First Time...

Last night, I was able to experience something new. Here's the background. Since I'm leaving Las Vegas very soon, I felt it was time to have fun. I've been doing a lot of work, and little fun. All week, I've been hanging out with friends, going to bars, and clubs. Well last night, I didn't want to go out because my body was running low. So a co-worker of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a bar. I was skeptical, but I end up saying yes. I told her I didn't want to get hammered because going to work with a hangover is not fun.

The first bar we went to was a place called Rae's. It was supposed to be a few people from work, plus her LA friends. Well the night was kind of a bust because no one really showed up. It became a ladies night out, plus me. I was definitly the odd ball out. Well, Rae's was a bit boring, so we left and went to another bar called Stony's.

Stony's is your typical cowboy type of bar you seen in the movies. It was a nice setup. They had a bull riding pit, bowling alley, and a dance floor. I personally never seen line dancing all night. I can't believe these people were even line dancing to TECHNO!!! My last thought on this. It was definitly a white person's bar. There was only two asian/pacific islander there. And yes, I was one of them. It was still a fun night =).

Thanksgiving Thoughts...

This is how my thanksgiving went. On Thursday, I woke up my normal time which is between 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM. The night before, I thought to myself I wanted to get my day started early. So I woke up, got ready for the gym, and took off. While driving to the gym, I thought to myself, “Why in the hell did I wake up so early? It’s a freakin’ holiday.” I was little bit moody because I still wanted to sleep, but something on the road just brighten up my day. There is so much construction happening in Vegas that they leave the cones on the side of the road. Well, someone decided to play a trick on “Vegas” and put the cones in the middle of the road to construct a little obstacle course. This is the path that cars had to do.



Thanksgiving night rolled around. I had a great time. My family and I shared stories, and ate tons of food. I was really excited to meet my niece and nephew for the first time. My cousins recently moved to the United States, but had to wait an entire year before their kids can come over. During the summer, we talked about the kids all the time. To my surprise, my niece and nephew resemble my sister and I when we were kids. Mae talks a lot just like my sister, and shows a dominant personality. Bim Bim is a quite type, but he shows a lot of creativity when he plays with his toys. Watching them brought so many memories of my sister and I.

My cousin told us a story that I have to share on this blog. As everyone knows, there are some differences of being a Filipino and an American. Well in the Philippines, it’s common to see a little boy pull down his pants and pee on the wall, even on the school yard. Well, Bim Bim still gets confused what is acceptable in the States. Well, he had to go one day, and he started to pee in the wall. The teacher saw this, and sent him to the principal’s office. I felt bad for him, but it made a great story =).

During dinner, my cousin called me on my phone, and told me that he and his family can’t make it to Vegas because he either had a real bad cold or the flu. I was bummed about this because I was looking forward to seeing them for over a month. We planned to go to the Rio, and enjoy the seafood buffet, The Village. Well, my dad and I still went to the Rio to meet with my other aunties. When we went there, we found out that the Village was under renovation. I was once again bummed. When we were walking to the other buffet, there was a sign of the Chippendales models. My dad made a joke, and asked me if I would like to make $500 a night, and join the Chippendales family. I started to laugh because my dad did the “Sexy” dance when he asked me. I guess I can take the question as a compliment because I work really hard in the gym to get in the shape I am in. Overall, this Thanksgiving weekend was great. A lot of memories were created. =)… O yeah, I forgot to mention that I ate so much on Thanksgiving night; I woke up fool on Friday. That was a first for me.

Destiny???

Do you believe in destiny? Do you believe you are still linked someway, somehow to someone who you really cared about, or still care about? You know that saying after a relationship ends, “If you are meant/destine to be together, you’ll get back together in the future.” Well, I’m not saying that I will hookup with a past love, but I find it weird that there are signs. Before I used to look for them, but nowadays, these “signs” show up once in awhile. For example, I needed to buy a new lock for my gym locker. People may not know this, but I LOVE the color blue. So when I was shopping for a lock, I was determined to buy a blue one. When I was looking at what Walgreens had, there was only 1 blue lock left, and it was all the way in the back. When I got home, I opened the package. I looked on the back of the lock for the code. To my surprise it was: 22:12:--. My first reaction was, “What the F***! What are the chances?” You may wonder what does the 22 and 12 stand for. 22 used to be my pager code, and the 12 was her pager code… BTW, yes I am old enough to once own a pager. Till this day, people know 22 as me, and 12 as my ex. Anyways, there are small signs that re-occur. For example: there are times when I look at the clock it will be 12:22. That used to happen a lot after we broke up. Is this destiny??? Who knows… just live life to the fullest =).

I wish I can sing…

If a magic genie granted me 3 wishes, one of them will be the ability to sing. Lately, I’ve been learning a lot of songs on the piano and guitar, but the one thing I lack is the ability to sing. It would be so nice to serenade a female, but unfortunately I can’t.

Through the years I’ve been playing the guitar, I found out you can make a decent song with 5 chords that repeat over and over again. I can write lyrics, but just can’t sing it. It would be nice to empress people to sing and play. What I want to do one day is sing my vows instead of doing the traditional Catholic way where I have to repeat what the priest is saying. Do you believe anyone can sing; it’s just a matter of practice? I used to think so until American Idol started showing on Fox…. hahaha

Do I drink a lot???

Here's a thought that I've been pondering all day. Do I present myself as a person who drinks a lot? Well this is how this whole thought process came about. Last night, I received a call around 12:30 AM from a friend. She was so drunk that it was hard to understand her because she was slurring, and she could not finish her sentences. She kept saying, "I'm so drunk, and I can't focus. What should I do?" I haven't talked to this girl in months, and why of all sudden did she call me when she was drunk? People who are not regular drinkers do call me to get advice on drinking. Does that mean I'm an "expert" in drinking? I can honestly say I do have a lot of experience, but I honestly don't feel that I drink a lot. Or maybe, I'm just in denial. The truth of the matter is, I'm a social drinker, and when I was in college, I was around that scene more than I wanted to. My one rule with myself is never drink alone, so that means I haven't picked up a drink in my house for 4 months. Since I've moved to Vegas, I found myself working overtime everyday, and cannot even go out to the bars. From an outside perspective, does it seem that I drink a lot???

Halloween 2007

My Halloween 2007 was a great celebration. A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking what I wanted to go as. I left all my costumes back home in the bay, so I was limited to my breaking dancing fit. To tell you the truth, as much as I love break dancing, I was tired of dressing up as that. When I was talking to one of my students about 80’s metal heads, a light bulb turned on in my head. I wanted to go as an 80’s rocker like the people from Poison or Mötley Crüe.

The day arrived to dress up. One of the students did my makeup when I arrived at work. She did an awesome job, and all day I got compliments. Thanks Jen!!! I had everything perfect. I had semi-tight jeans on (didn’t want it too tight cause I needed room for my crown jewels, you know what I mean), bought a Guns N’ Roses t-shirt, great makeup, and had a wig. I borrowed a wig from my co-worker, Heidi, which she used as Miss Piggy last year. The wig was blond and super long. I thought it would work out since a typical 80’s rocker had long hair. Well, as soon as I put on the wig with all my makeup on, I looked like a gothic drag queen. I made a decision to take the wig off way before everyone got to see what I looked like. Only two students and one other teacher saw me with the wig, and they couldn’t stop laughing. Because of their reaction, I believe I made a wise chose to chuck the wig.

Everyone in the school I work at was EXTREMLY surprised for two reasons. First, since I looked gothic, some comments I heard was, “This is totally not you. I never thought you would dress up like this. You are definitely in the other end of your spectrum.” Second, they were shocked in how many tattoos I have. They asked me if they were real or I applied them for my costume. I told them they were real, and had them for years. They were honestly surprised because they thought a person like me would never have tattoos. The truth of the matter is, I got these tattoos for myself, and I usually won’t show them off unless I am in the gym with a cut off, or someone would want to see them. At work, I normally wear a long button up shirt that covers up my tattoos. During the Halloween celebration, it was the first time every student and teacher saw my tattoos. I could tell with the reaction of the students, they love my crucifixion on my right shoulder.

I think the funniest thing that happened was a student asked my why I only have black ink on my skin. I told her because of my skin tone, color doesn’t come out right, and the first tattoo artist told me to stick with the black ink. Then not even a second later, the teacher I work with made a comment how the artist must be really good because he said there is a trace of yellow between the lines of my tattoos. Then I had to make it clear to him that was my skin tone. The whole class started to laugh.

Well, here are some pictures from my Halloween 2007. I hope you enjoy them. Oh, by the way, I avoided taking pictures with that blond wig on =).

Triple D Productions Back in Business…

You may not know this, but I have a small business which I named Triple D Productions. I had this business for the past 2 years, but done a really bad job in promoting it. My cousin “pushes” me to create business cards, but the truth of the matter is; I’m too lazy to… hehehe. The things I do for my customers is video editing, slideshows, and little bit of photography. I mainly do projects for myself because I want the memories to last forever.

Here’s a little background how my business got jump started again. Last August, the school I work at had a career day. I brought my camera so I can take pictures of the students that I tend to favor since they had to dress to impress. Toni, the Director of Career Services, noticed that I own an SLR, and asked me to take pictures the entire day. After I did all my editing, I gave a copy to my department chair and the librarian so they can post it in the newsletter for the school.

Last week, Toni came up to me, and asked if I feel comfortable to be the photographer for the upcoming graduation. I told her yes, but I am not too confident in my pictures. I tend to be very critical with my work, and think everything is bad. So what I did, I put a portfolio together, and showed Toni my work. I wanted her to review it, and decided if she still wants to hire me. She told me my pictures were absolutely great, and hired me on the spot. She talked to the dean, and agreed to pay me $100 an hour. To tell you the truth, I was going to settle for a flat fee of $250.

During the conversation of what shots she was looking for, she mentioned she wanted to do a slideshow of the graduation, and I told her I can put that together. She asked me if I had any ideas for entertainment before the graduation ceremony beings, and I mentioned I can put together a slideshow of students during the past semesters. She also asked me if I can take pictures during the rest of the semester so we can have a variety during the graduation ceremony. Now I officially have the title of the school photographer.

Clara, the head of my department, heard about my new job title, and she came in to congratulate me, but stressed that I have to take care of the lab first. I understand where she is coming from because she’s the one who hired me, and not the other departments. Since I have that personality to help everyone, I tend to help other departments during my slow time. She actually got mad at me for doing that, and now wants me to ask her every time if I can help other departments before I do so. During our talk, she mentioned that the pictures I took during career day are going to be published in a National Court Reporter magazine. I was so freakin’ happy when I heard this. Everyone in the world will see the pictures I took. When that magazine comes out, I’ll buy a 100 copies because one day I can be famous, and say that my first shots was published in “this” magazine =P.

So if you need anyone to make a slideshow, video editing, video transfer, or anything that deals with digital media, you know who to contact… Triple D Productions ;).

I’m going to Europe…

After months of changes, my group and I finally locked down the dates of our Europe Trip. We have been planning this trip over two years, and every month something changes. We were originally going to go late August, early October of 2008 to enjoy Beer Fest in Germany. Then a whole lot of things kept changing; places to visit, when we were going, and places to sleep. Then last week, we locked down the dates for May 25th to June 8th. My friend Boogs supposed to start booking the hostels sometime in the next week.

I’ve been going on road trips with these same 4 people since college. We actually knew each other since high school. Scratch that. The other 4 people knew each other since grade school, but I joined their group during my high school life. This will be our first trip together that will be outside of the United States. This trip should be freakin’ fun as hell. I can’t wait.

American Kids vs Filipino Kids

I got this from my cousin, and it's so true!!!

American Kids: Move out when they're 18 with the full support of their parents.
Filipino Kids: Move out when they're 28, may have saved for that nice house and are a week away from getting married...unless there's room in the basement for the newlyweds.

American Kids: When their Mom visits them she brings a nice bundt cake and you sip coffee and chat.
Filipino Kids: When their Mom visits them she brings 3 days worth of food, and immediately begins to tidy up, dust & do the laundry.

American Kids: Their dads always call before they come over to visit them and it's usually only on special occasions.
Filipino Kids: Are not at all fazed when their dads come over, unannounced on a Saturday morning at 8:00 and starts pruning the peach & lemon trees. And if there are none, he will plant some!

American Parents: You can leave your kids with them and you always worry if everything is going to be OK plus you have to feed them after you pick them up.
Filipino Parents: No problem, leave your kids there and if they get out of line your parents can set them straight.... plus they get bathed, fed and get told stories of when you were young.

American Kids: Always pay retail and look in the yellowpages when they need something done.
Filipino Kids: Just call their dad or uncle and ask for another dad's or uncle's phone number to get it done.... cash deal.

American Kids: Will come over to visit their parents and get only cake and coffee, no more. Filipino Kids: Will come over to visit their parents for lunch and get B-B-Q, Pancit, Lumpia, Adobo and Rice and stay for late dinner as well.

American Kids: Think that being Filipino is a great thing.
Filipino Kids: Know that being Filipino is a great thing.

American Kids: Never ask the reason you have no food.
Filipino Kids: Are the reason you have no food.

American Kids: Will say 'Hello." but are hesitant to hug.
Filipino Kids: Will give you a big hug and a kiss, and great big hand shake and pat you on the back.

American Kids: Hardly invite over to eat or they have to share their portion.
Filipino Kids: You always have your friends over to have something to eat regardless.

American Kids: Call your parents "Mr." and "Mrs."
Filipino Kids: Call your parents "Uncle" & "Auntie".

American Kids: Have never seen you cry.
Filipino Kids: Cry with you.

American Kids: Will eat at your dinner table and leave.
Filipino Kids: Will spend hours there, talking, laughing, and just being together.

American Kids: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
Filipino Kids: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours.

American Kids: Know a few things about you.
Filipino Kids: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

American Kids: Will leave their parents behind.
Filipino Kids: Will hang out with their parents.

American Kids: Would knock on your door.
Filipino Kids: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"

American Kids: Are for a while.
Filipino Kids: Are for life.

Random Thoughts...

Pictures: I went home last weekend to attend my cousin’s wedding. I had a great time and took a lot of pictures. I wanted to try something new with my camera. I took every picture in RAW instead of jpg. because I wanted to edit the white balance later on. Well, I took over a hundred pictures, and it’s taking me hella long to edit all the pictures I took. During the reception my camera ran out of batteries, and I was beating myself because I couldn’t take anymore pictures at the reception. Come to think of it now, it may have been a blessing because I would have edited maybe a 100 more pictures than the ones I have now = P. As soon as I am done, I’ll post a few.

Youtube: I created an account on Youtube to post a few videos so I can share it with my friends and family on myspace. Someone had left me a comment asking if I can make a tutorial on a song that I posted (Atlantic Starr – Always). When I checked it, I noticed another comment. Amcoronel stated, “oh my god..as in oh my god!! i love this song!!! and i think i love you, too! are you a pinoy? coz im a pinay!!” I also noticed that I have two people who subscribe to my Youtube account. Holla!!! I have a fan base. Now I feel I should post more videos. Maybe I should start a video blog. Who knows, maybe I can be a famous Youtuber one day =). FYI, I’m working on a couple of songs that I want to post on Youtube. I want to get it as close to perfect before I post it, so watch out for it.

Smallville: Smallville season 7 is starting this Thursday. I can’t wait. I freakin’ love this show and I’m hooked. I bought season 6 last week and been staying up hella late just to watch it before the new season starts. The first picture I saw when I opened the box set was Justice League. As corny as it sounds, I got hella excited when I saw it for the first time. I also love the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. You may not know this, but these 3 shows started on a network called the WB (Warner Brothers). So you can say that I’m a WB fan… Superman rocks!!!

Myspace is so freaking addicting.

I’m once again addicted to Myspace. I’ll log onto Myspace at least 10 times a day to check if I have any new comments or messages. I decided to not sign on for at least a good month to break this addiction. If you want to contact me, I can be reached via email or cell phone… Stupid Myspace, why do you have to be so addicting?

Labor Day Weekend... Good/Bad

People keep asking how my Labor Day weekend was. Instead of me verbally saying it, people can now read about it.

Saturday:
Good: Left early from Vegas to arrive at a decent time.
Bad: Hit traffic and got to Big Bear Lake, California late.

Good: Got away from the desert heat.
Bad: It rained all weekend.

Good: Enjoyed walking around the town.
Bad: My friend got mugged $45.

Good: Went bar hopping to enjoy drinks.
Bad: My boy almost got in a big fight (A red neck hick who doesn’t like Asian/Pacific Islanders enticed the fight).

Good: Because of the racial experience, we went back to the cabin to call it a night.
Bad: Night wasn’t over; drank even more/harder back in the cabin.

Good: Slept like a baby.
Bad: Woke up with a hang over.

Sunday:
Good: Played billiards as soon as I woke up.
Bad: Didn’t expect to play billiards all day… stupid rain.

Good: The rain let up and we went fishing. Caught a fish within 30 minutes.
Bad: It was a baby catfish that was no longer than 8 inches.

Good: Really enjoyed fishing.
Bad: A lighting stormed started and had to head back to land.

Good: Went to the bars again and met a lot of people.
Bad: The people we met were all past 40… definitely out of our age group.

Good: Had a lot of drinks on Sunday night.
Bad: Passed out on the couch and missed the big feast with the fish we caught earlier in the day.

Good: Slept like a baby again.
Bad: Woke up with a hang over AGAIN!!!

I’m getting paid to get a massage…

Yesterday when I woke up, I had the biggest knot on my lower back. The pain would not go away the entire day. I was miserable while I was at work and had to keep moving so I can get my mind off the pain. When I was done with my night class, I was walking to the staff lounge to grab some coffee to push myself for the last 2 hours of work. I ran into Peter, a massage professor at the college I teach, and he desperately needed an extra body for one of his students to work on. I checked the lab to make sure that it wasn’t busy. I was lucky that there was only one student typing and I asked her if she needed anything. She told me she will be typing for a while and she didn’t need me. I went to the massage therapy classroom to get a massage. I told him that my lower back has this huge knot, and the student gave me a deep tissue massage. When he was finished, I felt like a new person… I love my work because I just got paid to get a massage =).

Haircut...

Yesterday, I had the most painful haircut in my life. You may ask how a haircut is painful since hairs are dead cells. Well, I went to the local barber near my house and told the lady just to trim the top because last time I got a haircut, it was too short. I wanted to grow the top so it can be the “prefect” length for this time. She asked how I usually style my hair. I just told her anyway my hair feels like doing that day. I thought it wouldn’t matter since it would be a trim.

Well, she used this type of scissors that truly just gave a trim. It’s hard to explain what it looks like, but it had teeth and a blade. The way that it is used is by pulling on my hair while trimming the edges. I asked her if it’s normal for all the pulling, and she said yes. I didn’t tell her that it was hurting my scalp because I didn’t want to show her I was in pain. I just sucked it up and let her do her thing. I must say, there was a tear forming after the first cut. Well the haircut turned out great, and I’m willing to go through the pain just to get the same style =p.

No Support...

I am bothered by something that I heard today. I tried calling people to vent this out, but it’s Friday night, and people tend to busy. I don’t blame them for “not” being there because if I was back in the bay, I would be out too.

I labeled this blog “No Support” because there is someone I know that I feel I have no support in my life decisions. A little background is needed so this blog can make sense. Growing up, I always been confident in what I wanted to do. Every where I went, I would say I want to be a doctor. As I grew up, I found other interest that distracted me, for example computers. I always found computers easy to understand, so a period of my life I was studying computer engineering. But the college life distracted me from that, so I decided to change my major to business. Having a business degree can open a lot of doors because basically our entire world depends on business theories.

So I am out here in Vegas trying the business thing, but I found out that I don’t like it. The business world consists of being a competitive person, and that’s not really me. I tend to go with the flow and enjoy life. Being here in Vegas, I was able to do a lot of soul searching and decided to go back to school for a nursing degree. I basically resurrected the idea of being in healthcare. I feel that I made a great life decision.

My parents are fully supportive in my decision. Growing up, my parents didn’t really express how they felt with my decisions unless it was against what they believe. When I had a long talk with my mom about being a nurse, she was extremely happy. When I attended my grandparents going away party, my mom would not stop talking about it. I can tell she was very proud of me. When my dad and I were cleaning the house, I did my normal complaining and said I don’t want to have another party here in the house because I’m tired of cleaning last minute. His response was, “We are going to throw a big party when you graduate from the nursing program.” He was straight up serious. Like I mentioned before, my parents are supportive, but they just don’t express it. It’s the greatest feeling to know and see how much they approve of my decision to pursue my nursing career.

Here is the thing that is bothering me. One person that shows lack of support is my older sister. Before I moved here, a mutual friend told me that my sister thinks the idea of moving to Vegas is a bad and stupid one. I was determined to find a job and prove her wrong. Like I said on my old blog, I’m glad that I moved here because I decided to pursue my career (nursing). Then today, I talked to my cousin, and I got the impression she doesn’t support me once again. One of her responses was, “You don’t know my brother.” What does that suppose to mean? I know I’m not a quitter. I do change my mind a lot, but I do my best to finish the objective. When I was talking to my cousin, he defended me and told her not to underestimate me. THANK YOU KUYA!!! THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME.

My whole life, she treated me like s**t. When we entered that age where I thought I can hang out with her friends, she would push me away. If by chance, she invited me to one of her parties/gatherings; it feels like my presence was a nu sense. When she lived in San Diego, I went and visited her, and the moment I got in the car, I got an ear full of yelling because I told her I wanted to go to Church because when I went to Diego, it was Holy week. She got mad at me because I guess she had other plans and straight up told me I’m not like other college students. She had no right to yell at me because I wanted to show respect to my religious beliefs. A similar situation happened again when I came back to the bay for my auntie’s wedding. She had attitude with me as soon as I got in the car. I tried my hardest not to give attitude back to her, but there was so much stress in the air, I had to yell back at her after 30 minutes of yelling from her. On top of that, she doesn’t even ask for something, she tells me to do it. I just tell her now, “Why don’t you ask instead of demand,” and walk away because I don’t want to show her that I got mad at her. I don’t understand why she treats me this way. What did I do to her?

I tell my parents how she treats me, and they just tell me that’s how your sister is. I can’t accept that because no human being should be treated the way she treats me. I was always taught respect your elders, but the way she treats me, I’m at the point where I believe, “In order to get respect, you have to give respect.” Because of the lack of support from my sister, it’s just giving more fuel to finish my schooling. Maybe, just maybe, this will shut her up and treat me better.

Bitter – Sweet

I had a bitter sweet weekend. I flew back last Friday to attend my grandparent’s going away party. I rushed from work to pack up my things and head to the airport. When I arrived there, and checked the prompt, I was surprised that my flight was on time. So I was at my terminal waiting for my flight and I saw people I knew. It was my old mentors from my church. It was great to see them again because I haven’t seen them over 3 months. We talked about almost everything and the time just flew by. I looked at my watch and told them that I had to start lining up. I knew that the previous flights to Oakland were delayed and the plane was going to arrive 2 hours after my flight. Well, since my plane was under booked, Southwest decided to put all the passengers from the 3 delayed flights into my plane. So instead of leaving on time, I left 1 hour late. The plane had to be re-fueled because of the extra weight, and all the baggage had to be transferred from the other 3 planes into mine.

The party was held at my parent’s house and a lot of people came to say their farewell. It was a great party, but I was very tired from all the last minute cleaning and my normal errands I had to do during the party. I had to leave the party for awhile because my other cousin was having a birthday party the exact same time as our party. My plan was to only be gone for a half an hour, but it turned out to be almost 2 hours.

We took a lot of pictures for our remembrance and I plan to put something together and give it to all of my family members. I’m either thinking of an album or put a slideshow/video show together. What do you think?

The reason I named this blog “Bitter – Sweet” is because my grandparents are happy to go back to the Philippines where they grew up, but I’m sad to see them leave. If possible, I would like to go to the Philippines end of this year and visit them. I will miss them.

A Typical Day At Best Buy…

So I went to Best Buy today to buy new batteries for my DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex). When I pulled up to the parking lot, I thought it will be an ordinary day, but I was wrong. The first thing I witnessed was a hit and run. Nothing to big, just a minor fender bender… well more like a scratch. I drove up to an isle and stopped because a Honda Civic was reversing to pull out. I gave this senior citizen at least 20 feet of clearance to make sure she can get out. For some reason, she only reversed ¾ of the way and popped her car into drive. She slowly turned the wheel and started to move forward. Before she even started to move, I thought to myself that she doesn’t have enough clearance. Of course I was right, and she hit the car to her right. I thought she would at least stop and look at the damage that she caused, but nope, she reversed, put her car into drive, and drove away. I can’t believe people like that. This is how I feel about drivers test. When a person becomes a senior citizen status, they need to take a mandatory drivers test every year. One of the requirements on that test SHOULD be depth perception. I’m not kidding. There are so many senior citizens hitting things like trash cans, the curb, and even mail boxes. Also they should test reaction speed. It’s a know fact that the older a person gets, the slower the reaction time is.

Okay, now I’m in Best Buy looking for the batteries that I need. I need to give a little background story. As I mentioned on my other blog, I used to work at Best Buy. When I was employed by them, I worked in one of the worst departments. My old co-workers even asked me, “How can you work in customer service and deal with angry people all the time. I don’t have the patience for that.” Well it’s true. I do have to deal with a lot of angry customers and I have a lot of patience. Actually, I only dealt with 20% of angry customers a day. The rest were really nice people, simple returns or exchanges, and problem solving for other departments.

During my time at Best Buy, I’ve seen customers scream and yell, say curse words, and even one time, I had a CD thrown at my head because I wouldn’t return it for the customer. I can see why a customer would be angry, especially at the Geek Squad. People check in their computers to get fixed. Geek Squad tells them they are going to do the best they can to fix the customer’s computer, but they tell them that labor is non-refundable. Depending on the store and how strict they are, they follow that rule to the “T.” There are times when it takes weeks to repair a computer because there is lack of staff, but there are also times when computers sit in the back because they are forgotten.

Today I watched a guy yelling at the management team and a Geek Squad member. Of course this guy made a scene. He was saying, “I want my money back, go ahead and call the police, and you want to hit me.” The managers asked the guy to leave politely, but he wouldn’t leave. About 20 other Best Buy workers gather around this guy to try to get him out, but he would not budge. Finally one of the managers got in his face and yelled, “Get out!!!” This is nothing new to me. He walked out, but tried to get back in, but the managers and Best Buy workers would not let him.

This part is the new thing. He started to swing. I looked around for a quick second, and everyone in the store was looking at this fight. They had this 6’5” Best Buy worker hold this guys arms so he would stop swinging at the manager. The manager remained calm and didn’t swing back. I think he didn’t fight back because it might cost him his job. The guy just walked off hella pissed off. He probably realized that the cops were coming, which they did and came late, like usual.

I’ve seen fights before like in clubs and bars, but never in a family type of store. How can a person act like this in a public place? I guess I will never truly know because that is not my personality. Oh well, it made my day exciting.

Atlantic Starr - Always

Have you heard of the song Atlantic Starr – Always? If you haven’t, you must be hiding under a rock. This song can be heard on slow jam cds, weddings, and on the radio. Anyways, I love this song. I have a lot of memories linked to Always. It’s my sisters wedding song, and someone who I care about sent me a text of the lyrics. So I decided to learn it on the piano back in January 2007, but I’ve been so busy that I had to put off. I finally finished it last month. This song will Always be an old time favorite. I guarantee you that you will hear this song in some time of wedding =p.





You can find other videos I posted on youtube.com/pinoygem22

Move to Las Vegas. Was it the right thing to do?

I opened this blog to vent out any thoughts that I may have today and the future. A major thought that's been bothering me is the idea of moving to Vegas. Let me give you a little background on my decision why I moved here. May of 2006, I supposedly graduated college, but one class held me back. I can’t really blame the professor because I barely put any effort in that class. Being a typical college student, I barley even studied on my last semester. Considering I only “failed” one class, not bad, right? I was only 1% away from getting a passing grade. Well, anyways, after “graduation”, I enjoyed my summer and traveled around the United States till my money was exhausted.

The following fall semester, I completed the class with flying colors considering I already knew the material; on top of that, I had a great professor. During the semester, I stayed at my parent’s house, so I commuted from Pittsburg to Sacramento twice a week (It’s an hour and a half one way). I also worked “part-time” at Best Buy. The reason why I quoted part-time was because I expected to only work at least 20 hours a week just to help pay off my debts from my travels, but I found myself working almost 40 hours a week. The reason I chose to work at Best Buy because I used to be employed by them when I was 18-years-old. I knew that they would re-hire me because of my experience.

When I finished my class in Sacramento State, I asked my managers if there was any room on the corporate ladder. Of course they would say yes. Just like before when I was 18, “Best Buy” broke their promises as months just passed by. I became really frustrated with my store and I clearly vented it out with my ex co-workers. I felt like I didn’t really improve in my life considering I was doing the EXACT same job when I was 18.

Oh yeah, before I forget, during this time I worked at Best Buy, I was dating a girl who I knew my whole life and the relationship ended. I was truly heart broken that it ended, but the only person to blame is me. I’m the one who decided to leave… So fast forward to April of 2007. I became really frustrated with my life and decided I needed a major change. So basically I packed up my things to move to Vegas knowing that the job market is great over here.

I applied to tons of jobs, and I got a few offers, but it didn’t really suit what I wanted as a career. A month and a half passed, and my savings was just slowly depleting. I knew I was being really picky and I told myself that whoever offers the next job position, “suck it up and accept it.” Now I work at a local college as a teacher assistant. It’s a great job because I barely do anything. I can honestly say that I work hard only for 2 hours a day. On top of that, the head of my department is short staffed, so I’ve been working overtime like crazy. Here’s an idea what I do. I come in around noon, file some things and then I sit at my desk. I bring things from home to keep me entertained, for example, I bought the program Rosetta Stone to learn Tagalog. I’ve always wanted to learn my native tongue, so it’s a great opportunity to learn right now since I have a lot of free time. About 6ish, I have to read to the college students. After I read, I take my dinner. Then around 7, I pop in a movie that I brought from home. This is one of the best jobs that I ever had. I get paid to study and watch movies!!!

Okay, that was a big background. If you forgot the reason why I am writing this blog, here is a recap. Was moving to Vegas a good idea? This is the way I see it. Here are the positives: I have total freedom, I don’t have to deal with family drama on a daily basis, my skills on the piano and guitar increased, I found the time to study Tagalog, I chose a new career (more on that later, maybe on a different blog), and one of the best jobs in my life. Some negatives: Missing family events, just the ordinary weekly visit at my cousin’s house, I really hate the feeling of leaving my family every time I visit the bay, it seems like I’m spending more money than ever, I have no close family members here in Vegas, no close friends, and it seems like I’m always hungry. I eat my normal 3 to 4 meals a day, but it’s not always home cook meals that would fill me up. I can cook, but I just don’t have the time because I work so much. On top of that, I plan to get a second job to help relieve my credit debt, so I definitely won’t have anytime to myself.

So was moving to Vegas the right thing? I don’t know =/