My biggest life regret as of today's blog is I failed to live the 1990s to the best of my ability. My downs outnumbered the ups. My ups were crappy ups. Many of the ups were unearned like a baseball team scoring an unearned run or the ups were given on a silver platter. I took the ups for granted. Life was unfair in the 1990s. Life is unfair today. Some people had more downs than ups. I was one of them.
In my opinion, the 1990s is best decade in the history of the human race. The economy was fantastic; although, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's monetary policy is another conversation. Fuel injection engines in automobiles. The internet. Email communication. Watch movies on DVDs. Listen to music on CDs. Mobile cell phones. Windows 95 and Windows 98. Nintendo. Playstation. Apple began the comeback when the late Steve Jobs came back. Opportunities were plentiful. Everyone got a piece of the pie. A piece of the pie was given just by participating.
If my courage increased 20%, then I got a bigger piece of the pie. If two people at the minimum, at any place, and at any time introduced me to something, anything positively new, then I live in freedom today. If either the same two people or two different people at the minimum, at any place, and at any time called out my faults, then I live in freedom today.
One high school moment worth mentioning was I attended summer school Geometry after my sophomore year. I made new friends. I was able to take Algebra II in my junior year and Trigonometry & Pre-Calculus in my senior year. I saw most of my friends in the math classes. Moreover, the summer school was a foreshadow because the school district closed my high school after my junior year. I graduated high school at the same school I took my summer school Geometry.
I salvaged the 1990s. I was naive. I received poor support. I didn't know how to make intelligent mistakes. It was not entirely my fault. I accepted my share of responsibility. All is forgiven today. I have been catching up what I missed since I realized I must grow up on Sat Oct 4, 2008. Experiences experienced. Lessons learned. Wisdom acquired. The catching up continues. Here are the top fifteen crappy 1990s best moments.
15. 1993 Bike Ride (Summer 1993). I rode my bike randomly around my neighborhood exploring parts of West San Jose and Campbell, CA. The places included Westmont High School, San Tomas Aquinas Creek, and John D. Morgan park.
14. Working Out At The Gym (Sep 1998, May 1999). My first gym was at my first company's office park. My second gym was at a real gym. I continue physical workouts today.
13. My First Webpage (1998). I created my first webpage at geocities.com Tokyo Bay 9061.
12. The Year Of The Role Playing Game (RPG) (1997). 1997 was the perfect year for RPG. Everyone was in San Jose, everyone adjusted their college and work schedules, everyone participated in the action, and the plots were terrific. The memories are remembered for a long time.
11. Las Vegas Grand Canyon (Jul 1997). My family's first biggest summer vacation. We stayed at a time share during our stay in Las Vegas. We took a two-day trip to the Grand Canyon. The vacation was my first time in Las Vegas, first time I gambled, and my first time in Arizona.
10. Around The State Of California In 90 Days (May-Aug 1995). 1995 was filled with family vacations. We visited Disneyland, visited Yosemite, canoed in the Sacramento River, and visited my grandparents in Santa Barbara. Yosemite was my first time visiting a national park.
9. San Jose State University (1992-1997). I choose San Jose State number nine even though many people think graduating from college should be higher in a person's life. I'm an exception.
*Fall Semester 1993. I earned a C- taking Computer Science 46A despite failing the final. The professor gave me a break. I attended all classes. I completed all the homework. Doing the minimums saved my ass.
*Fall Semester 1994. Physics 60 final. "I studied three hours for that!", said a classmate. Most students completed the four-choice multiple-choice final in 30 minutes. The final was very easy a high school student could earn an A.
*Fall Semester 1995. I changed majors from Mathematics to Economics and changed minors from Economics to Mathematics. My dream of teaching high school math was over. The switch was a good choice looking back. I believe I stopped being a teacher in today's public education environment.
I made a big deal thinking about the change initially. I thought back. The change should have been immediate. My Economic major classes become interesting. I met more classmates. My GPA went up at the end of each semester.
*Fall Semester 1996. My perfect semester. I attended classes on Tue and Thur. I learned how to write. 3.64 was my semester GPA. I mastered the shooting arcade game Area 51. I lost weight. I began listening to music while I studied.
*Fall Semester 1997. My last semester. I attended classes three days a week. I can't explain why I didn't schedule my semesters for at least one day off. Today's college environment most classes meet two days a week instead of some classes meeting either two days a week or three days a week.
8. Music (Various Dates). Yanni, Enya, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Madonna, Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan, LeAnn Rimes, Jewel, No Doubt, Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, Donna Lewis, Hootie And The Blowfish, Paula Cole, Sixpence None The Richer, The Cranberries, Sting, Wilson Phillips, R.E.M., and Spice Girls.
7. Self-training Job Skills (1998). I taught myself Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and HTML. Learning Access helped me get my second job. I wished I continued the self-training attitude indefinitely.
6. The Snowman And Pinky Show (1994-1995). I played stuffed animals with my younger sister. Snowman was The Snowman from the book written by Raymond Briggs. Pinky was a blue bear with a pink nose. The other animals were bears related to Pinky. There was another snowman who looked like The Snowman named cousin Snow. We were terrible naming the stuffed animals. Most of the bear names were referenced from The Simpsons and favorite family movies.
I was Snowman, cousin Snow, and the extras. My sister was Pinky and his bear family.
5. Blockbuster Video (1996-1997). My first retail job. The store manager and I attended the same high school which was the number one reason he hired me.
4. Weekend Trip To Santa Barbara, CA (Aug 1998). My mom and I picked up my grandfather in Santa Barbara, CA as a last minute trip driving the Mercury Sable 1997 station wagon. We transported our family birds to one of my aunts in Los Angeles to be picked up. We listened to music on my portable CD player connected to the radio cassette deck for the first time.
The next day we drove my grandfather back to the Bay Area. The highlight of the trip was a Ford Mustang driving next to me from Soledad to San Jose. Sometimes I was in front of the Mustang. Sometimes the Mustang was in front of me. We separated at the Junction 85-17 freeway.
3. Weekend Trip To Cal Poly (Apr 1998). A friend invited me to visit him during the annual Cal Poly Open House weekend. I helped his club raise money cooking teriyaki chicken at the food booths. The weekend vacation was the first time I went on vacation solo. I went shopping at an outlet strip mall purchasing neck ties.
2. Japanese Anime (1996). I became an anime fan. I woke up listening to the ending song from Sailor Moon when my sister watched the English anime dub. I watched a variety of anime series when I rented anime at Blockbuster Video. The first anime series I purchased was the first season of Ranma 1/2. I attended my first anime convention Fanime Con in Mar 1997.
1. My First Jobs After College (Jul 1998 And Feb 1999). The commercial real estate industry was my first two jobs. My boss who hired me at my first job also hired me at my second job. I worked in the industry for 8.5 years.
Update On A Past Blog
The C- grade in Computer Science 46A was mentioned in Top Ten Good Breaks And Good Timing written on Jul 8, 2013. Number nine was San Jose State University. I should have elaborated the "Failed final, yet passed the class" bullet point.
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