After four seemingly short years, I’ve finally reached top rate at work. I don’t know if the years passed by so quickly because of my memory, which is so bad that I even forget what I did on the weekend, or that time just passes quickly. But one thing I do know is that when I sit down and reflect, I feel that I become wiser: looking back at how I’ve felt and what I accomplished from a perspective of knowing, instead of a perspective of being in the process of doing, gives me more data to analyse, like a slow-motion replay in sports. With that extra bit of data, I realize who I actually am instead of who I think I am.

So with this new found wisdom in hand, I’ve realized that money is only a short-term motivator. I feel no satisfaction in making an extra few hundred dollars if I do not have a goal in mind. I will have more money in my pocket, but I am writing about motivation. I can recall many examples of myself and even another:

• A few years ago, when I was saving for a car, I wanted to buy the car out right- I hate being in debt. So I worked over 400 hours of overtime that year to accomplish that goal. This year, even though I make significantly more money, I haven’t even worked 30 hours of overtime.
• Earlier in the year when I was told that I had gotten a posting, I was willing to take a significant paycut in order to obtain more experience in another department. Too bad that posting never panned out.
• I can’t motivate myself to work overtime for the future town house. The amount needed seems so out of reach.
• A co-worker who regards his health over money doesn’t normally work overtime because this job is labourous but has recently been working 60-70 hour weeks because school is starting and he wants the best for his kids.

Although I’ve now reached top rate, I have run dry of motivation. I need to take the knowledge of what I now know of myself and apply it towards creating mini-goals to stay focused on the bigger prize: town house.

Keep in mind that I am writing from a perspective of a person who has not put them self in a situation where I am in dire need of money to pay off creditors or whatever pressures that come with money.

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Since I’m nearing my goal of getting a visible set of abs, I’ve been thinking about other goals.

I don’t know if anyone other than the lady knows this, but I actually don’t know the full lyrics to any song or nursery rhyme. I am am also terrible at remember quotes, song names, and even names. I’m not too sure how I go about fixing this, but I am determined to learn the lyrics of a few songs in their entirety.

I’m not too sure how long this will take, but I am near complete with Teenage Dreams by Katy Perry. Man, I love that song =p Not only do I love the song, it is much easier to remember than the other song that I’ve chosen.

The other goal is to try to continue down the path of bettering memory is to try to learn a whole dance routine. I let Michelle pick the routine, but I don’t know if a novice such as myself will be able to do this routine. Oh well, hopefully, I’ll have it memorized in a few months. I will suck, but at least I will hopefully remember the routine.

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I’d like to offer a few suggestions for you guys: 2 movies, 1 food, and 1 game.

The first of the two movies: Inception. If you are looking for a mind-blowing thriller with the theme revovling around dreams and are willing to stay focused, there are a lot of variables; this film is for you. The film can be a bit confusing if you zone out for a bit: there are few unnecessary scenes. Did I mention Christopher Nolan?

For the second flick: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I throughly enjoyed this film from start to finish because it captures the pop culture that related to me. The comic-style scene approach speeds up a movie which could have been split into two parts (Harry Potter/Twilight).

Both of the movies are worth spending a few bucks or points to get the full theatrical experience. Don’t bother downloading the cam version of Inception – it is horrible.

As for the food suggestion, get a bag of these chips: The chips actually taste as described: the taste of cheap cheddar and ketchup is delicious -yummmm.

And last but not least, League of Legends (LoL). From the creator of DotA, Icefrog, this game is pretty much a port to a proprietary program, opposed to being a custom map of Warcraft III. The graphics and leveling system are new but the gameplay is pretty much the same as DotA. Add me to your friend’s list if you wanna play a game with me: nattsumi. Also grab Skype or Vent if you haven’t already.

If you’ve played Heroes of Newerth, DotA 2.0, lemme know how the pace of the game is as fast as DotA.

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A few months ago I decided that I wanted to try to get some ab muscles- a six pack to be exact. So I tried doing an ab routine I found on YouTube. After a few weeks of doing the routine, I definitely felt like I had a core, but I couldn’t see any of my efforts because of my fats.

Continuing with my initial goal of getting a rockin’ mid section, I decided that I needed to lose some weight to actually see my efforts. So I decided to focus on losing weight and I stopped doing my ab routine for the duration of the weight loss.

After a few months of learning about foods, cutting back on portions, and doing walks with the girl, I lost 13-15 lbs. All my clothes fit again! Actually, my pants are now falling down ; ; Anyway, now I gotta start up with the routine again. I can already see definition, but I want my 6-pack of abs to go with my 6-pack of Coke Zero.

Upon learning about foods, here’s a random bit of info: did you know blueberries are white inside?

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The last time I remember camping was John?, Frank, and his dad. I think we went when we were in grade 7, I’m not quite sure. Anyway, I vividly remember the trip because the three of us kids failed at lifting up the firewood. Frank’s dad had to show us how manly he was. So he threw the bag of wood over his shoulder and carried it to our camp site. He did tumble down trail with all the wood along the way though =) Good times. There were other memorable parts but I’ll just move onto our current camping trip.

Before we set off on our 3-day camping trip we had to stock up some supplies. Jane made this event way more exciting than it is normally supposed to be. No alcohol was consumed at this point…

Anyway, once we got to our campsite we set up all our junk. Jane and James set up their tent first, which respectively fit 2-3 people. But after we set up Aleya’s tent, we might as well all sleep in the same tent, since the thing was massive. We fit the 5 of us with an air mattress no problem.

From there on we just laid back and relaxed for the next few days. I tried to find a hiking path or a beach, only to fail horribly. There was high tide the whole time, and I didn’t look up any hikes before hand. So we pretty much sat around getting fat feeding the mosquitoes.

James was especially good at starting the fire and collecting firewood. A skill the rest of us totally lack: eagerness. Setting up and maintaining the fire reminded me of my days back in Vietnam: the smell of the outdoors, the black face from blowing to keep the fire going, and the deliciousness of the food cooked over the flame. I initially thought that Jane was weird eating noodles in the forest, but a few other Asians came by to borrow some of our supplies offering noodles as a gift. I suppose noodles are what Asians bring to the wilderness.

click on the last picture for a larger image.

Wish I could have done a few more things during the trip, but I definitely enjoyed myself. A nice time to relax and do nothing.

Thanks to Aleya for booking the site.

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I’m relaxed, refreshed, and full of ideas. So let’s get rollin’ on some posts!

I was pretty down after not being able to take a job that I successfully interviewed for. But I didn’t get much time to mope around and be a bum. Cam came up to the big city to hang for a few days. We checked out a BC Lions game, one of the goals I wanted to accomplish this summer, at the beautiful Empire Field. Oh man, that place is just beautiful! I can’t come up with another word to describe the field.

The crowd made the game so much better. The stomping, cheering, and streaking made this sporting event the best one that I have ever attended. Actually, this is the best event that I have ever attended. Too bad the Lions couldn’t put together a win. Oh, well =)

Sometimes I wish I didn’t work on the weekends so that I could attend more events like this. Mucho fun.

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I was blessed with good news today: after two years of applying for several office posting, I might actually get one; opposed to position in the warehouse.

I thought I would be more exited. But I had planned on having fun this summer by seeing a couple of games and hiking a few trails. Although I continued applying for postings that suited me, I didn’t expect to get one; in some cases, I hoped I didn’t get the posting due to time conflicts with other events.

The sad reality is slowly setting in: I will be working seven days a week for 4-6 months. As much as I want to get more work experience under my belt, I didn’t realize that the time is soon approaching. No more wishing or dreaming. Isn’t it sad that I wish and dream to work?

Since I will be grinding for such a long period of time, I was thinking about ways to motivate myself. A co-worker of mine motivates himself by thinking of another hardcore employee who works 80+ hours a week. I have seen Mr. hardcore fall asleep with his mouth open and a potato chip just dangling between his lips and fingers. So all I need to do is find some inspiration. If not, I’ll be doomed after the first month.

Anyway, I’ll take some time to apologize to my friends, especially my Victorian ones. I had planned a trip to Victoria near the end of September, but that trip will have to be postponed to around December. I do have my birthday week off. So maybe some nostalgia can be rekindled there. ’til then, wish me luck boys. My life is officially over (at least for 4-6 months).

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Haven’t heard from me in awhile? Yeah, that’s because I’ve been gaming. Specifically, I’ve been playing Defense of the Ancients (DotA). This obsession recently started when I started playing the Star Craft 2 beta. I realized how much I enjoyed playing RTS games. The only problem is that I’m not very good at them. I’m not too sure if I want to invest time in to get better or just waddle at my noob-pace. Regardless of my skill, this game meets a lot of requirements: fun, free, and takes up loads of time but is also casual.

In the last month, I’ve also played a few other games, aside from DotA: Portal and Borderlands. Both games are quite old, but I’m glad that I picked them up. Borderlands is a online co-op FPS game. Nothing too new there, but the strange part is that you can play online with other people from the ripped version of the game; a feature is usually disabled due to having an inauthentic version. Totally wicked game if you want to do some mission with a friend or random people. So onto Portal now. Portal is a fun puzzle game which I can’t explain. So I’ll just have this video do it for me:

I also have a lot of games that I also want to check out, but we’ll see how long this laze continues. Which game should I continue next?

• GTA:IV: Episodes from Liberty City
• Split Second
• Personal Suggestion?

Portal Download
My DotA Record (yeah, I suck)

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Planning Ahead. Definitely not a trait that I used to have in my yesteryears. I still wing the majority of what I do, but that’s because I plan on putting myself in a good position. For instance, we plan on buying a home within the next 5 years -most likely in 3 years. We currently have more than enough money to put towards a down-payment for a condo, but we wouldn’t much backup money. If anything unfortunate were to happen, like being laid off, I wouldn’t want to be forced to make decisions I would have not made otherwise, like foreclosing on our home. I plan on minimizing the financial and emotional risks.

I hate being in debt. I don’t buy anything that I cannot pay off immediately, like my car. Instead of financing my car, I decided that I wanted to pay it off with a suit case of cash. My suitcase idea didn’t pan out the way that I wanted , but I used the desire of buying my Matrix as motivation to work overtime. Since I was so motivated, I was able to afford my car in less than one year of hardcore overtime -I basically lived at my workplace. The only problem is raising enough money to buy a home straight up. Even I don’t have the patience to wait 15-20 years.

So we’re going the traditional route of having at least a 6 months worth of income on top of a sizable down-payment before we purchase a home. By taking a few extra years to save up, we can finish up any loose ends we have, such as finishing off school.

Since I have another similar topic to this one, I’ll sneak it in at the bottom of this one.

My brother started dating his girlfriend a week or so before I started with Michelle. After two years and a few months, I proposed. Our wedding date is still a bit washy but we’re shooting for early 2012. My brother followed with his proposal a few months later. His wedding is in October. He has also recently purchased a Town Home. If this was a race, I would be getting my ass kicked, because he’s 3-years younger than me =)

Just wanted to keep you guys updated about my brother for those who know him.

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Man, I’m such a geek. Back in my high school years, I remember hearing that there was a Star Craft channel in Korea. At the time, I was surprised because I couldn’t imagine anyone who would want to watch other people play Star Craft. Fast forward 10 years, I am now one of those people.

In the past week, I must have watched over 10 Star Craft 2 matches. The reason I love watching other people play the game is that they’re way better than me and the commentating explains why they are so much better. I get a similar feeling while watching a video game being played as I do while watching sports.

So I’m quite torn right now. I don’t know if I should buy Star Craft 2 because of a few reasons:

Not sure if I want to commit a few hundred hours to getting better
Blizzard’s Battle.net 2.0 is garbage. No chat at the moment (will be added later)
Although, 2.0 is free now, Blizzard is being very vague on whether or not they will be charging money to play on 2.0 in the future. Source

Ugh, I just don’t know. Maybe I’ll go improve my micro game with DOTA and think about this later.

TheLittleOne v Sen -- Game 2 -- Part 1/2

TheLittleOne v Sen -- Game 2 -- Part 2/2

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