You Only Live Once

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, The Strokes. I hope they'll go on tour next year so I can catch them in concert. 

La Vic Orange Sauce

Not sure how many calories. It's better not knowing!

Here it is in all it's glory... I picked this bad boy up in the Hayward location last Thursday and it's been less than a week and I'm almost done with it. I'm really not sure how to describe the taste other than it's yummy and it goes with everything. It's been said that the ingredients are chorizo grease, mayo and chili peppers but who really knows. It's 6 bones a bottle but well worth it. If you're ever in the bay area try and stop by La Victoria Taqueria to find out what the fuss is all about. It will change u! la vic yelp

Bowling Part 2

Well we went bowling again but this time I bowled as well. Its prolly been a year since I bowled last so I was surprised I got a 190. As you can tell by the score I was destined to break 200 but I choked on the last two frames...The second game was pretty bad cos my fourth finger started hurting. That's what happens when you use the house balls that have big ass holes in them. It was fun nonetheless. Prolly go again next week lol. 

Bowling

After the reception I tagged along with Matt, Kayce n Ryan to the bowling alley and took a few pics of them. I saw a raffle for an Ipad and suggested we do it. We might get lucky! In the end I opted not to because I don't want to go back to the bowling alley... you have to be there when they draw the raffle ticket although I wouldn't mind spending a buck or two to possibly win an Ipad amirite? lol

Angela Baptism

It was so hard to get a good shot in a short time frame during the ceremony...you gotta dial in your settings instantaneously between shots or else you'll miss your window of opportunity. As always things worked out well. Angela slept through most of the ceremony and all of the reception lol.

Ty joined in the last second

always gotta do a hard pose after smiling in the first one

picture time with the baby

sleeping beauty

snuck this shot at a distance

cutie pie

parting gift

88 Truth's I've Learned About Life

http://www.raptitude.com/2009/07/88-important-truths-ive-learned-about-life/

Here's a post I found to be be quite interesting. I don't agree with all of it but much of it makes sense. I found number 20 to be really funny and number 55 is so me. 

1. You can’t change other people, and it’s rude to try.

2. It is a hundred times more difficult to burn calories than to refrain from consuming them in the first place.

3. If you’re talking to someone you don’t know well, you may be talking to someone who knows way more about whatever you’re talking about than you do.

4. The cheapest and most expensive models are usually both bad deals.

5. Everyone likes somebody who gets to the point quickly.

6. Bad moods will come and go your whole life, and trying to force them away makes them run deeper and last longer.

7. Children are remarkably honest creatures until we teach them not to be.

8. If everyone in the TV show you’re watching is good-looking, it’s not worth watching.

9. Yelling always makes things worse.

10. Whenever you’re worried about what others will think of you, you’re really just worried about what you’ll think of you.

11. Every problem you have is your responsibility, regardless of who caused it.

12. You never have to deal with more than one moment at a time.

13. If you never doubt your beliefs, then you’re wrong a lot.

14. Managing one’s wants is the most powerful skill a person can learn.

15. Nobody has it all figured out.

16. Cynicism is far too easy to be useful.

17. Every passing face on the street represents a story every bit as compelling and complicated as yours.

18. Whenever you hate something, it hates you back: people, situations and inanimate objects alike.

19. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works alone can teach you everything you need to know about living with grace and happiness.

20. People embellish everything, as a rule.

21. Anger reveals weakness of character, violence even moreso.

22. Humans cannot destroy the planet, but we can destroy its capacity to keep us alive.  And we are.

23. When people are uncomfortable with the present moment, they fidget with their hands or their minds.  Watch and see.

24. Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.

25. Putting something off makes it instantly harder and scarier.

26. Credit card debt devours souls.

27. Nobody knows more than a minuscule fraction of what’s going on in the world. It’s just way too big for any one person to know it well.

28. Most of what we see is only what we think about what we see.

29. A person who is unafraid to present a candid version of herself to the world is as rare as diamonds.

30. The most common addiction in the world is the draw of comfort. It wrecks dreams and breaks people.

31. If what you’re doing feels perfectly safe, there is probably a better course of action.

32. The greatest innovation in the history of humankind is language.

33. Blame is the favorite pastime of those who dislike responsibility.

34. Everyone you meet is better than you at something.

35. Proof is nothing but a collection of opinions that match your own.

36. Knowledge is belief, nothing more.

37. Indulging your desires is not self-love.

38. What makes human beings different from animals is that animals can be themselves with ease.

39. Self-examination is the only path out of misery.

40. Whoever you are, you will die. To know and understand that means you are alive.

41. Revenge is for the petty and irresponsible.

42. Getting truly organized can vastly improve anyone’s life.

43. Almost every cliché contains a truth so profound that people have been compelled to repeat it until it makes you roll your eyes. But the wisdom is still in there.

44. People cause suffering when they are suffering themselves. Alleviating their suffering will help them not hurt others.

45. High quality is worth any quantity, in possessions, friends and experiences.

46. The world would be a better place if everyone read National Geographic.

47. If you aren’t happy single, you won’t be happy in a relationship.

48. Even if it costs no money, nothing is free if it takes time.

49. Emotions exist to make us strongly biased towards or against something. This hinders as often as it helps.

50. Addiction is a much greater problem in society than it’s made out to be. It’s present in every person in various forms, but usually we call it something else.

51. “Gut feeling” is not just a euphemism. Tension in the abdomen speaks volumes about how you truly feel about something, beyond all arguments and rationales.

52. Posture and dress change profoundly how you feel about yourself and how others feel about you, like it or not.

53. Everyone thinks they’re an above average driver.

54. The urge to punish others has much more to do with venting frustration than correcting behavior.

55. By default, people think far too much.

56. If anything is worth splurging on, it’s a high-quality mattress. You’ll spend a third of your life using it.

57. There is nothing worse than having no friends.

58. To write a person off as worthless is an act of great violence.

59. Try as we might to be otherwise, we are all hypocrites.

60. Justice is a human invention which is in reality rarely achievable, but many will not hesitate to destroy lives demanding it.

61. Kids will usually understand exactly what you mean if you keep it to one or two short sentences.

62. Stuff that’s on sale usually has an annoying downside.

63. Casual swearing makes people sound dumb.

64. Words are immensely powerful. One cruel remark can wound someone for life.

65. It’s easy to make someone’s day just by being uncommonly pleasant to them.

66. Most of what children learn from their parents isn’t taught on purpose.

67. The secret ingredient is usually butter, in obscene amounts.

68. It is worth re-trying foods that you didn’t like at first.

69. Problems, when they arise, are rarely as painful as the experience of fearing them.

70. Nothing — ever — happens exactly like you pictured it.

71. North Americans are generally terrible at accepting compliments and offers of help.

72. There are not enough women in positions of power. The world has suffered from this deficit for a long time.

73. When you break promises to yourself, you feel terrible. When you make a habit of it, you begin to hate yourself.

74. A good nine out of ten bad things I’ve worried about never happened. A good nine out of ten bad things that did happen never occurred to me to worry about.

75. You can’t hide a bad mood from people who know you well, but you can always be polite.

76. Sometimes you have to remove certain people from your life, even if they’re family.

77. Anyone can be calmed in an instant by looking at the ocean or the stars.

78. There is no point finishing a book you aren’t enjoying. Life is too short for that. Swallow your pride and put it down for good, unfinished.

79. There is no correlation between the price of a brand of batteries and how long they last.

80. Breaking new ground only takes a small amount more effort than you’re used to giving.

81. Life is a solo trip, but you’ll have lots of visitors. Some of them are long-term, most aren’t.

82. One of the best things you can do for your kids is take them on road trips. I’m not a parent, but I was a kid once.

83. The fewer possessions you have, the more they do for you.

84. Einstein was wiser than he was intelligent, and he was a genius.

85. When you’re sick of your own life, that’s a good time to pick up a book.

86. Wishing things were different is a great way to torture yourself.

87. The ability to be happy is nothing other than the ability to come to terms with how things change.

88. Killing time is an atrocity. It’s priceless, and it never grows back.




addendum: some interesting post from an anon forum but it pertains more to advice for guys.

White Elephant

We did the White Elephant gift exchange over at Alvino's mom's pad this year. The concept of White Elephant is pretty cool. This game basically brings the evil out of everyone. Couples began creating alliances in order to get the gift that they wanted. If you steal a gift you take a drink shot which bamboozles you even more when deciding what gift to steal. It went well overall. A couple of the popular gifts were a Swatch watch, freshly cut steaks from the butcher, and tickets to indoor sky diving.  At first I was about to buy a pair of Snuggies, the camo one and a pink one, for my gift but I didn't wanna get caught buying those things. In retrospect, I wanted to see who would steal them!

I always love seeing the reaction of the people who aren't opening the gift

you know alvins plotting when he got his fingers on his chin stroking his beard ever so gently

Okay what am I supposed to be looking at

Alvin trying to hide the Swatch watch whilst posing

BK glad he got his front row Bieber tix

Go Giants

To steal or not to steal

Alvin showing us what he does best 

Seaweed Pringles

I picked up my parents from the airport earlier this evening. As per my request, they got me some cool flavored Pringles from the Philippines that they don't carry here in the U.S. The wild spice flavor is meh but the seaweed flavor is pretty solid. I just killed the seaweed can not that long ago but I have a few more cans left...that should last me till tomorrow night hah.

Addendum. It was so easy to kill a whole can like I did cos the chip size was much smaller than the standard size we have here. lol.

Cat in Backyard

I was in the backyard and caught this cat staring back at me. Good thing the cat was still there when I went back in to grab my camera!

Wayfarer Sunglasses

Long story short, I left my sunglasses at da wedding so I picked up some old school Blues Brothers style sunglasses from Amazon and figured I should take a self portrait. I'd say 7 bucks well spent.

G&G Black Wayfarer 80's Blues Brothers Sunglasses Super Dark

Bruce Lee Revisited

If you don't know by now, I'm a big fan of Bruce's movies and philosophy. Also it's funny we referred to my brother as Bruce when we were younger lol. possibly a reason why he's into martial arts today.

It was Bruce's B-Day last week. Here's a couple cool vids...the songs in these clips are very nostalgic for me. He would have been 70 if he were still alive. He died at a young 33, very weird to think about since he was so influential at a young age.

sorry mobile phone users. youtube vids do not display. i can't change that option since they're not my vids.

The movie that made him an international star. full version

final scene in Chinese Connection



too bad his films weren't dubbed in his own voice until Enter The Dragon but that's how they did things back then

opening and ending credits from Game of Death which compiles scenes from his old films .



im thinking about rasterizing a pic of Bruce for my wall next to my other poster.

Rasterize a Photo

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

link doesn't seem to work at the moment but thats where I got the program to rasterize images. prolly other places you can get, just google it.

original photo

The Rasterbator creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. Upload an image, print the resulting multi-page pdf file and assemble the pages into extremely cool looking poster up to 20 meters in size. The Rasterbator is easy to use. You can either upload a file from your computer or use any file that is publicly available in the Internet.

I call her...The One Who Got Away. j/k lower left tile was upside down but i fixed it ha.

A view from where I usually sit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Funny how title is Thanksgiving but I show a Christmas tree.

I was at Rodave's parents' place for Thanksgiving this year. Yummy turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pancit canton and some cake. I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving too... Took a pic of their Christmas tree and the pic came out really nice as you can see. no effects added. 

Jason's Restaurant

http://www.jasonsrestaurant.com/

yummy poke

We ate at my buddy's restaurant for his b-day. So much food. I had the rattlesnake and I was surprised I had enough room to finish it with all the appetizers we had prior. It was great seeing a lot of old faces and hope we get to do it again soon! Here are a few more pix. ya i know i should have taken more...

G with Choi's little ball of energy

A quick pick wid da crew before leaving

Working hard or hardly working? You tell me lol. wattup BK haha.

R-ALA

Yeah I bought a new supplement today. I rarely buy supplements other than Vitamin C, Multi-Vitamin and Fish Oils but I've heard some good things about this particular supplement and I figured it's worth a shot and experiment just for now and forgo the reliable BCAA supplements I've used in the past.  I don't really need to change my eating or my workout habits, I just need to take this supplement before each meal in order for it to be effective.

R-ALA is a supplement which is similar to ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid), a natural antioxidant that turns glucose into energy. R-ALA is just a purer and more potent form of ALA. Since it increases muscle glycogen, it will increase your muscle cell volume (bigger muscles) and also contributes to the pump you feel when lifting. 

People also report fat loss with this product. Since this product turns glucose into energy(the carbs you eat turn into energy rather than turn into stored fat, eg nutrient partitioning) which means you will get leaner without using a thermogenic(creates heat to burn fat ie fat burners with ephedrine, caffeine, etc). 

I figured since it is safe, on sale and will allow me to eat carbs with no guilt, I'll try this supplement out. 30 dollars for a 30 day supply but I'll lessen the dose at first to assess my tolerance. I'll prolly start it this weekend if not this coming Monday. If anything it will have a psychosomatic/placebo effect and produce results that way since I don't like wasting money! Results are results nonetheless.

AST Sports Science R-ALA 200 R[+]-Alpha Lipoic Acid, 200 mg, Capsules , 90 capsules

Açaí

http://www.sambazon.com/nutrition/acai101

Say hello to açaí (ah-sigh-ee), the fruit that’s making believers out of world-class athletes 

and health-conscious people everywhere. Found atop 50 foot palm trees along the banks

 of the the Amazon, açaí is truly a gift from Mother Nature. It’s packed with powerful antioxidants, healthy 

omegas and delicious powers.

Laboratory tests show that açaí is a rich source of antioxidants called anthocyanins, which

are the same phytochemicals that provide the healthy benefits of red wine. Analysis also

shows that açaí is packed with unsaturated healthy fats that have a fatty acid ratio similar

to olive oil, which is considered to be a contributing factor to the low incidence of heart

disease in Mediterranean populations.

Anthocyanins are part of a group of phytochemicals in red wine thought to contribute

to the French paradox, i.e. France has one of the lowest incidences of heart disease

of any westernized society despite a prevalence of smoking and a diet high in saturated

fat and cholesterol.

So simply put, açaí combines the best of the Mediterranean and French diets by

having more antioxidants than red wine and an essential fatty acid profile similar

to olive oil!

I first got introduced to this by my brother and by going to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments that serve this. It has double the antioxidants than blueberries(more antioxidants give more energy), has tons of fiber (helps digest food, prevents constipation), vitamins and minerals, lots of omega fatty acids (promotes brain function, maintains blood circulation and pressure and cholesterol) now I can stop taking my fish oils lol.  Top acai off with granola and bananas and it makes for a good breakfast son.  Also I forgot to mention it is a natural appetite suppressant, for those who want to lose weight. 

The Sambazon brand is the better brand to get if you were to get Acai. It's at a Whole Foods near you. 

Sambazon Acai - Acai Powder, 90 g powder

Black Friday

Well Black Friday is almost here. There will be some good deals out there this Thanksgiving . Check out http://bfads.net/ for deals for each store. Some cool items that peaked my interest:

GPS Navi - The Garmin 255WT is $99 at Best Buy for this Black Friday. Not bad at all. 4.3 inch screen with free Traffic Updates.

Best Buy is also carrying the camera I currently use, the Canon PowerShot SX130 IS for $179.99 or $199 for the bundle.

Office Max and Staples have cheap USB flash drives. I'm particularly looking at the 8GB ones for $10.99.  4GB ones are $5.99.

For sure I'll be picking up the Western Digital 2 TB External Drive at Target for a mind blowing $69. I think other stores like Best Buy will have it for $89, still a great price for a 2 TB drive.