illegal ninja moves // (lmnop)

Fuck Yeah, Motherfucker!

2009-10-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

I have returned from the dead!

Actually, I've returned from the life.
What was it like?
Traveling, marriage and work, and watching movies about the Third Reich.

Seriously, in the past month I've watched Der Untergang, Schindler's List, some parts of Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan, and Letters from Iwo Jima. Well, the last one wasn't about WWII Germany but there was someone listed in the credits who knew a guy in the Third Reich. I still plan to watch Inglorious Basterds as well. I've always wondered why there was so much media about WWII, and 60 years later there's still new things coming out. When you get into it, the whole thing is truly, utterly fascinating. A global event of that scale is unimaginable in these times.

That's part of what drew me into watching FlashForward, despite the bad acting. Imagine something like that happening right now! Our silver spoon fed generation would be in for quite a shock with our Nintendos and our Trapper Keepers and Bon Jovi. Err...I mean our Wii's and our Internet and Beyonce. I remember back when I was little I always wished for something crazy to happen to entire the world like aliens come to attack us or Godzilla being real or the devil popping out of hell throwing pitchforks at everyone. Why does it have to be destructive and violent? Because as a kid I always liked it when people band together to fight a common enemy. Sure, people will die, but they were probably slow drivers in the fast lane or were terrible at customer service. In the end, the enemy is defeated and everyone just smokes out and has sex with each other.

Heh, look at me. Still talking about the exact same things. If you were a long time reader of my blog (all 3 of you) then you could see that I haven't changed at all. Thinking back now, that's probably why I stopped writing here. I have said pretty much everything I wanted to say in this era of my life and if I wrote another post it would be more of the same, just presented in a different manner.

But I was inspired since Belle wrote in her blog last week and I just miss writing. When I was talking to Jay at John John and Ivy's Baby Shower, the topic came up that no one has the time to sit down and read or write nowadays. With Twitter and Facebook you can just write something in terrible grammar every few minutes. Like with porn...with all the "tube" sites, it's just so insanely accessible now. When was the last time you watched an entire porno without fast forwarding? I guess this post just like a throwback to the old days when we couldn't tell every single one of our friends what we were doing every hour. This is going back to the days when you had to download a porno based just on its vague text description then masturbate to that same scene hundreds of times once it finally downloaded.

Okay...now on to recent events. I worked on our bedroom and loft recently and now the next project is to work on the garage. Advice to those of you with new homes: don't buy and do everything all at once. Our vision of what we wanted to do with our house when we moved in 3 years ago is totally different from what it is now. Your tastes and needs will change, so don't buy something unless you really, really need it. Try to get by with what you have now, then when something you really love goes on sale...that's when you get it. Like I've mentioned in many previous blogs...inefficiency is really the only thing that bothers me and when I waste something, I feel terrible about it. When society is inefficient (traffic, long lines, bad instructions, neglecting the facts, those automated telephone things) I complain about it on this blog.

In reality though, I don't complain much. Why spend a minute complaining about life when you could spend that minute enjoying it? Have you heard of those Improv Everywhere guys?

...

(waiting for telepathic answer)

Well it's these group of comedians and ordinary folk who do fun and crazy things just to get someone to laugh, smile, and make their day. Like when they gathered a large group of people to cheer on a no-name band at a show that probably wouldn't have any attendees otherwise. Or when they had a huge group of people greet random strangers at the airport like it was their homecoming. I say take those minutes that you would normally spend complaining about something, and instead do something crazy like teaching yourself the Dim Mak.

Will I continue to write in this blog again? I'd like to. I've been telling Belle that this year is probably the best year ever. When I grow old and want to think about the "good ol' days" I'll probably be referring to this year. Being the best year ever, it's a shame that I haven't been around here documenting it. Maybe that's an incentive for me to write here again. "Hey me! Yeah you! Why is this the best year ever?"

Thing of the day:

Of Neck Snakes and Belly Boards

2008-07-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

On the train this morning there was this really annoying guy on his cell phone talking loud enough that the entire train could hear him. What the hell, it's 5 o'clock in the morning and people are trying to sleep. Who does this asshole think he is, that his conversation is so important he feels he can freely bark on his cellphone in a place where disgruntled employees want to get some rest? Some people are up really late and this is the only time they get to relax. This guy was talking like no one else was around him.

15 minutes of this and I had enough. Belle was up all night from working on wedding stuff and she doesn't need this. So I stood up and asked him nicely if he could keep it down. He ignored me. I'm not the kind of guy to get angry but I was tired and really pissed off at that point. So I snatched the phone from his hand and threw it on the floor as hard as I could. The flip-phone broke in half and suddenly the guy started crying. He was saying something like "What did you do??!!" then broke down and started crying. Serves him right for being an asshole.

Turns out I was wrong. This man was from Arkansas and had a son. His ex-wife cheated on him and took his son to a household where he was exposed to drugs, alcohol, and violence. The son was beaten every day by the ex-wife's boyfriend. The man went to church everyday and prayed to God that he could find his son and raise him with love and compassion. He traveled all over the US to find the ex-wife's trail, and along the way did kind deeds for others so that he could teach his son the value of caring for others, when he eventually found him. He finally got a hold of his ex-wife on the train in California that morning, but her wife was high on heroin and threatened to kill his son if he hung up the phone. The husband was on the phone trying to calm her down, but the wife was trying to negotiate the house for his son. It was at that point that I broke his phone, and in turn...killing his son he spent so long searching for.

The lesson is...have some courtesy and shut up when you're talking loud on your cellphone in public! Damn son!!

I'm a practical guy and sometimes I can be too grounded in reality. Belle is the total opposite and that was readily apparent during the whole wedding planning process. I guess that's why I'm really bad at is telling jokes:

Why was six afraid of seven?
It wasn't. Numbers are not sentient and thus incapable of feeling fear.

Three men are at the FBI Building for a job interview. The interviewing FBI agent tells the first man, 'To be in the FBI you must be loyal, dedicated, and give us your all. Your wife is in the next room. I want you to go in there and shoot her with this gun.'

The man takes the gun, hesitates, and says, 'Sorry, I can't do it.'

The next interviewee enters the office and the agent tells him the same thing he told the first guy. The second man takes the gun, walks into the room, and walks out. 'Sorry, I can't.' he says.

The last man enters the office and the interviewer said yet again explains the test.' The man says "I'm sorry I love my wife too much to do such a harmful thing, I guess the FBI is not for me after all.

Why did the deaf man take his parrot to work?
He was weird.

A Blonde and a Brunette jump off a tall building at the same time. Who hits the ground first?
Both of them hit the ground at the same time. Hair color doesn't affect acceleration due to gravity.

A white man is driving his Cadillac on a highway in Texas. He notices a black man pushing his bicycle along the side of the road.

He pulls over to talk to the black man and offer him a ride. He says "I can't fit your bike in my car, but I can tie it to the back and let you ride behind me. If I'm going too fast, just yell."

The black man says "No thanks, that sounds pretty risky" and keeps pushing his bike down the road.

What do you get when you're gay?
Made fun of.

What's sad about 4 black people in a Cadillac going over a cliff?
They were my friends.

What do you get when you cross a chicken with a centipede?
A media circus about the debate over the morals and ethics of genetic engineering.

So, there were an Irishman, an Englishman and an American wrecked on an island. One day, they found a bottle, and when they opened it, a ghost came out and offered them each a wish. However, even though they wished for different stuff, nothing happened, as the three guys of varying nationalities were just having shared hallucinations from hunger.

What's the difference between a Jew and a pizza?
A Jew is a person adhering to the Jewish faith and a pizza is an oven-baked, flat, usually circular bread covered with tomato sauce and cheese with optional garnishes.

The Pope walks into a bar. The bartender says, what'll ya have, Pope? But the Pope's grasp of English is tenuous at best, so he mumbles something in Latin. The bartender doesn't know any Latin. The Pope gets frustrated and leaves.

What's the deal with airline peanuts?
The packaging is generally poorly designed and cheaply made, as a method of cutting distribution costs. After all, most passengers wouldn't want a "Peanut Fee" attached to their already costly ticket prices in order to cover the expenses of higher quality wrappers. What are you complaining about, anyway? It's free food, and it's a nice snack. If you're really that bent on not enjoying the peanuts the airline so graciously provided you with, just save them and give them to the next homeless person you see. People these days are really selfish.

A bear walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a beer. The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't give beer to bears in bars."

The bear replies, "I guess I will have a soda instead."

So the bear and the bartender talk over nonalcoholic drinks all night about the reality of inter-species communication.

I bloated this "blog" with all those "jokes" to create this "entry". Sorry, been busy lately but I'll have more time to update this thing after about 2 weeks. Wow man, 2 weeks already!

Thing of the day:

The Truck Have Started to Move!

2008-06-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm back from the dead! Like a zombie, roaming around the streets for brains. "Gimme yo brains foo!" is what I would say if I were a zombie. I'd then take out my right hand in an open palm and quickly clench it into a fist. I like that gesture. It's very Chong-Li like.

Now that I'm approaching 30, perhaps I should write my blogs as if I wasn't 10 years old. If I was single, my personals ad would look like this:

Ninja stud looking for a hot woman with a vagina and brains.

Then I'd have an animated gif of myself doing the gesture in the first paragraph. Yeah, that doesn't fly for a person of my age and supposed wisdom. I do have a lot of advice to give though, and it's one of the things I look forward to most in life: teaching my kids about the wonders (and horrors) of the world. The funny thing is, what bothered me most growing up was how my dad would constantly be giving me advice. Even today he'll always find a way to sneak in a word of advice in any conversation.

Me: Hi Dad, Happy Father's Day!
Dad: The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.

Yeah, I'll probably be the same way too. Remind my kids everyday not to drive slow in the fast lane and that Wu-Tang Clan ain't nuttin' to futz with (hey, I have to teach them not to cuss too). In the future though, our cuss words will probably end up outdated and polite, while they use much harsher words like hebetudinous, obtuse, and doltish.

The wedding planning has been really exciting the past few days. Not only from the adrenaline rush of getting things done last minute, but picturing how much fun everyone is going to have really makes it all worth it. I've really come to appreciate just how much hard work goes into planning a wedding, especially with Belle working all those late nights. That reminds me, I have to give it up for Alden who invited me and Belle to his wedding last minute. I don't think we'd be able to do something like that but back then I didn't realize that something as simple as inviting someone extra to a wedding is a herculean task. Alden...you're the man, man.

That reminds me, the bachelor party my friends and family threw for me was frickin' awesome. I was really grateful that so many of them came out for me: Walter, Andre, Robert, Eric, Joesan, Ryan, Romeo, Martin, Jay, Joemama, Tommy, Jevon, Keno, JohnJohn, Jovan, Alden, Jeff, Mike, Mark, Daryl, Daryl 2, Aaron, Jimmy...and also Mina. Hope you guys all had a good time cuz for me that was one weekend I wish I could live over and over again.

The Lakers are bringing back memories of the Colts from when before they won the Super Bowl. So painful, yet you have to be there to support your team. Sure, they went out in a bad way but you can bet that I'll have their opening game marked on my calendar. Okay, I don't really have a calendar that I put marks on...instead I send myself emails so I don't forget. Who else does that?

Okay, back to coding for me.

Thing of the day:

Toying With Powerful Forces

2008-05-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

When I logged in to create this post there were cobwebs all over my screen. I guess that means I've been gone a while. Kingdoms have risen to power and fallen, new technologies have been discovered that change the way we live, and a new Portishead album came out since I last posted. I've been very busy with work lately, to the point where the old me who used to blog all the time is now just a distant memory. Times have changed, and I've been working so hard for so long now that I don't understand how I wasted time at work before. It's strange that when I accepted this job I didn't expect to ever become passionate about it. But now, I really care about my job.

I'm playing this lawyer game on the DS, called Phoenix Wright. Basically you listen to testimonies and you have to point out contradictions when witnesses testify. It's an awesome game with an excellent story and hilarious characters. What was I playing before? Oh yeah, that surgery game where I was a Doctor. What is it with these career-oriented games? Both of these games are presented anime-style and glorify these high profile careers that in reality are fairly routine. What would a game about my job be like?

Coming soon to the Nintendo DS...Ninja Programmer: Rise of the Midnight Coder! Play as Lou, cubicle office worker to build and deploy...EXTREME business applications!!! But watch out...SQL injection attacks and incompetent upper management will decrease your health quickly! Use your DS stylus to defend yourself using sound Object-Oriented practices and efficient server-side code! You'll face tough bosses such as the Database Administrator who doesn't like your SQL, the System Admin who refuses to grant you any rights, and end users who can't make up their mind! Oh yeah!!!! Buy this game now or to hell with you!

When I was little I used to do a lot of jigsaw puzzles. The one I remember most was a puzzle of a mansion that I put together with my cousins. I think I was still in elementary school. The crazy thing about this puzzle was that when we finished it, we were missing the last piece. All of us were bummed out and went to sleep. When we woke up the next day, the last piece was mysteriously placed in the right spot. Did someone want to steal the glory of putting on the last piece? Maybe, but the thing I remember most about the puzzle was the mansion itself. Back then, I was really close to my cousins and had a lot of good friends. If I had a million dollars, I would want to buy that mansion and let all of my cousins and friends live in it. That was my dream when I was little - to have all the people I cared for close to me in a giant house, because a lot of them lived far away and I didn't get to see them much.

It's funny that even today, that dream means something to me. As I get older I don't get to see my friends and family as much with a 9 hour job, 2 hour commute, a mortgage to pay, etc. If I had a million dollars right now of course I'd pay off all bills and invest the money for the future. But as I write this, I'm not so sure - I think I'd use that million dollars to take all my family and friends on a vacation where we could all just step aside from all of life's obligations for a bit and play some Mario Kart.

Thing of the day:

Consider Yourself a Hero...Again!

2008-04-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I saw two of the best movies ever: Big Trouble in Little China and Aliens. 21 years later they are still awesome, awesome movies. I made Belle watch part of them with me but she wasn't digging it as much as I was. Must be a guy thing. What kind of woman lists Commando, Bloodsport, Scarface, et. al as her list of favorite movies? Vasquez?

I beat Contra on 4 on Hard mode (which is insane) and my reward was this quote: "Consider yourself a hero." What did I think? BEST REWARD EVER! For those of you who don't know, that's the ending of the original Contra on the NES. For years it was a favorite quote of mine, so imagine the huge grin on my face when I saw it again 20 years later. Then that grin quickly turned into a frown once I started playing Mario Kart DS.

Why? Cuz they're cheaters! Especially Princess. And Yoshi...I have very little fanfare for Yoshi. My reward for being in first place for the entire race? A blue shell right near the finish line and I finish in 6th. Still, I really love the game. In fact, the Nintendo DS is quickly becoming one of my favorite videogame systems...ever. There are just so many good games to play, and you can take it all with you wherever you go!

When I lived in the dorms at UCI there was a pipe in the living room that I'd do pullups on every time I passed through. I wish my house had a pipe like that. Actually my house has something cooler: I have an area where I could install a fireman pole to slide down from the second floor to the first. If I want a workout I guess I could climb up it too. Though I'd have to remember to look every time I slide down in case Belle is pole dancing.

I watched Cloverfield over the weekend and even though everyone dies, it sounds like a really fun adventure to go through. Of course, it will need to incorporate the fun and campy feel of Big Trouble in Little China and I'd probably eliminate the whole "everyone dies" part. Only some people can die, and they die because either they were driving too slow in the fast lane or they were assholes to nice people. There would be a cool point in the movie where we're all scared so we circle around a fire underground and start singing Hulk Hogan's theme song. I watched a lot of scary movies when I was little and that's what I would do when I was scared. "I am a real American...fight for the rights of every man!"

I had a great weekend cuz the Lakers had a great weekend. If the Lakers lost both games it wouldn't have been so great. Why would I subject myself to that? Because we're sports fans and we're dumb. If we did all the "correct" things in life, we would be perfect beings with no need to do anything other that graze. REMEMBER THE COWS. Then again, I feel like a fat cow eating pizza and drinking beer while slouching on the couch to watch the game. No matter what we're destined to repeat the history of the cows. Gods of the past, please moo for us.

Thing of the day:

Let 'Em Know

2008-04-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

My favorite villain is Chong Li. I have only heard him spoke two lines in his entire life:

"Very good. But brick not hit back!" and "You break my record, now I break you, like I break your friend!"

but he is still the best. Chong Li is great because he can do whatever he wants and be awesome at the same time. When Chong Li picks up a chick at the bar he goes "You mad cute, mothafucka!" and her panties drop. One time Chong Li stepped on someone's poop in the sidewalk and he got so angry that the person who left his poop there died from hemorrhoids a hundred miles away. Why would a person poop on the sidewalk? He was homeless and had no bathroom to go to. All of the bathrooms at the gas stations were full because of the sudden increase in gas station urinal usage.

Last weekend we headed over to Jenn and Cesar's place for Jenn's birthday. What is best in life? "Beer, BBQ, sports, and friends." That's what Conan would say if he lived in modern times. The whole "hear the lamentations of their women" got kinda old a few decades ago. One habit I never seemed to have gotten rid of was playing videogames at parties. I don't know why, but ever since I was born I've always had a blast playing videogames at parties, from Atari to the Wii. I got caught up playing Super Smash Bros. and if you come visit us, the first thing I'll do is ask you if you want to play Rock Band.

The other thing I used to do at family parties was play basketball, football, or just anything active. That's uncool to do now at this age though, when sports become delegated to leagues and how cool you are is determined by how little you move. I think the last time we did something active at a family party was when we went camping 2 years ago up north and had an all-out water balloon war. Hmmm...scratch what I said in my last blog...I have 28 year old responsibilities with a 21 year old mind and a 10 year old idea of what fun is. Since not a lot of you watched Beat Street, that's like the JabbaWockeez, Kaba Modern, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company battling it out.

Short blog this week due to my 28 year old responsibilities, though even if I was 10 years old it would still be a short blog cuz I'd want to go outside and play already.

Thing of the day...who knows who this is?

A Colon in Every Paragraph

2008-03-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

My new adventure: I'm on a quest to blog more often. Last week I watched the XTerra championships on TV. Now THAT is something I'd like to try. Unfortunately for me, I hurt my back and now I can barely put on my shoes. I guess this officially means I'm old. That's just my body though...my mind still feels like it's 21, yet I have 28 year old responsibilities. How does that work out for me? I picture my mind as a dance floor back in 1984 with the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew battling it out. Who wins? Everybody wins cuz man, that battle was awesome.

Contra 4 update: I beat it! I've found that the most useful combination of weapons are the spread gun and machine gun. The hunter missles make the 3-d stages really easy and sometimes the laser or crush missles can be more powerful on some bosses. I haven't found any good uses for the flamethrower yet. Are you supposed to care about this? No, but you really should play Contra 4, and in that case, yes you should care cuz it rocks!

I'm playing Trauma Center: Under the Knife on the DS now. Basically it's a game where you're a surgeon and you use the DS stylus to do cool things like removing tumors and using medical lazer beams. Sure, the first patient I worked on died from excessive and unnecessary incisions but when you play it seriously it gets pretty intense. Now why would I want to put myself under more stress after a hard day's work? I don't know...it's a different kind of stress, where even though you keep failing you just feel compelled to keep on going. The bad kind of stress is watching the Lakers and the Warriors games the past few days...that's the kind where sometimes I'll just leave the room and do something more relaxing. Too many games like this and I'll probably need to use that stylus on myself.

More hijinks at the bathroom at work: I'm pissing at a urinal and there's another guy taking a dump in the stalls. He finishes before me but...instead of proceeding to wash his hands he takes the urinal next to me and starts pissing. Does he not know that it's okay to pee while you're taking a dump? It doesn't make you less manly, just more efficient. Maybe he comes from a strictly literal tradition where urine can only go into the urinal and poo must go into the toilet...err pooinal. If you're in someone's house who doesn't have a urinal...tough luck - go look for a gas station. Also, the fact that he took the urinal closest to me instead of the one farthest from me raises some issues. Issues such as "this is the wrong kind of cologne I'm wearing."

A list of foods I eat every day no matter what:
- protein shake
- apple
- oatmeal
- cottage cheese
- fish oil
- mixed nuts
- Everything else varies day to day, and some foods come and go. Because of all the beer we have leftover I'm drinking one with my dinner every day too. In my perfect world, we wouldn't need to eat. We'd take this injection when we were born which is basically a supersonic bionic plankton that provides all the nutrients we'll ever need and reproduces at a rate where we'll never be hungry again. I know that a lot of people enjoy eating but I think that time is better spent doing other things like hustlin' and frontin'.

Thing of the day (because of all the Rock Band I've been playing recently):

Purveyor of Fine Words

2008-03-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

Last week I was out sick...for the entire week! I haven't been bedridden for that long since I was a kid. It was the bad kind of bedridden where I couldn't even sleep cuz I was coughing so much. The good kind of bedridden is when you're high on prescription medication and you spend your day sleeping in and out of reality while watching TV and playing videogames in between. And I guess there's a third level of "bedridden" where you're being ridden while in bed. That's not too bad either.

In one of Joemama's blogs he wrote about a huge hairy spider he had to kill. We see those spiders in our house too, and I saw another one last weekend. Looking at it more closely and comparing it to spider-related websites, I'm pretty sure it's a wolf spider. Heh, on one of those websites it had pictures of all these spiders, and one of the spiders move. Probably not a good idea to visit that site if you're arachnophobic and you don't want a broken computer monitor.

More strange tales from my strange bathroom at work: In the stalls at my work you can see the person's feet if the stall is occupied. With people sitting down taking a crap you usually expect to see pants at the ankles. Not at my work...this dude had his pants flooded up to his calves! What the heck was he doing? It looked like he had flooding pants and sat down without removing them. Perhaps he has one of those old skool pants with the poo door in the back. People do weird things when they think they're alone I guess. For example, sometimes I do the robot while taking a crap. If anybody me doing saw that, it would be a pretty big wtf for them. That reminds me, my poos have been phenomenal lately. Nice clean logs with virtually no wiping. Life is great.

If anyone has a Nintendo DS, please get Contra 4 so I have someone to beat it with! That game is freakin' hard. Some of my best memories of videogames come from playing 2-player Contra. It's one of the manliest video games you'll play next to Tecmo Bowl. I remember when I started playing it, I still couldn't beat it even with the 30 lives trick. Hundreds of plays later, I could beat the game with 1 man. I love games like this that challenge you but not in a cheap way. Once you get better at it, you laugh at how much you suck when you started. Ninja Gaiden, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Mega Man all seemed impossible when I first started.

I just got Rock Band for the X-Box and after being able to play guitar on expert, it's humbling having to do the drums on easy and barely pass a song. Fun game though. If anyone's in the mood to rock out, come over! We need a singer.

I also started playing Final Fantasy 3 on the DS and it definitely reminds me of the old Final Fantasies. The only problem is, it's kinda boring. I just don't have the patience for that kind of adventure anymore. I still crave adventure though, yet I'm not sure what kind. I have some abstract idea of what an awesome adventure today would be like, and it still shares a lot of the qualities of Final Fantasy games, the Goonies, Indiana Jones, and the Lord of the Rings books. Yet, when I revisit those media they're boring to me now. That was one of my biggest fears growing up...losing that feeling of experiencing an awesome adventure. Maybe that's why I love training for triathlons...trail runs, long bike rides, and swimming in the ocean definitely make me feel like I've went on an adventure, and these truly are adventures compared to playing some videogame or sitting at home watching TV or reading a book. Since we treasure our happy memories much more after they occurred, maybe I just have to learn to let go.

Thing of the day:

The Machine!

2008-02-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

The weirdest thing happened in the bathroom at work today. This dude walked in with a cup of coffee in his hand. He went straight to one of the urinals and emptied out the contents of his cup and flushed it down. Then he dropped the empty cup in the trash can and made his way out. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a mystery here. Possible solutions:

1) He hates Starbucks coffee with a passion. The new intern didn't know this and got him Starbucks coffee.
2) Someone peed in his coffee. Probably the intern.
3) Since I was the only one in the bathroom at that time, he was trying to tell me with theatrical symbolism that coffee tastes like piss and I shouldn't drink coffee. Only, I wasn't the intended audience so he went back to Starbucks to buy another cup hoping that next time he walks in the bathroom the intern is there.

When I was a kid, I really loved mysteries. Shows like Scooby Doo and Ghostwriter, Encyclopedia Brown and Boxcar Children books, Carmen San Diego...they all stir up great memories. I was never really good at solving mysteries, but I really loved that feeling when nothing makes sense so you and your band of lackeys need to figure out what's going on. I always wished that something like that would happen in real life. Like on one of our Tahoe trips someone finds a secret passageway in the cabin and it leads to some crazy adventure. No one can die though, unless it was someone we didn't really care for cuz that would ruin the fantasy. Well something like that hasn't really happened to me yet, but I still have hope.

That's why Lost is such a good TV show. It brings out out inner cravings for mystery and delivers it on the screen like Arnold Schwarzenegger delivering justice in Commando. In the future, they should invent a suppository that when taken, it makes you forget about a TV show so that you can watch it all over again as if it's the first time you watched it. This can applied to all media like movies, books, and relationships. Then an offshoot of that product can be another suppository that when taken, allows you to experience something as if it was the year it came out. For example, if you play Final Fantasy VI today, it would be a crappy experience even if it's your first time playing the game. But if you play that game in 1995 then it will blow your mind.

Speaking of Lost, I thought last night's episode was one of the best ever. If you're going to waste your time on TV, better to waste it on quality TV. I just started watching Dexter and like Lost, it's one of those shows that hooks you from the start. Shows like Battlestar Galactica and Deadwood are also really good, but at least for me it took time to really appreciate them.

This made me laugh: the lyrics to Darude - Sandstorm

On the way to work this morning I was playing Contra 4 on the DS and holy crap it is one of the most ass-kicking games I have ever played, especially if you are a fan of the old Contras. You know something is good when you have to resist the urge to jump up in the air and pump your fist. Well, at least that's my gesture when something awesome happens, from Magic's baby hook up to Tyree's helmet catch. Some people prefer to yell or do a golf clap. When I get older, I hope they have jetpacks in the future so instead of merely jumping up in the air and pumping my fist, I can fly into outer space and hi-five someone on the moon.

Thing of the day:

Afrika Boombaataa

2008-02-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

Mondays (or Tuesdays if I have Monday off) are always the laziest days for me. Fridays are the worst days (now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay) cuz there's always something big that needs to get done before the weekend. It's the greatest feeling in the world to get all your work done on Friday with the weekend to look forward to. Stepping through those doors to go home is like finishing a college final or going home from a dentist appointment you've been dreading all week. It just doesn't have the same effect when you get all this work done on Monday then you have to go back to work the next day and do even more work.

Why does milk and bread have to expire so quickly? Maybe I just buy them at the wrong time. I need to figure out the milk and bread delivering days and buy them fresh off the truck. My milk and bread always expires before I get to finish them. Technically I could just drink my milk after the expiration date and eventually gain an immunity to expired milk, though the first few months would be hell. It would probably just be easier to get my own cow, cuz it would provide fresh milk straight off the teat and I could ask it stories about the good old days when mooing was the dominant language of the cow empire.

If I owned a cow I would name it "Moose."

I am the worst person in the world when it comes to remembering birthdays. Well, the guy in Memento has a better case but I come pretty close. I think friends should skip birthdays and instead celebrate days something significant that happened between them. You weren't there when your friend was born, unless you have extremely young friends. What about that time you had a really bad day then something your friend did changed the course of your life? That should be celebrated more than a birthday. We only celebrate birthdays because it's a convenient date. If I ruled the world, no one would care when you were born except your parents. Instead of 1 celebration for you every year, you can have over 50 of them, especially if you made that much of an impact on other people's lives.

Another case where my career finds its way into daily life - usability. Because I make a living creating applications that shouldn't require a manual to learn how to use it, I get upset when I have to use something with a bad interface. For example, Yahoo Mail. That shit is slow as fuck, and fuck is slow as hell. When I log in, it takes forever before I can actually click on anything. Or when I'm using a cellphone and they put the feature I'm looking for in the most non-obvious place. Surely there must be some valid reason why they went with that decision, but some of these decisions are so dumb that I'd be embarrassed if it was my product. I guess that's why a public job is a good fit for me. I don't know if I could handle marketing decisions at a private company and short-changing the users because we have to get it out there before our competitors. If I don't like using it myself, then I wouldn't want my name on it.

I think "boomba" is one of the funniest words I know.

Thing of the day:

Olivia Munn in a Hawaii Chair

2008-02-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, so "next week" turned into "next month." These days there's always something that needs to be done, and unfortunately blogging isn't that high on the list. I remember I posted about an invention that would extract your thoughts and put them into text. More than ever do we need this, not just for blogging purposes but imagine the possibilities in the fields of interrogation, recruitment, and most importantly romance. Does she love me or not? Finally you can get a definite answer and it would render all romantic movies obsolete.

Harry: "Oh, so that's what you're thinking!"
Sally: "Yeah..."

I also posted about the Eloi, and an interesting thought came up while riding the bus yesterday. What if cows once dominated society and their current lethargic nature is due to having solved all possible problems? Can you imagine grand cow kingdoms in 500k BC with flying cow cars where every cow is a capable and polite driver? Then as years gone by there was nothing left for them to accomplish so they just grazed all day. Wow, that's deep. Next time you go cow tipping be aware that they were once prominent members of a dominating empire.

Am I the only one watching the new Terminator TV show? I'm a big Terminator fan so to me it's pretty exciting, especially after hearing the rumor that Christian Bale may play John Connor in Terminator 4. Sarah Connor still needs to rediscover her bad-assedness from T2 but putting that dude in a minefield is a good start. In my opinion their cause is noble but futile. Machines will be a big part of our future no matter what...they are just more efficient at things than humans will ever be. Though I don't think they will completely take over cuz Cylons can't mate. I forsee a future where we replace our aging bodies with mechanical parts that enable us to mate at ten times the normal rate.

There is a classification of music called IDM, which stands for Intelligent Dance Music. What does that mean? If your dance music isn't labeled IDM, that means it's Dumb Dance Music. Either that or IDM is considered the middle ground and you are listening to GDM (Genius Dance Music). What does GDM sound like? It's so complex that your body is unable to comprehend the notion of rhythm and instead feeds to your brain a series of signals that stimulate your mind to the point where your spiritual aura is physically dancing on its own. An example of GDM? Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up.

There's this game I keep forgetting to mention called Ninja Warriors Again. It was on the Super Nintendo many years ago, but I still play this game more than any other. Basically, you play a robot ninja (which is all you really need to hear) and your character is so powerful that by the end of the game you single-handedly destroy an entire country with your bare hand and numbchucks. In the beginning you'll probably laugh at how easy it is to toss legions of people around like rag dolls but it gets pretty tough later on. The game is incredibly fun but no one's really heard of it so it's my duty spread the word and get people in on the experience!

Was it great seeing the Patriots lose or what? They've always caught all the lucky breaks so it was extremely satisfying to see it go the other way. I'm not a New York fan by any means but watching that performance by the D-line was very satisfying. How do you know if someone is a real football fan? If they thought the first three quarters of the Super Bowl were boring and the end of the 4th quarter was the only exciting part. This was the only game all year where Tom Brady actually looked human. Sure, he didn't score a lot of points but that's exactly why it was exciting...cuz it never happened all season! Congrats to that D-line, even though Eli won the MVP (justified from that last drive) in my eyes it was that line that won the game.

It's waaay past its lifecycle but I'm starting to use my 6 year old laptop again. I installed Linux on it and it runs great. BTW - if you have an old PCMCIA or USB wireless network card let me know and I'll buy it off you. The funny thing is, I tried to break this laptop several times and it's still going strong. I already had to replace the video card and power supply on my 3 year old desktop but even when trying to break the laptop I didn't have to replace anything on it. When I buy my next laptop it will probably be an HP again, just on the strength of how good this one is.

Even though they lost last night, it's a great time to be a Lakers fan.

Thing of the day:

Telepathy Check

2008-01-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

My blogging activity follows a graph that depicts the law of diminishing returns. I'm a highly visual person so I like to look at things in terms of graphs, charts, and boobs. Even things that are probably better explained in plain text such as what I did yesterday or what I thought of the last 3 movies I watched are visualized in my head as a series of line graphs, bar charts, and nipples. I was never really a big fan of math back in school and it wasn't until well after I graduated did I realize just how powerful math is. In Final Fantasy speak, math has as much HP as Ruby and Emerald Weapon combined. But there's a big learning curve in understanding all that power. What does this curve look like, graphically? I have no idea.

What did you guys think of the new American Gladiators? I know, I won't hear you answer that question unless one of us has telepathy, but I'm just throwing it out there in case any of you do. Well I thought the new version failed big time. In fact, I thought it was done so poorly that I started to enjoy it. Like Koya's epic collapse on the travelator. The camera work and editing sucks, there's too much talking going on, not enough action, and the play-by-play guy is probably the boom goes the dynamite guy. Hopefully they fixed things up in the second season. They need to treat this like a sporting event, not a reality show.

Yeah, I haven't really kept my motto of blog or die. You know, every time I hear the word "motto" it reminds me of AZ's verse on Life's a Bitch:

"I switched my motto -- instead of sayin fuck tommorrow
That buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto"

Something I always mention to Belle is how the music we listen to has no correlation whatsoever to our own lives. Back in high school, "Juicy" by Biggy was one of my favorite songs. WTF? I wasn't black. I had no idea what it was like growing up in Bed Stuy. Same thing with the Chronic album, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang, Tribe Called Quest, etc. It had no relation to my suburban life whatsoever, even if I try to force the issue by saying that the message in Bring the Noise hits me personally cuz it's like when teachers (the white man) make do all that homework when all I want to do is let myself be heard and bang on my Casio keyboard (hip-hop).

But then what else were we going to listen to? That's why I can't make fun of the kids today who listen to all that junk on the radio. That was me! Even today I'll be bumping Mobb Deep on my way to the grocery store. Living your life ashamed of your pleasures is not living life at all. Do what makes you feel awesome. Yeah I'm listening to NWA. Until a group of black guys pull up next to me. Then it's time to lower the volume a bit.

Speaking of music, there's this new group I like called Black Kids. No joke. Listen to their EP.

You ever realize how much your career affects your personality? As a programmer analyst, we make a living taking something that does not have a well-defined set of rules (like engineering does) and try to make it into a product with a well-defined set of rules. That means when communicating with someone you have to try and be as mathematical as possible or your project will fail. When Belle says something like "that dude over there," my analyst side will kick in and ask her to be more descriptive, even though I already know exactly who she's talking about. So I tend to ask a lot of questions that are unnecessary in real life but is required behavior in order to succeed at my career. Stupid work.

I wrote about this before but hey, don't I do that with every post? I do the same thing to Belle in real life too - I'll tell her about some observation I just made then a few days later state the same observation as if I just observed it right now. I guess you can say that consistency is one of my finer traits. If I was a running back and you needed 1 yard, I'll get you 3. If you need 5 yards, I'll get you 3. Well, the thing I wrote before is how pointless I think censoring one letter of a bad word is. For example, F_ck. Oh no, what vowel could possibly fit there? Unless you suck at Wheel of Fortune, you're not censoring anything. A 2 year old knows what word you're implying, so if you want to be polite just use something like "doggone it." Then again, the word "Fock" makes me laugh. Hahaha...what a funny word. Also the word "wat." Oh language, you slay me.

Okay, let's try something different this time. This time, I'm gonna try NOT to blog. See you next week.

illegal ninja move of the day:

Blog or Die

2007-12-12T09:14:00.000-08:00

It was the "____ or die" mentality that got me blogging again, which I personally feel should be an everyday motto against our hopeless battle against procrastination:

Run or die.
Vote or die.
Eat well or die.
Make sure you don't step on a crack or you'll break yo momma's back and she'll die.

Nah, I've just been busy at work. EXTREMELY busy. If I could represent how busy I've been the past few days at work as a pie chart, it would look like Pac-Man, with the yellow areas representing "Busy" and Pac-Man's mouth representing "Not Busy". Those times when I'm not busy, ironically enough - are spent eating.

I've been having a lot of fun at work though despite all the stress and deadlines. Work is supposed to be stressful and challenging; otherwise we'd all become Eloi. Elois are a species of human from the future. Having solved all problems which required strength, intelligence or virtue, they became frail little animals with no motivation or ambition...they just live for pleasure. Sounds great but well, they were eaten by the people who actually worked. Sort of like how we treat cattle. You don't want to be eaten, do you? Thus, work or die.

That view of the future was taken from H.G. Well's The Time Machine, which is a cool book in my book. Yes, I have a book...and it contains other books. Sort of like the Astrotrain of books. In the original Transformers movie, Astrotrain was a Transformer that could hold other Transformers inside of him. The physics of how that worked must've been mind-boggling, especially since Astrotrain was the same size as the other Transformers. My book? It has Harry Potter magic.

I don't have a firm grasp of the Harry Potter universe so to me, Expeluranus solves everything. Sometimes I wonder if people my age were just as influenced from all the entertainment media we were exposed to when growing up. For example, I think I am special. I think I have a special purpose in life which will be revealed to me in stunning fashion. Maybe I'm the lost child of powerful wizards or maybe I'm the last descendant of a clan of legendary ninjas. One day I will discover my true heritage and conquer Gargamel once and for all! Dammit...I'm almost 30 years old.

Christmas has been pretty good so far. To me, Christmas is a month-long holiday full of wonder and delight...18 years ago! Now it's just a bunch of shopping for presents for a growing number of kids that they're probably not gonna use. It's a season full of bad drivers, constant rush, and bone-boggling stress. Maybe God created this "holiday season" to prevent us from becoming Eloi? Also, I don't think stress pairs well with "bone-boggling". How can we make Christmas as fun as it was when we were kids? Well, we can't. But we have something better...we can be the reason why a child will have great memories of Christmas. Errr...I mean we can have sex.

So we went to an American Gladiators taping last weekend and it was all kinds of ass...badass, kickass, Jessica Alba's ass. I can't wait to see what it all looks like on TV. I can already tell that "Crush" is gonna be a fan favorite. The set itself was impressive, and at least for the guys, you start to feel sorry for the contestants cuz the Gladiators are so much more intimidating. I mean, the guys got worked in the Gauntlet! It's like sending out a kid to the NFL to run up the gut against against a hard-hitting defense. I hope the Eliminator is something like a course from Ninja Warrior. I can't wait until these shows eventually get to the level of The Running Man.

Okay, back to work for me. Well...right after I finish this Colts article.

Thing of the day:

Figure Four Leg Lock

2007-11-13T00:05:00.000-08:00

I think this is the longest break I've taken between posts in this blog. I've just been stressed out lately, and I don't deal with stress by telling people about it...instead I play videogames or go outside and do some kind of activity. I deal with stress that way since it reminds me of when I was a kid and the most stressed out I could possibly be back then was to miss the ice cream truck. Otherwise I'm either playing outside or leveling up.

So yeah, I've been playing Guitar Hero 3 a lot and hitting the gym. Started watching a new anime and put some new music in my ipod too. I think I'll hit up the library some time this week and get some reading material. I haven't read a good book in years. It would be nice to put that train commute time to good use, and maybe even help my vocabulary. Heh, as a kid I always thought that when I got older I'd be using big words and using simple words in clever arrangements; poor kid..."poo poo" is still a staple of my vocabulary and the most clever way I could use it is to combine it with the word "head."

Colts....ouch. Ouch. Yeah...hurts to talk about it.

It's funny how they seem to make everything "no touch" in public bathrooms yet every person who enters and exits still has to touch the doorknob. All that handwashing you just did just went to waste as soon as the guy before you (who "forgot" to wash his hands) opened the door to get out. Public toilet seats are outdated anyways...instead of having an automatic flusher why don't they just have a foot pedal on the floor? Those automatic flushers never work anyways...and a foot pedal would be an awesome way to waste water while you sit on porcelain Recaro and race the guy in the stall next to you.

American Gladiators is coming back! I don't know if any of you still watch it on ESPN Classic but that show is still 5 kinds of awesome:

Awesome #1: Malibu getting rocked
Awesome #2: Early 90's hairstyles
Awesome #3: Contenders getting knocked up in powerball
Awesome #4: "You know what they say...you get too close to the sun and you might get burned..." - Sunny
Awesome #5: Nitro being a prick to everyone

We got tickets to watch the new version coming out next month in the studio...it'll be interesting to see how they changed it. The cool thing about Ninja Warrior was how it felt like the contestants were in a videogame. Some of the great games like Halo and Contra are awesome because not only is it entertaining to watch someone beat the game with just 1 life, but the endless ways you can get killed are a nice humorous touch. They should incorporate that into American Gladiators somehow...like change the Assault to something you'd see in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando.

I don't know how many of you use Firefox as their browser, but the cool thing I like is the auto-complete part when you try to Google something on the top-right. It gives you a peek at what some of the common searches people do. For example, press Ctrl-K then type in "Olivia Munn." Here are some of the things you'll see:

olivia munns blouse
olivia munns blouse popping open
olivia munns breasts
olivia munn's feet
olivia munns boyfriend

What a civilized world we live in. Hmmm...but now I'm curious what Olivia Munn's feet look like. I wonder if I could add to that list of common searches if I do it enough times?

olivia munns toejam

So I officially submitted my application to an IT management-type position here at work. I think it's time for me to get away from programming...especially since it just doesn't seem to be my natural talent. I remember how hard it was for me to "get" data structures and algorithms. All those math classes I had to take really tough too. Sure, I did well...but I really had to study a lot to get it down. Now that I've been in the industry for a while, I wouldn't mind remaining a programmer for the rest of my life, it's just that I want to see for myself if there something out there that I'm better at. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure is to go out there and do it.

One thing that gets to me is how we have to make all of the important career decisions of our life before we're ready to make them. How do we know what college major we want unless we actually take a few classes? Are we really expected to heavily research this as immature high school students? How do we know if we'll like the job until we work there for a few weeks? In interviews they should give you the option of "pretending" to work there for a few days so you get a feel for what everything is like. Meet your potential coworkers, get used to your daily life. I don't know...it just seems to save everyone more time. Then again, it could actually cost people more time in some cases. I don't know...somehow I just feel like only recently did I know what I want to do with my life. It was just coincidence that everything turned out fine.

Oh well. I'll probably be saying the same thing about today's decisions a few years from now.

Thing of the day:

Business Time!

2007-10-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

Been busy again at work. "Business time!" is a phrase used by Fuyutsuki-sensei in the Japanese TV series Great Teach Onizuka. Yes, you should probably watch that show. Fuyutsuki-sensei is hot.

Phrases that never made sense to me:

"Don't you know?" - When you un-contract it, it becomes "do not you know?"

"You don't want none of this!" - This linguistics professor was lecturing the class. "In English," he explained, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However," the professor continued, "there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative." Immediately, a voice from the back of the room piped up: "Yeah..... right...."

"I need to take a shit!" - The only person I've known to ever take a shit was when my uncle had to take my brother's shit out of the toilet cuz it wouldn't flush.

"I could care less." - Or is it, "I couldn't care less?" It's like flammable and inflammable.

"Hadoken!" - The idea of people shouting out the names of their moves in general doesn't make sense to me. Imagine someone in real life saying "Straight right! Uppercut! Roundhouse! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!" in a fight. Then again, imagine watching Naruto and these ninjas are doing all this cool stuff but you have no idea what it is. They're just fighting all silently like real ninjas. That wouldn't be fun...cuz everyone would have their own names for the moves and people would be confused when they talk to each other about it. "Did you see last week's episode? That was pretty hot when Kakashi was totally giving Deidara the eye."

Public transportation is a part of my everyday life. I often wonder what criteria people use when selecting their seats. If there are 3 seats on a bus available...one next to a black guy wearing a t-shirt with an ironic slogan, the other with a mexican guy with a beard and a poncho wearing an expensive Yves St. Laurent cologne, and the last a hot girl on her cellphone speaking louder than a bear horn and coughing and sneezing incessantly, which seat do you choose? Would you sit next to a monkey?

Me and Belle were wondering today, which musicians out there have really depressing lyrics yet the overall melody of the song is happy and upbeat? I want to put that all into a CD and name it "Do You See the Irony In This???!!!?!?!???!??!" like the Roots. If I want to be happy I can just hum the melody and ignore the lyrics. If I've been feeling a little too happy lately and needed a bit of depression in my life, I can listen closely to the lyrics and think over the events of my life that make these lyrics relevant. It would work on exactly 2 levels.

My lower back's been hurting lately so I haven't been working out for the past 2 weeks. I'm gonna try running this weekend and see how it feels. But I've been enjoying the lazy time so maybe not. I'll get Dr. Romeo's advice on how to help it heal faster. I guess this is what it feels like to be old and unable to go outside and do stuff. Hopefully I'll still be able to play videogames then. Or videogames have evolved to the point of becoming virtual experiences, like in Total Recall.

What type of virtual experience would I like to have? I don't know...something equivalent to childhood happiness. I don't know what it was back then that made us so happy...because there were also equivalent sad times? Maybe because we've gotten so used to the feeling? In any case, I'm approaching 30 and those times are long gone. But that doesn't mean they can't be replaced by better times.

Thing of the day (scroll down):

Very Good....But Brick Not Hit Back!

2007-10-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of favorite things (which I listed before on another post), but have gained more (or forgot to list some of them) since the last time I posted the list...here are a few:

Favorite Bible passage: And God said unto him, "There shall be no slow chariots in the fast lane."

Favorite school supplies: lead pencils, click erasers, and folders with cool designs.

Favorite chorus in a song:
I am a Ninja, and I Rock!
People know me more than than David Hasselhoff
I train in the mountains like in Rocky IV
Even though I like slow jams I'm still hardcore
People talk about me in legends and stories
One of my favorite Lakers was Robert Horry

Favorite chapstick: Chapstick

Favorite kleenex: Kleenex

Favorite black person: Marvin Harrison

Favorite allusion: Veronica Mars constantly referencing The Big Lebowski.

Favorite Arnold moment: In T2 when he climbed up to the windshield of the semi and unloaded a full clip right in the T-1000's face.

Favorite random thing to say out of the blue: "Mortal Kombat!!!!!!!!"

Favorite snowboarding trip: all of them

Favorite Colts game: either the Tampa Bay comeback or last year's AFC championship game.

Favorite type of love: Computer Love

Favorite fire: Yoga Fire

Favorite cheese: cottage

Favorite sex scene in a movie: In Showdown in Little Tokyo where the guy starts feeling up on this topless big-boobed girl from behind (I don't even think he took of his pants), then all of a sudden he chops off her head with a katana! It was such a WTF moment...I gotta see that movie again sometime.

Favorite heroes: Miller and Boyett. They are responsible for the teaching me the valuable lessons in life that have shaped me into the upstanding citizen I am today.

Favorite planet: Jupiter

Favorite song to play on Guitar Hero: Jessica on Expert

Favorite Married With Children episode: the grocery one

Favorite ocean: Pacific

Favorite mountain: Magic Mountain

Favorite team: The A-Team

Thing of the day:

Like a Box of Positives pt. II

2007-09-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

What makes the biggest impact on me emotionally...is how things change over time. Like if I run into something that reminds me about the past, it makes me feel great. Stories that span through eras and reading about how far the characters have gone are the ones that stick in my head. I'm getting older now, and pretty soon I'll be forgetting a lot of great times. I have already forgotten a few, but when reading through this blog in the future, I hope I'll remember some of the things that got me where I am. No matter where I end up, I want to be able to go back to this entry and remember that I had a lot of great things happen in my life.

- When Belle went with me to the Save Ferris concert.
- All those summers I spent with my cousins from up north. The best one was when we stayed in Vallejo for a month and our relatives from Canada came over. I remember crying when those summer ended and everyone went home.
- When me and my brother were little kids in Carson.
- Those weekends when Robert would come over while my dad and his dad would play tennis and hang out. The funniest was when we were lip-synching to Hi-Five. Too bad I don't have that footage for my wedding slideshow.
- All of our Pat and Pong camping trips and parties.
- Moving into Cerritos and going outside to play with Neil, Nisha, Roger, Michael (RIP), Eldrid, and Nicole. There were a lot of fun kids in that neighborhood...we would have those fun block vs. block competitions, playing basketball or football at the park, stealing stuff from the liquor store, burning everything, riding our bikes around everywhere, etc.
- Playing basketball. I loved basketball so much back then, especially in Jr. High.
- Looking at old photos albums whenever I was down.
- Everything I did with my breakdancing crew (Visual Funkadelik Movement) and all of the other crews we hung out with. I almost died twice and for some reason I was known as that breakdancing guy among my orange county friends.
- All of the high school dances I went to.
- AP Biology with Mr. Seko. The most fun I've ever had in a class. A close second was when I took Spanish at LBCC in the summer.
- Our tennis team. Sure, we weren't that good but all the good times we had were so fun. I was team captain, and I hope karma took care of whoever stole my racket.
- Chasing girls with the Jodeci guys (Ian, Mariano, John). I never caught a girl myself, because she was waiting for me at UCI.
- Being on the phone with Sandy.
- Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, etc.
- Bahia. That was one of the hardest things in my life to let go. Life was so great there that I still miss it dearly to this day.
- Watching Rocky IV and working out.
- The Iron Bark parties. I only went to a few but the few that I did go to are probably what I'll be telling my kids what our parties were like back then.
- Those times I spent driving in the car and I get lost in the music.
- Coming home to my parents and lola every weekend at UCI. I love my family.
- My last year of PCN. I had such a huge crush on Belle that when we finally got together I felt like I had everything I could ever want.
- The year I went bodyboarding all summer and snowboarding all winter.
- All of our MLK snowboarding trips. I look forward to it every single year.
- That time I planned out a camping trip at Silver Lake and it turned out well. I think that was the last big time we were all together.
- All the traveling me and Belle did together, and the friends that went with us (Ryan, Joemama, Jeff, Sherwin, Cat).
- When we finally got the house.
- Watching my brother graduate from UCSD. Then when he graduated from LBPD. I'm so proud of him.
- Training for the LA Triathlon and all the other runs. It's the journey, not the destination.
- All of the weddings we attended this year.
- My 28th birthday.
- Heroes nights and just hanging out with the Ternberry crew.
- When she said yes.

I feel like I'm missing so much...

Thing of the day:

Polite Door-Holding Distances

2007-09-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

I'm almost 2 weeks late, but I wanted to thank everyone for surprising the crap out of me on my birthday. One of the best birthdays ever out of many great ones. I really appreciated the text messages too. I mean really - I saved them so that anytime I get sad I could just look at your text messages and suddenly feel awesome. True story. A lot of times I feel like I want to do more for my friends to show them how much I really care about them, but that would be pretty gay. As long as we can keep drinking together (which ironically shortens our lives) then just know that this shot I'm taking here with you is a symbol of our love and friendship.

Sometimes I can't even tell myself if I'm being serious or not. So this Saturday is the Nike Run Hit Remix which I'm totally not prepared for. These shin splints I'm feeling are an indication of how much I tried to cram my training. Oh well...if you're doing that run and not stopping by to enjoy the little concerts, then you might as well just run at home. I think the winner of the race should be the one finishes last, since that person is the one who sat back and enjoyed the music the most. Since everyone will just sit there, head bobs will count for bonus points. How many times can you bob your head in a minute?

Me and Belle started watching Veronica Mars again this past week. Holy crap did kids really drink that much in high school? How do they come out alive? I imagine my days would have been a lot different if alcohol was that much involved. Then again, they do portray high school kids as much smarter than we really were. I don't even have to reminisce and I am fairly certain I was as dumb as a rock. The scary thing was that I was in the top 12 of a class of over 300. If everyone was as witty as Veronica Mars though - that's not so scary. But yeah, watch that show...it's better than what you're watching now...unless you're watching football.

Yay football is back. The first few weeks I pretty much watch every game I can no matter who is playing, and that's exactly what I did last Sunday. Then as we find out who really sucks I watch less and less, and usually just keep myself up-to-date by reading a bunch of football columns. Who is gonna be the surprise team this year? I hope it's the 49ers. A lot of my friends (including my brother) are fans and they cheered with me last year on the Colts championship run so this year I'll cheer for them too. I really like how Nolan wants to wear suits during games. Just recently I've started to gain an appreciation for them. In fact, I want to start wearing them to work.

The past few weeks I've been meeting with a lot with management and my cheap Gap khakis and ill-fitting Old Navy button-up just isn't cutting it. From now on, all of my dress shirts will be made-to-measure or bespoke. My pants will be the correct length and rise and made of fine fabrics. Suits will also be bespoke with attention to detail and construction. Shoes will be of at least Allen-Edmonds quality. How am I gonna pay for all of this? Well if I do things right, I should have a respectable wardrobe along the lines of what someone would typically spend at the mall for the quality I'm wearing now. It's all about buying at the right place at the right time.

Help me Obi Wan....I'm growing old!

Thing of the day:

I Gots'ta Have It

2007-08-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've been talking too much about work lately. Who cares about work man. Sure, we spend most of our lifetime working (at least the real people do) but that doesn't mean we have to talk about it. We should talk about things that don't make sense, and in that way, we can come to a better understanding of our world. For example, the very concept of watermelon doesn't make sense. I mean, they're red on the inside and green on the outside...and they taste really nice. They have this cool texture too and may or may not have seeds. What the hell? And you know that stereotype about watermelon and brack people? I didn't get that until after I graduated college. And the word "got"....it just looks weird. I mean, look at it!

So they're remaking Halloween. The movie, not the holiday. I can't imagine what they could remake the holiday into....but if they do I hope it's a holiday where we get the day off work. Or a holiday where everyone still dresses up, but they have to fight each other until someone gets lightning-bolted to death. Imagine if you could throw real lightning bolts at people. What would you do? You could open up a whole new genre of porn called lightning sex and make tons of money. Ask yourself, "would you pay to see lightning sex?" Wouldn't you want to know what happens to the areola if you throw a lightning bolt at the nipple?

Ask the dude in Big Trouble in Little China. But back to Halloween...I used to be scared by that Michael Meyers dude back in elementary school. I mean you could run the dude over, unload a full machine gun clip at the dude but he'll be back no matter what. The only positive outcome from being chased by him is that you get a cool death and your body will have a nice cameo later on in the movie when the living characters find out that everyone's dead. When you're a little kid, you don't want to die. You want to go outside and play. If someone can take that away from you and you can't do anything about it...that's scary man.

That's why Halloween is such a powerful movie. Michael Meyers is a metaphor of "the man" who wants to take away all your freedoms. Why does he do this? Because "the man" is psycho and hellbent on bringing you down. We are the Jamie Lee Curtises of the world who just want to eat watermelon and watch the all-female Ninja Warrior on TV. Unfortunately for us, we don't have any plot devices in reality that can save us from the man. All we can do it keep running until they make too many movies and get bored of the franchise...until they resurrect it years later when Hollywood runs out of ideas.

You hear people complaining all the time about Hollywood running out of ideas and producing nothing new and original. But have you ever TRIED to come up with something new and original? I mean, if I had to make a movie, it would just combine a bunch of elements from movies I've already seen. Megatron would be in there somewhere...and some gra-tit-uous boob shots. To make something that no one's ever seen, you need to take your mind to another plane of existence. I mean, even living in different epochs isn't enough. You need to be born on Jupiter and raised by a family of sharks and alligators. That's the kind of mindset an original scriptwriter is supposed to have. What would come out of the mind of a half-shark-alligator, half-man?

Hooray, I made it through the entire post without talking about work! You ever wonder what would happen if we all just had enough and started a revolution?

Thing of the day:

Phenotypical

2007-08-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'm usually good at making decisions but I'm having a hard time plotting out my career path for the next 5 years; Do I want to stay on the technical side or move towards management? The thing I love about my job is that the people I work with directly are competent. They have great personalities and they are excellent at their positions. I don't know if giving that up for more pay would be worth it though, when I'd dread coming to work everyday to face the the incompetent staff and stupid decisions being made. I'm comfortable here. I feel like I'd regret leaving if I decide to go the management route. Yet there is another part of me that wants to try something new.

I talk about stupid people all the time, but I'm a generally more positive person than my comments make me look. Maybe these people aren't really stupid...they could be creative geniuses and I'm the one that lacks the intelligence to comprehend them. Maybe I was oblivious to humanity's last social evolution and my way of thinking has since become archaic. What was once stupid is now considered everyday normal behavior. It's okay to make decisions based on incomplete information...in fact, it's expected! Holy Mario, I am trapped in a strange universe that defies all logic (or at least the logic I'm familiar with).

I actually took a logic class in college. It was purely mathematical but that class was hard. I never really "got" math up to that point but once I got it, I wished our world was a mathematical world, even though I suck at math. Why? Because everything makes sense in math. There are hard rules and if this shit doesn't integrate, that means this shit doesn't integrate, no matter what you do. QED. "But if everything is predictable, what's so fun about a mathematical world?" Well, a mathematical world would be complex...for example, they are still computing the full value of pi. "But isn't our world already mathematical? Didn't math arise to gain a better understanding of our world?" Hmmm...maybe I still haven't "gotten" math yet.

So I watched that Adam Sandler movie "Click" and wow, I totally want to put my family first now. I am a real sucker for those types of movies, you know...the cliche feel good ones that make you think about your own life. After watching these types of movies I will literally pump my fist in the air and go out and make a better man for myself. It doesn't hurt that Kate Beckinsale is stunningly hot in that movie. I mean, wow man. I gotta watch her other movies. The pictures I looked up on the internet immediately after the movie don't do her justice.

That reminds me, I haven't watched anything Japanese in a while. No anime, pranks, game shows, Beni...and just yesterday I started watching Ninja Warrior again. Our next Japanese night should be accompanied with Japanese television. Who the hell comes up with these things? There has to be a god of Japanese television, for only a god can come up with such genius. His name? Televees. But he is not greek. Sorry, the name is misleading.

Thing of the day:

Tical!

2007-08-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

Good thing no one really reads this blog. Otherwise they'd be wondering where the hell I've been. I'm faced with a dilemma here...should I write where I went or make up some story about where I didn't went? My guess is that if you're reading this blog, you probably don't care about me being busy at work. What I would want to hear, reading my own writings in the future, is how crazy things were way back now. Like how we used to all hang out on the weekends before the Morlocks came up from underground and the 8th day of the week was created. Heh, I can't even get my grammatical tenses correct. You see, I'm one of those people who stare out blankly into space, living in different epochs. Pliocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene...if you threw one of those tracking devices on me it would blow up.

Yes, I had to look up the names of those epochs.

Fun facts are never fun unless you go "wheee!" after you've read them. How many times do you go "whee!" after you've read these facts of currently indeterminable funess?

1) Tical was Method Man's first solo album.
2) A box of kleenex can hurt if the corner of the box pokes you in the eye.
.
.
100) Right now I'm playing Resident Evil 4 on the Nintendo ___!

Okay, I got nothing. I always thought that the hardest job in the world was the guy who put those fun facts or jokes on popsicles. Billions of human beings from around the world and in different epochs enjoy popsicles, and without their fun facts, the popsicle experience goes from numba won stunna to you average everyday treat. Same with fruit by the foot (which is an exquisite delicacy, might I add). I'm convinced there is a god out there responsible for this insufferable task. His name? Popsiclees. And he is greek.

Back to the topic at hand - yes, I've been EXTREMELY busy at work but I'm gonna talk about it cuz it's a life-changing experience. At this very moment, I really love my job. I got assigned to a high-priority project direct from the GM (head honcho, big cheese, if you will) and so far I'm proud of what we've accomplished in the limited time we had. I just got out of a meeting where they congratulated us on a job well done (so far) and that's one of the best feelings in the world. To be recognized for the hard work you put in. That's how humans are in general - we love compliments. Feeling down? Compliment yourself. I'm convinced that the road to true happiness goes through Compliment Boulevard. Want to make someone feel great? Take them there.

This is an ongoing project so I may not be blogging regularly for a while. When I get home, all I want to do is relax so I usually never blog there. No, blogging does not help me relax because I have a persistent urge to write about all the bad driving and stupid decisions being made all around the world (in different epochs). I play videogames to help me relax. It brings me to a time when Responsibility Drive was 3000 miles away. Yeah, it's not productive, but it helps me to be productive.

Speaking of productivity...back to work for me.

Thing of the day (it's returned!):

...scroll down....

Cool Story, Hansel

2007-07-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

"Kill him Legolas!" is a random quote I throw out in situations where there is a dire need to kill some foo. For example, if I'm playing a videogame and the enemy is getting all up on my base, I need to take him out. That would be a good example of when to release the quote. A bad example is if some dude is running at me with a knife. I can't just point my finger at him and release the quote, cuz where the hell is Legolas anyways?

One thing I learned last weekend - anything with Keno in it instantly becomes a hundred times funnier. For example, take this periodic table of elements. There's nothing funny about that, right? Chemistry is serious business. You can't win a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry. But if you put Keno in the vicinity of this periodic table...then __________________ . Unfortunately, only Keno and his unpredictability can fill in that blank.

Congrats to Jenn and Cesar...theirs was an awesome, awesome wedding. I suggest you check out all the other synonyms to "awesome" to get an idea of what it was like to be there. I love getting drunk with people you haven't seen in a while and also with people you just met. Then you never seen them again until the next drunken hijink. Hopefully these good times don't fade away as we get older. I'm hoping that Jenn and Cesar's silver anniversary will top even this one.

You know that song that goes "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday love?" Well I was watching the Godfather again and now I know the roots of that song. It's a quote from Apollonia when she's trying to prove to Michael that she knows English. The way she says it totally cracks me up. TOTALLY. Sucks that she dies right after that. The world can be such a cruel place.

Another random quote I throw out is "Why the heck?" which is taken from Azumangah Daioh. It's not really a direct quote since it was the result from a bad translation, but Osaka in that series is the funniest character I've seen on TV. Common uses of the quote include a replacement for "what the hell??" and....well that's pretty much it. Unless...no, that's pretty much it.

If someone asks you what makes you unique, what would you say? I think what makes me unique is that I like getting to know someone in reverse. I'd rather find out what they think would be the best robotic invention ever and how they would use it in an island full of giant insects before I find out what they do for a living or where they're from. That just feels more important to me, which is probably why I write my blogs this way. My future self won't care about what I did today. He wants to know what I'm thinking. That way he'll have the answer to why I made the life decisions I made. "Why am I a 40 year old ninja with all these illegal moves?" *reads blog* "Ohhhh...that's why."

Now, let us all gather together in a circle and discuss what makes each one of us unique. Remember, we are all very special human beings so we should show compassion and respect, especially for Jazz, who died because he was a black Transformer.

Indifferently Whimsical

2007-07-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

I wish I was a musician. That way, if I ever get upset about anything I could write a song about it. In fact, I could write songs for whatever mood I was in, including indifferent and whimsical. But my lack of musical skills have relegated me to simply stating how I feel. Instead of playing a cool song with a note chart characterized by a continuous series of frowns, I just say, "Hey you, I'm sad." Except I wouldn't actually say "Hey you," cuz if anyone's gonna know I'm sad, it's not gonna be a complete stranger.

Then again, I used to always call my best friend "hey you." I used to have this keyboard too, where I would play totally random things and feel proud of it cuz I just made it up. Sure, there may be someone else in the world playing the exact same thing, but none had the fire and the passion of my works. What is "passion" in playing an instrument anyways? Two people could play a saxamaphone that sounds the exact same way, but one could be bobbing his head more or thrashing his body around in a sexually suggestive manner. Does that equal more passion? How can one tell if they're just listening to the audio? I guess understanding that is the first step to becoming a musician.

Dancing is where it's at, anyways. I mean, you could totally tell a story with dancing. I was watching "So You Think You Can Dance" the other day, and there was this beautiful story about this guy who wants to get with this girl and they do stuff like touch each other in a sexually suggestive manner. What better medium is there to show the range and complexity of this guy who wants to get with this girl? You could write entire series of novels about this stuff and it will sell like hotcakes. That one hip thrust right there would take 600 pages.

My favorite type of dance is interpretive dance. For example, this boogaloo I'm doing right here represents the internal struggles of my day-to-day job. But it's not that simple. Like if I'm frustrated, I could easily represent that by throwing up my hands. Good dancing is characterized by the moves you DON'T do, so instead of throwing up my hands, maybe I'll do an Egyptian dance or the Roger Rabbit. Now the audience will associate frustration with the Roger Rabbit. I will reference that later on by doing the Roger Rabbit again, but this time I turn my head slightly to the left in a sexually suggestive manner to represent that time when I was running a report that took exactly 5037ms to generate. Those who can pick up these tiny details can truly appreciate great dancing.

Six years. What is it, that turns a simple relationship into a life-long partnership?

Is it the magic?

Is it courage under fire?

Aiding each other during times of duress?

Or concern when another is hurt?

Nah, it's probably the sexy lap dances...

Happy 6 years Yummy!

Nutritious Like a Banana, Relaxing Like a Hammock!

2007-07-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Transformers was alright I guess. It wasn't a catastrophe but it didn't leave the same impression as the first movie. Like I was talking about in my last post, few things can leave the same mark as in our childhood, especially when our adult minds are so grounded in reality. Wait a minute, I'm wrong - drugs can get you there! I think to become the richest person in the world, all you'd have to do is discover or engineer a substance that can get you flying higher than a kite, while physically having the same effects as fruits and vegetables. I shall call it...BANANA HAMMOCK.

I never really followed up on my plan to start my own gang. I don't know what we'd do anyways. Maybe if I got a hold of the secret ingredients of BANANA HAMMOCK then we'd get the money. Which would give us power...then the respect. Of course I'd need some security to protect my investments. I'll move to my own island in the pacific and start up an army of ninjas. Only those who pass through the Ninja Warrior course would be worthy. Hahaha...look at all those silly people falling in the mud! Wait, I'm a gangster now...and I'm not one of those cool gangsters that get along with everyone. I'm one of those legendary ones you always hear about but will never see in person. Yeah, imagine Voldemort, multiplied by Hannibal Lecter, add the shark from Jaws, and put all that to the Darth Vadereth power. That's me.

Have you ever had one of those moments at work where for maybe just for a second you realize how important you job is? I had my first and only moment today, after I finished my presentation. You know how in all those romantic comedies, they'll show the characters at work thinking about their love interest, and they always seem to be giving a presentation? I always thought that was stupid, but then I went ahead and did that today (yes I was thinking of my love interest). Anyways, it's one of the greatest feelings when you understand how much people's lives really rely on your hard work. Those of you in professions that help others...you guys must get that feeling all the time. Having a job that you truly love...I imagine it feels something like this.

You know what I'm drinking right now? V8. Belle got a craving for it so we bought a ton of cans from Costco. I was skeptical at first, but now I'm starting to dig the taste. For some reason it reminds of me Chef Boyardee. Remember how good Chef Boyardee was when you were a kid? Uh-oh spaghetti-oh? Sure, it tastes like crap now...just like all that candy we ate when we were little. But it sure does bring me back. Hmmm...check as possible ingredient to BANANA HAMMOCK.

My supervisor's coming back next week so hopefully that will give me more time to blog. There's a lot of stuff I haven't blogged about yet. Like the new grill I bought. Wow, that thing is awesome. It makes cooking daily dinners easier and having friends over for a BBQ just can't be beat. All we need now is for the pool to open up for the full summer experience. Oh yeah, I haven't even been to the beach yet and now I'm only 15 minutes away from it. I did go to my first rock concert last night though. "You're no Jesus! Yeah, you're no fucking Elvis!" Incubus is awesome...thanks Joes and Karen! Scientists should definitely look into rock concerts and a source for alternative energy. Cuz damn, there was a shit ton of it last night.

Me: That was wack.
Brain: Hey, I couldn't come up with anything better.
Me: Well you're making me look bad in front of all these people.
Brain: It's your fault...you didn't have to post what I was thinking.
Me: What are you talking about? You're the one in control here!
Liver: Shut up over there! You think you've got problems...what about me?

Yeah, I've been drinking a lot lately. I never really understood the whole idea of drinking beer when you're thirsty since it dehydrates you, but man, a cold lager on a hot summer day just feels right. At least until I can find an ice-cream truck that still sells bomb pops. Whatever happened to those? I'd google it here at work but I might look a little suspicious looking for pages that have the word "bomb" in them. I haven't seen them in stores either. Somewhere out there, there's a restaurant that lists bomb pops as one of their specialty desserts. Only when I find that restaurant will I truly know what it feels like...when doves cry.

Yo I'm Back and I'm Coolin' Part Deux

2007-06-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

I've been away from this for a while so it's good to finally post again. Work has been ridiculously busy but man, it's one of the best things to ever happen to me. True, I get stressed out a lot but it's been a while since I've had to work this hard. Not only at work itself, but outside of work in trying to manage my time. As a kid I've always wondered how adults can be adults; y'know...working hard all the time and accomplishing things my kiddie brain couldn't comprehend. I think if I traveled back in time right now to that younger version of me, my younger brain would go cuckoo and start speaking in classical Vietnamese.

Another thing that always puzzled me in my earlier years was how adults can be so old and not-fun. You'll hear stories about how much they used to party or how they used to play some sport in high school or even college but now they're fat and lazy. Approaching 30, I can understand it now. It's like that frosted shredded wheat commercial, where your kiddie frosty side is slowly being melted away from the milk. You try, and try to hold on to your frosting like a baby holding on to his pillow, but in the end you're just a soggy sack of unsweetened wheat. Sounds depressing, but in reality it's only depressing when you think about it. Life couldn't be better for me right now, but I will never again feel the happiness of a child chasing down the ice cream truck.

The equivalent to that now? A Colts comeback in the AFC Championship, eating a perfectly grilled steak paired with an excellent brew on the sidelines, right next to the cheerleaders. Still not as good as ICE CREAM! THE ICE CREAM TRUCK IS HERE! But hey, it'll do.

Still a long way to go til more football. In the meantime, here's a quiz: What's going on in this picture and why is it funny?

Oh yeah, did I tell you about that time I rode in an ice cream truck? Well yeah, when I was in 6th or 7th grade I rode in an ice cream truck. Cool story.

Remember the last time you laughed so hard you were brought to tears? I do. In fact, it happens to me quite often. Even at this age. I think, in addition to nap times, employers should bring in comedians every day to the workplace to get people laughing. Can you imagine having a rude conversation on the phone but then in a couple minutes the comedian is coming so you start laughing and realize that you were just wasting your time getting worked up about the conversation? So the rude customer calls back but you're in a better mood so you handle it better. Then for the icing on the cake, you even tell the rude customer the joke that the comedian just told you and he starts laughing too. The world is suddenly a better place.

Every worksite should have a gym too, especially for the office drones like us. It doesn't even have to be a gym...maybe a shooting range or a breakdancing arena or even a place to play pogs. Of course, the shooting range wouldn't have real bullets. It would have fake ones made of steel. A breakdancing arena would be cool cuz it would be authentic with hired teenagers so the employees can stay street. I hear employees are suing their employers now for causing them to lose their street cred.

So someone demonstrated a new version of one of our software tools the other day at work. It was pretty cool. Everytime the guy showed us something new and amazing, I wanted to shout out "That's gangsta!" Of course that would be inappropriate...at least until this lawsuit is settled.

Thing of the day:
Until further notice, there will be no more things of the day. Sorry for the convenience. - Management

You...Are Next!!

2007-06-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture that I feel adequately demonstrates the tone of this blog:

Discuss.

The thing I was really bad at in high school was interpreting the great books we read. The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms...at that time, my mind was only capable of understanding these novels at the plot level. I didn't really get the concept of these books having deeper meanings, expressed through complex symbolism or other literary tools. Maybe it had something to do with reading Boxcar Children and Nintendo books while growing up? It wasn't until Writing 39B I took in the summer at UCI where everything just suddenly clicked into place. I mean, it really clicked. I had an excellent instructor and from that point I became very good at it. Well, at least compared to my old self.

I wasn't meant for writing though. Sure, it fun...but I can't imagine doing it for a career. Instead, I ended up choosing a college major I knew nothing about. I joined the ICS program without ever owning a computer or even knowing how to type. A lot of things were foreign to me, but I survived because I was able to grasp the concept of Object-Oriented Programming before failing. And now, here I am.

Weak as they are, I remember these memories as accomplishments. Yet, I'll never tell them to my kids cuz they sound so lame. People want to hear stories about that one time where you pranked the hell out of that dude or when you got into this fight and totally mauled the guy. Of course these stories are always exaggerated, but I don't even have such stories to tell. Well, I have a few like that time I was at a party that got shot up or one of our insane b-boy battles or the dorm war we had that involved a food fight at the commons....but everyone goes through that. The true stories and accomplishments that make me proud are the ones that aren't meant to be told.

The past few weeks have been pretty slumpy for me. I can trace it to being lazy at work. I mean, I was lazier than a stone and....hey, is that where the word stoner comes from? Heh, I just Columbussed that word (e.g. discovered something that was already discovered). Anyways, my workload has piled on with my supervisor going on vacation (I have to take care of his stuff) and that overall put me in a better mood. Also, last weekend was really really fun. Free beer at Sea World and the sleepover and Jenn and Cesar's. Is there anything better in life than having some drinks with friends?

Me: Is there anything better in life than having some drinks with friends?
God: Yes, my son...there is. Take a look at your post from 5/18/06.

But yeah, I thought that being lazy at work would give me more energy when I eventually get home. I couldn't be more wrong. Advice #3214: Work hard at all facets of life, for each facet is an important facet whether we know about it or will ever know about it. At least for me, working hard and getting that sense of accomplishment charges me up like listening to C+C Music Factory. Okay, C+C Music Factory doesn't really charge me up...I just wanted to reference it. I mean, there's no better way to make someone laugh than to play the opening part of "Everybody Dance Now".

Well, I guess a hard-blown fart during a serious moment would get people to laugh more. Imagine someone laying out the gas during these moments:

1) During a meeting at work when they ask for your input.
2) During group prayer...that quick silence between the Hail Mary and the Holy Mary part.
3) In a quiet elevator with your boss.
4) Two men, who are the only ones in the bathroom standing next to each other at the urinal (someone did this to me the other day).
5) During sexual ATM.
6) While playing the Wii (my cousin actually did this in front of Belle's uncle. Funniest moment ever).
7) When doing a heavy deadlift in the gym.
8) When two people fart at the exact same time and jinx-fart each other.
9) When you're breakdancing and doing a windmill. I guess your legs blowing the air out towards the crowd doesn't help either.
10)Chong Li farting in any situation, ever.

I'm sorry, if you don't laugh when a fart intrudes upon these situations, then you are a robot. With Google having the ability to now do street views, they're only a couple years away from becoming Skynet. And you don't want to be a robot then with John Connor still alive.

Thing of the day:

Hard Right by Zack, Takedown by Slater!

2007-05-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

Forgot to post last week. Bullet points, attack!

Song of the day: I Ran by Flock of Seagulls.
That song is gonna be on the next Guitar Hero.
I've been playing too much Guitar Hero lately.
According to the results of my last blood test, I'm anemic.
If I'm anemic I wonder what it'll be like when I get it corrected and have more energy? I never really felt like I didn't have enough energy.
I think my ideal job would be physically demanding, yet somehow I ended up as an office drone.
I've often thought about a career change but I have a big fear of regretting it. So far I haven't found anything that was far better than what I'm doing now.
I wish there was a way we could rest while awake to avoid sleep altogether.
The Lost finale incredible. They really know how to end a season.
The middle part of Heroes was incredible. They really know how to uhh...middlize a season.
These guys should take notes from each other.
I thought this fight was better than the Rampage/Liddell fight:
I can't wait to see all the upcoming matches with the Pride fighters coming over.
I usually don't laugh at people who don't know what they're doing at the gym, but when they're obviously just there to check out chicks or show off their fake boobs, then it just becomes unintentional comedy.
They're probably laughing at me when I do Crossfit workouts at the gym.
I worked hard today at work and now I feel great. When I'm lazy, I feel like crap.
You know that feeling where you wake up and just feel so refreshed? I haven't had that feeling in a while. Even if I sleep for 10 hours I feel like crap.
Hahaha I can't believe that the Geisha in Memoirs of one is named Chiyo. If you've watch Azumanga Daioh you'll understand why it's so funny.
They really should've spoken Japanese in that movie. Maybe have a more Japanese cast in there too.
Peters Canyon is a great place to go for a run.
I really should blog more often.

Waking Up With Extreme Purpose

2007-05-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

Forgot to post last week but there really wasn't anything to write about. I did x, then I did y...substitute x and y with various mundane tasks. Well, I did get Guitar Hero for the 360 and been jamming on that a bit. I didn't play it much when it came out on the PS2 so now I'm trying to catch up. It's nice to come home from a hard day's work and rock out with no regard for humanity. At one point after playing so much I had this weird type of vertigo where everything I would look at would start scrolling up. It was scary at first, like some type of drug trip, but then I learned to embrace it, and eventually, make friends with it. It makes me smile.

Shin splints are coming back to haunt me again. It's probably cuz of my shoes, which have well over 400 miles on them and should be replaced. I don't have the money for a new pair though, so I'll just have to live with it. Maybe I should have bought a new pair of running shoes instead of Guitar Hero, but after some extreme contemplation I came to the conclusion that Guitar Hero would better improve the quality of my life. There are substitutions for running but it's hard to substitute the feeling of hitting a string of hammer-on's and pulloff's on Freebird while throwing up the horns on your other hand. Actually, I could do something else after work that doesn't cost money like use my camera. Photography is productive and intrinsically artistic. I could even make money if I become good enough. Shins to brain: "What have you done, Locke?!"

I actually do that with everything I buy now. I think to myself, if I lived without it before, why can't I live without it now? Can I buy this anywhere else for cheaper? When I think back a couple years from now, will I pat myself on the back for this purchase? Y'know, questions of that nature. I think one of the best investments you can make in life is to live below your means. Keeping up with the Joneses is about the worst thing you can do. Spend your money on things that truly matter in life such as hookers, blackjack, and drugs. Another acceptable answer would be to spend your money so that you can crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.

There's this boss here at work...not my boss, but the boss of another section who tries really hard to look milfy everyday. Does it work? Not really...it's actually kind of pitiful. I mean, why would you want to dress like that to work when you're already married? Sounds like trouble to me. Plus the real hot milfs are the low-key ones that you least expect. Y'know, with the everyday non-flattering clothes until some random day she's wearing a hot summer dress and bam! Then the next day, back to our imaginations. Someone has to tell this boss that she's doing it wrong.

This fall I found out that they're coming out with a Rock Band game that lets you simulate the other parts of the rock band like the drummer and the keyboard dude. I thought they should have been more ambitious and created an entire orchestra game. Clarinet Hero. Saxsamaphone Hero. Tuba Hero. Triangle Hero. Can you imagine inviting your entire neighborhood to your house and simulating the world's greatest classical music? I have no words to how badass that would be except: badass. Me, I've always wanted to be a Cowbell Hero.

Thing of the day:

Watch It Man, There's a Beverage Here!

2007-05-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy lately, and still am. I can still put up some quick updates though...in the form of bullet points!

Song of the day: Midas Touch by Midnight Star
The Catholic church frowns upon casual sex.
After meeting with the priest that's going to marry us, my faith in humanity has been restored.
I forgot how much I like Jackie Chan movies...so I've been watching them lately.
I like beginning sentences with "By the power of greyskull..."
I want to see Captain EO again.
Jeremy Piven acted amazingly well in that episode of Entourage where he cried.
Amanda has a bangin' body. Watch Sin City and you'll know what I mean.
That last episode of Heroes was probably one of the single greatest episodes of television I have ever seen in my life.
The greatest moments on TV period are reserved for Colts and Laker games though.
I ran two miles on concrete last weekend and my shins were killing me the next day. I ran five miles on dirt yesterday and my legs feel fine. Run on dirt foo.
Cox Cable TV can go suck a fuck.
Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout is pretty good, but I still prefer the Oatmeal.
I was disappointed to see Ari drinking Johnny Walker Black.
My tastes buds aren't refined enough to appreciate the Ayinger Celebrator I had last weekend.
Blimpin' really isn't easy.
I threw up the other weekend from drinking too much Crown. Many parts of that night I do not remember, but it was fun so I drank Crown again the next weekend.
A good DJ can really set apart a good wedding reception from a bad one.
Weddings are fun.
Belle's sandwiches are to die for.
I am one of the most emotionless guys you'll ever meet, but I think I will be crying my eyes out at our wedding.
Being broke is both a blessing and a curse - sure, you can't buy what you want, but it really makes you think about what you really need in life.
It's not much.
I'm going to the doctor for the first time in a long time today. It's been so long I'm scared of what they might find.
I'm having a harder time nowadays distinguishing whether or not I am drunk. I could be completely sober yet still feel drunk. Help?
There's this cell phone game I play sometimes that's basically just a bunch of dialogue trees. Sometimes, I have to play the part of the girl. When I'm the girl, I always name myself "Poo".
Hahaha...Poo....that always makes me laugh.
That Golden State game where Baron Davis made those 2 buzzer-beating threes was a fun game to watch. Their fans are lucky.
I don't follow college football, but I'm pretty satisfied with the Colts' draft. Their approach shows that they want to win now while Manning is at his prime...even at the cost of the future.
When I watch the videos on Crossfit, I'm amazed at how strong those women are.
It's funny to see the competitors get creamed by the Gladiators.
I've been watching American Gladiator re-runs, by the way.
The Big Lebowski is still my favorite movie.
Chorizo and eggs make an awesome breakfast.
What the hell kind of animal does chorizo come from anyways?
I forgot how awesome the Chronicles of Narnia was. How things change over time has always been an emotional thing for me.
I still think about my Lola a lot and I remember when she used to read the Chronicles of Narnia. One of the characters in that book has the same name as her...I wonder if she imagined herself as that character? That makes me smile.
Sometimes I feel like I smile too much.
When I wear sunglasses Belle says I look mean. I wear my sunglasses a lot so hopefully that will balance out all the smiling.
Sometimes I just can't help myself though, because I really am happy.

For Corners

2007-04-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite phrases, "Don't you know?" when expanded, translates to "Do not you know?" As an adult, I should lessen my use of contractions and this is where it begins. So...what is up, man?

I do not get why you can say "Hey man!" yet for some reason it sounds degrading to say "Hey woman!" Saying something like "Man, are you serious?" sounds perfectly normal yet "Woman, are you serious?" sounds like it's coming from a guy who beats his wife. It's perfectly okay to say "Baby girl, are you serious?" yet pedophilia is a serious crime. And that's why aliens from other planets haven't enslaved us all yet...because we don't make sense. Also because of all the slow drivers in the fast lane (imagine all the slow energon slaves in the fast crop lane).

Watching this awesome anime called "Monster" has made me question what it really means to be educated. What is the difference between brainwashing and education? At birth, we are all sent to school to be brainwashed as "valuable" citizens of society. We don't know the people who came up with these ideas, but we believe them because if these ideas were wrong, then we'd all be dead by now and homo-sapienic progress would mean nothing. For example, somewhere along the way we learned that killing people is bad. Why? Because other people are valuable members of society that can help you, some in ways you might not even know about. After we grew out of the whole "survival of the fittest" phase, it was bad to kill other people cuz it causes massive grief. Yet there are a lot of things that cause us grief in life but are perfectly acceptable in modern society. For example, working 9-5 and paying bills. Hopefully someday in the future we brainwash children that working so much in life is a crime.

I've been reading some articles about people who totally abandon society and live out in some miscellaneous island in the Pacific. Kind of like Lost but you know exactly what you're getting yourself into. It's amazing, living out in your own paradise with just the bare necessities. We don't need computers and TV's and shampoo to live. All you need is a way to feed yourself and something to have sex with. The rest of the day can be spent enjoying the company of the natives or the people you're with and just taking in how beautiful our planet is. I guess some drugs would be nice too.

Have you noticed? All of my paragraphs seem to be in the following format:
1) Some facts.
2) Ridiculous idea.
3) How the ridiculous idea works.
4) Punchline.

I'm so predictable. You know how some people can be read like an open book? I can be read like an open Cliff Notes. I need to ramp up the ambiguity. Instead of all the crap I posted above, I could have simply just said:

"Do not you know? Life never seems to make sense. A wise man once said, 'Brainwash thou unto the Pacific.' But I easily read into that."

Thing of the day:

Awww Hell Naw Uncle Phil

2007-04-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

You know what I miss? Drinking beer. I have a BevMo just down the street from me with so many good beers to try yet no money to buy them with. At this point in my life I've moved on from the "young professional" stage. You know, where you spend all your money with reckless abandon on a Benz or 3-series and some nice clothes and drinks every weekend. But I don't even own a nice car. Nor do I have any brand name clothes and I never had a tab over $40. What the hell did I spend my money on?

What hurts the most is that I won't be able to do triathlons as much I expected to, even though right now I'm probably in the best shape of my life. Maybe I'll just do my own, random events. Like for the next time I go to Vegas, I will bike the entire 300-something mile trip. Or when we go to San Francisco in the summer, I'll swim from Alcatraz to the shore. Then when I'm bored someday I'll just run out the door and go straight to San Diego. I've always wanted to run up those Inca temples. The cool thing is, I won't even be spending that much money. I could sleep in the tent I bring with me and live off the land from miscellaneous fruits and animals. I don't need money to enjoy life. This is Sparta!!!

Sometimes I wonder how I've kept this blog going for so long. Is my life really that interesting? Do I really have that much to say? Not really...I just say the same things over and over again, just in different ways. My advice is if you ever find yourself with blogger's block, just read one of your old posts and rewrite it with new and improved metaphors, symbolism, quotes, and maybe throw in a ninja or two. Better yet, read someone else's post, absorb their memories, and write them as your own. I am John Malkovich. I ate breakfast today...when a NINJA came out of nowhere and stole my pancakes. I am John Malkovich.

What if humans never became civilized? We all stuck to our animal instincts and basically hunted and mated all day to pass on our genes? It didn't matter how much money you had or your social status in life. All you cared about was eating. sexing, and more sexing. Would that be so bad? I guess if you had STD's that would kinda suck. Yo ass would be doomed. Though it wouldn't matter if you had a small penis or no boobs. In this world, huge balls (both literally and figuratively) and child-bearing hips are what really matter. Granted, I don't think we can ever go back to that mindset. But if Hiro never stepped on that bug...things would have been very different.

Is Sayid the only one with some sense on that island? After 70-frickin' episodes someone finally asks what the Others are up to. Of course, we don't get an answer. This isn't Sparta...this is Lost, where we're supposed be left in the dark.

Thing of the day:

Transmogrification

2007-04-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

What's the future of blogging? I think someone will come up with a thought-extraction mechanism than can transmogrify someone's thoughts and put them on a web page. So if you had a song in your head, it would take that song from your head and embed a little media player so people can listen to that song or it can put up pictures of images you might have in your head. Random thoughts would be put up or if you forgot about something you wanted to blog about earlier, that would show up as well, all automatically. All you have to do is put on this funny looking helmet...

Man, that would totally revolutionize the blogging industry. Not to mention how useful it would be in police or interrogation applications. Sorry Jack Bauer, we don't need you anymore. I'm sure you could find a job in management in a company with strict deadlines. But seriously, this would probably clog up the web with people connected all the time and posting up every single one of their thoughts to the Head Blog Ninja (I just named it that...blog faster than a ninja!). Actually that name sucks...it's too long. Also it wouldn't work well in dialog:

"Dude, I'm gonna use the Head Blog Ninja."

It needs to roll off the tongue like LMNOP. So people are gonna say "wakizashi" (the weapon choice of a ninja) instead. But that's still too long. Hey, I know!

"Dude, I'm gonna go wack off!"

The duality of its meaning would add all sorts of puns to the world and we could all use more puns. Win-win.

Mitch Hedberg quote of the day: "I'd like to see a forklift lift a crate of forks. It'd be so damn literal. "Hey, you're using that machine to its exact purpose!""

I wish I had some cool coworkers. I've said it before, but work was much more fun at my last 2 jobs. I seriously can't imagine going out for a drink with anyone here. It would be cool to have Chris Rock as a coworker. If you've been watching Everybody Hates Chris like I told you too then you'd see how entertaining it is to have him just talk about his past life. Melissa Theuriau would be a fun coworker too. I can keep up-to-date on the latest news even though I don't understand a word of what she's saying (this is the part where you google who she is). I know what I must do. I must create my own coworkers from nearby objects and animate them into my own coworkers! Here he is, a computer monitor for a head, computer speakers for ears, arms made out of water bottles, a body carved from wooden desks, and the heart of a boombox. Hello, Mr. DJ!

And thus, the boy traveled with Mr. DJ to far-off places, enchanting the world with their soulful tunes and delightful stories they just made up. Until one day...

Thing of the day:

Dieter

2007-03-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

I went to the dentist yesterday after not having gone for a year (due to the whole moving situation) but we finally found one (thanks to Ryan) in our area and they seem to be pretty good. They said I've been taking good care of my teeth, but I found out to my horror that my molars have flattened out. Apparently from all the teeth grinding I do at night. They insisted that I get a night guard to relieve some of the grinding but holy horse poo I'm not paying $450 for that shit. Still, I need to do something about it before my teeth wear out or I before I permanently mess up my jaw. I'm thinking of getting a football mouthguard for now, so that I can dream of leading the Colts to their next championship in my sleep.

Next up is to look for a good primary physician in the area. It'll be a lot harder with nothing to go by except the doctor's name. I want to avoid a fobby doctor, since my last one was so hard to understand that I felt sorry for his nurse...even she couldn't understand the words that were coming out of his mouth. Sure, he had the credentials, but I should've seen it coming when I read his last name. Then again, our dentist has a pretty foreign last name and she was great (and it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes). I guess I'll have to eenie-meenie-miney-moe it. Watch I end up with a Dr. Manek-Beng-Do.

I want to start a revolution....a revolution against the increase in wedding prices! Seriously man, prices are increasing faster than inflation. In the future, people are gonna have to celebrate their weddings at the local shelter. I knew a wedding was expensive but this is Balki-from-Perfect-Strangers ridikolus. Then after all we've spent on the wedding, we're expected to have enough money left over to go on a honeymoon and eventually buy a home, and that's before kids are factored into the equation. Dude man, this isn't even an equation, more like an inequation. You know, where a + b + n = x, except x is an imaginary number because it's insane and the equals sign is a fake equals sign. That doesn't even make sense in the algebraic world. Nothing is making sense anymore! What have you done Locke?!?

One thing I'm deathly afraid of are aluminum foil dispensers. Y'know, with those sharp edges on the box to cut the foil - the thing gives me the creeps. When I was really little I grabbed one of those boxes the wrong way and had a really deep cut on my hand. I cried for mommy but mommy was at work. I have never been that seriously injured before. The cut eventually became infected too so I had to bear that nasty wound for a long time. These days, nary a day goes by that I fear for an army of aluminum foil dispensers marching from the hills. It is a cold and deep-reaching fear when your enemy knows your exact weakness while you know none of theirs.

Another strange fear I have are of cockroaches. I hate cockroaches. I'll kill an army of black widows invading my grill (this actually happened) but it'll take much longer if it was a cockroach. Another childhood story: there I was playing with my Legos, anticipating the great structures and to come when suddenly a giant cockroach jumps out of nowhere and lands in the middle of my lap. Keep in mind that this and the other story happened when I first started to form coherent thoughts. I knew nothing of the world so to see a cunning cockroach fall from the ceiling and crawl all over me was incomprehensible to my feeble mind. The strange thing was that I didn't scream or jump up or anything at that moment. I think I might have picked it up and threw it or something. It's just that now, as an adult, large cockroaches creep me out, especially when I have to smash them...and that's the only significant childhood story I remember about them.

I've been having a lot of dreams lately but I always forget that I'm dreaming in them. There was only like 1 time that I remember where I was dreaming and I knew I was dreaming, so I basically controlled the world and it was awesome. I haven't done it since, but after I watched this anime called Haruhi Suzimaya or something, it brings up some interesting questions. When we dream, the world we are dreaming in is a creation of our thoughts...yet we are totally oblivious to it. We control the world, yet we don't know we control the world. Yet the things we think about become part of our worlds/dreams. You ever have this happen to you in reality? Like today I was thinking about cockroaches and this morning, lo and behold there is a cockroach crawling on the floor while I was taking a dump. I remember another instance where I wondered if anyone has airballed a freethrow before. The next possession, Ron Harper airballed his freethrow. Maybe we are all dreaming our own little worlds or maybe there is one person who is dreaming our world. Sadly, I know for a fact that it isn't me cuz in my world there wouldn't be so many dumbass drivers on the road.

Thing of the day:

Make-Out Tactics

2007-03-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

I started watching Veronica Mars and that show's pretty good too. There's just something about watching an idiot receive his/her comeuppance. Plus I just happen to like revenge, what with the amount of idiots walking around the planet and all. It also doesn't hurt that vengeance is one of the primary objectives of a full-blown ninja. "What is a ninja without vengeance?" is the equivalent of the sound of one hand clapping. Y'know, with the amount of complaining I do on this blog you'd think I'd be a pessimistic hermit, living in my hut in the mountains and always muttering under my breath about how everyone is just stupid. Baka, even. Yet the grains of truth dictate that I am one of the happiest persons you'll ever meet. Little things that seem like everyday occurrences to most are fascinating to me. True - I think most people in this world are idiots, including myself - but because I am less idiotic than my idiot brethren, it's extremely relieving that I am not one of them. Perhaps I have mistaken that feeling of relief for happiness.

Man, the Colts are dropping players like Reche Caldwell dropping wide-open passes. I still trust our GM though - a lot of Polian's moves at the time seemed questionable (e.g. losing Faulk, then losing Edge, drafting Dallas Clark when we needed help on defense) but they worked out in the end. Well, most did. The defense still sucks and I don't see it improving much with Harper and June gone. But what I can't see is how well the other guys like Kelvin Hayden and the other linebackers are improving. The loss of Brandon Stokely hurts though, I liked that guy. Dominic Rhodes too - I thought he should've won MVP in the Super Bowl (well, maybe Rex Grossman should've won it). Hopefully he'll play well for the Raiders.

I thought it was pretty funny seeing Anjelah Johnson in that one commercial. "Honey, why you don' haaayve?" Looking pretty good too.

Some people have been asking about crossfit. Actually I've been blogging about it a lot. You can find out more at www.crossfit.com. It's just something I incorporate into my training. For example, here is today's crossfit workout:

3 rounds for time of:
50 Squats
7 Muscle-ups
135 pound Hang power cleans, 10 reps

That's pretty insane considering that I can only do maybe 1 muscle-up. Usually I'll do scaled-down versions of the workout until I can handle the load. In the meantime I've been working on increasing my strength. Currently I lift 3 days a week then either run or do crossfit for the other 3. That leaves one rest day. This should keep me in decent shape until the next triathlon (whenever I have the money for one).

I like crossfit because of the mentality behind it - it's designed for all-around functional fitness. Someone doing crossfit might not be the strongest, have the most endurance, or look the best out of a group of athletes, but that person will be pretty good at all of them. For example, a powerlifter excels at strength but how do you think he'd do in a marathon? The opposite goes for a marathoner or an ironman triathlete in terms of upper-body strength. Most people on crossfit are firemen, in the military, MMA fighters, or just want to be in really good shape. The crossfit workouts are pretty different from what most people are used to and I really like how varied they are. One day could involve handstand pushups and L-pullups and another day can involve a lot of running or 3 max reps of deadlifts. That fits what I like to do and so far it's worked out pretty well. You might want to try something different if you want to look like a model though, but if you want to be a badass, this might be the thing for you.

I want to start bodyboarding again. Now that I'm only 10 miles from the beach I have no excuse. If anyone wants to go, come on over so we could all spend the night and wake up the next morning to go to the beach. I don't have a grill yet but when I do, we could have a summer BBQ and on the patio and just drink beers the rest of the day and maybe play some flag football or hit the pool if we want to go back in the water. Ahhhh...summer. How sweet thy days. And thine nights.

Thing of the day:

B-boy Combat Attack!

2007-03-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

I did the most horrible, unspeakable thing the other night. I forgot that I was online, so a bunch of people IM'd me while we were watching the first 2 episodes of Band of Brothers. By the time I got back, it was far too late to respond. Now I feel like an idiot with a platinum membership to the local idioteque. There doesn't seem to be any of them nearby, so maybe I should start my own. I shall call it "Applekate".

I think History class would've had a much deeper impact on me in high school if they had more videos like Band of Brothers and 300. All we saw in our History books were maps with dots and triangles representing armies or epic battles. But what lies within those dots and various geometric shapes? That's what I wanted to know. I mean, my imagination was good, but it was limited to 80's movies and TV shows. Some of these battles had ninjas in them and everyone knew karate.

That reminds me, I started watching the old Ninja Turtles movie (the first one) and it has held up well for being 15 years old. Too bad the sequels didn't have the same dark tone as the first, though I'm guessing the new one coming out will try to recreate it. I still don't get why Leonardo has swords and Raphael has sais yet no one ever gets cut up or even stabbed. They should have just given Leonardo a whip and Raphael a yo-yo.

That also reminds me, did you know that this movie actually exists:

I haven't seen it yet but I think I want to. Just for the sheer idiocracy of it all. Idiocracy isn't even a word, but it sounds like an honest political party. One that should have a hippopotamus as its mascot. Why? Because they hungry. Like that one 80's board game...Hungry Hungry...ummm... I forgot what it was called. Anyways, I would name the hippopotamus, Hip Hop Anonymous.

Me and Belle have this game. Anytime someone says "What is this?" or "This is...." we have to respond by shouting "THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!" and give them a hefty kick to the chest.

Thing of the day:

Dorama, the Politics of Life

2007-03-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty lazy lately when it comes to work. Though outside of work, I've been on top of things. I deadlifted and squatted 315 last week, plus I managed to iron my entire wardrobe (we finally bought an ironing board for the house) and keep the finances in check. Outside of work I'm constantly busy (yes, watching Heroes is considered "busy" cuz damn that show is good) and if anything, I could use more time to get stuff done. Work? It's slow, dull...and I can't remember the last time I completed a major project.

I really need to balance out the two. Somehow I have the sentiment that if I work too hard then I'll be too tired to do anything when I get home. In reality, I think I may be able to work hard at both. I just don't have the motivation to push myself since I'll get paid the same regardless of how much work I do. Am I in the wrong job? Definitely not, since this is the life I want to live - a life where work doesn't dominate the other, more enjoyable parts of my life. What I need to do is look at work like exercise. Exercising at this point in my life has become very fun and addicting, and it doesn't hurt that it's good for me. Now how do I get there?

Luckily, a few projects have fallen into my lap today, including one where I have to give a demonstration in front of a bunch of managers. I need to make myself believe that I have to blow their minds or else I'm a failure. This warrants a trip around the building to all the motivational posters in order to achieve such a high level of inspiration. Cuz seriously, if a picture of a pond doesn't inspire you then I don't even want to know you, pal.

The final episode of Daybreak was released and I just wanted to quickly proclaim it as one of the best single series of television, ever. How many times do I have to tell you, watch this m*therfucking show!

Okay, some of these crossfit workouts are insane:

Three rounds for time of:
Row 500 meters or Run 400 meters
Bench press body weight, 30 reps

I can't even bench press my body weight for 30 reps 1 time, and they want me to do it 3 times?! Maybe someday I'll achieve that level of fitness, though it may take me many moons.

I haven't played my 360 or the Wii for a while. I haven't been drunk in a long time too. Furthermore, I have declined several snowboarding trips and I need to call Sandy. Something is not right in this world. Even Naruto has returned from fillers.

Just once I'd like to go to Vegas and gamble all my money away. I want to lose it all, and become so down on my luck that I become a bum living off the streets, scouring garbage, living in a cardboard box while spending any money I begged for on cheap alcohol and cigarettes. I don't want to be one of those smelly, scary bums though. Instead, I want to look real friendly and have a lot of class too so that my begging would look something like this:

Gravedigger: Hello ki..

Oh yeah, I first have to tell you about my bum name. They call me Gravedigger. It doesn't sound like the name of a friendly, classy bum who doesn't smell, but you have to hear the story of how I got that name first. Well, when I first started hanging out in Bumsville, NV I was constantly singing that TLC song "Diggin' on You" to myself cuz dude, I like that song. Since I can't sing f*r shit, all the other bums thought I was talking about digging graves, especially since I was digging a hole to put my poo in at the time (Bum fact #586: we don't have toilets so we poo in the ground, sometimes passing it off as dog poop). They called me Gravedigger ever since. Anyways, back to what my begging would look like:

Gravedigger: Hello kind sir!
Unfortunate fool: Hello!
Gravedigger: ...
Unfortunate fool: ...
Gravedigger: ...
Unfortunate fool: ...
Gravedigger: Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya.
Unfortunate fool: Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya.
Gravedigger: Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya.
Unfortunately: Oh Lord, Kumbaya.

Thing of the day:

Yatta (We Did It)!

2007-03-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

Check out Belle's blog for the details. That was quite a day. I drove to Agoura and back in traffic to get her parents' blessings then spent the rest of the day setting everything up and praying that she didn't come home early...which she almost did. Instead, she came home late. I actually read the entire 300 graphic novel while waiting, heh. Then I saw her coming in from the window, lit all the candles, and waited for what would turn out to be a pretty funny reaction. We went to dinner afterwards at the place it all started. 5 and a half years ago...wow time moves quickly.

When we announced it to everyone, most people said something along the lines of "Finally!" or "About time!" Heh, I guess from the outside it looks that way. But the way I see it, we were just having so much fun in our relationship that we actually had to step back and realize "Hey, shouldn't we get married now?" It's something I'm proud of, because we didn't worry about what other people thought of us or follow some rulebook on how a relationship should progress. All we really cared about was experiencing things together and creating memories that define what we live for. I've never been so happy in my entire life. I want to go everywhere and experience everything with Belle and we've only gone a fraction of the way. There's still so much more to eat, games to create, dances to invent, people to nickname, stories to make up, faces to be made, workouts to endure, surprises to plan out...that it feels like a Final Fantasy game when you first get an airship and get to explore the entire world.

Okay, that was a really bad analogy. But I bring it up cuz usually when I think of such epic times, I think of those days in high school where I played Final Fantasy games all day. The opera house scene, casting Silence on Chaos successfully, Mount Ordeals, fighting Sephiroth...I was one of those kids who would get completely immersed in these fantasy worlds and dream about how awesome it would be to experience it. Things have changed since then, and now I have that feeling of overwhelming excitement every morning I wake up. Who needs vacations when your daily life is so great? As long as I can wake up next to Belle every morning (and she isn't mad at me), I am the happiest man in the world (including fantasy worlds).

Back to Basics

2007-02-13T21:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm no longer using this blog to log my workouts since it has already served its purpose. Having a workout partner helps since I can just email Belle what today's workout is and we can talk it over and get some feedback. I've been pretty consistent lately and if I keep this up, things should work out well. If you have free time on the weekends, work out with us!

I've been having problems starting up my truck lately and it turns out that my fuel pump needs to be replaced. The fuel pumps on these trucks aren't very good to begin with, and I guess mines lasted around the average time of other trucks from the same year. Just to help out some readers who may ever run into car trouble, here's some general car advice:

1) Never pay to get work done at the stealership, unless it is 100% free (e.g. my dealership and some luxury brands like BMW offer free maintenance, or if you got into an accident covered by insurance, let the dealership fix it).
2) Learn how to rotate your own tires and keep them inflated. This will also help you spot lose nails in your tires (I just found a huge bolt lodged in one of my tires).
3) If you don't know how to change out a spare, go outside and practice it right now.
4) Get a service manual for your vehicle.
5) Learn everything about your vehicle, so odd nuances such as the manufacturer relocating the fuel filter inside the gask tank for your particular model year or removing the cabin air filter won't surprise you.
6) Read a common troubleshooting guide so if you ever get stuck on the side of the road you'll have some idea what the problem is (e.g. my truck has a hard start so the first thing I checked was the electrical system. battery fine, sparks fine, starter fine, fuses fine...so it must be fuel-related. Check regulator, then fuel filter, then pump...turns out it's the pump).
7) Contrary to what you might think, those no-name mechanics (e.g. Joe's Garage) are almost always better than chain mechanics (e.g. Jiffy Lube, Midas, etc). You can also find some good mechanics at gas stations sometimes.
8) When you're gassing up, don't just sit there and watch the numbers go up - walk around your car, check under the hood, eye your tires, etc.
9) You can save TONS of money if you learn how to do simple maintenance items yourself.
10) Bottom line, if you really love your car, you'll take the time to learn how to take care of it.

With the Colts winning the Super Bowl, you'd think I'd go blog crazy on them. But in reality there really isn't anything to talk about. They proved that they were the best team this season, so I can't criticize them. I guess there are some things they can improve (like special teams coverage) but the fact that my favorite team has finally won a Super Bowl says it all. Just like Marvin Harrison does - base your judgement on what you see on the field, not on speculation. It was astonishing how well they ran and defended the run in the playoffs. Now it's just a matter of creating legends.

Thing of the day:
Beni...at a Colts game...???!

Weekday Warriors

2007-02-09T07:58:00.000-08:00

Actually, it would be tough to get an accurate count of how much protein I take in a day because there's also protein in bread and nuts and stuff and I'm just too lazy to count all that.

Protein shake in milk: 35g
Oatmeal: 13g
Cottage cheese: 50g
Whatever's for lunch: 40g (yesterday was turkey meatloaf)
Yogurt: 10g
Protein shake in water: 25g
Whatever's for dinner: 40g (yesterday was chicken stir fry)
Glass of milk: 10g

So I get over 223g of protein a day. Since I'm trying to pack on some lean mass, that seems like a good amount. Yesterday we changed our 3 mile run into an HIIT/interval workout. Wow man, I was dying at the end. It felt great though, and I want to try to include a speed workout like this at least once a week. I remember I used to sprint like that all the time when I was a kid. Those were the days. Now I have to worry about getting injured and how sore I'll be the next day. So next time we do these intervals, it's probably best that we do them on grass instead of asphalt.

Today's workout:
Thrusters
Dumbell bench press
Upright rows

Modified it a bit since our legs are too tired to do full back squats. Tomorrow I'm also planning to run a 10k but if my legs are still sore I'll swim instead. Then Sunday is our bike ride. Mud run people, if you're free to run tomorrow let me know! The path I run on has a ton of underpasses and plus it's on dirt so it's perfect for the hills you'll be doing on the first 3 miles. It's always nice to have company around.

Today: Fiber, Tomorrow: Protein

2007-02-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

More progress indicators: it's much easier climbing those steps at Union Station. When I first started taking the train I would bumble up these stairs slowly, especially since I just woke up from a nap on the train. Now I'm taking these steps two at a time, and it feels like I just walked along a flat sidewalk. I'm not sore at all today, even though yesterday was a tough workout. I'm also averaging over 7 hours of sleep this week, up from 6. That extra hour of sleep helps me recover so much better. I mean, I feel like I could take on another tough workout right now.

Yesterday:
Deadlifts: 135/225/225/225/225 - started losing grip so I was afraid to bump up the weight, then I removed my gloves and felt more comfortable. Note to self: don't use gloves.
Incline dumbell press: 55/60/65/70/75 - improved a bit, but still not where I used to be. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll be back at 70/75/80/85/90.
Pullups: barely finished 5x5. For some reason I have a tougher time doing pullups on the gravitron. It's something about the grip on the bar. I can do pullups much better on a straight bar, like the one attached to the cable machine or the power rack.

Today is a 4 mile run, followed by a stretching session. I forgot to mention that I've been rocking it a lot lately, at least 3 times a day. Must be all the fiber. Hmmm...let's count how much:

Oatmeal: 10g
Apple: 3g
Dried Blueberries: 6g
Brown Rice (lunch and dinner): 10g
Veggies (lunch and dinner): around 8g
Whole wheat bread: 10g
Banana: 3g

Total daily fiber intake: 50g!

Yeah, that's a lot. I think they recommend around 35...hahaha. I should probably do this with all the other parts of my nutrition plan. Tomorrow...protein.

Calories, Shmalories

2007-02-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

My legs have been completely sore for 3 weeks straight. Thankfully, it didn't bother me during yesterday's run once I warmed up. The run was great. A quick 3 miles around the neighborhood. Man, It's gonna suck once all the houses in our community get built. But I guess I am a little spoiled being able to run through well-lit empty streets. But yeah, I think I'm starting to see a some progress already. My clothes are starting to fit a little tighter and my numbers have gone up. I weigh about 4 lbs more though half of that is water weight. Results will start coming a little slower from now on, but that's okay cuz I can start boosting up the intensity.

I thought about throwing in some new exercises for today's workout, but then I realized that it would probably be better to stay with this routine until the end of the month so I can chart progress. Maybe take a fallback week after this month then add in the new exercises and crossfit workouts. Todays' crossfit workout looks like fun:

For time:
1000 meter Row (or 100 sumo deadlift high-pulls)
45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
30 Pull-ups

Check out this girl doing thrusters:

Man, I don't even think I can handle that weight. Maybe in a few months. This is the workout we'll be doing:

5x5 of:
Deadlifts
Incline bench
Pullups

I should probably pair off pullups with something like thrusters or military presses but I really need to work on my bench numbers. I also need to work on my grip strength...my deadlift numbers are low cuz I keep losing my grip towards the end. I thought about using straps but I should be working on improving my grip anyways. Ever since I disclocated my thumb it hasn't been the same.

Turkey meatloaf for dinner tonight, yum. We saw this recipe on TV after watching Heroes on Monday. I wish there was a quick and easy way to have egg whites...I'd eat them every day. All of the foods that I eat every single day (fruits, frozen veggies, nuts, cottage cheese, protein shakes, oatmeal, yogurt, fish oil, whole wheat bread, etc.) are all quick and easy. I wrote before that I was gonna make protein bars, but it turns out that I already take in enough calories. As the workouts get more intense though, I'll probably need them.

Oh yeah, Happy Belated Birthday to Sandy!

At the Monkey Bars

2007-02-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

I'm still hella sore from Sunday's flag football match. I guess there were a bunch of other leg muscles that haven't been worked in a while, especially when making cuts or doing my best impersonation of a juke. The next day I had to do squats....ouch. Still, the workout wasn't as bad as I thought:

Squats: 185/225/245/265/275
Dumbell shoulder press: 50/50/55/55/55
Dips: 5 sets of 10

I need to find some kind of weight belt or something for those dips...maybe I'll try using the machine. Today will be a 3 mile run and some stretching. I haven't had a good streching session in a while and I want to try and include it in my training again. I can't believe I used to be able to do the splits. Now I could barely touch my toes. I'll try throw in a session after every run.

I definitely didn't get enough calories over the weekend. I'll make up for that this week. We went crazy on grocery shopping and I can't wait to eat all that good food. It's tough to eat on schedule during the weekends cuz weekends are never routine and always unpredictable. I gotta do better than that though and find a way to eat no matter what. At least I got plenty of rest.

The mud run is a long way but I'm already excited about it. I can't wait until everyone starts running again. We can do long Saturday morning runs then have a good brunch after. Too bad we don't have a nearby obstacle course. I guess we can improvise and use the monkey bars in the park...hahaha. Have you tried using the monkey bars lately? Man, they are a lot harder than they used to be.

7 Years In The Making

2007-02-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

Stop What You're Doing, Cuz I'm About to Ruin, the Image and the Style That You're Used To

2007-02-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

I know I already talked about Day Break but damn that show is extremely well-written. All the episodes haven't even been released yet but it could end up being one of my favorite shows ever. It's just perfect - the pacing, the characters, the plot, and not one moment is wasted. It's only 13 episodes long and that's exactly how long it should be. The creators knew everything that should happen in the show from the start and it just doesn't suffer from any of the flaws that I see in other great shows like Lost, 24, Heroes, and even the mighty Saved By The Bell. Seriously, watching that show is more important than reading my blog right now so open up a new browser window to abc.com and watch those damn episodes.

What? You're still reading this? Well hopefully you already watched all the episodes and have just came back. I know you're probably just lazy or don't have the time so I'm gonna hype up the show some more for you:

Watching Day Break is like...
- showing up at the first day of school in your new clothes
- watching the first Season of Lost
- if Heroes was only about Hiro
- the 3 seconds before orgasm
- A Tribe Called Quest in their prime
- being crowned the Homecoming King/Queen
- listening to Mitch Hedburg's comedy
- finding $20 in your pockets
- watching football in HD for the first time
- beating everyone in the playground at hopscotch
- getting your base destroyed in Warcraft but rising again from 1 peon to beat everyone
- when Optimus Prime said "Megatron must be stopped...no matter the cost!"
- that moment you step out of the lecture hall after finishing all your finals
- when Rock Lee showed off his drunken boxing
- listening to Pink Floyd's "Us and Them"
- coolin' out in the summertime
- when you have a crush on someone
- drunken dancing
- finding someone's hidden Playboy stash
- building sand castles
- Eddie Murphy in Delirious
- being the only one on your block who could do the moonwalk
- basketball during the Magic and Bird era
- daydreaming in class about Kelly Kapowski
- growing up with aspirations to become a fire truck someday
- yup..it's that good

Tonight is another night at the gym. We're gonna do 5x5 of deadlifts, push press, and pullups. It's gonna be a pretty moderate day since tomorrow I'm gonna try to squeeze in a run. The Mud Run isn't until June but I don't want to lose my base. Hopefully the people who signed up for the Mud Run will have some free time in the upcoming weekends so we could all run together. I love Saturday long runs...just not over 13 miles.

Just a sidenote on Juan's last post - I think if we ever have a football team in LA again, it should be called the Los Angeles Old Asian Women Soccer Moms on Cellphones. If you take every mascot in the NFL, this would be the last one I'd like to meet alone on the street....by far.

Whatever happened to American Gladiators? They need to bring back those types of shows to the US. I'm actually old enough to participate in one of those things now and man, that would be something.

Thing of the day:

Rub Some Dirt On It

2007-02-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

I rarely get headaches but I have one right now. Man, it would really help out if there were more than 24 hours in a day. Each weekday feels so tightly packed that I barely have any time to think to myself. Even on the train I'm not really resting, my head is busy making sure I paid all the bills and planning out the rest of the day so I can get as much stuff done possible before going to bed.

In order to get 8 hours of sleep I have to be in bed already fast asleep by 9pm. That's just ridiculous considering I don't get home from work til a little before 6pm. Lately I've been going to bed at 10pm, and that's not including the 10 minutes or so it takes me to fall asleep. That's probably where my headache came from - high intensity workouts and not enough rest. I kept on waking up thinking I overslept too. I hate that feeling.

Luckily it's a rest day today, though I hoped it would have been the weekend already. The weight for yesterday's workout:

Squats: 185/225/250/265/285 (average, I guess all that running did help a bit)
Dumbell bench: 60/65/70/70/70 (very weak, I used to start at 70)
Bent-over rows: 90/135/145/145/145 (weak, kept it at 145 to maintain form)

I'm wondering if I should hit the weights a little bit more before I start crossfit? This was today's crossfit workout:

Three rounds, 21-15-9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster and Pull-ups

Heh, it's gonna be a while before I can do 21 pullups again. I'm probably capped out at 15 right now. We'll see how I feel after the weekend. Go Colts!

Since today is a rest day I'll write a normal blog tomorrow. That reminds me, I need to add more leafy green vegetables to my diet. Now that spinach seems to be okay again...I'll probably make that romaine/spinach/tuna or chicken salad with olive oil and vineger again. I want to try and add turkey sandwiches to my pre-workout meal too. Now if I can only find the time to make them for lunch...

My Peoples Are You With Me Where You At?

2007-01-31T08:41:00.000-08:00

In the front, in the back, killa-bees on attack! Man, Wu-Tang was so badass back then. One of the things about life that really gets to me are how quickly things are forgotten. I don't know why, but it's what fascinates me most. Anyways, back on subject.

I took progress pictures but Belle won't let me put them online so I won't. Sorry. What I learned from those pictures is that I need to gain a lot of weight. I'll take a slower approach and instead of just stuffing into my mouth anything that can fit, I'll eat just enough to get a caloric excess and gain the weight slowly. It'll probably take a couple years to reach my goal, but that's okay cuz this is a lifestyle, not a shitty New Year's Resolution.

I finally found a training program that will help me reach my goal: Crossfit. Here is an example of this week's workout:

Monday:
145 pound Thruster, 10 reps
40 Pull-ups
400 meter run
95 pound Thruster, 30 reps
30 Pull-ups
600 meter run
45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
20 Pull-ups
800 meter run

Tuesday:
Run 10k

Wednesday:
Rest

Thursday:
Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Friday:
"Lynne"
Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups

Saturday:
Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Now that's my kind of program! I'll start it next week. This week we're still working on form and consistency. Yesterday's 3 mile run wasn't bad...but I really don't like running on a treadmill. I'm used to running in 50-degree temperatures at night so I felt like I was overheating in the gym. Today we're heading back to the gym for more lifting:

Squats: 5x5
Bench Press: (bar or dumbells...depending on what's open) 5x5
Bent-over Rows: 5x5

I'll start posting the weight used after the workout instead of before since it never works out the way you planned, especially when the only time you have to go to the gym is the busiest time.

Slow Twitch, Fast Twitch

2007-01-30T10:10:00.000-08:00

Belle joined me for Saturday's workout (yatta we're signed up at the same gym finally) and because we were late, we didn't get to finish the weighted crunches, so I moved them to Monday's workout. Then I was pretty sore so I changed it from weighted crunches to regular balance ball crunches. We were supposed to swim on Sunday but it's hard to get Belle to go swimming. Instead, we had a nice bike ride through the Walnut trail. Wow, I miss cycling. I wish Belle can get her own road bike so it's easier for us to stay together but we just don't have the money for that right now. The cool thing about Irvine is that there's so many people biking around everywhere. That's one of the things I love about where I live - there's tons of trails everywhere you go.

Yesterday's workout:
Squats: 135x8/185x7/225x6
Dumbell shoulder presses: 40x8/45x7/50x6
Dips: 3 sets of 10
Crunches: 3 sets of 15

Heh, the weight I'm using right now used to be my warmup weight. Man, I have long way to go just to get back to where I was a year ago. Next week I'll probably move to a more structured plan. The first step was just finding the time to get in the gym consistently. Without consistency, you might as well quit. So I thought I'd establish that first or else I'd have too many things to think about. I just want to get my ass in the gym and keep it there.

Today we're gonna go for an easy 3 mile run. Every gym day so far has been really demanding so even just running a few miles the day after is tough. It's a weird feeling...as if you've forgotten how to run. Breathing and cadence is off and on top of that your legs are sore. Since I did squats twice already, hopefully I can finish today's run instead of my legs getting shocked like it did after the first time I did squats.

I have to remind myself to take a progress picture but I'm too lazy to get my camera out of the bag. Plus I have faint-inducing tanlines.

Recovery Day

2007-01-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

I wasn't able to finish last night's run. I was still recovering from the gym workout before and after a mile and a half I could tell that my legs were overtrained and needed more rest. Packed it up and went home so I could get to bed early. Lately I've only been getting about 6 hours of sleep, but I want to try and get that to at least 7 and a half. Last night I had about 7 hours and felt much better than when sleeping for 6. That's usually the hardest part for me. I got the workout and nutrition part down, but the sleep part is always the elusive one. I miss those days when I was able to wake up without an alarm clock. Nowdays, I have to be in bed by 9pm to be able to do that.

I do get to sleep a little on the train but they're more like small naps. I'll spend the rest of the time watching TV shows or movies on the Ipod or just reading mail or something. No workout tonight since there's not enough time, but I'm still going to the gym so we can get Belle signed up at LA Fitness. This location is much nicer than my old one - the locker room looks great and it seems like the facility is maintained quite well. Not that I care though...all I really need is a squat rack, a bench, and some weights and that's good enough for me.

It gets really crowded around 6pm though, which is the only time I can really make it...but at least I'm able to get my workout done. I haven't checked out the pool yet but I'm gonna try and fit in a swim this weekend. I don't think I'll be able to blog this weekend so I'll post my workouts now (I'm not listing the warmup sets anymore):

Saturday morning:
Deadlifts: 135x8/185x7/225x6
Incline dumbell bench: 50x8/55x7/60x6
Pullups: 3 sets of 10
Weighted crunches: 15/12/10

Sunday will be a 1000yd swim.

Forgot to pack veggies with my lunch today and to make things worse, I'll be eating at Shakey's tonight. Maybe I'll eat a cup of peas before I leave.

I listed my goals but I haven't said anything about where I'm starting from yet. Right now I'm at 165lbs and probably around 8-9% bodyfat. I'll see what my lifting numbers are in the upcoming weeks, but they are probably very poor. Endurance cardio seems to be okay with all the running I've been doing. I'll time myself on my next run. I should probably post some progress pics too. I need to start using my camera again anyways...now that I have more free time I can practice a few embarrassing self-portraits. Beware the tan lines.

Thing of the day:
Now I can build my own Ninja Warrior course!
http://www.tbs.co.jp/taiiku/sasuke/pro/index1.htm

They See Me Rollin'....They Hatin'

2007-01-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

Have you watched Ninja Warrior yet? So far everyone I've showed it to has had a blast watching that show. It just works on so many levels:

Level B1: It's in Japanese.
Level 1: It's hilarious watching how contenstants fail.
Level 2: It's awesome watching how contestants succeed.
Level 3: People from totally different backgrounds compete: K1 fighters, gymnasts, comedians, fishermen.
Level 4: People do the courses wearing the attire that matches their occupation (e.g. real estate agent wears a suit, garbageman wears his uniform, beauty contest winner wears yukata, etc.)
Level 5: The Japanese announcer is frickin' hilarious.
Level 6: Watching the show motivates you to get in shape.
Level 7: Watching the show also motivates you to grab a beer and watch the show all night.
Level 8: The octopus.
Level 9: You get attached to the contestants and want them to win, and feel sad when they lose.
Level 10: Because anyone who actually finishes all stages truly is a ninja.

Would I be able to finish it? Aww hell naw, Uncle Phil. It's certainly something that would be fun to train for though. That reminds me, I'm not doing the marathon anymore. I really got sick of running and wanted to go back to my old training where I don't permanently damage my body with every hard workout. I'm still doing the Disneyland Half Marathon every year, but that's just about as far as I ever want to run. After that point it doesn't get fun anymore. I'm planning to do a triathlon in May and then the Mud Run again in June. Now these are my types of events. As I learned while watching American Idol, some things you're just not meant to do, no matter how hard you try or how much you sacrifice. It's just a matter of finding out what you like to do, set your goals there, and do whatever you can to achieve them. And if you're gonna quit...you better have a damn good reason!

I'm going to start logging my workouts on here. That way I'll have more motivation to stick to my plan and you guys can give me hell if I miss a workout.

Ultimate Goal: Finish an Olympic distance triathlon under 2 and a half hours (that means I have to swim a mile under 28 minutes, average about 21mph on a 24 mile bike ride, then run 7 minute miles on a 10k). I want to be able to do this weighing in at 180lbs. At the gym I want to be able to hit 1000lbs. on the big 3 lifts (squat + deadlift + bench). Then, I want to go to Japan and win the Ninja Warrior tournament.

I have a long way to go. Today's run is 6 miles at a moderate pace. A moderate pace for me right now is about 9 minute miles. I want to take this slowly cuz everytime I try to run fast, I get injured. Luckily, I found a good place to run by my house. It's right next to the train tracks so the dirt on the ground is a good surface, there's just enough light so I can run there at night, and it stretches about a mile, so I have an idea how far I've run. It's kinda cool when a train whizzes and the path doesn't get broken up by stoplights. Looking forward to it.

How I ate today:
1) Woke up and had a protein shake with milk and multivitamin
2) Oatmeal, fish oil, and an apple
3) Cottage cheese and blueberries
4) Brown rice pasta with beef and meat sauce (should've had veggies here)
5) 3 slices of whole wheat bread, yogurt, and nuts with cranberries mix
6) Banana before running
7) Tuna steak, brown rice, veggies
8) Glass of milk before going to bed

I'm gonna need more calories so I'm thinking of throwing in a protein bar on the train to work and maybe on the way back too. I'll just make them on my own. Peanut butter, honey, protein powder, oatmeal...mix them together in a bowl, microwave, smooth out into a tray, and voila! Tomorrow's plan is the same, but I'll throw in another shake post-workout. I'll try to log that tomorrow too.

I'll put down the other day's workout since that's technically when I started:

Dumbell press: 45 warmup/55x8/60x7/65x6
Barbell Rows: 60 warmup/70x8/100x7/110x6
Squats: bar warmup/135x10/185x8/225x3 (started cramping up)
Hanging leg raises: 3 sets of 10

I underestimated the weight on the rows and overestimated the weight on the squats. First day back in the gym...it was a lot harder than I thought. Right now I'm keeping it simple to get back into the routine of things. Tomorrow will also be a lift day, but an easy day.

Thing of the day (only you Final Fantasy players will get these):

Sweet.

2007-01-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

I'm So Tired of Making a Living

2007-01-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

I probably wasted a lot of time in doing so, but I watched American Idol the other day and it was alright I guess. The highlight was that one software programmer dude who was either stoned out of his mind or comes from Mars and Jupiter combined. I probably sing even worse than most of these people so I shouldn't even be laughing, but it's amazing how disconnected some of these people are from the world. The scary thing is, maybe I'm also just as disconnected and don't even know it.

I think if I woke up one day and could suddenly sing, I would definitely audition with Maktub's You Can't Hide. Listen to it, especially when he sings this line:

"I can't believe the state of things that's going on, with the whole wide world in a mess I don't think we're ever coming down..."

I think I could wet a few panties busting that song out live on TV. You could find it in the music player on maktub.com. Now that I told you about that song, don't listen to it, it's mine! Their other songs are great too, take one of those.

There's this other show I found that might even be better than MXC. It's called Ninja Warrior and it comes on G4TV Tuesdays at midnight. Thank God for Tivo. I watched it last night and holy crap the obstacles are insane! You really do have to be a ninja to get past just the 1st stage. So far, only 2 guys out of like 50 have passed the 1st stage, one was a gymnast and the other was a fireman with 3% bodyfat (Fun fact: 3% bodyfat in reality is amazingly unhealthy). It's something I'd definitely like to try someday, and I just might do it if I ever make it back to Japan.

Sandy is my best friend. She is awesome. Hi Sandy, congratulations!

This Sunday, the Big Showdown. I have never been more pumped up for a Colts game in my life. This is it! All those years of suffering through playoff disappointment have come to this day. For this day, we can redeem ourselves and exact vengeance upon our hated enemies. Our enemies, who have caused us so much pain and shamed our fair nation. But this time, the tides of the horses have spoken. Our enemies will fall, and nary a thought will creep upon their feeble minds of getting back up, for their legs will be overcome by the fear that is the Indianapolis Colts.

Reality: "There goes the opening kickoff, fielded by...wait, Wilkins has fumbled the opening kickoff! Recovered by the Patriots...touchdown! It's gonna be a long day for Dungy and the Colts."

"Colts down by 2, 1 minute left in the game. Colts with the ball at the Patriot's 45. 3rd and long. Manning drops back to pass....intercepted! By...uhhh...Ty Law???!! Ladies and gentleman, Ty Law has taken a plane from Kansas City and intercepeted yet another Manning pass!"

Last weekend was yet another epic Tahoe trip. Man, these are always so fun and I wouldn't want to miss them for the world. We had a badass cabin and the hot tub in the backyard in single digit temperatures was icing on the cake. Actually, icing on my head. It was awesome sitting in a 90 degree tub while my hair froze. Sharing a tub meant for 4 with 12 people...ahhhh the naughty memories. I've never has so much beer to drink in one weekend. Oh yeah, we went snowboarding too but it almost felt like an afterthought with all the fun we were having in the cabin. Hopefully we can do another trip to Mammoth before the season ends.

So I'm thinking about going back on myspace. Even though it's blocked here at work, it would be nice to be caught up in other people's lives outside of reality. Anyways, I know there's not a lot of Colts fans around here, but you're welcome to join me if you want to watch the game. Give me call.

Thing of the day:

One of My Favorite Lakers Was Robert Horry

2007-01-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

You know how I always make you guys watch these shows? Well here's another one you should watch: Everybody Hates Chris. That show is frickin' hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard since yesterday. And yesterday I was laughing so hard cuz I was watching Everybody Hates Chris. Trust me, I'm recommending these shows for a reason - you NEED to watch them. You don't want to be one of those homo sapiens in the future that missed out something epic and even if you try to catch up, the magic is already gone. For example, imagine playing Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger for the first time today, instead of 10 years ago. It's just something where you had to be there at the right time. And the right time is now.

I guess it's sort of like when I first started watching 24. I was several years late and it wasn't nearly as good as it could've been if I watched it when it came out. It's still good though, and I can't wait to see what's gonna happen in the new season starting this weekend. Just reading that last paragraph I'm starting to realize that wow man, I've become a frickin' TV addict. Ouch. Part of the reason why I can watch so much TV and movies is that I can watch them on my Ipod in the train or after a hard workout there's no better way to spend your recovery time just sitting on the couch and watching TV (or playing videogames). I want to get back in touch with my other hobbies though. It bothers me that I'm only going snowboarding and bodyboarding just once a year now.

Fortunately, the times when I finally do go snowboarding are pretty epic. I'm so excited about this weekend's Tahoe trip that I felt like I overdosed on caffeine pills. Whoa, whoa whoa...I always seem to use the same references over and over. I think the LT one with the hookers is getting kinda old. I should probably get more in touch with today's pop culture so I can throw in some fresh ones. How about: I'm so excited about this weekend's Tahoe trip that I felt like that one episode of American Idol where that chick was singing and...sorry, I don't watch American Idol.

I have to write another ese about my work again so I can get promoted. Just like last time it's a written statement for Ninja Advancement - Jounin Ninja III. These things are tough because I never know what to talk about. We only get 2 double-spaced pages and we basically have to fit our entire career into that tiny frame of reference. How does one describe the blood, sweat and tears they put into their job on a simple piece of paper? I think such works merit a damn full-on broadway musical! Featuring such songs as the heart wrenching "I Work, Therefore I Cry", the inspirational "I'll Cover You, My Coworker", and the beautiful "I'm Sick of Work, I Want to Jump Out this Window and Defy Gravity."

Colts divisional matchup this weekend! Sadly I'll be on the slopes so I won't know the outcome until we get back. Baltimore is scary, especially considering the Colts' track record in the playoffs. I hope that this is the year though, cuz seriously I'm tired of being a fan of a team that's great in the regular season but always loses in the playoffs. Hopefully Manning's career ends up more like Elway than Marino. That Joseph Addai though...he can run. I was a little disappointed when Manning and Harrison miscommunicated and gave Ty Law another 2 interceptions, but hopefully that's corrected by the weekend. I pray to God that last weekend's defensive performance isn't a fluke. Last time we played, Freeney had a great game against Ogden. Hopefully he can do it again, and if Meeks and Dungy can get this patchwork defense to the Conference Finals, may Allah assist God in helping us cuz I would hate to try and tackle LDT with our defense. Good luck Chargers fans, the Pats are gonna be a handful.

Damn, I'm getting shin splints again, in addition to the new knee injury. Last weekend's run was killer. I'll use the Tahoe trip as a break from running, but it pisses me off that I keep getting injured. If I could run injury-free, oh how sweet life would be. After this marathon though, I don't think I'm ever gonna run another one again. I just want to say I finished one, even though it will take me 6 hours. Back to triathlons for me. I miss biking and swimming and lifting so much...more than Michael Bay is missing the point of Transformers. I mean, what the hell is Megatron supposed to be and where is his gun?

I stopped talking about Beni for a while now but I still think about her sometimes. It's funny, cuz her personality sucks. I mean, check out her interview with Janet Jackson on YouTube. Awkward. I wouldn't know what to say to her in person cuz our personalities are so different:

Beni:
# Favorite Artists: Utada Hikaru, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys, Nas
# Favorite Actors: Johnny Depp, Wesley Snipes
# Favorite Magazine: Seventeen, XXL, Vibe
# Favorite Movies: X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo
# Favorite Shows: Kim Possible

Me:
# Favorite Artists: Beni Arashiro
# Favorite Actors: Christian Bale in American Psycho, Audrey Tautou
# Favorite Magazine: Runner's World
# Favorite Movies: Seven Samurai, Full Metal Jacket, Back to the Future, Big Lebowski
# Favorite Shows: Everybody Hates Chris, Daybreak, Sidekicks

Also, her blog entries are totally different from mines:

WASSUP！こないだFM横浜の生放送Air Cruise in Mt.Naebaに出たんだけど、ラジオ＋スキーもできてit was SOOO fun♪　去年の12月に生まれて初めてスキー（＆初めてのWinter sport）してちょーーはまったの！！ほんっと楽しいね～～最初は全く前に進めなかったけど・・・ははは。今seasonが終わるまでに絶対また行きたい★　あと、前on the realでも言ったように、スノボーも挑戦したいから！というわけで、苦手な冬でも楽しく過ごせる方法をみつけたぜp(^o^)q

I don't even know what that says (something about snowboarding and keepin' it real) but I totally wouldn't mind listening to Beni talk in Japanese and English like that. Oh man, she is just awesome when she teaches English. If I ever run into her, I would ask her what the difference between lay and lie is in English. The ensuing conversation would be the ultimate. Onegai! Oh yeah, this was a comment I found on Beni's post:

"i donno who u are or what you are. but lemme tell you someting, you\\\'re a stupid japanese [babe] who only cares about makeup and fashion, and you wear naked clothes and show all your pubic hair!" (sic)

I guess that's one thing we have in common. I like to wear nekkit clothes and show my pubic hair too. All of it.

Thing of the day:

All The Dude Ever Wanted Was His Rug Back

2007-01-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

I finally saw Team America the other night and I can't believe they got away with that puppet sex scene. The actual boning part wasn't bad...it was the other bodily fluids that took it to the next level. Pooing and peeing on each other's faces...hahaha! Too bad they didn't finish it off with a dirty sanchez. Anyways, it was a great guilty pleasure movie. I started putting videos into my parent's Ipod so I could watch them on the train. Why do I have my parent's Ipod? Cuz they never use it and it felt like such a waste to just let it sit in their house. So for now, I'll use it until Belle gets a laptop or when my parents finally have the time to sit down and learn how it works. Up next: Flight of the Navigator!

If there is anything I've learned in my...18 years on this earth, it would be this:

Don't argue with stupid people. They bring you down to their level, then beat you with experience!

I think people's lives would be a lot easier if they just learned to let things go. There are a lot of things we should be fighting for - energon cubes are one of them - but little things that get us nowhere only waste our time. What would our world be like if that time spent arguing with each other was instead spent on singing church songs? Holy crap we would be so badass, cuz church songs are awesome and give you lots of power. You know that energized feeling you get after singing "One Bread, One Body?" That's power baby! Now imagine if everyone in the world ate their daily bread before they went to bed...wow man, I don't know about you but I would be scared of Earth if I was an alien. (Hint: Go to church.)

I saw the previews for Daybreak (that Taye Diggs show that was supposed to fill in for Lost while it was on break) and thought it was just another Groundhog Day clone. But then I actually watched it. Dude, this show was much better than what Lost Season 3 gave us so far and ABC frickin' cancelled it! Seriously, you should watch this show. I implore you to watch it. In fact, it was one of the best shows I've ever seen! None of the characters are irritating and they don't do stupid things that make you pull your hair out. Questions are answered in a timely fashion and it doesn't hurt that the girl is pretty hot. Please, watch this show. They only showed 6 episodes before it was pulled from the air but I'm hoping that they'll release the last 7 in some form. If you like Heroes and Lost Season 1, 24 and Prison Break...you'll definitely like Daybreak. It's that good.

Remember in my last post how I said that Monkey Ball was a really awesome game? Fuck Monkey Ball! Damn that game pisses me off. Stupid monkey!!! Why won't you go the right way?? It was cool for the first few stages but then it starts to get mind-boggling hard. Like the developers made it that way just so you can throw your controller at your TV and buy a new one. It's not Ninja Gaiden hard too, where the reason why you died was cuz you're not ninja enough. Even if you were a ninja this game would frustrate the hell out of you. If you just cough your monkey will fall off. If you blink your monkey will fall off. Most of the time your monkey will fall off because it wants to. Screw that. Back to Gears of War and Madden for me.

I'm at a crossroads in my hair-growing process. My hair is just nasty right now. I don't know what I could do with it at this length and I look like one of those basement-living otakus who play videogames all day. Oh wait. But seriously, now I know why so many guys have a hard time growing out their hair. It sucks. Every day I want to cut it but I'm always just determined enough to keep going on. I'm heading towards an unknown future - I have no idea what I would look like with long hair but I do it cuz it was one of my goals before I reach 30. Maybe I should try photochopping myself. Idea for next post.

So 2 Christmasses passed and I haven't written another song yet. My last song was the inspirational "Be Like a Freakin' Ninja" from December 2005. This one is entitled "I Am a Ninja, and I Rock." Here we go:

Late last night, all alone in my car
I put my katana away and looked up at the stars

Thought to myself, damn I rock
Even Brian Boitano couldn't touch my jock

You see, the UN hired me to kidnap the president
because he was killing all the Iraqi residents

So I took my fancy clothes, my black silk underwear...
and kidnapped him at Disneyland (background singers: Mickey Mouse!)
No doubt the government was in despair
They sent 2 bad dudes (background singers: bad enough dudes!)
and 10 hookers to my hotel room
so I would get boom-boom
and be too weak to fight the next day (background singers: death by snoo-snoo!)
like LT of the past not LT of today

But it didn't faze me because...

Chorus 1:
I am a Ninja, and I Rock!
People know me as far as Bangkok
I drive a Vespa and hit people with my clarinet
I'm more elusive than a shadow and a silhouette
People talk about me in legends and stories
One of my favorite Lakers was Robert Horry

Let me tell you another story of how much I rock
This one took place around 7 o'clock

I was going down the street ghostridin' my Vespa
Sorry, I can't think of anything that rhymes with Vespa

Then one of my enemies challenged me to a fight
He threw down a smoke bomb which flashed a bright light

Suddenly, there were fighting legends by my enemy's side
Chuck Norris, Snake Eyes, Naruto, and Mr. Miyagi (background singers: look eye!)
My jaw dropped to the floor and I just about died
But I kept my composure and remembered my training (background singers: blunt force trauma!)
Sexy no jitsu was what I used
But my enemies were strong and were not amused
So I took it old skool and breakdanced their face (background singers: rocksteady!)
The electric boogaloo laid my enemies enemies to waste

You can't faze me cuz...

Chorus 2:
I am a Ninja, and I Rock!
People know me more than than David Hasselhoff
I train in the mountains like in Rocky IV
Even though I like slow jams I'm still hardcore
People talk about me in legends and stories
One of my favorite Lakers was Robert Horry

Thing of the day:

A Shared Peace Among the People of Earth

2006-12-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

The new Rocky movie was pretty badass. I liked it. It goes right behind Rocky 1, with Rocky 4 as my #1. This movie was what Rocky 5 should've been. Though I wouldn't have been disappointed if they went the kickass way out having Rocky fight in the Middle East and eventually winning the war on terrorism. Sure, this kind of stuff doesn't win awards, but damn I would've paid some good money to see Rocky training in the desert with multiple training montages to fight some Al-Qaeda genetic monster. They should bring Vince DiCola back to do the score. His work on Rocky 4 and the Transformers movie was fantastic.

Too bad you won't see his music on the new Transformers movie coming out next year. I saw the new preview for it and I'm still skeptical. They did manage to get the original voice of Optimus Prime which is cool, but even Peter Cullen can't save this movie with Michael Bay at the helm. Heh, that reminds me of the Pearl Harbor sucks song, "why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies? I guess Pearl Harbor sucked, just a little bit more than I miss you...." Hahaha! I need to see that movie someday, I love that song.

You know what game is really fun? Monkey Ball! That game is just bananas (pun intentionality pending). It sort of reminds me of when Sonic first came out or Nights Into Dreams. Sega is great with these types of games and they always seem to put me in a good mood, even though they get tough and frustrating at times. But hey, I'm a happy guy and happy games is how I roll. So if someone asked me, "Yo man, how do you roll?" I probably wouldn't even answer, cuz one does not ask how another rolls. One simply just says how they roll. Just like how one does not simply walk into Mordor.

The year is ending and it's been a cool year. I really don't know how to describe it...it's like when you're signing yearbooks and telling everyone to have a cool summer. Nowadays I lose track of time easily, and I forget my age all the time. It just felt like another year, but life has been so good I don't really care how much time passes by. Age ain't nuthin' but the number of years you've lived on this earth. If I spent my time thinking about it, I wouldn't have anytime left over enjoying it.

Sound effects part 2:
WooOOOooOOO! - The sound Amelie made when trying to imitate the sounds of a ghost.
Thuck! Thuck! Thuck! - The sound of 3 ninja stars missing it's target and getting stuck into a tree. The target was probably a highly skilled ninja.
Ugh! - There was this game called Kid Niki and when you hit the boss, it says "Ugh!" When I was little, I would always pronounce it like "Uggg!" Stupid silent G's.
Gozaimasu! - Everytime we left a store or restaurant in Japan, they would always say some kind of greeting, but I didn't know what it was. To me, everything sounds like gozaimasu! I like this word.
Slsh, slsh! - When I read this one hentai, this was the sound effect they used to describe sexual intercourse. Oh, those Japanese!
....kaboom! - It's the sound one of the bombs make in Star Wars Episode 2, the one in the asteroid field. It's probably my favorite explosion...I think the silence right before it hits is what makes it so dramatic.

I don't really have a New Year's resolution for next year. It would be nice to finish the marathon but I'm already certain I won't let myself fail unless I was seriously injured. It has to be something tough to do....hmmmm. I got it! I'll work harder at my career. Sure, it's not a concrete goal, but I'll work out the details later on. From this day forth, I vow to work harder than I ever have before at work, so help me God.

Seriously now, that resolution's not gonna last, but I'll keep it going for as long as I could. I don't want to remember my 20's like, "Oh yeah, back in those days I worked pretty hard at the office." Who cares? The moments from work I remember most are when we go out to lunch, office events, or times like when the fire alarm went off and the entire office went down 7 flights of stairs in the dark. Sure, I write code so that the city can be productive and I'm proud of the tough assignments I finish, but honestly there are more important things to be proud of like your family, friends, that crazy fart you blasted that one time, or Orange Bang.

Well then, Happy New Year my friends, maybe this is the year that one can simply walk into Mordor.

Thing of the day:
You, you are the thing of the day. Congratulations!

img src="you.jpg" alt="an awesome person" align="westside" class="a lot of it" style="funky"/>

Step 1: Cut a Hole in a Box

2006-12-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

Beni rejected the friend request. She probably saw my message and thought:

Then she saw that I'm way older than her and said to herself:

What was I really expecting? I guess it would been nice if she was all:

Maybe even:

Sorry Beni, you rejected my friend request so we can't be friends anymore and besides, my girlfriend is hotter. I guess that means:

Beni's reaction:

Simplicit

2006-12-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

Rocky comes out tommorrow, yatta! It won't be a good movie, but I'm gonna watch it anyways cuz c'mon man...it's a Rocky movie! I can't imagine any guy who grew up in the 80's that doesn't remember the kickass feeling these movies give you. They play the movies on cable all the time and once you start watching, you just can't stop. You know what happens. You know every word in the film. But damn, you just want to see Rocky kick some ass. Then maybe go outside for a jog afterwards.

I was in training (programming training) all week last week and man, my brain is fried. I haven't been challenged like that in a long time so it was really good for me. Brings me back to the days of UCI where everyday felt like doomsday. Always a project that needs to be done, never enough time. I have to hand it off to the alma mater though...there has been nothing I've faced so far in my career that UCI hasn't prepared me for. It's also where I learned how to browse the web most effectively on downtime...like I'm doing right now. But yeah, after that training I feel refreshed - I'm excited about the upcoming projects and work just got a lot more Rocky-like.

Meaning that I've got adrenaline flowing through my veins like....ummm...whatever usually flows through my veins. That reminds me of that Wii surgery game...I'm glad I never decided to become a doctor. Just too much pressure...and that's just from a videogame. My hands shake like a fox and I wouldn't wish them to do surgery on my worst enemy. Unless I was like Dr. House. Then I could just tell other people to do the work while I sit back and plan out witty dialogue when no one's looking.

Was that Christmas episode of the Office one of the greatest moments on TV or what? Wow man, it's such a great show. Even people who aren't familiar with the characters will find themselves rolling on the floor laughing. Well, maybe not. I think I've literally only rolled on the floor laughing like twice in my life, and that's when I was a kid. Why can't I do that anymore? If someone cracks a great joke on the train station platform, why would everyone look at me funny if I started rolling around laughing on the ground? Next time someone rolls on the floor laughing, I'm joining them, regardless if what they're laughing at is funny or not. I'll just think of that one time when Sherwin was messing around with the keyboard while we lived in Rattan. For some reason, I couldn't stop laughing. Dude, ROFL.

It's almost Christmas but I seem to be more excited about the Tahoe trip next month than Jesus' Birthday. Oh crap, I just sinned.

* 2 Our Father's and 5 Hail Mary's later...

But yeah man, these are the things you live for. Travelling to someplace that feels so far away from home with the best bunch of friends you can wish for. I still remember the feeling of cruising down the mountain past midnight with no one in sight...just me out there and mother nature in a scene I'd like to capture in a beautiful, beautiful snow globe. Sure, money's been pretty tight lately with the mortgage to pay for and I committed myself to never carrying a balance on my credit card again, but for times like these it's okay to make an exception. When you're old sitting on your futuristic rocking chair, you're not gonna remember your credit score in your twenties...you're gonna remember the cold beer you had in the hot tub, enjoying one of the best feelings you'll ever remember, especially after that part where you took a wrong turn and had to hike it back in your snowboard boots 3 miles in negative degree weather to get back to the cabin. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but even if it does, good times man, good times. Suntory times.

That doesn't mean Christmas isn't exciting though. Thanks to everyone who helped decorate our tree...you guys put the "bad" in badass on our home's first Christmas tree. Otherwise, it's only ass. It was a lot of fun putting everything together and it's all thanks to girlfriend who had the Christmas spirit to make the house worthy of a Christmas elf. Buddy would be proud. I'm looking foward to the Christmas party at JohnJohn's too...the one last year at Jovan's was really fun. All of them are fun. This time, I hope to come home with something good in the white elephant exchange. Last year I was supposed to exchange some whey protein I brought. You know what? I still have it, unopened. Tun, tun, tun.

You're probably tired of all the Beni videos so you'll get none of that this week, yatta! I finally found a copy of that show I saw in Japan and wow. Man. I'm also embarassed to say that I found her on myspace (even though I don't even have a myspace) so I sent her a message on girlfriend's account hoping that she'll come down here and hang out with us. Yes, I actually asked her that. I'll keep you updated.

Thing of the day:
Sorry, there is none. Merry Christmas, homeboy.

Na Noni Zutto Soba Ni Ita Ne, My Homie

2006-12-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

1285 more pictures left until I reach 10,000 on my Flickr account! Too bad less than 1% of them are actually good. I've fallen behind in my photography lately, but hopefully as I settle into the house I'll have more time to keep improving again. For example, the pics from my bro's graduation would have been a lot better if I used spot metering instead of leaving it at evaluative. The faces under spotlights were blown out and I didn't realize until I got home that it was also metering the dark areas around the spotlight (which are okay if they are washed out). I've had my camera for a year already and I still make rookie mistakes. Better luck next time.

Before anyone gets a membership to the gym, they should take a proficiency test to make sure they know what they're doing. There was this girl on the climbing machine yesterday who was going at it so furiously, I thought she was gonna climax. There's also this old guy that totally loads up the tricep pushdown machine for Arnold...oh wait, it's for himself. Well he loads up the machine and starts doing reps that should be measure in centimeters while his face contorts into something resembling Joker's war face:

Anyways, I'm trying to decide whether to join 24hr. Fitness or stay with LA Fitness. I tried out both gyms this week and they're about the same. LA Fitness has a pool though which is pretty important. It gets crowded during the time I go (around 6pm) but it seems like I'll still be able to get my workout done in time. Whatever happens, I hope that me and Belle can end up in the same gym cuz it's fun having her do demanding workouts that other girls are afraid of. Hahaha.

How come no one uses the word "homie" anymore? Do kids these days call each other homies? Sure, it sounds dumb but it's what we grew up saying so we shouldn't be ashamed of it. It is a beautiful word that embodies the spirit of easily manipulated youths who just want belong. What else are we gonna call our friends, BFF's? You saw what happens to you if you try to use that word in real life on that one episode of Heroes. Next time, do yourself a favor and refer to your friends as homies. They might make fun of you, but at least you're keepin' it real. You go, homeboy or homegirl.

Joseph Addai turned out to be quite a good replacement for Edge afterall. The Colts haven't played well lately, with Dallas Clark out and our 1-ply run defense. I didn't get NFL Sunday Ticket so I won't be able to see the remainder of their games, but all that matters now is the playoffs. We're going to Tahoe again on MLK and I hope this time I can go home with the Colts finally winning. I should probably ask my doctor to prescribe me some high blood pressure medication just in case. It looks like we may run into the Chargers this year who are playing really well right now. We're gonna need to pull some Tampa Bay on Monday Night or Denver earlier this year magic to come out on top.

Our last softball game is this Sunday. Man, I love playing softball with our team. Even though I am deathly afraid everytime a fly ball comes wailing at me or a really quick ground ball that might hop up and hit me in the face....it feels great when I actually do make a play on the ball. Someday I know we're gonna leave our losing ways behind like in Major League, but it'll be fun no matter what we do. I still can't believe President Palmer (the best president ever) was in that movie. It's like having Ryan from The Office eventually become the guy that rescues everyone in Lost Season 8.

Thing of the day (see...told you she should stick with teaching english):

Power Pants

2006-12-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

I completely understand everything Hiro is talking about in his blog, even the small references: "Charlie wasn't my Marle, she was my Gwen Stacy". Marle was the girl you had to save in this game called Chrono Trigger. What makes this reference neat? The main character (aka "you") had to travel through time to save the world, except in the end Marle lives. Gwen Stacy was Spiderman's first girlfriend who died as the result of Spiderman's failure. "Hey, I get that reference!" is a pretty good feeling, and is probably the only validation that my time spent doing nerdy things was not in vain. So for now, I'll keep being nerdy until I hear the words "Grandpa, the Naruto fillers have finally ended!"

I would have never thought I'd be the owner of an X-Box 360 and a Nintendo Wii. When reading about them, my thoughts were, "I'm not gonna be one of those idiots who camp out in line to get an overpriced console that will be $100 cheaper in a few months." Well pay me Tuesday and get a hamburger today, cuz that's exactly what I did. There were around 100 people in line at 7:30 in the morning lining up at Target when I tried to get the Wii. Luckily, Belle was lined up at another Target and eventually got one.

The Wii has been the most fun I've had playing videogames in a long time...and that's just at the character creation screen. And the 360 has got me feeling the most badass I've felt in a long time when I'm chainsawing a Locust in the head....in Hi-Def. We've got 4 controllers so if you're ever bored and feel the need for some fun or some badass action, come on over! It's fun having guests over. The other night we had Heroes night and it's just so much better with company.

I'm not high on fashion nor do I subscribe to any sort of metrosexuality, but I just bought these pants and wow, they feel great. They're the Producer pants from the store formerly known as Structure, and they're the best fitting pair of pants I've ever owned. I could breakdance in these, show up in a business meeting, then go to sleep with the same pair of pants. How awesome is that? The only downside is that they are dry clean only. That's cool though...with great power comes great responsibility. And these pants give me +25 defense with an AC dexterity and high strength bonus. That's playing with power. Just remember to dry clean them.

Who is that girl I posted on my last 2 Things of the Day? She's this girl who teaches english on Japanese TV. We saw her while flipping channels in Japan. She's also a pop star, but seriously her music is horrible. And so are her music videos. But as an english teacher well, Tommy has Nicole Scherzinger, Cicely has Jason Mraz, Girlfriend has Rodrigo Santoro, so for me it's Beni Arashiro. I'm not the kind of person who cares about celebrities but for some reason I could just watch Beni sit in a blank room and do nothing but talk. I don't have to understand a word she's saying, just make sure you don't dress her up and put her in a music video. Please.

Thing of the day:
http://www.avexnet.or.jp/avexdb/arashiro/asx/com041019_100.asx

Greato Scotto!

2006-11-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

We went on strike again and it's been about 2 days so far. I'm gonna go back to work tomorrow though, gotta pay the mortgage! It was pretty convenient for me cuz my brother's police academy graduation was yesterday and today they're gonna deliver our TV and set up the satellite. Finally, no more fiddling around with the bunny ear antennas. Thanks Jay for letting us borrow it...without it I would've missed 2 of the best Colts games this season.

"Gotta pay the mortgage..." You'll probably recognize that quote from Thank You For Smoking. Great movie...I don't know why I didn't watch it earlier. Sure, it sucks having to pay for the mortgage but so far everything has been really frickin' awesome. I never thought my daily life could change for the better but wow, it really did. Eric couldn't be a better roomate and living with Belle is just fun. We still have a ton of stuff in boxes but it's getting there. What really surprised me was how easy it was to make this house feel like home. It's like trying on a suit and finding out that it has already been tailored for you.

I'm really proud of my brother. I would have never thought he'd grow up to enforce the law. Kinda funny when I think about it now, especially after all those petty fights we'd get into when we were little. Now for sure I can't beat him up. He'd probably tap me out on my first move. I wish him all good luck on his new career. I know he'll do well because he has a lot of support from his friends and family who will not allow him to fail. I will not allow him to fail. If you see me around my brother it may seem like I'm always criticizing him, but it's all for fun cuz it's just my way of showing that he is a big part of my life. Whether he knows that or not.

I miss Japan. Shinsengumi was a reminder of just how badass that vacation was. But that night of yakatori, sake, and biru was such a fun night, we gotta do that again. Haaaaaai!

I restarted my marathon training 5 weeks late. Holy crap I'm so behind. I was able to run 3 miles on back to back days without problems, and today is a 5 miler. The 10 miler this weekend will gauge just how much training I missed in those 5 weeks. I'm hoping that my current level of fitness will help me catch up. Right now my goal is just to finish, regardless of time. Hopefully as things settle down I can finally get back into a routine. It's fun running around the empty neighborhood though, and I should enjoy it while I can cuz pretty soon these neighborhoods aren't gonna be empty anymore.

Thing of the day:

The Whole Way Through

2006-11-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't blogged in a long time so I have a lot to catch up on. Now Japan, that was fun. The food was exquisite, the sake smooth, and the sights just amazing - you'll never see anything like it anywhere else...unless you were watching it on TV or something. 2 gigs of photo space will fly by like a bird in the sky...and that's exactly what happened to me. It's a place I definitely want to go to again, since I felt like I only explored a fraction of a fraction of what's out there. As a kid, the culture has intrigued me from the start...much more than any other place. If there was one place I wanted to visit, this was it. I was there, and it was frickin' awesome.

- Haaaaaaai!
- Getting lost in the fish market and having one of the workers drive us in a cargo truck while everyone stared.
- Dressing up in our Japanese robes and having sake nights.
- Miwa's drawings (they were very Rukia-like for you Bleach fans)
- Hiro pronouncing "Lord."
- Kyoto station - my favorite place in the entire trip.
- "Another temple??!!"
- The crazy Japanese TV shows (I saw Fuyutsuki-sensei!)
- The feeling of just walking around the different regions of Tokyo among legions of people in black suits.
- Women riding bikes and scooters in heels. Actually, just their love of boots in general.
- Watching Beni-chan teach english on TV. Kawaii!
- The sheer amount of stores and restaurants.
- The food...I finally got my taste of squid yakatori and it was frickin' yummy.
- The many trips to the convenience stores.
- How fast I was able to fall asleep because I was so tired from the day's events.
- The sights at Mt. Fuji and Hakone, riding on the boat and the cable car.
- Being nekket around dudes in the onsen.
- Travelling with a fun bunch of people.

Everything happened so quickly that I didn't have time to appreciate then. Now that I'm here sitting back in my chair at work, I feel like I just came back from a magic carpet ride. Except that the carpet is an oriental rug. But Abu is still a monkey.

Anyways, this weekend was pretty badass. We played flag football for Belle's birthday and the game was just fun as hell. It was also nice having guests stay in our house and just people hanging out in general playing videogames til we passed out. I'm not very good at organizing events so I was happy that it turned out alright. Especially the football part - I thought our team was gonna get blown out but it turned out to be evenly matched (thanks to the sake). Hopefully we can have games like that again. We still have a lot of candy left over from the pinata so drop by and grab some! It's fun having guests over.

The only thing that would've made the weekend perfect was if the Colts won. Oh well...you can't win them all.

Thing of the day:

Eat Your Daily Bread, Before You Go To Bed

2006-10-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

Did I ever tell you that story? Me, my brother, and my neighbors never really got the concept of the Body of Christ when we were young. What we'd do is get some Wonderbread and smash it between our schoolbooks and cut it up so that it would resemble communion. Then someone would be the priest while the others get in line to receive the Eucharist. Only instead of the formal ritual you'd see in church, the congregation would dance around singing "eat your daily bread, before you go to bed!" and repeat that over and over. The bread tasted so good that we would get right back in line once our daily bread has been given to us. Did we sin that day? Maybe. We felt like we were doing something religious though. I guess that's what happens when you try to explain complex symbolism to kids who just wanted to watch cartoons...any cartoons.

I really need to learn how to tie complex knots. I can tie a mean shoelace, but such skills mean little when tying down an oversized bed in the back of my truck. Thanks to Jay who did a really good job helping me secure it the best we could. I know a lot of people don't like moving but I think it's a barrel of fun. It was a lot of fun last year when Belle and Cicely moved into the apartment and we were sitting around in the dark. Hard to believe it's been a year at that place already. Except for the blaring train horns, I really liked it there.

I think trains in general are cool though. Laying out the toy train tracks and chugging the trains through my awesome city was always fun to do as a kid. I don't even remember the last time I travelled on a train, but I'm guessing it was when I went on that Knotts train where the robbers take your money and shoot you. Pretty soon I'm gonna take the train to work everyday. It's gonna be nothing like my young impression of trains where you can have adventures in the boxcars, but hey, it's a train. Choo-choo!

Heh, when I think of Halloween I randomly bust out the last verse on Geto Boys' Mind Playing Tricks On Me. "This year Halloween fell on a weekend, me and Geto Boys are trick-or-treating..." Awesome song. I wonder if they celebrate Halloween in Japan? I can imagine that most of the costumes will look like something I've seen in an anime. Or something really gothy. One thing I never really understood was goth culture. Pale skin, black hair...I don't think it's stupid or anything, I just don't get it. People are just different, I guess. I mean, I worship the Orange Bang God. Someone's got to think that's weird.

It's been a year since my grandma passed away. I remember reading an article a long time ago about man in his late 20's who was talking about the impact his grandmother had on his life. It really moved me because it said everything I wanted to say to my grandma that I couldn't put into words. I always wished that I could write something like that about her, but I could never put the rights words together that could describe just how much she meant to me. It would just never feel like it was enough. So instead I will keep them in my mind for now, until I am ready to write them. Thank you for taking care of us, Lola. I hope you are proud of me and Walter. We are grown up now, but we will always need you to watch over us. Happy Birthday!

Thing of the day:

Jackie Treehorn Treats Objects Like Women, Man

2006-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

Big Lebowski. Huh? That's a quote from the movie Big Lebowski. Soka*. Great movie.

*Soka means "Oh,I see..." in Japanese.

It's been said in Joesan, Joe, and Karen's blog...but Heroes last Monday was good. Damn good. How good was it? It had a frickin' ninja at the end. Right now that show makes Lost look like a dehydrated monkey. It's not that Lost is bad, it's just that Heroes is still in the early stages so it's okay if they answer questions with more questions. Lost has been doing that for 3 years already and a ton of questions from the first season haven't even been answered yet so it's starting to get old and we want some damn answers already. Or else.

On that Monday Night game...I have never seen a team crash so badly like that before. I'm not even a fan of the Cardinals and it was painful to watch. Sorry Edge, maybe you should've stayed in Indy. The Colts have some tough games coming up but unfortunately I won't be able to watch them. There's no more NFL Primetime either. They have that Blitz thing on Sportscenter but it's just not the same with all the other sports highlights in between Boomer and TJ. Primetime was the best thing on television.

I'm actually gonna play some real football this weekend...flag football. A bunch of old friends are getting together at the park and I can't wait. I haven't played in like 10 years, where we had a fun game of tackle football at Newport Beach freshman year with Bahia. Y'know, that was one of my favorite days ever. It was funny cuz I almost missed out - I came back from class late and everyone was leaving already. But I jetted just in time to make the trip. For some reason I remember that clearly. Anyways, it's funny to think how inefficient we were playing football back then. It was pretty much run any route you want and if you're open, you may get the ball.

Most of the throws, at least when I played, were home run throws too...no slants, dumps to the middle, or buttonhook routes. Heh, we played football the way videogame football was back then....drop back 30 yards or a couple alligators, complete a 70 yard pass, touchdown! The only reason why you would pick a running play is that the other player doesn't choose the same play as you in Tecmo Bowl. I wonder how this weekend's game is gonna play out? Will I try and run Marvin Harrison-like routes and throw with Peyton-like accuracy? Heh, I'm gonna run routes that resemble a child's scribbling and throw balls that spiral like a child's scribbling too.

Man, my blog is always about "remember when..." I think the reason why I do that is cuz my philosoply is to live the present so that I can "remember when" it in the future. I think to myself, "how am I gonna remember this day?" If it sounds crappy, then I'm probably doing the wrong thing. For example, I'm going to remember this day for helping a coworker out. That's pretty good. Then I'm gonna watch the Office tonight. Well, the Office is the best comedy on TV since Arrested Development so that's cool. Tomorrow...I want to either rule the world or save it from being ruled by some bloke.

Okay these next few words is a simple request from me. All you have to do is watch the TV show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Please watch it, it's that good. I feel that it is my duty to inform you how funny that show is. The show is that good. Me and Belle love it. You are really missing out if you don't watch this show. In the future you'll be all like, "where was this show all my life?" and then I'd be like "I told you about it, you fool of a Took!" and then Gandalf would be all like "hey man...that's my line." It would get pretty crazy, I'd imagine, with Gandalf there.

I am a fruit nazi. I hate when my apples or bananas have defects in them and for some mental reason I can't bite into those parts.

I don't watch baseball, but I've been watching recently so I can see how the pros swing so I can improve my own. I like the way Pujols just sits there with a slight grin, as if saying "you throw like a girl and I'm gonna slam your ball out of the park and through the windshield of your car."

I don't want your life.

I wish Arnold was still young so he could make more cheesy movies about ramming his fist into other people's stomach and breaking their spine. Then I want to see him actually do it.

Thing of the day:

I Am a Real American

2006-10-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

There's this guy at work who has the most unusual bathroom routine I've ever seen. When he enters, the first thing he does is decide on a stall of his choice, then flushes it. After he flushes it, he goes straight to the sink and washes his hands. That's right...he hasn't even peed yet. But this is no ordinary hand washing. Imagine how you would wash your hands if you just had a feces fight with a barrel of monkeys. Then he cranks out a towel from the towel dispenser to dry his hands...but wait! He puts the paper towel in his pocket and proceeds to wash his hands again in the same monkey feces fashion as before, probably because he touched the disposable towel dispenser. Finally he dries his hands with the paper towel, then goes back to his original chosen stall to pee. So he pees, and when he's done...he goes through the whole hand washing routine over again! Can you believe...wait a minute, how do I know this? Well, there isn't much to do when you're sitting at the toilet with a hefty load so you might as well observe your surroundings. And the way I eat, I spend a lot of time in there. I tell people, "I've seen some crazy shit...while shitting."

You know that John Mayer song Vultures? It's on his Continuum album and was also part of his tour with the Trio, but damn I just love that song right now. Good range with his vocals and the guitars are kickass as usual. I haven't heard much new music lately, since I still pretty much just play the same songs I like over and over again. I still don't know every word or every note to all of those songs yet so I don't get tired of them. That reminds me...when Guitar Hero 2 comes out I think I might break down and buy it. I haven't played any new videogames or listened to new music lately so this would be a nice thing to bring me back. Same as with music, I've just been playing old Final Fantasy and other games over and over again.

Jevon's blog about videogame glitches reminded me of the duplication glitch in Final Fantasy IV, since I'm playing the Gameboy Advance version of it right now. It was cool cuz I could give my ninja 2 Masamune's and dupe Excaliburs so he can throw them at the final boss for 9999 worth of damage. Well, they fixed that glitch for this version so I can't do those cool things anymore. They did add another crazy dungeon at the end though which is pretty cool, but hard as hell. I remember those days when I'd level my characters up to 99 just to do it. In this version I actually have a reason to level up that high. With Final Fantasy XII on the horizon I've often thought of playing it again, but it's just too unproductive nowadays. Plus the main character looks way too gay.

I've decided to grow my hair out long. How long? As long as I can tolerate it. It sucks because it's gonna be in that "transition" phase for a while and I won't know what to do with it while I'm still letting it grow. Why am I doing this? Because in my list of things to do before I die, it includes "growing my hair into various lengths." Might as well do it now if I don't want to end up with the Hulk Hogan look. A peak into some of the other things to do on my list:

- Cut down a tree with an axe
- Cut down a tree with my shins (like that scene in Jean-Claude Van Damme's Kickboxer)
- Learn how to play the harp, and join a band (I want to make that instrument cool)
- Win a wrestling match with a perfect-plex
- Star in a karaoke video (not like that thing they had in freshman year at the student center welcome dance, but a real one people can buy)
- In the karaoke video, I may or may not do the robot
- Visit the original site of the first Rubio's (oh wait, I did that last weekend)
- Get over a 100 QB rating, break 100 yards rushing averaging over 6ypc, or catch over 10 receptions while scoring 3 TD's...at a friendly 2-hand touch football game
- Win a softball game by actually scoring more points than the other team

Yatta, it's softball season again. This season I vow to get better at fielding and keep my errors under 10 for the entire season. I already have 1 from the first game when a bouncing ground ball hit me in the shins. If I average only 1 per game, I'll be fine. I was never good at baseball growing up, but I was also never good at running growing up either. Time for things to change.

Damn, they blocked youtube at work...

Thing of the day:

Giving Up the Ghost

2006-10-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Good thing I didn't watch the end of last Sunday's Colts...I would've lost a couple years from my life from the sheer amount of stress. That's the bad thing about being a sports fan...we probably take our blood pressures to insane amounts on moments like these and especially playoff time. So why watch? I guess there's some people out there who would rather put themselves instead of athletes into those situations but in my line of work, it's not worth it. To tell you the truth, I have no idea what would my dream job (other than the fictitious ninja eskimo lumberjack) would be. If I eventually find a job that I truly would love to succeed in, then I guess I'll probably invest my time in being the best at that rather than watching other people succeed on TV. For now, I'm content with getting paid a decent amount in return for almost no stress at work while I sit back and experience as many things as I can. Too bad we don't gain years when those stressful moments turn into blissful moments. Otherwise the Lakers themselves would have capped on decade or so to my life.

In case you didn't get the whole Vespa-guitar reference from the last post, it's an anime called FLCL. I think it comes on Adult Swim sometimes, though I have no idea how they'd translate that mess into english. If you happen to catch it, let me know if you can understand any of it. I just remember going through it and hey, cool music. And robots.

I realize that my blog is basically repeating the same thing over and over but with new old references and jokes. I mean, I talked about my job in my last post and I did it again in this post, pretty much saying the exact same thing. I am predictable, so I try to mask my predictability by throwing in unpredictable things. That way, my enemies will never defeat me. I'd say something like "A cabinet of moo-moo dust doth yonder me abolish." And the rebels will be all like "his weakness is moo-moo dust!" but when they put moo-moo dust on me nothing will happen, because all moo-moo dust does is give you a boner. Also, the rebels are a figment of my imagination so they will never overthrow me. Yatta!

Is anyone watching Heroes? Cuz damn, that's a pretty good show. Along the same lines as Lost and Prison Break where pretty much anything could happen and it wouldn't be weird. The show's premise is typical: it's about superheroes, but this show takes it to the next level. Well, I guess it hasn't taken it to the next level yet cuz there's only been 2 shows but you can tell that it has the potential to take it to many levels, like an elevator. Most shows are like stairs...yeah it takes it to the next level but you'll eventually get tired of walking up all those stairs. On the other hand, you get a good workout and may have decreased your risk of heart disease. So now I'm not sure what to watch on TV. Maybe I shouldn't watch TV at all and do some bleachers.

Is there anything hotter than business hot? I would rather see a girl in a sexy business suit than in a bikini. Y'know...the buttoned up white shirt and blazer, skirt, and heels look. Maybe wearing glasses or holding the glasses in a contemplative way. I mean, that's just hot. In my world, there would be a Sports Illustrated Business Issue where the women pose in business suits instead of bikinis. That works out well for everyone. I mean, for the feminists it shows women in a position of power and intelligence while for men it's like hey, hot chick. And the interviews wouldn't ask them stupid questions like "do you like sex?" Instead they would ask questions like "Why have people been rethinking the Microsoft model in the past few years?" I hope it doesn't follow the same pattern as swimsuits though, where now they just use their hands and you can't even see the swimsuit. You'll end up with girls wearing button-up shirts with only buttons, a monocle, and one shoe.

Even though I love running, I am dreading the marathon. Just recently my knees have started hurting and they have never hurted from running before. Maybe it's because I took a month off squats but just when I thought I was done with shin splints, bam! knee pain. This month I'm just gonna swim and bike. I love swimming...no impact injuries and that feeling when you're in a groove, swimmer's high, makes you feel like a dolphin cruising across the ocean. Wait, dolphins are kind of gay...so maybe a shark instead. Except I'm not eating anything, though that would be kinda cool to be able to do that. The only problem I've ever had with cycling are saddle sores, which go away after you get used to it. But running...it just hurts. I hate the fact that the harder you push yourself, the more you risk yourself for permanent injury. It's not like weight lifting where you can be as intense as a Batman. I love intensity.

Thing of the day:

Meet You at the Corner of 1st and Main

2006-09-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

You want to know something funny? Okay, so I went to Trader Joes and I wanted try out some new dried fruits that I usually eat with cottage cheese. I see this new one I haven't seen before called Orange Flavored Cranberries. Why the heck? So I tasted these cranberries and you know what they taste like? Oranges.

Anyone want to take the Motorcycle Safety Course with me? I plan to take it around the end of the year or maybe the beginning of next year when I get the money. It's only 1 weekend, you don't need your own bike, and you don't need to know anything about riding a motorcycle. Please, ride a motorcycle with me. We can form a Vespa gang and hit people in the head with our guitars. Or form a Ninja 250 gang and hit people in the head with our clarinets.

So I was reading one of my usual football columns when I came across this:

"The Progress Paradox" first argues that nearly every aspect of Western life is improving, then speculates about why "life gets better but people feel worse." A recent study by researchers including Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner, and Alan Kruger, one of the leading names in behavioral economics, adds new detail on that question. The study found that the well-off are no happier than others; that as income rises, so does tension and anger; that "people exaggerate the contribution of income to happiness."

Kahneman, Krueger and their collaborators also offer a vital insight -- that happiness comes from choosing time over money, but most Americans choose money over time. "Leisure is better for happiness than increased income," they argue, supposing that time spent in travel, having new experiences, relaxing, hiking, reading, or simply looking up at the stars is more important to our sense of well-being than a new car or impressive house. Unless you are in a bad financial situation, Kahneman and Krueger recommend you spend less time working, accept somewhat lower income, and use your freed hours to experience life. Barbara Bush memorably said that no one on his or her deathbed has ever regretted not staying later at the office, while many regret failing to spend more time with family and friends.

I'll add another suggestion on why time is more important to happiness than money: Because time is far more precious. Money that has been used up can be replaced; you can always get at least some additional money, and in principle can get huge amounts of additional money. Your time on Earth, on the other hand, is limited and irreplaceable. You might add somewhat to your time on Earth by taking care of your health -- and that's an excellent idea, but there are no guarantees you won't be hit by a bus anyway. We all must surrender some of our time for work to acquire income. But those who obsessively chase maximum material possessions give up something precious and fleeting, namely time, in order to acquire something that cannot make them happy, namely money.

You even wonder if you'll end up doing the one thing you were meant to do in life? For example, what if Indiana Jones never got into archaeology? Or if the Pink Ranger never realized she was supposed to be the chestplate of the Megazord. At some point in their life they had to discover, "Hey, I'm pretty good at this!" I know for sure I was not meant to be a computer programmer. But I chose this line of work because of the passage I just quoted above: it allows me to make a decent amount of money with the least amount of work while I can enjoy the things I truly enjoy. Unfortunately, I can't make money out of the things I enjoy unless you can find someone to pay me to do a bunch of things that are unrelated to each other (I get bored of doing doing just 1 thing).

7 sound effects:
Krsh-krsh: it reminds me of Final Fantasy IV where you would have a powerful weapon and deal a ton of damage.
Krsh-krsh, krsh-krsh: when you had a ninja that fought with two swords.
Thunk!: the sound of getting hit on the head with a clarinet.
Slurp, Slurp: drinking a near-empty slurpee from a straw.
Sliding patio door: I don't know how to describe it, but it's the sound of a sliding the patio door at my house. It reminds me of the flashback sound effect in Lost.
Cla-kruk: the sound of 2 football helmets colliding.
Tinkle, tinkle: peeing.

Thing of the day:

Ninety Nine

2006-09-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

It's the Post #99 Extravaganza!. Not that I have anything extravagant planned, nor do I have a clip show or anything. Actually, this post will pretty much be like all my other posts. Maybe I should do something interesting at post #100. I mean, nice round numbers are better than non-round (e.g. trapezoidal) numbers. I really like the number 99 though...something about the way it flows off your tongue like lmnop. Yet I hate how the number is associated with that asian Ranch from which your greatest vehicular horrors can be realized.

Lately it's been hard to be productive at work. Coding just isn't as fun as it used to be. Y'know, I'm not even sure if it was fun in the first place...maybe I was just motivated by the fear of career failure. Now that I'm pretty much settled in, green pastures have never looked greener. Truthfully, I think my perfect job would be a lumberjack. I have the beard and the flannel shirt waiting in the closet somewhere. Since I am part eskimo, I could probably look for a lumberjack job in the undesired parts of the north pole. It'll be like that one show about Alaskan crab catching that's highly dangerous. No one wants to run around in the snow and cut trees in the middle of a blizzard. And that's my cue to stand up and proclaim that I will take that job, and become the greatest eskimo ninja lumberjack in all the world.

I remember a couple other jobs I mentioned in my old blog but I forgot them too. I think one of them was a karaoke actor. Y'know...someone needs to revamp those things. I mean, the graphics are just ugly and the actual background music is the same quality of the $50 keyboard I owned as a kid. With the way TV's are nowadays, we should have hi-definition backgrounds with sound so crisp, your neighbors will think you revived the Beatles using the Philospher's Stone and had them perform zombie music right in your living room. The actual videos should match the songs too. Like if you're karaoking "Stellar" you should have a video of two people meeting in outer space. Or maybe just show the actual music video.

I started playing some Game Boy Advance games I missed out on over the years. Particularly Castlevania and Final Fantasy remakes. Unfortunately, today is my last day of rest before I start running again after the half marathon. But wow, it's a blast to play these types of games again. Reminds me of back when I was so absorbed into the game, I would spend an entire day playing it. I can't do that anymore. But just for an hour or two it was nice to remember how unproductive I used to be. Imagine how advanced our society would be if productivity was as fun as videogames. We would've had our flying cars and hoverboards by now. Except that the hoverboards would be made by EA Sports, not Mattel.

Hooray for football. I cheered for the Jaguars to win on Monday and wow did they really put on a beating. It'll go a lot more in validating Colts if they can beat them next Sunday. Too bad I'll be missing the game since I'll be at the Run Hit Remix. I'm actually looking forward to that run though, cuz it'll be more of a fun run than a pain-staking one like the half marathon. Look for me to be one of the last people to finish...I'll run the thing fast but I want to spend as much time as possible watching the performances.

My favorite time of the day is the late afternoon. For some reason I have this emotional attachment to the smell of outdoor BBQ and the sound of kids playing outside after waking up from an afternoon nap. When I was a kid we would ALWAYS play outside, burning things and riding our bikes playing our made up games so that the entire neighborhood can hear us. There's a group of kids like that near my house today, and to hear them laughing while the grill fires up reminds me of those fun, fun days. When I think of being in a happy place, I think of those days. I always tell people that I hate kids, but in reality I'm probably just jealous of them.

Thing of the day:

11 Kids??

2006-09-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

My jury duty service is unfortunately over after about 4 days of attending. And I didn't even get selected to the panel. That's 9 years of being eligible for jury duty and I've never even sat in a jury box yet. Too bad...the prosecutor on that case was kinda hot. Business woman hot. In fact, there are a lot of good-looking lawyers (male and female) walking around in the courthouse. Perhaps they use it to their advantage. Statistics show that people are more likely to be more helpful to an attractive person than one that is butt ugly. Actually I just made that up...but think about what you would do if an attractive person of the opposite sex asked you for directions? What happens if it was a toothless smelly doodoo head instead?

I'm going to take the low road here and say that I would be more helpful to the attractive person. Hey, at least I'm telling the truth! You see, yesterday this guy asked me directions to the court. Whoo boy, his breath stank! So I gave him directions alright, especially since I was going the same way. All he had to do was walk down 1st street and the courthouse is on the right on the corner of 1st and Hill. So I walked him part of the way and bid him adieu at City Hall. What I didn't tell him was that there was a free shuttle that brings you up the steep hill so you don't have to climb it. So he hiked it up the hill, I took the shuttle. Why? His breath stank! There was no way I'm sharing a shuttle with that guy. I probably saved the lives of everyone on that shuttle.

In hindsight, I should have bought him some gum...nay...some ultra profound strength, industrial size, ultimate ninja power Listerine meant originally for horses. Then I should have told him about the shuttle. Was I wrong? Maybe. But if he'd had brush his teeth than I definitely would have told him about the shuttle. What if it was Vanessa Minillo or someone that asked me for directions? Well, if she had stanky breath I would've made her hike it too...then watch her hot and sweaty badonkadunk as I pass by in the shuttle...

No I'm kidding. I'm not even sure if she has nice...tracts of land. I need to be more in touch with hot celebrity chicks. In a game of MASH I wouldn't know who to pick as the girls. It would be like:

1. girlfriend
2. girlfriend
3. girlfriend
4. girlfriend

As for the other stuff:

1. Audi RS4
2. Jazz (the Porsche transformer)
3. Honda Element
4. Unicycle

1. Hawaii
2. Japan
3. Bakersfield
4. Niger

1. Doctor
2. NFL team owner
3. WNBA team owner
4. Ballerina

Wahoo, more football this weekend. Boring game for the Colts, but the other divisional matchups look interesting. I'll probably take a nap anyways after the half marathon. That reminds me...too bad the Denver Broncos don't have a Biv. Right now their offense is Bell, Bell, Devoe. Now you know. Yo slick...

Thing of the day:

Riff Raff, Street Rat, I Won't Buy That

2006-09-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

Gotta keep up the streak...3 weeks in a row of back to back posts. I guess I've had a lot of free time lately. Actually, I've been immersing myself in Japanese culture. I'm visiting the country next month, might as well learn what I'm getting into. Everything is just so weird yet intriguing there that I can easily see how people can become fascinated by it. I definitely have to come home with a bunch of engrish shirts. Maybe come back with a few games like the PS2 Berserk game or the Phantasy Star II remake that never made it here. If you have any requests, let me know.

Y'know, I've never ranted about anything in a while. I'm not one to complain, but sometimes it's just fun to pick something stupid apart. Even though traffic has been overdone, while driving last night I actually thought that it was nice to have traffic around. Otherwise, I wouldn't have a mortal enemy and what good is living when you don't have anything to fight for? It's sad really, that my life has been reduced to a lifelong battle against traffic. But hey, I think I'd be considered some sort of hero if I figured out a way to completely eliminate it from this world forever (only to have it return in 1000 years so that someone in my family line has to rise up once again to do battle against its evils).

I've been shopping for a grill in the meantime and currently I'm looking at the Weber Genesis Silver series. When my brother started the academy, my dad took over the cooking duties since he had more free time to cook for the entire family. Before that, I would cook my own food while my parents ate their filipino cuisine and my brother ate whatever. That won't fly in the academy though so we helped my brother to eat healthier. When I move out next month, I'll need to start cooking my own food again. Nothing better than throwing some meat on the grill with some brown rice and vegetables and a beer. Belle can make some of the other fancy stuff like enchiladas to mix it up a bit. But I plan to use that grill pretty much everyday. How awesome.

Since we're gonna be taking the train to work across the street everyday, me and Belle thought about getting a Vespa or something. It's kind of pointless to drive one of our cars 1 mile back and forth everyday before it even gets a chance to reach operating temperature. No better way to shorten the life of your vehicle than that. I also thought about just biking there but that means we'll have to wake up earlier, sweat a little, and I'd have to buy another bike cuz there's no way I'm gonna leave my tri bike there for 10 hours. So we're thinking about something like a Vespa or a Ninja 250. 80 mpg...can't argue with that. Maybe get one with a sidecar, heh. I'll probably take the MSF sometime soon and go from there.

Half marathon coming up next week...so a 12 miler tomorrow then taper. I'm definitely not looking forward to the 6am start time, and I'll probably do tomorrow's run at 6am to prepare myself. I do much, much better running in the evening. Too bad the Run Hit Remix isn't in the evening this year either. Belle told me that Cat finished her half marathon in about 2 hours...that's pretty fast! I expect to finish at around 2:30. I've never been a good long distance runner but that's why I'm signing up for these events. Hopefully by the time I'm 30 I can run these marathon distances at a sub-10 minute pace. Though my guess is that the 10k at the tail end of a triathlon is the furthest distance I'll run after I finally finish the LA Marathon next year. I just wasn't built to run those long distances. Or maybe I'm just making up excuses.

To the sun!

Thing of the day (bonus points to anyone who can figure out what movie this quote is from):

I Say, Feel Your Breeze

2006-09-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Posted a year ago: "Everyday is a great day when it's Sunday and it's football season." It's not Sunday, but we finally get to see some real football tonight. The season opener kind of crept up on me since I've been watching so much TV lately - a far cry from just last year when the only thing I would watch on TV is football. I hope to get out of this TV phase soon though. There's so much good stuff to watch but it's just so unproductive. I wouldn't call football unproductive cuz there's nothing like having a beer out on the porch with your buddies recalling the memories of great games. Sometimes when I feel like giving up I'll recall the Monday Night comeback against Tampa Bay and suddenly feel invigorated again.

The thing I like and hate about TV, anime, and videogames is that you get involved in other people's fictional lives. That's great since you get to see things from a different perspective and are entertained in the process. But the problem is when you get too involved in their lives that you soon forget about your own. That's one thing that I hope never happens to me. If I ever get out of shape or do poorly at my job or watch a show over going to someone's birthday...it's time to give it up forever. I think the main reason why I watch and play this stuff is that it reminds me of good times in the past or good times that may happen in the future. I used to be the type that wanted to whisk away in my own la-la land where I'm the hero that ruled this awesome kingdom but nowadays, I don't want to change my life for anything. Though it would be cool to be able to cast some magic.

Maybe that's just the process of me growing up. I turned 27 over the weekend in what turned out to be one of the most badass birthday weekends ever. Thanks to everyone that called me, texted me, emailed me, messaged me, and especially those who jumped out of a plane with me. Every little thing meant a lot. Like if you sent me a message I would think of all the time we spent together and think to myself "yeah, that was cool." I'm not gonna complain about getting older cuz as far as I know, my mind is getting younger. Plus it would be cool to have a little grey in my beard so people can think I'm this grumpy old guy but in reality I play videogames and care about other people. Damn, that sounds exactly like Dr. House.

Belle's always on to me about all my TV references. Funny, cuz I'm currently on jury duty and they had us fill out a jury questionnaire. One of the questions on there was which TV shows we watch. I wonder if writing "Prison Break" will change anything since case is almost similar.

Remember that song "Return of the Mack" by Mark Morrison? I used to hate it when they played it so much on the radio back in high school but now, I really like that song. It goes on my playlist of Songs to Cruise to, along with Dove Shack's Summertime in the LBC, Maktub's You Can't Hide, and Tear for Fear's Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

Thing of the day:

Ramona and the Autobots

2006-08-31T15:33:00.000-07:00

Two days in a row! I guess I have a lot to talk about, but not really. I started watching House M.D. which puts me even deeper into the quicksand of TV. At least Entourage is on hiatus for now and I'll probably stop watching Prison Break until I can watch the entire season in 1 fell swoop. The problem is, I started downloading some Japanese shows or J-doramas, as they call them. Hahaha, I like how in Initial D they call it dorifto! I'm really excited about Japan now. It was nice that Cat can go so girlfriend has another girl to travel with. More guy time for me! Not that there's anything I can think of doing in Japan while the girls are out shopping or something. Maybe try to watch a live Pride FC match? I heard that Mike Tyson is thinking about signing up. That would be something to watch, but the man is just too old now at this point for any of his fights to be exciting.

I'm on the third episode of House M.D. and Dr. House is a frickin' badass. That makes two shows in a row about a main character who thinks outside of the box, way outside of the box. I guess you can say that GTO is a teacher version of House. I love characters like that because it's the way I like to think. There is nothing more boring than simply answering a question or solving a problem with the right answer. I want to answer that question with something that's not really an answer, but nevertheless it satisfies what the person asking wanted. Granted, my IQ is that of a high schooler and getting worse as I get older, so according to the mental doctor in Prison Break, I'm mentally retarded. Woohoo!

Maybe I should get back into reading some good books. Some classic stuff like Beverly Cleary's works or the exploits of Encyclopedia Brown. Back in elementary school I grew up on books. I'd spend entire days after school just reading away. There is nothing better than reading a climatic part and jumping up and down the room cheering for one of the characters like in Neverending Story. Or turning the last page of a novel and just sitting there for 15 minutes, staring into space. Was I the only one who did that?

I just realized that I should be traumatized over horror movies. I don't choose to watch horror movies because I hate waking up so early in the morning while it's still dark outside to prepare for work, when my imagination conjures an image of someone hanging in the kitchen. But the reason why I should be traumatized is that something always seems to happen the night after watching a horror movie. For example, when I first watched Candyman. I went to bed that night but woke up to the sound of bees. I totally thought I was dreaming (or nightmaring), but when I looked up at the ceiling there were hundreds of real ass frickin' bees there! So I flew out of my room as fast as I could and we called the exterminator. Turns out they had a nest in the attic and were digging down into the house to make more room. It just so happens that the time they decided to break into the house coincided with the night I watched Candyman.

Then that time when me and Belle saw the Ring up north. That night we spent it in the San Francisco house, which is a scary house to begin with. I used to be scared of that house when I was little, with all the stories we used to tell or that time we used an Ouija board there. Anyways, we saw the Ring and we went to sleep. In the middle of the frickin' night...the tv turns on out of nowhere and there was the trademark static/snow from the tv, just like in the movie. It turns out that the TV turns on by itself sometimes like that. There's a couple more stories too like that time I watched one of the Friday the 13th's and there was a glow-in-the dark hockey mask that lit up in my closet or that time I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre and my dad woke me up in the middle of the night to show me his new chainsaw.

When I think back, I should be traumatized by these movies but really, I know it's all in my head. In reality, the worst thing that can happen is that these characters are real and they kill me or something. But it's nothing compared to the suffering that others experience in their everyday life. That said, who wants to watch Ringu with me? I just found out that one of the teachers in GTO is the main character in that movie so I want to see how she is in that type of a role. It seems like there's been a lot of scary movies I've missed out on lately. It's no fun watching it by yourself though. We should throw a scary movie night sometime. I just gotta be ready to expect the worst when I when I go to bed.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to in Japan is the long ass flight. The flight to the Philippines earlier in the year was the worst experience ever. They need to make some lounge areas in planes where you can get up and walk around. I think I'll probably buy a Nintendo DS just to make that flight bearable. There's a lot of games on there I want to play and it should make the time go by really fast, especially if I play one of the Final Fantasy remakes. I can also use it later on when I start taking the train to work. Nintendo, yay!

Thing of the day:

Bridge Over the River Kawaii

2006-08-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

I spent all of last weekend playing videogames and watching a Japanese TV series. It was a great weekend. Not only did I accomplish nothing, but I wasted valuable time that could have been spent doing something productive. Afterwards, I felt great. Well actually, I did cheat a little...I ran about 9 miles on Saturday morning. But most of it was spent playing Phantasy Star IV and now I can't wait until Phantasy Star Universe. I finished the live action GTO and now I'm having withdrawals. What the hell happened to me?

I felt like I went back in time for a bit, back to high school. All I really did then was play videogames, watch TV, and hang out with my friends trying to act as cool as possible. Then I'd spend the entire night on the phone talking about love or whatever we used to talk about back then. Maybe I'd do homework, maybe I'd work out, but it's a cold day in hell when I decide to be as productive as I am today. Last weekend I revisited those days for a bit, what with the whole playing videogames bit and watching a Japanese version of Saved by the Bell. I don't intend to do that again for a while, but it was nice to remember how I got where I am.

Reading about Tommy's reunion kinda brought me back too, since we went to the same high school. My reunion is next year, yet I'm still undecided about going. I forget things easily, but most of the people I hung out with in high school are probably not attending the reunion or went to another school. It would be funny to go to the reunion and ask how they're doing now even they I didn't know how they were doing back then. But watching GTO last weekend really made me miss high school, even with the terrible acting.

Have any of you seen the leaked images of the new Transformers movie? If you haven't, prepare to be disappointed. These are not the Transformers you knew. Sure, they transform, but that's pretty much all they have in common. I would have been okay with this if the producers told us they weren't basing the movie on Generation 1, but I expected to see Transformers have some kind of similarities to their roots and it turns out that they have nearly none. It would have been better if they marketed this movie as a completely different series of Transformers like Beast Wars or something, then I could see why they made such drastic changes. But it looks like they are trying to market this to appeal to the newer fans while deceiving the older fans. Am I still going to watch it? Maybe, but I'm not going to pay for it.

Watching all this TV lately has got me thinking about creating my own. The basic structure of my show is this: we follow our good-natured heroes on some task/journey throughout the entire season to reach their goal. When they reach their goal in the finale, the story flips around and it turns out that the heroes we followed the entire journey are actually the enemy! So in season 2, the people we thought were the bad guys in season 1 are the good guys in season 2, and are out to catch the heroes from season 1. Naturally, this type of show can't go for more than 2 seasons, unless they paid me a ton of money...then maybe I could sell out and think of a way to extend it.

I haven't even thought of a backdrop for this story yet, but it would have to be very unique so that the viewers will never see the twist coming. I won't even throw in any clues so it will almost look like I changed my mind for the last episode and made them all evil, yet if they go back and watch it again knowing that the heroes are evil, all of the little actions they make will connect perfectly. There is probably something like this made already since it's pretty much impossible to be original nowadays, and the way I came up with this show was heavily influenced by the shows I've been watching lately. The twist is something you'd see on 24, the 2-season limit is the same as Prison Break, I would film it in a style similar to the Office and Arrested Development, it would be unique like Lost to draw them away from the big twist, and we would love the heroes-soon-to-be-enemies like the characters in Entourage. Also, there would be a ninja in there somewhere.

K, serious time. You ever hear about people talking about a feeling that words can't describe? Sounds corny, but I get that once in a rare while and it is definitely impossible for me to describe it with words. I could remember what it feels like in my head but I cannot explain it to anybody. Unlike an orgasm, you can describe that pretty easily since almost everyone knows it. But this is something that I might be the only person in the world to experience. It's a great feeling, but I sometimes get it when I'm sad too. When it happens, I remember it forever. For some reason, out of nowhere I remembered what it felt like this weekend. If I could experience it everyday, I would be the happiest person to ever live. Yet in reality I've maybe experienced it less than 3 times in my entire life. I don't understand it yet, but someday I hope that I do. The closest thing I can think of is when Buddha achieves enlightenment...and I'm not even Buddhist. But when I do understand it someday, I want to figure out a way so that others can feel it also. After that, I can positively say that I have lived life to the motherfuckin' fullest.

Thing of the day:
Matsushima Nanako

What Would David Palmer Do?

2006-08-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Article

I'm not sure if the link above will last, since the material in the article seems to change everyday. But that's exactly what I want to talk about - twisting the words of an article to achieve a certain effect. In school, we had to read newspaper articles to do a quick report for current events, which was basically just rewriting the article in our "own" words. I always wondered, why is it so hard to write an article? I've been writing literary critique for AP English that is tons harder than that article. I didn't know back then, but it's easy to see now: the reason why it's so hard is because of diction.

They choose specific words to say and which ones to leave out, and they are good at it. If you read the article above, it makes EAA look like a bunch of idiots and turns the mayor into and upstanding gentleman. That's the only connection that the general public have of this strike. Because of the media, all they have in their heads are EEA = greedy monkeys, Villaraigosa = cool guy.

Let's pick this article apart. "The walkout by city workers concludes peacefully. But officials are standing firm on a plan to raise pay 6.25% over three years." That's true, they are not lying. But the truth of the matter is, the way they come up with these numbers is like this:

1st year: 0%
2nd year: 2%
3rd year: 2%
4th year: 2.25%
Total: 6.25% over 4 YEARS

That's right, we get 6.25% over three years, but they failed to include that that the contract is for a term of 4 years and we get nothing for that year. The consumer price index shows that inflation is about 5% per year. That means we are losing money since we can't even keep up with the costs of living. "But wait, these employees make an average salary of $75k a year! What right do they have to complain when making that much money!" (this was mentioned in another article)

I have no complaints about how much I make. Sure, it's difficult to afford a house when the costs of living rise faster than your salary, but there are people who are far worse off. So here's the real kicker. The article entirely failed to mention that the mayor gave is own staff 10% in that time period. He also gave raises to DWP that are nearly twice as much as ours. That was the entire point of the strike, and any article you read will probably fail to mention it. I can understand the high raises for LAPD and MTA employees, those guys work hard and deserve that salary. But DWP does the exact same work as us (maybe even easier) and gets paid much more. How is that supposed to make us feel?

Equal pay for equal work.

When this whole thing started, I wasn't really involved in it since I'm content with my salary. However, if you are fucked over, you stand up and fight. Now that I understand what is going on, I have every incentive to change my mindset from sit-down passive to stand-up-and-raise-hell! active. The mayor is telling me that I am not an important part of this city. He is willing to pay other people more money for the same work I do. He is willing to give his own staff, who already makes more money than anyone, a splendid raise. And he expects us to sit there and take it. This is what I have to say to that:

Whoops, wrong image. I meant to post this:

The other part of it is that our union doesn't have any balls. DWP's union didn't back down and look at the raise they got. The 2 day strike wasn't nearly as effective and could've been planned better. This is what I have to say to the union courtesy of Henry Rollins:

There is a lot more about this article and the strike in general that I want to reveal, but I don't have time. You see, I'm too busy working my ass off.

Thing of the day:

Utot, Utot

2006-08-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

Back in high school I used to really like Albert Camus' "The Stranger." The whole thing about the universe's indifference to mankind and the philosophy of existentialism really hit home for me at the time I guess. It's funny, because looking back right now I don't think I really understood the purpose of the book back then. Like "The Catcher in the Rye", which I merely saw as some emo kid that you either pity or relate to. I guess I must've felt like I couldn't relate to anyone so I enjoyed reading about people who were outcast or misunderstood.

It confuses me because back then I had so many friends and so many people I could talk to. If I wanted to talk about something bothering me I'd have a list of people I could call. Yet today I have a fraction of those friends but I couldn't be happier with such a strong sense that I really belong where I am today. Misunderstood and outcast characters annoy me. If I read "The Stranger" now I'd probably tell Meursault to forget about the glaring sun and go home and fuck that hot chick til her legs fall off.

For some reason, I viewed all the women I read about in novels as hot, because there weren't any pictures or anything. I mean, in my mind everyone is a beautiful baby. It's our eyes that are fucked up. So when I'd read novels everyone would look freakin' awesome and are excellent ballroom dancers. But when I view the movie based on the book the image all goes to shit. Cuz then I'll start complaining that not everyone looks that good in real life. C'mon!

In the future I envision a world that has been completely overtaken by musicals. The one that did it was the Bill and Ted's Tubular Musical, which pretty much transformed society into a bunch of raging singaholics. So instead of talking, everyone would pretty much sing everything they said. Except songs. The latest Weezer album has them speaking monotonously about tetonic plates. Musicals as we know them now are called Talkicals. Sexual attraction is not based on sexy bodies or charisma, but how well one could sing. To be successful in this society all you have to to is be excellent to each other and party on, dudes. Not a bad world.

The reason why I have that title for this blog is that I suddenly remembered this tape I used to listen to when I was little. It was a Filipino tape that was supposed to be a parody of songs in the early 90's. I remember one of them was a parody of Vanilla Ice (Vanilla Rice) and Young MC's Bust a Move (which was about about boogers). There was a whole bunch of songs and the funniest one for me was the one about farting. It goes something like "Somebody farted! Ohohohohoh! Utot, utot!" Hahaha, c'mon...how is that not funny? I mean, it's a fart! And it smells...really bad! Does anyone know what album I'm talking about?

I saw some potential in Joseph Addai yesterday. His vision will only improve and I saw him pick up some nice blocks. In training camp he is eager to learn and everyone seems to be impressed so far. Considering that our previous tailbacks were Edge, Faulk, and Dickerson, I have faith that Polian chose well. Though I had to tune into another channel when Bettis talked about his fumble and Ben's title-saving tackle afterwards. Oh well, Prison Break season premiere tonight!

Thing of the day:

A Week to Remember

2006-08-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

I usually dread driving the vanpool because it cuts into my nap time, and after today I may soon become horrified to drive it. It was my turn this week since the usual drivers were out on vacation. On Monday, I come to find out that one of the tires was flat. It was my day off so we simply had it changed out. When I get to the van on Tuesday morning we find out that now one of the other tires is flat. We can't do anything about it since our spare was flat from the day before so we all huddle in someone else's minivan and drive to work.

I called the vanpool services to get it fixed and they tell me to bring the van to the tire shop after work to get it swapped out for free. So I take it over to the tire shop and it takes 2 freakin' hours to put the new tires on. They should have just handed me the tools and let me do it. It ruined my plans for the day (well, all I had planned was a workout) and the next morning I was tired as hell. I drove the van to work and took a couple of small naps at my desk.

Everything is fine and dandy on the drive home from work in downtown LA when suddenly the car in the next lane slams into me. WTF?? It was a one way street and I was on the left lane at a stoplight. The light turns green and in the middle of the intersection, the car in the lane to our right gets the bright idea of making an illegal left turn when there's a freakin' full-size van right beside it. I couldn't even react because it was so unreal. You never expect the car in the next lane over to just smash into you unless you're wanted from the mafia.

The window of his minivan shattered and there was a huge dent on the driver door. Our van had a few scratches and a busted headlight. We pulled over and luckily, no one was hurt.

I was hoping for a little more honesty or sympathy from the guy. The first thing I did when I pulled over was to get out and ask him if he was okay. He didn't say anything and returned my gesture with a sneer. It's pretty obvious who was at fault and the least he could do was to say something. Maybe he was too shocked or something. If I knew it was my fault I would acknowledge it and right away make sure no one was hurt. I'm not out to take advantage of anybody. Apparently this guy was thinking of any possible way to get out of it. So I started taking pictures with my cell phone while the other members of the vanpool called the police.

The police response was fast being that we were about a block away from LAPD headquarters and when everything is sorted out, the cop tells us that it's a no-brainer. The guy even tried to plead his case to the cop but damn...what could he possibly say? And that's the story of why I hate stupid drivers. Woohoo!

When There's a Batman to Solve All Our Problems

2006-08-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

I just saw one of the funniest moments on TV last weekend:

Kevin: Hey.
Angela: Hey.
Kevin: You wanna go to the beach?
Angela: Sure.
Kevin: You wanna get high?
Angela: No.
Kevin: I think you do, mon.

Well, out of context it isn't funny at all. But watch The Office and you'll know what I'm talking about. I haven't laughed that hard since Arrested Development, from umm...last week. Damn, I must really be getting addicted to TV now. Lost, 24, Arrested Development (RIP), Prison Break, and now The Office are all shows I can't miss. A year and a half ago I barely even heard of these shows. I guess that's what happens when there's no football on TV or new anime to watch.

I did watch some preseason football but it's not the same without anything on the line. I mean, the Colts lost every preseason game last year. It is sort of interesting to see some of the young guys go to work, but I can wait til they hit their prime. Hard to believe we lost Edge and now have Vinatieri on our team. It just doesn't feel right for some reason. These aren't the Colts I know. I'm looking forward to see what they're capable of though. I don't expect them to beat last year's regular season record, but...y'know I don't think I really expect anything anymore. I just hope that there isn't (or is) another moment like the Bettis fumble then Harper getting tackled by a quarterback on the return. Those are the types of moments that make football so badass. There's just so much at stake, from the first minute of the first game down to the very last.

There's this song I used to listen to all the time at UCI that reminds me of those moments. At the time it was one of my favorite songs, ever. When I listen to it, I always think back at the good times of my past and feel a sudden determination to create more of those times in the present. Even at my worst times that song feels appropriate. I remember at our P-Grad they had us suggest songs we wanted to walk to, and I wrote this one down. It didn't make it, but that didn't matter cuz it was the song I heard. Seven years later, everyone knows this song as a TV theme song. There's another song I like now for these moments. But hearing it again last week...I couldn't help but shake my head and smile:

I'm not an emotional nazi by any means, but one of my pet peeves is when people complain or give up on something. Maybe it's the way that I was brought up, but I was taught that instead of wasting time complaining, you should spend your time doing something about it. Also, giving up is never, ever, an option. Hmmm...but if some thug had women and children hostage and told me to give up or they die, then unless I'm Jack Bauer it would probably be the best option. Oh yeah, I guess it would be okay to give up a battle if it means you will eventually win the war instead of fighting to the death and losing everything. And without complaining, democracy would never work because everyone would keep their problems to themselves so there can never be agreement. Damn...I need to seriously evaluate my life principles.

Thing of the day:
Elmer's school glue.

17th Grade and Beyond: Love,Love

2006-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Why does a ghost always have to be a monster, person or a material object? Even ideas such as Christmas Past or death are represented by homo-sapiened phantoms. I think a ghost visited me a few days ago, but it wasn't a monster, person, or any material object. It was a song.

I'm watching this new show called Prison Break. Heh, moving from one prison show (Arrested Development) to another. I just started it but I think it's really good. Watching genius plans unfold makes for great entertainment. I wish it was a little more character-driven but it will probably head that way eventually. There's still a ton of episodes left and a lot of the plan has already been revealed. Too bad this show is on network television. It's kinda weird believing in a prison where no one cusses or uses racial slurs extensively. But the actors do the best they can and you get so involved in the plot that you forget about it.

Justice is a dish best served cold. Or was that revenge? Well, they both should be served cold, like sushi and beer. Justice is sushi and revenge is beer. You can have both of them at the same time, but everyone will tell you that while sushi is good for you, beer can be bad if not taken in moderation. Like if someone killed your buddy (i.e. drank all his beer) then you should not drink all of the murderer's beer in return. It is immoral to drink that beer because it sucks and there are better beers out there. Most people find this out after taking a few sips. So what do you drink? I don't know...maybe a protein shake. Y'know...to go along with your ice cold justice.

It would've been really nice if I was able to blog my entire life. I wish I had entries from when I was in sixth grade though. Then again, reading them would probably be embarrassing as hell or just plain stupid.

1st grade:
i r a fiyotwuck

2nd Grade:
i like rasing!

3rd grade:
i bringed my he-man battle bones to school today!

4th grade:
i beat mike tyson at nintendo!

5th grade:
i stole some candy and saw a playboy from the liquor store!

6th grade:
what was that white stuff that came out of my pee-pee?

7th grade:
that girl is so fine!

8th grade:
my cross colors outfit is so dope!

9th grade:
I'm a b-boy sittin' in a b-boy stance!

10th grade:
I got sweated by these gangsters today!

11th grade:
Sandy, why does everyone has a girlfriend but me?

12th grade:
i CaN'T wAiT To lOWeR mY iNteGRa!

13th grade:
So...many...hot...girls!

14th grade:
RIP Halog.

15th grade:
Frickin' ICS is hard as hell!

16th grade:
Yes!! She asked me to be her partner!

Thing of the day:

Bob Loblaw Law Blog

2006-08-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

With great age comes great oldness. This is becoming apparent in my training. It took me 27 minutes to finish the 5k practice run I did yesterday, and plus I don't feel rested enough between workouts. Currently my schedule calls for 4 runs a week, with 2 days of lifting. I completely stopped cycling and swimming since I'm not doing a triathlon. This year is mostly about running - the Disney half marathon and the Nike Run Hit Remix in September, the boot camp race in October, then the LA marathon next March. After that I'll start doing triathlons again. One of my goals is to be better than I was the year before. I can already feel that I have to work harder than I did a few years ago to reach the same level of fitness. Then again, Rocky, Solid Snake, and Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven showed their best when they were already retired. They may be fictional characters but c'mon...does it get any cooler seeing old men kicking ass?

I had an interview a few days ago to transfer to the Department of Water and Power. It was a disaster. It was pretty much a full-on technical interview, and the questions they asked were about things I've never worked on or even things that are out of my job description. For example, I'm a PA II which is on the low end so the projects are usually managed by PA V's. In this interview to transfer to a PA II, they asked me PA V type questions. Why the heck? I pretty much BS'd my way through, and that's not even the worst part. The interviewers were 20 minutes late and there was a blackout in the middle of the actual interview. The interviewers didn't seem friendly at all and I left that room feeling like it was way out of my league. My only hope now is that all the other people felt the exact same way. But it'll be tough because DWP pays much more than the other city departments so you'll have people actually demoting themselves to get more pay. Yeah, it's some screwy logic on the same lines as last year's NBA playoff seedings. At least the NBA fixed it for next year.

Now I have another great show that I have a responsibility to tell you about: Arrested Development. It's so good, that I watched the entire series over again, and as soon as I was done I began watching it from the beginning on the same day. Trust me, it's that frickin' good. It's definitely a show that you have to watch chronologically to get the best effect since the jokes build on previous ones. You'll always find something new everytime you watch it and like I said in a previous post, that's the way I like my TV. Bottom line, watch it or you will be missing out so bad, it's like being a prehistoric monkey and missing out on the discovery of tools.

Damn, I got pooed on today by this bird. Luckily it just hit me on my pants near my ankles...I can't imagine how nasty it would've been if it landed on my head. Stupid crows...now I have another reason to make them my mortal enemy (the previous reason being how frickin' loud they are in the morning). Except Brandon Lee, he's a cool crow.

I saw this typical old asian woman on my way home from work today. She was driving one of my dream cars: an Audi RS4. I mean, what the hell...she's not ever gonna come close to doing anything that car is capable of. Just another one of those spoiled rich women who view cars as a status symbol and never fully appreciate the engineering that goes into their car. Why do people buy ultimate driving machines when they drive like ultimate jackasses? I don't know...but with a car like that you can bet I'd never make it's home dropping off the kids after school - it belongs on a mountain road to see if that quattro really is legendary. Then again I could be wrong - she could have totally been pushing that thing on the 'Ring last weekend.

So me and Belle bought this townhome. It's pretty cool I guess. At least I like it.

Thing of the day:

Opinions, Shmopions

2006-07-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have opinions on a lot of things. Here are just a few:

On peeps: Y'know...those little birdie candy things. I've never ate a peep, but when I see them, it's such a great day.

On tupperware: The greatest tupperware in the world is made by Lock n' Lock. Keno told me about them one time and when I tried them out, I came to find that they are quite godly. Ridiculously godly.

On the Colts: I am ready for another disappointing season. That's what sports fans do, we mentally torture ourselves and make baseless arguments for our team just for that one moment of glory where you can say that "our" team is the best team in the world right now. Then again, most fans believe their team is the best in the world regardless of how far away they were from the championship or even before the games actually start.

On lotion: There's this lotion I found made by Neutrogena that has some type of Norwegian Formula. I was skeptical at first, but ever since I started using it, I had never had that annoying thing where little bits of skin peel back by your fingernails. It's not greasy which is perfect for your hands, but if you plan to masturbate with it I would go with another, more lubricating brand. Go Norwegia!

On the Middle East conflict: Why doesn't anyone say "Peace in the Middle East" anymore? That's not the right attitude to have. We must embrace our past social trends no matter how embarrassing they may be for the sake of our nation. ABC-ya.

On ninja movies: There hasn't been a good ninja movie in a while. If I ever had enough money I'd produce a ninja movie that would be the Godfather of our era. It would have a bunch of ninjas fighting, and maybe a ninja fighting another ninja with ninjas in the background...crazy! Maybe one of the ninjas will be gay so we can add some controversy but the gay ninja is actually a hot woman so it would also be a sexy controversy and make people argumentatively horny and stuff.

More on the ninja movie: But the movie would need some creative artistry so it would have action scenes that are in real time. Because they are ninjas, they'd be moving so fast that no one could see them. So you'll be watching the movie and there's this scene that's like 50 minutes long where nothing happens. But what's actually happening is an all-out badass ninja war. Then as you watch the movie more you'll gradually be able to see the ninjas. Or maybe it's just your imagination. Maybe all we did was put a camera in an empty field and leave it there for 50 minutes...but you'll never know. Pretty deep huh?

On global warming: I think it would be totally cool if the world ends in our generation, the Day After Tomorrow style. It would get rid of stupid technology and put the focus on people (what's left of them) working together and establishing positive relationships with each other. Like a big reset button where we could start all over again a build a frickin' badass empire of love...without traffic.

On the frickin' badass empire of love: It's only called that because there's so few people left so we all have to fuck each other for sustenance. Beeom-chicka-Beeom!

On United Airlines in LAX: Fuck them.

Thing of the day:

Happy 5 Years Yummy!

2006-07-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

through rain

or shine

...and even rain and shine at the same time

i hope that we can keep holding on to each other because....

i like your boobs

Usted Tiene El Tacto

2006-07-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

"So what're you doing back?"
"Well, I sat back and thought about the things we used to do. It really meant a lot to me. YOU mean a lot to me."
"I really mean that much to you?"
"Girl...YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE!"

I'm watching Arrested Development again and it's startling how good that show is. Because of how dense it is I could watch it over and over and discover new things. I like my music that way too. I was listening to the Mars Volta's Comatorium again and it's startling how good that album is. Because of how dense it is I could listen to it over and over and discover new things. I like my alcohol that way too...

Even then, I'm a pretty simple-minded person. I try to make my daily life as easy as possible and I don't like sorting out complexities unless I gain something big out of it. Efficiency and convenience over all-out effort. I guess that's why I chose my line of work...I could have reached for a Master's or PhD but I opted for just a Bachelor's. Sure, I'll make more money going to grad school but I'll also put myself into more debt and I'd spend half of what little left I have of my 20's studying. Instead I chose a bachelors that would make me the most amount of money for the least amount of work. Not that ICS was easy, but there was something big to gain out of it.

I guess that's why I hate traffic and waiting in lines so much. It's one of the most inefficient and inconvenient pieces of shit ever. If they had a "put your car in traffic mode" feature where it detects the distance between the car in front of you and drives automatically, then maybe traffic wouldn't be so bad. That way I could pop in a DVD or read the news or something. Heh, I guess that explains why I love triathlons. It's basically the epitome of efficiency.

Work is starting to get pretty interesting over here. My next project is an application similar to Yahoo which essentially serves as a home page for city employees. They can access their email, search the city directory, and post youtube videos of themselves lip-syncing and dancing to popular songs. We're looking into using Flex 2, which is a pretty badass framework for web applications. I would get into the details but I actually hate technology, so I'll spare you the explanation of how it works. I think even if I tried I would probably end up using insane analogies likening ColdFusion to the band Journey or Flex component effects to 80's new wave which could probably work if I BS'd enough.

Yeah, in case you didn't read any of my old blogs, I really hate technology. It never works when you need it to work most and we'd probably all be better off without it. So why am I in a career directly related to technology? Y'know...I never really thought about it too much. I could say it's the money but I only make an average income. I'd say that my job is pretty chill, but there was no way I could have forseen this job while I was all-nighting it in college. And I'm definitely not tech-savvy or anything. I can't even set up the wireless network in Belle and Cicely's apartment without problems. Hmmm...I guess I just decided that it's best not to think about it.

My ideal career would probably be a professional country line dancer. Or one of those karaoke cheesy video actors. A career as a choir boy wouldn't be too bad either. Sucks that they aren't real careers. I remember when I was a kid I wanted to be a firetruck. That's right...a firetruck. My dad would repeatedly tell me that I can't be a firetruck, I had to be a fireman. But I didn't want to be a fireman, I want to be a frickin' firetruck! Wah, the Transformers had it so easy!

Thing of the day:

Partly Metal, Partly Real

2006-06-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'm concerned about the future of aerial fireworks. Not much has changed from the fireworks of the 80's, where other things like music, interior design, and Michael Jackson have completely changed. I wonder if I'll ever reach a point where I can say "oh hey, it's just fireworks" then go back to playing Metal Gear X on the virtual reality screen or whatever. Fireworks bring back some great, great memories for me, such as the time I watched the Marine World fireworks with my cousins, or when me and all of our neighbors would walk on the streets at night to see the show in Cerritos then go back home and have a sparkfest, and of course when me and Belle went to Disneyland. This might not count, but I really enjoyed the fireworks scene in Final Fantasy 7...it reminded me of the opera scene of FF6, where even though the world is ending outside, you can still sit back and fall in love.

Holy crap that sounded gay. But yeah, be careful this holiday weekend. I once burned a hole in my favorite shirt lighting off roman candles. That reminds me of that time we spent July 4th in Santa Cruz Beach. Illegal fireworks all over the place! I hope to go back there again someday, with a stash from the underground depths of Chinatown that would rival Jubilee's.

007-373-5963

The thing I hate most about humid weather is how your balls stick to your thighs when you walk. It's one of the most uncomfortable feelings ever, especially when you're travelling. My solution is to take an arctic shower then splash your crotch with a healthy dose of baby powder. Gold Bond powder seems to work too. You know, I never understood the evolutionary purpose of balls anyways. You'll be incapacitated if they're kicked, so why not through evolution have our testicles slowly migrate towards our buttocks? They'll be safe there instead having our lives and our progeny threatened by poor anatomic planning.

You know who's a pretty funny comedian? Brian Regan. Me and Belle saw him at our first comedy club many years ago and I still remember his jokes. I haven't been to a live comedy show in a long time so I'm looking forward to going again. The last time I got to go for free cuz I was caught speeding on my way home from up north. Thus I was sent to traffic school. I picked what looked like the coolest school, "Comedy Traffic School," and they offer free tickets to the Improv. Well, I guess it wasn't free...I mean, it did cost me a speeding ticket. I guess it's one of those cases where free doesn't necessarily mean free.

Anyways, happy 4th of July. I love celebrating things that I personally have no involvement with whatsoever! Actually, if the colonists lost to the British I guess I'd be in the Philippines right now. What would I be doing right now if I was in the Philippines? I don't now...probably watching the Hotbabes on TV singing their rendition of "Keys Me" or something.

Thing of the day:

Numbchuck 1 to Numbchuck 2

2006-06-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

I lost my numbchucks. Yes, I really do own a pair of numbchucks...I just don't remember where they are. Oh numbchucks of justice and honor, where art thou?

Why the heck....Yahoo Mail is down right now?? It's never down. I think this is the first time in history I've seen Yahoo Mail unavailable for any length of time. It's been as reliable as Google. Not that it's important that I check my mail right now...but dammnit it feels important! A lot of times I feel like I need to check my mail like 10 times an hour. Maybe the downtime will help me realize that there are more important things to life than email, such as adequate hand moisturization.

The 4th season of 24 was one of the greatest seasons of television I've ever seen. It's right up there with Lost and Ghostwriter on PBS. I mean, I found myself saying "Oh shit!" so many times that if you compiled them all together, you'd have some sort of techno song that says "Oh shit!" 120 bpm. I just got Season 5 so that me and Belle can finally catch up this summer before Season 6 starts. I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse...since with Lost it's painful to sit through commercials and wait for new episodes. But in the same token I get to watch the episodes more slowly and have time to think inbetween them, catching a lot of things I would miss if I just quickly watched them in succession.

"In the same token" - I hate that phrase. I used it a lot in my papers though cuz it sounded smart, and back then I always thought that good writing was eloquent and hard to understand. For example, consider Tycho's daily writings taken from the front page of Penny Arcade, a website about videogames:

"Live Anywhere was one of the most elaborate things shown at a show known for elaborate things, but it doesn't condense particularly well, so wringing the meaning out of it can be taxing. What's more, my cohort actively hates the idea, so any pleasure I'm bound to derive from the process will likely be leached out by his withering rays of wrath and scorn...."

Yesterday I went on my first bike ride of the season to Seal Beach and back. The past few months I've been riding at home on my trainer so it was nice to to actually get out on the road and enjoy the scenery. There was one cool part where the road dipped low next to the river, and there was no way around but to ride through about a foot deep pool of water. It was pretty scary on a triathlon bike, especially since it was part of a downhill. Hopefully Belle gets her bike this weekend so I have someone to join me on the rides. I have a little over 2 months to train!

Those of you who want to participate in a triathlon or a duathlon at the end of August, sign up! The course is perfect for beginners and we can all train together (click below):

Not to discourage you or anything, but when I saw this commercial I couldn't help but laugh my ass off. So funny, yet so true....

Thing of the day:

Life Takes Risk. Life Takes SQL.

2006-06-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

I don't own or want any pets because I don't have time to take care of them. But if I did have pets I'd get two of them and name them Turbo and Ozone. No matter if they are doggies, fishies, birdies, or monkees. We had a nice tank of fish before in my old house, but I ended up killing them by feeding them too much food. I remember visiting my friend's house when I was a baby and nearly killing his fish also from flooding the tank with food. I have no idea what the fuck kind of mindset I had...maybe because I grew up around Filipino families who would always offer you too much food. Or maybe not.

"Here, fishy, eat fishy!"
*Fish eats a little food*
"C'mon fishy...you can do better than that."
*Fish is done eating*
"How are you gonna become a massive shark if you don't eat more?"
*Fish shrugs back at me*
"Please, fishy? We could be an awesome tag team like Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage!"
*Fish swims away*
"Oh no you di'int! You come back here right now fishy!"
*Fish has better things to do*
"That's it mothafucka! I kill you!"
*Cut to fish toilet funeral*

So hey, I got a new phone!

It's pretty cool cuz it uses a Flash interface and the mp3 player is pretty good too. Not that I ever used the mp3 player on my old phone, but it's nice that I can play the DuckTales theme song wherever I go. Wooo-ooo! The Flash wallpapers I can use are pretty cool too...I have one that everytime I flip open my phone, it grows a tree. But not the same tree...it grows a randomly different tree everytime! Also, the background of the tree changes according to what time it is. Like during the day the tree is laying out in the sun and at night you'll see the tree among the stars. I call it the Mana Tree from the game Secret of Mana. Or the Deku Tree from Zelda. I guess I haven't decided yet.

The reason why I got a new phone was that my old one was involved in a class-action lawsuit. So I was able to choose a new phone and accessories up to the price of my old phone. Heh, since the phone was cheap due to all those PDA-type phones out now, I got pretty much every accessory there is for the phone. Take that, Verizon! Nothing like sticking it to the man. Especially when they don't follow the customer service video they probably watched in orientation!

Now that the mud run is over, back to triathlon training. If anyone is interested, me and Belle are doing the Imperial Beach one on August 27. Come join the fun! My running has gotten a lot stronger now that I run on grass instead of concrete, but I still have a long way to go til the Disney Half Marathon. It seems that tight calves have been holding me back, which is probably why I've been getting shin splints. I've been massaging and icing them after I run, and it seems to be helping a lot. It would be nice to run injury-free for once.

Looks like it's time for bodyboarding again. It's gonna be a busy summer but I hope to go at least more than last year. If we get the house we'll be much closer to the beach (15 mins. vs. half an hour) and I'll probably have time to go after work. God I hope we get that house. I know the market is way overpriced right now but I doubt we'll ever find a better location for us. Better to try now and lose a little money than to wait and lose the perfect location.

I feel like going on a long bike ride on the Nurburgring and beyond.

Thing of the day:

Looking for the Perfect Beat

2006-06-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Remember how in the last entry I wrote, I mentioned Ernie Reyes (Jr.)? I was watching the Rundown while eating breakfast yesterday and who other than Ernie Reyes was kicking ass on screen just like he did in Ninja Turtles 2?! That's awesome man. Good to see that guy still doing his thing. Unlike Rufio, who now does commercials. Oh, how the "mighty" have fallen. I'm sure he still gets a ton of ass though.

Hot girl: Hey, you look familiar...
Rufio: Heh yeah, I used to do movies. But to put it simply, I'm Rufio, bitch!
Hot girl: Wow, you're that guy!
Rufio: Yeah...look what I can do!
*suddenly the hot girls's panties are in Rufio's hand*
Hot girl: Magic!
Rufio: You know it.

Vegas is probably the best city in the world if you're famous. No waiting in lines, people will brag if they lose to you in poker, and you can pretty much do whatever you want. You can probably do backstrokes in the water during the Bellagio water show and people will just let it be. I went there last weekend and even though I'm not a big star or won any money, I had the time of my life. I'm the type scaredy-cat that will stop gambling even if I win a lot of money. My philosophy is that I'll only gamble if I have this money and I wouldn't mind losing all of it and getting nothing in return other than the bragging rights of losing to Rufio. At my current state, I need all the money I can get. But going to Vegas for the clubs and the bars and the strippers and the friends is more than enough for me.

Something I've been repeating ever since I started blogging is that I hope to never win the lottery. I don't want money to ruin the things I've already worked hard for. Sure, a little money would be okay...but pretty much anything in excess is a bad thing. Now they have a TV show coming out about the wrath of lottery winnings, which is about equal to the wrath of a ninja (I wouldn't know what to think if a ninja won the lotto). I don't know...I guess I have this thing where I don't care for people who have things handed to them but I'll be the first to praise someone who worked their ass off for their shit.

Actually if a ninja won the lotto it wouldn't be bad at all. He wouldn't have any friends or ties to anyone so there's nothing he can destroy there. He can only gain friends, and no one would dare fuck him over cuz honestly, if you try to take a ninja out for his money you'll end up dead faster than you can say "boodacaca!" The ninja can retire in style in his invisible mansion and spend his life writing poetry and banging hot chicks...at the same time! This also applies to female ninjas. Except kunoichis would probably start their own line of ninja cosmetics.

Yesterday I cancelled my Myspace account. It's been a long time since I had it and I've already accomplished everything I needed to on that site. I got in touch with people I thought I'd never see again and I felt a sense of self-worth when I gathered a sizeable list of friends of whom 2% I actually keep in contact with. But now it's time to move on. I don't do anything on that site anymore so it's time to turn my attention to other things. Like the street gang I said I wanted to form on one of my old entries. And poetry. Gangster poetry?

Thug life.
Tis' the smell of empty shells
to the beauty of bangin' broads
from the sweet crimson of a murdered brother.
Fo' life.
The nine is my justice.
Redemption is my only scar.
When they die, I'll have no sorrow
Tomorrow...my heart bleeds black tar.
I thrill with the kills and the dust and the smoke
And the lust and the coke and the busts and the locs
There's a gun in my mouth
and I feel like I been here.
We stay hardcore, like a beautiful, beautiful unicorn.
Someday I hope to pray to God to forgive my sins.
But it's probably too late now.
I kill another one for boss...this one a child.
But he had a good excuse:
"They’re always after me Lucky Charms!"

Thing of the day:

Word Is Bone

2006-06-01T14:10:00.000-07:00

Water. We drink it. We pee it. It nourishes us. It cleanses us. That's why water is great, and that's why we must drink water. Please, drink water with me...and let us pee together in harmony.

I think I'm addicted to chapstick. I went a few days without it and they were some of the worse days of my life. Here are my other 2 worst days:

1) When I found out I didn't make Kaba Modern.
2) When the TGIF era on ABC ended.

But seriously, chapstick is no joke. You'll usually see it caked on my lips like water over the ocean and when I don't have that, I get very angry. Fortunately, I like to dance when I'm angry so you'll see my in my room doing an angry robot or angry country line dancing....grrrr! Did I tell you? I'm a closet country line dancing admirer. It's just so frickin' badass to people stepping away in sync like that...it's hard to describe. But I like it and most people say that's okay.

The last time I saw a movie in theatres was probably Star Wars Episode III. It just doesn't make sense financially anymore, especially with shows on TV like Lost, 24, and sports. Speaking of Lost...HOLY CRAP that was a pretty badass finale. The whole thing where Desmond turned the key and the sky turned white felt so intense and apocalyptic. I haven't felt that way about a TV show since Ernie Reyes in Sidekicks. Not only is there good TV, but there's some really good anime that people don't know about. Did I tell you to watch Azumanga Daioh? I must not have told you about Azumanga Daioh...let me tell you about Azumanga Daioh....Azumanga Daioh is one of the funniest things I've ever seen! It's like WTF so cute and funny! I don't know...maybe I'm weird but I'd like for other people to see it and see what their opinions are. Just drop me a comment and I'll buy (read: burn) you a copy. Remember to buy it if you like it!

I'm starting to wonder where the music industry is headed. I mean, back then a music collection of 10,000 songs was out of the question. At over $10 a cassette you'd better hope that the cashier you see at Starbucks everyday won the lottery and was generous enough to give you all her earnings. Back then it felt really good to come home from the Wherehouse and listen to the new Milli Vanilli tape. Nowadays most people haven't even listened to half of their music collection. What does this mean? I don't know, my friend...I don't know.

So I took this customer service training class at work and I was surprised at how well EVERYONE but me in the class knew the material. I mean, they'd know what to say to sound polite and would throw out nice words that I've never thought of. That class was almost too fast for me. The weird thing is, I feel like I'm one of the nicest and useful people out there when it comes to answering people's questions. Yet whenever I receive customer service anywhere else, it seems like everyone is doing exactly what the corny videos said NOT to do. They would all fail the class. I can remember all the times I've received good service because there are so few of them. But I recieve bad service everyday. Just yesterday I called asking if a shoe was on stock but ended up hanging up cuz they put me on hold forever. I can understand if you put someone on hold for a few minutes if you're busy, but 10 frickin' minutes...c'mon! At least have someone verify that they know I'm waiting. Anyways, fuck them for making me wait. They will go to hell and be eaten alive by demonic oatmeal.

Sorry Somumoknete...I have failed you. I had a perfect training plan drawn up for the mud run next weekend but strayed from it so bad, it's like going to Blockbuster to rent The Running Man but end up going home with The Notebook. One of the things I pride myself on is my self-discipline, but wow man...it's just too hard sometimes to mix vacation and training. We need to go back to Flinstones cars. Put snakes...err..I mean gyms on a plane. Make the cruise passengers row the boat on giant oars to the beat of the drum. The worse thing is that I can't double my training or I'll get injured again. I'm already borderline overtraining. But like I said, that might actually be better for us. We may be weak but fuck that. We may not have confidence but fuck that too. We are Sumumoknete...and if all those feelgood 80's movies taught me anything, it's that we're gonna beat every damn person who signs up! Ouoeeee!!! *runs out of building with an axe*

Thing of the day:

The Resurrection of Burrito and Friends

2006-05-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

So I woke up this morning to find a burrito sitting on the dinner table. It was warm to the touch, yet I was the first person up in the morning so it's a mystery why it was there. This was no ordinary burrito. It had a racing stripe with a finely tuned ECU and speed holes. Against better judgement I decided to take a bite out of it. HOLY CRAP it was the flyest burrito I've ever eaten! Suddenly, I burst out of the roof like a superfast crayon and I'm flying! The next thing I know I was riding on a Reading Rainbow to the depths of the sea, back to the block...

Nothing irritates me more than people who type like an idiot so that it looks like it's some ancient retarded eskimo language. It affects me personally because who knows if I really am retarded and I live my whole life thinking I'm normal when in reality everyone thinks I'm retarded. That's why when you type, you should always use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Because well, that shit is retarded.

Well, maybe traffic irritates me more. I just don't understand why everyone can't drive like me. I mean, if everyone in the world drove like me there would be no accidents and traffic because dammnit, I'm the frickin' greatest driver in the world! It just bothers me that no one else thinks the exact same way.

I watched Stomp yesterday with the greatest people in the world. I always wished that something like that would happen in real life. Like we're sitting in a waiting room and some dude is tapping is feet while listening to his ipod. Then the receptionist is typing something on the the loud keyboard. A old woman checks in and walks across the room with a cane very slowly. A boy and a girl are playing pattycakes. The maintenance crew is working on the elevator. Suddenly everyone in the room starts to realize they're making music. Then they start rocking out and the doctor busts out into the waiting room with an electric guitar. The nurses pop out and start singing while all the sick patients are breakdancing. The next thing you know, it spreads through the entire hospital and everyone starts pouring out into the streets. Then it starts to spread to the entire population exponentially like an outbreak. Wouldn't that be the greatest thing ever?

Me: God, is there anything greater on earth than a bunch of people making music?
God: No, my son, there is not.

These are part of a collection of my favorite things:

- Cutting my hair with the clippers after letting it grow out for so long
- Cold Red Stripe on a hot summer day
- Watching the Transformers movie for the tillionth time
- When we used to play ball at Woodbridge with everyone after we graduated
- Azumangah Daioh
- Losing a Shockers softball game
- Going to church and feeling good about it
- The first scissor cuts into a fresh piece of construction paper
- Letting the endomorphines kick in after training
- Having a badass wave or the mountain all to yourself
- More Lakers magic
- Ninja Gaiden
- Long runs on the beach
- Hearing Ari Gold talk
- Remembering Lola
- That confident feeling while wearing new clothes for the first time
- Travelling with girlfriend
- Learning to view light with a camera's eye
- Coolin' out

And lastly, since in my last post I mentioned that I'm getting younger, maybe I should take a Flowers for Algernon approach to this blog...

Wish You Were There

2006-05-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I was actually up for 36 hours, not 24. Hopefully I never have to do that again - I ended up sick the next day and now my training schedule's all mangled up. We're definitely not gonna be as prepared as I hoped we would for the mud run, but I actually think that's a plus. You see, without specifically training for it, it would be as if someone suddenly mannapped me right now to be interrogated in some other country. Then I happened to escape from the prison and struggled my way through 6.1 miles of mud and mayhem so I could inform Tony and the rest of CTU of what's happened.

I never understood the idea to censor words in the way that everyone knows exactly what you're saying. For example, f*ck or sh*t. Anyone looking at it knows exactly what the word is...so what's the point in leaving a letter out? Or giving it an elaborate spelling like fawk or shiznit. I think if you want to cuss but you want the reader/children not to know you're cussing, use some creative words. For example:

"Hey, you know what, Nigerian? You acting like a little cupcake right now. You acting real paranoid and pattycakes. Now, these amniotic gentlemen smoked your biological cousin in front of you, b-boy! Blew his head off in front of your face, and you ain't gonna rip out his optics? You acting like a little flowerpot right now, badass B.A. Baracus. Man, I fart in that general direction. I ain't letting that happenstance ride. We gonna go in and smoke all these sufferers of gingivitis. I don't care if Ross and Rachel are out there. Mama se, Mama sa, mama coo-sa, is you down, ninja?"

A kid reading that would go, "Mommy, I want to watch the A-Team with my biological cousin! Then I want to rinse my mouth with Listerine so I don't get gingivitis!". If you want people to know you're saying fuck, might as well just say it instead of being all cupcake about it. I don't know...maybe somewhere in religious texts it says that if you don't exactly say the word, you won't go to hell. Fuck = you're probably going to hell. Fudge = good job, you're a saint!

It's hard to believe that I'll be turning 27 soon. I'm definitely happy with the way my life is going right now, except that sometimes I wonder what age I really am. I remember doing one of those stupid personality test and it turns out....that I'm a teenager. Stupid test. But wait...maybe it's telling me something I don't know about myself. I mean, anyone who reads my blog can see that I'm definitely not a mature adult. It probably has to do with the fact that I was pretty strict with myself growing up. Now that I've made it this far with a great future ahead of me, I just want to let myself go. I think I may end living the rest of my life like a clueless teenager. I don't want to have any worries or be bummed out by work or stop having fun. The choices I have made and are making point me towards a life where I can do this. You won't hear me complaining about being old cuz the way I see it, I'm getting younger. Like a Bell curve.

Either that or I'm in denial. It's ironic that I hate teenagers with a passion. When I'm at the beach or snowboarding I sometimes wish I had a holy hand grenade for the annoying teenagers I run into. There are some nice ones, but I'll admit that I'm an agecist. Wow, maybe I am getting old...cuz some of my best memories of my life were from being an annoying teenager. Okay, maybe I'm more like 21. Older than a teenager, but just young enough to not have any major responsibilities.

I haven't talked about videogames in a while. That doesn't mean I haven't been playing them. Once in a while I'll fire up the emulators and play some old skool games like Contra or Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic....that game brings back a lot of good memo-wiis for me, and I'm not exactly sure why. But when I play it and music kicks up I feel like I'm 15 years younger, with my cousins and friends around me. Maybe I miss having everyone around and the game wii-minds me of them. I usually associate videogames with the memo-wiis I have while I'm playing them. The last great one I wii-member is Metal Gear Solid 3, which wii-minds me of the Philippines. I think years from now I'll be reminiscing about the Warcraft battles. But yeah, I'm talking about videogames since I've been keeping up with the E3 news. The Super Smash Bros trailer got me pumped up even though I've never played any of the sequels. MGS4 looks like it can be the best of the series. By the time these games come out though, I'll be too young.

P.S. I realized in an old post I said I won't use the word "fuck" anymore and replace it with "frick", the reason being that I felt it had more umph! to it. You see, fuck makes me think of the word fuction, which isn't even a word. Frick makes me think of friction, which is used in sexual activity and is one of the basic tenets of physics.

Of Lazor Beams and Magma

2006-05-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

The following takes place between the hours of 5:00am Friday and 5:00pm Saturday.

Last Friday I was up for 24 hours straight. While that may not seem like a feat for some, I'm not sure if I've ever done that in my life before. The closest was at UCI when I did an overnight lab for an ICS class. I did get to take a long nap though. Last Friday, I did not.

So I woke up at 5am Friday morning and had my usual whey shake before I left for the vanpool meeting spot. I usually sleep on the morning ride, but today I felt a little energized and instead focused my eyes on moderate traffic and industrial buildings along the 5. I get to work and have myself a bowl of oatmeal, fish oil, and an apple. I poo afterwards. I'm working on moving our applications to the new server next week so I go through my notes to make sure the transition will go smoothly. Around 9am I take a break and head to the fridge to pick up my cottage cheese and OMEGA cranberries. It wasn't a busy day today so I didn't converse with anyone along the way.

While eating I take a 10 minute break to manage my finances. I decided to pay off my truck next week in preparation for the house we're planning to buy. No car payment, at my arraignment, note for the plantiff. I head back to the kitchen to wash my dishes. Someone was already at the sink so I left my dishes on the counter to go wii-wii instead of waiting. The floor is sticky beneath the urinal because the pee bounces off the porcelin and lands on the floor in collective droplets. I wash my hands and splash some water on my face. Refreshing. Then I head back to the kitchen and wash my dishes.

Time to get back to work. The applications are ready to be migrated so I work on the EEO reports. A few emails come in from customers so I go ahead and answer their questions. For lunch I have myself the usual grilled fish, brown rice, and veggies. I brush my teeth afterwards and poo again. I had company in the bathroom so there was a nice exchange of farts and grunts. I felt like we really connected in that conversation.

I keep a bottle of lotion at my desk which I use everytime I wash my hands. They get dry easily so I use it, along with the chapstick and 1.5L bottle of water quite often. Around 3pm I take another break with some yogurt and almonds. Keno introduced me to these Kashi crackers that I've come to enjoy sometimes. No workout tonight so a light meal is okay. I didn't get to sleep on the way home from work either since I offered to drive the van. I get home and make some final preparations for Mammoth while waiting for Belle to get back from work. I tried to take a nap but didn't have enough time.

Belle gets back and we eat Sbarro's and a smoothie for dinner. Then we watch the end of the first season of my current favorite show: 24.

When the time comes we switch over to the Laker game. We watch the entire thing and I am elated that my prediction of having an LA team in the Western Finals is about to come true. Some people thought I was crazy. After the Lakers win we watch some more 24 and it turns out that we're late for the Mammoth trip. We gas up and air the tires, then pack up in Torrance to leave for Mammoth around 2am.

4 hours later I'm getting sleepy at the wheels. I force myself to stay awake for just 1 more hour til we make it to Bishop so Belle can finish off the trip. At that point it was around 6am, and I get to take a quick nap of which I wasn't sure was a nap at all. Even though I was tired it took me forever to fall asleep and before I knew it, we were already at Mammoth.

We eat breakfast at Carl's and head straight to the slopes. I get a second wind and I'm pumped up to go snowboarding. It's a hot day so I didn't even need my jacket. While putting on my boots I stretch my semimembranosus. Then I stretch my vastus medialis. I proceed to stretch the gastrocnemius before eventually finishing off with the erector spinae, deltoids, and gluteus maximus. Time to hit the snow.

By lunchtime I am having a ton of fun. I let myself go and played with the jumps. The only fall was from the ice where my board couldn't hold an edge. I am now really comfortable jumping again and hope this isn't the last time we go snowboarding this season. I haven't been snowboarding nearly as much as I used to, but that day I got that feeling back again where all I want to do is ride in the snow and fly in the air. I had a beer for lunch which worsened the dehydration I already had, yet I had a third wind to finish off the day with a few more good runs. The snow wasn't as good as last time, but it was way less crowded and the weather was perfect.

We check in to the lodge around 5pm and I take a nice sexy shower. First, I put the shampoo on my hands then work up a nice lather on my scalp with my fingers then rinse. No need for conditioner so I use the wash cloth and rub it along the bar soap. I soap myself down paying particular attention to the penile and toejam area then give it a good rinse. I dry myself with a towel and finally, finally....I can sleep.

Pop Locks to Box Trots

2006-04-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

It's normally not my duty to post funny things I find on the web (though I made an exception on my last post cuz c'mon, it's Bas!) but I think it can actually be important when looking back at myself in the future to see what I found funny. This reminds me of that time when I was one of those Scholastic book order junkies in elementary school. One of the things I got was this diary that had me list all my favorite stuff. I think back then my favorite food was the Steak and Lemon Herb Chicken at Sizzler and my favorite Transformer was (is) Grimlock. I also thought the Care Bears were alright. Sounds kinda gay but as a kid in the 80's you had no concept of what gay was. For example, this was Van Damme's first appearance on film:

Speaking of book orders, the one book that I remember most growing up was "Sideway Stories from Wayside School." That book was just weird. I don't know a lot of people who read it but it had a sequel and back then I thought it was pretty popular. Remember "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark?" We had a lot of fun with scary stories back then and I remember that particular book and a freaky image of this chick that still haunts me to this day. I'll see if I can find it someday and you'll see what I mean. But yeah, back then I was a total bookworm. Too bad the stories I read were all about fantasy worlds and gave a false portrayal of reality. Like the Boxcar children. I read that entire series and in no way do people act that polite in real life. Then I realized it was written over 40 years ago.

For some reason I have this "Choose Your Own Adventure" book stuck in my head about a dude (that's me!) abducted by aliens. While on board, he learns about this "Utopia" from other abductees that was impossible to reach. Like it isn't a point on a map. In fact, the only way to end up in Utopia is to stumble upon it. So I chose all my adventures and never found Utopia. One day, I dropped the book and there was a page I've never seen before, a drawing of a forgotten paradise. I then realized why I never found Utopia: you can't choose to go there by the normal flow of the book, you can only stumble into it on accident.

So you might've heard I was pretty drunk last Friday. I got to talk with a lot of people I haven't seen in a while, which for some reason makes me the feel like the happiest guy in the world (that and the alcohol slowly destroying my liver). There's just something inside of me that gets a kick out of revisiting the past. But yeah, I'm actually starting to fear becoming old now. It's not really about what I can or can't do anymore, but more about the people I'm not close to anymore. I can honestly say that I fear losing friends. Even people who were friends for one day. In most relationships I have with people, I feel that I value their friendship more than it may seem. In some cases, it might not even seem like I care about someone, when in reality they mean the world to me. I think my goal from now on is to make sure that I will not leave this earth without everyone knowing how much they mean to me. And if you're reading this blog, then you're gonna be a part of it. Unless you're a stalker. In that case, give me a call and we can work something out.

Dooon't Yooou Everrrrr Doo Thiiis!!!

2006-04-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

How to defend yourself in a streetfight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiEsktRiCXo

Funniest shit ever! I've been laughing all morning. "Somebody's telling me that, about my wife? I'm sorry sir, but I'm going to break your leg." Heh, good way to start the week. It's the first 5-day week in a long time so it'll help to keep myself in good spirits. Back in school I always wondered how I would be able to work 8 hours days for the rest of my life. I mean, waiting for the weekend felt like having the skitters on the road hurrying to get home. Now that I'm here actually working 9 hour days, it's not bad at all. Sure, weekends can't come soon enough, but I have no problems waking up in the morning and going through my day. And for that I am grateful.

So I went to church yesterday for the first time in a long time. I haven't talked much about church lately which is a shame. Church used to be one of the things that made me, me. Nowadays I only go on the important holidays or for events. Well yesterday I was sitting in my church - the same church where I went to CCD, got confirmed, made part of the choir, joined the youth group/bible study, took part in their social activities - and it felt like I never left. It felt good to be back in church and I still get that same feeling of wanting to do goodwill after mass is over. Even then, here are a few improvements I was thinking about that would make church a lot more...kickass.

We need a group of people to hype everyone up, a sort of bandleader. There was the choir, singing their hearts out, clapping their joyful hands while moving their bodies like the music was pumping through them. Then you take a look at the church crowd and maybe they're alive...I don't know, someone has to go over there and check for a pulse. Why can't they get into it as much as the choir? Church should make you feel good about yourself and share those good feelings with everyone else. So there should be this group of people wearing colorful jumpsuits inciting the crowd to get into it. Maybe they could do the worm down the aisle or fly around the church on martial arts wires ...anything to get the crowd involved.

The Apostles' Creed should probably be turned into a lively song. Gregorian monks laugh at how boring it sounds. I mean, we're talking about the entire life of Jesus and stuff here, man. We really have to get into it. All those prayers. We have to take it to Samuel L. Jackson levels. It's not, "Lord, hear our prayer." It's "LORD! HEAR OUR MOTHERFUCKIN' PRAYER!!!!!" Then we all pump our fists in the air and cheer like we really believe what we're saying. Then maybe pour out into the streets and get the entire city into it.

Peace be with you, handshake, fake smile. That's not how it should be! We need to hug each other, kiss the people around you, build a sense of community! It's okay to fart cuz everyone else is farting too. When else do we get to be this close to all our neighbors? Show them some love! You like this girl at school but you're too shy to approach her? Then sit next to her at church! By the end of mass you'll both be praising God as if you've known each other all your life.

Priests' sermons should teach everybody how not to be an asshole. For example, he/she should have slideshows and diagrams designating the rules of the road and how to move over when you're driving too slow in the fast lane or how to give a courtesy wave. Of course, this isn't going to be a lecture - there's gonna be breakdancers and lazor beams and jousts and races and stuff. Anyone going to church with a bad attitude will instantly want to do good deeds cuz wow, look at that guy do a biblical headspin!

So yeah, I really think these changes would help out the Catholic church a lot. I can see people humming church songs during the week and coolin' out with the neighbors and having a beer and everyone just being in good spirits without the aid of drugs. Happy Easter everyone.

A Person Isn't Stupid, People Are, And Maybe I am too

2006-04-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting here at work for the past month listening to the sound of this imaginary train. But it's not a train....it's a frickin' jackhammer. Apparently they're doing some construction across the street next to the LAPD headquarters. I often speculate on what they might be building. Maybe they're building an interogation room? Heh, I think I could never become an interrogator because I have no patience. The first thing I would do before I even look at the guy is put him in a figure-4 leg lock to get some answers. And if he doesn't start talking soon....awww shit I'm busting out the Greg "The Hammer" Valentine shinguard!

The younger generation might not get the reference, and laugh at the prospect of a mere shinguard doubling the pain, so I'd probably set them up on the table while I climb a 20 ft. ladder and threaten a mean elbow drop. I don't understand why Sayid or even Jack haven't thought about just putting Henry Gale in a Sharpshooter until he talks. It would be stupid to kill him, but the threat of breaking someone's back should be enough to get most people to talk.

That reminds of this comic I bought a while back called Shadowhawk. Basically, he's like Batman except he breaks people's back, King Slender Pro Wrestling style. That way he isn't labeled a killer while still preventing the "gangster" in tight leather attire to commit any further crimes. Though I'm guessing in future issues he encountered a criminal who only needed the sound of his voice to wreak havoc. I guess in my perfect world, no one would commit a crime because everyone would have equal hit points and mana. Attacking someone else's base would be pointless cuz they'll get more doodz killed than gain anything. Thus, everyone is just coolin' out.

So my brother might be on his way to to becoming a Long Beach Police Officer. The background investigator called me yesterday asking a bunch of questions. It took me all my willpower to hold back on complaining on how he never helps out around the house and he's always freeloading my stuff. When he asked why I think he'd be a good police officer I had to suppress my imagination into saying things like "Yeah we used to watch a lot of Arnold movies in the 80's and you can say that he's kinda like Mr. Kimble - lighthearted and fun on the outside but tough as nails and full of one-liners on the inside. Everytime we played cops and robbers on our bikes he would be all like 'Freeze, mothafucka!' and we would all freeze cuz he really sounded like a cop. Not to mention the mustache, he totally got that "cop look" on him. Dude, you'll see what I mean. But yeah, he's all sorts of awesome and this one time we fought like 30 gangs cuz they were trying to steal our lunch money. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be standing here today. No joke."

In most stories you have characters that are in some state and there's this awful conflict that goes on and in the end they are in a better state. Lately I've hated watching these kind of plots. What I like, are characters that are in some state, then stuff might happen, and they end up in the same state. The End. Take, for example, Entourage. Nothing ever goes wrong in that show and in the end everyone is just doing their thing. Or Family Guy - there's nothing family about it at all. No life lessons, just dogs and babies having fun while making us laugh. And a recent favorite: Azumanga Daioh. It's just a bunch of girls living out their funny ass life. That's it. The only exception is Lost. Probably cuz it's conflict after conflict so that the state of being in conflict is their normal state, and that never changes. Sure, sometimes in these types of shows the characters end up in a better state, but it's not because of some annoying conflict. I guess I just don't have the patience for annoying conflicts.

It's not that I won't step up and rise to the challenge. I mean, I love montages. I wish there was some way we could live like a montage: only dealing with the fun parts while throwing out the unnecessary moments. Heh, training and building stuff would be so much cooler. You could become best friends or even married to someone with a montage and the right music. Have you ever watched the NFL films versions of football games? Freakin' awesome with the kickass music and the narrator with the deep voice. Makes a normal early season game seem like a summer blockbuster.

Today, I ate broiled turkey for lunch. Yesterday, I had turkey meatballs. Turkey is great. Turkey for all!

Thing of the day: Whenever you're involved in some conflict, often times the best thing to do is to say "Don't ill, take a chill pill!" then cross your arms in that b-boy stance.

Last Night, While Alone In My Room, I Smelled a Fart That Wasn't Mine

2006-03-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

Because I made my own survey and everyone answered it, I vow to do any survey that anyone calls me out on. So you could make one up with questions like "Do you think Batman could beat Holly Golightly in her prime with enough preparation?" and I will answer it because I care about the world, no matter how tough the question is.

Four Jobs I have had in my life:
1. Churro vendor at Disneyland
2. ICS 1P TA and Financial Aid Office Programmer at UCI
3. Whatever it was I did at Reynolds & Reynolds
4. Programmer Analyst for the City of LA

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. The Big Lebowski
2. Back to the Future
3. The Transformers Movie
4. The Running Man, Commando, Predator, etc.

Four places I've lived:
1. Torrance
2. Carson
3. Irvine
4. Cerritos

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Whatever is on the NFL network
2. Family Guy
3. Arrested Development
4. America's Funniest Home Videos reruns

Four Bands/Singers I'd love to meet:
1. DJ Shadow
2. Save Ferris
3. Beethoven
4. Pauze

Places I have been on vacation:
PI
Illadelph
City of Wind
Pura Vida
Across the border
Shaka bro
All over Cali
Please, Niger

Four web sites I visit daily:
1. Colts.com
2. Slowtwitch
3. Flickr
4. Bofa.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Grilled fish
2. Grilled steak
3. Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
4. Sashimi

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Training
2. Snowboarding
3. Bodyboarding
4. In a haunted house with friends

Four individuals who I have tagged that I think will respond:
1. The King of Scotland
2. Nigerian Scammers
3. Funshine Bear
4. The last person I sold a churro to. I think his name was "Bunta."

Chiyo-chan, Why Are You Flying?

2006-03-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've actually took Lent seriously and already it has impacted my life in a positive way. If you'll remember, I said I'd stop being so lazy at work and try to work efficiently, all the time. What happened is that this attitude carried over to everything else in my life and now I'm being efficient even out of work. Woohoo! Go religion!

There's this place right by Belle and Cicely's apartment called Stuffed Sandwich that has the craziest beer selection I've ever seen. If there's a rare beer you're looking for, this guy will probably have it. So if anyone wants to drink up, let me know! The owner is a cool guy and really knows his stuff. Last time I went I bought a Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA. Holy crap that beer was strong. Dangerous too because it went down easy. It's St. Patrick's Day today so I think I'm gonna reward myself after today's run. I have a Victory Storm King Imperial Stout in the fridge and the left over Sierra Nevada's from the Tahoe trip. Though I should probably have something Irish like Guinness or Murphy's.

I signed up for the Disney half marathon in September which makes it to 2 total running events signed up so far and no triathlons. Running is my worst discipline but it's the one that everyone wants to do which makes it more fun. I see that more people are getting into triathlons now which is great cuz I could use the company. It'll make the long bike rides much more fun. So far this year's training is going much better than last year's. It turns out that I was training too hard. A heart rate monitor is a good thing to have.

So I'm back on an anime binge and playing Ninja Gaiden again. Didn't I just say that I wasn't being lazy anymore? But seriously, Azumanga Daioh is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. You really have to watch it. I love the whole easygoing atmosphere of it that makes you just laugh and feel good about life. If it doesn't bring a smile to your face, you're probably some kind of emo monster. Also, Ninja Gaiden is still pretty hard. I tried to beat it without dying but I ended up dying from the helicopter. Reminds me of trying to go back and beat Mike Tyson on Nintendo. So how are these things efficient? Anime makes me laugh and feel good about myself while Ninja Gaiden gives me the reflexes of Little Mac.

There's another snowboarding trip at the end of the month and I can't wait to go back on the mountain. The last time at Tahoe was amazing, and this trip may even top Tahoe. I'm kinda sad that I don't get to snowboard as much as I used to, but my body is definitely thanking me. I hope I can quickly get back up to speed like in Tahoe, and this time my board will actually be waxed. I didn't know there was such a big difference in an unwaxed board but believe me, you don't want an unwaxed board on the flats. Again, no big jumps or boxes this time but I had a lot of fun in Tahoe just cruising down the mountain. That last run at night with no one around made it feel like I had the whole mountain to myself. Felt like a Zen moment.

I Never
- I never drank alcohol until I was a junior in college.
- I never really had a guy best friend. In my wedding I have no idea who my best man would be. Too bad there can't be a "best woman". Or can there be?
- I never realized how bad of a choice my second ex-gf was until a few years ago. I wonder whatever happened to her? I don't think I care.
- I never got caught masturbating. It's all in the ninja.
- I never ran more than a mile and a half until last year.
- I never had a car break down or flat on me ever until this year. And it happened twice.
- I never dreamed that life would get less stressful as I grew older.
- I never knew how to spend my money wisely until this year.
- I never thought that I could ever land a hot, intelligent woman with a fun personality that makes more money than me. I was wrong.
- I never did drugs. Though I want to now (buy me weed please).
- I never played "I never". That's why I'm writing this right now.

Life Doesn't Work That Way

2006-03-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to write a post last week but I gave up being lazy at work for Lent so I didn't have time. Now that I've done quite a bit of work, I think I deserve a break. So yeah, for Lent I shall no longer be lazy at work. I will work at 100% efficiency, all the time (except for now). I remember writing a post about what the world would be like if everyone was 100% efficient, all the time. I don't think mankind can comprehend what that would be like yet, given our history of stupidity and general cat-eat-cat mentality. So I'm gonna try and prove to the world that it is possible, and that we should strive to be efficient. Granted, being efficient means something different for everyone. From an evolutionary perspective, being efficient means to pass off your genes as quickly and abundantly as possible. Meaning, me so horny you so horny too let's all have hot monkey sex bam bam pow next! Now, that would be nice but...you know what I don't have any argument against this.

When I was in high school I used to watch the Batman Animated Series all the time, and I didn't even like Batman those days. I still watch it sometimes and wow, it's held up pretty well. This weekend I bought the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel and wow man, Batman is badass. I mean, he beat Superman (though I don't understand why Superman didn't just turn the Earth backwards and punt Bruce Wayne while he was still a baby). It's hard to believe it was written over 20 years ago. I was only a mild comic fan back then, but now I think I'm more interested in comics now than when I was a kid.

Speaking of being a kid, I'm watching this anime called Azumanga Daioh and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Consider this:

Okay, I know my sense of humor is a little off, but how is that not funny? The things that make me laugh most though are totally bizarre ideas like Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts. When I was little, standup comedians never made me laugh. I always wondered why all my older friends liked to watch them. Then I realized that I was too stupid to get the jokes. They were clowning on a society that I have yet to join, as I was forming my own worlds in far off lands as a kid. In fact, I remember wanting to escape from reality badly, as I would read novels, comics, watch 80's movies, play videogames and ogle Playboys stashes we found. I'm totally surprised that it hasn't dominated my life. In fact, I'd say I'm the exact opposite right now. I love my life and would probably turn down an offer to visit Narnia.

Though I would wonder what it would be like to step into Narnia and conquer it due to my diseases of the 21st century the likes of what Mr. Tumnus and the rest have never seen. Heh, but if I did rule Narnia I'd probably fashion it to the way I live my life today. I would train for triathlons, indulge in photography, travel to exotic lands, write ColdFusion code for Aslan, discover new music, drink beer, and invite all my friends over. We would surf at dawn and board the slopes when the White Witch returns so it would be symbiotic. Then...maybe we'll form an army of psychotic yet extremely cute squirrels and take over the US. The world just wouldn't be ready.

I always talk about wanting to take over the world but I never do anything that gets me there. So I think also for Lent I will give up my quest of taking over the world. It's just not high enough on my priority list right now. I guess I'll cross that off my "Things to do before I'm 30" list. Hmm...what's next on the list? "Buy a house!" I know, I know, I'm trying. But shit man it is hard. When I see how it's done on paper I don't get how people do it. Where do they get the money? But then I see so many people owning homes that it must not be as hard as I make it out to be. What would Batman do???

Okay, I lied. I don't have a list of things I want to do before I'm 30. I just think of stuff in my head sometimes. So I'll make one right now:

List of things I want to do before I'm 30 that I'm making up right now:
- Finish next year's marathon
- Skydiving
- Come out of retirement and breakdance in the Middle East while uniting the warring countries like in Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo except on a larger scale
- Travel to Europe
- Take photos that I can frame in my parent's house
- Ride a choo-choo train
- Drink the greatest beers of the world
- Learn how to put my money in the right places
- Watch more MTV and practice dancing in my room so I can dance when I'm not drunk
- Maybe become the owner of a company with a successful product like the Fleshlight
- Create my own line of jeans that are so destroyed, that all that is left is the crotch area and a few threads that hang down. They sell for $500 each and everyone buys them because they are stupid.
- Come out of retirement and bartend in the Middle East while getting all the leaders drunk and eventually fighting again, undoing the unification in Breakin' 3
- Be someone else's best friend
- Make a difference in someone's life
- YVAN EHT NIOJ
- Buy the ring and propose

I'm Back and I'm Coolin' pt. II

2006-02-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

It's been a month since I last wrote in this jig but I have a good reason: I had too many things to write about. Waiting more obviously made it worse, but eghh. I can have someone hypnotize me someday to draw those memories out. Maybe I'll ask if they can hypnotize me into thinking I'm Batman. That would probably solve all of the problems I have today. Yea, that's what I speak of! My main problem is that I want to own a home already before I get pushed out of the area. As Batman, I would have a huge, dark mansion on top of the hill with various winter and summer vacation properties. I'd probably try to liven up the mansion with some color though. And throw some sexy parties every now and then.

Last weekend I went to a house party that was vintage high school and some parts of college. But wow man, it was fun as hell. Almost too fun (in an "I'm getting too old for this" way). It was at my best friend's house which I finally got to visit and dude, I saw some guys I haven't seen since High School graduation. It was pretty cool man. They had a ton of good beer there, great music, and just good vibes throughout. I really felt like I was ten years younger, especially hanging out with my friends from 10 years ago. But yeah, I had a great time. Happy Belated Birthday Sandy!

Then after the party we went to San Diego for even more good times. I'll try to post up the pictures tonight. The Wild Animal park was amazing and our hotel room was exquisitely badass. Me and girlfriend (I have bad grammar) had good food all weekend and took a lot of fun photos. The Strip Club with Jay and Cicely was fun, even with the long wait and the lack of strippers. I wish we had more time to spend there. The drive back could've been better, but listening to Esthero the whole way back gave me some comfort in my biggest hatred: traffic. Cuz man, fuck traffic.

A lot of people need to learn to bike more. I think that the world should be more geared towards bikes than vehicles. I mean, biking dudes can't ride on the sidewalk cuz they'll run over pedestrians, and they can't roll on the street or they'll back up traffic. They should make the driving requirements so tough, that only 1% of the population actually gets a license since the driver's test is 10 years long. Then open up all the streets to bikes and public transportation. That would solve so many problems and introduce new ones I didn't think about that I can't help but think it would make the world a better place. At least it's a temporary solution until we unearth the secrets of ninjutsu, which would allow us to use ninja smoke and run on rooftops at breakneck speeds.

Because of the Robinsons-May clearances, I have revamped my underwear collection. I bought a ton of boxer briefs that are made out of the Under Armor material, which is perfect since I hate how cotton gets soaked in sweat. This is my first time buying brand name underwear so we'll see how it holds up. The Fruit of the Looms have served me well, but it's time for my botox balls to move on to bigger and greater things.

"IM IN UR BASE, KILLING UR DOODZ" - I don't know where this is from, but it makes me laugh. Killing your doodz, heh. Makes me want to play Warcraft.

It is very unlikely, but I pray with all of my body (including my pee pee) that Edge remains a Colt. He's one of the 3 reasons why I became a Colts fan. When the triplets are broken up, it will be a lot tougher to watch the games with the same enthusiasm. Sure, I have Bob Sanders and Freeney to watch, but they just don't have the same legacy....yet. Wherever Edge goes, I wish for him a Hall of Fame career.

Thing of the day: next time you're walking and come across someone during the daily hustle and bustle of work, ask him/her to race. Sometimes, you just gotta race.

She Was Something Else

2006-01-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

Lately I haven't had anything to write. I'm talking about get-off-my-shoulder, I-need-to-record-this type of stuff. Usually the words come sweeping out from my fingers like brooms in Fantasia. Now it's coming out like originality in Hollywood. ZING! No, that doesn't deserve a zing. I do have a joke for you though, and a racist one at that.

How do Chinese people name their children?
They throw their silverware out on the street and name them after the sounds that come out.

It's not that I'm picking on Chinese or anything - they're cool. It's the drivers in San Gabriel that have been driving me nuts. So there I was, coming out of a frickin' POLICE STATION with huge letters sprawled out on the street that say "Do Not Block Intersection." And even if you happen to miss that then there's a huge sign right there that says the same thing. So I'm trying to get out and guess what happens? I'm not one to pick on Asian women drivers, but wow, there were two of them that blocked the intersection until minutes later a guy who was actually paying attention to the road let me in. It's scary to think that there are people so oblivious to what's going on in the road. I know a lot of good Asian women drivers...I feel bad for them having to deal with the ones that perpetuate the stereotype.

Why do Chinese people use chopsticks?
Because they threw all their silverware out on the street.

Zing! Okay that one deserves a zing cuz I came up with it in the car while I was talking to Belle. I didn't realize that it had a double meaning until later on (that because they have so many children they'd eventually run out of silverware). It's probably an old joke but I still feel happy that I didn't just read it off from somewhere. But I did read somewhere that China is starting to come up as a country. They're already the most populous...imagine if everyone there was living efficiently.

I took this online test that shows a bunch of people and you have to guess what type of Asian they are (Chinese, Japanese, Korean). I failed horribly. It would've been much worse if they added Vietnamese and the other countries to the mix. Y'know, I don't understand why some people take pride in looking like they're not from their native country. Like I remember Belle told me that Jasmine Trias denied she was Filipino. That bitch! I want to totally write a burn book about her and say all this bad stuff like she's a whore, and how ugly she is, and how she looks like a poo... stuff like that (sorry, I just watched Mean Girls). I respect people like Manny Pacquiao who are proud of where they're from and acknowledge their past/roots. What was that whole Kelly Clarkson thing about?

As for me, I am proud of my eskimo heritage. My parents may be Filipino, and their parents Filipino, and so on...but Belle thinks I'm an eskimo and I respect that. It definitely explains my fast-growing facial hair, fish-dominated diet, and animal skin fashion. One day I hope to own an igloo of my own. Fun fact: I come from the Aleutian Islands as part of the Inuit. While there, I ran into some guy named Solid Snake who has since inspired me to become a ninja. I still remember the last song my ancestors sung as I began my quest:

Eskimo ninja, shinobi badass:
There was an eskimo ninja, in the heart of America,
Stolen from Alaska, brought to America,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival....

I still can't believe that Kobe had just scored 81 points. Considering the circumstances, I think it's greater than Wilt's 100. Not to discredit him, but for Wilt it was because he was so much bigger and better than everyone else. Kobe is playing against people his own size and abilities and used skill and determination to score that much. Frickin' amazing man.

It's gonna be a long week and lately I've been slacking off in just about everything. After this sentence, I'm gonna work hard for the rest of the week, so that means I will begin working furiously starting right....now - after this sentence; which I don't want to end but I promise I'm gonna be a frickin' workaholic juggernaut, so....

Back to the Old Drawing Board

2006-01-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

You can probably guess that the Colts' 3rd playoff lost in as many years has been on my mind all weekend. I'm so upset I don't even know how to handle it. The whole way home from Tahoe I was thinking about what could have been. How sweet it would have be right now if Nick Harper returned the fumble to win the game. How could you let a quarterback that was falling on the ground make such a critical open field tackle? Harper should have just fumbled the ball purposely with all the Colts around him - someone would have picked it up and took it to the house. How could Vanderjagt miss such a field goal so badly at home? How could the Colts be so poorly prepared for the game?

I will admit though, that the Steelers were the better team that day and it should have been over after the Polomalu interception. They gameplanned perfectly and for some reason the Colts were caught by surprise. Okay let's see...the only critical game they lost this season was against San Diego who runs a 3-4 and pressured Manning and used disguised blitzes. What in the world do you think the Steelers were going to do? Did they not practice against that type of defense? The offense seemed surprised when they stepped on the field. And the defense...in the last game the Steelers tried to establish the run and barely threw deep. What do you think they're gonna try the next game? It was crushing to see the Colts so poorly prepared, especially when considering Manning's football IQ. I hate to be a fan of a team that consistenly chokes. It hurts more when you're good but not good enough than to be never good at all. But still, I remain a fan.

Actually, I can't really say anything since I have failed too....I am dropping out of the LA Marathon. Injuries have worsened and it just doesn't make sense for me to continue training. If I continue at my current pace, it might hurt future chances of competing. I also don't like how it's getting in the way of others things I like to do (such as snowboarding and ninja'ing around) since even just walking around I could feel the pain in my legs. Sure, I could still finish it if I wanted to but it wouldn't feel as great since I'd be walking most of it.

To make up for it though, I've now started triathlon training again. This year I'll be doing Olympic distances and maybe try to compete in 3-4 events. The running I've done so far has really helped a lot and the 10k portion of the triathlon almost seems easy. I just bought a trainer for my bike so I can ride in the winter. Today is a swim day and I'm excited to hit the pool again. Who knows, I might get lucky while training for the triathlon and "accidently" be ready for the Marathon. But right now, my focus is not on the marathon.

The Tahoe trip was one of the most fun I've ever been on. It reminded me of those days when we were younger and went on all those family trips. I never thought those feelings could be duplicated but wow, there was never a dull moment. Words could not describe that trip. Yup, words cannot describe.

Actually, words probably could describe but I'm not gonna try. Some things are better left to memory. But...uhh..not this trip...I'm just too lazy to write it all myself. The fact that I could come home happy even after the Colts lost in such a disappointing way is saying something. The moment when I was riding down the mountain at night with Sherwin, Keno, and Joesan on that long run was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I didn't fall once and was going as fast as my un-waxed board could take me. The temperature was in the single digits but I didn't even notice it. I really felt like we had the whole mountain to ourselves when we were the last one to go down that night. It reminded me again of how much I love snowboarding.

I have a lot of other stuff to say but I'm still recovering from the trip and the game. It's gonna take a while to absorb that loss but the memories with such good friends is making me forget about it.

Happy Birthday, Ye Blogs

2006-01-05T15:50:00.000-08:00

This blog is exactly 1 year old. Let us look back at the defining moments of its history:

- No, let us not.

I did that already on my old blog, so if you count that then I've been blogging for a little over 3 years. Wow, where has the time gone? To Narnia, I suppose. I think it's great that I'm chronic-(what?!)-ling the events of my life so that I can always go back and read it. I usually talk more about what's on my mind than the events that happened, so I have an idea of what my personality was like at the time. Man, I have really matured over the last 3 years. One thing I noticed is that I stopped cussing. It just doesn't fit with me anymore and feels awkward. Well, except for the occasional "Oh shit, what're we gonna do now?!" (Kudos to anyone who knows what movie that line is from. Hint: it's rated PG).

I guess as we grow older we get a better sense of how we fit into this world. Growing up on 80's feel-good movies, I felt like I could do anything if I tried my best. And that a hot girl will automatically fall for my nerdy self. But then you grow up and realize that life is the exact opposite. Your best is not enough to win and you're the one who falls for the nerdy girl. Kinda depressing, until you realize that doing your best is all your can do and you're happy with that while the nerdy girl you fell for is the greatest woman you'll ever meet. Wait a minute...that sounds just like an 80's movie....I'm confused! Well I guess what I'm trying to say is, life is a series of realizations. First you realize something, then you realize another thing. Pretty deep huh?

I'd like to thing my blog entries are more than a series of realizations. One thing I've noticed is that I try to be funny, where in real life I don't joke around at all unless it's with someone I see often (I joke around with girlfriend ALL THE TIME). It comes natural to me as I write but I'm not the one that'll be telling all the jokes in person. I laugh at a lot of unfunny things and when I do laugh, it makes me tear. I don't know what it is...but I can be easily brought to tears from laughter...Dick Vermeil style. I guess that's good. Almost all of my tears have been from happy moments. Sometimes I get teary-eyed from being so pumped up like when I'm training or watching Rocky IV. It's also another moment where it feels natural for me to cuss. "Fuck yeah!" is something I say to myself during an awesome workout.

Anyways, I should probably be talking about the new and past year. Simply put, I couldn't be happier with where I am now and the direction my life is taking. 2005 was a pretty badass year. Even though my Lola passed away, she has made those she left behind stronger as she watches over us with her smile. I am grateful for everything I have and satisfied that the younger version of me would be proud of what he would one day become. I hope to say the same of myself years from now and I have some badass friends and a yummy girlfriend that will make sure I do. My goal for this year to help people out as much as I can is something I look forward to.

Something I've noticed is that I'm becoming a completely positive person. Just a few years ago I was a realist but now I only see things in sunshine and rainbows. A pile of work to others looks like a pile of gummy bears to me. When shit happens I don't spend anytime being sad about it - I get up and do everything I can to fix it while humming my favorite song. So I guess what I need to do is stop being selfish and help other people to feel the same way. I want everyone to see everything in sunshine and rainbows. Actually, that world would be too gay so maybe it would be better if everything is sunshine and rainbows, but we're all ninjas dressed in black to offset the gayness.

There's a lot of other things I need to self-improve but that list is too long to put here. Anways, 2006 looks exciting and it's already starting off with a bang. Next week we're going on a Tahoe trip. I've been itching to go snowboarding since I haven't went at all due to marathon training. I'm gonna take it easy on the slopes but the fun is gonna be in the company we're in rather than the snowboarding itself. Speaking of marathon training, my injuries are less severe than I thought and now I feel like I have a chance of finishing. Just a week ago my shins were hurting so badly that I couldn't jog 2 steps without pain. I was thinking about dropping out to avoid further injury, but my body is holding up fine after this weekend's rest. Anyways, I guess the general theme of this post is that it was a good year and this year is also good. So....umm....fuck yeah!

Elevated Daps // (LDAPS)

2005-12-29T10:27:00.000-08:00

Dammit, remember that post I wrote about using the Force in everyday life? Now I find myself raising my hand when I want to open a door in front of me or when I don't want to get up to grab something. I hope I stop this bad habit soon, otherwise it could haunt me in the future:

"Grandpa, can you take us to Disneygalaxy?!"
*waves hand*
"You don't want to go to Disneygalaxy."
"Mom, I think Grandpa's going crazy!"
"It's okay son, we'll be sending him to the senior planet next week."

The thing I hate most about Vegas is the drive to Vegas. When the frick are they gonna build that train? What makes the drive so bad is the amount of people who don't understand that slower traffic should stay to the right. I have a lot of respect for people who notice that there's someone going faster behind them so they move to the right. I wish there was a "Thank you, you're awesome!" signal on cars so I could use it after they let me pass. On the other hand, people who insist on holding up traffic when there is so much open road ahead of them deserve an oil slick or a smoke screen or some other Spy Hunter weapon. Then they could crash and burn leaving 1 less idiot on the road for all I care.

Okay, that's kind of harsh, especially in this holiday season. So let's use the term, bump and ascend into heaven.

*Bad driver makes an illegal move and almost killing me*
"I hope you ascend into heaven!!" *while I give the thumbs "up" sign*

Christmas this year was great. The ultimate best gift that I got was the quilt that girlfriend made. Also, Cicely's ninja shirt and Jay's Calorie Mate were very clever. Too bad I didn't get to participate in the gift exchange. I think that whey might be lost and gone forever. I'll bring it next year I guess. To me, Christmas came and went. I think most of it had to do with buying my presents online. So I didn't really go out to the malls and stuff to get a taste of that "holiday spirit." The Christmas parties were fun though. I'm blessed to have awesome friends and family to share good times with. I wish I had a mansion or a castle and all my friends and family lived there with me.

Well, not really. It wouldn't work out now that we're older but as a kid I've always dreamed of that. I valued being around them more than I valued alone time. Then as I got older I valued being alone more. That's not what I want, but that's the way life is nowadays, we're always so busy to get things done and it only makes things slower to involve other people. On the bright side, it makes the few moments we get to spend together that much sweeter. Remember my solution to this? Robot workers. That way we can just make the robots do all the work while we just hang out and play four-square outside all day. I forgot what my solution was for revolting robots though...John Connor?

So far my personal best is only 7 miles in my marathon training regimen. Due to injuries I'm extremely behind schedule. I'm supposed to run 12 miles this weekend but that might be counter productive since I'm still recovering. My ideal marathon weight is probably 30lbs less than what I am right now but I don't want to lose it. On the bright side, running is fun and at any moment during the day I have an urge to break off into a run. I guess that's all that matters though, is that I'm having fun. Whether I finish or not is secondary, and would only make me train harder next time if I don't. But I will finish! Oh yes, I will. Robots, carry me to the finish!

One thing that really helps is listening to video game music. Especially boss music. It helps me to zone out and finish long runs. There I am, running around with my sword in the heat of battle....Gah! Take that you filthy dog! Wattah! Eat this vile woman! Vrrooom! How you like that fire magic, car! Yeah, the fantasy is ruined once I zone back in again.

So New Year's is coming up and it's time to make our resolutions. You already know mines - to help out at least one person and make a difference in their life. *cue kickass theme music* Whatever yours is, I hope you follow it to the end. Except if it's evil. Then again, who am I to judge if it's evil or not? Maybe it looks evil from the outside, but it's actually doing the world good, like in that movie Hero. But there still are people out there with truly evil New Year's resolutions. I hope they ascend into heav...wait, descend into hell. To the others, I bid you godspeed.