Tuesday, July 31, 2007

blogorama

yes i know, i'm posting a ton and i need to go to bed. but i'm still wired. B2 is moving along nicely. in one week's time we have compiled a good understanding of the city's permit and other business requirements, we have scoped out 3 potential locations, created a microsoft project plan with over 80 action items, planned a research trip, and had discussions with 4 people who have done similar businesses to learn from their mistakes and successes, outlined a partnership agreement complete with matching partnership rings for the two cofounders. a LOT of work still to do. and i have to keep my eye on B1 as well. many months of not sleeping much ahead. yet...it's exciting. this is WAY better than some typical MBA job.

stirr is still going well. planning the next event. the last one a few weeks ago was a total success with over 240 people in attendance. people also really loved the new location i arranged. yay! still need to work on better food flow. it's good to be appreciated. especially since it's just volunteering and i'm not getting paid! but..i love the group and i really feel the team is a part of something important and bigger than life.

ok going to bed now. really.

from team xtreme to wedding banquet seater

went for my first dragonboat practice on sunday. twas extremely funny at first since we all thought it would be so easy but we kept paddling at the wrong times and hitting eachother's paddles in the beginning. but then by the end of the 1.5 hours we were much more streamlined and really got that boat zoomin! things i learned, it's not about muscle, it's about teamwork. the beginning matters more than the end because that is where all the power is required. it feels nice to "let it ride" and feel the momentum you built up after all your hard work getting it to go. i also liked the fact that I can apply these general rules to B1 and B2. yes, i'm a geek like that and i think about business while rowing a boat. oh well, what else is new?

after the practice i raced to hunny's house to shower and get ready for the wedding dinner. my cousin already got married but this was a dinner in norcal for the family's church friends. hunny and i were responsible for telling people their seat assignments at abc seafood in milpitas. there was a little hiccuping at first since all the table numbers had to be changed. eventually everything ended to be all right once i sorted the list so things were easier to find and also started making use of the find function. the photographer sat at our table and grabbed bites between pics. turns out by day he's applying for an SAP consulting position but photography is his hobby. doing weddings helps him pay for his expensive hobby since his lens was $1500 and the body of his camera was $2500. maybe in the future when i have more time, i'll pick up this lucrative hobby also. i like lucrative hobbies. ;)

tiesto

met up with gene, dave, vy and dave at gene's place in san carlos and then headed up to the city. the civic center turned out to be a great place for a tiesto concert! i had never been there before. there were at least 5 huge screens displaying artistic videos to complement the music. although one note from linh's andy - they really could use better looking guys for the videos. andy suggests chip and dales over the scrawny excuses of men that they had. andy says he will contact the concert organizers and remedy this problem for future concerts. haha. andy is completely straight by the way.

the music was awesome since he played a lot of his old stuff. however i kinda felt that i had way more fun with diana's crowd at armin. none of them were there at tiesto because they didn't buy tickets at the cheaper rate and last minute tix were 75 bux. diana would have gone but she had to work sat nite. i really missed her at the concert. :( at armin we were all jumping around and putting our hands in the air together. at tiesto the group got all split up and the energy was totally dif. people were just kinda doing their own thing and enjoying the music.

there were also a few downers of the nite. since i wasn't really feelin the energy and i didn't want to stay out too late, i tried to leave early with cindy at 1:30AM. (concert goes until 3:30AM) but stupid me, as we were driving out of the parking garage i remember that my purse is still in gene's car - with my keys - and so i have to go back inside and just go home with gene. but then at the door, i discover there are no ins and outs! wtf! so i beg and a security guard says that if i can remember how to find my ride, then she will escort me to him, i can then get his keys, get my purse and then return his keys. in my head i know this is too much trouble since cindy and DC are waiting for me to go inside so they can drive home and i don't want to make them wait 30 more min while i find gene, get his keys, retrieve my purse and return his keys. however, i play along with the guard hoping i can beg my way into getting back in shortly. however, she doesn't let me in even after initial begging. "cmon - i was trying to be good and go home early. i'm not drunk and not on drugs like some other people here. i made a stupid mistake, please can u let this go just the once and let me back in? prettyyyy pullllleeeeezzzzz??"
however she says she can't because her supervisor saw her let me in while being escorted so she will get into trouble if she doesn't escort me out.
so i continue playing along...
we go through the crowd on the main floor. she asks me what gene is wearing - i lie and say he's an asian guy with a black shirt cuz there are a million asian guys with black shirts. in actuality, gene is really noticeable with his long hair(longer than mine) and gray hurley shirt. i see gene but pretend i don't. the thought crosses my mind to just run into the crowd because she would never find me if i did. but i don't want to get her into trouble cuz that would suck if i were her.
so i continue playing along...
i say i can't find him and she says she has to check in upstairs. i follow her and do more pleading all along the way - "i'm a good girl, i just wanted to go home early but i was stupid and forgot my purse."
she still doesn't budge and says she needs to escort me out. i think to myself - sheesh! she's so heartless! there are so many people here, nobody will notice that i didn't pay to stay for only 2 more hours of concert! afterall it started at 8pm and it's now 1:45AM. she then says she will escort me to the smoking section and she tells a guard not to let me back in. *&^#*&^! what to do now?
but then....i go outside, walk around a little, and notice there is another entrance on the other side of the smoking section. so...was she nice and is giving me a way back in? or was she mean and told all the guards what i look like and not to let me back in. (tall asian girl in a green shirt is pretty easy to spot). i wait...see dave and gene. gene scopes out the entrance and sees no guard fitting her description. then the boys crowd around me and we quickly make our way in hoping not to be stopped. we got back in with no problems! turned out she was nice and gave me a way back in. boy was i glad i didn't make a run for it earlier since, knowing me, i probably would have been caught somehow.

the rest of the concert was ok. i would have enjoyed it better if i wasn't feeling so bad for troubling everyone over my stupidity. also i wasn't really feeling it without diana and friends. the energy was just different. the music was still really good, but i almost felt like if i just went into the crowd without my friends that i would have had more fun. we are all older nowadays and nobody wanted to get all gross and sweaty in front of the DJ. but to me, that's the perfect place to be at these concerts! ah well. i think i'm retired now - got the trance outta my system. well...maybe until wmc. hehe.

another bad thing that happened though. after we parked gene's car, dave noted how there was broken glass and that someone must have had their window broken into in the past. but we didn't think it would happen again since those things are random rite? wrong. when we got back to the car, gene's window was smashed and a jacket with keys and a bag of pennies was taken. luckily nobody left any money and my purse was locked safely int he trunk. hooray for lexus safety mechanisms which prevent burglars from opening the doors and trunk without the key close to the car. and you know how for some reason i always get flat tires? (as in i will almost always get at least 1 or 2 flat tires each year - and no i'm not driving over construction sites.) well gene always has people break his windows of his cars. it can be a crappy car, a expensive car, safe neighborhood, doesn't matter. he gets his car broken into once a year. guess those weird things just happen. either that or someone is following me around putting nails in my tires and someone is following him around smashing his car windows. but i really doubt anyone has the energy and time to follow me around since i'm always driving to far far away places likes union city.

techcrunch

techcrunch was ok, it seemed more fun and more packed last year for some reason. met more interesting people last year. maybe because there were more new faces. now in the silly valley "scene" you start bumping into the regulars at all the entrepreneurial gatherings. there were some notables though. i really enjoyed my demo and conversation with mike giordano from kyte. he even had these cute mini cards with dif photos on the back of the cards and a little icon that looks like him on the front. i likes! although it was a feat not to lose the card since i dropped it a few times. def impressed with the company and technology. very "web 3.0" if there is such a thing. i went around to the other displays also but can't really say i was really impressed. there is just too much noise in the tech space rite now...it makes it hard for good ideas to stand out without a good angle. saw some of the big names in the valley. sometimes they are really kool and down to earth. other times they are snooty for no reason. cmon guys (or gals)...you achieved greatness by the support of regular folks. so u should treat those regular folks better! it's a small valley and you never know who will make it big next. however after attending techcrunch and witnessing all the tech noise, it only reaffirms the probability for success for my business ideas B1 and B2 since they are not exactly web 2.0 related. rather, they are non-techy but will be using web 2.0 technologies as enablers. going at the B's with full force.

Friday, July 27, 2007

superbusy week and weekend

today i have a business meeting, then techcrunch.
tomorrow is more business meetings for most of the day, then tiesto!
sunday is dragonboat race practice, then registration desk duties at a wedding banquet
then more business calls and meetings all next week. i really want to get things started quickly so now is crunch time!

*crunch crunch*

SD trip to visit Lucas and LA trip to visit the Dwyers


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here is a video of dad singing his second song to his grandson. during the first song, he sang with the words "papa" since that's what he is used to. for the second song he substituted "papa" with "grandpa". soooo cute! it was a nice trip to see ryan's new house and see my little nephew. although ryan was busy with a new launch of dropshots (coming soon) so during the day we met up with family friends and went looking at houses. that's what my family likes to do in our spare time. we will go looking at open houses of new homes to get remodeling ideas and to just dream big. when my business ideas take off, i will buy one of my own. maybe two! ;) motivation! we all loooooved ryan's neighborhood. all the houses in his area are new and all the land surrounding the houses are well manicured. living there just makes you feel good! green grass and beautiful flowers are everywhere, there are a lot of families with kids, and the prices are so much more reasonable compared to the bay area! we were even talking of possibly trading our house for one in san diego, however ryan said the new house market is so overcrowded there right now, not sure if appreciation would be as high as the bay area. but wow, all the houses were gorgeous.

we also spent a nite with my cousins and auntie anna and uncle mike in LA. we watched this one show called "are you smarter than a fifth grader". the contestant we were watching was only one question away from 1 million dollars. however he decided to walk and not take the question. good thing too - they later revealed the question and he didn't know the answer. the question was - how many bicuspids does a human have? i knew what incisors, canines, premolars and molars are. but i wasn't quite sure about bicuspids. i got most of the questions. however some of them are tricky. for example - how many of the colors in the rainbow only have 3 letters. roygbiv => red! but no, the answer is one. see...tricky right? we also watched an episode of the simpsons. my cousin tim was wanting to go see the premier. i think i'll wait a while until the crowd dies down. every time i look at my baby cousins, i can still remember when they were just little babies. but now, baby pauly is 200lbs! yikes! oh and i think they hate it when we call them timmy, johnny and pauly. haha. can't help it!

oh the possibilities

been really busy. so with my first idea - let's call this first business idea B1. after more research, there is more initial investment required than i thought and my bootstrapping idea wouldn't generate enough revenue. So that started me thinking on other ways. during my SD trip i met up with a really good friend from norcal. i had mentioned to her about another business idea i had but i wasn't pursuing. however after looking into that more, it may be a good way to bootstrap B1. and so B2 was formed! we are still in initial plans, but B2 would be much faster and require less capital. i also have to update on my LA and SD trip. ah so much to do and so little time!!!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

friend requests

what's going on with sms? i keep getting all these random friend requests. does anyone actually use sms?

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

endorphins make me go weeeeeeeeee!

just got back from a run and it reminded me of something i had wanted to blog about. last week i went to a When She Speaks event put on by Fountainblue. It's basically a leadership and entrepreneurial network group and always has speakers from large companies who have made it to high positions or women who have successfully started their own companies. this particular speaker panel was discussing how their athletic activities have helped them for success. most notably, one woman has run over 50 marathons and also run over 100 mile races. one of the races was 130 miles in death valley. DEATH VALLEY!!! when she first started running, she was 230 pounds and 38 years old. now she is lithe and strong, probably 40 something and has her own company. inspiring huh? there was an article hunny had forwarded me before talking about CEO's and marathons. there is a high correlation to running marathons and being a CEO. also study after study shows that people who are fit are happier, more productive, and more balanced in other areas of their lives.

plus the endorphins make me go weeee!!!!! weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Hi Armin


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this weekend was awesome! did a whole lot of gymming, had ramen sat morning in sf for Miki's bday, then had dinner at Gambardella's (1165 Merrill St., Menlo Park, CA) for diana's bday. the food was uber yummy - fresh pasta and cream sauces. hunny had the fettuccine testarossa and i had the special rack of lamb. my lamb was so fresh, it had absolutely no gaminess and even hunny liked it! he loved his pasta also, finished it off in 15 min flat! afterwards we hung out at cafe barrone and tried the iced mocha. yummm-sugar rush.

then sunday came. i had been looking forward to seeing armin ever since i missed out on going to wmc with everyone. diana and i barted up and had a yummy slice of blondie's while walking to the hotel. haha. then to work off the pizza before dinner (dinner was only in a couple hours) we went for a run on sf. although the initial hill was really steep, the view up top was gorgeous and well worth the run. also it made running the flat parts in the embarcadero area much easier and almost leisurely in comparison. it was nice and sunny in sf but the wind definitely kept us cool. we made it back to our lavender hotel (the walls of the clift hotel were lavender, we even had lavender m&m's as part of the welcome) just in time to shower and get ready for dinner. the hotel seemed just right for us. nice and cozy for two girls to do some catching up i would say. the beds and pillows were wonderful! there were super puffy pillows which suited my liking and there were flatter pillows which were perfect for diana. friends came over to the hotel room to meet up before heading across the street to see armin. as we were waiting for people, we bumped into armin in front of the elevators of the hotel! diana recognized him. i had never seen him in person so i thought he was a good friend of hers that she knew was also attending the concert. then diana starts squealing in excitement - that's armin! you know, the DJ we are going to see! NO WAY!!!! later as we are still talking about him, he passes by us again and smiles at us! haha. way cool.

dancing for almost four hours straight followed. the music was awesome. i was trying to describe to hunny how dancing to a really good DJ feels. he's not a trance music fan and is more of a hip hop person. although i love to dance to hip hop also, it's not the same. with trance, i don't need to be under the influence of anything. although i don't do drugs, i do like to have a couple drinks when out at night. with trance, i really don't need anything else but water and maybe some red bull to keep my energy up. really good dj's know how to work the crowd's energy. the music will start at a slow crescendo and then climax with the whole crowd cheering and jumping. it's amazing to feel that rush! also all our friends were also into the music so we all had an awesome time jumping up and down and cheering together. ah i wish i were a more prolific writer to do armin justice. think of the excitement you felt from anticipating that new toy your parents were in the process of paying for at the cashier. you are going to have that new toy in your hands any...second.. now! - multiply that feeling by 100. :)

the only downer of the night were all the creepy guys that tried to dance with us. to the guy with the sunglasses, about 5'2" and trancing out, waving your arms and trying to give us some sort of "cool dance show"( it was anything but cool) while all of us are FACING the dj - trying to ignore you. please know that when people are ignoring you, it's a gentle hint for you to go away. in the end, you didn't get the hint and we had to humiliate you by just walking our whole crowd away from you. next time, i hope you get the hint.

the following morning diana and i lounged around in bed until almost noon. then we were recommended a breakfast place called Dotty's on OFarrell and Jones. however when we arrived, there was a line and we were starving. so instead, we went to Sear's Fine Food for breakfast food. diana had an omlette while i had the al's special - corned beef hash, hash browns, eggs and swedish pancakes. who knew little pancakes were so yummy? while barting back to union city, we were oh so glad to be relaxing in our seats as we saw a big rig accident causing bad traffic on 880S. hooray for bart! it was so good to have so much time to chat with diana - we just don't do it often enough.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

meet lucas!

my brother ryan and michelle just had a baby last nite! meet lucas! i'm now a goo-ma(aunt)!


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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

evite frustrations

why oh why does evite want to implement their stupid faulty opening invitation animation on the evite i just created. now i can't see the responses of the guests and don't know who's in and who's out. QA did a horrible job before release! and no matter how many times i try to change it back to an old format, i still can't get it back to the old evite format. ugh....pissy.

maybe i'm also pissy because i've also wasted my day updating an archaic laptop that my dad wants. it's soooooo slowwwwwwww to restart, install, and just about anything. i hate microsoft! what a waste of time!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

transformers, more than meets the eye

watched transformers friday and harry potter yesterday. woo hoo! elaine happened to be invited at a harry potter screening sponsored by accenture and i was her guest. i tried to get hunny in also since they had extra room, but he had training yesterday and was already at the gym in fremont when i called him. he only had 15 minutes and it wasn't enough time for him to drive from home to meet us.

transformers was awesome. i was always envious of my brothers growing up because they got to play with transformers and i got rainbow bright. my dad would always say "i want a daughter! not another son! now be a good girl and go put on a dress" haha. (note - my dad isn't sexist or anything, i was always brought up to have a good head on my shoulders. however with two brothers in the house, he just wanted me to be a little more feminine) as a kid i was always wearing ratty jeans and hated pink and dresses. i never played with barbie since dolls freak me out. i can deal with a little pink now and do wear dresses. but life-like dolls will always freak me out. robots are a completely different story however! watching the movie made me want to go out and finally get my own transformer. the effects were awesome, the casting was great, there was never a dull part of the movie. even all the cheesy parts fit with the movie and made me laugh - awesome delivery by the cast. warren g definitely has a more complete review on his blog. and i concur with everything he says! top ten movie for me, will buy it.

harry potter was also a good movie, but much darker than the previous movies. liked the effects but there weren't as many new tricks to dazzle me which i kind of wanted to see. keep in mind i don't read books before movies since books are always better. so i had no idea what the plot was going to be. overall i liked the plot. delores was perfectly pleasant and hideous at the same time. i just wish they had the old dumbledore. i know he passed away, but he was so much better than the one they have now. overall, still a movie i would want to watch again, however i wish they showed more new tricks since i wasn't dazzled enough.

great idea

i talk to entrepreneurs all the time. when you ask them - what made them give up a comfy lifestyle at a large company for something so risky, they always say the same thing. it was such a great idea, they couldn't pass it up. i have one of those ideas right now. i've had ideas before, but i could always see a reason not to do it. doing the preliminary market research, it would be a somewhat untapped market with huge growth potential. i also happen to know all the right people and i have the right skills and experience to make it work. i can't find a good reason not to do it.

i need to make it happen. i can't pass this up. it keeps me up at night, thinking of all the paths the business could go into. each path only excites me more because i see so much promise with this. i'm continuing to let it marinate in my head to make sure i don't find any faults that i can't overcome. it's strange how suddenly and how quickly it all came about. one day it just all "clicked", the light bulb turned on above my head and it's only glowing brighter as each day passes.

*thinking*

Thursday, July 05, 2007

earbud casualty

i accidentally left part of my ear bud cord underneath my laptop while my laptop was on. mac laptops are known for their super hot batteries - i can never place my laptop on bare skin for long periods of time. therefore the cord melted! as you know, i'm very attached to my gadgets. this includes accessories! i was so bummed to find out i ruined my earbuds this morning. lucky for me my bro jon let me have his! the same type of ear buds, just an older model. hooray for having great little bros!


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4th of july

so last minute i decided the pool party was on. i was debating for quite a while since it's a lot of work to prep and clean up. however when i heard that jyan and patrick were going to go if i had the party, i just had to have it. patrick is in oregon now and jyan came in from LA and i don't get to see them often. also jyan and ted said they would help with the prep and clean up so that was the additional push i needed. plenty of people came out, plenty of food was eated, plenty of sunscreen was used. it was really great to have old friends from all different circles come out. the party was not as huge as some of them have been, but it was definitely one of the most fun due to the crowd. on the menu - lychee sangria, pork chops, bbq chicken, steak with dry rub, marinated steak, bulgogi, bacon wrapped hot dogs, bacon wrapped scallops and shrimp, sausages, lychee almond jello, pineapple, fresh lychees, grapes, plums, blueberry pie, apple pie, red velvet cupcakes, short ribs. and that was only the stuff i got to try. haha. i'm sure there was more. although don't worry, i was only nibbling and tasting the whole time.

pics!
patrick,diana,me and jyan

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teddio cooking up a storm

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bruins are everywhere!

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me and cindy - she was the one feeding me nibbles the whole time!

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cindy had some sunscreen issues

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dad is so happy cindy saved him some bacon wrapped scallops and shrimp!

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groupie pics

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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

my cousin's wedding

our family drove down to LA this weekend for our cousin hansen's wedding in my mom's new car. it was a good time to talk in the car together and then catch up with all the relatives. the wedding was beautiful and seemed like there was a lot of planning involved! we had heard about all the people working on the party favors (chinese take out boxes that had to be folded up) so i made sure to take those home with me. haha. the food was really good - chinese cuisine was catered at the garden grove crown plaza hotel. my fav was the lobster - good thing other relatives had leftovers for us. lobster 2 days in a row! haha. after the wedding, we hung out with family friends uncle johnny and auntie michelle at their restaurant - u.c.c. it's a coffeehouse chain that originated in korea i think. yum! had tons of really good iced coffee and iced tea, really yummy desserts and really good fresh fruit drinks.
pics!

me sitting with my cousins tim, paul and john

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grandma, auntie anna, uncle mike and my parents

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uncle raymond, auntie amy, david, beryl

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hansen and mey re-enacting a "creative kiss"

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uncle mike is cool

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jon and auntie anna dancing up a storm - our families were one of the few dancing! hansen and mey have a lot of footage of us goofing off.

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dimsum with all the family minus the wedding family since they were busy

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hanging out with uncle johnny, auntie michelle, their daughter and one other old classmate of my parents.

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three chubby sits after eating 1 quart of clam chowder, one pound of steamed clams, and two orders of fish and chips from splash cafe in pismo beach (rest stop on the drive home)

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