To Save or Not to Save

Off the bat, I'm putting away 30% of my salary into my 401; I will definitely max that out this year. Last year's company match was close to $3000; and this year should be even higher (it has been paid out, I just haven't checked the actual amount). Regardless, it seems that my checking account dips, then plateaus, a roller coaster of up and downs; more 'down' in recent days (mainly due to the $2000+ paid to car care...). I know I have my Roth and my HSBC savings but I would simply feel more secure seeing my checking move in a steady upward direction. However, I don't see that happening anytime soon as I foresee additional expenses including many additional wants (never any needs); the next likely purchase being a nice new pair of polarized Oakley sunglasses. In the mean time, both my brother and I have cleared out our closets and a group of my friends intend to hold a garage sale sometime in the next few weeks. I doubt we will make any real cash but it will certainly clear out our closets and whatever doesn't sell will be a nice tax deduction from our local Goodwill.


More money, more wants and that is perfectly fine; as Kobe's new 24-logo states, carpe diem. I'm living for today (hello new sunglasses); with all the money I'm stock piling in my 401, I shouldn't have to be worried about tomorrow.

into the REAL WORLD

Congratulations babe!!! After 4 long years of hard work, you will soon have a nice piece of paper to frame (haha), which will come in handy in the REAL WORLD. Here are some pictures from your graduation:








...PiRo fell asleep and no matter what we did, she wouldn't wake up; I spoke with her earlier and she feels very sad that she missed your graduation and she really hopes that you will forgive her.

Dog in Search of Heart

This is a story of a dog in search of courage, heart, and valor. Starring: PiRo, the Pussy Pup.

On a misty Saturday morning our heroine PiRo the Pussy Pup leads baby-blue clad Servant Girl Kaini into the world of demon dogs.


PiRo enlists her one true ally, HiRo, the Red Hermit; they don their capes and begin an eventful journey in search of courage.


PiRo is immediately humbled by the shear size of a guardian Saint Bernard. The Saint tells PiRo to keep her head up even in the face of monstrosity.


Leaving the gaurdian behind, our heroine encounters a Wiener-Dog; he laughs at her fear. Even someone of my small stature can bring fear into your eyes.


Already defeated, PiRo runs into yet another beast. With tail between her legs, PiRo submits. What ensues is too graphic to show; the beast sniffs at PiRo and snorts, if you were 6-months older, I would ravage you.


PiRo, despondent, runs into a nearby lake and tries to wash away her fears.



Even the Red Hermit echoes his encouragement; do not fret, it is not the size of the body, but the spirit within that counts.


The journey continues but it is a complete failure. PiRo, the Pussy Pup is unable to find courage. She leaves Servant Kaini and seeks the tutelage of Master Jack. PiRo walks side by side as Master Jack provides words of wisdom. Please tune in next time to see if our Heroine, under the direct supervision of Master Jack, can discover her inner demon.

Double Double Your Enjoyment

Are you seeing double? Yes you are! What you are seeing is 2 brand new Canon SD1000 digital cameras. I ordered only one via an un-named source and due to a shipping glitch I ended up receiving TWO!.

I will be keeping one of these for my own usage but will be selling the other one. I've done the research for you, a brand new SD1000 will cost you (pre-tax and shipping):
Amazon: $218.00
Dell: $211.00
BestBuy: $249.99
Newegg: $219.99
Walmart: 248.84

Cheapest is... lowpricedigital.com: $165.00
If you take a look at this website you will understand why this place is so cheap; seems kind of sketchy.

Bottomline, if you want this camera, let me know: $200 O.B.O. Bring cash to me and pick it up. And know that your money will be going towards below item (edit: I will let you borrow this underwater housing anytime you want!!!):

Anger Management

K wasn't happy with some of my previous posts and she said she has stopped reading my blog. Quick poll:
Should:
1.) K take some anger management courses.
2.) J stop posting pictures of beautiful girls (such as those below).

Since K isn't reading the blog anymore; I will be sure to let her know what the readers think.

Happy Grandmother's Day!!!

Look at Aiden's smile. His smile so grand due to my mother's presence.

Here are some pictures from Saturday's mother's day celebration with the Ning Family.

Life Update

I hate to add another post right now; every new post pushes the pictures of my new favorite pole vaulter further down the page (it's OK though, I'll just add another picture of her to this post :)

Quick 360-degree update on whats going on:
1.) I am screwed for the marathon, which takes place in ~3 weeks, partly due to...
2.) ... the start of my Men's basketball league. We played our practice game an won a fast paced game with a final score of 11-7 (yeah, we suck; we are playing in the lowest division). However, we do have a big team, with 5 players over 6 feet. I think we will do very well on the offensive and defensive boards.
3.) PiRo is now over 30lbs. She is now considerably larger than Money but her growth has slowed considerably; I am hoping she will get to the 40-50 range. It is hard to body slam her now; will only get harder.
4.) Need to find a place to hang up my boxing bag; I seem to be getting a little pudgy; 15-20 minutes on the bag will definitely tone me down.
5.) Maldives trip set. Count down begins.
6.) Minor/Major repairs necessary on one of my cars; nightmarish outlook.
7.) Kaini is thinking about proposing to me because she loves me and wants to start a family with me; but I told her that I need my 3-carat princess-cut diamond first. I am nice though and may consider something smaller.
8.) Spending too much time in front of the computer. Need to get away.
9.) Major accident on the freeway yesterday; it took me 45-minutes to get home. US News actually ranks Orange County in the top-10 for the worst traffic in the country (NY, DC, Boston were all expected; but Orange County... that is just sad).
10.) Did I mention I am screwed for the marathon...?

Hope for Higher Education

It is pretty obvious from my post yesterday that I have lost all respect for Harvard, U-Penn, and Cornell, because those are the schools that produced the two biggest idiots in the world; Justin Wolfers and Joe Price. I'm very glad I didn't go to school with these two (for lack of better words) dip-shits.

On a different, yet similar note, I am very proud to be a Cal alumni. Not only is Cal a top notch scholastic institution, Cal also fosters a well rounded lifestyle. The following pictures are from one of Cal's top Track and Field recruits. She is the future of pole vaulting and I wouldn't be surprised if we see her at the Olympic Games in the near future (where was she when I was pole vaulting?).

Summary:
Harvard, U-Penn, Cornell = produces gay men that love to do ridiculous, unwarranted research on race; they deserve to be in a dark alley everyday for the rest of their lives
UC Berkeley = produces...







Wow, and yes, she is 18.

A.B.G. (absolutely broke-back gay):

Many wonder why anyone would put such a gay picture of themselves up on the world wide web? The answer is simple if you are Justin Wolfers; Justin wants to draw attention to himself and present to the worldwide gay community how much he likes male genitals in his behind. I actually read an underground interview with Justin Wolfers and I have the excerpt below:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Interviewer: What made you decide on doing research on referee calls in the NBA?

Justin Wolfers: Well truthfully, I am a member of the KKK and I wanted to do my part in creating racial tension between whites and blacks. Sports have been colorblind for far too long so I needed to use my Harvard degree and my status as a professor at Wharton to bring hate and racial biases back to sports and the public. Basketball was an easy target because it is essentially all black and white players; I don't count Yao, because he is a big yellow monkey.

I: Interesting, so why did you only use 13 years of data from 1991 - 2004, and why did you ignore David Stern's own NBA research with far superior data?

JW: Are you a social scientist? If not than shut the f@#$ up. David Stern is a black lover, and I hate black lovers so I will never listen to Mr. Stern. And didn't you read my quote in the papers, "I'm in the social science game, I assembled large amounts of data, analyzed them seriously. . . and I have yet to hear a single social scientist criticize it at all." Did you know most social scientists are gay? I'm good at manipulating data and I'm a very good social scientist.

I: Ok. Ok, so I take it you are openly gay and are proud to have a rainbow sticker on your Volkswagen Beetle.

JW: Yes, I am proud to be gay and proud to have penises up my ass, whoopsie, can I say ass? And for your information my co-researcher, Joe Price, is also gay; but don't tell his wife and 3 children. The two of us are lovers and we do it secretly; broke back style, up in the mountains where we crunched more than just numbers, if you know what I mean.

I: I see, so how do you feel about NBA players and the general public calling this research "stupid" and a "waste of time"?

JW: It definitely wasn't a waste of time. Look at how famous I've become; I was nobody before, now all the news stations and newspapers are after me. I'm fantastic, I'm a bonafide researcher; I am having my 15-minutes of fame. I've gotten so many calls from so many gay men, I'm giddy with joy. If you are gay and would like to contact me, please feel free to send me an email or call me on my cell phone below. Call Joe too, both he and I can't wait to have another all male orgy with whipped cream and gummy bears. Yipee.

I: So what is next for you.

JW: There are several possibilities. I am seriously looking into guilty and non-guilty verdicts by white and black judges, also the relationship between how many detentions are given out to white and black students by all white faculties and all black faculties. As you can see, I can definitely come up with the statistics to prove that white people hate black people and black people hate white people. I'm a genious.

Justin Wolfers
jwolfers@wharton.upenn.edu
631 Pine St
Philadelphia. PA 19106
Phone: (215) 898-3013
Cell: (267) 432-4327

Joseph Price
jpp34@cornell.edu
Cell: (503) 706-5965

Warr-mmaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzing!!!

since i don't have cable i was unable to watch any of the games but i have been following the warrior unlikely upset from day 1. it is truly amazing; the warriors defeat the team to beat in the 1st round; the mavericks fall hard in oak-town. this isn't march madness, this is a best of 7 series and the warriors were clearly the more dominant team even though their regular season record point in the opposite direction. check out some of these pictures; mark cuban sure looks happy..

i like the maldives soooo much.

hahaha... Kaini is going to wonder where I am all day??!?!?!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Kaini is finally done with her rotations and only has a few more things to take care of at Loma Linda before she graduates pharmacy school! Four years of hard work will pay off shortly :). I just want everyone to know how proud I am of her and that what she has accomplished is truly remarkable; something I personally could never have achieved. And for this monumental occasion, I am taking Kaini on a trip to the Maldives.


Hilton Maldives, here we come!!! I just received the flight information from our travel planner and once we confirm, the trip will be set. Here is what our schedule will look like:

8/17 Fly to Taipei
8/18 - 8/26 Taiwan (thinking about a side trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat)
8/26 Fly to Male (Capital of Maldives; stay overnight)
8/27 - 9/3 7-nights in paradise; Rangali Island
9/3 Fly back to California

Congratulations again Kaini! I hope you are as excited about this trip as I am.

weekend pleasure

First off, I want to wish my big bro a big happy 30th birthday. His birthday was actually yesterday and I hope he had a relaxing day with Big Al and AJ. On Sunday, he actually took the family to brunch at Cima @ the Pacific Palms. It was an awesome brunch; lobster tail, king crab, sashimi, lamb chops, unlimited champagne and fresh smoothies; absolutely delicious. These pictures don't do it justice at all but take a look:


Also on Sunday, Kaini and I went to see Wicked at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. She actually bought tickets 6 months in advance! With all the hype, I have been very anxious to see the show and the funny thing was we almost MISSED it! We drove to Irvine to pick up some things from Kaini's house and took 5 North to 101 North; we hit traffic along the way and I became very agitated. Everyone knows I hate traffic and even thinking about it now, I get bitterly angry. The show started at 6:30pm and we were stuck on the 101 still at 6:15pm. It was past 6:30pm when we drove into the parking lot next to the theater; we paid the attendant and ran across the street (Kaini in her high heels)to the theater. I had to use the restroom so I ran downstairs to relieve myself; during my wizz, an attendant comes in yelling my name and telling me to hurry up and that they were going to shut the doors. I washed my hands and ran back upstairs; the attendant was rushing besides me and told me that once the door closes, they won't let people in for 25-minutes. LUCKILY we walked right in when the lights darkened and the music began; the doors shut right behind us [side note: there were a LOT of late people, after 25-minutes a huge group of people were let in... bottom line: LA sucks, traffic sucks].

Now, as for the show; it ranks up there as one of my favorites (probably a close second to Les Miserables). The shining point about Wicked is definitely the story, but the backdrops/sets and costumes were also amazing. The music and songs were on par but not something I could listen to over and over (like Rent or Phantom). I would definitely recommend this musical to anyone; you should re-acquaint yourself with the Wizard of Oz beforehand!