my mental meanderings...

They're Back!!!

2007-03-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

So I was coming home from Costco tonight and as I was driving along 880, I was rudely cut off by a black Scion. To my surprise, the Scion's back window was plastered with Channel 104.9. I couldn't believe my eyes. Were they really back? So I immediately tuned my radio to 104.9, and was pleased to hear there was no latin music playing, but the sweet, sweet sounds of alternative rock! Now all is right in the world...yeah =)

Getting a Good Deal

2007-03-22T11:25:00.001-07:00

So I'm sure all of you have seen the totally cute Sketchers Biker shoes. You know, the mary jane styled sneakers all the girls seem to be wearing these days. I have been contemplating getting a pair for a while now, but they're kind of pricey. Usually around $50 a pair. I asked my co-worker where she got hers and she said at Mervyn's around $40 a pair. So I went to Mervyn's last night to check it out, and they are on sale this week for $39.99, regularly $50 a pair. So I thought it was a pretty good deal. Their selection wasn't huge, so after searching and searching I finally found a pair in my size in black. I originally wanted brown, but I figured I would settle with the black. They are a little dressier so I could wear them for going out. Paid for them at the register, and the price was $43.29.

So this morning, I decided to do some checking online. I know Shoebuy.com is having a promotion right now: $10 off one pair of shoes, $20 off two pairs of shoes. Since I am a new customer, I also get an extra 10% off. Plus no sales tax and free shipping. Since I already know what size to get from trying the shoes on last night, I won't have to worry about returning the shoes if they don't fit. (Even though ShoeBuy has free returns anyway, I just don't want to go through the hassle of it. ) So I checked their styles and their selection is much better. So I decided it might be worth it to buy a couple of pairs from ShoeBuy and return the pair I got from Mervyn's. Well, now that I've done all the calculations, it definitely was worth it buying from ShoeBuy.

Here's how it all breaks down:

1 pair Sketchers Biker - Blush: $50.95
1 pair Sketchers Active Biker - Step Up: $52.95
--------
subtotal #1: $103.90

Promotional Discount: -$20.00
New member discount -$ 8.39
--------
Total: $75.51

So that comes out to about $37.76 a pair. But wait, I used the ShoeBuy link through my Ebates account, which today gives me an extra 10% rebate off my total purchase from ShoeBuy.com. So that's an additional $7.55 back. So, the grand total will come to: $67.96, which makes it about $33.98 a pair. That's a savings of $9.31 per pair off the final Mervyn's price, which is about 21.5%.

Now that's what I call smart shopping!

Awesome Emmit!

2006-11-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, Emmit Smith won Dancing With The Stars: Season 3. I had a feeling he would win. I knew it would come down to Mario and Emmit. Emmit came out firing Tuesday night and he did not disappoint. I think it also helped that he is such a nice guy and had such a great dance partner. Cheryl is awesome too, and she's so young!

Mario was great too. His freestyle was off the hook. He definitely raised the bar and made season 3 the best season so far.

I can't wait to see who they have on Season 4! I believe it will start in April of next year after all the professional dancers get done with their tour and have time to train their celebrities. I know I'll be watching, will you? ;-)

The Big Hurt is leaving...

2006-11-15T12:35:00.000-08:00

Say it ain't so...say it ain't so. After just one season Frank Thomas is going to leave the A's. I can't believe it. I think when Thomas joined the ball club he really re-energized the A's. You could probably say the same thing about the A's re-energizing Thomas too. Thomas did win comeback player of the year. I'm really sad to see him go, but also thankful for the great season he gave us. Thanks Frank, we'll really miss you!

What's Happening?

2006-10-12T00:16:00.000-07:00

First Harry Hamlin, then Vivica A. Fox, now Willa Ford? Geez...I think it's time for Sara Evans to go. I mean she may be a good singer, but she is no ballroom dancer. It's purely her fans who are keeping her in it. The same can probably be said for Jerry Springer, but at least he is entertaining.

Woohoo....GO A's!!!!

2006-10-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

Feeling old...and stupid

2006-09-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

So I'm taking this Mandarin class at a local community college, and half the students in my class are still in high school! Most of them already know how to read the characters since they speak Cantonese. Not only do they make me feel stupid, they also make me feel old, since I am at least a decade older than them! Arg.

Airline food

2006-08-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been a while since my last post. I guess I haven't really found anything interesting to write about...that is until now.

I'm going on vacation to South America for two weeks and I leave this weekend. So I've been wondering what kind of airline food is going to be served on my flights down. I'm taking Continental Airlines and this is the first time I will be flying with them in my entire flight experience. So I've been searching online, and most of the pictures I have found for Continental Airlines food is for First/Business class passengers, who of course get much better meals. But the thing I don't quite understand is that the first class meals look a lot healthier. So just because I can't afford to fly first class I can't get healthy food unless I specially request it?

Rain, rain go away, DON't come back another day!

2006-04-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

Seriously, there has been so much rain around here it's driving me insane! I think I'm going stir crazy from staying inside all the time. Not to mention I am probably vitamin D deficient from not getting enough sun. Ok, so that last part may not be true. But this past weekend I slept so much that it felt like I didn't have a weekend at all. It just went by way too fast. For the month of March out of 31 days we had 25 days of rain, a new record! Can you believe only 6 days of sunshine during that time? Arg, this must be what people in Seattle have to deal with all the time. Although now they're getting more sunshine than usual. So who says global warming is not affecting the weather?!

Tour of California

2006-02-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, so Stage 2 of the first ever Amgen Tour of California is passing through Milpitas today and the route passes a mere few feet away from where I live! How cool is that? Man, I so should have worked from home today! Well, tomorrow the time trials start right at SVL. Maybe I can sneak away for a few hours and go down to check it out, haha. :-D

We Love Lisa

2006-02-17T21:10:00.000-08:00

Man, I can't believe Lisa Rinna didn't make it to the finals of Dancing With the Stars. She so deserved to be there. Don't get me wrong, I love Jerry Rice and it's fun watching him dance, but really in terms of technique I feel his skills aren't quite up to par at least not up to Lisa's skills. She's definitely the most improved dancer of all the celebrities who were on the show. Just like Tia, Lisa had a great attitude throughout the entire competition. Girl, you RULE!

The Hills Are Alive With Snow?!!!

2006-02-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself when I left work this evening and saw that the mountains in the South Bay had snow on them. It's not a sight that you often see around here. In fact I can't remember ever seeing snow on Mt. Hamilton in the 23 years I have lived here. Too bad I didn't have a camera with me to capture it.

disappointment, frustration, etc...

2006-02-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

Remember the student I had been tutoring at Oak Grove? Well she was out sick last week and then this week she didn't show up for school. So, I just found out that she has left Oak Grove and is now living with her father in another city. Just when I thought I finally got a good student who doesn't flake on me, she leaves the city...arg.

Four months of investment in this student and I won't ever get to see if she passes her geometry class with a decent grade. Now I will have to go through the trials and tribulations of getting a new student. Will s/he flake on me? How much of the material covered so far this year does this student understand and still retain? How much review will I have to do with the student before I can move on to the current material? Is there enough time left in the school year to help this student pass the class?

Poor Michelle...:'(

2006-02-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

Well, Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Women's figure skating competition. So this officially ends her quest for an Olympic gold medal. She was the sentimental favorite, but I doubt she had any chance of getting any color medal even if she was healthy enough to compete. She should have retired long ago when she was at the top of her game. So it remains to be seen what she will do now. I'll definitely miss seeing her perform during the Winter Olympics. I don't think the sport will be the same without her.

6 more weeks of winter?

2006-02-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Really? Sure doesn't feel like it to me. Rather it feels a lot like summer already. Which is great because it means I can get out and do more hiking! Woohoo...

Smiling inside...

2006-02-04T14:33:00.000-08:00

I'm sure few people know this, but I volunteer for a couple hours Saturday mornings with developmentally disabled kids. They are quite a challenge, especially the younger kids, but this Saturday for some reason unbeknownst to me I was able to get three of the hardest to control kids to actually listen to me. I've been working with them for over three months now, and it just feels so good inside to know that somehow I am able to reach them and get them to listen to me!

"The Big Hurt " coming to the Bay Area

2006-01-26T10:07:00.000-08:00

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that Frank Thomas would be coming to the A's. Let's just hope he can bring some of that "hurt" that's he's known for and help take the A's to the world series!

Say It Ain't So!

2006-01-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

So a check of the channel104.9 website this morning confirmed that channel 104.9 is no more. It is now "La Romantica." I couldn't believe my ears when I heard latin music on the radio on Sunday while I was out doing errands, but it's true. What a way to start off the new year. =(

Must See: Jerry Rice Dancing!

2005-12-17T22:50:00.000-08:00

So ABC's wildly popular Dancing With the Stars will return for it's second season next month. I just found out tonight that Jerry Rice, ex-49er, ex-Raider, etc., the greatest wide receiver to play the game will be one of the celebrity contestants on the show! How great will that be? Hopefully he will fare better than Evander Holyfiend! =)

Progress...at last...

2005-12-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been tutoring a student in high school Geometry for about two months now. Whenever I would meet with her it never seemed to me that she was fully understanding what I was trying to explain to her. I was starting to feel frustrated because it didn't seem like she was making any progress. Well, to my surprise, yesterday she showed me the test she got back and she only missed one point! I've been tutoring at a local high school for almost a year now, and I've had 4 different students during that time. She's the first student I've had where I have been able to see actual progress. Hopefully she'll be able to keep it up and pass the class.

Transformers

2005-12-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, the Transformers are coming to the big screen in a live-action movie. ETA: July 2007

Disgusting!

2005-12-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, I heard something on the news this morning and it just made my stomach turn. Law makers in California are giving themselves a 12% raise today, which would bring their annual salary to $110,000! California lawmakers are already the highest paid in the nation, and they need more money?! Man, at the rate I'm going, it'll take me probably my entire lifetime to earn that much money in one year. That is just so wrong!

Warriors

2005-12-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe the Warriors have beaten the Kings and are now tied for first place in the Pacific division. What a turn-around. I guess getting Coach Mike Montgomery to leave Stanford and come to the Warriors was a good thing. Hopefully they'll make it to the playoffs! =)

The Day After

2005-11-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

So how many of you woke up early to go shopping today? Ok, I admit I was one of those people. I tried to stay up all night, but at around 2am I had to get some shut eye. My cousin told me that the line for Best Buy at McCarthy Ranch was way past the CK Furniture store. Insane...glad I wasn't in that line. I've gone to Best Buy the last two years and was always disappointed because what I wanted wasn't available, so this year I decided to skip the disappointment and head straight for the Great Mall. But, I noticed that the electronic deals weren't really that good this year, plus I have pretty much all the electronics I want already anyway. Yes, I am a gadget freak/geek.

Anyway, so at the mall there weren't really that many people there early in the morning, so it was nice. I think they were all at Best Buy. But a lot of the Thanksgiving sales this weekend go through Fri and Sat, so I'll probably go back again tomorrow. ;)

Adios Alias

2005-11-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

Well, it's something I suspected was going to happen...so today it was official, ABC announced that Alias is going to end it's 5 year run at the end of this season. It was inevitable, since Jennifer Garner who plays the main character on the show was leaving. It didn't help that ABC moved the show from it's original time slot to 8pm on Thursday nights this season either. But the show is based so much around Sydney Bristow's story that in my mind there was no real way the show could continue if she left. I mean, look what happened to the X-files after David Duchovny left. At least ABC is planning to send the show out with a bang.

Well, in other entertainment news, Pat Morita who played Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid movies has passed away. Very surprising since it's not something you expect to hear the day after Thanksgiving. He was only 73 years old.

My First Scarf

2005-11-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Well, last night I completed my first scarf. Ok, so it's not any kind of masterpiece but it's not too bad for a beginner, right? At least it's not a monstrosity (to me anyway).

Well, if anyone knows any easy and cool knitting patterns please let me know. Thanks!

Props to Knitters

2005-11-04T11:12:00.000-08:00

I've wanted to learn how to knit for quite a while now, ever since I went to Europe in 2001. There were a couple of ladies who were on the bus tour with me who knew how to knit, and I just thought it was so cool. One of the ladies was from Malaysia and she was teaching the lady from Australia all these interesting patterns. It's a shame I didn't learn earlier, since I went to New Zealand in 2003 and they are known for their wool!

Ok, so last night I went to a knitting class to learn how to knit, and man is it hard! So before I went to this class I had bought some yarn and a pair of knitting needles over the weekend and I tried to teach myself how to knit by checking out some online websites and I was so confused. It is so much easier to learn when someone is demonstrating in front of you.

I learned the cast-on and knit stitch at the class. I could cast on fine, but when it comes to the knit stitch, somehow I just can't get my stitches to be even. I understand how to do the stitch, it's keeping them even that's the hard part for me. There was a lady named Joanne who was helping me, and I found out as we were leaving that she only learned how to knit last week. She was so good, I thought she had been doing it for years!

So my goal is to eventually knit a scarf for myself. Once I do that, I want to try to knit myself a poncho. For now, I think the easiest thing for me is to knit a pot holder. But last night as I was practicing the knit stitch at home, I was thinking that it must be crazy to knit an entire sweater. I'm sure it's a lot of hard work, you know...blood, sweat, toil and tears. I'm sure if people knew all the hard work that goes into that, they would be more appreciative when their grandma or aunt knits them a sweater.

Alias and 24

2005-10-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so recently I've been watching the DVDs for Alias and 24 from the past seasons, and even though I've seen most of the episodes already it's fun to watch them again. I've been watching them on a laptop at home, so I can totally tell when a stunt double is doing the stunt and when it's the real actor.

I also noticed some inaccuracies like in Alias when Sydney is in Taipei the guys are speaking Cantonese and when she's in Hong Kong they're speaking Mandarin. For some reason no one in Taipei is speaking Taiwanese.

I noticed in season 2 of 24, Elisha Cuthbert's character has her finger nails french manicured and in some scenes she's missing a couple of fake nails, but in other scenes her nails are all there. I guess the hair and makeup people weren't paying close attention to how their actress was dressed the day before.

Anyway, I love the extras on the DVDs especially if they have commentary from the cast. It's great to learn little things about the show or episode that you as a normal viewer would never have known.

Well, that's it for now.

Rematch

2005-08-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

It's official, there is going to be a dance-off in September between Kelly Monaco and John O'Hurley. Woohoo, I can't wait. Reality TV hasn't been the same this summer since Dancing With The Stars ended although So You Think You Can Dance is generating some interest since now the real competition has begun.

The Amazing A's

2005-08-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, who would have thought at the beginning of the baseball season that in August the A's would be one game out of first place in the AL West behind the Angles after having traded two of their Big 3 during the off season? I must admit, I certainly didn't. I was about to write them off at the All-Star break. But, lo and behold after the break they just came alive. This is absolutely great, since the A's will only get better as the years go by since all of their major players are signed through the next 3 seasons! I hope they can ride this streak all the way to the World Series! =)

Harry Potter, Part 2

2005-07-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I finished reading the latest Harry Potter book this past weekend. I must say, I think JK Rowling's writing style has changed. This book was a much faster read than I thought it would be. It's definitely shorter than The Order of the Phoenix, which is one of my favorites in the series. One of my friends thinks that she's borrowing a lot from The Lord of The Rings and Star Wars (ie. Death Eaters = Nazgul and Wizard's betrayal = Anakin betraying Jedi Council or Senator Palaptine's deception, etc).

Yes, so a main character that has been with the series since the beginning has died. It's not hard to tell who it's going to be once your half way through the book. I'm still holding out hope that somehow this character will be brought back in the final installment of the series, but just like the death of Padme (the nightmares Anakin had) fueled Anakin's desire to go to the "dark side", the death of this character will no doubt fuel Harry's desire to kill Voldemort once and for all.

Flip Flops at the White House (no, not John Kerry)

2005-07-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

So this week Northwestern University's national championship women's lacrosse team was invited to the White House to meet the president. When they took a picture with the president, four women in the front row were wearing flip flops! Flip flops are perfectly fine for the beach, but what were they thinking wearing them to the White House to meet the President?! Now mind you we only saw four women in the front row wearing them, there could have been more standing in the rows behind them. Have we as a nation become so casual that flip flops are acceptable footwear to meet the President? If you were invited to the White House to meet the President (no matter who s/he happens to be) would you wear flip flops?

Personally I think flip flops are ok for the beach or weekends when it's more relaxed, but what really annoys me is when people wear flip flops to work. There happens to be two ladies who work in my building who love to wear flip flops, especially during the summer. They are probably not the only ones, but the reason I point them out is I can hear them walking down the hall from a mile away because of the annoying flip-flop sound that flip flops make. Thank goodness last year there was a memo to everyone to wear appropriate warm weather attire to the workplace, which does not include flip flops. Since then, the flip flop noise pollution in my area of the building has decreased.

By the way, in some cultures the feet are considered the dirtiest part of the body. So I don't quite understand why people like to show off their feet so much, and I don't care how well manicured your feet and toe nails are!

Yosemite

2005-07-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

So over the weekend I went to Yosemite with a few of my co-workers. This has become an annual tradition for us. We were even at Yosemite around the same dates last year. Boy did it feel great to get away from the Bay Area heat wave. Friday it was a cool 67 degrees in Tuolomne Meadows. Since we've had so much rain and snow this year due to El Nino, not only is the water level nice and high in the middle of summer, but there are still patches of snow in Yosemite and five campgrounds have been closed because they still have around five feet of snow! This year we stayed at Crane Flat, which was a definite improvement over Tamarak Flat from last year. There was actually running water and toilets, but no showers...I guess you can't have everything when you're car camping. =)

So those of us who made it to Yosemite around noon on Friday decided to hike to Elizabeth Lake. We were warned that the mosquitoes were out in force and they must have smelled my sweet, sweet blood coming from a mile away, since they pretty much ate me alive. Those persistent buggers got me right through my clothes! In the end, the view was definitely worth it. I'm so glad that there is still snow on the peaks at Yosemite, it makes everything look more beautiful.

So this year, instead of tackling Half Dome again, we decided to hike North Dome. Now, I know some of you are probably thinking to yourselves, 'What? North Dome, where is that?' I had never heard of North Dome until one of my co-workers suggested we hike to it, and at first I didn't know what to think. Would anything be as good as hiking Half Dome? It definitely wouldn't be as strenuous since it's half the distance to Half Dome and it won't take as long either. I didn't realize what a great view of Half Dome and the Yosemite Valley that you get from North Dome. Since it's not as high as Half Dome you can get a great view of the valley below on one side, and the other side you also have a good view of the face of Half Dome. If you have binoculars you can even see people walking around the top of Half Dome.

So many people from around the world come to Yosemite just to climb Half Dome, I wonder how many of those people return or stay to explore the rest of Yosemite? There is a lot more to Yosemite than Half Dome, and I look forward to exploring the rest of the it in the years to come!

Harry Potter

2005-07-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the next installment of the Harry Potter series drops this Saturday. I can't believe how many people have already pre-ordered their copy or are going to line up at midnight to get their hands on one. I don't think any other book, movie, or cd has ever had this much anticipation. I've been reading articles all week about copies accidentally being sold before the official release date or emails accidentally being sent to customers that the delivery of their copy may be delayed. How does this kind of stuff just "accidentally" happen?

Anyway, I hope this next book is as good or better than the last one. =)

It's a Mammoth!

2005-07-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, so it has been determined that the bones that were found near the Guadalupe River in San Jose are actual mammoth bones. Isn't that crazy? I know these types of bones are commonly found in the Los Angeles area, but to have some up here in Northern California is pretty cool if you ask me. Makes you kind of wonder what else is hiding beneath the ground that we walk on.

Summer TV

2005-07-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, so this summer's tv programming has been the best that I can remember. Ok, so it's all reality shows, but this year they are actually pretty interesting and fun to watch. I think I've watched more tv this summer than I normally do during the regular tv season!

So, last night I caught this new show on CBS called Rock Star: INXS and it was really fun to watch. I had been hearing for a while that a network was trying to develop an American Idol-like show where they search for a rock star, but I don't think it ever really happened. Or if it did, I missed it. But anyway, so the rock band INXS is searching for a new lead singer and they search all over the world (ok, so most of the contestants are from the US) and find 15 people that they've brought to LA who are all going to compete for this position.

Unlike American Idol, we were thankfully spared of going through all the footage of the tone deaf William Hung wannabees. So last night all 15 contestants performed with a band in the Mayan Theater and it was awesome. They sang some of the greatest rock music that we've all grown up listening to. There were quite a few stand outs and some who I felt, "what the hell were they thinking picking that song" or "what the hell are they doing up there," but overall they were all quite good. It's going to be a tough decision for INXS, so it will be interesting to see who gets chosen, but they have already eliminated one person...who will be next?

Poker

2005-07-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this whole poker thing that's swept the nation is kind of scary now. Before I thought it was just limited to a few friends and my cousins, but every gathering I went to this past weekend everyone was like let's play poker. What gives? Don't people know that gambling is not a good thing?

Baseball and Softball out of the 2012 Olympics

2005-07-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

Man, waking up this morning and seeing the news ticker at the bottom of the screen that said Baseball and Softball were out of the 2012 Olympics was not a good thing. I know baseball here in the states has been marred by the steroids scandal, but that's no reason to eliminate it from the Olympics. I mean, they just barely got into them in the last decade. Also, did you know that softball is the only all female sport in the Olympics?

Anyway, this Sports Illustrated article has some good information about the history of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics.

John O'Hurley was robbed

2005-07-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

I thought John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen was the "couple to beat." They seemed like a sure thing since their Quickstep during week three, but just like how London was chosen as the host city for the 2012 Olympics over Paris, Kelly Monaco and Alec Mazo pulled the rug out from under us and became the champions of Dancing With The Stars.

It really sucked having to watch a different couple get knocked out every week. I'm sure if Trista or Evander were allowed to stay in the competition for the full 6 weeks then we would have been able to see them improve like Kelly improved. Perhaps they should have kept each couple in the competition for the full six weeks and then combine all the scores from each week to determine the overall winner. I think that would have been more fair. But you can definitely tell the stars were having a lot of fun and they really worked hard and improved the whole time they were on the show, not just Kelly. I noticed Joey's latin frame was so much better compared to week one. And you can definitely tell that John O'Hurley lost a lot of weight.

I think the real winner of the show is Ballroom Dancing itself. Hopefully this show has generated enough interest for people to get out and learn ballroom. As many of you know I am an avid ballroom dancer, although not so much now since I can't find any decent leads to dance with, but hopefully that will change. So I wonder which celebrities will be chosen for Season 2...hehe, I can't wait!

Georgia on my mind

2005-07-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so over the long 4th of July weekend I flew to Atlanta, Georgia with my family for my cousin Jeannie's wedding (from my dad's side of the family). I haven't seen my aunt, uncle, and cousins since probably around 1997 when they came out to San Francisco and paid us a visit. My how my cousins have grown.

Jeannie works at NCR and Cindy and Tim are still in school at Georgia State. Tim told me that they have a Hope Scholarship program in Georgia where if you maintain a B average throughout high school and college, all your tuition if you go to a public college in Georgia will be covered. So basically all you have to pay for is your books. I think this is to encourage students to stay in Georgia as well as continue their education. Too bad they don't have something like that in California. Although with our current budget crisis I don't think there would be a way to do that without increasing either taxes, tuition or both.

Anyway, so this was my first time visiting Georgia. The weather is so completely different from California. It rains in the afternoon, and I mean it really pours. Thunder, lightning and pouring rain. Not to mention it's hot and muggy, much like many Asian countries, which is probably why my uncle chose to go to school in Georgia. On the plus side though, Georgia has a lot of greenery. Everything is very lush, not dry and brown like in California. Every other street in Norcross has Peachtree in it's name, so it gets very confusing.

Other things I noticed is that gas is a lot cheaper than in California (duh!). The cheapest I saw when I was in Georgia was $2.12 compared to our $2.39 when I left, which is now up to $2.49 since I got back. Not only is gas cheaper in Georgia, but so are the houses. And you get so much more house for a lot less than what you would pay for a condo in California. Take for example my cousin Jeannie's house which is about 10 years old and she only paid $240,000 for it and it has 4 bedrooms. You can't get anything in California for that price. In California a house that size would easily be $1 million or more.

In Atlanta there isn't a high concentration of Asians, actually there are very few. Their "Chinatown" is only a small strip mall. On the other hand, there are a lot of African Americans in Georgia. They all seem very friendly and somewhat well educated, perhaps this is due to the religious nature of the south. I wouldn't have thought of this, but there is also a large spanish speaking population in Georgia as well. I think it might even be larger than the asian population.

They are definitely more conservative in the south. You don't see all the outrageous skin bearing outfits like you see in California. Everything is very clean. No litter or graffiti anywhere. Little or no tricked out cars, saggy pants, colored hair, tattoos, piercings or swearing. People actually slow down and drive with caution when it rains. Few establishments serve alcohol on Sundays or are even open. And I'm sure a lot of you already knew this, but southerners really like their fried food. Lots of fried chicken, fish, and shrimp. Even fried ochra and fried batter that they call "hush puppies." I was told that a shopping cart is called a "buggy" and any kind of soft drink is called "coke."

So while I was there, we checked out the "Underground," Coca-Cola World, CNN, and Centennial Olympic Park. We also took their MARTA rail system, which is kind of like BART, but much cleaner, nicer, and cheaper!

On a side note, my cousin Cindy and a friend of hers took my bro and I to a Karoke bar the last night we were in Georgia, and I must say the Vietnamese people at the bar really took the Karoke seriously as if they were trying out for Vietnamese Idol or something! Even though I couldn't understand what they were singing since it was in Vietnamese, they were good!

What a weekend...

2005-06-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Saturday was my birthday...not always fun since you turn a year older. This year my friend Nicole, whom I've known since kindergarten, offered to help organize a gathering on Friday night. Man, I didn't expect such a big turnout. I believe like 20 people showed up for dinner at Krung Thai in San Jose. Quite a difference from the past year when only about 5 people showed up for dinner and 4 people went to see the movie afterwards. This year we went to see Batman Begins. I must say it was quite a good movie. Yes, the story is darker and it's more interesting because now we know how Batman got his start.

So the reason my b-day gathering was held on a Friday instead of Saturday was because my good friend from high school was getting married on my b-day. So now she will never forget my b-day and I won't forget when her wedding anniversary is. =)

Karen's wedding reception happened to be at Hakone Gardens just at the edge of Saratoga. This was actually my first time there. My friend Mike went there before with his girlfriend and I saw his beautiful pictures, so I've always wanted to go. I didn't really get a chance to check out the gardens, so I'll definitely have to make a trip back there sometime in the future and hopefully when I'm not wearing heels!

So at Karen's reception she had this wonderful chocolate fountain for fondue. It was pretty cool, I've never seen anything like it. It had wonderful cascading warm milk chocolate. I really wanted to stick my finger in that chocolate and lick it, but I didn't. As you can see from the photo, us ladies were quite enamored over it. =)

The reception was wonderful and the musicians were quite entertaining. Eric's side of the family has some really good dancers, like all the breakdancing cousins. Karen and Eric looked so happy. I'm glad that their long distance relationship worked out.

So it seems like this is the year of the wedding or something since I know so many people who are getting married or have gotten married this year. One of my co-workers just got married the weekend before up in Seattle. Him and his now wife had a long distance relationship going for almost 4 years. Man that's real commitment and dedication, so who says long distance relationships never work out.

Another one of my friends from high school is getting married next weekend. Unfortunately I won't be there, since next weekend also happens to be my cousin's wedding, and she lives in Georgia. One of my good friends from college is getting married in September to her high school sweetheart. I'm not sure if I can make it to this wedding or not, since I'll be heading to Taiwan around that time.

In addition to all of these weddings, three of my college friends have gotten engaged this year, so I know I'll be attending a few weddings next year too. The year is almost half over, so let's see how many more of my friends get married or engaged before the year is out.

Reality TV

2005-06-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, so it's been a while since I've updated my blog...although I really don't think anyone is reading it. Anyway, so since the regular TV season ended at the end of May, I've been totally hooked on all these new summer reality shows like Dancing With the Stars and Hit Me Baby One More time.

So, the other day I caught Beauty and Geek which is produced in part by Ashton Kutcher. The idea is to pair a beauty (beautiful but laking in brains), like a lingerie model or beer spokeswoman, with a geek (brilliant but laking in social skills), like a medical student or VP of the Dukes of Hazaard fan club. Now each person in the pair is to try to impart their wisdom or social skills onto the other in various tasks. The object is to be the last couple left and win $250K.

It makes for some hilarious TV. Like Richard, who I think is the geekiest of them all and also the most annoying, trying to ask one of the girls to a romantic dinner. It was also quite interesting watching the different strategies the geeks were using to try to get females to give them their phone numbers. Like Chuck pretending he was gay.

One thing I noticed though, was that each geek had a trait that reminded me of someone I know. How sad is that! But I guess it takes one to know one, and birds of a feather do tend to flock together!

$3 a gallon for gas

2005-04-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I heard on the news this morning that gas finally hit over $3 a gallon in San Francisco today. Man, that's insane. I just filled up last night for $2.55 a gallon. Some analyst is predicting that gas will hit $100 a barrel sometime within the next 20 years or so. Geez, that would be at least $5 a gallon for us, right? But I guess I shouldn't be complaining too much since other countries pay more for gas than we do, like Europe.

It seems like with this recent oil crisis that car companies, besides Toyota, Honda and perhaps Ford, are now jumping into the hybrid and alternative fuel cell vehicle market. I know a few car companies have been developing hybrid and AFC cars for years, but why haven't they hit the market yet? It seems like we could really use them about now.

What's with waiting 8 months for a Prius? You would think that Toyota could have done some better production planning to meet up with demand. Of course tight supply does drive up prices. So maybe they're artificially keeping the supply of the Prius low so they can sell it at a higher price? I also heard that the Prius is only manufactured in Japan? Hmm...if they manufacture it here, let's say at the NUMI plant, then maybe it wouldn't cost so much because they wouldn't have to pay for the extra shipping to get them from Japan to the US.

I've heard people say that buying a hybrid car doesn't really save you much because of the higher cost of the car. But I think not having to fill up for 500 miles or so could be worth it. That would mean assuming you drove 1,000 miles a month that you would only need to fill up twice a month, maybe even less, depending on how much you drive. Although personally if I had a hybrid I would probably drive it more, since it gets such good gas mileage and I wouldn't have to fill up as often. =)

The National Dinner Tour

2005-02-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

A while ago I read about this guy Mark Horowitz who put his number in a ad that showed up in a Crate and Barrel catalog. Well, I came across an article on him today, http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/13/dinner.with.marc.ap/index.html

Looks like he's going to embark on a 'National Dinner Tour' to have dinner with some of the random people who have called him. I think that's totally cool. There are some very interesting people out there and I'm curious to read about the people he meets.

He has started a blog to document this adventure for those who are interested, http://ineedtostopsoon.blogspot.com

Carly's out...finally!

2005-02-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it probably shouldn't surprise those of you who have been following the HP/Compaq saga since it began so many years ago. I figured it was coming sooner or later, I just didn't expect it to come this soon. But I guess this is a good thing for HP since their stock price went up today on the news.

I am kind of sad that the most prominent female executive is stepping down. Everyone knew that if HP did not live up to all the hype projected from the Compaq merger, Fiorina would be losing her job. It will be interesting to see where the direction of HP goes now that she is out of the picture.

The once mighty computer company now reduced to printers and ink. I think HP should take a hard look at getting out of the computer business. I mean, it's a very tough consumer market out there, with better, faster, cheaper. It's hard to make money if you have to constantly cut prices to keep up with your competition.

Poor, Walter Hewlett. The board should have listened to him. I wonder if his father would be turning in his grave.

The End of Enterprise

2005-02-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

I was sad to read this morning on the internet that Star Trek: Enterprise is going off the air on Friday, May 13th. It was such a great Star Trek show. Ok, so maybe it wasn't Next Generation, but c'mon it was one of the better Star Trek shows to come along in a while. The article mentioned that it will be the first time in 18 years that there isn't a Star Trek show on tv. I can't believe that franchise has been on tv for that long. So what are Trekkies everywhere left to watch now?

Hmm...I guess the show wasn't doing too well in that Friday night time slot. I mean, who stays home on a Friday evening to watch Star Trek? Oh well, hopefully they will still show reruns on tv. It's definitely an end to a long era. May we all live long and prosper...

Movie Prices

2005-01-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I wrote my last post. As if any one really reads what I have to say. I was in Thailand for almost an entire month and had a great time, despite the fact that I fell into the Mae Teang River with my digital camera while we were bamboo rafting during the dry season!

Anyway, I saw Finding Neverland over the weekend with my cousin and was astounded at the ticket prices for movies now. Grant it the last movie I saw was way back in July or something, but $8 for a student ticket and $9.50 for regular admission, that's insane! I remember when movies were only $4.75 for students. I guess this would explain the huge profits the movie studios are making. Although, I think if they made better quality movies they wouldn't need to raise their prices in order to earn their investments back.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. ;-D

Mark Mulder

2004-12-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

Man, not even a week has gone by since the Tim Hudson trade and now Billy Beane sends Mark Mulder the Cardinals? What's up with that? Now the A's lose 2 of their big three. So my next question is, with Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder gone, will Barry Zito want to stay around? Man, as an A's fan this is really hard to take. Who is going to want to go watch the A's now? Boy, the A's fans really got a large lump of coal in their stockings for Christmas.

Scott Peterson

2004-12-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

Well, was there any doubt in your mind that he wasn't going to get the death penalty? I mean, the bodies washed up not far from where he said he went fishing. Does that not sound fishy (pardon the pun) to any one? All the lies and the deceit. If he wasn't guilty then how come he died his hair, had his brother's Id, a huge load of cash with him, and was heading south for the Mexican border? What made him think that he could get away with this? Why did he even consider murder an option?

One of the jurors said that Scott was Laci's husband and Connor's father. He was supposed to protect them. Instead he killed them. Getting the death penalty won't bring Laci or Connor back. It will just bring more heartache for Scott and his family. It may take 20 or more years before Scott is actually executed, and who knows by that time the death penalty may be abolished.

At least he got what he deserved. Laci and Connor, may you rest in peace.

Oracle and PeopleSoft

2004-12-13T16:51:00.000-08:00

Finally there has been some resolution to this 18 month saga. I'm sure my friends at PeopleSoft can now breathe a small sigh of relief for the time being. Hopefully Oracle can somehow improve the crappy PeopleSoft software SJSU uses (sorry guys, but you have to admit the myeducation stuff really sucks). Anyway, once Oracle has integrated PeopleSoft products and people into their company, the layoffs will soon follow. So I guess this is not the end of the story.

Tim Hudson

2004-12-11T00:05:00.000-08:00

So I read on the internet that the Oakland A's are thinking of breaking up their "Big Three" by trying to trade Tim Hudson, well at least he looks like the most likely candidate at the moment. Billy Beane did say that he wouldn't rule out trading either one of the "Big Three", so that includes Barry Zito and Mark Mulder too. They let Jermaine Dye go, so I wonder where Tim Hudson is going to go. There's no denying that the A's have had some great players over the years, the problem is they just don't have the big payroll like the Yankees or Red Sox to keep all their great players together. I guess it doesn't help Tim Hudson's case that he was injured this past season and hasn't done as well this season as he as in the past.

What I think the A's need is a good closing pitcher. Too bad they couldn't keep Keith Foulke. I mean Dotel is good, but it's never a sure thing with him you know? At least that is what I think.

You know, it would be really nice to have another Battle of the Bay. I doubt that will happen in the very near future, but we can always hope. Spring training is only a few months away...=)

First Cingular and AT&T, now Sprint and Nextel?

2004-12-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

So last year Cingular bought AT&T, and now Sprint might be buying Nextel? Also, apparently Verizon had looked at acquiring either Sprint or Nextel, but decided against it. Maybe they can buy T-Mobile? Hmm...seems kind of like the hard disk drive business a couple of years ago when it started consolidating after a couple of companies started buying out their competition.

So a year later I wonder, has cell reception or service impoved at Cingular? So what's going to happen with the Sprint and Nextel deal? I kind of have a vested interest here since I am a Sprint customer and recently signed a two year agreement for my current contract. Maybe this cool national walkie-talkie feature will become more prevalent. Currently Sprint has only one phone with that capability the last time I checked.

Well, I guess only time will tell...

Steroids

2004-12-04T14:23:00.000-08:00

So was there any doubt in anyone's mind that Barry Bonds was using steroids? I mean, the guy looks pretty huge. Grant it, he doesn't look as huge at Mark McGuire did, but Mark McGuire admitted to using "performance enhancing" drugs. And what about Jason Giambi? His supposed grand jury testimony said that he injected himself in the a$$. I know he hasn't been mentioned, but I'm sure Sammy Sosa also used steroids. I mean he was pretty huge as well.

I think greed has a lot to do with why these athletes use steroids. I mean, if you can out perform the next guy, it gives you a shot at a higher paycheck. I think there is something seriously wrong when athletes make more money than the President of the United States. What happened to good old-fashioned hard work?

Hundreds of young children look up to these althletes. What kind of message does that send to them? Some reporters have said that well if most of the players in the league are also doing it then it compells other players to do them as well just to be able to compete. But it still doesn't make it right.

I don't know what Major League Baseball is going to do to resolve this, but I suggest that if a player is caught using steroids they should be banned from the sport. That's what they do with Olympians and track stars, so why should baseball players be exempt?

IBM Selling PC Business

2004-12-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

So there's this rumor that IBM is trying to sell it's PC business, which includes laptops as well. Wow, first they sell their hard drive business. A business in which they were the pioneers, now there's talk of selling the PC business, another business in which they were the pioneers. I guess it's just a sign of the times.

For a company as big as IBM it doesn't make sense for them to focus on businesses with low margins. Since the PC business is so cut-throat and with prices dropping all the time, it's hard keep up without slashing prices, which in turn reduces profit. So if the rumor is true, I'm really going to miss those ThinkPads. I'm sure the ThinkPads won't go away, but it just won't feel the same if IBM doesn't make them any more.

Jeopardy Guy

2004-12-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the "Jeopardy Guy" (Ken Jennings, who is a computer eningeer by the way) finally loses. It's been rumored on the internet for a while that he was going to lose at around his 75th appearance. Someone even leaked an audio file of the Final Jeopardy question and how it all went down. So I wonder if it would have been more exciting if that info wasn't leaked?

Anyway, the guy won over $2.5 million. His daily average was calculated at around $34,000. I saw one episode where he beat his opponents so bad, that his nearest opponent only had $200. I didn't see the entire episode last night, only the Final Jeopardy question. But I read on the internet that he had missed two Daily Double questions, quite uncharacteristic of him.

Man, if I had that kind of money, I could just build my own house!

Taken For A Ride

2004-11-30T10:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, one of the worst feelings you can get is the feeling that you have been taken for a ride, and that's exactly what happened to me and my brother. We've been trying to buy a house together for the past 3 months or so. Now, keep in mind that in the bay area houses are very expensive, even ones which are a piece of crap.

So the latest house we tried to get was in the Los Gatos. The sellers were asking $799K and we bid $760K for it. Now this house has been on the market for over a month and the sellers have moved out quite a while ago. Even though the house looked nice on the outside and inside, appearances can be deceiving. The house has a major termite problem, the electricity throughout the house was not grounded, not all the pipes in the house were copper, and the roof needs to be replaced. And my dad, who is a broker, offered to give his commission to us so we could fix all the problems with this house. So we felt this was a reasonable offer.

Apparently another party interested in the house also bid the same price. So we were given a counter offer of $785K and the selling agent offered to give up $15k of her comission to the sellers since they were adamant about getting $800k for their house. The selling agent's name is Barbara Silvester and she works for Alain Pinel Realtors. She seemed nice since she was willing to give up part of her commission and we got the feeling that she was on our side. But again appearances can be deceiving.

I guess she is a good friend of the sellers and she helped them buy the house they just moved in to and now she was helping them sell this house. She told us that if the house doesn't sell, there is a renter already lined up to rent the house for $2500. So after giving it a lot of thought, we decided to accept the counter offer.

My brother and I decided to head out around 8:30pm or so to check out the neighborhood. When we passed by the house, we noticed the lights were on and that there were two cars outside. My brother had just checked out the neighborhood less than an hour before he took me there and there wasn't anyone in the house when he checked it out. So we were a little suspicious. We called our dad, who is a broker and he told us that he faxed over the offer and that the selling agent told him that she got it and that she was going to have her seller sign it tomorrow.

We figured she was showing the house to the other party who was interested in the house. But it didn't make sense to us that she would show them the house after she already got our signed counter offer. Apparently she tried to gain our confidence by offering to give up part of her commission in order to get us to sign the counter offer so that she could use it to show the other party so that she could get them to make a higher bid for the house! How devious is that?!! She totally screwed with us. She probably lied about there being a renter willing to rent the house too! It just goes to show you that selling agents are only looking out for the interests of their seller! And in this case, she was looking out for herself too! Since a higher bid for the house will mean a higher commission for her!

Whatever the other party bid, I hope they know that the house has only been appraised at $775K, so whatever they bid above that amount is going to come out of their own pockets. In addition, they will have to shell out at least $20-30K to fix all the problems with the house.

Day After Thanksgiving Shopping

2004-11-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, so how many people woke up early Friday morning after Thanksgiving to hit the stores to get some shopping done? And how many of you went to Best Buy only to find out that what you wanted to get was sold out? Yeah, me too. It was kind of disappointing. I got there earlier than I did last year, and everything that I wanted was sold out. On the plus side, the line to purchase stuff didn't wrap entirely around the store to the front entrance this year.

So I noticed this year that the after Thanksgiving sales weren't as good as last year. Also at the malls, the lines were so long that it didn't seem worth it to spend so much time in line just to get an extra 10% off my purchase. Even though I didn't get as much stuff this year as I did last year, it still felt good to get out and walk around the mall or the stores. Weird, huh?

Another thing I noticed was that things were way overpriced. Like a small tube of lipgloss at Bath and Body Works was $10! Just for a small tube of lip gloss. I bought a pair of pants for that much on Friday.

It also seems stores are getting more strict on their return policies. My cousin bought a sweater at Guess in the morning and decided by the afternoon that she didn't like it so much, and when she returned it they wouldn't give her any money back. Instead she was issued store credit.

Well anyway, that's my two cents about the supposed "biggest shopping day of the year."

Landon Donovan

2004-11-23T23:04:00.000-08:00

So I read online this afternoon that Landon Donovan is going back to Germany to play for the team that originally signed him. Man, I can't believe they are making him go back. He's the only guy that makes watching US Soccer so exciting. Not to mention he's very good looking. :)

Apparently he was signed by this German team when he was 16. He didn't like playing in Germany so he asked the team to lend him out to a US team. Lucky for us he came to the San Jose Earthquakes. He's been playing in San Jose for the past 4 years. Too bad I haven't ran into him around the Bay Area. I guess since now since he's gotten so good playing in the US, his German team wants him back to play for them. He's the only player ever to get the MLB MVP for three years straight.

On another note, I heard something about the Earthquakes wanting to leave San Jose unless they get a new stadium. Fat chance that will happen. So not only are we losing Landon, but we may be losing the Earthquakes as well. Since the NHL players have been locked out, we don't have the Sharks either.

What is happening to Bay Area sports? The A's and Giants didn't make the playoffs this year, the 49ers and Raiders are doing terrible, and the Warriors well they haven't been good in a long while. I guess the only team he have left to root for is Cal's football team.

Speaking of college football, I heard the SJSU football coach has quit. Someone mentioned that he has a PhD, and will be going to Florida to teach as a visiting professor or something like that. Poor SJSU, the only time I can remember their football team doing well was a couple of years ago when they almost made it to a Bowl game. They got edged out by Cal of all teams. The SJSU football team is in danger of losing their division 1-A status since attendance at the football games has been really low. When I was in the SJSU Marching Band, the band director would joke that people actually come out to watch us do our field shows rather than watch the football team.

I think one of the major problems is that SJSU is a commuter school. The majority of students that go to SJSU don't live on campus. They commute to school, and many of them also work full or part time while going to school, so no one has the time to go watch the football team play at home on the weekends. It's a shame, but I hope SJSU doesn't lose its division 1-A status.

Yahoo!

2004-11-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, so how many people out there have had troubling logging into their Yahoo! email accounts over the past couple of months? What is the deal? I noticed this trend when Yahoo! increased their mail box size to 100MB to compete with GMail. Maybe I should just switch permanently to GMail instead of trying to use Yahoo! Mail. Plus you get a bigger mail box size with GMail anyway.

Kmart & Sears

2004-11-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

This morning on the news I heard that Martha Stewart has made $33 billion on the news that K-Mart has bought Sears since her Martha Stewart Living brand will now also be carried in Sears stores. Wow, who would have thought that K-Mart would be buying Sears for $11 billion. Didn't K-Mart file for bankruptcy two years ago? Man, that's insane. I remember when they filed for bankruptcy everyone was so sure that K-Mart wouldn't be able to pull themselves out, and now they have bought Sears. What a come back. It seems these days that the discount retail chains like Walmart and Target are doing much better than the higher end stores. Since our economy has been in such a slump people are watching their dollars. I just wish housing prices would come down so I can actually afford to buy a house!

Bridget Jones & Hugh Grant

2004-11-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

This morning while driving into work, I heard on the radio that Hugh Grant said he had a miserable time filming the latest Bridget Jones movie. I read a review about it online and the reviewer didn't like the movie too much. There was a mention about Thailand in the movie and that Bridget gets arrested at the airport when she's leaving and gets thrown in a Thai jail and meets women who are abused by their guys. I don't understand why they would put anything like that into the movie. Hmm...maybe I should just wait for this movie to come out on video.

And what is this I hear about Hugh Grant wanting to retire from acting? I know he's getting old, but he still looks great. But I guess he must be bored with doing one romantic comedy after another. Poor guy, too bad things never worked out between him and Liz Hurley.