Archive for the ‘Daily Grind’ Category

July Fourth Weekend

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Oh happy July, my favorite month!  Maybe part of my positive association with it is the holiday three day weekend to start off the month.  MTV has a half day at work today and I’m leaving in 15 minutes.

I’ve been continuing my learning by exposure to WordPress on my personal site.  I’ve tagged and categorized the first eight pages of posts.  Only 86 more to go!  Note to self: continue starting with July 29, 2008.  There was actually a WordPress question that came up that was work related.  How do we deal with integrating one blog from one URL into our proprietary framework which will require the same blog to integrate into multiple domains for multiple regions?  We’ve got some possible solutions up our sleeve.  Anyway, this just proves that my WP work isn’t all for naught since I can consider the capabilities of the technology.

July 4th Weekend will be spent hanging out with Henry’s family.  Should be good times. =)

Terminator: Salvation and Land of the Lost

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

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*6/6, Saturday – Watched Terminator and Land of the Lost Saturday night after playing some ultimate in Central Park and eating a chicken and rice lunch from the Halal Guys that day. Terminator wasn’t as bad as Andrew said it was going to be. I guess he set our expectations low. It was action packed and appeased my visual senses. It had no tie in to the Sarah Connor Chronicles but it was a good movie on it’s own.

Land of the Lost, on the other hand, was a kill your brain cells type of movie. Right from the start, I just wanted it to end. I seriously hate stupid humor movies. I don’t get Will Ferrell Either. He’s not that funny. Really. I didn’t like the plot line. I didn’t like the characters. I didn’t like the action. I didn’t like the movie. Apparently its a remake of a 1974 film. I bet that old version was better. I thought initially this movie was going to tie in somehow to the TV series which I remember watching: Land of the Lost so I guess I was disappointed even more. =[ Don’t watch the movie.

Weekend Events

Monday, June 1st, 2009

*5/30, Saturday – G & G Chinese Laundry Dress Pickup. The results of the dress adjustments were sufficient. There were a little weird things going on like a bump on the back of my dress that couldn’t really be removed o.Oa. But its not that noticeable. The worst part of the experience was that after giving them three full weeks to work on my three dresses, when I arrived at the time we agreed upon, they still weren’t done with my dress! Henry and I grabbed lunch to pass some time as they said it would only take half an hour longer but the dress wasn’t actually done until two hours later. We were waiting around at the place and Henry was highly annoyed. I guess the thing to take away from this is set your customer’s expectations correctly. If it will take another few days or if it will take a few hours, state that rather than giving them high expectations. It’s better to be pleasantly surprised with a quicker turnaround rather than be disappointed because deadlines aren’t met. Maybe that’s why my estimates on my development time always are longer than my actual results. o.Oa.

Henry and I went to Central Park after that. We were supposed to meet with Allen and them but they left already since the dress pickup made us late. Henry and I got some reading in. Helen came by and tossed the frizbee around with Henry. Later we met up with Andrew and Amy and watched Up. I wasn’t really feeling it but Henry and I both knew that despite how we feel about these shows initially, they always surprise us in the end. The ratings were good so it was worth a shot. Henry and I were pleasantly surprised (again). Pixar constantly outdoes themselves. Up was probably the best Pixar flick I’ve seen. I’d put Wall-E in second and Incredibles in third place. Its surprisingly filled with humanity and emotion packed into each scene. It has a range of emotions that adds a touch of drama, a touch of comedy, a touch of action to the movie. I highly recommend it.


Henry and I got back late because we saw a late showing but even after that I had to do updates for the MTV Movie Awards International sites since I had to do QA and not everything deployed. I was up til past 4am that day -_-;;.

*6/1, Sunday – Henry and I went to Syosset to hang out with his old church friends again. Angie and Adrian, whose wedding we had just went to two weeks previous to that date, were surprised with a going away BBQ. I’m usually quiet around those people. Big group of people who all know each other well and I’m the awkward +1. It wasn’t until the very end when I felt more comfortable with everyone and started talking more. One conversation that sparked my interest was about the show, Deadliest Warrior o.O. Stupid show but everyone likes to make fun of it. Its interesting enough and quite amusing. Later on I had an actual conversation with one of Henry’s friends – Johnny (the kung fu guy). I found that to be a success in terms of getting out of my shell in that crowd.

We got home by 8pm because I had another launch to check on (I had to do launches according to each international time zone). We watched the MTV Movie Awards at 9pm and to my dismay, Twilight took over everything. I was so disappointed that MTV fans have been overrun by Tween Twilight Fans. I guess this is what happens when we leave the votes all up to the audience. I was really hoping Iron Man would win. It’s my pick for best movie of 2008. Oh and that thing with Bruno’s bare butt on Eminem’s face was really sad and stupid. I don’t see the point. It’s not funny or entertaining. It’s quite disgusting actually. I felt bad for Eminem and wanted to apologize to him on behalf of MTV. *shakes head*

Memorial Day Weekend

Monday, May 25th, 2009

This Memorial Day weekend was bittersweet. It was a great break from the everyday life to have four days off. Friday was my Summer Friday and Monday was the Memorial Day holiday.

*5/22, Friday – Summer Friday. Henry and I didn’t do much. I slept in til noon. We played some Fable II, ordered Papa John’s pizza. Watched a Netflix movie, Letters from Iwo Jima. Watched auditions for So You Think You Can Dance. I think we also played some Gears of War 2.

*5/23, Saturday – We were spending the day with Henry’s cousins. As we got ready to go out, I checked my email and received sad news that one of my GRX SF friends from my small group 318, Patrick Kong, had passed away. It took me by surprise and I couldn’t believe it at first. As the news set in, the sadness overcame me. I tried not to think about it too much since we were about to leave. Henry empathized with me and said we didn’t have to leave but I wanted to distract my mind. Although I didn’t give myself a chance to mourn for very long, I keep thinking about him throughout the past few days. He was one of the GRX SF guys I chatted with on IM. I played Scrabulous with him. We were going to play StarCraft some day. He let me park at his place and he drove me around when I needed a ride. He was there for my farewell gathering when I left SF. He was a good friend and I will miss conversations with him. Rest in peace, Pat.

Henry and I got to Central Park about an hour late. Helen, Stephanie and Christine were there. We grabbed lunch at Subway and ate at Sheep’s Meadow at the park. The weather was nice albeit a little on the windy side. We played some big two and some ultimate. Mike, his gf Lisa, and Ryan joined us. We stuck around until about 4 or 5pm. Then we had dinner at Shake Shack where Michelle (Henry’s cousin) joined us. The line was long as usual but it was Stephanie and Christine’s first time there and they couldn’t stop thinking about it the next day.



Afterwards, we headed to some closeby Karaoke place (not Duet). I have a lot more courage to sing just to have fun now that I accepted that I don’t need to sing well to sing Karaoke =P. I was happy with singing Love Story by Taylor Swift and proceeded to sing some pop songs. I learned I cannot sing like Beyonce to sing If I Were A Boy. I learned that it’s not so easy to sing Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat (plus, harmonizing makes it even more difficult). I enjoyed singing with Stephanie because she is so passionate about it. Henry woke up later and we sang a few of the 80s classics. Come What May is difficult to sing. Funny how I wouldn’t have realized it if I hadn’t tried. I will never learn how to sing Hey There Delilah. I sang a few of the musical songs too – Defying Gravity and Popular with Stephanie. I was Elphaba. I’m an Alto and have the hardest time with high notes. I want to get better at singing. Someday I will improve but while I suck might as well try and practice =).

After Karaoke, some of the cousins left (Mike, Ryan, Michelle and Lisa). Henry and I went home to pack up for Long Island. We got the car to pick up Helen, Stephanie and Christine. Dropped off Stephanie and Christine at their parent’s place then headed to Henry’s parents’ place. I remembered that this was the day of Sung’s graduation. Congratulations, Sung! I wish I was there to celebrate with him but he also said it was mostly for the family. He doesn’t feel like it’s over yet until he’s done with his thesis. I called him to congratulate him that night and killed half my phone battery =P. Best of luck to him!

*5/24, Sunday – Hung out with Henry’s family and Stephanie and Christine’s family at Long Island. They had a barbecue. 烧烤及好吃. Just lazied around, napping at the couches thanks to food coma. They had tiramisu cake too, my favorite =). There was this Chinese Romanian child, a neighbor with her caretaker, who came over. Henry’s mom was talking to her in Chinese and I was trying to learn from them talking to her o.O;;. She probably knows more than me =[. Was doing laundry for most of the day. Read some books – Henry’s Portable Life 101 book and Mrs. Lee’s Chinese Children Stories book that the author gave to her as a gift. Headed home at around 9:30pm, got back around 10:30pm, rested, played some Fable II then conked out.

*5/25, Monday – Got food from Taco King for dinner. Watched Gladiator. Got too lazy to do anything but play Fable II. Great weekend.

Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/8346990_i7FAX

Wall Climbing

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

*05/20/09, Thursday – So yesterday, Henry gathered a bunch of people together to go wall climbing at Chelsea Piers. It’s been long overdue. We’ve been wanting to go back for some time now. Finally we got to go for a second time. We got a great group together – Henry and me, Guy from work, Karen and her friend Min, Janet and Dan, Janet’s bro and another friend of theirs. All together we had nine people. Cool thing is Guy and I even saw Karmelina there before she went off to play her Women’s League game. Even before we started our climb, my biceps hurt because I worked out back and biceps the day before. I tried to take it easy so I didn’t do the bouldering too much. It gave me a boost of confidence when one of the guys said I looked like I knew what I was doing so he didn’t guide me as much. I zoomed up the first try and got back down pretty quickly. That was easy. I don’t remember trying different routes as much. I guess I don’t really remember the easy ones.



I tried out some of the routes that Henry and I did the last time we were here for our birthdays. The red route which Henry said gave me trouble last time surprised me at one point because I had to do a weird turning thing to reach the next grip up. I had to corkscrew my body to reach higher o.O. The guides were great at guiding me though and were very patient as well. The path that really killed me was the mint green path at the middle. There were grips that were just too far out of reach and I had my body diagonal. At this point, my hands were sweaty, my arm strength was low and I couldn’t get up without having to rest and resort to using the rope to help me a times. I did eventually make it to the top but that took every last bit out of me. Next time, I’m starting out with that red and green path so I have more energy when I attempt it.

Its always fun going climbing. I hope I could do it more often. I also noticed that with my nervousness and excitement and adrenaline pumping, I have so much more energy and I’m even a lot more sociable. Working out really does help me even beyond toning!

After climbing, everyone else went their separate ways and Karen, Henry and I grabbed a burger at New York Burger Company. A good meal after a great workout.

Gallery: http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/8346777_Pk24Q

Today’s been pretty chill. I’m not as stressed, especially since I have nothing planned after work. I’m looking forward to a relaxing/fun Memorial Day weekend. Four days off! w00t!~