Don't you just love things that get overlooked and it bites you in the butt after (not literally)? So the (re)launch was last night for icemag and when I connected to my ftp site to move all the files and change some permissions in the database. I sent a quick email and a few (ok fine, a lot of) icq messages saying how the site has launched. I look through the site and there was no way of telling the poll results and the number of emails on the mailing list. Great! So code I did.No biggie.

And this morning I realized that there were a few missing text on some pages. So write I did. Really it's finished now so have a look around. (yes, i know i am shameless in self promotion)

icemag.org

so its up! the project that's been hounding my staff and myself for a whole month is actually up. so please check out all the hard work and talent that went into this collaborative effort. i present to you the (re)launch of icemag.org.

ok i'm going to sleep now!

countdown: 1 day left till launch!

and congratulations to evan for not sleeping either surviving the blogger upgrades. the dude is an amazing guy. honestly i wouldn't mind putting in sometime and effort to work on blogger, i think it's a great application. i use it all the time and would gladly pay for it. if i didn't have any bills and if i could live rent free with a constant supply of food and redbull; i think i would help out. (i'm saying this as if i even come close to understanding what goes on behind the scenes of blogger but maybe evan would like to fill me in)

and it does run a bit faster, and i didn't lose all my posts. great job!

sleep is for the weak! remember those collegedays when you would go clubbing on a school night, go home (still a bit buzzed), study, do homework and sneak-in a couple hours of sleep and still be able to function normally? i remember, i used to say that i could function well with 4 hours of sleep with a half hour nap every 8 hours. (yes folks my schedule was that ridgid when i was in school.)

well today i have officially broken that rule. going 48 hours with 4 hours of sleep and no naps! if you could only see the eyebags under my eyes. i've officially combined coke and coffee for double the caffine dose. (does anyone know if this is safe?) just get the IV and have a constant stream of caffine (i want pure caffine in liquid form, please) straight into my body. just 1 more day before icemag (re)launches! just 1 more day!

countdown: 2 days left till launch!, can you believe that we're testing it now?!

i read a really good post in theresa's weblog today. i can totally relate.

It’s not that I’m totally white washed or anything. Actually, I don’t really think I am but I like to think when you’re in Canada do as the Canadians do. I came here to Canada thinking assimilation is bad, that was in 1991 before I got put into a school with no Filipinos.

So what was I to do? I had a thick accent and wearing tsinelas to school, I was lost. I had no choice but to adapt to my surroundings or even the word “packing” would get me kicked out of school for profanity. It was hard, it felt like I was betraying the heritage that I’ve been striving to protect.

I just had to learn to accept the fact that while I’m here in Canada I would either have to start wearing runners and jeans other than the tsinelas and puruntongs because the weather was cold and I had to bike to school. It’s the environment that you’re in. I eventually moved to different schools one with more Filipinos, but because I spoke straight English and didn’t like gossiping I was frowned on in that community. They thought because I wore the baggy pants and liked hiphop and not pantera. In their minds I was selling out, I know because they actually told me straight to my face. It hurt but "hey, move on" right?

I was raised in a household where we eat Filipino food and raised with rules just like every other Filipino kid. Does it really matter that I’m wearing baggy pants, or I speak straight English and I have more non-Filipino friends than them?

I had to adapt otherwise I would’ve frozen to death. now back to your usual stupid ramblings.

countdown: 3 days left till launch!

oh my dear sweet jeebus! who gave this dude webspace?!

i'm scarred but yet i cannot look away: Contrary to popular belief, WHO IS YOUR DADDY is not actually trying to duplicate the experience of fatherhood. Rather, one should think along the lines of 'sugardaddy' or 'daddy-o' where the potential character of the word gives way to pseudo-sexual electra-complex overtones. The dancer then, both asks and answers the same question: who is your daddy?.....i am your daddy.

<link swagged="bertie">

on my way in to work, i stopped by the local corner store to get my cup of coffee and some water. i'm not usually the type to drink bottled water but i needed something to rid my mouth of that stale coffee taste after. i looked through the shelf and got me some clearly canadian O+2 water. why? well, it had the cool retro looking bottle and well, it was cheaper than the other ones.

oxygen enhanced? what the heck does that mean? at first glance, i thought i just bought carbonated flavored water but it isn't. upon closer inspection i saw that this "special" water contains 10x more oxygen than regular water. how exactly do you inject more oxygen in water? big dark unshaven man with beer-gut holding a hose to a vat of water? maybe, i actually wouldn't doubt it.

maybe i'll just get more gas.

countdown: 4 days left till launch!

so i'm not the most flexible person in the world so sue me! so trying to squeeze through a hole the size of a 15 inch monitor isn't exactly the easiest thing to do.

how exactly did i get myself into this situation? well lets just say that i needed to get some air at around 1:30am and i couldn't go out the front or side door. just take my word for it. so out the window i go. do you guys remember floating down the river sitting in an inner tube? then all of a sudden your butt just decides that it's not too big for the hole of the inner tube anymore. thats how i was trying to get out of this window. trying to comprehend how to jump down without seriously injuring myself (and no i'm only on the first floor).

after getting some fresh air, it was time to make my attempt at getting back in. which i won't go into too much detail because it's too awkward to describe. i'll let your imaginations work. it involves a flip, a few scrapes around the knee area and the stomach and a sore heel. not exactly the best picture in the world, i'm just thankful that my bed was there to catch me in my attempts to audition for the circus.

countdown: 5 days left till launch!

if i won the oscars? not that i would ever win because my acting career consists of one embarrasing singing solo in a nation wide lunchtime show. oh gawd that was embarrasing!

did you see it? i didn't! the oscars i mean. i was sleeping in my pollen filled room waking up every half hour to empty the mucus that collected in my nose. but it's like i never missed a beat, i read about it in every blog that i see. opinions and recaps even a chat transcript of two people while watching it on TV. these are the days when i wish i had a tivo to record my shows, or i could get my tv tuner card to work (so i could stream the video straight into my brain).

but i heard that i didn't really miss much, steve martin wasn't funny (although he did make some crack aimed at ben stiller about mystery men). crouching tiger, hidden dragon cleaned up along with gladiator, julia roberts walked away with best actress and coco lee looked like a walking rainbow (not that i stalk admire her or anything, i'm just a fan really).

so how do you score a grammy? well i think its all in how you carry yourself and the perception you give to other people. first you gotta strut like you know your stuff. i mean how hard is it to pretend that you're crazy and start talking to a volleyball? but you gotta give everyone the impression that it took you 5 hours to get into character (i love tom hanks, i really do). maybe not shave for a few days giving you that macho gladiator look, telling people that you are what you portray in your character. that you "inject" your personality into your screen role. but asians generally have a problem with growing facial hair, for them i suggest getting a really hot cute girl to star with and cool wire work that'll make even the ringling brothers gag.

so what do you think?

my plans for winning an oscar is to not shave for a few months, get a basketball, paint a face on it and start talking to it like i was crazy, and get a cute co-star to throw around while she's strapped on to a wire. or i could just stay here and just code code and code web-apps (yea, i think i'll stick to web-apps).

so who's getting sick and tired of being couped up in his room? *raise hand*

yes thank you very much i am feeling a lot better. life is good with my air purifier and an enclosed pollen free room. i'm here proof reading, setting up sites and planning some more things. hopefully i will still be standing at the end of the week. the last week i've been working and all i did this whole weekend was sit infront of the computer. i will have a break, in an hour. i resolve to get my butt to church this time. i will make it and get away from this computer.

i did finish a lot of things, and if you have a weblog let me know if you want to test this "top secret" application that is being developed in collaboration with kevin and bertie. so that's going to run for probably a week, and if nothing goes wrong then on to stage 2 (can someone tell me what stage 2 is?).

do i really need another project? uumm nopes! it's vacation after this week!

did you know the filipino food was started on a dare? yeap, you guys can thank minjung for giving my that idea.

at first i was like huh? why would anyone think that? then i gave it more thought. who would ever think up of bone marrow soup? or a dish when sitting and cooling of forms congealed fat that's 2 inches thick? it's really a beautiful thing when you see your mom scooping off the fat into the sink. did you think i'd let the chocolate meat dish get away? who the heck came up with that?

don't get me wrong, i love filipino food. i think its the impression that the best tasting food is always the one thats bad for you. which is probably why i'm going to clog up my arteries at the early age of 23 and perpetually going to be stinking up a certain room in the house.

now having said that, imagine having it for breakfast.

yea? well i do read your sites! really! i do! honest! what do you mean "so why aren't i on you bookmarks page" ? i've been busy, really.

so yea, i have been busy. i know its not an excuse but i did update it. took me 2 full hours because my bookmarks are in xml format thanks to the former deepleap. i really have to build some sort of admin, but that would be the geek thing to do. must.... resist... temptation... to become... more... geek! see look i updated! wheres my link on your sites? huh? where?

this is the direct result of being bored at home. i started organizing my links on my home computer, now i'm seriously missing what used to be deepleap where all my bookmarks were kept. i heard that backflip has a similar application where they manage your bookmarks, i think i'm going to be looking into that a little bit more. i'm also planning to get an ASP.Net book, i think reading articles has caused me to learn some stuff but i really want to develop this new app into a .Net application.

today, i'm also proof reading columns. so if you people haven't sent in your columns please send it in (email would be good).

last night i also got to talk to nancy, she's cool. we met in sxsw in a party where everyone except us liked to dress in liesure suits and shirt and tie enembles. what a great time to be wearing jeans, a long sleeves shirt and a yellow t-shirt. thank you awsome fashion sense.

happy b-day jaime!!

so it's friday night, and i'm at home infront of the computer. how geeked out is that? maybe i'll go rent a dvd, i have a few movies that i do want to see (but right now i really have no idea what they are). maybe treat myself to a nice dinner. man, where the heck are my friends? my legions of fans? the millions and millions of visitors that would die to see me?

actually it's really just me having no life and coding from the start to the end of the day. actually, i've been trying to run away from the hoards and hoards of women who want my attention. i'm really tired.

<reality>i'm almost done with my newest webapp (well, its not really mine but i am working on it), and i'm almost done planning a new change to the poll web application. the relaunch of something will be next week keep an eye out!! whoohooo</reality> now i think i'm going to get dressed, get some mcdonalds, rent a video and collapse into my couch and become the vegetable that i was ment to be.

i am planning to rid the world of trees and grass! in my plan to take over the world, i will be ridding the world of trees and grass. why? you might want to ask, well, it's because they produce a threat to my (imaginary) empire called pollen. it is probably the worst thing to ever enter this world since the hello kitty vibrator (oh god! don't click that link at work!). i'm one with allergies soo bad that i have to literally overdose myself with reactine just to get a minimal level of comfort.

my eyes tend to swell to the point that i look like a really badly drawn anime character (at least its not the crossdressing kind) and produce enough mucus to fill the grand canyon or plug up the niagra falls. plus the irritating fact that my brain tends to slow down when i'm attacked by the invisible perpetrators.

the only solution that i can see is rid the world of trees and grass therefore removing pollen from the equation. so how will we breath you might want to ask? well, remember spaceballs? and the canned fresh air concept? yes! lets bring that concept to a reality people! plants and any vegetation should be grown in a tube from goop and only for the sole purpose of producing canned air.

yes folks allergies causes me to be dilusional.

some people just have no social skills. it's very surprising how they could walk down the street and not get run over by a car (if they do it'll be my riced-out baby).

it was lunchtime. i just bought the most msg packed 2-item lunch combo from the usual chinese food place and i was looking for a table to sit down. i finally found one and was walking towards it when this lady almost blindsides me and almost knocks my food out of my gripfilled hands. no "excuse me" or anything, just runs past me, knowing that i was planning to sit on the same exact table that she sat at. being the passive agressive person that i am (thank allergies for that one) i just turned around and started my searching for another table.

i did get a table, too bad the adjoining tables were crawling with people with little kids. i don't have anything against little kids, its just that they get amused with the simplest things. this particular kid was getting his jollies by yelling "HA" every 2 seconds and his little partners fills in the gaps in between.

to top everything off, my mini 2 item combo was laced with celery! i have a particular passion for hating everything with celery. so there i was, picking out celery from my meal with one hand, another hand covering my ear in an attempt not to go deaf from all the HA'ing and trying to finish my overpriced meal. good lunch? i don't think so.

ok who is toying with my little trash bin?! i have a trash bin issued by the big bosses upstairs designed to minimize the waste and clutter you produce. it always sits on the left hand side of my "L" shaped desk....always!

it has to be aliens moving my poor little trash bin! every night, i go home and i throw all my trash and litter into it and it always sits on the left hand side of my desk (to make it easier to reach). every morning, someone or something moves it to the far right corner and its empty. i spend about 5 minutes trying to fish it out of the corner without getting my body contorted into possitions only the kama sutra could imagine. eventually i do manage to get it out and i do move it back to the left side because i'm weird that way.

what's bothering me is that it keeps moving. every night it somehow finds it's way to the most remote corner of my desk. it doesn't skip a beat, every night. maybe it's ants, aliens or a secret organization dedicated to moving mini-trash bins in my building, i'll never know. (of course, it could just be the cleaning lady doing her job)

so do you really want me on your paintball team? i have the tendency to shoot my teammates when i get bored, just ask janice. see it's been a long day and we've been waiting to hit the field but there was some sort of birthday party going on. we got to play around late afternoon. i was itching to pull the trigger, i had full plans on being the most trigger happy player on the field. the game eventually got on its way.

the first hour there was a definite pattern to the games that we played. i would either get eliminated seconds after the game started or i would be in there for the whole game and i wouldn't see a single soul. bottomline was that i was getting bored and getting bored pretty quick.

so one game i decided to take a totally different route. there i saw janice, sitting there just waiting. i was about 4 meters away from her and i don't think she saw me creeping up (i owe that all to my filipino ninja skills). so i line up my gun, turn on my dot laser sight (yes, i do have one of those on my paintball gun) and aim in the direction of her leg. one problem, janice was on my team. did i care? nope! i paid money for 100 rounds of paint, and i intend to use them. so i shot her. she made her way back in my direction and when she passed me i had the nerve to ask, "who shot you?". i guess this totally confused her and she said that it was melo (who was hiding deeper into the forest).

yea i know i'm mean. but i was so damn bored!

i use all the hot water, so sue me! in the morning instead of a cold shower to wake me up, i like to burn myself under hot water and sit there for a few minutes. weirded out yet? not yet? well, ok hows this?

i have the tendency to fall asleep when the temperature is higher than my regular body temperature. this isn't a gradual sleep either, it's a knock out within the first few seconds. i think i'm narcoleptic. (but does a narcoleptic insomniac exist? i guess it does) so i actually end up dosing off in the shower. i know its not good, just tell that to my wrinkly toes. i usually wake up with shampoo dripping from my hand or leaning head first inside the shower stall. i've even thought of putting an alarm clock inside my bathroom to wake me up if i fall asleep maybe electrodes on the wall or redbull before going into the shower? so how do i manage to wake up? well, at some point some part of my body will hit the temparature control (yes, i am as freaked out as you are).

thats when the water's heat level rises from "just right" to "hot enough to cook a lobster" and thats when i wake up. (running in pain, and howling like a little kid)

so its my weblog's 1 year anniversary? wow, its been that long? i never even realized how much i blogged in the past year, i know i just can't shut up. so here are my favorite entries for the past year. (really i'm not this crazy all the time)

the top ten things you probably don't know about ritchie - where he tells all about his beliefs in underwear wearing lifetime and his water drinking habits. this post actually spawned a few more that are similar to it and i'm not quite sure which ones you would like to read (and not totally humiliate me).

i hate dr dre (and lars ulrich) - one of the angrier posts that i did. see i don't like it when people whine. i'm the only one who allowed to whine in this world. but really c'mon now, this whole napster thing was pushed beyond the limit by metallica anyways. no need for dr dre to be coming in and saying that he wants a cut. c'mon, pimpin women (and eminem), selling drugs to 6 year olds and a music career not paying enough? the actual funny part about this is the post before it (15 minutes before) is saying how i never have anything to say. then all of a sudden 1500 word post. and in another angry post. everyone knows how much i hate the busses here in vancouver.

my breasts?! what huh? - oh man, i know this was going around the office for a while there. i even get red reading it again. i couldn't believe this level of detail on this dare! oh man, topless? bra? what the heck was i thinking?!

paintball?! you play paintball? - why, yes i do! i have stories galore to tell too. about me getting hit about how i never get it, about me hitting another person. yes its a beautiful thing when you see my paintball paint on your shirt.

who can forget those posts that just made you laugh. no reading required. this was interesting wasn't it (and don't ask why edmonton guys are showing me their nipple rings)? jodee rawks! this was soo geeked out it wasn't even funny (except to me). well maybe a little reading required, this was actually more andrew being corny and not me. i even blogged about cam girl min jung kim falling asleep at her work (but i victimized ernie and paulo too, i think i'm known for posting incriminating photos).

and i can't forget my recent favorite. my trip to sxsw! where all the cool people are, and that includes me!

but yea, its all changed quite a bit from what it normally was. i'm happy where this journey has taken me and i'm looking forward to where it will be taking me in the future. (yea i know i'm cheesy, but what can i do thats me) can we say self-referrential linking?

and i my friend just hit my his head on my his monitor. nope i'm not even close to kidding.

imagine this. a computer progammer typing out documentation and trying his best not to fall asleep but the japanese food that he had for lunch is winning the battle. he's trying everything to keep him awake: water, coffee, nasty smelling lotion but nothing seems to be working. so i he brings the chair closer to the desk and sits up straight hoping that the circulation of blood would keep me him from falling pray to the sandman.

not even 2 minutes pass and our hero falls asleep mid sentence, leaves his finger on the "o" key and falls asleep (causing a trail of o's on his word document). see when you fall asleep usually the body relaxes and goes limp. that sends my his head crashing into the monitor (really it hurts as much as it sounds, not that i'd know or anything).

the identity of the person has been concealed to protect me him from embarrassment.

so i figured out that there are 4 types of people when you're in an elevator. there's one that enters the elevator, moves to the corner and stares either at the buttons or the level indicator. these people usually have their pants hicked up to their chest and eye glasses thicker than bullet proof windows. another type would be the man who looks like he's been late for every appointment since yesterday. he would be constantly looking at his watch and probably pacing in his own little area. these types usually are middle aged men or women who has no life besides their work and probably eats, sleeps and breathes flow charts and timelines. who can forget the self-absorbed type? i'm pretty sure you know exactly what type i'm talking about. the one who is usually checking themselves out and "forgets" to move out of your way when you enter the elevator, checking their reflection out on the stainless steel door when the elevator closes.

then there's me. who hates being in one spot staring at the wall and tries to make the most out of the 5 floor elevator ride. i tried to talk to some of them and all i got were blank/wierd stares. so i just try to start staring blankly into the elevator and if you've been trying to start a conversation with people and you suddenly just stop talking and just stare into blank space, that usually wierds them out even more. am i the only weirdo out there?

<whine> pissed off is exactly what i am today. although i managed to finish all the cd burning that i'm going to do and i still managed to go to church and make it to my church group general assembly (i had fun, it's been a while since i've actually gone) i'm still in that state of mind that i haven't accomplished anything. (whew! say that 10 times fast) i'm riddled with allergies and i don't feel like the internet rockstar that i usually am. my nose is all red, and my firewire cable isn't showing up anywhere i look and i still need to finish some research homework (i'll be glad when i'm done with this damn class).

so anyways, when i'm riddled with allergies i sneeze every 2 seconds plus my nose gets all red and because of all the sneezing i get headaches. <sarcasm>i love it really!</sarcasm> </whine>

burning on a 2x cd burner is painful! it might actually be faster to get a flashlight and a magnifying glass and burn the cd myself. i have 5 cd's to burn for backing up my stuff and actually freeing up some space on my harddrive. that means i can actually save more mp3's and pictures. it would be easier if i didn't have to do laundry and respond to email at the same time. but right now i'm just waiting for the laundry to finish and the slug speed cd burner to finish making my cd.

gotta find something to do! maybe i'll pick up these cd's from the floor. maybe

ok now i have to start panicing and try to accomplish something for today that would justify me sitting infront of the tv (watching sneakers) for the past 2 hours. did i say that i didn't do anything today? i feel gross and totally unfulfilled. now for the next 2 hours i will run myself into a little tornado and attempt to make the "most" of my day. which basically means that i am going to squish 8 hours of activity into 3. great! (1) clean room, (2) do homework, (3) do laundry and (4) maybe clean myself up. or i could just stay here and blog... yeap guess what i'm doing.

********************

2 hours later: yes folks i'm still here and i haven't accomplished anything. someone tell me to get off my lazy ass!

********************

4 hours after: 1 task accomplished, and still surfing the web! someone pray that my internet connection goes down or something!

who the heck sells 100 cd-r's without the spindle?! damn it! i went to future shop to buy some cd-r's and there was this deal. $50 for 100 cd-r's (take in to account that this is canadian dollars therefore less value than the american dollar). so now i'm all excited about backing up my website, my mp3's basically archive my whole computer into a few cd's, geeky? yes i know. i open the box and what do i see? shrink wrapped cd-r's, no spindle! so i take a good 5 minutes to carefully remove rip apart the shrink wrap around the cd's. no use! why did i even bother?! lets just say i spent a good 2 hours picking up cd's from the floor. kinda like a game of pick up sticks with shiny coasters. i love saturday mornings where i could be watching fox kids (theres just something about a girl in a mask thats soo cool) but instead i'm picking up 50 or so cd-r's from the floor.

so i bet you guys are waiting for my sxsw update. huh? admit it, you guys are waiting to hear what i say about it (cause i think that you guys like to hang on my every word).

i think i've said a lot about sxsw already but this will be the last time. no, really it will. i was starstruck. really i was, meeting ernie and mj iistix (thats two-sticks, not i-i stix like i thought) writers and personal site owners. kev-rock, aoliza creator turned (maybe) yahoo user experience something-a-rother and fellow post-survivorblogger (where's my linky love?). then there were all the other bloggers who's site that i don't read but heard of. how could you not get star struck? all the famous .com, .org and the occasional .net all in one city.

it wasn't the best time to be overdosed on redbull. but i don't want to be telling the whole story here when i spent 4 hours last night creating my sxsw memories/photo album page.

did i tell you that i was soo depressed on valentines that i was about to put myself up on bidding for ebay? no joke. while my friends and their significant others were out celebrating on their fancy dinners and romantic strolls down downtown, i was at home contemplating of auctioning myself to the highest bidder. don't get any wrong ideas, i don't do the whole prostitution (let the google hits begin!) thing i just wanted a date to spend the night with. maybe there was that lonely girl out there who thinks that i'm cute (or she could just be desparate), and bid. bid like theres no tomorrow! of course, i'd start the bidding at the price of a movie and dinner so i don't have to spend my money.

but i decided not to. i'm not quite the type to do that sorta thing, yet. any takers? *ahem* bidding starts at $20!

and just because i'm such the drama whore, here is my next journal entry.

and expect a sxsw narrative from yours trully. notice the new picture on the content rotator? tee hee, scandalous? yeppers. but would you really expect any less from me?

just call me ritchie-rawkstar! so i got to meet and hang out with quite a few people in austin. i'm actually quite amazed at the amount of people that the internet could bring together. reminds me of my old irc days and packin red-robin with 50+ people with no reservations. it was fun, panels were cool. i learned that to be a writer you have to grow a gotee and since i'm asian (meaning that i can't grow facial hair) that just means that i'll have to sit for about 12 months to grow a decent one. the actual highlights of the trip for me were non-conference related. here are a few highlights, but wait for the other stuff that i'm going to put up and trust me there are a lot of things.

• the blogger party where instead of a name tag, we had url tags. seriously, when your name tag says "hello my url is: <a href="[url in here]"> you know that its a cool party. it all started with meeting brad from bradlands. i got scared cause most of the people were in their little clique of friends. the sblog 2 people with a few people were the really noisy ones though. laughing it up all night. i saw ernie's tolerance for alcohol too (and i thought i was bad). then someone tapped me on the shoulder and said "hey, macapinlac.com? ritchie?" it was andre! dude is cool in real life. and i got to meet mike, dan and rebecca blood.
• next day, register get t-shirts smoke. nice way to start of a day. good thing that the hotel was only walking distance from the conference and we could sleep in. picked up bertie, cool thuggish girl. she was exactly what you expected from a bitter lesbian asian girl. then hit a club. went to another party because min jung broke out into hives, and amazed people with the photon skills (yea right!).
• did i tell you that i almost missed my flight? last day, woke up late like all the other days, ate at this really good place called magnolia. i think i'm going to start looking like a mushroom with all the mushroom omelettes that i ate. my flight was at 3:30 and we were still packing and getting bubble tea until around 2:30pm. it was great, i love that sinking feeling that i was gonna get stuck in texas. at 3:00pm we were on our way and with one wrong turn, we got lost. but because of min jung sweet driving skills we made it. with seconds to spare, i literally got to the gate seconds before they closed it. a word of advice, don't look soo pissed off when you go through the x-ray machine because they will stop you.

i'm not even scrapping the tip of the ice with these highlights. but i think that i should be leaving some for the other things that i'm going to put up. i didn't get to say bye to min jung and bertie because i was running like an insane maniac in the airport. i miss all you guys (mouse over the links for your little messages). thats all for now.

this trip just went very quickly. between attending panels, sleeping late, mingling with other people, exchanging information, taking pictures and hanging out i really haven't had time to realize that i'm leaving today. so its back to vancouver i go. i'm really going to miss these people, i mean it was really fun! went to the fray cafe where people were narrating stories (old school coffee house style) and went party hopping for a while. we hit the clubs here, so the usual dancing and drinking with a twist. what kind of twist? i swear you'll never know. more bbq, texan cowboy hats ($500, can you believe it?) and mall ratting were the highlights of my trip. actually, these were the rated-g "bloggable" highlights. and we don't want to turn this weblog into a porn-blog right?

but on a serious note, i'm going to miss all the people here. i got to meet people that i admire and got to know a few of them really well. the conference itself was great and had a lot of information to share. i (think) i learned a lot of things. i'm really going to miss mj, bertie, kev-rawk and ernie these people are ummm interesting and they made the trip exponentially better than what i expected it to be.

and yes maryanne i will be posting most of the things that i have on my digital.

ritchie comes back tomorrow!! yay!! hurry up already, boy, i need someone to chat with during the days!! heehee. hey, ritch, i really hope you don't mind me blogging on here, it's just too fun! thanks again.

sounds like our friend is having a great time in texas.... lucky butt. haha, he's only had time to blog once on his page, geez!! that's amazing! well, i'm glad he's having a good time and i hope he had a crazy b-day... i'm guessing he's still getting over it, let's hope so anyway. you gotta show us ALL those pix, ritch... decent or not!! i think the latter will be more fun to view on this website tho.... for all your adoring fans to see! hmmm... maybe we can see that side of ritchie that cedric was fortunate enough to view (see february 25 journal entry)!!!! haha! nothing new to me tho... i'm kidding - i'm kidding!

haha.... anyway, i'm off to bed now. sleepy sleepy time for me. i don't want to sleep in any longer... i waste half my friggin day! like i have anything else to do with two courses and no job - at the moment. alright, night all... have a good day everyone! hope you're having a blast ritchie..... cheers!

~Mmm...

hey boys and girls, i can you believe this is the first time that i've been able to blog this whole time i've been here. and its my b-day so happy b-day to me. its been an interesting time here with mj (don't mess with min jung, she tore apart the hotel people and talked them into getting us a cheaper room), bertie (meep!), kev-rawk (dude, network like the wind!), and ern-dawg (go asian twins!). this internet kiosk is brought to you by spinner and winamp. where's my free corporate stuff man?! i've been here at this trade show for 20 minutes and all i got were a couple of pens, and some really crappy pair of 3d glasses. i've already met soo many of the cool bloggers and journalist.

oh well, back to networking :) (maybe i'll get a job here in austin, just kidding dave)

first of all, let me just say..... HAPPY 23nd BERFDAY, RITCHIE!!!!!!!..... you old fart! haha, j/k. second of all, i'd like to thank ritchie for giving me permission again to blog on his page while he's away. ritchie, i feel so honoured... and it's much more than a pleasure for me to do so!! btw, this is maryanne, one of ritchie's 24/7 icq buddies... hello hello! :)

hmmm, i wonder what our good friend ritchie is up to at this moment?? i don't know what time it is in austin, texas right now, but it's 2:40am here. regardless, if it is night there and time for ritchie and friends to hit the sack.... i don't know about you guys, but with FIVE people in ONE room..... haha.... all i can think of is something starting with a bit phat "O"!!!!! heehee. i'm kidding i'm kidding.... enough!! ~hey ritchie, you never told me if your website was rated G, PG, R, or XXX... so i just keep assuming things. :)

anyway, get your minds out of the gutter.... and me too, cuz it's MY bedtime now.... no liquid dreams for me tonite, thanks..... haha, how corny... sorry, i saw o-town on madtv tonite... couldn't help it. anyhoots, happy b-day again to ritchie! later, fans. ;)

~Mmm...

i'm going to austin totally geeked out. really! don't believe me? let me just list the things that i'm bringing and why:

• palm iii - cause i'm sure i'm not the only one with a palm and for quick networking and coolness hold down the address book button to "beam" your business card to another person. is that cool or what? mackin' networking at the touch of a button.
• digital video camera - now how else would you get the living proof that ernie can't take more than 2 shots of tequila? or get exclusive motion video on mj instead of just staring blankly at her webcam.
• digital camera - i can take 92 pictures and post embarrasing pictures up on the website. that's a lot of embarrasing photos (hopefully not of me) but 5 people in one room should spawn some nice blackmail pictures.

i've gotten the question from a few people:"are you nervous about going to this thing? meeting up with these people?" quite a lot. honestly i am. nervous cause i don't know what to expect. i've talked to mj on the phone (like last night) and i've helped ernie and bertie with technical stuff. i did some work for christine. other than that, this is the first conference that i'm attending. i have no clue what to expect, that basically means that i could have that "lost" look wandering around like a lost child (so don't leave me alone in a crowded room where i can get lost).

my mom driving and not hitting anything (or anyone) is as close as you can get to a miracle these days. i hitched a ride with her today because she was taking the car to her work. we haven't even left the drive way yet and she almost ditched the car in an effort to avoid my dad's work van. if you followed us for 30 more seconds, you would have seen us almost get hit by another car because she didn't see the stop sign. at this point, i just closed my eyes not because of tiredness but because i was soo scared for my life (no exaggeration). especially after she decides that the highway is the best way to go and follows with the "i'm scared to merge" statement.

this is where i make the "the world isn't fair" statement because she has never gotten in an accident, even with her crazy driving skills. i, on the other hand, have gotten into countless car accidents (mostly read-enders nothing life threatening) with my "socially acceptable" (at least i like to think so) road skills. she is a good driver, she's just scared because people here drive faster than what she's used to in the homeland (plus the thought of increased insurance rates means spending more money kinda scares a "frugal" person). it was either close my eyes or keep stepping on the imaginary break pedal (and have you're nerves shot to heck). i'm pretty sure she's the exact same when when i'm the one driving (cause i can see her with the kung-fu deathgrip on the seatbelt and stepping on the imaginary breaks). so i guess it goes both ways.

i wish i can get off my lazy bum. see i'm procrastinating and even if i want to do work, someone in this family has to hold the average amount of prograstination time at a high. that person is me! see procrastination is an artform, and i'm the master painter that brings the colors to life. i got home today with a few things on my todo list. saw the items marked with high priorities and due dates and just ignored them. i went straight into mind numbing television, and the bottom of the list (with the least priority and the long term due dates). and what might that be? well, things that have been put on the backburner for a while like updating my journal and some frontpage upgrades.

bottomline? well i'm like the king of procrastination and best of all i make it look good (at least i think i do). or i'm just not making any sense.

must......fight.......laziness.....*collapse*

oh no! allergy season is upon me again (damn you pollen)! its the day where i can sneeze enough to generate a small hurricane and cause disaster at my desk. my eyes are soo puffed up that i start looking like a sun burnt anime character minus the robot. when the weather gets this bad, i lock myself in my room and just stay there with my trusty air purifier (and my nose stuck to it).

a few years back i had to get down to the bottom of things. i needed to get allergy tested to find out what i was allergic to. i think this test is still in the early stages of development. they drop about 40 extracts of known allergens on your skin. then they "break" the skin (which is really taking a needle and stabbing your arm) to get the sample into your body. then a whole bunch of waiting and looking to see which samples swell up. i walked away from that doctor's appointment with popeye arms and itchy as heck (at some point i wanted to take a rake and run it through my arm because it was so itchy).

all that trouble to find out that i was allergic to certain types of trees and grass (all that trouble and they didn't even know the specifics). i think i'm going to be running through the forest and burning every tree and blade of grass from british columbia (yes folks, i'm kidding). i hope mj doesn't read this cause then she'll really think i'm psyco.

hey, its my birthday on sunday. can you believe it, another year that i gain another notch on my age belt (age = age + 1 or age ++, for all you geeks out there). i can't believe that i'm turning 23 already, 22 was such a crappy year for me. hopefully all the drama has subsided with the end of the year (otherwise i'd have to go postal and bring some sort of machine gun around). i'm kinda scared too, isn't 23 the age when you have to get a steady girlfriend and eventually get married. well, i'm really really really behind schedule. according to my palm III i was supposed to be meeting the girl of my dreams a while back (applications? hey, email me). maybe i should just skydive from outer space (but it would be a real ugly mess if my parachute doesn't open, spacesuit or no spacesuit).

this year i'm going to be in sxsw partying with the survivor blog crew and other geeks of the web world for my birthday. hopefully, i don't make a fool of myself (like i normally do) because being asian and having the weird asiatic reaction that we all get to alcohol. if one drop of alcohol enters my blood stream and you can loose me when i decide to stand behind a red wall because my skin turns red.

so this year i turn older a few hours early. hopefully i won't throw up on the bronco bull. *ahem* wishlist*ahem*

so if you see me collapsed on my desk call the ambulance right away. victor bought me some of that red bull drink from the states yesterday.

its sitting here, on my desk at work, waiting for me to drink it. then i start thinking, crazy people mix this drink with alcohol to "have fun" in a club. i also heard that some people don't even take drugs in a rave anymore, they just drink this. stimulates the mind and body my butt! i mean if their website has a whole section dedicated to the "effects" of it (how geek am i that i actually researched it?), that can't be good right? so i'm still debating if i should drink it.

see i'm in one of those sleepy moods today, i guess i went to sleep pretty late again and i didn't get that much sleep. i stopped by the corner store and bought some coffee but it doesn't seem to be working for me. so here i am staring into this can of red bull. see i thought it was some sort of legalized drug. c'mon it's not too far fetched. "red bull gives you wings", uummm getting high? (i think i just increased my hits from search engines with "legalized drug", say it with me now "legalized drug") i'm pretty sure that curiosity will get the better of me and i'll end up drinking it. so if i'm collapsed over my desk at work, because my heart just exploded (you know coffee with red bull might do that to you), please don't hesitate to call the ambulance my lawyer.

addendum: i drank it 30 minutes after writing this entry.

post-addendum: i was wired for about 4 hours after (that was fun! too bad i'm too tired to even think right now).

so last night i went clubbing once again. it's been a while nice i've hit the club scene with a lot of people, but since it was for a friend's birthday there were a lot of people. plus the fact that a lot of people usually go to that club on saturday (so i've heard, really). the club played a lot of good music, the dj talked to much (i mean how do you expect people to dance if you're cutting the music off to give your x-rated version of the "it wasn't me" shaggy song). i danced with a few people, made fun of a couple of others (holding up your hand and moving off beat isn't dancing people) and drank a little (since i'm asian, i turn red and have allergic reactions to alcohol). it was fun, dumb dancing is still the best (and who could beat my rendition of dance dance revolution to snoop dog).

it was pretty much a drool fest that night too. i don't get why girls dress like body parts are going to pop out if they move a little bit (do you guys use tape?). i also don't get why they'd rather dance with each other on stage (and no i'm not bitter or anything), is it like a tease kinda thing? but hey, it's all good i enjoy it anyways. i'm too busy making a fool of myself trying to look like i'm playing ddr to worry about picking up girls (but please don't let that stop you guys from picking me up, just kidding).

belated happy birthday silvia, see i was actually going to buy you a 151 shot last night but i didn't bring that much money. otherwise, that would've had your name on it.

microsoft isn't all that bad. really, i'm serious. they aren't. sure they probably want to take over the world with bill gates cracking a whip over slaves to pull his old school chariot but they aren't really that bad.

see i've been working on a document for two days now. mostly documentation. this is pretty big, since i developed it and i have to explain how it works after i've built it (which is how most projects get developed anyways, so i'm told). before i got home at the end of the day, i don't bother saving and i just lock my computer up and come back the next day to work on it again. so its grown to about 20 pages (i'm exaggerating, probably 4 pages but it had screenshots), and i decide that i want to listen to some music. so naturally i click on my little winamp icon (actually, the real deal is that i was trying to watch supergreg again). my computer decides to freeze, and first reaction was to hit that white button. the white button that kills the circulation of electricity inside the computer. so shuts itself down and i realize that i had the un-saved document just when i see the monitor black out.

it was quick enough for me to see my facial expression of "shoot, what the heck did i just do?" on my face reflecting off the blackness of the monitor. i lost everything? yes sir you did, and you can't blame anyone because you didn't think when you pressed that white button.

thank my stars that ms word has that auto backup feature that would save your work. so at least the document isn't completely lost. i restored it and saved it. i feel a lot better now. thank you microsoft (yea i know i sound like a corny infomercial).

did i tell you guys that i missed the last episode of temptation island? i fell asleep, and didn't wake up for the show. i was choked! from the looks of it though i didn't really miss that much, since none of them broke up. so catching the salon version was both entertaining and informative to read. (i wanted all of them to break up. just for the record, especially jerk boy andy and shannon)

so i was talking to janice this morning. if they wanted drama, they should involve filipino couples in there (complete with sandals and baggy shorts). janice and i will be glad to participate. of course, we're not a couple but we can pretend to be. i said that i'd be booty calling every night, same with her. i'd go out with lola and she can hit lolo (cause that's her sugar daddy). we'd be breaking up on the last episode of the show for sure but not the normal break up. it'll be jerry springer style, imaging crazy filipino woman vs smooth-talking filipino man. they don't know the wrath of filipino women. it's a scary thing to see. this doesn't even come close to what a filipina woman can do to a guy.

but honestly, i really thought that all the couples were headed to self-destruction. everyone just didn't seem to be thinking of their significant other towards the end. well, except for valerie, but she's just whipped and completely as annoying as andy (humm those two should go out). wouldn't it be great (drama wise) if each couple hooked up with another from the other couples? for example. mandy hooks up with kaya, or andy and shannon? that would be totally jerry springer style.

man, put me on that show and i'll give you ratings! over-dramatic is my middle name (just ask any of my ex's).

so it's the lent already? i can't believe it. its already been a year? uugh are you sure?

so what am i going to fail at giving up this year? fast food? smoking? computers? internet? chatting? soo many things to pick from but what am i really supposed to give up? shouldn't it be something that you can really sacrifice on? something very significant, because this is the one time of the year that i can really consciously sacrifice. i'm one of those hard-core catholic dropouts, the equivalent of me would be an ex-convicted criminal turned flourist. so this is my way of making up for getting worse and worse everytime a year passes. so back to the basic question, what do i give up?

i figured it out eventually though. i could just take the bus to work for the whole lent. that would be a sacrifice. that would mean that i would have to get up earlier to make the 1 1/2 hour trip to work (when driving only takes 45 minutes). i'd get some rest when i go home, because i get to sleep (unless i have a smelly person beside me, then their cologne would probably burn my eyes). it takes me longer to get home, probably cost more because i have a car (buy gas and pay for insurance) and i take the bus (buy bus passes, damn it). i could just forsee the trouble this will cause already, long walks, human interaction, and exercise (its kinda funny that all the bad stuff are the "supposedly" good things).

what other religion would make you give up something that you like for a month and a half? not that i'm complaining or anything. *hides under desk and looks around for lightning bolts from the heavens*

and no i didn't forget. its my ex-girlfriend's (now just friends) birthday today. this was the 10 days that we're the same age because she's a year younger than i am.

happy birthday abbie

just be glad that i didn't post any embarrasing pictures of you on here (well maybe one, two ahh what the heck three or four). we've been through a lot actually and i'm glad that she was able to see past a lot of things and still want me as a friend. we've forgiven each other and trying to put back the past because thats where it belongs. it was really a hard time that we went through and even though we both made mistakes i'm glad that we're still friends. but no matter what i'm still the bowling champion of the millenium.

as everyone probably knows, i'm the worst insomniac ever. i wouldn't sleep for 3 days or just get minimal sleep then crash really badly. it's hard to plan around a pattern like this, i'd rather that i have a regular pattern so i could at least plan my day. last night, i just crashed. actually, when i didn't sleep i was sleep walking and eating. i honestly don't remember how i even got to my bed. i got home, slept, ate dinner, slept, watched a bit of tv, slept and finally i crawled into bed and slept. i even missed temptation island and thats not a good thing, especially when you've waited weeks to see the final episode. although i kinda remember seeing a bit of that 70's show (ooh she's cute, he's not, this guy is just weird and this is just wrong).

i still woke up at my normal time though, which means that I'm wide awake at 5:00 in the morning. so what do you do when you wake up that early? well, i paid some bills and surfed the net. i have a million things on my todo list today, i have no clue how i'm going to be able to do it all (i need some of that red bull).