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Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
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12:19 pm
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Just had a 5.8 quake in the Chino Hills about 30 miles outside of LA and about 30 miles from where I work. No injuries that I know of and only some superficial damage to the building. The cellphone network was good and jammed though, so it took a while to get through to my parents.
The last time I was near an earthquake of this strength was in 1987. I remember it well because I was in junior high, about to go into class when the telephone "booth" (it was attached to a single steel pole in the ground) started to wave back and forth rather violently.
In any case, I am fine. My family is fine, and I hope that no reports of deaths come in. I'll see folks in the Bay Area soon.
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| Sunday, January 27th, 2008
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9:41 pm
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Bit of an annoying week. My car wouldn't start on Tuesday when I was going to head to lunch. For some reason it did start when I was about to go home. I figured it was some weird fluke so I took it out the next day to go to one of our Family Centers. It died there and wouldn't start again. Luckily the center was only only a couple of miles from my house. Before, I had thought that it was kinda silly for us to have so many extra cars around... Lucky for me we do have all these cars lying around as I could go to work without any real interruptions and could replace the car battery today. It was just so lucky that it died in the parking lot of the center as they have a gate on the lot. I was also relieved that no one had busted the windows to steal the radio or anything thing. On one hand it would have been a great excuse to replace the radio which has a broken tape deck and broken CD player, but I wouldn't have wanted to deal with having to replace the window.
Anyway...
Pictures from Thailand on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23227004@N02/sets/72157603809839025/
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| Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
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12:34 pm
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Back in the US.
All in all, it was a good trip. It was wonderful seeing so much of my extended family again. Sixteen years is a long time to be away. My niece and nephew were toddlers when I last saw them and now they are in college. Bangkok changed quite a bit. The city is a lot more developed and the entire road system has been redone. The highways are now much closer to what we have here, though you still have to travel a little bit in the wrong direction to make a u-turn to go the way you actually want to go.
My sense of being disconnected went away toward the end. I was definitely becoming more comfortable speaking Thai. Heck, I was finding myself thinking in Thai at times which was a bit of a surprise. My cousins took me to the beach at Pattaya the day before I left. They were not too comfortable with English so I spent the day speaking Thai. I held my own, so definitely helped me to feel less like an outsider. I have decided that it is time that I learn to read and write Thai.
The second half of the trip was mostly uneventful. I spent a large part of it sick. Highlights were getting my Thai ID card, 2 hour full body massages three days in a row, and going to Pattaya and parasailing for the first time.
The flight back was shorter, fourteen hours instead of seventeen. Still too long to be cooped up. My aunt and I missed each other at the airport so I ended up taking a shuttle home. I must have been exhausted from everything because I slept until 2 pm on Sunday something I don't usually do unless I went to bed at like 5 am. Thankfully, Monday was a holiday so I could unpack and chill for a bit before having to get back to work.
No major problems at work so I can ease right back in. However, my car is having alternator problems and I was almost stranded at work yesterday. It died on me this morning, but we have an overabundance of spare cars here so I still got to work fine.
I think that is all that is going on with me. I still have to sort through all the pictures on my camera. I'll post them to flickr or something this weekend.
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| Sunday, January 13th, 2008
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10:16 pm
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Tired. I am just plain tired. I have spent more hours in a car or van or bus than I care to count. It’s been a whirlwind of visiting relatives, checking out and provisioning the condo, and trying to get me a National ID card.
We flew up to the northern region of Maehongson a few days ago. The views were beautiful enough but six to eight hours in a van through the ups and downs of mountain roads was a bit more than I could take. We saw some caves with calcite formations, then the more tradition limestone stalactites and stalagmites. It was a bit of a health resort area with a lot of spas and hot spring sites. I think we would have been better suited doing that than the whole sightseeing thing. The views did not even out all the car sickness and the cold I picked up right at the end.
Being back has been interesting. One of the first things that struck me was how much of an outsider I felt like. I speak the language, but at something like the first or second grade level. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, I can get by with things like shopping and going to the market, but I am totally out of my depth when it comes to intellectual discourse in Thai. I also realize that I know very little about Thai history, and while I know a lot of customs, I do not know why many of them are practiced. This has left me feeling a bit out of place.
Today we went to a floating market and then to a small zoo that had trained elephants. There was a show that was reminiscent of Medieval Times, except with elephants. The little ones were rather cute and there was an adorable five month old baby elephant. I’ll see about posting pictures when I get back. I am working with dial-up right now.
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| Friday, January 4th, 2008
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3:29 pm - 1 er 14 nights in Bangkok...
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Happy new year to everyone. It's been awhile. 28 weeks apparently. Nothing terribly exciting to report for the past year. 2008, however, is beginning quite nicely. I'll be flying to Thailand in about five hours or so. I am very excited! It's been fifteen or sixteen years since I was last there. I am looking forward to seeing all the changes. This will also be the first time I'll be there not during monsoon season. I should have Internet access. I hope. I'll try to post some interesting stuff while I'm there.
current mood:  excited
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| Thursday, June 21st, 2007
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10:52 am - Slacking at work
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I am amazed at how quickly June is passing by. It's been a busy month.
My sister got married, twice. Well, she had two ceremonies. She was married in San Jose at the beginning of the month with mostly the groom's extended family in attendance. She had a Thai ceremony last weekend and the local Thai doctors community arrived in force along with their children. It was weird seeing people who were teenagers when I last saw them and now have husbands/wives/assorted children. It was amusing to watch the reception turn in to karaoke night; the groom's father got up to join the Thai Wedding singer for two Chinese ballads, and at least three Thai doctors got up to sing a few Thai ballads. There was also some ballroom dancing, so several older couples, my parents included, were able to show off the moves they have been learning for the last couple of years.
I also finished my last class for my Teaching English as a Second Language certificate. Now I can spend the rest of the summer cramming for some more IT certifications. My six-month review is coming up at work and it would be nice to have some more ammo to justify a raise. =)
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| Thursday, May 31st, 2007
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9:04 am
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Well its been a couple of months since my last post. Not much has been going on until the past few weeks. I drove up to San Francisco to hang out with the crew up there. Professor Birk was out there giving a talk so it was like a mini-reunion. We hung out, played a lot of board games and I got hooked on the show The Wire. When I got back work swarmed me with agency-wide password changes and moving our email services to a new server. Work has slowed to normal but I am now somewhat ill and have my sister's wedding in San Jose to attend this weekend.
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| Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
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9:22 am - June 1996 - March 2007
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He was my friend, my little furry brother, and my baby boy. We have been together since I was in college. I was 22 years old, he was 7 weeks. He lived with me in Providence. He rode in the truck with Vera and I when we drove cross country to California. He wandered tenderfootedly over the noontime sands at White Sands National Monument. He lived in two houses and two apartments in the San Francisco Bay Area and passed away quietly Sunday morning on my bed in my parents' home in Southern California.
I remember holding him in the palm of one hand when he was a kitten. I remember him chasing and being chased by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cleverpig around the apartment when we first moved to the Bay Area. I remember that our friend Terry is the only person Grace has ever intentionally attacked. I remember that he was a great jumper, but the down part gave him some trouble. I remember when he got stuck on the roof of the apartment building. I remember standing on the railing of the third floor balcony and wondering whether I could make the short leap to the roof and pull myself up. Calmer heads talked me into waiting until morning to get the landlord. I remember how he always climbed on my chest after I returned from a trip as if to keep me from going away again.
I have more good memories than bad, a thousand times more. While I had been holding on to hope, despite having four doctors in the family tell me of the survivability rate of kidney failure, I knew on Saturday night that we weren't going to have months or even weeks. These last few weeks have been heart-wrenching to see him become progressively weaker. In the final week, he was a shadow of the active, athletic cat I knew. I do not think he was in any pain, and I hope he is now at peace. He will be cremated and during my next trip to the Bay Area, I'll be taking his ashes to Muir Woods so he will be reunited with his litter mate, Artemis.
Thank you all for your kind words and hopes and prayers.
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| Tuesday, March 6th, 2007
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11:42 am - Good news and bad news
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So I had my official interview for the IT manager position yesterday. They offered me the job this morning. So that bit of worrying is done. Yay!
Now for the bad. On last Friday I took Grace to the vet. It turns out that his loss of appetite and weight are due to severe kidney failure. The vet kept him over the weekend giving him fluids to flush out the toxins in his system. The results from the blood work indicate that as of yesterday, the level of toxins has dropped by about 40%, which is good. He seems to be responding to treatment. They are keeping him a few more days, but there is definitely some hope.
current mood: hopeful
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| Thursday, February 8th, 2007
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12:09 pm - hacking...not the computer kind
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Home sick today. Something has been running around the office for the last couple of weeks and it finally managed to knock me down and crawl inside my chest cavity.
It's been an interesting week. Until they hire someone to take over my old job, I get to cover both. So I've been busy, but it has been a good busy. Every technical problem I solve is a nice little affirmation that I can actually do this job. I had some mild anxiety about the whole network coming down on my first day and not being able to get it back up again. It actually did come down at the end of my first full day without my predecessor around, but it was on the ISP's end.
Things have been well, though I was worried about Grace for a bit. He stopped eating for awhile and I thought he was coming down with something, but aside from loss of appetite and the subsequent loss of weight, he had no other discernable symptoms. A co-worker suggested that it might be that his teeth could no longer handle the hard kibble I feed him. I switched to canned food and pretty much pounced on the food, but he also ate some of the kibble. I am left with the conclusion that he was just sick of kibble and wanted a change. I am going to take him to the vet anyway, just to be safe, but it is good to see him eating regularly again.
Not much else to report. I play a fair amount of Dungeons & Dragons Online. I picked up World of Warcraft Burning Crusade, but have not had much time to actually check it out. Not having any good video stores or comic shops nearby, I am now woefully behind on the goings on in comics and anime. =( I did pick-up and manage to watch in one sitting the entire first season of Quantum Leap. I had forgotten how much I liked that show.
And after tonight I will be one course away from getting my Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certificate.
current mood:  sick
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| Thursday, January 25th, 2007
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8:51 pm - New News
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One of my new year resolutions was to be better about keeping in touch with everyone. While I do not see myself making tons more phone calls or writing dozens of emails, I can try to update my livejournal more regularly.
It's been almost two years since I last posted. Where has the time gone? To my gut, apparently, but that is another matter. =P
For those that did not know, I moved back to Southern California to live with my parents while I got my life back on track. Years of aimless job searching and bad credit card choices take a while to undo. While back in SoCal, I took some computer courses at the local ROP and volunteered my time with a nonprofit program that fixed old computers to give to low-income families. When the old program coordinator moved to Oklahoma, I was hired to replace him. For the past five months, I have been running the program and we have donated over eight hundred computers to low-income families and to other non-profits.
I seem to have been in the right place at the right time again as yesterday the agency offered me the soon-to-be-vacant IT manager position. While my old job was benefiting the community, I really did not care for the administrative aspects of the work. My new position will be full of technical challenges as one of our networks has been cobbled together over that last eight years and needs a complete overhaul. The downside is that my plans of returning to the Bay Area sooner rather than later have been stalled, but I will be eminently more employable when I do return.
current mood: excited
current music: droning instructor
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| Friday, April 22nd, 2005
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11:12 am
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Skinny obnoxious white dude sits down at my blackjack table.
... proceeds to talk shit.
... rambles inanely.
... hits on the dealer.
... hits on the floor-woman (read pit boss).
... hits on the new dealer.
... continues to talk smack.
... loses $4,000.
Some nights I love my job.
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| Sunday, April 3rd, 2005
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7:21 am
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Drunks shouldn't gamble.
Stupid people shouldn't breed.
And boy am I glad that I don't work on commission (or the equivalent). I would have had a heart attack when I had to pay out $1200, $1500, $1900, and $1200 in four consecutive hands of blackjack. Ended my shift $700 ahead, though.
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 15th, 2005
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6:35 am
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It's early. I just got off my first night on the 10pm - 6am shift. I should be in bed, but I am no longer tired. Tonight may suck. Alot.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, March 11th, 2005
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11:53 am
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Last night was slower that the previous. The action on the tables never really went above $300-500 at any one time. The major drawback about this job is the hours I have to work. The busiest hours are between 8pm to 2am, so I will almost always be working night or graveyard. I am slowly adjusting to my new sleep schedule, though it still feels wrong to sleep til noon, but I will regret it if I do not. Currently, I am working 8pm to 4am, though that will change next week. I am hoping to switch to 6pm to 2am which would allow me to return to a normal sleep schedule, though I could end up working 10pm to 6am.
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| Thursday, March 10th, 2005
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12:35 pm - gainfully employed
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I am surprised and a bit embarrassed that it has been nearly a year since I last posted. It really did not seem like that much time has passed. Anyway, my big news. which most, if not all, of the west coasties know, is that I have a job. I will no longer be living off the largesse of my parents. My biggest decision of the day will not be "what computer game should I play?" That said, never in a million years would I have ever imagined myself working in a casino.
Yes, a casino. Last week was training, and started at the tables last night. I am not dealing. I am working for a company that banks the tables in casinos. What does that mean? Well, first I should explain the difference between gambling in California and Las Vegas. This mostly applies to Blackjack, but some of it applies to the other card games offered in California card rooms (Double-Hand, Pan 9, and Tiles, which is played with large dominoes). We play 21st Century "No Bust" Blackjack. Unlike Vegas, you do not automatically lose if you should bust. If the dealer should bust with a higher total, you "push" and no money changes hands. In California, Jokers are included in the decks and are wild. The casinos are not allowed to bank their own tables, so instead, they charge a $1 collection fee per every $100 bet. Since you can't play against the House in California (Indian casinos are regulated differently and I don't believe these rules apply to them), instead, each player has the option of "banking" which means that for that hand, the other players are betting against the money in the bank that you put up. For example, if you bank $200. The most you can lose is $200, but the most you can win is also $200. What happens if there's $400 in bets on the table? This is where my job comes in to play. If the bank loses, the first $200 is paid out, and the remainder comes out of the $20k-worth of chips I have in front of me. If the bank wins, $200 is taken from the bets to match the amount in the bank, and the remaining goes into the corporation's coffers.
It was an interesting first night on the job. After about an hour of $15-35 bets, a gentleman from Sri Lanka walks up to the table and puts down two racks of black chips which was worth $4000. In fifteen minutes (maybe less), he has blown about $3800 of it. This guy had $300-$500 riding on three to four different hands at anyone time and was hitting, splitting, and doubling-down on hands that made the experienced players around the table wince visibly. After blowing his wad, he disappears for a bit. He comes back later with another $4000 in chips. His presence, well, his chips, brought out all the big players. He rides the highs and lows better the second time. For about two hours, we went from an $85 action table, to having an average of $1800 on the table per deal. He made a few good comebacks, but in the end, he walked away with about $168.
I know this was chump change compared to the money that flows through Vegas casinos, but it was crazy to see some guy gamble with $8000 and do it badly.
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| Tuesday, April 20th, 2004
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12:49 pm
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My brother is married.
Everything went pretty well. There were a few bumps here and there, but I imagine that is normal. It was the largest wedding I've ever been to, nearly 400 people. The ceremony itself was very Christian (a first for the weddings I've been to), and they arranged for a chinese banquet at the hotel for the reception. The reception was held at the Universal Hilton in Southern California. They'll be moving to the Bay Area. Actually,my brother is already up here, my sister-in-law will be coming up to SF this week, to join my brother at the flat he is renting. At the wedding, we learned that our cousin and her husband will be moving to Petaluma. All of the sudden, I have family sprouting up in the Bay Area. In a way, I guess it is some sort of balance for the deaths of two cousins and a great aunt over the last two months.
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| Tuesday, April 13th, 2004
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8:39 pm
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My little brother is getting married this weekend. I've known for months, but as it is now days away, I find my myself feeling very odd. Nostalgic isn't quite the right word, though I do seem to be remembering my brother as a kid lately. I can't get the image of him eating a gummi bear from the bag I had spit in (we were young and gross) out of my head.
I actually like his fiance. Its just very weird to think about my younger brother getting married. They will be living in San Francisco once they are done with the honeymoon as my brother still has two years of medical school. From what he's told me, I can expect to be an uncle in a year or two. Very weird.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, February 25th, 2004
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10:08 pm
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Posted this primarily for Bohemond's benefit
Hellboy Anime? (2004-02-24 14:01:38)
In an interview with Counting Down, Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro stated, "We are in talks with a Japanese company to do a Hellboy anime series." Source: Animenation
Link
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| Tuesday, January 27th, 2004
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9:15 am
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