Hmm...

I was at the bookstore the other day and ran into this:

Haha. Pretty funny. I know, the book actually gives some tips into how to read certain genres. But at first glance, I cracked up. Reminds me of solar-powered flashlights, powdered water (just add water!), etc.

100th post!

Wow. Can you believe this is my 100th post? I know. Not really that exciting. But how about getting $215 worth of pans for $60? That's pretty exciting huh? Well, don't say I don't hook you up:

Calphalon One Nonstick 8" and 10" Fry Pan Set

I bought these myself from the Williams-Sonoma store at Burlington Mall. I saw them then the deal, and I knew I had to have it. I guess I can give my crappy $10 pan away now. Mmmm...Can't wait to try them out.

Who says our children "isn't" learning?

If you live in Mass, you guys need to check this out:

Mass. students outperform peers on international exam

We've apparently posted some pretty impressive scores worldwide. So...go MA!!

Sneaky, sneaky Apple

Just browsing my regular news feeds and noticed Apple is quietly recommending installation of anti-virus software. After years of poking fun at Microsoft Windows for its weakness, they succumb as well. Check out the Slashdot overview.

Back on Invisaligns

So I picked up my set of Invisaligns today. This is the "refinement" part of my treatment. After my initial treatment, I couldn't close my jaw all the way (the front teeth made contact before the molars did). So I have 22 weeks of wearing aligners 20-22 hours a day. Yay... After that, it's a lifetime of wearing retainers at night. Double yay...

I did notice that this set is different than the ones I had before. The "buttons" they put on your teeth to hold the aligners on are much bigger and more rectangular. I had a bit of trouble removing them for lunch today. I thought I would break them before I removed them. I must say, this set fits much tighter, but that could be because they're moving my teeth again.

The plus side of wearing aligners again is that it limits my snacking. When you have to remove aligners and afterwards brush your teeth, floss, and rinse just to eat a snack, that snack just isn't worth it. My initial Invisalign treatment helped me cut down snacking. Wound up losing 5lb! So this might drop my weight a bit too. I can't really drink anything besides water either. If I want to drink anything else, I have to do the same ritual of removing my aligners, then cleaning before putting them back on. Another plus side is, I feel like I'm wearing a mouth guard 24/7. Try knocking out these teeth!

Another war coming?

Don't know if anybody else has been following the Russia-Georgia conflict, but it is not ending anytime soon. There's supposedly a cease-fire agreement, and Russia has claimed they have ordered a halt to military operations. However, Georgia is still reporting attacks inside their country. I just saw a headline for three sunken ships too. This is pretty crazy.

The US and Europe are continuing telling Russia to stop, but reports indicate we don't have much to threaten them with. Russia apparently is pretty self-sufficient, so most we can do politically is take them out of G8 and boycott their events. But you never know, next thing you know, the superpowers are going to butt in with military forces. It's not looking too good.

I also just read an article stating how this might jeopardize our access to the International Space Station (ISS). If you don't know already, NASA is grounding the space shuttle fleet in 2010. We have an agreement to allow us access to ISS via Russian Soyuz spacecrafts, but that expires in 2011. After that, the ISS will be in sole control of the Russians. That doesn't sound good either.

Oy...

What a ride...

It's been a roller coaster of a day today so far... I went in to the city to get my Invisalign adjustment rolling again. I got to sit in a dentist chair while they shoved molding plaster into my mouth. Then they shoved mirrors into my mouth for pictures. Wonderful. The rest of the morning and early afternoon has since been up and down. Oy...


Song on Pandora:
Daniel Powter - Lost On The Stoop

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

So it's day 5 after my return home, and I'm adjusting back to life here. It was pretty tough adjusting from California time, only because I slept later there. But it's better now. I'm slowly catching up at work, and I'm trying to tie up some loose ends on some personal things I needed to get done (one being my stupid HP laptop). Now trying to add my workout routine by going back to the gym today. Let's hope that sticks this time and I get to squeeze in 2-3 workouts a week. I mean, geez, they open 24 hours a day during weekdays! There's really no excuse.

Well, I hope by the end of next week, things have settled a bit.

Vacation

I've been on vacation since the Fourth in California, and it's been quite relaxing. If only life was like this everyday! Alas, I am just a regular schmo with a nine-to-fiver, and I will be back at the daily grind on Monday. But I'm am relishing my time here as much as I can.

California's nice. Been to LA before, but right now I'm in San Francisco. My friend lives in the O.C., so after we leave SF we'll be back there. One thing I noticed about Cali that I didn't before is that liquor is sold everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE. Target, yup. CVS, yup. Trader Joe's, yup (I know they sold wine at home, but here they sell spirits too!). And it's cheap!!! Bottle of Patron here is like $35 - $39. Usually $50 at home. Crazy. Needless to say, we had one night where we were quite inebriated.

Food's okay. Nothing that stands out. Although, I did have my first sweet shrimp nigiri at Tadashi Sushi at La Jolla after a day of ocean kayaking. That was an excellent piece of sushi. If you've never had sweet shrimp and you love sushi, you gotta try it. I think it's amaebi in Japanese. I might be wrong.

Anyhoot, more posts when I get back.

I'm a recovering internet addict

With my laptop at HP for repairs, I am feeling internet withdrawals when I'm at home. It's pretty weird not having the internet at your fingertips. I still get Gmail, thanks to my new phone and T-Mobile, but no Google searches, no Wikipedia, no YouTube.

I feel so deprived. I mean, I actually watched cable. Oh my gosh, I watched cable TV. I rarely use my TV. You know what else I did? I actually sat at my coffee table and had a drink a couple times. So weird to actually lounge around at home instead of surfing. Haha. But it's good. The internet wastes your brain away anyway. And I'm sure my games on Facebook can wait a bit before I actually take my turns. The hardest part really is that I usually surf a bit before I sleep. Now I have to just head to bed and turn the lights out. Geez, who does that?

Well, when my laptop returns, I hope I don't get too addicted to it again. Oh man, on another note, if you don't use Pandora.com to discover new and old music, you are missing out. Go check it out.


What's playing on my Pandora now:
Blake Lewis - Surrender
(Yeah, I like this song. So what? I also like Britney's "Hot as Ice". Don't hate.)

131-92 F

#17

Celtics

'Nuff said.

Shopping for a new cell phone

I've had my phone for about two years now. Pretty long time if you ask me. Anyway, I have the T-Mobile SDA, which I dropped the very first day I got it. Very annoying. But I've dropped it many times since. It's a pretty sturdy phone and works no matter what I do to it. Only thing is, it's beginning to look very banged up, especially since the front face plate is hanging off. So I've been shopping around for phones.

At first, I looked at Verizon phones since I have an employee discount with my employer. Not feeling too hot about the non-GSM phones, but they do have a pretty darn good network. I eventually decided against switching since everybody I know is on T-Mobile and so are most of my sister's friends (I have a 4-line family plan). So no go there. I'm looking at Windows Mobile phones too and Verizon doesn't have that great a selection out there besides the Motorola Q. I hate Blackberries.

So I decided to look back at T-Mobile. I narrowed it down to the Dash and the Shadow. Both made by HTC, a company known for smartphones that lets their customers brand their own phones (The Google phone is supposedly coming from here). After actually playing with them, I decided on the Dash. Problem now is if I upgrade my phones, I need to renew my contract to get a good rate. That's another 1 or 2 years. Not a problem really, but I don't like being locked in. So now the beauty of GSM kicks in. I am shopping for the Dash on ebay now, since I can just plug my SIM card right in and have a working phone. With Verizon, you have to call them to change your ESN and crap. Well, while shopping, I also called this guy that deals with unlocked GSM phones, including overseas phones. I don't really have my eye on anything overseas, so I didn't do any business with him. But if you know anybody looking for an unlocked GSM phone from overseas, let me know!

So, anyway, I'm bidding on a couple of Dashes on ebay. I got my sister's Nokia and my refurbished Olympus camera on ebay, and both times I got pretty good results. I like ebay. So hopefully by tonight, I would have a Dash for about the same price I would get at T-Mobile without signing another contract. Sweet!

Finally got a Wii

So on Sunday morning, I woke up early (at 10AM, but that's early for me) and made my way to Best Buy to stand in line to get a Wii. Those things sell out within the hour whenever they have a shipment. I was one of the first 20 in line and got one. It looked like they had 30 -50 of them, so it was a decent shipment. Funny thing is I haven't opened it up to play with it yet. It was too hot yesterday to do that.

I was supposed to go camping this past weekend, but that fell through. Wound up just doing nothing. I did go to IKEA Saturday to get some candy cars - good stuff. My friends, sister, and I bought some other stuff too, so I didn't just go there for candy. It was hot on Saturday too, so wound up just chilling at my place with the AC on at night.

Didn't really do anything else this weekend. Watched my friend practice guitar and did some mini-workouts. Nothing else. Oh well.

Oh yeah, GO CELTICS! (close game last night)

Welcome to my life

Well, having finally started a blog a week or so ago (passiveincomeproject.blogspot.com), I decided to create a personal one for my thoughts and stuff. So here it is. I anticipate I'll be writing about where I go and what I do. Probably throw some of my thoughts on restaurants (I LOVE FOOD), movies, current events and stuff. You know, just a sprinkling of my life for my stalkers out there...which probably isn't much...well, there're probably none. Whatever. So stay tuned!

In case you're wondering why there are ads on my personal blog, please see my project at my other blog.