IntegraRacer - New Thoughts

You got game, son.

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:16:48 GMT

Basketball tonight was kind of an on-again-off-again proposition. For the most part, I played well but there were some bad turnovers, some missed layups and it wasn't all clicking tonight. That being said, I felt like I pulled it together in the last game. Had a block, a steal, two pretty awesome layups, some assists and a bunch of rebounds. It wasn't much but my ego got a small boost when the staff member at the Mission was like, "USC" (I was wearing a USC shirt. "You got game, son." I was like shoooooooot playa :)

Anyway, I spent some quality time with the fam yesterday. Ava's birthday party was at the MyGym in Manhattan Beach. Austin had a blast. Not at first (of course), because he was a little clingy and had to acclimate himself to the new environment and the crowd of kids that were playing. But eventually, I was able to coax him off Debbie's lap and into walking along some of the gym-type equipment. Eventually, he was following Debbie around onto the trampoline and having a grand ole time. Deb got some really good pics of him too. I'll post it up soon. Finished with some pizza and cake and then he was peaced it pretty good during his afternoon nap. Not as much of a fight as he sometimes tries to put up during naptime.

Then last night, we had sort of our annual night out at CASA's culture show at Bovard (at USC). The show maybe was not as good as last year's (since last year had some professional-style directors and actors/actresses. That being said, they did a pretty kick-butt job and even did a few things better than last year. But I think what I enjoyed most about it was that it felt like a free date night out. More of those are a good thing. And I have Deb's mom to thank for staying and watching Austin. Hopefully it'll be more of the same on Thursday when we go see Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D. Should be awesome. Anyway, I'm out.

First time seeing a whale

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:29:24 GMT

It's funny how sometimes in this digital age with dependence on your phone, the time the need it most is when you can't have it. On the flight back from Hawaii to LA, we started taxiing on the runway getting prepared for takeoff. When all of a sudden, some people next to me started talking loudly and pointing, overcoming my desire to sleep with my headphones on. I glance over my right shoulder and outside the window and I see two whales playing with each other and taking turns leaping out of the water. That was awesome.

What is also awesome was the trip and the Punahou Carnival. It was so much fun eating and hanging out with friends at the Carnival. I hung out with good friends, I talked with a few old classmates while making malasadas during our class' shift and I reconnected with an old friend from 15 years ago. And while I didn't get to ride any carnival rides (Ryan Sullivan was not enamored with Music Express because it only went forward and not backward), we did try to take on some Carnival games together and both came out with some winnings for our loved ones (Ryan won a stuffed animal for Mary Ann, I won two stuffed animals for Austin).

And of course, I had fun in Hawaii with Debbie's mom and grandma. While I didn't spend much time at the house, it was nice and relaxing when I did. Also, it was almost like high school because I didn't rent a car so my friends were constantly picking me up and dropping me off. Muhahahah, it's all good.

Congrats and big shout outs to the Schneiders! Aaron and Julie had their twin daughters almost a week ago and it is so very awesome. I'm unsure how much time they have these days but I want to go over and visit! We're going to this LA Food Fest in downtown this weekend and they would have been the perfect people to go with. They're always looking for ecclectic things to do around the city. Anyway, time to wrap up work and go to sleep. Big day tomorrow :) Happy (observed) Valentines...

In Hawaii

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:26:10 GMT

After a long time of not posting, this is as good a time to document my activities. Seems like just October that we were here enjoying the local Hawaiian foods and hanging out with our families. In fact, it won't be too much longer until we come again for two weddings, Monica and Jeff's, and Ryan and MaryAnn's. And I will be officiating Ryan/MaryAnn's wedding, my second time as an officiant (and also in Hawaii). I've never been to a wedding at the Halekulani so that should be pretty fun. Same goes for Monica's at the Waialae Country Club.

I landed last night after a grueling six hour flight. Argh. I hate it when the headwinds are so strong that they slow us down tremenously. I hope to have the same strength tailwinds. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, got in and Deb's mom picked me up and took me to Zippy's on the way to Granny's house. Man, that King Street Zippy's was packed! Took about half an hour to get my food but it was so worth it. I got a zip pac and a chili moco, along with an Apple Naple and a Cherry Coffee Cake. Finished the Zip pac and a little of the chili moco, as well as the apple naple (while I was waiting for my food). Finished up the chili moco this morning for breakfast. Mmm. I guess i'll save the coffee cake for later.

Nothing much to do but kick back, surf facebook, play FB games, watch some Netflix (and my Studio Ghibli DVDs). It's nice. I like not having stuff to do. I think I'll probably take a nap in a half hour, in fact, after my stomach digests the breakfast.

Today should be lots of fun. Going to have lunch with Kelli, Melissa, Devin and Kurt at the Punahou Carnival. Then gonna hang out, we'll see how it all goes. Supposed to now meet up with Sully and MaryAnn to go over wedding stuff at night. Again, we'll see how it goes. Very flexible planning for now. Okay, I'm out.

Basketball is the answer

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:57:08 GMT

I credit basketball for a) keeping me in good shape, b) keeping the gray hairs away, c) keeping my stress levels down, and d) allowing me to have a few moments of responsibility-free time. Today was some of that. Got my jump shot on. Shook off some of the rust and ache in my muscles. Hit this great "and one" drive at the end with the windmill layup. In fact, had a few of those. All in all, time well spent.

Which brings me to the fact that I'll often defer on basketball in the event that we're busy at home or Austin's a handful or everyone isn't going. But everyone needs their alone time. Debbie's is in front of the TV and dozing off. Mine (at least once a week hopefully) is basketball. While I can skip it, it's a very value-add proposition. And if my friends go, usually it's some time hanging out over dinner and catching up on the week/month's events. Kinda sucks that Brent's still out with a bum finger. Not only for his injury but also because I don't get to see him as regularly.

Well, I was bad and snuck in two games of poker. Lost the first one badly but quickly. Ended up just grinding out a win in the second one. There's definitely value to grinding out a game and not getting too overly aggressive in the beginning. As long as you don't get blinded out, of course. I like poker because it's a game of focus. Some people do sudoku or Brain Age or chess. I like to play poker. Because if you lapse in focus for just one hand, you end up making a mistake that costs you the game. And what I am happy with over the last two days that I've played is that I'm actually winning (out of 9 people). While some people play just to get 2nd or 3rd (and still make money), I keep that as the intermediate goal but don't change up my game too much once I'm in the money. Keep playing your opponents based on how you read their tendancies and it'll all work out in the end. And hopefully get lucky a few times in between. I'm done for the night. Time for some zzzzzzzzzzzzs. Deb's mom asked for pics of Austin's new haircut so I'll put some up once we take some.

2 out of 3

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:49:41 GMT

Was checking email, FB, ESPN, etc. and decided to play some poker while waiting. Won the first game, 6th place in the 2nd game due to impatience, learned from that in the 3rd game and won that one too. Up $35 for the night, not bad :) Subsidizing my shopping... muhaha.

Nature documentaries are cool

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:22:35 GMT

The March of the Penguins was just on. We didn't watch it really but saw the end credits where they're trekking it through ths snow. It made me think of Planet Earth and the type of creative, covert ways to be a videographer in this type of endeavor. It's really pretty cool. And with hi-def cameras, the picture quality is excellent and presents such stunning images for those of us who don't get a chance to explore nature.

We made it barely on time for the Grattan Christmas party tonight. It was pretty good. I had a Belvedere and tonic, rum and coke. It was only a tiny bit of Coke so I'm going to stick with the line that I haven't had it for 5 months. I don't know if it was worth it, I think I've lost the taste for Coke already.

On the plus side, the food was excellent. I loved these mini cheese bread appetizers that tasted delicious. I went back for more once Austin started eating but they had already put it away. Asked a server for some more and she brought out an entire plate for me :P haha. Austin only ate one piece (out of 8). The chicken was also memorable. But of course, the piece de resistance is always the delicious desserts that Georgene (the mom) makes. The best ones this year were probably the red velvet (her first time doing that one), the eggnog cake (it was different) and the oreo crumble cake.

I think the biggest event today wasn't the party (while always awesome) but the haircut preceding it. For the first time ever, Austin stayed mostly calm, still and seated during the entire haircut. We attributed it to Debbie talking it up on the car ride over, me getting a haircut before he did, maybe that both of us were trying to keep him occupied and happy during the cut, maybe that he's older and starting to get used to it. No matter what the reason, he sat through most of it without incident and only at the very end when the girl started using the electric clippers near his ears did Austin start figeting and fussing. Still, so happy with the outcome.

That's it for me tonight. I'm out. Tomorrow's our last game of basketball for league and hopefully we'll do well. It's the only team we enjoy playing against and are competitive against.

Compeleted my benefits enrollment

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:02:28 GMT

Almost forgot why I was on the computer until I was about to get up and saw my benefits packet under my wrist. Logged in, confirmed what I had pre-selected yesterday and now good to go. With the possibility of Debbie losing her health benefits next year, we're putting everyone on one plan. Was wondering about dental and vision coverage for Austin being needed but it's all good. Better safe than sorry.

Two good days in a row

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:10:07 GMT

This morning, Austin woke up to the sound of trash trucks passing by. On the plus side, he woke up early instead of me trying to drag his tired carcass out of the crib at 8am. On the downside, my alarm hadn't even gone off yet. But after a jaunt to the window so he was able to see not one but two different trash trucks, he mellowed out, played, watched me get ready in the bathroom, hung out while I got dressed by the closet, put on his shoes, came willingly to the car, etc. When I got to day care (closer to my old arrival time than I have been lately), he popped right over the gate and immediately started playing. Cling(y)-free. Nice.

Funny thing is that it's almost a duplicate of yesterday morning. Minus the trash trucks. And he woke up a little later. But I asked him if he wanted to play with his friends and he nodded. Then I hopped him over the gate and he was immediately in the middle of the mob. No backwards glance at Daddy. I was a little sad inside but ecstatic on the outside. I don't think he's done that ever or not that I can remember.

Today, Miss Nancy was answering some of my questions about how he's been lately. She said that despite me seeing him on the jungle gym / slide thing in the sandbox when I picked him up the other day, he tends to play on bikes with Brad every day. In fact, the first thing he does when he goes outside is ask for a helmet. Then jump on a bike. Boys.

Also, it seems like he's been napping more when he was tired but now that he's livelier in the morning, it sounds like he's been keeping the other kids awake during naptime by singing christmas songs on his cot. They have to pull him aside to not make as much noise. I guess hanging out with Debbie and I and KOST 103.5's Xmas music all month makes for a pretty festive kiddo.

Alright, I'll leave you with a picture Debbie took recently in our office. He seemed to be wearing this toothy grin the whole time.

Second day from Vegas

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:19:16 GMT

Just took a shower and putting in a quick post before I call it quits. Still need to respond to some work emails before zzzz'ing. Oh well. So this is the 2nd day in Vegas, I guess I won't be catching up on sleep as much as I thought. I think maybe I might ditch some of the keynote speeches tomorrow morning in order to finish packing up and also take care of any Kinecta work. I hate letting it all pile up in my Inbox.

So after a long day of technical talks, Symitar treated us to a nice round of cocktails and conversation, then dinner at Postrio (by Wolfgang Puck) in the Venetian. Had the filet for the 2nd night in a row (mmmmmm) and was stuffed with all the good food they served us. Gotta love it. As far as the "2nd night in a row" comment, we had dinner at David Burke's restaurant in the Venetian the prior night. The lobster scramble (w/ caviar) and the filet (and scallop) were delicious.

After dinner (and then a subsequent phone call to the fam (although Austin was already asleep - awwww), I headed back downstairs to go meet up with my boss Hal. He had told me he'd be watching the Texas Hold 'Em three-card game (not actual poker). Apparently he spent a few hours last night watching it and wanted to watch some more to see if anyone had a system that would help them win. Nobody really did (in the long run).

So despite my vow not to gamble, I decided to borrow $100 from Hal and we both sat down at the blackjack tables. We started playing and subsequently losing. I lost the first 8 hands in a row (after pushing the very first hand). Tempted to leave but decided to stay and finish up the $100 (luckily it was a $10 table minimum). Ended up going back and forth at around $20. Finally, I started winning. So I kept pressing my $10 bet. $15. $20. $30. $40. $60. $80. $100. $120. I finally lost my $120 bet and decided to call it quits. Who knows if I would have been able to go on another run and if my loss at $120 was just a bump in the road. Either way, I ended up being able to pay Hal back and was still up $175. So whew, I can feel good about it instead of feeling guilty (trying to save money these days). This probably paid for most of my black friday spree (besides the stuff from home depot since it was via gift card). Maybe this is my karma win because I told the Home Depot cashier that she forgot to charge me for the $20 shop vac (even though she scanned it). Who knows. All I know is "I'm a winner!!!!" and I'm not planning to play anymore this trip. In fact, I'll just say it's 100% that I'm done.

So I'm out. Time to do a little more work and call it a night. Luckily I snagged a few bottled waters from the conference or I'd be severely dehydrated by morning. Breakfast is at 7am. Zzzzzzzzzzz. Oh wait, it's free. Guess I'll be there.

Austin's Owwie

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:41:08 GMT

Austin had an accident this Sunday night. We had gone over to Dawn and Gary's house for a nice dinner with Kelly/Joe, Janice, Jamie/Scott. And of course, some little ones. After the dinner, Janice and the Barretts left and the guys and girls were hanging out in different areas of the house. The girls talking and the guys watching TV. So Austin starts playing inside where the girls were and then comes out after using Gary's small exercise ball as a basketball to dribble. The girls break up their conversation and I start playing with Austin after the football game ends.

Soooooooo... Austin and I start passing the ball to each other, kicking the ball, then I start dribbling the ball and he starts chasing me around the house. Then I give him the ball back and start chasing him around the house. He's laughing, having fun, having a good time. This goes on safely for about 10 minutes. And then he ran across the house and I start chasing him when my socks slip on the hardwood, I fall flat on my butt and crashed into Austin sitting down. I don't think I collided too hard but it was still contact. He was crying more than normal and a little fussy going in and out of the car. He also woke up twice during the night and Debbie had to soothe him back to sleep.

On Monday, he's still a little fussy and one of his teachers calls to tell me that he's not his usual self and is having difficulty doing things with two hands and instead using only his right hand. So luckily I was able to get away from work and they had an opening at the doctor's office. It's funny though when I picked him up, he was playing with his friends on the slide/sand area just having fun and being very social. So it seemed like whatever discomfort he had was starting to subside in the afternoon.

Anyway, the doctor says that Austin might have a slight nick in his clavicle but those types of injuries typically heal well. Gave him some Children's Tylenol at home and he seemed like a happy camper. Now I just have to avoid his left shoulder and pick him up with his right underarm and the left side of his butt. Debbie says he seems to be okay as of last night (since I'm in Vegas now). I was able to talk to them both last night and Austin seemed to be in a good mood. Even making up his own language :P

Lotta stuff in the news lately. Seattle guy who killed four police officers was killed trying to escape another police officer. Tiger Woods' mysterious accident now becomes a little clearer with a public statement he made on his website about his "transgressions". It's too bad that he, like Kobe, seems to have lost their golden boy image (when they have seemingly everything they could ask for in life) and instead succumbing to temptation. But like Kobe, I still admire Tiger Woods. Now it's more professionally than it is personally.

Oh yeah, I saw on the local news last night that the new Vdara hotel opened up in the new CityCenter in Vegas. It's supposed to be "green", be non-smoking in its entirety and not have a casino. I'm interested in checking it out today or tomorrow (maybe before my flight) to just see how it is.

Okay, time to go back to work. I woke up early with Hal because we were told that the meetings started at 7am. Turns out it won't start until 1pm. So clean out some emails, maybe sneak in a nap and then go back down. I'll probably be working a few hours tonight anyway.

Best Purchase EVAR / Productive Day

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:22:18 GMT

With careful planning, a few weeks' worth of research and (luckily) some willing friends in Ryan and Eve, I had a wonderful Black Friday morning experience. And my best purchase wasn't even on my list - it was on Ryan's! Retailing for $100 (verified), I was able to purchase this RIGID shop wet/dry vac for $19.99 from Home Depot. I mainly bought it because of the deal (and because I could see me using it right away to suck up cobwebs in the garage). I'll mention more about it a little further down.

Other notable purchases include a 500GB Western Digital portable hard drive for $69, a bluetooth headset for Debbie and my mom for $9.99, a pretty good laptop for my mom for $399, an 18V Ryobi drill/saw set for $49, a 50 foot extension cord for $6.99, an 8GB USB flash drive for $12.99, and some Calvin Klein solid-color sheet sets (2 pillow cases, a flat and a fitted sheet) for $25. Mostly Staples, Home Depot and Costco (sheets). It was fun running around with Ryan and Eve also, we spent almost 5 hours all started with a frantic dash to Walmart arriving at 4:45 and then changing our minds because the parking lot was full and the lines were crazy crazy crazy long. Speaking of which, I need to see how my brother fared. I'd better call him.

Yesterday I busted out the shop vac in the morning. That thing is the best thing ever. I was able to suck up leaves, dust between the stucco and ground, just about anything. It made a normally half-decent job around the yards into an almost-pristine look. I think I need to bust it out (at minimum) each time before hosting parties at our house. Best $20 ever.

And I finished reconciling credit card receipts right before the USC/UCLA football game. That was about 9 months worth of receipts that took about a night and an afternoon to take care of. But it feels good. So therefore, a very productive day capped by a very satisfying USC victory! I'm out. Time to take Austin to ride his trike outside.

Crosstown Rivalry a Wrap

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:54:05 GMT

This was a crazy game. Crazy. USC's defense played really well and kept UCLA's offense from getting into the end zone more than one time (at the end). I think that both offenses played pretty poorly and were hindered by penalties (USC) and turnovers (UCLA). Barkley threw one pick but it was an overthrow vs. Prince throwing a couple picks right at USC defensive players he didn't see.

The crazy part of the game was with 51 seconds in the game and USC up 21-7, trying to take a knee and run out the clock. Rick Neuheisel calls a timeout and prolongs the game. So while USC wanted to let the Bruins lose gracefully, they took it back (since UCLA had all three timeouts). I think if they kept taking a knee, UCLA would have used up all three timeouts and there might have been another 20 seconds on the clock. Score a fast touchdown and onside kick and score another. Probability is probably zilch but sure, it's possible.

So... Matt Barkley does the only sensible thing to counter the irritating move by Neuheisel. He play-actions and then finds Damian Williams wide open in the end zone. Then after their customary post-touchdown circle "jumping up and down", UCLA players see that as some sort of disrespectful celebration and decide to run all the way out to midfield and start talking trash. I'm sure the UCLA fans will see this completely opposite of how I see it, I'm sure I'm biased and all, but this totally seemed like a class-less game by UCLA coaches and players, all in the span of 51 seconds.

My only disappointment is that it will probably motivate UCLA to play harder next year. They'll treat this as some bulletin board type material to motivate themselves. When in reality, they'd be fools to think that way. Anyway, that's my own opinion and I'm sure it will have its critics. But all in all, it was an exciting game. We were lucky to go (Allison and Dave helped to watch Austin while we were gone) and had some good memories besides the game itself.

Minutes till Turkey Day

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:59:56 GMT

The holiday season is really something to be thankful. It's not every week that you end up splitting your work week in two and having two "Fridays". It's nice to come home, stay up somewhat late and know that you can still wake up at a reasonable hour and do everything that needs to get done.

Tomorrow is turkey day. 14 minutes to be exact. Not only will I be prepping Thanksgiving lunch in the morning but hopefully I'll be going on a shopping spree on Amazon. There's some sales and I intend to replenish a small portion of my inventory. Gotta keep a frugal mentality, though. I'm being very selective on which things I buy and I'm holding out for the steepest discounts.

I'm really thinking I'll get a piano soon. Maybe not too soon; maybe after Debbie finds a new job. But Austin seems to like it wherever we go. When we were at the Fu's house last weekend, he wanted to play on it. And I'm thinking that Debbie probably won't want to hear it all the time so at least with an electric keyboard, I could plug in some headphones and play that way. Like I said, probably not a 2009 purchase. But I'm thinking that it could be a late 2010 purchase. I saw one at Costco a few months back that I liked. It was a Casio with piano-weighted keys. Feels like the real thing, not like a cheapie keyboard. We'll see.

Not much else to say right now. Gonna wash up some more dishes in preparation for the activity in the kitchen tomorrow. Will work on putting up more photo albums this weekend. I'm out.

One more down

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:16:20 GMT

There's now three more albums added to the site. The biggest one was getting through the Washington trip and that's finally over. Cleaned up all the dupes, got rid of various non-essential blurry pics, touched up a few wrinkles, haha. Anyhow, it's all good now and I can get over the hump. Trying to break into the pics from 2009. Skipping the random Austin pics that Debbie takes. Gotta weed through those separately.

Weekend half over

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:10:35 GMT

The weekend is half over and I'm probably a little behind on my goals for it. My goals for this weekend were to clean up the dishes (mostly done), clean up the house (not really much progress), pay the bills (targeting tonight), pick up groceries (was planning for tonight but Austin's a little behind right now and tired), mow both lawns (not yet), cleaning out the DVR (making pretty good progress) and some other stuff. Well, I have another night/day to get it done.

On the upside, we were able to go to dim sum at NBC seafood with Ryan, Eve and Steve this morning. The food was delicious! In addition, we stopped by the Fu's to visit and see Akemi and Ayumi. It was good. Austin was able to test out his new tricycle that Bob bought for his birthday. He was such a pro, given that I've never really seen him driving anything with pedals. Usually, he'll use his feet to mobilize. And because he's been so short, it wasn't evident until our last trip to Toys R Us that he'd be able to reach and use the pedals. So yeah, it's a good thing. He loves it. And we do too, given that we've held off on buying a trike for at least 7-8 visits to various places. Finally found one that we liked.

As mentioned, Austin's a little tired. He had a two hour nap (with a minor interruption going from car to crib) but yet he's been so tired. He seemed to wake up a little past 6pm but has been either in my arms or sitting on my lap since. Very clingy. And after asking to play with the Go Diego Go! toys, he started being wishy-washy with them and then getting fussy. So now he's in his room calming down. Maybe I'll try to give him teething tablets (not sure if the teeth are the problem).

I realized yesterday that I'll have been at the airport 4 times in 5 days. Dropped off my brother on Thursday, Debbie on Friday, picking Debbie up on Sunday, picking my brother up on Monday. Did I miss anyone? LAX = not my most favorite place, especially on the lower levels. I'll probably see if Debbie can come up to the upper levels, since she has only minor suitcases. Alright, I'm out. I need to catch up on reading other peoples' blogs (especially Debbie's). I think I've been so behind on my own, I stopped following others'.

Austin report

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:15:04 GMT

Austin has never really cared to have me wake him up in the mornings. It's not that bad but the typical reaction when I walk into the room is along the lines of "mama" or "no, daddy". The exception to that is when he's been talking to himself in the morning (i.e. good mood) or if the trash truck comes by and he needs someone to take him to the window quickly.

The good thing is that despite not being the top choice in the mornings, he always comes around after a few minutes and I have a pretty pliable kid to work with. That is, except for this past Tuesday and Wednesday. No this, no that. Everything was a no. Wouldn't come out of his crib, wouldn't change his diaper, wouldn't change out of his bottom pj pants and into regular pants, wouldn't change from his pj shirt into his regular shirt. And ultimately, I didn't have the time to try pulling different levers to get him to cooparate quickly. So I ended up just moving him from one task to another until he was finally ready to leave the house. Kicking and crying most of the way through the process.

So, I hope tomorrow will be different. Deb got him the past two days but now she's in SJ so I've got him all to myself this coming morning. Hope it works out well. I need him to be in a good mood because we're going to have dim sum in MPK and then going to visit the Fu's. Should be fun. Okay, I'm tired so I'm going to wrap up this. But...

Last quick note about Austin. Miss Lisa said that he's started to stop putting his fingers in his mouth. Not sure about at nap times and everything but I'll take that as a good sign that we won't have to try to wean him away from it. Hopefully it just happens naturally. Okay, I'm out.