Rejuvenation ... found the snack machine in this building finally.  ¶ 3:56 PM 0 comments

  Long day So I went to Stanford. Had to get there by FIVE O'CLOCK in the morning tho. I get up at 4:15, get ready, promptly get lost. Call the main IS guy, uh-oh I get his voicemail. Turns out he was playing World of Warcraft all evening and slept through his alarm clock (me totally understands!). So we get off to a bit of a late start, but once we show up, nothing really happens. I guess we were just there in case anything went wrong. In other words, I DIDN'T NEED TO BE THERE. We had 5 EMC guys there which was way more than enough.

Anyways I figure that's that, then Rob says you wanna come alone to SF we have a quickie install there. He says 2 hours, I figure maybe 5 hours based on Murphy's Law. It ends up taking eight hours because someone messed up somewhere. Just a lot of waiting around til they got their shit together and we could go in and quickly do clone groups (which took like five minutes tops). I guess the only redeeming factor is Rob telling us a bunch of crazy stories about corporate politics on the ride to SF. That guy is awesome. Just things like, someone messing up an install, then having a conf call with 40 people on it where someone gets fired. Or VPs setting up fall guys in case something goes wrong and SOMEONE needs to be the sacrificial lamb and get fired.

In our case it was a partner company who installed the hardware and the problem we ran across was hardware related. So looks like the client's VP won't want to pay the big bill and will yell at the partner until he gets free stuff. That data center was pretty hard-core too. There were security cameras everywhere and you needed biometric verification to enter. As well as key-card access to leave the area (or else you would trip the alarm and ppl would get pissed off).

What a way to spend a Saturday. Ten hours on the job. At least I got out of the house right? :p

On the good side, I'm slightly more motivated on doing my job now. Mostly due to Rob and his zany stories.

WOW footnote: so after Rob keeps mentioning how awesome the game is, I had to get out to Frys and buy a copy. So from now on, anytime I disappear completely from society, blame WOW. Nah that's too geeky, blame my imaginary girlfriend.  ¶ 11:26 PM 0 comments

  Complete and utter isolation Currently I'm situated at our lab in San Jose working with some enterprise software. Just me in the training room and no one else. Nothing but the hum of the other lab computers and the sound of my typing. Very little distractions and no ANNOYING sales people talking nonstop.

Ahhhh soooooo relaxing....

I guess I'm good as a people person but I love these quiet times as well.  ¶ 1:26 PM 0 comments

  Life Inventory.. A sign of my (un) intelligence. I sold a book on amazon for $4.03 including the shipping cost. Went to the post office and found that the cheapest option was priority at $4.55. All that time and effort to lose 52 cents. Yippee.

Been trying to sell off possessions that I no longer need. I realize that I can do without a whole lot of stuff. A simple observation just by cleaning my room for the first time in ages.
Items I require:


tricked-out car



even more tricked-out computer


and more recently the treo. How I love thee... Curling up in my bed and browsing the net on my phone is sweet.


snowboard? Only in snowboard season tho.


oh yes, unlimited supply of... apple sidra!

Dry weather so I can go run! Arghhhh damn this interminable rainy weather. I recently ran relatively painfree and the feeling was awesome. Slowly getting there...

What else? Clothes? I dress decently now since it's required of me :)


Time to resurrect my fav taiwan picture taken with the trusty Powershot S45. So peaceful...


Since this turned into a picture show, here's a cool pic of Daniel's cute bird.


And finally to showcase my lil bro's awesome picture of Japan using delayed shutter mode on his Sony. I miss Japan!!!! And I really should get back to my hobby of photography.

(FYI the lack of a "woman picture" in this section does not indicate sexual orientation. Yes I still require female companionship, I just don't have a suitable photo. And yes this footnote is dumb.)

--------------------

I need money: I made my brother do my taxes and found that I get some money back from the IRS. Woot! Dinner is on me. I've actually started reading some financial articles, this stuff is more interesting once you get a bit of money to invest. Otherwise, b-o-r-i-n-g. I'd never fault someone for being uneducated about finance if they had no money ...

I've also been talking to different ppl about their various problems. Some may find this blog more of a journal than a "vent-frustration" blog. I'm not real big on divulging any personal problems, I usually try to work them out internally. Maybe it's a guy thing. I also haven't had any interesting ones lately so :/

I think I'll revert to an old excuse --> I'M SHY!

Everyone has problems, no one is perfect. Such is life...  ¶ 7:48 PM 2 comments

  Rain It was pouring so hard this morning the SOUND OF THE RAIN woke me up!

All this after going to bed at 4:45 am due to some clandestine computer work.

:[

In other news, my computer might be on the fritz. The northbridge fan is making noises from time to time. And I KNOW the 9800 needs a new fan as well. Plus my 3.3V rail has been steadly at 3.15 for a while now. *sigh*  ¶ 8:39 AM 0 comments

  Phone unlocked! I've been pretty lucky when it comes my phone. First I get the big discount on the Cingular phone (on the first try no less) that unfortunately none of my coworkers could finagle. I also purchased it in time to get my $100 reimbursement from my company (knock on wood). Then I got interested in obtaining a subsidy unlock code which allows any SIM card to be used in my treo. This basically turns my cingular phone into an unlocked one -- and the unlocked ones go for $699.

On Treocentral people discuss the lengths they went to in order to get the subsidy unlock code. I'm pretty sure I had one of the least painful experiences. The first time I called cingular to inquire about unlocking my phone, I got shut down and was fed a blatant lie. Today I called for the 2nd time -- jackpot. All I did was ...

1) call up our business line
2) speak in a polite manner
3) be knowledgable about what I was talking about (research helps!)

A few hours later the coveted code is emailed to my gmail account. All I need is a T-mobile SIM to test it out. An unlocked treo 650 for $160 ... woot!  ¶ 6:45 PM 0 comments

  etcetera - Back on the burner: A nice receiver from Harman Kardon. Wanted one a year ago and the newest models look schweet.

- course i'd have to get new speakers to go with that as well as a pimp TV (like John's LCD TV). I need new friends that work at Best Buy or Sony.

- Yahoo is unveiling a new blogging/social networking service called Yahoo 360. Invite only, looks nifty. Blogger is nice but I like testing new stuff. Plus I found some pics from Boston that i'll post imminently.

- take a look at some etch-a-sketch drawings. Pretty remarkable. Oh yeah in boston they say "drawERings."

- bought a coolmax harddrive enclosure today. Time to utilize the spare 80gb drive on my desk.

- the latest episodes of Arrested Development have been mind-boggling in terms of the zany jokes. MIND-BOGGLING! The humor is amazing.

- Random thought of the day: Girls with cute voices are few and far between...  ¶ 2:50 PM 0 comments

  Next stop in the future timeline... My cousin (in Walnut) Christine's graduation! And I finally visit her house and her friends. And shoot pool with the other Ben(ny) Lin. And visit Sharon's baby in Irvine. And also visit Rosa, Hank and their adorable kids.

(sometime in late May)

until then there's work ...  ¶ 9:12 PM 1 comments

  Cell phone reps me: Hi I'm inquiring about corporate discounts on equipment for EMC employees, specifically on the treo 650? I'm calling for a friend since I already got mine but she's having trouble talking to someone that has a clue.
her: ok let me pull up the file.... can I put you on hold?
her (talking to someone in the background): Why do you want me to lie to everybody!
her (talking to someone, slightly muffled): But how did they get it? ... That's lying!
her (to me): yes we do have a 45% discount off equipment and 13% off plans, but you have to go to a Cingular store to get it.
me: wellll it sounds really shady because I already ordered MINE off the phone and I know it's possible. WTH is going on here.
her: hold on.
her (in the background while i'm supposedly on hold but can hear everything she says): Take your time because he may be mad.... make him wait?

I forget the rest but it was really funny to hear (prolly cuz I already gotten my phone). The humor was more in the desperation and intonation of this particular rep's voice. It's semi-nice to know that some people care about honesty although eventually she caved and gave me the corporate spiel. Anyhoo my friend got her phone eventually although not w/o some caveats.  ¶ 9:11 PM 0 comments

  First week... I'm still going to sleep at 9ish and waking up 3-5 in the morning. Rough start. This is mainly because we always had to get up very early during training, 6-7 ish. Hopefully my sleeping patterns get back to normal. At work I don't have a great deal to do yet, I'm doing some Elearning right now but it's hard to keep motivated. I had a good meeting with the division head yesterday in mountain view, he's a cool guy. Hopefully they'll throw a ton of stuff my way soon in terms of assignments. Right now I chat with my buddies a lot.

I've taken to running twice a day now as my schedule allows (for now). Time to cut the fat. Thought about joining a gym but I only need to lift ever now and then. Haven't even had time to open MGS3 from the package. I will probably get GT4 and Tekken 5.

Downloaded the new star wars trailer, initial impression was that it overloaded my sense with a ton of CG effects. Hopefully this one will be good. Palpatine will rock at least. The tie-in with the OT is what I'm looking for, some of the sound effects like the TIE fighter and transport ships bring back memories (in the opening frames).

sleepy ....  ¶ 3:54 AM 0 comments

  Random notes I bought a smoothie today, after driving back it was half melted. This contrasted to in Boston where you can leave your leftovers in the car for a week and its perfectly refrigerated.

Go CA weather. I can wear just a T-shirt and shorts again.  ¶ 2:31 PM 0 comments

  Back in PA ... So let me talk about the Friday that capped off the training. This last week was a complete blur. First of all my group and I had two presentations to give, as well as finish a bevy of status reports, expense reports, etc. To our surprise, we didn't get grilled to death, and finished by 1:35p. The rest of the time was spent hanging out until the bus to Boston arrived.

In Boston we had our final dinner as a group together (sniff) which included a ton of drinking (even the team leads got into it). Yay for shots. Then we all went to see the Blue Man Group which was great (although I wonder if it would have been that good w/o the alcohol). After that we were supposed to go to another bar but complications arose. I had to drive a friend home since she was way gone. I said my goodbyes and hopefully there'll be a reunion sometime in the future. I will definitely miss my new friends, although the good news is that a few are in Irvine so that's not too far. I definitely learned a TON of new things, both technical and social things. It was an awesome experience.

So with that I return to Palo Alto. While training was dope, I love Cali. The weather was picture perfect when we touched down in San Jose. In Franklin, the high was about 35 degrees throughout the entire training. Things like "the sun" rarely made an appearance. On the flip side, there were the blizzards which were cool to experience, as long as the wind chills weren't -15 C.

Plus I had my own hotel room!

So much to do so little time...  ¶ 4:56 AM 2 comments

  My baby ... My car got keyed...

Words cannot begin to describe my frustration and anger. Ok I'll give it a shot.

FUCK!

Apparently my mom drove it to some ghetto area or whatever one day. It was the first damn thing I saw when I started to put my luggage into my car. Then my mom tried the really stupid "Was that already there???" BS.

me: are you f--king kidding me?

I guess things in my life were getting too good. Not that they were getting that good to begin with.  ¶ 9:03 PM 0 comments

  Snow, snow, and more snow I love snow ....

East Coast people may hate it but we cali peeps love it. We stepped out of the restaurant into the swirling snow and it was like that scene out of "Edward Scissorhands."

Only 4 more days left and while I am ready to go back I will miss some of the friends I've made here.

That's what IM is for ...  ¶ 4:02 AM 0 comments