Tag Archives: amber

20 Mar

shack up

Who taught: Patty, Amber and Tami

shacking up

Shacking up (source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/)

Hello there, my friends! It’s been more than a week without a new post. Sorry about that!

I was in San Francisco for a biz trip last week with my colleagues. Unfortunately, we did not have usual Californian sunshine but rain the whole week. But, we got to visit a few great companies and meet great people. We used public transportation a lot. During the time we sit in a Caltrain, we had a lot of talks about random things.

For some reason, we started to talk about me not wearing my wedding ring. Jessy also does not wear a ring. She actually does not have it at all. As we were talking about it, Patty said, “So, you guys are shacking up.”

Of course, I did not get what she said. Shack is a small and sort of dirty hut built from wood. Jessy and I bought a house and I can say that it is not just a shack in my opinion. Then, what is shacking up and what does it have to do with marriage or wedding ring?

If you shack up with someone, that means you guys live together (often while having sex) but not married. Why there is shack? My guess is that living together with someone else without marrying happens when people are young and, at that age, they cannot afford a nice place to live together. They usually end up being in a place like a shack. Don’t you think so?

So, literally, you live together in a shack which is “shacking up.” What do you think, my American friends? Am I right?

By the way, Jessy and I are not shacking up. We have been legally married for more than 10 years.

21 Nov

stick it to the man

Who taught: Amber

Greenfield Bridge (source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/perfesser/)

Occupy Wall Street (OWS)! Sounds familiar? Ever since this movement started, there have been many similar demonstrations in other cities in the U.S. There is, of course, Occupy Pittsburgh. If you happen to not to know what OWS is, you should check out this wikipedia page.

People who are involved in Occupy Pittsburgh usually stay in downtown where Bank of New York Mellon, one of the major investment banks in the U.S., is located. But they also show up here and there in the city.

A few days ago, I was skimming through my facebook news feed and a new status from Amber caught my eyes. She wrote:

Occupy Pittsburgh…shutting down the Greenfield bridge during rush hour is NOT sticking it to the man!

Until “NOT” part, it was pretty simple and easy but then there was this expression, “stick it to the man.” So, before I get into the details of the expression, I gotta talk more about “the man” part. Do you know who “the man” is? It is whoever has the power or authority. For a country, it is mainly its government. For a company, it is the management team, etc. Now, you get the idea about the man, right? If you stick it, or whatever, to this man, what are you trying to do? You are basically rebelling against the man. It is a little hard to feel. And, also a little vague.

To remember this expression, I think like this: Consider myself being a man in the old days and the man to be the king of the country that I am in. And, I now try to stick a dirty thing, like trash, to the king. How dare I am! What will happen to me is pretty obvious, huh?

That’s how I think to feel and remember this expression. Hope you get to feel this too.

Hey, you know what is better? If you yourself become the man, then you do not need to try to stick it to the man. In this sense, if you are really good at something, your friends would say, “You are the man,” to you. That is for sure a good thing to hear.