There's something to be said about a company that has a celebration of champagne, mimosas and some good cheese at 11am on a Friday.  Having myself a few glasses and feeling pretty good right about now after being at work till 5am.  Gotta love this place...work hard, play harder!

Time really flies.  It's already September and 2007 is almost come and gone in the blink of an eye.  Can you believe it's the 6th anniversary of 9/11?  6 years....Everyone remembers that day, where they were, what they were doing.  Everyone was somehow affected by it one way or another.  The Pentagon was across the street from where I lived in Northern VA.  It's scary to think of how close it was.

I had friends that had drinks the night before 9/11 up on Wonders of the World bar...what if?

I was there just a couple weeks before 9/11 standing right in front of  WTC...what if?

I had interviews with some companies in those buildings just days/weeks after 9/11...what if?

It's scary to think about, but I know people that lost their lives in that event.  I have friends that lost loved ones that day.  It's times like that that really make you reflect on life and what it means.  I know some people think it's too serious or don't have a care in the world to really understand the value of life.  They don't know what it means to seize the moment each day.  Some people take life for granted.  I will not be one of those.

I forgot what it's like to be back home visiting my parents' place for long extended periods of time....very annoyed today.

I don't know how people do it living with the 'rents...they're driving me crazy!!

Really dreading going back to work next week but at least I'll be back at my own home in So Cal. 

Hi all...reporting from Brussels.  Not much to report other than the pissing kid statue and chocolates.  Heading to Amsterdam to eat some magic brownies.  Back to Paris this weekend and then the States next week.  Taking lots of pics!

People have habits of doing some strange stuff when it comes to superstitions especially with the Asians.  Have you ever walked into an Asian household and it just looks like a zoo?  There's those elephant statues right outside the front door, then you have the frog statues for good luck and money.  I'm sure you'll find some snakes or dragons floating around somewhere for good luck too.  Horses are supposedly good luck too, so you might see those every now and then.  I remember walking into one of my friend's houses, and I thought to myself, damn did I just walk into Noah's Arc cause I must've seen the whole animal kingdom in his living room. 

Some people go to extreme lengths to bring in good luck.  If the animal kingdom isn't good enough, then maybe a whole bunch of gold pieces and red shiny things like those Chinese signs might bring them luck.  I'm all for feng shui because I think it really works having your rooms situated in a certain order to bring harmony but when you have a huge golden life-size horse in the middle of your living room (I shit you not when I've seen this in my friend's house), something is wrong with you. 

Where do some of these superstitions come from anyway?  Someone had to make up some of these like eating a pig's tail on Chinese New Year's?  Seriously, if eating a pig's asstail is good luck, then count me in for years of bad luck.  I'm all for harmony, ying-yang, the wholeshabang, but come on people, why didn't someone ever say having a good romp in the bed brings you good luck?  I'd be all for good luck then!

Flying back home from Chicago to celebrate my birthday today....woohooo Happy Birthday to me

EDIT: So my plane has been delayed 2 hours already and I'm waiting for them to fix the plane..oh wait shit they delayed it more uggg boo for my bday..,

Off to Chicago I go for training....be back for my birthday next Friday

AND now my flight just got cancelled...great...I just love the airline industry these days.

Taking my lunch break and reading the news from CNN, I saw this article about the '08 Presidential Race:

"In sharp contrast, the Democratic race remains static, with Hillary
Clinton holding a sizable lead over Barack Obama. The New York senator,
who is white, also outpaces her Illinois counterpart, who is black,
among black and Hispanic Democrats, according to a combined sample of
two months of polls."

I love how they point out that how Clinton is white and Obama is black.  Only if you've been living under a rock the past decade would you not know that Clinton is white.  I really wonder about some journalists these days.

I recently participated as a tabulator for the Miss Asia USA pageant last weekend, since my company was the official tabulators of the pageant.  You know, those people that hand tally the judges' scores and then get to go up on the stage to hand the envelopes.  I even had the best seats in the house for the swimsuit competition, very front row!  It was quite an experience because I got to mingle with some Hollywood folks and industry executives that were judges.  Very nice folks, but I never experienced this side of Hollywood before since I've moved out here.  They had the whole red carpet for the VIPs coming in, a whole slew of photographers, and an after party where Bai Ling, one of the hosts of the pageant, was going all crazy and getting on top of the bar and taking pics with everyone without having any panties on.  Her and one of the judges got really cozy and left soon afterwards.  I ended up staying out till 3am chit chatting with some of the judges and coordinators of the pageant and it made me think how these people can still do it being in their 40s and 50s.  I was exhausted by the time I got home and can't imagine having to go out like that every weekend.  I'm definitely more low-key than that.

I'm going through a sort of mid-life crisis now trying to figure out what to do with myself and my career.  I was unhappy with the work I was doing at my previous employer, so I switched jobs about 8 months ago and moved out to LA.  I've been learning a lot, but the hours kill me at times.  I'm not overly thrilled with the work, but it's good stuff to know.  I was browsing around the internet for jobs and couldn't figure out what it is I wanted to do.  I'm not sure consulting or pharma is my kind of work, but then I don't know what is.  It makes me wish I had finished up with med school, and I could have been a doctor by now.  I'm sure I would have loved that profession and been doing that kind of work.  I don't want to end up moving from job to job so often, but I want to get into something that I'll enjoy for a long time.  Hopefully, it'll come to me someday as to what I enjoy doing.  Till now, I just have to suck it up because I got bills to pay.  Another day, another dollar.  Is anyone else going through this?

Time to hit the beach and BBQ!!!

Happy Fourth of July everyone