I don’t usually do these but I’m in “one of those moods” so Sam gets a nice post today. At least that’s my plan as of this sentence, we’ll see how it goes. =)

I’ve known many of my friends for a very long time (some for over half my life), and I love all of them… some in different ways than others. ;) Sam will probably be the first to tell you we have a special relationship. I met Sam back in high school when he was the tall, goofy, asian ROTC guy in the halls. I think he actually knew Olivia before me, but I do remember him showing up to computer club once (maybe he voted for me for president? haha). Back then, he looked something like this:

Sam’s of the class of 2002, so when I graduated in 2001, I went off to UT with a bunch of the gang and never really expected to see this guy again. Well, a year of shenanigans happens, then I stumble upon Sam again on the church’s internet forums and I borrow My Sassy Girl from him cause it’s supposedly a good movie. Somewhere during this time, it’s also discovered that we’re both looking for roommates for the coming semester, so the adventures of JW152 begin.

It’s here where Sam meets Mark who triggers what we dub “the downfall of Sam” which all started with a game of mario kart (or was it super monkey ball?) and a big green button. You can ask one of them about this, but suffice it to say that Sam then realized we’re a bunch of asses, especially Mark, and he didn’t quite know how to handle that. The remainder of our Jester days entailed, but were not limited to:

• Getting in the Daily Texan for having an infamously dirty dorm room:
  


• A $1 blow-up doll from eBay with some… accessories


• Getting noise complaints from below, above, and around our dorm room and having the RA kick people out of our room


• Sam looking at me while I slept and wondering what it would be like if I were a girl and we were watching the sun rise (don’t ask me, man, I found out cause he wrote about it on his xanga!)


• Webcam hijinks


• Drunken Pauls


• Food “accidents” on Sam’s bedding


• Hot sauce filled donuts


• Spilt milk


• Sam founded TiSA and didn’t even tell me until a semester or so later


• Sam changed his legal name and became an American citizen

Well, after that, a bunch of us moved into some really ghetto apartments just north of the Target near campus on I35. It was here that the Tower of Che-Kang was built:

Throughout the years, my Xanga has gone through two iterations dedicated to Sam (I wish I had kept the first one… sorry. I do remember it being very pink). I even joined Facebook originally back in the day to get my Sam loving Xanga more exposure! ;)

Speaking of which, here are some old FB posts. Sam hadn’t quite perfected his come-back to “suck it” at this point…

More recently, I built Samitic.us and the Samboard.

We’ve been to Key West:

Taiwan/Singapore:

New York City:

Vegas:

… and even Arkansas:

I’ve known Sam for over ten years now and he’s been the butt of many jokes (I swear he asks for most of them), and though I don’t admit this often, one of my bestest friends. Happy birthday, Sam!

I caught something last night, apparently, so now I’m all congested and I have a sore throat. =( These past few weeks have not been kind to my nose (allergies + cold).

On Thursday night, Andrew and Viraj came in to town for their three-day weekend. We went to Papa Tino’s, which was pretty good but the lighting was really dark. I wouldn’t really have gotten much with my Mark II, but the Mark III at 12800 ISO let me get these:

Certainly noisy, but not bad! I’m pretty pleased. These pics have more detail than I could make out with my eyes in that lighting.

And… here are some more Mozilla pics for your viewing pleasure. First, some Facebook timline fun. =)

I’ve got some shots of Mozilla and Ally playing in the grass, but I forgot to upload them to Flickr. Another time. =)

On Saturday, we played some frisbee game that involved two rectangular areas:

Viraj, at one point, called a disc out of bounds and reasoned “based on the line from that one cone, it’s out.” Apparently Viraj has redefined what makes a line and one can now be defined based on one point. The disc was in, it turns out.

I finished Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, the second and third books of the Hunger Games trilogy. I enjoyed Catching Fire quite a bit and it was certainly the best of the three (Hunger Games, I thought was mediocre). Mockingjay was probably somewhere in the middle, but I didn’t find the ending all that appealing. It felt awkward to me. Maybe the whole series was overhyped for me, but I felt a bit let-down by the ending. I’ve found that I’ve been enjoying books with complexity in not only plot but how the story’s told. I know Hunger Games is a “young adult” series, so that’s probably why it didn’t live up to my impression of the hype, but I thought the first and third books were a bit too.. simple I guess.

In related news, Harry Potter is now available in e-book formats (legit), so I’ve purchased the series and will start to read them. I kind of lost interest in the Dark Tower series (I’m somewhere in the middle of the third book I think), but maybe I’ll come back and finish that one day too. Guess all these books should come in handle tomorrow while I’m sitting at home recuperating…

Night!

Liang brought over Kiba to play with Mozilla today. The last time this happened, there was pee everywhere, including all over my couch, so it was dubbed the “pee party.” I was hoping for an improvement this time and it was better, but…

I got my 5D Mark III and it’s been a very pleasant experience so far. I’ve really only taken photos of Mozilla, though. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

Olivia brought to my attention that Mozilla now has a unibrow. =( However, I will say that he has an “M” for Mozilla on his head.

Mozilla just farted in his sleep. =(

Here’s a set of tweets that makes me smile (it’s from newest to oldest, so you probably want to read it in reverse).

My 5D Mark III comes in tomorrow! YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

I asked the social networks whether or not it was weird that I sometimes like going to the movies by myself. I got a number of responses that seemed to indicate that that is not one of the reasons that makes me weird. I haven’t gone in a while by myself, but it does feel appealing occasionally. I never really got why movie-going was viewed as such a social event, since you don’t really interact while watching the movie. There are certainly some exceptions (like watching Expendables next to OMan - that makes the movie uber awesome), but it seems most people viewed going alone sometimes positively.

I posted a few pics from Andrew and Jen’s engagement party thing to flickr. I wasn’t really out to document the entire event (there were plenty of other photographers there), so I just have a few random ones. I wish I had actually taken at least one picture of Jen though (sorry!). Here’re a few and some of the after-party:

I used to have a hard time answering what my favorite restaurant was in Austin, but over the past few months, Uchiko has solidified itself as one I give. I usually like to get the tasting menu and getting surprised. That means the experience fluctuates and sometimes it’s better than others (but they’re all really good), but I really like not having to make decisions and getting a variety of tastes that I probably wouldn’t have if I chose dishes myself.

Chad, Nancy, Mark and I went to Uchiko today for the start of restaurant week and it was pretty good. I didn’t think about bringing my camera and taking any pics, so you get none. =) We went there at 5PM cause they were full on reservations and I didn’t want to end up waiting a million hours during “prime dinner time.” We ended up not having to wait long at all and they didn’t seem too packed. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were busier later though, just something to note for those of you who want to go there and may not have reservations (get there early instead!).

Mozilla has started to shed a bunch and I think we’ve entered into the “blowing the coat” phase that happens twice a year. I’ve been taking him outside and combing him almost every day and I get a good bit of fur every time. He cooperates pretty well though, so that’s good. I’ve seen photos of shibas blowing their coat that look all funky, but Mozilla still looks to have a pretty good coat (not patchy), so we’ll see if that sticks.

MY 5D MARK III IS SUPPOSED TO SHIP SOON. WE SO EXCITED.

This was a rather peaceful and uneventful Valentine’s Day, which honestly isn’t a bad thing. There’s good and bad that goes along with being single, eh? =) Anyways, since my tentative significant other and I are not aware of each other yet (or at least not aware that we’re each others’ significance), I will get all mushy in other ways.

I really enjoy the fact that I have over a decade of my life in blog form and I’ve missed talking about major events in the past just because I figured “oh, I’ll remember it, I don’t need to tell the world about it.” While generally true, I do sometimes go back through my blog archive and think “oh darn, I didn’t mention anything about _?” One day I’ll come back and find this blog post and value that my past self took the time to jot all this down, so here it is.

December was a rough month for my family as my dad passed away suddenly after being in the hospital for about two weeks after a severe heart attack. I haven’t really mentioned this to the webs at large as I guess I’ve been processing all of this, and I’m not looking for a pity party. Anyways, along with this came a lot of drama, headache, and heartache, some expected and some not. Despite all the negatives though, what I will ultimately remember is the outpouring of love from all kinds of sources that my family and I were blessed with.

I don’t particularly want to get into a theological debate right now, but I want to take an aside before continuing. As an educated “intellectual” (if I can be so presumptuous to call myself one ;)), there are a lot of things about Christianity that don’t seem to make sense. This is further clouded by the fact that many “Christians” don’t act very Christ like at all. That said, without what I believe as a Christian, the world would seem so pointless and meaningless. I would be a slave of physics, ultimately doing whatever the atoms making up my body “decided” should be done. I don’t see the value in a concept like love if all there is to it is a bunch of atoms behaving a certain way to ultimately trigger certain chemical reactions in two larger blobs of atoms.

I’m convinced this “love” thing is special and I don’t think the type of special I’m talking about could exist in a world without meaning. I believe that there is a God that gives us meaning and his greatest gift to us was Love, which we, here on earth, sometimes manage to gift to each other and/or experience in peculiar ways. Maybe I’m a romantic, I don’t know. =p

Okay, with that said, I wanted to take Valentine’s Day as a chance to say thank you for the love that I have been gifted, consciously or otherwise. I’ll start off silly by being thankful for Mozilla. Dogs (and many pets, I guess) are a conduit for a very basic type of love, and while it’s taken me a while to fully realize this, getting Mozilla was a way for me to deal with all the negativity that December brought. Mozilla helped me combat that negativity by providing a very healthy positive type of stress that anyone who’s raised a puppy they love can understand. I don’t want to get all caught up in talk of fate or whatnot, but I consider myself extremely blessed to have happened upon such a perfect puppy for me. When I decided I would get a puppy and started searching, there was only one breeder that I found that had a litter at just the right time for me to get one almost immediately (it’s not uncommon for people to be on waitlists approaching months to get a shiba from a reputable breeder). Mozilla was the only one left of the litter because his breeder was considering keeping him unless she found the right home. It’s kind of silly I guess, but to me, Mozilla will always be a bit of a symbol of the love that everyone below showed during a rough time in my life.

To my job, who basically let me take the entirety of December off with no questions asked, thank you. Corporate entities are probably amongst some of the least “loving” things out there, but in the way it could, my job was there for me and I’m thankful for that…

To my friends, who were there for me and my family through the ups and downs of an emotional roller-coaster, you sat in silence with me, held me as my walls crumbled, fed me, did my dishes, made me laugh, checked in on me, sent me words of encouragement, and even trekked to Arkansas and back in a day with me. You did these things, big and small, and will never think anything more of it than it being your duty as a friend…

To friends of my family, you gave us food, visited, and probably did a ton of things I don’t even realize…

To my mother and sisters, who shared my pain and more, we show love to each other in quirky ways (or maybe it’s just the way I show it =)). We were hurt together but I would never wish for any other family…

Happy Valentine’s Day, may love find you all. =)

This was a good weekend.

To celebrate Oriana and my mom’s birthdays, we went to Uchiko on Saturday. They were 30 minutes late seating us, but definitely made up for it by either being extremely generous with a single omakase order (usually meant for a pair, but four of us were fed) or giving us one for free. Then they also threw in an appetizer or two and extra fried milk desserts which is probably my favorite dessert second only to the craziness that is Alinea. I think that experience has cemented Uchiko as my favorite restaurant in Austin.

Earlier that day, I took Mozilla over to meet Syndey where he chased her around the yard (she was kind of scared of him) until she threw up. Sydney is a big lab, so it was fairly comical.

On Sunday, I hooked up with the owners of one of Mozilla’s brothers, Texas, who just so happens is also in Austin. They came over and the puppies played for quite a while:

Olivia also has lots of good photos.

I took Mozilla to the vet at the end of last month and he had gained a pound since getting him (about a week’s time). I realized then I should take lots of pictures as he won’t stay a puppy for long. He’s actually really good with the camera and will usually just continue doing whatever he’s doing and occasionally looking at me as I snap photos. This puppy is pretty awesome.

Haha, fat looking puppy:

I went to The Domain along with some peeps primarily for Jonney and FiFi’s engagement (actual event and photos). I took the opportunity to socialize Mozilla a bit more and took him too. He was quite the popular little puppy there. I had one guy stop me and gave me his email so I could send him information (breeder, etc.). Here are some photos:

“How you doin’?”

Oh, and if you’re interested in Jonney and FiFi’s engagement photos, you’ll have to bug Sam and Kat. =p

Shiba inus are infamous for not recalling well. You can tell them to come and they may look at you but then there’s a good chance they’ll ignore you. Mozilla hasn’t been too bad at this so far, but last night when it was rainy and wet outside, I would wipe his feet every time he came back inside. He apparently isn’t much of a fan of this so he got progressively more stubborn about not coming in. Luckily he is a little guy and I just catch him and pick him up. =)

ANNNNNDDDD… Happy birthday, Oriana. =)

This is the year the world’s supposed to end, right? =p

In usual planeteers fashion (we have a mailing list called planeteers, so that’s the name “the group” has inherited), we rang in the new year by playing Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and at midnight we mass suicided by shooting each other and throwing frag grenades at our feet. Good times. Back in the day, we used to play Raven Shield a lot of the max difficulty which is really hard and you almost always die in one hit from “the terrorists.” Whenever only a few of us were left and we weren’t near completing the map, someone would yell “all hope is lost!” which would usually prompt some/all of the remaining players to turn on each other and then suicide themselves so a new round would start. Sometimes, though, “all hope is lost!” would be called prematurely by someone who just didn’t want to wait around that long for the next round… you’d immediately hear “NO NO NO!” but it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy as we don’t need a lot of reason to kill each other. =p

Here are some instagram photos of Mozilla from my phone. I need to try to take more “real” photos of him while he’s still a puppy…

On the way back from Arkansas:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/bL98k/ size=400]

Chewing, with pink crate in the background:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/bVD9i/ size=400]

Tired out after playing with pink ball:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/b9nKo/ size=400]

Mozilla snuggled up against my leg and passed out:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/cQ5My/ size=400]

Mozilla’s raccoon tail:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/dVtqc/ size=400]

Also, I decided to get a new car (Accord Coupe V6):

[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/dWO7f/ size=400]

2011 was kind of an off year for blogging for me. I’ll try to pick it back up this year. That’s my resolution.

ALL HOPE IS LOST!

Well December was certainly a rough one, but I’ll try to stick to the positives on the blog. Despite the plethora of suck, there was actually a lot of silver lining too. I just wanted to say thanks to all my friends and family for being awesome. I’ll also throw a shout out to Bazaarvoice too for being so incredibly understanding and making things as easy as possible for me.

Now, on to the positives!

I’m sure it was a combination of things, but I finally broke down and got a puppy. Nancy says it’s about time and I’m two years late. Well, better late than never? =p I feel a little ashamed at not rescuing a dog, but my little shiba inu pup, Mozilla, is so awesome, I honestly can’t say I have any regrets. Sorry? =p

On Christmas Eve, Andrew, Nancy, Sam, Viraj and I hit the road. Here’s a short video of our trip to Arkansas to get the little guy:

And now, some photos. I made sure to wear my Mozilla Firefox shirt given the planned name I had for him.

On another topic, here’s a video of Oriana opening the Christmas gift I got her:

Bye for now!