memoryloot

This was mentioned on Diggnation Episode 105. Absolutely insane anime drawing using only html coding. Web developers will appreciate this incredibly complex and amazing use of html to create this page.

If you have a bike, go out there on Wednesday July 18th to support the 16th Annual National Ride To Work Day. This will promote awareness of motorcycles on the road. Plus it’s fun! I’m planning to get out there this coming Wednesday. I did it a couple of years back but didn’t really notice too many bikers but hopefully its different this year.

Anybody in the market for a 100% street legal Indy car? This was on sale last December on eBay but did not meet the reserve price. This is definitely not your everyday driving car and completely impractical, but totally cool if you owned one! Almost like a motorcycle.

The organization that I’m part of, Asian Pacific American Forum (APAF) had their 1 year anniversary party last night. I spent my night talking to various members as well as to the non-profit, Asian Pacific Women Center. I’ve devoted my time for the last two months to change their website. I was rewarded tonight for the time I spent volunteering for our organization with the first ever Engagement Award for our SoCal hub.

Yay for me!

It’s that time again! Well, actually this would be the second time doing this ever but I finally found some time to figure out how much my retirement nest egg has made. I would have given a report for the 1st quarter but since I’ve been too lazy, I’m combining this with my 2nd quarter results.

1st Quarter
My entire retirement income went up 5.49% since the end of 2006. When you subtract all my contributions as well as my company’s 401K match, the gains was a measely 0.40%. Definitely nothing to be proud of. The first 3 months was when the market pretty much traded sideways. There wasn’t alot of movement at this time as far as from my part. I was only contributing 7% to my 401K since I needed to squeeze out my paycheck due to vehicle maintenance expenses and setting aside some cash for my 6 months emergency fund.

2nd Quarter
My entire retirement income went up a whopping 20.21% since the end of 2006! That’s a 14.72% jump since the end of 1st quarter. After my contributions and company match were taken out, that gain was down to 7.98%. So what went right this time?

1. I was given my annual review and got a bump in pay for that.
2. I was also promoted and that further bumped my salary up.
3. I paid off all my vehicle maintenance bills.
4. The stock market also went bullish and is still doing so.
5. Completely funded my emergency fund.

All these events made it possible for me to increase my 401K contributions to 30% of my take home pay. Yup the max! The best quarter I’ve had since I began monitoring my earnings.

Looking Ahead
I’ve got a vacation and car insurance to pay for that will suck up some money for this next quarter. Besides that I should see another steady increase since I will still be contributing 30% until I reach the maximum pre-tax cut-off. That probably won’t happen until early to mid 4th quarter. Just in time for Christmas shopping for some extra cash.

As our society steer themselves away from being dependent on gasoline, I find myself wondering if there was a 2 wheel alternative than the ever popular hybrid cars on the roads. Apparently there will be a fully electrical motorcycle available for my fancy. The company Bammo Motorsports created the first cool looking electric motorcycle called the Enertia. The bike has similar power to riding a Kawasaki 250 motorcycle but without the noise, feel, and smell of a standard motorcycle. You can drive 40-50 miles between charges and charging takes only 2 hours for a 80% charge and 3 hours for complete charge.

Obviously, you would not try to take it out on a major highway. This would be so cool to ride around town locally. A much better alternative than a scooter with their beefy suspension and fat tires. The price ranges from $12-15K and will be available next year.

A second short film from Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die site.

I spent 07/07/07 watching Transformers at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood. Not only did the movie met my expectations, it completely blew me and my friends away. Great visual effects, the occassional reference to details from the 80’s cartoon series, and Megan Fox brought smiles across most of our faces. Ok maybe only for the guys. She was SMOKIN HOT!

I managed to get some pictures of the Autobots parked outside of the Arclight on my camera phone.

I also was able to capture all the Autobots on video. Listening to myself speak makes me sound like an idiot. Freakin amateur!

Ok I’m not going to make this an all-Transformers post. I forgot to post earlier last week to wish Samira a Happy Birthday! The rollerskate party and cake was good. Rollerskating after not doing it for awhile was pretty scary. I guess it just comes back to you when you pick yourself up and go!