Few songs I’m diggin’ at the moment:

I really love this song by Dragonette though =)
Dragonette – Pick Up the Phone

KE$HA – TiK ToK

Jordin Sparks – S.O.S

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The other day, the girlfriend was going through the camera looking for pictures to use as backgrounds for Windows 7. While looking, she found that more than a quarter of the shots were of myself. She commented on that I was quite vain. Not knowing what that meant, I asked.

A few seconds later, with the help of the internets, I found out.

Vain
excessively proud of or concerned about one’s own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.; conceited: a vain dandy.

The description fit me perfectly. I do blog to keep others updated, but I mostly blog for myself.

Small changes are made everyday. For example, a few co-workers I know bet on sports, daily. The good news of their winnings are always spread as well as the recommendations to get in on the free money.

A few months ago, I was highly opposed to gambling with the intent to make money. I had no problem throwing away a few dollars to kill time, like playing penny slots. But after a few months of hearing all the stories, I started thinking about joining in on the Sportsaction

I didn’t know much about sports, but I was willing to try. One day, I cashed in $8 worth of bottles and decided that this was all all that I was going to spend betting. Initially, I started betting $2 per bet but I have moved up to $20 since the beginning.

Anyway, the point is that small changes eventually evolve into bigger ones. Blogging allows me to highlight certain moments in my life so that I can reflect and see how far I’ve come. So I do believe the word vain describes me perfectly. I do all of this for myself.

I also read my blog, and look at the pictures and videos I’ve taken quite a bit as well…

I’ve since stopped gambling because I am too greedy. Greed will do me in if I continue =\

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About four months ago, my Seagate HDD crashed. And since I only backup useless video files, I lost all my important files: user names and passwords, essays, and other backup files, which I kept on the same drive. As mad as I was, I knew I could get a replacement drive. I just had to cope with losing my files.

I talked to Cam and he told me that there were programs that could dig up old files off dead HDD as long as the drive could still power up. So I did some searching and got my data back. It may have taken a few days, but I was happy to have the essential files back.

I sent the HDD out to Seagate and got a new one a week or so later. Voila, another 500GB HDD. As I was messing around inside my computer making space for the drive, I accidentally broke a clip off my other HDD. I didn’t think much of it, and just continued on with what I was doing.

After I was done installing my drive, I noticed that there was an error booting up Windows. So after some troubleshooting, I realized that the clip that I broke off, was in fact a huge problem. So much of a problem, that after some googling, I realized that my old HDD was just a paperweight.

So in the end, the data that retrieved, was lost again. And of course, I didn’t learn to backup my the first time around, so I lost everything again.

Even when I evened out the pins, the HDD didn’t work. There should be a piece of plastic for the pins to lay on where the blue line is, similar to #2, but upside down.

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A week before Winsen’s birthday, he asked Michelle and I where we were going to take him for his birthday dinner. Both of us were like, “uhh, no where?”. I don’t even expect Michelle to do anything special for my birthday. But I guess, Winsen still has those types of expectations.

Anyway, we figured we take him out for dinner since he was complaining that he was “almost 30″. Not that being 30 is such a big deal. I quickly looked up what the average person accomplishes by 30 and came up with this:

You are now older than 41% of America. 4,211,541 Americans will turn 30 this year, 13.5% of Americans are in their 30s.”

54% own a home / 71% of married couples / 39% of unmarried men / 34% of unmarried women / 50% of northeasterners / 63% of midwesterners / 67% of southerners / 48 % of westerners

of women by their early 30s 78% have been married 68% married once 8% married twice 1% married 3x 17% divorced / of men in their early 30s 70% married 62% once 7% twice 0.6% married 3x

their early 30s 82% have ever been pregnant 18% once 26% twice 19% 3x 19% 4+

40% have set up retirement accounts – median value $11,000 / 15% bonds / 13% stocks – median value $4,400 / 11% life insurance median value $3,700

Net worth for families headed by people under 35: $73,500

83% carry debt – median balance $26,500 / 50% have a credit card balance – median bal $2,100 / 64% have an installment loan – median bal $10,200 / 36% have a mortgage median bal $82,000

Based off the averages in the states of what you could have done by 30, he’s got no hope -nor do I.

Anyway, I found a fancy-dancy restaurant and we had a great night.

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Kick ass. After a few hours of messing around, I got my old template back up and running.

Time to get some updates going^^

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Gah, finally got my site back up and running. Though, I won’t spend as much time on the design this time around because I’m not too sure if it will happen again. Yay! for default templates.

Anyway, I am glad to get my site back up. Thanks to James for the heads up.

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This summer has been a productive one. Mainly because I have redirected my goals from obtaining rare items and maxing out my levels to educating myself and obtaining more assets.

If you guys don’t already know, I am no longer playing any MMOs. At least for the time being. FFXIV is scheduled for next year, so I don’t know how long I can fight off this addiction. I’m just playing CS:Source during my down-time. But the desire to obtain levels and progress in the virtual world is already lurking at the back of my mind. Hopefully, Star Craft 2 will delay the desire while FFXIV comes out.

Anyway, back to what I did in the summer. We bought life in insurance from a former co-worker of mine. Well, the sessions started as ‘financial planning’ but then naturally progressed into what would we do if one of us were to, god forbid, die. The only thing that I did not already know from their ‘financial advice’ was that there are CPP benefits.

1. What are Canada Pension Plan survivor benefits?

Canada Pension Plan survivor benefits are paid to a deceased contributor’s estate, surviving spouse or common-law partner and dependent children. There are three types of benefits.

* The death benefit is a one-time payment to, or on behalf of, the estate of a deceased Canada Pension Plan contributor;
* The survivor’s pension is a monthly pension paid to the surviving spouse or common-law partner of a deceased contributor;
* The children’s benefit is a monthly benefit for dependent children of a deceased contributor.

It is important to apply for Canada Pension Plan benefits. If you do not apply, you may lose benefits you are entitled to receive.

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/isp/cpp/cpptoc.shtml

Before we purchased the life insurance, the ‘financial advisers’ came to our house at a time that was convenient for us. Later, we decided that we did not need insurance at this time of our life. So we canceled our policy. But once we canceled our policy, we now had to come to their office. Meanwhile, we were still being charged for the policy. We had a meeting with the advisers, which they failed to show up or even call to notify us that they would not be able to make it.

Long story short, we will not purchase insurance from Great West Life when we are ready.

My Occupational First-Aid: Level 2 certificate expired 19th of September. So work paid for the time off and to take the course again. Which is a pretty sweet deal because I get to spend a week ‘working’ in the morning. Not only that, I get an extra dollar per hour.

Anyway, at the time that I got certified two years ago, I wondered why we had to redo the course every two years. I initially thought that having a short expiration date was just some sort of money making scheme. But I was totally wrong. At least in my case. I had almost forgot everything that I had learned by the end of the two years. I don’t like to admit it, but there have been a few people who have been mistreated.

I am grateful that I was able to take the course again.

The first-aid experience at work has sparked my interest in the health field. So I started looking for decent paying jobs. I pretty much narrowed it down to Licensed Practical Nurse. There are a few problems though: I will be making the same or less, my hours will definitely suck, politicians will affect my career, and tuition costs an arm an a leg. But, of course, there is some good: I will be more knowledgeable about the health field, I will be able to progress to become a nurse if I decide to follow this path, and I will feel that I have accomplished something in life.

I now work as a warehouse worker. I know how to use all the machines and almost know how to do every job function, but that isn’t very satisfying. I need more.

Before I take the LPN program, I will need to do some high school equivalent courses: bio, math, and chem. Then I will be on a waiting list that is who knows how long. But for the time being, I am the only guy in my anatomy class. And no it is not as cool as Mahou Sensei Negima!.

Also I finished Freakanomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner. If you like correlations and how incentives motivate people to try to beat the system, this book is for you. Here are the chapter titles:

1. What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?
2. How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?
3. Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?
4. Where Have All the Criminals Gone?
5. What Makes a Perfect Parent?
6. Perfect Parenting, Part II; or: Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?

http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/006073132X

Read the a few pages off of Amazon. I was blown away by this book.

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It’s been a bit over a month since my last post. That’s how busy I’ve been in the last while. I finished working, a record, 34 days in a row, worked along side of the PNE Coordinator (experience for next year), helped Winsen move into our place, got life insurace, cancelled life insurance, did the Occupation First-Aid Level 2 course again (re-cert), gone to a Canucks game (thanks to Winsen), went to various functions, and on top of that, I’ve gone back to school part-time to become a nurse. Well, the nurse thing hasn’t been decided yet, but as of this moment, that is the path I’m going towards.

Phew.

So to start the post off, I do not recommend anyone work more than 15 days in a row. Some of the minor problems that I experienced were: lost track of the days, couldn’t attend any events, couldn’t laze around for a day, and people the at work thought I would rather be at work than at home. Those are all fairly minor. I don’t know how to fully explain what happens after working two weeks straight. I had symptoms of PMS: fatigue, irritability, and I had a difficult time concentrating -no breast tenderness.

Around day 20, I decided to not sleep and just play counter-strike for 6 hours straight. From that day, I felt as if my mind reset and I was ready to work another 20 days. On the 34th day of work, I felt totally fine. I don’t know what remedied the irritability, but I associated counter-strike to be the cure.

Like a bolt of lightning, I then realized why people play golf; to relieve tension. I am sure there are other reasons, but I now believe that people play golf to relieve their tension -stress.

I actually, worked 35 days in a row, but the last day wasn’t paid for. I shadowed around the PNE Coordinator for a day: talking to carnies, taking orders, delivering food, and fulfilling any other inquiries.

So here’s what I learned from that: when entering a kitchen/hut/tent do not bring food of another vendor (even if they’re not competitors), always accept the food, even if you’re not going to eat it, milk means beer and “friendly drink” means cooler, the carnies are either drunk or hung-over, and last but not least, no one sells healthy food on-site.

Two years ago, Winsen had a plan to move to Vancouver: he was going to pay off his debts and save up some money before moving here. Most of that plan went out the window. He got a huge ass monitor and bought a bunch of junk, but he still ended up moving to Vancouver.

I’m letting him chill at my place until he can afford to get his own place. But at the time, he still had to get his belongings (Victoria) to my place (Vancouver). He can’t drive, nor does he have the money to pay for movers, so he had to find a volunteer. Of course, that was me.

Winsen reserved a 15′ U-Haul truck, but when we went to pick the truck up, they didn’t have any left over. So they gave him an “upgraded” truck 25′ at no additional cost. The only problem with that is that I only have my Novice license. Not only that, I have never driven anything bigger than a sedan. Apparently that was not a problem. They gave me the keys and let us on our way.

Was supposed to get the truck on the left, but we got the one on the right.

When I said I had never ridden anything bigger than a sedan, I meant it. Even though the truck was automatic, I didn’t even know how to shift the truck into drive. Seriously, why the hell am I allowed to drive this thing!?

The whole time I drove, I had to concentrate. I felt as if I were concentrating so much that I had an aura of chakra around me. I got a break from driving when we got on the ferry, but then I had to go at it again once we landed. Of course, Winsen falls asleep. Well, you piece of…. I want to sleep too but I have to god damn concentrate so I don’t ruin your belongings!

Gun for Time Crisis 5 (What a piece of brick!)

God dammit. Worst experience ever.

On a good note, I talked him into paying for the buffet. But if I calculated out how much work I did ($1.5/hour), I believe I deserved it. 15 hours (5AM-8PM) of work for a buffet. I hope he appreciates the help. Anyway, the buffet was pretty damn good. Not worth paying for though =)

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I’ve dream of what it would be like to be rich, but not every night. Mainly, because I don’t think that I would do things much differently. Maybe I’d only work part time or maybe I’d start up another MMO. But after hearing about Ken Block and how he got this good in three years. I now dream that I were rich every night. So that I could practice night and day without worrying about such things like the $4000 in tires that I would burn through every week.

Anyway, here are two awesome videos of Ken Block:

Top Gear

Gymkhana Two: The Infomercial

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Gah, I’ve been working for 21 days straight. I’m starting to get delusional. I keep forgetting what day it is. I have to stare at the calendar every day; even then, my mind still doesn’t realize what day it is. There have been days that I’ve dreaded the whole day of work: opposed to being nonchalant.

I’ve been trying to branch out with the company that I work with. So I applied for a sales related position: PNE Co-ordinator. You take orders and request on-site at the PNE. Supposedly, the temporary position is a grueling 18 days during the busiest summer days.

I applied for the position, but could not get someone to cover my current position. So in the end, I had to tell the person that I could not accept the position, had I been the chosen candidate. Since I am looking for skills over anything, I asked the person if I could work along the person that did get the position for a day, for free, just to get the feel of the job so that I could get some experience under my belt for the following year.

The person told me to call on Monday. If I don’t tag along with the person that did get the job next week (Aug. 9th-15th), I will ask if I can work an additional 3 extra days which would extend my marathon to 31 days.

I know this stress test is silly, but I wanted to emulate working 18 days in a row. At this point, I am just money hungry and I have gone delusional. DELUSIONAL.

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