twenty-five seconds of silence

the Big Check

i signed today at 2pm. i had lunch at arby's around 12:50 (medium beef 'n cheddar and small curly fries), and i ate so quickly (i was starving) that by the time i finished, i still had 45 minutes to kill. so i stopped by santana row, had some pinkberry (small original with mochi and cap'n crunch) and bought three cd's at borders (massive attack's greatest hits, and the new depeche mode and pet shop boys albums).

i got to the old republic title company, and my loan agent and realtor met me there, and they sat with me for the next half hour, as i signed form after form. i must have signed my name like 30 times, and it got pretty tedious. the lady there (the rude one who slammed her phone on me yesterday) apologized to me; it was the first thing she said to me, so i felt better about it. and then, i handed over the Big Check! yup. i got it at 10am this morning at wells fargo. i was pretty nervous, keeping my check in my cube when i got to work and then in my car as i went to lunch. i kept on fretting that someone would find it in my desk, and then i was scared that someone would steal my car, or that my car would somehow spontaneously combust. but no, everything went smoothly, and now i just have to wait until monday or tuesday when i close. i should get the keys on tuesday or wednesday. final walkthrough is tomorrow at 2pm.

so now, my cash reserves has dwindled by an eighth of a million dollars. that freaks me out A LOT. it's a shit load of money, and if i ever have to buy a car (in case my trustly honda accord kendra dies) or buy an engagement ring (in case i miraculously meet the girl of my dreams) in the near future, i'll have to scrounge around for some cash, and i'll be pretty broke after that. i don't have that much money in my bank account anymore, especially since i lent my friend that money. if it's an emergency, i can sell my three ESPP's (i get the third one tomorrow) that i have as backup cash.

i just got out of an hour and a half meeting where i said maybe three sentences. at one point, i took off my glasses, rested them on my leg, leaned back, and closed my eyes. the project lead took his folder and fanned it in my face, so i felt this gush of wind and then opened my eyes. i guess it was pretty obvious that i didn't care about the meeting, huh? but nope, i was listening! i just wanted to rest my eyes.

we also had our company-wide quarterly meeting today. it was pretty bad. i mean, the company as a whole beat our guidance and estimates, but in addition to the layoff of my friend T yesterday, we're closing down three of our global branches, including the toronto labs. i didn't work with any of those guys, but there's one guy there in particular who i respected as a good designer and a bright guy. i'm kind of bummed out for him. and they as a whole did a good job and did good designs, and i'm just wondering how of much of their work and responsibilties are going to land on us over here. hrmph. this economy sucks ass. but i guess a company's gotta do what a company's gotta do. it just hurts sometimes.

so tomorrow is may. it's going to be a month of intense work. i'm not looking forward to it. and in addition, i'm going to be packing, moving, unpacking, and all that, so going home isn't going to be peaceful and restful, either. hopefully i'll get through it ok. housewarming party is scheduled for late may/early june, so i can have a break and not be too rushed. but believe me, i want to have it so i can just let loose and drink and be happy surrounded by my friends.

i never realized how thin the skin is on the top of my feet. i mean, the skin on the bottom of my feet is really thick and tough, so you'd think the top would be, too, but it's surprisingly thin and delicate. i scratched myself there a few nights ago, and not that hard, and i wound up cutting myself in two places. i forgot about it until i took a shower, and my left foot started stinging. it was then that i remembered what i did to myself. youch! it doesn't make sense why the skin in that area is so sensitive.

so, i made it through april without being charged any overages on my cell phone! remember that i burned through my anytime minutes really quickly with all the house-related phone calls early in the month. well, i got my minutes refreshed today, so now, i'm breathing a sigh of relief. i feel like a huge weight of pressure has been lifted off my shoulders, and i am released from the shackles of that crazy 45 cents/minute overage penalty. i can finally call my friends during the day/early evening!

i was really freaked out last night when adam lambert was in the bottom two on _idol_. what happened? did his supporters just assume that he was going to breeze through and not vote for him? anyways, last week, i predicted that matt was going to go home, and he did, so that's cool. next week, it'll be kris or allison. rock and roll week. adam's gonna be a spaz. it'll be brilliant.

have you ever squeezed your nose and watched all the white/yellow oily squiggles come out of your pores? isn't it fascinating? remember biore pore perfect strips? they were all the craze years back. i still have a box of those; i wonder if they're still good. i used to buy those and use them all the time. i would leave them on way longer than the directions said, and when i peeled them off, i would peer at them with fascination, at all the blackheads and stuff that stuck to them. what an awesome sight! our bodies produce the most awesome stuff.

speaking of bodily stuff, i had an ex who could achieve the g-spot orgasm. i wonder if her current man can give them to her. it would be a shame if she stopped having them; watching/experiencing her go through one was an astounding sight. she would literally quiver afterwards. and not to mention the liquid that would come out and soak my pubes. just recently, i saw a video of a japanese girl who apparently got a g-spot orgasm with a pink vibrator; when she pulled it out, all this juice flowed out of her vadge. how many girls can do this? i think everyone should try and see if they can get there, because from the looks of it, it must feel absolutely fantastic. sometimes i wish i were a girl, just so i could play with my boobs and have an orgasm.

is anybody else's yahoo messenger fucked up? i can't log in. i need to talk to jennie to see if we're having dinner. we were supposed to have lunch today, but then her boss dragged her away, so she had to cancel on me. drat. i guess i'll have to call her.

incompetence

some people are morons. i called up my title company today, and tomorrow i'm handing over the Big Check at their office at 2pm. i got quoted this HUGE number, and it didn't make sense. so i called them back, and they FORGOT to include my $17K+ deposit! dude, it freaked me out. but then, i did some math, and the re-quote difference wasn't equal to my deposit, either. so i called them back again, and the lady lost her patience with me. she was like, "it's the end of the month, and i don't have time to talk dollars and cents with you," and when i said goodbye, she slammed her phone really loudly. WTF? it's her fucking fault, not mine! anyways, i'm going to make the Big Check out for slightly more than her final quote, and they'll refund some of it back. better to be safe.

but yeah, tomorrow is the big day. i'll be writing a check for over $107K, and it's gonna fucking hurt. gone will be my life savings (excluding my stock portfolio), and i'll step into the life of being house-poor. *shivers* i hope i'm doing the right thing, i.e. my house's value doesn't depreciate, and it instead becomes a good investment, and i get good tax benefits. i need a roommate!

anyways, on to other topics. the other day, at a restaurant, i saw an older woman whose boobs sagged down to just above her belly button. it was sort of gross. did she never wear a bra? can you fix that? i don't see how. maybe drastic plastic surgery? anyways, i stared for a while, felt bad for her, and went on eating my meal.

tonight is _scrubs_! a few weeks ago, during the episode where the janitor got married, the lawyer ted sang this acoustic version of outkast's "hey ya." it was beautiful. it was so different that at first, i didn't even recognize the song. the words and melody were vaguely familiar, and i was like, "what IS that song?" it was only until the "hey ya" part that i realized what it was. man, i love this show. i love it when good music is used effectively in television.

oh, bad news. sad news. shocking news. the cool japanese dude, T, was laid off this morning. apparently, he just up and vanished, according to his cubicle neighbor. i guess even though my division is strong, it's not immune to this horrible economy. :( i'll miss him; he was one smart dude, and i will miss talking football with him (he was a die hard raiders fan, and looking at him, you would have never guessed it).

GO MAVS! they did it! 4-1! now they'll probably face the nuggets, who are playing new orleans very well. it'll be a tough series. honestly, it's not like i think they'll win the championship or anything (although maybe i just jinxed it), but it's good to see us playing well. much more satisfying than watching the cowboys. i can't say i *love* the mavs, but i do like them, and i get pumped up watching them, and i feel good when they win.

this morning, i had a dream in between snoozes where a big buff guy went in for a body wrap, and he came out, and his muscles were all defined and stuff. what exactly does a body wrap do? and how can you possibly lose 10-13 inches, like they guarantee on those radio ads? 10-13 inches where? on your waist? is that for real? how big does your waist have to be to begin with to lose that much? i mean, i'm a 33 or so, and there's no fucking way i'm going to become a 23! my bones would have to shrink for that to happen!

hey! come to stanford taiko's spring concert! it's this saturday, 8pm at dinkelspiel auditorium on campus. it'll be an interesting show. and if you see me, stop by and say hi!

hits are way down today. where is everyone?

i really need to stop my habit of scratching my nether-regions when i'm talking to people in their cubes.

i'm still injured, so i can't play basketball. yesterday, the 8 people who played were in a game that lasted until the score was 37-36. holy shit! and they didn't stop for water breaks either. wow! i don't think i could have lasted that long. that's probably more strenuous than a real NBA or college game, because in those games, at least you have mandatory timeouts, free throw breaks, etc. truly amazing. but anyways, i'll take a long lunch tomorrow then; i'm meeting up with jennie at choi's, and then i have the Big Check handoff at the title company.

i saw an asian girl today who was wearing a tight t-shirt. she had a fabulous chest. girls should be required to wear tight tops. none of that baggy sweatshirt, sweater or loose blouse thing. anyways, it's rare to see an asian girl with C-cups (which is what i'm guessing this girl had), so i was very appreciative of her. i had a friend of mine in college, and she was very proud of her 36C's. she would bring them up, and when she did, she would jut out her chest very flamboyantly. *huzzah*

oh speaking of which, a friend of mine was telling me of "yao yao," this taiwanese celebrity who's known of having enormous jugs. i did some sleuthing on google, and it turns out she has 33E's. that's ridiculous! she must be really skinny because of those 33's. i wonder if her proportions are like those of lara croft. anyways, she was in a commercial promoting a videogame, and it was pulled from taiwanese television because she was jiggling her boobs too much. ha! if anyone can find this commercial on youtube, definitely let me know.

i wonder if there would ever be a need to measure a guy's schlong, like in a way a girl's breasts have a measurement. something like penis length, girth, and scrotum circumference. do they have those for jockstraps? *ponder* i've never worn a jockstrap before, so i wouldn't know. what about cups? or is it simply S, M, L, XL?

ok, enough ponderment for the day. i'm out.

hurley

greetings! today was a waste of a day. i'm supposed to deliver my test vectors by thursday, but i'm waiting on this other engineer in toronto to give me an I2C function to use for my test. he BETTER hand it over by tomorrow! or else i'm fucked.

i'm wearing a hurley t-shirt that i found while going through my clothes this past weekend. do people even wear hurley anymore? it was a cool indie skateboard brand way back when, but then nike bought them, so now i think hurley isn't cool anymore. oh well. the t-shirt was like $20, but it got marked down like three times to $8 or something, so i said "why not?" and bought it.

so i talked to my loan agent today, and things seem to be on track for closing the house on monday. that means that thursday, i might be handing over the Big Check. ugh. that's gonna stress me out, keeping a $100K+ check in my possession. if i keep it in my car, what if my car get stolen? i should keep it in my silver briefcase, haha! yes, i have a beautiful zero halliburton silver aluminum (you all know how i love silver things, right? it's a fetish!) briefcase. i bought it for like $300 or so way back when, and i never use it. but i should! this would be the perfect opportunity, shuttling around a huge amount of money.

so it happened again. the same coworker who farted while peeing did it again. he must have weak kegel muscles like i do. i tried really hard not to laugh, and when i finished up at the urinal, i just washed my hands with a straight face, didn't make eye contact, didn't say a word, and left as quickly as possible. i wonder what he was thinking, like "oh damn, i just pooted. how embarrassing."

i skipped basketball today due to my injury. the my usual lunch cohorts weren't free, so i called up jimmy and drove all the way to milpitas to have lunch with him. we met up at eNoodle. i ate my two favorite things there: leek boxes and three-flavor dumplings. the waitress who took our order remembered me! she was like, "oh, you want dumplings again?" i was astounded; i hadn't been there in over a year! when i paid, i asked the cashier (another lady) how she remembered me, and she was like, "of course i remember you! you're so handsome!" (she used the chinese word "shwai.") i was flattered.

so blogbarnacle did indeed e-mail me a picture of his kidneystone. it horrified me. three millimeters of terrifying rock-ness. i pray that i will never have to pass something like that. i have had 3-4 mugfulls of water today, and i will start drinking more water from now on to avoid kidneystones.

sometimes, it hits me that i'm buying a house and relinquishing my financial freedom. i mean, i'm going from a position of having a TON of cash to being about half a million dollars in debt! shit! i mean, not that i would do it, but before, i would be able to quit my job and just hang out for a year. i would be able to go on a long vacation and just travel the world. i could do all sorts of stuff. but once i have this house, i'll be tied down, i'll depend on a steady source of income, i'll be terrified of losing my job, etc. it's truly a sobering responsibility. *shivers*

to be honest, i never thought that i would buy a house until i got married and had a dual income to support the bay area mortgage. but, since i'm not getting very far on finding a girl, and my rent is so astronomically high, i guess it just made financial sense to buy a house. and not just that; this house i'm buying is in my complex, and it's the same layout, so i know what i'm getting into, and i already know that i like the place. so i guess things just fell into place. but like i said in the previous paragraph, it sort of freaks me out sometimes.

but anyways, i AM excited about the housewarming party. if all goes as planned, there will be three housewarming parties in the coming months: mine, greg's, and jimmy's. greg and cheryl claim they're delaying theirs until they get window treatments, and there are doubts that they will actually throw one, but god willing, i will hound them and bug them until they do it. heh.

last night, dinner at the office was tuna casserole. i LOVE that shit! tuna casserole is one of my all-time favorite dishes. i'm not sure why i like it so much, but it just tastes good to me. stouffer's used to make it as a microwaveable dinner, but for some reason, they seem to have stopped. that makes me sad. :( it was very tasty.

woah! i just saw that chicago and boston are going into overtime in game 5. crazy!

ok, the mavs/spurs game is starting. i'm gonna go home and watch. GO MAVS!

pissing out a rock

man, it's cold out there. ok, i wanted a cooldown, but not THIS much.

every day that i don't get kidneystones, i am grateful. i just took a piss, and it felt like there was some resistance in my urethra, and i was afraid that i was going to push out something solid in my stream. luckily, i didn't. *phew* i was afraid for a moment there. kidneystones are one of my worst nightmares. the thought of a sharp, jagged rock scraping its way through my penishole scares the bejeezus out of me. i had an old coworker who got them once, and he said it hurt like a motherfucker. *shivers*

instead of going to choi's with the ex-coworker gang today, we went to saigon harbor for dim sum instead. holy shit, i got the worst food coma afterwards. i was out of commission for a full hour afterwards. it was probably the worst i've had it in months. at one point, i was passed out sitting up, and my head snapped back and cracked in all sorts of gruesome ways. it sounded horrible. at that point, i decided to (groggily) grab a pibb xtra and get some caffeine in my system. i had a meeting at 3pm anyways, so i needed to wake up. oh, btw, the dim sum wasn't that great.

these extra hot chili bits are awesome! they're not super spicy, so extra hot to me means "extra flavor." they're nice and salty, like they put in a lot of soy sauce. yes, that's a lot of sodium, but they taste great. the key to is to grab a palmful and put them in your mouth, and then suck on them to absorb the flavor on your tongue. yummers. i've finished half a bag today already. these will be the only chili bits i buy from now on.

so my friends' weight loss contest ended yesterday. the difference between first place ($1,000) and second place ($50, there was a tie)? 0.1%! holy shit! that's just a few ounces! man, at that point, you'd start regretting one can of soda, one extra bite of food, etc. one of the second place guys lost *33* pounds! i'm glad i didn't do it, because my money would have been wasted. there's no way i could have lost that much weight.

may is going to be a really busy month for me, both in and out of the office. at work, i've got two complicated blocks to design. and in my personal life, i'll be moving. ugh. i'm not looking forward to it. i hope i have the energy and stamina to get through those 31 days. gambatte!

there are little signs that it's time i moved out of my place. first, these birds have ripped a huge section off of the screen on one of my bedroom windows. i think they're using the metallic strands to build a nest. and also, the long fluorescent light bulbs in my bathroom don't light up all the way as of a few days ago. things are falling apart, it seems. it's time to go!

over the weekend, i got rid of a bunch of old paper items in my place. stuff like all of my _time_ magazines, old phone books and catalogs, etc. also, i went through all these clothes (flannel shirts? who wears flannel anymore?) and old ripped jeans and threw some away and filled up a garbage bag for donation. yup, i really am getting prepped for moving.

during the dance performance, i realized just how amazing the performers on _sytycd_ are. when these amateur dancers jumped, their verticals were about 3 inches. hey, i'm not hating; my own vertical is like that much too. but the truly remarkable dancers (and athletes) are just worlds better. and i appreciate them so much more. man, i can't wait for idol to end and sytycd to start. i hope there's a cute girl to root for this season, like lauren of two seasons ago. television is so much better when there's eye candy. i realize that most shows i watch have a girl that i like: leighton meester, kaley cuoco, jenna fischer, eliza dushku, cobie smulders, etc. yes, i am highly estrogen-motivated.

i've got these two stubborn, short, stiff hairs on my upper back along my spine. the moment i get a girlfriend, i'm going to ask her to pluck them for me. they're bugging me to no end. when i think about the fact that they're there, and i can't pluck them myself, i get very uncomfortable and agitated and frustrated. i wonder what color they are, since i can't see them myself. i have this fantasy that they're golden (don't ask me why i think so).

mikeT recommended following miley cyrus on twitter, and i've noticed that she frequently makes the grammatical mistake of using "your" when it's supposed to be "you're." it's annoying. other than that, it's been interesting following her thoughts. amazing, how far the internet has come, to the point where you can peer into the mundane thoughts of celebrities.

i've noticed that curly fries are only good when they're hot. i watched a bit on curly fries on the food network a while back, and the guy said that they're best when eaten during the first 10 minutes after they're fried. so true. afterwards, they get all cold and greasy and icky. however, most of the time, i get curly fries at a drive-thru, so half of that 10-minute window is sucked up on the drive home, and then i spend the next 5 minutes eating the sandwich or burger, so of course, by then, the fries have gotten nasty. should i eat *all* of the fries first then? but that just seems so backwards!

it looks like my housewarming party will be pushed out until early june. i don't want to stress myself unpacking and ordering the tv stand and stuff, and alan and ting have a packed may and won't free up until after that month. of course i want alan there, so i'll wait until may is over. it'll be ok. i really want to throw the party, though. i love being a host and the feeling that i know everyone at a party, instead of being a wallflower at someone else's party and not feeling like i can talk to everyone there.

my mom really wants to get rid of my layer 1 blanket (remember that i have three layers of blankets). this is the bottom layer, so it's the one that touches my skin when i sleep naked. but, the problem is, i LOVE this blanket. i've been using this blanket since before college, so that dates the blanket around 17+ years? the reason why i love this blanket so much is because it's smooth and cool to the touch, and i love the feeling when my entire naked body comes in contact with it, and it slowly warms up as i snuggled deeper and deeper into it. *sigh* i know when my mom comes to visit me, she'll make me throw it away. i don't wanna!

ok, i'm off for my 6pm smoke now. i don't want to brave the cold, though. happy monday! :/

the big dance

sorry i'm a little late on this one. i've been busy.

friday night, john, mikeC and i went to duke of edinburgh for dinner. whiskey and food! i got the shepherd's pie. it wasn't so good, but at least the fries were good. afterwards, i dropped john off at greg and cheryl's house, and i picked up the boxes that greg saved for me. he doesn't want them back, haha. apparently, i got them just in time, because aimee asked greg later on if she could have those very same boxes. blogbarnacle, do you want my boxes after i'm done with them?

after i got home, i watched my tape of _dollhouse_. the episode was sort of lame, but next week! ballard finds the dollhouse! it looks awesome.

saturday, i had lunch with john at in 'n out, the one on grant and el camino. i wanted to go to the arby's near there, but john said he didn't want to go there because arby's look dirty. oh well. afterwards, we shopped at nijiya for japanese snacks and drinks. i got two bags of wasabi shrimp chips, an "extra hot" bag of chili bits, a bottle of calpico, and a bottle of milk tea. yummers.

then, i went home and watched game 4 of the mavs/spurs. we won! and we're up 3-1! yay! just one more game, and we'll advance.

then, it was time for the big show. grace and ann have been taking these dance lessons, and saturday night was the culmination of their lessons: a big dance and singing recital. the singing was mediocre at best, and there was one number that was god awful to listen to. the dancing was ok, and i LOVED watching ann and grace do their thing. ann looked a little embarrassed, and grace seemed to be groovin'. i really enjoyed watching them. there was this one big asian dude, eric, who was in all but two of the dozen or so numbers. he was one flamboyant guy, and in one dance, he even dressed up in drag. bravo!

sunday, i got up relatively early (9:30) and drove to san mateo to help jeremy and kate move. they have SO much shit. a lot of it was inherited heavy wood furniture. they were moving their stuff to a storage locker, and that thing was packed to the gills. alan, cliff, joey, and this new guy jared all helped out. a bunch of manpower. kate was nice enough to get us burritos from la cumbre. after our first trip to storage, there was still stuff left, and jeremy sent us home. i didn't believe that the rest of the stuff would fit, but today jeremy informed us that after some resourceful shuffling around, it did. bravo!

i went home and watched the cavaliers/pistons game and fell asleep. then, i watched even more basketball, this time, the entire magic/76ers game. i was rooting for dwight howard and the magic, who won on a turkoglu 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left. i was waiting for my prospective date to call me, but apparently, she was in the city doing stuff all day, so we never met up. :(

i had dinner with jessica, edric, char and hai at this new korean food court on el camino and lawrence. i was stupid and got a japanese dish, chicken katsu curry. bad mistake. it was bland. next time, i'll order korean food. duh. jessica's twin daughters were there, and man, they are the cutest kids i have ever seen. afterwards, we went back to edric's place and watched the last half of _bolt_.

then, i just went home and watched some espn, and then i went to bed. i was sort of bummed out i didn't meet up with the girl, but oh well, sometimes people's schedules don't work out. hopefully we'll meet up soon.

friday at last

TGIfuckingF! it's been a slow week, although work did ramp up a little bit these past few days. the scorching weather earlier this week made it worse, too. but now, it's chilly and breezy, so i'm MUCH happier. i made the mistake of going out to lunch in only a t-shirt, and man, the wind made me shiver. we stopped by pizza chicago, but it was packed in there, so we drove less than a mile down el camino and hit choi's (my second time there this week) instead. man, i gotta stop going to choi's so much, despite how good their potato pan chan is.

so this weekend, i need to start prepping for the big move. i need to get rid of some clothes, magazines, phone books, old mail, etc. i also need to go to greg's place and pick up about a dozen boxes, and hopefully they'll be enough for all of my random stuff. plus, i need alan to come so i can finally recycle my old tv, and he can come take his old hammock, which has been sitting on the balcony for several years. ugh, this move (well, any move) is going to be a pain in the ass. hopefully, if i have at least half a dozen people help me, it won't be that bad. greg and cheryl had 14 people help them, and it took all day long. i don't have nearly as much stuff as they did, so i bet it will only take a few hours. aside from the big stuff, the most painful stuff will be my clothes, since i don't plan on packing them.

so i checked out the "watch real virgins get fucked on video" website last night at home. they seem to be authentic. apparently, they get a doctor to check out the girl before she gets reamed. and, they get her bleeding afterwards caught on video. damn, this must mean her hymen is intact, no? wow! but this doesn't get me that turned on, though. i mean, i'd much rather have sex with an experienced girl (read: good sex) than a virgin (awkward and boring sex). i mean, yes, there is sort of a thrill when you know you're deflowering an innocent newbie, but i think that's more psychological than anything. i think it would be better to have a nymphomaniac who is just wild in the sack and knows how to do all sorts of kinky shit.

i might have a date on sunday! we shall see. i'll let you know details after the fact; i don't want to jinx anything by revealing too much. i'll just say that one of the cool things about this girl is that she's 5'7". she's one of the taller girls that i've met online.

i notice that i've been ticcing slightly more lately. i'm trying to put a finger on why. it could be that the homebuying process has increased the amount of stress in my life. or, it could be the fact that i cut down on my herbal medication by 33% (6 pills a day instead of 9). either way, it's totally annoying, and i hope this trend doesn't get worse. touretter's tend to go through phases called "waxing" and "waning," so i guess i'm on a waxing phase now.

sometimes i wonder if i am borderline diabetic or something. two things: my food comas and the fact that my extremeties get numb sometimes. i don't know much about diabetes at all, so i am talking out of my ass, but i've heard that those things are some symptoms of the disease.

the numbness really bugs me, and i don't know why it happens. this usually happens when i am sleeping. but what's totally weird is that it's not when i'm sleeping on my arm or anything; the arm that goes numb is usually that one that's on top, i.e. the one that's not being pressed on. isn't that strange? it happened again this morning. isn't numbness bad? doesn't it mean that there's no blood flow to that area, and cells are dying?

congrats to jason "the jet" terry for winning the sixth man award! i used to hate him when he played for arizona against stanford, but he's done well for himself in dallas as a maverick. yay! let's hope we can win tomorrow and take a commanding 3-1 series lead against the spurs. man, what the hell happened to the spurs last night? scoring a franchise playoff low 67 points? tim duncan only scoring 4 points in the entire game? i mean, i'm not complaining or anything, but is dallas's defense really that good? i'm impressed!

i need to watch basketball with more of a purpose. meaning, i should watch how certain players play and try to learn something from them. i mean, when i play on offense, i usually just find a spot and stand there, hoping that someone will pass the ball to me so i can shoot it. i should learn how to roam around, find soft spots in the defense, set and use screens, etc. you know, *improve* my game by watching the NBA and even college basketball instead of just being a passive observer. i need to *actively* watch. yeah.

i remember when i first tried to play basketball. i didn't even know how to shoot a ball. i used both hands. and when i tried using one hand to push the ball through, i looked like i was shot putting it. and when i finally got my form down, i would airball everything. it was a painful process. but there's a learning curve for everything, and i finally got it down after a few months. now, i have to say that i'm a pretty good shot given a certain range. now if only i could get my golf game going just as well...

last night, i had dinner with nelson at taqueria los charros. we both had 2-3 tacos, and afterwards, when i drove him home, we both complained about not feeling well. right after i dropped him off, my stomach started hurting REALLY badly. i mean, i was in SERIOUS pain during the drive back. i almost took a shit in my pants in the car. luckily, i made it home, and the moment my ass hit the toilet seat, my sphincter burst in massive explosive diarrhea. did we eat something bad? would it have affected us so quickly? i'm fine today, but man, that was some sudden fuckupitude.

who was the person in belmont who found this blog by googling my name?

and to the girl who lost her hymen on a boy's bike, did it hurt when you tore it? i'm sorry it had to happen that way. well, at least you first sexual experience didn't hurt then, right?

i keep wanting to know whether my friends who have had baby boys got their kids circumcised. i don't know how to bring that up, though. it would be a sensitive topic, no? personally, if i had a boy, i wouldn't do it. i am uncircumcised, and i am SO HAPPY that i wasn't cut. i am proud of having my foreskin. however, i've read some reports that foreskin leads to some medical issues down the road for men, so doctors are now advocating getting it done again. so what's the verdict now? to cut or not to cut?

ok, four more minutes, and it's time for my 6pm smoke. have a STUPENDOUS weekend, folks!

cooling trend

ah, this weather is MUCH better. it's around 70 today, with a slight breeze. NICE. this is my kind of stuff. so crazy, how two/three days ago, it was like 90 degrees. temperamental weather gods can't figure out what kind of shit they want to throw at us, eh? i hope it stays like this for a while, because i couldn't stand the heat wave that hit us earlier in the week.

i re-watched the dominic/lauren rumba dance to "ain't no sunshine" on SYTYCD from two seasons ago. my god, lauren was so hot in that number, it gave me shivers. *swoons* i wonder what she's doing now. i'd totally do her in a heartbeat. i just checked her myspace page, and she's single now. hm. i guess she broke up with that bryan tanaka guy. and apparently, she has some role in the upcoming season of SYTYCD. i can't wait to see her again!

lauren's hair changed a lot during the show, and she looked better or worse, depending on that hair. the worst was when she had bangs that fell straight down on her forehead. i've never been fond at all of that hairstyle. i much prefer no bangs or at least bangs that are swept to the side. hair makes such a big difference in how a girl looks, you know?

i am the evangelist of jun pad poo. i introduced it to a coworker today, and he liked it. yay! another one is converted! i had been craving jpp all week, and i finally got my fix for lunch. one of these days, though, i will need to go to the southern krung thai to get it again, because i think that place makes it the best; they put more crab in it than at barn thai, which is where i got it today.

someone found my site while looking for virgins bleeding or something like that, and i clicked on the google search term, and apparently, there is a porn site that features only real, authentic (allegedly, of course) virgins having sex. where do they find these girls? do you advertise for that, asking for virgins to lose it on your cameras? i bet this site is fake. but if they're real, then i bet the quality of the sex can't be very good, because the girls have had no experience! they probably just lie there on their backs while the men pound away.

how painful is it when a girl breaks her hymen? does it still happen to women during their first sexual encounter? or is it rare in the age of tampons? i have no experience with deflowering a girl, so i wouldn't know.

anyways, i think i'm back to normal with the morning dump situation. i took a healthy (well, not really, as it's still topamax-induced diarrhea) sized shit this morning after my first smoke of the day. no more bananas for me. i think i'm going to eat pears or apples from now on. or maybe i'll look for peaches. is it peach season? i've heard something about not supporting fruits that aren't in season because they aren't "green" in the sense that it costs a lot of money to import them from far away lands.

speaking of topamax, i can now get it in the generic form. so it's something like "topimarate" or "topamirate." this doesn't seem significant, but to me it is, because it means that i get it much more cheaply than before. my copay for this drug dropped from $30 to $15, saving me $180 a year. that's a lot!

i twittered today that my company had a huge stash of doritos that it was giving away for free. and then, i found out why: they were all expired chips, with a date of march 10th! hrmph. i got a bag, and then i immediately looked at the expiration date, and then it all hit me. i haven't opened my bag yet, but i did try two chips from D's bag. they tasted all right, not totally stale or gross yet. i guess this stuff must have a lot of preservatives or something. i'm looking at the ingredients, and there's disodium phosphate, sodium caseinate, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate. scary shit. these four ingredients don't sound like they belong in food.

you know, every time ryan seacrest walks down that big flight of illuminated stairs on idol, i fear that he'll trip and go tumbling down on national television. the horror!

ok. i gotta go soon. i'm meeting up with nelson and maybe john at los charros for dinner. i'm going to get two carnitas tacos and one al pastor taco. i'm still not brave enough to try the lengua (tongue). *shivers*

gobi

today, for lunch, mikeT recommended gobi (as in gobi desert) mongolian bbq, this new place on lawrence and tasman next to pho queen. so i took my coworkers D and I there, and we tried it out. it was so-so. it was comparable to new mongolian bbq on castro: mediocre noodles, thick and tough meat. it was no su's, that's for sure. but it was cheap, coming in at $7.50. i ate so much that afterwards, i passed out due to massive food coma. i'd go there again if i wanted a cheap mongolian bbq fix, and it's really close to where i work.

the weather is much better today. the temperature is in the 70's; comfortable and mild. i'd prefer it to be in the 60's, but hey, i can't complain. last night, i was actually able to sleep because i took my sleep medication early, and i had a late dinner with some volleyball people at pho hoa, and food makes the sleep medication kick in strong, so i was really drowsy by the time i got to bed.

i had a dream last night where stanford taiko decided to perform the song that i wrote way back when; it was called "popscene," and it was inspired by various popular culture references, like nicholson baker (a writer), dragon ball Z, and abercrombie and fitch. i wrote it after being inspired by my affection for jo-ann, who was in taiko at the time. ah, taiko crushes. she was definitely a cutie.

you know what gets me down? even if we humans find a way to make life on earth sustainable, and we are able to live on this planet indefinitely without sucking up all of its resources, there is no way we'll live here forever. why? because the sun will eventually expand to become a red giant, eating up mercury and venus, and it'll scorch the earth into a smoldering mess. so there is no future for us. period. that really bugs me. so what of life? so what of our future and our posterity? :(

i took three dumps today. i guess i had it coming, after not taking a shit at all yesterday. the morning one was really small, but shortly after arriving at the office, i took another one. and after lunch, i had a stomachache, and i had a liquid explosion once i had my post-lunch cigarette. hm. have you guys ever had an enema? maybe i should get one, to cleanse out my system. i've heard on the radio that our colons are lined with a bunch of gunk, and it may be beneficial to clear out the stuff once in a while. is that true? or is it just a way for them to get customers and make money?

so somebody commented and asked me what happens when i break a streak. well, in the grand scheme of things, nothing really happens. but in my mind, i feel uncomfortable. unbalanced. like something's wrong. if you have OCD, you would understand. OCD involves feeling like things are "right," and a lot of times, you have to do something over and over again until things are "right." for example, every night, before i go to bed, i have to check the garage door and my front locks to make sure they're closed and locked. when i look at my garage door, i *know* it's closed, but i have to stare at it until the image is perfectly imprinted on my brain. this can take up to 10 seconds. and if i look away and don't feel right about it, i have to start all over again. yeah, OCD is a bitch. and i've only got a mild case of it. i can't imagine having it so severely, like when people have to wash their hands over and over again until they bleed. ouch!

so i called up jenS today and politely told her that she texted me at 7:44am yesterday morning. then, i told her that i usually get up at 10am, and that i keep my cell phone on throughout the night. she understood what i was getting at, hehe. anyways, when my cell phone went off to my text msg alarm (twice, as jen sent me a long message that had to be broken up into two parts), i thought it was an emergency, so i dragged myself out of bed to read it. that hurt. and earlier that night, at around 3am or so, i heard the sprinklers, and i thought that something was broken, so i actually put on my clothes and went outside to check if the sprinkler heads were broken or something. so all in all, it was a bad session of sleep.

what is the purpose of hair on knuckles and toes? or for that matter, pubic and armpit hair? hair is supposed to keep your body warm, right? so why do those parts of our bodies need extra warmth?

yesterday was jessicaT's birthday. she's a curious one. she's got a JD degree, but she's now studying for her MCAT's. what, she now wants to be a doctor? crazy! that's pretty ambitious, but i do wonder whether she's just confused and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. anyways, jessica was this girl i had a crush on when i was in chinese camp back in high school. however, it was sort of a scandal because i was about to be a senior in high school, and she had just graduated elementary school. ha! anyways, she wrote me back today, and she might come out this summer to visit me. so i'll be looking forward to that.

now that i will be owning a house, i'm more conscious about saving money. like, for example, grace and ann's dance performance is coming up this weekend. i can either buy $15 tickets at the door or $12 tickets beforehand. it's only $3, but then again, that's $3 saved. so i'm going to buy the tickets beforehand. stuff like that. i think it's a good thing. i mean, before buying this house, i had over $100K stashed away in an online savings account, and that was a lot of money, so i was throwing away money left and right like it was nothing. (like for example, for the UK/ireland trip, i told paul and leeya that money was no object.) but now that all that money is going to be sunk into the house, it'll no longer be a crutch that i have, so i'll be house poor and massively in debt, so i had better watch how i spend my hard earned dollar, you know?

at what age do women's eggs go bad? there's this 40-year-old woman that i'm e-mailing with, and she's sort of cute, but man, i have never ever imagined myself going out with someone that old. that's just way out of my age range. she's cool, too, like she knows what jun pad poo and thievery corporation are. but honestly, because of the age thing, i don't think i can consider her as a viable dating option. which is too bad, really.

ok, time to go home. _scrubs_ tonight! and two people get booted tonight. i bet it'll be lil and anoop, even though i really like anoop.

naked

man, i cannot stand this scorching weather. last night, it was 77-79 degrees in my place, and even hotter upstairs when i was trying to sleep. wearing clothes (especially jeans) was unbearable, so i spent most of the night naked. that was mildly refreshing. i even IM'ed adam sans clothing, and i was glad to read that he wasn't offended or anything. i'm sure that some of my friends would be upset to know that i was on the other side of the computer naked, although i don't quite understand why that would cause such an uproar.

i don't get the public sometimes. i mean, they cheer judd apatow movies, _sex and the city_, etc. for being frank about supposedly "taboo" topics, yet sometimes, when i bring up similar subjects, some people recoil in horror. for example, i posted on facebook the other day that i plucked my nipple hair, and i got some unfavorable responses. what's the big deal? *ponder*

i like dreaming. in my dreams, sometimes i get to see people that i haven't met in ages. for example, this morning, i dreamt that i was hanging out with joyL, this friend i had in high school. we were shopping for a gift for my best friend in junior high, ken. we found a fishing-themed music box, and i thought that was the best gift. then, my alarm clock woke up, and i was bummed that i didn't get to give it to him. ah, dreams. joy was probably the hottest girl i knew in junior high/high school.

boy, my mavericks got blown out last night by the spurs. it was pretty embarrassing. tony parker was on fire. and today, erick dampier (the mavs' center) made the boneheaded mistake of publicly saying that he was going to "put parker on his back" for his first foul on him. wtf? how stupid do you have to be to announce that? now the NBA is looking into it and might punish him for that before the game even starts. dumbass.

so i made a request to transfer my $100K+ in my online savings account into my bank's checking account today. holy shit, that check i write for my house's down payment is going to be huge. i am going to guard that cashier's check with my life. cashier's checks can be made out to somebody, right? i'm not going to be carrying a live check that anyone can cash, am i? somebody tell me that ain't so! hm. maybe i should look into just electronically wiring it. does that cost money?

so nelson told me that the morrissey concert was cancelled due to the dude being sick. bummer. nelson's getting a refund. i have an emotional attachment to morrissey's music; his stuff (as well as the smiths's stuff) served as a bond between k1 and me when we were courting. it's hard to listen to songs such as "every day is like sunday" or "how soon is now" and not think about her.

i got my annual review today from my boss. he seemed pleased with my work, but he also mentioned how he wanted me to be more of a leader at the office. how am i supposed to do that? it's not like i'm managing anyone or being given the opportunity to lead a project. hm. but i agree with him in a way, though; i've sort of stayed away from taking on more responsibilities, and i've been content to be an "individual contributor," as they call it. in the end, my boss said, "i'm glad you're here." aww.

i pulled my calf again today during basketball. shit. i stretched before playing, and it felt fine during the first game, but as i ran more and more, it just started hurting again. fuck. i'm going to stop playing for two weeks this time and hope that it heals fully before i step back out on the court again. i feel old.

i haven't taken a dump today. that is BIG news. you know how much routine plays a crucial part in my life. and every day, i get up and have my morning cigarette, which triggers my morning dump. but today, after my smoke, i just sat on the toilet, and nothing came out. maybe two farts, and that was it. i just sat there, waiting. i strained a bit, but then gave up. seriously, this probably breaks a MULTI-YEAR streak of taking a dump first thing in the morning. crazy, huh? definitely gotta stop eating those bananas. maybe i should finish those medjool dates i have in my cubicle for more fiber. (they're 70 calories a pop though!)

speaking of broken routines, tuesday was a basketball day, but i wore the wrong puma's. normally, on bball days, i wear my puma avanti's because they're easier to put on, since i have to switch shoes and stuff. but today, it slipped my mind, so i wore the other pair of black and white puma's. ugh. another streak broken. yes, i have OCD, so this means a lot to me. just be glad that you're not me.

ok, time for a smoke.

all systems go

so i removed all contingencies on the house 20 minutes ago. i was still waiting for the bank appraisal to come in, and it still hasn't officially, but i called my loan agent, and she said that it looks good, and there should be no surprises. today is the deadline to do it, and the sellers can cancel the contract after today, so i just went ahead and removed the contingencies. so this is it! no turning back! ugh. i'm excited and scared at the same time.

last night, i found another example of short hair working wonders on a girl's look. one of the female members of stanford taiko stood out to me, and i noticed her short hair immediately. later that night, after i went home, i looked her up on facebook, and i didn't recognize her in her numerous pictures. she looked completely different. see? short hair totally makes you look cuter! yay!

man, these college kids are so young. they're like 20 years old. such babies! i mean, i don't *feel* that old, and i don't look that old next to them (although i do have gray hair), but when i realize how much older i am, it's really shocking. oh, to be young and so innocent. these freshmen were born in the 90's, can you believe that? crazy!

it's blazing hot out there. the temperatures are in the 90's, i think. it's only april! i hope this isn't going to be a record-breaking summer. the good news, though, is that my new house has air conditioning. yes, that means more energy costs, but that also means no more torturous nights of trying to sleep in a 90-degree bedroom environment. i really hated that.

i'm wearing my superman t-shirt today. i was inspired yesterday, so i dug it out from underneath my massive pile of t-shirts this morning. D looked at me this morning and shook his head. i guess it's a bit bold. but honestly, having a big yellow/red "S" emblazoned on your chest just makes you feel good.

to my commenter, yes, i still have diarrhea. just a lot less of it. i think i might have a theory as to why i have such little dumps of late. it's because over the past three weeks, i've been eating a banana a day. that makes you constipated, right? must be it. well, today, i ate the last of the bunch, so i'm going to stop buying bananas and see what happens. i remember in college, i once ate 3-4 bananas a day, and boy, did that fuck me up.

i've overdosed on many types of food before, to very gruesome results. many of them (wintermelon candy, half a tub of gummy bears) resulted in me puking. (the gummy bears came out in gelatinous multi-colored chunks.) others (a whole bag of prunes, half a gallon of milk) gave me the runs for hours on end. i don't know why i do this to myself, but i've just had a lot of experiences with eating too much of one thing. i guess i just have little self-control. hopefully i've learned my lesson.

since it's so hot, i think i'll be spending part of the night naked in my house. i haven't done that in a long time. adam was telling me a while ago that he was in a tank top and shorts. why not go naked? i love being without clothes. it feels so free. and if i get a roommate eventually in my new place, i better cherish these moments, because i won't get to do it much longer when i live with someone else. unless i live with a girl who happens to be hot and a nudist.

ok, i gotta go home early today. gonna grab a quick dinner and then catch the mavs/spurs game 2. GO MAVS!

warm weather weekend

friday night, i left work around 6:30 and got a haircut. the girl who did my hair was kinda cute; i think she was vietnamese. then, on the drive home, nelson called, and he wanted dinner. so i rushed back, took a quick shower, and met him and mikeC at pizza chicago. we got our usual great chicago fire (half no cilantro), and even got to use our $2 off coupon on the spot.

then, i dropped off nelson at his place and went home. i tried to grill him about the morrissey concert, but he was having none of it. there was no _dollhouse_, so i just read some _harry potter 6_, skype'd my parents, and went to bed.

saturday, i got up around 10:30am. i called up some friends, and i made lunch plans with jeffrey and nicki. they were hiking the dish, so i read one chapter of _hp6_. that chapter ended with two charaters getting together, which made me cheer and get into a good mood.

i met j&n at pho kim long right before the lunch crowd hid. i told them about the good dishes (#27 and #36), so we ordered them. peter called, so i went outside to take the call, and when i came back, the food came. they were NOT #27. i did a double take, and i asked the woman if she was sure they were #27. she said they were. i took a menu, and stared at it, asking the woman again if the menu had changed. she said no. i was like, WTF? then, i asked another guy if the dishes were #27, and he said no. the woman was a bitch! so they refired one of the #27's for me, and nicki kept the other wrong dish. what a fucking fiasco.

anyways, after lunch, we got some vietnamese sandwiches nearby, and then, we decided to take one car and go to downtown san jose to the tech museum. it was the first time for all of us, and the place turned out to be a place for kids. however, they had a segway demonstration, and we all took a turn riding it. it was pretty cool! then, we watched a film on the IMAX, _the magic of flight_. both nicki and i fell asleep. i got a little motion sickness when i was awake, though, due to the immersive screen.

then, we left the tech museum and hit gordon biersch. i ordered the garlic fries and a jameson on the rocks. i was really excited about the fries, but they turned out cold. boo.

then, they dropped me off back at pho kim long for me to pick up my car, and my seat was blazing hot after being baked in the sun for hours. i drove home and watched the mavs/spurs game. the first quarter was horrible. the start of the second quarter was bad, too, and we were in a 13-point hole. but then, we put in terry and barea, and we came back, and eventually won the game. yay!

for dinner, i met up with john and mikeC at los charros. we all got tacos. john tried lengua (tongue), and he said it was good. i was skeptical. then mikeC got a drink at tap-ex, and we went home. i spent the rest of the night reading the end of _hp6_, and i wound up finishing the book around midnight or so. i didn't think the book was as good as the last one i read, _hp3_. it just wasn't as compelling or twisty and tight. oh well. the death was really shocking, though. but anyways, now i'm ready for the movie this summer.

sunday, i called up some more friends after i woke up. then, D came over, and i ordered pizza chicago (which he was really excited about), and we watched the lakers/jazz game. (D is a big lakers fan.) the game wasn't close throughout, and it wasn't exciting at all. afterwards, we went to sweet corner to see the art show, and i saw mel there. she's tall, i like that. there was this dude who introduced himself to me, and he seemed to be a bit awkward (i couldn't really tell), but when i went home, he facebook'ed me and added me as a friend. hm. (i accepted, why not?) there was also a girl who mistook me for a guy she met the previous night. i thought that was a bit weird, too.

after D left, i watched a bit of the magic/76ers game. shit, iguodala hit an amazing shot at the end to win it by 2. then, i fell asleep, and that was my only chance to grab dinner.

i drove to stanford at 7pm and met up with all the stanford taiko alums to watch the spring concert showcase. this was a chance for ST to show us their songs before the big concert and for us to give them any critiques and suggestions to incorporate into their big day. it was supposed to take 2 hours, but instead, it took 3+ hours.

this year's concert is very high-concept. all the songs put together are supposed to tell the story of a chinese woman and her husband; the latter died building the great wall, and the songs are supposed to convey their meeting, his death, and their reuniting. or something to that effect. very cool. however, i bet that a large portion of the audience won't get it. but still, that's aiming quite high, and i comment ST on their vision.

after i got home, i realized that i hadn't had dinner yet. but i wasn't hungry. i did some facebook'ing, and then i went to bed. it was a good weekend. the weather during saturday and sunday was gorgeous, but honestly, it was too hot for my tastes. it's supposed to get up to 90 degrees today. good lord!

the scan mystery

hey peeps. i've been embroiled in this firefighting issue that popped up at work yesterday. there's been some weird shit going on. one release of the code had scan flops (that's what we want) in it, but for some insane reason, another release of the code didn't. but there is only one version of the code! how did the scan flops disappear? that is truly mindboggling. anyways, we're back to resynthesizing the code, which is like a two/three week hit on the schedule. *sigh* not good for the company. right now, i'm supposed to be working on all three chips that we've got going (this chip, the chip we just taped out (test vectors), and the next generation chip). i feel like i'm being drawn and quartered. *RAAR*

so i was supposed to remove contingencies today. however, the bank appraisal STILL has not been done yet. i don't know what's dragging this on. my agent talked to the selling agent about delaying the contingency removal until next monday, and the selling agent was NOT happy about it. he had the power to cancel the entire contract, but he didn't, and he begrudgingly granted the extension. my loan agent said that the appraisal will be done by monday, so she better deliver. *taps his finger impatiently*

the company lunch today was pretty bad. they had bbq ribs (dry and crusty meat) and bbq chicken (i only had a drumstick, it was ok). what was awful was this bruschetta-like thing with this hummus-like substance that tasted like rotten cheese spread. i shoved the whole thing in my mouth, and immediately made a sour face, so grotesque that my coworker M couldn't stop laughing. it was disgusting. yes, it's free food, but it's gotta be edible at least!

are you guys able to dream between snoozes of your alarm clock? i am. i guess i'm *that* tired? this morning, in between like my 3rd and 4th snooze, i dreamt that i was playing pac-man. i hate that game. it stresses me out. nothing like that claustrophic feeling of being trapped in a corner by a bunch of colored ghosts with no power pellet to save me.

p-p-p-poker face p-p-poker face. i have a love-hate relationship with that song. i mean, i think it's totally stupid and annoying, but when it's on, i can't change the station. what was lady gaga thinking when she wrote this thing?

we had an urgent matter at work today (going back to my first paragraph), and we had to request the password of a coworker who was on vacation so we could log into his machine. he gave it to me over the phone, and man, it was a complicated password. it was alternating letters and numbers, and it even had a special character in it. how do people remember such things?

i was talking to paul today about home loans and stuff, and he said something about home values dropping, so i went on zillow and checked up on the house i'm buying. their "zestimate" went up by $1,500! haha. how do they calculate such things? it's all black magic to me.

ooh. someone just walked past my cube and farted. it was a bubbly one.

my calf/achilles is feeling better today. hopefully it'll continue to improve, and i can play basketball again next week. one of the bball guys at my company got food poisoning at the milpitas el torito, and he even had to go into the hospital and get an IV. hot damn. that's pretty bad. speaking of food poisoning, is the salmonella outbreak in chinese restaurants over? i'm craving dim sum.

my dumps continue to be small and insignificant. what's going on? i hope i'm not constipated or anything. i don't feel that bloated/stopped up feeling in my gut. constipation sucks. when i get it, i have to resort to smoking a lot to loosen up my bowels. cigarettes help a bit, but not always. i usually have to sit on the toilet and just push as hard as i can to get the turds out. i don't get how constipation works, though; how come your sphincter can't push out the dookies? is it because your shit is too big? i mean, your ass muscles don't stop work all of a sudden, right? i should go look this up on wikipedia.

my agent called me today to tell me that i should get a zero-point loan (highest interest rate) with my loan agent, and then refi with him at 4.75% at zero points in a few weeks. hm. should i believe him? what if that falls through then? then i'd be fucked with a high interest rate. anyways, i thanked him for the offer, but i told him that i've already locked with BofA, and that i probably couldn't get out of it. somehow it sounded too good to be true, getting 4.75% with zero points.

so it turns out jeremy and kate are buying a house, too. for the past few months, they had been thinking of renting a 3-bedroom place (out of their 2-bedroom place in san mateo) because both of their kids need their own room, but all of sudden, they've bought a place! wow, they move furtively. like i said, it seems like my life is so much more public than others'. is this a good thing?

i wish i could combine various girls into one, making something like a frankenstein of love. right now, i'm in contact with some various women, i want to take different traits of them and meld them into one, more perfect entity. say, the height of this one, the face of that one, the cultural background (read: non-fobbiness) of another, the geographic proximity of yet another. that would make me happier.

so this weekend, i should be done with _harry potter 6_. i have like 8 chapters left. i can't wait. i think i'm at a critical chapter now, the one where harry and dumbledore explore horace slughorn's horcrux memory. fuck, i mean, there are only 8 chapters left, so things *better* start rolling, you know?

ok, time to get a haircut. i probably have to stop by work tonight to kick off a job or two. *sigh* yes, i could get a laptop and work from home, but i've steadfastedly refused to do so because that would make me more "accessible," thus making my bosses give me more assignments to do from home. NO!

meeting hell. fire!

ugh. i've been stuck in meetings since 3pm. two hour-long meetings in conference rooms, and then one emergency meeting in M's cube. yup, an emergency. looks like i'll have some firefighting to do for the next few days, which might spill into the weekend. sucks. basically, back in late january, some of us ran an erroneous synthesis script, which remove all the scan flip-flops from the designs, and we just discovered it now in our back-end flow. *RAAR* so late in the phase! fuck. the chip is going to be delayed by at least a few weeks. i feel bad for the project managers. it's some serious shit.

i introduced mikeT to giovanni's pizza today. he liked it ok, but he prefers premiere pizza, which i don't like. i prefer either thin crust or thick crust, but not the medium style. we each ate four slices of a medium combination pizza, and i thought it was pretty tasty. we caught up on some stuff, but our lunch turned out to be pretty quick, less than an hour. i got back to work before 1pm, and i didn't know what to do with myself.

i twittered (which also went on facebook) about my nipple hair today, and i got some shocked and offended responses. i didn't know nipple hair was such a taboo and revolting topic! doesn't everyone have nipple hair? what do you guys do with it? i pluck mine, and it feel really good. it doesn't hurt, and it actually comes with a bit of pleasure each time i pull a follicle out. i get some ingrown ones sometimes with all the plucking, and i love scraping them out; sometimes i scrape so hard that i draw blood, so that's not so good.

mikeT introduced me to following miley cyrus and ryan seacrest on twitter. miley in particular twitters quite frequently, and it's sort of cool, peering into the mind of a celebrity. she was coincidentally the guest performer on AI last night. but i still give her shit for that "asian eyes" photo that caused some controversy a few months ago. what was she thinking?

i had a very vivid dream about my good high school friend stephen this morning. we were in dallas, and he was showing me around. we were walking around, and i was lost, and he reassured me, "don't worry, i'll ask one of the bums where we are." and he also told me he knew the hookers very well. i was shocked. ah, good old stephen. i don't talk to him much at all, but i miss him. he was one of those brilliant underachievers, getting terrible grades in school but owning a very smart brain.

so what would happen if i met a very physically attractive fob? would i choose her over an ABC who didn't look that good? that's a very tough question. as i type this, i'm actually sort of surprised that there'd even be a debate, because i have such a distaste for fobby women. but my shallowness as far as looks are concerned apparently is that strong. hm. i should really be less shallow, ne? i mean, when i see a fobby typo or fobby bad grammar, it really makes me recoil. but then again, when i see a good face, it makes me forgive a lot of things. ugh. why can't i have the perfect woman?

i can't believe nelson is going to the morrissey concert without me. (he just IM'ed me and then left work while i was in the cubicle meeting.) i asked him if he wanted to go, and he said flatly, "no." i bet it's because of a woman. hrmph. women make you do things like that.

tomorrow is the removal date for my contingencies on the house. after that, there's no looking back. i'm locked into the house. *shivers* am i really committed to this? i'm sort of scared. it's a lot of money. am i prepared for home ownership? can i really, truly afford it?

i really miss getting massages. i haven't had one in like two months. i should schedule one soon. i really need a haircut, too. i'm really shaggy on the sides and back. tomorrow, i will try to leave work early and get one.

i think it hasn't hit me yet that my move will be a royal pain in the ass. i only mainly have a living room and a bedroom worth of stuff, but still, that's a lot of crap. i need to work this weekend in getting rid of some shit that i own that i'll never use again, like my _time_ magazine collection, all my phone books, clothes that i have worn in years, etc. like, i have this box full of size 32 waist pants that i will never fit into again. what do i do with that? give it to goodwill? what a shame, i spent so much money on those pants. hopefully when i do move, i'll be able to get a bunch of friends to help me out like greg and cheryl did. (they had 14 people help, which is a MULTITUDE.)

ok, i'm tired, and i want to go home. and i just found a problem with the chip we just taped out. !! gotta deliver the bad (and emergency-like) news.

pizza antica

today, for D's birthday, we took him to pizza antica at santana row. the pizza was very blah. small, thin and expensive. i brought blue and white candles, but he didn't order a slice of chocolate (he LOVES chocolate) cake. and the waitress (she looked cool, had tattoos and cool glasses) hated me. first, i said really loudly, twice, that the bruschetta was weird (i mean, what bruschetta has beets, watercress and walnuts?), and she overheard me, and then, i asked for another plate because mine had toothpaste on it, and then, i asked for dessert menus and then said that we weren't going to be ordering dessert. ugh. in the middle of it all, i mentioned that she was going to spit in my food, and she happened to be right behind me. ugh.

when i said the bruschetta was "funky," she mentioned that they had the more "normal" stuff, with capers, cheese and salmon. so we ordered that instead. it was delicious. although, we only got three pieces at $9.50. WOW. but still, it was damn tasty. afterwards, we went to pinkberry and kara's cupcakes. after we came back, i pulled out a candle, lit it, and sang "happy birthday" to D very quickly, and he blew out the candle before any of the sprinklers came on. see? i'm a great friend to have. :)

my hands are very cold right now. i wonder if i'm developing bad circulation.

i busted open the package of medjool dates that my dad bought at safeway two weekends ago. they're supersweet. unfortunately, they're not pitted, to eating them is a bit of a pain. i was shocked to find out that they're 140 calories for two of them. that's so much sugar! no wonder my coworker V calls them "energy food." he eats them after he goes out for a run. i offered him three of them on a napkin after i opened the package. he was happy.

the facilities guy J stopped by my cube today. i offered him one of my kara's cupcakes. he seemed really touched. he refused it at first, but i insisted. after all, when he went back home to mexico, he brought me back a bottle of tequila, so this was the least i could do. i like J. we chatted a bit in my cube, and i asked him where the best carnitas in the bay area was. he said that it's this place called "trejo" in watsonville. damn, watsonville? that's far! but he said it was so good, he made a slurping sound. shit. i gotta go there some time then.

my dumps have been very low-volume lately. i still take them every morning after i wake up and have my first cigarette of the day, but these past few days, they've only been a few little soft nuggets. i'm not sure what's happening. is my body absorbing more food more normal? i don't think i'm eating less, because i'm not losing weight. *ponder*

i'm not playing basketball tomorrow. my lower calf and achilles area is still sore, and it still hurts to walk. so there's definitely no way i can run. so instead, i've got plans to eat with mikeT at giovanni's. yes, that's pizza, again. after today's disappointment at antica, i want some good, filling pizza for once. i haven't been to giovanni's in a long time, so i'm looking forward to it.

speaking of disappointments, last night's _fringe_ was a letdown. they're not advancing the plot of The Pattern, and instead, the past two episodes (ever since they've come back from their hiatus) have been standalone, freak science episodes that have nothing to do with the overall plot or conspiracy. what gives? i hope this show gets better. this reminds me of _the x-files_, where some episodes are about singular events, and others have to do with an overall storyline.

so it seems everyone's buzzing about susan boyle, this woman who was on _britain's got talent_ who wowed everyone with her rendition of a _les miserables_ song. apparently, people (mainly girls) were brought to tears when they saw her sing. i don't know les mis, so i wasn't so moved. but anyways, she's this funky looking 47-year-old woman who's never been kissed and lives alone in a village with a cat named pebbles, but she sings amazingly. when she came on stage, people thought she would suck, but she just blew everyone away. good for her.

so here's a profile text (the entire thing) that i found online. it's from a woman who graduated from college, and what's even crazier, she is a TEACHER:

"iam women who gos to church and to bible study and looking for a nice men who would get marry"

wtf? this woman teaches children? no wonder america's education system sucks! i just don't understand. if this woman writes like this, how did she ever get into college in the first place? how did she become a teacher? i am completely, absolutely befuddled. i mean, the misspelling is one thing, but if you write the way you talk, then who talks like this? it's stupefying! (fyi, this woman isn't an asian fob or anything. she is african-american. i took a class at stanford in african american vernacular english, and this is not it.)

i am getting bored of _american idol_. the only performance worth watching is adam lambert's. even anoop, with his balladeering, is starting to annoy me. i just want the show over with, to see adam get crowned, and then i can shift my attention to _sytycd_. that's a much better show anyway. did anyone notice that nigel lythgoe is no longer an executive producer of AI this season?

ok, time for a smoke, and i think i might eat a banana before dinner at the office.

basketball injury

damn, i injured myself during basketball today. during the last game, i pulled my lower calf muscle/ligament/tendon/whatever. i'm limping around now. what i should NOT have done was play more when i hurt it. but i did. shit. i eventually called for a sub, and then i hobbled out of the gym. i hope i didn't do anything severe to myself. we'll see tomorrow how it is.

today is my coworker D's birthday. he turns 24. he's my best friend here at the company, so i bought him a blu-ray copy of the movie _seven pounds_. (that's what i bought yesterday afternoon at fry's.) i seemed surprised when i gave it to him, like, "why the hell are you buying me a birthday present?" it's true, i have never given a coworker a present before, but it just felt right to me; he had been talking about wanting to see that movie, so it seem appropriate for me to give it to him. *shrug* tomorrow, some of us are taking him out to pizza antica in santana row to celebrate.

i've been eating a lot of snacks. when i went to marukai on saturday, i bought two bags of wasabi shrimp chips and two bags of chili bits. i finished the first bag of the former last night, and i brought a bag of the latter to work with me yesterday. i'm slowly making my way through the chili bits. they're so damn good. i remember when i got baked on july 4th in san diego years ago, i must have eaten like half a pound of them when i got the munchies. they're so addictive!

two girls have written me through the dating site in the past few days. one of them did not have a photo, and after i asked for some, she sent three over. she does not look good. in her e-mail with the link, she asked if i wanted to grab froyo or coffee. what do i say?

the other one is actually kinda cute, but she is 5'0" and 40 years old. both are detractions, but the kicker is the age. that is way outside of my qualifications. it's a shame, too, because she digs jun pad poo and lounge music. bummer. we could have gotten along. what do i say?

i was talking to this other girl who was on the site, and i had no idea that girls were in such high demand in the bay area. this girl is not bad looking, and in the month that she's been on (her profile was even down for a while), she's received 60+ e-mails and 20+ flirts. that's just insane! how do you deal with so much traffic? how do you sift through so many guys? no wonder the hot girls never write me back; i bet they get some awesome men that totally drown out my feeble attempts to get their attention. :(

i don't get bank of america. they told me that the loan process was going along fine, and that i didn't need to sign anything or give them any paperwork. yet, in the past week, i've gotten two big packets in the mail with requests for documents and signatures and stuff. i called my agent, and she said that these didn't need any response. wtf? what if i hadn't called her, and i had responded to these two big packets? sheesh. their act doesn't seem very coordinated. anyways, re: house, my bank appraisal should be done by the end of this week. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that the house doesn't get massively underappraised. also, the sellers fixed all the little things that didn't check out during the house inspection. yay!

i'm trying to broker a deal between my old stanford taiko (ST) group and my friend tim, who is a professional photographer; i want tim to take pictures of ST's full dress rehearsal for their upcoming spring concert. ST has never had a real professional take action shots of them in full costume and lighting, and i bet they would look really good. in past years, i have been the one taking pictures, but my weak camera performs horribly in low light, so i'm very curious to see how tim's equipment will make ST look fucking awesome. hopefully this deal will get done.

so my boss bought a condo as well. his place is in los altos, and he has a ton of dough, so obviously he is paying a lot more money than me. i think he's putting down like $275K or something, so he got the good rate at wells fargo despite the condo markup in interest rate. he was really smart and pulled out of stocks during the stock market collapse and put his savings in money market funds. genius! shit, i wish i had done that.

i am really not liking this 9+% california sales tax thing. it's not so much the extra money thing, but rather the fact that i can't just double the tax to figure out how much i should tip the waiter. it's annoying. so now, i'm relegated to going back to my old method, which is adding 25% to my subtotal's price to figure out how much tip *and* tax i should pay when i contribute my amount to the bill. *sigh*

so the sparrow chicks are gone! they were missing a few days ago, and they seem to be permanently away now. i checked the nest today, and all that's there is some lumps of bird shit. so in two/three weeks time, they went from being eggs to being capable of flight. how amazing! i shall miss them. it's funny, because all the smokers knew about them, but other than that, very few people in the company knew what the hell we were talking about when we mentioned "the baby birds."

the wind is nuts out there today.

years ago, for my birthday (or was it for christmas?), jay gave me a $30 gift certificate on iTunes. songs are 99 cents each. well, last night, i bought my 30th song (and now i have 30 cents left in my account). the song was kanye west's "stronger." it rocks. now i gotta load in the gift cards the my cousin S gave me for my birthday so i can buy some more music.

i made this mix CD entitled "2007 mix" two years ago. i published the song list on this blog. i think i'm ready to make my "2009 mix" CD. i have a very wide range of music, so i think you guys would like it, or at least, a part of it. for the past several months, i've been listening to my first lounge mix (entitled "/hr girl/'s lounge shit") in my car whenever there's nothing on the radio, but now i'm getting tired of it, so i need to update my music with some other stuff.

ok, i gotta pee.

birthday present

man, today's been a slow day. i took half an hour off this afternoon to buy my coworker D's birthday present. i don't usually buy people birthday presents anymore, but he had been talking about this movie and said he wanted to see it, and it just came out on blu-ray, so i figured why not just get it for him? so i went to fry's nearby and bought it. i'm arranging a group outing of coworkers to pizza antica (in santana row) on wednesday. yes, i'm a good friend. *flex*

so thanks, christi, for the salmonella outbreak comment! i was horrified to find that some of my frequent spots, like A&J and southland, were on the list of restaurants that got spices from the place the recalled their stuff for salmonella. i guess i'll be avoiding chinese food for a while. and yes, chili palace was on there, so that must be why my coworker C got sick from eating there. *shivers* food poisoning is nasty shit.

i've realized what a horrible, slow reader i am. while i read _harry potter_, i use a business card and use the top edge to underscore the line i'm on. otherwise, the other words below it distract me, and i read much more slowly. yes, i am dumb. i am getting impatient with the book, though, because nothing's happening, and there are still 200+ pages left. wtf? i know, rowling's building it up and backstory for the climax, but still, 650 pages for a novel is just too much. i am NOT looking forward to the final book, which is like *750* pages long.

so alex and ellen had a baby boy yesterday! i got the text message yesterday afternoon while at alan and ting's house. they finally came up with a name today: ryan alexander. it's almost regal. hehe, alex told me earlier that he was thinking of naming the kid alex, jr. so many of my friends have kids now, not to mention a whole handful who have *two* children. i feel left behind.

i'm drawn to the song "stronger" by kanye west. i've heard it on the radio a couples of times, not knowing who did it or what it was called, so today, i did a google search of "oj isotoners lyrics." it's a cool song. i watched the video on youtube. i think i'm going to download it tonight on itunes. kanye does some cool shit, although i don't necessarily like all of his stuff.

after lunch today (another monday choi's outing), on the drive back, i had to take a dump. my stomach starting hurting a lot, probably because of yesterday's habanero burgers. i had to pull on the seat belt strap to relieve the pressure it was putting on my midsection. luckily, it was a short drive back to the office, but i couldn't run because that would have loosened my bowels and resulted in me shitting in my pants. when i finally got to the restroom, my facilities friend was there, fixing the faucet. i felt a little apprehensive about taking a dump in front of him, so i coughed while the turds came out. luckily, they didn't make much noise. it burned a good burn. damn, what the hell is wrong with my system and spicy food?

my cousin alex's facebook profile picture is pretty cool. he's in the picture in two places at once; on the left side, he's lying on the bed, and on the right side, he's sitting on a chair. he told me that used photoshop to merge two images he took of himself. the hardest part, he said, was getting the lighting identical in the two pictures. pretty cool shit.

i wonder how alex will do in college. will he drink? when i visited him and my other cousins in santa cruz, they had bought beer and cider. alex had an arizona iced tea. his older brother david offered him beer, but he didn't want any. did he not like beer, or did he not want any because he was underage? *ponder* before i went to college, my dad told me very sternly, "do NOT drink." but my 2nd or 3rd night during orientation, i got drunk. clearly, his words did not take with me, as i was determined to have a full college experience. so yeah, i'm not saying you have to party like an animal during college, but at least you should drink a little, that's what i say.

yesterday, on the drive back from alan's house, my car broke 100K miles. what a milestone! i used my phone's camera to take pictures of my odometer when it hit 99,999 and 100,000 miles. yes, it was a bit dangerous (as i was on highway 101), but at least i was going a constant speed on a fairly straight stretch of road. last year, on april 21st, my car hit 88,888 miles, so i took a picture of the odometer at that time as well. lucky number, no?

it's only monday, but my weekend is already shaping up quite nicely. saturday, i'm helping jeremy and kate move. then, sunday, i've got an art show at mel's yogurt place, and then i've got a song showcase that stanford taiko is putting on for the alum to check out. this showcase is to let the taiko alum see the songs they're performing for the spring concert, and so they can get some feedback and incorporate it before the big show. i haven't met this year's newbies yet, so i'm excited to see how they've come along.

did i tell you guys i found a mouse dropping in my place saturday night? remember that mouse i spied last november on my birthday? it looks like it's back! eww! i was sitting at my desk, and i saw this raisin-like thing on the carpet. i picked it up, sniffed it, and i immediately knew what it was. i recoiled in horror. i threw it away and washed my hands. then, i googled "mouse droppings" and read up on them. apparently, when dried out, these things can be quite deadly, as the "hanta virus" can be inhaled and wreak havoc on a person. so if i pass away suddenly this week, you'll know what did me in. *knocks on wood* good thing i'm moving, and i'm praying that the mouse doesn't hitch a ride with me in one of the boxes to the new place.

a friend of mine showed me an MSNBC news article a 75-year-old japanese male porn star. shit, i didn't know that men that old could still get it up. is their sperm still good? can they still father a child? amazing! good for him. i hope to have sex that far into my life. and it's perfect, because by then, my wife will be past menopause, so no worrying about getting pregnant.

after i have enough kids, i would consider getting a vasectomy. i think men should be willing to bear the burden of birth control, and a vasectomy is a fine choice if the couple is positive they don't want to have any more kids. is the pill a safe long-term solution? i don't know about that. it doesn't seem safe to keep taking medications that mess with your hormone levels for years on end, so i think a vasectomy is a great option. but of course, i would get very nervous about a doctor invading my crotch with a scalpel, so i would make sure that he's very skilled and experienced with the procedure.

ok. time for a smoke. (no, i have not tried the electronic cigarette yet. i don't want to unpack yet another thing and then have to pack it up again when i move. we'll see.)

domestic

friday night was a bust. i called up john for dinner, but he said he was waiting for grace to call him. so i told him to call me back when he got word. i read some _harry potter 6_, and then, when 9pm rolled around, i watched _dollhouse_. ah, secrets revealed! it was an interesting episode. but then, the show ended, and it was 10pm. then, john called, and he told me that grace had forgotten about him, and then he said that he wasn't going to eat, and he was going to alvin's house to play risk. shit. so i was going to skip dinner, but when 11pm came, i got so hungry, i went to jitb and got a sourdough jack and small curly frieds. SO GOOD. then, i just went to bed.

saturday, i got up at 9:30 (for some insane reason, i get up earlier on weekends than i do on weekdays) and read some more _hp6_. then, john called me, and i met up with him, greg, cheryl and mikeC at wahoo's for lunch. i got my usual spicy cajun chicken quesadilla. then, i headed over to jay and margaret's, and we met up with alan and ting (with both dogs) at vasona park in los gatos. we walked around for a few hours. it was a nice day. when we walked back, jay, alan and i (with baby jaden) got a ride on the carousel. i felt stupid, a 6-foot grown adult riding in a kiddie carousel. but it was for baby jaden, and i didn't want to leave jay alone, riding it with jaden all by himself.

then, we had an early dinner at bj's at the mall. i got an open-faced meatloaf sandwich with a whiskey. my cousin david called during the middle of the meal, and he and my cousins shirley and alex were visiting UC santa cruz. (alex is a senior in high school.) so after dinner, i drove to santa cruz to meet up with them. i was a bit worried about the windy drive through the mountains, but in the end, it wasn't that bad, and even a little fun, in fact. i just had to concentrate while driving.

i met them at their hotel, right off of the 17 when it turned into ocean street or whatever. they were still at the boardwalk when i got there, so i contemplated walking there, but it would take too long (and it was cold), so i just surfed the internet at the hotel office. they got some beer (cider, boddington's, and a six-pack of coors light with the cold activated mountains and wide-mouth vent!) before they came back, so i just had a coors light because i had to drive back.

so we talked about alex's college visits, and we watched some ESPN, and then we walked to mcdonald's. i got my food first (a mcchicken only, since i wasn't really hungry) and sat down. but then, apparently, some homeless people approached the others, and that made them uncomfortable, so we left and ate our food in the hotel.

i left around 10:15, and i just put on some lounge music, and i got in the driving zone and zoomed back home. i skype'd my mom and went to bed.

the next morning, i woke up around 10:30 and watched the mavericks/hornets game. it was close, but the mavs lost. :( the hornets logo (in the shape of the saint symbol, but showing a bug with a basketball) in the middle of the basketball court is really cool! but now, the mavs will most likely be the 7th seed, and have to play the mighty nuggets.

after that, i went to safeway to pick up some zucchini and asparagus for grilling. i couldn't find zucchini; all i could find was green squash, and honestly, i don't know what zucchini looks like. then, i headed off to alan and ting's place, where they were bbq'ing. when i got there, the chicken was rotisserie'ing on their spanking new $1,000+ weber grill. it smelled awesome.

later, jay and margaret (with baby jaden) came, we grilled up some more food (salmon, my veggies) and ate. jay brought over what i really wanted to eat: hamburger patties with habanero adobo, garlic and green onions mixed with the meat. he had told me what he was going to make saturday night, and i had been dreaming about that ever since. but we were full from the other food, so we waited a while before anyone else was hungry enough to tackle those.

the burgers were really good. spicy, fiery. i'll have to have jay teach me how to make those. around 6:30, we left, and i just went home, caught up on the masters results (i was hoping for a victory by kenny perry, alas), and read _hp6_. all in all, i read 240+ pages of the book, and now i'm on chapter 18 or 19 out of 30. so hopefully, i'll finish within a week or two. it still hasn't gotten that interesting, so i'm hoping it'll get better as i read on.

all in all, it was a domestic weekend. reading, hanging out with married couples (one with a kid), etc. but that was fine. the weather was great. i can't wait for the NBA playoff season to start, though, so the games will have more meaning.

end of relaxation phase

howdy! today, i've decided, will be the last day in my "at-work vacation." starting monday, i will dive into the next project. these last two weeks have been mostly about the homebuying process, but now that i've done all that i can (the current phase is the bank appraisal step, which i can't do anything about), i just have to wait for the loan process to guide itself through. so i'm ready to work again. man, like i said yesterday, the next block that i have to design is a doozy, though.

shit. the stock market was closed today. i was going to sell my ESPP shares. selling stock at a gain is always a tricky thing for me, because greed sets in. right now, it's a five-figure sum, and every dollar that my company's stock goes up, i make over $1K. so it's no small matter. i dream about the days when my company's stock was in the $15-20 range, and i do believe that it could go back up there in a few years, but i sort of need cash now, so that's why i want to sell. but if the stock did go up there, would i regret selling now? yeah, i probably would. greed works like that. *sigh*

last night, i met up with john at yiassoo. craving fulfilled! and the gyro and fries did not disappoint. they were both absolutely scrumptious. and in fact, after i finished them, i could have eaten another serving, they were that good, and i was that hungry. yummers. and today, i had dim sum, which i haven't had in months. i got all my favorite dishes (turnip cake, leek dumplings, sticky rice in leaf), so i have to say, my last two meals have been fantastic. hopefully tonight, i get to eat something great, too.

last night, i dreamt that i had to stick a scimitar deep into someone's chest. i woke up with a shudder. i've forgotten the other details, but for a while, it was a very vivid dream, and it made sense why i had to do it. ick. violent dreams scare me. and this morning, when my alarm clock went off, i kept on dreaming, and i dreamt that i couldn't turn off the alarm clock. heh.

i need a haircut pretty badly.

any plans for you guys for easter weekend? alan and ting are thinking of taking their dog rylie to a canine easter egg (doggie treat) hunt. how cute! it's on-leash, though, so it's not like you can just let your dog run freely and gobble up all the treats it can find on its own. but it would be a true test to see how acute a dog's sense of smell is. i wonder how it would be like if humans had that sensitive a nose. would it be annoying? like, suppose you would be able to smell a guy's fart like 50 yards away. that would bug me, that unwanted annoyance.

the webbing between my left pinkie toe and my left ring toe split a few days ago. it hurts. it's taking a long time to heal, and i bet the fact that i've been playing basketball hasn't been helping. hopefully it'll heal this weekend. i get these itchy, flaky patches of skin between my toes, and sometimes i rub them so hard my webbing splits. OUCH. i had psoriasis on my left foot for many, many years (since college, even), and it was only recently that i got some clobetasol (strong topical steroid) that did the trick and got rid of it. skin issues suck.

one of my coworkers got really bad food poisoning at chili palace. uh oh. i really wanted to go back there to order their sauteed jalepeno dish. now, i'm afraid of eating there again. and coupling that with my stomach's intolerance of spicy food, i might never eat there again. *sigh* that dish is fucking awesome. is it just me, or am i really craving food these days?

i am really sad about the death of angel's rookie pitcher adenhart. he, along with a few other passengers, was killed in a car crash involving a drunk driver who was driving with a suspended license and ran a red light (he later fled on foot). that shit just pisses me off. apparently, adenhart was a really good kid, and he had just had a really successful outing pitching 6 shutout innings for the angels. *sigh* poor guy. the drunk driver is being charged for murder, among other things. serves the fucker right.

i went online to ikea's website to look at tv stands. i need to figure out how i'm going to set up my tv, vcr, dvd player, blu-ray player, digital cable box, etc. ikea has some decent stuff, but now that i'm owning a house, i wonder if i should pay (a lot) more money and get something from a place like pottery barn or crate and barrel. but those last two places are EXPENSIVE, like $600+ for a basic set. hm. is it worth it? sounds like price inflation for not much more. i mean, i have some ikea stuff, and i'm happy with it. but owning ikea furniture seems to carry a stigma with it, like you're juvenile and not owning "real" stuff. but NO WAY am i buying DWR stuff again, that's for sure.

the thought of moving is starting to stress me out. all that packing, moving, unpacking, etc. i don't really have that much stuff (compare to other people), but still, it's quite a hassle. and true, i'm only moving 7 doors down, so i don't need to rent a truck. and yes, i am getting friends to help, so i'm not doing it all by myself. but it's just a pain in the ass to move. i think about all the trips back and forth, the taping together of boxes, etc. ugh. i just need to keep things in perspective and take things as they come, and remember that it's just a few days of work, that everything will be ok. and of course, just beyond that is... the HOUSEWARMING PARTAY!

so how many of you have twitter out there? i don't have that many followers. remember, my twitter account is here in you want to follow. lately, i haven't been updating as much, but i do plan to tweet more as thoughts come to me.

ok. 6pm. i think i'll go home now. remember, next week, i will start hunkering down and doing some hardcore work!

new chip

so the next project is starting to ramp up. it's gonna be a tough one. i mean, the block i'm supposed to do (LTI) is already very complicated, but i have to implement in a new paradigm (stream protocol) which i'm not familiar with. ugh. i have two months to get it working. that sounds like a long time, but i suspect i will have the normal procrastination (as i am the king of it) that i will have to fight through. i have a deadline next thursday to give some numbers (pipeline latency, basically) on the design, so that means that i will have to do some detailed microarchitecture work on it this upcoming week. man!

so my two roommate possibilities fell through today. i'm sort of bummed. i talked to william, and he promised his current roommates that he would move with them to a new place. plus, his situation is sort of complicated by other matters, which i won't get into here. then, i asked my coworker D, and although tempted, he really wants to live alone, which i totally understand because i would prefer to live alone if i had the choice, too. damn. so what to do...

i met up with my agent today to sign the disclosure documents. i must have signed and initialed my name on like 30 pages at least. pretty tedious. there is so much documentation to keep track of! my agent said that after it's all over, he will give me a CD full of all this shit. who knew homebuying was so wrought with so my paperwork? what freaks me out is that my house is in a liquefaction zone, but then again, adam told me that all of santa clara is anyway, so i should stop worrying about it. hm, i thought only foster city had that potential hazard.

so the last major step in my home process is the bank getting an appraisal. i hope nothing bad happens here, like the bank deciding that the place is worth less than what i bought it for. what could happen there? like i'll have to put up more money on my own or else my loan falls through? *shivers*

i am totally craving a gyro. i talked to john about it last night, so after i write this entry, i'm gonna call him up and see if he wants to go to yiassoo with me. *drools*

i met up with adam and rae last night at maruichi. i got the kuro ramen with kakuni (tender stewed pork, with TONS of fat). the fat was SO delicious. of course, it probably took a year off of my life, but man, was it tasty. they forgot to charge me the $2 for the kakuni, so i added an extra $1 for the tip. after that, i went home and watched the mavs/jazz game (which the mavs won easily, go mavs!), _scrubs_, and then _american idol_ (adieu, scott, i called it!). and then, adam and rae stopped by after the COBA meeting to help me fiddle around with my home wireless network. i finally locked down my MAC address filtering and assigned a password to the network. no more freeloaders on my wi-fi!

my dad had jury duty today in dallas. he went in the morning, and he was the first juror picked. the case was resolved by noon. that was fast. i've only gotten called for jury duty once, and i never even got called up to get evaluated. even though i think i have better things to do, i would like to be on a jury once just to participate in our judicial system. back then, though, i was praying i wouldn't get picked because my tourette's was in bad shape.

i finally ate my banana during work today. i was hungry. for the first time in a long time, i had a sausage egg mcmuffin instead of my usual sausage and egg biscuit. the dryness and flakiness of the biscuit just got to me, and i wanted something chewier. but damn, mcdonald's sausage is tasty shit.

i am having problems after eating spicy food. for the second time this week, i had some major stomachaches and spicy dump issues after having a spicy lunch. yesterday, i took mia out for her birthday, and i had pho. as usual, i put in a ton of sriracha into my bowl. around 9pm or so, my stomach started going nuts. i took three spicy dumps within a span of 20 minutes. it HURT like a motherfucker. hm. remember that i had this same issue on monday night when i had that ridiculously hot spicy crispy catfish at dusita. what is going on here? should i go see a doctor about this? i love spicy food, but these GI issues are making me think twice about eating the stuff.

i found this one girl who is a hapa, but on her profile, she only wants to date white guys. hm. maybe she's incredibly whitewashed. that's a shame. i'm trying to decide whether i should write her anyway. she's pretty cute.

i still haven't tried the electronic cigarette yet. i haven't taken the time to bust out the manual and unpack the charger and the other components of the box. i will do it soon.

so even though i haven't seen it with my own eyes, the word is that the baby sparrow chicks can fly and get out of the nest now. i mean, the nest was empty the last two times i checked, so they are apparently mobile. and the last time i saw them, there were only two chicks in the nest. amazing! two weeks old, and they can already fly? they grow so fast! nature is amazing.

back to AI, i think anoop is in trouble next week. he sang well this week, but he was in the bottom two, only 30,000 votes (out of 30+ million) from getting voted off. i think the indian-american voice is not strong enough. i voted for him twice this week, but i guess it didn't help very much. i am hoping for lil rounds to have a weak performance and get the boot, although i think the judges will probably save her.

ok. time to see if john wants that gyro.

may 4th

hey peeps. so i met with my loan agent today at bank of america, and my closing date is may 4th! so that's pretty soon! so as the date approaches, i'll figure out when i'll move, and then... HOUSEWARMING PARTAAAY! i'll be making vodka watermelon jell-o shots! i'm excited. i'm already planning my outfit, too. :)

while waiting to see my loan agent, i looked through some crate and barrel and pottery barn catalogs for tv stands/media centers. holy crap they were expensive. not worth it, i don't think. i have one tv stand from ikea, and it's all metal, and it's pretty cool. if i could get the same one (i doubt it, though, it's really old), i'd get it and put it side by side in the tv nook.

my computer got hit hard with a virus today. my internet explorer got all wonky, and i couldn't open up new browsers. something about a "buffer overflow" error. so i had to run a scan, and there were 9 files infected. ugh. how did that happen? i don't download weird programs on my computer or anything. *ponder* man, virus writers should be shot for fucking with our productivity and wasting our time.

ADAM LAMBERT! holy shit! even though his last note was a little off, his rendition of tear for fears' "mad world" was fucking brilliant. even simon gave him a standing ovation! the moment he started singing, i smiled. i love this guy. if i were gay, i'd want to go out with him. he's cool, hip, and good looking. when i tried voting for him, his line was busy for about 10 minutes. good sign. i also voted for anoop, who sang a tender girl's song, "true colors" by cyndi lauper. cool choice.

apparently, though, those people with DVR's missed adam's performance, since _idol_ ran late, and his perf started after 9pm. too bad. this is the problem with DVR's. they're so mechanical and precise that anything that starts early or ends late (like AI or sports) will be cut off. i'll have to be wary of that when i get my comcast DVR or tivo.

i was very happy to see _fringe_ again. last night's episode was a standalone episode, not advancing the "pattern" plot at all, but it was still enjoyable. hopefully, though, there will be more massive dynamic and pattern stuff in future episodes. adam showed me an article that said that leonard nimoy has signed on to play bell (the founder of massive dynamic) in the show. i don't care about it that much (as i am not a trekkie), but good for j. j. abrams and his star trek pull.

congratulations to the 2008-2009 uconn women for completing their perfect season. every single one of their games this year was won in double digits. a true testament to their sheer domination over every team they faced. that's pretty fucking impressive. i just hope they lose some good players (well, renee montgomery, their star point guard, is leaving at least) so stanford has a chance next season.

this male porn star, julian, has the thickest schlong i have ever seen. women must love doing him. girth is the most important thing, right? i've been hearing a commercial on the radio that says that it's the quality that women look for, and one of my female friends attests to that. i guess women like to have their vadges stretched out. but man, this julian guy is meaty as all hell. if i could have one guy's schlong transplanted onto my crotch, i would pick his.

ok, i gotta go. meeting up with adam at maruichi before his COBA meeting. sorry to cut this short.

entry #1700

yup, 1,700 entries on this blog. i actually wrote over 2,000 entries on my blog before it died, so i'm actually around 4,000 entries! yay for dedication! and inspiration! :)

so i had my house inspection today. nothing major: just some loose toilets, missing smoke alarms, a loose strap on the water heater (safety hazard), some old appliances (garbage disposal, heater, toilet "guts"). i'll see if i can get the sellers to fix/add some of the stuff before i move in. the guy was very thorough; it was amazing. and he had this really cool collapsable ladder that he used to look in the attic. apparently, the home inspectors are really busy these days because so many people are buying homes.

two things the new place has that i don't have right now are air conditioning and an alarm system. it costs around $35 a month to tie the alarm system to the brinks center. do you think it's worth it? all three doors that lead to the outside have these deadbolts that i don't have now at the old place, so that's some added security.

the place is so similar to my place now that it's surreal. when i move, it'll be like, "take this box, and go the new place and put it in the same location." ha! it won't feel like i've even moved, i bet. the only place that's really different is the tv nook. where there used to be a counter and a mirrored wall, there is absolutely nothing, so i'll have to buy a tv stand and a shelf to put my alcohol. that's about it; everything else is pretty much identical.

my VCR is about to be obsolete. comcast is switching to digital cable, and unless i'm mistaken, my VCR won't be able to record the signal. *sigh* bye bye, VCR! i'll have to switch to DVR's. ah, i'm finally catching up on recording technology. i bet i'll love it. no more waiting to rewind the tape, heck, no more buying blank tapes. (although, i've been using the same tape over and over again.) and the recorded video quality will be much better!

i put my head down on my desk earlier this morning, and i almost drooled on myself. i felt the saliva leak out of my mouth, and i sucked it in just before it dripped onto my jeans. ewww. why do we drool? why do we generate spit when we're sleeping or about to fall asleep?

so i checked the sparrow's nest outside our building, and there seem to be only three chicks. did one of them die? :( poor thing. but the rest of them are growing very quickly. just a week and a half ago, they were eggs! and now, they're almost two inches long, their eyes are open, and they're all fuzzy and stuff. the three of them are outgrowing their tiny nest. ah, life!

i wore UNC basketball shorts to bball today. you know, as a celebration for the championship they won yesterday. i showed them off, and robin was like, "ha, you're such a BANDWAGON follower!" i took offense to that. i've always liked UNC! i've had these shorts for a long time! i watched the game last night, and for most of it, it wasn't even close. when MSU came within 13 points, and they shot that 3 (but didn't make it), i was very nervous. had they come within 10, the momentum would have been on their side. of the 70,000+ in the arena, 50,000 or so were MSU fans. so man, the roar would have been deafening. after all, they were in detroit, less than 100 miles away from MSU's campus.

so blake griffin is declaring for the NBA draft. i wonder how he'll do. he'll be a power forward, but i don't know if it's big enough to bang with the bigs in the pros. it'll be interesting, because he'll most likely go #1 in the draft. we shall see, i guess. i like him. tyler, i dunno. he's passionate and scrappy, but i don't think he's gifted enough. i still don't like tyler; it's his buggy eyes that creep me out. they don't call him "psycho T" for nothing.

_fringe_ is back! yay! i've missed this show. time for some freaky stuff.

i took the grammar quiz on facebook. some of the questions were really tough, and they got me doubting myself. i had an awesome grammar teacher in 7th grade, mrs. gorman. she pounded grammar into our brains, and i still remember some of the mnemonics she drilled into us. stuff like, the helping verbs: "has have had, do did does, may might must, could would should, can will shall, am be are is being was were been." we also had two-minute drills where we had to write down fifty prepositions. she was one of my favorite teachers ever, hands down. (btw, i got an A+ "grammar master" rating on the quiz. yay!)

so i've already seen the list of songs that the _american idol_ contestants are going to sing. tonight is "songs from the year you were born" night. some of the song choices are quite questionable. it's gonna be rough, i can tell. we shall see.

speaking of AI, i have a terrible gay-dar. i had no idea adam lambert was gay. i mean, he's definitely progressive (earrings, black nail polish), but gay? i didn't have a clue. but vftw posted pictures of him making out with a guy, and i was like, "huh?" ah. i'm just dumb, i guess. i just hope that this news doesn't turn people off to him, because he definitely is the most talented contestant in the competition.

lately, i've been bringing a banana to work, but what winds up happening is that i take it home with me. i eat it at home at night, but it bugs me that i'm so unmotivated to eat it during the day. i mean, it takes like, what, two minutes to eat a banana? a banana is the LEAST high maintenance fruit out there! there's no cutting, prepping, cleaning, zilch. it's the best! and yet, i can't find the effort to do it while i'm at the office. that's pathetic.

ok, that's it for today. there's beef stew at the office for dinner tonight. i LOVE beef stew. but i'm also craving gyros. hm. who wants to eat gyros with me?

slowness

been a slow day at the office. i woke up at 9:00 when my dad called me, and i decided not to go back to sleep, so i just came into work. i printed out the necessary documents (W-2's, bank statements, etc.) and faxed them to my mortgage agent, and that was about it as far as my day. no more house stuff, and not much work stuff, either. we're pretty much wrapping up our chip. yay! it was a hectic project, and february was by far the busiest month ever in my career, when i worked five saturdays in a row (well, of course, not just in february).

tomorrow, i have my house inspection. i hope everything goes well, and i don't have to drop the house because of some major problem. i read somewhere in some disclosure that one of the bedrooms doors is hard to open; ah, i forgot to test out the doors when i looked at the house the last time. it seems like a minor thing, but it could get annoying, i suppose.

tonight, because of the NCAA men's final, there's no tv to watch; no new _gossip girl_, and of course, the CBS shows are cancelled due to the game. so i'm going to go home early and watch the game (GO UNC!), and then meet up with jennie for a late dinner at SoS. seems like a plan, no?

i had a dream the other night where my best friend in high school (kevin)'s dad was teaching me hebrew. yes, VERY random. i distinctly remember him writing out some hebrew, and then pronouncing it to me. it was very gutteral, like gibberish. and this morning, my very last image in my dream before my dad called me was that of my mom telling me she was following me on twitter. ha! luckily i haven't twittered anything too risque yet. (and i probably won't, except that first one about my nipples being lukewarm.)

so i made another step in my house thing today, which was talking about greg and asking if i could borrow the boxes he used for his recent move. he said no; instead, he said i could *have* the boxes and not give them back. ha! what am i going to do with the boxes after i use them? i guess i'll need to find a way to recycle all of them somehow, as i don't have a place to store them after i'm done with them.

i'm excited for tomorrow! _fringe_ will be back! i've missed this show. _american idol_ is down to eight people, so i hope that means less fluff, less commercials, and more singing. my next guess is that scott will be voted off. either that or allison. allison is decent, but she doesn't seem to be pulling many votes.

planning events with my stanford friends is tough. alan and ting have a dog, so they can't be away from home for a long time. and the rest of the people all have kids. like, yesterday, i went over to jay's place at 10:15am for brunch, but we had to wait for baby jaden to wake up, which took about an hour. stuff like that. so when i throw my housewarming party, all of the guys with kids will have to find babysitters; i mean, i doubt they will be want/be able to bring them to a place where everyone is drinking alcohol, you know? we shall see. hopefully i'll give them enough notice that they will be able to find somebody to take care of their kids. jay and margaret will be the toughest, because they have no family around; i wonder what will happen with them.

i paid my cell phone bill today, and i was SHOCKED to find out that i have used up *327* minutes this month already in my 450 min/month plan! it was all those calls during my homebuying process. HOT DAMN! i better make sure i don't use my cell phone during the day for the rest of the month, or else my overages are going to rape me. so to you friends out there who read this, don't call me during the day! text me instead!

i have to come to work at 9am tomorrow morning. we have a conference call with our branch in paris, where it will be 6pm. they're going over this hardware protocol that we have to implement in our next chip. man. so i guess our break from our current project isn't going to be short. on to the next project, i suppose.

i am really glad that i can still talk to G. she is the one girl that i went out with (albeit for only a few weeks) that i can still have a friendly conversation with. the rest of my gf's are completely estranged. right now, we have weekly chats about _american idol_, as both of us are complete addicts to the show. i'm sure we'll keep talking once _sytycd_ starts up as well. sometimes i wonder how we would have been if we had gotten married. (after all, she *did* marry another dardy.) we were a summer romance back in the summer of 1994, but she went to college in boston, and i was out here, so it was set up to fail. she was the second tallest girl i ever dated, and you all know that i like tall girls.

what is up with asians going nuts and going around shooting people? first, there was the korean dude at virginia tech. then, there was the chinese engineer who killed his coworkers after getting laid off. and now, there is the indian guy at the rivermark who killed his family. what happened to the quiet, model minority? we're all repressed, and we're coming out firing! ugh. this is terrible.

i had a THRILLING meal at dusita today. i say "thrilling" because it was super spicy. i ordered the spicy crispy catfish today, and i felt *saucy*, so i ordered it "spicy," not the medium that i usually get. the waitress was like, "you've ordered food spicy here before, right?" which scared me a bit, so i said, "just one notch above medium." and boy, it kicked my ass. there were chili seeds all over the dish. it came out, and i ate one piece of onion, and i knew i was in for a fight. i am really afraid to take my next shit. yowza!

ok, time to go home and catch the game. GO TAR HEELS! (although, i don't really like tyler hansbrough. his buggy eyes bother me. his nickname is "psycho T," did you know that?)

dad

friday night, i rushed home to get gas and set my VCR to tape _dollhouse_. then, i headed over to adam's house to meet up with him, rae and felix. we carpooled over to san jose japantown, where we ate at an ethiopian restaurant (yes, it's in japantown) called cafe rehoboth. it was my first ethiopian experience. i knew you eat with your hands, but i didn't expect to get such spongy, sweet, grey bread. i didn't quite like that. the food itself was decent, and i liked the lamb dish the most. it was pretty messy. the people there were nice, but because of the weird taste of the bread, i don't know if i would do it again.

on the drive home, felix talked about my former relationship with k1. he was very impressed, because k1 is sort of famous. anyways, i tried not to make a big deal out of it. then, i drove home and watched _dollhouse_. i was all psyched up about the plot, but it turned out to be a big letdown. the "awakening" of the dolls was planned by adele! *RAAR* rats.

saturday morning, i woke up all excited. why? because my dad was coming! i was going to have lunch with some friends first (because my dad told me to), but i'm glad nobody was available, because when he arrived, he said he was hungry. so i took him to su's mongolian bbq. we had a fucking feast, and we were both stuffed afterwards. su's is expensive on weekends: $13.99.

we went home, and my dad took a nap, and i watched the michigan state/uconn final four game. uconn's free throws and michigan state's offensive rebounds were uconn's downfall, in my opinion. then, my dad got up, and we went to fry's to grab some coffee, where i introduced him to hazelnut latte's. they made them very sweet, my god, they must have put like 3 shots of the syrup in or something.

then, we went home, and we watched the unc/villanova game together. then, my dad wanted some tex-mex fajitas, so i took him to chevy's, and we shared a steak fajita plate. since lunch was so huge, it was the perfect portion. afterwards, we went home and i introduced my dad to sheep dip. he said it was very strong.

all throughout the day, my dad and i shared cigarette breaks. it was cool. i love my dad. we get along so well. i mean, i love my mom, too, but things are more tense between us, mainly because of religion.

sunday morning, i got up at 7:30 to watch my dad pack and leave. then, i decided to *not* go back to sleep, so i started reading _harry potter 6_. i read 80 pages in 60 minutes. yes, i'm a slow reader. then, at 10am, i went to jay's house. we waited for baby jaden to wake up, and then headed on over to campbell's stacks. the wait was 45 minutes (the actual wait was an hour), but we spent most of that time in the farmers market shopping around. stacks was awesome. i ordered a mexican omelet with toast instead of a bagel. i was stuffed.

then, i headed home and took a nap to the mavericks' blowout of the suns (we scored 140 points!). then, i read some more harry potter, and then went over to grover's place to watch stanford vs. uconn in the women's final four with some taiko peeps. ugh. what an embarrassing performance. at one point, it was 25-50 or something. we were just tentative, slow, and outgunned at every position. our star jayne appel did all she could, but even she struggled at points.

after the game, i grabbed some jitb and watched some espn. then, i read some more harry potter. all in all, i read 8 chapters, 170 pages. that's roughly 1/4 of the book. not bad. the book is just at the point where it's going to start getting interesting, i think.

then, i skype'd my mom, and i went to bed. ah, it was wondering seeing my dad. he booked tickets for my mom's visit to the states this summer, and my mom is going to stay with me for a week. i hope i can handle it.

the loan

so yesterday, i *thought* i locked in a good loan with wells fargo. 1 point, 4.75%. however, after i blogged about it, i got a call from the agent, and he said he fucked up, and because it was a condo, my place required a 0.25% hit because condos had an inherent risk of depreciation. so i would either have to put 25% down (not an option for me), or get 5%. so i said screw that.

so today, i called up chase jp morgan and bank of america. in the end, i went with alan's agent at BofA. i got a 1.25 point 4.75% loan, and i locked it in at 2:40pm, 7 minutes before it went up to 1.5 points. it's an extra few thousand dollars for the 0.25 points, but i still get 4.75%, which keeps my monthly payments at <$100 than my current rent. i feel ok about this.

so! my two biggest things (house price and loan deal) are done. now, it's all these little annoying things that i have to deal with. hopefully, it'll go as smoothly as possible, and nothing surprising will come up. i've got the property inspection tuesday afternoon, and the bank will do the appraisal soon as well. *phew*

my dad comes tomorrow! i am looking forward to drinking/smoking with him, and i'm going to take him to su's mongolian bbq for dinner. he comes around noon, and he'll rent a toyota prius (he's curious about trying it out) and drive to my place after he lands, and he'll probably take a nap to combat his jet lag. i'm trying to figure out what i'm going to do with him. anyways, i'm looking forward to hanging out with him. he's much less fretful and judgmental (and completely nonreligious) compared to my mom, so it's less stressful when i'm with him. i wonder what he thinks about my homebuying process. i guess i'll find out.

last night, after work, i got gas, set my VCR for _hell's kitchen_ (man, cable was all screwed up; the entire video feed was corrupted), and headed over to linda and steve's place for joy and hiroshi's going away party. *sniff* even though i don't see them that often, i like them a lot, and i always look forward to seeing them. they're both inspirational taiko players, and they're part of the foundation of the new group, jun daiko, based in mountain view. i think the group is going to hurt without them. the other members of the group made a jun daiko, "the early years," photo scrapbook through apple.com for them, and it was very touching, looking through the photographs of the memories they had created. in a way, as i peered over their shoulders at the photos, i wish i had been a part of it. i actually missed being a part of a taiko group for once.

i'm having ethiopian food with adam, rae and felix tonight. i gotta leave work early. i need to go home and set my VCR to tape _dollhouse_ (pivotal episode, i think) before headin gover to adam's house to carpool over. i've never had ethiopian food before, so i'm a little wary and excited at the same time. eating with your hands? hm.

money. this whole homebuying thing has shown me the value of money. i mean, i'm dropping six figures in the blink of an eye, and man, that is a TON of dough. and there are these 4-figure fees and taxes and things that are thrown around in the process, and i'm not even batting an eye. i guess i've been desensitized to the value of money. a few grand here, a few grand there. it's crazy. i'm a little scared to look at my bank account after the dust settles, and i see how little cash i have left. the good news, though, is that by the time i finally get my house, i'll have three ESPP periods worth of my company's stock in my e*trade account, and our stock's been on the rise lately (*knocks on wood*), so if i need some cash quick, i'll have that to fall back on.

and on top of that, i'm still lending my friend that $20K. i know that it's sort of a bad time to do that, given that i'm buying a house at the same time, but a promise is a promise. i was thinking about calling him last night and negotiating lending a lesser amount, but i decided that i committed to him, and i didn't want to break the agreement. (this is a part of why i couldn't put down 25% on the house.)

a random guy asked to be my friend on facebook today. he found me by searching for "blossom dearie," an old school jazz singer i like. pretty bold of him. i checked out his profile, and he only has like -30 friends. he told me that he was just looking to reach out to people and find friends outside his circle. damn, with less than 30 friends, how big is his network? so i didn't mind making a new friend, so i accepted his request. he lives in nearby sunnyvale. he's a bit older than me. we'll see if anything happens with this new connection.

this homebuying process has increased my stress level, i can tell. i've been dreaming about it. i think last night, my dreams centered about interest rates. ha! they fluctuate every day, and it's like watching stocks and guessing when they're going to go up or down. it's a crapshoot, really, trying to pick when to lock based on the give rate during a day of the week. i think 4.75% is pretty good, so i just decided to lock today. 1.25 points is a little high, but hey, you make your own decisions, and you gotta live with what you decide.

now, the question will be if i will have any regrets after doing this. hopefully, i will not. i'm not really a regretful kind of guy; i am usually pretty happy with the decisions i've made in my life. so we'll see. but then again, i have now left the world of being totally debt-free to taking on a +half million $ mortgage, and now i can't be as carefree with my money, and i probably can't live alone anymore and will probably have to get a roommate to cover my costs, so there are a lot more consequences that i will have to consider with my actions. i can't just quit my job and putz around on my ass for a year (not that i was going to do that, but hey, it's an option).

i don't know why, but my life seems more public than others. almost everyone in my division knows that i'm buying a house. and of course, it's not a surprise that it's also because i'm broadcasting the status of my progress on twitter and facebook. but when my other friends were buying, there wasn't as much buzz as the attention that i'm getting now. i guess i'm more of an open person than most of my other friends, and i like telling other people about it and getting feedback and opinions. (after all, this is my first home purchase, and i need all the help i can get.)

ok, i need to go soon. it's been an exciting week. hopefully next week, i can refocus on work, because damn, this week was all about the house.

the settlement?

so i think we've agreed on a price! the next counteroffer came in this morning, and the gap between the two offers was $12K. so i then decided to make my agent do some work. i asked him to call up the seller's agent and just hash it out verbally. after a few hours, they closed the gap, and they met in the middle, cutting the $12K gap exactly in half. not bad. so i am satisfied with this price, and today, i locked in my interest rate (4.75% with one point) with wells fargo.

*phew*

so it took me exactly one week to figure out i wanted to buy the place and to come to a deal with the sellers. not bad, eh?

AND, my electronic cigarette came in! last night, i met up with jennie at red mango in valley fair, and while i was rushing from one end of the mall to the other, i passed by the smoking everywhere kiosk. when we finished eating our yogurt, the kiosk was still open, so i took a look at the product. the dude manning it was this suave european dude, and he let me take a few puffs of it. it tasted sort of sweet, and it didn't give me any sensation of smoking (that sickly high), so we'll see if it can replace real cigarettes. anyways, i'm willing to try it out, and i do want to switch wholeheartedly to save my lungs.

anyways, it's been a busy day of negotiating and stuff. not only did i have my agent deal with the sellers, i also shopped around (wells fargo and chase jp morgan) for interest rates. i'm tired. homebuying is quite a process! and i know that there is a lot more to come. there's disclosures, the real loan process, closing, etc.

i am SO glad megan is gone on AI! now the real competition can continue. simon was so rude to her, though, but i guess she had it coming when she said that she didn't care about simon's opinion. ha! anoop's in trouble, though, because the judges have already said that they won't save him if he's voted off.

basketball was so-so today. i made only a few jumpers, and they defended (or, rather, respected) me pretty well. the moment i got the ball, i was swarmed by two defenders, so i didn't get much of an opportunity to shoot. i made a few turnovers (bad passes), but overall, i got a good workout. and that's what matters the most, right?

i'm wearing a 16-year-old t-shirt today. it's a front 242 (do any of you guys know them?) concert shirt from 1993, from their "up evil" tour during my freshman year of college. i went with my texan buddy ken, and their opening act was this band called ethyl meatplow. during EM's performance, the lead singer wasn't wearing pants or underwear, and he was masturbating while singing, and they had topless women kissing, and then, two guys stripped naked and started performing fellatio on each other. ken was horrified. unfortunately, since i was expecting moshing, i didn't wear my glasses, so i couldn't see the sex acts onstage clearly. (i say "unfortunately" because that stuff, gay or not, doesn't bother me. i would have liked to have seen that spectacle.) ah, sex and rock 'n roll.

last night, i had a dream within a dream. i dreamt that i was dreaming that i was spitting, and then, i dreamt that i spit on my blanket in "real life." recursive dreams are weird. but honestly, i'm really afraid that i'll dream that i'm doing a physical act, and i'll do it for real. obviously, the most terrified of shitting in my bed. i've already peed once in the past months, so taking a dump isn't that outlandishly impossible.

ok, i gotta go. got a going away party for hiroshi and joy (*tear* they're moving back to hawaii), and i need to go home first to tape _hell's kitchen_ (i'll watch _the office_ online, i guess) and get gas. i hope my deal closes successfully, and wish me a swift closing process!

the counteroffer

well, the dance begins. last night, while at dinner with grace and the volleyball peeps, i got an e-mail. it was the seller's counteroffer. it was $20K below asking, but $35K above my opening bid. i guess that was to be expected. so this morning, my agent called me (and woke me up), and i put in my counter. it was $40K below asking, and $20K below their counteroffer. i guess this is how we converge. before lunch today, i dragged D to the realty office and signed the counter paperwork, and the seller has until 7pm tomorrow night to respond. more waiting.

this whole process has shown me how impatient i am. i HATE waiting. i need to work on that. i mean, when i have to walk somewhere, i usually pull out a cigarette and smoke because i get bored during the walk. that's how impatient i am. how, we're talking about *days* where i have to wait for someone to respond to me. it sucks. but honestly, it shouldn't be that bad. i should be more chill about this homebuying process. but i think a part of it is because i really want this place. when i see something that i love, i get obsessive about it. and usually, the problem can be solved by just throwing money at it, but in this case, it's a *lot* of money that i can't spend frivolously, so i can't do that. hence the frustration.

i really like fu lam mum. their late night specials are pretty good, and affordable, too. but i wonder if the goodness is enhanced by the fact that i'm eating so late (past 10pm), so i'm already starving. hm. but anyways, last night, instead of ordering our usual dishes, most of us went outside of the box and ordered atypical stuff. (i got the beef chow fun in black bean sauce. yummers.) and we got more veggies than usual, which felt healthier. all in all, a great meal. i'd like to introduce the restaurant to my other friends, but i wonder if they'd like it as much as i do. maybe i'd have to wait until past 9pm to go there, so we'd all be starving to accentuate our hunger.

somebody at apple googled my name and found this blog. i wonder who that person is. hello? leave me a comment!

i have stabilized at work in my soda drinking. now, i am drinking on pibb xtra and one coke zero a day. when my company started charging 75 cents a soda, i originally just had one coke zero a day. but now, that's just not sweet enough, hence the pibb xtra. i hope to maintain this, because not only do i not want to drink too much regular calorie soda, but i also don't want to spend so much money. man, i really hope the economy picks up so my work goes back to free drinks. (although, that would be bad for my weight. but then again, i don't seem to be losing weight anymore because of my reduced drink intake.)

i like smelling dogs. last night, after _american idol_ finished at 9:30, i went over to the volleyball gym and watched for a while. john was there with his dog buddy, and a couple of times, i just stuck my nose in his fur. it smelled neat. (of course, it smelled like dog, what else did you think?) although, i don't like the wet dog smell. i like dogs. i don't think i'd ever own one myself, though. one, i would get totally grossed out by dog shit. (think dog diarrhea all over my carpet.) and second, i'm not responsible enough right now. and third, i would be devastated when my dog died.

WHERE IS MY ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE?!

speaking of that, holy shit, marlboro's went up a ton in price. like $9 a carton! i went to buy one yesterday before the sales tax went up, and i was shocked to see a carton well into the $40 range. they were only $30-something a month ago. like i said yesterday, damn, i gotta quit.

word of the baby sparrows is spreading throughout the company. today, one of the women was looking at them, and she said she wanted to pet them. don't fuck with them! i hope some asshole smoker doesn't get evil and burn then with his cigarette or something. that would be downright sadistic. i really worry for these little guys. i just hope that they make it alright. nature doesn't always coexist with mankind successfully, you know?

i'm skipping dinner tonight. after i met with my agent and signed the counter, D and i went to southland for lunch. he was really excited; he hadn't been there since last year. i was just there this past saturday with tim, so i was ho hum about it. anyways, i ordered the combination fried rice (without pork liver), and it was huge as usual. so i think i've eaten enough for today, so i might just grab frozen yogurt with jennie tonight and call it a day.

one of my elementary school friends (david) listed on facebook his top 5 favorite _american idol_ contestants. his #1 fave was: megan. ??!! wtf? megan SUCKS. seriously. her voice makes me want to convulse. there's a REASON why she's vftw's pick. ugh. i guess some people have differing tastes, that's all i can say.

i just had a smoke with my boss. both he and i are looking into buying real estate. of course, he's *way* richer than i; he's got three times more cash than i to put into a down payment (he's looking into downtown los altos, fyi), but he's urging me to just do it. he's a cool dude. i wish i had as much money as he does. apparently, he did very well with his stocks, and when the market tanked, he had the foresight to transfer most of his assets into the money market. very smart.

anyways, i took a look at my stock holdings today, and it was EXTREMELY depressing. most of my stocks are in the 75-90% loss range. the only two that are above water are oracle and TSMC, and those are like 10% gains. ugh. oh, and one of my two ESPP offerings is above water. fucking yay. if i sold everything, i'd be able to take a maximum stock loss in my taxes for almost 20 years. :( :( :(

i want to take a vacation after this chip tapes out. i'm thinking NYC to visit amyM. the only thing that's stopping me is the long flight. that red-eye (or wasting an entire day flying) is a bitch. i did it once from SF to boston in 2003, and that fucked me up for two days. but i want to see amy. oh, and there's another amy (amyH) that i can visit, too. plus stef, too.

ugh, i just all of a sudden got a stomachache. maybe i'll try to go take a dump. wish me luck on my counteroffer #2!