J E E - R A H L

LeMans

What a race weekend. The 24 Hours of LeMans was run this weekend, as well as the Canadian Grand Prix. Congrats to the Audi R15 TDI team and the McLaren Mercedes team for winning thier respective races.

The more I watch racing, the more I think many elements of it mimic life. Take LeMans for example. It's one of the most challenging races on earth. Teams bring thier highly tuned, high performance machines to a circuit and run it for 24 GRUELING hours. It's a relentless affair. To put this into perspective, most races are less than 2hours long. LeMans is so taxing that teams not only change tires and refuel, but rotate three different drivers and other things that teams usually don't need to worry about such as brake pads and rotors. This year, 56 cars entered the race and only 28 finished.

The part I want to focus on is the LMP1 race at LeMans today. Two major teams battled it out for the class win. Peugeot with it's 908 HDi, and Audi with the newly revised R15 TDI. The Peugeot was the favorite, and just as people expected, it had a very strong showing in the begining hours of the race. Dominating early on, they ran in first through fourth. The race seemed grim for Audi, most of the R15 TDI's were several laps down... but they came to race, and while the Peugeots set blistering lap times one after the other, the Audi's held thier pace. If things continued, there was no way for Audi to win. Before long however, things went very wrong for Peugeot. One after another, all of the 908 HDi's retired from the race, and eventually, none of them finished. The Audi's however, not only made it to the finish line, but eventually took the top three spots. What I really liked was however, when a reporter interviewed the team captain of Audi after the lead Peugeot caught on fire, he said something to the effect of "we are racing ourselves, we are running our own race, and will continue to do so".

New Year, New Decade, and my outlook.

Ok so I'm a couple days late on this, but I figure, better late than never. 2009 is officially closed out and we've cracked open 2010. As I've done every year, here are some resolutions for 2010, in no particular order.

- Visit Atlanta. I'm wayyyyyyyy overdue and I've made this #1 on my list of things to do in 2010.

- Volunteer. Think this is something we could all do a little more of. I'm keeping it on my list.

- Don't complain about things UNLESS I have a good solution. I don't think I complain a lot anyway.

- Be more assertive. I've always been pretty introverted so it's always something that I'm trying to work on. Not assertive in a bad way, but really be one of those people that stand up and is willing to put themselves out there.

- Live in the moment. I think sometimes I'm too wrapped up in the consequences of my actions that I forget to enjoy myself. Without sounding too irresponsible, I think I need to live in the moment more and just learn to have fun.

- Write/Blog more. 2009 was the worst year for my blog. I feel bad. If it was a ficas, it would be withered and dead.

Hopefully I'll knock a couple of these out. Looking back, I did ok for 2009, although there were a LOT of unexpected events that happened last year. The economy is in shambles and unemployment is above 10% but I see what happened in 2008-2009 as a cleansing. Kinda like how sometimes you need a forest fire to spur the growth of new trees. As far as I know, I'm still healty, still have both of my parents, and still have a group of friends I wouldn't trade for anyone else's.

Recently, one of my best friends came to visit me in California and I couldn't help but think about how we had known each other through the last decade. What my brain really started to chew on is the decade ahead. In the next 10 years I'll face some of the biggest challenges and make some of the most important choices of my life. I've never been the kind of person to look back at my life and regret the decisions that I've made. I hope at the end of 2019 I can say the same thing. I've used this opportunity to lay out some medium to long term goals for myself. For now, I'll keep these to myself but hopefully, with a little bit of hard work and a touch of luck, I'll hit a few of those too.

Happy new year and the best of luck to everyone for 2010.

How I almost got my ass kicked

As some of you may know, I recently took a little trip to Vegas. So while I'm there I find myself at the BlackJack tables at about 3am. Here's the story about how I manage to almost get my ass kicked.

So I'm sitting at this BlackJack table and things are going pretty good. I was severely down at one point and I've managed to claw some of my money back. We're all drunk and were having a pretty good time at this particular table. To set the scene, the players at the table are as follows. In the first position, just to the right of me, there's this girl, I even remember her name, Angie. She's a decent looking girl, curly, dirty blonde hair, black dress, not skinny but definitely not overweight. I'm sitting next in the second position. My buddy Kyle from Chicago is sitting in the third spot. Now, to those of you who don't know Kyle, Kyle is a very large dude. Just imagine a large samoan dude, he even looks like one, although he's Mexican. Next is a random guy, medium build, pretty young, late 20's maybe early 30's. After him is a nother guy, a bit younger, pretty tall, maybe early to mid 20's. There's an older lady at the last spot at the table, she's smoking and she knows the young guy sitting next to her, they are here together. heh. So anyway, we're all playing and we're all drunk. Everyone's having a good time.

We play a couple hands and at some point, the guy sitting next to my buddy Kyle, gets up and moves all the way over and sits next to this girl Angie. Keep in mind that she's sitting in the first position so there's no extra spot there for him to play. Now, I personally didn't find this so odd because Angie was only playing a couple hands and then sitting out a lot. So this guy goes over there and plays the hands that Angie dosen't play. Predictably, he also uses the opportunity to hit on her. He puts his arm around her, keeps asking for drinks and is generally all over this girl. At one point, she looks up at me with this face "please help me!". Try as I might, this guy is all over her. So whatever, I keep playing, and everyone at the table is having fun...... well, everyone except Angie. After a while she gets fed up with it all and decides to leave.

So now this guy is sitting there, looking all sad. He continues to play for about 20 more minutes and then decides he's done as well. After he leaves, my curiosity gets the better of me so I start asking the table about the two. I ask "so were they together or what?". The lady at the far end of the table, who's been pretty quiet but seems to laugh at my jokes pipes up and proceeds to tell me that not only are they not together, that the guy is actually married and his wife was at the table earlier! Of course this leads me to my follow-up question: "was his wife ugly??". The woman tells me that the guys wife was really hot, and not only that but the dealer confirms. (Now, keep in mind, that I'm drunk, it's about 5am in a casino, and I'm being LOUD and generally obnoxious.) So I hear the woman's reply and I go "WELL IN THAT CASE I'LL KEEP HIS WIFE BUSY WHILE HE HITS ON ANGIE". Yeah, I basically yell it. So as this is coming out of my mouth, I look at the dealer and the other players and they have this terrified look on thier faces. I think the dealer was actually shaking his head a little trying to say no. I realize what's going on and quiet down instantly and say "uhhhh..... he's right behind me isn't he?". The lady at the table cracks a huge grin and goes "yup". I BLATANTLY look over my shoulder and sure enough, there he is, looking down at his cell phone. There is NO WAY he didn't hear what I said. HAHA, luckily, he decides just to walk away, didn't even say a word to me. As soon as he was gone the whole table, including the dealer, almost died laughing.

Uh hello.....

Does this thing still work. Time to dust this thing off. New entry to come soon.

Top Ten, ladies and gentlemen

Ok, so every time I move, I like to list the top ten things I hated the most and the top ten things I will miss the most about the place I'm leaving. So here it is for Phoenix. (in no particular order)

Things I hated:

1. The summers. It's a dry........... hell, I mean heat. riiiiiiiiiiiight.

2. Tap water. Phoenix is the first place I've lived where I couldn't stand drinking the tap water because it tasted so bad. It tastes a lot like liquid dirt.

3. Scottsdale Douchebags. That's with a capital D.

4. Traffic Cameras. My worst enemy.

5. The dust. There's dust EVERYWHERE here.

6. Restaurants. Other than a few gems, most of the restaurants here are very commercial.

7. Car registration Tax - Ok so this one caught me offguard. It's really steep here.

8. Architecture. Didn't like it. I think I'm just spoiled by Chicago.

9. No Trees. Ok, it's the desert, I get that. But seriously, comming from the east coast, I was always used to being surrounded by lush trees.

10. Lack of diversity. Phoenix isn't very diverse in it's population. It's very unusual.

Things I'll miss:

1. The People. I've been complaining that I didn't meet that many people here in Phoenix but as I look back, I realize while I didn't meet many, I chose quality. Big thanks goes out to all the wonderful people I got to know where, I'll miss you all.

2. Hot blonde chicks. Ok so to be fair, I'm really not into blondes but I gotta say, some of the hot blonde chicks here were just off the scale.

3. Spring, Winter and Fall.

4. Roads. Miles and miles of what seemed to be freshly paved, near perfect roads. I don't even remember the last time I saw a pothole.

5. Tex-Mex (Mexican) Food. Gotta say Phoenix had some really good Tex-Mex food.

6. US-60W to US-93N :)

7. Clear night sky. No clounds in sight, you can really get a good view of the stars at night.

8. Guns. Arizona has really lax gun laws. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

9. Low cost of living. Not the best, but definitely not the most expensive place to live.

10. Palm trees. They're not native to Arizona but they thrive here so people plant them everywhere. makes you feel like you're on vacation during Spring, Winter and Fall.

It's unfortunate that I've got to break tradition and The Oracle can't make the drive out to Irvine with me. Hopefully luck will be on my side. I'm sure he's with me in spirit. Farewell to the Grand Canyon State. Cali or bust!

So just chill..... till the next episode

After 2 years, 6 months and 20 days of living in Arizona, I'm sure that my time here is comming to an end.

Chapter One
My first ever big move was when I decided to go to college in Atlanta GA. I still remember the day my parents left. As they drove off the gravity of what I was doing struck me. My brain pictured myself, then zoomed out to the Georgia Tech campus, then to the city of Atlanta, then to the state of Georgia, and all I could think about was "I don't know a single soul". Being in a college setting was easier though. Lots and lots of kids were in the same situation. Atlanta was very good to me, I somehow managed to meet tons and tons of great people.

Chapter Two
Chicago was the next big move I made. Again I was faced with moving to a place where I didn't know anyone. Chicago, being the phenominal city that it is, found a place for me. I still remember getting off the plane, seeing all the snow, and thinking to myself "What have I done". I've always felt that my time in Chicago was too short, and I could see myself moving back one day.

In the end, you think about the begining
The move to AZ. Although I had done it twice before, I somehow knew that the move to AZ wasn't going to be as easy as the first two. Again I didn't know anyone in this city, or state for that matter. I arrived here in November, Tommy and I drove all weekend. I was excited about the nice weather, but deep down inside I wasn't so sure about what Phoenix would offer me.

Meat and Potatoes
The first year I lived in Phoenix, I actually enjoyed living here. For reasons that I don't care to mention, I needed some time away from everyone. Work was busy but that's the way I like it and professionally, I was very very happy. Eventually however, I needed to find my circle. Meeting people here has been difficult. I don't know if I was too busy, but it just hasn't happened the way I imagined it would go. For about a year and half, I've felt that I've been wasting my time here. I think it's the phase of my life. People my age are starting thier families, building thier carreers and already have an established social circle. Some people might point out the lack of asians here, but really, I had no asian friends in Chicago and it didn't bother me one bit. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't met ANYONE here. I just feel that it's been different.

Next time, on Dragonball-Z
What does it all mean? It means I'm moving. Agian. For the first time in my life I'm moving out of a city because it's my choice. I'm doing this one for me. Noone else. I'm still not sure whether it'll be Irvine, CA or Boston, MA. At this point nothing is definite other than the fact that I will be out of here within 2 months. Even the time is a bit up in the air. I was originally planning on moving at the end of July, but there's now a good chance that might change to the end of June.

Since this is my choice, I'm looking forward to moving this time. I'm going to take my time and make sure I find a place where I can grow both professionally, and as a person. A frightening thought is that within the next 5 years I'll most likely get married (whoa), buy a house, and start a family. I really do think both Boston and Irvine are fantastic candidates. Others I considered, but ruled out are (in no particular order), Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC, NYC, and San Francisco.

So there it is. I absolutely hate moving but this has to be done. NOTHING is holding me back to this place and I see no reason why I should stay here. There are a handfull of people that I'll truly miss here, but otherwise, I think change will be only for the better.

Tommy! get your bags ready!!!!!!!!

The Ox

2008. Wow what a year. So, I said at the begining of 2008 that it would be a year of change. I wasn't wrong but I wasn't completely right either. I guess I WAS right from a political perspective! I guess I wrote my "In Review" entry this year, so you guys can go back to that to see how my year went.

How did I do with my last years resolutions? Looks like I got 6 of 7. Hell yeah.

Now, on to 2009. I think 2009 will be a banner year for me. I feel like it's almost time to get really agressive with my life. I'm very comfortable with things and I'm in a good place to make some good changes. I just hope I don't get burned.

Ok, here it is, my 2009 resolutions:

- Stay fit - I've actually started to work out. Although I'm slacking a bit right now, I intend to get back on track after the holidays.

- Visit Atlanta and Chicago - I need to go visit my friends. I really need to visit Atlanta.

- Volunteer - Ok Ok Ok Ok. I'm GOING to do it this year.

- Have more fun - This one is a carry-over from last year. I've loosened up a but but I think I could still benefit from enjoying life a little more.

- Work HARD - Not that I've been slacking by any means. 2009 could be a pivotal year for me and I intend to give it my best.

- Learn patience - I need to be more patient.

I think that's it for this year. 6.

In Review

Wow what a year. 2008 has been a gigantic year for me. I feel like I've grown and learned more about myself in the past year than I have ever before in my life. I've gotten in touch with a lot of people from my past, and for the first time since I've arrived in Phoenix, felt like I've really carved out a little life for myself. I think it's taken me a long time to settle in because I've become more and more finicky about the people I associate with.

2008 has also been a year where I spent a lot of time thinking about my closest friends. Again and again I've noticed how they infuence my life and how they all play an integral part in who I am. I've always felt that I have been lucky to be surrounded by great people. I can only hope that my friends feel the same about me.

Well, unlike most people, I will miss 2008. I think it was a great year. I AM however, incredibly optimistic about 2009. More to come in my annual New Years resolution post.

Feathers

"I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend." - Red | The Shawshank Redemption

The sheer gravity of these words are simply amazing. I can honestly say that on multiple occasions, I've been on both sides of this quote. Sometimes, I was the bird, and others, I was Red. Either way, time marches on, and both the bird and those that are seemingly left behind live another day.

Wants and Needs

So thoughout life, we encounter wants and needs. Sometimes we mistake wants for needs. I've been thinking about wants and needs a lot lately. What brings this up? Well, a couple of days ago, I was talking with someone and they specifically pointed out how some things were "wants" and some things were "needs". I really found this interesting. Although we might use these words everyday, do we really undersand the gravity of a NEED? So in my little pea brain, I started thinking to myself, what really is a NEED? Shoes. Are shoes a need? I have no idea why they came to mind but they did. I don't even know where the hell I'm trying to go with this entry really. I don't know, it just struck me as unusual to identify things as needs.