Same Question, Different Approach

These were all from conversations today. 

Friend #1: "meet any new cool kids yet?"
Friend #2: "you meet anyone new yet?"
Friend #3: "HEY PLAYA. HAVE YOU SEEN ANY FINE HONEYS UP IN DEM PARTS?"

HAHAHAHA man that last one.  But it was a weird coincidence that they all asked on the same day.

Can you guess who said what?
here's your word bank to choose from "Alex, Andy, Andrew, Brian, Gary, Henry, Morgan"

TV is garbage

After dinner today, we were watching some TV and my Uncle is just channel surfing because they have all these free trial channels for 3 months.  It's a normal evening you know, people are talking about Food network and some of their favorite shows, when BAM he surfs to a channel amidst a rape scene.  Awkward!

He quickly switches to the next channel as the kids are like what the...

phewf!

It's a cop walking with a girl that just got her car stolen.  He's taking her to the station to help find her car, but.. somethings not right.  They walk to this back alley with a warehouse.  The cop explains that its the substation because the station doesn't have enough offices.  The warehouse is locked, because his partner didn't come back yet.  So he tells her to get into a yellow buggy and starts to drive.  She gets smart and realizes hes not driving to the station.

By now we all know it's not gonna end well.  She starts punching the hell out of his face, and we're all like yea! kick his ass!! but he pulls over and threatens her with a gun.  He then proceeds to....*channel changes*

It was quite awkward with the uncle and cousins.  Man.. there's so much garbage on TV nowadays.

Exploregon: Ground Kontrol

Most weekdays I just stay in because I don't really know the area.  But Alex starts pestering me about finding my soul mate immediately earlier today and how I'll die a lonely man if I don't get out of the house.  At first I shrugged it off, because I don't like people telling me what to do (real reason is I'm scared).  But there's only so  much Starcraft one can play with their younger cousins before your mind begins to rot.

So I hop onto Yelp and search Nightlife in Portland.  Bookmarked a bunch of 4.5 stars and started reading up on them.  Came across this place called Ground Kontrol.  It's a barcade.  What's that you ask?  By now you probably figured out.  Yep, it's a Bar and an Arcade.  Sweet.  Sounds like a good Thursday night.  Even better! every last Thursday of the month they host a Nintendo event! With Nintendo trivia, and tournaments.  Awesome, perfect timing thanks to Alex.  

I would have gone alone, but I called up my pal Joey to go with.  We end up somewhere downtown, and Joey complains about the narrow lanes.  I didn't notice because it felt just like SF downtown lanes.  I actually felt kinda nostalgic haha.  Apparently GK was located in a shady part of town, but it felt pretty damn safe to me.  The inside of GK looked a lot like the arcade in the movie TRON.  They even had the game TRON! (i sucked miserably).

As I slowly got tipsy sipping on my 2 dollar PBR I fed the following machines:

• Simpsons Arcade - went further than I ever went using only 50 cents!
• Gauntlet Legends - Spent most of our time and money on this one.  One of Joey's Nostalgia games.  It was pretty fun, but Gamespot gave it a 2/5 stars?
• Frogger - you gotta play frogger,  but I was a disappointment holy crap.  I killed 6 frogs within 1 minute.  Couldnt get past the river at all wtf. 
• Tron - It was the tanks game, and I believe I do not know how to play, similar experience to Frogger
• Demolition Man Pinball - their entire top floor was filled with all kinds of pinball machines.  I love playing pinball, and the one that caught my eye was the one with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes in.. DEMOLITION MAN.  I lost all 3 balls within 1 minute. -_-
• Pirates of the Caribbean Pinball - This is probably my favorite pinball machine.  Probably because they had the exact same one in Davis.  Pew Pew Pew I lasted 3 minutes. 

Man while were absorbed in the world of Gauntlet Legends, they were holding Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64 tourneys.  I so wanted to do the Mario Kart tournament but my character was level 8! So much hard work, I couldn't just leave and die!

I would definitely go back here, cheap beers, nostalgic games and a chill crowd.  Now to check my Yelp bookmark list for the next installment of Exploregon.

Learn Chinese: R's and L's

I just realized something today.

To mock Cantonese accents, you say "velly lomantic"
but to mock a mandarin accent, you say "harooo rara"

R's =>L's, L's =>R's  wahh..

Today was my uncles birthday so he poured me some "baijiu" in a cup (about 3 shots).  He looks at the bottle and shakes his head muttering "jah yeh" (weakstuff).  I'm thinking it's probably like twenty something, but when I take a look: 38%!! haha the label said 62% water 38% alcohol.  Stuff was pretty potent, but it actually went down pretty smooth.

In China, especially during the upcoming Chinese New Year, people start drinking like crazy.  My pops told me if you don't drink at the table you get severely ostracized, so it's a social thing.  When I was there several years ago, I saw my dad and his brothers get piss drunk over MaoTai (54-55%)haha.  It was pretty funny, and everyone had a great time. 

From the great teacher Wikipedia:

• The Maotai of today originated during the Qing Dynasty and first won international fame when winning a gold medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
• Henry Kissinger once remarked to Deng Xiaoping that "if we drink enough Maotai we can solve anything."
• Mao Zedong served maotai at state dinners during Richard Nixon's state visit to China

Gan Bei! 干杯！

Velly Lomantic

http://xkcd.com/162/

I think I'm in love with that stick figure

Driving Log:

Snacks: Hot Cheetos, Apple-Os, Famous Amos Cookies (damn forgot to get baos!)
Drinks: Redbull, Cherry Coke. (hella needed it. Only had 6 hours of sleep due to festivities J)

Cop Sightings: 5 (there was one bridge that had two patrol cars side by side)
Mini Sightings: 2 (both on the bay bridge, I’m suddenly unique haha)
Mini to Cop Ratio: 0.40 (lost again)
# times Traction Control Saved My Ass: 4 (It was raining most of the drive. Only 2 minutes of light snowfall, phewf!)

Est. Miles Travelled:
Avg MPH: 72-75
Max Speed: 91.9MPH
Est. MPG:
Est. Cost:

Left SF: 12:04PM
Stops Taken: 2
Arrived Corvallis: 8: 42PM
Travel Time: 8’38”

Birthday House party until 4AM? STILL GOT IT BABY

Kenny

My cousin Kenny (previous story) cracks me up:

(we get into my car to go to Target)
K: whoa is that a crack on your windshield?
C: yep
K: was it acorn?
C: corn?
K: did acorn do that?
C: you mean an acorn? Hahah what? That’s impossible, it was a rock. An acorn can’t crack your windshield
K: ooh, cus I was thinking rocks don’t fall from trees, but acorns do.
C: !!

Settling In

So many things have been going on recently and I finally have some time to sit down and write.

It’s pretty damned surreal sitting here in my “office” (which is actually a dining/kitchen room) 500 miles away from SF. Overall, I’m coping well living here so far. It’s really helpful to be living so close to family because familiar faces are always comforting. They even cook me dinner everyday! So it’s a sweet deal. I was asking about the stove at my place, and they were like you’re not eating dinner by yourself stupid haha.

I love having my own place! I can’t believe this unit was just sitting here unused for so long. It was actually in pretty decent shape, but I wanted to thoroughly clean it anyways. So the past 2-3 days, I’ve been spending a lot of time vacuuming, scrubbing, re-arranging. Bathroom cleaning, and fridge cleaning sucks. But with cleaning, once I clean one corner, something clicks in my head and I MUST finish the rest. It’s so much work because this place is huge! It’s really meant for 2-3 people to live in so it’s a shame I can’t share it with friends.

Coolest part of this place so far? The Mini Pool/Ping Pong/Air Hockey Table in the living room. It’s been pretty fun playing with my cousins, but it would be damned sweet if I had a set up like this in SF.

The rest of the house is pretty empty. It has so much potential! Once I make some scratch:

Living Room
- 47” LCD 1080P 120Hz tv
- PS3
- Couch/Futon?
- Plants. You gotta have plants

Spare Bedroom
- Makeshift audio recording studio for fun?!

Basement
- Darts
- Punching Bag
- Weight Room
- Wine Cellar

Driving Log:

Snacks: Hot Cheetos, Apple-Os, Famous Amos Cookies (damn forgot to get baos!)
Drinks: Redbull, Cherry Coke. (hella needed it. Only had 6 hours of sleep due to festivities : )

Cop Sightings: 5 (there was one bridge that had two patrol cars side by side)
Mini Sightings: 2 (both on the bay bridge, I’m suddenly unique haha)
Mini to Cop Ratio: 0.40 (lost again)
# times Traction Control Saved My Ass: 4 (It was raining most of the drive. Only 2 minutes of light snowfall, phewf!)

Est. Miles Travelled: 576 miles (google)
Avg MPH: ~75
Max Speed: 91.9MPH
Est. MPG: 30.75
Est. Cost: $59.9 ($3.2/Gal)

Departed SF: 12:04PM
Stops Taken: 2
Arrived Corvallis: 8: 42PM
Travel Time: 8’38”

Birthday House party until 4AM? STILL GOT IT BABY

SF ROX

Even though it was a short time I had in SF before I had to leave for Portland, I had tons of fun.  I’m very grateful and happy that we all got together and hung out.  I think I’m still riding on some of the high from the last two weeks!  Good times, Great city, Best of friends yay-uh:

• Zoo (the asian look, chris-anju incident, and seals not sea lions!)
• Legion of Honor (pretty random)
• Snowboarding (beautiful view, cracked phone screen, steaming pile of feet)
• Dad’s Dinner + CS LAN (so fun, then less fun when Andy was awping)
• Lot’s of Pho and Burrito in between.  (I acknowledge Gordo’s now, but Chino’s has crack in it)
• Warriors Vs. Bucks (loss) with Drew – but lower level seats! (fat dude getting angry haha, dude made 3 pointer for year of free tri-tip)
• 1st Live Hockey Game – Thanks LexLai, dude it’s way more fun watching in the stadium.  I like hockey more now.  But there’s no hockey here.  How far is Vancouver?

Last Night Out

Had a blast that night! Like going out with a bang.  Planned on 1-3 drinks, ended up drinking 6.

Pics:

Good lookin' bunch

This was awesome, I read the box when I got home and it was hilarious haha.

Tech: Nerd Disaster Averted

Phewf!

What a sweat I had yesterday.  I was supposed to help fix Angel's slow laptop so she dropped it off in the morning.  I assumed that she had backed up everything already because she said she had an external at home.  So I proceeded to re-install her Windows.

1. Insert CD
2. Enter Boot Menu to select CD
3. Quick Format
4. Install!

Easy as 1,2, 3, 4.

I was happy because everything went smoothly.  The key from her Dell sticker worked, no activation problems and most importantly her laptop was quick now! That is.. until she came to pick it up.

A: "Hey it looks different"
C: "yep! I just reformatted it, its quick now!"
A: "oh...cool... you backed up all my stuff right?"
C: "..........uh......"
A: "NO WAY You're Kidding Right!?"
C: "nope, i thought you backed it up"
A: "OMG my life is flashing before my eyes"
C: "OH SHIT" (facepalm)
A: "my pictures! my music! my documents! good thing I didn't start on my essay yet!"

(A runs away distraught and lamenting)

Good thing for technology, I didn't panic.  I had my trusty usb-SATA/IDE adapter kit and an awesome 6mb program that I found earlier: EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro 4.3.6

Within a couple hours, we were able to recover most of her pictures, music, and documents even though the drive was quick-formatted and a new OS was installed.  YAY!  I remember hearing that it usually costs hundreds of dollars to recover lost data.  Being able to do it myself was sweeeeet.  I even found files that I deleted earlier in the recycle bin! (Oh the power) Technology is beautiful

MINI Report and Funnies

Just picked up the MINI from the dealership

- Oil & Filter Change
- New Hood Scoop (old one started melting from the heat generated from the turbo O_O)
- Tire repaired (apparently had a nail in it, but the leak was so slow I didn't know!)

Yay for Warranty!  It's been 18000 miles and almost 18 months, and I still love my car.  I shall be diligent in taking care of it (cars don't have genders) so that I can own it forever.  I was on the NAM forum and was reading this thread:  You Know You Drive A MINI When...

Favorite Few:
-When you get scared someone stole your car when it's actually just parked behind a bigger car/truck. (This has happened to me a lot haha)
-You find yourself wishing the road was just a little more twisty.
-You take one last look at your vehicle in the parkinglot/garage/driveway before it leaves your viewing-zone. (yep)
-When you come to a stop, put on your parking brake, turn the ignition off, and instinctively tell your passenger to, "pull twice!"
-when a girl passenger yells WOW ITS SO BIG(staring at the speedo), and you reply YUP! thats what all the girls say (haha yea its funny when I read this i realized all girls do say that)
-You don't bother to step on the brake when making turns
-You find yourself aimlessly surfing websites about your car... (..yea)
-Little kids eyes get big when they see your mini.
-When you pull down the sun visor and half your view is gone .
-you get that last parking spot on the block because everyone else was too bloated to fit in it
-you remember the birthday of your MINI... (hah damn. 5/7/2008 born in UK, 6/20/2008 arrived in US)

Yea the culture around MINI owners is great.  Everyone just kind of understands each other's experiences like its an inside joke of ours.  

What can Your MINI fit?

I got the MINI because of its speed, MPG, easy parking, and damned good looks.  But theres definitely one major drawback that I had to compromise with... interior space.  It's definitely hard to fit passengers and cargo with the small trunk space, but you'd be surprised what you can fit if you played some Tetris.  One pal commented earlier that they wanted proof of two snowboards in the MINI: 

Tada!! I was surprised myself! Totally do-able.

Then I remember browsing some forums on what ridiculous things MINI cooper fit in their cars a few years ago when I was researching.  So I went back and found all I could find.  Enjoy:

Doggies!

Partying!

Good for gigs

Kayaking?

These are some pretty ridiculous over-the-top ones haha

Over-the Top Literally

Or if you didn't have a roof rack, you can... Tetris!

And lastly....

Enough room for 22 people :)

Generic Asian Look?

I went to the Zoo yesterday, and it was pretty fun just hanging out and seeing the animals.  But this post isn't going to be about that.  When I first walked into the gates, this Taiwanese lady came up to me speaking in mandarin, asking me how she can get in for free.  I wasn't even the first one! She just bypassed everyone else and asked me! haha luckily I was the only one that knew mandarin (although broken).  I didn't really think much of it until when we left the zoo, an old chinese man goes directly to me asking: "ji dian? ji dian?" (what time is it?) heh then we started laughing about how I probably just have that Asian look so people just know I speak Chinese

Then I realized that this wasn't the first time I've encountered this:

During our Asia trips to Thailand, Japan and Vietnam people would talk to me in their native language thinking that I was from there!  It happened a lot more often to me than it did to Henry.  We laughed about it then too.

Oh yea, there was this photo album on Facebook from our Mt. Diable hiking trip.  Anju tells me she had a friend that asked her if we were hiking in China.  Why would he ask that? He had pointed directly at me asking "That guy's from China right?" hahaha man..

So yea, I am the Generic Asian Man (except for Filipino, as stated by Gary and Andy)

Life is like a box of chocolates

You never know what you're gonna get.  Or where you're going to wind up. 

Yea I was gonna do a New Years post about the great times of 2009, but its 4AM now and I won't do 2009 justice if I try to power through.  So this will be an announcement of sorts of the huge change in 2010 that I'm going through.  It's kind of a new chapter in life.

My uncle has asked me to help out on his new design project and business venture.  Pretty exciting!  But the thing is, I'll be spending most of my time in Portland.  Wow, I've been in the Bay Area my whole life so this will be a complete lifestyle change.  All of my closest friends are here in the city, and it's going to be tough being away from everybody. 

But I've made my decision.  This project we're doing is something I'mvery interested in.  It involves implementing green technology and will really help the environment. (I'm not gonna post the details online, but you can ask me in the real world!) It's going to take a lot of hard work and dedication because it will certainly be challenging.  I'm going to be able to do a lot of engineering design which is what I really like doing.  So I guess this is somewhat of a calling. 

I've been telling people little by little, and I'm happy all my friends have been supportive.  There's some suggestions of a going away party, but I really don't want that.  Those things are way too emotional.  For these two weeks in SF, I'd just wanna hang out with my friends and chill.  Portland's not far away, and I'll definitely be back a few times every year.  But I'm gonna miss everybody and the fun of the citay by the bay.

From: San Francisco

To: Portland

2009 was all play and pretty much no work :P heh

2010 will be my productive year!  It's time to make something of myself. 

Goooooodnight!

Christmas with the Family

Ahh I had a great Christmas with my family this year.  We've had many of these Christmases and having 7 cousins in one house every single day is rowdy as hell.  We all generally get along pretty well and have a lot of fun and laughs every time we get together.  Our traditional go-to games to play are Charades, wrestling, and human stacking feats ("I bet you can't carry two of us up the stairs at the same time!" "I bet you can't carry three kids at once!" "I wonder if the kids (108-115lbs) can support us (155-175lbs) in a pyramid this year")  This year we had some new games like: Blokus!! Counterstrike! Mario Wii!


This is how our family is structured:
Ages 21-23: David, Dillon, Me
Ages 14-16: Wilton, Kenneth, and Daniel
Age 10: Celina the only girl (Dude, my little 10 year old cousin Celina was quick-scoping in Counter-strike and got the most sniping kills USING A TOUCHPAD. savage. )


You can see how rowdy it can get with so many guys.  It's never a dull moment.  And we pretty much got to feast on my Dad's cooking every single day.  RIBS godamn. that almost made me tear up they were so good.


This year's X-mas Loot:

1.  Haha this was the most awesome gift wrapping I ever got.  A Mario question mark box that Dillon told me to punch to get the gift inside.

What could be inside?

 A mushroom of course! hahah this is totally going in my car.. for the extra boost of course :)

2. Failblog book for the toilet, and a TMNT shirt!  sweeeeet

2b. (or not 2b?) a warm winter jacket siiccck.. as Brian put it:  Plaid for Chad haha.  You can see it in my hand.

 3.  Tempur-pedic slippers!  So warm and cushy

4. Flight of the Bumble-bee sheet music (yes!)
5. Heated Mattress Pad (woohooo)

6. And of course.. HELLA cookies

Merry Christmas!

What about NYE you ask?

• Sober.
• Turned on TV at 11:46.
• Countdown with the Seacrest and Dick Clark.
• Eat Cheesecake.
• Play 2 hours of Counterstrike.

(it was actually more fun than it sounds heh)

My Greatest Fear

What are you most scared of? I never really had an answer.  Death? Cancer? Ghosts?  Not really.  They aren't my greatest fears.  I have some fears, like going down a steep slope snowboarding, trying to jump over something tall, public speaking, ...... women? hahaha

But this winter I realized what really shakes me up are: PIMPs

No, it's not what you think.  PIMP is an acronym for People In My Peripheral.

This is a story of the U-PIMP (U stands for Unexpected).  Just a couple of days ago, I was sitting in the passenger seat with two of my cousins when all of a sudden I sensed a presence at the window next to me.  I completely flipped out! Blood-curdling scream with my arms and legs flapping.  It was a complete involuntary action and I my mind pretty much blanked out until after my scream.  I looked at the window and it was my other cousin holding my camera that I left behind.  The guys in the car were laughing like what the hell was that?! When I told him that I was for real and not faking it.  They just died laughing.  This was seriously the purest of fear that I can possibly experience, and it wasn't the first time.

Another time I remember was the case of the I-PIMP (Imaginary Person In My Peripheral).  This was even more crazier than last time, but there was only one witness.  I was waiting with Gary in his car when I saw a dark figure right next to the window from the corner of my eye.  AHHHHHHH!!!!!!  pure fear in my expression.  When I come to, I realize its just a shadow of the tree next to us.  Gary was like.... Dude. what the f was that? Hilarity ensues.

I got problems.

So, let's make this an interactive post shall we?  What are some of your fears, and do you remember the time you've been most scared?

Thanks!

It's a Hardknock Life

It was 10:32PM on a Sunday and I was just hanging out at one of my spots in the city.  *BZZT* My Blackberry flashes and I get an e-mail from a dealer friend of mine.  Yo wutsup man, I got some high demand for that H, get here by 12.  Damn, I just hit the lottery, I had 20 G's worth of Heroin stashed and this guy needs it bad.  I'm gonna make some bank tonight, Ibiza here I come.  I pop open my safe and grab as much as I could fit in my messenger bag.  SHIT! I just realized my G35 is in the shop because my knucklehead cousin nearly totaled it streetracing.  No matter, the streets are my dealership and my 9mm is my down payment.  I quickly hail down a Taxi and knock out the driver with my 9mm.  As his body hits the ground with a thud, I stomp on the gas and head toward the bridge.  I gotta get to Northside Park quick, or I'm shit out of luck. 

My heart is racing as I dodge traffic, weaving in and out bumping into cars and barely missing pedestrians.  It doesn't matter, the car isn't mine, and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is huge. *BAM!* I just rear-ended someone.  DAMN, oh good, car still works, but as I reverse I noticed the words on the back of the trunk.  Siren's are blazing as I gas forward.  I make the bridge with two patrol cars tailing me.  I can shake them I can shake them.  I know i can shake them!  I see the exit and I swerve three lanes over to barely make it.  YES! I look back to see one of the cops just busted into the divider.  One to go.  As I look back on the road, I see this huge brick wall in front of me. oh..god. *SKIIIIRRT* phewf, I brake just in the nick of time to prevent me from being graffitied onto the wall.  But the window suddenly shatters and I see a gun in my face.  Busted.  NOOOOOO  $$$

Oh well.  At least I saved before I left my place.  :)

haha, so I was looking for things to bring on the trip to Oregon and I got this game GTA: Chinatown Wars for my DS because it got a 9/10 on Gamespot.com

I'm now hooked.  I loved GTA I, II, III and on and this was a really nice package for the DS.  The view was birds-eye view just like the older GTA's but the gameplay was just as fun as the newer ones.  The great thing about this game is that they really incorporated the side-stories and side-missions well.  Right now, as you can see from the above account that I've been making money as a drug dealer.  So fun!!  I love fake crime. 

I recommend this game if you're into them gangster movies and games like I is.