Phan Time

Simple Math

2010-12-31T19:04:00.001-08:00

Here's how you can tell if a religion is truly a religion of peace.

Take the limit as the zeal of a follower approaches infinity. If the worshipper becomes violent, then the religion is not a religion of peace.

Here are some math shortcuts.
If the religion believes in preaching others and spreading the word, then they are not a religion of peace automatically.
If the religion promotes violence, then it obviously is not a religion of peace.

Here are some examples:

lim of a Christian as Zeal->Fanaticism = Crazy evangelical christians who commit serious hate crimes.
lim of a Muslim as Zeal->Fanaticism = Crazy muslim on their quests for "jihad".

lim of a Jain (folowers of Jainism) as Zeal->Fanaticism = Complete wussy who's afraid to kill a bug.
lim of a Rastafarian as Zeal->Fanaticism = Pothead who's so high he doesn't make sense.
lim of a Pastafarian as Zeal->Fanaticism = Sarcastic wise-crack who won't shut the hell up.

So there you have it. It's simple math to tell if a religion is truly a peaceful religion. Because if the most vocal of a religion are the ones preaching violence, then the religion has failed in keeping it's attempts at being peaceful. Take that into consideration whenever someone mentions that their religion is a peaceful religion and to ignore the more vocal fanatics.

A true religion of peace should have its most vocal fanatics preaching peace, not violence.

Voting 2010

2010-10-19T02:29:00.001-07:00

Here is what Timothy Phan will recommend being placed on ballot measures, mainly for those voting for Clackamas/Happy Valley.

Candidates

US Senator: Ron Wyden - Trusted progressive.

US Rep in 3rd District: Earl Blumenauer - Love his tie, also he's another good progressive candidate.

Oregon Governor: John Kitzhaber - I would of preferred Bill Bradbury, but oh well. We need a liberal who will fight to improve Oregon's health care and schools.

State Treasurer: Ted Wheeler - He is the current one and is a very responsible one. Everyone recommends him, so I do too.

State Senator 26th District - Brent Barton! Great guy, he is the progressive.

State Rep 51st District - Cheryl Meyers - She actually showed up at my door and talked with me! She was a former administrator for North Clackamas school district and has education and health care as her top priorities.

Measures

YES on 70 - Supports soldiers and stimulates housing market.

YES on 71 - More interaction between Oregon's Congress. It's just better for them to work together more and have less special sessions.

YES on 72 - Will help stimulate economy by spending it on much needed infrastructure improvements.

NO on 73 - We do not need more money being used to house people in jail. 15 years is a pretty long time for a repeated sex-offender, and I'm sure the driving one is a lot too. Putting them in jail for even longer is not going to help anything except waste our state funds.

YES on 74 - Supports medical marijuana and another income revenue for the state.

YES on 75 - Casino in Multnomah county? YES! Much needed to bring revenue to Portland Public Schools.

YES on 76 - The lottery funds have been great in keeping up with preserving Oregon's sense of nature. Keep it going.

Too many engagements and weddings

2010-09-14T00:03:00.001-07:00

My friends feed is riddled with people getting married and engaged. They're only 20-23ish in age. Most have even known each other less than Natalie and I have. So what exactly is the point of all of these engagements and weddings!?!?

Here are some of my ideas as to why they are possibly doing this:

They're worried about them splitting up. So a marriage is like super-glue to a relationship. The relationship was probably not broken, but just in case, the super glue helps.
They think that they love each other enough that they want to take it to the next level. They think it goes
1. Crush
2. Relationship
3. Love
4. Marriage
5. Kids
Of course, marriage in the olden days came first. It wasn't until the Victorian era of England that people married because of love. But regardless, marriage does not imply love.
They want to get into each others pants. This one is particularly common with Christian people who believe that it's wrong to have premarital sex. Instead, they'll marry first and then have sex! Because marriages are cheap and divorces are so easily done and simply right? And sex before marriage will send them straight to hell (unless they ask for forgiveness!)

I think people fail to take into account a few things. Such as:

The outrageous costs of weddings and how little money they actually have. Weddings are expensive. A good beautiful decent wedding dress can cost on average $900! That's like, six Street Fighter Tournament Edition sticks (average value of $150). Not to mention there's the cake, the flowers, the pastor, the invitations, the locations, the photography, all sorts of crap that needs to be taken into account. If you spent over 90% of your savings on the wedding ring, think again. Saving up enough money for a great wedding can take up a lot of money. Of course, some people can simply cut costs here by not having all of the fancy stuff.
Being in love is not a reason for marriage. If you take into account everything that I had just listed, there better be a pretty darn good reason for getting married.
Marriages are indeed like super glue. It will not be easy to break out of. Engagements are easy, but involve a lot of heart break mostly.

Now if you ask me, here are some of the reasons I think are legit reasons for marriage.

Two INDEPENDENT adults with steady lives are ready to combine their lives together into a unison. Because face it, living a single bachelor life isn't exactly glorious. Having someone to share your life with is great. The only problem with many people I see is that they are already sharing their lives with someone. Be it their parents, their friends, their siblings. Unless you are truly an independent person, I do not think a "marriaged" life will work properly yet. Think about it, bank accounts will be merged. Houses will be shared. And so will beds. This means making compromises and sacrifices so that both partners are happy in the unison. It's not about love, you can have love without marriage. This is about a life partner. And divorcing from it is a pain.
You and your significant other are so used to being together that you want to reap the benefits from taxes, insurance, financing, etc. The issue I have is that so many people are getting married that would not have benefits from this! They are still learning, they are only working in a temporary job, their taxes are already so small! Thus, this can only be a logical explanation for couples that again, independent and ready to reap its benefits.

So yeah, that's all I got to rant about so far. Hope this does not offend anyone.

Music Tastes and Scott Pilgrim

2010-08-17T04:45:00.001-07:00

Once again, my taste is music is becoming more defined and more descriptive of me. I remember back in the day when I used to listen to whatever bland crap they had on the radio.

Recently, I've been trying out different music artists.

Here are some artists I've been listening to lately:
Passion Pit, Ra Ra Riot, Miike Snow, Starfuckers (they're native to Portland!). Hopefully those will give anyone an idea of the kind of music I like.

The latest one is Anamanaguchi. Whoa! I'm a big fan of the awesome music they had back in the Nintendo with its 8-bit music. They literally are reviving it. I found them when I was exploring the upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World game.

Speaking of which, it's an amazing movie! Sadly I haven't read the comic, but I'm sure it would be pretty damn awesome. I loved the movie and all of its very fresh jokes. The sillyness of the movie was not in bad taste and very creative the majority of time.

Incase anyone is wondering, yes the whole defeating the 7 evil ex's is pretty silly. But that's an allegory! It's about accepting people's pasts and realizing how when we love someone, we could be hurting another. Being a complete nerd and geek, I fricken loved this movie. There's many tip-of-the-hats to video games and nerd culture. It's a great movie and I recommend anyone to go out and see it! At the moment, I simply cannot wait for the video game to be released on XBLA. I heard it's amazing so far on PSN.

Stuttering Gene

2010-03-09T23:06:00.001-08:00

So last month, researchers discovered a genetic mutation that caused stuttering. Now, lets be clear here, I'm not talking about giving a speech or being shy around a cute girl. I'm talking about Porky Pig stu-stu-style. Or Jimmy style if you prefer.

Here's an illustration of my stuttering:
- I'll stutter when saying "Thanks!" to my parents.
- I'll stutter even when talking to close friends or Natalie. She thinks it's cute.
- I'm completely embarrassed to talk online sometimes because I'm afraid of stuttering.

I found this genetic link fascinating because it can literally explain the way I am. Some of the articles also stated a purposed mechanism as to how this would work.

So lets go through a step-by-step analysis of my stuttering.

Evidence of Genetic Link

My dad is a stutter. He was always the center of jokes and ridicule back at school and he still stutters from time to time. Michael and John also developed some speech impediments and also some minor stuttering. According to the articles, the genetic link is multifactorial and complex, which means multiple genes are involved. So my belief is that Michael and John inherited SOME of the genes that caused speech impediments, while I inherited the full spectrum.

Mechanism

From the studies on large families of stutters, they found that the reason seemed to reside with failure to break down molecules in a specific region in the left-hemisphere of the brain. What this means is that stuttering is caused by the build-up of junk in a section of the brain largely responsible for speech.

This means that regions for singing or mimicry are unaffected. As most stutters would agree, singing or just talking really silly will never stutter. Also, this implies that it is not only stuttering that occurs, but any problems related to speech. Growing up, I developed multiple speech impediments. I could not properly pronounce the sounds from TH, Y, G, R, S/Z. Instead they sounded like J/F, L, J, W, and SH respectively in the same order. Imagine how silly I must of sounded!

Ze quick bwon fox jumped ovew je lathy fox. I had to take a special speech therapy class from Kindergarten to 8th grade to sound the way I sound now. And of course, many of you know I still don't sound entirely clear! (I still cannot pronounce pure properly.) I also mumble and ramble without even realizing it numerous times.

When speaking Vietnamese, it is hell! I stutter like a crazy kid in Vietnamese and my sounds still don't sound proper. Other Vietnamese people used to say I just suck at Vietnamese. Which is untrue! I'm amazing at the grammar and structure of the language. I just can't make the proper sounds. Heck, even my parents tell other people that I'm good at Vietnamese, I just sound like an idiot because I stutter and don't pronounce words right.

Personal Implications

Think about this, being a young asian adolescent who can't speak correctly. What I had to do was develop methods to work around my stuttering. Here are some very enjoyable ones.

Using hand gestures to push a word through. John likes to remind me of this by doing air-quotes and simply stating "umbrella" very slowly. I did this once when he and his friends were around, basically I sounded like an idiot.

Think of alternative ways of saying the same thing without stuttering. Believe it or not, I can sometimes tell when I'm going to stutter. Like something inside me knows that if I try to say what I'm thinking of, I'll stutter. So I'll actually come up with ways to say what I want. At times, this even involved the use of swear words. Believe it or not, the F word comes out really clean and easy because it relies so much on brute force instead of speech.

Previously, I've used techniques such as pausing or repeating the same word. Once, I repeated the same sentence again very quietly just to reinforce the clear sentence in my mind, like a do-over. But for my own benefit.

Because of the limitations of my left brain, what could have happened was a shift of responsibility to my right brain, making it more experienced than my left brain. The right brain shift may possibly be what's responsible for my preference of math and science, of which use more of the right brain.

Chow Mein Ramen, from Ramen

2010-01-27T00:39:00.001-08:00

So I decided to start displaying some of my cooking on this blog. Seeing as how I haven't really been introvertive lately, I think posting some of the things I cook and make will be a great way to show what I've been trying to improve on.

This post will be on how to cook a noodley delicious chow mein dish that won't be super sophisticated as chow mein.

You will need:

Ramen Packages.
Onions and garlic.
Veggies and legumes that would go good in a chow mein. I used green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots.
Some sort of meat product. I used canned salmon a couple of times cause it was easy. But there's nothing wrong with pulling out a chicken breast or sausage and adding those in.
Sauces to cook with. I used Sriracha sauce and a little bit of soy sauce.
Olive oil. I guess veggie oil might work, but I'm a big fan of olive oil. Extra virgin, virgin, light in flavor, any of it will do.

Quantities depend on your taste and preference. I'll talk about the amounts I add in as we go on on a basis of 2 ramen packages.

Here's what to do.

A major thing I do is sweating the onions and garlic using olive oil. Basically, I coat the bottom of the sauce pan with olive oil and warm it up. Then I toss about half of a chopped big red onion and 3 cloves of garlic, chopped. I leave them on low-medium heat to soak up and release the flavors into the oils. I know it's done with the onions are translucent and look like it's sweating.
- In the background, put your ramen noodles into a big bowl of boiling water. Just enough so they become "al-dente" of sorts. Not too hard. Just soft enough that they can be mixed. Just leave them to cook, it'll probably take a while to get the water heated and this can be done.
After this, I add in my other goodies. First by adding in half a can of french style green beans, drained. I stir it up so that the green beans start to soak up some flavors. This is on low-medium heat. I taste a few of the green beans too. If it tastes too bland, add in some salt and pepper.
Then I add in the meat. In my case, it's a can of salmon, drained. What happens commonly is the meat breaks apart into tinier pieces and I get a bit of salmon in every bite. But having chunks of chicken would be great too. I keep mixing it up at this point. Letting it heat, but not sizzle! If it gets too hot, just lower the heat a bit until everything's all relaxed.
After that, I now add in the veggies. I am using my roommates' frozen Normandy style veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) that they never opened. I commonly have to run them over warm water to defrost their outer later. After that, I chop them into tinier more edible pieces instead of their giant chunks. I then add all of this in. Usually, it's no more than a quarter cup of veggies. But more veggies would probably make it healthier. Just let everything sizzle up.
Now, grab the seasoning from your ramen packages. Add half of each seasoning package. So if you have a chicken and a beef flavor, add half of each. Then start flavor testing! If the veggies or green beans do not yet have a delicious cooked taste. Try adding in more salt. If the whole thing looks too dry, add in some more oil, just a bit. Try also adding in some soy sauce for a smokier salty flavor.
While everything is still hot, time to transfer the ramen over. Make sure you grab only the noodles, none of the water. You can use a strainer if necessary. Or just pour out the water and use a fork/chopsticks to block the noodles from falling out. Remember, they're not FULLY cooked, but al-dente cooked. The noodles will look like a big mess on your deliciously cooked veggies.
Now is a good time to add in the rest of your seasoning packages. The noodles are still wet and there's hopefully still some moisture in the pot. If not, feel free to add in some more olive oil. Remember, monounsaturated fat is healthy!
Next step is to now mix it! However, it's REALLY HARD to mix it when all of the noodles are interconnected like this. So pull out a knife or use scissors and just chopped the ramen noodles up into tinier pieces. Not so small you have rice, but small bite sized volumes. It's up to you how you'd like it, I think smaller is better. But anyways, just mix everything up! Crank the heat up a bit if needed, just don't burn anything.
After that, keep testing it. Eventually, your ramen noodles will match a nice glaze of color based on your ramen and your pre-noodles pot. Try it out! If it doesn't taste good yet, keep seasoning it and mixing it. Perhaps even add in more olive oil.

Healthy Eating

2010-01-05T15:00:00.001-08:00

I'll admit, I always gave up when it came to dieting. But I think I can totally pull this off.

I'm going for a high carb diet for breakfast, and decreasing it over the day. Everything that I'm eating is now either soy, fat free, or low fat. With a few exceptions every now and then for pure enjoyment.

I regularly eat salad now, and find it to be very delicious and desirable! Matter of fact, I feel like divulging myself with 1000 Island Non-Fat dressing right now. It also goes REALLY GOOD on celery. I fill the curved part of the celery with some light dressing and munch it down, yum yum yum!

For my sandwiches, use wheat bread with low-fat mayo and oven roasted turkey. It's delicious! I'm even trying some soy pepper jack cheese and it gives an equally good spice taste. Just not the cheese taste.

Natalie and I are also cooking more, or hopefully will be cooking more. It's fun, saves a lot of money, and allows us to make some very healthy and delicious meals.

Of course, I've been able to cut some things out of my diet that I really feel no desire to eat anymore. Such as ramen, peanut butter, ice cream, and pork.

One more thing, I LOVE GREEN BEANS! For some reason, it tastes bland when eating a single green bean. But eat A LOT and it tastes amazing. Odd thing.

Updates for the New Year

2009-12-22T12:37:00.001-08:00

There hasn't been very much going on with my life. I still am dating an amazing girl who I love. My grades for this term are A, A, A-, A-, A-. Which is hilarious the same as my last GPA: 3.82, so my GPA is now a more solid 3.82. Great. . . I just need a little more push to get into the 3.85 region (Summa cum lade). Other than that, I really haven't done much else. Here's a list of them:

- Watched Glee and get the soundtracks
- Drive siblings around
- Drive mother around
- Play on my Xbox (A lot of RE5)
- Watched some movies
- Tone up on my Street Fighter
- Started to listen to Les Miserables audiobook

Though I do have a new year's resolution! So my schedule for next term involves me going to an 8:00 AM class for about an hour and a half. So that's around 9:20 AM that I'll end. My next class isn't until 2:00 PM. So within that 5 hour break, I will be awake and free to do anything I please. I now plan on walking all the way to Dixon just to hit the weights. No more focus on running (which requires a lot of planning and careful choosing of food since I have acid reflux). Instead I'll just go there and work on my arms and legs, and occasionally do some abs and run for warm-ups and cool-downs. But with 5 whole hours, there's a lot of potential.

Unlimited Texting

2009-11-01T20:39:00.001-08:00

Yep, I now have unlimited texting apparently. Feel free to send me messages to your heart's content. Well, just don't bug the hell out of me.

Dedication to this Xbox

2009-10-08T11:41:00.001-07:00

I haven't noticed it until now, but I am dedicating A LOT of time for this xbox. Currently, it's on a Red-ringing rampage, requiring frequent repairs. It's driving me insane!! Hopefully I can get it to calm down again though. :-(

But seriously, this thing is making me lose sleep just trying to get it working again. Just to have it mess up the next day. Ugh. I know I should buy a new xbox arcade and just transfer everything, but I don't want to yet. :-( Too many connections to this baby so far. And I can't afford an arcade at the moment.

Xbox 360 and all of the hassle

2009-09-16T12:46:00.001-07:00

So the biggest joke with the 360 is the evil Red Ring of Death.

Recently, I've acquired an xbox. My brother's old red ringed xbox to be exact. He tried to repair it and it bummed out after a couple days.

He brought it home with him, where my dad and I attempted to further fix it. We succeeded. I had a xbox 360 console. (My brother bought a new one and used a $50 gift card I gave him).

For a week, my dreams of getting an xbox 360 was awesome. One evening, I played a couple of games of Gears of War 2 online with my friend Justin and had to immediately Turn Off the Console after a game ended so that I could go eat.

Next morning, it froze on me. What happened was the dreaded red ring. Last night I fixed it again and I can't believe the hassle I am going through to make this a playable Xbox 360. It works at the moment, but I'm afraid of even using it for a prolonged time! Before I use it, I need to invest in some advance fans to use with the console.

Here are the fans:

Talismoon Whisper Max 12V fan. Basically, it's a replacement for the stock back fan that will cause some serious air-flow in exchange for a much louder fan. Personally, I do not mind background noise and know how to hook my headphones up to the audio. So it really isn't not a problem for me.

XCM Core Cooler v2. Extra internal fans that will hopefully allow more air breathing for the GPU, the main cause of the RRoD problems.

A problem of course is that I'm low on funds. :-(
The fricken student aid financial aid money isn't coming in anytime soon and so I have to hold up on some of my money to pay the dang rent. Ugh. Maybe I could borrow some money from the parents or something. Will investigate into pricing options soon.

Thanks for the Support with my weight Mom! NOT

2009-08-23T01:19:00.001-07:00

Growing up with a weight problem is bond to happen if your mom nicknames you "big belly". I never thought I could get fat, as I always thought I was just always fat. It wasn't until I saw comparisons of myself in high school with my current state in college that I realized I had became fat. And amazingly, I never saw it every time I looked in a mirror.

This summer, I've made a pact with myself to start heading towards a better physical health. My plan has been to run more, increasing my cardiovascular strength, and then target my need-areas and get them back to shape. So far, I've gotten my cardiovascular to suitable shape, a mile run is no longer a problem. I will continue this trend into my second year in college thanks to a treadmill downstairs and Dixon Rec. across campus.

Seeing as how my waist used to fit perfectly a 36 but is now loose in a 36, and that I now need my belt for all of my shorts, it seems like I have a lot to be proud of. However, my mother doesn't seem to agree. She believes the best motivation for me is to consistently tell me that I'm a fat lazy kid who looks terrible because I'm fat. Thanks mom!

Today I didn't want to go out for a walk with my parents. My legs are TONED from all the running and I can literally walk miles without any aches. My mom accused me of being lazy and once again mentioned how fat and chubby I look. I honestly wanted to throw my glass cup of water at her.

Does she not realize that every time she says that, I get mildly depressed? How do I relieve depressive stress? I eat, play video games, and sit around. It's what I do, I enjoy visual entertainment and intake of glucose. I only run when I'm on a happy mood and feel chirpy enough to run outside.

The last time I confronted her about the issue, she accused me of being narrow minded. She believes she is looking out for my health because I do not look out for it. She thinks I'm disrespectful and too spoiled and stubborn to see that she simply cares about me. Sure I know she cares about my weight, but the problem is she's too ignorant to know what's best for me anymore. My mom is the most unsupportive and negative person I've ever known who simply looks after her own interest.

To me, I want to lose weight for my own interest, I want to look good in the mirror and be proud. I'm sick of all of this fucking bullshit from my mom. I don't have to look good for her, she should be happy that I'm still very healthy and losing fat, not shoot insults at me every week because I still don't have a six pack. Ugh.

Love Last.fm

2009-08-13T03:06:00.001-07:00

One thing I absolutely love is audioscrobbler. I can see all of the songs I played and sampled way back to when I was just 16, a sophomore. Because of it, I can literally witness the transformation of my music taste. In 2006, I had started using Windows Media Player to listen to music because iTunes was way too boggy. Soon afterwards, I started using foobar2000 and it was great.

Course, I got a Mac in 2007 and haven't looked back, iTunes is running smooth like a baby's butt! But with all of those changes, it's not as effective at tracking. Regardless, I still get to track all of them cause I set them all up to submit my tracks to last.fm.

Here's some of the ideas:
Back in 2006, I listened to a lot of Hip Hop and Techno immensely. Matter of fact, there's a lot of Moby that I played around that time. Black Eyed Peas also climbed up really fast.

In 2007, I had my first heart break. Literally, Ne-Yo's sappy music climbed up my charts like crazy! I also started listening to more R&B and Hip Hop, less techno. This year was also known sometimes as my emo years, named by other people, not me.

In 2008, I became very happy with life. Everything went well. Listened to some more techno again but also got more into actual rock music. Specially those genres listed as "indie". Regardless, I became more uplifted and listened to much more music. Jason Mraz, John Legend, and Lifehouse got pretty popular.

Modern 2009, my music seems to have shifted much more towards rock. But not into the hard stuff. Which I absolutely cannot find enjoyable. I'm liking the more electronic alternative rock. Some of my most played bands are Black Kids, Chairlift, and Ra Ra Riot. All 3 of which you, the reader, might not even heard of! I'm also enjoying some more rocky-techno, mainly Walter Meego, a techno band that has a very awesome style. I'm also purchasing music from smaller indie bands that I like. Jason Mraz and David Choi are also great guitarists and I love their music as well.

So it's been quite an auditory drift. I wonder how my music will change later on. But seeing how I feel like I'm at a life apex and enjoying very uplifting and cheerful music, I can't see much changes in the future.

American Psychological Association report says “stop converting gays” | The Good Atheist

2009-08-06T13:04:00.001-07:00

I completely agree with this. It took me a while, but by 9th grade, I fully understood that I was wrong about homosexuality being a choice. The problem was that I wasn't thinking of their perspective. When I did, I realized how terrible and wrong I was. Gay people are just like normal people, just that they like situation 11 instead of situation 10.

Here's a fun article that attacks the idea of "Gay therapy". As if it was some sort of sickness, that disgusts me. There is nothing wrong with being gay.

American Psychological Association report says ‘stop converting gays’

Thu, Aug 6, 2009

Ok, I’m paraphrasing here, but the APA concluded yesterday that there is no evidence that therapies meant to ‘change’ someone’s sexual orientation are effective or healthy. In fact, their findings showed that lasting changes were unlikely, and asked mental health practitioners to stop suggesting this kind of therapy.
The article seems to tap dance around the real reason why these types of therapies exists: Religious conservatives feel that homosexuality is a travesty, and that a closer relationship with Jesus (feeling horny guys? just pray to this shirtless dude) will somehow make gay men straight. The ‘therapies’ they’ve devised aren’t based on any real scientific understanding, but rather on the spurious reasoning that sexual orientation is a choice rather tha"

Annual Church Camp, the ideas of "church"

2009-07-30T22:03:00.001-07:00

I sometimes tend to wonder why I even make an effort about going to church. Of course, it's because I think it's fun and there's a lot of fun things to do. Not considering "worship" or any of that religion junk of course. But things like helping out others, especially those not as good in English, or playing around with the younger kids. I really like doing that kind of stuff. Though I'll admit I hate the looonnnngggg prayers. Like seriously, Jesus distinctively instructed to not take so long in your prayers!

Anyhow, I'm a firm believer that religion will be replaced with more modern ways of thinking as education becomes more readily available. Generations to come, religion will be evolved out. What use of the churches then? Well they are a center of our culture, not just a piece of religion. Churches are where funerals, weddings, and those cute Christmas programs take place. I simply do not think we can do away with it. (Of course, Christians tend to say they can be religious without church, thus they must be individual entities. Thus I like the idea that church =/= Christianity anymore).

Generations from now will use churches are community centers. Where the old can have fun and interact with the young. Dress codes are becoming more lenient, and will continue doing so. All of that religious bull crap will go away. Once religion is gone from the Earth, it'll be a much greater world. Instead of sermons, we could have lectures about interesting ideas or discussions! Those would be fun. And youth groups will do things that are actually youthful, like having fun, talking about sex and drugs. Good things like that. Not cheer and chant to see who's more of a religious zealot than the other.

How to Work in Vietnamese Marketing

2009-07-27T13:30:00.001-07:00

Here are some simple tips so you can be just as good as those who design Vietnamese signs, ads, and etc. As well as some common problems with Vietnamese homes, shops, stores, and etc. Truly, Vietnamese people have some of the worst design skills ever.

1) Make all of your text some script based handwriting. Forget about those nice easy to read sans-serif fonts. Heck, forget the serif fonts too! Instead, we can use weird looking impossible to read cursive fonts that are also nearly impossible with the added accents that Vietnamese tends to have. MAYBE you could occasionally use a serif font, especially for important things. But everyone loves cursive. Make sure if you do pick a serif font, make it the same as every other Vietnamese store around you.

2) Is color design important? Of course not! Instead, base everything on your culture instead. Use an excessive amount of yellow and red. Why? Because we're proud to be Vietnamese! And of course other Vietnamese people LOVE to see the colors of yellow and red. It's on both Northern and Southern Vietnamese flags. Yes, the whole street of Vietnamese stores will all have red fonts, and perhaps yellow words as well, but that's okay! It's because we're Vietnamese. We can do that.

3) Paint EVERYTHING white! Have the walls as white as possible paint wise. Also replace all of the warm glow of yellow lights with super bright white light. It's a cleaner look right? Make sure the ceiling is also painted white. And then for the floor, forget about fancy good looking floors. Replace those with nasty white laminated tiles. Yes they streak easily, but it fits the design of white. Kinda looks like a hospital right? Well, not exactly. Because there's all sorts of nasty streaks everywhere, but that's alright. Vietnamese people don't mind a little dirtiness.

4) Running a store? Well then where's the funky smell and the greasy shelves? You need to make sure that all of that crazy stuff you sell will give off an awesome smell that you can sniff from the outside. Some things will be greasy, especially all of those sauces. If you got a spill, just leave it in the shelf. It'll be funny to see kids touch the shelves and suddenly have itchy smell residue left over on their hands.

5) Generations to come? Does your children want to go to art school? Tell them you'll refuse to pay for them! Instead encourage them into medicine, pharmacy, and maybe perhaps engineering. Tell them that art, design, marketing, all of that is a total waste of time. Cause it's not that hard to make the perfect Vietnamese design to appeal to people. Who doesn't love white-washed buildings full of red and yellow text everywhere.

6) If you're going to make a commercial, make it as annoying as possible! If you're doing any kind of live-action recording, make sure you use a very pathetic camera. Also do not have hanging microphones anywhere. Instead, use the camera's microphone. If it's not adequate enough in volume, just use computer software to boost the sound. Of course this will buff up background noise, and even static noise, but that's okay. Of course, if you're PBN or any of those concert types, you actually gotta hire some professionals.

7) Got a show, cartoon, or movie in a different language that you think would be great for your Vietnamese channel? By all means translate it. But don't hire a huge cast, that's useless. Hire one girl, preferably one that cannot do accents and has one voice. Then have her do the voice-over for EVERYONE. Including the scary old man. She'll still sound like a girl with a soft voice for all of the characters of course. But that's okay, Vietnamese people don't mind, they like the soft voice of a woman. Also, make sure the audio does not match start and end when the characters talk. Let your voice-over lady take her time and have her finish whenever, just make sure she speaks in the same voice at the same speed.

There you have it folks! The perfect tip sheet to be in Vietnamese marketing and design. If you do have a child who is good at that stuff, make sure he/she takes their ludicrous ideas to some silly American place. Perhaps those dumb guys at Apple might even hire them. Them and their stupid grey silvered smooth looks with anti-aliased fonts.

Organic Food Hype

2009-07-24T22:06:00.001-07:00

[Start rant]
I think Organic food is all hype.

Some people say it tastes so much more amazing. I honestly could hardly tell the difference. Both apples tasted like apples! Both were juicy. Both were delicious.

And my biggest problem with organic food is the global impact. A lot of people complain that using pesticides could damage the environment. Yes, it could, but that is an issue with the use of pesticides in an unresponsible manner. If pesticide usage was kept to a minimum and away from hazardous water sheds, then there shouldn't be any problem at all.

Then my biggest complaint is the fact that organic foods are more expensive to produce. Take longer to produce. They also produce LESS. Not to mention that "true organic" foods don't last that long. People in 3rd world country are not going to care about a slight increase in taste. Heck, I don't even care about a slight increase in taste. (This is possible due to my Vietnamese background where cooking relies on the combination of flavors, instead of the concentration in one flavor). But the fact that we are using precious land (which is indeed a precious resource) just to make elitist food that tastes practically the same, though it takes up more space with less output, more time (a precious resource), and cannot even last that long.

And until I see some scientific evidence that becomes widely accepted about pesticides causing serious health problems, I do not see the point in choosing organic foods. Heck, it bugs me even that I can't get "non-organic" soy milk. The real flavoring in all of that Silk stuff is the sugar and vanilla anyways. *Sigh* [End rant]

Sum Summer Summaries!

2009-07-14T00:12:00.001-07:00

So my summer has become the bleakiest of the boring summers. Not because it's not exciting, cause it is. It's just that I don't have a job! After having a summer job for 2 years now, I feel utterly pathetic to not have a means of income. To make it worse, Best Buy said they'd call me back with an update, cause they thought I had an interesting application. It's been a month now! Well screw you too Best Buy! I'm buying my ish online now!

This has been the consistency of my summer so far:

- Reading. Books are great! But they're slow to process, for me at least. I can skim pretty fast. But reading, not so much. But, they're well worth it to read. My collection of books consist primarily of physics books. There are exceptions of course. I'm currently reading a neuroscience book, about how the human mind decides to do the things we do. It's rather interesting as it explains in analogy the process of dopamine and patterns in the brain. I have finished a couple of books already this summer, and I hope to finish more by the end of this summer.

- Running. As well as some pull-ups, crutches, abdominal-pincers, and stretching. I'm aiming for at least a mile a day. And I'm improving ever so slowly. My current methods at the moment involve the use of a treadmill. My family decided to invest in one, and I guess it's now starting to become important to me. I finished a mile today in 9:10 min, and finished 1.5 miles in less than 15 min, around 14 something. Which to me, is pretty dang good. Especially when I came to grasp on the amount of fat that I have gained in the past year living in that dorm. I've been trying to eat healthier and in smaller portions as well. So far so good!

- Video games. Lots of video games. Well not too many. But what I can play. Even though I have access to the Sims 3 and a regular Xbox. I still find the best games to be the simple ones, or the classic ones. So far, I've already beaten Donkey Kong Country 3 and Terranigma, both Super Nintendo games. Both were very excellent. Currently, I am addicted to two Popcap Games. (Popcap is a company that aims to make casual games that everyone can enjoy, you may also commonly see their games available for phones). The two games are Plants vs. Zombies, and Peggle Nights. Both of which are highly addicted and packed full of fun! I'd recommend PvZ to ANYONE.

- Teching. Not listening to techno music, but working on the entertainment system with my dad. We recently got a new HDTV, plasma with a 720p maximum. Which is perfectly good for us! But since it's a new HDTV, we've got access to a few more things now. We can now get digital local channels over the air for free. Due to our special receiver being unusable at the moments, we could definitely use those English channels. The other newly available access is HDMI and high definition. Currently, I have a couple of cables being shipped which will allow my computer to hook up to the television under high definition and be able to enjoy it all. Like all of my packages, I have a high amount of dopamine increase when I'm expecting a delivery. So I'm excited!! I've also been shopping around for an Upscaling DVD Player. One which will allow our vast collection of DVD movies (not really) to be able to play at a crisper image, the kind of 720p to be exact. My dad and I have found a set that so far looks really good. Potentially a purchase is in the future!

Now here are some events that I will be partaking in, or already have.
- Vacation Bible School. Or as like to call it "summer of doing things at the church with the kids". Me and a few other older aged teens spent a whole week of hanging out with the younger kids at our church. The days included tie-dying t-shirts (mine is orange, yellow, and red), going to the Oregon Zoo, and then to OMSI. It concluded with a sleep-over at the church. Which was very exhausting, but enjoyable.
- Camping trip! Annual. Of course.

So yeah, that's basically been my summer so far. Some things I need to include is more working time on the AIChE website. And figure out what to use this $50 gift card for Hollywood Videos on. :-)

First Year Done!

2009-06-13T01:06:00.001-07:00

So I finally finished my first year at Oregon State University as a pre-Chemical Engineering student. I'd have to say, it's been an awesome year. I'd like to take this moment to reflect on some great times.

One of my best memories of college life is dealing with drunk friends. They're great and all, and I don't mind taking a drink with them every now and then. But when they're drink to the point of total intoxication, holy shit! I've had to help a drunk friend from throwing up numerous times, and they are never fun! However, when helping out drunk friends, it gives you an experience that you can never see elsewhere. Realizing that our bodies are soo weak and so subtle to slight increasements in chemical equilibria is crazy! I hope I never end up drinking to that point, cause it's crazy! I'm glad that today when moving out, my drunk friend thanked me for all of the help that I done.

Studying is important! Holy shit I just can't never study enough. From my experience in high school, I NEVER studied for a science/math based course. It just almost always came naturally. And the humanities was not studying, it was literally memorizing, and that was it. But here at OSU, I've been challenged logically and analytically greatly. Partly because my professors can be terrible. The rest of the time because there is A LOT of knowledge and skills that I as a student need to fully handle. It's quite a task.

There have been many nights where I end up staying up so late that the sun is starting to come up again. The amount of sleep I've had throughout this year is very minimal. I commonly would stay up late to do random things like play video games or some extra studying. I managed the next day under a severe lack of sleep. To me, 6 hours of sleep was good. 5 hours was decent. Because of this terrible timing of mine, I have developed a taste for coffee and tea. I can't get enough of those two!

Relationships are work! A lot of it. There's a lot of forces, and there's a lot of distance! (Physics Joke). The most important thing in a relationship is being able to communicate ideas properly and respecting each other. If those can be done, relationships can be great! :-D I also would like to let people know that relationships are instantly awesome. Just because you can be in a relationship, and just because you want one, doesn't mean you should necessarily have one. There are so many factors to consider. Ever since spending a lot of time with Natalie, my video game time and slacking off time have been cut! I accept this, as losing a lot of my free time is totally worth it to hang out with my awesome girlfriend. But I just wanted to let people who want a relationship badly to know that a close-distance relationship has a lot of sacrifices. Even when there's no money involved, there is always time. Think about that the next time you want a relationship. If you're willing to accept a change to your lifestyle, it can be a really rewarding experience.

My future goal in life have changed as well after taking all of these extensive classes. After taking electromagnetic physics, I have a great appreciation for the electronics in the world. I understand how a CRT works, radio, cell phones, almost anything electronic I can understand to a good degree. My chemistry courses have been great too! Because of it, I understand the chemical nature of the world, appreciation for ceramics, understanding of liquid crystal displays, and much much more. Over time, I've decided that I really want to be a chemical engineering major with an option in microelectronics and material science. While many future-doctors dream of curing cancer, my dream is to be able to explain super conductance and create the world's first room temperature superconductor. I know there's a lot of learning ahead! Hopefully I'll be able to do great things in grad school. :-)

For the love of Street Fighter

2009-05-26T16:06:00.001-07:00

So yesterday, I finally achieved what I would consider a breakthrough. I am able to play Street Fighter III 3rd Strike on my Mac using my Xbox 360 controller without having to load up Parallels and being able to use the axis.

The main issue that has been around is that the MAME emulator used to play Street Fighter on my Mac, which is Mame OS X, does not support multiple axis on a controller. It only allows the standard up, down, left, and right, everything else is ignored. Worst, it takes control over the controllers, preventing programs that can modify the controller from being able to mod the controller.

For a while, I've been running the Windows original version of MAME on Parallels on my Mac. Incase no one knew what that meant: I've been emulating Street Fighter 3 using MAME on Windows which is being emulated using Parallels on my Mac. The issue with this is that it takes forever for it to load!

Thus, my options were to play Street Fighter on my xbox 360 controller without the use of the triggers, OR I could load up Parallels and wait up to 3 minutes and then hassle with the windows emulation in order to play Street Fighter. Neither of which is really good.

So recently, I came up with this very complicated method of playing Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. Here are the essentials:
1) Of course, I need the xbox 360 drivers for my Mac. Which routes the two analog triggers into their own axis so that they don't interfere (unlike the Windows version).
2) I needed a special program called Crossover Games, which has the ability to run numerous version of Windows applications on Mac.
3) I needed ControllerMate by OrderedBytes, which was one of my gifts for Christmas. It's a $15 app that allows me to quite literally do ANYTHING with my controllers, such as mapping each one to a key or a set of keys.
4) I had to get a whole different emulator called MAMEUIFX, which stays up to date with the original Mame but provides a great windows interface that makes it possible to run under Crossover Games.

So what ends up happening is that I am using Crossover Games to run MAMEUIFX on my Mac. With it, I can then run Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. I bind the keys to keyboard keys which is perfectly alright. After that, I use ControllerMate to set it so that when MAMEUIFX is running, to set my keys on the controller to those corresponding keys on the keyboard. The real trouble that kept me from doing this a long time ago was finding MAMEUIFX.

After all of this, I can play my Street Fighter III 3rd Strike perfectly with my controller! :-D

AIChE Web Monitor

2009-05-06T19:00:00.001-07:00

So after thinking I was all done with doing websites after Key Club, here I am once again doing a website for a club here at OSU!

So this club is the American Institute of Chemical Engineers chapter. There is a website, but it's pretty unknown and isn't too effective. My goal is to make it special, good, awesome, and ready to be an effective website for next year. Yay!

Back On My Feet

2009-04-15T01:53:00.001-07:00

So recently, I've decided to take some initiative in my physical health. I've gotten to the point where I look at a mirror and honestly do not like what I see. So here's some of the initiatives:

1) Healthier eating. Honestly, I do not need to eat a burger over a sandwich, the only difference is that the burger has a savory taste to it. I think I've decided that I can live without savoriness and will instead settle for the juiciness of tomatoes and such of a tomato. Instead of expensive fancy sodas or anything, I'm also trying to drink more of those expensive "Naked" drinks. Holy crap they are sooo worth it.

2) Eating less! This has always been a big problem as I have one of those silly disorders where I eat in order to relive stress or depression. It's always been with me, but with school getting tough and money becoming tight, it's nice, it's difficult to avoid eat just for stress-relieving. So I've decided to try to drink more stuff, and snack less on nasty stuff. I've also recently tried a slice of chocolate cake and realized I felt silk after eating it! To be honest, I think I've always felt that way but have only recently noticed that feeling.

3) I need to get active and back in shape! When I was in XC, I would literally motivate myself to go running for fun and encourage myself to basically eat the least I needed in order to balance my energy intake and my acid reflux issues. Nowadays, I've been lazy. So what I've decided to do is to wake up in the morning and run for at least a mile! This is quite easily possible as my first class doesn't start until 10. Giving me PLENTY of time to go running at Dixon for about 30 minutes.

So those are my goals and initiatives to get back at life! Hope I can keep up the running! :-D It feels great so far like the good ole days, but the hardest part is literally getting out of bed.

Las Vegas

2009-03-29T10:54:00.001-07:00

So over Spring Break, my family took a road trip across California, Nevada, and a little bit of Arizona. Our trip consisted of visiting Yosemite, the Westminster area in LA, the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, and then my favorites: Las Vegas and Reno.

From my experiences in those locations, they could actually be very good family vacation spots. Not because of all of the sex trying to be sold and all of that, but because there's something for everyone to seriously do. These vacation resorts are full of different activities for everyone. For example, there's a fricken castle there! (The Excalibur) and roller coster rides everywhere, and an amusement park as well (behind the Circus Circus).

I would however state that Las Vegas is a lot more of a couple's place. Sure there's a lot of porn and such trying to be sold, but there's also a lot of relaxing shows such as Le Rêve and all of those cool magic tricks. It's definitely a place for an exciting honey moon.

So in my opinion, the City of Sin is one of the coolest cities ever! And Reno is alright, it's not as bright and cool as the Las Vegas strip.

Chemical Robots, Neuroscience, Biology, and Philosophy.

2009-03-17T04:46:00.001-07:00

So I just had a great discussion with Natalie which I think was great and I should share with more people.

In the MATLAB book, it states that the highest amount of characters a file can be saved as is 63 characters. Natalie saw this 63 and thought, "WTF, why such a random number?" I immediately recognized it. And anyone else who is a true computer nerd, will recognize it as well. 63 is the last binary number that utilizes 6 bits, while 64 would enter the 7 bit region. This she found fascinating, in which I continued to explain then how a computer works simply by using the math of binary numbers. Which lead to me explaining how about RAM works, video graphics processing units, CPUs, and even hard drives. It also lead to CRT TVs, LCD TVs, and speakers. I myself also found them fascinating and greatly enjoyed talking about them! I managed to explain to her how her iPod knows what song to pick, and what song to play to her.

What this ultimately lead to then was my proposition that we could create a robotic life form that could ultimately mimic human life. A robot could grow by an expanding polymer, digest and do all sorts of things that human life could possibly do. This required the explanation of artificial intelligence.

Incase you aren't familiar with AI either, it's basically the idea that you could have a program that could reprogram itself over time. By using input sensors, logic based judgement, and lots of RAM, a robot could be achieve that would learn and develop AI.

Natalie and I continued to discuss this to a lengthy discussion leading to ideas of a world where robots could live right alongside humans and do the exact same things we did. Including reproduction, respiration, and consumption.

When she thought all of this was outrageous, I continued on with discussion the differences between an AI robot and a human. This ultimately lead to the conclusion that we as humans are no different from robotic AIs.

As a human being, we think in a binary thought. Every question in our brain is handled as either "Yes" or "No". Don't believe me? Try it! Ask yourself a question with a wide range of answers. The brain basically does compounded multiple thoughts of Yes and No. Basically, our brain is programmed to follow through a bunch of logic gates which ask the question "Yes" or "No". Our decisions are all based on "Yes" and "No" based on numerous conditions!

The reason why I like running is related to the amount of endorphins released in my brain. Natalie doesn't like running as much, this is because she receives less endorphins in her brain than I do when I run. We decide on who we love based on their genes and potential of financial stability in the future. It's the sad facts of life! Why we choose not to leave our partners for a random hottie is that our through our multiple logic gates which ultimately decide that it is not worth it and greatly superior to just stick with our current partner.

War and fights are caused by our animalistic nature which evolved from the first life form that we must survive and reproduce. More resources means a better chance to survive and reproduce. Less enemies also means less threat and thus greater survival. Everything we do is based on evolutionary biology!

At the end, it lead to the discussion of unintelligent design where we stated areas of human weakness, such as the war, weak heart, and a back meant for crawling. Another interesting thing is the point of sex. Biologically speaking, asexual reproduction is a much greater method to reproduce compared to sexual reproduction. However, we and many animals reproduce sexually, and this is one of the biggest mysteries in the world. I told Natalie that one of the most likely accepted reasons at the moment is that it gives males a purpose in the world. Which is a very hilarious thought.

With all of these thoughts and mixes, I managed to explain to my dearest Natalie that we are basically chemically powered robots. That work and react according to enzymes and chemical equilibriums in our bodies. To stir up even more thought, what did this conclude about heaven and hell? That they don't exist, and that our minds die upon the death of our human CPU (the brain).

This thought is where I pull my life philosophy of existentialism. Where my favorite quote comes from, when I first read it off my friend Evan's myspace. "The meaning of life is to give life a meaning". Life is short, and it'll be the only life that you'll have. So make the most of it! Do something special. Treat it dearly. It's like playing the arcade game with only one credit. Make the most of it!

My Cup of Tea

2009-03-06T01:58:00.001-08:00

So over the course of this term, Natalie has gotten me addicted to a little something called "tea".

Now when I think tea, I normally think of this nasty bitter crap that my dad chooses to drink in lieu of water for some odd reason. His tea was always this utterly bitter Jasmine tea, which was disgusting! Something about bitter flavored water sounds unattractive.

However, Natalie has introduced to a fascinating world of tea.

It all started when I drank my first Camomile tea. It smelt vulgar, it really did, like utterly vulgar. However, the first sip was calming. It was relaxing. I tried more of course to find myself in this unique state of awe. That something this foul of smell could be so relaxing to my nerves. To make it even better, I decided to try it without sugar first. From my blasted astonishment, it was that relaxing delicious taste of camomile tea. Unlike my coffee, which is usually milky and sweet to my preference, my tea is dark and pure, the more herbal the better. It's just how I like my tea.

One day, after getting a new fridge, Natalie and I stopped by the Safeway on Circle Blvd. near the movie theater. I noticed they had camomile tea for sale, and I remembered the first taste I had of that sample camomile tea that Natalie gave me. I decided to purchase that pack as well as a pack of peppermint tea (seeing as to how I'm quite addicted to menthol).

Over the term, I've grown to enjoy my tea, I even have special purposes for them. Camomile tea is helpful for me to relax and chill down, great for when I'm about to sleep too. Peppermint tea is amazing for when I feel sick, the menthol and everything in the tea has an amazing ability to just wash away all of the nasty stuff in my throat.

Recently during a Fred Meyer run, they had a sale for Stash tea. I'm sure you guys have seen the boxes. But I decided to purchase a Green/White fusion and Chai tea flavors. They are both amazing. With the green/white fusion tea being an excellent booster to help me concentrate. While the chai tea is warming and soothes me when I'm stressed out.

Soon, I'll be doing my week-long trip across the Western United States to visit numerous locations in Southwest United states. However, I'll have my wisdom teeth recently pulled. Not the best idea of course for attempting to enjoy a vacation. However, I believe that with my tea, I have magical abilities and can combat all obstacles against me. So I'll definitely bring them along with me.

And maybe, just perhaps, I'll purchase myself some more tea to enjoy. I've taste Natalie's apple-cinnamon and peach-ginger. They too are amazing, but I have not yet declared a purpose for them. Perhaps the purpose of "delicious tea" will have a tea to match. Now, it's time for me to go get my cup of tea.

Mario Kart Wii and Drunkardness

2009-03-01T06:29:00.001-08:00

So today was a really eventful day. I won the Mario Kart Wii tournament through the loser's bracket when I lost the preliminaries. I later became victorious all the way through and won the $50 gift card for Gamecrazy as my prize! :-D

The rest of the day was hanging out with Natalie and doing laundry. I also watched Underworld, which has a very interesting plot. Though I'll admit it's very difficult to see anything!!

And I've also just spent the last 3 hours care-taking a drunk friend who is my neighbor. At first, he came into my room like the happy kind of drunk. Tipsy, and just walking around telling people how cool they are.

Then he decided to go to the bathroom to throw up. He also went into the bed a couple of times, but left to continue going to the bathroom to throw up. But it got insane, he eventually fell asleep while on the toilet. His roommate and I literally camped in the bathroom reading our book, waiting for him to get enough energy, and then attempting to wake him up again.

Many times did I feel like leaving, but it's admittedly difficult to leave a guy sleeping in the toilet. We eventually got him back into the room, not in the cleanest state, but better than being in the toilet or stairway where there's people around.

So now it's 6:30 and we've been dealing with him since about 3:30~4:00. He better get us a fricken cake or something for putting up with it. It was quite an experience. I hope he learned his lesson too to not drink a third of a bottle of dark black extra strong liquor.

Adventure and Nervousness

2009-02-26T01:48:00.001-08:00

I've felt like I've accomplished a lot. Today was the Physics 212 second midterm, which I think I did pretty alright on. I was hugely worried about it for a week and now that it's over, it feels alright.

The time has also come for me to go up to Portland in order to remove my wisdom teeth.

Here's the plan.

- Wake up at 5:30 AM and prepare for the Greyhound Bus which departs around 7:30, so I need to be there by 7 to make sure.

- Finish the ride at 10:30 or so. Then relax and probably find something to eat until around 2. Where I'll ride the trimet over to my clinic before 2 PM.

- Get my wisdom teeth pulled out. They are not putting me to sleep, and it's not 100% positive yet if I'll get them pulled out.

- Supposing they're getting pulled out, I'll then have to wait for my dad to come by to pick me up and take me home.

- From home, I can enjoy the luxury of kicking back and relaxing (with no wisdom teeth of course).

- Maybe I'll go to the store to get some food, or else I'll have my parents get me food.

- Then around 7:00, my dad will drive me back to the Greyhound and then I'll get to take a ride all the way back home to Corvallis.

- Come back at 10:30 PM, Natalie will pick me up from the Greyhound station and I'll be a chipmunk for school tomorrow.

Thankfully, I won't have any classes tomorrow due to the midterm in Physics. Though, I dunno how the trip and everything will go. We shall see.

College Online Versatility

2009-02-10T16:44:00.001-08:00

Here's one amazing thing I love about college that I felt pulsed to blog about.

Right now, I am writing this blog in the MU Commons with my laptop. Which is basically a large empty room with a bunch of eating tables and some fast food stores. Kinda like the eating area of the Clackamas Town Center or Lloyd's Center. What I'm doing here is waiting for Natalie to finish her yoga class, because I'm in the mood for a Carl's Jr. and felt like walking back to McNary with her today.

But cooler today was the time I spent slightly before going to my chemistry lab. I decided to check out this engineering lab that is located underneath Gleeson, which is the main building for Chemical Engineers, so it was kinda like my second home. What was awesome was my ability to just walk in, log in, and do whatever I need at that computer. I was a member of Chemical Engineering and was my given right to be able to use our computer labs.

After that, I walked over to the library. Which has numerous computers and this very quaint yet homely coffee shop. From there, I bought a couple of pastries and a medium cup of coffee. After which, I walked over to the SLUG, which is kinda my third home belonging to the University Honors College. From there, I had unlimited free printing, computer lab access, as well as a place to eat, utensils, and a sink for washing my hands (since I'm paranoid about clean hands). There, I ate my pastries and waited until my lab started.

The point of all of this was how I could go everywhere on campus, and still be an equal. Equivalently, I could have just stayed in McNary (my dorm) all morning, eat there, print from someone's printer, and basically be a hermit in my dorm. What I love here at OSU is my ability to go anywhere and do anything that I feel like doing. So things like, "waiting for my girlfriend to finish her class" is not a big problem at all. Everywhere I will have wifi access and numerous other things that I can do if I choose to do so. If I need to, I'm one building away from the SLUG, which has printing and a computer lab if I don't have my laptop.

Name Change

2009-02-05T04:41:00.001-08:00

So I'm reading this book The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and apparently I had to make some changes to my personal info that will greatly help clarify things.

I'm not a "Deist". Due to the fact that I do not believe that there ever existed an intellectual entity. Instead, I believed in an abstract beginning. According to the book, this is called "Pantheism", the religion of Einstein and Hawkins. Common along with them, I too like to add in references to "God" and use that name in a metaphorical sense. So for future references, I am a Pantheist, and not a Deist.

Silly Putty is Amazing

2009-01-28T13:32:00.001-08:00

It's amazing. But because it can do all of those awesome things it does, but how it helps me with school!

I like to think of myself like a computer at times. Like when you're watching a movie on your computer and suddenly it goes to a blank screen! I'm like that :-D , move my mouse dangit!

So what I found is that I keep falling asleep during lectures, especially when I'm tired. Coffee helps a lot, but not guaranteed and I still feel drowsy during a boring lecture.

I found though that since I am a visual-kinesthetic learner, that all I needed was some silly putty to play with during a lecture. So while taking notes, I now keep a piece of silly putty on my left hand to play it. It is amazing! I have not yet felt drowsy or tired at all in lecture now. Like right now, I'm running on approximately 4 hours of sleep. Which sucks! Though, thanks to the magic of silly putty, I managed to stay awake through a review session of chemistry! Holy cow it's awesome! :-D

Home for the weekend twice!

2009-01-25T00:24:00.001-08:00

So this is my second week in the row where I've returned home for the weekend. The first time was because it was MLK day and Natalie wanted to go home for the 3 day weekend. This time because it is the New Years celebration, its as important to Vietnamese people as Christmas is to many Americans.

Anyways, I've been trying to find ways to stay entertained.

1) I've been playing Frets On Fire a lot on my computer. Having all of those Guitar Hero and Rock Band songs available to be played is just awesome.

2) Since I love Call of Duty 4 so much (thanks to Ryan for letting me have a taste of it), I've been playing Call of Duty 2 for the Mac! :-D It's a fair enough alternative I suppose, just I don't get the 60 fps or the online play. But I programmed my gamepad to work for it and I've been playing through the campaign.

3) Halo: CE for the Mac. The guys in my hall have Halo 3 and I do enjoy playing it with them from time to time. Though I felt the need to play Halo some more and so I got it on my Macbook! And it goes smooth still! (With lowest possible settings of course). Occasionally I can play online, but not always. To mimic the Xbox version, I've even set up my controller to play with it!

4) I've organized my MAME roms to have only the best fighting games and the best shoot-em-ups. So it's a lot of bullet hell for me to play I suppose. Though I would wish MAME OS X would support HID devices properly and not crap up when it comes to my analog triggers.

School wise, it's going great I suppose. Math and Engineering (MATLAB CLASS) is very fricken awesome and I greatly admire matrices now. Though chem and physics right now is just a lot of review.

Natalie and I are having a great time together. It's also our one year mark where we've been going out for a year soon. Hopefully we'll get the chance to have a great time together soon! :-D

Also, work is awesome. I work on Sundays 7:30 PM to 12:30 AM, and Thursday 9:30 PM to 12:30 AM. During that time, all I basically do is my homework, and it's fricken sweeet!

Frets on Fire Galore!

2009-01-13T03:01:00.001-08:00

So it's 2:55 AM right now, but I don't have class until 1:00 PM, so I should be okay.

But over winter break, I purchased a new X-Plorer Controller for $10 from Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360, to be used on my Mac.

And so far, I fricken love it!

On my Mac is Frets on Fire X. Which is a modded version of Frets on Fire to support many features that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have. I also have about 810 songs from GH 1 - 3, Aerosmith, 80's, RB 1 + 2 + DCL. So that's A LOT OF SONGS.

Plus, with the controller and the ability of FoFiX, it's truly rockband (which I prefer over GH). Everything works the same too. The songs all have HO/POs, Solos, Failing, Starpower/Overdrive, Whammy Bar, the works!

It even supports two players! Sometimes Natalie would be playing Guitar and I would hook up my controller and pretend to be the drums. It allows both of us to enjoy the cool game. :-)

The great reason ultimately for getting Frets on Fire in the first place was because of Natalie's desire to play Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Previously we could be playing on our friend's guitar hero and rock band set, but not this term. So I've dedicated a lot of time to learning how to configure FoFiX and getting all of the songs. And now, with the guitar everything is complete! Well, maybe a second guitar and a drum set would be cool too! :-) But yeah, thanks to Natalie's desires, I now have one of the greatest games of this era in gaming.

Update, Loving Controller, N, Desire to Purchase Controllermate

2008-12-26T22:30:00.001-08:00

So here's an update on my life for a while.

The snow's been sucking and haven't gotten to go out much. But Natalie and I still talk a lot and I got to see her on Christmas day so it was very awesome and I spent time with her family.

I've been having some more fun with the controller and doing some fun things with it I suppose. It's tough though because there's not much to play at the moment that doesn't require an intense video card or an xbox 360. So I've been trying to make do with what I got.

Recently, I've been playing the game "N". It's a free downloaded Flash game that became very popular after it became N+ on the Xbox 360. I used a trial version of Controllermate with my controller to give me quite an exciting game and the feel of N+ right on my Mac.

A lot of games I play could be made possible to play with the controller using the program Controllermate. Which costs $15 usually. But I get to have a limited amount of configurations using the trial version. I've been seriously considering purchasing this software so I can use it for all of my games when I get bored. :-)

Reviewing the Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad for PC/Xbox 360 (PP34) on my Mac

2008-12-26T03:40:00.001-08:00

Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad for PC/Xbox 360

So for Christmas, my girlfriend Natalie bought me this awesome controller because she's just awesome like that and she's amazing. She knows that I love gamepads and that I love playing with new toys and this was one of them.

Some minor details about the controller are this:

It matches an Xbox 360 controller and can be used as a 360 controller.

The controller is black and has a nice smooth plastic finish that is smooth and grippy.

The special thing about this controller is it's "Cyborg" modular-ness. Simply by pressing a button on the back and flipping it, I can change the gamepad from the Xbox's "offset" left analog stick, to a Playstation Dual Analog style.

This is the controller in "Xbox mode" notice the green color to indicate the 360 preference.

This is the controller in "Playstation mode" notice the red color to indicate the PS3 preference.

This has made it possible to play many different game types.
The PS mode is actually better for these games:

Megaman series (D-PAD and Buttons)

Geometry Wars (Dual Analogs are Even)

Street Fighter and other fighting games (D-Pad and Buttons)

Bomberman (D-Pad and Buttons)

So basically games that require dual analogs exclusively or not at all are better off with the PS mode.

Pros and Cons

So here I will way out the pros and cons of this controller that I have noticed, this is universal information that can be carried across for any review and for a quick go to spot incase you're considering this controller for purchase.

Pros - So far

The "Cyborg Module" for flipping the left analog and the D-Pad is actually really handy.

The D-Pad is raised MUCH HIGHER than a regular 360 controller, making it actually useful!

It's a smooth layout with a very nice soft warm feel to it, holding it feels very satisfying.

It feels quite durable. While my Mad Catz one feels a lot like cheap plastic material, this one is sturdy and heavy.

It only costs $35 on the Saitek online store. While a regular wired Xbox 360 controller costs $40 at stores, though $30 with free shipping on Amazon incase anyone wanted one.

Cons - So far

Pressing down on the thumbsticks feels very heavy and difficult, but that is also an issue with CoD 4 having a very awkward run.

It's just a 360 controller basically. Nothing special with the "PC-ness" of it, just special drivers that can control it. PS3's and Macs can usually use a generic controller immediately, but not this controller, cause it's a 360 controller on anything without the special drivers. Even the 360 drivers for Windows worked with it.

Getting it on the Mac

So here is where I explain how I got it working on my Mac.

At first, I was really disappointed to see that this controller did not work right out of the box for Macs. So I switched over to a Windows PC and it was immediately recognized as an Xbox 360 controller, and even the XBCD drivers worked on it. This indicated to me that this controller outputs exactly like an Xbox 360 controller and thus could be configured like any other 360 controller on a Mac.

To do so, here's how:

Install the 360Controller drivers by Colin Munro, done on his freetime.

Edit the file in (HARD DRIVE)/System/Library/Extensions/360Controller.kext/Contents/Info.plist using a text editor. Access the kext package by doing a "Show Package Contents" from the right-click menu.

Notice how everything is organized. What I chose to do was copy the "MadCatzGamepad" set of data in order to start the Saitek one. This is because Saitek is now owned by MadCatz and thus their idVendor is the same.

After you've pasted the copy, change the key name from MadCatzGamepad to something such as SaitekCB360

Change the idProduct from 18198 (the Mad Catz gamepad) to 51970 (Cyborg Rumble Pad)

Save this newly edited file with the additional controller setup.

The tough part is now getting the kernel to restart the Xbox 360 module. This can be done by resetting numerous times or so. I always did a full shut down and then turned back on. I'm not sure how to exactly do this, but make sure you restart at least once.

At the end, attach in the Saitek Cyborg Rumble Pad, go to System Preferences and into the 360 Controller Preference Pane, and then test it out! If it doesn't work, try to restart it and such again.

And that is how I got it to work on my Mac. I am now a very satisfied person with an awesome gamepad from my girlfriend. :-)

Contact, the film

2008-12-21T23:30:00.001-08:00

So I recently watched this movie called: Contact featuring Jodie Foster. I must say, this is definitely my favorite movie. Not because it was amazing and well created like American Beauty. But because this movie spoke to me very specially.

The movie is basically a story about when a scientist discovers a signal coming from a galaxy 25 light years away sending mathematical things back to Earth in hopes to communicate with us. It is quite literally one of the best plots possible.

But here's what makes it even more special. It drives into the purpose of science of religion, and more importantly, exactly how it relates to my opinions. It showed the evil Christian fundamentalists, and it also showed the evil scientist who believes science is necessarily for gain. What is shows is that Christianity and Religion both play the role of attempting to explain the world. Most importantly to me, it played with the answer of emptiness, the feeling that we're all alone in this big empty universe. It shows how astronomers and spirited people all want to believe we are not alone, and that there is someone else out there.

It was quite a good movie film wise, but it was an A+++ Tim wise. :-)

Megaman Craze

2008-12-16T19:07:00.001-08:00

So recently, I've been on a Megaman craze! I never realized spectacular the Megaman universe is. I ended up reading up about it for 2 hours once while working.

Recently, I've beat:

Megaman 1 (NES)
Megaman 2 (NES)

And currently am playing:

Megaman 3 (NES)
Megaman X (SNES)

What's sad is that the Megaman X reploid mavericks are super easy! They're barely a challenge compared to the original megaman characters.

And incase anyone is wondering, I am using my MadCatz XBOX 360 Controller on my Mac OS X using emulation to play these games. If anyone wants to join in, just ask :-D

Intelligence is the Willingness to Learn

2008-12-07T15:19:00.001-08:00

So last night, I had a fun late night discussion with my friends. Surprise to them, I knew many sexual terms and references. Because of such, they were surprised because they never thought of their smart studious science loving friend Tim could also be well knowledge in sexual terms.

It is my personal belief that in order to be intellectual, you must be willing to learn every single possible thing in the world that exists! What makes many religious people non-intellectuals is their unwillingness to learn anything new from science or other religions.

The same night, I also discussed the White Cloud People of the Amazons, the accelerating expansion of the universe, and many other insightful things. However, I have a feeling the sex part is all they'll link with me. If our culture treats something as natural to our species as sex, then something I believe is wrong.

The Cosmos is just too cool

2008-11-26T14:20:00.001-08:00

Space is full of amazing wonders! And to imagine that they're all sooo far away. Personally, I feel like it's a goal in my life, to be able to see outer space. I really want to! I see myself in the future working for some job that works on propulsion engines or some sort to make space possible.

Incase you need an understanding of how fascinated I am with space, here's some ideas.

1) My wallpaper for the past year have been about space.
2) I purchase and read books about space, out of pure enjoyment and I do enjoy reading them.
3) I named all of my hard drives, flash drives, and iPods after Greek Gods that represent a planet.
- Gaia is my hard drive (Earth)
- Selene is my silver flash drive (Moon)
- Helios is my white flash drive (Sun)
- Urania (Greek Muse of Astronomy) is the new name for my iPod (Uranus, even though she's not Uranus)
4) I'm interested in taking cosmology classes that have nothing to do with my current major.
5) I want to minor in physics because I want to know more about astrophysics.

So basically, I love space. I may one day hope to be an astronaut, but there's many reasons to not be one at the moment. Maybe one day I can combine my chemical engineering abilities with my love for space to make space travel possible!

No Shave November is Over

2008-11-26T01:43:00.001-08:00

So No Shave November is Over, for me at least. I'm going to go back home for Thanksgiving without having a beard on my face, that way my mom won't reference me to Burnside Bridge anymore. The photos are on Facebook, it's a lot more difficult to upload them onto blogger so I won't.

I also noticed I never mentioned about my awesome schedule for next term. My first class of each day will start Monday through Friday as: 10, 12, 10, 1, 10. Like whoa! And the Tuesday and Thursday is only one lab each! Imagine how great that's going to be! The only problem will be 4 lectures in a row, but I'm sure I'll be able to handle that. My schedule is also posted on Facebook with the Courses 2.0 app incase anyone is curious.

Furfillment

2008-11-24T00:17:00.001-08:00

Step away from home

A land so different and new

I choose to embrace

2 Weeks and 1 Day No Shaving

2008-11-17T19:14:00.001-08:00

It's soo hairy now that some of the brownish/reddish color that is sometimes seen on my head when it's long is now visible on my beard!

Super Talent Pico-C vs. KingMax SuperStick

2008-11-16T22:25:00.001-08:00

So I own and possess two flash drives. Both claim to be the tiniest flash drives!

Here is my comparison of the two with low quality pictures:

As you can see, the Super Talent Pico-C is slightly shorter. But if you couldn't notice, the KingMax SuperStick is thinner! So there's a probability that they take up the same volume.

One thing that the KingMax SuperStick is victorious in is that the Super Talent Pico-C is a pain to stick into its USB slot! At first when I got it, I wasn't even sure if it was going to fit! Turns out I just had to jam it in a bit.

Regardless, the Super Talent Pico-C is a shiny silver and comes with a nice chain and looks durable. While the KingMax SuperStick came in a very funny pink thingy. Thus I keep the Super Talent on my key chain and the superstick in my wallet.

When I tested out their speed, it was pretty much the same!

Thus:

They are both good! Depends on what style you want.

Feeling Hairy

2008-11-14T01:41:00.001-08:00

So I have been feeling quite hairy!
This is a picture of me on Tuesday.

I feel hairy.

Week 2 of No Shave also, OBAMA!!

2008-11-08T13:35:00.001-08:00

So incase anyone didn't realize it. The Obama acceptance speech was amazing! It made me tear up a bit because of how amazing it spoke to us as Americans and how now is the time to finally get the country back on track!!

Also, here's an image of me not having for a week so far.

Maybe I'll like this beard :-D

Also, I'm starting to really really like physics more and more. So much now that I'm not contemplating it, but not figuring out how the hell to do it!

No Shave November

2008-11-04T10:16:00.001-08:00

So every dorm at OSU will be celebrating November with a special event called:

No Shave November.

So I am not shaving for the longest time possible.

I will try to take pictures throughout the weeks to see how I've change. :-D

Studying Time, gets harder!

2008-11-01T16:25:00.001-07:00

So after failing to understand the Schrödinger equation in chemistry class (partly to falling asleep) and then completely dieing on the Vector Calc test (both me and Ratanak thought it was hard), I declare the important of studying in college. Lectures are there to give you an idea of what's there to learn, and recitations are great for going over some questions you may have. But the true learning of a math-based subject seems to require a lot of personal studying and sitting there with the book.

The longer I'm staying here, the more and more I'm understanding that. I know I have to spend part of my nights and weekends studying. I need some priorities in my life! Such as, Natalie, family, and homework being pretty damn important in my life.

Also, I'm close to finally being able to return home. On Thanksgiving Saturday, the computer center is open, which means I'd have to work. But I'm trying to give up my hours. So far, I managed to get rid of 4/5 of them. Now I only have 1 more hour to give away and I think I'm close to giving it away! :-D

Physics Minor?

2008-10-28T01:55:00.001-07:00

So I've been thinking recently after reading up on quantum mechanics in my chemistry class how cool it must of been to be one of the first people to discover what light is made of, or how electron clouds repel things. Don't get me wrong, I like Chemical Engineering too, and figuring out how to put knowledge of chemicals into good use.

But one of my deepest interests is astronomy and understanding the universe. Physicists explain what the universe is made of, and then use that knowledge to improve it. This is something really neat that I might like to also take a stab out.

So I'll be thinking about that in my mind, Chemical Engineering Major with a Minor in Physics. :-)

Dixon Center

2008-10-24T21:56:00.001-07:00

So for non-OSU students, the Dixon Recreation Center is the most awesome gym ever and many of its resources are available free for OSU students.

So today was my first time in there since school started. We wanted to play Badminton, but didn't really get the chance to because a lot of people like to play badminton! However, I did get to try playing a little Racquet Ball for the first time and then tried out their awesome cardio machines!

I first went on an ellipse for 30 minutes and burned about 315 calories, so it was good. Then I tried this one Espresso Biking machine they have that's basically a bike but with a monitor screen! What it does is that it emulates an actual bike! I went on that and traveled for "1.5 miles" and it was good! Also, I plan on making my own account the next time I go there so I can track my own progress.

Anyways, yeah, OSU is awesome. :-D

Learning to Read

2008-10-23T01:38:00.001-07:00

So recently, I've been trying to study really hard to actually learn. This is really unique! Because in high school, I got away my senior year with practically never reading, and just showing up to class and playing a fast learner. However, the chemistry professor only teaches the outline of stuff and the math professor is teaching a couple weeks ahead of what's going on in the recitation!

So basically, I have started to find myself in need to read the book. I'll be honest, I'm actually having it work for me! :-D

Also it feels better, knowing that I'll be reading a book that I paid $100-$150 each for.

Old Age

2008-10-19T02:26:00.001-07:00

Maybe I have an obsession with trying to fight my body like Peter Pan. Where I mentally want to stay young, chirpy, curious, and happy. Yet the world keeps pushing me onwards. Today, Natalie plucked 3 white strands of hair from my head, and found a really cool blonde one. I hope I don't get white hair too soon!

Fight Club and Books

2008-10-18T03:05:00.001-07:00

So I recently just finished watching Fight Club with my dear Natalie. Holy shit it was tight! I had this awesome feeling afterwards to maybe go hit something or do something to carpe diem my life. I noticed when I was washing some dishes that my tolerance for hot steaming water increased 1.5x the amount, and I was wanting to test the pain out too! Anyways, it may of been the hunger, so I ate some soup and that went well. I think I've calmed down quite some bit.

Also, Natalie and I went to the OSU bookstore to get an exchange on her defective book (it was missing about 40 pages or so). We did some book shopping! And she loves books of course. :-D

She bought quite a lot. I bought Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think. Incase you don't know, Richard Dawkins is one of the most prominent anti-Christian outspoken scientist in the scientific community. I got his book, and will want to read it! :-D

I also got the Smithsonian guide to the Cosmos! Which is basically a visual story guide across out universe, and I fricken love space. Did I tell you before that I love outer space? Well I do. I fricken love it, I love knowing there's unexplored space out there where there's endless possibilities.

College Labs are AWESOME

2008-10-14T21:38:00.001-07:00

This is an average day of being in my chemistry lab, and also about how awesome it is.

I walk into the lab room, go to my work desk. I unlock my drawer, take out my personally owned goggles and my polyester lab coat that I own as well. I put them on.

After that, I grab my lab packet, follow the instructions. I take out from my own personal drawer the things that the packet tells me to take out and follow the procedure.

I may get stuck, so I ask one of the Lab TAs around there a quick question and they let me know. Then I get back to work, I analyze the data myself, I clean up, I put things away, and I leave whenever I'm done.

That's the awesomeness! The lab is independent and it's up to you to be able to conduct the experiment without someone holding your hand. I love it!

Not Enough Time Urghh!

2008-10-08T01:16:00.001-07:00

So it feels like I have not had enough time lately to post a blog (even though I do). So I'm going to post this blog today! Yay!

THIS PART IS ABOUT COMPUTERS

Anyways, the last post is about Natalie eating pho. Alright, well other things that happened around that time that I failed to mention was that my wireless keyboard and mouse arrived. It's a Logitech S 530 Laser for Mac. Basically it's an awesome looking keyboard and mouse made basically for the Mac and it looks awesome and functions awesome as well! I fricken love it. It allows me to type in multiply different ways, but ultimately much greater for my posture since I won't have to scoot in so much just to use my computer and can now just lean back and relax.

Another thing that came is my newest USB Flash drive. I'm sure some of you guys remember my super tiny flash drive from a year ago or so. Well I got a new one now! And this one is just as small (physical volume wise)! My new one is an 8 gig USB Flash Stick on a super tiny thing. Pictures are available on Facebook.

I've also been thinking of the possibilities of getting a laptop elevator. Something to put my laptop on when I'm in my dorm room to have it raise up to my eye level and give me some table space to help me not have to constantly stare down the entire time. However, my Macbook balls will do their job in their mean time.

One cool thing I found out recently is that an XBOX can clone a mac address! Very much like a router. This makes it perfect to allow the XBOX to connect to the school's resnet without having to constantly switch a registration. Just incase anyone is having that problem. :-P

End part about computers.

THIS PART IS ABOUT COLLEGE LIFE AND MY JOB

So for the weekend, Natalie decided to go home to help her mom out with painting a condo and I was basically here in Corvallis all alone! My roommate went home and so did a bunch of Clackamas people (dunno why they'd want to, just kidding I do!).

Anyways, what I ended up doing was befriending some really cool people on my floor. Such as Devon and Jessica. Devon is kinda my chemical engineering buddy and fellow runner. Across the hall from me is Paul and Gio. Paul's a nice quiet Korean guy that loves some good company. Gio bought along his Playstation 3 and Street Fighter! :-D I beat most of the games. But Gio's pretty awesome too.

Also, I work for the Milne Computer Center (the OSU Computer Lab basically). It is quite literally one of the easiest jobs ever. So easy it shouldn't even be considered a job! On Saturday, when I had to work my five hour shift with no supervisors, we basically played video games and stopped when people needed me. I helped out two people that day and they were very thankful for my help, which felt great. I even left to go get a lunch for 30 minutes, which took forever by the way!

Today, like Tuesday October 7th, was my first chemistry lab with my chemistry class. I got to wear the lab coat that I purchased, as well as using my expensive $25 lab notebook! I did very well in the lab and so it felt great, especially since my previous lab work have been disastrous.

THIS PART IS ABOUT ME AND MY HEALTH

I am eating a lot of food. But not dorm food :-( , which is delicious! I am instead eating a lot of canned food, top ramen, and PB&Js. Probably some of the worst possible things for me to eat, but it's cheaper and I'm a college student who needs to eat. I'm trying to make it seem more fair and balanced, but I don't think I'm succeed.

I ran with Devon on Sunday afternoon. Which then gave way to me running the 1.5 mile in my PE class the other day. So in other words, I think I can get back into running again, and hopefully get into other sports at the Dixon as well!

As for my mental health, it's been going pretty good. Natalie and I are still doing well, and I'm meeting a lot of new people.

One problem is that I keep on having sleeping problems, in class! While sitting there in a boring lecture class, I start to get this really terrible case of drowsiness and everything around me slows down to the point that I don't understand the professor. Which sucks! Possibly the bed isn't as comfortable as one would hope for, but I had to use an energy drink at one point after math class cause I started to HALLUCINATE. Such as imagining doors that aren't there opening up, or every single face looking back at me, or thinking that my teacher has Heroes ability, can fly, and sat on top of the chalkboard!

Anyways, I am extremely tired right now. Hope everyone else is doing great!

It Was Pho-King Good!

2008-10-03T02:42:00.001-07:00

So today, Natalie, Evan, and I went out to the West side of the campus to try out some of their pho. This is the first time that Natalie and Evan have ever had pho, and probably Vietnamese food too.

Incase you didn't know, Vietnamese food is based on the idea of "hundreds of flavors in one bite". You will never find a Vietnamese food where there is simply one flavor to something. Some parts will be sweet, some parts salty, spicy, etc.
(Unless it's a dessert).

But first off, we picked the meat for our pho and then chose some of the seasoning. I had to explain to Nat and Evan that the different seasonings already will immediately affect your flavor and its freshness. Natalie was the only one to add ginger to hers (which I thought was pretty weird).

Anyways, after we got our bowls, [I got a large, and those two got smalls], I had to explain the different sauces and any amount of added concentration will affect your flavor as well.

They ate, and as we all ate we added in more and more sauces and flavoring to get it to the way we all liked it. I tried to explain to Natalie that all of our bowls taste different. She was skeptical at first. But we all tried a small spoonful of each other's pho broths and they were all completely different. Evan had a very warm broth that had some spiciness to it. While Natalie's tasted completely unique! Which I would believe is due to the ginger and the mixture of stuff that she used. My bowl on the other hand had a sweet taste to it that burned deep down in the throat (the way I prefer it usually).

She and Evan were completely amazed. Also, they were pretty impressed at how fresh everything tasted, which was very good. They couldn't finished their bowls (I finished mine til it was empty) but they both really liked it. So for their first taste of Vietnamese food, it was really positive. :-)

Those two will be definitely invited her to try out some of my mom's pho if we ever get the chance to.

Also, we kept making jokes about the word pho since it sounds so similar to a popular English word.

Long Time No Blog, School is in Session!

2008-10-01T02:15:00.001-07:00

So right now, I'm pretty damn tired so expect a really messed up blog entry.

But I started school on Monday and it is really exciting! The whole feel of being able to walk around independently without any restrictions and doing whatever it is that you need to be doing. Nat and I have a lot of the same classes with each other, which is a lot of fun.

Also, work is too damn easy! So far. . . It mainly includes sitting on the computer and doing whatever it is that I want, with the exception of answering a few questions. Hopefully it'll be more busy as the year goes by. Course it's losing its purpose as people have Macbooks and PCs.

Another thing is that my USB Flash drive came on Monday! My old one was all screwed up and it had problems reading and writing to it. My new one is the improved version of the previous one but with 8 gigs and is claimed to be washer and dryer safe. The picture is available on my Facebook oink if you want to see it..

Another thing in the Facebook pictures is me in a lab coat! It feels extremely neat to be able to have something like that and be using it for a class. I also get a key to my own locker drawer in the lab, which will be awesome. I also spent $22 on the best lab notebook that they have. It's funny how every time I enter the book store, I want to just buy something!

Anyways, I'm starting to fall asleep. Hope everyone else is enjoying their Fall 2008 term going so far!

8 months

2008-09-27T03:25:00.001-07:00

So today was mine and Natalie's 8 months together. We hung out a lot and had fun! Watched a lot of stand up comedy on the computer as well.

Today I also got my laptop setup with the engineering stuff. So now I can print pages! :-D

No Big Updates, except I got HIRED!!!

2008-09-26T02:35:00.001-07:00

So umm today:

Went to the Engineering thing for new OSU students. Got told I'm accepted to my job. Watched the beavers crush the trojans on TV. Played cards with Natalie. Hanged out with people on my floor. That was basically about it.

But yeah, I now have a job on campus, and I am extremely happy about that! :-D

Keeping a Good Relationship: Arguing

2008-09-25T04:05:00.001-07:00

This is my 2nd blog of the night. Read the one before this for the "journal" post.

So finally being in college, I feel Natalie and I finally get the chance to increasingly improve our relationship many times stronger. So I got this idea of posting blogs from time to time about relationships and how me and Natalie get through some things. I do not yet have Natalie's permission, but if I don't delete this within a few days, that means she approves.

This article about how to keep a good relationship is about arguing! A is for arguing, duh!

Natalie and I used to argue a lot, plenty of times. If you're in a new relationship and you aren't arguing, something's wrong. Arguing first off allows you to filter out those you can't stand to be with. So if you can't get past the first arguments, you're out of luck. But what it also allows you to do is be able to counter future arguments, better understand each other, and get rid of a conflict that's within. Overtime, Natalie and I kinda had a system of buffing arguments and knowing what causes each other to tick and start yelling even. We both know about how we act when we're stressed, tired out, etc and what causes us to argue. This helps prevent us from having more and more arguments in the future. By arguing a bit with Natalie, we've gotten past issues such as trust, jealousy, behavior, friends, and many more topics. Afterwards, it's been very very lovely dovey with very few arguments.

Yet, it is truly important that you also need to get past the arguing part without causing a major disaster!

For guys:

Different girls probably have different ways of behaving in an argument, but I'm sure it probably requires the same thing. Everyone likes to win in an argument, nobody is going to "hope to lose the argument". What this means for a man, is to actually be a man. Realize that she's not going down without a huge fight. And the longer you keep an argument going, the tougher it'll be to patch up afterwards. As a man, accept that there's a difference and that there's no amount of arguing that can change her opinion. What a man should essentially do is let her know that he doesn't want to argue anymore (such as a surrender, a peace flag, or just doing some cowardly quitting scene). This will indicate a change in the direction. She will still be pissed at you from the arguing! Afterwards, being a guy, you should most definitely apologize to her. Apologize for what you ask? Well for fricken arguing with her! Nobody likes to argue! Why the hell were you arguing with her! It doesn't matter if she's right or wrong, you still fricken argued. So give a soft puppy voice or whatever you need to, but say you're sorry, that you wish you didn't have to argue, that it was your fault (even if it wasn't sometimes) that you guys are totally annoyed with each other. AND DO NOT expect an apology in return! Don't be expecting anything back from the girl, she's probably right most of the time. But excepting an apology will keep it going longer and longer. Just know that the important thing is your relationship, not your pride of hoping she'd apologize. Being in a relationship, you have to be willing to humiliate yourself in front of the person you love. Otherwise, there's gonna be some serious issues. After that, make amends. Point out why you were such an ass, say you'll try to be better. Etc. The girl wants one thing for you to know, that she didn't want to argue, that she might think you're an idiot/mean/whatever for causing that argument, and that she still loves you (or likes if you're still there). And don't except things to be back to normal. Give it some time. A girl will need to reflect and think about what has happened and what it might mean. So here are the steps for guys:
1) Quit arguing.
2) Apologize for arguing.
3) Make ways to avoid arguing in the future.
These steps will make holding a relationship much easier when it comes to arguing, which is truly a #1 killer in relationships.

For girls:

Guys are stupid, always. Basically that. Apologize for arguing as well if you want, but there's not really a point. A girl could prevent future arguments by doing the above as well, but that will not lead to a good relationship. Due to the nature of guys and girls, guys which are genetically the physical stronger and masculine one will keep up the masculinity across to a relationship as well. Guys want to be macho, to be tough, and to not let someone push them around. A relationship where girls end up apologizing for an argument that they didn't deserve will lead to abusive relationships and such. Where the guy thinks he's always right and that the girl isn't good for anything. These occur a lot from what I've heard. The guy should be willing to humiliate himself, give up his pride, and be willing to accept that he has a role as a responsible boyfriend that should be caring and concerned about the relationship. Though, guys still do love to be pampered by their girlfriends (unless he's gay inside or something). A hug, an apology kiss, some way to show that there is still affection will be the best gift a girl can give her man. Cause the #1 thing in the guy's mind when arguing is worrying that she might leave him because of this. Those are just my 2 cents, nothing from Natalie.

After these few steps, you should be able to handle arguments coming your way. Remember that arguments all take time to end and they depend on the argument as well. But the better a couple is at concluding and patching up an argument, the better they are at preventing one.

So that was my first thought post about relationships. Hope you enjoyed it! :-D

Good things here at OSU

2008-09-25T03:41:00.001-07:00

So today was a great day. Even though I woke up around 10:30, which is pretty dang late.

But I checked my email this morning and I found out that I got a job interview with the Student Computer Facilities! Which was awesome! What was more surprising was that the job interview could be today! So I went ahead and scheduled it for today. :-D

I went to my interview, I stammered and sounded slow for quite a bit I'm sure, but overall I believe I gave a great 'informal' interview. An hour later, I took the test to see how good I was!

It was one of the most easiest tests ever! With the one exception of a question showing 4 reasons asking: "Which is NOT a reason for this message to appear: DNS Name Not Found" or something like that. I did show up late by 5 minutes, but that meant I finished last. Which was when I asked this one question I was confused about because the correct answer wasn't it. It asked what the magnifying glass thingy on the top right corner of a Mac was. None of the multiple choices was right. So I called in Joseph (the supervisor of sorts) and he told me that I'm right because it was the spotlight, which wasn't a choice. So I even corrected the test! :-D

Also, it was the Fred Meyer college night. Which was an amazing shopping experience! Imagine a black friday but at a Freddies. I got this new chair for my dorm room, cost me about $15 and it's a fold up chair. But it was definitely worth the ability to have a moveable seating and a 3rd seat for the dorm since Natalie is in here a lot. I also got some more ramen and a few juice! :-D

I've also noticed recently that a lot of my posts are becoming more and more journal like now that I'm in college. I'm going to write another blog right after this that will be more of a thought like post.

A Replacement

2008-09-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

So if anyone can remember, I used to wear that black wristband that stated Clackamas Cavaliers on my left wrist almost all of junior and senior year. Today, I received an orange one that says Oregon State University on it! I got it from the student walk, which was pretty lame. After that we had to listen to this lame speech about white men have it easier than most people, basically. I kept falling asleep and Natalie had to poke me to keep me awake.

They had a picnic afterwards. We had to pay $6 to eat there, which totally was not worth it! It was like a $1.50 tray of food or something, but it totally did not fill me up and they closed all of the other places to eat. Recently, I've been using too much money on the dining hall. I know I shouldn't! :-( It's partly recently because I really like to go eat out with Natalie and friends and I don't want to stay in my room being a hermit! But Natalie, being the sweetest girlfriend ever, said she could just take the food to go and then I can eat what ever food I made that day. So she could use up all of her food money and I can save my money on the food still.

Also I'm starting to get to know everyone around my floor more. Gio and Paul from across the hall have Brawl and a PS3, I've been playing it with them quite some bit. I'm also getting to know everyone else around the floor and it's a pretty awesome floor. Apparently, we have one of the most friendliest and talkative floors since we always like to leave our doors open. Right now, it's 2:00 AM and my door is wide open and so are Gio and Paul's. It's pretty neat, I love it here.

Also, Elvis is pretty great to share a room with. We both respect each others stuff and he sleeps pretty easily (I might snore or be doing things). I've also gotten to hang out a lot with Natalie, Evan, [Mac, Jeramy, Dan, and Robert], and Jason. Also some of the other guys I've met on Facebook I have met. Still some people I need to see, but it's all good! :-)

2nd Day at OSU

2008-09-23T02:27:00.001-07:00

So today was basically a new free day for us students without any silly meetings or anything.

I woke up and assisted Natalie and her roommate Ashley in setting up their room. It was good and they have a pretty awesome room.

After that, Nat and I went to go get lunch! Which was delicious. I ordered one of those gourmet burgers and they are delicious! Then Nat and I went to the bookstore where we went about purchasing some necessary stuff. Such as books. I also visited the upper level which was basically the clothing store (of entirely white, grey, black, and orange stuff) as well as the electronics store! It was full of cool things, but all extremely overpriced.

Afterwards, we went to Bloss Hall where we saw Jason, Chris Doan, Josh, and Jon all about to travel around the school. Then we went up to Dan, Robert, Mac, and Jeramy's little suite area. It was pretty cool, we talked and tried setting up their network a bit.

Then me and Nat returned to our rooms and hung out for a bit. It was odd to think that we could hang out anytime we want now!

But yeah, then I helped Elvis moved in. Which was pretty cool, we got a lot of stuff set and it went well.

Since there's so much more, here's the condensed version.

We went to dinner; me, Nat, Evan, and Elvis at the West hall. I had an enchilada.

We saw where Evan lived, Weatherford is amazing.

Then we came here, where Evan and Natalie watched Heroes.

It was a season premiere.

We walked Evan home.

I hung out with Nat in her room.

I came back and chilled with Elvis a bit.

He has an awesome mousepad. It was custom made to display his face and all on it.

I took some pictures, they're on facebook.

Too much of a day, not much to think about.

At OSU

2008-09-22T03:07:00.001-07:00

So this is my first blog writing from my dorm room. Sweet!

Today wasn't much, just moving in. Say good bye to my parents, tried to meet a lot of people!

I found out that a lot of people living in my wing of the floor of my dorm are from South Salem high school, so they all know each other pretty much. Which isn't a problem though. I got to talk to some of them, and lots of the people on my floor are pretty cool.

Nat's roommate is also pretty cool, so that's perfect right there knowing that her roommate isn't terribly boring/annoying.

The floor meetings were okay, the hall meetings were boring! Just a lot of discussion on what we had to do about our floor/hall.

Besides that, I set just about everything up so far. Today however, the stupid leather man my dad gave me (it's a cheap dupe) somehow has some locking mechanism that prevents someone from putting the tools back in. So now it's stuck like that, a knife sticking out! I'm going to leave it for now and call my dad tomorrow asking him how.

Also, I ate Ramen today, lol. I feel like such a college student!

Besides what else I can remember from the top of my head, I found the DC++ network at my school and have been kinda connecting to it. Hopefully there'll be more stuff!

The internet connection here is amazing, I'm downloading around 2.2 megs/second online! And in the network, even faster!!!

So far, I'm totally loving this. I'm getting settled in and everything is good. :-D

Except more blogging from me!

Also, I purchased my two most important books this term online, saving me $35! W00t!

Accomplishments!

2008-09-20T02:32:00.001-07:00

So today, I accomplished a lot of stuff! Plenty of stuff!!

I woke up today pretty early (9 AM) and went shopping with my mom. We went to Albertsons to see if they had any more chicken broth (my mom loves to cook with it). They didn't. So we went to Old Navy to pick up my check for this week, the final check. While my mom went into Kohl's. I followed her. We didn't buy much except for a pair of athletic sweats for her. Then we went to Costco, we bought a lot of stuff! Also I got that picture I need for the Academic Hall of Fame. It's also a good sign when my mom trusts me driving her to the store. :-)

Then I went home, took the picture over to the school, and gave it to Mrs. Countryman. She says I was probably the last one, (though there was someone who dropped theirs off yesterday). So us two were holding everyone up from having their plaques on the wall. Well it's over now! :-D

Then I went home, and I beat Super Mario World! In a total of about 2 days! And I beat, I mean complete every map and stage with every possible win and going through the entire Star Road. It was kinda fun.

Also today, I took this awesome personality test, you can find it here.
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

But it splits everyone into 16 different broad personalities, and each of the 16 can be divided up to 4 more personalities. I am an ENFP personality: meaning the Champion. Natalie, is the Counselor, and apparently me and her contrast each other, course opposites attract ;-) . When I looked up the relationship demo matcher on that website, it also stated we had a very good chance of this relationship working out at the end, like around 87% good. :-)

I encourage everyone to try out the test, see what personality you are! Ryan and I have the same personality type by the way! :-D Cynthia's personality test would set her me and her a "companion" friend. Which is pretty true, we've been friends for a long time now. Also, everyone agrees that the personality tests matches them oh so perfectly.

I also applied to two different work study jobs so far! I just need to apply to two more when I'm down there in CONNECT week and hopefully be able to get myself a job! Jobs are indeed hard. I applied to be a research assistant in a lab, and also as a computer fixer guy. Hopefully I'll get one of those or the office desk jobs of the other two I wanted to apply to.

Also, out of pure boredom, I got like 14 more stars in Mario 64. W00t! Another thing, I love my 360 controller! :-D I set it up on Rosa's computer to play MapleStory with, it's pretty neat cause it works! But oh well, she doesn't get to use it! Muahahaha, okay I'm tired, it's late. Time to sleep!

One more thing! Saturday will be my last full day at home! Then I'm moving off to Corvallis on Sunday!!! WHOOOO! Excitement! :-D

Final Days

2008-09-18T13:55:00.001-07:00

So for the last few days, I've just been packing a lot more and more. Also cleaning out my room.

I'm starting to also get really annoyed with the OSU Financial Aid Office.
I've asked them four times now to fix an error that they made on my financial aid award letter (they removed the ParentPLUS loan instead of the unsubsidized loan) and it's been probably 3 weeks now and they still haven't gotten to it. So I'll have to call them today, and I dread calling people to bug them about something. But seriously, I need those loans fixed or else it'll be all screwy.

Also, we finally got those pictures needed for my Academic Hall of Fame Plaque. The stupid 4" x 5" requirement is stupid, who the heck picks that arbitrary size! Anyways, I just need to get them printed from Costco and I'll be done with it. If only fricken Michael would hurry it up and get his fricken senior picture wallets all printed out.

Anyways, I have all of my school supplies and bathroom supplies ready, as well as laundry stuff and etc. I think right now I just need to finish up cleaning my room (it's seriously a big project) and then pack my clothes and I'll be set to go.

Gamepads for the Computer

2008-09-15T00:03:00.001-07:00

So I got bored while waiting for Natalie to help her sibling do their homework. I decided to do some Amazon searching for other gamepads. I came across this one right here:

Saitek P2600 Force-Feedback Rumble Gamepad Controller

What sets it apart is the fact that it has 6 buttons for the thumb and people have given it a good rating. 6 Buttons on the thumb would make it perfect for my video games! :-D

Also, there seems to be one available new for only $12!! That's half of what I paid for my 360 controller (which I love since the fact that it has the xbox controller layout and also works with a 360). But this one would be perfect for a good fighting game cause of the 6 buttons and its cheap price. Not to mention it's overall excellent review!

One More Week until OSU

2008-09-14T20:29:00.001-07:00

One more week until sweet sweet liberty! :-D

Also, thanks to Ameneh following me, I found out that Blogger has "following". :-O
You need to with Blogger-in-draft and it's totally awesome!

Well not really since I use RSS feeds, but it's pretty neat to have I'd suppose. :-D

Stocking Up

2008-09-12T21:10:00.001-07:00

Alright, so did a little shopping today and stocked up on a lot of needed things for college, school supply wise. But also dorm wise too I suppose. Got some more deodorant, tooth brushes, soap, and pepto bismol (one of my best friends). School wise, got some more notebooks, for taking notes and writing all sorts of work and such. I also got more pencils (cause I can burn them up in a week :-D ), as well as pens pens and pens. I am still in need for some pocket folders, which has been the way I've stored all of my work and excess stuff for 4 years now. John today was complaining to me that I won't use them, but he never has the stuff he needs around to be sorted. All of my sheets need sorting! Anyways, I also have 1 day left of work at Old Navy. Hope it'll be fun!

Games Redemption

2008-09-08T16:56:00.001-07:00

So I'm getting back into some classic games.

On Warcraft III, I got the DotA map with bots/cpu. Michael and I have been practicing and we're getting pretty dang good at it now. :-D Though I'm still practicing myself against some insane bots, but it's pretty neat. I love the fact that its a map with bots too! How awesome is that! :-D

With my controller, I felt so happy to have it that I decided to donate some money to the developer to help pay his bills and stuff on making the drivers. I also emailed him a letter thanking him for making it. I decided to get the N64 and SNES emulator on my Mac. Then I started to play some classic games that I haven't played in so long (and own), such as Diddy Kong's Quest for the SNES. It's awesome having a controller to give that retro feel. :-D

Also, Natalie's iTrip came into the mail. So we were in her car for a little bit trying it out and listening to some of her music. It was awesome knowing that she can now play her iPod.

Life is sooo still!

2008-09-05T21:01:00.001-07:00

So while all of my friends are enjoying their time in college, I'm still stuck and home and working.

Here are some updates to my dull life:
1) I bought Warcraft 3 Battlechest and can now play online with people.
2) I bought a MadCatz xbox 360 controller which I can hook up to my computer and to my brother's 360 for some ultimate fun!

That's basically it!

Beach Trip and Returning Back to Work

2008-09-02T11:53:00.001-07:00

So my family and I went to Lincoln city over the weekend for a beach trip. It was our usual beach trip. Though one new addition was that the buffet at Spirit Mountain had greatly improved! (At the expense of a higher cost, but you have to factor in the inflation change as well of course). Anyways, it was all good.

Returning back to work has been a drag. I worked on the sales floor alright on Labor day, but I was assigned the idiotic task of tidying up the Women's Clearance. Problem with that is that customers are CONSTANTLY messing it up. So I kept having to go back and retidy things over and over.

Anyways, today was a 2 AM shift, which I despise! I do not fret about it though, and just try to work it out. Just it really bums me out to work at 2 AM until 11 AM. Any how, work wasn't too good today, we didn't finish up what we had to do and it was a huge disappointment of sorts. I'm expecting a "Group Lecture" tomorrow morning at the 6 AM shift.

Also, I am fricken addicted to the Phantom of the Opera music and I dearly miss Natalie. Though, tomorrow is payday. . . I suppose that and Natalie coming back tomorrow are some things to look forward to.

A Sweet Idea based on Phantom of the Opera

2008-08-31T21:15:00.001-07:00

So recently, I'm sure you guys all know from my last blog (hint, read my blog more often if you don't) that I watched the Phantom of the Opera at the Keller Auditorium. I fricken loved it. But what I loved the most was the character of the Phantom.

In my opinion, somebody could make a whole new musical, probably in a movie format, centered on the Phantom and giving him the protagonist view.

Course, people say the Phantom is the "evil" and "bad" guy. But think about the fellow:

1) His life was shit simply because he was ugly.
2) A girl he just spent many nights with doesn't love him.
3) Some snobby fellow who had a long gap of not seeing Christine just took her away from him.
4) His bad actions were caused by people picking on him, and some tough times with the crush.

In my opinion, if they made a musical more based on the Phantom, and gave Raoul a negative antagonist view. It'd be amazing! Most guys could probably connect with this idea than the original.

Phantom of the Opera

2008-08-30T01:10:00.001-07:00

So today felt extremely short for some reason. Probably because I woke up at 11:30 AM I suppose. Then went to work at 1: 30 PM. After I got off at 6, went home and ate a big bowl of noodles in 5 minutes before I headed off to see Phantom of the Opera!

Now, I must say, it was pretty dang kick ass. I loved the Phantom, he was amazing. Phan Tim, Phantom, we're oh so alike. Anyways, it was cool and I'm glad Natalie and her mom bought me along.

7 Months

2008-08-28T20:30:00.001-07:00

So Natalie and I have been going out for 7 months on the 26th.

She's awesome. Yep yep.

She's beautiful, she's smart, she's funny, she's just basically amazing.

I love her and wouldn't want anything else, not even any amount of video games, computer parts, satellites, or anything.

Improvements on Work

2008-08-26T15:40:00.001-07:00

Well today, much to my surprise, I wasn't doing placements! Instead, I was setting up the booths, which is a pretty awesome job. I love constructing things from diagrams and I love the feeling of satisfaction after its done. But my work was positive today and I did a great job, so things are getting better. Though I am in much need of a day without work, which will hopefully be tomorrow.

Some effects from Work

2008-08-25T22:58:00.001-07:00

Today may have been the most radical change of mood in all of my days at work. I believe it all started when Ashley, our logistics supervisor who is totally awesome and cool. No doubt about that. Decided to back-stock some of the animal costumes we're having for infants for the upcoming halloween. She asks me and Libby, basically my partner at Old Navy since we always end up at the same shifts and we're both newcomers, to lay them all up in the back within one row. We do, and end up having to take some extra space on the other rows, but we managed. However, the managers come in and tell us that we can't have them hanging in this one particular area, and that a chunk of them will all go up-stock (storage above the clothes) in the newborn's area. Ashley apologizes to us and asks us to move them up there for her, we do, but couldn't finish before lunch due to some storage and stocking issues.

So after lunch is back, me and the main group of logistics crew attempt to finish placing all of our hung denim to where they should go. Problem is, each rack is suppose to have just 1 style and 1 color. Some of these racks had 6 different styles! It was a total mess but we tried and we tried to get it clean as fast as possible.

Then Ashley calls all of us for a group meeting in the back. She lets us know how the managers have been snapping at her for the fact that the shipment hasn't been done for the past month on time, her being the supervisor and everything. Then she tells us about others complaining about others (most likely this one bitch snapping at this one lazy girl). Ashley mentions to us that she's getting the pinch for our slack, and wants us to really try and work faster. Also that we need to come ready to work. If we're tired, we might as well not show up, this is of course so we don't get paid for being pathetic workers. Also, she states she will start writing people up or kicking us out if she doesn't think we're doing a good enough job.

Course, my position in it is just as much as everyone else Ashley claims. Though I'm sure I've been the slower guy when it comes to figuring out differences between some of the clothes, but I believe I manage to get here or there. However, I will definitely uplift her desire for me to work at a much faster blinding pace. Course, it would also help if the closing-crew made the store a bit more neat and organized, and if the runners didn't screw up placing all of the clothes in their original spots, that would help us place the products correctly!

Anyways, right after that, the microwave was basically smoking and the room started to stink up really badly. Then we did a trash run and we finished. That was it for my day at work and I hope to work a lot better tomorrow. Though I admit, I really like working on the Sales Floor A LOT more.

Anyhow, after that, I went to Natalie's to pick her up. I bought her some cute clothes!
But we went over to Shari's where we ate breakfast/lunch. It was great.

Then I went over to Kali's house to fix her laptop with driver issues after an upgrade (downgrade) from XP to Vista. I also fixed her parents' computer. So after that things went all went.

I went home, and my dad told me that he heard our Galaxy 25 Satellite Receiver (for receiving VTV4, a Vietnamese channel from Vietnam) can also be used to receive VBS, the Vietnamese Broadcasting Services from California. I set it up on the receiver and now we have two Vietnamese channels to watch from.

Well, it's getting late. Better prepare myself for work tomorrow, double time with coffee!!!

Time To Get Into Shape

2008-08-21T14:24:00.001-07:00

So my parents have been nagging at me about my physical health lately, especially since after my mom went to a free checkup thingy and now freaks out at the idea of high blood sugars, cholesterol, BP, heart rate, etc.

Like one of her arguments is that my blood sugar level is probably too dang high from all of the sweets that I eat. Seeing how I'm hypoglycemic and shiver like hell without my sugar, I really doubt that.

Course, she also states it's making me chubbier, which I admit I have been letting go quite some bit.

So today, I managed to persuade Michael, who no longer is working, to go out for a run with me around the blocks. He was in better shape than I, but we still were pooped out quite some bit and we still got a good workout from it. Even though it used to be a warm-up for me, lol. Well, time to start crunching it!

Also, I've been purchasing a lot more Old Navy stuff. :-) Such as a this awesome red jacket and a few more polos. I would also like to remind people, if they have seen the news, that there is a denim sale this Saturday with $12 jeans for adults, and $7 for kids and infants. For us guys, they are amazing jeans! For the girls, they might have fitting problems, but still worth giving a try!

I Feel Great at Old Navy

2008-08-17T23:20:00.001-07:00

I fricken love working at Old Navy, I really do. It's awesome, I'm doing a good job so far, and I love the easy going environment that we have there.

On Saturday, my second day of working there, I got a card app! What this means is that while working on the sales floor and putting clothes back on the racks, I managed to persuade a customer to sign up for the Old Navy card. This is kinda card on the floor because the Old Navy card is technically a credit card and people are scared crazy of signing up for a credit card.

I told my managers and they were soooo excited and happy for me. They tell me that it's a difficult task to bother someone while shopping to encourage them to get a card, and that its usually the cashiers who get the most cards.

I also managed to put back A LOT of clothes. I know so much about that store now that it's made me really happy and glad to know that I tackled my initial fear of being clueless and useless.

My mind is full of the knowledge that need to know about the stores. I can look at the flip flops and know which sizes we still have, and which ones we're out of! I know what we have off, and I can even name the prices of the polos. I also know the prices of the jeans we have for men!

This weird ability that I have is fascinating!

So today, Michael and I went and bought ourselves a pair of jeans, and I bought 2 polos (one for me and another for a friend). I fricken love them! Old Navy has amazing clothing for a low price too! With the fact that they were designed by the same designers of GAP's clothings, it's guaranteed to be good in my opinion.

Also, incase anyone is wondering, we're currently selling Men's Denim for $25 a pair. They are amazing. The "loose" brand that I bought feels like I'm wearing khakis cause of how roomy it is. Men's classic polos can be bought, 2 for $24. Those are the brand with one solid color. We also have design polos as one for $15, but they look really good so it's kinda worth it I think.

So anyways, Old Navy rocks and I'm glad I got a job there. :-)

Work Gets Better and Better

2008-08-14T21:35:00.001-07:00

So after working for a while, I'm starting to get the hang of it and starting to enjoy it quite some bit. :-)

For example, I can now air fold a standard graphic tee pretty good and fast now.

As for placing, I'm ripping bags fast and knowing where things go is a serious helper!

My only problem right now is that I'm having problems persuading people to get the card. Though I've only had two days where I was really kind of a sales guy. Though hopefully I'll get luckier soon and be able to score some cards!

The hours are better now too. Ranging from 5-7 in the morning to 10-12 before noon. This makes it pretty nice since it makes it a lot more convenient and everything. Plus with a bank account going on, I'm starting to feel a lot more independency especially since I'm driving a car solo everyday basically. :-)

Pay!

2008-08-13T12:51:00.001-07:00

Yay I got paid!

Though not for those 2 AM to 11 AM shifts yet. Those will come this weekend. However, I got paid with about $130 from the weeks before those shifts. :-D Soon I'm going to open my own banking account for the first time! W00t.

Time to get traceable :-D

Watching the 2008 Olympics

2008-08-10T23:00:00.001-07:00

I must say, watching these 2008 Olympics is a great way to spend the time and boost up your nationalism. My eyes were set on watching the 400 M Men's Freestyle Relay and WOW what a race! Especially with the American team with Lisac passing right by Bernaud [France]. It was amazing! My brothers and I just roared and cheered as America was noted as #1.

What also kinda surprises me is how I'm soooo close to many of these athletes in age. Katie Hoff for example is 19! A pity that she didn't get the gold either, but she did amazing regardless!

Help, hope you guys are also watching it! It's da bomb! If you guys don't have access or anything, comon over and we can watch it on any NBC!

Bluetooth Headset

2008-08-10T00:15:00.001-07:00

So recently, my house and our neighbor have been having a garage sale. It so happen that our neighbor was selling brand-new bluetooth headsets for $10 and $15! I bought them both for Nat and me.

It is my belief, that with these headsets, our boundaries when talking on the phone will be removed! That means I can play video games while talking to people! Or eating! Natalie can also be folding clothes [she does her laundry a lot, that's why she usually smells nice] and there wouldn't be a need for that messy "speakerphone" anymore. There's soooo many things we can do on the phone now with it.

Just that Natalie won't be back in Clackamas anytime soon so she won't get the opportunity to gets hers until a long time. It makes me sad to think that I won't get an opportunity to see Natalie anytime soon within the week. Especially since my week at Old Navy next week will actually be pretty light loaded. *sadface* Well, as long as she can enjoy herself while with her dad and the family, I'll be happy for her.

Still, I love having this bluetooth headset! I plan on using it when playing video games and such for example, and I encourage you guys to call me more often if you're ever bored and feel like talking it up! Especially if you're in T-Mobile, coolest network around.

Olympics

2008-08-09T00:15:00.001-07:00

I'm excited for this event that comes only every 4 years!
Course then there's always that "smart-one" that says every 2 years. Then I look at him/her and say: "Yeah, but no one cares a shit about the winter olympics."

Then I laugh in an evil manner.

But anyways, I was watching the opening ceremony with Natalie, watching the countries enter and bewildered at the amazement of all of the countries coming together to be peaceful in a time to do sports and competitions. It's sooo cool to see all of this international gathering, and to see some countries that you never knew existed!

With all of my new insight on international news and history, I'm really looking forward to seeing the events and see how these countries work with each other on this special occasion.

Feelings with Work

2008-08-06T00:32:00.001-07:00

I have to admit, working at Old Navy can be fun. The coworkers are friendly, the management is nice and helpful, the jobs are fun and unique each time.

Yet today, it was 6:00 AM in the morning.

I've been working for 4 hours since 2:00 AM. Yet I would look outside and it just doesn't feel like morning. Working these weird shifts are messing up internal sense of time.

I find it bizarre to wake up at 12:30 to get ready to work. Yet most of my friends are now starting to get ready for bed! Well anyways, my internal clock is all shifting and it's weird!

Then I come home at 11:00 AM and it's weird to think that a lot of my friends may JUST be waking up. To me, it feels like 4:00 PM. Yet, it's actually 5 hours until then!

Yet I'm doing all of this for the money and for the job. I hope I can start working as a Sales Associate soon so the hours will be more in the afternoon and evening. :-)

Working at 2:00 AM

2008-08-04T19:15:00.001-07:00

So for this week, I will work from 2:00 AM to 11:00 AM on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. With two 15 minutes paid breaks and an hour unpaid lunch break. Today, the Monday, had passed and I have worked!

On Sunday night (last night I think, I don't even know much about time anymore), I went to sleep at 7:30 PM. I wanted to get in at 6:00 PM, but I was working on getting our house a second receiver [which succeeded and now we have two satellite receivers, score!]. I woke up at 12:30 AM on Monday and prepared to start going to work!

I arrived at 1:50 AM, whoo! So basically my day persisted of:
1) Mark-Downs, I got this awesome mark-down gun and made a lot of things clearance!
2) Set up of shelves, booths, and display. This was fun and required a lot of visual skills.
3) Moving of numerous boxes.
4) Cutting and flattening cardboard boxes. We had a safety knife *sad face*.
5) Placing items.
6) Moving things to the up-stock.

That literally went from 2:00 AM to 11:00 AM.

I went home, took a nap til 3:00 PM. Prepared til 3:45 PM and went to do my check-up.

So I asked various questions, and I even got some free condoms. (Unnecessary)

Of course, I was told that I needed to exercise more, and I couldn't agree more. There's no one to go running with me :-(

Ryan, if you're interested, we can go running around when we're bored!

Anyways, I also got the second varicella (chicken pox) shot. Then I also got the Meningococcal vaccine! So I'm safe for next year.

Besides that, I've felt like I hardly had been home today. Though tomorrow will hopefully be different since I won't have to go to the medical clinic.

New Blogger Things: Embedded Comments

2008-08-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hey you guys. If you're on Blogger or just reading my blog, try to post a comment on this post. See any differences? You don't have to go into a separate page now to post the comment! This is one of Blogger's new things, which you can enable only by going to their beta site: draft.blogger.com. Then go into the settings and under the "Comments" section. You will notice that you can now set them to "embedded under post".

You can read Blogger's guide to it under this link: http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-feature-embedded-comment-form.html. Now those Livejournal people will realize the awesomeness of Blogger :-D

Cousins and a 50th Birthday

2008-08-02T00:51:00.001-07:00

So today was Natalie's dad's 50th birthday party. He and his wife invited me to it, it was in Molalla, Oregon.

The main event for me was to literally meet Natalie's big family. There was quite a diverse arrangement of people, her cousins were all fun and quite enjoyable to talk to. Her step siblings were awesome too. It was a pretty neat event and I had a lot of fun there.

Being with them got me thinking about my cousins and my family quite a bit. I admit, I've only been able to hang out with them for 2 months of my life. But my cousins are a lot of fun and have respect each other rather well. Even though some are crazy, some are womanizers, some suck at school, one of them is transgender, and some are total prodigies; my family over there is quite unique and I'm really happy for it.

Yet it makes me wonder and think about how I'm a 1st generation member over here in the United States. I never understood family reunions to be honest. This is because all of my family is in Vietnam :-( , when we go over that is the reunion.

When my siblings and I have our own families, we'll most likely be connected and our children will have cool cousins to talk and be with. We'll probably end up having a family LAN game or a Smash/Mario-Kart tournament. :-D

First Day of Real Work

2008-07-29T11:40:00.001-07:00

So today was my first day of real work at Old Navy. I was working in Logistics, so the stocking and the organization/cleaning of things to prepare for the day.

It was pretty hectic I'll have to admit. Especially with men's boxers! Wow are people messy. I had a bit of fun, running around trying to put things in their place and cleaning up the floor before the store opened. I was asked to stay in for an extra hour, and I think I did a pretty good job. Hopefully!

Also, today was the first day I woke up before 8 this summer! Heck, I woke up at 4:15! Thursday will be even more crazy cause I have to wake up at 3:30 to get to work by 5:00! Praise science! For we have caffeine!

There are also some debates going on in my Facebook Notes, it's not so fun but we're starting to open up and see each other's perspectives at least.

Boredom Strikes

2008-07-27T17:41:00.001-07:00

So yesterday, the 26th was mine and Natalie's 6th month mark. So umm: "Demi-anniversary!" Though neither of us remembered it until around 10 PM or so. Besides that, I've been pretty bored recently without much to do. Video games don't seem to entertain me anymore, and neither does working. It feels like the only time I ever have fun anymore is when I get to talk to Natalie or just be with her, it's the only thing that's actually worth a damn these days.

Though I am looking forward working at Old Navy, it seems like a fun job and interacting with people all day seems like fun. Though my next shift is at 6:00 AM so it's pretty damn early! Today I found a big basket full of just dried clothes that need to be sorted between each of us and put away. I got bored, sat there, folded them in the fashion Old Navy would of wanted me to fold them, and then placed it in their respective place. Course, we hang all of our shirts at my house, so all of the shirt folding was in vain, but it was good practice!

Also, the note on my facebook went inactive. So no more comments or posts to rebuttal against *sadface*. I was also hoping that Travis Cramer might post another reply to what I stated so I can rebuttal him, but he's just too lazy to I suppose.

Wow, what a post!

2008-07-24T01:05:00.001-07:00

So that previous blog post of mine received quite a lot of responses on Facebook. It's become quite a discussion but I'm grateful that it's a nice friendly peaceful discussion and not a heated argument. I hope everyones views on the world can expand a bit from the discussion.

My Religious Beliefs, an Explanation of

2008-07-23T01:30:00.001-07:00

DISCLAIMER: If you get offended easily due to religion, do not bother continuing reading unless you're ready for a smack.

There seems to be some mix-ups on what my religious beliefs seem to be, and I'm sure it's very complicated, especially since my last blog post on myspace on my religious beliefs WAS LONG and no one wanted to read it, so they skimmed it and claimed they understood me perfectly.

So here it is again in a more refined sense after I have had a year to claim this as my religion:

Essentials

To first explain my idea, GET RID of these ideas [temporarily if you must]:

God is a father, and is the divine being creator.

God is a father, and is the divine being creator.

God is a father, and is the divine being creator.

All done? Good

13-Steps to Deism

Now imagine it like this in this 13-step order to understanding modern Deism:

Accept that science is the proper authority and that humans can use the ability of reason to explain the world around them.

Realize that all events in our universe, can have either a natural, logical, or statistical explanation.

Life evolved over a LONG F**KING PERIOD OF TIME to become what is currently is.

The beginning of the current universe's accelerating expansion occurred with the Big Bang, an ultra dense singularity of all matter.

Now think, what the hell placed that big bang?

Why the hell is there a plane of existence in the first place?

Jolly, there doesn't seem to be any explanations in the physics book that can explain anything during or before the big bang!

So lets state there was something before that.

Lets use a space filler!

[Blank] started the universe.

What can we place in there for [Blank]?

How about, Deus, Allah, the beginning, or God.

There we have it, "God" created the universe.

But hey, it doesn't have to be God, could be anything super powerful. According to the New Oxford Dictionary, Deism is define in the beginning as: "belief in the existence of a supreme being. . .", which COULD be this "God" or simply the missing explanation to the universe.

Differences with "God"

Deism is often times confused and stated something like: "They believe God created the universe and left it there", well if you're imagine some guy with a beard creating placing things on the plane of existence and running away, think again. Instead, it should be rephrased as: "they believe a supreme power began the universe", there now that's easier to match with my 13-steps!

Christianity has placed into our minds that the idea of God is that he's an all powerful all knowing all merciful divine being. Well, so was Zeus, Krishna, Osiris, and my favorite goddess: Athena. Jehovah (the Christian God, Jewish God, and Islamic Allah), were no different. Other than he somehow had a son that told people to spread the word and became the hottest "mode" of the era.

In Deism, the idea of this "divine God" should not be there. Unless you're a Christian Deist [God really did create the universe and left it there, but sent a nice son along the way] (too much crap for me still). God to me, is just the explanation to why we live in a three dimensional plane of existence, perhaps he's living in the other three dimensions, who knows! However, God is the beginning, the reason and the purpose we are here. Without "God", then there would be a universe here that has no real explanation to why its here. This is also why I am not an atheist, because it has to explain the universe, and atheism really doesn't at all. So it's not really a religion since it lacks an explanation of the universe.

Problems with Modern Religion

Modern religion adds on a lot of ideas based on a whole load of circular crap.

Lets use this blog as an example.

I wrote this blog, thus it proves that I exist in order to write it.
To some people, the bible proves that God lives.

Now, lets say you didn't know who the hell I was. My name is ReasonMan24.
I write a blog at: http://reasonman24.com
I claim that it proves that ReasonMan24 exists.

Now, lets say you didn't know who the hell God was. His name is Jehovah.
He writes the bible: All of those damn books.
It claims that Jehovah exists.

Did you see the problem in that yet?

What evidence is there to prove that ReasonMan24 actually wrote that blog? What evidence is there to prove that Jehovah wrote some scrolls and made a book out of them.

In contrast, three guys made ReasonMan24, me and my brothers. We could write a blog, to such an extent that we claim that ReasonMan24 speaks through us and that our blog is the words of ReasonMan24. Does that prove that there is a ReasonMan24? Now does that sound like a load of crap?

Jehovah "performs actions and speaks" through hundreds of people throughout the biblical world, creating the Bible. Modern Christianity claims that God spoke through these prophets, judges, and patriarchs to create what is the bible, proving that God exists. They could of honestly just written it by themselves.

Mohammed claims that Jehovah spoke to him while he was alone on some mountain through the angel Gabriel, and that he wrote the Qur'an. He could of also got some cannabis off the mountain, and decided to jolt down some fantastic ideas that he had! Same goes to Moses, he could of ate some trippy mushrooms he found on the mountain and carved some trippy stuff into some stones, then claimed that Jehovah spoke to him.

In my Deist ideology, the only true way God speaks to us is through the world that has been placed. God says: "forces will be bond together due to their masses", and we feel gravity, God has spoken! With some of the latest insights on physics, we will soon be able to grasp the concept of how gravity works!

The Future

Christianity and all modern religions that are prophet and deity based, will soon vanish. This is because as the world becomes more and more educated, learn about the world and explanations can explain the world, everyone will start to realize that God isn't really a supreme being who can send signals to your brain to make you do things.

No one can really "show" people that Jehovah doesn't exist if they choose to believe he does. Only through a serious amount of education, logic, and reasoning can someone realize: Crap it doesn't make sense anymore.

This entry will be posted on both my Blog and my Facebook for everyone to read. Also, you can read more about what I have to say about this topic by following my link on the top.

Mario Kart Wii: Wheel

2008-07-21T16:13:00.001-07:00

So after kicking so much ass with my nunchuck controller, I decided to make a whole new license and use the wheel exclusively on it! So far, so good. I'm also doing really well now! Over a course of two days, I have managed to convert my driving skills using the Bullet Bike to be about 80%-90% just as good using the wheel. It's excellent :-)

Hopefully, I'll be able to get at least 1 star overall ranking and get the golden wheel next to my name, now that would be amazing!

Mario Kart Addiction

2008-07-19T16:00:00.001-07:00

So perhaps I am a little addicted to the game, but hey it's a lot of fun! Within today, I have achieved my goals from a few months back.

I now have 2 Stars next to my name in an online game, this indicates I kicked the crap out of those computer players in the single player mode.

I also now have a 9000 Versus Rating, that means I play too much but also kick ass!

Mario Kart Wii

2008-07-17T00:22:00.001-07:00

So I'm a big player of Mario Kart Wii, I love playing the game and I love the intense feeling of duking out for first place. Currently, I am about 8700 VR on Versus Online play. Many times, especially on smaller games, I'll stay way ahead in first and a blue shell doesn't even knock me back too far. Sometimes, it'll actually be competitive and I'll be fighting to stay up in the front. Sometimes, I'll be going up against people with 9000 ratings and we'll have a fair even competition of drift battles and green shell aiming.

However, today was the worst experience I ever had with the game. First off, I asked Rosa if she would like to join me and she agreed. And to make sure she did better, I went through some of the cars with her to help her choose a vehicle that she was good with.

We chose one that was pretty good for her, had good off road and acceleration, looked really cute and good turning. Afterwards we signed online to wait, and we were spectating our fellow racers racing on Rainbow Road. Rosa and I agreed that Rainbow Road was one of the lamest maps, but I don't mind playing it now and then.

After they finished and we joined in, everybody votes for a map and a random selector picks from one of our choices. Well this one girl, named "Blacky" and some other jackass looking guy, picked Rainbow Road again. Who the hell honestly picks the same map right after playing it? Some douche bag, that's who! Well anyways, the selection was picking around, and it landed on a Rainbow Road :-(

I suppose it was alright, since Rosa could try out her new cart riding abilities. I kept messing up cause I wasn't used to the half screen again and landed last a few seconds, but I went from 10th to 4th within one lap and ended with that place.

So we go into voting again, and those same two vote for Rainbow Road again! What the hell I say. The random goes onto a someone who chose a "?" map, meaning any map. The "?" map ended up being Rainbow Road! Lame!!! So we raced it again. Afterwards, we voted again. Guess what? Rainbow Road again!! I still did terrible and so did Rosa cause I was so sick of it!

Okay, the next two races were Dry Dry Hills and Toad's Factory, pretty fun maps. However, those two jackasses continued to vote for Rainbow Road over and over! Then came a selection and it landed right on Rainbow Road again! HOW IRRITATING. Rosa tells me she doesn't feel like playing anymore, and I tell her I don't either. I turn off the console before it finishes loading, accepting the full point loss of about 100-200 VR probably. But I don't get, I fricken can't understand why someone would do that!

Hilarious Baby Products

2008-07-16T12:58:00.001-07:00

Check these out!

20 Baby Products Great For Traumatizing Infants

I had a good laugh and some of them were amazingly cute.

New Blogger Theme

2008-07-15T11:50:00.001-07:00

So Andrew Gonzalez today decided to use the same theme that I had. Also, all of the other themes were already in use! So what do I do? I make my own :-)

So today, I accomplished something by modifying a blogger theme to match the OSU website colors. Yay, I like it :-)

New Computer Setup

2008-07-13T21:56:00.001-07:00

So I recently just took out an old monitor in order to fix some computer that a guy from church asked me for help with. Instead of putting the monitor away, I thought I'd give it a try on my desk, here's what it looks like.

My monitor is extended bottom of the top one to the top of the bottom one. So it's more workspace for me basically. Here is a display of what it looks like.

Pretty neat eh? The wallpaper on the bottom is the Helix Nebula, incase you were wondering.

Eurovision

2008-07-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

So there's this really cool competition that takes place in Europe called the "Eurovision" competition.

What is basically consists of, is a bunch of European countries or countries that had a good impact on European history (Algeria and Morocco for example), select a singer through their own contests as a representative. So the UK will have their own audition or competition to figure out who to select, and so will every other country. Kinda like a preliminaries.

The UK, Spain, France, and Germany automatically go to the Finals contests because of their history of financial contribution to the program. While every other country, this may be all the way up to 50, compete in the "semi-finals" in order to narrow down the competition. Countries will vote and the narrowed 20 or so will continue on to the finals.

In the finals contests, those victorious countries and then the Big 4, will give it all they got and present amazing songs, the best of Europe! Then all of the countries will vote on a score-based system for their favorite countries. The country with the most points at the end, wins!

I have the soundtrack for the 2006, 2007, and now 2008 songs and a lot of the songs are pretty good. Lots of them are in English too (the countries can sing in any language they choose), and it's all pretty good.

Technology is Good Today

2008-07-12T16:22:00.001-07:00

So I finally found out how to send voice messages to T-Mobile voicemails, lol. It took me a while, but I figured out how, and since a lot of my friends are on T-Mobile, goodie! :-D

I also managed to solve our satellite dilemma and get the electronic program guide as well as local channels on our satellite!

Parental Tip: Exposure

2008-07-11T15:01:00.001-07:00

I believe in parents exposing their kids to the modern world in an effort to allow the children to learn from themselves first hand, and am completely against child sheltering! My parents believe in sheltering me from things a lot of the times, like girls (lol, they failed), money (did and realized they shouldn't of), and many other things.

My mom for example, likes to do things around the house when we could do them just fine. She doesn't like it when I clean my own dishes or stick my hand in the hot oven to grab a piece of cooked meat. She believes that I won't clean the dishes right, and that I'll burn myself by stupidly moving my hand around in the oven. To her. I'm a complete idiot who doesn't know how to do these things, yet she always nags about us not being able to do anything! For some reason, she completely misses the point that I have to DO THOSE THINGS in order to GET THEM. Somehow, she expects me to magically learn how to do such things on my own (by not doing the things at my house or something, I dunno what the heck she is thinking sometimes), and then I'll be prepared to do them at home. Stupid logic? Why yes, indeed it is!

My dad isn't much different either. He believes that somehow since I'm his son, I should have magical abilities to be able to do things. There's a good reason why I extremely dislike working with him, he's no good at working in a team. If I make one simple mistake, he yells at me! Why did I make the mistake? It was my first time and he never fucking taught me! How the hell does he expect me to be able to do that crap that he wants when I don't even know where the hell to start. Sometimes he'll show me for like 30 seconds, gives a brief explanation and magically expects me to master it. Well I can start it off pretty well, but then some unexpected situation occurs that he never bothered explaining happens. I have a few choices: 1) Ask him about it in which case he can't even fricken explain to me what I need to do, so he'll start yelling at me for being such an idiot and he might end up doing it himself. 2) I could ask him for help and that it might be best for him to handle this particular task, in which case he yells at me and calls me and idiot, then does it himself, makes it look amazingly easily and criticizes me. 3) I try and figure out what the hell to do with what little instructions he gives me, I might successfully do it and everything is normal, or I might mess up in which case he comes over, yells at me, calls me an idiot, and then does it himself. I don't exactly have much choices except for a gamble.

If my mom wants things to be done right, she has to actually let her children do things so they learn! To me, I can pretty much clean those dishes and not get my hand burnt, and no matter how many times I tell her I know what the hell to do, she still doesn't think I know what the hell to do. Then she "shows it to me" and it's the exact same fricken way I would of done it. My dad should accept the fact that not everyone was meant to crawl in the dirty crawl space and hammer something upside down with no elbow space, thus if he asks me to do something, he needs to understand that I won't fricken get it perfectly like he wishes. I'll screw up numerous times, and he has to accept that when he hires cheap labor that's better at typing up random documents for him than working with him.

Parents these days, *sigh*

Awesome Web Comic

2008-07-11T01:15:00.001-07:00

So I recently started reading this awesome web comic. It's called Dinosaur Comics.

It's an awesome comic strip that uses the same drawing every single time. However, the dialogue is usually really thoughtful philosophical thoughts about life and current society. Yet at the same time, they're silly, witty, and darkly humorous. It also has an RSS, so you can subscribe to it and read the latest dinosaurs when they're available! If you guys would like to know about any other comics, feel free to ask!