I've been in my annual 'lets prep for the new year' mode. Instead of starting my new years resolutions on the cold turkey tip I'm trying to start early and ease into my new habits. Some of the things on my early new years resolution list is eating clean foods. Clean meaning not as many processed foods (ie; whole grain or whole wheat bread vs white bread. Lean chicken vs hamburger meat.) I'm also going to cut way down on the french fry intake. They're my weakness, I swear. I've never had a sweet tooth, but tempt me with a side a fries and I'm a big sucker.
Another one of my goals is to try to become more financially and spiritually fit. I know that grouping these two subjects in itself is un-spiritual, but hey finances are part of achieving peace of mind. As far as my personal finances are concerned I've made some big decisions in my career and I hope those decisions start to pay off by Spring. I've started to plan out what I need to do with my money and how I can start preparing for spending my money on the important things. If this means less nights out, less restaurants, less weekend trips, then so be it. Saving is simple math and I've never been good at math. Luckily I've always been good at planning and organizing.
Talking or listening to people talk about spirituality has always seemed dubious to me. I will say though, that I achieve a greater peace of mind when I'm healthy, financially fit, balancing my time spent with family, friends and work. I want a greater sense of tying my faith to the outcomes of those facets of my life. How will I achieve that? No idea. Sometimes I wish I subscribed to Jesus Christ so that I could have it all laid out for me by a preacher or the bible. Unfortunately I didn't really grow up in the church like that. This is not to say that I don't enjoy attending a sermon or mass or being in a church. I do that every now and then, and I enjoy it. I just pray in my own way and look at the stained glass montages of Jesus and those kinds of things as "historical". Where was I? Ah yes, but I do feel a spiritual connection to a greater force or something (God?) when I do simple things like stand upon a mountain top. When I sit on a surfboard and watch the sunset. When I abide by the subtle laws of good karma and have a great month. Or when I feel extreme love or such a great bond with my family that the sum of all of us together creates something so much stronger that its surpassed into another stronger force. Is that part of spirituality? I dunno. But its powerful and it gives me faith and it makes me thankful and it lets me know that there is a plan for me and that I am just one small bit of a very grand, larger scale something. I want to learn to have more of those moments and use them in all realms of my life. I guess thats why I said getting 'spirituality fit', but who knows what its really called, maybe its just being more focused or being a better person, but either way I want to focus on doing that.
So on that note, here's an early Cheers to '08. And hey, if all of my plans fail, at least the Bush regime is over. Hallelujah!
The Craigslist of hi-tech job searches.
A place to learn new programs. Online training, CD-roms, timed lessons. This place is great and I'd be on here all day, learning new programs if it wasn't for their subscription fee.
They use dice.com for their resume portal, but the people who work there are really nice people and thats their best part about working with them. Their building in SF is one of a kind, set in an old historical building near the Panhandle. A nice alternative to the some of the firms in the FiDi.
Temporary, flexible gigs. Lots of stuff for students and webbies.
Supposedly they have a resume search feature. I haven't used my profile just yet, but according to all of my peers this is a must do for the industry.
Here are some oldies but goodies... The first pic is my buddy Lex (my cousins son)... the second pic is from my gramma's 80th bday earlier this year and lastly; a pic of the same crew of cousins (moms side) at my Tita Christine's Wedding.
1. How boring was the NBA Playoffs? My basketball season ended not much longer after this:
2. Kobe Bryant should get that trade he's begging for. As a matter of fact he should be traded to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett. He'll be in exactly the same predicament that he's in now, except its much colder in Minnesota, with far less celebrities sitting court side.
3. Red Sox fans suck. Badly. My sports political lines are drawn where Red Sox and Lakers fans stand. But, since the Lakers are going through some turmoil (smiling), I've chosen to focus my energy on the phenomenon that is Boston Red Sox fans in the Bay Area.
I would be willing to bet my left pinky toe that half of these bandwagoners weren't Red Sox fans before 2004. If there ever was a team following that redefined the term BANDWAGON, this would be them. In the neighborhood where I live there are dozens of people are sporting "B" hats. I think to myself, where did these people come from? Surely half of Massachusetts couldn't have moved to San Francisco. And, how do so many always end up at my beloved Oakland Colisium for A's vs Red Sox games? And why are they so obnoxious? And why do they all look the same?
Based on the fact that I've never EVER seen a non white Boston fan, you've got to think that the Boston team represents some type of cultural belonging for the squares who choose to join this cult. Is it a coincidence that they all wear their "B" hats the same way... with the dirtier the hat - the better look? Funny thing is that people call the Yankees the evil empire because of Steinbrener's willingness to shell out the dollars but if you look at the 2007 payroll ranking, they're right behind the Yanks in annual payroll.
Rank / Team / 2007 Payroll
| 1. NY Yankees | 195,229,045 |
| 2. Boston | 143,123,714 |
| 11. San Francisco | 90,469,056 |
| 16. Oakland | 79,938,369 |
Red Sox fans: You're the poor man's Yankees. Literally. You've won 1 World Series in the Liveball Era (A's have 8 championships). Your fanbase and city are homogenous and that in itself is questionable. Please, I beg you, put the fake Boston hats away.
Here's a couple of my favorite family pics from '07. The first one is of the dads side... everyone in this picture is a first cousin, sister, grandparent, auntie or uncle. The second pic is a couple of my Tita's from my moms side, representin' in Turkey. Mothers day coming up soon, more pics to come.
Long time no Vox. I have no idea what I did in April, but I guess I was too busy to blog. The buzz around town and amongst my own circle of friends right now is the Golden State Warriors. What they're doing is unbelievable. I'm getting that same feeling of excitement that I felt when the A's finally won a playoff series last year. Adding fuel to the fire is Charles Barkley's comments about GSW fans, the Bay Area, San Francisco, Oakland and Sauselito???? I try not to get too caught up in this, unlike many other GSW fans. I realize Charles doesn't really know whats gonna come out of his own mouth at any given time. Besides, whats to be upset about when the Warriors are about to pull off the biggest upset in NBA playoff history.
For lack of creative thinking and/or writers block, I'm listing some recent highlights, happenings and revelations in my life (in no particular order):
- No one really reads this blog except for my family and close friends... and this is exactly why I'm not on myspace.
- I'm convinced that Mila (the wonderdog) and I have our own language. When I tell her to go chase the birds, she squeals, when I pull out a frisbee she barks, when I run away from her she whines and then chases me. Silly dog.
- Sure San Francisco is diverse, but its also big time segregated.
- I picked 12 of the 16 teams in the Sweet 16 (NCAA basketball). This makes me a sports genius because my sister and coworkers only picked 11 of the 16 teams. Muahahaha!!!! ...Rookies. :-)
- Bobby Flay's chefography was really, REALLY inspiring and I think its because he dropped out of high school and then found a trade that he really liked and then became a really good chef and made food thats the style that I really like and then he became a restaurateur and then he became rich and then he married an actress. But most importantly, he did all of this simply by making good food. I guess this resonates with me because I realize how lucky some people are to really enjoy what they do and make money doing it. Damn you people!
The past 5 months have been some of the most hectic times that I can remember. I feel like I've kind of fallen off of the normal track that I've been on. I haven't really been eating good, working out, saving money or planning anything eventful that I can look forward to. It's not really the way that I wanted to start off '07, but I'm hoping to get back into my regular mode this Spring.
The good news though, is that all of my family and friends are doing well, my dad is getting better each day. Bad news, I eat too much junk food and Dwayne Wade dislocated his shoulder. Anyhow, I think I forgot what it was that I was trying to write about in this blog entry. Perhaps it was just a reminder to myself that things are good and will continue to get better with hard work.
Unrelated, this is my dog's favorite song:
And... 2 pics from Maki's visit from Japan, Some fat guy and KK, Chewy's Bday:
