My life is for the most part pretty boring, but sometimes whacky things happen.  Yesterday was one of those days.

I left work last night and realized that I left my purse at my cube.  So I drove back to retrieve it.  I usually don’t park in the underground garage because it is always full, but at that time many people already left work so I figured I would park there since it is the closest parking lot to my building. It has one of those arm gates that raises up after you swipe a keycard.  Then after the arm gate there is another metal sliding gate.

I have always had a problem with these gates because my arms are very short and oftentimes I have to stretch out pretty far to activate the keycard.  Yesterday this happened again and stretched out just a bit too far and my foot went off the brake for a second.  Unfortunately, the lane to the gate is on a downward incline so gravity took my car straight into the gate arm and made contact with the metal gate and then stopped.  The distance from the keycard station to the gate is less than ten feet so it wasn’t a huge impact, but the car still managed to break off the wooden gate arm and made a dent in the metal gate.

Amazingly enough the car just had a few scratches in the front bumper and was not damaged at all, but the metal gate to the garage stopped opening.  So I called building security and a pretty nice old security guard came out and took my information.  Today the property management called me and said that they have repair people out there and if the damages are not extensive I don’t have to file a claim.  They were actually quite nice about it and thanked me for informing security quickly and giving my information.  They also said they will keep me updated on the repair costs and possible claim.

In case you work in the former Siebel buildings in San Mateo and you were inconvenienced by the south garage gate closing today, I’m really sorry!  I felt pretty dumb after the incident so I went home and Googled garage arm gate accidents, and what do you know, other people have the short arm problem too. 

After watching these videos I actually felt a bit better.  Then I started sorting a bag of mail I got from my parents’ house this weekend, and I found a check for $200.13 from a class action settlement.  Apparently a law student named in the 2002-2003 school year and after five years of legal battles the students won and the Regents paid out a $33.8 million settlement.  It is kind of sad because I completely understand why the Universities of California had to raise fees at that time.  The economy was in the ruts, and the fees were really quite cheap.  I entered Berkeley in 2001 and I think I paid less than $2000 for tuition for each semester, and then the next year they increased the fees dramatically for international students, but the resident tuition did not change all that much.  Here are the webpages from and .   The real fee hikes actually started from the 2003 to 2004 school year where the fees went from $2100 to $2900.  Now it costs over $4400 for resident tuition. I actually feel bad for receiving this money because I don’t feel cheated by my Berkeley education. I’ve already earned my all four years of my tuition money back in less than a year after college.  I also found out that the University of California barely raised its fees from the late 80′s until 2002 after I met an alumni that graduated in 1988.  He told me that he paid around $1500 a semester in 1988.  Basically, it is a public school system that tried to keep its fees down for many years but just couldn’t do it any longer and it is understandable.  I am  just going to donate this $200 back to UC Berkeley’s engineering program and I encourage other UC grads who are comfortably employed to do the same because our alma maters probably need the money more than we do now.  I really want the UC system to remain the best public universities in the world for generations to come.

So that’s the entire story of my stupid accident, and the $200 of found money.  Hopefully my car insurance will not be adjusted and the owners of the building will fix the gate.  In the future, I will always park my car in front of those keycard swipers first so there is no chance of sliding down into a gate.

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After I attended Kapiolani Community College for a year, I started thinking about getting a job that is related to my major of accounting.   As I have mentioned before, American employers always want to employ someone with experience, so it is especially tough to find that first job related to your field.  This is the reason why many people want to go to the most famous colleges because students from these schools have an easier time finding the first job.  However, after you have worked at a job and collected experience, employers would look at what you have done and what you can do for them instead of where you graduated.  So now when friends in China ask me which American school their kids should attend, I would tell them that if they have the money and skills they should go to the most prestigious schools.  However, if they can’t get into the best, they shouldn’t be discouraged, because college lasts for only four years, and the road of life is very very long, and a college degree will not determine their entire destiny in life.

After I learned some accounting basics in America, I was determined to find a job related to accounting.  Since I didn’t have any experience, I emphasized that I had a 4.0 GPA, but this first off campus job was still very difficult to find.  After trying for a while, I found a job as a cashier at a store in the famous Ala Moana Shopping Center.  The store was owned by a Japanese American woman and I worked there for about four months.  However, I have to honestly say that these four months were the darkest and most unfair days I have ever experienced in America.  These days made me truly experience the ugly side of capitalism that was taught in China’s Marxism classes.  This capitalist that hired me forced me to work very heavy labor, overtime, and refused to pay.

“Where there is oppression, there will be resistance.”  I think this Japanese American woman underestimated international students from China.  She thought that we were uneducated, and that she could easily control immigrants from China, Vietnam, and other “third world nations” because none of us spoke English well.   She didn’t think that Chinese students my age were educated with the message of revolution since we experienced the Cultural Revolution.  She didn’t know that we were taught the message of, “there is endless fun in fighting with the sky, there is endless fun in fighting with the ground, and there is endless fun in fighting with class enemies”.  The most important thing is that in China I have had some education in law, and I knew that what she did was not only unfair and cruel but also broke the law.  Even though my English was horrible at that time and I couldn’t express myself well, I managed to team up with another student she hired and fought with her in court.  Even though this happened more than a decade ago, I still get angry when I think about it.  Recently I went back to China and heard on the news that a foreign capitalist was beating Chinese workers, and that also made me very angry.  I thought that this type of abuse rarely happens in a capitalist country like America, but now how could a socialist nation like China let it happen?  This chapter will detail my story of fighting against oppression.

To be continued!

Some of my friends have asked me things along the lines of, “aren’t Christian women supposed to be stay at home moms?” I have never really been taught this idea in the churches I have gone to, but I know some Christian groups do  support the idea that Christian women should not work for a living and the man of the house should be the one bring home the bacon. So is it wrong for Christian women to earn money outside of the home? Well, ultimately I think the Bible should answer everyone’s questions on this issue.

The book of Proverbs ends with an acrostic poem describing a virtuous wife. This is actually a very long section focused on one single topic, and that’s pretty different from the rest of the book where various short phrases of wisdom are written in sequence. It begins with, “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels(rubies).” Prov 31:10. Then it goes on to describe the various things a good wife does, and interestingly enough a lot of things she does are related to business and finance. Here is what I read:

generic viagra review- “She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard” Prov 31:16

generic viagra review – First she produces: “She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.” Prov 31:13 Also later in the passage she sells the goods: “She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.” Prov 31:18 “She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.” Prov 31:24

generic viagra review – “She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.” Prov 31:20

generic viagra review – “She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.” Prov 31:21 “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.” Prov 31:25 I think both of these verses show that she is prepared for the things to come, and I think that being prepared for snow implies that the good wife is financially prepared for a non-fruitful season.

generic viagra review – “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. ” Prov 31:27 I think this verse conveys the message that a good wife is not lazy, and she is very aware of what’s going on in her family. Finances is a big part of family affairs, and a wife that knows what’s going on with a household’s money would be much better prepared for disasters.

generic viagra review- “She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.” Prov 31:14-15

generic viagra review – This is the final point of the passage. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Prov 31:30

So from this book, I think it is fairly clear that a Christian woman is never required to be a stay at home mom and in a way the Bible actually encourages a wife to earn income and provide for her family. In my church there are all types of families. There are dual income families, and there are stay at home moms, and there is a pretty cool stay at home dad, too. Everyone knows that the guy is a stay at home dad and he was given a rose for Mother’s day. I think all of these family structures are totally acceptable as long as both people in the marriage agree with it and they trust each other and God enough to make it work.

I hope this post clarified the position of the Bible on women and working for income. I think that all women should be independently enough so that their husbands would not have have to worry about them very much. Finally, I believe that Christianity is a religion that gives women a lot of freedom compared to many other religions. We can choose to be a stay at home wife, or work outside the home. We do not have to hide ourselves and we can honor God in our own way. That is liberating.

I read Laura Rowley’s Yahoo Finance column pretty regularly, and this week she and how many young adults with large student loans and small wages are basically debt slaves doomed to pay for their education for decades. I have also written a little bit about college finance before. In “” I wrote about how many middle class families do not qualify for financial aid or even scholarships at expensive private colleges and that drew many different responses. Some say that kids should pay for their own college expenses and others say that the financial aid system needs to be reformed. Either way, most people agree that there is a problem with having to take out huge loans to fund college. Here are some things I think parents and college bound teens should consider before signing on to a generation of debt.

generic viagra review- I went to the University of California at Berkeley and all four years of tuition plus room and board cost less than one year at any private university. My parents paid for it, but if I could have paid off the entire amount with less than a year of income after I graduated. Recently an article in Forbes ranked UC Berkeley as . The study was done by PayScale.com and the schools were ranked on the median salary of alumni with 10 to 20 years of experience. I think if they gathered data on the amount of student loans some of the private school alumni are still paying, then they will probably find that Berkeley grads keep more of what they earn and pay less to the loansharks. There are plenty of great state college in this country, and I think they are the best bang for the buck.

generic viagra review- If you could shave one semester,term, or even year off your college education then you would save quite a bit of money. It involves a lot of hard work and creative class scheduling, but it is worth it. I took classes that could fulfill multiple graduation requirements and also took classes in the summer session and I finished about a year early. I used the year to work at a couple internships and took one class in my last semester of senior year.

generic viagra review – I know quite a few people that went to community colleges and then transferred to Berkeley or other schools during their junior year. Their final degree is still from the more expensive school and no one can tell that the first two years were spent in a cheaper school.

generic viagra review – I know some people who worked for a year or two before college to save money for college. Many colleges allow you to defer enrollment for a year so you can have the opportunity to do something.  generic viagra review

generic viagra review – Right now I do not have kids yet, but I am putting $100 a month into a 529 education savings plan under my name.  I don’t think parents and children could save too early for a college education.  A 529 allows you to withdraw the savings for education and any gains on the investments are tax free.

Finally, I totally agree with the advice given in the Yahoo Finance article that you shouldn’t borrow a lot more than what you would earn after college.  However,  it is hard to look at the financial impacts of college loans when you are a young idealistic teenager who wants to do the things you love regardless of money.  There needs to be a balance between idealism and practicality, and perhaps more high school counselors should teach students about the effect of massive student loans.

Recently a news item highlighted a book called “” by Carol Dweck. Her research showed that those who believe they are innately talented and do not choose to grow tend to be less likely to fulfill their potential than people who believe their abilities can increase over time. She labeled the first group as people who have a “fixed mindset” and the second as people who have a “growth mindset”.

Dweck argued that the talented people with a fixed mindset are afraid to make mistakes and look stupid so they tend to take less challenges and develop their skills. On the other hand, those with a growth mindset jump at the chance to change and improve themselves and in the long run this group of people become more successful in business by learning from their mistakes and trials. Finally she says that it is possible for people to change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset even though it is not easy to let go “something that has felt like yourself for many years”.

Personally, I think I have been in a fixed mindset all throughout my childhood. It may have to do with being an Asian nerd who is good at school. People thought that I was smart at a pretty young age and that stereotype kind of stuck. I had very good grades in school and was really afraid of getting a B because that would be a failure. I thought that I was smart. That changed in highschool and college because I met too many people that are a lot smarter. I think when your friends are smarter or more successful than you it keeps you humble. Being in that environment also spurs a bit of healthy competition.

Now I am more up for new things and new challenges because I am no longer in school. I now understand that your grades do not matter that much in real life. Nobody cares what I got on my SATs 10 years ago, and nobody cares that I wrote an English paper that I got an A on. It is important to learn new things at work and try out new projects because otherwise I get extremely bored. If I had to do the same thing for the rest of my life then it would be like living the same day over and over again. That is a frightening thought, but most of us do it anyway because we are used to being institutionalized.

So I guess having a growth mindset means that I would be able to step outside of my comfort zone and try something unknown. I have done that when I moved out of my parents’ house, , and . I must confess that I am still afraid of failure because my life is pretty good right now, but I am now less afraid of making big changes in my life because change makes life more interesting and colorful.

How about you?  Are you in a fixed mindset or do you thrive on change?