Blue Marble

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam." - Carl Sagan

I suppose this is kind of a weird blog but I'm sitting here at home watching Cosmic Voyage on one of the channels I have and it reminded me of that quote above and I thought it was amazing. I know, I know. It sounds like I should be high, right? Cosmic Voyage? I mean, come on. But I'm not. Anyway, then it reminded me of this video which I thought was crazy (great music and all)...



And then! In the Cosmic Voyage I think they did a remake of the "Powers of 10" video (I think Jeff may have showed me that one) but this time Morgan Freeman was narrating. So I looked for it and here it is (the new version)...



And for some reason, I just think it's freakin' amazing. I guess it's sorta geeky and you may find no interest in it at all but I think it's kind of profound, especially when you think about it as Carl Sagan put it. I started to put it in the perspective of what's going on in the world and it makes you think. Interesting stuff, in my opinion.

2006 Year in Review, Part 2

I thought this might happen... I wouldn't follow up my previous blog with what I said I would. Ah well... Here's some quick hits:

Work
It's been an interesting year for work -- pretty much my first real work since graduating. I worked for four different clients, worked in three different cities, and actually didn't mind it too much. In all, it brought me out to Cleveland (Akron), Seattle quite briefly, and Santa Clara (haha, which probably doesn't count as a different city). But it also took me out to Las Vegas for a conference, and Irvine for our headquarters. I hope there will be other nice places to visit soon. Which brings us to...

Travel
On the Boeing 737-800, you typically do not want to be in the 29th row since it sits directly across from the restrooms. A broken door that doesn't allow it to fully close when unoccupied can be brutal. Luckily I was able to move. However, on a 737-700 there's only 25 rows in economy class, and the only time you want to be in either seat B or E (which are typically middle seats) is when you're in row 12. In lucky row number 12, it's an exit row and there is no window seat. So the middle seat pretty much becomes a combination of a window and an aisle. It's pretty nice. The row after it, 14 (there are no row 13's in planes), is also sorta nice if you get the window seat because there is no seat in front of you.

These are things I learned during my various trips while away on business. Continental Airlines has a fan in me. Since February I've accumulated a little over 110,000 miles with them. Of course, not all of those are actual miles I've traveled, but I think it's a cool little statistic. It's sort of sad that the biggest thing I looked forward to when traveling to Ohio was reaching various mileage milestones. 50,000 took a while, but after that it was pretty quick.

Friends
My friends seem happy, and that's always a good thing.

Family
My cousin got married and that was pretty awesome.

Life
Life is pretty good right now. I'm "working" from home which is never really a good thing because of my ADD, but it's ok. Work hasn't gotten mad yet.

Future
Who knows what the future will bring? Alls I knows is that this blog will come to an end. Now.

I know. It was a half-assed effort but I have to get back to "working".

2006 Year in Review, Part 1

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...

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.

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.

One more thing

Oh, and Jeff, I miss you, too. There, I said it. Hahaha. Just jokin'.

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.