memoryloot

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been reading Timothy Ferriss’ book “The 4-Hour Workweek”. I’m half way done on a 300 page book. It’s only amazing since I don’t read that much or that fast for ANYTHING.

What peaked my interest was his section on Automation. He proposed that everyone should have a VA - Virtual Assistant. You’re probably thinking what I was thinking, “I can’t afford an assistant.” Yes you can. According to Tim, the productivity you get from an assistant far out-weighs the time spent doing things on your own. He sited examples of using a VA to basically do the nitty-gritty work for you and you use the fruits of their labor to do what you need to do. For example, researching for a project or even researching for various things like blog posting.

The cost range from $5 – $20 an hour. The more expensive ones are located in the US or Canada. The middle of the line and cheaper ones are located off-shore in India, China, or Shanghai.

I think I can afford to pay someone to do some of my work and reclaim some of my time back. This realization is almost as big as the time I realized, “Hey! I can learn to ride a motorcycle and not worry about what my parents thought.” Exciting stuff!

I just started reading again tonight. The reason this time was that I have 2 books to read by September 17th. I plan on finishing those well before that deadline. In fact the book, “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferris I’ve already completed 100 pages. I realized since I replaced my PS2 with my Xbox 360 console, I’ve been playing alot more games. I haven’t picked up a book since April of this year, when I bought the new system. I need to read more so hopefully reading these books will help me get back into the book-reading mood. So far so good.

So many distractions these days with the Xbox, birthdays, weddings, and other social functions. The only device that has been good for me is my iPod. I use that the most but listening to music and podcast doesn’t get in the way while I’m doing other things.

Here are some photos of my 31st birthday celebration. We were grubbin at The Crab Pot with friends. Pictures was provided by Peuv, the official photographer of the Johnny Lam fan club.

Finally! The last set of photos from our vacation trip. We went back into Seattle and had some dim-sum in Chinatown and walked around the streets of Seattle. We eventually ended up in SeaTac (their airport) for our flight home. It was a good trip filled with so many memories and sights to see. I won’t forget how much fun we had. You can see from the photos everyone had a good time.

On the 9th day of our vacation, we went to eat dim-sum in Richmond, British Columbia. Hands down the BEST dim-sum we ever ate! I’d go back to Vancouver just to have another meal. We spent most our time coming back into America. 2 hour wait at the border. We even had guys selling ice cream in between the 2 lanes. We then took a detour out to Microsoft. Nothing really to see but plain buildings. We drove around trying to find where they developed the Xbox 360. No luck. We eventually made it back to Tammy’s place.

On this day, we had a quick breakfast at McDonalds. Funny to see that there is a “Canadian Idol” ad on the walls of the restaurant. We took the ferry across to Victoria. Endured a 1 hour ride into town and walked all over the place. Almost got stranded there due to a bomb threat on the way back. Luckily they loaded everyone in a huge cruise ship and we made it back ok.

Imagine hitting a barrier, severing your right leg, and riding for a mile or so without knowing that the leg was missing. A 54 year-old biker in Japan did just that. He said he felt excruciating pain but kept on riding. His buddy picked up the leg for him. Talk about taking the meaning of hardcore rider to the limit. I’m thinking it might be from the adrenaline from riding that he didn’t noticed the missing limb. Yikes!

Some pictures of our journey up to Canada for the first time ever for everyone. We made it into Vancouver and took a tour around the city. Vancouver like many city seemed to be sprawling with people this weekend.

We spent the entire day in downtown Seattle. First we visited Pike Place Market. Pretty cool place. The highlight was the famous fish tossing stand. We also got to peruse the underground shops below Pike Place Market. We then had lunch at the restaurant near the Waterfront. I forget which one but it was ok. Nothing spectacular. After lunch we went to see the first ever Starbucks coffee shop in Pike Place Market. We then made our way to the Space Needle. We didn’t go up the needle but instead took the “Duck Tours”.

Here’s the 5th day of our vacation. We spent our morning walking around downtown Portland. Like Los Angeles, Portland wasn’t crowded and it didn’t seem like it was the primary hub of the area. We cruised over to the International Rose Test Garden. We perused the rows and rows of roses and admired the view at the garden. When lunch came, we headed over to the Nike Campus in Beaverton to see Lori for the last time. She gave us an awesome tour of the campus. We bid farewell and went on our way to Mt. Hood. It was a beautiful drive to the base of the mountain. Still had some snow on the mountain. We then headed over to the Hood River and eventually made it across to Washington.