Comments (0)

By Johnny, November 13, 2007 11:33 pm

Nothing much going on these days except some weddings and Halloween at work.

Comments (2)

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.

Comments (0)

By Johnny, July 16, 2007 6:01 pm

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.

Comments (0)

By Johnny, July 13, 2007 12:08 am

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!

Comments (0)

By Johnny, July 12, 2007 12:33 am

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.

Comments (0)

By Johnny, May 31, 2007 3:24 pm

I was featured in this month’s APAF newsletter.

Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Johnny Lam (Project Manager, IT B2B Systems, Media Works, NBC Universal), immigrated to the United States at the young age of three and always knew he wanted to help bridge cultures to help others. Growing up in Alhambra, California, the eldest of two (younger sister is a second-grade teacher), the Chinese-American has taken on his own special project of helping the Asian Pacific Women’s Center (APWC).

Johnny was first introduced to APWC through the External Focus Committee. What interested him initially was APWC’s need for someone to help with their website. It made sense for Johnny, given his professional and educational background. And in doing so, he would help APWC focus more on helping victims of domestic violence. Thus, began Johnny’s relationship with APWC — his first objective, organizing the Center’s donation room. Johnny spearheaded the first APAF volunteer event where volunteers spent a Saturday morning and helped clean, recycle and organize that room. From there, Johnny’s relationship with APWC grew and he was asked to consult with their website plans. With a degree in Information and Computer Science (University of California, Irvine), this was an easy task and Johnny moved the entire APWC email system to a more robust hosting provider. In addition, the hosting company Johnny located provides their service free of charge for non-profit organizations which resulted in savings for APWC. The new email service has enabled APWC to send and receive specific emails from particular groups. Prior to this change some companies were not able to send to the domain and therefore, unable to communicate with this deserving organization. From this first endeavor, Johnny’s initative and drive has led him to working with a small group of volunteers to make additional adjustments to APWC’s website, which will improve the ease of use for APWC.

Johnny is one of the SoCal Hub’s newest members but isn’t new to NBC Universal. He started at Universal Pictures in 2003 as a Web Developer. From there, Johnny pursued a position as a Business Analyst and was recently promoted in April 2007 to Project Manager of the IT B2B Systems of Media Works for NBC Universal. When asked what his goals for APAF were, Johnny said, “To be able to give back to society in a positive way through volunteering. I’ve been so fortunate to be able to do what I’m doing at NBC Universal while there are others out there that may need some help.” Johnny is proof that one person can make a difference and SCOOP is proud to honor him as one of our own role models! When Johnny isn’t busy with his volunteer efforts, you can find him riding his motorcycle, playing poker and watching sports. Congratulations, Johnny!

Comments (1)

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!

Comments (0)

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.

Comments (0)

By Johnny, April 5, 2006 1:57 pm

Yesterday we had our annual Earthquake drill and yours-truly was the official Floor Warden. I was a bit nervous at first because I’ve never conducted this drill before. So when 10:30 AM rolled around, I put on my yellow vest and donned the whistle. It was suppose to be 2 person running our section of the floor, me and Mikhail. When the time came, Mikhail was no where to be found! I couldn’t wait and begin blowing my whistle and yelling “Earthquake Drill! Duck, Cover, and Hold!” Mind you I gave them early notice the day before that I was going to do this and at what time. But still I got gopher heads peaking out of their cube with puzzled looks. I yelled the same phrase again and some people finally got it and ducked underneath their desk. I walked around and made sure people where duck and covering correctly. I mean if they’re under their desk, they’re good. But I actually got some people who outright refused to do it until I just stood their and pleaded with them. Someone actually said, “You know if there was a real earthquake I wouldn’t be underneath my desk!” I was like, “That’s fine.” but thought to myself, “I don’t care if you run off. I mean if flying debris hits and injured you, you’ll be sorry!” It just didn’t make sense why they were so combatitive. I don’t make the rules and quite frankly, I just volunteered because I thought it maybe a good thing to be the person responsible for the safety of people on my floor especially I heard that during the 9/11 incidents, most of the floor wardens helped people get out of the building as efficient as possible. Some people purposely left their desk and came back later. I eventually made sure I came back and have them show me the duck and cover by themselves. I mean even though its annoying it is necessary to prevent further chaos in the event of an earthquake. I guess you can’t help those that don’t want to be helped.

Comments (0)

By Johnny, April 1, 2006 1:57 am

Just got back from a home game my co-worker Jeremy hosted. Texas Hold’em NL $30 buy-in $0.25/$0.50 blinds. After about 5 hours of playing I lost it all in another incredible hand. I was constantly up the entire night until this last play. I was holding a K-9 spades and the flop had a K-9. I thought I was good and was almost wanting my opponent to call me all in. This one guy, Heitor, basically the other shark on the table besides myself does call me all in. I call and he flips over cards that had so many outs. He flopped a gut shot, flush draw, and straight flush draw. The turn brings down a 8 of clubs which completed his straight flush, the biggest hand of the night. I was in disbelief. But was satisfied with the lost. I’ve been very good about stretching out my buy-in and end up losing considerably less every time I’ve played. The shark and I took turns out thinking each other whenever we go heads up. Hey may win a hand, I may win a hand or I just bluff him out alot of the time. I’d have to say some of those plays were damn good. I was so glad he didn’t call it at the time. I know this won’t be the last time facing off with him again.

I think my game has gotten much better through the years and feel good even after another losing tonight. This has been 4 consecutive losing poker sessions. I’m not giving up yet. It’s a price to play to really sharpen these skills. I’m exhausted from the crazy mind games and have a slight head ache on the way back till now. I feel poker works the entire brain. To be able to calculate odds works the left brain and the reading and feeling out a player is intense activity for the right brain. I love this game!