Did You Have A Great Vacation?

What is the number one criteria to determine your vacation was great? Smooth airplane ride? Car drove perfectly? No mistakes with reservations? Nobody sick? Under budget? No delays? Hundreds of pictures? All true, and not the number one criteria.

The number one criteria is nothing changed at work. On your last day before going on vacation, you finish up your last minute assignments, you set up for the new assignments when you get back, you activate your email out of office response, you set up your voice mail to vacation mode, and your inbox is empty. Then you go on vacation. You forget about work. You briefly check voice mail and email depending on your position.

The vacation is over. You’re back at work. The inbox is full again. The emails are in the hundreds. There are at least 10 voice mail messages. The co-workers ask, “How was your vacation?” Your boss is still grumpy, LOL. Think and pause for a minute. Work is still the same. Your vacation was great XD

20 Years My Blue Jacket

In November 1987, my Mom purchased the blue jacket when I was in 8th grade. I wore the jacket every cold day including schools, vacations, and going shopping. Anyone looking at my family album chances are high I wore the jacket on any cold day. After I graduated San Jose State University, I wore the jacket occasionally such as Fridays to work. In 2000, I purchased a new black jacket I currently wear after my Mom said the blue jacket was too short.

I remember during rainy days still as a kid I walked without an umbrella confidently knowing the jacket protected me. There is an inside pocket where I put my walkman inside and my headphones came out of the top. I thought of myself as a FBI agent which I was listening to San Francisco Giants baseball games.

The blue jacket is made from Pacific Trail. It's a Charger Seattle 1945. I have no idea what Seattle 1945 means. The blue jacket is Weatherproof, a special coating applied to the fabric to protect from wind, rain, and other inclement weather.

Today, I wear my jacket to the gym. There is one button missing; otherwise, the jacket fits comfortably. The zipper and buttons still work. And I have the optional hood. Many of us are shocked to see 20 year old cars still driving today. I'm more shocked to see 20 year old clothing still wearable to the same person and in good condition.

Present Check

I shared bad weeks on my Blogs. I called past bad weeks as “gloomy”, “tiring”, and “plain.” The last two weeks have been boring. Every day has been boring including eating meals and going to work. The bright spot was watching episode 15 and episode 16 of Heroes first season Tuesday night. The last two times I played Team Fortress 2 the fun factor was so-so OK. I played Spy for the first time. The character is hard. Need practice. I killed people and destroyed a sentry gun; unfortunately, people killed me more. :P

My boredom feeling is in me every minute. Almost everything I do, it’s like “whatever” or “so what.” It’s the “who cares” attitude. I drive to and from work and it’s “whatever.” I download mp3s and it’s “whatever.” My work and my fun are meaningless. I’m getting nothing positive such as no smiles, no cheerful feeling. I feel when I go home, I must settle down, eat dinner, and go to sleep. I don’t. I continue to do something just like watching Heroes last night.

My past bad weeks are temporarily. My life becomes good and fun again soon. We all go through phases of bad weeks. We move forward, remain strong, and live life daily. Keep your eyes open, ears listening, nose smelling, hands feeling, and mouth communicating for new opportunities and favorable timing situations to break out of your bad week. Good luck!

There Are Stories To Be Told

Every day, every hour, every minute, every second, there is a story to be told. Real life stories. Stories make us happy, sad, cheerful, depressed, inspiring, regretful, and lessons learned. Life stories humans live everyday. Do you have a story to share? Everyone does.

Chances are high few people know your stories. Every week, few life stories appear in the media or in the bookstores. Fortunately, the internet allows you to share your stories. When your story is on the internet, the world can read your story. You don’t have to be an author to write a story. You need to know basic grammar. If you grammar is weak, teach yourself to write better. Continue to write stories to practice learning grammar. If you learn grammar incorrectly, your practice writing stories wastes your time. Practice perfectly.

Here is a short story: The story is my Christmas Shopping. Since 1996, I do all my Christmas shopping in one day. The last three shopping days, 2004-2006, I visited new places. In 2004, I shopped at Santana Row, a high-end open shopping mall. It was my first time visiting. Unfortunately, the mall is mostly clothing stories and goods towards women. I rarely visit.

In 2005, I visited Oakridge Mall. It was my first time shopping at Oakridge Mall. The major stores include Target, Macys, and Sears. Since then, I visited Oakridge Mall to shop and to hang out with my friends. And in 2006, I shopped at Downtown Santa Cruz. It was my first time visiting downtown. Since then, I went to Santa Cruz two more times in 2007. One of my personal goals is to visit Santa Cruz three more times before my 2008 birthday.

The 2005 and 2006 shopping days became important for me because I revisit the places many times. For the 2007 Christmas shopping, visit a new place or visit a place you haven’t been in a long time. You never know you may be visiting the place again in the future.

When you write stories, you can talk whatever I want XD If you don’t have a story, do something to write a story.

*Side note. My goals on my webpage states I visit Santa Cruz five times. The reason why I visit Santa Cruz three times is because one of my new goals I created three weeks ago is building a new gaming PC which takes time away from visiting Santa Cruz. I update the goals soon.

Daylight Standard Time

I forgot to mention in the last Blog entry I’m watching Heroes. I’m currently on episode 14. Please, no spoilers.

Sunday November 4, 2007 began Daylight Standard Time. All clocks moved backward giving everyone one extra hour. On the other hand, we lose one hour when all clocks moved forward for Daylight Savings Time.
The two days are the days we must check the smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and batteries in flashlights. If your residence is missing smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and flashlights, you’re smoking something. After you read the Blog, go to the hardware store and buy these lifesaving items.

First, check smoke alarms. Check the batteries by using a battery reader. If you don’t have a battery reader, buy one at an electronics store. Make sure the smoke alarms are clean such as no dust and no spider webs. Each floor must have a smoke alarm including one near the kitchen. Replace low charged batteries.

Second, check the fire extinguishers. Fire extinguishers must be clean. Check the gage. The arrow must be in the green. Each floor must have a fire extinguishers including one near the kitchen.

Last, check flashlights. Check the batteries by using a battery reader. Replace low charged batteries. Have spare bulbs because flashlight bulbs do burn out. The number of flashlights equals the number of people or number of floors whichever is greater in a residence. My house has two floors and we have seven flashlights.

Side Note. Popcorn or 777-2676 to know the official time is no longer in service, at least in the State of California. My thoughts are if it takes the same amount of time, money, and effort to tell everyone who dials Popcorn is disconnected, why is Popcorn disconnected?

It's November Already

I'm still here. Wow!!! November is here. October went by fast >.> The past three weeks there has been new priorities, new interests, and new activities for which I have no time to create new Blogs. I apologize. I share what I have been doing since October. *Ren Faire. On Saturday October 6, I went to the Renaissance Faire in Hollister, CA. It was my first time going and I had a good time. My highlights were hitting the target throwing an ax and winning 50 points in the stone throwing contest. The joust event was entertaining. I'm looking forward to next year and I wear a costume. *Saturdays. Throughout October and continuing in November, every Saturday I have been helping my Dad and his friend install a new roof. Personally, they should have hired someone to install a new roof. The project has been going on since June. I don't really want to help; however, it's something different to do on the weekends. On the other hand, less time for Blogs :( *Halloween. I wore my Edward Elric cosplay to work. Three employees from another apartment took a picture of me. After work, I went to a cosplay gathering at the Winchester Mystery House where we trick-or-treated and walked around the garden several times. Most of us ate dinner at Chili's across the street. I upload pics to my webpage soon. *Team Fortress 2 (TF2). I'm playing TF2, a first person shooter (fps) online game. My friends got me hooked on the game. I played three times. I'm having fun even though I stink,. The more I play, the more I get better XD TF2 is my first video game played online (with the exception of PartyPoker.net). Moreover, my laptop barley handles TF2. My video settings are at the lowest. I'm going to build a gaming PC with my Dad and brother's help. It's my first time I build my own PC. I modified my 2007-2008 goals by visiting Santa Cruz three times and added building a PC. I purchased a gaming mouse and a gaming headphone with a microphone. *Alan Greenspan. I purchased The Age Of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan. I'm about 25% completed. The book is easy to follow even though there are lots of big vocabulary words. Good time to learn new words (^__^) And there is no Fed Speak *hee, hee* *Work. My department manager hired someone outside the company to design our department quarterly report. Throughout most of October, my team has been modifying our templates to match the new quarterly report template. Cisco's Q1 FY08 ended on Saturday October 27 and my team is working on the Q1 FY08 report. We expect mistakes and frustrations, and we expect to learn from the mistakes and frustrations for the Q1 FY08 report. *Napster. I download approximately 50 songs a week. Most of the songs I downloaded are classic rock. I'm currently downloading songs from the 90s. I pay $14,95 a month, the price of one CD. My thinking is the monthly fee is paid when I download a minimum of 20 songs a month. *Car care. On Sunday October 28, I replaced the cabin filter. Today, I got my tires rotated. My next car maintenance is changing the oil and adding fuel cleaning fluid.