I'm sitting here at work in Akron, Ohio on what is probably my n-teenth trip out here and I got to thinking that this year has been an interesting one. Who would have thought that a Filipino boy from the slums of San Jose would be finding himself in Akron of all places? I looked back at a blog I had on December 30th of last year that I posted while sitting in a Tampa, Florida airport. In it I had written that I was slowly assimilating into the working world and lo and behold, here I am, seemingly assimilated. It's crazy to think what has become of this year.
I also wrote myself two new year's resolutions. One was to lose weight you fat ass. That one didn't work too well. But the other, to make 2006 a kick-ass year, is open to interpretation. And that brings me to this blog. I haven't blogged as much as in my hey-day but for my own, and my future self's, stake, I write before you my 2006 Year in Review. To tell you the truth, it's probably not going to be very interesting so if you don't read it, you won't have missed much. But I plan to touch upon the following topics over the next couple of days and hopefully I'll be able to judge whether or not I accomplished what I set out to do at the beginning of the year.
- Work
- Travel
- Friends
- Family
- Life
- Future
I don't know that they'll all be separated by topic. Some of those may only be one or two comments long and may also spill into other topics. But I thought it was a good starting point for review. So there you have it. If you have any suggestions, feel free. Here we go...
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
What the Pho
I had dinner with some of the team today and passed by a restaurant named "What the Pho". I thought it was amusing.
If you didn't know, yesterday (Happy Birthday, Pa) I flew out to Seattle after dinner. Today I started on a new project with a company you may have heard about. In fact, three others (Thomas, JJ and Ei) are on various projects for the same company but I don't think they're here in Seattle. Not yet at least.
So I'll be flying out here doing the consulting thing for the next month or so. It's sorta interesting to be back on the plane with the Monday through Thursday schedule. I had gotten used to having a local gig. But at least this isn't in Ohio. I don't even know if they've heard of Pho in Akron.
If you didn't know, yesterday (Happy Birthday, Pa) I flew out to Seattle after dinner. Today I started on a new project with a company you may have heard about. In fact, three others (Thomas, JJ and Ei) are on various projects for the same company but I don't think they're here in Seattle. Not yet at least.
So I'll be flying out here doing the consulting thing for the next month or so. It's sorta interesting to be back on the plane with the Monday through Thursday schedule. I had gotten used to having a local gig. But at least this isn't in Ohio. I don't even know if they've heard of Pho in Akron.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Monkey Exhibit at the San Diego Zoo
Last night we got back from a trip down to San Diego. We went to the Zoo where we saw the monkey exhibit. It was pretty cool. Check it out.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
As For Me, I Wish That I Were Anywhere
Haha! Sorry about that, Jeff. You know, I actually had two drafts in my Blogger posting list that I never finished - one from June-ish and another from a month ago. But rather than complete those mundane ones, I'm going to just write a new one and salt it with some angst and pepper it with some things that happened during my 4 months of absense. Hopefully this will satisfy the hunger of my two or three readers. Here we go... Let's see if I remember how to do this...
I don't like how the XBox 360 sounds like a jet engine when you turn it on. I don't like traffic and being on the road to my job for two hours of my day. It's a waste of time. I don't like how my new refrigerator had a slow leak that damaged my hardwood floor. It pains me to see it. I don't like Sears and how I was transferred to ten different departments and twenty different people before I spoke to a competent person about fixing the damage done to my floors by their faulty refrigerator. I don't like the lazy and unfriendly people at the front desk who fail to impress me every time I speak with them. When I write my monthly HOA check I wonder where that money goes to. I don't like how that last statement makes me feel old. The prospect of aging too quickly scares me. I don't like my rotund belly. But I'm too lazy to remedy that for now. Woe is me.
I do like the sound that my television set makes when I turn it on. I do like the fact that I have a local project to work and exciting opportunities coming up. I do like that Sears replaced my refrigerator rather quickly and it appears progress is being made on getting my floor repaired. I like the fact that I have enough money to actually pay my HOA fees and am fortunate enough to live in San Francisco. I like that sometimes, I don't mind my rotund belly because it's true, I'm bringing Sexyback. Haha. jk. Rock on.
...
Four months of time is a good amount to be away so my apologies to those who still check my blog. A quick monthly rundown of what I've been up to for those interested:
June - I moved into my place but still haven't gotten to know the city as I want to. Soon enough, hopefully.
July - My cousin got married. Pretty crazy stuff but awesome.
August - My family went on a trip to Asia without me. I had to take another brief trip to Ohio. They were jealous.
September - Thanks to Rich and Rob for setting up that Niner-Rams game. That was an awesome game and fun times. We need to do it again. Raider game?
That's it for now. I will try posting again before the new year.
I don't like how the XBox 360 sounds like a jet engine when you turn it on. I don't like traffic and being on the road to my job for two hours of my day. It's a waste of time. I don't like how my new refrigerator had a slow leak that damaged my hardwood floor. It pains me to see it. I don't like Sears and how I was transferred to ten different departments and twenty different people before I spoke to a competent person about fixing the damage done to my floors by their faulty refrigerator. I don't like the lazy and unfriendly people at the front desk who fail to impress me every time I speak with them. When I write my monthly HOA check I wonder where that money goes to. I don't like how that last statement makes me feel old. The prospect of aging too quickly scares me. I don't like my rotund belly. But I'm too lazy to remedy that for now. Woe is me.
I do like the sound that my television set makes when I turn it on. I do like the fact that I have a local project to work and exciting opportunities coming up. I do like that Sears replaced my refrigerator rather quickly and it appears progress is being made on getting my floor repaired. I like the fact that I have enough money to actually pay my HOA fees and am fortunate enough to live in San Francisco. I like that sometimes, I don't mind my rotund belly because it's true, I'm bringing Sexyback. Haha. jk. Rock on.
...
Four months of time is a good amount to be away so my apologies to those who still check my blog. A quick monthly rundown of what I've been up to for those interested:
June - I moved into my place but still haven't gotten to know the city as I want to. Soon enough, hopefully.
July - My cousin got married. Pretty crazy stuff but awesome.
August - My family went on a trip to Asia without me. I had to take another brief trip to Ohio. They were jealous.
September - Thanks to Rich and Rob for setting up that Niner-Rams game. That was an awesome game and fun times. We need to do it again. Raider game?
That's it for now. I will try posting again before the new year.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Silicon Valley
I know I'm a geek and I'm a proud Silicon Valley geek at that. I found this article interesting but you may find it boring. Can there be another Silicon Valley?
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
That's a Wrap
Rather than leave here tomorrow night (Thursday as I've done for the past 2 months) I've extended my stay until Friday morning. It'll allow me another 5 to 6 hours to work on stuff before my travel to Ohio comes to an end. Next week I begin a new project back in the Bay, in Santa Clara. I'm technically not finished with this project so I'll be juggling the two for the first couple of weeks.
I never gave my assessment of Cleveland and probably won't now. However, when I first heard that I wasn't sticking around here for another project, I was surprisingly a little bummed. Not because Ohio's all that great of a place but because of the opportunity to learn and join the rest of the team here in their project. But now that I see the end in sight I'm really looking forward to getting back home. Hopefully the opportunity to learn will be just as good.
Anyway, I'm pooped so I'm gonna get back to watching television and eating my room service.
I never gave my assessment of Cleveland and probably won't now. However, when I first heard that I wasn't sticking around here for another project, I was surprisingly a little bummed. Not because Ohio's all that great of a place but because of the opportunity to learn and join the rest of the team here in their project. But now that I see the end in sight I'm really looking forward to getting back home. Hopefully the opportunity to learn will be just as good.
Anyway, I'm pooped so I'm gonna get back to watching television and eating my room service.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
It's Here!
I get excited over the stupidest shit but it's here finally: Google Calendar. It's still in beta and I just signed up but if you have a Google account or gmail and want to share your calendar, let me know.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Akron, Ohio
I'm nearing the end of my first week here in Akron, OH so I thought I'd blog about it. I'm actually staying in Cuyahoga Falls (pronounced kaiyah-hog-uh... I thought it was kuya-hoe-ga) which is just outside of Akron, I believe. Unless you're dedicated to travel or just happen to be a lucky winner of a trip to here, I don't envision many of you traveling to this part of the United States. So to save you a trip, here's the lowdown...
Akron is about 40 miles south of Cleveland. You might think of it as San Jose to San Francisco, since Cleveland is on the water of Lake Erie. But don't think of it that way. I'd just like to say that I'm lucky to be living in the Bay Area. Not that it isn't nice here. It's just different.
On Sunday I flew into Cleveland and drove directly to my hotel. The drive wasn't too bad. Not many cars. I actually drove on the 80 at one point. That's right, the same one we take to Lake Tahoe on the weekends - the one that goes from Sacramento to Ocean City, Maryland (tangent: what if I commuted to here from home. Haha. That would be a long ass drive). It was night time during the drive so I couldn't see much and just left it at that.
The weather has been a little weird. On Monday it ranged from high 60s to low 30s. That's a pretty big difference in my opinion. But it was nice during the day and I didn't do too much at night. In fact, I haven't done too many evening activities so I can't really say much with regards to the night life. So sorry if that's what you're looking for.
On Tuesday I had dinner with a couple of members from my team: our team lead from Scotland, a Romanian woman I originally thought was a light-skinned Indian, and an Indian woman who has a 36 letter last name (there's a hyphen in there somewhere, probably to break it up to catch your breath. Imagine 36 letters: 123456789012345678-01234567890123456). Another member of the team is from the UK as well and a white guy and myself make up the Americans. And we as a team make up the diversity in one of the five-story buildings.
Building off of the diversity topic: Friday was my first real exploration of the surrounding areas. An exit away from our hotel is a small mall (think Vallco or even that one off of Saratoga). Outside was this sprawling parking lot that, were we in the Bay Area, I would expect to be bussling with cars. This one was not. I went inside and found them - all the minorities who were hiding. But when I say minorities, I mean those of African descent. And then the white dude who thinks he's of African descent and believe me - there's a retarded amount of those. Anyhow, I haven't really been to a mall on a Friday evening in a while so maybe this is how they look in the Bay Area nowadays but just imagine this small ass mall with youngens of African descent all hovering around the various jewelry kiosks peppered throughout the mall. They were shopping for "bling" (as I'm told it is now called). And I found that immensely interesting for some reason. After spending 50+ hours in 90% white bread buildings, here's the forgotten wheat bread (across the highway from my hotel is a "Schwebels' Bread and Buns" Factory).
Anyhow, I left it at that and spent the rest of my evening at my hotel. Exciting Friday night, huh. So the week's assessment thus far: weather was weird but colder than I'm used to. It snowed a couple of inches overnight on Wednesday, enough so I had to clean off my car, but had melted by the time I left work so you wouldn't have even known it snowed. Akron seems kind of like a city thats down on it's luck, but I've really only seen the surrounding areas of our client's (popular tire company) buildings. And even some of their buildings look abandoned with walls made of brick and glass shattered here and there. It's strange coming from companies in the Silicon Valley where cafeterias are catered by professional chefs with wide varieties of food and the break rooms are filled with free coffee and tea. Coffee here is $0.15 ($0.50 for the good stuff) and variety equals Make-Your-Own-Omelet-Thursdays (it's not really called that but that was the special for that day).
I'm gonna end this blog at that. More to come on Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Cleveland, which I plan to visit tomorrow.
Akron is about 40 miles south of Cleveland. You might think of it as San Jose to San Francisco, since Cleveland is on the water of Lake Erie. But don't think of it that way. I'd just like to say that I'm lucky to be living in the Bay Area. Not that it isn't nice here. It's just different.
On Sunday I flew into Cleveland and drove directly to my hotel. The drive wasn't too bad. Not many cars. I actually drove on the 80 at one point. That's right, the same one we take to Lake Tahoe on the weekends - the one that goes from Sacramento to Ocean City, Maryland (tangent: what if I commuted to here from home. Haha. That would be a long ass drive). It was night time during the drive so I couldn't see much and just left it at that.
The weather has been a little weird. On Monday it ranged from high 60s to low 30s. That's a pretty big difference in my opinion. But it was nice during the day and I didn't do too much at night. In fact, I haven't done too many evening activities so I can't really say much with regards to the night life. So sorry if that's what you're looking for.
On Tuesday I had dinner with a couple of members from my team: our team lead from Scotland, a Romanian woman I originally thought was a light-skinned Indian, and an Indian woman who has a 36 letter last name (there's a hyphen in there somewhere, probably to break it up to catch your breath. Imagine 36 letters: 123456789012345678-01234567890123456). Another member of the team is from the UK as well and a white guy and myself make up the Americans. And we as a team make up the diversity in one of the five-story buildings.
Building off of the diversity topic: Friday was my first real exploration of the surrounding areas. An exit away from our hotel is a small mall (think Vallco or even that one off of Saratoga). Outside was this sprawling parking lot that, were we in the Bay Area, I would expect to be bussling with cars. This one was not. I went inside and found them - all the minorities who were hiding. But when I say minorities, I mean those of African descent. And then the white dude who thinks he's of African descent and believe me - there's a retarded amount of those. Anyhow, I haven't really been to a mall on a Friday evening in a while so maybe this is how they look in the Bay Area nowadays but just imagine this small ass mall with youngens of African descent all hovering around the various jewelry kiosks peppered throughout the mall. They were shopping for "bling" (as I'm told it is now called). And I found that immensely interesting for some reason. After spending 50+ hours in 90% white bread buildings, here's the forgotten wheat bread (across the highway from my hotel is a "Schwebels' Bread and Buns" Factory).
Anyhow, I left it at that and spent the rest of my evening at my hotel. Exciting Friday night, huh. So the week's assessment thus far: weather was weird but colder than I'm used to. It snowed a couple of inches overnight on Wednesday, enough so I had to clean off my car, but had melted by the time I left work so you wouldn't have even known it snowed. Akron seems kind of like a city thats down on it's luck, but I've really only seen the surrounding areas of our client's (popular tire company) buildings. And even some of their buildings look abandoned with walls made of brick and glass shattered here and there. It's strange coming from companies in the Silicon Valley where cafeterias are catered by professional chefs with wide varieties of food and the break rooms are filled with free coffee and tea. Coffee here is $0.15 ($0.50 for the good stuff) and variety equals Make-Your-Own-Omelet-Thursdays (it's not really called that but that was the special for that day).
I'm gonna end this blog at that. More to come on Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Cleveland, which I plan to visit tomorrow.
Monday, March 6, 2006
Cleveland Rocks?
I guess I'll be finding out over the next two months. This Sunday I'll be flying out to Cleveland, Ohio and working in Akron (looks like a little less than an hours drive away). Doesn't sound like the most exciting city to travel to for work but it's what pays the bills, right?
Thursday, March 2, 2006
Random Thought
Where do ice cream trucks go in the winter?
I was just wondering because we live right by a park and during the summer, without fail, you'll hear the songs of an ice cream truck every day. I haven't heard them in awhile. Do they migrate south for the winter like birds? Are ice cream truck drivers nomads?
I wonder how lucrative such a business is. I remember in grade school we'd sell ice cream on Fridays, similar to ones you'd find on an ice cream truck. I was privy to the accounting information and knew that it cost like ten cents per ice cream but we sold it for fifty cents. Haha. I remember some days there would be a batch of melted ones and we usually just threw those out. Being the shrewd business man I am, I suggested we sell them for 25 cents each. We'd still make a profit. Ahhh. The cutthroat world of an ice cream salesman.
I was just wondering because we live right by a park and during the summer, without fail, you'll hear the songs of an ice cream truck every day. I haven't heard them in awhile. Do they migrate south for the winter like birds? Are ice cream truck drivers nomads?
I wonder how lucrative such a business is. I remember in grade school we'd sell ice cream on Fridays, similar to ones you'd find on an ice cream truck. I was privy to the accounting information and knew that it cost like ten cents per ice cream but we sold it for fifty cents. Haha. I remember some days there would be a batch of melted ones and we usually just threw those out. Being the shrewd business man I am, I suggested we sell them for 25 cents each. We'd still make a profit. Ahhh. The cutthroat world of an ice cream salesman.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Cheap Communication
You know what's pretty cool in my book? The Internet. What's great about it, besides the fact that I can waste an obscene amount of time doing nothing (like this blog), is that it's a great tool for work. Actually, without it, I wouldn't be able to work from home.
One subset of that tool, VOIP, has proven to be a great money-saver. If you've used Skype then you know what I'm talking about. The idea of using your computer as a phone never really appealed to me because a real phone just seemed more practical. But now using something like Yahoo! Messenger is almost a necessity for the particular project I'm working on. I'm working with another programmer based in the UK. Going over code sometimes takes hours. What's great about it, too, is that it's an instant messenger so he can send me code snippets for more clarification whenever we go over something.
I know I could use AIM to do the same thing but it's not as prevalent outside of the US. There's also Google Talk which I wouldn't mind using but it's feature set isn't as robust (but the Google Talk integrated with Gmail is pretty cool).
Going off on a tangent - I can't wait for Google to release a Calendar program that would integrate with Gmail. I was starting to use my Microsoft Outlook more and I still do, but synching up my desktop and laptop isn't an easy task.
And I'll stop with the geekiness now. Just thought I'd share.
One subset of that tool, VOIP, has proven to be a great money-saver. If you've used Skype then you know what I'm talking about. The idea of using your computer as a phone never really appealed to me because a real phone just seemed more practical. But now using something like Yahoo! Messenger is almost a necessity for the particular project I'm working on. I'm working with another programmer based in the UK. Going over code sometimes takes hours. What's great about it, too, is that it's an instant messenger so he can send me code snippets for more clarification whenever we go over something.
I know I could use AIM to do the same thing but it's not as prevalent outside of the US. There's also Google Talk which I wouldn't mind using but it's feature set isn't as robust (but the Google Talk integrated with Gmail is pretty cool).
Going off on a tangent - I can't wait for Google to release a Calendar program that would integrate with Gmail. I was starting to use my Microsoft Outlook more and I still do, but synching up my desktop and laptop isn't an easy task.
And I'll stop with the geekiness now. Just thought I'd share.
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Employed!
A strange thing happened yesterday. I joined a company payroll.
The whole process has been pretty sudden. Over the last week or two I've been in contact with a consulting firm looking to bring on some more resources. My cousin-in-law recommended me to this position and with his endorsement I was able to get an initial phone interview as well as a technical interview. Total phone interview time? Thirty minutes. Total interview time in person? Zero minutes. Employment offers? One.
I'm not complaining, though. It seems like a great chance to learn a lot and I'm really looking forward to this opportunity. When I was younger I knew I wanted to be rich. It might take me ten years but at least I'm making my first steps. Haha.
The whole process has been pretty sudden. Over the last week or two I've been in contact with a consulting firm looking to bring on some more resources. My cousin-in-law recommended me to this position and with his endorsement I was able to get an initial phone interview as well as a technical interview. Total phone interview time? Thirty minutes. Total interview time in person? Zero minutes. Employment offers? One.
I'm not complaining, though. It seems like a great chance to learn a lot and I'm really looking forward to this opportunity. When I was younger I knew I wanted to be rich. It might take me ten years but at least I'm making my first steps. Haha.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)