Lack of a Good Title
hey folks, time for another installment of my so called life. hmmm... what to write about? you know, sometime i think when i write in retrospect as oppose to as close to the moment as possible, there is this sort of initial blase attitude towards everything. i'll try to avoid that even though right now i feel like this blog is more of a chore than an inspiration. you see... i need you my faithful readers to goad me on to continue writing about all the little shenanigans i have been experiencing in my life. haha.
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anyways, this was my second week at work... and yes... i survived. actually, this week, i really began feeling the groove of things i think. i'm still working on this mixed use proposal but this week, i was able to really get down and dirty with some actual design... still very conceptual that is, and technically just lots of photoshop collaging, but still... it was interesting... designing minature cities and all. this is exactly what i wanna do right? haha, i actually had a "review" on thursday and it was pretty helpful... work with the land when manipulating water.... good. it requires some reworking of my precious schemes... but hey... thats what you gotta do.
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and here's a little tidbit of observation. on thursday "pinup", the other two guys i am working with (well, not really working with since they individually are proposing things for the other two sites, the client in total wants three proposals for three sites)... i'm getting the impression that i'm putting a LOT more effort than the other two. there are two possibilities... one, that being a harvardian... i am just naturally the hot shit...or.... i'm not the hot shit... and i just did so much work because i had nothing else to do... that is... no other projects to juggle like the other guys. hmmm... probably a mix of both. today, i was talking to my supervisor who kind of gave me the notion that my palcement on certain projects was to really sort of scope out things that the pricipals thought i'd be interested in and also valuable in... which makes me feel good. its good to be noticed.
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so yeah... in general, work is allright... actually no... more than allright... pretty good actually. the only kind of crappy day i had was friday basically because i was just feeling lazy and didn't want to do any work... haha. pure and simple just procrastination. even started surfing the web a little... mind you... no porn or ebay or email... just possibly legit stuff related to site research... haha... like houston squash and raquetball clubs! anyways.... yeah... this week wasn't too bad...and the best part was... I GOT PAID! and i got my freaking bonus... YES! watch the money roll in... heehee.
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some of my time after work this week was devoted to trying to sign up for my FREE gym membership at the downtown Y... and today i finally got it. i got the tour the other day and i have to say, i was thoroughly impressed... the place really had pretty much everything i would want... well, not squash courts... but they do have raquetball courts! and i signed up for raquetball lessons as well. i've got a mind to lose some pounds before i move into my new house... new house... inside and out! anyways... they also have a a pool, and a great weights area and cardio and all that jazz, classes up the wazoo, and not that i would use it, but a baskteball court and all that funky medina. anyways, its a nice place... old building, but stocked with stuff. and mind you... some cute guys around too... lots of old fat farts... but a number of cutie's definitely. YUM.
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unfortuanetly however, most of my evening were pretty predictable. lots of wasting time online. yeah, i have to admit it... i spend way to much time online on you know what. and the sad thing is... i'm usually just browsing. its not like i get all that many messages and even the ones i do get, its not like i end up meeting that many people. although, i could, but for various reasons i haven't acted on meeting some potentially really cool guys for friends. i have met one guy... and friday evening, i really lucked out because he invited me, and some other friends to share these suite tickets he had for an astro's game. let alone not seeing baseball in a stadium all that much... but chilling in a suite with free beer and food! DAMN! I tried the supposedly texas tradition of a frito pie... i'll let you ponder that. oooye... indigestion later. but it was fun. the game lasted to the 11th inning...we decided to jet before... and thank god... because eventually home team... LOST! that would have been a bummer.
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i guess i can't say my whole evenings have been a waste. i have actually also started piecemeal brushing up on my chinese actually... by listening to some tapes on chinese sayings in the morning... a usefull 30 minute drive as opposed to quickly getting tired of my CD's... and then reading some chinese short stories in the evenings... sometimes. its slow and i don't understand jack the first time usually.... but with repetition and practice, its coming along. anyways, my goals are just to expand my vocabulary and my exposure to the language... not necessarily at all to learn to read... or write. i just want more spoken and listening capability i guess.
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of course, not all my time has been educational either... as i suggested before with my obvious addiction to manhunt..... ok, addiction is too strong a word... let's say... habit. but it does have its benefits as thursday i also had another first in my repotoire of experiences. again, its one of those moments i wish blogger had a private, black out mode... but let's say one should use their imagination with a surgical glove and crisco. haha... it was interesting... even a little fun... eye-opening as well as opening of other things. FFun. ;-)
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and the weekend? well... there was the astro's on friday. saturday was a FULL day devoted to basically parents' temple activities. the "pope" in their religion basically came to town... and you know obviously the shit hits the fan when that happens. so the whole day was involved at the temple... actually often, kind of just waiting around... as we didn't really have specific tasks... kind of just like filler help. it was absolutely CRAZY though i have to say. thank god... or the pope, that we were relieved of any obligation on sunday. sunday was a little slow paced. waking up deliciously late... then having pho and then going to the MFAH and getting my membership finally so i can feel all special and shit! and then having dinner and watching a silly movie called John Tucker Must Die... entertaining although un-noteworthy. ahhh... and that was my weekend!
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not too bad. i've started this week off well i think. work was ok, i was told a more specific date for my china vist... third week in august, for about 4-5 days... rocking! and i worked out! only 15 minutes on the elliptical and then i was winded... but also swam a measley 3 laps but oh well.... who am i trying to impress?? the fat ugly old men checking me out in the shower?? haha. for god sakes, it's the YMCA!! in general, life's not too bad.
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All Good Things
... must come to pass.
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man, it has been a while since i last had an entry. i'm really sorry guys, i know you guys all hold yoru breath for my next entry... haha. anyways, it been about two weeks since my last blog i think and basically i just have to report what happened on my last week before starting my great new job... and then my first week on my great new job. haha... so shall we?
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the last week wasn't full of too much drama i believe. although i'm of course trying to remember in retrospect so some of the subconscious burying is already in process...so hmmm. well, i do remember that much time was devoted tow rapping up on reading through and organizing all the financial data of my parents' various entrepreneurial entities, and trying to make sense of it all. all lots of big fun there. haha, but what's kind of cool though, is that now in my "office", i have these neat little rows of blue colored legal size folders with the cute littel metal prongs at top...sort of like those silly legal briefs that lawyers... ahem... wear. haha, wink wink. anyways...so yeah, i spent a lot of boring, very distracted hours on that silly task.
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in general, there were a lot of "little" things i wanted to take care of before i started work, i think eventually i got to most of them. i can't wait until my little date book will become usable. i thought it would become usable by work since i assumed it would start at the begginning of july or only as late as the middle... but low and behold, it doesn't kick in till Aug 1. so none of that frantic writing of "to do's" until aug 1!
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what else? hey, i remember my burgeoning friendship with this guy i chatted up online. on wednesday we made a date to go see a local museum and afterwards had lunch. he seems allright, cute in a way, but not exactly sure if we have that much in common to be honest. but right now, i've realized that i sort of just have to entertain everyone as a potential friend i think... and maybe then i can meet some other cool people. after seeing the museum on wednesday, we hung out again i think it was sunday... and i met some of HIS friends... which really was the whole point of the escapade (since i'm beggining to think a romantic involvement isn't there)... and they were cool. i have seen them once again since then and they were very enjoyable. Jake, that guy i first met, even has called me to invite me to a hang out, as oppose to the other way around, which i find to be a good sign no? there are also other guys that i have been meaning to hang out with and who knows, maybe we eventually will. i think i will just let thing sort of settle where they naturally want to i guess. haha, i remember driving home one night and getting nervous about calling a guy that is aid i would call if i was coming home early from work...which i was. but ultimately, i have to regretfully inform that i chickened out and decided to just go straight home. strangely enough, in retrospect you really wonder why would i be afraid in the first place... and i couldn't really answer why... i'm just bad about calling people on the phone.. always have been.
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anything really cool happen over that first weekend? hmmm... watched a movie. oh... yeah, had some fun with "friends" on sunday... it really sucks that this blog is a technically public forum... because some of the juiciest stuff in my life i have to censor...for reasons of incrimintaing evidence... haha. so, suffice it to say, Alex had a little bit of fun the day before work... just to kick off the new life in a good, relaxing... yet energizing way. Thank you Paul and Rick.... wink wink.
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so how was work. OH MY! overall, i think i'm gonna have a dandy time there. in general, everyone is pretty nice, there is some newbie hesitance with some... but others are fairly forthcoming in friendship and conversation. i find the office and odd combination of typical houstonian firms populated by UT Austin/UH/Rice people and then a significant contigent (maybe 1/3) of chinese speaking employees (because of all the work in china that my firm is doing). actually the best thing to describe this, is that on my second day, i was told of my future planned involvement in a china project that will send me over THERE next month... only for a few days at most... but OVER THERE! haha... and in preparation for that, i am to take it upon myself to have an informal chinese learning program going on.. basically brushing up on my chinese...by speaking only chinese to the chinese speakers and then having them replying only in english. trust me... i am the one who needs to learn more chinese as opposed to them learning more english. haha! but oevrall, people are pretty cool. got asked out to have lunch, which was akward as usual, but allright in general. also, two days were filled with company lunches so those were fun. its funny, that even such a silly thing as lunch can still bring you back to silly high school dramas of trying to fit in.
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i won't describe the few people i have sort of begun to get to know now, as i am sure, if they are note worthy, they will again appear in this tome. suffice it to say, the first week was pretty enjoyable. the people were in general cool... they seem like they could become good friends. there seems to be a high contingent of "asian-ness" in the studio, which is nice, but i wanna utilize it only for real benefit...i.e. learning chinese for me, but not necessarily as being part of their group. i've never fared well with "uni-mind" mentality as i am a social free agent of sorts. but yeah... there seems to be a ponopoly of kinds of people and i hope to get to know the lot of them.... i mean, there's prob only about 30... can't be that bad!
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friday night was an interesting time at work. oh by the way... the work isn't too boring. its not breathtakingly fascinating, but i feel in general fairly equipped for it.... being that it is pretty straightforward urban design planning...starting with site anlaysis and all that jazz. hopefully next week, we'll be starting some real "design"... buta t least this week, its been fun working in GIS and Photoshop... two fun programs that remind me of Elements studio. anywyas... friday we had a sort of community presentation of some works the "intern program" has been doing. to be honest... when i saw the presentation, it was hard not to be in harvard academic critical mode...as i began to mentally pick at all sorts of things and wanting to give critical feedback. but then when the ocmmunity started "asking questions"... it was a complete laud-fest.... which of course, i didn't want to be the party pooper... haha. but it was basically a ... great job, thanks for doing it. sigh... what can you expect from non-academics.... i have been in snooty harvard land a little too long..... haha. well... after that shin-dig.... we then had a little "par-tay" for said interns (because they are leaving....it was a "summer program" for them) at one of the principal's home...which was pretty cool. again..some social akwardness being the new guy but in general i'm glad i went. free booze... how can you disagree. eventually had to leave because i met up with jake and some of his friends again... at this cute "video bar" called guava lamp... my first foray in houston gay culture.... yay!
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this weekend was relaxing... my first weekend after my first week of work...whooo. well friday night did that company thing and guava. saturday had dim sum with teh folks and their friends...which was yummy. and then after sort of just watched DVD's. mei, my cousin, purchased a net flicks thing and so yeah... had some movies to watch. oh... saw "She's the Man"... which is very cheesy and juvenile..... but it was so much fun... and had the hottest guys... haha. oh that reminds me... there's another gay movie called... well... another gay movie, that is coming to houston in sept... a must see.... its basically a gay version of american pie... haha... four gay boys who make a pact to lose their "ass" virginity.... haha! too raunchy fun! sunday? well... actually sunday... went to go see this big house and gardens part of the MFAH collection, which was very cool i have to say. had the opportunity to pretend to be fabulously rich and influential... one of the premier "families" in Texas... haha... i wonder if these guys are still around? i mean, robert has met the rockefeller scion so... they DO exist. i wonder what the fuck-ups are doing? haha. after that, went to the galleria on an attempt to find a gift for a friend but really ended up just browsing random things and getting very tired as had a late night wasting time online, the night before. after waking up with a double shot espresso machiatto... whcih by the way...really perked me up.... had dinner at the supposedly famous "Hunan" chinese restaurant... whcih i ahve to say...wasn't bad... and i guess you could call it "Fine Chinese Dining"... but i dunno... the idea of Haute Cuisine Cinois... ummm... i dunno. anyways... $40 later, called it a day and headed home. .
now just wrapping up some stuff... like writing this silly blog...and waiting to start the eventful 2nd week of work, the week where the shit really hits the fan... and i'll be thinking... why the fuck did i sign up for this.... but then again... that's what the hefty signing bonus which i get with the first paycheck is suppsoedly going to alleviate.
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oh real quick.. speaking of grown up things like jobs and salary... i did a grown up thing last week by putting away some money in a CD witha great rate...and also opened up a fairly high rate savings account as well. in general, just part of financial planning... in about a month i plan to acquire a new car...so there will be some significant out flows... so this month its all about hoarding the money...haha. god... in 6 months it will be about buying that townhome... man...don't i feel adult. saturday night, i had a major case of potification to mei, as i was trying to say in my nicest way possible...which i dunno if is all that nice.... that she has to take stock of what the hell she's been doing since she's been in the states...and to really think what benefit all this "experience" has for her.... and to figure out what she wants for the future.
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haha... the older i get, the more like my parents i am. yikes.
Short Week
this was a truncated work week due to tuesday being independence day. but fresh an early wednesday i attempted to do a little bit of work and somewhat succeeded. really not much on wednesday as i was distracted by developing some photos and also taking care of some banking matters. but wednesday thru friday, during the day, i managed to do some of those financials i have been talking about forever. in essence, its about cleaning and organizing about 10 or so file folders, each about a phone book thick, that have been the partly organized (therefore unorganized) clutter accumulated over the years, under the non-watchful eye of my parents. haha, now that i am "coming into well... their own" i have to organize this shit in a way that i can understand. its also helpful to know where everything is as well, and to be honest... its not THAT complicated. just some piling of papers in some piles and not others. easy stuff.... but its just that there are so many distractions haha.
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the work week in general was relatively uneventful. the weekend? hmmm, not much better. friday we might have gone out but just decided to stay in, have dinner with the folks, and then watch a DVD. we did go out to watch Pirates of the Carribean on saturday night, which honestly, was kind of a let down as i thought the plot was very weak and it just sort of dragged. my eyes literally were hurting after...haha... i was tired! sunday was very chill. not much happening really. hmmmm, about the most exciting part was having fried chicken for dinner. oh hey, on wednesday night, also went out with Mei's friends again to Dave and Busters. haven't been there in forever, dinner was fun... there was a girl side and a guy's side... the girls talk about innane things and the guys talked about serious shit like katrina and house prices.... haha. fun nonetheless.
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i think the most significant thing this week though is that i have been chatting with a lot of new people. mostly via my newly activated manhunt.net account. yes, i know... bad bad bad! i mean what could i expect from a hookup site. but hey... i'm trying to be as "just hanging out and chatting" as possible... and actually i've been chatting to a few guys that are actually kind of cool. and well, who knows where it might go.... but hey, even if its just chat friends... i have had enough of those, and they still turn out to have their own merits you know. so just chill :) two guys i have talked a while with are sort of funny as they remind me of each other... both good looking closet cases... haha. one is from greece which makes it interesting to talk about international things about, and the other is sort of a loopy Phd in neuro-psychology... and he has issues too! haha. all good fun. and one kid, which honestly i just talk to last afternoon... he's one of those types i get excited about for no reason because he's a guy i can sort of see myself with... haha. boyfriend alert! wha wha wha! oh and beyond chatting, i have to also admit that manhunt has also fulfilled its more common purpose as well... man... sunday was a fun day. wink wink ;-).
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** not my office mind you... just thought this image was interesting!
All For Fireworks
so i trust everyone had a long and enjoyable independence day holiday weekend? eventhough i don't work, i did enjoy the break from the usual monotony of boredom. how did i diversify my weekend. well, on friday i had a fun time again with my cousin's friends shooting some pool, which i found out that i quite enjoy and don't do too shabby-ly...well, as good as i bowl i guess. haha. after that i went to the notorious Brazil cafe, the one that all the sheeshee yuppies and trend setters go apparently. it was predictable but fun. had the usually hetero experience of a group of guys bored out of their minds while the group of girls keep on gabbing.... haha... i mean, don't chicks get in when we're being obviously noticeably bored? oh well.
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the next day was pretty normal actually. went to the mall and go swamped by 3 million people, it was raining outside, so the only place to really go was the mall. anyways, did find a cute shirt and some cheapo flip flops. then that evening i took my folks out to go watch superman returns, which i found bearable enough although to be honest, i was kind of glancing at my watch a lot. hmmmm. at least the new superman character is quite deliciously good eye candy. dark hair, blue eyes... damn... gets me anytime.
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and then the next day we go on our actual sort of weekend trip, piggy backing with another family, who are friends with my folks, and sharing in their general warmth. five cars, each towing a jet ski, was quite a sight. so were the watering holes we went to. now i have a little bit of an idea of what makes austin so appealing... especially to texan young adults. there is definitely an up and coming almost trendy-ish nature and vibe to the city...and teh recreational aspects of lake austin and lake travis... which really are more like sinuous rivers.... that you can boat on and jet ski on and whose waters are emerald green.... beautiful. the first day we went to lake austin which is basically a river in a canyon like environment with beautfil waterfront property, each house perched on the ledge with a sharp inclined stairway leading down to each one's personal dock...along the actual waterfront. it was pretty cool. and the chop of the water because of all the vehicles and the reverberration of the wave movement...made for some fun riding. after jet skiing we went to this fun place called Oyster Landing... which i guess is like Penn's Landing in philly... lots of restaurants, cafes, and just fun stuff along the water. we had a good dinner there. after that retired to the hotel and just watched a movie on tv. the next day we went jet skiing again. this day we had a little less energy really for jet skiing eventhough the site was so much better... lake austin is absolutely gorgeous...i could seriously see a retirement home their... beautiful wide lake... truly emerald water and just this wonderful rolly hilly country, verdant and pastoral.... all around! and the waves were prime as well as the same phenomena of wave reverberration happens in this lake as well.... much more than lake houston for some reason... i dunno why... about same size lake it seems to me....well...maybe not, lake houston is a lot bigger i think.... but lake travis.... gorgeous! most of this day really alot more relaxed though...actually even napped after playing with two 7 year old girls in the water...vicious things...haha.
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finally got home and retired the rest of the night. and what of the fourth itself? well, actually myparents had to attend some temple function so they left early for that trip. so me and the cuz basically hit the mall... saw the devil wears prada.... highly recommended! and then just hung out at home. got invited to the neighbor's dinner party... good food. watched a dvd, and thens aw the 10 minute firework show after. pretty laid back day. happy fourth!
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and now tomorrow i am telling myself i really need to get up and start working for real. i have so much of my parents financial data to look over that i have been putting off for 2 weeks.... now i have only a week and a half left so yeah... time to get cracking. any other news? hmmm... i saw some townhomes the other day which felt a little adult... even considered the idea of actually buying a REAL house... land and everything... to avoid the silly community/maintenance fee crap...or at least have it invested in something real. i dunno...we'll take it slowly. like the car... not a huge issue now that i have decided to live at home for a few months. my social life is still pretty bland. oh i did have a lunch "psuedo-date" with another guy i met on-line. he's not much of a looker but i think he's nice, and he seems willing to show me around.. and i actually get the feeling he's not much into me either... so that's fantatsic! we can actually be friends! anyways... hopefully once i get into the office, surrounded by people my age...i hope.... maybe my social life will be better. PLEASE! haha.
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