The Life of Bryan

I leveled.

2008-12-10T22:08:00.000-08:00

August to December is a long time without posting. Way too long. If you haven't guessed I'm still alive. ;-) I'm also still in good health. The broken tow has healed nicely (80% flexibility still in the joint), I moved from East Palo Alto into a friend's house in San Mateo (yea!), still loving the Mini, and still doing wushu. As a note, the demo and opening went well at the new school location. It was a site to behold with Lion and Dragon Dancers coming in to bless the school for good fortune and all of us doing different demos for the people that showed up. My toe was killing me for a week or more afterward. I trained way too hard on it but it was worth it.

The only down part since August has been the economy which has kept me very busy at work. Since companies are cutting back staff they are relying on more inexperienced people to fill the positions. This created a case increase and has kept us all at work under a constant barrage. We also are not immune to the recession. People that have left our staff can't be replaced due to a hiring freeze. We all just have to buckle down and weather the storm. Hence me not posting for almost half a year.

I'm closing this post with good news (heaven knows when I will post again). Tonight I tested for my red belt in wushu and passed. Two years of hard work as brought me to the advanced levels of my martial art that I so love. I still need to work harder on the basics because I, and the coaches, noticed they were not 100%. I will do that moving forward as I learn the final compulsory form and continue my quest for black.

Update on Saturday

2008-08-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

After practicing with the others for Saturday's competition I get asked by the team to stay and demo our routine for Sifu. We do and at the end he says, "Ok, you can use that as the demo." I was like "What?". They had sprung a surprise audition on me. :-O Now instead of having to have it perfect once on Saturday, with the day to rest the toe, I will have to be perfect 3 times that day with almost no time to rest the toe.

Now Friday is rehearsal for the demo on Saturday so I can't get the rest I was planning there either. I'm slightly annoyed. Scratch that. Really annoyed. My fear is that my toe is going to fuck me up that day and all this working on it is going to really fuck me up for the test next week. On top of that I am rusty on all the forms and am barely (in my opinion) making it through.

So now I'm in the demo. With less practice time and less rest time. I really don't want to fuck up. :-/

Wushu moving

2008-08-13T16:05:00.001-07:00

The school I study martial arts at, Wushu Central, is moving and will be holding an open house on Saturday. Free classes and demos for kids and adults. Followed by the school tournament. I will not be demoing and will only be competing in a group event because of the toe.

http://wushucentral.com/extras/grandopening.pdf

It's going to be good times.

3 months, 1 post. :-(

2008-08-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

West Coast life is good. Unfortunately there has been some downs with the ups (like not updating my blog in 3 months. :-( ) but overall everything is good. Here is the quick:

* Forester finally died so I donated her and had to buy a new car. I bought a 2008 Mini Cooper S, red with white top and mirror caps convenience package and sports package with slip differential. Bad thing is the car had to be built in England and shipped over. Had to rent a Ford Focus for 2 1/2 months. Got made fun of by a lot of my friends (they called it the "Hella tight ride") but its all good now. I have the Mini ("The Hella Sweet"). :-)

* Fractured my right big toe's first joint on Father's Day in a soccer match. Felt like a bad sting (it got kicked from the side and the lower joint lock while the upper kept flexing to the side) but it hurt to walk on it. Went to the hospital the next day and got it confirmed. Saw Podietric surgeon the day after that and was in a 10 lb. walking boot for a month. Went from that to a surgical shoe for 2 weeks and finally to a regular shoe. I retained about 80+% of my flexibility in the toe (which is great - most people lose all) but it aches at times. Doc said it will do that for up to a year. As for doing what I was doing before it is the pain management process. If it hurts too much, stop for while and rest.

The injury happened 3 days before Wushu belt testing and half way through the soccer season. I missed the rest of the session and will miss two weeks into this session. As for Wushu, I was out for the first 3 weeks then went back to class and did what I could with the boot. That was a pain. At this point I can do stuff again but I have to learn how to run/stomp/jump/etc again since I lost the nuisances of movement from wearing that fabulous footwear. It's getting better everyday. I have another belt test around the 20th (I'll get to test the new stuff and what I missed). The downside is I will need all the time from now and then to really practice. I was not going to compete on the 16th in the school tournament until my friend Steph kept after me because she need a fourth person for her routine. I relented (it's hard to say no because she is so cute about asking and my toe has been feeling a lot better). I definitely can't demo Wushu in the schools new space on the same day. :-( . Routine with 3 other people is one thing, full out competition and demo solo is something else. I'm not going to push it.

If all goes well I will be a brown belt at the end of August and then a red belt at the end of December. From there it is the long training road to black in June of 2010.

* I moved from the ghetto of East Palo Alto to San Mateo (truly a Jeffersons experience). A friend of mine owns a house up there so I'm renting the master bedroom from him. It makes the commute to San Jose (work, wushu, soccer, other friends) longer but worth it since my rent did not go up and I get a sweet as place to live. Cost of renting a single bedroom is so bad I come out ahead by making this move. Go figure.

Ok, so that wasn't so quick. Much like me saying I'll post again shortly which turns into 3 months. :-P

The Passing of a Legend

2008-05-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

A time comes when all things must end and that time is today for my Forrester. I knew she was getting worse and I figured I could limp her along until the end of July when the new car I just bought will arrive (yesterday too - more on that in another post). However, this problem was not as easily fixed as changing an axle or getting a tuneup. The transmission gears are grinding and skipping bad at low RPMs. Enough to shake the car and stop it from going. The cost to repair will far exceed the trade-in value I would get. I decided that it was better to donate her and just eat the extra cost on the new car.

What am I going to do with no car for two months? Well, thats not going to happen. This morning I signed a mini-lease from Avis for a Ford Focus. I will basically rent a car from them until my new one arrives at the end of July. Its the same as starting car payments early but I won't own this one. I already talked to the insurance company this morning and they let me know my options on coverage. All that is left is to call a donation site to pick up the Forrester.

I've had that car for 8 years. It has been with me from lows to highs. It even saved me in a major accident and carried me to a new life in California. I'm going to miss her. I hope once fixed up someone will get as much enjoyment from her as I have.

Still here

2008-05-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm still here. Just haven't posted in a long time. Nothing new really. Re-sprained the ankle last Saturday in a light soccer practice. Stopped a header and came down wrong on the foot of another player. Good thing I had my brace on or the injury would have been much worse. It seems to be healing faster. I just want to get back to doing what I was doing before without hindrance.

Passed my belt test so now I'm a blue belt. Learning a new weapon, straight sword, and will be taking a one month only class for May to learn double broad sword. I also added a tumbling class to my Saturday schedule. I was supposed to start last week but that didn't happen so I will start this week.

Got a Wii last Sunday. My friend Jeff Custis bought it at a store near his Mom's and brought it to me. Still haven't hooked it up. Just been busy with work. I have MarioKart for it too. Dieing to play.

Ok, so I lied. There was some new things going on. Hopefully I will remember to keep up with the blog this month.

Doing The Right Thing

2008-04-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

About a week back a DHL Express 2nd Day package arrived and was sitting outside of my apartment. I thought it was the game socks I had ordered from England and that they had shipped it to my billing address and not the shipping address. I went to open the box and noticed that the tape on the outside of it had the name of a company I had never ordered from before. Looking at the shipping label I could see that it was not addressed to me. It had my address but not my name.

I decided to see if it was one of my neighbors but knocking on their doors produced nothing. They were not home and neither was my landlord. I figured that I would catch him in the next day or so. Well that didn't happen and the package sat on my counter. A friend told me that I should open it. Its a mis-delivered package so it was mine to keep. I told him no, that even though the address was mine, the package was meant for the person in the label. This guy also could have had his identity stolen. Having the package shipped to my apartment was pretty smart since the delivery guys just leave them in the hall where anyone can pick them up (hence the reason I ship my stuff to work).

I called the company on the box and told them about the package. They were very nice about it. The customer rep explained that they had a shipping problem in NJ and all 2nd Day packages got messed up. He e-mailed me a postage paid return label. All I had to do was print it out and take the package to the post office. Today, that is exactly what I did.

While in line at the post office on 1st street in San Jose with my friend Ali, a postal worker approached me and asked if all I needed to do was drop off the box. I said yes and that I needed a time stamp that showed I dropped it off. She was confused by this then tried to tell me that it was a DHL package and that I should take it to DHL. I explained to her that it was return for an item that was mis-delivered. The pre-paid shipping label was from the company it was going back too. She continued to insist that it this was the post office and not DHL. She even read the instruction sheet I had (and followed to a T) making sure all the steps had been taken. I told her all I needed was the time stamp and that was it. She then said that the DHL logo could not be on the box (it was printed on the cardboard) and proceeded to cross it out with a sharpie. I've never had this kind of problem from the post office and just let her do it.

It was then that she told me she wasn't sure if the package could be shipped like this. I told her again that this item was not mine. It was shipped to the wrong address and was being returned to the company. Then she asked me a question, that I did not hesitate to answer, but while doing so found myself thinking that it should never have been asked.

Postal worker: "If it's not your package, why do you care?"
Me: "Because good people do the right thing."

She then kind of scoffed at me and rolled her eyes. She started to open her mouth and say something else but then all she said was "fine, fine. It's ready to go." I still could not believe what I had heard. Ali was cracking up by this point. He even chimed in and said to her "If you don't care, why don't you open it?" She ignored him. Her college took one look at the package and said it was fine to ship the way it was and that I could go. When I asked him for the time stamp he said that the form I had was not the official form and that it would cost $1.05 to get it anyway. I declined and thanked him then left.

Ali and I laughed about it for 15 minutes however, then and even now, I am disturbed by the attitude that she had. It was as if what I was doing was abnormal. That doing the right thing is a foreign concept in today's society. Civil society is based on the premise that the majority of people are good and will do the right thing. Without that you have chaos. I would hope that her thinking on this subject is truly the abnormal one and not mine.

Recent News of the Week

2008-04-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

If it's not one thing it is another. The night I decided to ask out this girl from class is the same day that work tells me some bullshit plans they have for changing the teams around and basically making my work load increase. So I was thinking about that and not concentrating on my form when during a flying side kick sword stab I sprained my right ankle. Sprained it bad and two days before the tournament. I decided to ask her to go to dinner some time and got shot down. Two strikes in one night.

I go home, ice my leg and try to chill. My friend Jeff, who is staying with me, is getting girls calling him left and right. He seems to come home everyday with a new number. I took that as strike 3. Saturday comes and I can't practice soccer because my ankle is two times the size of the other one in the morning. More icing and rest plus ibuprofen before the tournament and I figure I would be good to go through the form. No really.

First form already had problems. Ankle was killing me through the medicine. I never made it through the sword form. Got through the jump kick and jump inside but that is where the leg said no more. Made three more moves then had to salute out. Ended up taking a gold, a silver, and an ice bag. Leg hurt so bad I could not go out to the birthday party I was planning to attend in the city (it was at a club). Had to stay home and ice my ankle.

Sunday I slept, ran errands, more icing, and called Mom. While talking to her (and staring at my slowly decreasing inflammation in my ankle) she tells me that I could have broken it and still stand on it. I figure it is time to go to the hospital and get it x-rayed since the pain I am feeling now is in the bone on the inside of the ankle.

One trip (3 hours) at Stanford hospital and the result is no broken bones just a bad sprain. There is, however, a bone chip in my ankle from a very old injury. That is where the bone pain I'm feeling is coming from (the chip poking the swollen tissue). No it is ice 4 times a day, keep it moving (slowly), elevated, compressed (in brace all day - pretty much where it has been since Thursday) and rest it as much as possible. No going full or medium speed in wushu or soccer for at least a week. Annoyed.

I need a vacation. Badly.

I Wonder What Is Wrong With Me....?

2008-04-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in a long while. Been busy with mostly work. Tonight, in Wushu, I was wondering what's wrong with me. I have a Wushu Tournament on Saturday and have no nervousness about it. None. Testing at the end of the month, no worries. Stopping shots on goal, nothing to it. Taking on someone twice my size or faster than me in sparing, no fear. However, I meet a girl that I want to ask out and I'm totally paralyzed. It totally doesn't make sense.

Rrrrrrrr.........it's annoying.

RIP Gary Gygax and Thanks For The Memories

2008-03-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

This morning Gary Gygax pasted away. For those that don't know him, Gary created the Dungeons & Dragons game with Dave Arneson in 1974. You can read more about that and the obit here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/04/obit.gygax.ap/index.html

It's Gray creation plus his books, modules, and writings that helped me deal with some of the award and painful things I faced while growing up. D&D was an escape from reality that to this day I am thankful I had. The game helped me to become better at math, table memorization, reading comprehension and retention, teamwork, and leadership. It was D&D that taught me how to calculate percentages better than my teachers could. To this day I can figure out a tip in my head faster than most people can look in up on their tip card using the same method Gary's game taught me 20 some odd years ago.

D&D also gave me fun times with family and friends that we still laugh about. Whether it was an outrageous character, stupid players, or diffcult situations they are memories that have yet to fad and seem to get better with age. I made some really good friends that have remained friends for almost 20 years by playing his game.

I had the opportunity to personally thank Gary at a convention in the mid-90s. I told him what a impact his game had on me and the improvements it made in me and the great memories it left me with. He was very happy to hear it and I'm glad I had the chance to tell him (as nervous as I was to impart that to him).

So thanks again, Gary, for everything. One day I'll see you at that great gaming table in the sky. And yes, I promise to bring my own dice, books, pencils, paper (graph, plain, and hex), plus snacks to share. :-)

OMW to DC

2008-02-21T06:28:00.001-08:00

Waiting to board my flight to DC. It's way too early in the morning
given that my day started at 4am after going to bed at 1am. On top of
going to bed at 4am and getting up at 8am for Wednesday I'm just a
little burnt.

So why all the late nights and early mornings? Tuesday after wushu I
went up to SF to see my friend Andy who was up from SD for the Game
Developers' Conference. So I was out drinking with him until the wee
hours. :-) The next morning I was hurting at work but it was all good.
Then I did my belt test (passed) and headed home for dinner and a long
night of laundry and packing.

I'm excited about seeing friends and family but not so excited about
the cold and having to work. :-/ One day I will work for número uno
and then none of that will be a problem.

Up Late For My Trip

2008-02-17T22:51:00.000-08:00

Good thing I have tomorrow off. I'm up late (again) on a Sunday but this time its for getting things ready for my trip to DC this coming Thursday. Work is giving me a free trip home plus car so that I can attend a 3 day meeting in the Rockville office. I decided (and my bosses agreed) that I could take some days at the beginning and the end of the meeting days which I will work from home on. This way I can stay extra to see family and friends without the need to take PTO.

The only drawbacks so far to the trip is the cold (can't be helped), I will miss the first 2 games of my mens soccer season and a week of wushu. The guys already know I will be out and someone is going to fill in on goal for me. I talked to my friend (and coach) Matt and he is going to show me the stuff I am going to miss for that week. Now comes the hard part, finding the time for him to show me. I'll text him tomorrow to see if he has time during the day (since I have it off). If not, I will have to talk to him before class tomorrow night.

Ok, back to working on getting things ready.

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

2008-02-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Happy (Chinese) New Year!!! Now begins the Year of the Rat. I still have some blogging to catch up on from the Year of the Pig. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to get a chance to make headway on that. I have been working my ass off for the last couple of weeks. Nothing different now since it's 6pm and I'm just about to leave work.

Muddy Fun

2008-01-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

It has been raining a lot here over the last 2 weeks. I still had to go to soccer practice and had two matches to play on Sunday. That made for a muddy mess. Thank God I had 3 sets of uniforms because I went through them all.

Practice on Saturday was not that bad since I did not spend a lot of it doing keeper work. It was the first match of Sunday that was a pain. It was for the mens team that I just joined last week, BD International. They are a new team in the South Bay League and the games before the season are friendly matches with National Semi Conductor's employee team. The field at NSC was really muddy. It was about 1 1/2 inches deep in the goal box. Needless to say I was covered head to toe about 10 minutes in.

After that match I went home, showered, dried out, ate, and went to San Jose High Academy to play in a scrimmage on their turf field. It rained the whole time so I was wet there too. I had a lot of laundry to do when I got back home (still not done). Mud does not come out easily.

Those two days I sure did give my newly corrected joints (from the chiropractor) a major workout. I was very pleased that everything held up and felt better each day. I'm looking forward to the new levels I can take my soccer and wushu skills to now that things are working the way they should.

Chiropractor

2008-01-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

I finally went to see a chiropractor about my left shoulder, right elbow, and left lower back. The shoulder has never been right since the dislocation and the lower left section of my back has always been giving me trouble. My friend Vesna (a personal trainer and player on my co-ed soccer team) thought that it might be related to the bones being out of alignment and recommend I see her old chiropractor Dr. Rikke Johansonn at Health Logic. Dr. Rikke was an athlete and works primarily with athletes. She was not one of these doctors that was going to prescribe pills, tell me that I needed to come all the time for BS procedures, or tell me to stop doing what I'm doing (because that is not going to happen). She was interested in fixing the problem so I could get back to my active life style. So I decided to trust Vesna's advice and go.

I made the appointment for Friday morning because I was in pain in the shoulder from diving save I made last Sunday. It was killing my ability to work out. The appointment was for 90 minutes. I meet her, very cool doctor, and we talked about how my injuries occurred and the type of lifestyle I lead. She told me up front that if she examines the shoulder and it needs surgery, she would be the first to tell me to go get it. She also was not interested in telling me to stop being active. She wanted me to remain as active as possible and wanted me to get back to doing it the way I used to.

What she discovered was that my entire left side was locked up in the shoulder and lower back area. There was also scar tissue build up from the old injuries. The right elbow had pretty much the same issue. All the issues and the areas showed signs of blunt force trauma (surprise, surprise since that is how most of them happened). She said that all I need to have done was to have those areas unlocked and the scar issue broken up.

When she finished working the magic popping of bones and crushing the scar tissue I was surprised that she said that was it. She didn't think that she needed to see me again and that I could immediately return to my normal routine. I was stunned. She said that if things feel a little funny in two weeks come back but she was pretty sure I was good to go. I was ecstatic, not only from that but from the fact that she fixed the issues in one sitting. Plus I immediately felt better. Things started moving properly.

It's been 3 days and I feel a thousand times better than before. I tried out the fix this weekend and it passed muster (more on that in the next post). I even gained back that inch of reach I lost on my left side. I'm all evened out. Time to take my Wushu and Soccer to the next level. ;-)

1st Repair On Car Done

2008-01-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

It has been a very busy week. All work related unfortunately so I won't bore you with those details. The good thing is that I got one of the problems with the car fixed. I ordered the diagnostic reader last week (found a great deal of $40 for a $100 reader), plugged it in and it told me that Number 2 Cylinder was misfiring. Quick call to Pat told me that it was most likely the spark plugs and wiring harness. So, I got a new set of plugs and shopped around for a wiring harness. I found one for $60 at Car Quest, which was $40 less than what Kragen Auto parts wanted to charge me.

I changed the plugs on Sunday with my friend Alicia. That made the car run much smoother and cleared the check engine light. Now all that is left is to fix an oil problem and the engine mounts. Engine mounts might not actually solve the issue. My car dealer, Rudy, told me that the Subaru dealer told him that engine mounts rarely go bad on Foresters. He suspected something else. I saved the message and have to check the auto guide for the part he mentioned. We'll see. I already got the left and right engine mount for $75 a piece from Car Quest which is 100% lower than the $145 a piece Wheel Works wanted to charge me. I'm on a roll with finding good deals. :-D

More to come on the repairs and looking for a new car. Right now, I have to get back to work.

No New Car Yet

2008-01-09T17:04:00.000-08:00

The dealer that was getting me the car got outbid at auction. It will be another month before the next auction. He is still going to keep looking in that time. What I want for the price I want is the problem. I'm going to fix the Forester in the mean time and save up some money. Hopefully I will be in a better position next month.

New Car and Trip to DC area

2008-01-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

Not much has been happening. Spent the New Year at friends place and I have been spending the last few weeks hanging out, playing games, and generally doing nothing. It has been great! No a damn thing to worry about except for the car. *sigh* It's dieing. The check engine light came on. I think the problem is a clogged fuel filter. At this point, I don't care. I'm going car shopping tomorrow with Jin's cousin Rudy who runs a car dealership. We're heading to a car dealer auction in Hayward. I already have a loan approved and have my eye on what I want. I'll let you know when I buy it. :-D

The trip the was scheduled for this month to the Rockville office has been postponed until Feb 25th - 29th. The good thing is I will get to see all my friends and family. The bad thing is it will still be cold and it is right after my birthday weekend. Still have not decided if I will be flying in on Saturday the 23rd to DC or not. I will keep you all posted.

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year all. I hope you have a safe and good one. I'm going out to dinner with friends the hanging out/partying at one of their places. Low key new year for me and that is just fine. Not really feeling the need to blow out this year at the end.

Again, I have been to busy to post but this time it is not work. It is all play. So what has been distracting me from posting in the waining days of 2007? Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga. Thanks Jeff. This game rocks!

See you all next year.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T14:56:00.003-08:00

Merry Christmas everybody! How your's is a joyful one.

Wushu Tournament Saturday 12/8/2007

2007-12-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

So I participated in the second Wushu Central Friendship Tournament this past Saturday. This time I was competing at both empty hand form and weapon form (staff). I was also competing in padded weapon sword but that was for fun. I had never done padded weapons before and knew the others were going to kick my ass. My goal was to take home a gold in empty hand form and/or weapons that was not a tie with my friend Larry. Last time we tied exactly and took home a gold each.

I spent the morning doing a light practice with Heather (who was also competing) before heading to lunch then to the school for the competition. It was during warm-up that I noticed that I had tough competition than Larry. A student at my belt level named Francis (whom I had never seen before - came to learn later he comes in the morning and on weekends) was practicing a section of the form I was doing. He was spot on and look perfect. That guy was going to be tough to beat. It was then that I also learned that Larry was not competing in weapons so my only competition was Keshi. The problem there was I had never seen Keshi do his form. I had no idea how good he was.

The empty hand form went ok. I did not do as well as I had hoped coming in at 8.77. As I thought, Francis did better and came in at 8.9. Larry finished 8.6. I beat Larry but only took the silver. In the weapon form Keshi went first. He was nervous and I told him to relax, it is just like practice or test day. Just go out and do your best. He did. His speed was amazing and his stances were damn near flawless. He got an 8.9 and I knew I would have to work extra hard to beat him. Because of my size and the desire to not readjust while doing the form (I would loose points) I had to start close to the black carpet. The black carpet area has not padding in it (carpet laid over concrete) so there is a risk that you can break your weapon on it. If I broke my weapon I would loose points. My only hope was that it held through the taps and slams that I knew would hit the black area.

I stepped up to do my form, start and went into it with the full martial intent I was supposed to. When the first tap hit the black carpet I heard my staff crack. At this point I had two hope options. One was that the staff held through both staff slams (one on the black and the other on the blue carpet) in which case I could pretty much get it to hold through the final slam later. The second was that if it broke, it did it cleanly so there was piece hanging that I had to take care of. It held through the black carpet slam but, as you can see by the fast camera phone picture by my friend Jason, it did not hold through the blue one. It snapped to the sudden inhalation and exclamation of the crowd. And to my luck, it did not do it cleanly.

I knew I had lost, so it was silver for me. The choice was continue or quit. Well that was easy, I don't quit. I had worse things happen on stage when I was acting and had to cover. This was a piece of cake. The broken section was hanging on by a little bit. I smiled a little then twisted the staff to the left and broke off the rest of it. I made a mental note at I continued not to dig to deep with my newly pointed staff or I would tear the carpet. Lost time since the break, less than a second. I think fast. ;-)

The crowd was stunned. As I was moving on I heard people whispering and saying things like "Oh my god, he is continuing." and "He's continuing with a broken weapon." When I reached the turn around section of the form I saw my friend Mike Nader (black belt Mike) dash onto the floor and remove the broken section so it was out of my way. I finished the form and did it strong. When I was done, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Some people actually stood up. I had not heard a roar like that for any performance I had done in a long time. My score was 8.82. I lost .05 for breaking my weapon.

People came up to me afterward. Keshi's Dad was surprised at how easily I broke my weapon. All the others were telling me that was an amazing recovery and what a great job I did. Even Sifu said it was great recovery and continue. My staff form was the highlight of the evening.

The padded weapons went as expected. I got my ass beat hard by Larry but it was fun. Watching him and Mike go at it later for the final was a blast. They were so into it slamming on each other they didn't hear the point calls to separate.

All in all a good day and I can't wait to compete again. Yes, I did buy a new staff (3 days before testing) and it is like swinging a log around. Heavy but I doubt I will break this one. ;-)

Friday Funny 12/14/2007

2007-12-14T09:09:00.000-08:00

My friend Mai sent me this one (yes she is Vietnamese). This cracked me up. Its a Prank Call for a Vietnamese Commercial by Lance Krall. Enjoy.

Long Week and My Belt Test

2007-12-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Well I had some things to blog about on Monday (namely the Wushu Tournament I was in on Saturday). That time quickly went away this week with work. Wednesday was pretty much a blur because Tuesday started with my normal getting up at 6:30am and heading for my workout. However, work did not stop until 2am. That is because I had a customer call in at 4:30pm with a downed server. That lasted until 2am and then the day was spent on the cleanup of that case. I didn't get to eat or sleep well. When I ate yesterday it gave me a stomach ache. Then I had to do my belt test later that night. I passed but mess up the staff form a couple of times. Not good but in the end I'm now a purple belt and I get Friday off for all the hard work I put in on that case.

Friday Funny 12/7/2007

2007-12-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

And yet another picture for the Friday Funny. Enjoy.

Another week.

2007-12-07T10:34:00.000-08:00

Oh man....another week gone by. I was stuck in training all week and could not post. So the week in brief. Hurt back last week, was better Saturday but hurt it again in training. No sparring and no game Monday night (Ali filled in for me). We won (yay!) so Ali and I went to the bar afterward. We got carded because the bartender thought I looked to young (yay!) She looked too cute but in that place she probably heard that all the time.

Mostly rested. Was in training for the week about a product I knew nothing about but have been supporting for the last 6 months. Tomorrow is another Wushu Tournament. I will be competing in the forms sections for empty hand and weapons. I will then be competing in the padded weapon sparring. Going to be a busy day.

Ok. More later and the Friday Funny coming up.

Friday Funny 11/30/2007

2007-11-30T16:26:00.000-08:00

Yep. Haven't posted since Thanksgiving. Mike came into town over that time. We had a blast hanging out. After that I had to catch up on work. I've also been a little so and missed some opportunities like getting that girls number I met at lunch today. :-( Maybe next week.

Here is your funny for the day. Not a video as usual but a pic. This guy is how I feel some days. LOL! Enjoy.

Gobble, Gobble Day

2007-11-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a good one. Eat lots, watch lots of football, and digest well.

Weekend Fun

2007-11-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Here is the weekend in brief. Saturday after the normal practice/sparring workout I went bowling with friends from Wushu Central. Matt was leaving for the Philippians for a couple of week so we were giving him his send off. That was fun. Ended up talking in the parking lot of the sushi place we ate at until almost 11pm. Then I stayed up until 4am playing Halo 3 with CJ. :D

The next morning around 9am, my friend Heather calls me. She wants to know if I wanted to go to the 49er's game. She has season tickets with her family but her Mom was staying home. So her, her Dad, her Brother, and I went. Had a blast despite the loss. The above pick is taken with my camera phone. It's from the seats she has and is right before the player announcements for game start.

Friday Funny 11/16/2007

2007-11-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

Found this from the Vancouver Film School. It's called "Happy". I found it funny and I hope you do too. Enjoy.

Shutout

2007-11-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday I had some good news to post but got too busy to post it. Today turned out to be the same so before it gets any later here it is.

Monday night my co-ed soccer team played the best match they have played to date. The controlled the ball well, passed it better than ever, and made sure to keep the action in the opposition's half of the field about 70-75% of the time. I played a mistake free first and second halves. There was some close calls but with the team playing so well together those mistakes were not capitalized on.

The result was a 2-0 victory (both goals scored late in the second half) and my first ever shutout as a goal keeper. It didn't even hit me until after we were all headed back to our cars. I had been so happy with how well they had played to notice. When it did suddenly hit me I was so jazzed up I could not sleep until almost 2am.

Now all we have to do is continue to play that well or better. I think we will if we, as a team, don't let our first victory for the season go to our heads. :-P

Stress

2007-11-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

Damn. Time slipped by again and I did not post. Well I spent the weekend sick. Stomach issues (I think I had a bug) and I was extremely tired. I spent most of the weekend sleeping and taking Pepto to calm my stomach so I could sleep. I didn't think for an instant that some of it might be stress related. In the past, I was able to measure my stress by how tense and uptight I became. Since I am constantly doing something physical all the time I don't get that way anymore. So the idea that I might be over stressed never crossed my mind until yesterday morning.

I shot out of bed at 8:40 am and ran to my computer. I was frantic thinking I was 40 minutes late for a customer LiveMeeting. It took me about 5 minutes to realize that is was Sunday. That is when I knew that the work stress had finally started to get to me. I had not done that kind of thing in over 2 years. The work stress was there all along but never really came to the surface. Its time for me to take some time off.

Another Person Goal Reached!

2007-11-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Booyah! I did it! 34" inch waist has been achieved! My 36" pants were annoying me because it always seemed like they were falling down. This morning I looked down and noticed the tell tale gap from stomach to front button that lets me know when it is time to upgrade pants. After Wushu I went to lunch and then to the store to confirm. Sure enough I had hit the new number. So I bought two new pairs of jeans from Target. Tomorrow if I have time I will go to Marshall's to see if I can find some more (Ross was out). Yea! I'm so bouncing off the walls right now.

Ok. Time to jet. Going to see 30 Days of Night with friends from Wushu. In my new jeans! :-D

Updated Jerseys

2007-11-02T11:05:00.001-07:00

I gave two of my jerseys for soccer to my friend Ali. He knows this guy in Santa Clara who runs California Custom (http://www.cacustom.com) that could add my number and my name to the back of them. The job got done the same day and when I picked them up from Ali I was really surprised at how professional they look. Here is a pic from my camera phone. I will be taking the rest of my jerseys to them soon to have the same thing done. I'm seriously psyched about this. I have wanted my name and number on my uniform since I started playing for a team. To me it is the sign of organized players that are serious about playing. It looks sharper and more professional.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T13:24:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween all. Hope you have a good and safe one.

Weekend Fun

2007-10-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had some fun. First I played in a soccer tournament. That was not so much fun as, once again, I was put on the team of all new low-level players that didn't know each other. Then we all had to play as a "team" and try to beat more experienced seasoned teams. Result: slaughter. The fun for the day actually came later when I went to Wushu Central to be a monster in their Monster Bash event for the kids.

Monster Bash is were the kids get to go through a maze that we setup, fight monsters, and complete a story quest (like kill the bad guy at the end). The fighting is done with padded weapons and the monsters take it easy on the kids. Also, we are supposed to loose the fight. ;-)

I went as Darth Vader (couldn't find the Dr. Doom outfit I was looking for but Vader was a great backup). I was in tights that had the chest piece printed on it, a long cape and gloves. I used parts of my sparring gear (feet, shins, and rib protectors - all black and glossy) to give depth to the suit. I then had the full helmet with a breathing device in it the wire from which ran down the inside of my suit to my left hip pocket where I could push the button with my left thumb. I even talked in the Vader voice.

The kids and parents loved it. There were kids that deliberately came for me in fights. It was awesome. Everybody who played a monster got wailed on from head to toe. We even had kids beating us after we were down and taking our weapons. Mine was only taken once. Most times I could see the kids reach for it, then hesitate and run away. Guess Lord Vader is still a bad ass even when he's "dead". And yes, my padded weapon was red. :-P

The best line I heard all night was when some kid asked me, while I was laying dead, "Didn't you die on the Death Star?". To which I replied "Nope". He says, "Yes you did,. You died when you took off your mask." I replied, "Nope. I'm immortal". His Dad was cracking up. :-D

Friday Funny 10/26/2007

2007-10-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

This Friday's Fun is not a video as normal but a reprint of a story I found on CNN.com. This was to good to pass up. Enjoy.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/10/26/mf.drinking.storries/index.html

Drinking stories that put yours to shame

* Story Highlights
* History full of drinking stories that are hard to swallow
* Bartenders in canoe dipped drinks from alcohol fountain
* Brew-nami of 1.3 million gallons of beer killed 9 people
* Sailors drank vat of rum preserving dead body of Adm. Nelson

By Ian Lendler

(Mental Floss) -- Turns out, the best drinking stories in history are actually, well, historical. So raise a glass to your forefathers and marvel at these tales.

1. Admiral Edward Russell's 17th-Century throwdown

Think you can drink like a sailor? Maybe you should take a moment to reflect on what that truly means.

The record for history's largest cocktail belongs to British Lord Admiral Edward Russell. In 1694, he threw an officer's party that employed a garden's fountain as the punch bowl.

The concoction? A mixture that included 250 gallons of brandy, 125 gallons of Malaga wine, 1,400 pounds of sugar, 2,500 lemons, 20 gallons of lime juice, and 5 pounds of nutmeg.

A series of bartenders actually paddled around in a small wooden canoe, filling up guests' cups. Not only that, but they had to work in 15-minute shifts to avoid being overcome by the fumes and falling overboard.

The party continued nonstop for a full week, pausing only briefly during rainstorms to erect a silk canopy over the punch to keep it from getting watered down. In fact, the festivities didn't end until the fountain had been drunk completely dry.

2. The London Brew-nami of 1814

The Industrial Revolution wasn't all steam engines and textile mills. Beer production increased exponentially, as well. Fortunately, the good people of England were up to the challenge and drained kegs as fast as they were made. Brewery owners became known as "beer barons," and they spent their newfound wealth in an age-old manner -- by trying to party more than the next guy.

Case in point: In 1814, Meux's Horse Shoe Brewery in London constructed a brewing vat that was 22 feet tall and 60 feet in diameter, with an interior big enough to seat 200 for dinner -- which is exactly how its completion was celebrated. (Why 200? Because a rival had built a vat that seated 100, of course.)

After the dinner, the vat was filled to its 4,000-barrel capacity. Pretty impressive, given the grand scale of the project, but pretty unfortunate given that they overlooked a faulty supporting hoop. Yup, the vat ruptured, causing other vats to break, and the resulting commotion was heard up to 5 miles away.

A wall of 1.3 million gallons of dark beer washed down the street, caving in two buildings and killing nine people by means of "drowning, injury, poisoning by the porter fumes, or drunkenness."

The story gets even more unbelievable, though. Rescue attempts were blocked and delayed by the thousands who flocked to the area to drink directly off the road. And when survivors were finally brought to the hospital, the other patients became convinced from the smell that the hospital was serving beer to every ward except theirs. A riot broke out, and even more people were left injured.

Sadly, this incident was not deemed tragic enough at the time to merit an annual memorial service and/or reenactment.

3. New York state of mind: The Dutch ingratiate themselves to the natives

In 1609, the Dutch sent English explorer Henry Hudson westward for a third attempt at finding the fabled Northeast Passage. A near mutiny forced him southward, and upon reaching land, he encountered members of the Delaware Indian tribe.

To foster good relations, Hudson shared his brandy with the tribal chief, who soon passed out. But upon waking up the next day, he asked Hudson to pour some more for the rest of his tribe. From then on, the Indians referred to the island as Manahachtanienk -- literally, "The High Island."

And not "high" as in "tall;" high as in "the place where we got blotto." Most people would agree that Manhattan has stayed true to the spirit of its name ever since.

4. The worst aftertaste in history

In 1805, British Admiral Horatio Nelson was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain. Most sailors were simply put to rest at sea, but as an admiral, Nelson had to be brought back to England for an official burial.

To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.

Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood.

5. Indian elephants raid the liquor cabinet

No wonder they don't sell beer at the circus. Apparently, elephants like to get wasted. In fact, an outpost of the Indian army in the jungle region of Bagdogra has been under attack ever since a local herd of elephants raided the base in search of food and discovered the soldiers' entire winter rations of rum.

Since then, the pachyderms have regularly raided the base for a drink and have smashed down all defenses put up by the army, including electrified fences and firewalls.

According to The Daily Telegraph, "An officer recently posted there explained that the elephants broke the rum bottles by cleverly curling their trunks around the bottom. Then they empty the contents down their throats. They soon got drunk, he said, and swayed around. They enjoy themselves and then return to the jungle."

This is by no means a singular incident, though. The animal kingdom is well-known for its ability to identify fruit that's begun to ferment. Anthropologists even believe this is how early man discovered alcohol -- by observing the strange behavior of animals on a fruit bender.

For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com

Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.

The lesson of defeat

2007-10-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

I was reminded of a valuable life lesson this weekend. There is no book from which you will learn how to do something perfectly. You just have to experience it to learn what to do.

This lesson were retaught to me through soccer and wushu. In practice on Saturday Ali was reminding me of the game he had partly observed me in. He said I was a different player from minute to minute depending on the situation. It finally hit him as to why that was. I think too much. I try to think where to the text book area to stand. What is the book answer for this situation or that one. He said I needed to stop thinking and react. All the things I will find in a book or that he teaches me are suggestions, not rules. There is only one rule. The ball is coming for the net, stop it. You don't have to look pretty doing it or text book correct on the save. Just stop it. If you stop it, great. If not, get it the next time. When I thought just like that in practice I improved immediately. A difference from night to day.

Later that day I went to wushu to spar. I sparred Dustin for the first time, a new student to the school but also a guy who knew Capuara and Muay Thai styles of fighting. To put it bluntly, he whooped my ass. His ax kick to my right thigh has left a Charlie horse that is still hurting today. At one point I was always retreating from his advancing assault. There was no way I could think of to stop him. When I asked Sifu what I could have done differently, he told me that there is no text book solution to the problem. Its something that you gain from experience by reading the fighter's movement. The moves have already been taught, the rest is learning when is the best time to use them and that comes from doing.

What I learned about myself that day is I look for answers too much in what is the correct way of doing it and become frustrated when I can't find it. I over analyze. The lesson goes beyond soccer and wushu. It applies to all aspects of life from business to relationships. There is no text book that has the answers because there are no rules. We learn from those who have more experience but in the end we have to experience a thing to truly learn.

It's going to take some changing on my part but I need to start living life as Nike put it: "Just do it".

Wushu Test

2007-10-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Took the test last night for two stripes on my belt. One for long fist and one for staff. I past but not without injury. When doing the final hammer fist in my long fist form my hand was out of place. The back of my right hand should have hit my left palm flat making a loud sound. The hand came down but it was more knuckle than back of the hand. It still made the sound but my right middle knuckle struck my palm causing a bruise to swell immediately. It was puffy and purple. I iced it the second I left the floor but it still messed up my staff test. I could barely guide my staff properly and at one point dropped it after the staff slams. I had to start over. I'm still mad at myself for that.

It feels much better today. I canceled my strength training for today to be safe. I didn't want to put excess pressure on it. I hope it is better for Saturday's practice and sparring class.

201- Getting closer

2007-10-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

Did a quick weigh-in this weekend while I was out running errands. I'm at 201 now, just shy of breaking the 200 mark that I have been working towards. I figure in another month or so I will have that broken. Nice Christmas present to look forward too. :-D

I take my belt test for long fist form and weapons on Wednesday. I'm a little nervous because I'm not as good in my staff form as I would like to be. Look like tomorrow is going to be my major practice day before class (meaning I show up to the school early and do nothing but practice before class). Can't do it tonight since I have long fist class and then a soccer match. Yes, I'm still playing soccer and still in goal. I actually played the last game of the season with the premier team I was filling in on. We didn't do so well mostly because the mid-field and forwards can not seem to hold onto the ball. It spends 90% of the time in our end of the field which is not good. They'll work it out in practice and we'll see in a couple of weeks when the new season starts.

Friday Funny 10/12/2007

2007-10-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

Haven't done one of these in awhile. Thanks Chris for sending me this great link. Here is Jeff Dunham with Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Enjoy.

Facebook

2007-10-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

I got hit up by enough friends about this site that I created an entry. Here is the link.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=790273546

End of the Forrester

2007-10-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Not yet but getting there. I put the car in the shop the other day because when I made hard turns everything would start shaking like crazy. They told me that it was the mounting brackets for the engine and the transmission. Dealer only parts that will have to be ordered. Cost plus labor is going to be almost $1,000. Having already dropped almost $3,000 in repairs this year I decided that I need to look at other options.

As much as I don't want another car payment it is time to get a new car and sell this one the dealer. I think I will be a nice used car, sell this one back, and use the cash to eliminate an old credit card debt. Kill two birds with one stone. I'm currently investigating this and will post more later.

A terrible accident

2007-10-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

I have spent a long time in contemplation over the event I'm about to tell you. It's one of the most painful moments, psychologically that has happened to me in the last two months. It happened on Saturday September 1st in my first San Shou class. San Shou is sparring while wearing pads. All forms of martial arts and combat are allowed.

It was my first class at it, as I have said, and one of my instructors, Tom Clarke , decided he was going to take the class with me. Tom was my first instructor at Wushu Central and a really great guy.

The first rounds of the sparring went fine. I suffered some interesting hits that put me out of sparring for a couple of minutes (getting kicked in the jewels and also under the left ear) but not too tragic. That is until the grappling portion only sparring started.

Tom and I were to grapple each other. I had not done that time of fighting in a long time and would consider myself not too good at it. However, I had no fear of Tom beating me too bad since he is 125lbs and 5'6" where I'm 5'10" and 206 lbs.

Things started well. I was keeping Tom off me nicely but he is quick and mananged to grab me around the mid-section. He then tried to throw me by getting a leg behind me. He was not getting far since I was turning and trying to counter throw him. That is when we both lost our balance and fell. Tom's right leg was out straight and I landed on the side of his knee with full body. There was a sickening crunching sound and I heard Tom cry out.

From the sound I knew it was not good. The paramedics were called and they said that he needed to go to the hospital. Tom waived the ambulance ride since he did not have insurance. I volunteered to take him to the hospital.

We spent 6 hours in Santa Clara Valley Medical with the end result being an x-ray that showed nothing was broken. They put Tom in a brace and gave him a set of crutches. Since Tom did not have insurance, he had to set up a payment plan for the hospital visit. I paid the copay and Sifu Chang (Head Master at Wushu Central) said the school would get the rest of the bills. There was nothing else that could be done for Tom but to give him some pain killers and an anti-inflammatory. Until the swealing went down, they could not do an MRI.

Tom has seen a doctor and the preliminary prognosis is that his MCL is gone and that there might be damage to his ACL. The MCL going is not wrecking in the sense that you can still be a fully functioning athlete without one. The ACL damage is another story. If there is any, it will need to be operated on and he will be out of action (that includes work) for about 8 months or more. The MRI has yet to be scheduled because health insurance has not approved it yet. I have no idea what they are waiting for. It's already been a month.

I felt an extreme amount of guilt for 3 weeks. Even though it was an accident and others told me it was not my fault, I felt responsible for putting Tom out of work and the sport he loves for what might be almost a year. The sound that his leg made still disturbs me when I think about it but the guilt has faded. I have accepted that it was just an accident and nothing I could have done would have prevented it.

It's been awhile

2007-09-10T23:08:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since I posted last. I've been very busy and recently sick with a cold. So here is up to memorial day weekend in a quick run down. If any bullet intrigues you, let me know and I will be sure to post more.

Competed in my first martial arts tournament. A friendly at my Wushu school meaning students of the school only. No sparing, just forms. Due to no completion at my belt level, I choose to compete one level higher. I did a perfect tie for first place and my class mate Larry and I each got a gold.
Took my belt test a week later. Despite thinking I had failed mid-way through, I actually passed and became a green belt.
Upgraded my pacakage at the school. I joined the excelerated black belt program. I should get my black belt a year to a year and a half earlier than scheduled. I now take empty hand forms and weapons (staff right now) along with San Shou (sparring) on Saturdays. 5 classes a week.
Worked my tail off doing over 16 hours in a day some days. Work has finally calmed down and I on a normal schedule again.
Got paid a fat bonus last quarter because of working so hard. Used it to by a 40" Samsung FUll HD TV. Been playing my video games on it. It rocks.
Worked so much work sent me home for two days before memorial day weekend. Plus told me they are going to pay me a fat bonus again this quarter. Man I love this place. Actually getting recognized for hard work. It's what I have been dreaming of in a job.

That's it for now. I will post later the next two weeks of stuff which carries it's own full story. No bullets I promise.

Friday Funny 8/3/2007

2007-08-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Read a Book. This cartoon video is hilarious. This is the write up on it from the person who posted it:

This was shot on BET Animation and 106 and Park. IT IS A SATIRICAL OBSERVATION ON THE CURRENT RIDICULOUS, OFFENSIVE, AND EMBARRASSING STATE OF THE ONCE NOBLE ART OF HIP HOP. THE RAPPER WHO MADE THE SONG IS ALSO SATIRING THE CURRENT POPULAR RAP MUSIC WHICH IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO EVERYTHING RAP WAS. WHILE MAKING THIS SOCIAL SATIRE, HE ALSO PROVIDE A POSITIVE MESSAGE AND A SOCIAL COMMENTARY.

African Americans, open your mind. This man is not offending us. He's smaking us in the face and saying Wake Up. This is what they think of us...and the reality is...most of it is true.

And it's just damn funny to boot. Enjoy.

Nice Car

2007-08-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well it finally happened. Again. The parking in my ghetto place is really tight. There are two white poles next to my parking space (on the left side) and a huge wall behind so close that it makes turning in and backing out a pain. I hit the white poles once already and put a nice white paint scrap down the side that I had to pay a fortune to have buffed out (still damage to the paint job but not as noticable).

Today, on my way out to work this morning, I had to pass my landlord SUV. The path out is barely wide enough for two cars and impossible to make the 90 degree turn unless one of those cars has passed. To close in your turn and you scrap the side of the building. Sure enough, after I let him pass I then made the turn to start out. Since he had come in it threw off my angle of how I turn to leave. Just slightly but enough that I scrapped the wall. Paint and body damage on the back right side door. *sigh* This is why I can't have a nice car in the ghetto.

Friday Funny - 7/27/2007

2007-07-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

Ok. So it's late. What's new. I've been bad about updating this blog, checking personal e-mail, and generally trying to find time NOT to do work. So you all get to see somebody's grandparents ghost ride the whip. If you don't know what that is, Google it. Or you can just listen to the words of the song and watch the video. Enjoy.

Another Crazy Week

2007-07-16T21:25:00.001-07:00

As you guess, last week was another crazy week at work. This week is shaping up to be the same. Especially since we move building starting on Friday. That is going to be a major pain. At least my packing will be quick. I can fit it all in one box. I'll do that on Wednesday since I work from home tomorrow.

So the game when well on Friday. This team is much better than my other team. No only in passing and offense but defense as well. It was a tight game and we narrowly lost, 1-2. Both of those goals were scored in the second half and from shots that were over my head and to the upper corner. I need to work on that in practice. :-/

The new cleats I bought work wonders for my game. They are a multi-turf cleat that is wonderful on both grass and turf. Far better than the ones that I have been wearing. The ones I had were for fields like in VA where it rains more often and the ground can get soft. In CA, it doesn't rain that often so I don't need a cleat that is designed to dig-in far for traction.

The new gloves are a far step above the pair I played the spring season with. These are so much better for catching fast shoots and they are the right size! I was wearing gloves that were too small. With this new gear and the fact that I'm getting the keeper training I need I am starting to become a serious force on the field.

Saw Die Hard 4 on Sunday. That was not bad. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of action packed fun. Did nothing else really exciting. Looked at all the tournaments that I have coming up for soccer and wushu. July/August Saturdays are going to be busy. :-P

Lame Game of the Spring Season

2007-07-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

I played in the last game of the spring season last night for my regular team, Charlie's Rebels. We played the Knights of Ni (yes, that is their name) and beat then 3-2 finishing the season at 5-5-0 (5 wins, 5 loses, no ties). We have won our last 5 games straight! That is an amazing turn around for a team that had lost their first 5 in a row. The only two goals the opponents scored came from a penalty kick (caused by an unintentional hand ball) and a shot to the far corner where both I and the defenders were out of position.

For the summer, I plan to rest up for the most part. I will not play with my the Rebels again until the fall. I'm supposed to be resting up (mostly my knee) and just training but that is not totally me. I met this girl in a soccer shop that has a team that plays on Friday nights (8:30pm) in Palo Alto. They play on the turf fields here which makes the ball move faster and is much easier to land on. I'll play through the end of August with them. I'll still be at practice on Saturday and Wednesday plus seeing the trainer and Wushu in between with the occasional soccer tournament here and there.

Speaking of tournaments, I played one on Saturday. It was 7 vs 7 on a turf field (you only play half field). It was brutal. our defense was no where to be found which left me constantly having shots taken on me. It didn't help that the teams we were facing were from divisions higher than us. :-P I was feeling pretty crappy after loosing 3 games in a row like that. Then my friend Ali (he is another keeper in our league) told me that his team was counting the number of shots from the top upper level team on me. He said that I blocked 85% of them. I didn't feel so bad after that. :-)

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope you have a safe and good one. Me, I will be just lounging around the apartment most of the day doing absolutely nothing. Give my recent schedule of craziness, doing that to me is a great way to spend a day off. :-)

Friday Funny 6/29/2007

2007-06-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

I got a good couple of suggestions for this week's. Jeff you have the lead until Mike Shean bumped you out with the following Nutragrain commercial. Enjoy.

It's been awhile.....

2007-06-25T05:07:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap its been almost a month since I updated this. Damn. Time flies when you are and are not having fun. :-P So here are the updates. Hopefully things will calm down more so I can post more often.

LA and LV: Took a trip to LA and then to Vegas. Had a great time at both of them. Got to see friends I had not seen in awhile. Got hammered (Vegas), ran 4 miles up and down a step hill that used to be Erol Flinn's property (LA), dance and hang out in some cool lounge areas(LA), talk to high people in bathrobes (LA), strippers (Vegas), and drinking by/in the pool (Vegas). All around good fun.

Soccer: Outdoor team has been on a winning streak. Three in a row (one of which I was able to play, I was on vacation the other two). They play again tonight for a make-up game. I will not be there, I have a work function (see below). The Indoor team won one and tied one while I was out. Then lost the last two. No worries though, it happens. The season is over for both now. I will be resting by banged up knee and training during the summer so I'm ready for the fall. I might play in the outdoor 7 v 7 tournament that is coming up at the beginning of July. Need to check the dates again.

Wushu: I took my belt test yesterday. It was for my orange belt. I passed with flying colors. I was a little worried about certain areas since I only spent a month learning this form. However, I got through it without issue. The orange level is the last of the orientation levels. I will be doing the same form, adding new moves and hard conditioning. In two months I will then be testing for my green belt. Coach Tom approached me after the test to ask me about joining the black belt program. It is the accelerated path to getting to that level. It will require 5 classes a week (two in weapons) and slightly more time commitment. I need to check my schedule and see where I can adjust. I'm very interested. Just have to see if I can fit it in.

Work: Now comes the thing that has dominated most of my time. Two of our best team members quit (Helen and Eirik). That was at the end of May. In the mean time the EC management (which ran all of North American support) was asked to higher two new people here and a manager (outside hire). They appeared to us to be dragging their feet (the candidates were crap that they choose) and were not really doing anything to support the WC office despite having a head count of over 2-1.

End result, in the last two weeks the EC director of support was fired and the 2 ass hat managers were demoted. We're all now under Customer Care with the VP of CC being our director and WC manager. The new EC manager is another Customer Care guy. They have re-orged the entire support division and set new terms for how cases are to be handled. I spend my time split between interviews of new hires, my managers office, helping to define the new process, patch holes in the process, and work my cases. I was highly visible before and I'm even more so now. Because I had the balls to point out the problems and have solutions for them, I have become one of the most influential employees in support.

It will take the month of July to finally get everything back on track at the company. When it is finished, I will be sitting pretty. My friend Mike at work jokes that we will be Kings in support. I don't know about Kings, but Princes are a definite. ;-)

Short week and even shorter next week

2007-05-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

It's short weeks at work for me. I will be on vacation in LA with friends from the 1-5 the in Vegas from the 8-10.

Nothing much to report. I hung out with Jeff on Saturday. We did a bunch of shopping errands. While at Fry's I picked up a Garmin GPS system. I've been having fun with that recently. Going to use that on my trips.

I got nothing else to report. Maybe something interesting later.

Busy and Tired

2007-05-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

That sums it up. Work has gotten bad since two people are now leaving (days apart), two of the ladies will be on maternity leave soon. The company is still looking for a west coast manager since they demoted the ass hat on the east coast that was "managing" us. I put in my resume. We'll see.

Played another soccer game last night. Lost 2-6. We had only 8 players (no subs) with the other team had 17. Even with that advantage and playing dirty they still had a hard time beating us. We played a better game, just no gas at near the end. We all admitted that if we had a full squad, even with no subs, we would have beaten them.

Got my yellow belt in wushu last Thursday night. Aced it. I had to take a private belt test since I was catching up to the others in the class. The next in class test will be at the end of June. The coaches think I will learn the new form quick and pass it. I think so too. I already memorized the form (all 18 positions) in one night. Now I just need to practice it.

No Friday Funny for the last two weeks. I promise to try and do better. I will be gone the next two weekends so I need to be on top of it. ;-)

Indoor game tonight at 9:20pm. Hopefully I can get out of here by 5 so I can catch an hour or so nap before the game. :-(

Pink Flamingos Vs. Charlie's Rebels: L 5-3

2007-05-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

It was a good game with a lot of bad and missed calls. We scored more than we ever have in the past and played better on both offense and defense. I personally played a better game in the box but not completely up to snuff. We had some issues with a whistle from the other game being heard and my sweeper picking up the ball. That created a penalty shot situation. I missed it. The kicker gave every indication he was going right then sliced it off the outside of his foot to the left.

I can see that the team is getting better. I just hope they can see it too. It's tough having lost all the games this season. Trying to maintain confidence when you loose that much is hard. Especially when you are in my position. People start to doubt and confidence erodes, then mistakes start happening. Even I'm starting to feel it. I bummed today about all the losses and, what I consider, poor performance on my part. It's not easy trying to be superman when you need to learn how to fly again. :-P

Friday Funny 5/11/2007

2007-05-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Richard Pryor on kids when they lie to you. Enjoy.

Interesting 24 hours

2007-05-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened. My friend Eirik at work, who should have been my manager, quit the company. He was looking for a job a week before they (the upper management) decided he should be our manager after we told them that over a month ago. Smooth move. Now my friend Helen is also leaving. Two people with a lot of knowledge gone because it too 30 days to make a change that only required on to make.

I'm off the Bravo Team in soccer because coach needed to add players to it and Charlie's from a team that he collapsed on Monday. So Bravo has a full time keeper and I'm still keeper for Charlie. He also told me about the indoor stuff that starts tonight. So I have game tonight on indoor (first time I have played indoor). He also told me today that I'm the captain for that team. O_O

Last night I went to meet my friend Ali to do some goal keeper drills.
He is helping to train me to get better. We practiced for an hour before his game. When the game was ready to start, I was going to just watch but then the other team did not have a keeper so I was asked to fill in!

I was tired as hell when I got home. I had worked out at noon, the keeper drills, and then a game. That was exhausting. I played well and the only goals that got past me were damn near unstoppable shots (way up in the corner of the goal in the 90 degree bend at the top). It was a good game.

I'm just hoping the weekend is quite.

Helen and George's BBQ

2007-05-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

Went to my friend and co-worker Helen's house on Sunday for a BBQ on Sunday. She and her husband George had just gotten rid of the annoying gopher problem they had, bought a new grill and were celebrating. The spread was nice. Ribs, hamburgers, sausage, chicken, fish, vegetables, salad, and desert.

I brought a chocolate and strawberry cake as my offering for desert. That was a hit with all the ladies. :D There were some single girls there. Two of them I was chatting too here and there. They wanted to get into that cake, I told them to dive in. They ate, loved it, then told everyone they had to go. WTF!?!?! I was out done. They just wanted me for my cake. :,(

The other single girl that was there I got not real vibe from. After talking to her for most of the night, I was not feeling it. She came off as too conservative to me. That and not sense that she wanted me to pursue, I let it go and didn't even bother asking for a number.

Helen was kind of disappointed that we didn't hit it off but I told her not to worry about it. There are other fish in the sea. It's just that this one was not for me.

Look, I'm a poet and didn't even know it. :D

BCA Force vs. Charlie's Rebels: L. 7-0

2007-05-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well I said it was going to be a rough season. This is only the 3rd game we have played together as a team. We are getting better on the fundamentals but this is definitely a building year. I'm still very happy with this team and how they play. There are no egos and no bullshit. No one whines or cries when down. These guys are true team players.

I played a better game than I have before blocking all the shots I was in position to. Of the 7 that were scored, one was over my head and two were to the far corner. As for the other 4, one was an own goal by my sweeper (he headed it back by accident) and 3 were when I had gone out of the box to deflect a shot/catch a shot, the ball was picked up by our defense and taken away quickly by the other team for the score (all before I was back to the goal).

I'm not worried about it. I know the team felt down afterward, but I have come to terms with the fact that this really is a building year. We just have to build off of the things we learned and by the end of the season, we will be better. And we are getting better. I can see it.

Oh, and I hurt my right elbow diving for a ball in the first half. Don't think it is broken (still have full range of motion) but it's stiff on the section closest to the body. Right knee was cut on another dive and upper right shin (above the guard) is skinned something fierce. I'll work with Travis to fix the elbow for Friday's game. Scraps and cuts will have to heal on there own.

Kate and Chris Visit

2007-05-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

Kate and Chris came to visit for a bit. They were up in Monterey seeing her brother and were going to fly out of San Jose Airport. I picked them up at the car rental place and we went for a little food then driving tour of the bay. It was entirely to short of a visit and I only got to show them my hood, Palm drive of Stanford, and the main strip of Palo Alto. If my place had been clean I would have showed them the inside.

All in all it was a good time. We caught up on a lot but still not enough. Can't wait to see you guys again. Good luck with finishing up the moves and settling in. Congratulations on finishing the training Kate and I hope you get a contract soon from it.

Charlie's Rebels vs FC Red Storm: L 1-4

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

Yes, again. This time all my fault. I missed 4 easy goals and had no idea why. I went to practice on Saturday and worked with the other keeper on positioning and timing. In the process we discovered what the problem was. I had developed a sub-conscience fear of hitting the ground. So I would miss the easy ground shots. Part of the problem is that I wear no pads on my legs. So my brain is thinking my legs are going to get hurt. It then causes me not to drop. The makes me get beat.

I also got less aggressive over the last 3 games. I need to racket it up. Come out and attack more. The less time they have to shoot the better. The more afraid of me they are the better.

So we worked on collapsing and some other drills. I went to the shop yesterday and bought padded shorts. I ran a couple of practice collapses when I got home. I'm much better prepared for tonights game.

With all the fundamentals that I have lost over the years it is going to be a long season with a lot of disappointment. *sigh* I will get better, it is just going to take time.

Ligers vs. Bravo Rebels: L 4-1

2007-05-04T09:33:00.001-07:00

This was the game from Tuesday night. I haven't posted it because I have been busy and slightly annoyed. What I thought was a better team (because of division) is worse. They are lacking in a lot of areas, namely team play, never giving up on the ball and defense. I spent most of the game trying to cover 4 positions because the defense was no where in sight. 3 on 1 means they are going to score. Twice in the first and twice in the second. The attitude on the field is wrong too. They need work and something fierce.

One of the guys from practices (which I have never seen a Bravo member at) came to play and fill in. Coach wanted him to play on the team as a permanent member. At the end of the game he gave the jersey back to coach and told him he wasn't coming back for this team. Too many times people didn't try and then whined about loosing or someone else's play.

I play tonight with Charlie's Rebels my regular team. I'm going to talk to them about not making the mistakes that Bravo makes. Practice is Saturday and Monday is another game with Charlie's. Next Bravo game is Friday the 11th. I will be talking to them then (hopefully before) about where they need to improve.

Game for tonight moved to Friday night

2007-04-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well tonight's game has been moved to Friday night. The other team had a scheduling conflict. I can't say that is necessarily a bad thing as I have a game tomorrow night too. So tonight will be my off night for the week. Just curious how you can have a scheduling conflict on a game that has been posted for over a couple of weeks. Ah, no worries. Friday night game time it is. I just hope this does not become a habit for the season. I can't just juggle every game to whatever night. There needs to be a little consistency.

hhmmm...Just saw one draw back to the game move. Game Friday, practice Saturday, game Monday. Ouch.

Friday Funny 4/27/2007

2007-04-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Since I'm regaling you all with my soccer exploits, this Friday's funny is a short blooper reel of the sport. Enjoy.

Ok the above is not as funny as the gay ref. This you have to see.

Sevenson FC vs Bravo Rebels: T 1-1

2007-04-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

That was the result of last night's game that I played goal keeper in. I played for Bravo Rebels (that is coaches other team). Coach went over the rules changes since the many years since I have been in the box. There were not that many but man did they really help in opening up how the position is played.

Before the game started (which was late because the ref was late) coached asked me to check my schedule and see if I could play keeper for the season for this team as well. He said I was a good guy to have and that he would not charge me the team fee to be added to this team. I told him I will compare schedules (still adding them all into the calender now) and let him know. I don't think it will be that much of a problem it just means I have to shuffle some of my other stuff around.

I played a flawless first half. It was nice to also have a team in front of me that had played a season together. They played as a unit and I was not having to make constant saves or plays like I was Monday night. The second half was going well, 1-0 in our favor, when two guys beat the one defender that was in my area (the other guy was lolly gagging about getting back on defense). 2 on 1 in not good for me. I have to watch two guys to see where the ball is going. I was in front of guy and thought the post was an arms length away (that was my bad, it was farther). He shot on the ground to my left and I reached but didn't dive (thinking I was going to hit the post if I did). That is when I realized that I was the one that was short and the post was farther away. The ball slide right past the tips of my fingers. Not good but not a game looser. I'll practice post awareness before the next match.

My next game is back with Charlie's Rebels on Monday night against FC Red Storm. Tonight is training and then to wushu class (the one I moved to play in last nights game). Friday off (might be going out, not sure yet) then team practice on Saturday morning.

First game result: L 1-5

2007-04-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

The game was good. The first half we had the sun in our eyes, wind in our face and were playing a man down. This coupled with mistakes on my part (not playing close enough to the post, didn't get behind the ball, or didn't fall on the ball) made the first half 5-0 for them. Despite the first half, coach did not do what he was planning all week which was change me for another guy at the half (Rob would be goalie and I would take Rob's defensive position). This made me feel better since he at least had confidence in how I played my position and Rob his.

The second half went much better. As hard as the other team tried, nothing go past me and we scored on them. We still lost 5-1 but it was fun and insightful. It's been a long time (15 years) since I played goalie and (from what coach tells me) a lot of rules have changed on what I can do. He said we will go over those at Saturday's practice.

Some of the team and coach went to dinner afterward. We talked some more and he wants me to play this Wednesday for another team (at the goal position again). I told him I would mail him back today. Yes, I'm going to do it. It will require taking my Wushu class on Thursday after training with Travis but it will be worth it. I will also be registering for an indoor league/team today that plays on Friday nights (same position of course).

Friday Funny 4/20/2007 (Missed)

2007-04-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been missing the Friday Funnies. So here is a makeup one. Eddie Murphy from Delirious talking about Star Trek. Enjoy.

New Position

2007-04-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

It's been another long week (I was in training all of it) and even longer weekend. The pressure from work has gotten so bad that I was about to pop. The only person here that has been a manager to me since I got here told me to take Friday off (no charge to the PTO). That worked for me. I did nothing work related all day. Instead I bagged clothes for the Salvation Army and did other things around my apartment that needed to be done.

Saturday I went to practice. At the end of practice I was told that I would be serving as goal keeper for tonight's game. My first reaction was "great, the last position I wanted to play". I went Saturday to get gloves and a shirt from the place I usually go for gear. When I told the guy that I needed goal keepers gloves he was more than happy to help. Turns out that he is a goal keeper. He was big help with getting the right size gloves and some pointers.

I spend part of the rest of the weekend reading up on the position basics and running some drills. Before Sunday afternoon I was feeling much better about playing this position. I started thinking about all the training I have been doing to loose weight and noticed that all of it was great for doing exactly what is required as a goal keeper. I felt even more confident.

I'm going to play tonight's game (vs Knights of Ni at 6pm PDT) in this position but I have a feeling that when it is done I will want to keep playing it. I'm also going to look into playing on a team that does indoor on Friday nights. Just have to double check that the day is correct.

Match Cancled.

2007-04-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was annoyed. Especially since I and three other teamates had shown up to the field. We were there waiting for others to arrive and no one showed. That is when one of my teammates called our manager. The match had been canceled and we were notified by e-mail (which obviously we didn't see). Here is the gist of it:

Hi everyone ....

just got word NO game today ....

i'm going to be honest with you, field is not ready with NO lines, and NO goals .... this is not good news, or the way i like to kick off the season, but the good news, we'll get a re-scheduled game at the end of the season ...

The field was in no shape to play. It had inch and a half tall grass and some rocks as big as my palm on it. I'm a little thankful we did not have to play on it. I went to a practice field at Stanford and ran drills instead. Doesn't make up for the fact that I was all geared up ready to play and then came the let down. >:-(

We'll practice Saturday then play the next game on Monday. Hopefully that one will be played and not canceled.

Round up and the Season has started.

2007-04-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

First a quick round up since I have not posted since the 8th. Work drama has been dominating time again. More crap from the manager but I took it to HR. I hope this drama ends soon. I'm getting tired of it.

Happy Birthday Laura. It's still technically your birthday here on the west coast so I did make it in time. :-D

Soccer practice on Saturday got rained out half way through. It was raining all morning but about an hour into practice it turned into real rain. Came down in buckets. So they called it. I did some practicing on my own today. It was sunny and the Stanford practice pitch was dry. They had also set out lines and goal nets. That made things easier for me. I had targets and hard distances to work with.

Stupid tendon in my left calf/knee area is still bugging me. I pulled it 3 weeks ago. I took last week of from training and gave it a rest. That helped but knee still swells after play. It's being a major pain. I wear a compression sleeve on it and ice it after practice. Looks like it will be this way for the season. What a great way to start.

Speaking of the season it has begun. The first match is tomorrow night 6pm PDT when Charlie's Rebels (my team) will be taking on the Jaguars. The season will run 10 weeks with most games taking place on Monday night (only one on a Thursday). That works for me perfectly. Can't wait to hit the pitch and play. I'll post tomorrow or Tuesday with the result of the match. Oh and in case you were wondering, I play Side Midfield (Outside Midfielder) or Wingback (Halfback) position most of the time on the right side of the pitch.

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have a good one.

Soccer update: Scrimmage on Saturday went well. I know I still need to work on team skills before trying my hand at the mens open level. So, I decided to join a co-ed team, The Rebels, that was forming. There is another team by the same name so I think the manager is going to add something to ours to differenciate the two (he manages both).

Finally I'm on a team (yea!) and will be playing matches during the week (M-F one a week) with the season going through June. Not sure when the practices are most likely Saturday - I have another scrimmage/practice next Saturday). I'm seriously psyched about this. I have to go find shorts and socks (black shorts and white/black socks) for my uniform. The manager said he would provide the red shirts (I think I might get one just in case). Nothing fancy for the first season but if we decide to stay together as a team, we'll get real jerseys.

:D Can't wait to play. Season in a week or so.

Friday Funny 4/6/2007

2007-04-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have avoided talking politics on this blog but some things are just too funny to pass up. Its a MadTV sketch on a "new product" from the Apple Corporation. Thanks again Eirik. Enjoy.

Updates on the last post.

2007-04-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Work: Still crazy but at least now the laziness of the East Coast is in plane view especially to the 3rd man in the company. Had a talk with him yesterday. I expect there will be some change coming in the following weeks.

Soccer: Got a call from a Co-ed team last night looking for players. Need to call the guy back today/tonight. He is looking for guys for his 35+ Co-ed team. They play in tournaments too. Sounds great except that I'm not 35+. :-O Don't want the team to get disqualified from tourney play for signing the young guy.

Rent: Talked to Bob (finally). He is cool with renting to me for another year. Price increase? $25. Can't beat that. I was happy it was not some outrageous amount. Kept thinking on it and still never found a compelling reason to leave. Now I have a whole year to take pictures of the "loveliness" that is my ghetto. :-D

PS: I will post pictures as soon as I have time. Posting this entry from work. :-P

Work, Soccer, and Moving

2007-04-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Work has been absolutely nuts. The case load has been way too high and all of us in the West Coast branch of support are overloaded. I have been working until midnight most of the nights this past week. We have people on the verge of quiting because it appears there was no relief in sight. Customer Care (who sit near us) got worried by all the complaining and set work to the head of the company and head of our division that we needed help. Those guys got worried and asked the middle manager's (who are all in the East Coast office btw) why this was happening. They had no answer and started pinging us in the West Coast to take more cases and help clean out the backlog. Of course, this infuriated us. Customer Care decided to bring in their people and some of engineering to help us clear the backlog. They then decided to pull the numbers to see what the case loads were per office. They found out what we had known (but had no proof of) for a long time. The East Coast office was not working and pushing all the work off onto us. Long story short, those guys are in the hot seat (including all the "managers" who were supposed to be watching and making sure this didn't happen). Tomorrow night, everyone will be required to be in the office until 9pm of their respective time zone. Cases will be assigned and moved based on case load and expertise. I love it. Finally, some relief. I'll let you know how that goes.

Yesterday, I went to the practice and scrimmage for players interest in getting onto a mens or Co-ed team for the Spring Soccer season. It's been a very long time since I played any game of soccer on a full team (also been a long time since I played). It was fun and their were definitely people their that were better than men. In fact, I had to defend against one of them for the second half of the scrimmage. He beat me in most match-ups. I lacked speed, footwork, and defensive skills to beat this guy. I wasn't too happy about that since it made me look worse than I was. I play offense mostly because my defensive skills suck. I know this. Something I have to work on. I also learned that I still have some toughing up to do. The muscle at the top of my left calf hurts and woke up this morning with my back sore (probably from the 4 collisions, 3 fall downs, and one high speed ball to the middle of it). The season starts in 2 weeks. They will e-mail me if someone is interested in adding me to a team. I'm thinking I'm not good enough for a mens open team and should go and play Co-ed for awhile to get my skills up. We'll see. Someone has to want me first.

Spend about 3 to 4 hours every day on the weekends looking at all the places I could move. Found some really nice looking places (mostly luxury apartments) with rent that was in my price range. I also looked at the reviews on them from residence that had lived in those places before. http://www.apartmentratings.com was great for that info. Turns out that most of the places I wanted to move had problems with the grounds (like dog poop everywhere, little roaming gangs of hoodlums, dogs swimming in the pool, every noise could be heard in the neighborhood, and/or car break ins) or management (lazy, would not fix stuff, rude after you became a resident, and/or monthly rent raising). I then started to think about all that stuff and was it really worse than my little ghetto here. Yeah, I don't like not having enough machines per unit (or having a machine in the unit) but there are no roaming bands of street thugs. I've never had a problem with my car and there is not dog poop everywhere (or dogs in the pool). Yeah Friday and Saturday nights are louder than other nights here but things are quite during the day. As management goes, Bob is a little weird but he doesn't bother me nor raise my rent on a monthly basis. I weighed all of this plus my reason for wanting to move and what I would do with all the extra space. I came to the conclusion that I had no real reason to leave. No one comes over so who would care where I lived. As for the space, well if I had more I would have less incentive to cut down on all the crap I have now. So I'm staying for now or until I get a real reason to move. ;-)

Friday Funny 3/23/2007

2007-03-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm bringing back Ralphie May again, this time talking about Terrorism. Thanks Eirik for finding this.

Enjoy.

Time flies

2007-03-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Especially when you are having fun.:-D

I've been wanting to swap out my caridio on Monday night with something else that is a little more fun. Monday night is rough because every machine in the gym is taken and sometimes there is a line. It thins out over the week with Sunday being the deadest day.

Since I have harbored this secret desire to study Kung Fu (Wushu) I decided to act on that. I checked out a Wushu School Monday night called Wushu Central Martial Arts Academy. The instructors were very friendly and the students were all normal bodied people. I got a good vibe from watching how they taught class and dealt with the students. So I signed up. I start classes on Sunday and will go from there.

Yesterday I had my tattoo finished. Its now complete and in color. I have to wait a week to make a final judgement on whether anything needs to be fixed but so far it looks good. Paco (the tattoo artist) and I both agree that it needs a little background. He said he can make the background cover up the tattoo on my back I want to get rid of. This made me happy. Means more work and more ink so I will need to make some extra money first before we start work. Probably in a month or so.

Went out to dinner afterward with my friend Phil. He works in the East Coast office and we worked together on a government contract before that. Had not seen him in almost 2 years. It was cool to hang, catch up and talk shop.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2007-03-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody. Also, Happy Birthday to Kate and Amber (my neice). I hope you two have a good birthday and that everybody has a good St. Pat's day. I'm headed to Molly Magees in downtown Mountain View to met up with Travis, Jen, and their friends. Going to be fun and not a long trip home afterward (which is good).

Before you ask, no this is not my dog. I swiped this pic off the net. He's dressed very festive for the day. :-)

Busy Month and My Teeth Hurt

2007-03-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

OK. Sorry about not posting for so long. Things have been really crazy around here. The work load has not lighten one ounce. Instead it has gotten heavier. So unfortunately something had to give and that was me posting to the blog. A lot has happened so here is the short short version to bring you up to speed.

Started a new tattoo on Feb 13. Large tiger on my right arm. It is all not finished. I will go in for my next session of work next week. Hopefully it will all be done by then. Most likely I will have to go back for a third sitting.

Went to the dentist for the 1st time in 10 years. A lot has changed at the dentist office and they have a bunch of new technology in there (which I was fascinated by). My friend Mike at work recommended this guy. He is really cool and went over a bunch of stuff with me. I got off light for not having been in so long. 5 small cavities and the need for a deep cleaning. I had the first 4 drilled and filled today (hence why my teeth hurt) the last one will be done at the end of the month. The deep cleaning started today and will be finished at the end of the month.

I hit 36 inches on my pants and had to by new clothes. I keep forgetting to weight in but I would suspect I am less than the 205 I was at the start of April. We'll see. I'll try to remember to check tonight after the gym.

Lease is coming up soon so I have to move. I will starting looking for apartments this weekend. I want one with a washer and dryer in the unit. I'm sick of playing the coin op game. Definately sick of living in the ghetto. I will be filming this place before I go so you all can get a good look at the flavor.

That is the brief. I'm sure I'm missing something. I'll just have to post it later.

Friday Funny 2/23/2007

2007-02-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

Thanks all for the birthday wishes. I really appreciated it.

The Academy Awards are this weekend so in I thought this Friday's Funny should be about movies. More accurately, the movie preview man. Here is comedian Pablo Fransisco to tell you more. Enjoy.

BTW, fixed the link for the vid from last Friday's Funny.

Happy Birthday to me

2007-02-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

Too bad I have to work. :-( That is the only thing that sucks. Especially with all the cases I have. I need a vacation.

Lazy weekend

2007-02-20T09:10:00.000-08:00

Back from the long lazy weekend. I hope yours was as enjoyable as mine. Tried new Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese restaurants with Jeff and Mei. Good eating at all of them. Drove around in the warm sunny weather (it had finally stopped raining after three days). Ran errands, talked to peeps on the phone, played some video games, watched "Dial M for Murder" (original from 1954), and cleaned out some of my boxes in the apartment. Like I said, nothing special.

Time to get back to the grind. It seems not everybody had yesterday off so I have a pile of e-mails to go through. Oh well, good thing my "out of office" sign was up or I would have a pile of phones messages too. ;-)

Friday Funny 2/16/2007

2007-02-16T16:38:00.000-08:00

I missed wishing you all a Happy V-Day. Also missed posting on my tattoo trip (I'll post on that later). This week was just as bad as last with the workload. Wednesday being the worst since the East Coast office was supposed to be working from home and didn't. So this Friday's funny is a sketch from Norway (don't worry it is subtitled) that shows a typical day for me over the last two weeks. If you want the full experience, rewind this and play it for 8 hours minus the laughter. Enjoy. :-)

Weekend Fun and then Some

2007-02-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

My weekend was good. Helped Jeff move some boxes to his new place. The only two things that sucked about that was that it rained and I had a cold so I was not all that much help. That was Saturday during the day. At night, I went to a coworker's husband's b-day party. That was a blast. All the guys and some of the girls played video games until 2am. Got my first taste of using a Wii. Damn, that system is the bomb! I will be getting one now. No question. We had so much fun with Wii tennis, bowling and boxing. Dude, one word: addictive.

Sunday was spend basically chilling. My cold had gotten worse. The rain had come back too. Monday was a continuation for Friday with the Parade of Dee Dee Dees. Oh well.....all part of the job.

Today I hope to avoid them before I have to leave for my appointment. Tomorrow I will have to get in early because to watch the phones for the East Coast guys. Something about getting a little snow out there. ;-)

Friday Funny 2/9/2007

2007-02-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well given this week at work and the number of people that I have run into in and out of work that can't comprehend the written English language, this week's Friday Funny is going to be a repeat. For all those people, here is Carlos Mencia with the Dee Dee Dee Song.

Poo + Fan = ??? Anyone? Anyone?

2007-02-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

Not fun that is for sure. Unless your the monkey flinging the poo.

So the work week has been very busy (hence no blog posts since I make most of them from work). Most of the issues that people are calling about is the upcoming Daylight Savings Time (DST) Change. To us human, moving the DST forward a week is easy. We just remember to reset out clocks. However, to computers that have been told to calculate the date by counting the number of seconds since January 1st, 1970 and then do some functions to account for leap years and DST, this is a nightmare.

You see, the functions don't know that the law has passed so to them, DST is still the old way. Which means that come the end of March, these computers will be an hour behind the rest of the country. Big deal you say? Well, it is if that hour is the difference between taking your automatic payment out or charging you a late fee.

The end result is that everyone is scrambling to get patches for their machines and our software. Some of those patches are not out yet and will be out shortly. Understandably, the customer are anxious.

I agree with the reasoning behind why the DST change was made but I don't think things were totally thought through by the government as to the impact this would have or how to implement it with little interruption. Once again, Washington is the first to fling the poo and the last to realize was a mess it will cause when it hits.

Super Bowl Sunday

2007-02-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again where the champion teams of the AFC and NFC face off to see who is the best in the NFL. Those teams are the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts (sensing an animal theme?). Unfortunately my Redskins did not make it. In fact, they didn't even come close. But whatever. It doesn't matter who your team is because during the Super Bowl, everybody has a favorite and mine is the Colts. That's right C-O-L-T-S, Colts, Colts, Colts. I've waiting a long time for Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison to get there shot at Super Bowl rings and here it is. Go Colts.

Now some of you may be saying "but the Bears have a better defense". I say Go Colts! You say "but the Bears are good at running the ball.". I say Go Colts! You say "but the Bears have Rex Grossman." I laugh and then say Go Colts! Now why would I look at all these things and still say Go Colts? It's because despite the better defense, the Bears have a mediocre offense. Their run game maybe good but that requires getting past the very speedy Colts defense that is in most backfields the second the ball is snapped. As for Rex Grossman? Please. I watched him play in college. He was good but none of that has really been shining in his NFL career. He has managed to ride to victory this season on the back of the Bears' defense. Today that defense faces an offense that enjoys finding the weak spots in defenses and exploiting them.

Now I am not saying that it's going to be a blowout. This is going to be a tight game. That Bears' defense loves to demoralize offenses and the Bears' can run the ball, no joke. I may be wrong in my prediction but I say Colts over the Bears by at least 7 points. We'll know in 6 hours or so.

Hope you all have a good game party and if you are not watching the game, go out and enjoy your Sunday. I can pretty much guarantee the traffic will be light. ;-)

Offical Out of Suits

2007-02-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

I went dress shirt shopping today. Figured I might need to have something nice on hand just in case since most of my wardrobe consists of t-shirts and jeans. Got the new shirts and brought them home figuring I did not need pants or a suit since I was sure this one black suit I bought in 2002 would be fine.

So I put on the shirts, they look great. Go for the suit pants and they button around with inches to spare. I stare at them in disbelief as they hang like water filled hip waiters on my thighs. I grab the suit jacket. As I put it on I come face-to-face in the mirror with some kid wearing his Dad's suit. I went to close the jacket and realized that there would have to be a button under my armpit in order to do it.

I couldn't help but grin. Then it hit me. I was back at square one with nothing nice to wear. Except that in stead of having a suit and no shirts, I had the reverse. Now I have to budget and go shopping again. *sigh*

Friday Funny 2/2/2007

2007-02-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

It's Ground Hog day. If you want you can play this video over and over to simulate the repeat day of the movie. However something tells me you will do that anyway just because you won't believe what you're watching. The is the commercial for the Tiddy Bear. Actual commercial, actual product. It was too good not to be this Friday's Funny. Thanks Mike for sending this to me.

Bleh.....

2007-01-31T10:40:00.000-08:00

I feel run down. My stomach hurt yesterday starting mid-day and continued until about 4am. I felt like I was going to puke before, during, and after my workout. It feels somewhat better today but I feel like I didn't get any sleep. :,(

I hope it's just a quick bug and not some long term, knock you out for a week, thing.

Clean up.

2007-01-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to go back and check some links on the blogs. I forgot that most of the pics were hosted on my old website. I need to go update those. Then I thought about the place Jeff and I lived in when I first moved here. I still have pics of that and what I (with Jeff's forced labor) turned it into. I should post those too. :-D

San Diego and back

2007-01-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry about no Friday Funny Post. I was on the road early to San Diego and forgot to post it. That's two weeks in a row. Man, I need to get better at that.

Went down to see my friend Matt off on deployment and meet up with a bunch of other friends (Andy, Bob, Tim, Jay, George, etc). We had a blast. We meet up at a place called Oggi's that was right across the street from Andy's apartment, 3 blocks up from the hotel I was staying at (Marriott). We stayed at Oggi's until about 10:30 pm or so then headed to Andy's. Some of the guys went home at this point with wives or girlfriends. The rest of us keep the Matt and the other Navy boys drinking until their curfew time then sent them to the ship. When they left, it was Andy, Jay, Bob and myself (Andy's GF was asleep) doing what gamers do best, drink, play X-Box (some racing game where you caused accidents to get high scores. If I find the name I will post it), and shoot the shit about everything under the sun. By 3:40am the party was over and we all stumbled to our respective beds to sleep off the night's festivities.

It was a long drive there and back but it was worth it. These guys were a blast to hang with. Can't wait for the Vegas Weekend in June. I might drive out to there too. Matt is stationed at a base on the way there so I can save us some travel costs and pick him up on the way. We'll see. He's gotta get back first.

On a side note, there was a TV shoot going on at the hotel when I got there. It was for an episode of Saints and Sinners. They had taken over the whole pool area and were shooting until well past dark. Looked like two seperate scenes in the same area when I past by. It was pretty cool getting to see how they set up and run things.

Ok. Time to get back to work. Time to catch up on all the drama I missed here. ;-)

Watchmen

2007-01-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading the graphic novel, Watchmen, by Alan Moore and David Gibson. I read another story by Moore, V for Vendetta earlier and loved it. Watchmen, however, surpassed that story by far. The power is not in the art but in the story itself. Moore creates believable and realistic characters and plot. Even if you don't read comics/graphic novels normally, I highly recommend you read this one above any others. The story is just that good.

Amazon Editorial Review

Has any comic been as acclaimed as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen? Possibly only Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but Watchmen remains the critics' favorite. Why? Because Moore is a better writer, and Watchmen a more complex and dark and literate creation than Miller's fantastic, subversive take on the Batman myth. Moore, renowned for many other of the genre's finest creations (Saga of the Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, and From Hell, with Eddie Campbell) first put out Watchmen in 12 issues for DC in 1986-87. It won a comic award at the time (the 1987 Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards for Best Writer/Artist combination) and has continued to gather praise since.
The story concerns a group called the Crimebusters and a plot to kill and discredit them. Moore's characterization is as sophisticated as any novel's. Importantly the costumes do not get in the way of the storytelling; rather they allow Moore to investigate issues of power and control--indeed it was Watchmen, and to a lesser extent Dark Knight, that propelled the comic genre forward, making "adult" comics a reality. The artwork of Gibbons (best known for 2000AD's Rogue Trooper and DC's Green Lantern) is very fine too, echoing Moore's paranoid mood perfectly throughout. Packed with symbolism, some of the overlying themes (arms control, nuclear threat, vigilantes) have dated but the intelligent social and political commentary, the structure of the story itself, its intertextuality (chapters appended with excerpts from other "works" and "studies" on Moore's characters, or with excerpts from another comic book being read by a child within the story), the fine pace of the writing and its humanity mean that Watchmen more than stands up--it keeps its crown as the best the genre has yet produced. --Mark Thwaite

Updates

2007-01-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting the Friday funny. Forgot about it and by the time I remembered it was almost Monday. :-P

Heard the East Coast got snow. 2 inches or so. That sucks. Hope you all are doing ok with it. I know how crazy and stupid people in Northern VA get when they see one flake of snow.

Watched the championship games. Colts and Patriots was the best. So glad the Colts won. Now all they need to do is beat the Bears. Can't wait for Superbowl Sunday.

Watched more of The Wire after the game. Turns out Kevin Murray was in another episode ("Undertow"), this time he had way more lines and more screen time. That was cool. I checked IMDB though and he is not listed for that episode. I checked the credits and he didn't get a credit. >:-( I submitted a change to the IMDB database. I'll let you all know how the update goes. They said it could take 2-4 weeks to change.

Went to a new tattoo place. Showed them the tiger that I want on my right arm. They said it'll take about 3 hours to do. I set up an appointment for Feb 13 in the afternoon. I'll take a pic and post it after it heals a bit.

Going to San Diego at the end of this week. Just going for Friday and Saturday. A friend of mine is shipping out and I'm going to meet up with other friends to send him off. Going to be a blast. Can't wait.

Snow

2007-01-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

Yep. It snowed in sections of the Bay Area last night. Mostly farther north near San Fran. That is how cold it is here right now and I'm not happy about it. :-(

I didn't/don't see any snow in my section of the Bay so I am thankful. That would really put me down. The cold streak was supposed to end early this week. Looks like it will be around a while longer. Ugh.

Getting ready for spring

2007-01-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

It was cold this weekend so I spent a quite weekend in. I spent a lot of it cleaning out some of the boxes that I mailed my from VA. Lots of old papers to go through and throw out. Definitely have to clean out those boxes and cut down on the crap more. Too much junk I held onto that I have no use for. Time to get rid of it.

Watched Bullit (Steve McQueen, 1968) and the first 4 episodes for season 2 of The Wire. Both were very good. Highly recommend them. I was surprised to see someone I knew and worked with in VA in episode 3 "Hot Shots". I was taken aback when into the shot walks Kevin Murray. He only had 2 lines and about 5 seconds of screen time but it was nice to see people I know still working in that field. Way to go Kevin.

I looked up the information on the Bay Area Soccer leagues. I'll register here in a week or so after I have some practice time to brush off the dust and rust. Already bought a set of cleat on Sunday. It's been a long time since I played in cleats so I will need the practice before registering. If it's not too cold I'll start tonight by going to a park for an hour or so.

Quite day at work today too. A lot of businesses have MLK Day off. Personally, I think we should have gotten it too.

Lazy quite day. I better go find something to do before I fall asleep. ;-)

Friday Funny 1/11/2007

2007-01-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

Today's Friday funny is Ralphie May on the The Pope. It's from his DVD "Girth of a Nation". Enjoy.

206 and counting

2007-01-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

I went to the gym tonight. Herman, another trainer that I have gotten to know at my gym since I've been a member, pulled me aside to do the weigh in and body fat percentage. No measurements other than those. Body fat percentage is 23% (down from almost 29% when I joined) and my weight is 206 (down from 235).

I'm happy. It's not where I want to be but I'm happy. It means that I kept loosing fat during the holidays, which as all of you know is tough to do.

I checked the time that I started the program, that was May 19 of 2006. I'm 8 month's in and think I did pretty fucking well for myself. Can't wait to see what the numbers come up with at the one year mark. I'm also looking forward to summer big time this year. :-D

Right now the next step is to start looking at Soccer League teams, sign ups, etc. for the 2007 season. I'm in good enough shape and no major injuries to play. I'm looking forward to this since I have never had the chance to play on a real team (only with friends). I have been dieing to put on a uniform and play for somebody. I really hope I can pull it off.

BTW, I got asked more questions for that article in the mag. They are delving deeper into my answers. I'm beginning to think they find me interesting. :-P

Weekend update

2007-01-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

So the weekend came and went again. Much too short if you ask me. ;-)

I finally got to see Casino Royale. I know, I must be the last person to have not seen this film but after trying 3 times to see it and failing, I finally got it done. I went to a Saturday Matinee after I got my hair cut. I wouldn't call it a true matinee since the price difference was only a quarter ($0.25). The movie rocked. I loved it. Now to pick the next movie. I keep hearing Children of Men is good.

Went to do laundry on Sunday. That turned into an all day event. As I've pointed out before, there are only 2 washing machines in our complex of 30 some apartments. So I go down early in the morning to do my 1 load of laundry and both machines are taken. I decided to clean the apartment and check again. Still taken. I ran errands and came back. Still taken.

Now each time that I come down to check them, I have to carry a basket full of laundry down 2 flights of stairs. And each time some inconsiderate bastard has taken both machines I have to haul that load right back up. This went on for 12 hours. I finally got a machine at 9pm.

That is fucking ridiculous that you have to wait that long for one machine. Since my work is moving closer to San Jose, I might just move with them to keep my commute time low. I can tell you one thing, if I do move, I will not live in another apartment that does not have a washer and dryer in the unit. I was smart when I only rented from places that had them in VA. It was a bad idea to stop that policy when I moved here. It 's far too much of a hassle and cost to do it using a coin feed machine that 29 other units have access too as well.

Happy (Belated) New Year

2007-01-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. Well I missed the posting for yesterday. No, not because I was sleeping off a night of partying. I got busy playing games all day yesterday and forgot. Oh well.

So, the goals from last year went better than I expected. Only three of them never got accomplished or changed during the year (skating, surfing, and snowboarding). Since I will not be skating again, I can take that off. That leaves the other two for this year.

So the goals this year are not as lofty as last year. They're more refinements on the accomplishments of the year before with some basic life changes thrown in. The basic theme, I have to get out and do more.

Top Ten Goals for 2007.

10. Get the rest of my stuff from VA to CA.
9. Learn to snowboard.
8. Re-Learn to surf.
7. Body fat percentage in the teens.
6. Visit friends and family in VA, NY, and TX.
5. Get out and see more of the Bay Area and CA
4. Take more pictures.
3. Get back into the Arts.
2. Participate in a sport (soccer, martial arts, etc.)
1. Get to know more people in CA.

I hope you all have a safe and good year. Cheers!

Friday Funny 12/29/2006

2006-12-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

Almost party time for the New Year. Time for most of the people in the world to kick back and celebrate. I thought I would give you a little look at how the rich people do it. Enjoy. :-D