Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Top Ten Looking Forward To Do

My life is really good because I have a full time job. I'm meeting new people, learning new skills, and filling the missing skills and experiences I lack. My future is looking bright. Life is not on pause anymore. Life is on play and life is on record because I'm experiencing new experiences.

Today's top ten is my first top ten looking forward to my future. I'm fortunate I have good self-awareness such that I realize what I'm missing to live a better life. I want to live the best life. Working and earning income is a start for a brighter future. I continue the good luck and good fortune streak going for a long time. Here are the top ten I'm looking forward to do:

10. Play more board games. I have lots of board games. I have little opportunities playing. I want to create my own opportunities to play board games. Board games bring people together. And I want to organize an all night Mahjong (Riichi) tournament.

9. A new look. I want to wear new glasses that is black in color and thick frames. I have a big head. The glasses need to be wide. And I want a bald Bruce Willis look. No more hair.

8. Cooking delicious food. I want to learn more about cooking good food. I'm looking forward to cook my own tasting meals. I'm looking forward to try cooking new foods I never cooked before.

7. Live in a cleaner residence. Shoes inside the residence is prohibited. No dishes in the sink. No clutter. All the rooms are organized.

6. Influence others. I believe I can help people become better people. I want to influence others to be better. I have good ideas, good suggestions, good opinions, and good knowledge other people can learn from me.

5. Consistent gym workouts. My gym workouts have been inconsistent too long. I value physical activity important for me. I look forward to consistent gym workouts when I complete settling back into a five day work week.

4. More adventures and experiences. My life enters an accelerated and geometric upward rate learning new things. I meet more new people and make more new friends. And, of course, seeking new adventures and experiencing new experiences. Get up and do something, anything.

3. Getting people together. I want to host and/or organize gatherings, hangouts, meet-ups, and get-togethers. Some of my ideas include board games, TV shows and movies marathons, food pot lucks, hiking, intelligence conversations, and candy sampling.

2. Freedom. I want to and I need to move out and live on my own.

1. No holding back. This is it. It's time to world see the real Raymond Mar. There is going to be a moment I'm going to be a champion. And there are going to be more championship moments.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Blogs Coming Soon

My last blog I posted, Work Nov 23, 2013, was my first days at my new job. I found a job at a retail start-up doing data entry and bookkeeping. My work blogs is one type of blog I write frequently. I anticipate the blogs are written when I feel it's worth my reader's time. For instance, work blogs can be written daily, weekly, three days straight, or once every two weeks. It depends.

The second type of blogs coming soon is sharing my experiences job searching. The experiences include past interviews, suggestions from my friends, mistakes, lessons learned, websites I visited, and my opinions. There is a timeline documenting my job searching moments. The reason why I want to share my job searching experiences is to remember how I job searched such that if I have to search for a job again, then I have my experiences blogged. Another reason is to share my job searching experiences so good people looking for a job may learn a lesson or acquire a job searching tip.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Work Nov 23, 2013

I found a job. I'm a data entry/bookkeeper at a retail start-up. My first day was on Wed Nov 20. The job is my first since graduating with an AA degree in Accounting at De Anza College. The job market continues to be tough. The market is still an employer's market. It took me almost two years and five months to find a job.

I blog my work experiences and moments here titled "Work" followed by the posted date. The working blog is written frequently which includes my highlights, lowlights, discoveries, and conflicts. No work place is 100% perfect. I regrettably never blogged my working days at my prior jobs. My first work blog follows:

My first day at work was a long day. All my first days at work were the longest. Even my first day at Blockbuster Video was the longest because I worked overtime putting VHS tapes back on the shelves after Memorial Day weekend.

The training started the first minute clocking in. I met some my co-workers which continued each day. One of the managers is training me in their cloud database. The database is okay. I worked with unfriendly databases in the past. The processes and researching take time to establish a procedure. There is still more to learn.

My body and mind were focused unconsciously to I learn as quickly as I could. I came home exhausted. One concern regarding the working environment is the back end of the store covered up the windows with paper. There are too much inventory boxes such that it's like a maze. I take advantage when the roll up door opens to take a breath of fresh air and to see the outside.

The adjustment continues today as my mind and body change to working full time with weekends off. I had been staying home seven days a week job searching and relaxing as an unemployed worker. I need to establish a routine sleep pattern and adjust my priorities, errands, and leisure time. I need to reschedule my dentist appointment for my routine checkup.

The first three days working gave me a better understanding why some people quit. There were frustrations, confusions, information overloading, and making mistakes. Management is not rushing my training; although, it feels like a cram course. Some people don't want to change their lives. I'm making changes in my life; for example, commuting, fewer hours of sleep, and less personal time. These quitters can't adapt and compromise. Quitters avoid challenges.

The end of each of the three days I felt I wanted to quit. I even questioned myself why I accepted working here. I had doubts whether I made the correct choice working here. I believe most new employees ask themselves the same question. I did when I worked at my first job after graduating San Jose State and at Cisco. Everything went okay weeks later. I believe everything is going to be okay.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Top Ten Favorite Brand Cookies

Cookie Monster was my favorite monster when I was a kid watching Sesame Street. His life philosophy was, "you can never have too much of a good thing!" I agree. I'm fortunate I have great control eating cookies. I never ate an entire bag of cookies in a day. Perhaps, I should experience a life moment eating an entire bag of cookies in a day.

I exclude home baked cookies because anyone can follow a recipe or the directions printed on a cookie mix box. I favorite homemade cookies are chocolate chip, sugar, oatmeal, and vanilla. I dislike raisins and walnuts. Sprinkles are okay. I prefer soft and chewy instead of hard and crunchy.

Narrowing ten cookies was hard. I included discontinued cookies. I cheated combining all animal cookies to number ten and sandwich cookies to number nine. Here are the top ten cookies:

10. Animal Cookies (Various). Circus Animal, Barnum's Animals, Bugs Bunny, and Safeway are the brands I remember eating when I was little. I believe adults can eat animal cookies without embarrassment.

9. All Sandwich Cookies (Various). Oreo, Keebler's E.F. Fudge and Vienna Fingers, Snackwell's Vanilla Sandwich, and Mother's Taffy are good examples, I eat both chocolate and vanilla fillings; however, I prefer vanilla.

8. Bordeaux (Pepperidge Farm). The crunchy cookie has a taste I like to eat slowly. I'm the only person who eats Bordeaux in my family.

7. Major League Baseball Cookies (Mother's). Mother's produced two boxes of the honey graham cookies in the early 1990s. The blue box was the National League baseball teams and the red box was the American League baseball teams. Each graham cookie was the logo of the baseball teams.

6. Sugar Cookies (Mother's). I remember the packaging as I write the list. The sugar cookies hold a special place in my childhood memory because my mom always purchased a package when my brother or I asked.

5. Nilla Wafers (Nabisco). There was a long time period I never ate a Nilla Wafer. I believe my mom didn't buy the wafers because she was afraid I choke when I was a kid. Obviously, Nilla Wafers are in the top ten because it's vanilla.

4. Almost Home (Nabisco). Another childhood cookie memory. The cookies were soft and delicious. I cared for chocolate chip only. Forget the rest.

3. Striped Shortbread (Nabisco). I remember the first time I ate a striped shortbread cookie. The brand was Nabisco. My parents, brother, and I visited an open house home for sale. The sales agent had a plate of cookies next to her papers and business cards. She gave a cookie to me and my brother. I thought it was the most beautiful and most sophisticated cookie ever.

2. Lorna Doone (Nabisco). I also remember the first time I ate Lorna Doone. I was four or five years old visiting my grandparents in Santa Barbara, CA. I entered the kitchen. My grandmother gave me Lorna Doone cookies inside a cookie jar. The look and design of the cookie made me felt like I was living in the 1950s.

1. Milano (Pepperidge Farm). No cookie can top a Milano. I believe everyone in the world ate a Milano in their life. The cookie is strong such that it can't break easily. There's just enough chocolate between the cookies. Milano is simple and eloquent.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

I Did It Right

We experience bad days, bad moments, and bad luck. We can't control everything 24 hours a day. We're human. There are times in our lives we experience a downturn. We make the best every day. There's always tomorrow. It's life.

I can't control the economy. I can't control employers and recruiters rejecting my resume. I'm doing my best to find employment. I have been improving my job search to include spending additional time joining a job networking group, learning new job skills, and reviewing my job knowledge. I'm spending more time working out at the gym to improve my health when I'm taking a break from applying for jobs.

I'm happy and fortunate I have good self-awareness. I'm learning from my mistakes. I realize most of my faults and correcting them. I'm stronger, smarter, and wiser. I'm making good choices. I'm not repeating my mistakes. There's going to be more mistakes to correct. There's going to be more faults I realize that must be corrected. I'm not perfect.

I realized how powerful forgiveness affects people. Forgiveness removes hate. I hated the world and my life years ago. I have no more hate. No hate relieves and cleanses a person. I must earn everything I want in my life. I'm responsible for my actions and thoughts. I don't take life for granted. Patience is important. My successes and my dreams are coming soon. They're coming to my life. I believe in myself.

My life is in the present time. I continue to meet new people and make new friends. There are more adventures to seek and new experiences to experience. I never stop learning. I never stop innovating my life. I always be a good person.

I'm happy and grateful for my life as of today. I appreciate the people who helped me become a better person. I'm proud for what I have done from my head to my toes and my physical, mental, and emotional states; in particular, since Oct 4, 2008, the day I realized I must grow up. I have time to think and to reflect what happened throughout my past whether it was good or bad. In the meantime, think, plan, prioritize, and execute my next course of action.

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

My Final Pics From My Droid X2 Phone

I'm almost done wrapping up summer with these last pics from my first smart phone I owned. The next pics are from my HTC One. Enjoy!






















Monday, November 04, 2013

Entering The Summer Months

My last picture at an anime convention. Classic toys from my childhood. A reminder on good marriages. A big android with jelly beans. And more. Enjoy the pics!






















Sunday, November 03, 2013

I Got This Feeling

I got this feeling that's hard to explain. I explain the best I can. The feeling is very similar to Oct 2008. The feeling is bringing back my gentleman side. I'm attracting people again. I believe in myself. I have faith. I'm finding Raymond Mar again. I remember the strong Raymond Mar. I'm always getting stronger, smarter, kinder, and wiser because I never stop learning and I never stop innovating.

I got this feeling I'm friendly again. No more shutting the door from the world. My sincerity is back. My sincere smile is back. I'm more proactive than ever. I welcome and greet all my friends. I greet friendly people and spread cheer. I small talk the bank teller and cashier. I want to meet more people and make new friends.

I got this feeling of being independent. It's time to stop carrying the weight around my life. It's time to focus and concentrate on me. My time is coming soon. I must prepare and be ready. It's my turn to step in front of the spotlight and shine.

The big question is what happened to all these feelings? These feeling were missing for a long time. My answer is I don't know. All these feelings were forgotten or I turned them off without realization.

I got this feeling of hope. My curses are broken. Everything is going to be okay. I'm a good guy. Good moments are coming.

Saturday, November 02, 2013

Two New Daily Life Rules

My daily life rules help me and remind me to be the best person. These daily life rules keep me strong, help me get along with people, and give me confidence.

I looked back at my past blogs. The last time I added a new rule was on Thur May 13, 2010 when I wrote my weekly De Anza College blog. The rule was number 6: Breath with your nose and stand up straight. I'm shocked I didn't create any new rules since. I'm overdue to add more wisdom to my daily life.

I recently discovered my leap of faith on Wed Oct 9 and a personal problem regarding being discrete on Sun Oct 26. These two moments inspired me to add two new daily life rules.

Rule #7 is "Have faith. Believe in yourself". I stopped believing in myself since I finished taking classes at De Anza College. My lack of faith is delaying my life from going forward; for example, my long-term unemployment. I don't know why I stopped believing in myself. My initial answers are I took life for granted and I was overconfident I find a job immediately after I graduated. Rule #7 is self-explanatory. Believe in myself and all my dreams, desires, and goals come true.

Rule #8 is "Let me think. Be discrete". There is a downside to being an open person. I communicate too much information sometimes. There are situations where something doesn't need to be discussed in a conversation. There are some thoughts, ideas, opinions, and events that shouldn't be mentioned. Rule #8 tells me to pause for a few seconds to think before I speak. Saying the words "let me think" is a good pause for me in conversations.

Here are the previous rules:

1. Don't criticize, condemn, and complain, and don't compare with others.
2. Don't act like a jerk or bitch.
3. Always speak calmly and be calm.
4. Don't daydream when driving.
5. Keep your head up high . . . look at their cute face when talking.
6. Breath with your nose and stand up straight.

And here are the updated rules:

1. Don't criticize, condemn, and complain, and don't compare with others.
2. Don't act like a jerk or bitch.
3. Always speak calmly and be calm.
4. Don't daydream when driving.
5. Keep your head up high . . . look at their cute face when talking.
6. Breath with your nose and stand up straight.
7. Have faith. Believe in yourself.
8. Let me think. Be discrete.