Wow, it’s been a heck of a while since I last updated this thing. I’ve been spending too much time posting on Facebook (yes, I broke down, started a page, and now I’m an addict) and Twitter. Having an iPhone and being able to quickly comment on things on the go is so nice. Blogging requires some thought into what I want to write about. Even though this post seems a bit random but I have been walking around thinking about what to write about that maybe insightful or even helpful. There are some ideas but I’ll save them for another post. It is 12AM after all on a school night.
But I digress. Happy new year to my few readers out there! The holidays came and went without much fanfare. As I grow older I realize I don’t want as much “stuff” as I once did. I’ve been on a consumption diet as of late. Leo Babauta of ZenHabits wrote a post entitled, “The Case Against Buying Christmas Presents” which I am very much in agreement with his views on what Christmas has become and why I don’t view it innocently like I once did. On my time off (compliments of my new employer) I spent time to reflect on myself. What really matters to me these days. I don’t want stuff to matter. I want experiences and relationships to matter more. Therefore, I’ve told folks I would rather spend money on an experience to enrich a person’s life rather than on something that can eventually break or be forgotten. If you’re reading this and you know me personally, please do not give me any more “stuff”. I would rather you take the money and donate to a fund-raising effort. I’ll take this time to pimp those out: 1. Tour de Cure which is a ride to cure diabetes. 2. CCC ride for the Arthritis Foundation. This will be my second year. The first year was AWESOME!
I’ve also been reading another blog called The Path Less Pedaled which documents the journey of a Long Beach couple, Russ & Laura, who decided to sell all their personal belongings and go on an epic bike ride in 2009. I have been reading their past posts non-stop on my in and out of work. This was when I ride the bus this week. So far I’m at August 2009 where they made it up to Portland, OR and have been cruising around there and are at the state of Washington. Both authors can write so I enjoy reading their recollection and Russ is a photographer so his pictures are amazing! Some are taken from his iPhone and edited on the fly. As I poured through their entries, I am constantly reflecting on my own situation. I don’t think I own as much stuff as they did but it is a considerable amount. I need to start going through my crap and throwing things away. Even though I’m not going anywhere (yet), I’d like to lighten up the possessions. I guess I’m striving for a more simple life. I’ve been striving for a few years now. To try to minimize as much as I can.
Another interesting point in one of Laura’s post mentioned the critical mass of stuff that needed to make a home feel like a home. To fill it up with the right things so that it was more inviting. Since they had to go through this mass cleansing, they found themselves torn apart by their stuff and their overall goal to get out on the road. I have similar sentiments about my current home of 2 years. I’ve be reluctant to furnish the place fully. My bedroom just has a bed and a side table that was given to me by a friend. My living consist of a lounge chair given to me by a friend of my dad and a futon bed given to me by a buddy of mine. Coffee table is something my uncle gave me that was sitting in his garage collecting dust. My rug was bartered for some work I did for a carpet company. I got my tv stand as a present for the gf. I did splurge on the TV. I’m slowly regretting that purchase but can’t bring myself to admit it because everytime I turn it on to watch sports, I am reminded why I “had to have it”. I’m being owned! On the other hand, I’m feeling the pressure to “feather my nest” so that it feels more inviting. I’m so torn.
On another note, I am going to be getting a new bike! The one thing I don’t feel guilty about buying for myself is this custom built Surly Cross Check built by the Flying Pigeon LA guys.
Isn’t she beautiful? Build details will come later when I go pick it up this weekend. It’s missing some lights and a chainguard in this picture.
Ambiguous, Bicycle, Ideas, Travel, Travelling
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Arthritis Foundation, Bicycle, bicycle touring, blog, Christmas, Cross Check, Diabetes, Leo Babauta, New Years, Path Less Pedaled, Russ, Surly, Tour de Cure, touring, ZenHabits
I just realized WordPress supports Gravatars out of the box. I didn’t realize it until I started noticing other blogs with user’s images posted on the comments whenever they make any comments. Apparently it is like a universal photo badge that you can use whenever you comment on sites that are gravatar enabled. It is tied to your email address. You can even configure different avatars for each email account. It’s pretty cool to see your mug on each comment you give out on either your blog or even the blogs that you read. Sign-up for yours if you want one! It’s FREE.
Finally! All the image uploads is complete and all the tagging is done. I’m so happy. Only thing left to do is create my own custom banners. I do like what this theme comes with but I need some images that represents my own personal touch. One thing I found interesting was that I had alot of posts about finance and poker. Priorities now are so much different than before.
Hopefully this will encourage me to blog more often. At least the Twitter hook is helpful for people to see that I’m still alive.
This past weekend, I celebrated another birthday. It was good to spend time with family and friends. Ever since I bought my house, I’ve been very conscious of every penny I’ve spent. Because of this, I’ve opted to stay home more often. Don’t get me wrong. Staying at home and doing absolutely nothing is enjoyable to me but I realize I need to be around friends and family.
I celebrated by having various different meals. I had the guys over for a much needed poker game. I walked away being the big winner of the night. I still think it was the fact that it was for my birthday. This broke my losing streaks at 2 levels: (1) this was the first time I won with my own poker chips and (2) this was the first time I won at my own house. There’s still one more streak that hasn’t been broken yet and that’s winning with my infamous “Poker Pimp” shirt. I never win wearing that shirt. Maybe next time.
I took time off on Monday to go to Disneyland and California Adventure. I have to say I really like CA Adventure. Maybe it was because it was an entirely new experience. Either way, I really like that park and wouldn’t mind going back again. Only regret is I didn’t get to go on the “Tower of Terror” ride. Disneyland was good too. Enjoyed the interactive Toy Story ride. It’s like being in a video game during the ride. Saw updates on Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was crowded, hot, and humid but I enjoyed every minute of it. Love that “Fast Pass” system.
As usual, I’m still going through the rigor off uploading my photos on Flickr. I’m probably at 80% complete. I’m hoping to get this done by end of this week (fingers crossed). Then I can upload some newer pictures from this year. Till then, I’ll keep chugging away.
A brief status update on the site reconstruction.
- Started on retagging all the past post. It’s going to take awhile to get through close to 200 posts. I love the Tag of Popularity cloud. So neat to see what my writing is focused on.
- Removed calendar widget and added a Flickr Badge and a Live Update via Twitter widget.
- Upgraded my Flickr account to Pro so I can add and create previous albums.
- Removed the Comment RSS feed. Kind of silly if you ask me.
- Installed a cool plug-in so that I can display photos on my post easier with my Flickr photos.
Here’s one for the road!
I like Flocks of Seagull. And no. That’s NOT a wig!
So if you haven’t noticed things have changed around here. Really it’s not because I wanted to but due to some unusual circumstances, I am forced to. Not that it’s a bad change. I really enjoy the new look and feel as well as the cool blogging software. For those who have visited around the neighborhood, you’ll notice a few things missing:
- Albums and Pictures
- Ad banners
- Header images (those are not my pictures but rather part of the cool theme)
I even hired a guy to help me migrate my old content over from the previous blog to this one so that I still have a good archive. I’ll be spending the next few days/weeks/months adding images to my Flickr account so that I can get all the images on here. I’ll be creating my own header images as well. Finally, I’m going to implement some way to put some Ad Sense stuff in as well as affiliates banners (not that I’m even close to capitalizing on that).
I also need to start tagging my posts so that I can get my tag map working right. Let me know what you think so far. I encourage you to come back when the dust settles or while everything is under construction.
Found a way around to upload pictures again. Here are the albums that was missed since Chicago.
This is the final week of a 2 year project that I have been working on at work. We are scheduled to be in production by Friday, November 18, 2005. The events of the next couple of days will be critical so that we make sure this milestone is realized. In a way I feel excited about this final stage. This was only the 2nd project I have been on since working at NBC Universal and also the longest. The burden of launching has been with us since the end of last year, but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond any of our control, we were delayed for another year. So as you can assume, we have alot riding on this launch and alot of people waiting for this to be completed, including myself.
Hopefully after this project I can finally do things I need to do. This includes working-out consistently, finding more time to work on some side projects that I’ve been neglecting, and continuing to move forward in my career path with the same company. I’m hoping that from next week on, life at work should be less stressful. As you can assume, I will be limiting my frequency of posts here. So don’t hold your breathe because I may not be back on until next weekend. Wish me luck!
Note: I also want to wish Shon some luck as he receives news about his bar results on the same day that we launch.
I decided to cease my activities over at Xanga and begin my new chapter here. Xanga was a good site to get my feet wet and help me maintain several relationships I had with people all around the world. Nevertheless, this was the natural progression. This should be a good tie in with a photo album. WordPress rocks! Thanks Alex for the recommendation of using WordPress and for planting the idea of hosting my own blog.
My very own private blog with integrated photo album. WordPress, Gallery 2, Random-Image Theme and the WPG2 Plug-in are the technologies that made this site possible.
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