sorry that this update took so long. got distracted by other things i guess. for those of you who don't live in the bay area-- you guys are all missing an epic heat wave. makes me wish that i had a swimming pool to jump in. (then again, anybody who has a heated swimming pool is probably filing for bankrupcy with our jumping electricity rates). man, it is just a bad time to be in california.

yesterday, i took cheryl to the giants game for her birthday. it was a lot of fun kicking back and just hanging out. i've always looked to cheryl as a mentor and she has never let me down. unfortunately, the giants found a way to lose the game in 18 innings. YES... 18 innings. not being total baseball purists, cheryl and i left after the 10th inning. the giants are a sad case. marvin benard is sucking eggs and barry bonds is still a huge jerk. (yes, i am not a bonds fan no matter how many homers he hits--- until he comes through in the clutch he gets no probs).

do you ever think about friends that you've totally lost touch with? i had a bad knack for losing touch with friends from middle school and high school and i've worked hard not to lose the people i met in college. one guy who i lost touch with was john, one of my roommates from my taiwan trip in the summer of 95. as these things turn out circumstance has brought our circle of roommates back together. this is a random story but john was looking though the photo album of a friend and came across a picture of elton, another roommate of ours. it turns out that john is marrying the girl that he met in taiwan and we're totally excited for them.

i guess life can deliver positive surprises sometimes. i'll conclude this entry with a song that i was reminded of during the wedding in arizona two weeks ago. now, please don't read into this song-- i simply bring it up because it was so so catchy back in the day. ok, maybe the song came up because there was a hottie at the wedding who we were checking out. *grin*

No One is to Blame by Howard Jones (early 80's)

You can look at the menu but you just can't eat
You can feel the cushions but you can't have a seat
You can dip your foot in the pool but you can't have a swim
You can feel the punishment but you can't commit the sin
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
You can build a mansion but you just can't live in it
You're the fastest runner but you're not allowed to win
Some break the rules
And live to count the cost
The insecurity is the thing that won't get lost
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
You can see the summit but you can't reach it
It's the last piece of the puzzle but you just can't make it fit
Doctor says you're cured but you still feel the pain
Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame

hey kids... thanks for reading. i think i need to spend the whole day at home and not go anywhere. but i can't =(. my homebody tendencies are definitely screaming out for attention. ok... here comes a quick update on the rest of the weekend...

went down to the south bay for cheryl's birthday bbq. had a great time watching cheryl get drunk... heh heh heh. got to meet and hang out with some cool peeps. the best part of the night was spending time with some old friends. i don't get to see cheryl or howie nearly enough and i'm going to have to amend that. =) although some other folks went clubbing on sunday i didn't have the energy to join them. five and a half hours of beer and bbq was enough to wear me out.

on monday i hung out with a lot of old friends from berkeley at a picnic in daly city. although the weather was cold and windy we had a terrific time. thanks to evance and angela for making it all happen. lots of football tossing, tennis and basketball followed the food. my hair was sky high after playing a couple of hours of basketball... i guess a strong wind can do wonders with anything!

more about the weekend in the next blog... coming up in a couple of minutes...

so the memorial day marathon of socializing and fun continues. i have to say that i am still very tired from the wedding that i attended last night. jen(n) was nice enough to invite me to her coworker's wedding yesterday and i had a terrific time! best wishes and happiness go out to ana and andrew for their wedding.

the ceremony was performed at a catholic church which was just a little different from the jewish wedding i attended last week. although i didn't mind this ceremony called for lots of standing and combined prayer-- as if we were attending a sunday mass. i think i decided yesterday that i wouldn't get married in a church unless i was marrying someone who was religious. i'm starting to think that it is inappropriate to get married within a house of God unless you actually believe in him. i guess i'll have to make sure chuck e. cheese's is open to doing weddings.

the reception and dinner that followed at the college of notre dame in belmont were very nice. ralston hall on the notre dame campus was gorgeous with huge mirrors and an old-time quality. the meal that we had was also delicious with a chilean sea bass that just melted in the mouth! jen(n) works at a company called coalesce with andrew and there were about 7 other coworkers at the wedding.

despite being jen(n)'s guest i had a good time meeting and hanging out with her team. they aren't as fun as the ticketweb family, of course, but they were very cool nonetheless. before the usual dj mix of songs like celebration by kool & the gang and unforgettable by nat & natalie cole, the wedding "singer" was playing tunes on his guitar. being the dork that i am i kept trying to "name that tune". got most of them... i think. =)

hey i worked on some more pages for draftnik (shameless plug). if you see any banners at the bottom of the pages that are not for valueclick-- hit them. you'll be helping contribute to my retirement fund! today we get to hang out in the south bay with cheryl! whoo hoo....

hey kids, thanks for returning to my web log. as most of you know blog*spot, the company that hosts web logs for folks like me has been down for the better part of the week. thankfully the frustration is over and we are back online.

i bet you are asking yourself what i've been doing all week.... hmm. good question. let me see if i can recap for ya. friday was pretty mellow- woke up early and looked for work. completed a couple more pages of draftnik. building this site is like furnishing a house. the more stuff you add to it the mor e that you think you need to add. urgh. that isn't good news. =)

in the afternoon i went to pick up my boy ian from the airport and did some shopping at tower records. unfortunately for me, tower had an in-store appearance by the cowboy junkies. i hadn't really heard of them and wasn't really looking to check them out so i was kind of bummed as their fans were inhibiting my shopping experience. man, the life of a rock star can't be easy-- from constantly doing radio appearances and record store signings life can get pretty brutal.

last night, one of this site's loyal readers, kai was nice enough to host a dinner last night at postrio. maybe i'm just a commoner, but i don't generally don't frequent restaurants as nice as postrio. kai also brought an exquisite wine from his collection which capped off a great dinner. kai, props go out to you!

alright i'm going to do a load of laundry. more updates in a couple of minutes.

blog spot is back up... is this working yet?

urrrrrrrrrrgh. blogspot has been down for about 3 days now. no one can read any of these insightful thoughts! yesterday i busted some hump and worked on draftnik. we've been getting a ton of hits recently and i took the time to start updating the site. still have lots of work do though. please check out the site and let me know what you think.

decided yesterday that i'm being much too selective on the jobs that i'm applying for. i think i need to expand my window more and hopefully that will help me decide what i want to next. alright, enough for this update. see ya see ya.

blogspot has been down for most of the day... so i guess you can't read this even if you wanted to! =) hopefully it will be back up soon...

another bonus of the trip to arizona was the opportunity to spend some time with my family in the area. my Uncle Roland and his family lives in Phoenix and his kids are growning up so quickly! i flew into phoenix with the explicit goal of spending some time with his family and they were a lot of fun. yesterday, i had a couple of hours to kill before my flight so i went to the mall with them. i guess i can look forward to having a brood of my own someday. =)

my first jewish wedding was an interesting experience. maria's family rabbi proceeded over the ceremony and it was quite fascinating. the ceremony was held underneath a canopy and instead of a traditional bridal party surrounding the bride and groom-- this ceremony emphasized the importance of family with parents and siblings forming a circle. among other things there were prayers in hebrew and the passage of a glass from which each member of the family drank. a part of me wishes that chinese weddings were more inclusive of family members in their ceremonies. our banquets usually involve introductions of the families which is sort of cool.

[NOTE: i had rewritten this blog but it appears that i didn't update it correctly on blogger. darn it]

one of the cooler things from the reception was that Maria and Andrew opened up the floor for an open mic session. any family member or family friend could take the mic and share a story about the couple. a lot of the speakers were very touching and the positive wishes were quite heartfelt. there were a couple of speakers who weren't crowd favorites--- especially an uncle who had a bunch of anti-wedding jokes. his acumen at bombing jokes reminded me of Fozzie Bear from the Muppets-- only we didn't have any tomatoes. Plus Fozzie's jokes might have actually been considered appropriate or funny....

i didn't share my story with the audience at the wedding--- but i think that i'll send it to the bride and groom later. i'll even publish it here for folks to read. props out to Irene and Victoria on their respective graduations. Happy Birthday wishes go out to my beefyfolk ladies, Ying and Monica. more later, readers!

greetings everybody... i'm back from a relaxing weekend in the desert. =) this weekend was terrific and i have to express my gratitude and thanks to andrew and maria for having me. the wedding was perfectly planned from the gift bags that met us at the hotel rooms to the traditional jewish marriage ceremonies. the "margaritas and moonlight" reception on friday was a fabulous opportunity for me to hang out with the ticketweb team, past and present. the actual wedding was a beautiful union of family, faith and love. the festivites were perfectly placed at the tuscon museum of art. i would be hard pressed to find a better place to enjoy a live performance of karl denson's tiny universe than underneath the perfect arizona sky.

for whatever reason i seem to have a knack for turning vacations into adventures. this trip was a totally different-- aside from the wedding festivites I tried to do as little as possible. my entire saturday afternoon was spent by the pool... swimming and tanning. the cool water of the pool was a nice contrast to the hot arizona sun. i also had a lot of fun learning how to do summersaults and handstands in the water. i guess i was making up for growing up in the big city without the swimming pools and lakes. i've got a little bit of burn on my shoulders... but i think that hanging poolside was a big plus! (going to have to do that again soon!)

ok... more about this weekend in the next update.

hey tmcs jumped again! sold more shares... make more... pocket change.....

wassupers.... first and foremost-- thanks for reading. *smile* today's entry is going to be a little shorter than usual because i'm already running late. by nature i'm a procrastinator and often this trait gets me into trouble. here's a quick list of things that i need to do before i get on a plane today!

get a graduation gift for a friend
clean my house
finish packing
deliver a birthday gift
drop off books to my student
go to costco
get some gas

not so bad right? well... the clock is ticking on me! ok... running for now. flying to arizona for andrew and maria's wedding. going to bake in the hot arizona sun. will update you all on the events of the weekend on monday. have a great weekend!

hmm... i never really did much thinking about how writing this log would affect my "offline" life. i'm not getting all that much feedback to these musings but hopefully some people are enjoying this. you readers, you know who you are, are appreciated. drop me a note and let me know what you think. more to come.

today was relatively uneventful. no huge crises or life-changing decisions. yeah, right. every hour of every day seems to be filled with life-changing decisions for me. maybe i'm just being melodramatic. i'm not really sure what to think.

went to see the sneak preview today of shrek. left the film in a relatively good mood, which in some ways is all that you can ask from a movie. spoke with a bunch of friends on the phone today. barnone is working on a new business venture and my best wishes go out to him. my epiphany hasn't arrived yet but hope springs eternal, right?

do you know that feeling when you make a wrong turn and you aren't quite sure how to correct your mistake? most of the time even when i make a mistake or make a bad decision i just grin and bear it. i get through the situation as best as possible-- it is just one of my traits to deal and to prosper despite obstacles. for some reason i'm just not as confident about my direction and choices. i try not to regret things that i've done in life. regret is like a monkey that rests on your shoulder-- waking you up at all times of night, making life unbearable. i'm having a hard time avoiding those regretful feelings tonight.

sorry for not filling you in on the rest of my weekend. my forehead is a bit red from sitting out in the sun yesterday. i was lucky enough to get a bleacher seat for yesterday's giants game for $10 (face value). i got the willie mccovey bobblehead that i was trying to get too! folks are already selling them on ebay for an excess of $60. i don't plan on selling mine though-- i'll keep them tucked away as part of my permanent collection.

after the game i went and had mother's day dinner with my extended family. my relatives made a nice diverse spread and it was a nice dinner. after we finished eating, my young cousin showed us a home movie that she and her friends made. although the movie was a little raw i'm sure they are on their way to the sundance film festival. =)

i almost forgot to record my saturday on this log. it started off pretty auspiciously when i tried to take muni downtown to meet with larry, ivy and angie l. the freaking N Judah decided to die on my so the entire bus had to transfer to a different bus (and walk up a steep UCSF hill). Luckily enough, i ran into angie k. on that second bus and we had a good time talking during our extended bus ride. i had lunch and got to spend some time hanging out with larry, ivy, and angie.

later that evening i met up with some other folks for the KFOG Kaboom concert and fireworks performance. thankfully, the evening wasn't too cold as i didn't bring a coat with me that day. the crowd down at pier 30 was pretty considerable but it was a nice environment. i caught the end of blues travelers' set but there was no chance of me getting close to the stage. i was pretty impressed with the fireworks show. there were a lot of new fireworks that i was pretty impressed with-- neat stuff like smiley faces and fireworks that created cloud-like images. all in all i was pretty impressed with the setup and the fireworks.

after the performance, dk took us over to the scient offices. we had the chance to get comfortable and out of the cold which was cool. the offices were pretty cool with lots of snacks and facilities for us to enjoy. =) i won't go too much into detail about the rest of our exploits but you as you may of guessed our hijinks ended with spilled sodas and stained furniture. hey... they are going to ditch the offices anyways, geez. =)

alright. i think that is enough of an update for now. going to see the sneak preview of shrek tomorrow. the fun never ends...

*walking in with a strut* who's in the hoooooouse? first off, happy mother's day to everybody out there. i can't overestimate the importance of mothers in this world. don't forget to call your mom to remind her of how much she means to you today. =)

ok... so the reason that i've got a little extra spring in my step is because i just landed tickets to the madonna tour!!!! sure, i've been able to purchase better seats in my life but i don't think that i've ever awaited a show as much as this. not only that but i was able to get tickets for my friends to attend too! if you have forgotten, i used to work at a ticketing company so i know a couple of tips and tricks when it comes to onsales. one thing that i know for sure is that tickets.com website blows donkeys. in all of the times that i have tried to buy a high-demand show through them they have always screwed me. ticketmaster on the other hand never screws up your web order once you have gotten a seat allocation.

now that most ticketing companies enforce a "lottery" system at the retail stores that discourages waiting in line overnight ticket purchasing is a total crapshoot-- getting in online, over the phone or having your wristband chosen at random is a completely random proposition. (the only thing i know that is foolproof is buying one of those high-speed telephone dialing machines). anyways, like the lone sperm that fights its way to the egg--- i was able to get tickets on the crappy website! i'm so stoked! (of course, my efforts to get another set of tickets was foiled by tickets.com---> faulty website, of course.

ok... i'm off this morning to see if i can score a willie mccovey bobblehead from the giants game. hope my string of good luck stays a little longer!

[attempted to post on thursday-- blogger was down]
is it thursday already? wow... what happened to the week? if you haven't heard by now--- the xflis officially dead. i'm not going to waste any tears on this sorry excuse for football. sure-- I'll miss the porno-like cheerleaders and the trash talking of former cal bear mike pawlawski. don't get me wrong, i think it is great to give more players a chance to make a living by playing football-- but the brand of mistake-ridden football that the xfl stood for was pathetic. i guess a part of me wanted vince mcmahon to fail simply because of his pompous, pain-in-the-ass nature. now that the great vince mcmahon has been knocked on his ass my evil wishes will focus on the downfall of al davis. *ha ha ha!*

i saw a great movie that you may want to check out. the movie which stars guy pearce (la confidential) is called momento and is a really good piece of writing and filmmaking. the movie follows a guy who is trying to find the guy who killed his wife. his problem is that he has lost the ability to create new memories--- so instead he uses polaroids and post-its to piece together his life. trust me, if you have some time and want to be intellectually stimulated by a movie check this one out. if you want to veg and watch explosions... check out the mummy returns instead. =)

props out to y again for getting some of us into a rolling stone party yesterday at bimbo's 365 club. the party was pretty cool and was a showcase for a couple of dj acts-- ming & fs and mixmaster mike, the dj of the beastie boys. although i'm not really into the dj scene i have to admit that the party was pretty cool and that watching the dj's in action is pretty impressive. although there were lots of free drinks to be had i didn't partake in too many alcoholic beverages. even i have some self control....

i suppose that is it for now... time to start working on draftnik... june is coming up fast!

the rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. went out friday to celebrate the birthday's of dk, dave choe, and angela. we started off at dave & busters which is always a ton of fun. if you haven't been there before it is sort of a chuck e. cheese's for adults. lots of video and skill games for the kid in all of us. props to my homeboy gavin who is back for summer vacation. after shooting a bunch of free throws and a bunch of pump-a-shot games it was time for some of us to leave.

ivy, larry, sabrina and i left d & b's early to head to party in oakland. we got there especially early because we had some friends who needed us to help them get in. the party was at a hotel called ibiza which actually made a terrific club locale. rumor has it that ibiza used to be a "swingers club" before it was recently converted. in looking at the layout that made some sense-- the dance floor had lots of stripper's poles and there were lots of adjecent rooms with patio-style door entrances. it was a cool club location because there were was a swimming pool area where people could lounge. wouldn't mind partying there again sometime.

the rest of the weekend was pretty chill. went to visit the APO banquet for a couple of minutes and played some bball on sunday. nothing exciting... just enjoying the warm, sunny weather. alright, no updates for a couple of days... see you when i see you!

i want to crawl back into bed. isn't that one of the luxuries of being unemployed? yesterday was a good start to what appears to be a very busy weekend. thanks to Y (mr. hookup), who helped to get us tickets for the preview of the Mummy Returns. All in all it was a decent movie-- thankfully they kept the number of lines that The Rock had to a minimum. Saw a lot of peeps from college and high school at the theater... go figure.

after the movie, gin doggy dog and i went to go check out the newest in-thing, the drink club. the party was at club bas and it was decent. the music wasn't bad and the crowd was pretty mellow. well, i should mention the one small exception when a couple of guys tried to get into it. the two dudes ended up just throwing their drinks at each other and partaking in a small stare down. damn-- no bullet holes!

saw more old friends at this party including al's little sister, angela. now that was a blast from the past. let's see who else i see the rest of this weekend... take care and be safe!

urgh. my arms are sore from working out. yesterday i hung out with larry and among other things we lifted weights at 24 hr fitness. now don't get me wrong, i've been going to the gym consistently since i left tweb but my workouts are usually cardio-based. although my arms and chest aren't puny-- i've got no weight lifting stamina at all. i guess i'm not used to doing 3 reps (of 12) at a time. i have a feeling that working out with a partner we be good so maybe positive results are ahead.

yesterday was the free ice cream cone day at baskin-robbins and ben & jerry's. i rolled by my local BR to see how long the line was and wasn't particularily surprised to find the line stretching down a whole block. there was no way that i was going to wait in that line-- damn, maybe i should have went to a store in a non-Chinese neighborhood... you know how we chinese people are when it comes to free stuff. =)

today is going to be the start of yet another busy weekend. what is the deal with all of my friends being born in april? as if my bank account needed more draining. hey... got my check from the employment development department today... yeah baby!

i'm pumped! just finished watching the dallas mavericks beat the utah jazz in game 4 of their playoff series. i like players on both teams so i'm sort of divided on who i want to win. the reason i'm so excited was the performance of Wang ZhiZhi. With the game in hand, Wang got in and went to work. He missed his first jumper but promptly proceeded to shake Greg Ostertag for a jumper and then had a pretty 3 pointer. It was obvious that the fans in Dallas love him and who can blame him. Being the first Chinese player in the NBA he is a modern day trailblazer--- props to him. The Mavs have even designed a t-shirt for him. i think i might have to order one of these bad boys.

other than that today was pretty slow. i found out that the local performance of stomp allows volunteer ushers to watch the performance for free. i think that should be a lot of fun... i'll keep you posted.