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BirthDAY2 (4/23/13)

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:24:00 -0700

Disneyland has almost become a bi-annual thing for us. I love this place.

In between all the fun and lines we left to eat Brodards. Everyone keeps talking about this place but I’m like “the spring rolls can’t be THAT good?. They all use basically the same ingredients.” The spring rolls itself were as good as any others but its the sauce. Its probably laced with crack.

We always catch the world of color. I think its one of the most amazing things my eyes have ever laid eyes on.

Funny side note: Earlier that day we went on that Ferris wheel. You have the option of going on the regular ferris wheel section that just goes around or going on the section that slides/swings. We went on the swinging one and Maria was freaking out. I have video of her screaming but she’s embarrassed by her valley girl voice. I’m sure she would be upset with me for posting.

BirthDAY1 (4/22/13)

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:04:00 -0700

Im officially a quarter century old. Man, where has the time gone? I always hated celebrating my birthday. Growing up, I never celebrated with my friends. I went to school in alameda but lived in Newark; my parents didnt want other people knowing I was in a school district I shouldn’t have been in. I always had the option of having birthdays in Alameda but I was afraid no one would show up. Stupid younger Andrew…

My birthday started off with a mini getaway to LA/SD with my lady friend. I love when we travel. We just eat at all these different spots and I get to shoot while she instagrams her food.

We started off with Roscoes. I’m not really a fan of fried chicken or waffles, so the combination of the two just didnt appeal to me. But Maria insisted I try it. Verdict: Not bad. I’d go back for the mac and cheese. We headed to Milk. We all know this was her idea cause I have no sweet tooth at all. I got a strawberry shortcake Popsicle thing and she got a thai tea ice cream sandwich? Sounds weird right? She loves what I gets, finishes it, and dumps her ice cream. I’m pretty sure this was taken right after she took a bite of the strawberry shortcake. Pure unadulterated joy. LOL

Last year Maria surprised me with the 500 days of summer bench. This year was the venice canals. The canals are a nice little hidden gem in LA. You don’t think of LA when you think of this place. Its a great place to take pictures and go for a leisurely stroll.

My favorite subject :)

Near our parking spot was all these little sayings on the sidewalk. The beauty is in its simplicity.

To end the night we met up with Brian for dinner and dessert.

Next up…Disneyland!

New York Day 2/3/4 (4/12/13)

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:59:47 -0700

We tried cramming too much in such a short time so I don’t remember the timeline of everything we did (resulting in a photo blog), but I do know that New York is a beautiful place with amazing food!

NY Day 1 (4/10/13)

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:44:00 -0700

For Maria’s spring break we planned on going to New York. We had time last summer but didn’t want to go when it was too hot. We assumed that this would be the perfect time. Of course, its still freezing there and Boston was hit with a huge storm. The combination of Boston snow storm + Spring Break made for some added stress. Due to the snow storms, everyone who had plans to fly to Boston, flew to New York instead. Since we fly standby that meant that all of our seats were being taken. The following is our constant flight changes leading up to our flight:

Oakland to New York

Oakland to Long Beach to New York

Oakland to Long Beach to Boston to New York

Sacramento to Long Beach to New York

SF to Fort Lauderdale to New York

SF to Boston to New York

Progressively, each flight was filling up.Our best bet was to catch the 6am flight out of SFO to Boston. We needed 4 people to miss their flights for us to get on. Flying standby is incredibly stressful. Its the price you pay when you don’t have to pay for flights. I imagine its equivalent to being waitlisted for a class which you need in order to graduate? I would’ve felt terrible if I couldn’t take Maria to NY for her Spring Break. Thank goodness those 4 people missed it. Hopefully they missed it due to not setting their alarms.

12 hours later we finally land in NY. Its like 20 degrees and I’m wearing basketball shorts. The New Yorkers we’re probably thinking “look at this stupid californian thinking he can just wear shorts anywhere.” One of the flight attendants we met on the plane showed us how to navigate the subways and trains etc. We head on over to our host’s apartment.

I highly recommend anyone who travels to check out Airbnb.com for a host instead of going to a hotel. Its a great experience plus It is way cheaper ($60/night!) and you could meet someone really cool! Our host Ryosuke was really friendly. He never got in our way and answered any questions we had. Unfortunately his directions were a little off and we had to walk a whole bunch with our luggage in the shitty neighborhood of Harlem. We were both pretty scared lol. We finally get to our room. Its really small but as long as we have a place to sleep thats all we really cared about.

It was about 10 PM and we were pretty hungry. Our first destination was Pie Face. They serve assorted individual pot pies. It was very comforting in the cold weather. I loved every bite of it!

Its around midnight when we get back. We immediately knock out. It was a mega deluxe long day but I go to sleep as happy as those faces on the pies that I’m in New York with my lady.

Peace out, Safeway (3/20/13)

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

I have a bunch of Dwights on my team. From an outsiders view it would seem hilarious at how ridiculous they can be but from my view, its like “what is going through their heads?!?!” As my time is ending, you realize that those antics you hated will be what you miss most. Sort of.

It was a strange feeling packing up my belongings. Is this what retiring feels like? If so, I can’t wait!

I’ve had tolerable days and miserable ones here but I’ve made some great friends. We’ll see what the world has in store for me next.

Off to New York I go!

3/14/13

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Terrific Lady Weekend (2/24/13)

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:51:00 -0800

I really enjoy Valentines day. I hate that whole “If you love someone you don’t need a day to show it” garbage. I wrote this last valentines and I’ll write it again. You should be happy that you’re living everyday, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate your birthday. I never hear people say “I don’t need mothers/fathers day to show my parents that I love them” Its just a day to do a little more.

We had planned on spending our Valentines day on Friday since she gets out of class at 6 and wouldn’t be in Newark till around 7:30. So her assumption was that we would just grab a quick bite and catch up on our shows. Little did she know, I had planned a surprise dinner for her. I made prime rib with mashed cauliflower and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Who needs Alex Steakhouse or House of Prime Rib when you have Chef Boy R Yee! The plan was for her to get here and have the food ready but the prime rib took wayyyy longer than I had expected. I’ve never made prime rib before so I was super nervous but it came out good! She was still surprised nonetheless.

After dinner, I gave her the chocolates, little snacks, and the card I made. When she opened it, a whole list of reasons why I love her opens up. She teared up a bit. Tears of happiness, I presume.

She made me an adventure box.I love homemade gifts. I use to really hate them growing up. I use to associate homemade gifts with not caring as much. Stupid younger me.

Our day started off with Brunch at Outerlands. They’re famous for their grilled cheese. The wait was ridiculous. But I know she really wanted to eat there so we waited. Its a nice little cafe that uses all local/homegrown ingredients. I had the fried egg and bacon open sandwich. #asianstakingpicturesoffood. It was well worth the wait.

When they brought the plates over, I was like “this is not gonna fill me up!” Surprisingly, it filled me up for the majority of the day. After Brunch we headed over to the Walt Disney Museum. I never even knew this placed existed. Its super cool but I wouldn’t recommend taking kids. Its a lot of reading and nothing too interactive.

While driving to the Museum she saw the palace of fine arts. She’s never been so we headed there after. I have terrible posture.

Because it took us forever to get seated at brunch everything else I had planned got pushed back. We decided to just head back home before all the traffic and relax before our fondue reservations. But before I left I had to get her the Creme Brulee from that cart she loves. We couldn’t find parking for the life of us so I just drove around the block while she got out and grabbed it. Look how happy she is to have her dessert.

Our fondue reservations weren’t until 10. But because brunch was so cheesy she wasn’t really feeling it so we canceled that and headed to our new favorite spot - little sheep hot pot. I was relieved cause I don’t think I would get much out of fondue with all that chocolate nonsense. It was a nice end to our day. I hope you enjoyed your weekend :)

2/24/13

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:35:00 -0800

I was on reddit and came across these. They’re Calvin and Hobbes photoshopped into real life! I use to love this comic growing up.

2/23/13

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 01:07:16 -0800

My Friday night was super random. Last week a rock hit my windshield and left this huge crack in the front. I have a appointment to get it fixed tomorrow. My parents always tell me to clean my car out before I take it to get my car worked on to prevent anybody from stealing anything. My bike is in the way so I move it out of the garage and my neighbor walks by and says “sweet langster you got there. I didnt know you ride?” He says that he is about to go on a night ride and invited me. I thought this was super random since we hardly ever speak. Up to this point the only interaction we had was seeing each other every morning at 6:15 when we leave for work. He’ll hold his tumbler up to me and say “one day closer to the weekend…” Since my plans with JooMee didn’t fall through (thanks Adrian), I figure why not. I assume it would be a quick ride seeing as he is in his mid 40’s and would want to spend some time with his wife and kids. We ended up biking for about 2 hours all over Fremont. It was one of the most random fun things I’ve done in a while. It was really nice to bike again. It reminded me of Davis when I had the luxury of being a irresponsible person. I hope to bike with him again soon.

Darwin invited me out to Saddlerack with some other peeps from Davis but I was pretty beat from the ride so I passed. Plus that crew is super clique-y and I never really hit it off with them. I was in the mood to just lay around and watch a movie. I’m scrolling through Netflix and they have all these random shitty recommendations thanks to my dad. He really loves Tyler Perry movies so they recommended me all these black movies like Stomp the Yard The homecoming, How to be a player, and N-secure lol. That last one makes me laugh.

I see this movie called The Giant Mechanical Man. I see Jenna Fischer (Pam from the office) and automatically click it. I really liked the movie. I know what you’re thinking. “What a shocker, Andrew liking a indie film?!” lol. Its about Pam who’s down on her luck and this guy who is a giant robot street performer struggling to pay the bills. It can be slow at times. I was playing Candy Crush until the street performer was being interviewed on tv. The anchor asked him “why’d you choose this robot thing?” or something along those lines. He responds with:

“Why did I choose to do it? It just happens to be my talent. I guess, I feel like modern life can be alienating and it can be like you’re mindlessly walking through it like a robot; and you can feel lost. I guess I just want people who are watching right now to know that you’re not crazy. Life is crazy right? Maybe if you see a giant mechanical man on the street maybe it can put it in perspective”

I dunno, that quote really just resonated with me.

Happy Friday!

2/1/13

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

CPC’s are commonly promoted codes. They help me enter like items into our ancient system. Sometimes items don’t have CPCS. Those without CPC’s are stand alones or “orphan items”. My mundane task for the time being is to attach CPCS to these stand alones. I open the excel file expecting maybe 100 items max? The file takes a while to load so I get scared. 3457 items!! This will take me all week. This task is in no means hard at all. It is just incredibly mind numbing.

I come across an item called carcovia peppers. I thought about Tom Hanks in the terminal. He came from Krakozhia.

Ever since my coworker gave me scratchers for Christmas, I’ve been buying them with whatever change I have. I pass the Employee store, on my way to pick up my paycheck, spend 2 bucks, and then go back to my desk to deposit my check. Shortly after, I take my keys and scratch away. I never win. Maybe one day. Scratching those Monopoly squares is sadly the highlight of my work day.

TGIF

1/29/13

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Is ignorance bliss? I dunno. What I do know is, I want to un-know what I know and I wish I had found out differently.

Where’s Agent J when you need him.

Happy Birthday Grandmama!

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:44:00 -0800

Happy Birthday Grandmama!

Happy Belated, New Year (1/14/13)

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:50:00 -0800

Happy New Years to my 10 readers! I’m a little late but oh well. I don’t know how many of you still check this. Aside from a few youtube clips and MP3’s my presence on here has been nonexistent the past few months.

I think last year I set a lot of unattainable resolutions for myself. This year I’ll try and keep it realistic.

I don’t like when people knock others for making new years resolutions. Yeah you can start changing any time you want but that first day of the year is a great starting point. Its like starting a new quarter with straight A’s.

My resolutions in no particular order:

1) Say happy birthday to people on facebook - I’ve always appreciated a nice birthday greeting even if it just says “happy birthday”. It makes me happy knowing that someone who you may or may not keep in touch with took time out of their day to wish you a happy birthday. I will try and wish people a happy birthday on their special day and hope that it brings them just an ounce of joy.

2) Nap less - I sometimes come home from work and knock out for hours. Like immediately. If I can cut these hibernating sessions to 20-30 minutes, I’ll be happy.

3) Get a new job - There is this huge calender I stare at every day at work. I kept telling my co worker “I’ll be out of here by week 28”. Later that got changed to week 34. That led to “after thanksgiving”. Then that led to “ok fine, after christmas”. Its such a nuisance to stare at a computer for 8 hours and then come home and stare at it some more. I just want to come home and maybe go to happy hour or I dunno…relax?! In due time…

4) Blog more - I said this last year. I will say it again. At least once a week?

5) Shoot more - See #4

6) Improve my Cantonese - I’ve been visiting my grandma a lot more now ever since her illness and the language barrier breaks my heart. I use to be a lot better growing up when I saw her almost everyday. Now I can just carry a basic conversation with her. If we’re ever talking about something deep and meaningful I don’t want to always have to have my mom relay the message. So far I’ve been watching Chinese dramas on my moms Ipad. Its going reallllllly slow but it’ll get there.

Thats all I could think of right now. Mine are pretty simple this year. I think, as long as I’m better than the year before then I’ll be happy.

I was indifferent about 2012. There was a lot of good, some bad, and little mediocre sprinkled in there. But 2013 will be my year.

“You’re wonderful, flawless, ooh you’re a sexy...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:23:00 -0800

“You’re wonderful, flawless, ooh you’re a sexy lady…”

I love the old school feel of this song. What a talented man he is.

12/26/12

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Circa 2011. Look how adorable she is lol. I love this lady! Glad I got to spend another Christmas with her.

you've burned your breakfast so far, things are going great (11/27/12)

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Tonight Ammo called me to use my printer. He use to do that a lot but then he got his printer fixed. I guess he was out of ink this time. We caught up playing horse on my mini nerf hoop while his 100 pages were printing. It reminded me of my Ohlone days when he would come over and we would just watch The Office or Scrubs till midnight, grab some taquitos from 7-11, and come back for another hour or so of tv.

I don’t see Ammo a lot. Or my other friends. I miss my friends. On weekends I usually spend all my time with Maria(which I totally love) and with my grandma. On the weekdays I work, work out, and watch the Warriors (the 3 W’s). I think a lot of my friends know this so I don’t get a lot of phone calls from them anymore. Mostly texts. If you check my call log its all Maria with the exception of 1 or 2 from my mom. She hasn’t mastered texting yet. When she wants to let me know what soups they’re offering at work, she’ll call me and tell me the soup list so she can bring them home for me.

After Thanksgiving I always set my general ringtone to Jingle Bell Rock but since my friends just shoot me a text I usually never get to hear it, so it was nice to get a call from Ammo…and to hear that ringtone lol. It was really good seeing him again. As for my other friends, I will see you all soon. But just because I dont see you, doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about you. I love you all!

Moral of this post: Christmas is right around the corner

11/24/12

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH…. I just threw up on my computer screen, this dunk was NASTY!

They’re not as aesthetically pleasing as years past but they’re winning. Cant wait for Bogut to come back!

11/22/12

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The greatest thing in life is family.

Hope everyone got to spend Thanksgiving with their loved ones! I am so blessed to be able to spend it with my family. I can always count on mine. We love you grandma! <3

10/30/12

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

I cant stop watching this. He has a Barry White voice and a Jesus looking thing that everyone loves.

10/19/12

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

“Argo Fuck yourself”

Go see this now.