Monday, September 30, 2002

here's the run down.



on friday, i met up with jeff to get some pho, and boba. at tapioca express we were sitting down chillin. and then these 2 guys come over to these two girls, and obviously tried to pick them up. i know that some people come there to possibly meet some people, and some don't. unfortunately, it seemed as though one of the girls was open to meeting some new people, and one of them was kinda annoyed that they were intruding. before these guys approached these girls, they were having a ball just talking with eachother, and when the guys came up, it just turned to the awkwardly silent asl conversation. i guess it can't hurt to try, but it would have been more appropriate to make a smoother entrance, like try to get in on whatever they were talking about (if possible) or at least exchange some eye contact first and get the unspoken "ok" so you don't crash too many parties. obviously i don't have experience in the field. i'm overanalyzing as usual. but it's something i'd like to master the art of. i'll have to start working on it sooner or later.



then the next day, tommy and i went to eat lunch at the cottage. then came home, and watched amadeus director's cut....unfortunately, 2 hours into the movie, we both passed out from food coma and woke up at the ending. at least the part that i watched, it's an entirely different movie. the characters develop differently. the sub stories are totally different. it's a entirely different movie to the trained eye, but the overall story about mozart is the same. what is remarkable is how they were able to get the footage to replace half the movie with something else. still, the movie maintains its value. oh yeah, one thing i wasn't expecting was constanza to get topless. i always wondered what she looked like topless. and now i know. they're not as big as you might think they'd be after seeing them sqished in those dresses, but they are still pretty big.



after that, we went to get dinner at Pampas. I was in the mood for some chicken and vegetables, but I ended up getting the bife de lomo especial (12oz tenderloin). the food was very good as usual. then we were gonna meet up wei, jeff, and tommy's friend matt to see the tuxedo. jeff and matt cancelled. tommy and i stopped by tapioca express to get some boba, and we got to pacific town square just in time and met up with wei. the theater was empty. something is wrong with that theater and we're the last to know. during school, that theater usually gets crowded on fridays and saturdays. but now, it seems as though that no one goes there. i've seen it before. its almost as though a theater close by has opened that's bigger and better, and we're the last one to know. oh well, i'll have to look into it. i like big crowds when watching a comedy. it's part of the theater experience. in the theater, we ran into nik and barbra. the movie was funny. as had about as much value as the austin power movies....or almost. both wei and tommy liked it, but it seems like most of the people who do movie reviews on tv didn't. how sad. what were the expecting?



on sunday, we went to get lunch at "da kine" in PB with tommy's friend mel. as we drove out to PB, the sky cleared up and it was a beautiful day after day. the coast was super clear, and you can see miles out. too bad there's nothing out there to see. as we parked in the parking lot, it wreaked of bum. a bum was living there for sure somewhere, after hours. i just didn't want to say anything because we were on our way up to get lunch. lunch was very filling. i got grilled ahi, and ahi poke. then we came back home, watched a few newsradio eps "Arcade, and Pure Evil". Then i had another food induced coma, then Tommy woke me up when he was about to leave. so i was planning on going to costco if possible on sunday, so i managed to go to costco. bought 2 types of frozen fish (salmon and something else), and 1 4lb bag of chicken tenderloins. some fruit, balance bar gold, and 3lb bag of almonds (great source of mono unhydrated fat, and also helps you release more testosterone supposedly). i got back home and played simple computer games (drug lords 2, and collapse for a few hours), and that wraps up my weekend.



jeff mentioned that he wanted to host a sleep over party with the vegas gang (andrew, ritchie, sandy, kat, thomas, me, jeff). if he does, i'm not gonna go to Torrance next week. I guess jeff's thinking about it, and it'll have to depend on who wants to do the sleep over to make sure it's worth the trouble since we all just saw eachother last week. another thing happening in SD is the asian film festival that weekened....that would be a cool thing to go to. i'm not sure if any of them would be interested in that. plus, the miramar air show is oct 18, 19, 20 and andrew kat and thomas are probably definitely want to be over for that...so i'm gonna guess the sleep over thing happening is probably is impractical..... i'll have to talk to jeff about it. even if they don't make it, i still want to check out the asian film festival. maybe wendy will be into it if she's not slaving away that weekend at resnet. i haven't hung out with her at all much this last month it seems.



just realized that with erik being gone, he's not gonna be here this week for his fitness assessment. i hope he's checked with terry to make sure he can get his fitness assessment on thursday (if he's even gonna be back for that).



i downloaded winamp 3 today, with the witchblade skin. it's the coolest mp3 player to date. that's a bold statement, but that's my opinion. you gotta try it with the witchblade skin. its really professional. i love how the text and the visualizations happen.

Friday, September 27, 2002

does this movie really exist?



I saw Koyaanisqatsi today. It's a film you'd want to see for so many reasons. It's a film you can't put into words. It inspires you. It makes you think a mile a minute. It shows you places that you've been to. It shows you places where you want to go. Not for just the scenery, but for the people, experience, and the atmosphere. And it shows you places you've never been to, but makes you feel like you've just gone. And it can even put you to sleep. It makes you rethink what is really black and white. And some things can be both or neither. Like any work of art, everyone will interpret it differently. But if you're looking for an action flic, comedy, or anything with a story and and ending, I guarentee you'll be out cold in 15 minutes. This is a movie you probably want to see alone, and experience it in its purist form, and not wonder if you're boring your friend or partner. if you are planning to watch it with someone, see it only with someone that is as open minded about experiencing something diffenent for the night.



One of the writers of Koyaaniqatsi is Ron Fricke, who also did Chronos, which is a mini much shorter qatsi type of films. I thought Chronos was really good too. And it was included in my Ultimate DVD Silver that I got for free when I bought my DVD player.



I've been working out at rimac after hours. I've been getting there at around 6pm, and it's not too bad. I find that getting there is a bit harder without going with my usual group. If at all possible, I'll have to try to go together as a group again so it makes it easier for me and them to just get there. Even though things like this shouldn't matter when it is such a regular part of my routine, doing what got me there in the first place is more important than I thought.

Thursday, September 26, 2002

didn't do much today. after work i went to best buy to pick up 3 DVDs.

Amadeus Director's Cut

Koyaanisqatsi

Powaqqatsi



depending on how good the director's cut is, I have 2 DVD's I need to let go. Resevoir Dogs, and original release of Amadeus. If it's anything like the release of Last of the Mohicans Director's cut (compared to the theatrical release of Last of the Mohicans), I might have to tape the DVD disc to my forehead, and plummet head first off my 3 story balcony. DVD's like that should not be made. That is why I keep a VHS Widescreen of Last of the Mohicans. On the LOTM DVD, some of the film was faded, and instead of touching it up with some computer work, they just say, "it's purple because the film had aged.", and oh yeah, the best (by that i mean the worst) part is when they actually edit out the gore by slowing some of the fight scenes by cutting down the frame rate and producing an unconvincing slowmotion effect. they also put this last scene that was originally edited out back in. and it's this scene that doesn't fit too well. and the obvious and better decision would have been to just put this at the deleted scenes section, and not tack it at the end of the movie. sure, it's a directors cut, but this cut should be for him, and his collection only. ever hear of drinking some gasoline, taking a piss on your artwork, and setting it on fire? well, that DVD is something to that effect. of course, if you don't know the movie well enough to notice the differences, you would never know, but i do.



anyways, i really doubt amadeus would do anything foolish, but i always thought highly of the director's cuts, until i saw what happened to LOTM.



on my way home, i stopped by Nutri-Sport and Albertsons. I bought some peas and spinich (keeps your skin healthy and elastic), and then went to Nutri-Sport for some Glutapro, Hydroxycut, and Control.

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

even though today might have seemed just like any other, there are things worth mentioning.



i came into work at 9am this morning because erik said we had a meeting at 9. and when i got there, neither nguyen nor erik were there. turns out the meeting had been pushed back. i didn't feel like i was sleep deprived even though I had only gotten 6 hours of sleep last night. then after the meeting, and the walk to rimac field today, i got really tired. at one point i even told diem i was going to rest today without thinking too much into it. all i could think about was going home, turning the lights off, and taking a nap. but as i thought more about it, i realized that if i take today off from the gym, if would be the first time i would break the streak of choosing to rest instead of work out on a day i was planning to work out. here's my logic.

currently i work out mon, tues, thurs, friday, and rest wed, sat, sun. if i take today, off, i would just push back everything one day, and and get only one day of rest before monday hits again. the problem with trying to work out on a saturday is that it usually takes me about 4 hours of convincing for me to drag my ass to the gym. i always get there, but i start by planning to go in by 1, and get there by 5. that might be okay, but tommy might be in town, so the chances of making it to the gym are much harder on saturday. also, i've realized how valueable rest days are when you are building muscle. one day rest is good. 2 day rest is better, especially when you do high intensity workouts. also, it lets me enjoy the weekend, rather than spending all day thinking about the gym. so if i chose not to go to the gym today, it would be the first day that I would have made a choice on behalf of me feeling lazy/tired rather than choosing the better option. so it was a fight to get to the gym, but i made it.



so what i did was i put my head down on my desk at 4:30 and tried to take a nap. i must have taken a short nap (woke up at 4:45), even though i didn't feel all that much better, it was still an improvement. then just letting the time pass by till the work day ended, i had run into a problem. i knew i had to be taking hydroxycut by 5:30, but was hungry, and had a serving of glutapro left. so i took my glutapro with a half pb sandwich at 5:10, took my hydroxycut at 5:30. but i also had to take creatine. last time i mixed the two and got a headache so i knew not to make the same mistake again. so i waited until about 6:05 to take my creatine and i was off.



even though i could have rested, i know myself too well, that if i made the wrong decision today, it would just give me an excuse to slack off in the future because i had already broken my streak. but to this day i haven't yet. and not that i'm worried that if i break the streak one day that i'll stop working out completely. but to tell you the truth, even though there is probably less than 5% chance, i can't promise that it won't happen (me stopping working out completely). and i just can't take that chance. it's that important to me. it's that high in my list of priorities. i'm too old to start something, dedicate myself to it, and give up half way. that's what someone that hasn't fully matured does. and that's not what i'm about.



i also know my limits. if i knew i had the potential to be the best DDR player on earth, even if it took me years, i would still be playing it today. but i know i can't. so after i accomplish what i hoped to accomplish, i seem to move on to my next obsession. working out is different. say i accomplish the body i wish to have one day. i can reap the rewards for a long while (eating bad foods and not work out) because having a body that burns calories like a SUV burns gas will definitely give me room to splurge and not take too much of the damage. and even if i did get a little out of hand, if you had the muscle before, it's much easier to get back what you once had, rather than build something you never had before (which is what i'm doing now.) but it's not like i'm planning to go out in these all night binges or something. i don't crave a whole medium sized pizza from pizza hut, or a bucket of chicken like i used to. my tastes of changed. and this is one of the most important factors of taking pounds off, and keeping it off. even when i binge now (like i did at the bellagio buffet), my selections were different, and there was probably a world of a difference on the protein to fat to carb ratio, along with the healthier stuff i always thought were a waste of money eating at a buffet.



so anyway, work out went pretty well, only legs today, and no abs, so i got out of there in about 40 minutes (warmup, stretch, lift, stretch). and i got home, and did my laundry and tried to finish before smallville came on. which leads to my next story.



my roommate said he was gonna be back around the 22nd. and he still wasn't here yesterday. so i thought he might have decided to stay an extra week. and what i don't have anymore is cable. so i watch broadcast now. and the only antenna we have for 3 tv's in the apartment is wei's. thinking he wasn't gonna be back today either, i didn't worry about the tv antenna. then i get home today, and he's back. and i had moved his antenna to the dining area, and was watching stuff on the side, and i went to go do my laundry, and damn, he took the antenna back to his room! 15 minutes before smallville was on and i was going to start panicing. first thought i had was to call wendy and make sure she was recording it. then i calmed myself down and started thinking more clearly.



what these bastards at time warner do is that if you cancel the cable service, you can't use the coax line as a regular antenna. you'd think it would work, but it's directly the opposite. either they feed noise into all broadcast frequencies to that wire, or it's just that insulated. i like to think that they like to feed noise in just because they are evil that way. and i knew from previous experiences that long insulated coax cables are just about as good of an antenna a hot dog is connected to the coax jack on the back of the TV. then i remembered about the crappy non insulated coax cable i once bought at UCSD during freshmen year at the bookstore. i miraculously found that in one of my boxes, then had to go dig for the setting to make my TV tune to UHF/VHF instead of trying to pick up cable signals (on my RCA tv, it's burried somewhere, and you have to go through the Guide+ setup to access it, and no where else.) so with about 3 minutes to spare, i got WB tuned, with a makeshift antenna, with a Letherman clipped to the end of the wire for support and ground.



even though that is not a good example of me brainstorming under pressure, i think i can really perform when i need to make very important decisions and troubleshoot problems when i'm called for duty. i think my ultimate test was when it was 11pm, 150 miles away coming home from a vegas trip last year when my car broke down. we had 2 cars, and 7 people that needed to get to ontario, san diego, huntington beach, and torrance. also, it was sunday midnight, and people needed to get back to work on monday. the end result was that i was able to manage to get everyone back home soon enough that they'd be able to make it into work the next day, have my car towed on a flatbed to escondido from victorville, and do it with wasting the least amount of everyone's time. everyone that was there tells me that they think it was a miracle on how they were able to make it to work the next day, but i know the real story. i'm not just about troubleshooting computer related problems.

Monday, September 23, 2002

welp, it should be obvious (look slightly to the right...). stolen from travis' blog. i dunno what he's using to capture, but the tool i'm using is straight out of windows xp power toys that i found today. since i had a web cam, i thought it would be a shame to not add a feature to my blog. but, i'm not much for cameras. and plus i have bad web cam manners. i won't be able to say that i was scratching my nose when my finger is up it. so i'm just gonna leave it pointed outside my window. maybe i'll point it at the yellow happy face guy on my desk when he's doing one of his poses. or maybe i'll point it to my dead bonsai tree. exciting shows to come! until i get creative, it'll mostly be the people walking by my window. and night time, if they leave the lights on in the office, it'll be a reflection into the office.



i realized how long my archives has gotten. unfortunately, i can't seem to set my archives to monthly. it's a problem on blogger's side. hopefully they'll get to it.



i went to rimac today, and it was absolutely full. they actually make people wait because they are "at capacity". nevertheless i was able to get my work out done without much hassle. but i think it's luck. i seriously have to consider working out during lunch. at least for these first 2-3 weeks until the students start slacking, especially when school work piles up on them.



tomorrow is the season 2 premier of smallville! yes!



i've been rethinking this whole section on health on nutrition. would it be better if i just put my own story as it happened, or do it the way i'm doing it now (kinda like what magazines recommend), or both. i'll tell my story, then make recommendations? i'll have to think of this one before i write the chapters, and even change up the introduction. i want to be able to give people a link to it. i think i just thought of something. i'll put my story down, and then i'll go into details and get all technical and stuff in the story. this way, i'll be able to make 6 month updates, 1 year updates, and update once in a while when i break some new ground. like be able to bench my weight (getting there), be able to bench 150% of my weight. have six packs. have 8% body fat (still stuck at 16-17%). this means i'll have to revise the introduction.



back from vegas. it was a great trip as usual. jeff got off work at 4:45 (45 min late), and i told him i was gonna be at his place by 5:30 (got there 5:50). and then andrew calls and says he's gonna be an hour 15 minutes late to ontario mills plaza. so me and jeff get to ontario mills by 8:25, finish eating by 9. i got the bourbon chicken, and seasoned potatoes and corn. scarfed that up cause i must have been hungry. dropped our cars off at a near by neighborhood. we got to vegas at about 1am on saturday. we had a suite at the treasure island. everyone pretty much crashed when we got there. andrew went downstairs, and dropped some cash. the next day, we went to go eat at sam woo's for lunch after everyone got up and showered. then we went to get boba at this place called volcano tea. then we headed back to the hotel. we were gonna stop by the pool to check it out, and see if they want to lay out there. on the way, we see the arcade, and see DDR 5th mix. so we played 6 songs (2 games). at the end of the 6th song, we gathered quite a crowd (old ladies with grandchildren mostly). not knowing we had an audience, i let loose. and got an applause after we stepped off after the 6th song. that was pretty cool. unfortunately, i haven't played DDR for more than 3 months, and i could probably barely do 6 feets now. but played 5 and lower songs. after that, we went back to the hotel room, then came back out to gamble till about 5. then we went to the pool and stayed there till 7. then we went to go eat at the Bally's SteakHouse. Overall, it was pretty good. Can't compare it to the tenderloin at Pampas, but still a very good cut of filet. then we watched 3 fountain shows at the bellagio fountains. then we were gonna hit up the club in hilton, but jeff and ritchie felt like going to a kareoke instead, but when we got there to one the waitor recommended to us (ellis island), it looked really shady, so we decided to look for an asian style kareoke place. unfortunately, we couldn't find one, even though vegas has one of the biggest asian plaza clusters i've seen (sprung up from last year). but we did run into another boba place, Tea Planet (another name for Tea Station we have in Convoy). So we got some more boba that day. then we got back and everyone crashed except andrew who went back down for some more blackjack, but was back rather quickly. the next day, we checked out, and then hit up the bellagio buffet. they added one big addition, which is the tenderloin (filet mignon). keep in mind this is a buffet. so i pretty much went all out on protein first dish. and had some more protein, lots of veggies, and some carbs the second plate. and fruits for desert. then we went to gamble some more. ritchie worked his magic, and won a cool grand (he'd won something close to that the night before), and then we went to the arcade at bellagio for a few games (games suck there), got some more boba, and we decided it was time to go home. we got stuck in traffic for an hour, but other than that, the drive was okay. i drove jeff's 97 accord wagon for about 2 hours (1 hour in traffic).



a couple notes about the trip. the room came out to about $97 a person, for the suite we stayed at for 2 days. it defintely had a lot of extras. like 2 bathrooms with all the extra goodies you don't get at the regular rooms, plenty of towels for all of us. eating at sam woo's is more a tradition for us because they used to all eat at the sam woo's in SD, but since they've all moved away from SD, eating at Sam Woo's at vegas feels like old times. food is the exact same. the reason i ate so much this weekend is still not really against my diet. for muscle building, it is recommended that you increase your calories to 150% of your intake for a few days every 2 months or so. this will trigger a muscle growth spurt. so i can plan these binges out and i'll still be doing the right thing. how convienient.



I felt guilty about getting 2 boba's in one day, but one thing i haven't been able to turn away completely is boba. it's my kryptonite. i have been able to drink lot less of it. but when i'm there, i always get it.



on the drive to ontario mills from san diego, yahoo gave us some weird directions. and the directions pointed us to 2 toll roads. it felt odd paying 1.50 then another 2.50 a few minutes later. and then it sucked to see a cop watching out for speeders. what's the deal with that?



on our second day to get boba, some people went to volcano tea again, but this time, a dog was taking a shit right in front of the door. the dog belonged to these 2 customers. how awful for a business. you open up a store. and a customer's dog shits all over the entrance, while everyone is watching. the dogs owners looked like they had no clue what to do when the dog was doing his business. obviously the dog wasn't trained, and the owners of the dogs looked like it was the first time they saw that dog take a shit. i guess the dog was new, or was watching it for someone. so naturally, i decided to get my boba elsewhere.



as i have always said, the bellagio buffet is the best buffet on earth. they got everything you can ever fantasize about being at a buffet. and the quality is top notch. i always recommend it to friends, and i guess i'm not convincing enough, because someone always manages to convince them that all other buffets are about the same, or it's not worth the hassle. trust me it is. peeled tiger shrimp, filet mignon, prime rib, even some sushi? all there. all great to gourmet food quality. well, less people that know about it the better. last time, we had to wait 1.5 hours to get in. during the holiday weekends, the buffet is $40 not $22. fortunately, this weekend, it wasn't much of a wait at all. 30 minuetes at the most.



next year, i might catch Danny Gains. supposedly he does close to a 100 dead on impressions of celebrities. that should be interesting. hope the tickets are not more than $25.



non vegas related news, peas and spinich supposedly have stuff in them to make your skin have less wrinkles and keep its elasticity. so i'm gonna be eating a good dose of spinich twice a week. probably fry some up in some garlic, extra virgin olive oil, with some fresh ground pepper and salt. can't have it everyday because it has too much iron.



i always thought my headlights were piss poor. i'm gonna look at some aftermarket bulbs. people drive around blinding people all the time. if i can't help with my dim lights, might as well get my share of lighting. i'll probably replace my headlight bulbs next weekend.

Friday, September 20, 2002

Vegas baby, Vegas!

Thursday, September 19, 2002

went to the zion korean market today just to check it out. the market is huge, but there's a lot of wasted space. nguyen called and asked if i wanted to get sushi with him. but i passed, thinking i'll spend too much money and eat too much. i was also craving korean ramyun, so that's why i went to the market. and they had a great this on this sushi thing. for $10, it was about $30 worth of sushi, so i just got that, and the noodles had an outrageous amount of carbs, so i just bought one along with the sushi. and had those 2 things as dinner in 2 seperate small meals.



today, before work, i did about 30 pushups and my traps have been sore all day. i pretty much fudged tomorrow's workout because it's biceps and back day. i'll have to skip the trap shurg if they are still sore tomorrow. oh yeah....this is really gross. when i was working out wednesday, this guy was doing some jump ropes and he had boobs like a 90 year old woman, except skinny like candles, that would flop up and down as he would jump rope. did he not see? obviously his friend did as he would turn his body in the other direction for shame. i mean, i understand that people have little irregularities here and there. but at least they try not do activities that amplifies their oddness. it's as odd as someone as pale as an albino going to jaimaica for a tan. out of all the places he could have picked, he picked jamaica. not a tan salon. not a beach in san francisco. but a place that will amplify your odd characteristics.



tomorrow, i'm going to vegas, and taking a day off work. here's the plan for tomorrow. wake up, go to the gym, do my laundry, and be packed ready by 4:45 to head to vegas. in related news:





nguyen has been more interested in grabbing lunch rather than taking our usual walks. but good thing diem has gained interest in taking walks for lunch. today we walked around the med school and went through the buildings, and damn, there are some odd walkways and paths that just don't line up. almost as though they were put there on purpose so that there are dead ends and odd ways out. hmmm.........



in men's health, i read up on this "hot yoga". basically, you do a simplified form of yoga in ridiculous temperatures reaching 110-125+ degrees. i would strongly advise against this form of yoga especially for men. heat kills testosterone. so i also advise against very hot baths, showers, and hot tubs as well. unless you have a hot girl who wants to jump in the hot bath, shower, or hot tub with you. then even i'm willing to make sacrifices. i would much rather recommend regular yoga, or even better, a pilates stretching class.
started my health and fitness section.
NewsRadio quote of the day:

bill mcneal:

"so we were talking when we realize catherine and beth are eavesdropping on us. so joe rigs up a pipe bomb of some sort and sets it off right next to them. knocked them flat on their asses. [laughs] we laughed and langhed and laughed..."



makeup artist:

"sounds like the girls have a pretty good sense of humor."



bill mcneal:

"oh not them, joe and i laughed."



not much went on today. i went to the gym to do my calves and shoulders. came back home, and jeff called me to ask if i wanted to go eat. too many reasons not to go so i just cooked up some salmon on my george forman grill. my friend eddie came over and we discussed plans for his website. he's going through some problems with UCSD grad school and we discussed what he wants. it looks like 5 minutes of work, so whenever he gets me the text, it should be good to go.



have you seen this statue:

statue

the way i interpreted it when i first saw it, and the say i'm interpreting now is the same. maybe it's the lack of me trying to look deeper because i can't get my mind off the horror, but it just looks like someone dying a horrible death. usually, you don't find find statues of people dying a horrible death as the premier statue in front of a building.

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

man, i've really haven't been doing much on the weekdays. i find myself glued to simple games text twist, those strengthcoach games (i hold a few all time best records now), and now druglord 2. i guess it's good in a way. it's not like i don't spend half the day out of the house. today, at lunch i went to kmart and got monster's inc 2 disc dvd for $14.78. then went to yoshinoya. instead of my usual combo bowl with 6 seasame chicken order that i always used to order before my health craze, i got the small chicken bowl, and ate only half the rice. my things really have changed with me. even if i wasn't working out, i at least know how to make better decisions. and these little changes go a long way. luckily though, i'm incorporating every strategy known to man (without going insane depryving myself of food with some taste), and this is why i've been able to see a lot of results. my size 30 pants have become comfortably loose. i can probably squeeze into size 28 if i really tried, and probably comfortably wear 29's, but i like the #30. i saw monster's inc today, and saw most of the extra features. rather than having over hyped extra features a lot of dvd's talk about but don't come close to delivering, monster's inc is loaded with some great features. it's a bargain for $14.78. too bad you won't be able to find it at that price anywhere i know of, if you're in san diego after today.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

oh my, have i found a jewel of a website or what. strengthcoach.com. I will be refering to that site on a regular basis for people that are starting to lift, and spending hours clicking away at their really simple yet addicting games.



the following link will show you really common exercises at the gym, and teach you how to properly do them with animation. it's even better than watching the videos on menshealth.com to some extent because it focuses on where your joints should be.

http://www.strengthcoach.com/level.itml/icOid/74



and for some mindless clicking fun, here are games from the same site.

http://www-ca1.strengthcoach.com/games/

i hold the record for the javelin (today only), and all time best record for the discus. this site will get my best site of the year award for sure.



working out at the gym today was a different experience to say the least. it was more crowded than usual. the women's volleyball team has started working out there on mondays, and when they are there, they close the pit. and this creates madness at rimac for 2 reasons. 1, all the people that would be working out at the pit are out of the pit trying to lift elsewhere. 2, there are more guys there just to check the volleyball team out. the paper thin black covering they wear for uniforms probably amplifies reason 2. so to some extent, i bet some guys use that excuse to make it to the gym. whatever gets you there i guess. great for guys who want to check girls out in skimpy uniforms, awful for guys who are more concerned about lifting. they left by 6, and the gym felt empty again. i can't imagine what it'll be like at 5pm when all the students are back and the pit is closed. i might have to make sat and sun my primary lifting days.

Sunday, September 15, 2002

this was a pretty tame weekend, but only cause i made it one. i'm going to vegas next weekend, so all the splurging and gorging will be done next weekend.



friday night, i saw stealing harvard with ray, and 2 of ray's friends. it was an okay movie at best. good entertainment for the evening if you don't have anything better to do. before the movie, i went to Saffron and got my drunken noodles. and then I went to coldstones and got a small order of french vanilla ice cream mixed in with strawberry and gram crackers. fortunately, the ice cream was really melted, and i only ate about 1/3 of it, and had to throw the rest away. i paid for it by credit card, and i gotta admit, the girl that made my ice cream looked like she was giving me more than i ordered, but if i had a choice, i would order half of a small order, and when i was paying, it even had a tip amount (i thought that was weird). i hardly doubt people leave tips, other than drop some change in the tip jar. but it still seem like she gave me an attitude when i didn't write anything in there. maybe i should have. but she wasn't doing me any favors.



on saturday, i played a lot of NES games on my dreamcast. Played a lot of Zelda. I got about half way through the game and decided that was enough. When I was young playing that game, I thought the map was ridiculously big. But playing it as an adult, the game map is not big at all. You can walk from one end to another in no time. When I was young though, it felt like an eternity traveling across the map. I met up with Jeff and got some Pho and boba. Came home and played some more Zelda.



Today (Sunday), I met up with Wendy at rimac, and did my Monday routine. This means either a) I'm going to rest tomorrow, or b), I'm gonna do my Tuesday routine tomorrow. That might be a good idea considering I don't have time to work out on Friday if I need to leave for vegas around 4pm. Of course I can always take Friday off and work out before I leave (best for my body). Everyone is taking one day off this week anyway. I might as well call Friday. Anyway, after Rimac, i came home and beat a lot of games. RC Pro AM, RC Pro AM 2, Contra, Double Dragon, Excitebike. It's great playing these games cause I'm older now, and these emulators allow game genie codes, something I never had when I was growing up, and I can defeat all the games that I couldn't beat when I was young. Surprisingly, it seems like all the games that I thought I didn't beat, I have beaten before. I just forgot that I had because it's been so long. So I guess I should give myself more credit. I have less personal demons that I thought I did, and it tells me that even when I was young, I had some perfectionistic determnation that some of these games required.



Today, I increased my Hydroxycut intake to the max recommended on the bottle. It's the maximum recommended dosage. Good thing cause I don't think I'll be able to handle any more. Also, if i lift tomorrow, I gotta lay off the leg press. Without Hydroxycut that machine always wore me out, made me feel like I was gonna faint if I didn't rest for a few seconds before getting up. But last week, I had just increased my hydroxycut dosage, and did the leg press. I pressed about 300lbs, and can do more this week....but I felt like I blew a few circuits. I think tomorrow, I'll do lunges instead until my body gets used to the new dosage. I'm gonna only take Hydroxycut for 5 more weeks, and then move to a safer stuff, without Ephedra called Xenadrine EFX. I'll take that for 8 weeks, and then probably give my body a rest with the supplements.
ok, what is this bullshit. on the apple website, one of the ads right on their opening page is:



"I couldn't do video.

I couldn't do audio.

I couldn't do anything on my PC."

-Andy Skowronski

Policeman



And it has some sappy blood shot tired looking police man on there, characteristic of the FDNY firemen that we've all become so fond of after the 9/11 attacks. Well, it's nice to know that people out there to protect us are challenged to where they can only accomplish tasks by using a one button mouse. But what else are they trying to imply here? Might as well have a FDNY guy say something like,

"I saved people from the WTC.

Don't use Windows, use Jaguar."



Man, where do I begin? For some reason or another, my office at work have become infested with macs. Yes, they are pleasing to look at, and the operating system is nice looking, has features. But I think die hard OG apple fans are in denial. They are denying the fact that the operating system has become really unreliable. It seems that more than half of our machines at work need to be rebooted on a daily basis. You confront them, and they have the balls to say, "oh my mac never crashes." and i'm like going, "what the !@#$ are you talking about??" yeah, they sit behind me, and i can hear when they start complaning about one of their program crashing, and they end up restarting their machines.



Jaguar this, Jaguar that? You know what, from what I've heard, Jagwire sucks. It fixes old problems and add new ones. The best review I've heard from real world people were, "yeah, it's a big improvement." you know, that's not saying much. baiscally, it's just a big patch.



And what's even more ridiculous is that there are only about a handful of different configurations of Mac's out there and they still can't get it right (compared to the billions of configurations that people have with PC's). so, really, what Windows 2000/XP has accomplished by becoming stable is to prove the impossible. Even with a billion things that can go wrong with mixing and matching of hardware, it can still be stable. But Mac can't get it's operating system stable designed for its own hardware.



I got another one for apple.



"I bought an Apple because it was nice

and shiny, then I found out I couldn't

play any of the games that my friends

play on their PC's. Thank you mom

for a really fancy $1700 word

processor/Internet appliance."

Friday, September 13, 2002

since i've been pretty good about staying home on the weekdays now, i seem to have a lot of thinking time. here's the stuff i think about. just a lot of little things.



first thing is this whole iraq thing. i understand the threat. just looking at the ifluence osama bin laden has with his hundreds of million dollars, just think of how much damage could be done with iraq's stash of a few billion dollars. but!, they aren't doing it now. not that we know of. and if the US knows something that we don't know, they should tell us. it is important to at least have your own country convinced, which they have not done. i thought bush's address was gonna gonna reveal some reason on why, but it was all hot air. and if the citizens are against it, and the president acts alone, do we really have a say on what we want for our country? and if this country acts alone, why do we even have a UN? all he has convinced me is that, Bush has some hidden agendas, like getting revenge for his father, and just comes off like a puppet. i can't wait until this guy's term is up. we shouldn't have to be worrying about things like this. "oh no, i hope our president doesn't make the mistake of..." if i was in the armed forces, i'd be pissed because i'd have to fight in a way i don't support. get shot for something i don't believe in? if i wanted to do that, i'd fight in some kind of militia.



another topic....sissell exercise balls. i really should get one and use it at a chair at the desks i sit at. it's really great for posture, spine, back muscles, etc. i dunno if they'd like the idea at work though. also, it probably will stray away from the professional look they've been trying to change to.



today i walked to the glider port. damn, that was a long walk. nguyen and i was trying to find the paved road that goes directly down to blacks beach. that paved road might be a restricted area zone for the salk institute. i'll have to ask around.



on my way home from the gym yesterday, i saw a ferrari modena coupe. man, if i can just own one of those before i die, i would die happy. by the time i could afford one, they'll have a much better car out anyway. if you would like to hear about the joys of owning one check out this link:

http://www.pulpracing.com/krc_feb_02.htm

it is hilarious, but also gives you an insight of what people experience getting one of these delivered to you, and then the leverage you have over people just by offering rides to people. also, i've been pronouncing the modena all wrong. without the use of those funny words with hyphens and two dots on top, here's how to pronounce it:

maud-en-ah



Honda has done real good with their 7th series accords. here's a pic

looks like a acura rsx in the front, and mercedes in the back. here's a link to more pictures

2003 Honda Accord Coupe and Sedan

by june 2003, they will release a v6 ex coupe with a 6 speed manual with 240 hp. 40 more than my current car. the 0-60 times should be in the 6.2 to 6.3 range. that's impressive.



anyone remember the price is right? did you know they still play that show on TV? i had to do research on bob barker to see if he was still alive. apparently he is, and the shows are still being shot. i only did that because the props they've been using look like they haven't changed since the day they started that show. if i had to guess, it's probably from the 70's. really outdated. but i gotta give it to them that it is a good show for the media and consumer goods. every show, they give away a lot of prizes. i think a few years ago, they had a second show called something like, "the price is wrong" or "the prices are right", but there was one big difference that i think most people caught. that at the end, people didn't seem to win anything. and the host was some punk. just pissed me off watching it. not surprised that it didn't stay on the air for too long. it was basically the same show, with just newer props. i can see why they've stayed with the old formula, including bob.



yesterday, people at work went to inn and out. but i was able to turn them down relatively easily. something i would have not expected from myself because i was craving it earlier this week. but somehow i was able to. and i'm glad i'm not regretting it. plus, i don't crave it anymore. it works for me, but having eaten those foods before, and having good memory of them, i can pretty much imagine biting a piece of the inn and out double double, and smelling it. and i can do the same with the kfc stuff. and after i imagine it, it's usually good enough to fullfill my cravings. it's strange, but you should try it.



i was looking at cars the other day, and i was looking at the 2003 Acura NSX. and I was compaing it to the other cars out there. And man, they should take that feature off, the NSX's specs compared to basically any cars out there are pretty outrageous. compare the NSX to the M3, and the M3 blows it away, especially for half the price. and then try comparing it to the M5, and there's just no reason to buy the NSX. but i guess people that are buying NSX's weren't comparing the features. it's a beaut of a car. just so impractical.



on one of my regular sites i visit, www.fuckedcompany.com, they say that Segway is out of business. it's hard to believe considering there is still a very high demand for the product. and there was someone saying they are not out of business at all. they are just holding off selling the cheaper version to home customers because they can't seem to produce them fast enough for the demand of businesses. that's more likely, but i also know that they fired 90% of all staff a month or two ago. i'm not sure who to believe but usually fuckedcompany is right. i personally would not buy one. when i was less active a year ago, maybe, but now, i'd rather walk for my health. i think they made the mistake of overhyping the product. everyone almost expected a hover craft that defied the laws of gravity. the hype sure made it sound like that's what they were gonna introduce. when people saw that it was just a scooter, a lot of people were severly disappointed. i think the razor scooter revolution that came and went also effected the demand. if people weren't riding around with razor scooters, and looking a little too childish, people would have been more open to the idea. oh well, we'll have to see what does or does not come out of Segway now.



that is all for today. off to the gym.

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

i saw a made for TV documentary called 9|11. these 2 french filmmakers wanted the capture the growing up of a fireman from his first day, to the end of the probation term after 9 months. what they weren't planning on catching on camera were the events of 9/11 after 6 weeks into shooting. what they captured that day wer the sights, sounds, and the emotions of what the fire fighters experienced that day as it happened. unlike every 9/11 special i've seen, this one by far, seemed to be the most accurate and complete story on exactly what went on that day from the heart of the beast. check it out next time it's aired. this one will be the definitive film to be used in history classes for decades to come.
i have an idea. i've been craving some thai food recently....drunken noodles especially (aka spicy noodles, aka hot basil noodles). but whenever i think about them, i realize that it's just not balanced enough. so maybe i'll have a drunken noddle night (a balanced version of 40-30-30, meaning less noodles, less oil, more chicken, smaller servings) and invite some people over at my place. roommate is gone till the 22nd so it's an excellent time to have people over. i gotta find some recepies though, and find out if this is even possible, and if it's even worth it for the size of the portion that each person will get for <400 calories.



i was thinking i can also do spring rolls as appetizer, but it will be impossible to balance that, so i'm throwing out that idea. oh well.
today is the one year anniversay or 9/11. if the date was any other number configuration, it would just be a little harder to remember the day. anyway, nothing has happened yet. except one close call.

these idiots



dunno what these guys were thinking, but they must have been up to something. that's not normal behavior.



erik's sick at work today. for some reason he hasn't gone home yet. i don't know if its psychological, but i feel like my nasal passages are about to flare up.



i don't think we'll be able to do the usual lunch walk around campus today because we wasted lunch driving on miramar to get nguyen's face plate for his car stereo. yesterday, we walked to la jolla playhouse. i think i'll have to catch some shows one of these days. i hope there's a better rate for staffers.



not going to the gym goday. today is my rest day. i don't think i've had a rest day during the weekday for quite some time. probably since i started working out. so it will feel different, going home early. it gives me a chance to go to the market though, and buy some bananas and water. 2 things i need to go to the market for on a regular basis.



my blog is pretty boring today. today being the day that it is, i wish i can say something patriotic because i know that just last year, we lived though one of the most important events for recent US history. it was quite a reality check for some, when the biggest concern for some people, the day before the attacks, were what restaurant they were going to be eating at that weekend. we realized that the blanket of protection that we took for granted, was not much of a blanket at all. more like a giant sheet of false sense of security. rather than using a long range rocket fired from afar, which would never make it here, they easily solved the riddle on how to get the biggest rocket imaginable pointed straight into our most precious buildings without much effort. everyone knew that airline security was pretty much a joke back then but never considered doing too much about it because the airline industry was more focused on cutting back, rather than adding costs. we've learned a lot since then, and we're still learning now. i think there has been a permanent change for me, on how i view my own security. i find myself still enjoying the things i used to, to the full extent, but i'm just a little more cautious on the factors i can control. if it's something i can't control, like a nuke landing in the city i live in, i know not to spend a microsecond worrying about stuff. but if it's something i can control, i think i've mentally prepared myself. i'm ready to take action where action is due, physically and mentally.

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

today was more of the same. increased my hydroxycut intake following the recommended schedule. felt jittery all day. i'm sure that'll go away soon, if it even comes back at all.



i'm really anxious to try this stuff called yohimburn. the reviews sound phenomenal, and just too good to be true. but i still got a half a bottle of the cutting gel. i've been using it ritually for the last month. i think it's working slowly, but i'm disappointed by the slow results. i'm just gonna use it 2x a day (i've been using it 1x a day), hoping to use it all up and make room for yohimburn.



everyday, nguyen and i go for a walk during lunch time. today, we went to blacks beach. the view was amazing. so many things in SD. i just love it here. even after living here for 6 years, stuff around the corner is just waiting to be discovered.



i was thinking yesterday, "hey, i don't have any commitments to eat out at all in the next month" and then i realized i'm going to vegas in 2 weeks. oh well. its worth it though. i actually look forward to not eat out. can you believe that? but then again, for some reason or another, i realized i haven't had thai food since i made a full on change to my diet. hmmm.....decisions decisions. once i think of something, it usually overwhelms me. some stuff i can just stay away (like kfc), but other stuff, i usually find an excuse. like craving of protein and my trips to el cotixan btw. and now i'm trying to convince myself that all thai food is spicy unsaturated fat with bunch of carbs. oh well. i'll see how i feel about it during the rest of this week. i can always find people willing to go. that's the problem. : )



today, i watched the divx, "Hannibal". I don't think I enjoyed it too much. I've seen a lot of TV specials on serial killers, and 99% of the time, these crazies are nowhere near that insane. the gore just made it unbelieveable. some parts i found it to be laughable (reminded me of tales of the crypt episodes) when it shouldn't have been. also, in the movie, clarise actually saves hannibal from getting eaten by wild pigs by killing and shooting 3 other guys who are just petty thugs. but she's doing it because it's the right thing to do? there's a flaw in her core beliefs. just didn't buy it. thumbs down.

Monday, September 9, 2002

interesting thing happened today. i was trying to run sp1 on my winders PX machine (yes, i'm using stupid code names so that macroshaft can't search me on elgoog), and it said i had a invalid porduct key. i don't think i'm posting any illegal information, but one site did post instructions and it looks like it got shut down by macroshaft, so i'm just being a little cautious.



anyway, me, and half the nation, even though, i have a valid key i could use, didn't really think it was big deal using the key that everyone else was using the web. so here are simple instructions on how to remove your porduct key, and putting in a good one.



Click Start > Run > and type in Regedit

Browse to HKEY_LOCO_MACHINE\Software\Macroshaftt\Winders NT\CorrentVerizon\wapevents





Double-click BOOBETimer (without the first B. so it would be OOBE NOT BOOBE)

Remove the 'ca' part from the value. (Changing or deleting any of the binary values will accomplish the same effect)

Click OK and close regedit

Click Start > Run and type in: "%systemroot%\system32\boobe\msboobe.exe /a" (replace every instance with boob with just oob, basically delete the first b, and without the quotes)

Choose the 2nd option (phone actibation)

Click Change Porduct Key (at the bottom)

Enter your valid Croperate Porduct Key

Press Update and close the window

Restart your computer



so i'm just posting a work around for ones with legitamite licenses. if you don't know what you are doing though, you could totally screw yourself over by playing with regedit.

Sunday, September 8, 2002

i've been playing texttwist (shockwave.com) like a madman all weekend. jeff called me up for lunch, so in his GTR (i kid you not), we went to get pho. we had to sit next to the windows, and make sure we can see the car covered and at the other end of the parking lot. i hope eventually we'll be able to eat without a clear site of his car someday. hahaha. it's cool though. he knows how to take care of this stuff. i don't mind at all cause i know how much he cares for it. then we went to get boba. and then i came home, played some more texttwist, and then headed out to costco. can you belive they didn't have any bananas this weekend? what kind of crap is that? on the other hand, they just got packages of 30 balance gold bars for $25. i thought that was a pretty good deal. other than that, i didn't stray too much from my shopping list. walking around the store, i was saying to myself, if they had cooler stuff, i'd probably end up buying a lot of luxury items. someone should open up a costco that's 4x bigger, and put a lot of display items for everyone to play with? also, they have a piss poor dvd selection. i always walk around there hoping to run into something i've been wanting to buy, but considering they only carry ~30-40 titles at a time, the selection is pitiful.



so anyways, that's my excuse for a sunday. and it's already late. another week of work just around the corner.



http://www.alltooflat.com/geeky/elgoog/



oh yeah, here's the workout schedule i'll be following starting tomorrow

http://www.getbig.com/articles/faq-dav1.htm
i woke up this morning when raymond called me up and asked me to go rollerblading at miramar lake. i told him i shouldn't because my legs were too damn sore from friday. i'll get into why i'm mentioning this in a second.



realizing the big change i've made to my life, when i see the before and after pictures in the infomercials, i always wonder, i wonder what the story was behind him or her, and how he was able to make a big change. then i remembered about Richard Hatch (Survivor 1). He lost a lot of fat before the show, and wondered what the story was on him. did he get lyposuction? did he take some crazy pills? or did he make some big change in his life, and what lead to it? so i went to go searching, because i knew it probably would be easy to find since he's become so popular. i found an article on him from the website www.getbig.com, a true body builder's site (not type of body i'm hoping to accomplish, but you know these guys are guru's on building muscle).



http://www.getbig.com/iview/richardhatch.htm



Richard Hatch's reason was simple, and seemed pretty similar to mine. he always had the desire to get fit, but never really knew the proper way to do it. so his body weight fluctuated, until he mastered his body. and for him, and me, all it took was the knowledge. we always had the desire, but never really knew how until just recently. i can't say that i've mastered it yet, but my will and the desire has not changed since i started working out, or even from years before that. this is why i look forward to every one of my workouts. because it means i'm just one more step to the day of what i envision my body to be in the future.



anyway, i've been reading the articles on getbig.com, and one thing is clear. i've been grossly overtraining, and doing too much cardio. it's really hard to limit myself to 30 minutes of lifting because we're so conditioned into thinking working harder means better results. and i'm still not convinced, no matter how much i read into it, i just can't believe less is more. so here's the plan. i'm gonna just bite the bullet and do it blindly and not stray from it for a month. i'm gonna heavily monitor my progress and body fat. it's a little weird to argue to myself that i need to make an effort to not work as hard. i'll limit my weight training to 20-30 minutes. not counting the 8-12 minute warmup, and the 5 minutes of stretching before and after lifting. i'm gonna seperate my workouts in 4. lift mon, tues, thurs, fri. and rest wednesday, or at most go for a light jog, or a light workout on the eliptical, or bike. by the time the month is up, and i don't see results, i'll already be a week into the wellness program, and that should give me some new things to try. here's another thing about abs. if you are lifting to build muscles, you are always working out your abs (you just might not realize it). and most ab exercises are designed for toning. some you can increase intensity to actually build your ab muscles, but you should not have to do it at a high intensity (and might even lead to overtraining your abs). so the best thing i would recommend for people who are lifting weights is aim to tone your abs only.



that's all for today.
old friend came down from torrance today. first we went to eat at brigantine for lunch. great place for lunch. i'll be going back for sure. price is a little on the high side for lunch, but definitely worth it. my recommendation is to go during a sunny day. the day wasn't too sunny for us. then we went to the del mar race track. i didn't do so hot, but man, she was on fire. she won $50 on her first bet, and basically won every bet she played. after that, we went to pampas bar and grill and got some nice fillets. i got the same thing i got last time. bife de lomo especial, which is the 12oz cut of the tenderloin. my legs are really sore from yesterday. partly due to the hard lower body workout yesterday, but also due to the bananas i've been forgetting to eat the last 2 days.

Saturday, September 7, 2002

updated my profile and funny pages.
had a longer workout than normal today on my lower body. i gotta remember less is more.



after i got home, i went to go watch the movie signs with ray and matt. it was pretty good. i liked it. i can't really it was original. and it was unpredictable to only ones with just a smidge of imagination. but it had a interesting story, and how it wraps around the small general meaning they were trying to get across. it's a love it or hate it film. if you don't believe in aliens could exist (you are very dumb), and you won't like this movie.



after the purchase of an extended warrenty on my car, i'm back to driving it agressively. i drive it like i stole it. : )

Friday, September 6, 2002

i put 4 pics from my birthday dinner on the photo gallery page.
i made it into work a little late today. i'm getting pretty annoyed by bad drivers. as much as i hate to get mad about stupid drivers, one damn near made me go a little psycho. basically, i was barreling down la jolla village drive at about 80 mph, and then, imagine someone perpendicular to you just lurching forward, and blocking 2 out of the 3 lanes in front of you about 30 feet away, including the one you're driving on. man, good thing i had good breaks or i would have plowed right through him. i totally forgot my lunch at home so i ended up going to subway. i ate half the sandwich and brought the other half home. after work, i went for a 2 mile run. i did some interval training.



jogged 3 laps

ran 1 lap as fast as i could

walked 1 lap

ran 1 lap as fast as i could

walked 1 lap

ran 1 lap as fast as i could

walked 1 lap

jogged 2 laps



after that, i sped home to take a quick shower and then off i went to BJ's for collin's farewell party. i got a grilled chicken caesar salad. valerie picked up the tab, which was really cool of her. to think of it, it's becoming the latest trend. at nate's farewell party, parrish picked up the tab. i felt kinda bad because i ordered the large salad which was about $8.50. if i had known she was picking it up, i would have gotten the smaller salad, which would have been better nutritionally. after dinner, i drove to Cush Honda of San Diego off Mission Gorge road to buy a extended warrenty for my car. i thought it was gonna cost me around $700 (that's what it would have cost me if i bought it when i bought the car), and then i found out it was gonna cost a lot more than that. i called around, and as always, pacific honda was the priciest by far. they quoted me $1600. those bastards. i called everywhere else, and they quoted me far below that. all betweeen $1225-$1285. so i bought that today, and now my car is covered for another 4 years. or you can always go with a hyundai...10 years, 100k miles, no extra cost. hmmm, the tiberon does look nice.



i just ate the other half of the sandwich, and i feel damn sick. the subway at school already serves you vegetables that has gone south. imagine leaving that outside, for a few hours, and eating it a few hours after it's been refrigerated. yeah, not fun. and just today i was convincing steven how important it is to drink water. and i end up eating some bad toxins for my body. shame on me. everyday i learn something not to do that i used to do before....ugg....i don't think my body likes it at all. feel pretty sick.....



today, eric lai stopped by with a CD for me with all the OG resnet gatherings like all the birthdays and people's parties. damn, i must say i looked pretty damn horrible in all of them except my latest birthday party. i look so much different, i wouldn't even recognize myself.

Thursday, September 5, 2002

aw man, i typed a lot of shit, and eric sent me a link, and it opened in the same window, and it didn't save shit.



aw well. i'll just do a play by play, without the commentary.



yesterday, i went to go running, even though i shouldn't have. ran 7 laps, and i felt nauseous (sp?) and light headed after that. then i had to turn down diem for dinner (she was treating me out to all you can eat at tadashi). i could tell she really wanted to go yesterday (even though she tried at the best at her ability not to seem to obviously insistant), and as much as i hate turning people down, i had to because i was so damn tired. and nguyen called me up too, and i had to turn him down as well. good thing i did. i had to do laundry, and then patch 14 servers. i got done at about 2am, dead tired of course. heck, i was dead tired when i woke up that morning.



today i slept in. at lunch, took a nice tour of san diego, and visited 2 server rooms. one at convoy, and one at mira mesa. and then we took a short detour or miramar lake. i've never been there, but wow, i had no clue that this lake was there. i'll be going there again for sure. maybe for some bbq'ing and boat riding. then i got back, and decided to add features to my blog, and got too caught up, ended up missing a few meals, totally not following my meal schedule.



i went to do a full upper body workout today. bad idea. didn't have the energy for it, and all the 3rd sets felt like they were half assed. after working out, i rushed home to shower, and went to tadashi with diem. the dinner was great. walked around downtown la jolla for some window shopping, to at least start digesting 4 lbs of sashimi i had consumed. and i came back just in time to see the ending of american idol.

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

as you can see, i've really sexxed up my blog. i think this one's a keeper.
today is going to be a little more unpleasant than the norm. i was supposed to get up and get to rimac at 7:55 am. woke up at 7, then i just couldn't resist lying down again. i slept later than i planned. so i finally make it to rimac at 9:30am, waited in line for an hour, then i finally turned in the wellness forms for erik, me and claire. i know diem turned in hers. still waiting the word from chuck. all in all, the process is just a little more complicated than it should be, but worth the hassle of signing up.



the weekend was half slacking off, and half active. i played hours of GT3, while managing to spend 24 hours in Torrance, see family and friends. i was going to be back by 9 so that i have time to work out, but it just wasn't meant to be. i figured that my body needed a good time to recover and even though it's not for a full week, 3 days is plenty. and i can make up the workout by working out all of my upper body on wednesday. today is my cardio day, but i haven't got enough sleep. at lunch, i might opt to drive home and take a nap. the problem with that is that it has been extremely warm the last 3 days, and it might not be a pleasant experience, or it might be a longer nap than i'm anticipating because of the heat. just walking to rimac in the morning from the rimac parking lot felt like i was running on fumes. other than feeling like crap, it was mostly a success at rimac this morning.



i'm gonna go back on creatine today. i'm not sure how much caffine hydroxycut has, but i'm gonna guess that there is not much. other than the first 2 days i took hydroxycut, the jitters haven't come back, and i've doubled dose (as the bottle recommends) since i started. so i think as long as i follow my supplement intake, if there is any antagonistic effects going on, it should be at it's minimum. loading starts today.



back to my weekend. saturday, i woke up pretty late, and without a hangover...it was about 12-16 ounces of beer anyway. was gonna try to play tennis, but couldn't get a game lined up, so i just played GT3 all day (i'm 77.6% complete now). i left for Torrance at about 7:30, an hour later than i was hoping to leave. ran into a bit of traffic, and got there at about 10pm. had dinner with folks. watched tv till really late because i wasn't tired at all, then my dad came down started talking to me from about 3 to 4:30. we talked about buying property, my brother's progress in school, etc. he ate a whole bunch of junkfood at the middle of the night. he's racked up a lot of weight in the last 6 months alone. he also mentioned that he was thinking of selling off a lot of his property in LA and moving to SD. at first i was delighted at the idea, because it would give me a chance of moving back in with my parents. i feel like i have seen all that i can living away from home in the last 6 years, and i could easily save $1000 a month, easily buy an M3, or do something smarter, like . now i'm having second thoughts. a part of the reason being people looking down on people who live with home with their parents. i always considered moving away from home a milestone in one's life. but now i think differently because i know that the benefits outweight the drawbacks. but not everyone sees it that way. i guess i'll have to talk to my friends and get a second opinion. the ones who aren't still living with their parents. : ) another reason is that my dad is a little hard to live with. i want to be a good son and listen to all of their demands, but most of the demands from my dads are just downright unreasonable or silly that i'll have to straight out refuse it. he respects my decision without having to give him a reason, but i just don't like the fact that i'll probably have to deal with this on a daily basis. on the other hand, my mom would be fine to live with. she does everything right, and is a perfect example of what a parent should be to their kids.



after a birthday lunch with family on monday, i went to Tommy's place, checked out his LCD projector he's testing for his work, went to best buy to help him buy some audio cables so that he could use his receiver and not listen to the movies like it was coming off an internet feed through a modem connection the way he had it set up previously. his speakers are the Acoustic brand.....aka....2 guys in a white van. i know 2 victims of the 2 guys in a white van scam. Tommy and my current roommate Wei. And you guessed it, they both bought it from 2 guys in a white van. here is the scam. these guys will approach you at a parking lot, and they'll introduce themselves and say they have a overstock of speakers, and they're just trying to sell it below cost because they don't have room in the warehouse or some crap like that. and they'll turn on the speakers and they'll sound great. and when you bring the speakers back home, either they sound really crappy, or they'll have a block of cement inside. tommy's speakers didn't sound too bad. we had it turned up pretty loud and they sounded descent. click on the link below for some hilarious 2 guys in a white stories:

2 guys in a white van



so after we got the cable, we got some boba, and at his place we saw toy story 2 (wanted to test a digital movie on the LCD projector). then i had to take off. i ate dinner with my family, and took off. got back at 11pm. slept at like 3am......i'll have to fix that.

Sunday, September 1, 2002

i've been 24 for 2 days so far. one thing that was different was when i got on the eliptical machine and i almost put in 23 in for my age. that eliptical is a constant reminder how quickly these years are going by. the weird thing is that when i was a lot younger....around 14 or 16, i used to think that people in thier mid 20's were still very young. but now i'm 24, and i feel like i'm a little too old. what am i so afraid of? maybe i'm worried about never finding a significant other. and i'm worried because time is running out. when i was in high school, i always believed in marrying at a descent young age. 26 seemed like the ideal age. and i still believe that now. but i'm 2 years from that, and i don't think i'd want to marry anyone that i haven't dated for at least 2 years. considering i'm not dating anyone now, unless i find someone tomorrow, it ain't happening.



here's my take on dating. here's an easy way to start dating someone. if you start a relationship with someone and estabilish that you have more interest than friendship, and this is mutually expressed, you can end up being bf and gf's after just a few dates, even though a friendship was never solidly estabilished. and this is how a most relationships, especially in the younger group, start these days. it is common that these relationships don't last too long after you really get to know them. it's not that the other person will turn out to be a psycho or anything of that nature. basically you start off dating, and might even become bf's and gf's and such, but you realize you're looking for the same level of friendship you have with some of your friends. if this person is going to be on a higher priority list, they'll have to be a more valuable friend than any other friend you have right? when you realize that you have friends that you care for more than someone you consider yourself a partner, the relationship is on shaky ground. and a lot of the times, you'll never find that special thing that makes the other person so special, so the relationship is over when this search is over. for me, it's just too awkward to look for this special friendship bond in the middle of dating someone.



for some people though, especially when they get older (maybe starting the age of 25 or so), they have learned to see through the pitfalls of the typical scenario, and believe in trying to find the special something in their existing friends. the more they get to know someone's personality, the more they'll respect for what the other believes in. and if their belief is something they appreciate, they do eventually form feelings for the other person. unfortunately, sometimes the timing or the sharing of mutual appreciation is never in sync, and that is the story of my life. also there is the problem of being in the friend zone, but i won't touch that topic with a 10 foot pole. all the friend zone arguments make sense (i think eric sent a link about this guy once), but i also believe that if both really are attracted to eachother, the friend zone problem is a minor technicality that both can overcome. if someone gives you a "i don't want to ruin our friendship" argument, don't waste any more time. give up and move on. that's my advice for today. their loss anyway.



turns out that at least one person has gone through my entire blog. amazing cause some of my entries are pretty damn long. remember how doogie howser did his daily journals? just a few sentences every entry. unfotunately, if i truncate my entries in 2 sentences, there will be too much underinterpretation, or overinterpretation going on. :)



back to just blogging.

my birthday was a blast. had some great food at buca di beppo. had a great time. i don't think i can ask for anything more. if all my friends just keep showing up on aug 30, that's all i could ask for. as i predicted, one friend from LA flaked at the last moment. i think one of the greatest skills in life you can acquire is understanding what to expect out of people. growing up with a dad who made too many false promises, i've had my hopes crushed too many times, and have learned not too always expect the best out of people, but expect what is more realistic. this way, there is less chance of disappointment. also, when someone does go out of their way, you will recognize and appreciate them more for doing what they did. they'll appreciate you back in return for the reconition for something they didn't think they were going to do either.



after buca, we went to Rock Bottom. we went there to play pool, but the tables were all taken up, so we just ended up talkin, and then it was closing time. oh, i had the beer taster at rock bottom, and i was a little to buzzed to drive home, and then i said something to really offend the people at the table, and i think especially wendy. now that i think of it, i must have sounded like a chauvinist pig. the truth is, the car insurance is under my dad's name (i'm registered for his honda odessey), and i really don't know what would happen and if there is coverage at all if something does happen. also, the car has pretty bad steering, but i guess that's all relative. i always say my car feels like i'm driving a tank. and yes i'm protective of my car, but that's only a fraction of it. the reason i said jeff should drive my car, is because jeff has driven my car before, and also, he's one of the best drivers i know. so even if the insurance thing is still a problem, there are less issues with him driving my car. it's not that i think wendy's a bad driver....i've been in her car a number of times, and other than that one small incident (nothing worth mentioning), i'm very comfortable when she's driving, compared to riding in as a passenger with some drivers......not gonna name any of them. anyways, to do some damage control, i let her drive home, and yes, it was very pleasant.



a lot of people got me gifts this year, which wasn't something i was expecting. got the Animusic DVD from Nik. i've already watched the whole dvd maybe 8 times in the last 24 hours. eric got me the mr pink version of the resevoir dogs. i'll try to pop the dvd in this weekend. nguyen gave me some pull up working out thing. i've already done some push-ups on the thing. and wendy gave me a bbq tool which will come in handy next time i grill something up. i've played around with it a little bit, and it's remarkable how good it is in telling the room temperature when it's not being poked into a steak.



today, i went to the potato shack for brunch. they are known for their manhole sized pancakes. one thing worth mentioning is that they don't take credit cards. i thought that was awkward. so i know 3 places that doen't take credit cards in San Diego. Lollicup, potatoshack, and Sam Woo's. anyway, the brunch was awesome and a bargain. not to mention pretty healthy for what you can get elsewhere. after brunch, we went to the del mar race tracks. horse racing is definitely cool and really exciting. i'm gonna try to check it out next week if some of my friends are intersted.



after that, we went back to jeff's place, and went driving in his GTR for 1.5 hours. we did the usual drive from del mar, to la jolla, to prospect, to pb, and back. we got some attention, and it was rightly due. he removed a restricter, and the blow off valve is really loud now. i had jeff's digicam with me and shot like 20 30 second movies. the car's suspension is really stiff so the video is very rough. maybe i'll post some links to that when jeff gets around to sending me the files. after that, we went to get some pho and boba. we were gonna play some GT3, then it got too late. that explains my last 36 hours away from blogging.