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Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
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there's something about having this sudden lump sum of money appear in my savings account that just makes me want to spend it impulsively on something stupid that i don't need. like a car. (i decided to cash out my stock options, which i feel pretty secure about doing. a strain of paranoia spread like wildfire and everyone else cashed out too so i won't be the only one feeling stupid in the highly unlikely event that our stock price rises somehow this year). i went so far as to apply for an auto loan (online.. it was like a quick 5 min thing) through my credit union to see what i would get - which ended up being 45k w/ 5.7% apr for 60 months. not bad at all. i've been seriously considering buying a new car this year after someone's fat ass dented the roof of my car when they decided to WALK on it while i was gone for the weekend. yes, someone walked on my car. there's footprints from the hood all the way to the spoiler with a huge ass dent on my roof. decided not to file a police report since nothing will really come of it.. i don't care to get it fixed as i really stopped caring about my car about 5 years ago. my car is almost 8 years old so its not as if i'm being rash. then there's that car tax credit i've been hearing about. all this has kinda pushed me over the edge to buy a new car at some point this year. so now i'm just torn between the 2: subaru wrx or audi a3. comments for or against either are most welcome.
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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i recently decided to limit my consumption of red meat for lent, but then decided to see how long i can go without it. i've already fallen off the wagon and eaten it a few times but i'm not putting stringent restrictions on it. like most diets and gym routines, it's easy to fall off the wagon when you try to carry on a strict regimen so i'm trying to phase it out slowly. i don't think i'll be able to keep it out entirely since i'd still like to have the occasional steak or burger or filipino food when i visit my mom. maybe i'll get lucky though and actually develop a distaste for red meat if i stop eating it so often which i hear seems to be the case for many vegetarians. i've been toying with the idea of becoming a part-time vegetarian. i've been extremely conscious of the weight i've gained in the past year, so much so i haven't been on a scale for more than 6 months. if i had to guess i'd say it's hovering around 20lbs in the last year. while ethan is a pretty active person i think he's adopted more to my sedentary lifestyle than vice versa. thankfully i have snowboarding to keep me active this time of year and a new bike to keep me preoccuppied in the off-season. but that doesn't seem to be enough. so i'm trying to go to the gym at work at least twice a week to start with (and maybe bump that up to 3x a week by the summer). i've been shopping almost exclusively at trader joe's (granted not everything they carry is healthy but at least there are healthier options to choose from compared to the regular grocery store). i'm a huge fan of their frozen steel-cut oatmeal (i have one every morning before i go to the gym) - i'll never go back to regular oatmeal. and i've replaced non-fat milk with vanilla silk almost entirely. also trying to limit my intake of salt, white sugar, and white flour. also started eating chickenless strips from TJs in place of real chicken in my pasta after one of my co-workers introduced me to it. it really isn't that bad. maybe all these little things will add up and i can start seeing a difference soon. gone are those days when i could eat whatever i wanted and not gain a pound. it's kinda scary how my metabolism took a nosedive after i hit my late 20s.
on an unrelated note, i can't get over how great watchmen was. i need to see it again before it leaves theaters.
update: apparently there's a name for this. it's called "flexitarian". sounds dumb.
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
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disclaimer: this is not particularly interesting. it's for my own reference later.
i feel old. i can't exactly pinpoint when i started caring so much about my finances but it happened at some point after i turned 30. it was like a rude awakening, like someone telling me to wake the hell up.. i don't have the time or the excuses i had in my 20s. i read an article today that said by the time you're 30 you should have at least 1 year of your annual salary accrued in your 401k - i don't even have 1/4 of that. that is still lame even considering the state of the economy and the fact that i only started a 401k account at the age of 26. i think living with a person who is way more frugal than i am has influenced my attitude a little bit too, in a healthy way.
so aside from my usual new years resolution of living healthier, a priority this year is to get my finances in order and start being more aggressive about my savings/investments. i've taken the first few steps.. today i increased my 401k contributions from a measly 6% to 10%. after the economy took a nosedive last year i took the stupid advice of my ex-boss and changed my investments from a blended mutual fund to (safe) short-term prime fund. i did a little research after the fact and everything i read said to invest now while shares are cheap which is the obvious thing to do right? i changed my portfolio to 50% domestic stocks (30% large cap, 20% small cap), 10% intl stocks, 30% bonds, and 10% short-term. i dumped 40% of my bonus straight to my 401k too and if i'm lucky to get another bonus again this year i'll probably dump most of it in there if not all. if i can survive the extra -$220/paycheck hit without much of an impact i'll start increasing it by 1% every month til i reach 15% (although not likely. i like eating out too much and i still like to be putting a little something away each month into savings).
savings is another story. they say you need at least 3 months (preferably 6) of net income in an emergency savings account. for the past year and a half i've been putting away $200/paycheck into a credit union savings account but i kept touching it for "emergencies" like a security deposit on the house i'm renting and my germany vacation - real emergency there. so i changed my savings contributions to $500/paycheck plus a little extra each month if i can afford it. i have too many things in my immediate future i need to be saving for, aside from needing the 3-6 month safety cushion. first and foremost i want to finally buy my stock options at work. i have 1k shares at $16/ea which will be fully vested after my 4 years here on may 16th. they have a same day sale but i think there are more penalties when you do that option so i'd like to use my own money to buy at least 500 of those shares. that money would ideally go towards something big like a DP on a house. also i'd like to take at least $5-10k and start putting it in some mutual funds. another big purchase in the somewhat immediate future is a car. mine hasn't been giving me any problems so far, but i think i will trade up at the first sign.
if i had the same mindset in my 20s instead of fucking around i'd be ready to buy a house by now. on my own. in the bay area. oh well, better late than never.
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Friday, September 12th, 2008
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i've so far managed to avoid talking about politics on lj (or rather just putting down my thoughts), but i came to a realization just a few minutes ago and need to document it somewhere. early on during the primary campaign i started to question what political party i most identified with. when it comes to social issues (abortion, gay rights, religion, etc.) of course i'd consider myself a liberal through and through. but in matters of economics, i was starting to wonder if i was starting to become more of a conservative. i won't deny that this recent quandary had something to do with the fact that i was being raped out of a good third of my paychecks, which has become more and more apparent the older i get and the bigger my paychecks have become. to be blunt about it, i turned around and saw people who took obvious advantage of "the system" as the ones who the govt are funneling all my tax dollars to. but then i woke up and thought, wait a minute, i'm starting to sound like an ignorant republican. i'm the first to say that the govt excels at wasteful spending (a great example is a 2002 local govt project in blue springs, MO whose main objective was to combat teenage "goth culture"). now, i realize that's mccain's credo lately (and good for him), but i don't know how you can reduce wasteful spending and still tout deregulation - take these fannie mae/freddie mac bail outs - wtf? the republican stance is an endless list of hypocrisy and contradictions. but one of the most significant on that list (which just occured to me) is this - they're vehemently opposed to big government in the arena of domestic affairs. the fundamental tenet is less government; that the welfare of the individual rests on his/her shoulders. why then is this idelogy the polar opposite when it comes to foreign policy? this has come to the forefront because of this new cold war that's brewing. occupying a country without its explicit consent because they don't share our ideologies (oh hi, iraq) is awfully smug. why not let other countries fend for themselves? oh wait, i forgot, america is the beacon of everything that is right in this world, and if you don't agree with it i guess that makes you a terrorist - or a muslim - they're synonymous these days. diplomacy is for pussies. we need to send a message to the rest of the world by asserting our militaristic dominance. - does this drivel sound familiar? i need to get back to work. more later.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
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so to mark my transition into my 30's, i've decided i want to be out of the country and intoxicated. so it shall be.
here's the itinerary: (notice little endian date format for euro effect)
26.09.2008 - 28.09.2008 - berlin
29.09.2008 - 30.09.2008 - munich (prost!)
01.10.2008 - 02.10.2008 - schwangau
02.10.2008 - 05.10.2008 - vienna
any comments/suggestions as to where to go/what to see/eat/do/shop are very welcome. jawohl!
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Thursday, July 10th, 2008
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an audrey kawasaki original print
new snowboard pants
a journal to compile recipes i've collected
new camera
obedience classes for alfie
to live in a place where i don't have to share walls anymore (i.e. a house)
to lose 15lbs or thereabouts
new running shoes
an a3 quattro or wrx (not sure yet)
filipino food
solid plans for my 30th bday
to not feel so poor
rock band (i think - this can get old quickly)
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"We’re a prosperous country run by a relatively static oligarchy of commercial/political interests, and while people have few real political choices and little recourse to change the worst aspects of our culture, they’re not starving for the most part and will probably still prefer to enjoy the illusion of choice offered by the two-party system..." -matt taibbi
i might register libertarian next time around, not that it matters.
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i apologize in advance for any racist overtones the preceding post may carry. and let me preface by saying that i'm the daughter of immigrants. my mom, even though she's been in the states for close to 40 years still has trouble speaking conversational english.
word of advice for people who speak english as a second language: learn the native language of the country you immigrated to, especially if your job depends on it.
i recently transitioned to a new position within IT, doing application support. in the wake of my transition a new department was created and there was a huge reorg wherein i acquired a new manager and a new co-worker, who i've since dubbed "acg" (annoying chinese guy). acg is inarguably the most socially awkward weirdo in our office and this has been the consensus since he started working here. his social ineptitude isn't attributed to his inability to speak coherent english though. he's just all-around creepy, transcending any cultural differences that could explain it. i won't get into any specifics to make my case... just take my word for it (and the 30 or so other people in this office who could back me up).
so you can imagine how unenthused i was to find out we'd be sharing cubes. (our brilliant hr has been recruiting more people than we have office space to spare, so they decided to stuff 2 or more people into one cube). to make matters worse the way they configured our new seating arragement is such that i'm sitting literally less than a foot away from him. (i have a tried and tested privacy filter which would explain why i'm able to type this vitriol at work). i have a laundrylist of little daily annoyances that acg unknowingly does to me that i won't get into but lets just say that since the day we moved into this cube together and everyday thereafter, a small part of me dies. sorry for sounding melodramatic. i have to sit in meetings with this person. i have to listen to him speak his shattered english muffled by mouthfuls of saliva and strange breathing noises in between. it's gotten to the point where his very presence irritates me because i've built up a huge list of all these grievances in my head. i know i'm being a bitch, because he's made no intentional offenses towards me. it's just that the way he is, his mannerisms, the way he interacts with me and everyone around him, makes me visibly uncomfortable.
back to the point of this post. so we (as in my new group) have been tasked to make a presentation on our new roles, the applications we support, what exactly we do, etc. - to upper management and maybe the cfo (golf schedule permitting. asshole.). theres a bit of pressure riding on this, as i kinda feel like we're still in the midst of justifying our new roles because there has't been any marked impact - positive or negative since it was created a couple months ago. i finished my presenation in a few days. it's nothing to write home about but i think it gets the point across. acg's presentation on the other hand. can i just say my dog's dried up turd could've written something more coherent. it's not just the grammar that's wildly offensive, the guy can't organize his thoughts to save his life. he sent it to me (and 2 other people - the receptionist and another hr crony. and this is something he does on a frequent basis apparently, because he's too embarassed to have his engrish corrected by anyone else) for review and criticism. where do i even begin? it's like curing cancer with a bandaid. i decided to correct the grammar and touch nothing else. my point is, this guy needs to take ESL classes stat, but it's not my place to say so. i know what it's like to live in a country and not be able to speak or understand the language but fuck it i learned and i can still speak it conversationally with correct grammar albeit with a bit of an american accent. i cannot wait to stare into that sea of confused expressions as he fumbles through that trainwreck of a presentation on wednesday. this will probably bite me in the ass one of these days.
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Friday, September 14th, 2007
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well i'm back from a 2 week trip to the philippines (and 3 days in thailand). its 3am and of course i can't sleep.
i'm not sure that the money i spent on this trip was entirely worth it (being somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.5k all said and done), but it's always good to spend time with my mom and her side of the family. it had been 8 years since i was there last, which seems to be the frequency of my visits. if that's the case the next time i'll be there will be when i'm 36 - which btw scares the shit out of me - who knows how much my life will have changed by then. since i don't think i've drastically changed since i was 21. other than getting a job and living alone, i'm pretty much the same person. maybe a tad wiser.
but anyways this visit may be the last time i'll see some of my older relatives, since they've aged and weakened considerably since i had seen them last. that thought makes me sad.
anyways some things of note about the phils:
- text messaging seems to have become some kind of widespread cultural phenomenon even my mom couldn't escape. i'm not exaggerating when i say that anywhere you look i guarantee there's at least one person text messaging on their phone. its a close second preferred mode of communication after actual speech. they even have 2 television channels dedicated to personal ads for people looking for "text mates". ridiculous.
- speaking of ridiculous what's with all these actors running for political office? we arrived in the midst of their senatorial elections and i counted at least 3 actors that are running. one actor in particular (cesar montano) has no political experience whatsoever and is completely riding on the coat tails of his fame. oh, if they're not actors themselves they're at least married to someone famous and exploit that as much as possible on all their commercials. and people wonder why the phils is so economically stagnant compared to the rest of se asia. maybe we'd have a chance if the masses weren't so starstruck when electing these half-wit celebrities with no clue about politics into a govt already rife with corruption.
- its a strange thing to have maids and drivers.
- the ever widening gap between the rich and poor. living in a country as impoverished as the philippines forever changed my perception of poverty and suffering. with the lack of social welfare, health insurance, or any kind of govt subsidized programs to aid them, the poor stay poor. the minimum wage in manila is something in the neighborhood of 350 pesos, which amounts to about $7/day. they make considerably less in the provinces. thats not even enough to buy meat. just rice and vegetables, maybe a little bit of fish. going to mcdonalds is somewhat of a luxury that some of the poorer people can only afford to frequent on their kids' birthdays or something. the remarkable thing about these people is that they're content and aren't bitter against their govt or the wealthy. maybe its because they don't know otherwise? you don't see so many beggars on the street (compared to my last visit). they just do what they have to do to make ends meet, knowing that their children will most likely never rise above their current economic stature.
- i'm not sure if it was because we stayed at lots of resorts and hotels, but i saw an awful lot of (mostly) older white men with (mostly) vert young filipina escorts. now this is somewhat of a touchy subject for me, being filipina. some of these girls couldn't have been more than 20 years old.. and the men they were with - well there's no other way to describe them other than completely and utterly undesirable. case in point, there was this one guy i saw at dinner one night when we were staying in cebu. in his 50's, morbidly obese, with bed sores all over his legs. his escort was this tiny, young, very fragile looking filipina girl. its difficult for me not to notice couples like these and it seems they were everywhere. these men aren't looking for wives so much as they are looking for slaves. don't believe me? just look at the m4w ads on the philippine craigslist. disgusting.
i guess i'll never understand their desperation. is life really so horrible back home? ewan ko ba.
- classism. let me preface this by saying that i love my mom.. but i found myself extremely irritated by her during most of the trip and it's because she of all people was the most matapobre! whenever we were around-let's just call them "the working class" (i.e. waiters, shop girls, salon hairdressers, the concierge at the hotel, etc) for lack of a better description-my mom would start speaking english to them in this incredibly phony american accent, as if to say "yes i'm from the states. treat me accordingly." jesus christ, mom. these people are perfectly capable of speaking your native language. i didn't confront her about it because i didn't want to cause a fight and ruin our trip since she was with me most of those 2 weeks but it annoyed the fuck out of me everytime it happened. pinigilan ko na lang ang sarili ko.. me, on the other hand, i was dying to practice my tagalog and i used it every chance i got, but much to my chagrin it was usually the case that most of the people i interacted with could understand english a hundred times better than i could speak tagalog. so i saved us both the effort. it's been 15 years since i've been really able to speak it fluently. now i just sound like a silly balikbayan with a heavy american accent.. garil na kasi.
- i received probably the best compliment of my life. the kind that just makes me feel good to be myself. so anyways i have a 16 year old goddaughter in the philippines who i saw for the first time since she was a newborn. her mom, ava (my kumare), had gotten pregnant with her at 17 and stayed with us for the duration of her pregnancy when i was living in the phils. at the time. well ava and i got really close during that time and she decided to make me her daughter's godmom. she gave birth to her 2 days before i left to move back to the states. so i hadn't seen her since i was 13 years old. she told me that i looked like an artista (a movie star). granted ok i was dressed to the nines because it was a formal dinner party. but still, its nice to hear things like that. :) esp for having a self-image that's as warped as mine. then again, i was awkwardly ugly at 13 so maybe that compliment was just in context of that fact. ok i need to stop detracting from that compliment and take it for what it's worth.
- i hate that white skin is such a cultural standard of beauty in the phils, when it's not the norm. personally i like tanned skin. and not that orange paris hilton tan, i'm talking kayumanggi.
- kc concepcion is quite possibly one of the most beautiful pinays i've ever seen. if i could steal anyone's life, it would probably be hers.
- also, piolo and sam milby are gay lovers according to the baklas at the ricky reyes salon.
- despite how backwards and third worldly it seems at times, being back in the phils. made me feel proud to be filipina.
when i was over there i got homesick after just 5 days. now i find myself wanting to be back there. sure, parts of the trip sucked. but i had fun overall. some of the sights i've seen were just indescribably beautiful..palawan in particular. i just don't want to go back to work and face reality again. i feel like there's nothing to look forward to.
will post pics later.
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| Time: | 5:27 pm. |
| Mood: |  sad. |
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14 days of snowboarding given such a terrible season is outstanding. and now that it's over (almost - i may go up on saturday), i feel like i'm getting dumped by a really hot guy i've been seeing for the past 4 months.
i just got this:
gnu 149 barrett pro magne with k2 cinches
best $300 i've spent in recent memory. riding that compared to my old board is almost like night and day. there was virtually no adjustment from my old 143. it cuts LIKE BUTTA and i can't tell if it's the magnetraction or the bindings or both but i swear it holds lines so much better.. i'm leaning further than i ever could without the board slipping out underneath me. i wish i had this board at the beginning of the season.
other than that not much else to report. i'm going to thailand and the philippines next thursday. you think i'd be more excited than i am, but i'm not for reasons i can't explain.
i guess i'd rather be snowboarding.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
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i get a raise at work and what is the first thing i do? i start pricing STI's and G35's. what's wrong with me? i have a perfectly fine car, which i'm about to pay off in 2 days and here i am looking to bury myself in debt w/ $800/mo car payments. Inifiniti plz stop seducing me with your sexy, sexy ways. must resist temptation. (but omgyesplz).
why is it so hard to live a life of complete austerity.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, October 19th, 2006
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the WoW episode on South Park just hit too close to home for me.
180+ days of my life went into this. $250 but sigrid was priceless to me. /gquit. gg blizzard.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
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something extremely stupid happened to me over the past couple days at work, and i just need to document it somewhere so i can look back on it and laugh. i work in IT, and 50% of my time is spent doing desktop support. i'm blessed to work in a place filled with mostly software developers, engineers, and scientists with PhD's, people of above average computer literacy - the vast majority of which i never receive stupid questions from. then there's HR. and not to sound like an asshole, but how exactly does one end up in the HR department? because i find that the ladies in HR are almost archetypal.. one does not exactly aspire to work in HR. you just end up there after failing at multiple career paths. bouffant hairstyles, yapping, liberal arts degree or something equally as useless, pushing their peanut brittle or potpourri for their daughter's girlscout disneyland fundraiser. my HR dept are a friendly, innocuous bunch nonetheless. except for this one lady. no, i won't even call her a lady. more like abomination. she's an oddly shaped woman. when i found out that she had gastric bypass surgery, suddenly that incongruous mass she calls a body made sense. ok enough of my stupid rambling tangents. this person has earned the reputation of being particulary difficult to deal with. she's the type of person to project her own inadequacies on others. she is a board certified bitch, beyond computer illiterate and when you combine the 2 this makes for one unhappy IT person on the receiving end of her helpdesk calls. we give each other that look like its your turn because explaining something as mindless as archiving your email is a 30 minute exercise in patience and restraint.
now, about a month ago i had the displeasure of upgading her laptop. i've recounted this story at least a half dozen times today, so i'm just goint to cut and paste the write-up of the situation which my managers asked me to do this morning (identities protected for obvious reasons):
* About a month ago, upon ******'s request I upgraded her laptop from a Latitude D400 (which was due to expire on 4/17/2007) to a Latitude D620. When I deployed it to her, she complained that the laptop was too heavy and that she'd like to have the lighter model laptop instead. I took the laptop back and set up a D420 for her. I had asked for her old laptop back, but she said she spoke to someone in IT about keeping her old laptop - this I should have verified, but I didn't.
* On Monday morning (10/9/06), ****** came by to let me know that ******'s laptop would not boot up. I visit her right away and I found that she was using her old laptop. I did not question why, but I proceeded to diagnose the issue. I was able to get the laptop back up again and left it at the Windows login screen. ****** then asked me if we could set up a time on Wednesday to transfer all her data from her old laptop to the new one (i.e. even though I had already transferred her data to her new laptop, she had been using her old one and wanted me to transfer all the cumulative work since then), as she was concerned that her old one was finally about to die. I gladly agreed to follow up with her on Wednesday.
* About an hour later, ****** comes back to me saying that the laptop is very slow and asked for me to look at it again. At this point, I figured it was a hard drive issue so I gave her a loaner laptop to use while I ran some diagnostics on her old laptop. I let Vee know what the situation was, and he went to speak to her.
* After running a checkdisk on her hard drive, it stopped at 75% and came up with an unrecoverable sector error, after which I could not boot into windows. I placed the hard drive in an external case to see if I could salvage any data but it was unreadable. I gave the hard drive to ****** to see if he could recover any data from it but to no avail. ****** spoke to ****** around this time to inquire why she was using her old laptop instead of the new one I deployed to her. Her reasoning was that she could not find the "delete" key on the new laptop, therefore she's been using her old one ever since. She also pointed out that I did not bother explaining to her the layout of her new laptop upon deploying it to her - although the entire time that she has had it, not once did she contact me with any questions so I was not aware that anything was wrong. (Note: the keyboard layout of a D420 and a D400 are identical).
* ****** asked me to give back her new laptop, explain to her the data has been lost on the old one, and give her a brief explanation of the hardware differences between her old laptop and the new one, which I gladly agreed to do. She was very upset that the data had been lost on her old laptop after I explained to her what had happened. I set up her home wireless configuration and set up her "My Documents" to sync up with her H:\ drive. The rest of her data and settings had already been migrated since the time I initially performed her laptop upgrade.
* A few minutes later, ****** comes back to me complaining that the font size and background were not the same as her old laptop, to which I come back to her desk with her to figure out what settings exactly she was speaking of. I sat there for about 15 minutes adjusting the resolution, the windows themes, and the wallpapers - but she did not seem satisfied with any of them. I then showed her how exactly to do this herself and asked her to let me know if she had any questions.
* Shortly after, ****** went to visit her to follow up and see how she was doing, to which she expressed how displeased she was with my service.
I normally don't let things like this bother me, but when ****** asked me to do a write-up of this situation I was scared that she was going to escalate this issue with upper management. I felt that I had done nothing wrong, but her frustration with the situation seemed to be completely directed at me.
yesterday afternoon after this all happened, my manager asked me to write the above and i just broke into tears. i was just absolutely dumbfounded and infuriated that i even had to do a write-up when her complaints were totally baseless and absurd. the only ONLY reason i had to write it is because she's a VP, she's high enough to make a stink about it and actually cause concern to possibly jeopardize my employment. its fucking stupid. hierarchical corporate politics is everything i found ugly and revolting about hp, everything i thought my current place of employment was not. the entire situation is stupid and i just lost it right there. so, i walked out and cried in my car for a bit. he followed me shortly after and told me it was ok, to not let her get under my skin, that he was on my side, etc. and that i should take the rest of the day off. that night i felt completely stupid and naive for reacting the way i did. ended up with a monster headache and fell asleep by 8.
the next morning my manager's boss asked me to send the write-up to him. shortly after they pulled me into a conference room (and i started crying a bit like a fucking idiot) and he said that i shouldn't worry, they're all on my side, i'm not the first person to have a problem with her, they're very happy with me and are in fact giving me a promotion (to what, i don't even know) and a nice bonus this year, and that our VP (of IT) is talking to the HR VP about the situation. i'm of course relieved but i still feel retarded for crying in front of my managers. i don't want them to think that everytime i have a problem with someone i'm gonna run to them crying because no one makes the IT princess cry and gets away with it. christ. i was such an emotional wreck these past 2 days, and it's no coincidence i had pms. there you have it. to be continued.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
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as heard on the radio this morning on my way to work, aaron carter's "that's how i beat shaq" playing in the background -- "it's like cancer if cancer were music."
lots to update but i'm too busy at work atm. biggest news is, i moved out and am living by myself for the first time ever. pics here. also, i turned 28 last week. i had a hard time dealing with it at first, but i'm almost at acceptance. i keep wondering where my 20's went. i had a party on saturday.
also, animal crossing on nintendo ds is the current flavor of the month, after toying with the idea of going back to ffxi. i quit WoW. what a relief.
i can't wait for it to snow again. its the only thing i've been really looking forward to lately.
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i just scrolled down and there are entries from 2004 on the same page. geez. well i don't have much of an update so here's a compelling list of current likes & dislikes guaranteed to titillate and amaze:
likes:
final fantasy x
mediterranean food
cholay bhature
pwning EVERYTHING in blackwing lair, muthafucka
berry clusters cereal from trader joe's
iced soy chai lattes
dislikes:
da vinci code the movie
tetanus shots
gaining weight
being on call
doing backups
veritas
bikram yoga
exercising in general. i fell off the wagon the past couple weeks. <3 lethargy.
the cost of a decent 1br apt in the bay area
all for now.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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i have little room to complain in regards to my current situation. i live a completely independent and self-sufficient lifestyle, have a well-compensating and challenging job with people whom i enjoy working with, have enough of a financial cushion to do as i please, and.. i have my health i suppose. but lately i've been feeling more lonely than usual. /cue violins. here i am on a thursday night, had planned to spend my evening on WoW.. but what is this.. servers are down?! /die. i've become one of those people fraught with uncertainty when things like this happen and i'm bludgeoned with the sudden, harsh reality that i have no friends, friends i can call up and be like hey lets get coffee.. or lets go to north beach and have dinner... or lets catch a movie. no! whether by geographic displacement or.. maternal priorities, i really have lost all my nigs. gone, dispersed, and burdened with life-altering responsibilities - the kind that wont let them go out on a whim without liaising with the babysitter.
have i just gotten that much older? i'm at that age where everyone else is getting married, having kids, becoming boring. and i relent! i refuse to go down like that. ANYONE ELSE WITH ME?! /crickets.
altho, at the same time, i don't wanna be that douchebag going to the clubs and bars at 37 either.
i just miss going out. and more importanly, i miss the company of others. back to solitary confinement and season 2 of lost.
i'm going to go to the gym too. my second consecutive week of hitting the gym at least 3 times/week. i actually gained weight. now at first this had me concernicus until i realized waaaaiit a minute. muscle tissue>fat. ZING! i do feel a very palpable difference in my arm muscles (biceps and deltoids in particular). when i flex i actually feel something. this has never happened before, people. monumental, indeed.
my next challenge at the gym is overcoming my fear of the treadmill. someone at work laughed at me when i told them i burn 200something calories after 30 mins on the elliptical. and there i was thinking i was the shit because i could stay on for that long. /humblepie.
my greatest challenge is eating right. i'm very particular about the food i eat. not to sound like a snob, but yes i am above leftovers. i can't eat something more than 3x in a row. i don't like repeat offenders. and what's worse is the utter and complete blandness of "healthy" foods. i'm sorry but whole grains and tofu will only go so far for me. maybe if they were re-introduced to me in a thai or indian context then yes, please by all means inquire within.
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Comments: Read 9 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
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today was our final performance appraisals. i got a 15% raise to my salary...
O_O
...
>_<
...
O_O
for being with my company for only 6 months, this is amazing. either they have an almost daunting amount of faith in me or this company is wiping its ass with dollah billz.. i'm thinking its the former (which terrifies me btw), after discovering that the rest of my team received a meager 2% raise.
the self-depricating part of me is doing some serious soul searching to try and justify this. like wtf have i done in the past 6 months that was that extraordinary? and honestly i can't see it. i don't think any one of us in IT work harder than the other even though we each have our own niche. i dunno.. this news is met with much trepidation and anxiety. now i feel that much more pressure to live up to the expectation and what if i don't deliver?! anyways i need to take that franklin & covey's 7 habits of highly effective people or whatever. i had to give this presentation to our VP and was just stumbling over my words and O_o getting flustered. and then he says he might have me do the same presentation in front of our CFO. aghhhh. -_-
but anyways it seems as if i'm finally finding my career path.. some 7 odd years later than i probably should have. i see myself going away from the more technical side of IT and doing more project management. we'll see.. tbc.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
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I'm officially disgusting... I just polished off a filet mignon, spinach & mushrooms, and a fucking vat of chocolate souffle... I'm about to keel over. Total damage=$71.75. O_O hahahaha
But I still hate eating alone -_-
Edit: and just for the record and my own tracking purposes, this was only the third best steak i've ever had.. after emeril's nola in new orleans and papillon in fremont.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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a3ri's journal
