October 2005
October 3, 2005
I've pretty much decided on the 2005 version (if it's still available in December), and it's not even a price issue now either. I saw one of the newer ones today, and it just doesn't have the look that I want.
October 6, 2005
I worked my first 13-hour day today. Yup. That's 8:30 am till 9:30 pm. I feel like such the i-banker now.. or, is it the consultant? Well, whatever it is, I actually didn't mind it. Come on.. free dinner and no traffic? Who can say no? It's really funny too, cuz after we finished and the leftovers were bagged, everyone was like, hey Felix, you're single and no one's gonna be cooking for you, so why don't you take it all home! And then I realized that I couldn't really argue that. They had a point. Mmm.. Free Chinese food.
So.. Clinicals are going well. We're trying to stay on target, but it's kinda difficult since the automation is just not there yet. I guess that's why they brought me in. Sorta. Right now, I haven't figured out yet if I am to help with the equipment design or if I am there to be extra grunt labor.
Also, I never realized how much latex I go through in one day! Good thing I'm not allergic. Uh, yes, I did mean to say that.. in case you were wondering.
October 9, 2005
I don't even know where to begin! Wait, I got it. If you want pictures and Diana's account of the day, you can go here. Otherwise, stay and read on.
Yesterday started really early for me, even though it was the weekend. I forced myself up at 8 so that I would be able to make it to Menlo Park in time, as Diana and I were supposed to take the Caltrain up to the city for Fleet Week! As it turned out, this Saturday was also the annual Stanford get your freshmen up to the city for a scavanger hunt day, and since our stop was after theirs going northbound to the city, no one north of Palo Alto got a seat.
After a very uneventful and rather painful ride up to 4th and King, the four of us, including Lacie and Emmie (Diana's coworker and her friend, respectively), took more public transportation up to fisherman's wharf and subsequently Ghiradelli's Square, where Accenture had rented out two of the rooms at McCormick & Kuleto's for all our brunching needs. The food was orgasmically good and our view was just splendid. As you can see from some of Diana's pictures, we had these full-sized windows overlooking the pier, which made us actually think twice about fighting the crowd and walking over to our premium box seating. But I'm glad we did end up going outside, since only there were we able to fully experience and appreciate the awesomeness that is the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, which consisted of among other things, six FA-18 Hornets in various diamond and pyramid formations, with full throttle and their afterburners on. Yeah, you can say that it was pretty loud. :-)
The trip back sucked. A lot. Since we were unable to find transportation at Ghiradelli's back to the Caltrain depot, the four of us ended up walking for over an hour trying to find an empty bus to take us back. Let me tell you, Chinatown on a Saturday afternoon is just a bad idea. Since none of us were patient or aggressive people by nature, we ended up yielding our spots at the multiple bus stops on Stockton to old people and Chinese women with their groceries. As a result, we ended up missing the 6 o'clock train (more on this later) and so Diana and I wandered around Union Square in search for an Apple store to get my mini a protective case while the other two girls went off to do some clothes shopping at Old Navy. This also happened to be about the time when Mary called me and told me that she had taken an earlier flight out from Vegas, so her estimated time of arrival in San Jose would be at 8 rather than at 9:30. Oh great. I'm going to be late in picking up my sister by at least 20 minutes, and that is only if we make the 7 o'clock train back, or so I thought.
But I was wrong! Haha! I was not 20 minutes late! I was a whole hour late! To be fair, it was not at all my fault. The 6 o'clock train that we had missed had a wreck or broke down or something, so our train (which again was packed with Stanford scavengerers heading home) stayed in rest position for a good 30-40 minutes until the northbound train could pass us. Good thing I had some company and half of an earpiece to Diana's ipod that kept me sane and occupied.
Anyway, I think I really enjoyed my weekend.. and it's not even over yet! It's kinda hard to make big plans to go out and have fun these days now that I've started working, but I'm glad that I was uhm.. 'encouraged' to go yesterday by Diana. Heh, seriously. Thanks for the invitation.
Pictures of low-flying high-speed objects to come, I'm sure. In fact, here they are: Fleet Week Pics.
October 12, 2005
La pasión comienza contigo.
I really respect self-starters. Take Tony Gonzales, for example.. tight end for the Chiefs. He's an all-American guy, born in Torrance and grew up here in the States; he even went to Cal. For whatever reason, maybe it's because of his last name, I just assumed that he spoke Spanish. And I was further deceived when I saw a commercial of him promoting the Hispanic youth football program with that quote above. As it turned out, he doesn't speak Spanish at all, and what's cool about this is that he spent a lot of time last year during the offseason trying to learn the language by living with a host family in San Miguel de Allende. You go, Tony.
Anyway, I don't know where that came from. I feel like I've been wanting to write lately, only I haven't had the time to. What's been happening with me is a lot of work. That's all I do these days. Mary did come up Saturday.. in fact, she's here until tomorrow, and we (as in with David too) got to celebrate her birthday at Gombei. I realize that place has really good food. I had the salmon teriyaki, even though I rarely eat things that swim, but the reason I did was because I read a CNN article about people's brains not degenerating as fast during old age if they have a diet that contain fish (salmon, tuna, or something that contains omega-3 fatty acids) at least once a week. So there, here's my public service announcement to you all. Stay healthy.
When Mary went up to SF for her interview, I was able to drop her off at the Caltrain station in Mountain View. That's normally nothing to cheer about, except.. with her in the car, I was able to take the carpool lane (and laugh at all those non-carpool people!) all across the 85. Too bad it was Columbus Day, and some people actually had the day off, so the effect was downplayed by the fact that the traffic was lighter than usual. Ah well. Seriously, though. Once you go HOV lane, you can't go back. I think I'm gonna try to find a surface street route that suits my impatient self better tomorrow.
I probably have more randomness to post about, but I'll cut this short for tonight. Early morning meeting tomorrow. See ya.
October 15, 2005 (Previously Privatized)
Hehe.. I'm actually giddy! A different kind.. sorta like when I would play strategy board games and screw people over! Yeah you know what I'm talking about.
One good sign that you are well on the road to recovery (when you're still in doubt) is actually getting that nervousness in your stomach when you're about to ask that someone to dance. You go in, hesitate a bit, and she gets swooped up by someone else and all you can do is curse under your breath. A few years ago, I think I would have just chickened out and blamed it on myself or the fact that there wasn't enough music, but I think that Opening has really taught me something about confidence. Waltz? I can waltz! That's old-school.. woohoo! Yay for that last dance with the 'library girl'! Too bad she's so young! Maybe a little too young. Sigh.
For those of you in the know, well, congrats! Otherwise, don't ask; I won't elaborate.
October 16, 2005
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002555281_dishwasher12.html
Funny, because I just learned how to use mine over here about a month ago. :-)
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Things that would only amuse me, and maybe a few of you out there..
- Trust no one. And by no one, I mean Eric. So yeah, no more trading with Mr. “I renege our deal to give you a cocoa bean if it looks like you're in the stronger position to win”. Hmmph! Lawyers.. what can you expect!
- Go Chiefs! Back to your winning ways!
- Sadly, the Arcane Mages are sucking it up real bad this year.
- Advil tonight for the win! Gotta stock up on some Tylenol soon, though, as to build up company loyalty.
- Gym tomorrow after work. Every Monday and Thursday starting now.
- 280/85 or Lawrence/Central? I will let you know which is better tomorrow.
October 18, 2005
Summer has come and passed. The innocent can never last. Wake me up when September ends.
I don't remember the last time I had the chance to sit down and reflect about life. Well, for starters, tomorrow will mark the one month anniversary of me starting work. And what a month it has been! In short, I love my job. It is everything that I had wanted, expected, desired. My work keeps me busy, yet unburdened, and I appreciate the level of autonomy that they have given me. Running my own experiments is indeed challenging, but fun. Plus, if I ever need help, I have a supportive boss in addition to a group of young, dynamic (mostly) chemical engineers to point me in the right direction. In fact, I think that's the best part of it all. No, wait.. that's not it. It's because I get to wear a lab coat, which makes me look really hot.
In hindsight, it seemed kind of silly for me to stress about the whole job-search process the last few months. After all, everything worked out almost too perfectly, and eerily so, I might add. During that time, I have to admit, I said more than my fair share of prayers, not to mention I delved into that old Chinese superstition book to see what I had to do in order to have my path light up for me. I pleaded and I begged, I made compromises and sacrifices (some that I quickly abandoned once I realized the absurdity of it all), and most importantly, I sat on my butt and surfed the internet for the latest job posts in between afternoon marathon sessions of WoW. Yeah, and I think somehow, this weird combination of cosmic forces, persistence, and dumb luck landed me where I am today. Anyway, as a result, I'm going to follow through with one of my promises this Sunday.
Additionally, I made goals for myself in August -- sorta these late-year resolutions -- that I gave myself a year to complete. I am happy to report that in these last two months, I have accomplished three of them (investment, Chiefs game, job) with a fourth on the horizon (car in December), and I have made some progress with two others (girls first.. video games second, Dickens reading.. uh yeah). Not bad, I say. Not bad at all.
Lastly, I have made some personal decisions this week to not over-exert myself and to only commit to activities that I truly want to do, not only because I think it'll keep me busy and out of the house, but because I would be passionate about them. I've already started on the gym, but I also want to try other new things. One thing I've always wanted to do that I never had the chance to as a kid is to learn how to play the piano (hehe, yes, let me hear it from all my Asian friends now about the kind of experiences they had). Another recent idea that I've had in the back of my mind is to find a local YMCA that would let me be the coach (or an assistant since I'm just starting out) of a little league basketball team. Felix, the role-model, eh? Unfathomable.
It's getting late, so I think this is a good place to stop. Peace.
October 22, 2005
Going into the work force, I knew there'd be industry-specific lingo. What I didn't expect was that my boss would use the term “frou frou” for air pressure. Observe.
“You know why the machine isn't working? It's because you don't got enough frou frou going in. Crank that up to 70 psi and give it a shot. See?”
Anyway.. more amusing nothings. Three of them: my arms are going to fall off, I've decided I like Jammix a whole lot more than Friday Night Waltz, and the Chiefs earned me a free dinner from my Dolphin-loving friends the next time I'm in Vegas.
October 24, 2005
This weekend blew by rather quickly. In short, I am grateful that I have so many friends to keep me occupied and entertained because seriously, I don’t think I would ever have the patience or initiative to plan a ‘walk-in’ theater experience or a symphony-watching night in the city.
On Saturday, after dinner at Thaiphoon and gelato at.. the gelato place, I found myself on a small piece of lawn behind Gates, which is also sort of adjacent to both Mudd and the ChemE Gazebo, for those of you who are familiar with the area. For her birthday shindig, Trang had rented a projector and a makeshift screen and had planned to show a movie from the 80’s as a tribute to herself, and I guess those of us who were born in that decade. After a week of indecisiveness amongst the attendees, we were left us at a standstill as to what movie would be shown, and thus Yves, being the ultra-persuasive person that he is and perhaps angered by nonchalance of his friends, swooped in and organized a bloc vote for none other than Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
At first, this little outing reminded me a lot of my freshman days, in which I would ‘sneak’ into MIT to watch Chinese kung fu movies till the wee hours of the mornings. But the movie watching was about where the similarities ended, and of course, this was nothing like that at all; it was better. For starters, we were outside in the California-freezing cold (probably somewhere in the mid-50’s). Most of us were sprawled over blankets that were on top of the wet grass and a few lucky ones were even able to sit on borrowed couches from the CS building. I had half-expected the couples in attendance to be making out.. after all, this was a walk-in, but unfortunately, none such excitement occurred. Still, this crowd was able to bond over spicy Doritos, chocolate brownies, and liter Cokes, and everyone had a great time.
The following day, after morning service with Jenny, I drove up to the city to see Justin at his apartment, since I’ve never been. His place is in a great location, and thus, we were able to take a short walk over to Chinatown SF in order to get some breakfast buns. One rather amusing story that I have to tell is that Justin thought he got ripped off at the local bakery when we both ordered what we thought were the same thing, and the Cantonese-speaking store owner had charged him twenty extra cents (a mark up of 20%!) because he only spoke Mandarin. But alas, my amusement was short-lived when we found out that the Chinese do not actually discriminate amongst themselves, or at least not so blatantly, because his pineapple bun had cream filling and mine did not.
That evening, I had an early dinner with the Yves, Tiff, Will, and Trang at the semi-fancy yet overpriced Absinthe. Later, we joined up with Tina, Brian, and Diana at Davies Symphony Hall to see Itzhak Perlman and the National Symphony Orchestra perform. This was my second symphony ever and I have to say, talented musicians never cease to amaze me. And now that this weekend’s over, I find myself at the same place where I was at the beginning of last week. So what’s in store for this weekend, you ask? Some rest and relaxation, perhaps? Ha! Sleep is for the weak.
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I really like waking up to the fog. That is all.
October 26, 2005
Tiffany and I had an interesting conversation over lunch the other day about the age of the people we're willing to date. Not surprisingly, we take after our parents, in that.. whatever their age gap is, that would be our upper limit, too. Naturally, since girls are into older and more mature guys and we men like our women to be younger, that creates problems. This is especially true since her parents' difference is six and mine is five. I mean, just imagine our dates' conversations (or lack there of) if we brought them to group events!
Tiff's Hypothetical 31-Year Old Guy: So..
My Hypothetical 18-Year Old Girl: So..
TH31YOG: Uhm, how's school.. going?
MH18YOG: Fine. And you? I mean, er.. where do you work again?
Both: ::awkward silence::
TH31YOG: Okay. Nice talking to you. I have to get back to my uh.. mortgage. Yeah! You know, for my real estate.
MH18YOG: Oh yeah, good, cuz I have this problem set due before my scavenger hunt this weekend.
Disastrous, I tell you!
October 28, 2005
Sometimes you just know when enough is enough. Some of this is paraphrased, because I don't remember it exactly.. but in an in-game conversation with Justin:
Hkakashi: whoa! you sent me gold! that's a lot! thanks!
Xilefmu: present
Hkakashi: you don't need it?
Xilefmu: well, no. my subscription ends this month
Hkakashi: what? nooooooooooo
Hkakashi: so this is it?
Xilefmu: yeah, sorry
Hkakashi: all that time we spent questing together!
Xilefmu: but i don't even play that much anymore
Xilefmu: stupid work
Xilefmu: you'd think that i'd have more time now than i had during school.. funny
Hkakashi: we should run zf this weekend, as a last hurrah
Xilefmu: no, i really shouldn't. i prefer a clean break.
Xilefmu: i don't want to be tempted into coming back to something i don't really want
Hkakashi: you sure?
Xilefmu: yeah
Hkakashi: come on, you know you want to
Xilefmu: well, maybe when you get to 60, i'd consider it
...
Xilefmu: yeah, i've been meaning to tell you
Xilefmu: but i didn't know how to break it to you
Hkakashi: i'm sad, felix
Hkakashi: and hurt
Hkakashi: i thought you cared about naruto
Xilefmu: it's not you, it's me
Hkakashi: but you were just using him as a tank
Hkakashi: as a piece of meat
Xilefmu: that was a long time ago
Xilefmu: i haven't even seen him in months
And well, you get the picture. :-)
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Somewhat stolen (the first part, at least), but whatever.. Sequence of events:
1. Phil changes team name in Fantasy Football League to “JackFellatesGorillas”
2. Jack changes team name in Fantasy Football League to “Phil'sMom=Gorilla”
3. Felix gets a voicemail from Phil out of the blue during work with the message saying essentially, “Felix, I need you for a *huge* favor.. and actually if you do this for me, I will treat you to lunch.”
4. Felix stops thinking and focuses on the free food. Whatever it is, I'm in!
5. Felix listens to the rest of Phil's message.
6. Felix changes team name in Fantasy Football League to “Phil'sMom=Jack'sMom”
Sigh. These are my friends.
October 31, 2005
Man, another good weekend has come and gone. On Friday, I did nothing and absolutely loved it. What was so good about it then, you ask? Well, I still had Saturday and Sunday.
I ended up meeting Justin and Jenny on Saturday at the Westgate Mall in San Jose because Jenny had wanted to do some clothes shopping for her upcoming med school interviews. It’s a good thing I was there, because I think Justin would have keeled over from pure boredom. I don’t understand how women can take about ten items of clothing into the dressing room, spend half an hour in there, and then end up only purchasing one, two, or best yet, none of them. For us guys, we’d pick something that looks remarkably wearable, spend five minutes tops trying it out, and if it fits, then we’d buy it. Actually, sometimes even if it doesn’t fit, we’d end up buying it anyway because we wouldn’t want to spend another minute browsing around.
Seriously, I’m glad I went because I was able to discover the greatness that is Old Navy! Both Justin and I fell in love with a perfect pair of pants in the khakis section and after five minutes upon finding it (read above), we pulled out our credit cards and cha ching, our wardrobes grew. To be fair, we’re technically not pants buddies because he opted for a different style than me, even though we got the same color. Okay, why did I just spend an entire paragraph writing about this? This post is really starting to get weird. I will go on to something else now.
Later that evening, after watching the debacle that is the Stanford-UCLA fourth quarter, the three of us went out to the driving range to hit some balls. After taking a couple of practice swings, I was able to hit the ball 170+ feet (or whatever they measure it in.. maybe yards?), with both the 3-wood and the 4-iron. Not bad for someone who hadn’t swung a golf club in well over a year. Jenny’s actually pretty good too, and definitely very good for a girl. In fact, I think she was more consistent about hitting it than both Justin and me, in terms of making solid contact rather than topping the ball, hitting the ground first, or completely missing. Yeah, that happened a few times, too. We also had a Mars sighting, which Justin kept insisting was Jupiter because he taught at Space Camp one summer or something, but I knew better. It has that undeniable red glow (after all, it is called the red planet for a reason).. that and I was actually nerdy enough to go Mars-gazing two years ago when the planet was even closer (35 million miles away as opposed to 43).
Speaking of Mars on Saturday night, I have to say this now before I forget. Congrats to Greg and Lindsay for becoming engaged! Yeah, he proposed to her under the starlit skies that night while they were stargazing. Aww! This makes me really happy. And also, this would make you two my fourth and fifth high school friends to take the plunge.
Due to time and space constraints imposed by yours truly, I will wrap this up by highlighting one or two aspects of the ‘Second Annual Pre-Halloween Frightfest’ at our place and the AMC this Sunday. For those of you who don’t know already, we had a chick flick marathon yesterday. Out of the three movies that we watched, I’d have to say that my favorite was Elizabethtown. Now I know that this one got some mixed reviews among the group because it was slow moving and both the plot and acting could have been better, but I was very moved by the genuineness of it all. Spoiler incoming. As cheesy as it may seem, I think what struck me the most is that she was able to bring back to him life and love. In short, she saved his life, both literally and figuratively. And this speaks volumes to me because it tells me that a broken man can bounce back from anything whether that’d be a career meltdown, a bad relationship, etc. as long as there is someone out there who is willing to show him how to love life as much as she does. Yeah, sometimes guys need that savior to come in on her white horse, too. You just can’t handle everything alone.
Lastly, I just found out yesterday that my family friends in Castro Valley know someone who has an in with the dealership in Pleasanton, so I’ll probably be able to get some sort of discount there when I go. Woot! The target date to purchase has been set to be on the 19th. Stay tuned.
Oh and Big Ben, I need 20 points from you tonight. That’s 200 yards and 2 TDs.. not the easiest to get, but not impossible. Please come through.
I've pretty much decided on the 2005 version (if it's still available in December), and it's not even a price issue now either. I saw one of the newer ones today, and it just doesn't have the look that I want.
October 6, 2005
I worked my first 13-hour day today. Yup. That's 8:30 am till 9:30 pm. I feel like such the i-banker now.. or, is it the consultant? Well, whatever it is, I actually didn't mind it. Come on.. free dinner and no traffic? Who can say no? It's really funny too, cuz after we finished and the leftovers were bagged, everyone was like, hey Felix, you're single and no one's gonna be cooking for you, so why don't you take it all home! And then I realized that I couldn't really argue that. They had a point. Mmm.. Free Chinese food.
So.. Clinicals are going well. We're trying to stay on target, but it's kinda difficult since the automation is just not there yet. I guess that's why they brought me in. Sorta. Right now, I haven't figured out yet if I am to help with the equipment design or if I am there to be extra grunt labor.
Also, I never realized how much latex I go through in one day! Good thing I'm not allergic. Uh, yes, I did mean to say that.. in case you were wondering.
October 9, 2005
I don't even know where to begin! Wait, I got it. If you want pictures and Diana's account of the day, you can go here. Otherwise, stay and read on.
Yesterday started really early for me, even though it was the weekend. I forced myself up at 8 so that I would be able to make it to Menlo Park in time, as Diana and I were supposed to take the Caltrain up to the city for Fleet Week! As it turned out, this Saturday was also the annual Stanford get your freshmen up to the city for a scavanger hunt day, and since our stop was after theirs going northbound to the city, no one north of Palo Alto got a seat.
After a very uneventful and rather painful ride up to 4th and King, the four of us, including Lacie and Emmie (Diana's coworker and her friend, respectively), took more public transportation up to fisherman's wharf and subsequently Ghiradelli's Square, where Accenture had rented out two of the rooms at McCormick & Kuleto's for all our brunching needs. The food was orgasmically good and our view was just splendid. As you can see from some of Diana's pictures, we had these full-sized windows overlooking the pier, which made us actually think twice about fighting the crowd and walking over to our premium box seating. But I'm glad we did end up going outside, since only there were we able to fully experience and appreciate the awesomeness that is the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, which consisted of among other things, six FA-18 Hornets in various diamond and pyramid formations, with full throttle and their afterburners on. Yeah, you can say that it was pretty loud. :-)
The trip back sucked. A lot. Since we were unable to find transportation at Ghiradelli's back to the Caltrain depot, the four of us ended up walking for over an hour trying to find an empty bus to take us back. Let me tell you, Chinatown on a Saturday afternoon is just a bad idea. Since none of us were patient or aggressive people by nature, we ended up yielding our spots at the multiple bus stops on Stockton to old people and Chinese women with their groceries. As a result, we ended up missing the 6 o'clock train (more on this later) and so Diana and I wandered around Union Square in search for an Apple store to get my mini a protective case while the other two girls went off to do some clothes shopping at Old Navy. This also happened to be about the time when Mary called me and told me that she had taken an earlier flight out from Vegas, so her estimated time of arrival in San Jose would be at 8 rather than at 9:30. Oh great. I'm going to be late in picking up my sister by at least 20 minutes, and that is only if we make the 7 o'clock train back, or so I thought.
But I was wrong! Haha! I was not 20 minutes late! I was a whole hour late! To be fair, it was not at all my fault. The 6 o'clock train that we had missed had a wreck or broke down or something, so our train (which again was packed with Stanford scavengerers heading home) stayed in rest position for a good 30-40 minutes until the northbound train could pass us. Good thing I had some company and half of an earpiece to Diana's ipod that kept me sane and occupied.
Anyway, I think I really enjoyed my weekend.. and it's not even over yet! It's kinda hard to make big plans to go out and have fun these days now that I've started working, but I'm glad that I was uhm.. 'encouraged' to go yesterday by Diana. Heh, seriously. Thanks for the invitation.
Pictures of low-flying high-speed objects to come, I'm sure. In fact, here they are: Fleet Week Pics.
October 12, 2005
La pasión comienza contigo.
I really respect self-starters. Take Tony Gonzales, for example.. tight end for the Chiefs. He's an all-American guy, born in Torrance and grew up here in the States; he even went to Cal. For whatever reason, maybe it's because of his last name, I just assumed that he spoke Spanish. And I was further deceived when I saw a commercial of him promoting the Hispanic youth football program with that quote above. As it turned out, he doesn't speak Spanish at all, and what's cool about this is that he spent a lot of time last year during the offseason trying to learn the language by living with a host family in San Miguel de Allende. You go, Tony.
Anyway, I don't know where that came from. I feel like I've been wanting to write lately, only I haven't had the time to. What's been happening with me is a lot of work. That's all I do these days. Mary did come up Saturday.. in fact, she's here until tomorrow, and we (as in with David too) got to celebrate her birthday at Gombei. I realize that place has really good food. I had the salmon teriyaki, even though I rarely eat things that swim, but the reason I did was because I read a CNN article about people's brains not degenerating as fast during old age if they have a diet that contain fish (salmon, tuna, or something that contains omega-3 fatty acids) at least once a week. So there, here's my public service announcement to you all. Stay healthy.
When Mary went up to SF for her interview, I was able to drop her off at the Caltrain station in Mountain View. That's normally nothing to cheer about, except.. with her in the car, I was able to take the carpool lane (and laugh at all those non-carpool people!) all across the 85. Too bad it was Columbus Day, and some people actually had the day off, so the effect was downplayed by the fact that the traffic was lighter than usual. Ah well. Seriously, though. Once you go HOV lane, you can't go back. I think I'm gonna try to find a surface street route that suits my impatient self better tomorrow.
I probably have more randomness to post about, but I'll cut this short for tonight. Early morning meeting tomorrow. See ya.
October 15, 2005 (Previously Privatized)
Hehe.. I'm actually giddy! A different kind.. sorta like when I would play strategy board games and screw people over! Yeah you know what I'm talking about.
One good sign that you are well on the road to recovery (when you're still in doubt) is actually getting that nervousness in your stomach when you're about to ask that someone to dance. You go in, hesitate a bit, and she gets swooped up by someone else and all you can do is curse under your breath. A few years ago, I think I would have just chickened out and blamed it on myself or the fact that there wasn't enough music, but I think that Opening has really taught me something about confidence. Waltz? I can waltz! That's old-school.. woohoo! Yay for that last dance with the 'library girl'! Too bad she's so young! Maybe a little too young. Sigh.
For those of you in the know, well, congrats! Otherwise, don't ask; I won't elaborate.
October 16, 2005
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002555281_dishwasher12.html
Funny, because I just learned how to use mine over here about a month ago. :-)
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Things that would only amuse me, and maybe a few of you out there..
- Trust no one. And by no one, I mean Eric. So yeah, no more trading with Mr. “I renege our deal to give you a cocoa bean if it looks like you're in the stronger position to win”. Hmmph! Lawyers.. what can you expect!
- Go Chiefs! Back to your winning ways!
- Sadly, the Arcane Mages are sucking it up real bad this year.
- Advil tonight for the win! Gotta stock up on some Tylenol soon, though, as to build up company loyalty.
- Gym tomorrow after work. Every Monday and Thursday starting now.
- 280/85 or Lawrence/Central? I will let you know which is better tomorrow.
October 18, 2005
Summer has come and passed. The innocent can never last. Wake me up when September ends.
I don't remember the last time I had the chance to sit down and reflect about life. Well, for starters, tomorrow will mark the one month anniversary of me starting work. And what a month it has been! In short, I love my job. It is everything that I had wanted, expected, desired. My work keeps me busy, yet unburdened, and I appreciate the level of autonomy that they have given me. Running my own experiments is indeed challenging, but fun. Plus, if I ever need help, I have a supportive boss in addition to a group of young, dynamic (mostly) chemical engineers to point me in the right direction. In fact, I think that's the best part of it all. No, wait.. that's not it. It's because I get to wear a lab coat, which makes me look really hot.
In hindsight, it seemed kind of silly for me to stress about the whole job-search process the last few months. After all, everything worked out almost too perfectly, and eerily so, I might add. During that time, I have to admit, I said more than my fair share of prayers, not to mention I delved into that old Chinese superstition book to see what I had to do in order to have my path light up for me. I pleaded and I begged, I made compromises and sacrifices (some that I quickly abandoned once I realized the absurdity of it all), and most importantly, I sat on my butt and surfed the internet for the latest job posts in between afternoon marathon sessions of WoW. Yeah, and I think somehow, this weird combination of cosmic forces, persistence, and dumb luck landed me where I am today. Anyway, as a result, I'm going to follow through with one of my promises this Sunday.
Additionally, I made goals for myself in August -- sorta these late-year resolutions -- that I gave myself a year to complete. I am happy to report that in these last two months, I have accomplished three of them (investment, Chiefs game, job) with a fourth on the horizon (car in December), and I have made some progress with two others (girls first.. video games second, Dickens reading.. uh yeah). Not bad, I say. Not bad at all.
Lastly, I have made some personal decisions this week to not over-exert myself and to only commit to activities that I truly want to do, not only because I think it'll keep me busy and out of the house, but because I would be passionate about them. I've already started on the gym, but I also want to try other new things. One thing I've always wanted to do that I never had the chance to as a kid is to learn how to play the piano (hehe, yes, let me hear it from all my Asian friends now about the kind of experiences they had). Another recent idea that I've had in the back of my mind is to find a local YMCA that would let me be the coach (or an assistant since I'm just starting out) of a little league basketball team. Felix, the role-model, eh? Unfathomable.
It's getting late, so I think this is a good place to stop. Peace.
October 22, 2005
Going into the work force, I knew there'd be industry-specific lingo. What I didn't expect was that my boss would use the term “frou frou” for air pressure. Observe.
“You know why the machine isn't working? It's because you don't got enough frou frou going in. Crank that up to 70 psi and give it a shot. See?”
Anyway.. more amusing nothings. Three of them: my arms are going to fall off, I've decided I like Jammix a whole lot more than Friday Night Waltz, and the Chiefs earned me a free dinner from my Dolphin-loving friends the next time I'm in Vegas.
October 24, 2005
This weekend blew by rather quickly. In short, I am grateful that I have so many friends to keep me occupied and entertained because seriously, I don’t think I would ever have the patience or initiative to plan a ‘walk-in’ theater experience or a symphony-watching night in the city.
On Saturday, after dinner at Thaiphoon and gelato at.. the gelato place, I found myself on a small piece of lawn behind Gates, which is also sort of adjacent to both Mudd and the ChemE Gazebo, for those of you who are familiar with the area. For her birthday shindig, Trang had rented a projector and a makeshift screen and had planned to show a movie from the 80’s as a tribute to herself, and I guess those of us who were born in that decade. After a week of indecisiveness amongst the attendees, we were left us at a standstill as to what movie would be shown, and thus Yves, being the ultra-persuasive person that he is and perhaps angered by nonchalance of his friends, swooped in and organized a bloc vote for none other than Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
At first, this little outing reminded me a lot of my freshman days, in which I would ‘sneak’ into MIT to watch Chinese kung fu movies till the wee hours of the mornings. But the movie watching was about where the similarities ended, and of course, this was nothing like that at all; it was better. For starters, we were outside in the California-freezing cold (probably somewhere in the mid-50’s). Most of us were sprawled over blankets that were on top of the wet grass and a few lucky ones were even able to sit on borrowed couches from the CS building. I had half-expected the couples in attendance to be making out.. after all, this was a walk-in, but unfortunately, none such excitement occurred. Still, this crowd was able to bond over spicy Doritos, chocolate brownies, and liter Cokes, and everyone had a great time.
The following day, after morning service with Jenny, I drove up to the city to see Justin at his apartment, since I’ve never been. His place is in a great location, and thus, we were able to take a short walk over to Chinatown SF in order to get some breakfast buns. One rather amusing story that I have to tell is that Justin thought he got ripped off at the local bakery when we both ordered what we thought were the same thing, and the Cantonese-speaking store owner had charged him twenty extra cents (a mark up of 20%!) because he only spoke Mandarin. But alas, my amusement was short-lived when we found out that the Chinese do not actually discriminate amongst themselves, or at least not so blatantly, because his pineapple bun had cream filling and mine did not.
That evening, I had an early dinner with the Yves, Tiff, Will, and Trang at the semi-fancy yet overpriced Absinthe. Later, we joined up with Tina, Brian, and Diana at Davies Symphony Hall to see Itzhak Perlman and the National Symphony Orchestra perform. This was my second symphony ever and I have to say, talented musicians never cease to amaze me. And now that this weekend’s over, I find myself at the same place where I was at the beginning of last week. So what’s in store for this weekend, you ask? Some rest and relaxation, perhaps? Ha! Sleep is for the weak.
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I really like waking up to the fog. That is all.
October 26, 2005
Tiffany and I had an interesting conversation over lunch the other day about the age of the people we're willing to date. Not surprisingly, we take after our parents, in that.. whatever their age gap is, that would be our upper limit, too. Naturally, since girls are into older and more mature guys and we men like our women to be younger, that creates problems. This is especially true since her parents' difference is six and mine is five. I mean, just imagine our dates' conversations (or lack there of) if we brought them to group events!
Tiff's Hypothetical 31-Year Old Guy: So..
My Hypothetical 18-Year Old Girl: So..
TH31YOG: Uhm, how's school.. going?
MH18YOG: Fine. And you? I mean, er.. where do you work again?
Both: ::awkward silence::
TH31YOG: Okay. Nice talking to you. I have to get back to my uh.. mortgage. Yeah! You know, for my real estate.
MH18YOG: Oh yeah, good, cuz I have this problem set due before my scavenger hunt this weekend.
Disastrous, I tell you!
October 28, 2005
Sometimes you just know when enough is enough. Some of this is paraphrased, because I don't remember it exactly.. but in an in-game conversation with Justin:
Hkakashi: whoa! you sent me gold! that's a lot! thanks!
Xilefmu: present
Hkakashi: you don't need it?
Xilefmu: well, no. my subscription ends this month
Hkakashi: what? nooooooooooo
Hkakashi: so this is it?
Xilefmu: yeah, sorry
Hkakashi: all that time we spent questing together!
Xilefmu: but i don't even play that much anymore
Xilefmu: stupid work
Xilefmu: you'd think that i'd have more time now than i had during school.. funny
Hkakashi: we should run zf this weekend, as a last hurrah
Xilefmu: no, i really shouldn't. i prefer a clean break.
Xilefmu: i don't want to be tempted into coming back to something i don't really want
Hkakashi: you sure?
Xilefmu: yeah
Hkakashi: come on, you know you want to
Xilefmu: well, maybe when you get to 60, i'd consider it
...
Xilefmu: yeah, i've been meaning to tell you
Xilefmu: but i didn't know how to break it to you
Hkakashi: i'm sad, felix
Hkakashi: and hurt
Hkakashi: i thought you cared about naruto
Xilefmu: it's not you, it's me
Hkakashi: but you were just using him as a tank
Hkakashi: as a piece of meat
Xilefmu: that was a long time ago
Xilefmu: i haven't even seen him in months
And well, you get the picture. :-)
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Somewhat stolen (the first part, at least), but whatever.. Sequence of events:
1. Phil changes team name in Fantasy Football League to “JackFellatesGorillas”
2. Jack changes team name in Fantasy Football League to “Phil'sMom=Gorilla”
3. Felix gets a voicemail from Phil out of the blue during work with the message saying essentially, “Felix, I need you for a *huge* favor.. and actually if you do this for me, I will treat you to lunch.”
4. Felix stops thinking and focuses on the free food. Whatever it is, I'm in!
5. Felix listens to the rest of Phil's message.
6. Felix changes team name in Fantasy Football League to “Phil'sMom=Jack'sMom”
Sigh. These are my friends.
October 31, 2005
Man, another good weekend has come and gone. On Friday, I did nothing and absolutely loved it. What was so good about it then, you ask? Well, I still had Saturday and Sunday.
I ended up meeting Justin and Jenny on Saturday at the Westgate Mall in San Jose because Jenny had wanted to do some clothes shopping for her upcoming med school interviews. It’s a good thing I was there, because I think Justin would have keeled over from pure boredom. I don’t understand how women can take about ten items of clothing into the dressing room, spend half an hour in there, and then end up only purchasing one, two, or best yet, none of them. For us guys, we’d pick something that looks remarkably wearable, spend five minutes tops trying it out, and if it fits, then we’d buy it. Actually, sometimes even if it doesn’t fit, we’d end up buying it anyway because we wouldn’t want to spend another minute browsing around.
Seriously, I’m glad I went because I was able to discover the greatness that is Old Navy! Both Justin and I fell in love with a perfect pair of pants in the khakis section and after five minutes upon finding it (read above), we pulled out our credit cards and cha ching, our wardrobes grew. To be fair, we’re technically not pants buddies because he opted for a different style than me, even though we got the same color. Okay, why did I just spend an entire paragraph writing about this? This post is really starting to get weird. I will go on to something else now.
Later that evening, after watching the debacle that is the Stanford-UCLA fourth quarter, the three of us went out to the driving range to hit some balls. After taking a couple of practice swings, I was able to hit the ball 170+ feet (or whatever they measure it in.. maybe yards?), with both the 3-wood and the 4-iron. Not bad for someone who hadn’t swung a golf club in well over a year. Jenny’s actually pretty good too, and definitely very good for a girl. In fact, I think she was more consistent about hitting it than both Justin and me, in terms of making solid contact rather than topping the ball, hitting the ground first, or completely missing. Yeah, that happened a few times, too. We also had a Mars sighting, which Justin kept insisting was Jupiter because he taught at Space Camp one summer or something, but I knew better. It has that undeniable red glow (after all, it is called the red planet for a reason).. that and I was actually nerdy enough to go Mars-gazing two years ago when the planet was even closer (35 million miles away as opposed to 43).
Speaking of Mars on Saturday night, I have to say this now before I forget. Congrats to Greg and Lindsay for becoming engaged! Yeah, he proposed to her under the starlit skies that night while they were stargazing. Aww! This makes me really happy. And also, this would make you two my fourth and fifth high school friends to take the plunge.
Due to time and space constraints imposed by yours truly, I will wrap this up by highlighting one or two aspects of the ‘Second Annual Pre-Halloween Frightfest’ at our place and the AMC this Sunday. For those of you who don’t know already, we had a chick flick marathon yesterday. Out of the three movies that we watched, I’d have to say that my favorite was Elizabethtown. Now I know that this one got some mixed reviews among the group because it was slow moving and both the plot and acting could have been better, but I was very moved by the genuineness of it all. Spoiler incoming. As cheesy as it may seem, I think what struck me the most is that she was able to bring back to him life and love. In short, she saved his life, both literally and figuratively. And this speaks volumes to me because it tells me that a broken man can bounce back from anything whether that’d be a career meltdown, a bad relationship, etc. as long as there is someone out there who is willing to show him how to love life as much as she does. Yeah, sometimes guys need that savior to come in on her white horse, too. You just can’t handle everything alone.
Lastly, I just found out yesterday that my family friends in Castro Valley know someone who has an in with the dealership in Pleasanton, so I’ll probably be able to get some sort of discount there when I go. Woot! The target date to purchase has been set to be on the 19th. Stay tuned.
Oh and Big Ben, I need 20 points from you tonight. That’s 200 yards and 2 TDs.. not the easiest to get, but not impossible. Please come through.
