me.

ok, let’s just get it over with, point and laugh at me and call me an idiot. go ahead. get it out of your system.

there.

feel better?

good. now i can tell you why i deserve such ridicule and mockery.

i got a flat tire back in october of 2003. yup, 9 months ago. 270 days ago. 6,480 hours ago. 388,800 minutes ago. and more seconds than i care to think about. given that, you would think it would have been ample time to replace the flat tire that i had so that i had a functional spare, right?

yeah….uhhhh, one would think.

but, of course, i am an idiot and i didn’t. so needless to say that when one of my tires blew out yesterday the first thought that came to my head was, “uh oh. i’m in trouble now.” and so came the call to AAA. my mom told me a long time ago that it was always better safe than sorry to have AAA membership because you never know when you might need help on the road. sure, sure, mom…whatever. so i kept paying my membership dues and i got the free maps and it was all good, but a waste of money, i thought.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0725/IMG_0003.jpg&title=towed][/url]

until yesterday.

so AAA sent over a tow truck and once the tow truck guy came, he asked me, don’t have a spare? and so i told him that the spare was flat too. and he looked at me and started to give me grief about that.

“so you thought that you could just drive around and nothing bad could ever happen to you? that you were somehow blessed by the driving gods and exempt from some kind of accident?”

at this point i had already felt pretty stupid and pretty bad about myself that his reaction was a bit of a surprise to me.

“well, it’s because of people like me that you have a job, right?” i replied with a grin and he laughed and agreed and after that we got along fabulously.

the tow truck man took me to walmart where they do tire servicing and dropped me off. on our drive over to walmart, we talked about all sorts of things including the tendency for second and third generation immigrants to reject their heritage and try to become more americanized. he was relating how there was a strong tendency to do that in his generation because there was a stigma to speak spanish openly where he grew up because it meant that you were a lesser class citizen.

he also told me about how he took a japanese class and was learning the language. he said that it was to broaden his horizons. imagine that. a 50 year old hispanic man taking a japanese class to broaden his horizons. that is pretty cool. definitely not something one would expect.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0725/IMG_7313.jpg&title=uh+oh][/url]

i don’t think tires are supposed to look like this.

but now my car has four new tires and all is well…my spare is also a functional spare.

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courtesy of of the folks over at [url=http://www.ckdesigns.com/vb/]ckdesigns.com[/url]:

[url=http://www.ckdesigns.com/vb/gallery/shindig/pages/Img6899.htm][/url]

that was my first doubles volleyball tournament of the summer with greg. i guess i must have been out of position if i had to jump that far…

after much anticipation, penny has finally arrived and is staying with me. when i had first heard word of her arrival i constatntly checked to make sure everything was ready for her. and now that she is here, all seems well with the world.
Continue reading penny has come! →

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0705/IMG_7087.jpg&title=bike+upgrade][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0705/IMG_7088.jpg&title=bike+upgrade][/url]

[url=http://jimmy.ocliw.com]jimmy[/url] came over to my place yesterday to help me swap out my stem and handlebar with a new one that i ordered a few weeks ago. the new stem is significanty longer than my old one and the new handlebar is flat instead of curved. i’m going to try to sell the stock stem and handlebar (if anyone’s interested shoot me an email!) but i hear that i probably won’t be able to get much for it. oh well.

but the riding position has changed quite a bit because of the new stem and handlebar. it’s kind of weird now, but i think that i like it. so the next test will be to go out biking somewhere and see how it goes. perhaps i will go biking next week and start picking up my weekday bike rides again.

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downtown san jose plays host to a pretty amazing fireworks display every fourth of july. this year i decided to go check out the fireworks at the last minute. the local public transportation runs free today so instead of driving into the mess that is downtown san jose, i decided to go check it out via public transportation.

getting there wasn’t too bad. they had extra buses and light rail trains running straight to downtown.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0705/IMG_7114.jpg&title=fireworks][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0705/IMG_7122.jpg&title=fireworks][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0705/IMG_7130.jpg&title=fireworks][/url]

the fireworks themselves was great as always, but i was trying to find some position where it would be ideal to take pictures in. once the fireworks started, i moved away from the crowds and the lights until i could set up and take pictures. there was this guy who was taking pictures about a block away from me and then he noticed me moving to my spot. after i had set up and started taking pictures, he moved over to where i was standing and then started taking pictures really close to me.

trying not to be unfriendly, i said hello to him and smiled. he looked through me…not at me…and then ignored me! grrrrrr. first STEAL my shot, then be unfriendly to me! now that is seriously uncool.

but oh well, i got a few nice pictures from the evening, so it was all worth it.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0705/IMG_7203.jpg&title=fireworks][/url]

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i went to the [url=http://www.netflix.com]netflix[/url] campus yesterday to participate in survey. netflix had contacted me, seemingly randomly to participate in a discussion about some new features that they will be adding. at first i was pretty caught up in it until i realized that not too many of my friends actually use netflix, so the value added to their service doesn’t really help me unless i get to know more people who use netflix.

the feature that they are adding is this friends tab to the site. basically what it will do is enable you to see what your friends thought of movies as well as recommend movies to your friends. it’s sort of nice to differentiate your friend’s opinions with just the general netflix population.

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i’m not sure if i should be frightened that i went to watch bring it on with some friends who enjoyed it as much as i did OR that i’m going to go watch bring it on with them again tonight.

OR should i be frightened that they made the cheerleading outfits modeled after the movie’s cheerleader outfits for us to wear while watching the movie?

should i be frightened?

…or profoundly happy?

i’m not sure.
Continue reading frightened? →

mike, paul, leeya and i went biking on canada road this sunday. the road is closed off and set aside just for bikers and rollerbladers so it was a nice opportunity to do some street biking. i’m actually surprised at the amount of street biking that i’m doing and i’m amazed at how much of a difference a pair of slicks will make. i’m very tempted to get another couple of wheels and tires for road biking. after riding paul’s bike with slicks, i noticed quite a big difference.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0607/IMG_6970.jpg&title=canada+road+biking][/url] i met up with the other three at mike’s house and we started to gather together all of our stuff. paul and i ended up biking while leeya and mike were blading. i wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to put everything into the back of paul’s car, but paul assured me that it would fit. and it did…just barely. we actually had to deflate my rear tire so that it would fit ever so snugly into the back of the station wagon. it was a tight fit, but everything did manage to fit in ok and we were headed off.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0607/IMG_6973.jpg&title=canada+road+biking][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0607/IMG_6974.jpg&title=canada+road+biking][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0607/IMG_6976.jpg&title=canada+road+biking][/url]

the trail itself is a 4 mile out and back line with rolling hills. it was pretty easy going for the most part, one of the easier trails i’ve gone on recently, but it was nice to be able to go out. we took a few breaks here and there. there were a few steep hills and mike was telling me that there were a few scary moments on his blades. i don’t know if i have it in me to blade anymore. i am definitely not comfortable enough to go on blades and big hills…just can’t do it.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0607/IMG_6978.jpg&title=canada+road+biking][/url]

i wear bike gloves when i ride and after this trip i happened to look down at my hands and saw tan lines! i remember telling [url=http://jimmy.ocliw.com]jimmy[/url] that i was afraid of getting tan lines when i go out and bike in the sun, but he reassured me that it would never happen. later in the evening, i was talking to a friend of mine and she told me that it looked like i had used the self-tanning lotion and had forgotten to put some on the back of my hands. lovely.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0607/IMG_6987.jpg&title=canada+road+biking][/url]

after biking we went to san mateo where we were planning to eat at sushi sam’s. when we got there we found that it was closed! it’s been so long since i had gone there and i was looking forward to eating there that day. instead we ended up eating at this burger place, which was pretty good, but my heart was still longing for some sushi sam’s.

jimmy, nelson, and i went to fremont older this past weekend and this is a picture that jimmy took of me while climbing up a hill. in the picture it doesn’t look like the hill is very steep, but it is much, much steeper than one thinks.

this trail wasn’t so bad and i actually am looking forward to doing another bike ride. i’m not sure where i want to go though, but i’ll have to keep an eye out for some good trails. perhaps i will venture out and do something along the pennisula this time. that might be fun.

oh well, the weekend still feels so very far away anyway, so i guess i should put those thoughts away and concentrate on the immediate, more pressing things…like how am i going to manage the survive the day? i’m so tired.

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[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0601/CRW_6804.jpg&title=thanh+and+tung%27s+wedding][/url] i went to thanh and tung’s wedding this weekend in LA. this has been a long time coming and to see it come to fruition makes me so happy. right now, i believe that they are vacationing away in fiji! that is pretty cool, if i do say so myself. i’ve known thanh since my freshman year in college and through the years we’ve become good friends. she knows me…really knows me and the two of us have been through a lot. she’s seen the highest of my highs and the low of my lows. we’ve shared our sad tales and rejoiced in our happiest of times. when i first saw her at the banquet i was just breathless. my little girl has grown up! her and tung looked so happy and they have always looked so right for each other. it brings me such immense joy to see true love flourish and prosper.

they are the reason why i still believe in true love. they continue to reaffirm my belief in true love. Despite the experiences i’ve had when it comes to love, they are the reason that makes me believe that finding your true love is possible. They are the seed for my optimism and you can see their love just by being in their presence.

congratulations, thanh and tung. may this journey be filled with unabounded joy and happiness.

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