Thoughts of an Island Guy

More Stupid Anti Gun Politicians

2009-05-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

I blogged earlier about the stupid politicians who are targeting gun shows at the Cow Palace in the Bay Area. Here is more news on that effort from the San Francisco Examiner. Again, the Examiner's article shows how stupid these anti gun politicians are. According to Michael D. Nevin, former President of the County Board of Supervisors for San Mateo he states, "the Daly City police will tell you it isn’t just the gun show — it’s the illegal guns in and around the property and parking lots." Mr. Nevin, what illegal guns are you talking about? What about the police patrols in and around the property and parking lots? Where is your proof on the so called "illegal" guns? What you are saying is heresay, Mr. Nevin. Did you not know that according to the San Jose Mercury News on April 17, 2009 stated, "to stifle illegal activity, undercover agents with the Department of Justice are at the event, while uniformed Daly City police officers patrol the venue and parking lot." So as I asked Shawn Richards in my previous entry, I ask you Mr. Nevin if you know of any illegal guns in and around the property and parking lots of the Cow Palace during the gun shows? And, if you do are you contacting law enforcement?

The Examiner continues on in the article that states that less than 2 percent of state prison inmates said they obtained the firearm through a gun show or flea market. The majority of inmates, 80 percent, said they obtained their weapon from family, from friends or illegally on the street. You see you dumb politicians, criminals don't get their weapons from the gun shows. They don't care about all the gun laws. They don't care about laws. That's why they are criminals. Why do you penalize the law abiding gun loving citizen when you should go after those who break the law? I am all in favor of harsher sentencing and penalities for those criminals that use a gun during a crime. Do not equate criminals to those that are legally demonstrating their second amendment rights...and I do stress the word legally. Why don't you illogical politicians create laws that will incarcerate these scum of the earth, good for nothing low lifes, for a long time? Don't these politicians know that the worse place for a criminal to buy a gun is at a gun show? Don't they know that most of these people that attend are law abiding citizens that don't want any low lifes to ruin our second amendment rights and would report criminal activities immediately? Don't these idiotic anti gun nuts know that these gun shows are heavily and strictly regulated by not only state laws but federal laws?

Hey, you stupid politicians, criminals buy their guns on the street where there is no forms to sign, no 10 day waiting period, no criminal background check, no gun safety certification. If I wanted to purchase a gun right now without the hassel of following the law, I'm pretty sure I could get one off the street in the rough parts of town for pretty cheap. However, do I want to do that? Of course not! I am a law abiding citizen and will follow the law of the land and respect it unlike a criminal. So what I ask you dorks is that I not be treated like a criminal and give me the right to defend my self with a gun.

Here's more information from the Examiner:

Where criminals obtain weapons

According to a 1997 survey of state-prison inmates who possessed a gun, the source of the firearm was:

2%
Flea market or gun show

12%
Retail store or pawnshop

80%
From family, friends, street buy or illegal source

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

LAUSD Teachers March and Teacher's Union...What a Joke

2009-05-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

As you may already know, there were 46 people arrested today for an illegal protest and blocking traffic at the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters. They were demonstrating against proposed budget cuts and layoffs. In addition, there were teachers who marched outside of their schools before the start of class in their show of opposition to the proposed cuts.

I would have to say that I do not like to see anyone being laid off or to lose their job because it has happened to me due to economic downturns in the job sectors I previously worked in. However, when there is a downturn and there is no money, something has to give. Do these teachers realize this or are they so stupid that they don't understand? When companies have laid off thousands of employees, when companies such as GM, Ford, and Chrysler are cutting jobs and thousands of dealerships due to the economic downturn, do these teachers think they should be exempt? Do they think that they are entitled to never face a layoff? It is so arrogant of them to think that their crap does not stink and that they should not face any layoff.

I would be more sympathetic to the teachers if their schools had successful graduation rates. However, LAUSD has one of the worst drop out rates in the nation. Not California but the NATION!! In some publications, a school in the LAUSD had a drop out rate of 58%! According to FixLosAngeles.com they account for 15% of the state's high school dropouts. So, not only does the teacher's union and some of the teachers in LAUSD feel that they are entitled to not losing their jobs, but they feel that they should not lose their jobs even though they are doing a lousy job!

You know, if I were to protest against my employer I would be fired. If my productivity equated to 50% failure rates on equipment that I fixed, I would be fired. If my employer were to have significant loss of profit and money was tight, I'd probably be let go. Now, add all of the three together and what happens? Any normal, logical thinking person will tell you that you better start looking for a job. Not for the teachers union and those that have demonstrated today. Hmm, it's no wonder that the school district is facing such high dropout rates. These teachers are not normal nor are they logical! Where is the money to pay for all of you going to come from? There is a shortfall on funds you idiotic teachers! Instead of demonstrating and whining about all of this, why don't you and your union come up with a solution and work with the district? But no, that is too logical for you. What more could I expect from a LAUSD teacher. I am so grateful that I do not have to send my child to your schools. You guys are a joke and deserve to lose your jobs. I think LAUSD needs a major spring cleaning and this would be a very convinient time to get rid of the garbage. Such arrogance and stupidity from people who are supposed to teach and shape minds for the future. What a joke.

Do Not Hire Pacific Home Remodeling

2009-05-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Why should you not hire Pacific Home Remodeling? Well, for starters they are very late on their warranty work. They claim to have a great warranty but in reality it would be easier for me to crunch my nuts in a vice than to get these bozos to get any warranty work done in a timely manner.

Case 1: Window has a night latch broken. Time for warranty repair right? Yeah, like a month later after the initial call. And that is after about 5 phone calls to the company.

Case 2: Brand new window would not open or close properly. This window was not even a day old and it was defective. You would think that they would get the window repaired ASAP or even replaced right away. Nope! We had to call the company several times to get this repaired. We even had to contact the sales person to get the ball going.

Case 3: They keep calling for more business. Their telemarketing group keeps calling even though we keep telling them to take us off of their phone list. Do they do it? Of course not.

I really had it with poor customer support from businesses. You would think that with the present economy businesses would provide better customer service instead of a lack of service or attention to detail...especially in the home remodeling sector. Because of the above mentioned cases, I cannot recommend anyone to go with Pacific Home Remodeling. I spent thousands of dollars when I bought my windows and never got great customer satisfaction from them. Do not go with these guys unless you want to deal with headaches of trying to get repairs done on a timely manner, use up your work time during business hours, or waste your break time and lunch hours trying to get them to do warranty repairs.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you ladies out there that interact with children or people that are young enough to be your child. I'm not excluding mothers out there but I wanted to include women out there who don't have children or have lost children but still have been "mom" like to people who are not their children. I think of those ladies as being very special and that we need to recognize them and wish them a Happy Mother's Day also.

I remember of many ladies in the church I attended while in college who were like a grandma to me. This was comforting due to me losing both grandmothers during that period. It was strange in that I did not share with anyone about my loss but these ladies were able to lift my spirits and made me feel better. Chocolate chip cookies didn't hurt either! I guess they had some sort of extra sense that something was wrong with me and wanted to help.

Writing this entry, I'm thinking about my mom and my grandmother. I miss my mom and wish that I could take her out for dinner. I really haven't been able to celebrate Mother's Day with her since I moved away from home right after high school. It frustrates me at times that I am only able to send a card to her during times like this. Actually, it is my wife that sends the cards, but that's beside the point. Anyways, I also think about my grandmother, my mom's mom. She was quite the lady and always made me laugh. I still remember her telling me to get into Harvard when I was ready for college. I still remember the advice she gave me and it has been the best advice anyone has given. She told me to be the best you can be. "Be the best in everything you do. If you become a doctor, be the best doctor. If you become a lawyer, be the best. If you be a bank robber, be the best. Never do a mediocre job because anyone can be mediocre without any effort. Always strive and work to be above the rest." Well, I'm hoping that I'm following her advice. I try to never settle for good enough and always give it my best in what I do. Thanks Grandma for that advice!

Meet Mr. Odo

2009-05-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention to you my favorite cat in the world...Odo. Here he is doing what he does best.

I was not a huge cat fan before I met Odo. I was a big dog fan since I grew up with dogs and never owned a cat. I did help take care of my neighbor's cat growing up. It would come by the house every morning and we would give the cat some food but other than that I really didn't interact much with cats.

Odo is actually my wife's cat but now he is my buddy and constant companion when I'm home. As you can see he really likes my guitar case. He actually fell asleep while I played my guitar. Either he thought my playing was soothing or he thought I played crappy. I'm hoping for the latter.

Right now, he is my baby and I love to spoil him. He gets cat treats every morning and gets constantly petted and rubbed. He is such as great cat and is so mellow. He's also a big boy like his owner. He just got weighed in at 16.3 lbs. I guess he's a little rotund for a cat but hey, he's living the good life. I think he's better looking than Garfield!

He has one nasty habit. He loves to drink water from the toilet bowl. Of course the bowl is empty except for water. I don't know how he got that habit. Anyways, I've bought him a fancy water bowl complete with filtration system, hoping that he would stop drinking from the toilet and use this new water bowl. Nope. He prefers the toilet! I finally got him to stop using the toilet water bowl by providing him with a couple of stainless steel bowls. I guess he likes them deep bowls!

A very strange thing that Odo does is that he will come into the bathroom while I am on the throne doing my kingly duties or shall I say poopies...Anyways, he always wants me to pet him and rub behind his ears. When he's had enough, he would then lie on the bath rug and wait for me to finish my job, paperwork and all. He would then get up and peer into the bowl to watch the contents go down the drain. What a strange cat but I love him!

What's Up with Asian Drivers?

2009-05-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure you have heard about the stereotype of Asian drivers. Well, I for one can attest that it is not a myth but a fact. I should know because I am of the Asian persuasion. Ok, I'm not trying to incriminate myself or implying that I am a bad driver. Absolute far from the truth! Alright, so I got into a few minor collisions...I can't help that the other car magically appeared in front of me at a standstill while I was still moving...forward and...well the rest is history.

What I am talking about is those other lousy Asian drivers. No, not me...those other people. Just today while doing a bunch of errands I witnessed several crazy drivers where they almost collided into my car. I swear that I was not driving erratically nor was I driving haphazardly. Within a mile of driving in a heavily Asian populated area of the San Gabriel valley, I witnessed at least 5 different traffic violations.

The other day, my wife got rear ended on the freeway on her way to work. During our phone conversation about he accident I told her, "I bet it was an Asian driver that hit you." Sure enough I was right.

What is it about Asian drivers? I know here in Southern California we have this problem. Does it exist in other parts of the world? I know that it really isn't a problem in Hawaii where I grew up but I'm getting my fair exposure of it here in California. Let me know of your insight and comments about this.

Awesome Rib Roast Recipe

2009-05-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ever have a craving for a nice, juicy, savory slice of prime rib? (Ok, vegetarians are not allowed in this discussion. This is only for carnivores!)

Here is a link for an awesome prime rib roast recipe. Click Here.

I tried this recipe last New Years Day and it was a hit. Follow the temperature settings and you will be set. I actually made a slight adjustment on the temperature. I set my target for my roast to be on the rare side and stopped the roasting process when it read 117 degrees. The internal meat temperature will continue to climb to around 125. Also, I figured that if anyone wanted their meat cooked more I could pan fry it to their desired doneness.

Anti Gun Crap

2009-05-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

I really have not been political in my blog before but I am starting to get fed up with the crap that anti gunners have been saying. The anti gun lobby is just talking out of their rears. The anti gun politicians are trying to pass laws restricting the right to bear arms all in the name of public safety and crime reduction. That is a crock of crap.

These people do not realize that the law abiding citizen will follow all the laws of the land. Meanwhile, criminals, those who break the law, could care less about any gun laws. For instance, current California law restricts me from obtaining a gun that can be loaded with more than 10 rounds in its magazine. Now a criminal will not care about this law. If the criminal is a convicted felon, it is already illegal for the scumbag to carry a gun let alone having more than 10 rounds in the magazine. All of these stupid laws restrict the law abiding citizen. It will not deter any criminals from breaking any gun laws. Want to lower crime, then empower the law abiding citizen to be able to arm themselves. Look at other states where they have more sympathetic gun laws than the socialist republic of California. Their crime rates are much lower. Do you know why? The scum of the earth don't know who is armed and who is not. Criminal scum want the easy prey to victimize and not those who will resist or get them killed.

A recent online article from the San Jose Mercury News about California Senate Bill 585 exposes the blatant lies these anti second ammendment politicians use to further their illogical and idiotic agenda. The article states that "On Monday, a 16-year-old boy was shot eight times at the Sunnydale project. He lay there dead for four hours until emergency responders arrived, said Shawn Richard, founder of Brothers Against Guns." What relevance does that have to do with a gun show in the neighborhood. The question is why did it take four hours for emergency responders to arrive? Maybe the politicians should focus on getting more police and other emergency response units stationed in the area. Maybe they should look at improving the school system or job opportunities in the area. The area around the Cow Palace has always been a lower income, crime filled area. It has nothing to do with a gun show at the location and the politicians know it.

Shawn Richard continues in the article to say that he has seen young people buy weapons at the Cow Palace during gun shows and then illegally sell them in surrounding neighborhoods. "I know them personally," Richard said. "You have people working illegally (at the shows); individuals that play a part in getting those guns through." Ok Mr. Richard, why didn't you call the police about the illegal selling of firearms? If you personally know them, why haven't you done your part as a law abiding citizen to see that the law is followed? What proof do you have Mr. Richard about these people working illegally? Sounds more like heresay than actual evidence. If it were me, I would contact the police right away if I knew of any illegal activities but I wonder why Mr. Richard did not? According to the article there were uniformed police officers patrolling the venue and parking lot as well as undercover agents with the Department of Justice covering the event to stop any illegal activity.

Another great example of our gun laws in California was the incident where four Oakland police officers were killed by a convicted felon using an pistol and rifle. The felon, Lovelle Mixon, had been convicted of assault with a firearm during an armed robbery. He was also found to be in connection to a rape of a 12 year old girl. It seems that the gun law of making it illegal for a convicted felon to own or posses a firearm really detered the scum from having not just one gun, but two. After this incident, the feel good politicians started up their anti gun rhetoric saying that they need more gun control. When are these people going to stop with their nonsense agenda? Do they not realize that criminals do not follow laws. That's why they are criminals. Instead, these politicians should focus on stricter sentencing laws and make these criminals do hard time or even throw away the key if they use a gun during a crime. Punish the criminals and not the law abiding citizens. Open your eyes politicians!

Been Away Much Too Long, So Many Changes

2009-05-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I last blogged. I am finding it difficult to find time to blog...so many other responsibilities and priorities, like marriage, a job...oh well. I guess my last blog was in 2007. Hehe, of course so many things have changed.

Changes:

Quit job, got a new job, and biggest one...a baby on its way.

Is This Too Much Government Control?

2007-09-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was reading Los Angeles Times Sunday Edition and was going over the bills that the California Assembly and Senate passed. One of the bills made me think that the government of California is going too far in controlling people's lives and behaviors. The bill, SB 7, would penalize those who smoke in a vehicle containing children under the age of 18. However, the police would not be able to stop vehicles to solely inforce the law. The fine for violating the law would be $100.

In its concept, I do agree that children should not be exposed to second hand smoke but do not agree that the government should be imposing its will on us to prevent such things from occurring. It is the adult's responsibility to prevent exposure to tobacco smoke to children and not the government. I do not like it when the government is telling me what to do in cases like this. Would I be smoking in a car with children in it? No, but I do not want the government coming down on me if I did. Next thing you'll know, they will tell us what to eat, how to eat, when to take a dump, etc.

I get the impression that California's government feels that they need to control people because they are too dumb to do anything. They say that it is illegal to use a belt on a child when you spank them, can't use a slipper to whack their bottoms when they misbehave. I'm not in favor of child abuse but come on! I got whacked as a kid with a bamboo stick and I deserved it by being a snotty little punk that needed to be reminded that Mommy is not to be dressed down to. California is starting to look more and more like a socialist playground with all of these control freak laws.

Is there too much government control? Am I wrong? I would love to hear your productive comments.

My Hero, Anthony Bourdain

2007-09-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Anthony Bourdain. For those of you that do not know who he is, he was a New York Chef at Brasserie Les Halles and author of several best selling books such as Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour. Currently, he is the host of Travel Channel's No Reservations.

The biggest thing that I admire about him is that he is willing to try all different kinds of food...the bizarre like balut to the ordinary sushi. Ok, for some of you sushi is bizarre like eating bait. Hey, today's sushi is tomorrow's bait but I love it. But as for balut, there is no way that I would even attempt to go near it. I don't mean to knock it down because it is a delicacy for a lot of Southeast Asians and Filipinos. Let's just say that it is an acquired taste.

I've been a fan of Anthony Bourdain for about three years after reading Kitchen Confidential. I actually first heard of him when he was a guest on Oprah. No, I do not normally watch Oprah or any of the those day time shows geared toward women. I was channel surfing during one of my days while I was bored out of my mind during a period of unemployment and saw this Chef on TV and it happened to be the Oprah show. It was interesting what he had to say about the restaurant business such as why restaurant food tastes better than what you can dish out at home (because restaurants use butter and shallots), that the bread on your table most likely is recycled, and brunch specials on the weekends are a way for the restaurant to get rid of stuff from the week (frittata comes to mind).

After reading Kitchen Confidential, I got hooked and bought his other books and then I started to get into French style cooking. His book, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking, is great! I highly recommend this book if you are a beginner to French cooking. One of my favorite recipes from this book is Steak Au Poivre. It is relatively easy to make and it tastes great. Mmmm...I love the sauce using butter, shallots, and cognac. Dang, it is making me real hungry just thinking about it. This cookbook also inspired me to be create my takes on French food such as braised short ribs with red wine reduction and caramelized wild mushroom ragout, and baked chicken with garlic confit and white wine sauce. Ok, I have to make one of these this week since it has been a while that I made either one.

Ok, back to Mr. Bourdain. The one thing that I really like about him is that he is always gracious with his hosts who cook and serve him. He will not hesitate to try foods that he is unfamiliar with and he will not make a disgusted face in front of his host if he eats something that grosses him out. I remember one episode when he ate a taco made out of iguana meat. In front of his host, he merrily chewed and ate the whole thing. Off camera, he stated that he would have rather stuck his head in a barrel of lye. Hmmm...seeing iguanas in the pet store, I would not blame him for doing such a thing. He is a brave man...much braver than me and I love to eat all kinds of bizarre foods. Well, they are normal for me but for white bread America, it is very exotic or shall I say ralphish?

If you want to see different parts of the world with its culture and cuisine, I highly recommend watching No Reservations on the Travel channel. It is great show and Anthony Bourdain is very entertaining and interesting to watch.

A Very Long Hiatus

2007-09-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

Yup, I guess I'm back to blogging. I really don't know how long this will last so don't hold your breath unless you want to die of self inflicted asphyxia.

I figured that I should start out again out of sheer boredom. Yeah, I've been at home all day with no service calls and been tired of watching reruns of the Dog Whisperer, FBI files, and other mind numbing TV shows so I decided to do some blogging.

I really don't know how some people can blog so easily and daily. I mean I have work, chores around the house, places to go and things to do and thus can't really sit down and write about stuff all the time. I have a life...or I think I do. But I guess what it boils down to is the priorities in my life. Blogging is definitely not one of them as you can tell after not doing so for over a year. I mean I really didn't have a big following for my blogs as there are thousands of other blogs out there that are well written and are far more interesting. I'm just a plain, old simple guy who started blogging as a way to pass time during a bout of unemployment. Now that I have been working with computers day in and out, the last thing I want to really do is sit in front of a computer on my time off. So yes, this babbling is due to extreme boredom.

I'm going to have to make some changes on my blog due to it's lack of updating. I mean, there is not Cingular wireless anymore since it is now the new AT&T and Comcast was sold to Time Warner.

Speaking about AT&T, what was up with the whole iPhone thing? I don't understand why people would camp out overnight to be one of the first to get the iPhone. I mean, why camp out and pay a hefty sum of cash when I could go to the same store a couple of weeks later and not have to wait in line? I've done the whole "I want to be the first on my block to have that because I'm a geek" thing and it sucked. It sucked because I ran into major bugs in the system. Of course there was a software revision a couple of weeks later and thus from that point on I decided that I'm no longer going to do the major techno geek thing and wait for some other sucker to suffer through and be the beta tester for me.

Well, that's it for now...I'm tired so I guess I'll take a nap. Aloha!

First Anniversary

2006-05-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has now been over one year of marriage...this is the longest I've ever been married!

The wife and I went to sunny San Diego for our anniversary. The stay there was awesome! We went to get lightly toasted by the intense San Diego sun at Sea World. It had been a while since either one of us went to Sea World and said hello to Shamu. It was nice to spend two days there and looking at the various exhibits. I would have posted some pictures but unfortunately I am blogging out of state and do not have access to the photos I took.

Sea World and other marine exhibits somehow makes my hunger grow. I get a craving for seafood. It puts a whole new meaning of "see food". My wife knowing about my twisted way of seeing the world had things under control with reservations to the Top of the Fismarket at the Fishmarket Restaurant during our second night. It was one of the best meals I've had! Chioppino, oysters and clams on a half shell, clam chowder, and great wines. It was awesome!

I will be putting up some pictures soon.

It's Been a Year!

2006-04-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

Talk about time going by so fast...it has been one year that I have been married. This is the longest I've ever been married! Ok, this is my one and only marriage.

Married life has been great. I'm not just saying this because my wife reads this blog, I'm actually being truthful. Yes, there have been a couple of turbulent times...who said this would be easy? It does take time and adjustment when living with someone, especially when I have been a lazy and sloppy bachelor for so many years. Ok, I'm still a bit lazy and sloppy but, hey, I'm not a bachelor anymore! Yeah, I've improved in my ways of keeping the place clean. Do I have room for improvement? Sure I do...don't we all? At least now, I don't leave a sink full of dishes until they get crusty and offer a bountiful buffet for the local roaches and ants anymore.

My wife has been great and so very understanding. She's the more thoughtful one in buying a Valentine's gift and anniversary present. Me on the other hand...let's say I feel like the village idiot when it comes to gift giving. My poor excuse is I really never had to buy gifts for people during my years of being a recluse. Why she still likes me, I haven't got a clue. I guess I should just get a gift of whoop-ass from her instead of the kindness she has expressed to me. Yeah, I need to get with the program and fast.

I am not totally a bastid in which I do cook some gourmet meals for her from time to time. I have been getting into the French kick a bit. Yeah, those guys can lose wars really badly but they made great contributions in food. By getting into French style cuisine, I don't mean French fries but the real stuff like berre blanc sauce, wine reductions, and other artery clogging but oh so good stuff...oui, oui! I've gotten on the French bandwagon because of some of the books written by Anthony Bourdain. Yeah, he's the crazy chef from Brassiere Les Halles in New York City and can been seen on the shows No Reservations on the Travel Channel and on A Cook's Tour on the Food Network. A few weeks ago, I made a French inspired dish of Braised Short Ribs with Carmalized Wild Mushrooms and Demiglaze Cabernet Sauce. The other night was Steak with Cabernet Reduction, and on another night, the classic Steak with Compound Butter. The wife really loved the short rib dish. I think I need to make it again soon. The only problem I have is that I do not have a written recipe for any of my dishes. I tend to experiment and toss a few thing here and a few things there. I kind of remember what I put in so I guess this time, I should write things down. I have to agree with the wife that the short rib dish was fantastic. The meat was so tender and fall off the bone, seasoned throughout the meat. The carmalized wild mushrooms added depth and intense mushroom flavor and the sauce just tied everything together. Mmmm...getting hungry just thinking about it.

What's with the Spam?

2006-04-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

I was going over some of my archives in this blog and found so much spam in the comments. I could not believe I had to delete close to 150 spam comments. Of course they try to make it like it is a legitimate message but when you see the same comments by the same people over and over, you have to be living under a rock to not notice that these messages are pure bull crap. I look at those that send spam as being totally desperate to get attention. They need a freaking life. Actually after wasting my time deleting junk out of this blog, I think of those who send spam as things lower than the primoridal gunk that crawled on the earth.

To help prevent spam from reoccurring from this blog, I have made a few changes in the settings. You will have to type in letters that appear to prevent automatic postings by these spam idiots. I appologies in advance for any inconviniences but I had to take measures to prevent spam from occurring.

Don't get me wrong, I do like Spam, the canned meat product. I despise the other type of spam.

The City of the Govenator

2006-04-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, now that it is the weekend I think I feel a little calmer now. Not like the raving, forehead vein popping, near heartattack lunatic I was on Monday. No, you could say that I sort of mellowed out. Probably a result of being beaten down by my work during the week. Kind of like a wild horse getting broken.

This past Tuesday, work called and I was sent out to the City of the Governator...Sacramento. The place where the home NBA basketball team is the one I hate the most. Though, I have to say Sacramento is a nice place to visit and a stark contrast to LA. The drivers in Sacramento are courteous unlike the "get the hell out of my way" attitude of most LA drivers. Downtown is clean and traffic is manageable. I had to laugh at their so called rush hour traffic. 20 minutes driving 10 miles in downtown is not rush hour unlike the parking lot called the San Bernardino freeway in downtown LA.

Work in Sacramento was a bit hectic but in a way, it mellowed me out a bit. I was a bit pissed off because I had to leave town with very little notice to fix a problem that was intermittant. It turns out that this trip actually calmed me down a bit especially when I felt the victory of repairing everything that I was sent out to do. I love the feeling of fixing complex and intermittant problems. I do hate the process of figuring it out but I do like the accomplishment of fixing problems.

Fixing these complex problems feels like as if I was a general winning a war. The going was tough, time consuming, heartbreaking, frustrating, and tiring, but the victory is oh so sweet.

Getting back to Sacramento, I find the city a bit facinating where it is a mix of urban and city life. Surrounding Sacramento are a bunch of farms and waterways of which there are massive problems with flooding in recent weeks. Everything around the city is so nice and green. There's a nice feel to the city and people seems to be more mellow. It is as if I visited another state. I really did not feel like I was in California. I mean, I had to check my watch to make sure I was even in the same time zone.

Don't get me wrong, I do like living in Southern California. I guess sometimes the grass seems greener on the other side.

Totally Pissed Off Day

2006-04-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a day where it started off bad and it just keeps getting worse? Today has been one of those days. A day where I would have been better off sick in bed, fighting off some food borne illness than to wake up and have things piled up, one atop the other that makes me feel so enraged by the end of the day.

It started off where I get a service call from a customer where a simple test to see if there was an actual problem could have been done. It seems that other parties were not doing there job and it was handed out to me to go out and drive through traffic just to find out there was no problem at all.

On the way to the site, I get cut off by some yokum changing from the slow lane to the fast lane, on which I am traveling on, continuing to go on the same slow speed he was traveling while in the slow lane. Of course this idiot is talking on the cell phone while driving and totally oblivious to what is going on on the road. Of course I had to tell him that he is number one with a single digit of my hand as I pass him.

Then as I am going to another customer site (of course late because of my previous stop where I found nothing wrong with the system), I get cut off by another graduate of the K-tel driving school of Southern California. This time it was some asinine blond with her head up her butt driving a mini-van again talking with a cell phone.

What is it with these people talking on the phone while driving? I mean, I do that but I concentrate more on my driving and I make sure that I'm at least traveling the posted speed limit and I'm aware of what is going on. This chick in the mini-van was making expressions with her hand that should be on the steering wheel and writing stuff down while she's driving and talking on the phone! Get a clue people!

Continuing on, as I get close to my destination, the wife calls and starts asking me about stuff. Of course while driving and talking and trying to remember where this customer is located since I haven't been there in almost a year, I miss my turn. Now I'm really pissed.

The wife called about going out on some Saturday where I think I'm on call but I can't verify it since I don't have my schedule in front of me...as if I have a desk and computer in the front seat of my car. She asked if I want to go see a musical on a day that in the back of my head might be the day I need to be available in case any service calls come in and I have to provide technical support over the phone, let alone hop on a plane to another state and do service work. Of course, this just pisses me off even more when I have to make a decision right then and there without even time to think about with my wife to a musical or not. The damn musical costs $75 each and I'm not going to make a spontaneous decision to go if I'm on-call and most likely have to answer phones. The whole thing was just adding more gasoline to my already raging fire.

On my way home from my last customer for the day, I again get cut off by a classmate of the above mentioned mini-van driver. And of course, chatting away on a cell phone. I just yelled at the guy, "Turn off your fu*$#@g phone and drive you moron!" But as they say in those Ronco commercials, "But wait, there's more!" I encounter three more K-tel driving school graduates. By this time, I've had enough of these moronic drivers on our freeways.

Right now, I am so pissed off at everything and don't want to even associate with anyone out of fear that I will go postal on them. It has been a long time since I've been so angry...my chest is tight and my head is pounding in a rage of anger. I'm actually surprised that I can blog at this moment. I figured that by blogging this out, it can be a form of release from all of my pissed-offness...I know, that is not a word, but ask me if I care at this moment. And if you do care about it, that's good for you and you can kiss my butt.

I need to go and take care of this anger. Hopefully the next time I blog, I will be in a much better mood.

Crazy California

2006-04-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

With the type of work I do, I have to travel all over warm and smoggy Southern California. Typical day covers about a 100 miles or so. There are times when I have to drive for four straight hours to get to a customer site. As a result of all of this driving, I encounter so many disfunctional drivers!

I encounter people driving slow in the fast lane, people who cut me off and then slow down, drivers who change lanes and almost side swipe me, the list can go on and on. There are some days when there are several close calls. I call those days "Dumb Drivers Day".

I wonder, where the hell these guys learned how to drive? I mean you might as well let Mr. Magoo drive on the already crazy California freeways. And it seems to be only in California where I encounter such asinine driving practices. I mean, I've driven in New Jersey, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon, and Florida. I never experienced Dumb Drivers Days there. Only in California.

You know, I wonder if California is cursed. I should say Southern California. We've had riots, flooding, earthquakes, brush fires, smog, drive by shootings, freeway shootings, taxes up the yin yang, ridiculously priced homes, hospital closings, illegal aliens running around, political corruption, Hollywood, tree hugging liberals, kids skipping school to protest on rights for illegal aliens....ugh!

But you know, I love it here even with its problems...I guess I'm just insane.

It's Been a While

2006-04-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hey, look who's back! Yeah, it's me again. I know that it has been almost a year since I've blogged. I thought I could do it all...marriage, work, blogging, video gaming, etc. Well, at least I say the marriage, work, and video gaming has been active but yes, the blogging was left behind, dead on the road. My many appologies to what I am sure now my former readers of this page.

I guess my video game playing is what kind of took over my time on the computer and thus really neglected my blog. I have been sucked into the World of Warcraft, better known to all of us computer game geeks as WoW. Yes, I have been living the fantasy land during my escapes of reality into the role playing world of Orcs, Taurens, Elves, and Dwarfs. I figured that I should just turn my head into mush playing those games during my spare time.

Life has been good and very busy but I cannot come up with a good excuse for my non-existent blogging. I could say that I was mentally deranged...no I was like that since I was a child...yes, I know, I was distracted. Nope, can't use that one. Okay, here's the truth...I got lazy and didn't feel like it. Ok, that's better. In other words, I have no excuse.

I cannot make any promises but I will try to get back into the blogging habit again. So, yes I am back in a kind of sort of way. Until the next blog, Aloha.

Settling Down

2005-05-25T00:11:00.000-07:00

Things on the home front are finally settling down a bit. We finally got the cable people to install the cable system and I just finished installing a wireless network in my home. Oh yeah, I also got a new cell phone for work through Verizon earlier today. Ahhh...times like this makes me love technology! I have to give my brother in-law some of the credit for helping me in selecting the router and wireless access point. The rest of the installation was rather straight forward except for getting the encryption stuff right. That took a bit since I'm no IT guy but I soon figured out my major brain malfunction.

Yup, technology can be great. Here I am, blogging on my laptop in my living room while connected to my new wireless network, seeing my cell phone with 5 bars for signal strength, and watching the Food Network. Next thing to do is to get a network card for my desktop and then my geeky side of my brain will be quite happy. To make it ecstatic, I will need to upgrade my desktop. Overall, I am very pleased on how this day has turned out.

I'm definitely looking forward to this coming three day weekend. We are planning on spending part of the weekend with my wife's cousin and their children in San Diego. I think I will do the driving down to San Diego since my wife has the mentality of an Indy race car driver when she is behind the wheel. The last time we drove down to see her cousin, I was quite petrified! She was weaving the through traffic as if she was in a slalom race. We were whizzing by all these cars on the freeway, one after another. I was glad when we finally got to our destination on that trip...anyways, I better not go on since my wife reads my blog regularly.

Yeah, I like to tease her about her driving and her cooking skills but I only tease out of fun and not out of spite. Don't get me wrong...my wife knows how to cook. She just does not have the creativity yet, but she is working on it. I mean, last night she made low carb vanilla ice cream. It was a great treat when I came home from work late last night. The ice cream was so good! I mean when it comes to whipping up stuff out of the cupboards to make a meal, she has some difficulty. I guess it's just that she didn't have any opportunities when she was growing up. I was fortunate that my mom let me do stuff around the kitchen and be creative. Also, by watching the Food network I get a lot of ideas. One area she definitely has me beat is baking. I cannot bake a cake to save my life. The last time I baked a cake, it was a disaster. My cake looked as if it were primeval earth...kind of like the Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. I mean, it was bubbling with many craters through a thin crust on the top. Heck, the baking process of my cake would have been a good illustration on how volcanoes form!

Well, I better end this now since my laptop is starting to roast the family jewels. Man, these laptops get hot. I don't know why they call them laptops when it get your lap roasting when you place them on our lap. They should be called heat sterilizers or manhood destroyers.

Comcast Cable - Bunch of Lamers

2005-05-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, I need to do some stress relief so here I go. It's not going to be pleasant and I don't really like to rant like this but I need to blow off some steam.

Last week, we had ordered cable to be installed for today from Comcast. So, with our schedule involving church in the morning we had to rush and get home after services so we could let the cable guys in the home. Just to be proactive, my wife called Comcast to confirm that they were to install the cable system today. She found out instead that they got our names incorrectly spelled and our phone numbers incorrectly recorded. What lamers!

After the information was corrected, Comcast indicated that the correct information would be sent to dispatch. Three hours later, my wife called again to make sure things were all set. Comcast responded that they called the number and that the person answering the phone denied ordering any cable. What lamers! So, we again verified our home phone number and everything and the customer service person said that they will get it to dispatch. Of course they don't show up. After talking with Comcast's supervisor, he said that the order had been cancelled. We could not believe it! They said that they followed the process and that when they called, the person answering denied any cable service so they cancelled it. What a bunch of fools! They did not want to make any compensation for their inconviniences but did offer a $20 ontime guarantee appointment. Oh wow! A big fricken $20 discount! After I wasted my entire Sunday afternoon because of four lame Customer Representatives of Comcast.

COMCAST, YOU GUYS SUCK!!!!

Of course, they are going to reschedule the installation. I, for one, think they are a bunch of idiots and don't want to have any cable. I feel as if I'm rewarding them my money for lousy customer service. Heh, they shouldn't be called Customer Service...they don't even provide any service! I'm really hoping that the other cable companies will suck up Comcast and get rid of the lame workers there. I mean, I've dealt with Adelphia, Time-Warner, and Chartered cable and never had any problems like this. COMCAST, YOU GUYS CAN SUCK THE BOTTOM OF MY TOILET!!! My wife, she's the more forgiving one and still wants to get cable. Well, I think if they do this one more time, that's it...no more cable from these idiots!

COMCAST, YOU GUYS SUCK!!!!

What is it with customer service or shall I say lack of customer service these days? I remember when I was a kid where every business establishment had great service. Nowdays, it has all disappeared. How can these people get away with such bad service? It's too bad that it has come to be this way.

Pictures from Honeymoon On Kaua'i

2005-05-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the pictures my wife and I took during our honeymoon in Kaua'i, Hawai'i. We took a lot of pictures so I will have to publish them in bits and pieces. Plus, the Picasa/Hello imaging software for this blog sucks and I don't know how to publish a bunch of pictures all at once and thus have to do major editing.

Our stay on Kaua'i was fantastic and we really got to do some major sightseeing. On the first day, it was a major downpour but I looked at it as a blessing. The Hawaiians say that rain is a definite blessing on a special occassion and thus I took the rain in stride. We were tired from our flight from Los Angeles to Lihue, Kaua'i via Honolulu so we more or less went out to grab a meal and then do some grocery shopping since our hotel was equipped with a kitchen.

Oh, before I go on, I will give you a brief introduction in reading Hawaiian. The Hawaiian language consists mainly of vowels: A, E, I, O, U. A is pronounced "ah", E is "eh", O is "oh", U is "oo". You can go to Eye of Hawaii or to the Basic Hawaiian Language Workshop for more information.

As you can see, the place we stayed in was not at the luxurious Princeville Resort on Kaua'i but it was the humble Best Western Plantation Hale (Hale, pronounced Ha-leh. It was a nice and quiet, one bedroom suite with a complete kitchen located on the east side of the island in a city called Kapa'a.

During our stay there, I made friends with the resident rooster that I named Mr. Chicken. He would come by every day to say hello. My wife thought I was wierd but I just cannot help liking all kinds of animals. It's not that I'm a tree hugger because I like to eat meat, but I only eat stuff that comes wrapped in a package and not free roaming if you know what I mean.

As you can see, Mr. Chicken is a rather beautiful cock. One of the best cocks I have ever seen. Kaua'i is teaming with wild chickens to the point that they are almost like pests. However, Mr. Chicken was pretty cool. He would arrive to the back porch with an entourage of hens. What a stud!

The day after we arrived on Kaua'i, we decided to begin our sightseeing tour despite the gloomy weather. Yeah, it was still raining but we figured it isn't snow and the air was warm!

We started our tour towards the west and north parts of the island and took the following pictures along the way.

The pictures above is the world famous Lumahai Beach. This beach was filmed in Blue Hawaii and From Here to Eternity. The picture would have been much better had it been sunny that day. Still, it is a nice place to see even in the rain.

The drive to the North Shore of Kaua'i was rather interesting. The road was very narrow with a series of one lane bridges. The people that live in the area all seem to be caucasian. Not just ordinary caucasians but more like the hippie types that love nature (tree huggers) and the use of wacky tabacky. It felt as if I was not in Hawai'i but in Santa Cruz, CA!

The road ended at a place called Ha'ena. It is very beautiful with lots of beaches. Ok, the whole island is full of beaches since it is surrounded by water. Anyways, in Ha'ena there are a couple of old lava tubes and here is a picture of one of them. This cave is called Waikanaloa Wet Cave.

Hawaiian legend states that this cave is the home of an ancient serpent and that the water reflects her hair coloring. In ancient times, the water was reddish. Now, the water is on the grey side. I guess the serpent is rather old! Actually, the cave was formed as a lava tube and was pounded by the sea. Eventually, fresh water springs filled the cave. The cave sustains no life except for nasty bacteria called leptospirosis. Pretty nasty stuff!

As we headed back to our hotel, we stopped in Hanalei. It is a beautiful place full of taro fields. This valley has not changed at all! I remember seeing this valley when I was a wee boy and it definitely looks the same.

The only way to get to Hanalei by car is through a single lane bridge. No motorized water craft is allowed on the stream.

Below is the taro fields up close. Taro is where poi comes from. What is poi? It is steamed and mashed taro root and is like a paste. Some say it taste like wall paper paste. I don't know what that tastes like since I don't go around tasting that stuff but I like poi. Taro was a staple food for all Polynesians. It is very healthy and is a great source for calcium. The entire plant is edible. The cooked leaves tastes similar to spinich.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures. I will publish more later on. Until then, aloha a hui hou (good bye, until we meet again)!

Finally, My Own Broadband

2005-05-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

I finally got my own broadband connection for my home. I know you might say, "So what?" Well, for me this is pretty significant. For years I was on dial up and played games on the internet. I was called the lag king by my friend Dennis. Well, no more lag from me now! I had been "borrowing" someone's wireless network for almost a year now but I finally gave in after my wife persuaded me to get DSL for the home.

It is a vast improvement compared to my old ways of tapping into the internet. I cannot believe how lame I was not to do this earlier. Well, the next step is to install a wireless network...encryption enabled of course so a bumm like me would not be able to tap into the network and be a freeloader or even worse, to create havoc on my computers.

Now all I have to do is upgrade my desktop and buy some online games so I can wind down after work. My wife has a fear that she might become an gamer's widow. I highly doubt it but you never know. I used to play an online game called Battlezone and was actually a bit addicted to it. Well, I didn't have a job then so I could play after applying for jobs via the internet. I know I will spend some time on the computer playing games but I know that I don't want to be addicted to the point where the game rules my life. I got a life so I know I won't be so sucked into games like some people I know.

I really don't get it with people who basically play online all day long. It is as if the game is their life. I know of someone who will forgo sleep and work just to play online. I feel those individuals are weak minded or have no life or just want to escape reality. Fact is, you have to face reality sooner or later. I know that I get involved with games time to time but not where it sucks me in to the point where I don't have any real relationships. I just want to play games for the fun of it and to wind down from a hard day's work.

Do you know of anyone who is addicted to online games? Leave your comments about it.

Hawaiian Style Soy Sauce Chicken

2005-05-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

You know, I wrote on the header of my blog that I have interests in cooking and other things but have not really put cooking stuff on my blog. Well, here it is a recipe for you readers. Note that I really don't measure when I cook so the measurements for the ingredients are estimates and you may have to add more or less depending on your taste. Sorry for no exact measurements...I learned from watching and tasting.

Here's my recipe for what the locals in Hawaii call shoyu chicken:

6 chicken thighs (you can use breast meat but I like nice, juicy thighs!)
3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed.
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled.
1/2 cup soy sauce (kikkoman is the best for this recipe)
1/2 cup brown sugar (white sugar is ok if you don't have brown)
Water

Place water and chicken thighs in a pan and boil it under high heat until the chicken is cooked thoroughly but don't overcook it...you don't want to eat some sort of protein matter.

Reserve one cup of the water that was boiling with the chicken and drain the rest...water that is, not the chicken. Put back the reserved water and add the rest of the ingredients. Let the sauce simmer with the chicken for about 20 minutes on medium heat. You may have to adjust the soy sauce, sugar, and water depending on your taste. It should taste a little salty and sweet. If you want a thick sauce for it, just add a slurry of cornstarch and water to the sauce when you are done. I don't prefer a thick sauce but some people do.

Give it a try and let me know how it came out.

Britney Spears TV Show: It Sucked!

2005-05-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

My wife had to get up at O'dark thirty so she went to bed and left me to channel surf. I stumbled on what I thought was some quirky amateur video show but it turned out to be Britney Spear's new TV show called CHAOTIC. It totally sucked! It is amazing what TV producers put out on the airwaves just because someone is popular and not because of great content. I mean, after watching 10 long minutes of Britney shooting amateurish videos of where ever she went, I wanted to shoot myself in the head with a gun! Nah, actually, a gun would have been too quick...more like beating myself in the head with a baseball bat.

How can they even play that kind of crap on TV? It was not even chaotic...it was more like disgust! Watching a video of me puking in the toilet would have more entertainment value than that show. I've seen better programs on public access channels! Well, it just shows her lackless talent even more. She's just a pretty face with a pretty body that dresses like a slut. I guess her popularity is waning because her TV show just shouts out desperation for attention.

Ugh, just watching 10 minutes of that show has burned out my brain cells! I can't believe that UPN network actually let that crap go out in the air! I could just imagine if some alien race were monitoring our airwaves, they would think that we were some moronic race. There's a lot of other more talented people that deserve to be broadcasted but are not famous so they can't or struggle to get a break but no, these broadcasters have to go with some one "famous" and broadcast junk.

Have we fallen so low to accept such crap? What's your take on this?

So Many Changes

2005-05-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

Things have gotten a little more normal here. My wife's family is helping to make arrangements for her cousin's funeral and thus my wife has gone back to work. It had been a trying couple of days with us just getting back from our honeymoon and then dealing with the passing of her cousin.

Still, there have been changes going around in the apartment such as rearranging of where the dishes go, the pantry and the such. It gets a bit confusing on where all the dishes are now stored and stuff. I had a system going for at least 3 years and the wife had to come in and change it..."sigh". Well, I guess this is all a part of being a newlywed. Now she wants to add more color to our home. She is so tired of the color blue which is one of my favorite colors. Yeah, basically a lot of stuff around the home is blue in color which I really like. She wants to add green to the place but the only green I like is either vegetables, plants, or the best green...CASH! Well, at least she didn't say she wanted pink. Oh how I hate pink! Pink is a bit too feminine for my taste. Besides, pink reminds me of that liquid penicilin I used to take as a child that always made me gag and throw up.

I once received a pink polo shirt as a gift. It made a very good polishing rag. Too bad it was brand new while I used it to polish my car. Yeah, you could say I'm a bit brutish or pig headed, but hey, we all have our preferences. If other guys want to wear pink or have pink stuff laying around the house, be my guest...but it is not for me. I personally avoid pink like the plague...well except for Spam. Now that is one pink I like or ham...dang, I'm getting hungry now.

With the slow changes going around my place...er, our place...I'm still trying to get used to it. I know I will get used to it once everything is in place. I guess it's just that I am such a creature of habit that these changes leave me a bit outside my comfort zone.

(To my wife...don't read this part)-One of the biggest changes has been sharing the bed. Now, I've had girlfriends before but they never slept over nor have I slept over their place. I was not used to sleeping with someone but now I share my bed with my wife. It was a bit difficult to fall asleep with someone else in my bed. Besides, I learned really quickly that my wife is a bed hog. She keeps sleeping on my side of the bed. I'm pushed until I am right at the edge of the bed. If she came any closer, I'd be sleeping on the floor! I don't know, maybe she just wants to be close to me...at least that's the excuse she gives me. Well, I guess that's just payback for my snoring. Yeah, I snore big time. I mean, I snore so loud that it is as if I'm sucking the paint off the walls. I tried those antisnore throat sprays - no effect. I even tried the nose strips but that only drops the decibel levels a couple of notches. She's tried using ear plugs made to block snoring frequencies but it doesn't work when the bed vibrates from the low frequency noise I generates and then gets amplified through your body. I really feel for her but at least once she is asleep, she doesn't hear it. So, I let her go to sleep first before I shut down for the night.

I know these changes are good and it is for the best. I know my organizational skills in the kitchen cabinets are not that great and my skill in color coordination is basically choosing the color blue or white so I'm glad she's gifted in those areas.

A Rather Down Couple of Days

2005-05-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'm still getting over being a bit homesick after leaving my beautiful home state of Hawai'i. I really miss it and miss my parents. I often think of them since they are not getting any younger and my mom has a chronic illness. It is not that she is dying but she does not really have a lot of years to live with her disease of hepatitis C. Fortunately, she has never really drank any alcohol and she is in overall good health except for the virus. Her condition is stable and the agents found in her blood that is a precursor to cancer is low enough that she doesn't need to get a check up every 3 months. I got her on a regiment of supplements that has made a big impact on her health. If you are curious about hepatitis C and supplements to keep your liver healthy, here is the link to the National Hepatitis C Coalition, Inc.

Another downer is that early this morning, we received a call that my wife's cousin was on life support after his heart stopped beating and that the family decided to let him rest in peace by pulling the plug. He was battling cancer and diabetes and his body finally could not fight. His condition was terminal and there was nothing the doctors could do except give him drugs to keep him alive. He went under full cardiac arrest for about 15 minutes and was revived but there was not chance for any recovery. We all gathered to say our goodbyes and prayed that the Lord's will be done. The respirator was then removed and they stopped administering drugs to keep his heart going. It was my first time to see someone die before my very eyes. It was all over after 40 minutes when he was pronounced that he was no longer with us here on earth. It was sad for his wife and his two young sons as well as for my wife and her family.

On top of all of the things happening, I had to go to work but really couldn't concentrate with my body still a bit on vacation mode and with all of the things going through my head with my wife and her family and with my worries about my parents. I'm sure in a few days, I'll be getting back to gear and life will come back to normal.

My wife has been keeping sane by getting herself moved in and keeping busy with rearranging the place but at the same time she's been busy in coordinating things with her family with her cousin's passing. I'm sure she is going through a lot of stress. With a death in the family, a new life, a new place, I'd be going crazy. I'm being supportive of her and helping her with things around the house. I really haven't complained of all the changes she's been doing with my place. At least she has not told me to rearrange the furniture...yet! I figure not to make any complaints of the changes since she's been doing things to keep her sanity and doesn't need me to stress her out even further. Besides, I think a few changes are good. Ok, I'm a person who really doesn't like changes but I'll let it go since she does have a knack for decorating. My sense of decorating is having newspapers and bills pile up on the coffee table or stacking beer cans in a pyramid. No more of that...bummer, I mean great!

I'm just concerned with my wife and her family right now. I'm sure things will be back to normal once her cousin's funeral is over but for now it is kind of hectic. I'll just be the supporting husband that I vowed to be and help wherever I can. Well, that's it for now. I hope to have better news and pictures of Hawai'i in the near future. Aloha!

I'm Back

2005-05-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am back in California from my honeymoon in the beautiful state of Hawaii. It was great returning back to my home state. Kaua'i was so gorgeous with such lush green vegetation, tropic warmth and crystal blue oceans. There were numerous white sand beaches. I already miss Hawaii and feel a bit homesick.

We took a lot of pictures and will put some up on the blog when I get a chance. When you look at them, I have a feeling you will want to pack up your bags and head there for a vacation.

The one week stay in Hawaii felt so short. I wished that the trip could have been longer. But our stay there was wonderful. I felt so recharged and connected to the land. The Hawaiians call it Mana. Hawaii will always be home to me. I guess you can take the boy out of the island but you can't take the island out of the boy. Fortunately, there is a Hawaiian community in the southern California area so I don't feel so homesick but still it cannot replace being in Hawaii with family and friends.

In a way, it felt great playing tourist in my own home state. We went to various locations on Kaua'i to go sightseeing and some tours. The cool part was that I was able to take advantage of the kama'aina (resident) discounts for the tours of the fern grotto and sugar mill tour. I guess it pays of being a former resident who still knows how to talk in pidgin english. What's pidgin english? Well, it is officially recognized in Hawaii as Creole Hawaiian English, whatever that means. It's basically english broken up with Hawaiian and many different ethinic languages. It was a language that was devised for the plantation workers who did not speak english to communicate with the caucasian owners and managers. Here are some examples with the proper english translations:

1. Where you stay? - Where are you?
2. How come I come, you stay, you go? - How come whenever I go to where you say you're going to be, you leave?
3. You touch me li'dat, I going karang yo alas - You touch me like that, I'm going to crush your family jewels.

It was funny during our stay in Hawaii. I reverted back from speaking proper "mainland" english to pidgin english. My wife thought it was funny when I starting speaking full on pidgin. There were times when she could not understand what I was talking about in which I then had to revert back to proper english. I just feel so comfortable speaking in pidgin english since that is what I used as a child. Don't get me wrong, I was taught proper english in school and at home but spoke pidgin to my family and friends. My parents made me use proper english whenever we went out for dinner and at dinner parties. I'm glad that they enforced that or else I would not have been able to communicate to anyone out here on the mainland.

Well, I'll be blogging more about Hawaii and try to post up some pictures later. I gotta go and take care a few things such as opening wedding presents and sending out thank you cards. Hope to blog again real soon. Until then, Aloha!

The Big Day is Here

2005-04-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it is now my wedding day. In about 12 hours I will be married. I just got home from my bachelor party. It was not the typical bachelor party with strippers and stuff. Instead, I got together with a few good friends at a Japanese restaurant I often hang out at. We ate great food and the beer and sake was flowing. After the shop closed, we busted out some scotch and bourbon whiskey. I love scotch. No, we did not get hammered. We are much too old for that and I don't want to have a hangover during the ceremony. Instead, I want to be a good looking accessory in the wedding. Yes, this day is the bride's day and not the groom's. I'm just an accessory and decoration. Anyways, the party was great. My buddy from Hawaii and I got to play some Hawaiian music together with him on the guitar and me on bass. We sang and played the night away. It has been so long since we played like that. I really miss those days.

My friend Robert made a really great and funny toast to me. He told me to "Honor her and honor her and when you fall off, get back honor her...so honor her". I was laughing so hard, my stomach was cramping! My friend Rene asked if I got three rings for the wedding. I asked what he meant by that. His reply was, "Engagement rings, wedding ring, suffering". We were all busting out laughing. Ah, tonight was great!

Anyways, this is my last night of being a bachelor. I'm turning my back on singlehood and headed towards the married life. I just hope I don't end up like Al Bundy, selling women's shoes and having stinky feet. Well, ok, since I have stinky feet, then I just don't want to end up selling women's shoes. As I sit here blogging away, it has started to really sink in that I'm no longer going to be single anymore. For 38 years, I have been single and now I'm going to have a shared life. Wow, this is a trip! I really am looking forward to this moment of sharing my life with my wife. Hmm..does this mean I can still run around with just my underwear on? I guess it's ok. I just can't do it when I cook bacon. Now that gets painful.

I'm really looking towards our honeymoon in Hawaii. No, not just because it is huba huba time. Being from the islands, I really miss it. Hawaii will always be home to me. Somehow, I feel so connected to the land there and I feel recharged and energized whenever I return there. The islands are just so beautiful with all shades of green and crystal clear waters. I love Hawaii!

Well, I guess this is my last entry until I return from my honeymoon. I highly doubt I will take my laptop with me so it will be next to impossible to blog. I will update everyone as soon as I get back. Until next time, ALOHA!

General Motors Still Sucks!

2005-04-27T00:40:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a month since I last took my work van, a Chevy Uplander, to the dealer for repair and they still have not received the part in which they need to replace. As a result, I'm left up to chance on whether the entertainment system will work or not every time I start up my van. It really sucks when I have to drive all over the LA basin and cannot hear the traffic reports. As a result of this, there are times when I get totally stuck in traffic.

I just can't believe that Chevrolet cannot get my part after one month has passed. I have called the dealer several times to ask if they got the part in yet and I get the same old response that it is still on backorder. I highly doubt that I would get that sort of response from Honda, Nissan, or Toyota. My van is brand new and you would think that they would have adequate spares or would be able to pull a part from their production line. When it comes to vehicle reliability and customer service, General Motors suck. If I treated my customers the way GM has been treating me, I would be fired immediately from my job. It is no wonder that GM is losing money in which their stocks are almost at the junk bond level.

For those of you that are thinking of purchasing a vehicle, don't even bother to look at a GM product. You will end up with an unreliable vehicle and poor customer service. Instead, look to a Japanese manufacturer. They have more standard features, better reliability, and great customer service. Yeah, imports cost more but they won't give you the kind of headaches I'm going through. General Motors sucks!

The Parents

2005-04-26T00:57:00.000-07:00

So far I'm surviving rather well with my parents staying with me. Well, it only has been a couple of days so things may change but for the most part it has been good.

Sunday was a rather tiring day in which my parent, fiance, and I went shopping for a dining table and chairs. As I mentioned during my previous post that my dining table and chairs were on their last legs...literally. Anyways, we looked at various stores and finally settled on getting a dining table and four chairs from IKEA. My parents were fascinated with IKEA since they don't have one in Hawaii. The chairs and table were quite a deal. On top of the dining set, we also purchased a shoes cabinet from a local Japanese store. If you are wondering what a shoe cabinet is, it is a small cabinet made specifically for storing shoes. I'm sure it will fill up once my fiance moves in. Let's just say that she has similarities to Imelda Marcos in the shoes department.

It was quite fun putting together the stuff we had bought. I was impressed with my fiance's skill at assembling furniture though she needs to change her opinions about power tools. She was telling me that you don't need a drill to assemble the furniture but of course any man with power tools will say otherwise. I think I impressed her with my use of the screwdriver attachment to screw in the screws to the table...then again, maybe not since she was so focused on getting the table together. Of course, my dad was being a spectator in the assembly process. In a way, it was good that he did not participate in putting the stuff together since he is a bit mechanically challenged.

It is funny with my family. My mom is the actual one who does a lot of the mechanical work around the house and is kind of like a handyman. My dad thinks he can fix stuff but ends up breaking stuff more often. I guess I get my mechanical skills from my mom.

My dad did drive me a little crazy on Monday night. He kept bugging me about stuff that I need to do and told him that things were already taken care of. Then 10 minutes later, he starts again. Of course, I'm trying to hold my temper but then after the third time, I had to slam it home and told him that enough is enough. Ugh!

It was nice though that when I got home, my mom had warmed up my dinner and had stuff ready for me to eat. It was great having mom's home cooking. I can make the same stuff she does but it always tastes better when mom makes it.

Tomorrow, my parents and I are going over for dinner to my future in-law's place. It should be an interesting day tomorrow since I have work scheduled for the afternoon way across town and then I have to race home to take my parents over for dinner. I think I'm starting to feel the premarital stress now. Oh well, I guess I just have to go with the flow and try to do the best I can. Well, that's all for now.

The Family Pow Wow

2005-04-24T00:55:00.003-07:00

Well, my parents finally arrived to be with me prior to the big day. They will be here for a week or so. They liked how the place was so clean and all of my junk was gone. I was rather pleased that they liked it. I have to give major credit to my fiance for directing and assisting me on cleaning this place up. I know I have mentioned this before but cleaning is obstacle for me so it is a big thing to me.

Anyways, my parents got to meet my fiance's family. The dinner was great and there was good conversation going. I was glad that my parents felt very comfortable and they mentioned to me that it felt like they were meeting old friends. Whew, that was a relief!

One disadvantage of my parents being here at my place is that they feel that the weather here is cold. They live in Hawaii where it is 86 degrees in the daytime unlike the chilly 65 degrees we have been experiencing lately. Thus, I have to turn the heat up in my apartment to 75 degrees. I, of course, like the room at around 70 degrees where I can sleep comfortably. Well, I guess it's just a minor inconvinience. The big plus is that they are here. Then again, I can't spend my last days of bachelorhood laying about in my apartment in my underwear like I used to when I was by my self. Ok, don't get an image. It may cause major mental health issues.

Sunday should be quite the adventure since my parents, fiance and me are going to go shopping for a dining room set. As much as I hate shopping, I guess this is necessary since my dining table and chairs are on its last legs. I had to a major glue job to hold the chairs together and use lots of tape. Hey, at least I got the table for free and have been using it for about 10 years. Well, it is time to retire the table and send it to furniture heaven. Hopefully, the shopping process won't be too long and relatively pain free. One can only hope.

Big Day Around the Corner

2005-04-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

I have eight more days of being a bachelor and then I am taking the big plunge. Why do some people call marriage the "big plunge"? Is it because they feel the guy is tied to a ball and chain and is ready to jump into a lake? I don't feel like I'm being tied to a ball and chain. I'm actually looking forward to marriage and have no cold feet about it. People have been asking me if I am nervous about the wedding day. Well, right now I am not but I won't know until that day. After all, I am just the decoration because the wedding is really more for the bride while the honeymoon is more for the guy...hehe.

It does feel strange knowing that my days of bachelorhood is coming to an end. For so many years I have been living by myself and now I will be living with someone else for the rest of my life. I know there will be changes in my lifestyle and at times it won't be easy but marriage is something I have been looking forward to for a long time. I'm not saying that I was eagerly waiting and was desperate to get married. I was content with being single but I still wished to find that someone special. I know I can be a difficult person to live with but I am willing to make compromises so I guess that's a plus. No longer can I live as a slob.

Speaking of being a slob, my place is finally clean! It has been about 2 years since my place had been thoroughly cleaned. Many thanks go to my fiance for helping me out. The cool thing is that she never once teased my about my cleaning habits. It's so great that I can actually see carpet in my office space and that my desktop is actually clean! You know it's pretty bad when you lift a pen off of a desk and you see the pen's outline on the desktop. Well, I have turned from my wicked, dirty ways...praise God!

My parents are coming in tomorrow afternoon and will be staying at my place for the week. That will be quite the adventure. I guess that's for another blog at another time. Well, off to get some sashimi(raw fish)at my old bachelor Friday night hang out. Until then...Aloha!

This is Crazy

2005-04-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally found some time to blog again. It is such a drag that I can't blog on a regular basis this past few weeks. I have so many things to blog about but it just seems that there isn't enough time to do it with so many things going on.

The cleaning of the apartment is going rather well with my fiance leading the way. She has been like my cleaning savior. I finally can see the carpet in some of my rooms! She is such a great lady in that she could easily tease me about my lack of upkeep of my apartment or be totally disgusted with my tendency to be like the character "Oscar" in the old TV series, "The Odd Couple". My biggest fear is that my parents will complain about my apartment being so messy even though it's been cleaned. Yeah, my mom is kind of a neat freak and growing up, it was a bit difficult but at the same time she was not being unreasonable. Somehow, I managed to keep my room nice and clean but I've kind of lost that touch after I moved away from home. I now have been reacquainted with that mentality now that I'm getting married...well, I better have or I'll know I won't hear the end of it from her...hehe.

I can't believe it but the marriage is just around the corner. In 16 days I will be married. No longer single...no longer being able to take of the socks and plop them in the living room while I scratch my...oh never mind. At least I won't be coming home to an empty and messy apartment after I am done with work for the day. Ever since I left home, I hated that feeling of coming back to where I was living...alone. I got used to it over the years but it sure is a great feeling of returning to your home when someone you love is there. Ok, enough of the mushiness.

My main concern after the honeymoon is the femanization of my apartment. I mean, I'm sure she will be decorating the place with her feminine touch. You know, like candles, pictures, knicknacks. I'm just so used to having bare walls with the occassional decoration on the coffee table of stack of empty pizza boxes and a pyramid of beer cans. I once decorated a ceiling of an apartment with beer bottle caps. I had a great design going of various circles and other geometric shapes. Yeah, such a bachelor. Well, I guess my places does need major decorating to make it feel more warm and inviting.

I'm So Busy, I'm Freaking Out

2005-04-08T00:49:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately that it is just freaking me out. I finally found some time to catch a breather and do some relaxing. I find blogging to be very relaxing and makes my creative juices flow. Actually, my body is trying to recover from eating too much prime rib from the Outback Steakhouse. Mmmm...nothing like eating some rare prime rib...so juicy and red...hehe, can anyone say, "Moo"?

The wedding is only 23 days away and that is adding to my stress level. It's not from cold feet but just the preparation and stuff. And the same old story of me trying to clean up my apartment. I really have to get my act together on that one or else my parents will really freak if they see it in the condition it is. No, it is not like what you would see on the TV show Animal Planet with the lady living with 30 cats with garbage piled up in the house. No, I don't have to make any trails to go to one room from another. I just have stuff all over the place and a kitchen that needs some serious cleaning. Too bad I can't use a massive steam cleaner and flood the entire kitchen to clean it. I've been trying to clean the apartment in the morning before any service calls come in but it has been difficult in the past few days since I've been out of the house for work by 10 AM.

Did I say 23 days...oh my, 23 days...3 weeks and 2 days away. Dang, I'm leaving the single life in 3 weeks and 2 days. That means I can't sit in the living room naked while I eat bacon and eggs and watch TV after 23 days. Actually, it is not advisable to cook bacon while nude unless you have major nerve damage. Anyways, I guess I'm going to have to get used to doing things differently once I'm married. It's not like I live this wild, crazy life right now but I'm guessing there will be changes. At least in the beginning...hehe.

It seems that with any relationship, there is modesty in the beginning. I mean, most people didn't fart or burp in front of the other person in the beginning but later on, the gas just flies. Do people do this because they become comfortable with the other person or is it because we just don't care anymore? I can understand sometimes, especially when you have a major gas attack, that you just can't contain it anymore and it just escapes no matter how hard you try. I guess for me, I just feel real comfortable and am not in fear of being judged with my fiance, that I just let it rip. I don't know, I might just be thinking nonsense but this thought came to me the other day if I was just comfortable or if I just didn't care anymore what she thought when it comes to farting. What do you think?

Never Ever Buying a GM Product

2005-03-30T10:24:00.000-08:00

As I wrote in a previous blog about my encounter with my company van, I was rather displeased that the entertainment/stereo system was not operating correctly. Well, I took in the van again since the part they said was defective had come in. I was told that it would only take an hour, two at the most. The two hours at the most turned into almost the whole day with the van not fixed. They told me that it will take at least another day since they were having problems with programming the computer and with the computer communicating with the entertainment system. They were nice to rent a car for me but little did I know that the dealer does not cover for insurance of the rental. So, I had to dish out 30 bucks for insurance! Right when I thought they were turning their customer service into a more favorable light, I get a load of crap.

I just got contacted by the Chevy dealer that they are not able to repair my van and that they need to get another part. Of course, the part is on national back order and may take up to 3 weeks to get it. So, I now have to waste my time again at the dealership when I have to bring my van in for the 5th time for the same problem! I basically wasted a whole day at the dealer and now I get to do a repeat of it. The next time though, I will ask them to give me a rental if it takes more than two hours. You know, I figured that they would be able to have some sort of shuttle service for people who live close by but they don't. Of course they don't. I was silly even thinking that they would have something like that for great customer service like what my Nissan dealer does. How could I expect the same level of service from GM? Silly me.

For those of you who are planning to buy a GM product and specifically a Chevy Uplander, don't do it unless you want to hang out at the dealer during your waking moments of the day. I've had so much bad luck with Chevy's that this has sealed their fate as far as me making a future purchase from GM. They suck...plain and simple.

Tiring Weekend

2005-03-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

Well, Easter has come and gone and left me rather tired. Unfortunately, I had trouble sleeping Saturday night and had to wake up at 4 AM on Sunday morning. I fell asleep around 3 AM and thus my sleep was sort of a power nap. I guess that's what happens when you basically sleep all day Saturday. Yeah, the lazy bug hit me hard on Saturday that I basically vegged in bed. I was so bored and tired that I fell asleep staring at the ceiling. You know with a creative mind, you can make some interesting patterns with the acoustic textured ceiling.

You must be asking, "Is this guy nuts waking up at o'dark o'clock on a Sunday?" Well, I had to wake up before the rooster crowed to play at my church's Easter sunrise service. At least I got a free breakfast out of it and we played a funky tune featuring my bass playing. Hehe, I had Rick James on my mind while I was playing...She's a very kinky girl, the kind...oops, I did mention church so I must banish this tune out of my head...for now.

After playing in the band on Sunday morning, my fiance and I went to her cousins house way out in Corona. During the travel on the freeway, we got to smell the earthy aroma of a billion cows. Naturally, I looked at my fiance thinking that there was a release of organic methane in the car, of which she adamantly denied. I knew it was the cows but I wanted to keep her on her toes. On the way to her cousin's house, I had to prepare my self for the massive crowd of relatives that usually gather during holidays and special events. I'm still trying to get used to a crowd of people. You see my family is rather small compared to my fiance's. Her family can build what seems to be three basketball teams, coaching staff, and an arena of fans while my family could only make the members of the medical/waterboy team.

We all had a great time at the cousin's house. It was actually fun watching all the kids running around the yard during the Easter egg hunt. At least they used plastic eggs filled with candy for this hunt. I remember as a child, we used actual eggs. It wasn't good when we couldn't find all of them. Eventually, my dad would find the missing eggs several weeks later accompanied by very colorful remarks.

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend. Now I just have to look forward to this coming weekend and be mentally challenged with my taxes. Ugh!

Changes on My Blog

2005-03-26T22:05:00.000-08:00

I had to make a change on my blog by removing the Tag board because somebody placed some sort of code displaying something on the Tag board. I really don't know what it was but it was affecting my whole blog page. I really don't understand why anyone would want to do such things. I mean I don't go around doing malicious things to other people and more or less mind my own business.

I know of other people who had their blogs altered by unknown parties, virus infected into their servers and other bad things. I really think that people who do such things are the biggest cowards in the world. Yeah, they wouldn't last 5 minutes with me in a room. Plus if someone wanted to screw with my living place they would have to meet two of my friends...Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson. I just don't understand the mentality of people who go out and do malicious things. I guess they make trouble because they don't have a life at all. They are probably some dweeb with very little social skill who can't even get a date even if they paid for it. My guess is that the only contact they have with the opposite sex is a virtual one.

Well, so much for my Tag board. I thought such things were neat to have. Sorry all but the Tag board is no more.

American Vehicles Suck!

2005-03-25T11:18:00.000-08:00

I hate to be negative and try to look on the positive but I think I had enough lately with my brand new company van. On my way down from Northern California, the stereo system went wacky on me. I went to a rest stop to release the two liters of water that I drank and then got back into my car and behold, the stereo would not activate. Instead, I got this blinking LED on the dash. My first thought was the antitheft feature is going bonkers but then the van did start up. So, I went to check out the owner's manual. Yes, I do look at vehicle owner's manuals. In fact, it makes great bathroom reading material. Anyways, it says that the red LED indicates that the stereo is not programmed for the vehicle or that it was installed incorrectly.

At this point, I'm getting into my troubleshooting mode and decide to turn off the van and turn it back on hoping that the stereo would come on. Well, it worked...until my next stop. My next stop was to get my weekly fix for my addiction of In and Out Burgers. After savoring my two Double Double's protein style, I hopped back into my van and turned on the engine. Again, the stereo did not come on and the LED was blinking again. I turned off the van and started it up again...no luck. I tried for what felt like an eternity all in vain. So for the last 200 miles of driving, I had no stereo. I was going insane driving with no music for 200 miles! All I had was listening to the van as it traveled along. I changed lanes to hear something different other than the van droning on and bugs splattering on the windshield. It was strange that the sound of the tires going over those lane reflectors were such a welcoming sound change. Of course I did not make lane changes often since that would result in the highway patrol wanting to give me a thank you note for contributing to their funds.

I figured that I needed to take the van into a dealership so they could check out the stereo problem and thus made arrangements the next business day. Well, they said that it needed to be reprogrammed with the latest software which they did. That fix only lasted for two days. I figured that maybe OnStar would be helpful in my problems so I activated it. All I got was silence. It appears that for OnStar to work, the stereo has to work. I just wanted to scream and pluck out that blinking LED. Yeah, that LED was like some irritable person who would not stop winking at you. So, off to the dealer I go to resolve this problem. Well, they told me that part of the computer system is malfunctioning and that I should come in tomorrow when they get the replacement part. So I leave and return again the next day. After waiting for an hour and a half, they tell me that the part is not there and that it is on a national back order. It took 1.5 hours to find out they don't have the part?

This shows how much American cars are not built with quality and customer service sucks! And GM wonders why their sales are dwindling and they may face bankruptcy while other car makers such as Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are gaining marketshare in North America. I've owned a Chevy when I was in college and that car sucked. It received 5 recalls...3 of which were recalls of recalls. It constantly broke down and was in the shop more times than on the road. It was a financial nightmare for a college student. I vowed then to never own an American vehicle. I then purchased a Nissan after I got a job. I ran it for 180,000 miles with no problems. I was so pleased with it that I got another Nissan. My Maxima has given me no problems at all and rides as advertised, a four door sports car.

All of the company vehicles I had were all American vehicles except for a Toyota Sienna. Two Fords, a Taurus and a Windstar, and now a Chevy Uplander. All of them gave me problems. The Taurus had major electrical problems as well as a defective windshield wiper...I found that one out during a downpour on the freeway. The Windstar had transmission problems, electrical issues, and engine problems. Now, the Uplander is giving me computer problems. The Sienna that I had for a month worked like a champ and it had 190,000 miles on it when I received it. When is Detroit going to learn that their quality, design, and ergonomics suck? What is it with American cars? We can send someone to the moon, send satellites into deep space, but we can't make a troublefree car. After my experiences with American cars, I will definitely never buy an American car and I'll stick to Japanese cars. American vehicles suck!

Been Away Too Long

2005-03-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've been away from blogging way too long. It is so hard to keep up on the blogging with work, travel, and going through wedding preparations. Ok, I'll add some laziness on my part. I really miss reading other people's blogs like I used to. I just feel bad for my regular blog friends out there that I haven't done any updates in a long while. I hope they continue to read my blogs. I will make an effort to try to blog at least a couple of times a week.

Well, the wedding is almost a month away. I really can't wait until it is over and done with. All the prep work is just driving me crazy. I bet more so with my fiance since she is doing the bulk of the work along with keeping up with her job and taking care of things around the house since her parents are ill. Work for me has been good and steady but the bulk of the work is done in the evenings and I've been doing a lot of stuff on my end to get ready for the wedding between service calls, plus spending time with my fiance is making it very difficult to blog regularly like before. Ok, I'm done whining about my lack of blogging. Anyways, to my regular blog readers I hope you come back and visit again.

Let's see, I did say that I was up in Northern California for work. Well, I'm back to my home base in Southern California. I was great being up north for a week. I kind of liked it up there but I am glad to sleep in my own bed. There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed. It's kind of like wearing your own clothes and not wearing borrowed clothes I guess. While I was up north, I received a new van from my company. It is great to ride a new vehicle...ah, that new car smell. Some how I really like that smell. I noticed that other people enjoy that smell also. I wonder why? Is it because it is engraved in our minds having it associated with something new and wonderful? I mean that new car smell is just all the fabric and plastics outgassing their chemicals. I wonder if it is safe since the smell is from man made chemicals?

Latest Debate on Calcium and Dairy

2005-03-08T10:40:00.000-08:00

There seems to be a growing conflict between groups that favor an increase in dairy consumption to increase dietary calcium intake and those that say dairy calcium is inefficient. The argument is strongest between the U.S. Government and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which is a pro vegetarian group.

Although I am not pro vegetarian (I like to eat juicy charbroiled cows...mmmm....steak...), I really feel that the issue of increasing calcium intake to prevent osteoporosis is not resolved by increasing consumption of low-fat dairy products. Instead, an increase in consumption of dark green vegetables is the best source. Other foods rich in calcium are taro, seaweed, and tofu.

There have been numerous studies showing dairy to be inefficient in providing the body with calcium. Some studies indicate that only 10% of the calcium in dairy is absorbed to be used while calcium obtained from vegetable sources has a better assimilation rate of 70%+. Of course pro dairy groups dispute those studies. I would have to disagree with the pro dairy groups based on my own observations and conclusions from reading various nutrition articles.

What have I observed or read? Well, let me ask you this question. We know milk contains calcium, right? Where did the calcium come from? Hmm...it came from the cow eating grasses in the field. It's not like the cow drinks its own milk along with some cookies or pops a calcium pill. Did you know that grasses such as barley is a rich source of calcium? I'm not advocating that we get rid of our lawn mowers and eat grass (there are barley drinks out in the market that are good for you, provides calcium, and can detoxify your body). Instead, if cows obtain calcium from vegetable sources, why can't we? At this point you might be saying, "Well, I can get calcium from milk too" and that is a good statement. However, for adults to consume milk is unnatural. Man is the only species to consume milk from another species and the only species that consumes milk as an adult. Also, the majority of the world's adult population is lactose intolerant. I guess there is a reason why most adults become lactose intolerant...yeah, because we are suppossed to be weaned off of milk like the rest of the mammals once we stop being infants.

Another point is looking at ancient Hawaiians or Polynesians in general. They were and still are big. Have you ever seen Samoans, they can be huge! Well, in ancient times they were still big and strong but leaner. Well, their strong bones did not come from drinking milk. Instead, their calcium sources was from taro. Still another observation, why is it that there are increasing incidents of osteoporosis in countries with high dairy consumption? Wouldn't this be the opposite if milk was a great source of calcium? Finally, growing up as a child, I was lactose intolerant and hardly drank milk but yet I was told by doctors that I had very healthy and strong bones. I still remember one doctor saying, "You must drink a lot of milk." I surprised him with my answer of, "No, I just eat a lot of vegetables."

I'm not saying I am anti dairy. In fact, I love to eat raw cheese and raw butter and drink raw milk. I'm just saying that dairy is not a good source for calcium. If you want to obtain rich sources of calcium, along with phytonutrients, antioxidants, and fiber (you gotta have fiber...makes your morning flow well), then consume vegetables such as kale, collard greens, brocolli, spinach, bok choy...any dark green vegetable are great sources.

Here's a great low carb recipe for kale:

Lacinato kale - about 3 bunches, cleaned and coarsely chopped into 3 inch strips.
4 slices of thick sliced bacon, chopped.
3 cloves of garlic sliced or chopped.
2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
1 Tablespoon of butter.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat a dutch oven or a stewing pot to a medium heat. Add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and the chopped bacon. When the bacon is turning brown, add the sliced/chopped garlic. Do not burn the garlic! When the garlic becomes soft, add the kale. Once the kale starts to wilt, add the butter and salt and pepper to taste. Do not overcook the kale. Prior to serving pour the remaining olive oil.

Political Sattire

2005-03-08T09:08:00.000-08:00

I found a pretty funny site about President Bush's second term of office. Some may think that it is anti Republican but I just think of it as just plain funny. I don't think it's anti Republican and this is coming from a diehard Republican. It is by the Jib-Jab brothers and I just cracked up watching it. Here is the link for it: Second Term.

I hope you all enjoy watching it. You know laughter is great for the body so laugh away! Note: You may want to adjust your volume on your speakers before you play this if you are at work. Don't get caught...hehe.

It's Getting Closer

2005-03-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it! It's only two months away before I become married. It is truly amazing how time flies. I know my fiance reminded me about it but it has finally sunk in as I sit here blogging this. Two months! I still have to clean my apartment! Yikes! All in less than two months. Actually, I need to clean my apartment before my parents get here since they are planning to stay at my place. Dang, so many things to do I'm going crazy!

I am proud that I finally cleaned my bedroom. It was interesting the way my bedroom evolved prior to cleaning it. I actually had a trail leading to my bed. I had all kinds of receipts and junk about the floor but of course it was arranged so I could get to my bed via the trail. Well, no more trails. I got rid of the junk and actually vacuumed the whole place. I even vacuumed the top edge of the bedroom door! My mom would be proud of me. It is amazing what vacuuming can do to a lamp. I didn't even know that my lap was actually black and not grey until I cleaned it. Yes, I know I can't live like my usually slob self after I'm married. Hey, I'm trying to reform, okay? Now my next task is to clean the kitchen. I just have to scrub the counters and the stove. I might have to rent a sandblasting machine to clean the stove top. Well, at least the refridgerator is not a biohazard. Yeah, there were times where my fridge was pretty bad. I swear that I had anthrax and penicillin growing in the same environment. Well, those days are over. It was just a pain to clean and deodorize a fridge that I never let it happen again. I had to use so much bleach and cleaning products that my fridge turned from a biohazard to a chemical hazard. Hmm, now all I need is some radioactive material and I've covered all three forms of weapons of mass destruction!

After cleaning out the kitchen would be the next daunting task of cleaning my office. I have so much junk in there along with boxes of stuff. I really don't remember what's in those boxes so I just call it stuff. I remember the last time I saw the contents of the boxes was when I packed them four years ago. I think that's a sign that I need to get rid of it.

Up In Northern California

2005-03-07T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a few days since I've blogged and I miss it. I've been so busy with work and with cleaning my apartment that I just didn't have time to do any blogging. So, here I am blogging in my hotel room in Northern California near Napa.

Basically, my boss wanted me to come up and work with him in this area so he could evaluate me on what I know and how much more training I need before I get to go out and take service calls on my own. He called me this morning and asked if I could come up this week to work out here. So, I did a load of laundry, packed up my suitcase and drove up here in record time.

The drive out here was surprising pleasant. With all the rains that we had, the way up here was lush with greenery and with many wildflowers in bloom. Of course there were the idiot race car drivers out there thinking that the freeway is the Indy 500. So I really couldn't appreciate the view like I wanted to.

On the way up here, I made a couple of stops for gas and to release the internal flood gates. At these stops, I would observe the people around me. There was one person that was a bit interesting. I was trying to figure out if this person was an extremely ugly woman or an extremely femine guy. The first thing that came to mind was the character from Saturday Night Live called Pat. I mean I couldn't figure if this person was a man or a woman. I just found that pretty funny. Have any of you ever seen a person like that?

One thing I know when I travel away from home is that I miss my fiance. I never really felt that way about anyone before so this feeling is still new to me. I guess it's just something I need to get used to. I'll just leave it at that to spare everyone the mushy stuff.

Performed My Civic Duty

2005-03-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

Today I did my civic duty by being a jurist for the day. I had to go to the courthouse early to beat the crowd at the security screening. Made sure that I left all of my guns, ammunition, Stinger missles, and dirty bombs at home so I would be able to pass through security smoothly.

Once I got there, it was a long wait process. I didn't get selected for a panel for about 5 hours. 5 hours of waiting around and reading newspapers and magazines. At least I got to read an old issue of Cosmopolitan while I was in the jury pool waiting area. Boy, that magazine is almost the same as Playboy, which of course I only read the articles.

With all the boredom of waiting to be selected to be on a jury, I really wanted to take a nap in the waiting area. Unfortunate for me, I snore like a freight train. I could have easily sucked the paint off the walls in the waiting area. So, I tried to stay awake by drinking coffee. Well, drinking a lot of coffee has its consequences. I had to go pee like a race horse several times. Luckily, things subsided once I was called into a court room to be a potential jurist. However, I was extremely thirsty. I guess it is better to be thirsty than to feel like the flood gates of the Hoover Dam.

I did not get to be on the jury and was told that my duty is completed and I could go home. I actually wanted to be on this case. It involved a person with a prior conviction charged with possesion of meth and a handgun. I had served on a jury twice. One was a criminal case where we found the guy guilty of assault with a the intent of causing great bodily harm and battery. That case was very interesting. Let's say that the DA really did his homework and the defense attorney was like a 25 watt light bulb. The other case was a civil case where they eventually settled.

Well, at least I got to have the day off and see my tax dollars at work. Hopefully next time I get to serve on a jury.

Cingular Sucks Part II

2005-02-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

My grief and anger with Cingular continued over this past weekend. I decided to get a holster for the new phone that my company issued me so I headed over to the Cingular store across the street from the Cerritos mall. There were a quite a few people browsing around, looking at new phones. I actually wanted to go up to them and tell them of Cingular's sucky service and coverage area but I refrained and probably saved my self from paying any bail money.

I found the holster I was looking for and proceeded to go to the cashier. As I was approaching the desk area, the girl working there gets up and leaves while making eye contact with me. I thought that she would come back and help make my purchase since she saw me head right over to where she was. Nope, that wasn't the case. Instead I was left standing there like a dufus for over 5 minutes with no one to assist me. The other store associates were around but none offered any assistance or asked if I needed any help.

As more customers stream into the store, I'm seeing less employees on the floor...to the point where there is only two store associates. Of course they are already busy with other customers.

What is with that? This makes me even more angry with Cingular. They provide a big fat ZERO in customer service in my book. In person or on the phone, Cingular is a service I would avoid. Poor coverage area, poor customer service. I spent over 20 minutes to buy a holster for a cell phone. That totally bites! I'm so ready to leave Cingular. When I go to a Sprint store, I have always received good customer service with attentive associates willing to help. I always got good service on the phone. With Cingular, this is not the case.

Anyone thinking of switching to Cingular, don't make that mistake. Cingular sucks! The will raise the bar alright...your anger bar.

Cingular Wireless Sucks

2005-02-26T03:53:00.000-08:00

I received a new cell phone from my company due to problems I encountered while at home. My previous phone was a Cingular Nokia 2260 phone using CDMA and it had poor signal strength while I was at home and thus would not get calls or if a call did go through, it would drop out. I figured maybe using a GSM phone would be better so I asked the company if they could get one. They got me a Cingular Motorola VT150 GSM phone.

Well, I called Cingular's number to start up my new phone and I was put on hold for over 30 minutes. I got tired of hearing the recorded message, "You are a valued customer and want to provide you with our best service". Well, that was a crock of bull turd. If I was such a valued customer I wouldn't have to be put on hold for over 30 minutes. In those 30 minutes, I could have gone wild in the kitchen like the Iron Chef and made my breakfast and eat it all in 30 minutes. Of course I had better things to do so I hung up.

Finally, I was able to get my phone set up the next day after a brief wait. Come to find out that this new phone has bad signal strength also. I keep getting dropped calls! So I called their technical support to see if they could help me. I could have gotten better help from a blind man operating a hammer and saw. Tech support told me that I'm located in an area that is on the fringe of 5 towers and that I should be able to get a good signal if I'm out on the street. I told them, "Hello, I don't live out on the street. Customers or my company can't get in touch with me with the poor signal. Maybe you guys should actually raise the bar so we can all get good signals in your coverage area? My Sprint phone has strong signal in my home, why can't you guys do the same?" Well, I get the standard boloney saying that my phone needs to update the software from the signal towers so I can get good signal strength. I hate it when these tech support guys think you are a moron or something by giving out such bull. I told them how could my phone get the software update if the signal is so weak that I can barely get a one bar signal? What a dufus! Of course it has been 2 days with the phone and I still have weak signal and dropped calls. So much for the software update.

With all of this, my conclusion is Cingular sucks. Don't get Cingular because their service sucks and their coverage sucks. I'm ready to make my Cingular phones into fishing lead and let them sink to the bottom of the ocean. Cingular can raise their bar right up their you know what.

Battling a Cold

2005-02-26T03:29:00.000-08:00

As you noticed, I haven't blogged in a while and I appologize for it. I have been battling a cold these past few days and I haven't been up to par to blog. After working late and visiting the fiance, I just didn't have any energy to blog. Having a stuffed up head really sucks. You can't hear, can't taste nor smell.

I have been taking stuff that my chiropractor gave to me and it worked really well. The supplement contains various herbs and has always been great to provide a boost to my immune system. As you can tell from the time my blog was published, I am doing much better. Unfortunately, it seems that I may have passed on this cold to my fiance and her family. I feel bad about this. So I gave some of my supplements to my fiance and I hope she recovers soon.

The weather did not help in fighting a cold. The rain finally stopped on Wednesday. I found out that so far this year is the third wettest recorded with over 34 inches of rain in the LA basin. The local mountains recently got over eight inches of snow during the past week. It's a good thing I live down by the coast because my island blood cannot handle extreme cold. It is dangerous living in arctic cold conditions. Things may shrivel up and fall off...can't let that happen.

Anyways, I want to appologize to my regular readers for not putting anything new up for the past few days. I definitely missed blogging.

Sucky Weather

2005-02-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

We've been experiencing a lot of rain in LA. It totally sucks! I heard on the news that this has been the 5th wettest year in LA and that the rainfall total for this year is almost 3 times greater than Seattle. I'm just tired of this rain. Everything getting damp, wet and cold.

It seems that Angelinos get really stupid when it comes to rain. For instance, driving on the freeways can be extrememly hazardous to ones health. It almost feels that it is safer being a convinience store clerk working the midnight shift is safer than driving on LA's freeways when it is raining. There are so many jerks that don't know how to drive in the rain. The California Highway Patrol reported over 250 accidents on the freeways due to the rain. I keep seeing idiots going over 70 MPH when it is pouring rain. I also see a lot of tailgaters out there. It angers me that these idiots don't have a regard for other people's lives or property. They drive recklessly on rain slickened roads and act as if nothing could happen to them. It makes me glad when I see a CHP officer pull someone over for driving like an idiot when it is raining.

Well, this weather is not helping me fight off this cold. Because of my work, I have to drive all over Southern California and thus I get to be exposed to the rain whenever I have to unload my work van. On top of that, it doesn't help that the clinics and hospitals don't know about a thing called heat. It gets awfully cold at times when I have to work on hospital equipment. So far, I have been keeping my cold at bay with lots of water and echinacea. I'm glad it is just a head cold and no fever...yet. I hope it doesn't happen. I can live with a head cold somewhat but once a fever sets in, my world becomes rather crappy.

There have been a bunch of landslides destroying numerous homes in the LA/OC area. I kind of feel sorry for them but at the same time didn't they think that living on a side of a hill or on top of a hill would pose a risk? Hello! Hmmm....lots of rain, dirt on a hill...landslide? I guess some people really don't think about such things. Too bad for them. I bet they do now.

Yeah, I guess I am rambling on this blog. Well, it helps me to clear up my head literally. I mean my head is so stuffed up and my ears are all plugged up. Is this how a pressure cooker feels? It kind of helps when I get to sneeze since the chuncks coming out helps me to breath. Hehe, don't get an image! Well, time to get ready for work. I got to go to the airport and pick up a part for work. Gee, I get to drive on the freeway again in this rain with all them idiots out there. Wish me luck!

Cartoon Fan

2005-02-18T15:58:00.000-08:00

Mucha Lucha

The other day, my fiance was humored that I still enjoy watching cartoons at my age. I can't help it. I enjoy watching it. Besides, afternoon cartoons are better than watching Oprah or some other estrogen enhancing shows. Yeah, simple pleasures for simple minds. Whenever I am at home in the afternoons, I like to watch Mucha Lucha and Yu-Gi-Oh.

It seems that the story line at least for Yu-Gi-Oh is pretty good and it talks about good versus evil. Yeah, all in all it is a simple cartoon show. I guess I'm always going to be a kid at heart. Hey, at least I'm not into soap operas.

It is funny that whenever I go over to my fiance's cousin's place, the Cartoon Network is on and I end up watching cartoons with my fiance's niece. Her dad is into Yu-Gi-Oh so I don't feel too bad. Now they are starting to get me hooked on Teen Titans! Yikes!

I do have a balanced view of TV. I enjoy watching documentaries, news, sports, cooking, home improvement, and cartoons. I guess by watching cartoons is just a way of mindless entertainment. I remember when I was a kid I was hooked on weekday afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons. I still think that the old Looney Tunes cartoons are the best. Good old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I did not care for Tweety or the RoadRunner. I really wished that Sylvester ate Tweety and Wiley E. Coyote caught the RoadRunner. I really felt sad for Mr. Coyote. He sure did advertise a lot for ACME Co. though.

Well, I got to run off now and catch Yu-Gi-Oh. Let the inner child in you run free this weekend!

A Long Day

2005-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was totally insane for me and an extremely long one at that. I had to fly up to Sacramento to pick up my work van. I got my work van from a co-worker who previously used it and got a new work van.

The security screening at the airport was such a drag. I hate it when they scrutinize you when you have a one way ticket. That is one thing I don't understand. They do the extra screening because of 9/11 but you would figure that if someone were to try it again, they would buy a roundtrip ticket since one way ticketers always get screened closely. Anyways, the plane took off at almost 1:15PM...the scheduled time was 12:45PM...you know how those airlines are. Arrived in Sacramento half an hour late! All in all, I finally got my van at 3PM and was headed to LA with an estimated time of 6 hours to get there.

Of course, I didn't think of the rain and gridlock. It was a downpour in Northern California. My windshield wipers barely kept up. There were traffic accidents everywhere and thus my 6 hour plan became almost 8 hours. 8 hours behind the wheel. It was insane. It also did wonders to me already aching back! The drive down was rather interesting at one point. A car rapidly approached me and flashed his lights while tailgating me. I had to speed up to 80 in order to pass the trucks in the right lane and find an opening between them. The car then took off at a high rate of speed. I thought that the guy was stupid and crazy to be speeding in a downpour and I wished that the highway patrol would nab a-holes like them.

Not 5 minutes later, another car rapidly approached mine while I was traveling at 75 MPH at a posted speed of 70 MPH. I figured that it was my luck that the car was the highway patrol and they're going to pull me over for speeding and not the guy that just passed me. Well, it was the highway patrol but he wasn't going after me. He was after someone else...yeah, the Honda that passed me earlier. Sure enough, about 5 minutes after the patrol car passed me, I saw the patrol car with the Honda on the side of the road. That really made my day. I was laughing so hard and was glad to see my tax dollars at work. I hope that cop threw the book at the Honda driver!

Anyways, the van I got is a 2002 Toyota Sienna and it is fully loaded. It has 101,000 miles but it is in pretty good operating condition. I am not surprised that a Toyota with that many miles still runs good. It would have been a miracle if an American van did that but not with a Japanese vehicle. I love that the van has controls on the steering wheel for the radio/CD player. The van even has climate controls. I guess the plan is for me to drive it for another 50,000 miles before the company issues me a new van. It's ok because I like this van.

Now my personal car can rest for a bit and not put down so many miles on it. I guess I'll use my car on weekends. Eventually, that car will be driven by my fiance after we are married. I love my personal car. It has comfort and power. I'm hoping it will last like my last car with over 200,000 miles on it with no major mechanical issues. Of course, the car is Japanese. I could never buy American again after the problems I had with two Chevys. They were both garage queens. I'm sure that American car makers have improved their quality and reliability but I don't think they can top Japanese manufacturers.

Valentine's Gift was Good

2005-02-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

I want to thank Darlene and Stacey for their Valentine's gift suggestions for my fiance. Well, I got her a practical gift and a romantic practical gift. I knew that she wanted to get a portable mouse for her laptop. She kept eyeing my mouse with the retractable cord. So, for the practical gift I got that for her. For the more romantic gift, I got her perfume made by Marc Jacobs. That gift kind of benefits me since I really like it when she wears that. It has a hint of jasmine and tuberose and it reminds me of Hawaii and it smells wonderful on her.

As I had guessed earlier, she got me a bottle of Johnny Walker Black, 12 year old Scotch. I love it! She told me it is for the whiskey flask she got for me last year. I love this woman! I love scotch and only drink it on occassion. It is meant to be savored and not to be gulped down. I haven't opened it yet since I normally don't drink during weekdays. I will probably have a little this coming weekend.

Well, I can put off the pressure of trying to figure out what to give for my fiance until Christmas and then the pressure is on again. Like I said earlier, I'm gift giving challenged. I guess in the meantime, I will look around here and there...for now.

I Must Be Insane...Another Day at the Mall

2005-02-11T18:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read it correctly...I went to the mall again. I think I need to see a shrink! I had to go to the mall to get a more romantic gift for my fiance. I usually give practical gifts but I figured that since I blew it last year, I need to give two gifts and something that is a bit on the romantic side. Of course I will not disclose what I got her since she reads my blogs everyday.

I had time today to go to the mall since I did not get any customers calling for service. I really could not believe that I actually went back to the mall after going to the mall yesterday. I hate malls. I would rather stick toothpicks under my fingernails! But, I figure that this was a mission that had to be accomplished. I actually had the theme song of Mission Impossible in my head as I entered the mall. I went to three different stores and finally found what I wanted to give to my fiance. Three stores is a record for me! After reading this, she's going to try and guess what I got for her.

I kind of find it a bit humorous that I cannot stand the mall but can spend hours at a Home Depot or a guitar store. I guess Home Depot is kind of like a shopping mall for guys. I love going through every isle and looking at all the neat stuff. Being in a guitar store for me is like a kid in a candy store. I love checking out all the acoustic guitars and electric basses. The one problem with going to a guitar store is that I want to buy something when I leave. I could never have enough guitars or basses like how my fiance could never have enough shoes!

I feel a little bad that I guessed what she got for me for Valentines. I do appreciate what she got...good old Johnny Walker Black! What a gal! It is funny that she is such a lousy liar. I knew that she was trying to decide on trying to lie or not when I guessed what she got for me. When she asks me what I got for her, I just tell her that even if she guesses correctly I'm just going to say no. I know it sounds a bit mean but I don't want to spoil her surprise.

Day Turned Out Pretty Good

2005-02-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

Yeah, this morning was a disaster. Right after finishing my previous post, I started to clean my bathroom. Got the vacuum cleaner going, got the swifter out, shook out the bath rug...I looked at the time and I was late for my appointment with a customer. I didn't have any time to scrub the sink or the counter...and then I totally forgot about cleaning my toothbrush until I had it in my mouth. Yuck! The taste of dry wall dust and toothpaste is not a good combination. Talk about serious gag reflexes. I had to thoroughly rinse out my mouth and clean my toothbrush and then start the process of brusing my teeth again. Of course, making me more late to go to a customer site to repair their equipment. Luckily, another service engineer was already there starting the job. But, I just hate to be late to go to customer sites.

Well, things went smoothly and the customer needed the equipment back in a hurry so we put the system back together. I was fearing there would be another customer call or some scheduled maintenance that needed to be done tonight but I was lucky that no calls came in. So, I decided to get some personal things done and to go shopping for a Valentine's Day gift. Yeah, I went shopping. It's no wonder that there's rain in the forcast for tonight. It was difficult going to all places...the dreaded, evil shopping mall. I stayed for 30 minutes and could not handle it today so I left and went to get my car some much needed service. Feeling guilty that I didn't buy a gift at the mall for my fiance, I then went shopping again for her gift and finally got something. Yup, I went shopping twice today and did not have to resort in performing a self induced frontal lobotomy.

Now I'm waiting at her parent's house for my fiance to come home so we can go to her cousin's place to do some wedding planning. Hmm...with the shopping and now wedding planning, I don't know if this day is turning out to be pretty good...(since my fiance reads this...It is a joke, honey...really).

Hoping This Day Things Will Be Ok

2005-02-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

This morning did not start well. I was told earlier in the week that plumbers will need to come into my apartment to do repair work for the bathroom for the unit above me. Aparently, they have been having a leaky drain pipe right above my bath tub. Luckily, it did not reach me since there is a lot of insulation between the units.

I was told that the plumbers would come in at 8 AM. Yikes! Since I worked until 10:30 PM and didn't get home until 11 and didn't go to sleep until 1 AM, I knew I would be in a world of hurt this morning. Well, the plumbers got here early at 7:45 AM and were knocking on my door. I couldn't believe it! My thought is 8 AM is 8 AM and no sooner or later. So I get up and let them in to do their work. Meanwhile, I have to go pee like there is no tomorrow. Of course they are occupying the bathroom so I have to hold it. I figured that I should think of other things instead of using the bathroom so I turn on the TV. Of course the local TV show had to feature a river and a waterfall...this did not help at all. The pressure was starting to build and I was in a world of hurt! Now I know how the Hoover Dam feels holding the Colorado River! What a way to start the day. I had to hold it for about an hour and I'm starting to tear up. Finally, the plumbers were done and of course I had to pee like the Niagra Falls.

I then noticed that the plumbers left my bathroom a mess! There was dust everywhere! They had to cut out the ceiling to get to the plumbing and therefore created a dust storm in my bathroom. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to clean the place up. Now I will have to scrub my tub and shower. Ugh, this is not a way to start the morning! Upon close inspection of my bathroom sink, there is dust all over my toothbrush. Dang it, my toothbrush was a new one that I just started using yesterday! And of course, that was my last one in the house. Looks like I need to clean it well and soak it in some alcohol or something. Hmm, too bad I don't have any whiskey in the house...that would be good to soak it in. Nah, I don't like the idea of that. Anyways, so I need to scrub the sink, wipe the counter, clean my grooming products and toothbrush. On top of that, there is a gaping hole in my ceiling. I guess someone is suppossed to come in and do the ceiling work. Of course that means I will have to clean my bathtub again. This is so not right to start the day.

I'm really trying to stay positive today and try not to let it get the best of me. I'm hoping that there will be a ray of light behind the cloudy skies of this morning. Huh, with my luck, it will be a lighting bolt zapping me! I don't know why but that thought just made me laugh! I must be going insane. Muahahahahaha, gasp, hahahahaha

I Want My Plate Lunch!

2005-02-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

While I was cooking up Spam and eggs for breakfast, visions of a nice plate lunch came to mind. For those of you who are not familiar with plate lunches, it is a Hawaiian version of take out fast food. Plate lunches usually comes with an entree, two scoops of rice, and macaroni salad. The prices are reasonable...around five to seven bucks.

One of my old favorites, and I say old because I now do the low carb thing is a loco moco. It is two fried eggs and hamburger patty on a bed of rice all covered with brown gravy. Mmmm...gravy. This meal is a great way to start the day. Other favorites are beef stew and beef curry stew. Yeah, I like saucey stuff. It goes great with rice and with the macaroni salad.

One thing that I noticed when I first came to the mainland from Hawaii is that the macaroni salad out here is sweetened. Yuck! Hawaiian style macaroni is totally different. We do not sweeten the salad or put in relish. Relish is reserved for hot dogs! Hawaiian macaroni salad is usually made with macaroni, mayonaise (and not miracle whip which makes me gag), finely chopped onions, salt, pepper, shredded carrots, and in some cases, a little bit of canned tuna.

Man, I'm torturing myself writing this! I miss eating a nice plate lunch. It doesn't help that there are quite a few places where they sell plate lunches in LA. It is so tempting to go in and grind away on a plate lunch but I exert self control...more like denial of comfort food...oh well. At least when I do go to a Hawaiian restaurant, I do make good eating choices that are filling and low carb. I guess losing 53 pounds is motivation for me to stick to the diet. I would like to lose more so I guess I'm sticking to this low carb lifestyle.

Well, lunch time and I guess I'll cook up some low carb Hawaiian food!

So Many Cell Phone Choices

2005-02-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

After complaining about the poor cell phone coverage on where I live, my employer is setting me up with a Cingular GSM plan with a choice of phones for me to pick. The problem is that there are so many choices. I don't want to go with the expensive phones since I want to look like an expensive employee but I don't want to go with the free ones since you usually get what you pay for. These phones have so many features, it's incredibly confusing. I'm so out of touch with the latest cell phones and features. You can say that I'm a bit cell phone challenged.

By doing research on the internet and opinions from my fiance, I finally choose a Motorola V551 phone. I figure that is a pretty good deal since the company will get a mail in rebate when they buy the phone for me. It has voice dialing which is good for me since I'm on the road a lot and it would be safer when I have to make and receive calls. You have to be safe especially on the Southern California freeways! I already got into an accident trying to make a phone call while driving in the past. Yeah, I felt pretty lame on that one. Right when I was talking to a customer, they heard crash and a "Oh s*@t!" Don't want a repeat of that again. The phone offers Bluetooth so I could go with a wireless headset. I guess the best bet is not to be so into my conversations on the phone whi!le driving

Don't Know What is Wrong With Me Lately

2005-02-09T02:45:00.000-08:00

Lately I really haven't been myself but instead I've been in a sort of angry mood. I've been in a weird mood and I'm not so thrilled about it. The past couple of days I've been pissy towards my fiance and a bit snappy at work. Could it be premarital jitters? Am I flipping out? I don't know. All I know is that I don't like it. I've been trying to pinpoint what the cause of this funkiness is and have yet to find it. As you can tell from the time of my posts, I have been having trouble sleeping. Since I know that my fiance reads my blogs daily, I need to say this to her...I'm sorry, I was wrong, will you forgive me?

I think part of the problem is that I really haven't had time to decompress from work and daily stuff. I'm so used to vegging out after work for 30 minutes of alone time or sleeping in and doing nothing on Saturdays but watch cartoons and cooking shows. Maybe it's stress of getting ready for the wedding or the life changes of being a husband. I really don't know. All I know is that I want to get back into being my old self. Maybe it's the diet cokes I've been drinking. They say that aspartame does stuff to your brain. I guess I better stop drinking that stuff and go back to drinking lots of water and ice tea. Now that I think about it, it seems the two kind of coincides. I know in the past that it did cause some memory problems for me. I have no scientific evidence but it seems that my current problems started while consuming diet cokes. I didn't start drinking diet drinks until a few weeks ago and now I got this going on. Maybe it is a coincidence. Who knows. It's not that I'm trying to put the blame on my attitude on something else. I know that I'm responsible for my own actions. Thus my appologies to those that I have offended.

I think I just need to mellow out. I really don't know what's going on with me. I know that things will get better and not worse since I'm praying about it and dealing with it. I really feel bad the way I've acted towards my fiance. She's such a wonderful woman that I truly love and cherish. Man, I feel like a heel! I'm normally a pretty easy going guy with a few quirks but lately I've just been moody. This is killing me! Picked a wrong time to quit sniffing glue!

Beautiful Kaua'i

2005-02-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

I was visiting some web sites for the island of Kaua'i recently to mentally plan for our honeymoon. It seems that little has changed since I visited that island as a child. I remember visiting the places where these photos were taken. I just wanted to share with you the beauty of Kaua'i with her tropical lush green forests. Kaua'i is a very romantic island and a perfect places for a honeymoon.

Oh how I miss Hawai'i. I consider Hawai'i to be home. Yeah, I live in California and will be living here with my fiance once we are married in April. But, I will always consider Hawai'i to be home. There is something that always draws me back to be there. I know it is not just because I'm from there or my family is there. It seems as if the land calls out to me and when I'm there I feel at peace. It is hard to explain.

Just by looking at the pictures of Kaua'i, it makes me a bit homesick though I am not from Kaua'i. I was raised on the island of O'ahu. For those that don't know much about Hawai'i, O'ahu is where Honolulu, the state capitol, is and the famous Waikiki beach. For those that are familiar with the old TV program, Hawai'i Five-O, that the island where all the action was. I really miss the casual lifestyle and rich diversity there. So why am I living in LA you might ask? All about having a job. The employment situation is not very good in Hawai'i. Unless you are working in the tourist industry or medicine, it is very difficult to find a great paying job. On top of that, there is the high cost of living. I wanted to work in the technical field and it is very tough finding employment there. So, here I am on the mainland.

At least here in LA, there are enough people from Hawai'i that there is a Hawaiian community here. I can buy food stuffs from Hawai'i and go to Hawaiian restaurants. I even used to be a musician in a hula group. So the longing to be in Hawai'i is a bit alleviated living in LA. Still, I do wish to return to her shores and live there again one day. I think once you visit Hawai'i and experience it for what she really is, you too will feel as if the land is calling to you to return.

Homelife Security

2005-02-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

I found this clip in a health blog I usually read and thought it was rather funny. Some may not find this clip humorous since there are women that suffer from PMS. I found it amusing because I had problems in the past with girlfriends that had severe PMS. For those that are suffering from PMS, changes in lifestyle such as switching to a low carb diet, exercise, supplements, and counseling can help relieve PMS or eliminate them. I know of a few women that just went to a low carb diet and no longer suffer from it.

Well, if I offended anyone with the clip I have posted, I sincerely appologize. I did find the clip rather funny because of my own experiences being around those that had it. One incident that I vividly remember was when a girlfriend totally freaked out while we were watching TV. First, she wanted me to hold her so I did. Next minute, she told me to get away. I was so confused. Next thing she started sobbing and then started yelling at me for no reason. For a brief moment the movie, Exorcist, came to mind. Hmmm...I think I'll eat some pea soup for lunch!

Valentine's Day is Coming Up and I'm in Deep Kaka

2005-02-07T01:38:00.000-08:00

I just noticed a moment ago that I have 7 days to get my fiance a Valentine's Day gift. I'm in such deep kaka since I have no clue on what to get for her. Of course this time frame caught me off guard. I guess I've been in bachelor mode for so long that I used to blow off Valentine's Day like it was the plague. Well, I did send my mom a card and stuff but it was never the mushy kind of Hallmark Valentine's Day card. Instead, I always got cards that were humorous. I guess it was the manly thing to do. You know, got to keep the testosterone flowing strong.

Now, I guess I have to switch modes and remember about Valentine's Day. I'll still keep my family jewels intact while celebrating it though. I know I better not blow it this time since last year I did not get a gift for my fiance. Well, I did take her out to dinner to Bennihana's since she never ate there and has always wanted to check it out.

Last year my fiance gave me a flask. I thought that was so cool. I had mentioned to her when we first got engaged that I would probably be a little nervous during the wedding and would not mind to have a little spirits prior to the wedding. Well, she got me a flask to use. All I need now is some Johnny Walker Black to add to the flask! Mmmm...scotch....ok, back to reality.

I always have been gift giving impaired. No, it's not that I don't like to give gifts to friends and family. I just don't have a clue what to give to people. I've always given cards with cash because I figure that they could use cash to buy what they wanted. But in this case with my fiance, that would be rather impersonal.

I have no idea what to give her. She has told me that she doesn't want flowers since she does flower arranging as a side job. I can't really afford jewelry at this time since I'm trying to save money for the wedding and stuff. I guess I just have to come up with something that she can use and would remind her of me when she uses it..yeah, that's it a practical gift. I know it doesn't sound romantic but she knows that I'm not usually a mushy kind of guy and she likes practical gifts. If any of you have a suggestion, I am all ears. I hope to get some input because I feel like I'm in some deep kimchee right now.

So Far Behind in Blogging

2005-02-07T01:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I published a blog! I am going through some major blog withdrawls but I can't help it. I know I should write more but things have been going crazy for me lately.

My work has been picking up with a lot of customers requesting that work be done to repair their equipment during the evening hours. It is very understandable that they do this since they have a lot of patients to treat during the day and the evening is the only time they can afford major downtime to repair their equipment. I am not complaining though...I'm greatful to have a job and very greatful that the company I am working for has given me a chance to work for them.

Wedding plans are going ahead as scheduled...well, most of it is. I guess I'm the one lagging behind on the to do list. I gotta keep reminding myself about getting the hotel room after the wedding. Well, I guess the best way is that no room = no hubba hubba that night since my parents are staying at my place starting a week before the wedding. No hubba hubba can be a drag. At least I got the stuff for the honeymoon all arranged and paid for. Hehe, I know that when my fiance reads this part of the blog, she will be blushing with embarrasement.

I'm so glad that my fiance has been a great organizer and planner of the wedding. She has everything on a spreadsheet and day planner. Me, I just been using scrap pieces of paper and my memory...of course my memory is somewhat shot. Too many late night partying while in my early 20's did that...where was I...oh yeah, I'm very greatful for her organizational skills.

I'm hoping that I will be able to post at least three blogs a week. I guess I just need to plan my time better. Well, I guess I can start multitasking during certain parts of the day while I'm waiting for customer calls. Hmmm, yup, I can probably do some blogging while watching YuGiOh or Pokemon cartoons in the afternoon or while watching the Jane Pauly Show in the mornings...Nah, the perfect program for blogging would be while watching Jerry Springer!

Done With Premarital Counseling

2005-02-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

Well, this past Monday night was the last of a four part session of premarital counseling. My fiance and I had to go through this as requirement to be married in our church. At first, I sarcastically thought, "Oh great! A wonderful counseling session to bring out the crap in our lives." But it actually turned out to be great.

I won't go in any details since it is rather personal...no, it didn't reveal any deviant behaviors or any psychotic tendencies...but the sessions made us more aware of why we think the way we do and to better communicate to one another. It also made us plan our future spending budget.

I remember joking to my fiance just prior to our first session that we didn't need premarital counseling. She just had to do what I say and that I'm the boss. Of course I was joking...really. She knows that I am all about equality and that marriage is about two people and not just one person.

One thing I hope not to go through is marriage counseling when times are bad. If it gets to the point where we need to see a counselor, I feel it is pretty much done with or like how Tom Leykis would say, "Last exit before toll." Yeah, I am a listener of the Tom Leykis show. I agree with most of the things he says but there are things that I do not agree with him. Well, I might write something about the whole Tom Leykis thing in a later blog.

Anyways, we can now scratch premarital counseling from our list of things to do. Man, so much more work ahead of us. Next big step will be to clean my apartment. Yeah, it is pretty bad. My fiance has helped me clean my place up so it is no longer in the hazmat level but it still needs work. My office space is the worst place...it is like the set for the old Sanford and Son show. So much junk and empty boxes...I'm glad the fire marshal does not inspect my place. Well, we're planning to clean it up this month. I really have to give my fiance a lot of credit for not being disgusted with my housekeeping skills. Well, if she is, she's not showing it. I really do appreciate it when she comes over to help me clean. Why is it that I am so lazy to clean by myself? Oh well, I guess it is no use to dwell on it. I just got to do it!

Cingular Wireless...Are They Really Raising the Bar?

2005-02-01T00:36:00.000-08:00

While traveling around the LA basin during work, I keep noticing all of these billboards for Cingular Wireless and how they are raising the bar using the signal strength indicators to symoblize it. Well, this makes me a little mad at them because apparently they are not raising any signal strength where I live and thus not raising the bar on my cell phone that my employer has provided.

Monday morning started out bad with my boss and co-workers contacting me on my home phone. Apparently, they were trying to reach me via cell phone for a couple of hours. However, my cellphone did not ring at all. Nor did I get any indication that I had voicemail messages. Only after I left my home did I get a message that there were 5 voicemail messages. I am so disappointed with this phone. I never had any problems with Sprint or Verizon.

With my personal Sprint cellphone, I get maximum signal while my Cingular/AT&T phone will only get one bar if I'm lucky and the weather is perfectly clear and it is warm outside. I would have better luck at winning the Lotto than to get a strong signal with my work cellphone. This totally sucks. I would not recommend anyone getting a Cingular/AT&T phone. Even their voicemail system sucks since it does not tell you what time or day when the person left you a voicemail. I am hoping that Cingular will improve things but I am doubtful of this.

Cingular, you guys suck until you make things right. Raising the bar? No way, more like raising the hype.

The OC TV Show

2005-01-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

I was channel surfing one evening and came across the TV show, The OC. I guess the show is based on Orange County, California. Being a former resident of Orange County, I decided to check it out and was hoping it would be a good show. Well, it was full of disappointment. It turns out to be a Primetime soap opera and the cast doesn't even match the demographics of Orange County. Instead, it looks more like Newport Beach, which is in Orange County. To me, if you are going to call a show The OC, then the typical demographics should be represented. Instead, the cast is predominantly white, while the majority of the population in OC is Hispanic with a big mix of Asians. Why don't they just call the show Newport Beach? I just don't get these Hollywood people.

I don't like soap operas anyways so they can do whatever they want with the show. These soaps have the same old story, same old yada yada yada. I guess I'll just stick to watching the Food Network or PBS with their documentaries and nature programming. I figure with these types of shows, I'll be enriching my life instead of wasting my mind on soap opera garbage. I think I'd rather eat broken glass than to watch soaps.

In and Out Burgers, Great Place for Low Carbers

2005-01-28T18:14:00.000-08:00

This week has been very hectic with work and weird hours. Of course this leads to having to grab a quick bite to eat which means eating fast food. One place that I have been regularly visiting is In and Out Burgers. Being on a low carb diet, In and Out has a burger that is perfect for me...a double double, protein style, with pickles and raw onion. Protein style means that instead of a bun, the burger is wrapped with lettuce. I found out that they have been doing this for over 20 years! That is way too cool. I love their burgers! The burgers are simple with basic fixings of lettuce tomato and sauce. If you want onions, grilled onions, pickles, ketchup, or mustard, just ask them to add it on.

In and Out uses only the freshest ingredients. Fresh, hand leafed lettuce, juicy tomatos, fresh ground beef, and their special sauce. These guys don't even own a microwave. For you non low carb eaters, their hamburger buns are made with old fashioned sponge dough, the fries are freshly made with no beef talow or other flavorings, and the milk shakes are made with real milk.

The menu at In and Out is rather basic: Hamburger, cheeseburger, double double (two patties and two slices of cheese), fries, soft drinks, milk shakes. However, they do have a secret menu. Their secret menu is as follows:

Protein Style - As noted earlier, it is the burger without the bun and it is wrapped up with lettuce instead.

Animal Style - The burger with mustard, grilled onions, pickles and extra sauce.

Wish Burger/Veggie Burger - A burger for you vegetarians out there - no meat, no cheese with all the fixings.

Flying Dutchman - The burger with two patties and two slices of cheese with no fixings. Basically, a plain double double.

Grilled Cheese - A cheeseburger without the meat.

Double Meat - a Double Double without the cheese.

Fries Well Done - Extra crispy fries.

Fries Light - Opposite of Fries Well Done. Fries more on the raw side.

Fries Animal Style - Fries with cheese, grilled onions, and sauce.

3 by 3 - Three patties, three slices of cheese. They basically can do any combination with the first number being the number of patties and the second number being the number of slices of cheese. If you want 5 patties and 7 slices of cheese, then you would order a 5 by 7.

Neopolitan Shake - Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla shakes blended together.

Whenever I want to eat a burger, I always think about In and Out first. Fresh, tasty, and can be customized the way you like it. The funny thing is that I've eaten at In and Out for 4 straight days for lunch and I never grow tired of it.

I heard that they have changed their bumper sticker that you can buy from a previous design due to some creative and nasty minds who altered the stickers so it read In and Out urge. The first time I saw the altered bumper sticker, I just had to laugh.

Well, now I'm craving for an In and Out urg...I mean an In and Out burger!

My Appologies to My Regular Readers

2005-01-28T17:25:00.000-08:00

Everyone, I want to appologize for not posting anything new for this past week. I have been deluged with work in the evening hours and thus have not had a chance to make any postings. I am so bummed not being able to put thoughts onto this blog. Well, hopefully the work load will ease up for a bit for now. I am kind of bummed that I have to work this Saturday but at least it will free me up for this evening. I will try to post something up when I can.

Low Rise Jeans, Mid-Riff Shirts, and Fat Chicks

2005-01-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

What is it with today's hip fashion for women? Just the other day while on a lunch break, I saw two women dressed in low rise jeans with mid-riff shirts. Being a guy, this would at least bring some attention to me but in this case it was unwelcoming attention. These women were not built for such clothes. It looked as if their pants and shirts were at least one to two sizes too small. With their bellies hanging out, all exposed for the world to see made me want to end my lunch right then and there. One of them also had a belly ring which made it even more disgusting. I'm not against belly rings or piercings but on a fat chick, yes, I do take offense. It's almost like a beacon saying, "Look at my fat belly...doesn't it look sexy?" Ugh, I don't even want to get an image!

I don't understand these fat chicks trying to look hip with the latest fashions when those clothes just makes them look disgusting. I mean, I'm a fat guy but I don't go around exposing my belly in public for all the world to see that I'm fat. I don't want anyone to be hurling their lunch looking at my fat jiggly belly. I do have some decency and dignity to not do such things. At least I wear clothes that make me look thinner. Instead, it seems that these women want to show everyone how fat they are. I just don't get it.

Low rise jeans themselves really do not compliment women in general. I mean they are cut in the area where women generally have problems with. Unless she is totally hard bodied, these jeans can make a skinny woman show her handles.

Don't these women know that these clothes don't make them look good? Don't they know that it makes them look like freaks showing all their folds protruding in every which way? Are they in denial that they are fat? I'd rather look at roadkill festering in the hot sun for a week than to look at fat chicks wearing clothes that show their folds and buldges. Burn my eyes out with acid or something. Dear God, please!

Be Healthy - Go Low Carb

2005-01-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been about 6 months since I've been on the low carb Page Diet. My total weight loss as of today is 50 pounds! I could not believe that I was actually over 300 lbs. prior to my diet. I was so out of shape, had a hard time bending down, and had high blood pressure and who knows what else.

The weight loss has been great. I can now wear some of my old clothes, my blood pressure is much lower and I can actually climb a flight of stairs without huffing and puffing.

One of the amazing things is that my fiance's blood sugar levels are coming down towards normal levels. She still takes medication for diabetes but it is pretty much in control. Her cholesterol and triglycerides are normal. As I stated in earlier posts, her blood chemistries prior to going low carb were:

Fasting blood sugar - 225
Cholesterol - 237
Triglycerides - 300

I don't know her present cholesterol and triglyceride levels are but two months after going low carb, her cholesterol was at a normal 187 and triglycerides were at 100. At the time, her fasting blood sugar was 135. Well, lately it has been in the upper 90s and low 100s. That is a significant change in blood sugar levels. The low carb lifestyle has given her pancrease a chance to recover, rest, and improve. And it has given her cells to become more responsive to insulin.

Going low carb will not only improve your blood chemistries, but will also cause healthy weight loss. Some diets will make you loose weight but it will also cause water and muscle loss. By going low carb, your body has an adequate protein source to minimize muscle loss. In addition, low carb diets will eleviate many allergies and other problems.

If you are suffering from asthma, psoriasis, eczema, acne, I would recommend going on a diet where you eliminate grains, sugars, and refined flour. Look at my link for Dr. Mercola's blog. He has data supporting that these ailments can be minimized or even eliminated by going on a low carb lifestyle.

Do you know that the American population is 60% obese? That means the average American is fat! Look at how the average American eats. Fast food, breads, sodas, sweetened sports drinks, snack foods, pizza, the list goes on and on. What is the common thread with these foods? Carbs...sugar, flour, starches. Looks like a clear link between carbs and increased girth. On top of that, we have increasing incidents of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, cancer.

Study after study has shown when the modern American diet is introduced to a different culture, there is an increase in health ailments. A study on Pima Indians in Arizona is a good example. They are suffering from levels above average in diabetes and coronary diseases. Japan is another example. As the younger generation is drawn to American fast food and snacks, the number of coronary diseases have increased as well as obesity.

Get healthy and go low carb!

The Ending of Bachelorhood

2005-01-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

Well, the day of the wedding is getting closer and closer. My days of living the wild life of a bachelor is coming to an end. I'm leaving the single's market. Yeah, right. As if I did lead a wild life of a bachelor or was out on the market. Man, that kind of sounded like a close out sale of a defunct Super Kmart store or something. You know I never really did the heavy partying or have girlfriends left and right. I usually am a homebody and felt rather content at staying at home, reading a book, or doing something on the computer. You can actually say that my life was a bit boring. But, I was happy with it. It's not like I didn't date.

Yeah, I had girlfriends here and there. Some were long term, but most were short in duration. For a period, I was attracting psychos. One relationship was very nightmarish...is that a word? Oh well, I guess it is for me. Anyways, this one scary relationship was chocking the life out of me. She would disapprove of me going out with my buddies, would always want to be with me, you know, very suffocating. I couldn't take it anymore and broke it off. Then what I thought was going to be peace and quiet came the nightmare. She would leave so many messages on my answering machine that it was all full every day. She called my friends constantly. She tried following me everywhere I went. I was glad that I didn't have any pet rabbits (remember the movie where the psycho woman made rabbit stew?).

After a year or so, I started dating again and met up with other psychotic women. Well, I learned from my previous mistakes and quickly broke off those relationships. I then decided that it was safer to date women at the church I go to. Well, I guess I dated almost all of the single women close to my age at church. That's where I met my fiance.

One day, I was sharing with my fiance about my past dating experiences and then she noticed that all of the women that I dated at the church were all of her college classmates! Even funnier is when she then called me the church whore! That made me laugh so hard!

It has been quite the adventure in dating to finally proposing to my fiance. I've basically known her for 7 years before I started dating her and then eventually proposing to her. I guess I needed to go through the various experiences before I knew what I was looking for in a wife and be ready for marriage.

In no way is my fiance a psycho or someone who smothers me. Instead, she is a compliment to me and has been supportive and caring. She is everything that I want in a wife and a lifelong partner. So with that, I guess it is not a heartache that I am leaving the life of a bachelor. Instead, I am looking forward to living the life of marriage and as a supporting and loving husband.

Okay, that's enough mushy stuff. Good bye bachelorhood, hello ball and...er, I mean, marriage!

Men and Shopping

2005-01-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

The other day, my fiance and I went shopping for our wedding registry. I thought it was a pretty cool process where you use a hand held bar code scanner to pick out the items you want. At first, I had a blast when it came to looking at different stuff for the kitchen such as pots and pans, food processors, vacuum sealers and other neat gadgets for the kitchen. I love these things since I love to cook. However, when it came to looking at other stuff such as sheets, bed covers and the like, I was soon reaching my shopping limit. My fiance was quick to notice my change in demeanor and we soon called it quits for the day.

I usually dread going to malls and shopping for clothes. I'd rather pluck my eyes out with a paper clip than to go to a mall. I usually shop only when I have to and know where to go and what to get. So, my fiance was actually very surprised that I agreed to go with her for the gift registry. Well, I figure it is the right thing to do and plus it pays to get brownie points! Maybe I can use it to my advantage in the future for something like going to a gun show or something with lots of testosterone. Yeah, gun show...guns, bullets, lots of firepower...sorry for the brief change of thought. At least my fiance knows when I'm reaching my limit when it comes to shopping. It's not that I don't like it. I guess what it comes down to is I enjoy shopping and browsing for things I have interest in. Take for instance, Home Depot is one of my favorite places to go. I don't even need to buy anything. I just enjoy browsing through the store...especially the power tools.

Speaking of power tools, isn't it odd that when a guy talks about power tools no one has any indecent thoughts but when a woman mentions power tools, people get ideas other than a Mikita cordless drill if you know what I mean.

When it comes to clothes shopping, you can forget it. I don't care if a place is selling stuff at 50% off. I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy removing 50% off of my brain! I'm glad my fiance knows that when she has to buy her girly stuff, she knows that she would have better chance of winning the lotto and powerball on the same day than me accompanying her to the mall.

So are there any guys out there that like to go shopping at the mall or enjoy shopping in general? What's your take on this?

Sushi in Nashville?

2005-01-14T00:25:00.000-08:00

The other day I was taken out to lunch by the company doing the training that I'm attending and they took all of us out to eat at a Japanese steak house that is similar to Benihana's. Well, I was amazed to see that they serve sushi there. Come to find out, there are several other places that service sushi. I could not believe it! Sushi in Nashville. I don't know how it tastes since I'm on a low carb diet but it didn't look that bad. I know for certain that it isn't the best because there is no way that sushi in Nashville could beat sushi in LA. I guess Nashville is a pretty progressive city! My hats off to them!

Aloha to Nashville

2005-01-14T00:24:00.000-08:00

Well, this is my last evening in Nashville. It has been a pleasant stay and the timing was perfect. While I've been here, the temperature has been mild with a couple of days of rain. I guess the rain followed me from California. Anyways, tonight the temperatures have plunged. Currently, the temperature is in the low 40's and it will get colder the rest of the week.

I am a bit bummed that I was not able to go see the Grand Ole Opry or tour the Jack Daniels whiskey distillery. I really enjoy country music and good whiskey. There are other places I wanted to visit such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and The Hermitage: Home of President Andrew Jackson.

It's too bad that I didn't run into Shania Twain or Trisha Yearwood. I know I would be all goo-goo if I saw either of them. Trisha is a cutie and Shania is...HOT! I'm sure my fiance is glad that I didn't see either of them!

Well, I am hoping that my trip back to LA will be nice and smooth. My travel plans call for a brief stop in Minneapolis/St. Paul and then to LA. I'm going to be arriving pretty late into LA. I'm just hoping that there won't be any delays or especially any cancellation of flights. That would be extremely bad. I know I will be drained by the time I get home.

So, it's off to bed. Actually, I gotta call my honey up on the phone and tell her goodnight and then it's off to bed!

Aloha Nashville...it was great visiting you!

Too Funny

2005-01-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

Thought to share some humor with you. Here's some pictures I received from my fiance. I think these are hilarious. I can relate to the last picture with the cat after a certain night of sake binging. The famous quote of that night was "I may be drunk, but I'm not stupid". What a night that was!

BBQ and Downtown Nashville

2005-01-12T01:39:00.000-08:00

Today I got to experience my first taste of southern bbq during my lunch break. The pork ribs were nicely smoked and the sauce was spicy and a bit on the vinegary side. I did enjoy eating it but so far I think bbq from the Salt Lick just outside of Austin, Texas is the best so far. Well, I like my bbq sauce the best but I think the Salt Lick comes in a very close 2nd.

After the training session was over, me and the guys in the class decided to explore downtown Nashville and check out some live music. We went down to the area of Broadway and 2nd where there are a lot of bars and restaurants. The downtown area is very clean and nice. I saw no signs of graffiti or bumbs hanging out. What a world of difference compared to LA! We headed to a place called Wildhorse Saloon . The place is huge with three floors and a big stage and dance floor. On the first level alone, I counted 5 bars! The band that was playing was great and the food was pretty good. Of course, I had to try their award winning Memphis pork ribs. Well, it was delicious but still did not beat the Salt Lick. After dining and hanging out at the Wildhorse, we then decided to check out a place called the Coyote Ugly Saloon. I guess it is a chain bar across the US. It just seems so funny that these married guys I'm training with want to go to places to check out women. I really don't understand. Oh well, that will be another topic in the future.

Now I'm ready to go to sleep and start the day early tomorrow. We're going to continue with the training class and do some major component replacements.

Aloha from Nashville!

Nashville, Music Capitol, USA

2005-01-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am in Nashville. Actually, I'm just outside of Nashville in a town called Goodlettsville. What a name for a town.

The trip from LA to here was a long and tiring one. The plane ride was bumpy all the way from LA to Memphis. I then had to switch planes and fly to Nashville. Other employees from my workplace were joining me on the training course and their plane was delayed for 45 minutes so I had to wait for them at the airport since we had to share a rental car. The one thing that really sucked from the plane ride aside from the constant turbulance was the food. Airplane food alone sucks but when you are on a low carb diet, you can forget about eating the meal they serve you. They served a sandwich, chips, and an apple. Of course, I could only eat the meat and the cheese. I was so desperately hungry that I sucked the mustard out of the bag to get any form of nutrition!

Well, the weather here is nice and mild. I thought that it would be freaking cold but it was in the 60's today with no rain. I'm sure the rain from LA is on its way here.

One of the things I noticed here is that gas prices are so much lower than in California. I can't believe it! It is actually 10 cents cheaper than in LA! Gas makers in LA are ripping us off. Actually it is the state government's fault with their moronic regulations.

That's it for now...Aloha from Nashville!

Heading for the Country...Off to Nashville

2005-01-09T01:14:00.000-08:00

Well, my bags are all packed, itinerary printed out and I'm all set to go off to Nashville for company training. I'm going to be learning the basics of Computer Aided Tomography systems...CT systems or the machines that does them CAT scans. It will be very interesting I think. I've always wanted to learn about CT systems when I was with my previous employer while doing diagnostic x-rays.

It looks like the weather in Nashville will be similar to what we are experiencing here in Los Angeles...lots of rain and cold temperatures. I wish the rain would end and give us some nice California sunshine and smog!

Funny thing is that I really don't want to go on this trip. I guess I just don't like to travel away from my fiance. Oh well, it's just a week so it won't be too bad. It's just that I really enjoy her company (I know what you're thinking...duh, you better be if you're marrying her) and I'm going to be missing her. Ok, enough of the sappy stuff. I'm hoping that there will be time for me to go visit some sights in Nashville like the Grand Ole Opry. Being a country music fan (yeah, I know it's strange for an Asian to love country music) it is an incredible opportunity to be in the country music capitol of the world. Hmm...I hope I run into Shanya Twain or Trisha Yearwood...rrrraaaawooooo! Ok, it was a joke....Honestly, honey (yeah, my fiance reads my blogs).

I hope to make updates while I'm in Nashville. The hotel I'm staying at claims to have high speed internet access so I'm looking forward to that. Well, time for bed. It's going to be a long day of traveling from LA to Memphis to Nashville. Until then, Aloha!

Switch to Firefox

2005-01-03T01:06:00.000-08:00

With the start of the New Year, start fresh on the Internet by using Firefox as your browser. With the threats of spyware, pop up ads, and security issues that IE users suffer, why not use a browser that is more effective? And as a bonus, it is free. Just click on the button above and it will take you to Mozilla's site to download this increadible browser.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer seems to be pretty good but I would say that Mozilla's Firefox is even better. Dowloads and page loads are much faster. On top of that, I no longer see annoying popup ads. Get Firefox today!

Happy New Year!

2004-12-31T11:01:00.000-08:00

Well, the end of 2004 is at hand and 2005 is just around the corner. Happy New Year, Hau'oli Makahiki Hou, Gung Hee Fat Choy, Oshoogatsu Omedeto!

Lots of things have happened over 2004 and so little time to write them up. Going through a job loss, getting a new job, close friends leaving for better opportunities, births, deaths, start of new families, marriages. So many things have happened. Through all the hussle and bussle of life, it seems that during this brief moment of the year is when I tend to really reflect upon life and what has happened. Maybe it is because of my Japanese upbrining and the rituals I went through as a child during this time of year. Oh how I miss being at home with my parents on New Years. Watching the neighborhood kids popping firecrackers and other fireworks, eating good food, getting drunk on several servings of sake, eating soba noodles just before midnight, eating traditional New Years food my mom would painstakingly make 3 days before New Year Day, eating ozoni (mochi rice cake soup), and then watching Japanese New Years special programming on TV. Oh such sweet memories.

Well, have a great New Years!

Go Low Carb!

2004-12-29T01:22:00.000-08:00

In my earlier posts a few months back I talked about going the low carb route. Well, the pounds are still shedding. I'm now 46 pounds lighter and am able to fit in some old clothes. I lost about three to four inches at the waist and feel alot better. I so far have survived the temptations of various holiday treats and just concentrated on eating vegetables and proteins. I was rather satisfied with eating turkey, ham, bbq, salads, and the like. It is great being on this lifestyle since there is no need to portion control. You just have to watch what you eat and make sure it is low in carbohydrates.

As I stated in my earlier posts, I do not completely agree with the Atkins diet but Dr. Atkins does make great points in his book. I have read it and adapted some of the things he wrote about. The diet that I am on is the Page diet. You can find it at .

There are so many advantages in going the low carb route. There has been some reports stating that low carb diets are dangerous. Well, I really think they don't know what they are talking about. There have been long term studies on low carb diets and all of them have been proven to be beneficial. For instance, the Page diet has been around much longer than the popular Atkins diet or the South Beach diet. Also, why is it that Eskimos eating a traditional diet of only meat live longer and healthier lives than those who eat the modern American diet? There are numerous studies showing that viruses, bacteria, and cancer thrive in environments where there is abundant sugars. By going low carb, you have created an environment where these nasty bugs have difficulty in surviving. I really think that because of my low carb lifestyle, I have been able to quickly recover from colds and the flu this season. Just the other day I was coming down with a head cold. By taking plenty of fluids and herbs, along with my low carb lifestyle, I am more or less over with the cold. Coincidence? May be. But, I do see a whole lot of people with persistant colds and they eat lots of carbs.

If you want to normalize your blood chemistry, lose weight, and bring your body to optimum health, avoid eating sugars, starches, grains, and vegetables with high glycemic values.

Merry Christmas to All

2004-12-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

What an exciting time of the year. Last night I went to Christmas service with my fiance's family. That definitely helped me get into the Christmas spirit. Earlier, I was commenting to my fiance that I really didn't feel like Christmas was here and felt kind of blah. Well, the music and the sermon during the Christmas Eve service helped me get into the Christmas mood.

After the service, there was a family get together. Food was tasty and the best part was watching the children open their gifts. It was great watching the expressions on their faces and to see how they were excited about opening their presents. It made me recall my childhood and for a brief moment, it made me feel like a kid again. I'm looking forward to opening my presents at my future in law's house today. I love receiving gifts and opening up presents! After that, I'll be making bbq ribs for the family. Mmmm...bbq! This will be a great day...presents and bbq, two of my favorite things to do.

Well, Merry Christmas all.

Cell Phones Cause DNA Damage in Lab Conditions

2004-12-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

While doing my usual reading of Dr. Mercola's blogs, I came across some interesting reading about cell phones causing DNA damage under lab conditions. The original article can be found at USA Today 12/21/04.

According to the article, cells displayed significant cell damage via DNA strand breaks when they were exposed to radiation fields typical for mobile phones. According to USA Today, "The radiation used in the study was at levels between a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of between 0.3 and 2 watts per kilogramme. Most phones emit radio signals at SAR levels of between 0.5 and 1 W/kg". The DNA damage was permanent which could lead to replication of the damaged cell. The mutated cell thus could become a precursor to cancer.

The project leader for this research, Franz Adlkofer, advised using a land line instead of a cell phone if one is available and to use a headset on a cell phone whenever possible.

Although the DNA damage occurred under laboratory conditions and additional research is needed, I have to agree with Mr. Aldkofer to heed his advice about minimizing the use of cell phones or to use a headset when you do use a cell phone.

Mele Kalikimaka!

2004-12-24T01:24:00.000-08:00

Mele Kalikimaka! Merry Christmas!

It's so great to have Christmas Eve off. No work today! Yeah! My first vacation day with the new company. It's going to be a busy day. Have to finish up on gift bagging presents, hair cut, make dinner, go to church, and then go to a family pot luck. I thought holidays was a time to relax! Well, I really hope you will have a very Merry Christmas.

Gift Bags Vs. Gift Wrapping

2004-12-23T01:09:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is just a few days away. I'm glad I got all of my Christmas shopping done. Actually, my fiance got most of it done for me. I'm such a moron when it comes to figuring out what to give for gifts. In an earlier post, I had mentioned that I was going to attempt to gift wrap some presents. Well, forget about it. I'm going with the gift bag and tissue paper. Whoever thought of the gift bag must have known a lot of people like me who are all thumbs when it comes to gift wrapping.

I don't know why more people don't use the gift bag thing. I mean it is so efficient. Place the gift in the bag, add tissue paper to cover gift in the bag, write name on the attached tag, and you're done. When it comes to gift wrapping, you have to get a box for the gift if it didn't come with one, roll out the cumbersome wrapping paper from the tube, cut the paper, tape the paper and make those fancy folds at the end, put ribbon and bow. People just cut the ribbon and rip the wrapper to open gifts and then throw them out to the trash. With a gift bag, the bag can be reused by the gift recipient when they have to give a gift. Heck, even the tissue paper can be reused. I really think the bag is the way to go. Convinient and environmental!

Well, I wish you all Mele Kalikimaka...that's Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.

Spam and Other Canned Meat

2004-12-17T01:21:00.000-08:00

Mmmm...Canned Meat!

I love Spam! It is funny how people make so much fun of Spam or are so negative about Spam when it is so tasty. I love Spam and other types of canned meat. It must be my island upbringing. I don't understand why people will say that Spam is gross and yet they eat non-kosher hot dogs. I mean the ingredients in Spam are so simple and pure like shoulder of pork, ham, salt, sugar, water, potato starch and sodium nitrate while a non-kosher hot dog is made up of pork snouts, lips, tails, ears, and other parts. Now that's what I call disgusting. It is so funny that I have tricked people into eating Spam. I once made Spam fried rice for some friends who stated that they think Spam is disgusting. Well, they ate it up thinking that the meat in the fried rice was ham. They were quite surprised when they found out that it was actually Spam and now they have come to the light and are now eating Spam.

I love to slice up Spam and fry them up until they have a nice crispy crust on the sides. It goes great with eggs. Plus it is a low carb food since it has 0% carbs! Perfect for this island boy. For you carb eaters out there, I got a great recipe for the previously mentioned Spam fried rice. There is also Spam musubi which is just awesome. For those not familiar with Spam musubi, it is basically Spam sushi...Fried Spam, teriyaki sauce, rice, wrapped up in nori (dried seaweed). You really have to try that one!

Other canned meat products that I love are corned beef and vienna sausages. Yummy treats to eat! I like to fry up corned beef with cabbage and sliced onions and I like to nuke vienna sausages and eat them with soft boiled eggs. Dang, I'm starting to get hungry writing about this.

Hawaii is the biggest consumer of Spam in the US. They also are probably one of the largest consumers of canned corned beef and vienna sausages too. It must be because it was a handy source of meat in the islands where it required no refridgeration and has enough saltiness that goes perfectly with rice. They say that the average person in Hawaii consumes six cans of Spam per year. Well, I know I consume more than that a year. Well, try some Spam and I know you will enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, there must be something wrong with you.

So Little Time

2004-12-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

It almost seems like yesterday when I proposed to my fiance to marry me when in fact it was just last year on Christmas Eve. Now the wedding date is just a few months away! Got so little time to do so many things. With my new job and the training I am doing, it is definitely difficult to get all the necessary things done but it will get done...well, it has to be done. I still have to get prices on tuxedos and arrangements for the honeymoon...ah, honeymoon....hubba hubba! On top of that, we still have to go through premarital counseling, caterer, invitations, etc. And I have to work things out with my job and training. UGH!!!!

You know, it seems that when I was a kid time moved so slowly but as an adult time just moves so quickly. It seemed like it took forever for the school year to end so we could go on summer vacation. Now, a year seems like to pass at a blink of an eye. I wonder why is that. Is it because as we get to be adults we are so busy with life and its myriad of tasks? Is it because as we grow older, we are closer to the end of our mortality and thus changes our thinking subconciously about time? Who knows. All that matters to me is there is just so little time with so many things to do. UGH!!!!!!!!!

What's This About a Flu Vaccine Shortage?

2004-12-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

Remember just a couple of months ago the shortage of flu vaccines were major headlines on every media outlet? Well, it seems like this was really blown out of proportion doesn't it? I mean, I was watching TV the other day and they were giving out free flu shots to anyone who came in and they stated that there was no shortage of the vaccine. I am wondering why was there such a hysterical scare of a vaccine shortage only a few months ago? It just makes me less and less trusting of the media and government.

Speaking of distrusting the government, did you know that the Centers for Disease Control has a document that shows that the flu vaccine is ineffective? I was reading on Dr. Mercola's blogs that talks about the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine. It also talks about that people do not die directly as the result of the flu but rather because of their poor health and compromised immune system.

It seems that prevention is the best way to avoid the flu and not by vaccines. Besides, the vaccines contain toxic chemicals that will harm you. Did you know that they use mercury as a preservative for vaccines? Gee, I wonder if there is a link on why there is an increase in autism and the use of mercury in vaccines for children? Of course the government, CDC, and others have stated that these vaccines are safe. Hmm, if I sold a food product containing mercury as a preservative, do you think the FDA will not prosecute me? But at the same time, they allow drug manufacturers to use mercury as a preservative. Besides, we all know of the great job the FDA has done with Vioxx, Baytrol, and other drugs that they had approved and then had to yank off the market because it caused so many people to die. I thought that the FDA was there to protect us and not kill us but it seems that you have to have many deaths before the FDA takes any action.

Anyways, getting back to prevention. I agree with what Dr. Mercola says about the ways to prevent the flu. Here are some pointers:

1. Eliminate grains and sugars from your diet. Viruses, germs, cancer cells love sugars and starches. They thrive on sugars and starches.

2. Wash your hands thoroughly and often.

3. Learn to relax and don't get all stressed out.

4. Get enough sleep.

For more pointers and information, check out Dr. Mercola's blogs!

Now They Start to Call Me

2004-12-16T01:30:00.000-08:00

I just cannot believe it. While I was looking for work, I sent out numerous resumes in response to various Internet postings. For months I patiently waited for any response but got none until I got a phone call from my current employer. They were quick to give me an offer of employment after my interview which I am truely grateful for. Now that I've been working for two months, I'm getting phone calls from these companies that I had sent my resume to months ago! Talk about bad timing. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. Some companies had the nerve to ask if I would consider leaving my current employer to go and work for them but I told them that it was too late for them, that I already have a job and I am quite happy with it. The way I look at it was they snooze and lose. During my time of unemployment, I would send follow up emails and phone calls of which they would ignore. Now, there are some companies where I had to insist that they stop calling me. I just don't get it with some of these people.

Speaking of jobs, I am enjoying what I am doing. It is very challenging and the hours can be long but I like it. There is so much to learn but I know I can make it. Because of my work I am not able to blog as much as before so please forgive me for not updating this blog on a regular basis.

National Do Not Call List

2004-12-16T01:15:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that some of the mobile phone companies are planning on releasing a 411 list for mobile phones sometime next year. This I believe will lead to having solicitors calling you cell phones like what they do to your regular telephone. Talk about eating up your minutes on your cell phone plan. Well, there is a solution for this. Sign up on the National Do Not Call List.

You can register up to three phone numbers at a time. Make sure you follow the directions carefully since there is a 72 hour time limit to fully register to have you phone numbers on the do not call list. I just finished registering all of my phone numbers so solicitors will not be able to call me.

Christmas Shopping

2004-12-11T02:00:00.000-08:00

Ah, it is that time of year of the traditional race to the mall and do Christmas shopping. Oh how I hate shopping at the mall. I would rather squeeze my balls with a pair of vicegrips than go shopping at the mall. Whenever I need to buy something at the mall, I usually just go to the store, buy it, and then leave. I avoid the mall like the plague. If I do end up in a mall with my fiance, I just head over to the book store and hang out there. Thus, I would be extremely miserable if I ended up in a mall with no book store. I'm so glad that my fiance has agreed to help in buying Christmas presents. I will just hand her cash for my share of the presents. She is so understanding about me being so gift challenged and my displeasure for shopping.

It is funny that I have this hatred for malls but I can spend hours at Home Depot or at a music store like Guitar Center. Those kinds of places are like my favorite places to be. I love tools, gadgets and musical instruments. Speaking of musical instruments, I just bought me an electric bass that I've wanted for a long time but could not purchase due to my unemployment at the time. I figured that I deserved an early Christmas gift for myself.

Another place I like to go to is the pet store. I love tropical fish and I absolutely adore dogs. Oh how I miss my dog. I miss him very much and it makes me a bit teary eyed when I think about him sometimes. Actually, not teary eyed...that's just a bit of dust that got into my eyes...it can be irritating. I remember my parents telling me when I left home for college, my dog waited by the driveway gate for me for two weeks. He refused to come into the house and sat by the gate all day long. Whenever I came home on Chrismas and summer breaks, he would be so happy. Whenever I went out to visit old friends, my dog waited by the gate until I came home that night and would refuse to come into the house even if it was raining. He was such a great dog and a great companion. Strangest thing occurred one night. I had dreamt about my dog and in my dream we were playing and then he turned around and walked away. He would not respond to my calls to come back. I suddenly woke up and felt an eerie chill. The next day, I called my parents to see if all was well with them and they said they were fine. I then asked how was my dog doing and they told me that he was fine and was sleeping in his box. Actually what happened was that the day before (same day as my dream) they had to put my dog to sleep because he was loosing his fight with cancer and was getting weaker by the day. They told me that he was okay because they did not want me distracted during my finals which I was going through at the time. They told me the truth about what happened to my dog when I came home after finals on our way home after they picked me up at the airport. Talk about being in a state of shock. I wished that I could have seen him one last time before he was put to sleep. He was laid to rest just a few days before I went home. I remember being stunned in the car. I then could not see clearly, not even realizing that I was crying. Oh, how I miss that dog. Dogs are so loyal and give you so much unconditional love. I love it when I visit someone who has a dog. My buddy Dennis has a dog named Coco that I adore. She is such a friendly and great dog. When I used to house sit for them, Coco would be like my shadow, always following me everywhere and would sleep next to me if I crashed out on the living room floor. Hopefully, I will be a dog owner once again after I purchase a home.

Sorry for straying from my intended subject...Christmas shopping. Well, I was able to get for my fiance her Christmas and birthday present. She already figured out what she's getting for Christmas but she doesn't know what she will get for her birthday. Now all I have to do is wrap her gifts up. I am so inept at gift wrapping. I would use those gift bag things but I'm gonna try and do the traditional wrap thing. Try is the word. I may give up and go get a gift bag. I think it is rather amusing...I can fix multimillion dollar machinery but cannot gift wrap to save my life. Oh well.

My Apologies

2004-12-11T01:47:00.000-08:00

For you regular readers of my blog, my sincerest apologies for my previous post. I was getting very frustrated with my cyber stalker and needed a way to vent and let them know that I am seriously pissed off at them. Yeah, my temper can get the best of me sometimes. You know, you try to be nice and try to give them hints but some people just don't get it. It's like you need to bash them over the head and yell at them for being absolutely moronic. I can understand those who are ignorant but when it comes to utter stupidity, I do not tolerate it. When it comes to anyone threatening me or my family, they better watch out because I don't tolerate that kind of crap. I will defend myself and my family with all of my might. Remember, I do have samurai blood in me so any threats or harrassment will not be tolerated at all. You think Tony Soprano is ruthless, you have not met a pissed off Stanielsan yet.

I hope that explains why I was so angry when I made my previous post. My friends know that I am generally an easy going kind of guys so I hope things did not shock you. Well, the stalker has not appeared so far but I would not be surprised if she popped up again. I've warned her already. I'll just leave it at that.

Internet Stalkers

2004-12-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

Have any one of you been stalked before? It sure is amazing that some people will just bug the heck out of you. There is this woman that I had chatted a few times via a Yahoo chat line. It was during a time when I was not dating anyone nor cared to and I had just broken up with someone. I thought it would be cool to chat with people from Hawaii since I'm from there. Well, this whole thing has now turned into a nightmare for me whenever I log into my Yahoo Instant Messenger. She would send me messages and I would just ignore them. But the messaging would not end. I would get bombarded with messages to the point I have to block her out! And then she would change her user name and keep sending me f&%#ing messages. I figure she is reading this so here is a message for you: LEAVE ME ALONE! CAN'T YOU TAKE A F*&%#NG HINT THAT I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU ANYMORE WHEN I IGNORE ALL OF YOU MESSAGES AND BLOCK YOU!!!??

What is it with these stalkers? I guess some of these people have major psychological issues. Talk about 2 cans short of a six pack. This is not the first time I was stalked. There was a time when an ex-girlfriend stalked me after I broke up with her. She tried to follow me home, constantly called at work, called some of my friends, left tons of messages on my answering machine. Talk about being wacko. I finally had to get a restraining order and a nice letter from an attorney to stop her from contacting me. Hmmm, that's an idea I should pursue on this case. On top of that I should contact Yahoo if she continues this.

So to the stalker (since I know you are reading this):

1. STOP SENDING MESSAGES
2. I'M GETTING MARRIED SO LEAVE ME THE FU*% ALONE..I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST IN TALKING WITH YOU
3. IF YOU CONTINUE TO HARRASS ME, YAHOO WILL BE CONTACTED ABOUT THIS
4. IF YOU DON'T STOP, EXPECT A LETTER FROM MY LAWYER
5. IF YOU DON'T STOP AFTER THAT, EXPECT A KNOCK ON YOUR DOOR FROM THE MAUI POLICE (I DO HAVE CONNECTIONS WITH THE LAW ENFORCEMENT IN HAWAII)
6. IF IT CONTINUES, I WILL TRACE YOUR IP AND DO MAJOR PING ATTACKS SO YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO USE YOUR COMPUTER ON THE INTERNET
7. IF IT GOES ON SOME MORE, I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT FIREWALL BECAUSE I WILL DESTROY YOUR COMPUTER WITH EVERY RESOURCE I HAVE AT MY DISPOSAL
8. DON'T EVEN THINK OF LEAVING A POST ON THIS BLOG. I WILL DELETE YOUR COMMENTS AND BLOCK YOU

SO LEAVE ME ALONE AND WE ALL CAN WALK AWAY NICE AND HAPPY

For you regular readers, I'm sorry you had to read all of this but it had to be done. Some people just don't get it.

Totally Gross

2004-12-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

The other day while I was out for lunch I had to use the restroom before taking my order so I proceded to go to the restroom. Well, there was a guy relieving himself at the urinal. After he was done, he just left the restroom without even washing his hands. Talk about gross! After I was done with the required business and washing my hands, I went back into the dining area and saw this guy eating a sandwhich. Even more gross! My first thought was, "Didn't his parents teach him about proper hygine?" I mean, it really made my stomach turn knowing that he just went to whiz without washing his hands and now he's eating with the same hands without any washing. This is not the only incident I have witnessed. Don't people understand about proper sanitation and hygine? Ugh! I've seen grosser things from the restrooms such as guys not washing their hands after doing #2 and then procede to eat. These guys are so disgusting! I wonder if there are some women that are hygenically challenged also or if this is just a guy thing. I know I always wash my hands especially after taking care of business #1 or #2.

Because there are these gross individuals out there, I am very careful how I wash my hands. I follow the procedure that medical professionals are suppossed to follow. Of course even they don't follow their own rules of hand washing. If they did, there wouldn't be rampart cases of spreading infections in hospitals.

Here's a great technique in hand washing:

1. Turn on hot and cold water.

2. Wet your hands and lather with soap starting from your finger tips to your wrists.

3. While lathering, make sure you lather between your fingers and the back of your hand.

4. Lather for at least 15 seconds and then rinse starting from the wrists to the fingers.

5. Grab paper towels to wipe your hands dry and then use the used paper towel to turn off the water.

6. Use the same paper towel to open the door to leave the restroom and then dispose the towel.

This should keep your hands nice and clean after you leave the restroom. Good hand washing will help in fighting off colds and the flu since most of infections start from dirty hands.

Latest and Greatest

2004-11-30T22:56:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was great. The turkey came out great and boy was it moist! There were hardly any leftover turkey left. I was actually looking forward to some turkey to eat this week. Oh well, I guess I will just have to make another one soon.

Well, I've been shadowing my co-workers on the job and going to various customer sites. Generally, the sites I've visted are at the same sites as my previous job. It has been pretty exciting getting to know various oncologists and radiation therapy techs. I definitely have a lot to learn on these systems. They are pretty complex and involve a lot of thinking.

My fiance and I have actually set a date to get married. April 30, 2005 will be the big day. Dang, that is right around the corner. I guess it's goodbye bachelorhood and hello ball and...I mean hello happily married life! I still am a bit off guard that in a few months I will no longer be single but will now have to share my underwear drawer with a woman. Nah, I'll just have her use her own dresser! LOL! Seriously though, I can recall when I was content to be single for the rest of my life. It is amazing when you meet the right person that you actually can change your mind and decide that you want to share your life with someone.

Speaking of my fiance, she wants me to go see the Phantom of the Opera movie when it comes out. I'm not so thrilled at that but she did agree to see and rent out Dr. Doolittle I and II. Do you think this is a fair deal? I'm not really into musicals. I mean what guy really is? C'mon! I'm a beer drinking, fishing and gun shooting kind of guy. Well, she really wants to see it so I will be the supportive fiance and go with her. I'll probably catch a lot of flak writing this out since she regularly reads this blog. I love you, honey!

Well that's all for now. Sorry for the irregular updates but you know, I got a job now so I'll make updates when I can. Aloha!

The Incredible 2 Hour Turkey Recipe

2004-11-24T10:10:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share a treasured family recipe of mine for a method to cook a turkey in only 2 hours. Two hours?! Yes, only 2 hours to get a well cooked, juicy turkey. Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I figured that someone might need a recipe to roast a turkey. I know that a lot of people will question the 2 hour roasting time since tradition calls for several hours of cooking. Well, when you do it the "traditional" way you end up with what I call turkey jerky on a platter. This recipe will provide you with a fully cooked and extremely juicy turkey. Prep time takes a long time but I'd rather spend more time prepping than cooking. So here goes:

Ingredients:
1 frozen turkey up to 20 lbs.
Hawaiian rock, sea salt, or kosher salt ( don't use table salt!)
Water
Butter (don't use the fake stuff - margarine is evil and unhealthy)
Sherry wine

Note: Do not stuff the turkey with stuffing. Doing this can lead to food poisioning.
Make stuffing seperately.

Create a brine solution using the salt and water. Best way to do this is to melt the salt with some warm water and then add it to a pitcher or bowl of water. The brine should have the same saltiness as ocean water (for those of you who don't know how salty sea water is or have never been to the beach, sorry but I really don't measure when I cook). Make enough brine to complete cover the turkey. You may want to use a big trash bag (non deodorant type) so that the turkey can be completely immersed. Place the trash bag in a suitable bucket or container.

Make sure you remove the wrapper of the turkey when you are soaking the bird in the brine solution. Let the turkey defrost in the brine for about 16 hours. Place the turkey in a cool spot (not arctic cold spot) of your house or garage. There should be no fears of bacteria since you are soaking the bird in a brine. If you need to, place a weight on the bag with the turkey so the turkey is completely immersed in the brine.

After the 16 hours of soaking, check to see if the turkey is completely defrosted by checking the inside cavity. At this point, you should be able to remove the gizzards and neck out of the turkey's cavity. But check to see if the turkey is fully defrosted by feel. If it is still frozen, let it soak for a little longer.

Once the turkey is defrosted, preheat your oven to 500 deg. F and remove the turkey from the brine. Pat the turkey dry using paper towels inside and out. Place the turkey in a suitable roasting pan (the cheap aluminum disposable ones are great) breast side up. Rub sherry wine on the inside cavity of the turkey. I use roughly a total of a handfull (I think about 1/4 cup? I don't know since I don't measure). Use a little bit at a time to make sure the inside has been completely rubbed with the wine. Rub butter on the breast and thighs (on the turkey and not yourself unless you are into that but the turkey needs it more at this point). Use about 1/2 to 1 stick of butter total.

When the oven temperature of 500 deg. F is reached, quickly place the turkey in the oven breast side in and close the door immediately. DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR AFTER INSERTING THE TURKEY IN THE OVEN - MAINTAINING TEMPERATURE IS CRITICAL TO COMPLETING THIS IN 2 HOURS! Leave the turkey at this temperature for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes have past, quickly pour one cup of water over the turkey and close the door immediately. Reduce the temperature to 375 deg. F. and leave it alone for 1 hour and 25 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR AT ALL DURING THIS PERIOD! After this, quickly poke holes where the thighs and body meet and quickly baste the turkey a couple of coatings should be ok using a baster. Close the door immediately and continue roasting for 5 minutes.

After this 5 minute period, remove the turkey from the oven and let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes before carving. You may use foil to tent the turkey to keep it warm.

While carving, you will notice how juicy this turkey will be. Use the pan drippings to make some gravy or sauce.

I'm Back!

2004-11-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

My first session of training with my new employer has been completed and now I am back to my biohazard abode. It sure was chaotic travelling on the 23rd. Getting on the plane was easy and the check in procedure was not that bad. When I flew into LAX, that's when all hell broke loose. The traffic was so intense...I could only imagine today's traffic being it is the day before Thanksgiving. It took 2 hours for me to get out of the airport and be back at my place. I'm so exhausted today. But at least I got to sleep in my own bed which was great!

Training was very intense and challenging. The instructor was great and has vast knowledge of the system. I think I did ok but I know I have to study more and basically connect the dots to know how the overall system works and its various components and how they interact with one another. We had to do a practical test - troubleshooting the unit. It was a real ass kicker and was a very humbling experience. The best part is that I will not forget some of the problems I had and it was a definite learning experience. In all of my years of being an engineer, this training course was the best I ever had. It really reminded me of my college experience complete with exams and labs. Some people may think that the instructor was a bit on the rough side and may complain to management but I didn't see it that way. Instead, I saw it as his passion to pass on his knowledge of the system to those of us who don't know the system and to make us successful. His training was the closest one could get without going out into the field. Very realistic. I truly hope that the intensity and format of the training does not change. I give major kudos to the instructor.

It is great to be back home. Well, not exactly home since I still consider Hawaii to be my home. But it sure was great to see my fiance. I've never missed anyone like her before. Tomorrow will be busy with me making the turkey for my fiance's family. I'm going to use my mom's 2 hour turkey recipe. 2 hours? Yeah, it actually takes only 2 hours to roast. Yes, it is fully cooked and very juicy. Not like some roasted turkey jerky. I think I'll post up a recipe today for it since I know there are going to be several people looking for recipes. Well, off to make that post. Until then, Aloha!

Another Update

2004-11-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

Being up in the northern part of the Bay Area has been pretty exciting but it is much colder than in Southern California. At least it isn't so cold as the times I spent in Wisconsin where there is major shrinkage.

The weather up here has been mixed with fog, rain, and cold. We did have a few days where the weather was nice and sunny.

Over the weekend I got to see people whom I didn't see for over 28 years! It was great catching up and meeting their spouses. I was only 10 years old when they last saw me. From my vantage point, they still looked the same and would have recognized them if I saw them out somewhere. It was a great drive over to where we met. Got to drive through Napa and Sonoma counties. It is the first time seeing the northern part of the bay.

Sunday, I went to church with my fiance's cousin and family up in Napa. Napa looks so beautiful with all of the grape fields. Beautiful country. Too bad I didn't have time to go and visit the various vineyards and do some wine tasting. I probably would have gone crazy and with no designated driver, I would have been screwed so it was probably good that I didn't do some tastings.

Training has been challenging but has been a great learning experience. We got to cover the way the system operates and how all the components interact with one another. People in the class are generally nice but there are some that have dragged the class down. This has made me a bit irritated because the majority of the class is up to speed with one individual dragging things down. I want to learn as much as I can so it is a drag when one person slows things down. I guess I just need to learn to be accept people for who they are and just let go of any irritable feelings. However, I figure we are not rookies and thus the learning curve should be pushed to maximum if you are to succeed. Oh well, I'm trying to let it go.

I do miss being back in my own home...my own bed...driving my own car. The one thing I miss the most is being with my fiance. Never missed anyone like this before. I guess that's a good sign. Well it better be if I'm marrying her...hehe. Beside, I know I should say that I'm missing her because I know she reads this. All joking aside, I do miss her.

Ok, enough of the mushy stuff. I guess that's all I have for now. I need to get off of this computer...back to training. Until next time, Aloha!

Brief Update

2004-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating this blog in a while. I have very limited internet access so I can't do much updating.

I'm taking a break from a training class so I'll be brief. Started training and all seems well. I do miss being in warm Southern California. Northern California is cold...burrrr. Learning alot about the system I will be working on and meeting my new co-workers. All is well and all is fun. I'll update more later.

Until next time I get a chance to update...Aloha!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2004-11-01T01:17:00.000-08:00

Well, a new week has started along with a new chapter in my career. I'm all set to call the company that made the offer to formally accept the position they offered me on Monday and then go to their office up in the Bay area for three weeks. Well, at least I won't be freezing my ass like I did when I had to travel to Milwaukee during the fall/winter season. Bay area is much nicer because it does not snow! I do not think I could really enjoy life if I had to live where it snows. Being an island guy, I'm a complete wuss when it comes to snow. It's ok to visit an area with snow and play around. Another thing to live where it snows. Talk about major shrinkage.

By being away for three weeks, I'm really going to miss my fiance. It will feel kind of strange and a bit sad not being around her for a while. Hmm...maybe I might get an invitation from my other girlfriend...nah, I doubt that Tricia Yearwood will call me to go out. Anyways, this will be the first time that my fiance and I are going to be apart for an extended period of time. Well, I know I'll see her when I get back so it's not too bad. Also with this new job, we can finally start making some real plans for our wedding.

I am so grateful for all of my friends that have prayed for me while I was unemployed. But my biggest thanks go to God for providing me this opportunity. I was really hoping to stay in the area and be able to make at least the same amount of money as my last job. God provided both and I am so grateful. Also, I am very grateful for my fiance who helped me out mentally and financially. She has shown much patience with me and has comforted me through this ordeal. Ok, enough sappiness...besides she's probably going to read this and I don't want her to get all teary eyed or get a big head. Opps, did I say that? Oh, never mind.

Well, my next post might be a while. I'll try to get some sort of computer access somehow and try to update this as regularly as possible. Until then....

Aloha!

Finally! I Got a Job!!!!!

2004-10-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

Yes! I finally got a job offer! As stated in my previous post, I went to my interview yesterday up in the Bay area. It was a great drive up from Oakland to the area near Vallejo. The scenery was beautiful and the traffic was not bad. While driving, I was praying that I get this position. It has been a long 5 months in landing a job with endless amounts of searching and sending out resumes.

I arrive at the interview site and we sit down and go through the interview process. It really felt comfortable. I guess it was because we covered a lot of stuff during the preliminary phone interview. They took me on a short tour of their facility and the kind of equipment I would be working on. These systems were quite massive but it did not seem intimidating. After the tour, I had to take three online tests on electronics. I guess I did pretty well. I was a bit nervous since I had to dig up stuff in my brain from college. They were quite pleased at the results of the test and then they gave me a verbal offer to work down here in the Los Angeles area. They told me to not to give them an answer right then and there but to think it over the weekend.

Well, I've thought about it and will take it. I figured, this was the only company that wants me right now. Everyone else has flaked out by not following up on interviews and not returning any emails or voicemails. I even had one company give me a phone interview and then change up their minds because they wanted to have someone living closer to their area. Don't these guys read the address on my resume?

Working in the LA area, I won't have to move and look for a new place and I'll get to be with my sweetie. I was looking forward to working out in Virginia but this is a better arrangement. If I had moved away, I would miss my fiance a whole lot and wouldn't be a happy samurai. By staying in the area, after we are married we will be living close to her parents, family and friends. I will still be living only 5 hours by plane to my parents versus 12 hours if I lived on the East Coast.

I start work next week Tuesday and begin training on Wednesday for three weeks up in the regional office. Three weeks is nothing compared to the five weeks of training in friggin cold Wisconsin that I did while with my previous employer.

Hehe, now I can be sane again by working. Being unemployed was driving me nuts! Couldn't go out much or do anything. Even going to the movies had to be done carefully. I know I still won't be spending much and will be frugal in ways. I will make a splurge though to celebrate and buy a bass guitar I've been drueling over for a long time. Also, now I can save money for my up coming wedding! Hey! Now we can actually look forward to a honeymoon! Yes! Yes! Yes!...ok, got to get the thoughts of that scene from Harry met Sally out of my mind. That's all for now.