16 years ago
Habitat for Humanity
This morning I got up at 0600 to join the Air National Guard and Habitat for Humanity to build houses up in Ventura/Oxnard. My friend Linda is a Lieutenant in the Air Force and she invited me to volunteer- we thought it was a great way to start off the new year and who can say no to good karma?
Construction work is harder than it looks, I kid you not. It is pretty exhausting holding up that heavy hammer and pounding in nail after nail. I was pretty lucky that I didn't hurt myself too badly (everyone knows how clumsy I am) although I did hit my thumb a couple of times. I kept my gloves on all day to minimize the risk of getting a bloody stump of a thumb.
There were a lot of different projects going on... some people were dry-walling, some were installing a furnace in one of the houses. Linda and I decided to join the big guys in framing a house. I learned a lot about putting the frame of a house together, it was pretty cool. My hips were pretty sore by the end of the day, my toolbelt weighed almost as much as I did.
Linda and I were awfully proud of ourselves.
Linda and Kaci working hard to get those nails nailed.
This is harder than it looks!
So the next activity she invited me to is the Camp Pendleton Mud Run, which is grueling 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit. . Needless to say, I passed.
Construction work is harder than it looks, I kid you not. It is pretty exhausting holding up that heavy hammer and pounding in nail after nail. I was pretty lucky that I didn't hurt myself too badly (everyone knows how clumsy I am) although I did hit my thumb a couple of times. I kept my gloves on all day to minimize the risk of getting a bloody stump of a thumb.
There were a lot of different projects going on... some people were dry-walling, some were installing a furnace in one of the houses. Linda and I decided to join the big guys in framing a house. I learned a lot about putting the frame of a house together, it was pretty cool. My hips were pretty sore by the end of the day, my toolbelt weighed almost as much as I did.
Linda and I were awfully proud of ourselves.
Linda and Kaci working hard to get those nails nailed.
This is harder than it looks!
So the next activity she invited me to is the Camp Pendleton Mud Run, which is grueling 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit. . Needless to say, I passed.
Celebrity Crushes
I've never been so into Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tom Cruise or the typical Hollywood celebrity crushes. I'm not into the effeminate playboy characters of Jude Law or Hugh Jackman. I think Ashton Kutcher and Josh Hartnett are incredibly good looking but something about their shoulders and posture throws me off.
No I'm pretty settled in my celebrity crushes. I've had the same ones forever. Two of them are married and the other is engaged to Fergie. Aye carumba.
Ivan Sergei... aka "The guy that looks like Tom Brady" I noticed him first in the series Jack & Jill... where I would painfully sit through episode after episode of Amanda Peet's annoying character just to watch Ivan. Then he was on a short-lived cop show called Hawaii. More recently, he had a small role in The Breakup... the image of him with the white dress shirt and v-neck vest will be burned into my mind forever. Muhaha. Well, it looks like he's taping another TV series... hopefully this one will air a bit longer before getting cancelled. Meanwhile I've added all of the movies and tv series he appears in (courtesy of IMDb) to my Blockbuster Online account... teehee. I'm starting an Ivan Sergei marathon. I had no idea he did long stints on Charmed and Crossing Jordan.
Josh Duhamel... I'm sure you've all heard my story... goes to my gym... only met him that one time though. He's so much hotter in person. I just rejoined my gym so I might be going more often when I know he happens to be in town. :) I think he lives in Brentwood or at least near my old house because I ran into him at the cell phone store by my old house too. Well Las Vegas is still one of my favorite shows and very high on my Tivo list... can't wait til Transformers comes out.
David Beckham... This boy has more style in his left pinky than most boys develop in a lifetime. Can't say the same for the wifey though. I love his look. He pulls off the whole preppy, runway model well but also looks great in jeans and a rugby polo.
I realized all 3 boys have similar physiques. I don't like boys to be too skinny (duh) but I don't like them muscular either. I like the tall, rectangular frame with just enough tone to show that they work out. I think it's all in the shoulders.
No I'm pretty settled in my celebrity crushes. I've had the same ones forever. Two of them are married and the other is engaged to Fergie. Aye carumba.
Ivan Sergei... aka "The guy that looks like Tom Brady" I noticed him first in the series Jack & Jill... where I would painfully sit through episode after episode of Amanda Peet's annoying character just to watch Ivan. Then he was on a short-lived cop show called Hawaii. More recently, he had a small role in The Breakup... the image of him with the white dress shirt and v-neck vest will be burned into my mind forever. Muhaha. Well, it looks like he's taping another TV series... hopefully this one will air a bit longer before getting cancelled. Meanwhile I've added all of the movies and tv series he appears in (courtesy of IMDb) to my Blockbuster Online account... teehee. I'm starting an Ivan Sergei marathon. I had no idea he did long stints on Charmed and Crossing Jordan.
Josh Duhamel... I'm sure you've all heard my story... goes to my gym... only met him that one time though. He's so much hotter in person. I just rejoined my gym so I might be going more often when I know he happens to be in town. :) I think he lives in Brentwood or at least near my old house because I ran into him at the cell phone store by my old house too. Well Las Vegas is still one of my favorite shows and very high on my Tivo list... can't wait til Transformers comes out.
David Beckham... This boy has more style in his left pinky than most boys develop in a lifetime. Can't say the same for the wifey though. I love his look. He pulls off the whole preppy, runway model well but also looks great in jeans and a rugby polo.
I realized all 3 boys have similar physiques. I don't like boys to be too skinny (duh) but I don't like them muscular either. I like the tall, rectangular frame with just enough tone to show that they work out. I think it's all in the shoulders.
Seriously, do people never learn??
A radio show up north in Sacramento held a seemingly harmless contest, "Hold your Wee for a Wii" where contestants were brought into the studio and asked to drink 8 oz of water every 15 minutes, testing contestants to drink as much water as they could without going to the bathroom.
Uhm, did we all not hear about the college frat boy who died from water intoxication? So this woman (who did not win the Wii, btw) went home and experienced bad headaches before she was found dead that evening by her daughter. Seriously, not one person at that radio station cared to research this a bit before they went on with the contest? No one bothered to consult a physician?
Read Article
Uhm, did we all not hear about the college frat boy who died from water intoxication? So this woman (who did not win the Wii, btw) went home and experienced bad headaches before she was found dead that evening by her daughter. Seriously, not one person at that radio station cared to research this a bit before they went on with the contest? No one bothered to consult a physician?
Read Article
Full House
Vina's baaaack. She went up to San Francisco for 2 weeks. And she came back with a bag of Ghiradelli chocolates. We are so dead. The snacker is back. Plus my mom is staying with us and she cooks us breakfast lunch and dinner. Which is GREAT but not good for us. She was good the first couple of days... I asked her to stick to fish and veggies. But slowly she started slipping in some white rice with the brown rice in the cooker... and sautee-ing instead of steaming... and tonight she totally broke our agreement and made a pork dish. BAD!
Anyhow, along with chocolates Vina also brought this home:
It's a quaint little Japanese (or Chinese, since she bought it in Chinatown?) village-type model home with running water on the well. As the water runs the well moves up and down and makes a "tap, tap" sound. It was pleasant at first, kind of therapeutic. It actually serves as a great metronome for our nightly set of crunches and sit-ups.
But right now I'm in my room trying to watch the first part of the 4-hour Season Premiere of 24 and I have to replay each scene because I can't hear over the stupid "tap, tap"... someone shoot me! Auuuggghhh!
This is the first time I'm going to be watching 24 on TV. I watched all the other seasons either on DVD or iPod (hooked up to the TV of course, can't wait for TV!) and I was dreading the day I caught up to the current season and I'd be forced to watch it one episode per week. I was going to avoid it altogether and buy the season on iTunes halfway through the season so I could watch it on my own time but how can you resist a 4-hour premiere? :)
Okay, back to 24~
P.S. Saw a 24-hr Fitness commercial with a clever tagline just now... "No one ever says 'I wish I hadn't gone to the gym today.'"
Anyhow, along with chocolates Vina also brought this home:
It's a quaint little Japanese (or Chinese, since she bought it in Chinatown?) village-type model home with running water on the well. As the water runs the well moves up and down and makes a "tap, tap" sound. It was pleasant at first, kind of therapeutic. It actually serves as a great metronome for our nightly set of crunches and sit-ups. But right now I'm in my room trying to watch the first part of the 4-hour Season Premiere of 24 and I have to replay each scene because I can't hear over the stupid "tap, tap"... someone shoot me! Auuuggghhh!
This is the first time I'm going to be watching 24 on TV. I watched all the other seasons either on DVD or iPod (hooked up to the TV of course, can't wait for TV!) and I was dreading the day I caught up to the current season and I'd be forced to watch it one episode per week. I was going to avoid it altogether and buy the season on iTunes halfway through the season so I could watch it on my own time but how can you resist a 4-hour premiere? :)
Okay, back to 24~
P.S. Saw a 24-hr Fitness commercial with a clever tagline just now... "No one ever says 'I wish I hadn't gone to the gym today.'"
The Big Chill
I'll admit, I was a little promiscuous about my frozen yogurt the last couple of weeks. I tried out the plain-tart frozen yogurt at The Big Chill on Olympic on my way home from the gym. TBC has always been a popular frozen yogurt spot, even before pinkberry came into the picture. I got the plain+granola. Pretty interesting. The frozen yogurt was not as tart and fruity tasting as pinkberry and fiore. It had the initial tartness of yogurt, the airy lightness of coolwhip yet the richness of cream cheese. Really!Also, they had 3 types of granola. Their fat free variety is just like the one @ pinkberry, which is basically plain rolled oats I think. Their "regular" granola was a mixture of oats, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, raisins and coconut shavings. It was really good, very crispy texture.
I also tried out Barenaked Yogurt, the little stand by Coral Tree Express in Century City Mall. I think when it comes to these premium frozen yogurts this is probably the cheapest option. Their "small" is bigger than a pinkberry medium, and for $3.95 you get a choice of two toppings. Pretty darn good deal.
Anyhow, you must think I'm pretty obsessed with frozen yogurt. Well, it's not just me. I kid you not, as I'm writing this post my mom is sitting on the couch and just asked "You know what would be good right now? That ice cream place with the fruit, what's it called?"
Productivity
It still amazes me how much you can get done in Cerritos just because everything is so much closer together and there is less traffic. Yesterday by 2:30pm Joanna and I went to church in Anaheim, had lunch with my mom @ Macaroni Grill, went to Trader Joe's, had tea at Starbucks by the mall and filled up my gas tank. I mean, if we were to do that in West LA it would take us the entire day!
Live Daily
I realized my older blog posts were more like daily summaries... nowadays I just pick at random thoughts. So I thought I'd start documenting my day again, since they're so eventful. Here goes...
Dear Diary,
Today I woke up a little later than I originally planned. I had a phone interview at 10:30a and I wanted to wake up at 9a to do a little research and prepare a bit. I woke up at 10:25a. Oh well. I had a lunch date with my girlfriend at 11am whom I hadn't seen in at least a couple of months so I was changing and getting ready while I was on the phone. Things worked out okay and I'm going in for round 2 (an in-person interview) next week. I didn't realize interviews these days were so calculated. You start with e-mailing the HR person back and forth. They conduct a phone interview with you to see if you're worth the time of the actual decisionmaker. If they see that you are, then you meet the hiring manager, in otherwords your future supervisor. If they like you, they pass you on to the VP of the department so they can drill you even more. If you're unlucky they make you sit down with a couple of co-workers too to get a feel for how well you adapt to different personalities. Then if everybody likes you, you get to do a one-on-one with a chief officer or founder to make you sweat even more. By the way, I am positive in my last few interviews they turned the thermostat in the conference room up on purpose. I don't sweat that much in boxing class!
Anyhoo, I digress. Back to my day. After my interview I met up with my girlfriend at Barney's Greengrass restaurant for brunch. We chitchatted and caught up with each other's lives... I swear sometimes I feel like we live parallel lives, only hers is 10x more interesting. We have gone through a lot of the same major life events this year, but she went through them 6 months before me so sometimes I feel like I am talking to my future-self.
So after brunch we did some shopping. I won't go into too much detail here, it pains my wallet to rethink this portion of the day. So fast forward >>> stopped by EB Games @ Century City with a different friend to sell off his PS2 & Xbox... and they had the PS3 in stock! He got about $150 credit for his consoles + a gazillion games (so not worth it to resell your old stuff) and went home with a 60GB PS3. We stopped by breadbar where I had the hardest bread in the world and veggie soup. (Tried to nurse my cold a little bit)
After that I went home to rest. My headache from yesterday came back. I watched a little TV then decided to head over to the gym to sweat it out. It worked! Headache gone. Stopped by Best Buy on the way home to pick up the UK version of The Office and Grey's Anatomy... it's about time I get started on that show since everyone and their moms seems to like it. Then I stopped by pinkberry on my way home (Aai was the one who asked for it, not me) and I realized... my pinkberry is getting less and less healthy it seems like. It has evolved to a medium plain with granola and double cocoa pebbles. Well, you see last time I had cocoa pebbles and double granola (cheaper to get 3 toppings than 2, I know, doesn't make sense) and it was too crunchy so this time I decided to go double cocoa pebbles and it was perfect. Perfect.
Dear Diary,
Today I woke up a little later than I originally planned. I had a phone interview at 10:30a and I wanted to wake up at 9a to do a little research and prepare a bit. I woke up at 10:25a. Oh well. I had a lunch date with my girlfriend at 11am whom I hadn't seen in at least a couple of months so I was changing and getting ready while I was on the phone. Things worked out okay and I'm going in for round 2 (an in-person interview) next week. I didn't realize interviews these days were so calculated. You start with e-mailing the HR person back and forth. They conduct a phone interview with you to see if you're worth the time of the actual decisionmaker. If they see that you are, then you meet the hiring manager, in otherwords your future supervisor. If they like you, they pass you on to the VP of the department so they can drill you even more. If you're unlucky they make you sit down with a couple of co-workers too to get a feel for how well you adapt to different personalities. Then if everybody likes you, you get to do a one-on-one with a chief officer or founder to make you sweat even more. By the way, I am positive in my last few interviews they turned the thermostat in the conference room up on purpose. I don't sweat that much in boxing class!
Anyhoo, I digress. Back to my day. After my interview I met up with my girlfriend at Barney's Greengrass restaurant for brunch. We chitchatted and caught up with each other's lives... I swear sometimes I feel like we live parallel lives, only hers is 10x more interesting. We have gone through a lot of the same major life events this year, but she went through them 6 months before me so sometimes I feel like I am talking to my future-self.
So after brunch we did some shopping. I won't go into too much detail here, it pains my wallet to rethink this portion of the day. So fast forward >>> stopped by EB Games @ Century City with a different friend to sell off his PS2 & Xbox... and they had the PS3 in stock! He got about $150 credit for his consoles + a gazillion games (so not worth it to resell your old stuff) and went home with a 60GB PS3. We stopped by breadbar where I had the hardest bread in the world and veggie soup. (Tried to nurse my cold a little bit)
After that I went home to rest. My headache from yesterday came back. I watched a little TV then decided to head over to the gym to sweat it out. It worked! Headache gone. Stopped by Best Buy on the way home to pick up the UK version of The Office and Grey's Anatomy... it's about time I get started on that show since everyone and their moms seems to like it. Then I stopped by pinkberry on my way home (Aai was the one who asked for it, not me) and I realized... my pinkberry is getting less and less healthy it seems like. It has evolved to a medium plain with granola and double cocoa pebbles. Well, you see last time I had cocoa pebbles and double granola (cheaper to get 3 toppings than 2, I know, doesn't make sense) and it was too crunchy so this time I decided to go double cocoa pebbles and it was perfect. Perfect.
A Little Princess
Just because she's so cute she thinks she can climb anywhere to sleep. (Sorry Vina, she claimed your bed as her resting place)
This is the pink Minnie Mouse jacket Yona got for Lulu from Japan. It's a zip-up track jacket too, so I left the last couple of inches unzipped in the front and she looks all cool. :) I think all of the clothes Yona has gotten for Moley & Lulu from Japan have been from Disney. My mom mentioned that it was -very- hard to find 'large' doggie clothes to fit Moley & Lulu, they only had tiny clothes. Then Yona mentioned that when they went shopping, all girls' clothes in size 'large' were on sale because they were leftover. (Which by the way a large in japan is like a small in Banana Republic) She said they sell jeans in size -22-. Okay so how small are the people and things in Japan? How is it that people and places and doggies are all so tiny over there. I know it ain't the food because Joanna gained weight from eating ramen over there.
Gosh
I was reading through my old posts and it's weird to kind of go back in time and read about how my day went or just to read my thoughts. Have I changed much in the last 3 years? I'm not sure. Definitely not in terms of what I do with my day. Goodness! My life as a student and being self-employed were pretty awesome. I did what I want when I wanted. I guess that's why it's so hard to get out of this habit of wasting my day away and getting mentally prepared for a 9-to-5 job. Maybe that's why I've been half-arsing it at interviews, not really finding what I want to do. I'm still hanging on to my old lifestyle.
Executive Boxing
I've replaced my Nike+ running with a new boxing regime. Any takers?
It's a little too cold for my taste to be running outdoors. I'll still do the occasional 3.5 mile run around the club after my training session but no more running around the block. Instead I'm trying to take Lloyd's Executive Boxing class at Bodies in Motion at least twice a week. And when I can wake up early enough I'm going to mix it up with the Savate Kickboxing class on MWF @ 9:30am. So if anyone wants to try it out, just let me know! I have free 1-day passes and an extra set of gloves. ~.~
Lying via text...
I was reading an article in Laptop Magazine the other day about how its much easier to fib nowadays in a mobile world. Cell phones facilitate our white lies about where we are, who we're with, what we're doing, etc. I reflected on this for a minute, and I realized I do it quite a lot. I'll admit it. :)
Sometimes when I'm in Cerritos and I feel guilty for not visiting my parents and they call me, I'll tell them I'm somewhere else... like, say, Burbank. :D
Sometimes when I'm not in the mood to chat on the phone I'll pick it up and hang it up and blame it on the "bad signal" at my house. :P I mean come on, we've all done the "Hello? Hello? Can't hear you-" and hung up on a person we'd rather not talk to, right? I've done that once or twice from home~ what can I say, my cell coverage sucks. ;) Or sometimes my battery just runs out. Or hey... dropped calls are pretty common these days.
Sometimes when a Sales Associate calls me about a trunk show or new item that came in and I'm not interested I'll tell them I'm out of town til the end of the week. A little avoidant but it works.
Sometimes when I'm still snoring in bed at 11am I'd return my missed calls with a convenient text stating that I'm "at the gym". Like the article states, "Be suspicious if a contact responds to your voicemails and missed calls with text messages. Some people feel more comfortable lying via text."
Yes, I'm a compulsive mobile liar. Now you all know my secret. :)
Sometimes when I'm in Cerritos and I feel guilty for not visiting my parents and they call me, I'll tell them I'm somewhere else... like, say, Burbank. :D
Sometimes when I'm not in the mood to chat on the phone I'll pick it up and hang it up and blame it on the "bad signal" at my house. :P I mean come on, we've all done the "Hello? Hello? Can't hear you-
Sometimes when a Sales Associate calls me about a trunk show or new item that came in and I'm not interested I'll tell them I'm out of town til the end of the week. A little avoidant but it works.
Sometimes when I'm still snoring in bed at 11am I'd return my missed calls with a convenient text stating that I'm "at the gym". Like the article states, "Be suspicious if a contact responds to your voicemails and missed calls with text messages. Some people feel more comfortable lying via text."
Yes, I'm a compulsive mobile liar. Now you all know my secret. :)