this holiday, but I'm all for keeping with culture and traditions. I was excited when I was a kid because my parents allowed us to stay home, eat sweets and collect money. I hope to pass it down to our future children and give them another holiday to celebrate and look forward to.

** ** ** **

WWJD?

Recently, there have been in my opinion, overzealous lawmakers that are slowly stripping away the most basic of our rights by justifying them with their way of protecting us, from basically, ourselves.

Most of you have probably heard about the sugary beverage tax that would tax all sugary drinks--making it more expensive to purchase and hopefully preventing people from buying them. We already have the ban of the usage of trans fats at restaurants, but there was another idea with banning the use of salt at restaurants. Anyone who knows a thing or two about cooking is that salt brings out flavors. Banning salt use at a restaurant is basically telling a cook that he can't use fire anymore. Certain dishes are doable, but most won't be.

There's a place out in Long Island where smoking is banned, in public. I'm all for banning smoking indoors, because it does affect non-smokers, but outdoors? That's a bit much.

This morning on my way to the train station, I saw a little kid--about 10, walking and talking on his cellphone. I heard that there's going to be a proposed law that will ban the use of cellphones while walking. No talking or texting is allowed. On top of that, you are not allowed to have both headphones in your ears if you are listening to music as you walk. You are allowed, however to use just one side of your headphones. The reasoning is because it's dangerous to walk and do these things at the same time, and therefore, we need such laws to protect us.

I think this is taking things a bit too far. I can understand banning texting while crossing a street, but walking and talking? Listening to your music while walking? That's a bit much. I wonder what they have in store for us next.

What do you think about this new proposed law?

** ** ** **

WWJD?

I have a question to ask all of you. I want you to read the question, think of your answer and then think of why.

How many spaces do you put after the period?

Got an answer yet? What is it?

I put two because I was taught to put two. Who taught me, I don't remember but I think it was my AP English teacher in High School, Mr. Trant.

The reason why I'm asking is because I read an article yesterday that convinced me that I have been doing it wrong the whole time. In fact, I believe most people I know, put two spaces!

Here's the article.  But before you read the article, let me know which one you do. I want to do a poll.

** ** ** **

WWJD?

Have you ever wondered what your significant other really thinks about you? I never gave it much thought because the arrogance of me drove me to believe that I was very close to perfect to my wife. I was chatting with a friend yesterday online, and I asked her if her boyfriend was perfect. She responded that he was a keeper, which was great. It led me to wonder how close to perfect was I to Mrs. jigg. My friend asked me to ask her. I turned to her as she was reading email on her laptop and asked, "One a scale of 1-10, honestly, how close am I to perfect to you?"

After thinking for a couple of seconds, she responded, "Ehhhh... 8.5?"

"Really? 8.5? Why?," I asked. I was sort of expecting her to say 9.5 or maybe 9. I'll admit that I'm definitely not perfect, but I was pretty darn close in my opinion.

"Well, you're messy," was her response.

So I lost 1.5 points because I'm messy. I can't imagine being more thoughtful, buying and doing things for her that makes her happy. It's not like I'm lazy--I do chores around the house like laundry and vacuuming. I clean the bathroom and kitchen, which she rarely does. And in reality, I'm not really much messier than her. I just like to throw my (clean) clothes around.

She looked at me and saw that I was disappointed. I quickly turned to my laptop and typed the response to my friend. She responded back that I had to progress towards perfection.

Sadly I realized that there's simply no-way I would ever be perfect. I mean, losing 1.5 points for being messy is insane. What happens if I was dirty as well? Probably lose 2 points there. If I was any less thoughtful or considerate, I'd probably lose 5-6 points. Basically, on her extremely weird scale, having just 1 flaw means you're far from perfection.

I think that's why husbands don't try to be perfect. There's just simply no way for them to get there. Men are realistic--if there is hope, they would try. In this case, there isn't. Once we're deemed imperfect to our wives, our classification would never change. If I wasn't messy, there would be something else about me that she will come up with that would make me an 8.5. The reality is that you're rating stays with you forever and can only get worse. Whatever reasons they have, are just excuses they use to try and justify that number.

How close to perfect are you to your significant other? You should ask and post your response here. Sure it's a loaded question, so you should ensure them that you won't get mad. It would be interesting to see what people would come up with to justify their answer.

Oh yeah, to make me feel better, Mrs. jigg reasoned that the "normal person is only like a 3." I don't even know what that really means.

** ** ** **

WWJD?

I think Mrs. jigg and I have decided that we will have our honeymoon in Italy. I spent most of this weekend combing through website after website for information regarding different areas around the country and the more I read, the more excited I am with the trip.

We're thinking of going for two weeks, which would give us more time to see more things. At first, I had an ambitious plan of starting in Sicily and moving north, but not only would that be too tiring, it would also cost too much. I then decided that I still wanted to see Southern Italy because of how different it is as compared to the North. We might fly into Naples and head south to Sorrento first. Spend a day there and then goto Pompeii the following day. We then go explore Naples for a day, then go north to Rome. Five days in Rome sounds about right before we go to Florence for two days. Then we go to Venice for one day before going west to Milan. We will either fly out of there or make an additional trip to Turin.

Or, we might just cut parts of the trip and spent more time in certain places like focusing mainly on Rome, Florence and Venice (with some places in between).

I haven't looked up the costs yet, which make me wonder if $10k is enough. We're thinking of going at the beginning of October since there are a couple of weddings we need to attend in September (including our own).

For those of you who have been there already, if you had to plan a two week trip, where would you go? Any bit of advice would be greatly appreciated!

** ** ** **

WWJD?

I know someone who is a pushover--allows everyone to completely walk all over her. Then, she complains about how bad these people are. I couldn't understand why she was like that so I asked her why she didn't she just stand up for herself. Her reason? It's because if she does that, they won't be there for her if she needed help.

The crazy part about this whole thing is that she believes that it's not her fault and says that I don't understand the situation. Sure, every situation is different, but everyone knows she's a pushover and some people take advantage of her--even family members.

I think she overthinks the situation sometimes. She told me that when someone from her family calls her to have dimsum or go out for dinner, they are actually asking for her to take them out. Why she believes these things is beyond my understanding. I know her family and they are not like that. At the same time, she always pays, which might have reinforced the idea that she will pay. I'm sure no one does it on purpose.

After going at this for hours, she still blames other people for taking advantage of her. On top of that, her brother-in-law is kind of smartass and picks on her from time to time. She always laughs with him when he makes jokes. How would he know she is offended when she doesn't stand up for herself. I told her--all she has to do is say that the joke wasn't funny and that she was offended. She tells me it's not so simple. I couldn't comprehend the difficulty.

She is also someone who blames everything and everyone for her mistakes. If she parked in a handicap spot and got a ticket, she would get angry and blame the ticket agent and justify that she always sees other people doing it.

Do you know someone like this? Someone who believes everything they do is right and it's the world that's wrong?

** ** ** **

WWJD?

Many readers have PMed, emailed, IM, or called me seeking advice. Mrs jigg convinced me that maybe I should start some kind of column for advice seekers. I know this has been done by several bloggers on Xanga previously and I have never been a fan of them, either because the advice was poor or because some stories sounded really made up.

I thought about it and maybe I should give this a try just for fun and see where it goes. In terms of my qualifications, well, other than having a very rational thought process and a moral code that I never stray from, I have a very good track record of giving sound advice to both friends and strangers.

If you have a problem and you're seeking advice, you can PM me or shoot me an email at jigg.xanga@gmail.com. Your problem can be anything from work related to relationship questions. By contacting me, you agree with the following:

-I can contact you for more information. Sometimes, people ask me questions that are too general and more background info is needed.

-I am allowed to post your questions to the public.

-My advice is strictly based on the information that is provided to me and will be offered to you as what I would do if I was in your place. You have to ultimately decide on your own whether to follow it or not and I am not liable to any consequences.

Your name, identity, Xanga user ID or email address will not be revealed. I will not disclose/share this information to anyone.

In any event, I'm not really sure if this would take off. If I don't get any questions, then I don't and life goes on for me. If I do, maybe I can help someone out with sound and logical advice. I will try to answer as many (if not all) questions as I could and will post up maybe one or two interesting ones a week.

Thoughts?  

Thanks in advanced!