Sung's Daily Ramblings.

e-cigs part deux

2010-09-04T14:39:00.002-04:00

Holy crap, this stuff really works! Since Tuesday, I only had 2 normal cigarettes, and that is because I was unaware that the sample cartridges had only 8ml of nicotine. Once I swapped to the ones I ordered with the kit (24ml), I haven't smoked a single cigarette since. And I don't even crave for it. Sure e-cigs are not like the holy grail. It still bad to have nicotine and "vaping" glycol, but considering that burning tobacco with so many additives is really, really, fucking bad. I think the most immediate benefits to a smoker swapping to smokeless tobacco product is getting away with shortness of breath, which affects metabolism.

So far I'm loving it, plus e-cigs offer such wide range of flavors, some tastes like candy. Think of as hookah :D

Adult section gone on Craigslist

2010-09-04T04:29:00.007-04:00

So I was checking Craigslist for good deals on stuff, like cars or cell phone, electronics, etc... But I noticed a CENSORED where the Adult section used to be.

Oh what will I do now when I'm on business travel, alone at the hotel???

I joke :P

So I decided to investigated what this was about. It seems like some activist/attorney (Norma Ramos) and her group Coalition Against Trafficking in Women were putting pressure to have it shut down. They got 17 state attorneys general to sign a letter telling Craigslist to shut it down.

I also heard the recorded debate on radio with Craigslist CEO, Norma Ramos, legal experts, etc... You can clearly notice that she never address any of the arguments brought forth to her, she just keep pushing her talking point. Even when asked to disclose the source of her numbers she still keeps pushing her talking points. Now for an attorney, which should be very comfortable with providing evidence, she clearly has a problem. Maybe she went to law school and passed the bar, but damn, she must really suck as a lawyer. Plus, in my opinions, judges and lawyers should never be activists. The law needs to be impartial, equal, and out from external influences. Being an activist means you have an agenda, sometimes its good, sometimes its bad, and often times misplaced beliefs. Yet, even if good and right, its not for the activists to decide what is right or wrong.

Even the 17 state attorneys that signed the letter, did not go as far to take Craigslist to court, why? Because they have no legal grounds to stand on. Based on that, she should know as an attorney that her opinion has no merit. Her organization was founded by activist from Women Against Pornography, which obviously is more of a puritan/decency motivation than human trafficking. She claims that the "Swedish model" is an example of success because it now law in Sweden. Well yes any fricking lobbying group successfully pushing and agenda and having it turn to law is successful? Well yes, success to you, but not a success to ending women trafficking. There is no evidence of her claims. While she disparage Netherlands legalization as abhorrent and a failure. Yet there are evidence that the legalization of prostitution in Netherlands works.

First of all her motives are wrong. She is a feminist that hates prostitution because its goes against her morals/principals. She completely disregard that, yes, some women choose to be prostitutes out of their own choice. She claims because they need money it affect their judgement. Of course it does, but at what point is it considered ok for her to be free from influence of money? She makes that call? If a woman make 150k a year and wants to compliment another 150k year prostituting herself, is that an exploitation because her financial "difficulties" forces her to prostitute herself? An no, there are women that works in the sex industry because they like sex, yes probably a very minority but they do exist. Of course Norma dismisses that only 1% of the sex workers, yet when asked for evidence of that number, she presents none. She even goes further to say that, policy cannot be created based on minority but on majority. So yeah, fuck the transgenders, fuck the blacks, fuck the Asians, etc... Her argument has no merit. In a republic, the laws are supposed to protect the minorities against the majority. Obviously, Norma being an attorney, she should know this...

Her ideals are unrealistic because we don't live in an Utopia. Even if we had the most oppressive state control, there will still be crimes. Then why even have an ideal that doesn't fucking work? I mean socialism sounds nice on paper, and it works in theory to create an Utopia, but everyone fucking knows full socialism text book style doesn't fucking work.

She is the shinning fucking example why fucking degrees, these days don't mean shit. Too much fucking theory, but not enough experience to back it up.

I'm not saying degree are not important, but people put too much importance on in.

In summary, she is a feminazi (not a real feminist looking for gender equality), an attorney that obviously doesn't understand her field, and well simply dumb.

Link to the radio debate.

e-cigs

2010-08-31T19:42:00.002-04:00

So due to my cravings to smoke during flights, I would hit those frequent travelers forum for tips on the "closest" smoking lounge in the airport. From those forum I first heard about e-cigs. Supposedly most of them "vape" during flight. So I decided to buy one for myself.

It arrived today, and I'm hoping to swap completely to these and never smoke a cigarette again. It is basically glycol with some flavoring and some nicotine and turns into vapor. So the exhaling vapor is basically water vapor. So there is no smell, no burning, no tar from burning tabacco and none of the chemicals from regular cigs.

Let see how this goes :)

DCA-CUN

2010-08-26T12:52:00.003-04:00

So Cancun is a go. I just booked my tickets and boss gave me 2 days off. I'm going to try to make it to Tulum from Cancun so I can see the ruins, specially the one perched on the cliff by the beach.

Cancun?

2010-08-25T12:33:00.003-04:00

So Kevin's wedding is coming up and I just don't have the vacation time for it. I'm trying to get 2 days off (Sept 9-10). I talked to my boss about it already, he is going to check with other staff. Then there is Misha's wedding which I'm not certain yet. My boss said I will have to talk to him closer to the wedding date. Sigh

Philadelphia

2010-08-19T15:05:00.003-04:00

So I have been in Philadelphia for almost a week. I will go back to DC tomorrow. I wish I had time to actually do some touristy stuff here in Philly, but the convention kept me really busy, unlike the convention in Phoenix where I actually had time to go to movie theaters twice per day during business hours. lol.

People in Philly seems nice, just like in Cincinnati and Phoenix. You do really get to know what "cities" are nice when you get to travel around a lot. The difference you notice is like night and day.

Am I the only road warrior that needs to cover my own ass?

2010-08-11T13:33:00.005-04:00

I'm starting to get really upset about this. So this job requires for me to travel alot, and initially I was paying it with my own credit card and getting reimbursements, but lost receipts (they refuse to pay back if I lost the receipts) and long delays on reimbursements, I told finance to issue me a corporate card. Plus all my fares are government rate, so I need a government travel charge card to be eligible for those fares.

Previous experience with corporate card has always been some what smooth. I spend on what I need on the road, like food, lodging and transportation, then finance department checks it against my credit card statements and automatically issue a reimbursement check. Only time they would dispute or ask questions is if they have a suspicious charge, like "Svetlana Russian Escort Services". Or other corporate card, I wouldn't even get a reimbursement, it would be charged straight to the corporate funds.

So from my last business trip, the expenses totaled 2K. I submit my expense report with all the receipts I had, granted some were lost, or some are not receipt, but printout from hotel's reservation confirmation with the rate. It seems like they are still not ok with that. They want the receipts.... Uh... they are giving me the "walk around". The can just pull out my charge card account statement if they want to... So not only they are saying they don't owe me the 2K, but I owe them $500. So the logic is, I went to business trips, but a fairy paid for all the expenses. Since the company didn't pay for it, based on their deductions, they don't owe anything, then a fairy paid for it. What if there are no fairies? If the company didn't pay, then well, I paid for them, right? And if I paid for them, the company owes me money because they have to pay for my business travel expenses. Isn't that logical?

I traveled on business trip, they know it, but they don't owe me anything, but now I owe them $500? How is that even logically possible???

Lol, about to just write the 2k off as loss and tell, "I'm sorry, yes I lied on the expense reports for my business travels. You guys don't owe me anything. See I forgot that a fairy paid for all the expenses, that is why I was able to go on business trips and no cost of my own, and not cost for you guys!"

haha

Trying to get motivation to re-work on my photo site

2010-08-07T14:25:00.003-04:00

I'm from the days of writing HTML on "Notepad", none of these Dreamweaver and stuff. I had to actually write the html on textpad and then upload to "review". Although harder, and more time consuming, it was very simplistic. There is some elegance in the simplicity of straight up HTML code. Anyways, time have changed, most site has Flash, XML, and a plethora of things I never bothered to keep up with. That is why in IT, people need to keep up with the new tech. Granted, web development was not my field, so learning HTML was more of a hobby, but when its really not your field of work, its hard to keep all interests up to date.

So now I want to make my photo site with Flash, and well I guess I need to take some basic class or something. I open Flash CS5 and uhhhh, have no idea what I'm supposed to do. It's not like I have a lot of time these days to learn something from scratch, but oh well. I have always been the IT guy for friend and family, so I just need to suck it up and learn it.

I'm back from my hiatus..

2010-08-06T11:17:00.002-04:00

I'm back because, Facebook no longer works to express my thoughts. That 250 character limit on wall post is just too small for me to express my thoughts on economy, politics and etc. It is my fault that I thought Facebook could have replaced a venue like a blog to speak my mind.

Facebook has its purposes, its more of a way to put micro updates and keep tabs with friends. I was trying to use it as a single site for everything... To an extent, I used this blog as Facebook before too, to put up daily updates of what I was doing for my friends would know what I was doing. So, yes, I tried to merge FB with Blog.

So whats in my mind now? Well. I'm loving how CNN added comments section for every article. Now you see a multitude of stupidity and sometimes sheer brilliance. Also its a good way to see how other people think, and I must say, I hate democrats and liberals. Although I don't consider myself a "Conservative", I do believe on its fundamental core belief, which is policies aimed at empowering the individual so they can solve their problems themselves, while the liberals, their policies are to empower the government, so the government can take care of people's problem.

How can someone think that they should give away their responsibilities, their freedom, their free will to a higher authority in exchange to have things taken care off? That is like being a slave or a robot no? I want to experience, to try, to make mistakes, and learn, because it enriches me. Just like when I was growing up, my parents took care of me, and now on the next stage of life, I'm doing things for myself, making mistakes and learning. I have to know how to take care of my own. So in this analogy, does it mean that liberals never want to "grow up"? Because they seem perfectly fine to have an authority figure to take care of them . I'm sorry, but that is just sad. You are not a kid anymore, have to balls to take responsibility for your own actions and don't demand or force people to help you. Growing up means being independent. You know, like when you left your parents and started to live on your own?

No, I'm not conservative either.

I'm a gun toting republican! Formerly known as flamming liberal.

2009-09-16T09:26:00.003-04:00

It's getting old, really. I'm for healthcare reform, but the quasi(unfinished) proposals are just bleah. Just because I don't support the current unfinished proposals out there doesn't mean I'm Republican, or racist, or gun-totting or FOX News fan.

During Bush era, I was labeled as flamming liberal, now I'm labeled as gun-toting republican.

Just when it was Conservative extremism during Bush, now its Democrats turn to be liberal extremist. Remember the legions of blind followers of Bush? Yes, the democrats are blindly following in Obama. There is no more middle ground for debate and come with logical solutions. It's all about I'm right and you are wrong, just like during Bush era.

What has changed? Nothing!

Obama is as bad as Bush, just on the different side of the polical spectrum.

What are friends for?

2009-09-15T06:16:00.003-04:00

After reading Dana's lat post I felt compelled to write something about it. I don't wholly disagree with it, but there are some things that are not so black and white in a friendship.

My experiences is that in a friendships, the gaps (timeframe without lots of communication) are not detrimental at all. The person that needs more contact due to certain circumstances might feel that the one not initiating communication might not be a good friend. This is where I see a difference. Horrible social skill, yes. Bad friend, definitely not.

To tell you the truth, my lack of communication is due to lack of my understanding on how to handle it. I feel that if I'm constantly in communication with my friend that has cancer, it will keep reminding her of her current situation. Earlier, I saw how positive she is dealing with it, and if I constantly ask her how she is would probably remind her of her current situation which is something I don't want to do. It like the old saying, "If you don't have anything positive to say, then don't say anything at all."

I'm not sure what is her take on this, but I'm sure she has her own opinions about it, and I do have my own. My opinion might be wrong, but that doesn't change the fact why were are friends. If my opinion in this regards is completely wrong, it only shows how much I lack social skills, it will never change how I feel about her however.

People get married, people are busy with work, or is raising a kids, these are circumstances that affects the amount of communication with friends, but it does not change the underlying reason why they are friends.

I have many childhood friends that I don't talk often, but when I meet up with them its just like where we left off last time. There is a gap, but its inconsequential. That for me, is what I call true friendship.

People that are only acquaintances, to me at least, will not be like I mentioned above. Meeting them after a gap can be a little uneasy and awkward.

Dana, I'm always here, 1 call away, or if you want, 1 flight away. Remember how I flew everywhere to visit you in odd corners around the country many times? I even made it possible to go to your wedding, when I was not financially viable to go. Why? Because you are important to me. Doesn't matter the nuances of socially acceptable ritual on friendships, because its more than that. What matter is that when you need it, I'm there for you, anytime.

The elusive yoga

2009-09-14T08:14:00.002-04:00

Couple of weeks ago, while Carlos was in town with Britt, we all had dinner at Misha's. While talking with people there I was told about this yoga class for free in Gtown. I said I would start attending it with them.

The first Sunday, well I went out the night before and got pretty hammered and overslept so I did not show up for class. lol Of course I'm told by Silva and Mirian how I'm not commited to it and I was all talk and no action. So this time around I was hammered again, but I decided not to sleep so I dont oversleep again. Painful as it is I managed there to get there on time, only to be told by the yoga receptionist that I was too late to join the class. She said that the class started at 11:30AM. But I was sure I've been told numerous time that it was at noon. So me and Steve we decided to have something to bite at Dean&Deluca nearby.

Later on that day I get a call from Miriam saying why I was not at the yoga class. It's only then that I found that there is actually 2 yoga studio near each other near Dean&Deluca, and me and Steve went to the wrong one....

Elusive yoga class ;P

It's been a while..

2009-09-08T02:43:00.001-04:00

Lol, with so much time in hand, maybe I should get back at it!

I'm leaning to political analisys, but maybe I should blog about daily stuff?

What happened to personal responsibility?

2009-01-31T15:54:00.006-05:00

When I read news these days, there is always an outcry from the "people" about how economy is making them bankrupt and they need government to help them out. But as always, they always overlook any personal responsibility on the current situation.

I read a story on CNN about this woman that was making six figure income, she had her own business. Now she has no income. She places the blame squarely on the economy, and she is bitter about how Wall Street got bailouts and she did not.

She states that because she paid tax, her business should have gotten bailout just like Wall Street banks. But I beg to differ. When these banks go down, thousands of jobs will be lost and it has a much worse spirilling effect than her business that generate low six figure. Also compare her tax contrubution and that of a Wall Street bank. So maybe the government should have given her her 50k contribution back in form of bailout to make her happy.

But this is beyond the point. The point is this blinding attitude that from people affect by the economy that hey are powerless or had no responsibility whatsoever on their current financial situation.

1. Wall Street hold 50% of the blame, the other 50% are the american population. Think about it, who was reselling securitized mortgages? Wall Street did, but why did it fail? Because of the population that bought houses and could not pay their mortgages made this securitized mortgages evaporate. So yes, Wall Street takes 50% for this risky practice, but the people, take the other 50% for not paying their loans. I mean how hard is to see that? But noooo, people never take responsibility and need to blame someone else, like Wall Street.

2. If you are in dire straits because you can't pay the mortgage, you have no one else to blame but yourself. Your misjudgment that economy will be great years to come affected your judgement on what you can afford to pay in the long term, that is a personal choice, thus the fault is yours. And please, do understand that you are not losing "your" home, a house is not fully yours until you have fully paid the mortgage. I never understood why people call themselves "homeowners" when they are still paying mortgage on it.
3. There is nothing wrong in selling your cars and lowering standard of living. Accept your share of the blame of the situation you are in, and ride out the recession. I do not understand people complaining about have to let go of some of their properties. Is it pride? Well, swallow your damn pride, because asking tax payers money on this situation is not a bailout, but a alimony from the government.

Did you buy things you cant afford and put yourself in debt? Did you save money when the economy was booming? Did you diversity your investment, and I don't mean different stock, because they are all still, stocks. Did you excel to a point where you made yourself indispensable to the company your work for?

There are the few of the many questions that try to point that its not always other/government/economy's fault. Much of the blame is on you.

Whatever happened to be responsible for you actions and endure the consequences of them?

The Fall of American Empire

2008-10-09T12:41:00.004-04:00

I must say I'm really disappointed with current candidates, is this the best US can come with? Both candidates are a joke.

Obama, a far left extremist with pushing his welfare agenda propose raise in tax. You never raise tax in recession, if you do business don't flourish and cut jobs and that put people into the welfare system cause more burden. Also whats the damn reason to raise tax? More tax money? How about reigning the government spending first? But since he loves the welfare system, any money raised through increased tax will go directly to handouts to some bum with a sense of entitlement. He wants to raise tax to small business that makes over 250k, what is the damn incentive to start a succesfull business there? It just kills the enterpreneurial spirit. Less small business=less jobs. I'm not an expert on economic policy, but c'mon, is he that stupid?

And we have on the other corner, McCain. He is willing to strike another country for votes. Is is a Republican and is not a Republican. He doesnt't follow any of the Republican values. His bold statement going to war for Israel. That is fucking crazy, how far is he willing to go for jewish vote? US-Israel alliance is now a parasitic alliance. Unlike what he claimed, Israel is NOT our best and strongest ally. This alliance became toxic and parasitic, and it causes more problems then give us benefits. Supporter will claim that the nature of the benefits is classified intelligence. True, but that is not enough, at least for me, to commit US to war. Also, we wouldn't need this intel if we weren't allied with Israel in the first place. We gain nothing from this alliance. As someone said, Israel should not try to lobby and affect US political outcome, because there could be a backlash from US voters one day, and if that happens, Israel will be in trouble, beacuse Israel has no other friends.

The whole culture is wrong these days. People buy damn houses they can't afford and for some reason they " need assistance" from governement. News FLASH, NOT ALL AMERICANS should be able to AFFORD to be a homeowner. Where the fuck did they get that idea? Because US is so entrenched in this culture of entitlement, people think they are entitled to a house. Now with govt stepping in to bail them how, what benefit is there not to be a homeowner of a house that you can't afford in the first place??

Banks are currently afraid to loan money, due to their own misjudgements, so what the govt does? Bailout. I'm sorry but if you are going to give them money that does not translate to banks wanting to loan money. The bank will keep the money and just sleep better, and that does not equate to banks loaning money.

We are living in a socialist welfare state, where people feels they are entitled to everything and the best for just being american, not because they deserve.

Do average Americans really lack critical thinking or are willfuly ignorant?

2008-04-10T21:32:00.005-04:00

Everyday I see something about Obama, I watch his clips on Youtube and this guy seems very shady, not because the guy seems like shady business person, but because he is SO VAGUE. So I go to his website and read the "Issues" section.

As I mentioned on Dana's blog about how his speech in regards to his pastor, seems a bit populist, it also reflect on the "Issues" section. It has a lot of populist fluff catch phrases that I believe that most of average citizen are swept by it. Yet he doesn't provide ANY "comprehensive" course of action, making his platform flaky and vague. If I want to vote for him, I want to know not only what problems he sees with the country, but HOW he intends to fix. I want to know his comprehensive plans so I can critically analyze it. Currently without any sort of strong and comprehensive plan of action from his platform, it hard to say what he is about, and worse, it takes away my ability to make any type of analysis.

These days average Americans are splashed with frivolous stuff such as American Idol, Who's America's Next Top Model and the other crap. While many can enjoy these, but ultimately they are able to differentiate as trash entertainment. The reason this concerns me is that I know people that are so enamored with celebrity/popularity that allows themselves to be influence by such trash. Decades ago TV put women as submissive homemaker servant of their husband and it was an "acceptable" culture. I'm sure if people these days look back, would find it horrific. Reason being is the lack of critical thinking of average citizen. TV programing changed, yet people are unable to break free.

It seems to me that Obama is the popular media darling these days, and populist running mostly on his charismatic persona platform, but ultimately without any substance. It's almost like high school where things revolves a lot about popularity, charisma, appearance, etc...

Ron Paul at least puts forward what he intents to do comprehensively, so I'm able to get critical with his plans. Like for example, some posts I mentioned that it is stupid to go back to gold standard, but thanks to his transparency about this plans, I know he is against fiat money, which I agree. I just don't agree with with his way to back currency with gold. He also wants to eliminate the Fed, which would effectively eliminate the current debt based currency value/fractional banking. On the other hand I can't do the same about Obama, his "plans" are vague with populist touchy feely catchphrase/key word without any substance.

So, what is the big deal about him? I'm not saying he is a bad person that wants to drag America through recession or something, I just don't see what this guy is planning to do. So anyone with critical thinking should be able to see that he lacks a comprehensive plan to be criticized about. So does this mean that average Americans are willfully ignorant? Or lacking critical thinking?

But I'm not to say that Obama is the only one that is vague, its Hilary and McCain too, although not as vague as Obama.

Softbank smacks NTT DoCoMo

2008-04-10T16:03:00.007-04:00

Softbank started their 3G prepaid service in Japan. This means that people with 3G GSM phone with W-CDMA 2100 aka "UMTS 2100" band, can use the service. My phone, is a HTC TyTn rebranded to AT&T/Cingular 8525, which means it supports the W-CDMA 2100 band. This is truly a world phone. As with most GSM "world" phones, the limitation was always Japan, but now with this prepaid service, GSM phones with quad GSM band (850,900,1800,1900) and WITH tri UMTS band (850, 1900, 2100) is a true "world phone" for those travelers wanting to buy a prepaid SIM or USIM(3G version of SIM) cards for their trips anywhere in the world! I love this phone :)

So when will NTT DoCoMo launch their 3G prepaid service for gaijin tavelers? Sure, people with UMTS/W-CDMA 2100 band could use their phone before in Japan, but roaming. But roaming prices? Too expensive.

Bach's "Air" on a guitar?

2008-04-09T19:55:00.002-04:00

This guys plays Bach's "Air" (BWV 1068) beautifully , on a guitar!

J-pop

2008-04-03T20:26:00.001-04:00

Holy crap I'm listening to J-Pop, Kokia. lol

Japan vs Korea

2008-03-20T23:36:00.005-04:00

A never ending debate.

Although there is always animosity between these two, they will never engage in a debate face to face in public to prevent heavy criticism about being intolerant. Each side must restrain themselves and observe their current stereotype as wise and calm people from the far east. Abiding to this stereotype is key on achieving acceptance amongst their western counterparts, which is their hidden desire.

Myself, well I'm blunt, as told by some friends. I like to crack controversially racial jokes, and smack at the notion of being politically correct.

I have a Japanese friend that I talk from time to time, and our conversation can get heated, at least for unsuspecting 3rd party observer/friend. Since we are both against being "pc", we launch on tirade of non pc stuff against each other.

Subjugation:
Her: We raped your women!
Me: Well but presently, we are raping your culture through trashy k-pop taking over j-pop!
Achievement:
Her: Japan is the 2nd largest economy.
Me: *I shut fuck up here*
Racism:
Her: Most intelligent and civilized are Japanese, then Korean, then Chinese
Me: No, it's Korean, then Japanese, and then Chinese.
Agreement:
Me and her: Ok Chinese are the 3rd.
Sarcasm:
Her: Japanese guys are slender and good looking.
Me: And they don't believe in orthodontics.
Disturbance:
Her: Me and my friends are going to Asian film festival, they will have UN type movies, such as kamikaze, comfort women, Tibet, etc..
Me:I'll show up and thank you and your friends personally for acknowledging the comfort women issue. I know your history books omit this.
Betrayal:
Her: I like k-pop.
Me: I like the used panties vending machines from Japan.
Controversy:
Her: Japan ended the Korean Imperial lineage.
Me: There is Korean blood mixed with the Japanese Imperial Family, your Emperor admitted to it.

Although we talk like that from time to time, we are basically similar to many extent.
We both prefer "western" partners. We are both stereotypically in Asian field of work; economics and computers. We pretend to be experts in Asian culture. Most of our friends are white.

All this might sound bad, but we don't take it seriously and we say in jest, often times to cause shock amongst 3rd party observers because its norm to believe that there are resentments between Japanese and Koreans.

Money are actually worthless when you need it.

2008-03-19T05:36:00.007-04:00

"The Fed's action is yet another forceful move in its attempts to alleviate the liquidity crunch and to shore up a rapidly weakening economy, "
Arun Raha, senior economist at Swiss Re

This was a comment within an article on BBC News in regards to Feds slashing US rates.

I got me thinking, is it possible to have liquidity in a fractional reserve banking system?

The end result of fractional reserve banking is creation of wealth based on debt. The problem with wealth based on debt is that there is no liquidity. For example, when someone makes a loan at the bank, the interest that the borrower has to pay is the "probable profit" that is actually already considered "money/credits" and then those credits are reused for further loans. This means that money is basically piles of piles of I.O.U.s compounded to one another. To exacerbate the problem, in fractional reserve banking, thee bank actually loans more money the actually have. If you deposit $1000, the bank will loan $9000 out. I'm not sure, but I think the current ratio allowed is 1:9 in fractional banking system.

Anyways, so basically the bank has a lots of I.O.U.s from people and that is actually considered "money" with very little "reserve" money. If your money is all tied up in promise of debts, there is no liquidity for the people that deposited the money. If all the money is loaned out, when someone wants to withdrawal a huge chunk of, bank are unable to, because most of their money is all out on a loan. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the term "bank run", but what it means is that, when there is a panic, and all the clients starts withdrawing all the money from a particular bank, the bank don't have the money to pay up, because there is no liquidity, they can't pay up. This recently happened with Bear Stearns in US and Northern Rock bank in UK, and on a national level in Argentinian crisis a couple of years ago.

So the current credit crunch, isn't is a global "bank run"? Because of people defaulting on subprime mortgage, people are panicking to remove their asset from that type of investment, but people they don't actually have money, but a bunch of I.O.U.s, that is now worth nothing, they have nothing to pay up to the investors withdrawing. Isn't it clear that debt based fiat money under fractional reserve banking equates to no liquidity? And the Feds are slashing rates, won't it just make people borrow more money and add a whole more bunch of I.O.U.s?

Unlike many people think, bank does not lend only the money they have, they lend a much over than their actual reserve. There is the federal reserve to help with liquidity problems when when a bank suffers a "bank run", but can they bail on a national level or a global scale?

Have you wondered why the US Govt always have huge debts? Because "controlled" debts means that there are that much I.O.U.s/fake money circulating in the econony, which if you consider real money, its a lot of damn money circulating. I mean it makes sense, why the US Govt don't make their own money, but instead get a LOAN from Federeal Reserve? Because debt equals I.O.U.s which equals money.

Now, lending money is a necessary thing for the growth of a economy, it provides the means for people to create more business and thus generate more money, however I'm not too sure about using the fractional reserve banking system.

But on the other hand, if they drop the current fiat money for "hard money"(which eliminates fractional reserve system), there would be much less money to go around making the economy stagnant. And the stupid suggestion by Ron Paul to go back to gold standard is ludicrous. There is only a finite amount of gold, and the current worldwide gold reserve cannot equate to the current amount of fiat money in circulation. Not only that, with gold or such other commodities, it tends to be cornered by the market.

In order for the current system to work, they economy has to keep growing progressively to "repay" the debt, but is that possible in a closed environment, like earth, with finite resources? Won't this bubble burst someday? Everyday loans are made and money is created by fractional banking to repay these debt. To me, it seems like a vicious cycle that will eventually burst.

Some people thinks that this is not possible, because banks take collateral on loans, but the collateral might cover the principal, but what about the extra loans made from fictional money created during the loan process through fractional banking?

I'm sure many "economists" are aware of problems with fiat money and fractional banking, but do they have "good" solutions?

PS: I'm no expert, all I remember are from my classes years ago, so I could be wrong.

Why are dogs cool?

2008-03-14T19:41:00.001-04:00

And this is why dogs are cool!

Hours wasted on Wikipedia

2008-03-13T03:41:00.002-04:00

I love to spend hours reading through some stuff in Wikipedia, specially the discussion area of an article. It shows opposing views of numerous people trying to push their point of view in the article. I find it more relevant than the article itself.

The articles that deals with things like racism or any other debatable topics are the ones with more discussion.

Ties

2008-03-11T15:17:00.011-04:00

Regardless of what has happened, I would still go to Japan again if I get another chance. But next time I would go to Kansai region and Kyoto instead of Tokyo. I think I've seen enough of Tokyo already. I want to check Himeji and Osaka castles. Also check the different Japanese cuisine there, like Kobe beef :)
The best would really be to live there for a year or so, but that is highly unlikely to happen. Living and working in Japan would allow me to go to different regions in Japan on the weekends and also allow me to remember my mediocre Japanese which I had long forgotten. Maybe even pickup Shamisen classes. This would also make me geographically closer to Korea, allowing me to make frequent trips to there to be more aware of my own culture and also visit my family in Korea. Bottom line is that I can't move to Korea until I'm 35 yrs old, before that is asking to be drafted to the Korean army. Maybe a decade ago I could have served, but now it's too late. At 30, wasting 2 years in the military would be counterproductive.
There are so many things I want to check in Japan, no wonder I want to live there. Of course I would get the "traitor" status for not having the same passion for Korea as I have for Japan, but what the hell. I want to to check Gion Matsuri and eat yakitori, I want to check the castles, the other regional foods in Japan. I guess its hard for Koreans to understand why a Korean wants to check Japanese culture so bad. I think is still a taboo to some extent. Koreans are very proud people and because of that there is a lot of resentment to old Imperial Japan for annexation of Korea and Japan's government's inability to admit certain war crimes from the WWII.
The late imperial Korea is marred with Japanese meddling in Korean imperial lineage and internal affairs. It's understandable, like in Japan, the Imperial family is a symbol of their culture, state and pride, and Japanese attempts to dilute the Korean Imperial lineage through intermarrying Korean Imperial members to lower Japanese Imperial members as unforgiving. Though, is it really a bad thing? Shouldn't this bring people together? Maybe not back then, but today? The marriage of Prince Eun of Korea to Princess Masako of Nashimoto of Japan under different circumstances might have been a good thing to bring people together, but his military service to Japanese Imperial Army during Japanese annexation of Korea is almost seen a treason. He eventually gave up his Korean citizenship and picked up Japanese citizenship compounding his treasonous status.
Japanese Annexation of Korea was unavoidable, considering that for centuries Korea had been weakened by fending off the Chinese invasion from the west, and then the isolationist policy left the Korean military very outdated. Korea always had a superior military power when compared to Japan, until Japan took rapid military modernization during Meiji Restoration acquiring western military equipment and training, while this, Korean military declined with its isolationist policy.
But past is past, whats done is done. The key is look forward and bridge gaps. Like Korea-Japan World Cup. I find it interesting in regards to K-pop and K-drama ratings in Japan, although not the best way, its a way to spark interest in Japan about Korea. Supposedly, after airing a Korean telenovela called "Winter Sonata" in Japan through NHK, polls suggested that interest in Korean culture by Japanese went up by a large margin, it also triggered a large tourism boom from Japanese visiting Korea and it also caused an increase of Japanese trying Korean proficiency exams. Granted, telenovela are trash, unrealistic view about Koreans, but its a start.
Maybe two generations from now, things will be different. I think the animosity is mostly from extremist and people that has direct or indirect lingering issues with the annexation and WWII.

Pics lifted from wikipedia

I got screwed

2008-03-01T12:41:00.006-05:00

So I went out with Misako friday night, we had lots to drink, and well I lost my card. My account got EMPTIED, its negative ALL GONE! Called Bank of America, they said there is a very slim chance to recover on foreign charges.

Thanks Eri-chan for bailing me out by lending some cash so I can get transportation back to the airport.

Sigh :(

I'm really depressed, I lost a lot of money, all my money.

Got my fortune told!

2008-02-29T03:54:00.003-05:00

So I managed to hit a local shrine/temple called Hie Jinja, about 5 minutes walk from Tameike-sanno station (pretty cool a open space with green in the middle of tall buildings). Supposedly is near where Eri-chan works, and I think its right beside her work building, because there was a NTT DoComo sign on the tall building right beside the shrine.

I put 100yen on the automated slot box that gives a little folded paper with your fortune on it. It is a bilingual version, English and Japanese.

There is a nice smoothie bar at Eri-chan's work building called Smooch. Two down, 18 more smoothies to become Gold Member, lol.

Time is running out.

2008-02-29T01:08:00.003-05:00

So I woke up really late again, and well I think its too late to hit the shrines, but, I will try to hit the local ones. We will see... I will have dinner later with a friend later on, possibly some drinks after it.

Time is running out and I didn't get to do much touristy stuff. :(

My camera let me down...

2008-02-28T02:02:00.003-05:00

I was planning to wake up early to hit some shrines, but I woke up late. I had time for only one shrine. I tried the one Ellie recommended near her work, but for some reason I can't find on the map, although the subway station is displayed. So I went to Sensoji temple on Asakusa, the last stop of Ginza line. It's a long ride...
Once I get there I get a Tokyo's finest patrolling the area. I asked where it was, and he replied in good English where it was.

I pull out my trusty camera, and it miserably fail to power on. After a couple of attempts, it shows a blurred image on LCD. Sigh, great, I come all the way here and the camera fails. The first day I met up with Misako, she was excited about a new Sony camera she bought, those slim ones. I gave a though about going back and buying a similar one, because she bought it cheap, but, my time in Tokyo is limited, so I just bought a decent Canon slim type camera. Of course the price was not worth it, since it was one of the gift shop on the temple street where they rip tourist. but wasn't very expensive, though I wish I could have bought the Sony one Misako bought.

Had a very authentic ramen at one of those back alley ramen shop near Sensoji!

Beware where you speak a foreign language, because bystanders might still understand what you are saying.

2008-02-27T03:08:00.003-05:00

This is too funny to let it go.
I know that many I know never been to Tokyo, much less to Roppongi Citibank. Anyways, Citibank is on the second floor of this building on this major intersection at Roppongi. The elevator to go up is REALLY small.
Before coming here I had a couple of dollars exchanged to yen at the airport, now I needed to have more exchanged, since my experience so far has been that is hard to use cards.
When I got to the elevator, there were three blondes waiting, and chatting. By the way there were dressed up, they looked like sluts. My eye were wandering around, looking the ceiling, pretending I did not speak English, just waiting for the elevator.
Their conversation revolved around how one of the blondes got a new Japanese boyfriend that buys here all these gifts. The other blond, had to retort by claiming that her Japanese boyfriend bought her a Chanel watch/jewelry model J something. I guess the third blond didn't have a boyfriend or her Japanese boyfriend wasn't rich. When the elevator got to us, and they moved in, I decided not to take it, because the elevator was very small, plus I wanted to throw a punch line on them. So I told them "It's ok, the elevator is too small, I'll get the next one". You guys should have seen their faces. hahahah

Pretty good for a foreigner.

2008-02-27T00:32:00.006-05:00

So I took the 20 mins round trip subway ride to Ikebukuro to drop some gifts, and wow, I didn't get lost at all.

I took the Aoyama-itchome near Tokyo Midtown towards Yoyogi on Oedo Line, swapped to JR Yamanote Line all the way to Ikebukuro, passing though Shinjuku. Granted, I had my trusty pocket "Tokyo Subway Guidebook" on hand, but I didn't make an ass of myself like last time by wandering around aimless like a zombie in the ever chaotic maze that is the Tokyo subway stations.

I even remembered that the exit at the Ikebukuro was the Seibu exit. ;p

One thing that really helped me, was when yesterday, me and my friend were about to get into the subway station to go to Shibuya, she recommended that I get a PASMO card. What a difference and convenience it is to have a PASMO card. Last time I bought those single tickets, which was horrible, because I don't know whats the fare, I would always put more than it was necessary, also if you overpaid, there is no refund. And these tickets are not interchangeable between certain subway lines. With PASMO you just refill, and wave the RFID card and it will deduct only the amount you traveled, also its interchangeable between all subways line in Tokyo. So maybe the only time when you might have some issues is refilling, but even then the refill machine has option to have the menu in English.

I guess I had a tiny issue today with the card, because as I waved the card, it gave me the red beep. I thought, well it must not work with this particular subway line, but the helpful attendant that was nearby took my card and swiped on his card machine thing and said in broken English, "Onry 47 yen!" Well it was time to refill the card, he actually left his post and escorted me to a nearby refill machine, although the menu was in English, ironically, the numerous slots on the machine were labeled in Japanese only and I didn't knew where to insert the card. I told the attendant, "Arigatou goizaimas", to which he made a quick short bow and said "Thank you" with a smile.

Politness and quality of service in Tokyo is just amazing. My brother says that in Korea it is the same, but I haven't been in Korea for so long that I don't have any parallels.

I guess the only thing outside this aura of politness in Japan are the obachan with their quick pushy elbows and their counterpart oyaji with their bad breath.

Yeah one thing; Japanese restaurants should stick to Japanese food, although they are really good at Japanese food, they suck at replicating food from the west.

Condomania

2008-02-26T12:43:00.005-05:00

What a laugh!
While walking around Harajuku, my friend pointed out to this huge pink sign that says "Condomania", saying its the famous "Condomania". Not being a local, and being the slow on the pickup, I thought, "What's so special about condos?" I immediately asked my friend where these "condos" were located. Before she could utter a reply, it hit me, its a condom shop. HAHAHA.
My friend suggested we go take a look, but I was a bit worried, not for myself, but for my friend. I have this impression that in Asia is not appropriate for a woman to walk in into condom shop, specially with a guy. Dunno where I got that impression from but, she said it was ok.

Its a very small shop with glittering condom packages with all sorts of novelty features. Inside I saw a couple of people, guys and girls alike, so I knew my initial concern was unfounded.

The condoms I found in there ranged from good laughs to serious duty. From a foreigner that can't speak a word in Japanese, some of the boxes are "misleading". Some of them look like Pocky snack boxes, specially the fruit flavored ones, like the strawberry. It look like strawberry Pocky box.

My friend is into "cute" stuff, so she chose a couple of boxes for me. Probably will never use these, because no self respecting men would wear a condom with little teddy bears, and Hello Kitty type stuff. Maybe in Japan, but definitely not in the "West". She explained that one even glows in the dark. LOL! I guess Ill give as souvenirs to some "lovebirds" when I go back home.

Today was very fun, kinda got to see the general Tokyo culture. I'm sure its stereotypical, and I don't mean to offend any other people from Tokyo, I walked around checking "shops" and trying little cafés scattered around. I guess to a segment of people in Tokyo, that is the day to day thing to do.

Disposable income

2008-02-26T09:55:00.004-05:00

How is it possible for SOOO many young female teens have this much disposable income to shop on weekdays (shouldn't they be in school?) around trendy places like Shibuya, Harajuku, etc... I was taken to Shibuya 109 (Mall) to accompany her while she shops there. It's just weird. The place is PACKED with young female teens, with very rarely a guy here and there accompanying their girlfriends. It's like frantic young female teens shopping like the end of the world is coming or something. Now, this is not like Walmart, this is a "trendy" place (as it was explained by her). So where does all these disposable income comes from??? You think USA is consumer oriented, it doesn't beat Tokyo though. It's malls upon malls with frantic female teens buying clothes and accessories.

(TK is the nickname of a former work colleague, we thought it was funny to find a store named TK)

Tokyo for dinner.

2008-02-25T11:55:00.001-05:00

The flight was long and painful although the ANA service is as always amazing. Japan knows this thing called SERVICE! The flight was just long, damn long.

Had a nice dinner with a friend, and had a couple of drinks around a couple of places around Roppongi. Those Nigerians are pretty insistent!

Drinks...

2008-02-24T10:13:00.002-05:00

I think someone spiked my drink at the club. I know how its to be drunk, and that was definitely not drunk.

drunk=I pass out

If I can't sleep after drinks, then something else was there.

Tokyo Encore

2008-02-22T11:55:00.002-05:00

So I'm leaving for Tokyo again on Sunday. Hooray! Will meet up with Misako and possibly with Dana+Luis.

Indepedent Kosova?

2008-02-16T21:29:00.003-05:00

I chuckled to see this on the news. What exactly are they trying to do? Can they even survive on their own? Currently they got one of the lowest GPD, very high unemployment, crime. They are surviving on aid, what will independence achieve? A good feeling from champagne celebration that they are "independent". The irony is that if they go "independent", they are still dependent.

Why set a precedent where its OK for separatist regions to secede? Are we to grant every region the right to secede if a particular ethnic group becomes majority? Should California be allowed to secede if the majority become from Mexican descent? And why is that are we trying to carve every region to little islands of ethnic groups? Shouldn't we try to achieve cohabitation rather than empower ethnic groups with their own state? Without cohabitation, won't ethnic groups become more intolerant of other groups?

Why are they waving Albanian flag? I thought the idea was to become "independent" not an "extension" of Albania. There is an Albania already...

Do not carve borders out of contested regions, look the mess in Palestine/Israel.

Bottom line is that, currently Kosovo is not in shape to sustain itself, so going "independent" is a joke. Secondly, although I hate to agree with Putin, he is right, this is dangerous double standard from US and EU in recognizing independent Kosovo. It will set a precedent for breakaway regions, and claiming that Kosovo situation is "special", doesn't fly with me, because every breakaway regions will claim their situation is "special" too.

Based on their current logic for "independence", please grant independence to the following regions within Kosovo that the majority are ethnic Serbians:
Leposavic, Zvecan, Zubin, Potok, and Strpce. And maybe grant NATO administrative areas where there are Serbian monasteries... So ridiculous.

Why does Bush seek approval in countries which obviously give him a "Hero's welcome"? Remember the countries in his "Coalition of the Willing"? They are either already allies of US or poor small countries seeking US financial/trade aid. So sad.

Reconnection

2008-01-29T06:16:00.000-05:00

Well its been a while since last post. To keep people up to date, I'm not doing much, that is why so few news. Only thing worth mentioning was my trip to NYC for and old friend's birthday and Zeca short stay here. I also got to reconnect with Marcelo, which I haven't spoken in like 3-4 years.

It's funny that I got to reconnect with Sylvia through Andrea, because me and Sylvia went to same school while growing up, and after I left Brazil I never heard about her anymore until I found through Andrea that she is her cubicle neighbor.

Marcelo hasn't changed a thing, he is still the same partying like a rockstar in NYC every weekend or so.

Zeca has some plans of his own which was interesting.

Gay?

2008-01-06T05:52:00.000-05:00

So the bartender tells me to come over to exchange phones when I'm about to leave to club. So right before I leave I drop by and she hands her card. The dude besides me ask if I'm gay? What???
And there was these older ladies on the line to get in. She tells me she forgot her ID and she asked me to tell the bouncer she was with me. Not like the bouncer would ask her ID, but I told the bouncer that she was with me and she forgot her ID. He let us in and she proceed to thank me for the favor. She asks me I'm Korean, and I said yes, then she says "Oh because my last boyfriend was South Korean." And I'm thinking "like as opposed to what? Northern Korean? Yeah we have a lot of Northern Koreans running around." Mikhail wanted to pay $50 for me to hit the older lady, but she wasn't like the 65 he hit on in Switzerland, she was more like 45. I told her "happy new year" and left.

Mileage Plus Premier

2007-12-17T05:33:00.000-05:00

After 3 consecutive year of barely missing the elite qualification miles (missing only about 2000-5000 miles), this year I finally manage to hit the mark and be upgraded to Premier elite status. This means 25% more miles per miles (easier to keep up the elite status), and complimentary upgrades to next class based on availability. No more huge fucking lines at United Economy check-in lines!! Shorter lines at red carpet!!!
No really, the line for economy check-in for United at any US airport is fucking ridiculous. Every time I get to the airport the United economy has a huge crowd, while others will only be light to moderate. It actually forces you to add one more hour for on top of the recomended 1 for domestic and 2 for international, and after 9/11 its more of 2 for domestic and 3 for international.
Wooohooo!

Consider this, if you are very close to being upgrade to elite member, making a "mileage run" is not that bad. For example United has now a $184 flight from Dulles to Vegas, that is 2066 miles for or one way, so being a round trip, its a total of 4132 miles for only $184. If you don't want to spend absolutely nothing more than $184, you can make it so that your stay in Vegas for maybe 2-3 hours and fly back in the same day. So basically you spend about 2-3 hours in the airport and fly back. Granted my trip to SFO was mainly because I wanted to make a quick visit to Misako, but the added miles were a bonus for me.

Dana for example, might have a harder time to do a mileage run because he departure airport is in Kona, middle of nowhere, so any flights for her toward the mainland will be ~$400+. But check this out; there is a flight from Kona for $388 to NYC through NWA, but I know she has United so she needs a different airlines, but wait, US Airways is only $411, so she can get the miles to her United because US Airways is Star Alliance! This means she can get about ~9954+ miles for a round trip flight from Kona to NYC. She could then take a china town bus and visit her friends over in DC.
The only downside for a PURE mileage run is time flexibility, but usually you can make a compromise between price and miles by making it a hybrid trip, an actual trip with maximized mileage and low cost.

My trip to San Francisco to visit Misako only cost me $256, that pretty damn cheap for SFO flight. It was a hybrid trip for me, since I only needed 3,000 miles to be upgrade to elite status, but I wanted the trip to be meaningful, thus why I flew to SFO to visit Misako instead of Las Vegas, which would have cost me only $184 and gotten enough miles (~4000 miles).

Oh did I say I qualified for another free domestic flight? hahaha.
Tokyo, sooo want to go again and visit Eri-chan! Added bonus of ~13,568 miles. Oh yeah with the elite 25% bonus for Premier members, its total of ~17,072 miles! heheh. That more than half of miles needed to maintain Premier status. HAHA

So I'm going to Tokyo next year anyways, and I have to go to Rio again before August, so that's about 29,050 miles, and IF I MAKE A STRETCH to add another Tokyo trip in the same calendar year with a mileage run to SFO, that puts me over 50,000 miles! Over 50,000 miles means that I would be upgraded to Premier Executive which give 100% elite mileage per mileage flown + Star Alliance Lounge access for the duration of the status! You heard that right, you get TWICE the mileage per trip! God that would rake in some much miles for FREE flights! Making the stretch is, well, not easy, but putting in 2 trips to Tokyo in one calendar year doesn't seems impossible or unreasonable, hard though. So let's say I make the stretch and get bumped to Premier Executive, I would have to maintain 50,000 every year, it sounds bad but its not bad at all, since Premier Executive give 100% bonus miles, its in fact basically flying 25,000 actual miles. Which I've been close to for the last 3 years.

J-town and the craptastic landing fees of Tokyo

2007-12-16T12:31:00.000-05:00

So I flew to SF for my lunch with Misako. It was nice indeed, but the means of transportation is always craptastic. Oh god I hate flying. The flight left IAD 8AM, connecting flight in LAS to SFO, arriving at 1:40PM. I always make sure to have aisle seat. So I had confirmed aisle seat for days. I get into the plane and I have 2 REALLY FAT women on each end of the seat. What the hell? Why am I not aisle? I didn't want to make a scene, because well I don't want to make the REALLY FAT women unconfortable. And why oh god were the 2 REALLY FAT women on each end leaving only the middle seat empty? Anyways I sit down and try to put BOTH armrest down and of course, it wouldn't fucking go down because it was being blocked by the women's FAT. So here I am, sitting in between to MASSIVE ladies, being squeezed. Since there were no armrest to contain their FAT from "spilling" into my "territory", I lost about 1/2 of my seat. Their FAT ASSES were in my seat. Their FAT asses were touching my thighs. I mean c'mom, I'm not complaining about the FAT ladies, but the airline here. I paid full fucking fare for a full fucking seat. They should have moved me to another seat or anyone else in the same predicament. The flight attendant looks at me as if there is no problem... It's my fault though, I didn't complain, I didn't want to make a scene.

Anyways, I got to SFO Misako picked me up on the beemer and we hit J-town in SF. Aha I miss that place. See, I eat a lot of sushi and what not, but what I really like is normal daily japanese food. I had this thick noodle soup with chicken pieces in it. Forgot the name though. It also reminds me of lunches me and Misako had everyday while we worked together. We used to go to "ghetto jap" restaurant everyday for lunch. So it was good to catch up. And the reason it was good, it was because it was like the old days; lunch and gossip/joke/catch up.

After lunch we went around shopping in the J-mall. I bought some j-books; j-cookbook and sake handkbook which rates local sake by prefecture. I also bought some trinkets; a little box with model of Himeji castle, and a little statue of money-cat (maneki neko) which comes with a booklet and a display, and a car freshener with "engrish" written on it. It says; "It will be satisfied with your life. Please have a good time.".

It really feels like Tokyo to some extent. There are lot of japanese people typically dressed in Tokyo fashion, you also see some kids with weird clothes, as if you were in Shibuya. Went to Nijiya Market to buy some strawberry Pocky for my trip back. God I miss Nijiya, too bad they are only in California :(

She dropped me off at SFO 5:30PM and I took the red eye flight back which was plagued with heavy turbulence. Got back to IAD 8:30AM. It was worth it, I think I will do this more often. Timing works perfectly, fly in, have lunch and fly out same day. No carrying baggage or checking bags or looking for a place to stay.

So I want to go back to Tokyo even more, hehe. But I always get pissed when I see the airfare to Tokyo. I can EASILY find flights for $600, but the crapstastic landing fees in Tokyo always raises the prices past $1000. Tokyo Narita charges $8000 per each plane landing, and even funnier, Toronto's Pearson charges $11000. Finally the craptastic airport thinks its good enough to be #1 on the world's most expensive landing fee chart.

Misako said she will be in Tokyo for about 2 weeks due to work in February, so now I'm thinking maybe I can visit both Eri-chan and Misako in one trip. See last time I felt bad that Eri was busy during the day with work and at night, I could be being a burden to her after a workday, you know being host and all. Now Misako said she actually want to hang out at night, so maybe I could work a split schedule. Hehehe

Animals vs Humans

2007-12-07T20:35:00.000-05:00

So I'm checking Facebook's causes application, and there is so much more money donated to animal cruelty than cancer? Most of the causes I'm in, is because of invitation from friends for the cause awareness, and I accept the invitation if its legit. For example, if someone invite me to join PETA's cause, I would flat out decline. But I joined A.S.P.C.A (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). There was a cause for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Awareness which I joined on my own without anyone inviting me. Any donation would go to Chester County Hospital in PA. There are only 686 people and $85 in donations. I'm not saying people should donate, but what really bothers me is that A.S.P.C.A cause has 59,303 members and total donation of $2,847. On average though, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma causes has higher overall donation per total amount of members, though, average donation does not pass the $25 mark. I donated $25, its not much but it also doesn't kill my wallet, its maybe 2 drinks at a bar. On A.S.P.C.A, there are numerous donation of $100. Once again I think causes against animals cruelty has merit, but I just can't seem to accept that more people rather donate and join more animals causes than human cure research/etc.

My take is biased of course, because I know someone with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma(4). It's unfair that someone only 28 years old should face something like this. I know if sounds evil, but I rather have funds diverted to tackle issues like that first, before helping the animals.

Multimedia message

2007-11-21T18:11:00.001-05:00

Test

Armin van Buuren @ Ibiza

2007-11-11T04:56:00.000-05:00

God, I got there like 1AM and the line was going around the block (3/4 of the block). Around the block at 1AM?????(Ibiza closes around 3 to 3:30) Well my old Brazilian bouncer friend was there after all, and got a shortcut, 2 minutes to get in!!!! No pre purchased ticket!

I met Giuseppe back at the "Bank" when I first moved to DC. Me, Zeca and Ricardo would go to Bank and he would hook us up with free entrance and alcohol bracelet. Then he moved a club near MCI center and would hook me up when some big international DJ was in town. Glow moved again to FUR, and he would hook me up there too. Dana remembers when we cut the line that was going around the block. HAHAHA. Then Glow moved to Ibiza, and he was there again to hook me up!
Anyways, the place was packed, and all those people outside...

Short clip of people going crazy when Armin did an encore at the end!

Gmail with imap

2007-11-07T22:08:00.001-05:00

Holy crap batman, I noticed that gmail now offers imap! Best thing since Gmail itself!!!

Quick trip to Brazil

2007-10-31T02:25:00.000-04:00

The trip was so fast, and mostly ID renewal related trip. Plus it rained the whole week. Arrived on Tuesday and left next Monday. I will elaborate more, but for now enjoy the photo of Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Penha at the top of the hill, overlooking Guanabara Bay.

30's is the new 20's, right. hahaha

2007-10-21T02:56:00.000-04:00

Holy crap, I'm 30.
Time to start own business, get married, have kids, buy a minivan, buy a house with picket fence, pay mortgage. Or per suggestion, retire.

The most AWFUL/SAD pickup attempt EVER in history of mankind.

2007-10-15T03:12:00.000-04:00

This gotta be the worst pickup attempt ever. Please bear with me because I don't remember everything since I was drunk.
So it goes something like this:
So I was at a party with Andrea and we were talking, she was explaining what was "tunnel-bridge" people, and the word horny was said. So this asian guy interrupts our conversation and says "did I hear the word horny?"
Some bullshit about where are you from and what you do pursues. Initially the guy claim he is from NJ, but when Andrea says she is from NY then he claims he is from NY. What a dumbass. Andrea breaks the conversation with him and we continue our conversation again.

Later, me and Andrea are at the door talking again while we wait for our friends to show up so we can leave. This guy shows up again. And it was painfully sad to watch him on his pickup attempt.

"Give us a chance, we Korean are smart, we go to business schools and make a lot of money, we can take good care of you!" I was actually extremely offended that he put "Koreans" in that sentence. Are you saying all Koreans are this sad and stupid stereotypes? I'm pretty sure I don't need to elaborate why this is not only sad, but its extremely offensive to the girl he is trying to pickup, Andrea in this case.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? I'm just awed at this moronic pickup attempt. No one can possibly have their game this bad.

He assumes that Andrea is not intelligent enough to attend business school, he assumes that Andrea doesn't make a lot of money, he assumes that Andrea is dependent like person and can't take care of herself. Not ONE THING he said actually helps him in his plight at pickup. And to add to the insult, he has to put in Koreans, as if all Koreans are like him, self aggrandizing pricks, with an awful no game pickup attempts. I actually felt embarrassed to be associated with this prick racially, and felt apologetic to Andrea, which of course, she says I shouldn't feel apologetic at all.

Other than that, it was a fun weekend :)

Fun night

2007-09-22T03:34:00.000-04:00

Tonight we went to the Ballroom, or what it's called. Not to sound like an asshole, but we macked pretty good. But the most fun for me was actually when my buddy was talking this girl. She threw a "I have a boyfriend" line at him, and I immediately, but smoothly threw in a classic "boyfriend dis qualifier" psychology. She fell for it. She began to criticize her own boyfriend, paving the way for my buddy. Hahaha! It was hilarious!

Hero!

2007-09-18T15:01:00.001-04:00

Unlocked iPhone!

2007-09-13T11:38:00.000-04:00

So my brother bought an iPhone and immediately asked to unlock it. We like to have our GSM phones unlocked because we travel abroad. All my 3 phones are unlocked so I can juggle around 3 phone numbers. My brother has uh, like 5 lines and 5 phones? He also likes to have all of them unlocked.

So I'm glad the unlocking of the iPhone was a GREAT success and quite enjoyable since I do like to modify my phones. I know sounds geeky.

I tested 3 SIM cards we had available. My AT&T SIM, my brother's Cingular SIM, and my brother's T-Mobile SIM.

I know testing AT&T SIM seems redundant, but its not, because iPhone is supposed to work with iPhone activated AT&T SIM card only. My AT&T SIM is not an iPhone activated SIM, it's a standard AT&T SIM.

GREAT SUCCESS!!! -Borat

Playing with the dogs.

2007-09-11T15:32:00.000-04:00

So my brother's girlfriend left to Korea for a month, so my brother is bored a little bit, and I had nothing better to do, so I decided to visit him for 2 days.

It's nice to visit because I get to put conversation up to date, get to talk about cameras and what not. And I also get to play with the dogs!

Sophie like to play with its miniature football she had since puppy. Jen Jen always tramples Sophie so she can get petted. Also Jen Jen lost a lot of weight after my brother switched to diet dog food.

Jen Jen will look like an Ewok soon. :)

Why I love Photoshop

2007-09-09T10:09:00.001-04:00

While in Hawaii I took a picture but it wasn't to my liking. Usually I can simply move around and get a better angle, but sometimes you can't. Yet, I rather take the shot and modify with Photoshop then not having the picture at all.

Original:

Modified:

Back from Hawaii

2007-09-09T09:37:00.000-04:00

So I'm back, and it was painful to leave. Why would I want to come back to DC? The weather in DC is awful, the outdoors doesn't compare to Hawaii. Hawaii is just a beautiful place, people are friendly and weather is damn amazing. But Hawaii is not perfect. Two factors affects my Utopian view of Hawaii. They are; speed limit and no nightlife.

I think its the first time I've seen a 15MPH speed limit in my life. To compound the problem, most places in Hawaii is single lane, and almost no passing zones. Those that knows me, I can't stand slow speeds. Place were its probably safe to go 100MPH is like 55MPH(rare), most places are about 35MPH. UGH!@!

There is no nightlife there, I believe that all those beach bums wake up with the sun, go to the beach, and by night, they are tired of beach activity and they go to bed early. At least that is my theory. I don't go out at night as much as I used to, but not having the option is just unbearable.

Maybe when I'm old and can't drive I'll retire there. Plus, by then, I won't have the energy to go out clubbing anyways.

Oh yeah, another let down was that I was under the impression that Hawaii had a lot of "bodacious" babes, in reality is loaded with older or somewhat "curvy" ladies. But for those with "Yellow Fever" but don't have the money for a the expensive Tokyo trips, Hawaii has lot of Japanese girls. I think Eri felt right at home ;p

I'm currently uploading my photos to my Picasa Web Album.

Dana and Luis are one.

2007-09-04T09:19:00.001-04:00

So Dana got married and a lot of men shed tears that day. Some men shed tears of joy, other hopefuls shed tears of sadness.

It was a small wedding with friends and family. It was very nice on a hill by the coast of Big Island of Hawaii. The inifinity pool and the sunset added to a perfect wedding.

It was a bit emotional as Luis cried a bit when reading the vows. For guys, its somewhat easier to see women cry, because we are used to it, but when we see a man cry, it seems that, that man was stripped down of everything and the only thing left was coming from his heart.

Once it was done, there wasn't much to think about, it was joy at all times. Here we were celebrating the union of our best friends, and for this day only, all the worries were set aside so we could all enjoy what they were feeling that day.

Dana and Luis jumped into the infinity pool still dressed up. At first I was thinking how she would regret having jumped in with her gown, but then it became apparent to me that they don't care! Why should they care? It's the happiest day of their lives, they will do whatever they want, its their day. It's this one day they are allowed to do whatever they want to do.

There were no uncomfortable chats or silences with the other guests, everyone was there to truly share the joy of the union between Luis and Dana. People were laughing, dancing, joking around. I even got slapped on my face, but on a friendly drunken way. No one cared, and I definitely didn't care. I was too happy to misconstrue actions in the wrong way.

We have experienced friends getting married before, but I guess we will never experience this until it is our turn to do so. It must be a life altering experience. To be bound to your love, your best friend. It comes with so many joys and questions that it would make it an adventure that they will journey together. At times, a test to them, but joy at most turns.

Since there are no words to really describe my wishes to them, I guess a simple "Congratulations, Luis and Dana!" will suffice, with the knowledge that they will know it actually means more...

PS: photos coming soon

The break.

2007-08-21T02:15:00.000-04:00

I'm really enjoying my break. It seems that once you get burnt out with work you really need a break where you can contemplate, but not about important stuff. Doing absolutely nothing, is just boring, but working the garden, feeding the fishes in the pond is nice though. It really is a way to occupy your mind with non work related or non stressful things. Given too much time, your mind would probably start to think about important things again. At times like these its good to throw some physical activity. Some do sports, I'm enjoying doing garden stuff, like raking the fallen leaves, trimming the plants and more.

Coming soon will be Dana's wedding, I'll be purchasing my ticket shortly as I can't miss my sister's wedding no matter what's my current situation.

Over all it was a relaxing day, too bad the weather in DC sucks.

I'm Back!

2007-08-20T03:53:00.001-04:00

After a long hiatus, I'm BACK!!!

Ohashi-chan is here!

2007-02-01T00:02:00.000-05:00

So I guess that details of my trip to Monaco never came. Yes, sorry I have just been really busy with work, but it will be better. Of course I will still write the details later on.

But for now, Ellie is here! Who would have thought she would be coming here for a business trip? She can't believe herself. I wish she could stay till Saturday, because of the party on Friday, but she can't :/

Yesterday I picked her up at the hotel, and went for dinner and drinks. We went to Cascal, like the last time she was here. Not only that we probably ordered the same food we ordered last time.

Anyways, it was great to catch up. Specially these days when all our friends are scattered around the world.

Today I rest and she will do the same. But tomorrow, we will got out again, and Misako will join in, so she can hang out with her "people".

Cheerio

Photos for now, details later.

2007-01-08T13:18:00.001-05:00

Monte Carlo, Monaco. 01/04/2007

"Monsieur! Sortir!!! I'm sorry, but I'm drunk and butt naked in the pool..."

2007-01-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

I was thinking I would get to relax a little, make up for the the busy holiday work, but no. I only slept 5 hours in 3 days. Didn't get to so enjoy much of the anemities of the hotel because I was partying out all night. LOL.

More details and photos coming later, when I'm not too lazy. ;p

Sayonara Bitches!

2007-01-03T14:46:00.000-05:00

I'm going to Monaco in a couple of hours, so sayonara bitches and see you all soon!

Painful holidays

2006-12-29T05:22:00.000-05:00

So my flight to DC was a painful one. They overbooked my flight, so they put on the next flight which was hours away. Then that flight had problems, the aircraft had problems. I was stuck in the plane for hours, then they decided to let the passengers out to the terminal. From there I had to wait even longer. The replaced the aircraft and only arrived here in DC next day. I didn't even get a chance to sleep, but I had to go straight to work in our DC office.

It was nice to finally meet the people from our DC office. However, the most important person to me wasn't there, because she had an early flight to Hawaii. I had to struggle to work that day. After the Christmas dinner and drink the night before the flight, I got home late so I had very small amount of sleep, and to compound I had no sleep over due to flight mess.

After work I was really tired, and I wanted to sleep for a couple of hours before heading out to Misha new place for a little party. I wanted only 3 hours of sleep but, my friends were very insistent that I do not pass out so I could attend the party. Granted, I do understand that the party the previous night didn't work out too well because of the flight issues, so I had to be present this time.

So I took 1 hour power nap and went there. Needless to say the next day I woke up really late, around 3pm? I got a call from Misha were he made a reservation for a Japanese restaurant. Susanah wanted to have a dinner before she go to NJ for the holidays. Couple of hours later I get a call from Steve, being very insistent that I take him to BWI airport. On normal circumstances, that would be perfectly fine, but I had a dinner in about 2 hours. Steve guaranteed that I can make it to BWI and back in 80 minutes flat and still have 20 minutes before the deadline. But I knew that is not the case, 80 minutes flat is if there are no traffic, which is hardly the case. Dinner got cancelled for late.

I had a couple of rough days, tired as hell, I just want to rest a little god dammit. Even my brother was telling me, "Shouldn't you rest a little on the holidays? Why are you going out and driving people around?" Well granted, visitors should do minimal effort and do no chores, but I hope they do the same when I ask. Right?

Of course even on the holidays my work was not done. I got e-mails with more work to do. I have to admit that with the work and other stuff with friends I did not had a solid day of rest. I know Misha is pissed that I didn't get to hang out much, but the reality is that even at the holidays, I just didn't the time I wanted to dedicate to my friends. Another issue is that my reason for coming to DC was not to hang out and chill. Before I left to California I left a bunch of stuff at my apartment that I need to sort it out before I head back. I still haven't tackled that part yet, so the remaining of my days here I will be sorting and shipping stuff to my apartment in California.

Though, I got to play with the PUPPIES!!! They are soo cute! Jenny and Sophie! (can't get more FOB than this!) I will post some photos later.

I just had a headache. I found out that I paid over $800 for a flight from CA to DC. That's right, I could have flown to Rio or Europe..... This was due to the fact I change my departure date from CA. The initial ticket was to leave on Tuesday and cost me $480, but I changed the flight to leave on Wednesday. I've done the change 2 weeks in advance. Of course, Orbitz has the shadiest information highlighted, and on a whim I thought there was just a slight exchange fee. The difference was highlighted as of $480 buck. Of course I thought the total which exchange fee was $480, so I thought the flight was actually a little cheaper, but no, the actual flight was over $800. I mean c'mon, who the fuck on their right mind would purchase a $800's ticket from SF to DC when bought 2 weeks in advance? This is bullshit, I could have flown first class. Anyways, it the end was my mistake because I didn't pay much attention, but Orbitz has it faults too. They highlight bad information, also I though "Total" was the grand total, which would be the actually fare and the exchange fee. But no, "Total" was the total I had to pay additionally on top of my previous cost. Who the fuck lists Total at the bottom of all the fees that reflects only the extra I have to pay. Total at the bottom is usually the Grand total, all fees and airfare. Fuck, if the Grand Total was $800's I would have not changed my flight date.

Sigh I feel violated, $800 for a god damn economy flight that was overbooked then had aircraft issues.

Well I hope you guys had an AWESOME Holidays and will hopefully have a better New Year that I will have (I'll be sorting my stuff).

Hello all

2006-12-16T00:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday there was the office building christmas party. The food was actually good, so I was impressed, and there was free wine and champagne as well. All free. haha. So yeah before work was over, me and a couple of people were already quite tipsy. It was good times. Then me, Misako and Klara went to a bar down Castro. We had a couple of shots of kamikazi. Hayley was supposed to join in later, but she bailed on the idea. So I called TK to see if wanted to come over and join us. By the time he got there we were quite rowdy and loud. TK kept buying us more kamikazi. Head started to spin and that was a sign to go home. Drunken night on Thursday? I would called it "Happy Hour gone extreme". hahah. Get home, and the heater was blasting, so I shut it off, open the windows, get the shirt off, and I crash face down on the couch.
Wake up freezing, and with a cold. :(
I go to work, but people were like "Don't come close!". Shit I knew that was the sign to call it a day and take the rest of the day off. So I go home, and get 2 shots of vodka and 1 raw egg mix for the cold, 1 hour into it I'm cured and go back to work.

I was supposed to go to Kimling's birthday party, but I decided to take a rain check on that. :(

Supposedly Alexis will be back in town tomorrow and many will got to SF, so I will go then too.

Long break, eh?

2006-12-11T00:17:00.000-05:00

Holy cow, it's been almost 1 month since I last posted anything. It's just been busy for me. For now some photos.

Behave kids.

San Jose 11/17/2006

Justin's bday and Magenta party 12/08/2006

HMMM HMMMM

2006-11-18T06:40:00.000-05:00

Lucious lips, and I'm happy, although I lost my cell phone......

WOOOHOOOO :))))))

Wooohooo!!

2006-11-15T00:47:00.000-05:00

I wish I could post more about other stuff than work, but right now my life is pretty much, work and more work.

There is a peculiar annoyance at work right now, but other than that everything is seems to be going perfect. That chat with CEO did help a lot.

Now there is a much open and frank channel of communication with upper management, and they are the ones that is actually willing to initiate. At the meeting with the upper management, I was able to voice all my concerns and ideas. They were actually really receptive about it. It was decided that we will have a bi-weekly meeting where I will give them updates about work load and time efficiency. Also, I should be able raise any concerns I might have. Just having this open communication really took a lot of my frustration.

Management hierarchy will change in the next 3 months to increase efficiency. God, I so love that word. :)

In the next 3 months I will be recruiting someone to help with my workload. Hopefully I will fly to Miami. For December I will fly to DC and meet up with friends, I might even go to NYC for New Year. And the on the first week of January I will be flying to the mysterious place the company has chosen for the Kick off party/trip(Sorry I cannot disclose the place).

Everything seems to be going fine or will be fine. :) Perfect? Maybe not, if I get the raise I want, then yes! ;p

Friday=drink day!

2006-11-13T02:40:00.000-05:00

So Friday day the guys at the office decided to go to the horse tracks after work. I never been to one and it was a new experience for me. I lost $30 betting(Horse name was Enchanted Nymph) while Anton made $150.... Bleah

After the race we went downtown Mt. View to a bar and we had fun. I won't get into details... :)

Cheers

Powerpoint presentation

2006-11-08T22:57:00.000-05:00

It's funny that a couple of posts ago Ale mentioned that the only way for upper management assimilate and distribute information is through powerpoint presentation. This can't be far from the truth.

I was actually literally request by upper management to put my concerns and advices on a powerpoint presentation. :) Once done, that would be distributed to all other managing directors across the board.

There are so many things I need to go over and so many complex and specific instruction that it will take a lot of time to explain every single aspect of the process. This will probably take the whole weekend.

I will probably have to fly to Miami Beach office for recruitment. I need to interview these people, and doing over the phone I believe me its not going to be enough for me to make an accurate assessment of the candidates. But then again they might be cheap and not send me :p

I got a word that they will fly the new recruit over from Miami to SF for training, but I will try to reverse that. HAHA. I rather fly to Miami and train the new recruit, as an consolation for how I was not flown to Norway for my training. :)

Things looks much better, because now I will be able to split my workload, but then again I think there will more responsibilities too, since the new recruit will be working under me. Also I feel much better after talking with the CEO and having my concerns heard. Some changes are coming and I'm very happy with them. I mean it just feels great that I wasn't able to communicate very well if the upper management, yet I can talk directly to the CEO. :)

But I'm ok with it. When I first joined, I knew that being the first on for the US operations, I would have to take more responsibilities as more people would join in.

Because of the frustrations I have dealing with upper management in regards to communications, I will keep a very open and honest channel of communications open with this and future new recruits.

Yes I was sick again, and did not go to work, and of course that doesn't mean that I didn't work from home. But I feel that because I haven't done anything healthy, due to workload, since I got here, I more prone to being sick.

Of course rumor in the office is that I have secretly flown to DC to celebrate Dana's birthday. hahaha

Dana, happy birthday babe. I love you!

Jagshemash!

2006-11-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

I felt that this needed a post of its own, since Ale actually was able to notice that "jagshemash" is Polish. Yes, Borat speaks Polish, but average population wouldn't know the difference between Polish and Kazakh. What Borat means by saying jagshemash is; Jak się masz in Polish.

Little break from work to post on the blog.

2006-11-07T04:17:00.000-05:00

Not much going on. Mostly work and a lot as always. Hopefully I will be getting some help soon. I don't understand why I had to fight so hard with management to get some help. Being the only one for the whole US operations for our company, handling between 4 offices with 55 people in total, I definitely need help. Even more now that we are opening a new office in Philly and additional recruitments for DC and SF offices. I need someone I can train now for the upcoming additions, not after.

Also I don't understand why the management didn't feel the need to invite me for the recruitment process. Not that I'm trying to play a bigger role within the company, but whoever they decide to hire, I'm the one that needs to see if the candidate is qualified and if we hire, I'm the one that will need to train him/her. I talked to some people involved in the recruitment process, and no one knew the qualification required to work in my position. Also I'm pretty much in the dark. I don't know if we are going to recruit in SF and send him/her over to Miami office or are we going to hire someone locally. I'm gonna get mighty pissed if they request me to join in the last minute where I haven't had anything prepared...

No biggie, if they know what they are doing, less for me to worry about.

I can't wait for the kick off, it's going to be legendary. We are going to have 225 employees from all the offices, UK, IRL, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Hong Kong, Australia and US flown to a KICK ASS(Sorry, I'm not allowed to disclose the location) place for 3-4 days of fun! Will finally get to meet all the co-workers on the other offices personally. I'm really looking forward for this because people that work for this company are really cool kick ass people. :)

I was talking to TK and trying to get his ass to go to gym with me, because going to gym alone is boring. But TK hates gym or something, he actually prides he never went to gym in his life... Ok so I talked to Kimling since she is FUCKING fit as hell, does gym in the morning, swim during lunch and do kickboxing after work... So she she is member of this gym nearby that has a indoor rock climbing thing. She wants me to be her climbing partner. I don't know how well I will do that though, since I'm scared of heights. Worse comes to worse we will just do regular workouts.

I think TK found out who is my "secret lover"... HAHAHAHAH

Everyday I love more the people I work with, of course there is exception, but I began not to think to much about it.

I need a Friday drinkage. heh. Just to kick back, let it lose and also raise my tolerance for the Kickoff trip!

Here is a photo of the managing director of the Goteborg office in Sweden. Supposedly he got into a local newspaper's Borat lookalike contest. hehehe.

Jagshemash!

2006-11-04T21:41:00.000-05:00

So because the manager wasn't here, no one bothered to organize the end of the month party. So there was no party, but we worked on a last minute office event. All went to watch Borat.

I took a ride with Bakazilla to the movie theaters, and oh my god. I almost died. I heard stories about how bad Bakazilla driving was, but didn't know it was that bad. Right at an error from Bakazilla's part(didn't yield to on coming car when making a right on a red light), I kind of instinctively warned by saying out loud "watch out!". I'm just amazed that that she replied by saying "Don't worry darling, I watching it, and it was their fault.". Then Bakazilla speeds up on a straight by letting me know how well she drives like a race driver. The driver of the other car following behind us later consoled me as she saw how the front car was being driven.

We kind of got to the movie theaters without much time to spare. I wanted to buy some drink and food. It seems like me and Misa-chan acted like FOBs when buying stuff because people started to point at us and started to laugh.

The movie was scandalously funny. I could here people from the audience going "High five!", "I like you!", "Jagshemah!" and "Wah waah whee!"

After that decided to meet by a bar near the office for drinks and food. Once again Bakazilla almost crashed driving out of the parking lot. I almost died twice in a span of 3 hours.

We all met at the bar and had food and drinks. I got tipsy, we started a peanut fight and so forth. Night ended early, but I was tired anyways, went home and crashed.

Woke up face down on the couch with drool on the side of the face. Good times! So had lunch with TK and asked him what was his take on inter office relationships, since he is a partner of the company he should have a better insght into this things. He of course was opposing to it and not enough that he would probably enforce it. So it seems that me my secret lover from the office abroad can have good times at the kick off. hahaha. HAHAHAHA.

Once I get home, there is no power. What the hell. So utilities are not included in the rent.... Ok so I call power and gas company to have power and gas restored.

Power lady: Unfortunately, although we just deactivated the service, we can only have it restored on Monday. That is the next available service slot. Oh and its a whole day appointment.
Me: Can you be more specific with the time frame?
Power lady: Could be anywhere from 8AM to the evening.
Me: Ok, like 8AM to 6PM?
Power lady: No, more like 8AM to midnight.

Yeah, all the perishable food in my fridge will perish, I won't be able to take a bath till monday, NO entertainment (TV, INTERNET) till Monday (Computer use will drop as soon as the battery goes), won't be able to recharge my cell phone and will not be able to work on Monday for the whole day. Shit like utility should be emergency essential service that needs to be serviced 24/7. This is bullcrap.

But it's ok, I'm cool. sigh.

Are you hot? hahahah

2006-11-03T02:54:00.000-05:00

What a hectic week. Try to get some rest only to be slammed with two parties in a row and getting not sleep at all.

There was a 3rd party on Monday in SF for Halloween, but I was so tired of the previous 2 parties on the weekend I was pretty much dead. Misa asked me if I wanted to go to a pub for ONE drink, and since the place is somewhat on my way home, I agreed...

One drink ended up being 2, and then 3 and then 4, pause for muncies, the 5th round, then I lost count. We got pretty plastered. We were wandering the streets aimlessly, being loud, goofing around, just doing the good drunken fun. After wandering a while we went back to the same pub, and drank more. Should have seen the face of the bartender :P

Well no one showed up on time at work next day... hahaha. That was so hilarious.

At work I've hit some stressing points, but surely the party tonight will soothe any stress. So many parties, so little time :P

Today the CEO had a little meeting with Misa and one thing he asked was "I noticed you guys are hot, how close are you with him?" I didn't know what it meant nor did Misa, but Dana explained what Norwegians means by that. I guess it can mislead the people the way we act. We are always talking, whispering around the corners or in private, eat lunch together and I always take her to the train station afte work. I truly enjoy her company and we have many things in common, same sense of humor. I'm just really glad we clicked so well, and I fell less lonely here in CA.

Borat movie is coming out but I won't be able to see it on the release date because it's coincides with the company party, so I'm going to have to watch it the day after. It might turn out to be an office event.

Cheers!!

Tekkamaki

2006-10-29T17:38:00.000-05:00

I wake up and it feels like a train ran over me. I guess the pepidac holds the alcohol and release everything at once, like when I'm sleeping.

I made some tekkamaki for immediate pleasure, and will make more for lunch tomorrow.
Well I need to get some work done. :(

PS:

Halloween

Cheers

Oh why, oh why I can't get tipsy?

2006-10-29T06:09:00.000-05:00

Because Kimling also gets the "asian flush", she told me that pepidac will help with the redness. So I bought a couple of those and took it. Oh man that really works, the down side though is that you can drink like fish and not even get a buzz... So I'm drinking like fish, hoping to get a little tipsy to be more sociable and I can't.

I was expecting a call from Meredith, so when the phone rang I just answered straight away without checking the caller ID. FUCK!@!# It was my "girlfriend" from Brazil. The fucking drama, and I get stressed. Don't give me the guilt trip bullshit. But nooooo. Sigh.

I keep drinking and drinking and still nothing. SO freaking sober that, although Anton drove the car on the way there, I drove back. Everyone on in the car was drunk except me. When was the last time that happened? I'm usually the first one to go.

The photos I took from the Friday party will not be uploaded because there were way too many "compromising" photos, and Anton requested me not to upload it. But I will upload from the party today, sometime soon.

Cheers.

Sushi Chef

2006-10-28T16:59:00.000-04:00

Well yesterday was lot of fun. :) I will eventually upload the photos later on, just really tired right now. I'm going make some tekamaki right now for lunch. :P

weekrnf drinhskage

2006-10-28T04:50:00.000-04:00

fun at bar than fun at party but then the damn drama had to kick in, wtf. so i feel bad for her. neeeeeahhh

Dead tired.

2006-10-26T04:20:00.000-04:00

I always have a blast chatting with Misa. It kinds provides me some relief from the stress of work. Yes I've been mentioning a lot about her lately, maybe its because we spend a lot of time together. It seems like were are becoming good friends. And since I only know very few people here, this is good. Plus how can I not want to be friends with someone as nice as her? The other day she told me she would cry if I get transferred back to DC. I thought it was pretty sweet of her.

Anyways I know no one will understand with this, but we came up with "baka-chan&tony". Yes the point is just so me and Misa knows, and no one else. hahah

Why was I kicked out?

2006-10-22T21:38:00.000-04:00

So Anton asked the bouncer why they were kicking out the birthday guy(me), and the bouncer said that I called the other bouncer "A LITTLE BITCH".

Right, no matter how drunk I can get, my primal instincts would NEVER let me call a muscle bound 6'11 black bouncer a little bitch. Yeah, I'm only 5'6 but I got a mean kung fu skills... Bleah

Lost and found.

2006-10-21T16:33:00.000-04:00

HAHAHA. So I was freaking out because I had no cash, no fuel and no credits cards. I talked to Misa and she said we actually went up to the office, so my credits cards could be there or I left them in the cab when we got a cab back to office yesterday. So I went to the office to check and, dammit, NOTHING! Of course, credits cards were not the only thing I was looking for. My keychain broke yesterday during the "haze" so a couple of keys fell off.... Luckly, I was able to find them on the ground at the building's garage.... HAAHAHA

So Misa calls me and she says she has my cards. HAHAHA. She went out to buy food, but she couldn't find her credit card, so digging deeper she found all my 4 credits cards and my ID, oh yeah my Safeway card too. HAHAHAHA. She called the cab company and yes, they have HER credit card. MUHAHAHA.

So I'm all good, didn't lose a thing!!

PS: Baka-chan graduated to BakaZilla. hahaha

Dana got a new cat, it's so damn cute!

The Photos

2006-10-21T15:54:00.001-04:00

My birthday

Crazy.

2006-10-21T14:29:00.000-04:00

Good god. hahahah. Yesterday was really fun. We were doing some sake bombs at this Japanese dive bar/restaurant. hahaha. We would put Kirin, then put chopsticks on top of the glass and put the sake shot glass on it. When we hit the table, the sake cup would fall into the beer. At one point the glass shattered. We would dance on the seats, we did a little train thingy around the bar. Random people joined in the fun. After that I don't remember much..... ;0

I know we went to a couple of different places, but not sure how many times we moved around...

Then I got kicked out, and really I don't know why :/

Me and Misa took a cab back to office, then I picked up my car and drove her to place in San Mateo.

We had a long conversation in the car while parked at her garage. We have much in common so its great to make new friends here.

I don't have my ID, nor my credit cards.... haha OK!

200 photos in my camera??? hahaha OK!

hmm

2006-10-21T06:31:00.000-04:00

fucking fun then i got kicked out for not reason. fucking calif is gaY like that. chichs touching ur ass and shit. so i took misako home and chatted for a while. good times. i cat find nome of my CC cards??? wheeeeeeeeeeee!

BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA OK!

2006-10-19T22:16:00.000-04:00

I got really stressed out at work today. I don't want to go into details. No, its not the company nor the people. I love them all*.

Anyways so Misako came up with "Baka-chan". HAHAHA. I thought it fit so well for the situation that from this day forth we will be using "Baka-chan", so we can talk freely without raising eyebrows.

*Partially.

And now some Japanese comedy, HARD GAY. Yep that is his name... HAHAHA

Oh behave!

2006-10-18T09:40:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a month since I moved here but my apartment is not setup to my liking yet. I still need to find a way to get rid of the furniture that was here when I moved in, and take care of what Dana left behind. It kind of looks like a storage place.

I also need to buy new bedding stuff, I don't know if Dana's cat peed on the blanket or maybe just around the room to mark the territory, but it reeks. ;p

I'm still not sure if I'm flying over to DC yet, tickets are a bit too expensive for my taste and there is a lot of work to do.

One thing I've been enjoying here is trying out new restaurants with a TK and Misako at lunch time. But I gain weight :/ Need to get in shape before the the kickoff party/trip, you know, before I meet all the hotties from our offices in Europe ;p

Behave kids.

Dyslexia?

2006-10-16T05:35:00.000-04:00

While younger I had some minor difficulties with many things that others were able to learn right away. I would counter my "deficiencies" with some creative ways (that works for me, of course) like in math, I was super fast with my finger counting, and I was pretty much able to use my 5 fingers as a calculator and do various calculations, even landing a spot at the coveted Gifted and Talented math classes.

But to tell you the truth, I struggled to some extent with anything that had some kind of sequence. I was much better at things that required creativity.

Fast forward today. So I replied an e-mail from Ellie, and I check the sent folder to read over what I have written her. Seriously my words has no correct sequencing on the phrase. It erratically skips whole words, or repeats the same words twice in sequence, or replace a word with similar sounding word when I KNOW it's not the same. I also noticed that my spelling sucks, not because I do not know how to spell a certain word, but it looks more like typos, but way too frequent.

In the last 3-4? years I've been having this kind of issue when writing e-mail or some paper. So I would always run grammer checker when writing a paper, but I would have to proof read it many times over. Initially I dismissed the idea that I might had mild dyslexia in childhood and moderate dyslexia as adult, on the assumption that my english SUCKED. But even if my english is that bad, it would have grammer errors, not whole words missing or typing stuff twice or replacing words with similar sounding words.

Could it be that I have dyslexia? If I never used the grammar checker or any other creative ways to counter my "deficiencies" ,a teacher could probaly had noticed something?

Let me post the e-mail I replied back to Ellie and check for yourself.
" Hello Ellie,

Thanks for remembering my upcoming birthday. It does indeed a lot to me specially that I'm by myself here ;p

Nothing planned and probably not going to do anything. Maybe I'll fly over to DC in November to celebrate with Dana. No sure yet because the tickets are quite expensive!!

But your birthday is coming up too!!!

Well my home address is:
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX

However the think the postal service here sucks, I don't get mail sometimes or I get some else's mail. Or the mail guy for this area drink during work."

Yeah, it looks really bad, but its not that I don't know what is wrong there. If I go over, I can correct all the mistakes there. It seems like my mind is have problems putting words/letters in sequence.

I replace "with" with "which" a lot....

Bleah

So today I worked some more, did some laundry and did some more work. Anton dropped by to pickup his pack of cigs he left yesterday when he came over for drinks.

I need to break up with Val, as I've been procastinating about it for too long. Not one deserves to be treated bad regardless of how you feel.

I think Dana's cat peed on the blanket (when she was here), because it reeks. Initially I thought it was the cat's smell and would go away but it's been weeks and( left the windows open a couple of times, but the smell would come back. I need to take the blanket to dry cleaners and buy new bedding for it.

Behave kids.

Daniel-san!

2006-10-14T21:46:00.000-04:00

AHA! And people had diarrhea after eating the food I cooked!

Joking, it just been so hectic that there was not time to cook. Plus cooking for like 20 people takes a lot of time. So, bought the food at Amici's, ala lasagna, spaghetti, pizza, salads, etc... Of course, then I grabbed the chef's knife and put on a chef's hat and pretended I did the cooking. HAH.

I totally forgot it was Friday, AHA! So the fridge was restocked with drinks. I had a nice cold sake. :)

And I made a couple of quick ghetto photoshoping on my laptop for fun. Some people cracked up at it. The story was that when Misako was having a meeting with Bjorn and the lawyer, there was a a burst of very LOUD laughs coming from the conference room. She was introduced by Bjorn to the lawyer as Ms. Miyagi from Karate Kid.

Since then, I guess to an extent, it became a joke here, and some do the Karate Kid pose.

Anton Kid

Misako Kid

Lack of posts

2006-10-12T22:29:00.000-04:00

I know I've been lacking on my daily posts, it's just that I'm quite busy lately. I have a lot of work scheduled for me, but it should be ok maybe in a couple of weeks. Not saying I won't post anything till then, but just won't be as frequent.

As you probably know, I stay at office after hours or take work home. Not because they are forcing me to do it, but because I enjoy the work. Specially when new in town and don't have many places to go, rather be productive with the left over time. This is very positive because I have time to work on clearing my workload, and also I don't get to spend money ;p

Tomorrow I have to cook (lunch)for the office, I hope they don't get diarrhea ;p

Helloooo DC!

2006-10-08T15:42:00.000-04:00

So my birthday is coming up, so is the Halloween and so is Dana's birthday. I talked to Dana and she doesn't mind what weekend I show up, she said she would party like rockstar! hahaha. So basically I will check which tickets would be cheaper, pre or post halloween weekend.

I also want to check out how the "M" staff is doing with the new office in DC also greet the new members.

Also I'm finally getting a STEADY internet at home today(Free Google WiFi is awesome for outdoors, but indoor reception sucks). Comcast will come install the internet today. I'm kind of pissed that they said no cable = no cable internet. So I had to cave in and get their TV service as well. I mean I don't EVEN WATCH TV.

On other news, my car is like falling apart. But RESPECT to the Jap mobile for lasting this long. It's been a real trooper since college days, it withstood an arduous drive from DC to CA. Well, I first need to save some money for a new car though ;p

There is a new member of "M" family here in SF office, her name is Misako. Super sweet and fun. She is a lot like Ellie, hehehe. I like how she give me these "tips" about japanese cultural things. Like where I can get japanese movies in the area, good japanese restaurants, among others. The other day she took us to one of those japanese ramen noodles places with manga on the shelf for the guests. All these in Mountain View area. She went to Stanford so she knows all the japanese places in the area. No Misha, she is engaged. ;p

Now that the Admin island is full, we have a team name. Klara chose "Her Majesty's Secret Service" from the Bond movie.

So I was told the kickoff travel/party will be from like 3-7 Jan, that means I have 3 months to get back into shape ;p

Misako, new member of the "M" family.

It's a beautiful morning...

2006-10-07T15:17:00.000-04:00

So its beautiful day here in Mountain View, but I'm at the office working. No they didn't request me to work now. However I don't know people in the area and well I'm having issues with banking (long story), I'll just do some work and keep things up to date.

I'm planning to fly to DC for Halloween if the folks there can set a time frame...

Behave kids!

Thriller baby, thriller.

2006-10-04T19:27:00.001-04:00

This one is for Misha

THE INDIAN THRILLER

party party party party

2006-09-30T16:23:00.000-04:00

wow what a blast yesterday. the office management threw a party and it was so much fun. ;p It was hammer time, people got hammered. haha. Though I bled and got burned :/ Too much wild fun. At least the alcohol sedated me from the nasty cut and the burn. ;p

From Party with ...

Bubblies and bell ringing.

2006-09-27T22:12:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. It's has been super hectic at work. Being the first and the only one for whole US operations means=busy busy busy busy. At the end of the day I feel like a horse that went through a polo game.

So far I just love the job. I mean, today we POPPED the BUBBLIES TWICE in two different occassions. :p

It just so different from any corporate environment.

So when someone closes a deal/contract, that person rings the BELL. This bell we have in ALL offices across the world, and the ritual is the same.

Here is a movie about that.

Then there is a movie of us goofing past 5PM at the office

Well I need to bounce, but catch up with you guys later.

Behave kids!

Super Geek Work Station

2006-09-20T06:37:00.000-04:00

Super geek workstation: 2 laptops and 1 desktop. ;p Too bad I can't fit more laptops on there.

The weeks are kind of flying by fast. I guess its because the job is fun so it keeps me interested. I've been spending most of my evening's at Dana, under the false pretext that I need to use her internet, but well, I guess it's just that I want to spend some time with her before she moves to DC. We kind of just lazy out at the couch, watch tv, surf the internet, sometimes go eat out, cook, wine 'n cheese and what not. During the day I hardly see her, well I mean I hardly get to interact with her because she is super busy.

My apartment is almost ready. I unpacked everything, set up the two laptops and the desktop. It looks like a super geek's coffee table.

The things I still need to do, are;
Get the bed and the couches from Dana when she moves to DC, also organize the shelves(need to get cord concealer thingies).
Wait for Alexis to pick up stuff Jonas left behind.

I have this huge BEBE poster, you know those they use at the store, from college days, but I'm having problem hanging it on the wall, it keep falling. I guess the poster is too big=heavy to even using a lot of those "3M poster pad/stickers" won't hold it.

Ill take photos once my pad is ready for inspecting from the readers.... haha.

This Saturday I will probably going to San Francisco for the Lovefest, which is like Loveparade in Berlin. haha. I will post photos if I end up going.

Behave kids!The other day I found this photo that was taken inside Crobar 10/01/05 in one of those photo booth things. Me and Andrea were happy campers, Dana was about to... hehe

PS: I feel I need to clarify about the annoying drivers, since Ale compared them with drivers in NYC. So want I meant to say is that, people in California drive BAD, not they are slow drivers, they have HORRIBLE hand eye coordination, BAD speed/distance timing judgments, ATROCIOUS lack of awareness of the immediate surrounding area. Of course I hate slow driver, but only when they block all the lanes. But this is not about speed, because BAD slow drivers will cause a lot of accidents too. Think about NYC(Drivers on coke) and Cali(Drivers on weed), both scary. Hahaha.

Annoying drivers.

2006-09-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

People here in California can't drive. I swear its like everyone here is a Mikhail (our friend ;p). I remember years ago when I was taking the practical test for California drivers license, when I saw this girl park during her test. She parked on the line the splits 2 spots, effectively taking to parking slots, yet she passed. Man it wasn't even parellel parking. Anyways, the practical test here is so lax, and easy as hell. It's fustrating to me to drive here, people can't drive, ok?

It's like Philly out here(sorry people from Philly can't drive for shit as well). They wonder why there is road rage. Learn how to f'cking drive.

So I'm posting this from a laundry place, cause Mountain View kicks ass like this, where the whole city is wired(wireless) by Google WiFi(free).

PS: I still can't post comments until the fix the issue with Blogger Beta accounts. sigh.

Yes sir!

2006-09-14T04:31:00.000-04:00

Ellie came to San Francisco from Nippon land to check out possible schools for MBA program. And of course to visit me and Dana. We didn't get to party nor spend much time, but it was better than nothing. :)

So Dana and I were trying to convince Ellie to join the Magenta News "cult". We gave our best shot at it, we even got the CEO trying to get her on board.

Last night with us was yesterday. Me, Dana, Shuryn, Jorn(CEO), Ellie and Eichi(sp?). Shuryn bailed out early, but we went on to drink. Dana and I was trying to get Ellie and Eichi to sleep over in Mountain View, and catch the train in the morning back to San Fran. Dana has a nice 2 bedroom apartment with very nice queen size bed they could make some hot love on it. But Ellie was insistent on going back. So I told Dana we should get hammered to we wouldn't be in condition to drive back. That plan so badly backfired on me....

Dana had a very hectic weekend recruiting people for the new office in DC. Plus she is very sick with cold, getting everyone at the office sick too. So Jorn, tells me that, Dana had a exhausting weekend and sick, she needed to rest. Ok but the thing is that Jorn doesn't know I had a hectic TWO weeks. Long drive from East coast to West coast, countless nights buying, assembling, rearranging, organizing, cleaning I was averaging 3-4 hours of sleep per day for the last 2 weeks. Also I had already gone to San Fran on Saturday, to meet up with Ellie when she first got here. Then went again with Dana on Monday. Well the boss asked me to drive them back to San Fran that night, so I did. Plus even if he didn't ask I would probably had gone anyways. Ellie was really admant about going back to San Fran that night. Needless to say, I drove drunk(no one is more qualified to drive drunk than I am), to San Fran and only got back to Mountain View 2:30AM. Of course I got 30 minutes late to work, but I had an excuse, it was the BOSS fault. hehe. Though I actually thought it was totally worthwhile, since me and Ellie got to talk about a lot on the drive back.

I was stealing(sharing, er for free ;p) broadband from my neighbor, because whoever he/she is left the wifi unsecured. I wanted to use the FREE Google WiFi the have on the streets of Mountain View, but the signal indoors (at least my apartment) was to damn weak. I don't know if my neighbor found out that someone was stealing his/her broadband and blocked me or discontinued the service. So I went and bought a wifi signal repeater and a gain antenna. I can have a decent connect but it not perfect. Hey, at least I'm one of those cool people that have access to Google WiFi.

At customer service at Fry's (I was returning something), this asian guy became curious about the area code (202). I explained to him that is was for Washington DC. I guess it was apparent that I was new in the area, which is fine, but he immediately assumed that I was a korean guy and started to tell me about how there is a korean community in the area. Like I'm interested... But I didn't scold him, because be as it may be, it is a nice gesture. He started to talk where I could score tasty and fresh "kimchi" (DUDE I DON'T EAT KIMCHI, too spicy for my FAKE KOREAN ASS). He he say that the community had like restaurant and grocery and stuff, and that I might meet korean girls in the area....? Eh? (DUDE I DON'T DO KOREAN GIRLS). It was a bit weird, but ok. Not like I'm going to make an effort go to this korean community, but I put on my appreciative face and thanked him.

As always, there is a fire in my bank account vault burning through my cash...

To those curious about the previous photo, yes I was speeding and yes I took the photo, but it was so out of context. I was in middle of Nebraska on 80 West. It's miles and miles of straights, there is nothing around, everyone is going around 90miles. And I didn't even had to look through camera to take the photo, I just had to rest the camera on the steering wheel and press the button.Yeah baby, Nebraska! Miles and miles of.... nothing. Speed limit 75!

For those that says I drive too fast...

2006-09-11T16:51:00.000-04:00

Moi? Speeding? NEVER!!

Almost there...

2006-09-10T06:35:00.000-04:00

I had a good sleep, I mean a GOOD sleep. A solid 8 hours of sleep. It never felt this good.

Today (Saturday), I drove to San Francisco to meet up with Ellie and her boyfriend. At first I thought the drive would suck, but actually, it is not as far as it seems. I could easily drive there, club till 6am in the morning and drive back without any problems. It almost like a drive from Alexandria to DC.

Anyways, we had dinner at some restaurant in the area she got the hotel. Where? I don't know. I was in the same boat as Ellie, I was a tourist with a map... Ellie suggested some drinks, but I thought it would be better tomorrow, when I drive there again, but with Dana, since she knows the area to some extent. I know I drive REALLY WELL drunk, but I didn't feel like getting lost in San Franciso while intoxicated. So we said good bye, she gave me a bottle of nice sake as a gift and I drove back. Tomorrow I will pick Dana at the airport and drive straight to San Francisco. Then we can party like rockstars.

Once I got back to Mountain View, Castro Street was blocked for some reason, so I got lost for a little while since I need to get to Castro to get to my street. Anyways, got home safe and started to assemble some furniture that I bought of Ikea. Well I'm all done with furniture. Now I just need to rearrange some furniture, unpack my clothes and my cozy apartment should be ready to rock! I also had bought a frame at Ikea for the photo I took at the first day at work. I printed it black & white (You know me, I like b&w photos), framed it and hung on my living room wall.

Behave kids.

Photos from the first day at work.

2006-09-09T05:03:00.000-04:00

Stay beautiful, Magenta!

Me: Where is the alkohol?
Alexis: Zee bier is over there.

Jonas shooting phallic object at people.

Awww, someone took the toy away.

Resident DJ.

Magenta News is not just work, its a way of life!

2006-09-09T04:00:00.000-04:00

So it was casual Friday, but I still showed up at work wearing full suit... My life is so hectic lately that I thought it was still Thursday. It will get better once I get settled here. I was hoping I could use the weekend to assemble the new furnitures and "re"-arrange the apartment, but Ellie will be coming over from Japan to San Fran, so well... screw that. I'll go meet her tomorrow.

Anyways, here are the photos for afterhours at the office!

Kimling: West coast!
Alexis: West Virginia!
Kimling: ???

"THE" Jap lunch team, ichiban!

James: Good god, this beer tastes awful.
Meredith: I'll stick to vodka tonic, thank you.

Checking the photos...

Stay beautiful, Magenta!

The munchies.

Magenta Pride!

PS: Ok I'm unable to comment on other blogs because my account got merged with Blogger Beta, so until they fix it, I'm unable to respond. This doesn't mean that I haven't been checking!

Behave kids.

No photos today

2006-09-06T04:13:00.000-04:00

So I had some photos from the trip and the first day of work lined up for posting, but then, Pistachio, Dana's cat jumped on my keyboard and had it deleted.... Ok some other time when I have more time, I'll post them up.

Day 1

2006-09-05T21:54:00.000-04:00

So I started the job today, went through some orientantion along with some 20 other new recruits. They all seem very nice people, a very uplifting work environment. Right now everyone is drinking beers, funded by the company. Isn't it nice? Some are playing with plastic guns. hahahha.