A Wedding and a Birthday

This weekend was very exciting and fun. I started off by heading up to Mountain View. I had lunch with a friend who I keep in contact with via AIM. Its a little funny since I know him because he is the spouse, then fiance, of this girl who I was totally jonesin on at the time. Its only kinda funny since I am friends with the guy, but no longer speak to this girl due to a misunderstood joke with my ill timed humor.

After the lunch, I went to my cousins house and just hung out. We went to the bay and had dinner at a Thai place that was very good. However, I guess this was downtown since there were crazy night people all over the place. The city is full of interesting people. There were tranny hookers and crack addicts mingled with hippies, goths, bankers, and the average (according to tv) white American families. There was this one guy/girl who was all dressed in fish stockings and spandex totally tweaking out and dropping stuff in front of people just to bend over in front of them. I don't know why, but I assume to get clients or this person was just crazy.

Anyways, the next day I went to the wedding where I had tons of fun meeting cousins that I vaguely remember when I was young child. All I remember about them is that on Chinese new years, they would convince me to play blackjack with them, and I am convinced they used card mechanics to cheat me out of my newly acquired money.

I am sure a little bit of it had to do with the fact that we were at at wedding, but I did notice something about my family. Nobody can accuse our family of not having fashion. Myself excluded, everyone was rockin the name brand stuff. Of course my dads side of the family is notorious for fronting wealth. (I suppose that's where I get my standards from)

With that said, the only uncomfortable thing about being there was that I didn't really know who family was and there were all these attractive girls there that I wanted to hit on, but I was too afraid they might be my cousin.

Anyways, the following day was equally awesome. I spent a lot of it in my car (which kinda defeated the purpose of me flying). I drove to my aunts house. I spent about an hour and a half in traffic since there was a marathon going on blocking the park leaving only 19th street open to get through. Once I got there I find out that they did not go home, but instead stayed at the hotel near where the wedding took place. So, after another hour drive to get back out of the city, I finally just decided to go to the airport. I also stoped for some Pho0-- it was good. Okay, that morning kinda sucked.. but no big deal.

The evening was a different story however. I went to Universal Studios for their fright feast event which absolutely rocked. Perhaps because every year, knot's version has gradually gotten worse and worse from years previous, perhaps because I am getting older and these things just don't appeal to me the way they used to.... maybe a combination of the two-- I just wasn't stoked to go. I was excited to spend time with friends and act foolish, which I feel I successfully accomplished. Anyways, with low expectations coming in, and the level that they stepped things up, everything was hella fun. The mazes did an excellent job with design, but more than that, they were set up in ways that caught me off guard and I was actually "got" several time throughout the night. They had me screaming like a lil girl a few times. I think it was even more fun, that it wasn't just me, a lot of us got "got".

Thanks guys for a good time.

A Motivating Weekend

I spent this weekend hanging out with my best friend Philip and we went jogging. He has been motivated at bettering himself. There was a time when I was motivated in bettering myself, but that time has come and gone. Talking to him reminded me when I did these things, and I started to think how much better life was when I tried. I just felt better, I had more energy and I liked myself better. At the moment, I am just living day to day waiting for who knows what. I usually attribute education as forward progression, but I believe that at this point in my life, further education will only improve my employment prospects and I need to round out my life. Work is going well; however, my health has been deteriorating since I left the military. I have decided to make that my number one priority, followed by changing my outlook on life. I don’t know how to go about changing that, I maintain a pessimistic point of view which either leads to my success or downfall depending on how I assess a situation. Usually when I am pessimistic I over prepare for the worst, and when the worst happens, I am ready for it. Unfortunately, sometimes I stress out worrying about things that never happen. Sometimes, I am so pessimistic I just stop trying.

I did it once before, with the help of a nutritionist, and the very helpful website http://www.sparkpeople.com. I believe that I can do it on my own. Currently, I have two issues that cause me to lose motivation. First, I eat out a lot. Secondly, when I get home and take off my shoes, all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch some television and zone out. I think signing up for the gym is my solution for both problems. It forces me to work out before I relax, and once I work out I always have enough energy to do things like cook. I eat out a lot because I don’t have the motivation to cook when I get home, especially if I veg out and watch TV. When I lost 30 lbs a year and a half ago, I had a routine going. After work, I would go directly to the gym and work out for an hour. The gym was free and I had a workout partner who would keep me motivated to go. I don’t have a partner this time, but I have to pay 350 bucks and just like with school, when I pay money I don’t want it to go to waste so I am sure that I will go, especially once I make it a daily routine.

I have set this goal many times before as I am sure many do, but I believe this time will be successful as I have an active plan with specific workout routines in mind, and my mindset is significantly different than other times when I am just ho-hum about working out. I am truly excited to go to the gym, be revived and energized when I am done.

Random Business Idea

Okay, so I was eating lunch at Rubios and I was reading one of those things they have on their tables about how fresh they are and all that crap and an idea came into my head. It seems to me we are only at the beginning of the green trend, there is no "man" keeping down the hippies of the 2000s, in fact the hippies of old are now "the man" pushing this green movement further. So, as soon as I read fresh I though of a garden and then for some reason, hydroponics. What if we could bring an indoor garden into major metros and make it the center around several restaurants. Fine dining, casual dining, even fast food all centered around local garden fresh food. I know there is a loose connection there from the green movement to garden fresh restaurants, but its there regardless.