itsgary.com

Even though it has been a month since I started working again, I still don’t have a routine that I follow.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, I’ll make my trip into the office for work. I’ll say I’m probably there from 11:30AM – 7:00PM.  And around 9:30PM I’ll finish up my 8 hour day at home.  The rest of the week, my hours are all over the place.  One time, I managed to work from 6AM-2PM, which was awesome since I had the rest of the day to myself afterward. I haven’t been able to wake up that early since, although I’m trying!  Just last week, I took a 3 hour break from 11AM-2PM to pick up my sister and husband from the airport. And on Fridays, my hours vary quite a bit.  My last couple Saturdays have been unavailable so I usually finish up my remaining hours of the 40 hour workweek on Sunday.  Still trying to find that routine, though!  Otherwise, I feel like I’m always in front of my computer.  Speaking of that… time to get off and do some reading.

Thanks,

Gary

This past weekend, I attended my sister’s wedding with her boyfriend of 7.5 years. That is a long time for them to be dating and I’m glad they’ve lasted so long.  The wedding took place at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu. It was a good day to have the wedding.  There were some clouds in the sky, but really, any later and they’d be stuck in the downpour we’re currently experiencing in Southern California.  The wedding went by smoothly.  There were no disasters.  There was a dance floor that nearly everyone, including my grandma, made use of.  I didn’t take many pictures, though, mainly due to my poor choice of lens to bring with me, and also because I was running around a lot myself.  Anyway, congrats to them.  Hopefully they’re enjoying themselves in Fiji.

Dennis and Fanny + 1

Thanks,

Gary

2009 came and went and look! It is already 2009. As I don’t spend that much time writing these nowadays, although I still want to write, I will make this short and simple. On a side note, I do enjoy Fontaine’s blog.  Pictures make things so much more enjoyable.   Maybe I should start carrying a camera with me at all times (since my phone cam sucks).  But I tried that before… and I never used it.  Hah.

So… memorable moments of 2009.

- Inception of Lary (Lillian and Gary)
- Started volunteering with Asian American Tutorial Project (AATP).
- Got my Masters degree in Computer Science with specialization in Software Engineering from USC.
- Grandpa passed away (April 6)

Really. That’s it? Only 4 things?  4 things that I can think of now.

New Years Resolutions of 2009:
- Don’t eat chips or fries.

So how’d I do? I didn’t eat fries for all of 2009.  I don’t even crave them anymore. I guess that will be good for my diet, but I wonder what will I happen if I taste it again. I might start inhaling them.  As for the chips… that one’s a bit iffy.  I still ate Baja Fresh chips.  And people said that the tortilla from the hard tacos were just like nacho chips, too.  So I modified that resolution a little bit and changed it to no eating potato chips, fritos, cheetos, Pringles, etc;.  And the only chips I ate were Baja Fresh chips.  I’ll give myself a pass.

New Years Resolutions of 2010:
- Get myself in the gym 4 days a week. I’m not specifying duration, I just gotta get in there!
- No drinking soda. This one will be fun to try cuz I don’t know if I can do it! I do like my root beer.

I want to add in something like… sleep by midnight.  But I don’t think it will happen. I will try to sleep earlier anyway.

Thanks,

Gary

My boss took us fishing last week. It was my first time fishing.  He rented out a large 30-person boat, but there were only 7 of us.  Seemed like a waste!

Anyway, I thought it was pretty fun but only when you’re struggling trying to pull up a fish. Otherwise it can get boring.  Dang, those things are small but strong!  I lost a couple of them and I end up with just the hook and the bait missing.  We used live bait – anchovies.  I felt bad at first and had to apologize to them before I stuck the hook through their noses(?).  Eventually I just started using the cut-up squid.  I did pull up a baby sea bass but because it was a baby, it got thrown back in.  I also caught a pelican.

Thanks,

Gary

I started counting down at 16 weeks.  And then at 10 days.  And now I’m done!  The last semester seems to always be the hardest.  Although I did enjoy it and I did learn a lot (software architecture), I am glad that it is all over.  Now I have time to focus on my next stage in life, fortify my relationships, and pursue other interests.  I wondered not long ago, $48K and 1.5 years later, was it all worth it?   Let’s look back at why I wanted to go back to school to begin with.  I wanted to learn more, to have a focused curriculum instead of a general which undergraduate education provides, and hope that it would give me more opportunities in the future.   Strictly speaking, half of it is fulfilled – the learning part, and the other half is not, although in the long run I may have to look at it again.  But still there were other benefits beyond that scope.  New friendships.  Old friendships reborn.  Volunteer opportunities.  Recreational activities.  A girlfriend.  So I’m going to take what I got and run with it, because I’ve learned and experienced so much in the past 1.5 years that I don’t know who or what I’d be without it.

Thanks,

Gary

I’ve found myself having less and less time (or maybe less and less interest?) updating this blog… so it might be time to end it.   I originally intended it to be a place where people could find me maybe 10 years or 20 years down the line.  And check out my pictures and whatnot.  But I guess thats what Facebook is for, but who knows where Facebook will be in the next couple decades.  I’m sure I’ll start up something else next on the web.  Or I might start a blog again.  I’m a very fickle person.  I started blogging back in 2002.  Too bad I don’t have a copy of everything I’ve ever worked on.  Anyway,  I’m finishing school up in about a week.  Haven’t been able to find a job.  Maybe I’ll return to my spot in Irvine if they want me back.  It is a little up in the air.  If not, then I guess I’ll go live under a bridge or something and get people to pay the toll to cross the bridge. We’ll see.

Thanks,

Gary

It took 8 years since I first started following the Lakers for me to attend my first Lakers game and it was great! Parking at the Convention Center was $20, though, but Zung generously paid the entire thing.  We got nosebleed seats and those weren’t even that bad.  It was a little hard to see who was who but not impossible.  It was a game against the Suns and even though it was a blowout it was still fun because we could still cheer for tacos!  If the Lakers win and hold their opponent to under 100 points, then everybody gets 2 free tacos from Jack in the Box. Unfortunately that didn’t happen either.   I got myself a large $9 Budlight and it reminded me of my volunteering days at Qualcomm.  These guys must’ve been experts, though, since they didn’t have any trouble filling up my cup of beer.  I do remember that I used to have trouble with some of them because they’d be spitting out foam instead of beer, and then customers would yell at us.  The hotdog itself was good. It was $5 and lasted 4 bites.  Oh, and Rick Fox was there!   I couldn’t see where he was sitting but they showed him on the big screen.  He’s starting to look kind of old.  Not wrinkly old, but I’m seeing his gray hair.  Anyway, an overall good experience and I’m definitely coming back for another game this season!

Thanks,

Gary

It has gotten to that point in my life again where I need to find a job.  I am already employed but as I’m looking to build a career, I’ve started looking for a job elsewhere.  I’ve gotten a handful of interviews thanks to on-campus recruitment and I’ve applied for a number of other jobs through company websites.  Friday is probably the last on-campus interview I’ll be having as recruitment is ending along with the semester.  After that, I’ll be on my own.  I remember I once said that I wouldn’t worry too much about finding a job since I have a fallback, but funny how things change because I don’t feel that way anymore.

My posts recently have been few and short. Interesting.

Thanks,

Gary

My friend has a shirt. It says ‘The opposite of Irony is Wrinkly.”

Anyway.  I recently, more specifically yesterday, started ironing some of my clothes.   Its a quick task that leaves your clothes looking nice.  I used to just leave my clothes wrinkly, thinking that as the day went on, they’d just straighten themselves out.  Well, that doesn’t seem to work when my clothes are really wrinkly.  So I ironed my shirt.  I ironed my pants.  And yep… the clothes look nicer and it didn’t even take more than 5 minutes.  I think I will make this into a habit of mine.  And when I finish school, I may just iron all my clothes before I hang them up, instead of what I’m doing now – which is ironing my clothing right before I wear them.  Speaking of school… 6.5 weeks left.

Thanks,

Gary

So I’ve been away for nearly 3 weeks. That’s about how much time I’ve spent away from the gym. Dang!

I went to another Yelp Elite event (I’m actually behind on Yelping, too!) at the LAMILL Coffee where we learned and experienced the act of cupping, watched beans as they got roasted and turned from green to brown, and tried various types of tea.  They gave us free coffee beans and tea bags and of course provided some alcohol.  There seems to be alcohol at every Yelp Elite event.  I had the Black on Black which was coffee with Guinness.  I didn’t taste the Guinness much.   The taste of the coffee, although not bad, was quite strong.  I also grabbed an empty coffee sack on the way out.  I thought it would be cool to have since the bag came from Brazil.   I didn’t know what to do it with, though, so a few days later I tossed it.

I also made a trip to San Diego.  Activities in San Diego are mainly just eating, although there was a trip to UTC involved this time.  Met up with the regular folk whom I spend less and less time with nowadays.  Before there’d be a lot of gaming.  And then that got cut down to just sleeping over and hanging out. Now I don’t even sleep at their places anymore!  And the only time we spend together is the occasional meal.  The trip to SD was fun because I spent probably only 5 minutes on my laptop the entire weekend. The rest of the week, I probably average 10+ hours a day on my computer.  It’s good to get away.

Made another trip to Disneyland.  Check out my Astro Blaster score!  I don’t know if that was my highest ever.  I feel like I got a 400K+ at Hong Kong Disneyland but they don’t take pictures there so there’s no evidence of it.  But I’m happy with the score I got.  Getting the hang of it again.  My last trip there, I got less than 100K.  I also rode Toy Story Midway Mania.  I don’t know if my score is getting better or not.  It was my first time there to check out the Halloween decorations.  There were a lot of pumpkins in Disneyland and a lot of Candy Corn at California Adventure. I didn’t take any pictures, though.  I didn’t ride Space Mountain… there was some Halloween stuff done to it.  I might check it out on Wednesday before work.  Haunted Mansion was cool.  It is probably the same decorations that they use for Christmas.  Wait times were decent except for Space Mountain.  75 minutes!

Pew pew pew!

And most recently, was Jason Mraz at Hollywood Bowl.  It was my first time there so I didn’t know what to expect.  The stacked parking arrangement they have is kind of annoying but it also forces you to stay till the end of the event since you can’t leave early.  $19 for parking, though. $24 for a 32oz cup of Sangria.  Worth it!  We got seats at the very back on the bench.  The back is nice.  Despite the performers being a medium-sized speck up in front, you still get a nice view of the surrounding areas.  I think next time I’m going to bring  a blanket.

And that’s my 3 weeks in a nutshell.

8 weeks left of school!

Thanks,

Gary