"I don't want to give somebody my input and get his feedback, though I'd be glad to offer my ideas and hear what he thinks of them." On Writing Well Fifth Edition by William Zinsser



12/14/04
Latest aquarium pic (click to see larger version)

So this past week was full of parties!

Tues: IGN.com party at the Viceroy in Santa Monica
Wed: Future Network Party at Lucky Strike in Hollywood
Thurs: Ignited Minds party at Garden of Eden in Hollywood.

VERY FUN this week.  Next week: Tues: House party at Ivar. Thurs: Dinner with the agency and possibly Arrow party at Joseph's Cafe in Hollywood and Deutsch Party at Ivar!  Whew..

12/3/04
Went on my first Eurotrip this past Thanksgiving week.  Visited Madrid, Lisbon, and Porto.  Check out pics here:  http://photos.yahoo.com/dashoe30

An old video from 2002 that is totally awesome!  "The Parlor"
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=412263

10/3/04
This weekend was rather interesting.

Fri: 
Went the the Dodgers vs Giants game, and had to deal with the horrendous parking situation, pre-pubescent USC kids who thought they were cool, Indians who thought their crappy airplanes that only flew one row down was funny (and hitting us I might add) and having to listen to their native tongue.  I did start jumping on the bandwagon by creating my own paper airplanes out of the crappy Dodgers calendar like everyone else.  Afterwards, had to go find the car in the parking lot, squeeze our way out of traffic and go to Mountain Bar in Chinatown.  Hung out there til 12ish and went to Pleasures in Pasadena, a gentleman's club.  Got a table dance from a dancer who rubbed her inner thigh on my forehead.

Sat:
Woke up around 8:20, got ready, and headed to Verizon Ampitheater in Irvine to help out with Arrowfest, the biggest Arrow concert of the year.  Line-up: Edgar Winter, 38 Special, Steppenwolf, Styx, REO Speedwagon, and Boston.  Helped give station listeners their tix, get crowds to cheer for the live broadcast, sit around, chit chat with tailgaters and get some margarita out of it, lounge around, and actually watch the concert.  Got awesome seats in the orchestra section about 10 rows away from the stage.  Stood close to an actress who's on Deadwood and saw Michael Rosenbaum from Smallville dancing and singing along to REO Speedwagon.  Drove out to Laguna Beach to try and meet up with someone, but ended up driving straight out because I had no idea where the hell I was going and my friend wasn't answering his phone...so I just headed out to Hollywood and hung out with friends.

So here are more pics from my aquarium:


Hammer Coral


Xenia


Xenia, Snail, Mushrooms, and some algae


More Mushrooms above and an Aspastia(?) (which is bad for the tank)


Another Mushroom


Another Xenia and more Mushrooms

9/27/04
Newest animal additions thanks to Mr Huoh and his overgrown invertebrates!

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=555&TopCatId=506

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=735&TopCatId=528

 

9/15/04
Danger!  Noob computer user alert!  Seeing as how I work at a company whose sole purpose is to resell computer parts, you'd assume that the majority of people working at the company would have some level of expertise with a computer.  I mean shiet, isn't it a requirement these days to type something like 100wpm, know 10-key by touch, know how to operate a computer mouse, turn on a computer and screen and most importantly, know how to operate your own god damn computer!?  Especially for someone with a college degree!?!?

Today was a new learning experience for me.  I had only assumed that people with no prior computer experience would be over the age of 50, but lo and behold, there is someone under that age with the computer knowledge of a N00b! 

So the only other person who cried for help in this situation was my mom.  But this unnamed person of color at my work apparently had the same problem.  You know when you're surfing a site, and there's lots of pop-ups?  Sometimes its the one that says "WARNING!! You're computer may have been infected with a virus."  Well, my mom once called for me wanting to know if there was something wrong with the computer.  This guy at work, however, called the IT department to assist him in his time of crisis and waited 2hrs while someone from IT in another building in another city came over before touching his computer again.  Little did he realize that it was a simple pop-up.  As for my mom, I wasn't surprised since he definitely was a computer n00b, even though she used a computer at work - probably some uber basic setup to do some basic work.  That's the first part of his idiocy.

Today he took the cake (speaking of which, whenever there's free food, its like he's a homeless who hasn't eaten for months or acts like he needs to feed a family of 10 - he grabs platefuls of food to scrunch down while he sits at his desk getting fatter and fatter by the second).  I would say everyone but the Director of Marketing has some form of illegal program installed on their computer.  I won't name what, but they are pricey.  So this unnamed man of color asked for this program so that he could make a file.  Of course the program was hacked.  So he installed this program, and tried doing this simple conversion of data, but had difficulty.  This guy is such the retard (oh yea, he's in his 30s at least).  So he asked IT to come by to help him with the program and they thought maybe he had to register his program online to get the program working properly and they did with all REAL information - name, phone #, address and all!  Later that day, IT got a call from the company telling them that an illegal version of the program had been installed.  At that point, IT removed that program, along with all other illegal copies of the other programs installed on his computer, basically wiping out a chunk of important programs needed to function daily in that company.  Earlier, he had also copied a message he had with another person in the company with name and all and EMAILED it to IT or some department, so now there's a record of the conversation regarding the illegal program!  On top of that whole fiasco, now legal might be involved since it is illegal to have hacked programs installed....This individually claimed that it wasn't his fault and that he didn't register the program....  More to come later as the story unfolds

So now on to the dream I had this morning...

I was at the beach, and I was watching a fireworks show, three in fact, going on with the same exact firework configuration.  As this was going on, I walked on the beach, and mysteriously ended up inside Glo's house, right inside her front door.  I noticed something on the floor - a display with pictures rotating every couple seconds and I thought to myself "WOW, she won the NE sweepstakes prize!" She was like "Do you want it?" "No". 

Then another friend came by, and was like "I need to take a shower" "Ok".  So I followed him to the bathroom, he walked in the shower and beside him was double doors.  I walked through and another set of double doors was in front of me.  Opened that one which led to a patio with tall glasses surrounding the sides in a square shape.  I looked up and noticed that water was filled almost all the way to the top, probably 15 feet high.  As I was standing outside, I heard some singing and saw people swimming around in the water.

I walked back in and went out again and noticed that people were walking around the top on a walkway.  At this point, I realized that her house was part of a whole complex of houses attached to each other with a canal like area that ran between the houses in this huge Greek-like structure.  I also heard someone singing.  I walked back in and asked how I could get up to the top where everyone else was and they proceeded to show me how. 

Once I got up there, it felt like the upper level of a mall.  I walked towards a U shaped section like where all major department stores are located, and noticed that that section was blocked of by yellow tape.  I had heard that medusa was singing.  She was very mystical and enchanting and was singing with a microphone.  In front of the yellow tape on both sides of her were these females wearing all black with black hair and glitter in their hair.  I didn't really stand in front of her as I was afraid I would have turned to stone, even though they put the yellow tape far away so that no one would be turned to stone, so I just peeked around the corner.  As I was peeping, her minions starting walking away and as one passed me, I started speed walking in the same direction, passing her up to walk into Macy's.  I kinda opened the door for her, but I was afraid of what might happen.  So I walked into Macy's, the expensive couture section and starting prancing/running through the walkways and noticed that she was kind of following me.  I increased my speed.  She starting speaking in her mystical voice "Ed, we need you, you're the only one who can speak Arabic".  "You are the chosen one to speak with Medusa"  At this point, I realized that earlier, someone had mentioned to me that my Arabic skills would be sought after.  I paused for a second, and listened to more of the music, and realized she was singing in French.

At this point, I was awaken by my dad who told me that I was going to be late for work if I didn't wake up.

Latest pics of tank

This is something I found while searching the tank in the middle of the night with a flash light.  Its amazing how many nocturnal creatures we've got in our tank. Read More

We're having a slight brown algae bloom again...I'm assuming its a result of the tap water that got in the tank.

And Happy New Year to all the Jewish folks out there!

9/1/04
Happy September!

So today at work, I walked in to a Anna/Jommy's office.  Now for those of you who don't work at my awesome company, Anna and Jommy are in charge of generating revenue by selling ad space on various advertising venues we are active in.  So today, the two of them had a big meeting they needed to present to the PMD (the lead purchasers I believe for each department).  Anywhoo, I walked in, and with all the air scents, the frou frou things lying around, I said "Jommy, you're room's starting to get feminized."  And in response, he said, "It started to get feminized the moment you walked in." The Nerve!! =)

Anyway, here are pics of the aquarium with Marshall Rock that was recently purchased.  Spent $250 for 30lbs of rock.  ROCK!!!!  But its looking cooler now.  Compare it to the pictures down below and you'll notice that it looks a little more complete (as far as rocks are concerned).  Still need to add some more though.  I spent almost an hour just trying to organize the rocks!!! (I think)

8/31/04
So yesterday, I get into work, turn on my computer, and see two pop up screens say "183,000 Emails sent".  WTF!!!  I sent out a newsletter TWO TIMES to our mailing list, and had MIS accidentally send it out again to that same list!!  WOOPS.  Started off my day HORRIBLY!!

So some pics of our first outbreak in the tank


The only living organism in our tank!  A snail!  I wonder how long before it croaks.

8/24/04
Here are pics of my aquarium setup with some ghetto temporary stands made from 3 blocks of wood wrapped around aluminum.  How Asian is THAT!?

I'm blind...

So as I was driving home, I saw a car with a bumper sticker that said "Marriage = (picture of man) + (picture of woman)".  Lame ass old school person.

Staut Wallock, as his AMEX card likes to call him, has been pissing me off for the last, oh....6 months or so he's been working here!!!  So today, right after I said I was leaving, he's said "Hold on a sec, I have a question for you." "Ok".  I waited. "What's your question?" "Hold on." ...... "Can you have the person who did the Intel/Kingston promo come in early tomorrow to work on the landing page?"

"Ok"

"Its very important that we get this done tomorrow because it needs to be up on Thurs."

"Ok"

UGHHHH!!!!  How many times do I need to be reminded of it.  Does he not think I'm working on it???  Does he not know how utterly annoyed it makes me when he opens his mouth, period?

8/20/04
Friday, worked on the fukin budget all day!!! MOTHERFATHER!!!  Hate this shit!  After work, went to the Van Halen concert with Rass...only knew like 2 of those songs.

Sat, went to the Getty Center for a work-related outing.  Had some subway, then shuttled my arse up to the top, walked around real quick, then left around 2 to go to a picnic sorta thing my friend was having.  Got a fuqin parking ticket becuase I didn't put enough in the meter.  Sad part was...I was thinking of putting more $$ in the meter, but thought I had some extra time.  Then the second time I was thinking of putting more money in, I saw the meter rider slap a ticket on my windshield!  That kinda ruined my day.  Then went home back to SM, did some aquarium stuff, then drove out to Malibu for James' b-day party, then took my arse elsewhere after making an appearance.

Here's the super powerful lighting system for the tank below.  It can light up a WHOLE CITY!!! This lighting system is really meant for like a 120gal tank......ours is 80gal.... =1

8/16/04
FUQ!! I got slapped with a $29 late fee for my AMEX bill.  Apparently, my previous AMEX bill was wedged between my credit reports.  UGH.  Revised...I called up AMEX and asked them if they could waive it...and they did.

So this past weekend, my bro and I FINALLY began constructing our salt water aquarium, one of the biggest investments we've made in awhile in terms of a hobby.  We made 70 or so gallons of Reverse osmosis de-ionized water mixed with salt, dumped that in, hooked everything up, and now we're waiting on the lights.  Below is a pic of what we've started.

 

 

7/25/04
Star sighting alert!
As I was walking out of the Bamboo Plaza in China Town after eating at the Empress something, I looked over to my left and saw someone pushing a stroller.  I did a double take, and stared a couple seconds longer and was like...

"Hey!  Aren't you from Felicity?"

"Yea, I am"

"And Alias.."

"Yea, I'm that guy too"

That was my star sighting report.  To be a little more specific, it was Greg Grunberg.  After this sighting, I called up a few of my friends who I had just had dinner with, and none of them knew who he was.  Tried calling up some other people, but none of them were answering their phone...sigh.  I had to tell someone.  Finally called Melissa and she knew who I was talking about! Woohoo. 

7/21/04
 

Asst. Principal Sends Threatening Letters

An assistant high school principal was arrested for allegedly sending herself 39 threatening letters she claimed were from students.

Mary Andrea Mitchel, 41, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 123 charges and was jailed on $480,000 bail.

Her attorney, Michael Mayock, said Mitchel was under duress because of a romantic involvement with the school's security officer, and the letters were a "cry for help."

Mitchel, who works at San Marino High School, notified the police about the threatening letters, which began arriving in March and continued through November, prosecutor Shelly Torrealba said. Some of the typewritten letters contained white powder that turned out to be harmless.

Mitchel offered seven names of students who might have sent the letters, and the students were investigated but never arrested, Torrealba said.

Mitchel was given escorts and surveillance, and police sought help from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service.

Mitchel eventually admitted she wrote the letters to get attention, Torrealba said.

7/17/04
Looks like I'm going to Espana!  My trip will be with Neil and James and the plan is to fly to Madrid Sat, Nov 20, stay a couple days, then head off to Lisboa in Portugal for the duration of the trip.  My first European excursion - what an excitement!

7/5/04
On June 30th, Pricewatch sent out an email at the end of the work day to all their merchants that they would be switching their current pricing plan from a set fee for a certain amount of listings to a new cpc model where they would charge .005% of the item cost every time the item was clicked on.  This new pricing model would take place beginning July 1st.  Barely even a 24 hour notice.  We let the system go on for a couple days to see the effect on our budget, and within one full day, we spent approximately 20% of our normal monthly budget with them in one single day.  One thing to note with this new model was that an item like an expensive LCD monitor that may cost $2000 would cost you, as a merchant, $10 every time that specific item was clicked on.  So if 10 people clicked on that item, you would've already lost $100 for leads to your site.

The following day, they sent out another email, but added that this would be "Good News".  The only good news it brought was for merchants with under 1000 product listings as they would be converted back to the original pricing model whereas merchants with over 1000 product listings would still be on the cpc model, and there would be a cap at $1000 for product clicks - so anything over $1000 would incur a .005% charge of $1000 ($5 CPC).

One company, in response to Pricewatch's sudden switch-a-roo, sent out an email to numerous merchants...the email follows.


Is your current price engine playing games with you?  Don’t like the idea of paying for clicks based on the prices of your listed products?

 

We want to make your life easier.  Check out SmarterDeals.com – the cleanest and easiest way for consumers to comparison shop on-line.  It’s also the cleanest and easiest way for you, as a merchant, to manage product listings and ad spending.

 

We built the SmarterDeals.com price engine with you in mind.

 

A few things we will ABSOLUTELY do:

-         We will respond to your questions and inquiries.

-         We will keep our price engine clean of “bogus” listings.

-         We will monitor the website in order to provides a fair and level playing field for all merchants.

 

A few things we WILL NOT do:

-         We will not use the cost per click (CPC) model.

-         We will not offer tiered search results based on billing rates.

-         We will not use bait-and-switch billing tactics!

-         And we promise to NEVER raise your rates with only 24-hour notice!

 

Tues, June 29th, I attended a surprise b-day for Neil's friend's bf.  Pretty awkward, but cool,

that I was invited to a party for someone I knew nothing about.  All the peeps were really

cool and I had a great time getting to know people.

  

6/15/04
I had a meeting with Bob of Bob and Bob today at work.  We talked about my contribution to work force, what my current projects are and all that fun stuff when you're being evaluated.  I might get a potential salary and rank increase as long as the CEO or one of the higher uppers doesn't swat me down.  Ain't nobody gonna hold me down...oh no..I gotz to keep on mooooviiiing.

6/14/04
WOW!!!  I finally got a package that was shipped out on Oct 13, 2003 TODAY!  That's what?....only 8 months late to the dot?  Good job FedEx!

6/11/04
Went to Asia de Cuba to hang out with the peeps from Pricegrabber.  Saw "Billy" from Ally McBeal, possibly Tom Arnold, a lot of skank ass biyatches.

Went to Saddle Ranch afterwards, ad on our way, saw the Carlson Twins from the A&F catalog and Weeman from Jack Ass.

Started coming home at 2, went to sleep at 3. Woke up 4 hours later to go to work.

6/9/04
How often is it that you go to a bar and smell the same two scents?  Sure, every bar wreaks of alcohol, but how many of Finlandia Vodka?  Today, I went to a new restaurant in Old Town Pas called Villa Sorriso, a new and more upscale version of Sorriso just a couple blocks down the street.  When I first walked in, I was amazed at how beautiful the restaurant looked - from the furniture to the architecture.  It had that modern, yet retro style that is very prominent right now in the "IT" scenes.  I walked into the bar to find our sales rep from one of the magazines we advertise in.  The first thing I noticed in this area was not the bar, but that they plastered Finlandia all over the bar - the counter had those Finlandia napkin and straw holders.  I didn't notice it at first, but later on when I was leaving the restaurant, I noticed that it smelled exactly like The Abbey, and it was all because of that vodka!  Ok, I'm ending my story abruptly right here.

That's it.

Bye.

6/8/04
Another recent email sent to the marketing folder regarding our reseller program..

"no reseller program? that's bullshit."

I've been pumping iron lately....Go Ed!  Hopefully, I'll be looking studly for all the people checking me out.... =D.  That and I feel chunky from doing the 40+ hours of work a week.

Tomorrow, dinner at Villa Sorriso.  Freakin BEAUTIFUL restaurant!!

Thurs, dinner at Asia de Cuba.  Another restaurant with superb food and BEAUTIFUL eye candy.

Cool vids One | Two (not work safe)

6/3/04
One of our customer praises that we received via email today

Hello Mr.Egg,
I'm writing to you to not complain but praise.  I can't tell how long I've been waiting for a website that offers me real hardware, with decent pictures, and good prices.  Every time I need something, I just
head over to your site and say "Yo Egg, hook it up", and your like "Yo b, check this shit".  I check that shit and it's tight, oh yeah, it's bad-ass in fact.  So I say "Yo Egg can I get this in 6-8 weeks", and
your like "Fuck that yo, I'll send that shit Fed Ex and it'll be there in a week", "For real?", "For real B".  I'm like "Damn Egg, you got yo shiznit toe-gether!", and your always like "This is what real Egg pimp'in is all about".  Thank you Mr.Egg, thank you very much.

Send me a T-shirt so I can tell my other computer fools what real Egg pimp'in is all about.
 

Search engine optimization at its best -> Nigritude Ultramarine (I'm helping out)

5/28/04
It's always fun when your high-tech car makes a note that "STC Service Required" is needed.  Its even more fun when it goes on and off for two days. 

Its a JOY RIDE when your car starts saying "Break Service Required" with the exclamation sign lit along with "Brake" highlighted in red all simultaneously while you're stopped at a light worrying whether or not you're car is going to fall apart...and then seeing the speedometer not move when you accelerate and then the message turning from a brake problem to "Transmission Service Required".  Don't worry about, I'm ok. 

I FINALLY got a new business card! Woohoo!  It's finally got the correct phone number, extension, and logo.  Still looks retarded, but hey, its a slight improvement over the old one?

5/26/04
When I arrived home today, I was greeted with two Best Buy envelopes:
1) A check for $0.41 with an apology letter for charging me tax on store credit along with an online store credit for $5
2) Coupons for the upcoming holiday!

I rock!

And today at work, I found out something horrendous.  I won't be working at the AVP tournament this weekend, but rather at the Summerfest in Old Town Pasadena!  NOOO!! I don't get to see all the hot bodies this weekend while soaking up the sun at Huntington Beach!  =(  I was so looking forward to that.  In a way though, it'll be cool to work at this event again since it'll in a way commemorate my 1 year anniversary with Arrow.  At least I get to work with someone pretty cute on Sun!  =)

5/17/04
So it's been a long time since I updated...sue me.  Its just that after a long hard day of work, I feel utterly unmotivated to do anything that requires a hint of thought processing.

So to update you on the work life.  I am no longer under the direction of Chad (I believe many of my friends have already heard my horror stories with this guy) and under the direction of a white dude by the name of Stuart who, from the numerous meetings and phone conversations I have been a part of, have learned that he use to work for Sony, promoting their robotic dog, the I-BO (sp?) in the US market (what a flop), worked for Activision following that, and did some private consulting for a couple years following that. 

At first, I thought this guy was a blessing to the Marketing department - finally someone who actually had knowledge about Marketing instead of this bullshit "Marketing" that I was doing.  But I soon realized that this guy was two faced and a total passive aggressive A-hole. 

Since he began working with us, he's insulted all our previous creatives, but in a passive way of course, tried to make people side with him on certain issues, gotten on almost everyone's nerves, including vendors and taken credit for everything that everyone else did for him.

So instead of typing out today's events again, I decided to just copy and paste my conversation with a friend....

DaShoe30: david from max pc came by
DaShoe30: and him along with me and andrew planned on having lunch together today
DaShoe30: and when david came by
DaShoe30: i met him first cuz andrew was talking to stu
DaShoe30: then andrew came by and was like...stu wants to go to lunch with us
DaShoe30: and we originally had planned it so that just the two of us were going
DaShoe30: then stu popped in
DaShoe30: and started talking
DaShoe30: and so we had to invite him to lunch
DaShoe30: so i was like
DaShoe30: fine
DaShoe30: and stu was like "i'm so sorry, i didn't know you two had lunch planned"
DaShoe30: and i was like "its cool, don't worry about it"
DaShoe30: when we got into david's car
DaShoe30: he was like....so i have those two angels tickets for you
DaShoe30: and i basically had the mindset of a dear caught in the head lights
DaShoe30: at that point
DaShoe30: cuz i didn't tell stu about that
DaShoe30: and i was like...well, i wanted to see how many you were able to get before telling anyone
DaShoe30: and he's like..well, i have 2, but if you want more, i might be able to get more
DaShoe30: and then
DaShoe30: and then when we got to the restaurant
DaShoe30: as we were walking
DaShoe30: david started going off about the futurenetworks party on thurs
DaShoe30: and he was saying it was a blast
DaShoe30: and stu was like..aww man, why didn't u invite me?
DaShoe30: and i was like...umm...you guys had the presentation to watch
DaShoe30: and david was going off on what was going on, how wanda sykes was there
DaShoe30: and yada yada
DaShoe30: and i was soooooooo embarrased
DaShoe30: in a way
DaShoe30: cuz i SOO did not tell stu about that either
calbear81: because you didn't tell Stu anything eh?
DaShoe30: then on the car ride back, david was like...yea, when we get back i'll get you the tickets
DaShoe30: and when we got back, we all got out
DaShoe30: stu said his byes
DaShoe30: and then david proceeded to open his bag
DaShoe30: and stu was like...i'm gonna go in first
DaShoe30: and david gave me a pair of tickets and a parking pass
DaShoe30: and then later on andrew was like...stu said not to mention that in front of him
DaShoe30: (the tickets)
DaShoe30: then later on....jeff was like...yea, IM said that they started the party early (with me) on thurs
DaShoe30: :-X
DaShoe30: so its ALLLL out in the open now
DaShoe30: :-[
DaShoe30: i just keep thinking that now i'm on stu's SHIT list

1/23/04
Today, I was the proud recipient of another verbal warning!  I now have a collection of 5 warnings under my belt.  This warning has much more meaning to me this time since the problem occurred over 10 print ads!  Unfortunately, I can't take all the credit since 3 other people were awarded the same if not better warning! 

I suppose I'm the black sheep of my department.  1 person finally got a written warning, the graphic designer, me and another girl all got a verbal.  

The reason:  The description for a sound card said "Pro", but the price and item# we included was not for the pro and was approximately half the price of the Pro.

1/22/04
I guess I'm overdue for an update.  Happy Belated New Years to everyone and Happy Chinese New Year to all the Chinese peeps out there!

This month has just been hectic at work.  My manager decided that we needed to plan out our projects in monthly segments so that we could work and add projects accordingly.  As some of you may know, towards the end of Dec, I was just bitching and complaining about my work and how it sucked and how there was absolutely nothing for me to do.  All has changed for the month of January.  Every single day has been hectic and full of work.  I don't believe there was a day I left on time.

The biggest project I'm working on right now is a sponsored LAN Party, mostly likely to be held at the Pomona Fairgrounds sometime in April, so keep an eye out for the announcement.  So far, my manager wants to entire event to be "free", but me and a couple other people are is disagreement as doing so will attract non-serious people, making the event not serious.  This week was also the first time that I was able to get out of the office for work-related activities - go and scout out locations to hold the event.  We checked out three venues this week - Pomona Fairgrounds, Pasadena Hilton, and the Anaheim Sheraton.  

Tues was the Pomona Fairgrounds.  We left the office around 9:20 to make a 10 o'clock appointment.  Got there, toured the place, and decided to go out and get lunch instead of going straight back to the office.  I was kind or worried, but one of the guys was like "don't you live dangerously?"  So we went to a teppanyaki place and had lunch somewhere in Upland. I officially know where Upland is now!

Wed was the two hotels.  Had a breakfast meeting at Pasadena and then drove to Anaheim to have a lunch meeting.  Both places were cool, but wouldn't really work out for us, hence the reason we chose Pomona.  

12/28/03
Yesterday was the big day for Mike Huoh and Sarah Mast as it was their wedding day after 6(?) years of being a couple.  The wedding ceremony was at the Wayfarer's Chapel in Palos Verdes, a small, quaint, and beautiful little chapel, built almost entirely of glass overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  For a December wedding, you couldn't ask for a more perfect day.  Clear blue skies.

On the way there, we listened the Rass's story of his breakup with Suzanne, we saw a phat Ferrari (360 Spyder) and I was closely chasing an ambulance in hopes that following the ambulance would clear the path for me so that we would make it to the wedding in time (Me, Paul, Rass and Lisa were riding in my ML).  I had my A Game (?) on the whole way there - I was driving over the speed limit everywhere.

The wedding was beautiful from what I gathered.....  =)

Ok, on to the reception.  Chart House in Redondo Beach was the setting for the reception.  The whole place was reserved to ourselves.  So we got there, signed in, turned in our gifts, looked at where our table was, went to our table, looked around, and noticed that people were in line for appetizers, so we followed suit.  Appetizers consisted of calamari, cheese and crackers and Champagne (I actually drank some!!).  When we finished eating, we started walking around a little, and as we were walking around, the DJ announced the entrance of the grooms men, brides maids, best man, and maid of honor.  I apparently was standing in their pathway.  Woops.  So everyone walked in in pairs towards the dance floor and the last person to walk in was Sarah accompanied by her brother.  When she walked onto the dance floor, Mike greeted her with an arm extended so that they could prepare to do the first dance of the afternoon.  They danced away to a song (dunno the name) and it was a real pleasure to watch Mike dance for the first time evar!  I'll probably remember it forever.  Following that was two very sweet speeches given by the best man, Mike's brother Kevin, followed by Sarah's Maid of Honor speech given by Sonia.  

Next, we were off to the tables to have salad and a lunch buffet.  Sitting at our table was Me, Lisa, Paul, Rass, Blake (Mike's friend from H.S.) and Tania (Sarah's friend from Elementary School).  A couple minutes after Blake introduced himself, I asked "Is that suit Hugo Boss?"  I asked because the way the pant and jacket flowed looked very similar to the way mine did and because I saw it in his inside jacket and wanted to confirm it.  Of course, he was very shocked that I knew.  A few minutes later, I asked if his dress shirt was Ben Sherman cuz the cuffs looks like the ones on my Ben Sherman shirt, but it was Thomas Pink.  He was shocked again and asked if I work in the fashion industry.  Silly him, of course not!  I just know my fashion.  We chatted about how we knew Mike and Sarah, what we did, snowboarding/skiing, and more. I'm glad I was stuck with this group of people.  When the ceasar salad was done with, we went and lined up to get food at the buffet which consisted of:  bread, rice, vegies, roast beef, pasta, blackened chicken, and shrimp.  The rice and the blackened chicken were the best (can't say much about the shrimp since I don't eat seafood).

Ate that and then another speech was given by Sarah's dad.  Then they were off to the dance floor to do the father/daughter dance to the song of "Butterfly Kisses". Then the main people in the wedding all danced.  Then came the swing music and I was forced to dance with Sonia (not that I didn't want to, but I don't know swing!!).  I looked like a dancing fool out there fo shizzle, but its all good.  After that, it was just straight mingling.  I tried taking as many pictures as I could of the group of us at the table and with Mike & Sarah.

Ate some really damn good cake that had banana bread in it.  Everything was good about it from the bread, to the bananas, the banana bread, strawberries, and yes, even the icing.  After that, just hung around, chit chatted, took pictures and just celebrated the wedding.

Link to pics: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4288203933

Realized how big a gas guzzler the ML350 is.  Spent half a tank driving there and back home.

12/02/03
It's another update after over a month.  

Today at work, one of the graphic designers decided to leave us.  He told everyone that his grandmother passed away and that he would be going back to Thailand.  We all said our farewells and that was that.

The ironic side this story is that just the day before, he was telling another graphic designer that he was offered a job in San Diego and was being paid much more and that he would start this Wednesday.

Needless to say, we all thought it was very pitiful that he was using the death of his grandmother and needing to fly back to Thailand as his excuse.  Sigh.  By the way, he's Thai.  No offense to Thai people, but while I was in Thailand, a LOT of Thai people would like to us straight up and think nothing of it.  Any way to make a quick buck.  This wasn't the situation though, but him lying straight up in our face, even when he told the other graphic designer about his new job and feeling nothing about lying to us just reminded me of native Thai people.  

Let's see what else I can ramble about.  I'm two degrees away from knowing the guy who represents famous stars like Madonna, Brad Pitt and dunno who else, but its a list of A stars!  I need to work on getting to go to his parties.  Last week, he threw a big ol party with uber famous stars and it was mentioned in People Magazine.  That's how big he is.  I think him representing Madonna should've been nuff said. 

I met a porn star this Thanksgiving weekend.

Had a special cookie Friday evening and enjoyed the company of Kristina, Ron, Janet, Phil, and whoever else was there!

This past Sat, I went to a couple bars, then decided to go to an after hours party from 3-6.  The whole time I was there, I told myself not to take a look at my phone for the time because I knew if I peeked, I would be complaining to go home and everything.  When I finally decided to take a look at my clock, it was because I saw people drinking alcohol, and that's when I knew it was getting early in the morning.  Left the club at 6:15 feeling fine.  But after I dropped a friend at his house in Hollywood and deciding to go to Norms for breakfast, that's when the tiredness hit me.  It was so bad.  Oh yea!  When I took a look and saw that it was almost 6am, I thought to myself, "Oh great, I bet my dad is up."  This was around 5:45.  As I was walking out of the club, I got a call from my dad, and he asked where I was.  I told him I was at a friend's house.  

Today at lunch, I went to Burger King and decided to buy a Big Kids meal since I didn't feel like getting a whole meal.  Right when I said what I wanted, the register chick gave me the funny smirk as if she was thinking "Oh my god, wtf is this 24 year old buying a kids meal for?" By the way, I turned 24 on Nov 13. Happy Birthday to myself!  And then when I picked up my food, she's like "kids meal, right?" while hiding a laugh. 

This past Thanksgiving weekend, went out every single day since Wed.  GREAT weekend for me.  Met new people, and had a blast going out.  Thanks to all the contributors of my great weekend.

10/28/03
Long time no update.  I guess working does make you lazy when you get home.  I've been too lazy to update this.  I won't say that there's nothing that goes on at work, cuz there always is something interesting.

This week, we hired another graphic designer - this time, a guy from UCSD and he sits next to me!  Triton power!

The past couple of weeks I've had a HUGE Howie Day obsession with his new album coming out and me attending his live performances.  Yesterday, I saw him at the Virgin Megastore on Sunset and was also able to get him to autograph some cd booklet covers.  I also got pictures of him in the background.  Its kinda funny cuz if you look at him, he's either looking at the camera looking disgusted or looking at a friend of mine.  I'm too lazy to post the picture right now, but maybe later. 

Tonight is the BIG night though.  Its HOWIE DAY LIVE IN CONCERT!!!  I've been waiting about a year to see him again, and I get a double whamy in two consecutive days!

Needless to say, I've been listening to his stuff for a LOOONG time.  Longer than any CD I own. How can you pass up different version of his songs???!?

Last week, I worked on creating a Media Kit to present to potential advertisers on the NE website.  I worked on it the majority of last week, and it's still incomplete. 

This weekend, I will be heading on up to SF to party up there! I've been wanting to go back up ever since I moved back down.  I will be using my hard earned money to fly up there!! AWW yea.  Now I can splurge and not worry about not having any money to spend.

Recently, I've made an observation about my phone.  As some of you may be aware of, I have a T616 that I got a few months ago.  Lately, I've been seeing it everywhere - commercials, print ads, etc.  At work these past couple of days, I realized that 3 other people got the phone and I saw people at the Howie Day appearance at the Virgin store have it.  A friend of mine also recently got it.  The phone is getting mad popular!!

Ok, that's all I'm talking about. Until the next update.

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