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By Johnny, November 2, 2010 1:24 am

The first rule of blogging, you do not apologize for not blogging. Of course, I’ll be violating that right now. To the rare people who checks my blogs: why aren’t you following me on Twitter or friending me on Facebook? Even though I’ve been doing play-by-play update of my life on those social network, I can’t abandon this lonely blog. It is one of the rare moments I can write as much as I want without a 140 character restriction or without everyone on my friend list seeing (I do have a habit of letting people know there is a new post so I guess that’s not a relevant detractor).

I feel more open on my personal blog to express and rant. Unfortunately, due to a few life changing events I am completely overwhelmed with work and have been trying to waste my time more wisely. On a rare occasion like tonight, I am feeling a bit inspired to put some words here and give my dedicated readers an update of my life even though I know you don’t care or already know what’s going on. Hell, this will be good to go back and read my postings when I’m old and gray and say, “Thank you, you! For writing this.”

So what’s been going on? The most significant accomplishment that happened late September into October was that I completed my awesome ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 8 days. Words cannot explain how awesome this trip was. Therefore I’m just going to show you my Flickr photo set instead:

250 riders raised about $1.27 million for the Arthritis Foundation. It was so good that I’m going to do it again next year. Look for my solicitation for donations and leave some money in your budget to help donate to this great cause.

The second update in my life (or really my family’s life) is that my sister is finally married! Her long-time boyfriend turned fiance is now her husband. I gained a brother-in-law who I welcome to our family with open arms. I was part of the wedding ceremony which was a very simple and progressive combination of American and Chinese culture. Much like the way I would like to do it if I was getting married. Too bad that’s not happening anytime soon.

The third and final update is that I am in the middle of changing jobs. Yup, I am moving forward from my 7 year tenure from NBC Universal. Quoting the great Lebron, “In this fall — this is very tough — in this fall I am taking my talents to Culver City and work with Sony”. Last day is November 5th. It’s going to be a sad departure. I’ve given my best with this company and they’ve allowed me to grow and groom my skills as a Project Manager.

There you go! You’re caught up with my life now. Move along. There’s nothing else to see here…

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By Johnny, November 13, 2009 1:45 am

After a “long week”, I attended a Happy Hour over at Henry’s Hat last night. The attendees at this particular Happy Hour are my co-workers who are part of the company’s racing team. Racing as in triathlon, running, etc. Upon arrival I was told by 2 separate individuals that they saw footage of me on TV. Specifically, it was a video about the 2009 Nautica Malibu Triathlon race recap on Fox Sports West. When I got home, I immediately scoured the net and found the video on the actual Nautica Malibu Triathlon website. It is the first video segment of the 2009 video series. I am seen running at the 1 minute mark for 2 seconds. Woohoo I’m famous!

Here’s a screen shot of the page and video just in case they remove it in the future:

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By Johnny, September 22, 2009 1:21 am

This year’s Nautica Malibu Triathlon kicked off on a Sunday morning at 3:30AM. That was when I woke up and realized we were going to be late. I was suppose to be awake an hour earlier but put my alarm on snooze. Coincidentally, I had a nightmare that I missed the race and woke up at 7:30AM! I quickly woke Marie & Sang up and told them we’re late. They graciously obliged and quickly got ready to go in a matter of a few minutes.

We drove over to Zuma with a pack of cars who seem to be heading at the same direction. Lucky for us, we were actually on time. We got parking and quickly got out to pump more air into my bike’s tire. What I did notice this year was that the weather was warmer. This worked in my favor since I forgot my sweater.

It was a long walk from the car to lifeguard station 15 where the transition area was. When we got there, a few folks from NBC Universal was hanging around getting prepped for the race. I was much more calm and relax than last year. It definitely helps that this is my second year and I knew what was expected and how to approach the pre-race jitters. I went to my area for the co-ed relay teams and setup my bike and equipment. It only took a matter of 10 minutes to get everything organized and race ready. It helps especially when you’re not swimming.

I even had time to eat breakfast before the race. Nothing big, just a bagel w/cream cheese. I was also tagged during this time with my race number, 884. This was a lucky number in Chinese. Another good sign that I’m in for a good one. Around 5:30, we had our group picture with the team taken. My team mate, Sanya was still not here. I was a bit worried since this was her first race and she had a Toastmaster event the day before that she might have overslept. She finally shows up around 6:30. She was sleeping in her car and had arrived very early. She completely missed the picture and was bummed out. We quickly went over logistics as to the first transition and went over to listen to our mandatory meeting around 7:00.

The meeting pretty much went over rules for the race and highlights with the national anthem being sung by a race participant. Immediately after the pre-race ceremony, the first wave began. Sanya was in the third wave so it didn’t take too long since they were going out 15 minutes at a time. I got to the transition area and had my helmet, gloves, and shoes on. I quickly ate some Gu and water for the extra energy. I also noticed I didn’t have to pee as much as I did last year, which was a good thing because the lines to the port-o-potty was long.

People started flowing in from the water and in about 30 minutes of waiting, Sanya was running pass our lane. Those lanes are hard to recognize when they’re filled with people waiting for their teammates and cheering. I had to run out there and call her back. She quickly took off the chip and handed it to me. I strapped it to my ankle, grabbed the bike and dashed out to the beginning of the bike round.

My strategy was to take it easy and up my cadence at a mellow pace and not push it too much. I had to say I did just that until maybe at the end when I was coming back. Much of the way I just took a mellow pace and allowed the true triathletes speed by with their “whooshing” wheel (that’s the sound their bicycle makes as they speed on). I was much better on the hills this year. I was less ambitious and allowed people to pass me. By the time they were half way through the hill, I would catch up and pass them with ease. On the descents I was able to keep pace with the rider in front of me who was still spinning. I just dipped low and just rode it through in my aerodynamic position. On the way back, I had a few guys that I kept going back and forth with. And then finally on one last hill, one guy took off climbing pass me. I didn’t know why I reacted that way but soon I was blowing by him even though he gave it his all on the climb. It felt good. I felt like Contador on the Tour de France on the day he blew by all his opponents on one of his climbs.

On my way back into the parking lot, I felt good. Ate another packet of Gu and rode on to the transition area. From there I dismounted the bike and ran to my spot. I lost track of where it was for a moment but quickly hung the bike up, took off my shoes, helmet, and gloves and quickly slipped on my running shoes and was off to the running leg. I could hear Sanya and other folks cheering me on. As I began my ran I started to cramp up on both of my calves. It got bad enough for me to stop and stretch out a bit before I begin to gingerly jog. I thought it was going to be a bad run but miraculously I felt better and better as I kept on trucking. Every water stop I took a quick sip and dumped the rest on my head to cool down. That helped tremendously as I made my way back to the finish line where the time read 2:09 (2 hours and 9 minutes). They even announced my name as I crossed the line. We were welcomed by freezing wet towels and a cool medal.

I went back to meet up with Sanya. We talked a bit about the race and went to go grab breakfast at the buffet area. Along the way we saw so many celebrities. Terry Hatcher, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, shirtless Mario Lopez, and Mark Feuerstein (the doctor in “Royal Pains” series on USA) to name a few. Breakfast was delicious but I held back since I was going to have lunch at King’s Hawaiian again this year. I decided to make it a tradition to go there after the race every year.

Here are the results from the race. Our official times: Swim – 00:17:19.6 Transition 1 – 00:01:46.3 Bike – 0:56:03.3 Transition 2 – 00:01:52.8 Run – 00:36:24.1 Finish – 01:53:32.7. Sanya didn’t swim as fast as my former teammate but we made up alot of time during transitions and biking. I was 4 minutes faster on the bike this year than last year but I was 26 seconds slower on the run. Overall, we were about 2 minutes faster than last year. Not bad for a pretty relaxed training schedule. I only ran about once a week and ride my bike as much as possible to work.

Click on the image below for the rest of the photo set.

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By Johnny, December 5, 2007 10:19 pm

Last Saturday, San and I went to volunteer for the Oliver Crest foster home at the CBS lot. It was my second year participating and we had a great time. We helped the kids create decorate popsicle frames so they can use it for their picture with Santa. And hand-full of people from APAF showed up. We grabbed a quick shot with Santa here:

Yesterday I was surprised with an offer to watch the Clippers play the Milwaukee Bucks. I finally got to experience the game in a box seat at a suite. The suite was rented out by NBC Universal. It was weird to see our company logo on the walls and on the furniture.

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By Johnny, October 28, 2007 10:26 pm

*EDIT 11/06/2007: More pictures from Peuv’s camera.

This weekend was our 5th Annual Halloween Costume Party held at Boston restaurant in Long Beach. This year’s theme was A Child’s Tale. I was the The Man with The Yellow Hat from the popular Curious George children book. I took the Best Male Costume award while my dear San took the Best Female Costume. She was the adorable Gingerbread Man. She hand-made her costume. This year’s party included the following characters:

• Ursula from the Little Mermaid (also hand-made)
• Little Red Riding Hood (partially hand-made)
• The surviving little pig
• Count Dracula (yes he was a folklore character)
• Tinkerbell from Peter Pan
• Jack & Jill
• Dorothy & Scarecrow of The Wizard of Oz
• Rumplestiltskin
• Waldo from Where’s Waldo books
• Snow White of the Seven Dwarves
• Cruela Devil from 101 Dalmations
• Jack of All Trades (Jack be Nimble, Jack and the Bean Stock, and Jack of Jack & Jill)

Thanks to Peuv for organizing and setting up another successful outing. Next year’s theme will be Heroes & Villians.

On another note, I was also honored last week for a Volunteer Recognition Award for my company. People were congratulating me. In a way I felt guilty because I didn’t think what I did was that great compared to what others do. I mean on my off time I’m helping the non-profit Asian Pacific Women’s Center redo their website and improve anything IT related for them. I actually enjoyed doing that kind of stuff and it was more fun than work to me. But I suppose I should just accept what they gave me and not be unappreciative. Man I’m still on this weird winning streak for the year.

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By Johnny, April 12, 2007 5:44 pm

I don’t want to toot my own horn but here’s a note from my boss…

I am very pleased to announce that Johnny Lam has been promoted to Project Manager, B2B Systems. Over the past year, Johnny has already been playing the role of Project Manager and this is recognition of his work and role. Johnny has been the lead for various B2B and other apps.

Johnny has been a solid performer and a true asset to my team. Please join me in congratulating him.

Hip hip hooray!

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By Johnny, March 30, 2007 10:15 pm

For those who was in LA today, you may have seen the huge fire near Universal City. We came back from lunch and thought our studio was on fire. Here’s a couple of shots from within the lower lot of Universal Studios. I’m standing right outside a balcony at work with my camera phone.

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By Johnny, February 8, 2006 1:41 pm

As a response to SNL’s Chronicles of Narnia Video, these guys put out something equally as funny.

Edit 02/20/2006: Ironically enough, my own employer decided to pull the video of the SNL skit. Oh well, I’m sure you can catch it on iTunes or somewhere on the Internet.

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By Johnny, November 14, 2005 12:30 am

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.