Memorial day w/ dad

Monday (5/29) was spent visiting my dad's grave. It's been a weekly activity. This was my mom's first time to visit it. She took it pretty well.



The tombstone still has not arrived yet.


Note to myself; gotta get a better camera phone (i.e. Nokia N90) or a small point-n-shoot camera w/ me.




So it was Memorial day (US holiday for war veterans) that day and there were soo many miniature flags through out the cemetery. As I walked to visit my sister-n-law's grave I was able to take a few snap shots from my camera phone. I don't support war and I know the soldiers were following their orders and they lost their lives to so that we may live ours. Rest in Peace. You will not be forgotten.





Photo 1- Visitors










Photo 2- Sacrifice









photo 3- Sacrifice and Memorial Flags











Photo 3- Please let there be peace

Lessons learned...

So it is Tuesday and I am happy to accomplish my goal of celebrating through Sunday and even extending it into Monday. Glad to have that item checked off my list of goals. I don't think I would want to do that again. Well at least on weeknights where I have to be in the office the next day at 8am.

Lesson learned 1; Drinking was fun, but not when you have to be in the office the next day at 8 am.
Lesson learned 2; Not many other people can celebrate with you.
Lesson learned 3; When inviting friends out on a week night. Get the 1 st round of beverages.
Lesson learned 4; Most places in OC closes after 1 am at the beginning of the week.
Lesson learned 5; Have a good time but always be within ability to drive safely.
Lesson learned 6; I still can have a fabulous time with friends, without the need of alcohol.

Having learned these various lessons, I now can say I no longer want to go out drinking for this long duration on a work week. Vacations/Holidays are still permitted. I'm not working, so I'm having fun damn it.

3 night down and 3 more to continue

So my short term goal of drinking every night through this three day weekend is ontrack. Three nights down (Tues,Wed,Thurs) and three (Fri, Sat, Sun) remaining. I am starting to feel tired and worn, but must push through the pain.
Recap;

Tuesday @ Kitsch's Bar in Costa Mesa, tried to got to Chat Noir and La Cave for live Jazz, but they were closed after 1 am. I guess OC shuts down early. Still wound up getting home at 3 am.

Wednesday @ Blue in Huntington Beach. Vietnamese bar, and it was Karoke night. I wasn't drunk enough to handle the horrible singing. But after two Greygoose n Tonic, and 3 beers helped out. Bumped into a friend I haven't seen in awhile. She and I used to eat at Shin Sen Gumi on a weekly basis. I guess we'll be starting that back up again. Home at 3 am

These are pictures taken at Blue. They were taken w/ my phone camera, so its very low quality;



Photo 1



Photo 2










Photo 3










Photo 4

Thursday @ All Stars. Vietnamese bar...ok really REALLY FOB bar. Had trouble getting hold of ppl to come drink w/ me. Was getting concerned due to no response from friends (Jeff n Phil), the drinking streak was in jeopardy. But by 11:00 pm. I was out the door, picked up Jeff and w/ a few side detours, meet up w/ Phil at All Stars at 11:45. And the drinking began. One tequila shot and four beers later, I was able to handle the FOB customers. Which reminds me, I've decided to post phone Europe excursion for Vietnam trip instead. Jeff and I will be heading to Vietnam sometime in Nov. Looking forward to it. Then I guess heading to FOB filled All Star bar can be considered as training for experience in Vietnam.

Note to self; Don't mind the bathroom with busted water pipes, smell of piss everywhere, broken stalls and puke on stalls that do work. Vietnam clubs will be worse. Just deal w/ it.

Today - Friday plans is to meet up w/ the boys (Thien, Mike, Phil, Kalvin and maybe Henry) afterwork at Dave & Buster at "The Block" in Orange. Drink happy hour priced beer, get stupid, and maybe catch the new movie "X-Men; The Last Stand"

NOTE: FOB = Fresh Off Boat. Slang referring to waves of Vietnamese Boat refugees. Now commonly used to call any Asian person that came from their Asian country and still have not fully adapted to American style. Speaks w/ very thick accent.

NOTE: I still think and constantly talk my plans for going to MBA in Europe. Of course in between the beers and cocktails

Everyone's gotta have Goals...

So last night was my final class for UCI extension. Thus I have finished my odyssey to complete 1 certificate and wound up completing two (IT Management and Business Analyst). As I stated in my previous post, I will give myself a few months off from studying before hitting the books again, but this time it's for something I really want, GMAT for B-schools. I'll probably start studying again in Aug and begin essays also. This time, I don't mind the work. As long as it leads to getting my ass to a foreign country, then it's all good.

So my immediate goal is to drink every day w/ friends for the remainder of this week. Although this is a three day weekend, so I'll have to drink through Sunday and maybe Monday afternoon. Everyone's gotta have goals in life.

Homestretch and can't wait to get back to real studies..

Tomorrow will be my last class for the Business Analyst certificate. Only have to finish up this take home final and power point presentation. Hence the reason I'm procrasting by blogging. Once this is done, only have to resume my GMAT studies, application process for the B-schools (top choices; European schools, fallback choices; European/Australian schools). I heard that some admissions personale read blogs, so I am keeping it descreet, but it's fairly obvious which schools I'm interested in.

When I 1st started into UCI extension, it was because UCI had a pilot program for their employees to take advantage for extension, career education and advancement and have it be covered. What a novel idea!! With one quarter interuption for my Vietnam trip w/ my dad (milestone trip for me) I finished the IT Management certificate. For the Business Analyst cert, I only needed four additional classes. Only four more classes, I thought. No sweat I thought. hehe...Well partially true. So now I'm only one take home final and presentation away from my second certificate. Looks great on my resume. Hopefully it will impress the B-school admin people.

Yes. It's very obvious. I really, REALLY want my MBA, but it has to be from Europe or Australia. I want that international exposure. I think about it constantly. I read as much international MBA blogs constantly, to get a feel of their experience, their pain (turns out to be A LOT), but also their rewards of (turns out to be A LOT). It is a very large world and I want to experience as many as possible.

I want to have my (passed) father proud of me, I want to have my mother pround of me, I want to blaze a trail for my nieces & nephews (lots of them) to graduate degree. That backpacking through a foreign country is scary, crazy, and the best thing they can do in their lives. Yes, I am sacraficing 2 years out of my life, delaying and possiblity killing any possibility of marriage and family, and the last remaining years of my mother life, but the rewards are endless. I've lost passion in my life and I want to feel alive once more.

After this last class, I'm going to give myself a few months off studying so I can get back into the gym (drop the 25 lbs I regained), surfing (get back my tan & sanity), enjoy my limited time w/ mother and family (I won't be around after I'm in Europe for B-school).

Back to the final and presentation.

Notes to Self...

Just a few quick notes;



1) Still moving to my mom's. Now it's mostly clothes so hopefully I'll have it done sometime next week

2) Finished painting Huong/Hanh, Henry, and Mom's room.

3) Shipping the Fiat from Texas to Cali this. yeah...YEAH.

4) Need to work on my final and presentation for class this weekend.

Note to myself: If meeting up w/ Phil, Jeff and friends for drinks in middle of week. It'll probably follow up kickin' it at Jeff's house afterwards. To save some $$, don't drink too much at the bar (or drink only beers), cuz we're very certainly going to drink a whole lot more at Jeff's house afterwards.

Note to self 2: When drinking at Jeff's place, after bar, enjoy oneself, but leave at reasonable hour (3am), not 4 am like last night.

Note to self 3: Always awesome to meet other fellow travels. Terry (gf) and Tim (bf) had great stories about their travels. Gotta get back on the traveling road again as soon as responsibilities/time permits!!

Mother's day w/ dad

It was interesting spending mothers day last Sunday. Since mom was in Texas and Mississippi for the next few weeks (to get her out of the house after dad's passing), the remaining family got together and visited dad at the cemetery. It was really crowded, lines of cars queued up to go into the cemetery and lots and lots of beautiful flowers. My niece says that mother's day is always crowded, but not that much for fathers day. Moms are really do get more love, all those years of changing diapers do pay off...hehe...

Saw several families w/ tables and food. They were having a picnic there. What a great idea! Once mom gets back, we all agreed to have a picnic w/ dad. I'm presuming no on site cooking. Only prepared food allowed. Makes sense.

pulled back....

Don't know what happened but woke up w/ a bad back. Hate it when that happens. I really really really have to drop the 30 lbs and get back to below 170. My back can't handle it. After I finished moving, then I'll join the gym again. I'm sitting at the office in excrusiating pain, and to add more funness, I think I'm coming down w/ something. yeah... more fun. Evertime I cough, it pulls my back. I'm not looking forward to next few hours.

And for you readers please leave a comment. I'm starting to feel lonely.

early signs of addiction...

It's 1:13 am now and I should be a sleep now. At least I'm not my parents house (still prefer to call it parents house instead of moms' house) and mom telling me it's pass my bed time. I 've had a full day of 9 hours work and 3 hours of class. The smart thing to do would have been to clean up, break down my last bookshelf to move tomorrow and go to bed early. Good thing I'm smarter then that. Yeah...I wound up reading more blogs...all are of various international MBA students. Found Oli's MBA blog. Wow...this guy's travels and MBA is really inspirational. Maybe I can do something similiar?...Probably not. Netherless, still amazing.

Reading these experiences helps keep my spirits up and inspires me to continue w/ my delayed MBA process. I'll just have to
1) Finish this last class to complete my second certificate (Business Analyst) from UCI. First one was IT Management
2) Move back to parents house to watch over mom, 2 nieces, and 1 nephew
3) Re-enroll back to Kaplan's study center for GMAT (good thing they OK'd me stopping my studies back in March, when I decided to delay MBA for 07). Still aiming for very high GMAT score.
4) Help my good friend (Dai aka "Tim") w/ his wedding (End of July) errands while he's away on business.
5) Attend three wedding, two (possiblity three) bachelor parties
6) Plan/Save for trip to Europe to check out B-school I'm interested in (smart move) or Plan/Save trip back to Vietnam (sentimental move)
7) Sign back up w/ gym membership to drop the 20 lbs I've regained this last year. I want my six pack back.

After listing all these to do items, I am now ready for bed. Good night...

A Doctor, Lawyer, and Bartender...

I don't know how the weekend passed by, but I'm currently still in bed and it's Monday afternoon. I took some pictures, but will have to post them when I can get them transferred from my phone. Note; next phone must have a USB connection onto my laptop.

Saturday; Woke up relatively early, but stayed in bed, reading and blogging. Eventually I did box up a few items, broke down a bookshelf, transferred it to my SUV (when I bought back in 02 as a 03', it was to intended to carry surf boards/snowboards for road trips...now it the road trips I have are to move to a different house every few months), dropped off to my parents house, clean up my once past room will become new room and to my sisters' house to watch game 7 of Lakers v Sun. All of this while communicating w/ my friends working out the logistics to clubbing for Judge Jules tonight.

Saturday night; Lakers lost....they didn't even show up for the game. Kenn (nephew) lost the $20 bet to Liem (nephew). They wound up plucking the hair on Kenns' fingers to ease the pain of the Lakers lost. Did I mention he'll have to shave his legs and arm hairs also? Soo smooth.... So off we went to meet up but having to pick up money, meeting more people, and pick misc items, we didn't get to the club til 12am. Got a huge surprise!! All through the week, my old buddies (John, Derek, Vince, and Phil) were not planning on going, and they were calling me all that Saturday calling to play Texas Hold'em. Just setting me up...
Here's the play by play;
Got into da club w/ da gang after 12 am.
Got phone call from Vince, ask'n me if I'm at the club yet; Me -"yeah in da club now. What a blow by blow account when Judge Jules is spinning?" Vince - "Go up to second floor, my buddy is there and needs some company. He's got a few girls w/ him." Me - "Sure. I'll help the boy out." That's now nice of a guy I am
Got up stairs, trying to find this guy I met a couple of times before. And I see...Tina, Sydney, Lynnie, and Julie....the wives of my buddies. Few seconds later...I am mobbed by all four boys. OK. They got me good. Yeah...I'm not much for surprise (mostly because surprises for me are bad news), but this one of the BEST! It had been a long and tiring month (my dad's passing, birthday passing, new class starting, moving back home, and prospect of a very long dry spell in my social life). They're all married, (one w/ a new born baby) and they came to surprise me for my belated birthday. One of da bestest surprise I've had in my life. Thanks guys and girls...It meant a lot to me.
Sunday; We left around 3:45 am before the club closed, not by our choosing. Security kicked us out cuz one of our buddy was "smoking" inside the club. hehe...insider joke here...
Woke up, went to cemetry to visit dad's grave, took my nephew/nieces (9 ppl) to lunch (hurt my wallet), cleaned the room, and took a long needed nap. Woke up late, got call from Phil to head out to bar. It's sunday night...sure. It's still the weekend. Off to another adventure.

Three occupations to have as friends; Doctor, Lawyer, Bartender. Gotta have a doctor as a friend (obivous reasons). Lawyer to get your ass out of trouble. Bartender, so you get into closed bar, late on a Sunday night, and have drinks, smokes, food w/ some friends. All to ourselves.

I was playing w/ Jeff (works for LA Times part of photo division) new toy...a $3,500 digital SLR camera. That baby cost more then my 1st two cars...combined. Damn it shoots a great photo, once I figured how to focus it. I'll try to post the ones I took, once I get it from him. Can't be sure they look good, because I was already pretty buzzed at that point. By the time I did leave the bar well after 4am, a few had already passed out, but the rest remained there drinking and playing Texas Hold'em.

Having a buddy that's a bartender definitely has its' benefits. The other two just covers your ass.

Day after....

Whoa...what was an unusual Cinco De Mayo experience. Got out of the office a little late but was asured that I will at least have company to go to Shen Sen Gumi. My accomplences will be Tai (2nd nephew), Thanh (his older brother) and Eric (Nephew in Law). Tai introduced me to this restaurant and it has quickly become one of my favorite places to eat (ok...to drink also). I think last year, Tai, couple of other friends and I ate there once or twice a week. Yeah...I didn't save much money last year.

Once at home, grabbed a quick beer to wash the week's work stress out of my system. Note to myself; gotta get back to surfing to get rid of stress instead of drinking. Tai came by to pick me up and the adventures began at 6pm. Freeway traffic was 98% empty...deducted that everyone was in a bar for Cinco De Mayo. Once at Shin Sen Gumi, saw and greeted the regular employees. They recongized us, it's be almost 6 or 9 months ago we last went there, but considering that we used to go there once or twice a week last year, they should remember us...and miss our wallets.

Dinner was fabulous as usual. Yakitori, red snapper carpaccio, tomatoe-avocado-salmon...all yummy. Of course we also consumed 6-7 large beer bottles and 2-3 large sakes. Not sure if I enjoy the food or the alcoholic beverages....I'll figure it out sometime. 2-3 hours later, off to pick up additional alcoholic beverages. Tai (he's the six figure man) covered the bill. Thanks Tai!!! I think it was 12 pack of beers, 1 bottle of wine, 1 bottle of whiskey, 1 bottle of vodka (Grey Goose), two bags of chips and 1 bag of carrots. I don't know how the carrots got in there.

So it was back to Tais' place in Irvine and picked up two more buddies for night of Texas
Hold'em. Don't know how it happend but I lost $60 bucks. Damn...I'm normally better then that. I guess planning with new people throws my game off. Gotta learn to not go all in on just pocket pair of 4's, got slammed w/ his flush (A's high..talk about rubbing salt to wound). Can't remember much afterwards. Thanh had to an early flight next day, so we all left...around 4-5 am. I've been in bed all this morning...suppose to pack my stuff and move, but feeling lazy and read some new MBA bloggers from IESE (Noelle and George) for a change of pace of reading LBS bloggers. It seems the IESE mba candidates are dying in their academics but able to party. Both bloggers are very funny. Might have to reconsider IESE.

OK it's 1:25 now and I've been in bed all morning. Gotta clean up, try to pack for move, catch the Lakers games (don't drop the ball!!), head to mom's house to clean somere, and most importantly....Judge Jules at Spundae!!! Lets see what adventure awaits for me tonight...

Happy..."Excuse to drink" Cinco de Mayo

OK, It's Cinco de Mayo today. Since I live in So. Cali, we have a strong Mexican influence here, so we're all celebrating Cinco de Mayo (small out number Mexican Army defeated French Army in 18??)...blah..blah...Ok real reason is for us to drink (similiar to St. Patricks Day). On that day, I'm Irish also.

I should be drinking Margaritas and doing shots of tequila, but I feel like Japanese today. I haven't eaten at Shin Sen Gumi in a few months and the staff probably misses me. I'm trying to gather some friends to come w/ me but no call backs yet. Hopefully someone will respond back soon, so I can look forward to it. I'm a social animal...don't like to go eat dinner at restaurants by myself. If I have to eat by myself, then I'll just cook it at home.

Vicarious travels

I turned in my midterm for yesterday's class and was trying to keep on top of the Lakers vs. Suns score via my work cell phone. I rarely use it to surf the web, so I don't feel bad about this one time. It was a good game, but we lost. I guess/hope we'll have to close the series on Thursday (today) and advance to round two...versus the Clippers??! Guess where I'll be tonight? hehe... Three years ago, if you said that it would be Lakers v. Clippers in second round...AND the Clippers had the better record...you'd get your ass laughed out the door. Amazing what can happen in three years. Key reason...two key reasons, was that the clippers picked up two veterans (Sam Cassell and Cuttino Mobley) ok, three reasons...Elton Brand had an amazing year.

Any how, I discover this really cool new travel-log website, www.vcarious.com It's a pretty good site. You can upload unlimited # of photos at its' original size and create a travel journal also. Pretty cool. In addition to it's coolness, you can download the pics at it's original size too. How cooler then cool is that?? I've added it onto my list of cool links. I've uploaded some of my Vietnam photos here but still trying to figure out how to use it more extensively. Wish me luck.

Once again, I'm moving (3x in on year), to watch over my mom, two nieces, one nephew (my godson). It was my dad's last wish for me to watch over my mom. Kiss my social life out the door. I have the feeling that I'm heading into a dry spell for dates....sucks to be a responsible adult.

compromise our heart?

We compromise at home
We compromise at play
We compromise at work
We compromise lives
I shall not compromise my heart...

Why do some people settle for the safe choice in matters of the heart?
Stand steady,
Hold fast,
I will not compromise my love...

Time will reveal options,
Options will allow for choices,
Choices made lead to experiences
Good choices make for joy,
Bad choices (if learn) make for wisdom
Experiences is what life is made of...
Life experiences lead to wisdom
Time is the utilmate judge,
Time will prove who is right, what is correct...

Moving...again

It's been over a week since my dad's funeral. The family was able to talk mom into taking a couple weeks to Mississippi-Texas for a few weeks to be w/ the other siblings and grandkids. Good...now I have a few weeks to clean up the house and move back home. Yeah...Dad's last wish for me was to watch over mom. Yeah...kiss social life good bye...kiss freedom good bye. I get the feel'n I'm heading into a dry period in my social life.

It was tough getting back into the swing of work after two weeks to deal my dads' funernal.
I'm soo behind on my projects. Gotta remember to thank my work group for handling the work load while I was gone.

Side Note: All the siblings pitched in to cover the funeral cost. Even w/ my dad already purchased a plot in the cemetery a few years ago, the expenses were crazy. **pardon the pun** they make a killing in the death business.