It’s been pretty crazy these past few weeks. Everything from work to working out to just enjoying outdoor activities. Its been 3 weeks that I been working out with my friends at the BSC and wow… what a phenomenal change. The past month my schedule has been like this… Go to work, leave work, head to the gym, work out for 2-3.5 hours depending on what my psycho drill sergeant best friend has in mind. I would get home by 10:45PM-11PM then try to catch up on other work. But I’m down 13 lbs and I see a big difference in the mirror. My chest and arms are firming up pretty damn well. I been poking at my biceps a lot lately because they’re hard as a rock. ROFL. I feel much more energy now. Just the other day, I was limping from the leg/abs workout but things are paying off. I’m moving up on dumbbell weights and I was able to do a few 1 handed push ups again.

I actually got into a heated argument with my psycho drill sergeant friend the other day because he was getting annoyed with my bitching on some of the workouts. So it was like listening to him bitching about my bitching. It’s been a long time since I worked out. I lost a lot of strength, energy, stamina due to my personal issues that I was dealing with (which involved many restrictions). But my strength and energy are starting to come back. Problem with him is… he is impatient and has a bit of an anger problem. ROFL. I use to work out with him in the past and he didn’t complain like this. I remember going at my own pace. I remember one time when I was going up in weights and he even asked me if I were sure. I know the limitations of my body and what I can or cannot do - and right now, it’s playing catchup. But now it’s not just him and I working out. We also got another person with us so things are a bit different. The routine is different, more things are involved and to be honest, my stamina is not where it use to be. But we worked it out after arguing a bit in my cubicle. I am trying, I haven’t skipped out on any of the workout days… we been going 5 of 7 days per week.

So what else has been happening? Manny hit #500 and the Boston Celtics are in the NBA finals. I’m also getting some good results from my new trial contact lenses. Oh and work… Things are starting to slow down finally. I swear my head was going to explode there with all the things that were going on. I scheduled vacation time between June 9th - 13th so hopefully I can get my sanity back.

Another personal dilemma was about my career path… recently there was another opening in my company for a database analyst. Was I interested? Somewhat - It was a bit tempting and I can do database work. Why was it so tempting? Most likely the pay. I did some homework on salary.com and saw the pay difference. But hey… what’s an extra $20,000 anyways? haha. I had a chat with my friend lani about it and she agreed on my decision to not apply for it. Why? Well, I look at it like this… I like what I currently do (it’s challenging and i learn new stuff frequently especially with all this web 2.0/3.0 movement), I like my boss, my boss speaks highly of me (to the CEO and other big shots), he knows my potential, he knows I bust my ass, he got me what I asked for (in terms what how much I’m worth - let’s just say another 30% hehehe), he lets me leave early sometimes, I can wear anything I want to work, people don’t invade my space, i can listen to headphones while I work, and there are many other reasons. But mainly, I’m happy at the moment. If I switch to become a database analyst - I would get paid more but I would have a different boss, I would sit there and do more monotonous tasks, and things probably wouldn’t be the same. Yes the money would be nice but I’m sure I can reach that salary range in due time. I’ve only been with this company for a year and a half now and my work speaks for itself. It was quite a ride though, my brother’s best friend works for another dot com and wanted me to apply with his company. Then my friend introduced me to his co-worker who works for Channel 2 (WGBH Boston) who was looking for someone who does my kind of work. But you know what? I’m not ready to leave my company yet - maybe when I realize that I can’t go any higher, I might go elsewhere but for now… Thanh is pretty content. And do you wanna know why I’m so good at what I do? It’s because I know a little bit about everything - not only you get a marketing guy but you also get a developer, a good researcher, and someone who is business oriented. Those are a powerful mix. So I conclude this blog entry with…. I rather be happy and get paid less than unhappy being paid more. If you feel different… you can talk to D… (Who’s D?) Deeeeeeeez nuts!

Some of you guys may recall that outside my office building lies a mini golf course. Recently, my marketing department purchased a Canon Vixia HF10 digital camcorder. The thing is amazing. It requires no tapes. It stores onto an internal 16GB SDHC card and also has an additional slot if you want to pop in another SDHC card. Not only that, this thing records in HD. I gave it a good test run this past friday. I made a couple good putts but I ultimately lost a bet to my boss and will end up buying ice cream for my department on Monday. So here goes a lower quality tour of the golfing area:

And if you are bored, I also made a couple videos of my friend that also works for the same company as me. We throw around a football sometimes after lunch. I gave the camcorder a test run on the first day it arrived, here they are on youtube: (of course, it’s not HD on youtube and I’m not going to upload a huge avi file)

Our NFL Fantasy Draft Parody:

And more clowning around:

Well, it was another Sunday with nothing to do really. I spoke to one of my best friends, Donny, and did some catching up. I told him what happened recently and he was even gave me one of those “WTF” responses. “Dude you knew her like since 10 years ago, how the fuck does that make you a stalker?!” said my friend Donny. I told him everything since he knows more than any one else about the whole situation. Even he found “her” strange along with every one else that I spoken with and especially with that stalker comment she made. Oh and did I mentioned that I got a text message from her that said that she hated me…. not once but twice in 1 text message. If anyone should be hating anyone, it should be me hating “her.” She basically shut me out of her life and then insults me by calling me a stalker. If anyone should be apologizing, it should be her crazy ass. And it made me think back to a few times how she spoke about me with some faggot (pardon my french) and said that I need to be with an asian girl. Why? Because she thinks only asian girls believe in settling down and raising a family. And I’m sure she left out a lot of details when she was chatting with the faggot (pardon my french) like… i dunno… when’s the last time we seen each other?! Maybe if she told the faggot (pardon my french), then maybe he would reacted differently. I have every right to feel how I feel about her. But she will never understand it because she lives in her own little fantasy world. Am I being too harsh? Maybe. But if you were in my shoes, I guarantee you would feel the same. Like I said, there are only a select few that knows about us entirely from years ago. And my boy Donny is definitely one of those people.

After all that talk about “her”, we caught up with what else has been going on with our lives. He has been building up his culinary skills. Which was cool to hear because I am a rising Iron Chef myself (haha). So we ended up talking about how we made our pizzas, similar recipe but he uses a bit more flour than I do. So I decided to give it a go. I started making pizza. And the end result… awesome as usual….

From scratch… How? You ask.

Disolve 1 packet of yeast in warm water (about 10 mins)
Then add:
3 cups of unbleached BREAD flour
1tsp Salt
1tsp Sugar
2Tbsp Olive Oil

Mix it till it turns into a dough ball then cover it in a coat of olive oil

Warm up your oven a little bit and turn off the heat, cover the dough with a damp cloth,
and let it rise (about 1 hour)

When it’s done, kneed it and then put on your toppings and put it in the oven 400degrees for about 15 minutes or to your liking.

You can thank me later. Care for a slice? Yummyyyyyy

Due to recent events, It looks like I have to make a change of plans for my vacation time. I’ve been working too much and too long without a relaxing vacation. So I ask my readers to suggest places for me to go. Where does a single 27 male go for vacation? Due to certain circumstances, it has to be a location based in the USA. I’ll be traveling alone so any suggestions will be great. I gave it only a little thought at the moment but here’s my list:

1. Miami
   Pros: Short flight. I know a couple people there. Lani said she would come hang out with me and my boy epidemic lives down there too.
   Cons: Humidity and although I know a couple people there, I don’t expect them to be hanging out everyday with me so I’m really not sure what else is there to do out there.
2. Orlando
   Pros: Short flight. My boy Steve lives down there. He’s a long time friend of mine that I’ve known since my programming AOL days.
   Cons: Same as Miami
3. Hawaii
   Pros: My brother been there and he says that it’s great. And Lani also suggested this.
   Cons: Long ass flights (12hrs each trip) - Don’t know anybody there.

Looks like I’m going to spend some time on Yelp.com to do some homework on what’s out there. I really don’t know where else I should consider traveling to. If anyone have any suggestions, please leave me a comment or send a message. It would be very helpful. Great part is… I won’t be paying for my trip. Rewards are great.

*Edit: Lani doesn’t recommend Hawaii while single. So I guess I need time to compile a better list of places to go and hang out with people who KNOW that i’m NOT A STALKER nor even think of it.

So last night (Wednesday night, Apr. 2nd), my friend Agustina from California calls me and of course she wanted me to help her with something. If you haven’t noticed… I’m “that guy” to call when you want some help with something technical. She tells me about a competition that her store, exclusive wireless (a T-Mobile authorized dealer), was having. There was no real prize or money involved but I’m a helpful person… not to mention that I’m as competitive as it gets. She tells me that a co-worker at another store was the “graphics guy” for their franchise for awhile and also that he uses Illustrator. He reportedly submitted 3 drafts into the contest. So I was starting to have doubts that maybe I didn’t stand a chance. So Agustina and I stayed up to 3AM EST, working on this flyer for a “Tax Free Weekend Sale.” - It came out good, but I wasn’t too happy with the image on the upper left but I was too tired and exhausted to continue to work on it. It was due the next day. Damn Agustina and her last minute missions. It felt like the show Dinner Impossible but for graphic design.

So she calls me today and tells me that I’ve won! And the flyer will be posted up at every exclusive wireless store in the Sacramento market. Hopefully if they have future sales like this, my flyer might make it to other exclusive wireless stores in Modesto, Sacramento, Reno (nv), Visalia, Bakersfield, Tulare, Madera, Porterville, Delano, Dinuba, Turlock, Atwater, and Stockton. Her regional manager loved it and the owner of the franchise was impressed as well. VICTORY IS MINE! I just want to thank the associated press, My mother for having me, the teenage mutant ninja turtles cartoon that inspired me to draw during my childhood, and thanks to my buddy Agustina for giving me to opportunity.

Westsideeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

This was very uplifting for me due to the issues in my personal life. Thanks Agster!

If you’re in the area, check them out at:
Exclusive Wireless, 5110 N Blackstone Ave Ste 101, Fresno,CA 93720. 559-241-7045

P.S. Agustina, you owe me a video testimonial.

I’ve been sort of busy and still haven’t added everything to my portfolio yet. So I’m adding this project, I done ages ago, for my friend Epidemic. He is an aspiring rap artist from Miami, Florida. Not only did I design his myspace, I also did his domain goepidemic.com (Go check out his first exposure mixtape - It’s dope!)along with cd covers, flyers, and t-shirts that were passed around during the world cup in germany. Can we say exposure? hehe. But yeah, I did tons of stuff for him.

Or you can check out the song that blew up from First Exposure:

Epidemic f. Jean - Spanish Holiday | Check out goepidemic.com to check it out!