happy new years...

boys and girls, be safe. don't do anything stupid tonight. of course your definition of stupid might be a bit more different than mine. nevertheless, have fun and party hearty. see ya in 2003.

what am i doing here?

the past 2 years, i've been working on the 27th. who in their right mind works on the 27th? big projects are due, but my brain isn't functioning as well as it should be. i need to do my year-end report and write emails galore. oh yea, did i mention that i'm spending new years in edmonton this year? it's gonna be coooold, enough to get frost-bitten 10 times over.

on a totally different note. yesterday was boxing day. i think the tables have turned a little bit when it's your mom trying to convince you to go with her to the sales in the mall.

*on the phone*
mom: come with me to the mall
me: mom i have to clean the house and finish laundry, i have to pack still
mom: come with me to the mall
me: mom! i have to clean the house and finish my laundry.
mom: ay! just come with me to the mall. i'm going to pick you up in an hour.
*hangs up the phone*
me: (still hold the phone to my ear) erm... ok

a year ago this scene would've been completely reversed.

happy....

holidays

i hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays out there.

a year in retrospect...

too many events happened this year that made my life memorable. too many things that i can't afford to forget and many things that i care to forget as well. it's good that i'm ending the year on a good note. its way better than being depressed and sad like how it usually is.

• I started the year off great, friends from out of town came and celebrated new years in vancouver. it's awesome when friends visit and the whole dynamic of new years changes just because you have people other than your usual friends and family to enjoy the holidays with. who could forget the infamous ditch incident?
• the beginning of the year started off quickly. there were contract jobs galore and people to see. i was flying back and forth from vancouver to san francisco constantly. to visit people and friends. my 24th birthday was a small gathering of close friends and family. it was fun, but i might not do it next year. big celebrations are always fun to have. i was in a relationship. i snowboarded more than i ever did.
• my best friend got married. the major challenges were: to not snort crack like whitney houston stress out, writing the bestman speech and not looking like an idiot infront of their friends and relatives and surviving the night... just because i didn't get enough sleep the night before. it was great!
• i was a tennis freak the moment spring came around. it was mostly due to benjie and his push to get me back into tournament playing shape. so for a few months, i was obsessed with going to the gym and getting the practice i needed. i was heading off to the gym 3 times a week and hitting the ball 3-4 times a week. it was pretty hectic training for the last tournament of the season. i lost.
• i moved out. finally after 24 years old, i've managed to take my prized belongings and move them closer to my workplace. my hour and a half commute turned into a 15 minute drive. i still wonder why i'm still late sometimes. a lot of my finances got swept into the moving expenses pot and a lot of debt was accumulated. it was a scary first few months in the new house. needed to get my finances straight and for a while i was struggling. i'm back to normal now.
• biiiiig, huge project at work. left my head with approximately 30% less braincells.
• so that leaves me the last few months at the end of the year. so what have i been doing? well, i met someone. it's been one of those whirlwind romances. we met through common friends and it just happened from there. she's everything that i could hope for in a relationship. she fills in gaps that i leave out and has the patience to deal with my antics. i'm complete.

overall, it has been a great year. many things happened and many things have been accomplished. i wouldn't do one thing different. i'm happy and that's all i can wish for these holidays.

sometimes, the world just isn't in sync.

just one of those days where nothing seems to work out the way you expect it to. the big problem is keeping your cool and not allowing yourself to snap and snap necks of random people in the office.

currently, i'm squeezing my stressball so hard right now that it doesn't want to form back to its original shape. then a thought pops into my head: what would you do if you were to mentally snap in your office? personally, i would run to where the super-computers are, scream the blood-curdling scream of the damned, run through the protective glass door and go ape-shit on every computer... pulling out plugs and wires while bashing things through monitors. but, of course, this is all a hypothetical situation. what would you do?

there are soo many things that i want to do...

1. travel and see all the wonders of the world
2. be a java guru
3. become famous for something... anything
4. read every classic book known to man
5. become l33t
6. organize myself better
7. learn photoshop
8. put my reverend-ness into practice

it's around this time of year that i start rifling through old notes looking for my year's goals list and start checking off things that i've done in the past year. its usually never a process that i enjoy. i never accomplish enough or i don't even accomplish anything at all. i'm usually very depressed this time of year because of this. in the past year, i've always opted to work and just work my depression away during the christmas holidays. it's never a fun time for me.

fast forward to the present. this year i've put a serious effort into putting myself into perspective. i've put a conscious effort into getting my goals accomplished and checked off. it was also the year that i set goals higher up the usual bar of the previous years. its a good feeling when i looked over my goals list and crossed off some items. coming up with a goals list for next year won't be such a chore this time around.

mystery dinner...

this weekend was my family's christmas dinner. this year was a bit different. it was a murder mystery dinner. a multiple-murder mystery along with some pasta and wine. it was a fun evening. afterwards, it was luce for some clubbing action.

it wasn't a bad night, further proof that it's not what you do... it's who you do it with.

i love my co-workers...

during my morning hello's and small talk with tracy this conversation came up.

tracy: so you're turning 25 exactly 3 months from now.
me: yea, but its not really that big of a deal.
tracy: yea, i suppose that its different from guys and girls.
me: i guess so.
tracy: guys don't really care, but girls... they need a whole different body cream when they turn 25.

i'm sure she ment wrinkle cream.

kids!

cute kids are always interesting to take pictures of. they never stop moving. they're always putting small things into their mouth. moms and dads always have to run around after them to make sure they don't stick their fingers into electrical sockets. if an alien race saw this i'm sure they'd say that the kids are the one's in charge of this planet.

i'm sure it's all worth it tho.

typical 0800...

happiness: jsp book on your left, java programming book on your right, grande chai latte on your left hand and the struts framework on your computer screen. *sigh*

yes folks, i'm a morning not person.

my life isn't that bad when i get to bed by 2300. the past few nights, it's been a really stressful. primarily because i haven't been getting enough sleep. today, i had an insane amount of sleep.

i woke up at 0500, but because of my neurotic-ness my alarm would actually say 0600. thinking that it was already 0600, i figured, that i had an hour before i actually had to get up. i stayed curled up in my blanket for 30 minutes thinking that i would get up and follow my daily routine on time. until of course when my alarm clock went off at 0530. the darkness combined with my dazed-just-woke-up state plus my alarm clock waking up sent me into a realization that it was only 0530. i thought the world somehow turned around and i managed to travel back in time. no joke. uugh, i hate waking up before my alarm clock.

it's been a while...

last night i went clubbing. i drank a little bit too much. i hung out with a few friends. i even smoked some cigarettes. it's been a while since i even touched things like that. it was a fun reminder of how i used to be in my college days. back then, i would've started my clubbing run on wednesday all the way until saturday. this was when i was going to school, i used my lecture classes to sleep and my lab classes to catch up on homework that i missed. it was fun.

today, i'm reminded why i don't do that anymore. (1) i have to be in a semi-conscious state when i work. (2) my body depends on more than 2 hours of sleep. (3) alcohol doesn't agree with my body as much as it used to. (4) never work out, go home, drink, and club all in the same night.

i met someone...special...very special.