Last day of work. Last time i'm probably going to be updating this blog in awhile. I wonder if i still have any faithful readers?
I think I will definitely miss this internship, the people here were awesome, the atmosphere was fun and the other interns made it really fun. It's kinda surreal that school is starting next week.. orientation on monday.. blehh.
Some things other things i will miss about work: - biweekly paychecks =[ - gchat 24/7 - being up to date on the latest slickdeals and dealnews - being up to date with the latest sports updates - intern hangouts - free time after 5pm - consistent sleeping habits - getting paid to use the bathroom, gchat, research and all that - lunchtime naps and did i mention getting paid?
see you guys at school. thanks to all my faithful followers for reading this blog and being somewhat interested at what we do at work... haha
I had my presentation yesterday. it was okay. haha i dont know how well it actually went... Ryan, the other intern in the department, (now that I've given you his name he's almost stalk-able), presented after me and I thought he did a very good job.
Last night, we had our last intern hangout (at least during my internship career here) celebrated the end of presentations and went to cheeeezeboard for great pizza and good convos. We actually ate at Ryan's "new" apartment in berkeley. It's "new" cause he just moved in. He's going to be working part time during the school year, half tuesdays and all thursdays. He's taking a grad law class at BOALT, which i think is really cool. Technically I could work Wednes and Fridays all day but I decided to not because people keep telling me that the next 30 years or so of my life will be dedicated to work so why rush? Also its kinda sad to see Jonny working full time now, haha don't want to be like him YET. Waking up at 8am EVERY MORNING will suck too. So now I'll just have my Tues/Thurs schedule with free MWF to enjoy my last year of college.
Some things I am looking forward to this school year... -four day weekends -cal football -cal basketball -sf giants game -fun friday nights -new laptop-new video games -some of my classes (yeah!, im actually excited for the classes im taking) -urbana
Hopeful adventures in the near future... -dim sum -gijoe -bonfire?? =]
Intern luncheon tomorrow Orientation monday (find me afterwards) First day of classes - Thursday
This summer went by fairly quickly. This is potentially the last monday i'll spend here at CCWD. And no I don't have any crazy stories like Christine. I'm just working on my final presentation--which I've learned is a pretty standard thing for internships. Christine had to make one and so does Simon. I'm almost done with mine though, I worked out all the slides I just gotta figure out what I'mma say.
in about a week or so, this blog will probably be on hold till next summer. In a couple of days I will post my concluding thoughts, until then I have a plethora of work appointments/meetings.
- FREE luncheon tomorrow thanks to the CURB YOUR KILOWATTS campaign here at work. YEAHH INTERNS! 15% energy reduction success. - Grant Research meeting tomorrow. - 5-10 minute Presentation on Wednes @ 2:30. - Followed by a Construction Staff meeting till 3:30. - Intern Brown Bag luncheon on Thursday - Coworkers lunch on Friday (LAST DAY) - CEE Master's orientation on Monday - Classes start on Wednes
Official Yahoo Iphone Fantasy Football App - Sept 8!!! Free!? Link [shareholder.com]Hot off yahoo shareholder press! Seems it is free as it is within Yahoo! Mobile app. Free StatTracker, now this... yahoo has me won.This year, Yahoo! fantasy football enthusiasts will be able to track their favorite team's success right in the palm of their hands. On September 8th, Yahoo! Fantasy Football goes mobile, launching three different ways to stay on top of their game. Included in the Yahoo! Mobile offering will be an iPhone app, a BlackBerry app, and a version for the mobile web. With mobile fantasy football you can get real-time scores and player stats, the ability to bench and start different players, and even the ability to trade with others in your league - all through your mobile device.
While it's not like the BEST slickdeals, the comments after it made me laugh.
"Now I can set my lineup in church sunday mornings!" A reply to the above ^^ "And don't forget to pray to God that your players won't get injured. "
Yeahh.. this is how bored I get at work...
that means we can all update our fantasy sports during small group as well!! =] (though as a former sg leader i highly discourage it)
I'm seriously contemplating getting one, but the sane professional non-nerdy side of me says hellll nahhh.
too bad swim trunks and flippy floppies are sold seperately.
hey val, if we're really going to shoot a music video... *elbow elbow*
for the record, i've been on a boat on at least 3 seperate occassions this summer already.. 1. chapter camp 2. kayaking the bay 3. whitewater rafting the american river
But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! (isaiah 43:1)
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (luke 12:7)
i read this article today that i liked a lot. it's quite long. but i thought it was really well written. & even though the author is talking about her doubts about God, it's also an article on her doubts with her doubts about God:
since you guys will most likely not want to read the whole thing, i'm just going to copy here the three paragraphs i liked from her article. well i really only like the last one, but the other two are needed to understand the context i guess:
As it is, I relish the fact that I am one of 6 billion people the way my mother revels in Pavarotti's recording of the Ave Maria. Being one in 6 billion means my life can't possibly matter to anyone but me and my little flock -- which means that all my mistakes and failures and anxieties are utterly inconsequential.
When I forget this, when things begin to matter too much and I find it hard to get a good, deep breath, I close my eyes and imagine flying over houses, lifting off the roofs and seeing all the people whose existence is concurrent with mine. I imagine them arguing, cooking, hugging, suffering and laughing, living and dying. Each of us a little bitty fish in an inconceivably large pond, swimming in circles, nothing to do but enjoy the water.
But maybe that's an incomplete picture. Maybe there's something between and around and inside all 6 billion of us, and maybe that something knows every hair on each of our heads. Maybe we are not anonymous. Wouldn't that be outrageous? And beautiful?
sigh. reading that was a lovely reminder that yes, we are not anonymous. He knows our names. &that IS indeed quite outrageous, outrageously beautiful. :) &aren't we just so very blessed to know this fact?
I'm the only one at work now. Well technically Andrea is too but she never updates. Haha.
Another dull day at work. Even more so now cause I have no online buddy to share in my pain and agony. Tim responds to my emails however, haha, I'm grateful for that.
The seniors invited the interns to happy hour on Wednes. Someone is coming back from a long vacay but I don't know the guy so I don't know if I will go. We'll seeeeee.
ITS LUNCH TIME. FINALLY.
the good thing about this week is that i get paid. whooo000000OOOOts!
GIANTS AND DODGERS showdown starting tonight. EPIC.
On a fun note, I went whitewater river rafting this weekend at the American River up in Sactown. That was hella fun. I'd hella do it again.
Who wants to go dim sum this weekend or watch GIJOEE? Mike wants to visit SJ....
YOU GUYS ARE IN FOR A TREAT! 2 POSTS WITHIN A DAY FROM ME? but that's cuz i finished my digital drawings!
this is my lovely elevation rendering photoshopped with the more accurate backdrop. you should view this one in a larger resolution. it looks better. it's populated with yellow people hehe cuz asians will someday also overtake copenhagen lol
more yellow people! this is the view from the bridge that is to the left of that image above
here, you can see the bridge and kind of get a feel for the experience of actually being in the harbor bath.
yep. well. that's the end of the images coming from me. my time with studio is finally coming to an end. now i just have to turn in my plot and make a quick itty-bitty model and i'm done! woohoo! go me! ive never been this on top of things before... i might actually get a bit of sleep tonight and definitely before final review. SWEET.
THIS IS FOR THOSE WHO STILL HAVE TO WORK UNLIKE CHRISTINE WHO IS DONE. (actually, i'm guilty of being done soon. tomorrow at 9am, to be exact. :D)
kid: hey mommy! i want ice cream! parent: not now, tommy. it's closed. kid: but i want it now! MAKE IT OPEN!
youth by basin: lalalala... man that kid is annoying. but i sho' would like some ice cream righ' now too.
diver: lookit me! i'm such a graceful diver! spectator in background: i wonder if that guy knows there's a huge-ass jellyfish in there... i sho' ain't gonna be the one to pee on that sting.
sunbather: ahhhh... sun. this awful sock tan better be half gone when i'm done here.
yes. this is my model. i contemplated including a fat cat in it as well... but that would've been too tiny. the scale of the model makes each person roughly 1.8cm tall... MAX. so.. yeah.. they're pretty tiny.
had final evaluation meeting with the manager. quite interesting haha. i guess i did aiiiite. :)
said some awkward goodbyes. &then sent out the less awkward thank you email to the dept & bounced at 3pm! :D
i got a neat lil package from the dept/company! they gave me a cool laptop bag kinda thing. & in it were a company cup thermos thing, chex mix, & an assortment of candy ^__^ &the neatest is noticing that my coworker's random ims yesterday regarding what kind of candy i liked really weren't all that random. hahahaa. they'sa so sweet :) i think i like nice thoughtful gestures like that the best.
so aside from the usual things one learns in an internship, i've realized that i derive happiness most easily from nice thoughtful yet simple gestures! :)
RANDOM THOUGHT. when my department was hiring, i wonder if they took our heights into consideration...
The other intern in my department is like a foot taller than me. Actually that’s an underestimate cause he actually stands at 6’6” and I’m at 5’4”. The department calls him Stretch, cause he kinda looks like hes been stretched out cause he’s so tall and kinda lengthy looking. But anyway, it’s probably a pretty amusing site to see the two of us walking around the building together. I mean really think about it, the tallest guy and the shortest guy…This also happens relatively often given that he’s in the building and not out on his job site. He was hired as the project site intern while I’m the department’s building intern. We were actually hired as the opposites but our positions got switched cause of our start dates –he was more free. [His job is more strenuous than mine, so I’m kinda glad –he has to get here at 7am cause of the 45 minute commute to the project site and he doesn’t leave till 530pm ish, no extra pay either]
But anyway the department probably hired the two of us to balance each other out. If you hire the smallest guy, you have to hire the tallest right? He’s quite possibly the tallest guy in the building, and I’m quite possibly the shortest guy in the building. So imagine us always walking around and hanging out together. Haha. We compensate each other well. I’d post pictures but I got none.
today, i almost finished my model! yay! it is flimsy though. alas. those stairs were a BITCH to make, and i freaking hate curves cuz they really show my poor craftsmanship. sigh.
regardless, here is a picture of my model thus far.
now... back to cad-ing and rhin0-ing. i really want to sleep tonight though. making that model took a lot out of me. and i only slept 3.5 hrs last night...
lunch today was lard (chinese take-out) but i THOROUGHLY enjoyed it cuz missed chow mein and eggrolls.
so i've got nothing to do. &since i arrived to work at 830 today, i can't leave til 530. SIGHZORS. so i have another 2.5 hours. so in the next 2.5 hours i'm going to attempt to finish 2 chronicles. i have like. 10 more chapters left. &i will list interesting things i've noticed from 2 chronicles:
>1. israel & judah vacillates between relying on God &idols a lot. i think we do that too. but with us it's more like vacillating between relying on God and relying on ourselves. last year i heard someone say something interesting. we were talking about prayer requests. &she said "pray that i'll finish my essay tonight!! it's due tomorrow!" &then a few minutes later "actually, nah, don't pray about that, i know i'll finish it" i think that surprised me a lot because i've grown up with the mentality that i can pray for everything! &that in the easy, hard, little, or big things, i can always go to God. hmm but yeah that was interesting.
>2. pride is scary :O. there were so many kings that started off all humble. willing to listen to the counsel & advice of godly men even when it was against what they had intended to do. &then they prosper because they're following God. but then! they get prideful as they start prospering. &they end up not following God anymore. i guess sometimes it's harder to follow God in the good times because we get so caught up in how smooth everything is going. this is a good verse to sum up a bunch of the kings' reigns: But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the LORD his God (2 chronicles 26:16)
>3. prophets. being a prophet sounds quite cool. you get to hear directly from God & you get to have a message for the people. but it's also kind of scary. nobody likes you & your life is always at risk. kind of sounds like the typical life of a christian in a nonchristian country like pakistan huh.
okay. i have 3 chapters left. i guess i shall finish it at home. YAYY I GET TO GO HOME FINALLY :) GBYE
two posts within half a day, that's unheard of. but i have no work so.. as might as well comment. i think both of these two articles share the same ridiculousness theme.
we'll start with the first one since twitter is so hot today. basically the woman got sued for "defaming" the apartment leasing company, which is stupid. i mean really.. are you going to censor everything you say? and what happened to freedom of speech? haha. i think the company is just trying to make money but they are going to lose a lot of favoritism “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.” seriously? if tweets and blogs end up being held to legal media standards, theres gonna be alotttttt of shizz.
number 2. i think the student should win this case, cause after purchasing the console its yours to do whatever you want with it. personal property. i think it'd be legit if they sued him for being in possession of illegal games, but not for tinkering with his own stuff. thats kinda like upgrading your own computer and then getting sued for it. or pimpin' out your car and then get sued. i dont think it should be illegal to mod your xbox, i think its illegal to play modded games.
people just want money nowadays. last night we had a dinner convo about how people sue people for ridiculous amounts of money and then get awarded. its honestly really stupid. "i spilled hot soup on my pants, you didnt tell me it was going to be hot, i want $2 million." and then whats even more outrageous is that they usually get award the ridiculous amount of money for something so trivial. for sure all these people are just looking for money and its ridiculous that they get awarded cause everyone knows they are just after the money...
a couple of days ago, a girl sued her college for 72k, for not being able to find a job. that's ridiculous but at least she didnt sue for some 20 bagillion dollars. she just wants her tuition back, which i think makes it a more fair case, but still obviously ridiculous.
i like the song 'there will be a day' by jeremy camp. quite good indeed.
anywayyy. 2nd to last dayy!! :) so i moved my final presentation to yesterday because i havent been feeling well lately &that's really the only thing i had left for the internship. but YAYYY i am done with the presentation. & it went really well :) ! and the vp didn't even ask many questions!!! so very surprising.
so now i have no more work. my coworker gave me some rates to check though, just to help me pass the time, i guess. &it benefits him too cause then he doesnt have to do it. haha. so now, i am just checking rates, reading articles online, &writing my final thank you letter to them. thank you letters are so awkward to write for me. because it's like balancing between informal & formal & letting them know i liked chilling with them but not an overload of sap. i found my thank you letter from last year, so i think i will basically just reword that. haha.
today, i am feeling much better. i don't know why i always get sick at the end of internships. maybe i'm nervous? maybe i'm just allergic to work? haha. iuno T_T i am excited to just sleep the next few weeks haha. next wednesday, my familiy &i are going to visit my cousin at uci. we're going to eat with him. &then my family is going to go to irvine spectrum to look at cute puppies. HEHEHHEHEHHE. :) &next weekend is church retreat! and then the following weekend, i am going back to berkeley! wow so fast.
aiite i am done. now to find some more things to amuse myself with......
Twitter is fueled by mid-aged people 25-54. And also there are more senior citizens (over 54) using it than young adults/teens.
So I guess since none of the cool kids are tweeting, twitter is not the latest cool kid trendy thing. Let's go back to facebook everyone.
[edit]: by the way, I'm amazed at how many articles there are on the fact that twitter is down. it even made headlines on cnn.. get a life people haha. whoever ended up trying to hack twitter probably did twitter a favor in giving them so much publicity. seriously.
The site allows users to post 140-character messages, and many of Twitter's users have complained about feeling disconnected from the news of the day while the site is shut down.
That is pretty pathetic, that their news of the day comes from Twitter and not a legitimate news site, like CNN! Haha. but yeah, last night I was talking to somone and s/he was saying how after spending so much time w/ someone, it gets weird when the other person is not around. I mean, no comment on that statement itself, but I guess this Twitterfail is like that -- you feel so weird now that your 1039580234 friends are not around at the touch of your fingertips :O kew kew!
HIT ME ON TWITTERRrrr -- why don't you go listen to that song instead, by Mista F.A.B. and I should do some work haha.
i've got nothing to do this week! haha. i'm done prepping for my presentation. i will prep more tomorrow, since tomorrow is much closer to my presentation day (thursday) than today is. :)
today, for lunch, i went to eat with my coworker and manager from the department i was in last year. they are so nice! &i've realized that it is much easier talking to them about like. religion i guess. since they knew that i am a pk. so it came up easily. i really liked my department from last year. i think if i do come back to work for this company, i will hope to work in that department :) just because they are so nice! but at the same time, i'm not sure, because the current department i'm working in has many actuaries and so they could give me advice on actuary tests &such. but we shall see!
I'm writing a post whoooo. but I have not much to say. I'm finishing up next Friday but I'm taking this friday and next monday off to counsel for my church's retreat! haha.. so no more full weeks of work.
but man, I wish this week were my last week. haha. cus I am retaking the GRE :[[ kew kew. and cus I'm TIRED, mang. Hmm well, work has been good. I went on a site visit to see some guy's house where he wants to build a new deck in his backyard. I want to be as pro as my boss.. he just looks at the house and knows what to do already. I guess that just comes w/ experience, really. and tons of question asking.
uhh nothing really that cool around here, unless you're structural. haha. okay I should start work. I hope I can leave early today cus I worked late yesterday... whoo.
oh shoooot. christine finishes work on FRIDAY. that means no more blogging for her. all the awesome people who read this will be severely disappointed. that also means tim needs to step up more. hes only blogged twice in his entire life career.
i am ending work on aug 21st, which leaves me with 3 more weeks of work. after that i have orientation on aug24th for grad school and i might go to socal the following weekend with some hs friends.
today was suppose to be our mentor/intern after work hangout but i think its been moved to tomorrow. i'll find out soon.
i have no work at work. the same story all summer. i don't think they expected to have such a overly qualified intern. hahaha jk jk.
confirm. pear cider is AMAZING.
i want a new phone. i want the sony ericsson xperia x1. YEAHHH. that phone is hot.
i might be getting my lenovo soon. oh man so many new fancy toys. i like =]
friday after work i went to chill with tim. picked out nice stuff for people we like. ;) saturday went to boiling crab with parents. the one in alhambra is not as good as the one on garden grove :( oh wells. then! 'bible study' haha more like 'lets talk about where we are spiritually' which was really good. :) God has blessed us all so much!! &then hung out with the besties afterwards. went to souplantation! where we did 'remember whens.' i think we were hella loud in the restaurant haha -_-;; &then off we went to play with puppy ! ohsnap the puppy was so cute. SHE WAS LIKE A BABYYYY :) so cute. i want one minus all the hard work that goes into it.
&today, is the last monday of the internship. HEHE. i have just FIVE more days left. tuesday for lunch i shall meet up with my manager &coworker from last year. wednesday is my early farewell lunch with the department. thursday is my final presentation that i shall pwn with the grace of God. friday is my last day. danngg man. so fast! it's been 9 weeks already. and this is the 10th. sigh. God is waaaay good to me. i'm learning to be grateful & rejoice carefreely. :)
i ACTUALLY have stuff to post that relates to work for once!
but quick update first:
i got back from traveling in western denmark a couple days ago. it was fTun, and pear cider is MIGHTY tasty! (yes it's alcoholic) i got real hyper that night after a couple handfuls of gummy bears, a glass of white wine, and a cup of pear cider from the draft. AWESOME! but i'm sad about the sketches i made cuz they werent as great as i had hoped they'd be after the sweden/finland tour. :(
anyway, so here is the progress of my project thus far.
i made it in 3d modeling program and rendered it with a cartoony rendering program.
it's a harbor bath, so what you're looking at is supposed to be a wooden structure placed in the water (= a harbor bath).
this would be the view from the neighboring apartment complex
this would be the view if you're a pedestrian walking by
and this is the view from the other side of the harbor canal
man God is so good to me! i am seriously so grateful for this internship this year. i went to visit the department i interned at last year. they still remember me! :) aww. they are so nice. so is my manager for letting me go visit them. aww this company really is nice. anyway, my manager from last year said that the vp from this year had called him earlier this year to ask about me. &of course my manager from last year said only good things (otherwise i wouldnt be an intern right now lol). but wow. they actually do call up old managers & such! hahaha &i got REALLY lucky, cause apparently the internship program wasn't suppose to go through this year. but i still got the internship. oh man, God is so good. &hence, i shall not worry about my presentation next thursday. even though my coworkers say that the vp likes to ask a lot of detailed & complex questions during presentations, i shall trust that God will help me through it :) &i think my manager is really good at helping me prepare too.
one more week left!! :)
random fact: did you guys know that mariah carey's song 'obsessed' was written in response to one of eminem's songs: "bagpipes from baghdad"
yesterday i went out to get fentons with the interns. haha good times. i dont think i've ever seen fentons not crowded before. it wasnt like it was empty but there wasnt that typical 20 minute wait that you get kinda used to. it was probably cause it was at 5:30pm which is kinda early for dinner and even eariler for dessert. [i ordered my legendary root beer float]
next week the mentors are taking out the interns to a pool hall. haha that should be fun. i believe they are going to challenge us to a game of pool. mentors vs interns. but i have a feeling we're going to lose. we talked about it at fentons, we all suck at pool. haha. oh well, it'll be fun regardless and its free so why not??? apparently pool and beer is the way to go. on a related side note: apparently president obama drinks budweiser...cmonn prez at least have some good taste in beer, maybe he just wants to be relatable with the rest of america.
similar to christine i will have to make a final presentation to the department before i leave for school. im currently working till aug21st and that doesnt look like it will change anytime soon. im still considering working during the school year cause it sounds like alot of the interns here are going to try to do it and i will also have mondays and fridays off so.. we'll see. either way i have at least 3 more weeks of work.
yesterday i after dropping off some interns in berkeley i hung out with a couple of iv people. peopel are always so surprised that im in berkeley, but in reality i live like 5 minutes away so technically i can always be in berkeley. people think berkeley is its own little island and youre either in or not in berkeley, but in reality i travel in nd out of berkkk all the time man. just gotta hit me up. i was just surprised that people were surprised that i was in berkeley... "anthony's in BERKELEY??" "dude i practically live here"
exciting things in the next few days.. southbay family trip on saturday baptism on sunday pool on monday intern happy hour on wednesday
haha i googled the line above, &someone else has this line as their blog post title.
>1. presentation: yesterday i had two presentations! one was for my intern group project. i didn't have to speak for that one. &the second one was a presentation/review of my project with the department vp & directors. now this one i was REALLY scared about. two days before the presentation, i reviewed it with my manager, & he was telling me how, depending on the vp's mood, the vp sometimes totally rips apart the project & can be really blunt. &etc. also, i've read some of the emails the vp sends out to my team. &sometimes he can sound REALLY harsh when he is disappointed. &then the day before, i reviewed it with my mentor. & she told me how the director that she reports to is big on formatting, like having everything capitalized or excel boxes done correctly, etc. ohmygosh i was so scared! but thank God i did really well yesterday ( i think). haha. well the vp & the directors & my manager all said i did a good job. &the vp didn't even say anything bad at my documentation! he was pleased with the layout! ohmygosh, so surprising haha. &when i was speaking, they all listened intently &with really nice faces, not critical; made me feel like i was slightly important ^__^. so i was super happy yesterday :) haha. &the whole time during the presentation, i just kept thinking about exodus 4:11:
The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
sighh :) i am so grateful i did well. i seriously cannot speak in front of people, esp not in front of vps &directors. soo much grace from God.
>2. 1.5 weeks left: of my internship! ohman. so fast! so since the vp didn't have any criticisms on the layout/format of my documentation yesterday, i have basically no work left for these 1.5 weeks :) well they wanted me to do something on the ppo side but my manager said that i wouldn't have time. so now i am preparing for my final presentation to show my department what i've learned. thisss preparing is fun because i get to play with powerpoint & do fancy little things on it. ^__^ i guess with this presentation, i will have to show off a little bit more about what i've learned to impress them.
>3. fun stuff: today: after work i'm going to our sunday school teacher's wife's place to hang out with her &some other lovely women :) it will be fun to hang out with the college/young adult girls. friday: meeting up with timotee to help him with buying stufff.... saturday: two doctor appointments!: dentist/eye doctor to get new contacts. &then, if all goes well, BOILING CRABB :) but i will be missing bible study :( sadness. sunday: FINALLY meeting up with the besties &will finally see eunice's oh so cute puppy!!!! :)
hmmm.. haven't blogged in awhile, don't know what to blog about, but i only have 3 more weeks of work left after this week. today, we have our intern brown bag session--which means that a guest speaker will come and give a presentation on something cool and insightful, i think it has to do with the current water drought or supply or something. tonight--intern happy hour, tomorrow--intern fenton's.
this is what my daily routine consists of when i walk into work. get here around 8am. turn on the computer and monitor. check outlook for any new messages/assignments. update daily bypass pumping for one of my projects. get on gtalk -- start convos with christine, val and jonny. look at slickdeals and dealnews. read about the nba and the giants. cnn if i get bored, cheapassgamer as well. lunch 12-1pm. get back on gtalk. slickdeals again. random internet convos, surfing. leave work at 5pm.
all this while working on my projects. fun stuff. yep work lets me be on top of the latest news and deals.
i have that song stuck in my head. I LIKES THAT SONG. i'ma learn it on guitar & piano sometime. HEHE.
anyway this weekend was super fun! i love how my weekends just consist of going to church for all these activities. &i lovee seeing the church kids just always at church with meetings or serving in some way or hanging out with each other :) i like it when church is our second home.
so fridayy, i went to the singles/ couples w/o kids fellowship that my parents are shepherding. &their topic this week was on guy girl relationships/dating/marriage. it was really good! i likes my parents a lot :)
saturday we had bible studyyy &then we had a time of prayer before they broke their fast. &then we ate! & shared fun stories of our weeks/prom stories/nice things the opposite sex did for us. &then we went to downtown disney to watch fireworks. i lost in rock paper scissors so i was the second driver. i had no idea where i was going T_T we got there fine though, since i just followed the other car all the way. but on the way back, we left earlier than the other car & i missed the freeway entrance but good thing someone in my car knew where we were &was able to help us get back onto the freeway from another way. anyway. THE FIREWORKS WERE SO PRETTTYYY :)! here are some pictures:
going to downtown disney &seeing the little kids being carried in their parents' arms was soo nostalgic for me. i seriously wish i were still 8 & my parents could still take me to disneyland &i could still just fall asleep in the back of the car on the way back with no worries in the world. :) sigh. i miss being a kid. BUT ANYWAY. i think we are going to disneyland. HEHE. one last family disneyland trip before josh & i go up to berkeley. HEHEHEHE. i is excited ^__^
sundayy, we had sunday school &the incoming college freshmen came to join our sunday school for a little bit. there are like 12 or 13 of them. SO CUTE :) two (including my brother) are going to berkeleyyyy HEHE. &then during lunch, my friend eunice & i were eating in the room we were to have our retreat meeting in. &there were these two young girls in the room. one is goign to be in 7th grade &the other is going to be in 6th. they thought i was a senior in hs ^__^ i feel so old now.... &then we had our retreat meeting. &we role played 'sgl &sg member' i got to be sg member & i was a bad sg member. i am planning to rule the world.
&that was my weekend ^__^ next weekend, i will finally get to see my friend's puppy since she FINALLY got it yesterday. yAAAAAAAAY.
i am in studio right now and dont wanna do werrrrrkkkkk. im just waiting for my instructor to move onto the next group critique, so i can finish before noon and leave, or whatever the hell i need to do. ARG. she's been talking to them for almost 2 hours now. sigh. maybe this is what we'll do tomorrow too. cuz if that's the case, then i can just... leave and come back tomorrow for another turn.
im so hungryy. i couldnt get up this morning, so i had to just rush to class without so much as a sip of water. maybe i'll go do that after i click "publish post."
on a lighter note, yesterday, at 10am, the hour i would NORMALLY be at church on a sunday morning, i got up and read the bible and had some jesus time. i also finished my jesus book for leaders. go me!
i'll leave you with an awesome epic picture i took at the beach on saturday. lol it cracks me up. it's also on fb.
dang. internet here at school is FAST (like a nascar).
disclaimer: anthony's blog doesn't let me write comments. so i'm posting my long comment here. :) don't read it, unless you're anthony. well you could. it just won't benefit you much. & i don't know, maybe it'll offend you. ;)
don't spam comment me. actually i'm just going to disable it. haha.
haha you should just read my post. but ill summarize it slightly here. or address more what you wrote.
i said privilege because really we are in a way.
we're lucky to have our religious freedom. &we really don't appreciate it enough. we don't treasure it. & i don't think it's a "oh they should have religious freedom" thing either. because honestly, look at where that's gotten us. we've become spiritually weak & immature. while those who are suffering, i seriously hear way too many amazing stories of people seeing the glory of God in the midst of their sufferings. i would never dare to pray that God take away their sufferings. because i know that God works such glorious things through their sufferings. it'd be like asking God to reveal His glory less to &thru them.
but by knowing that we are privileged. you asked, what can we do? it's not so much a 'let's help them' thing. even though it can be done. but we don't help them in the way the rest of the world may think we should help them: rescue them, fight the north korean govt, etc. we help them through prayer. by doing our part in the body of Christ to grow &to raise awareness of the suffering of others & to encourage & give them hope. to remind us all that we are not of this world, &this world will &does hate us. but our eternal hope is in Jesus. after all, that's what paul does when he hears of the persecution of the thessalonians as can be seen in his letters to them.
&what does it mean to treasure our privileges? i really do think it means taking our relationship with God more seriously. reading the bible everyday. praying everyday. spending time with God everyday. these are the daily activities that hte north korean christians probably wish they could do openly & safely. we have the privilege of doing it openly. of being witnesses for God openly without persecution, yet. to live our faith out loud. to understand that the north koreans are continuing to be christian even though they are being persecuted reveals how great of a treasure we have &how blessed we are to be able to enjoy this relationship without the threat of being executed.
in a way, i really do admire them. envy that they can suffer &yet be so confident in their faith &that they could be such living witnesses of Christ. while we just sit in our comfortable homes, watching tv, playing video games, doing meaningless things with our time.
i think it often takes the suffering of others to make us realize how ungrateful we are towards God. how spiritually dead we are actually. &how they, in their sufferings, have so much more than we do. so in a way they are privileged spiritually.
for me, having privilege doesnt emphasize me at all. at least not in the case of this privilege. i feel that they are privileged spiritually. they have been chosen to suffer for God. how awesome is that. &it is an emphasis on them in that we will pray for them. the emphasis on us will be prayer that we may grow &have the same courage they have. that we may contribute to the body of Christ just as strongly as they have. & that when the times comes for us to be persecuted or suffer, we will have the same faith & courage as they do.
but right now, we're privileged in terms of environment. because we have a chance to work out our faith with greater strength and ease in a comfortable environment. we're privileged in that honestly, if many of the 'christians' in US were taken to north korea, they'd not be christians. we're privileged to have 2nd chances, easier chances almost. but if we don't make the most of these opportunities God has given us, we'll still just be weak 'Christians' shaming Jesus' name. we wouldn't be living a life worthy of our calling.
it's like learning with someone standing behind you with a beating rod. or learning equally as much without it. when we're learning without the beating rod, we're blessed in a different way. but let's make the most of this blessing &learn as much as we can &hopefully even more than if we were to be beat with a rod. (bad analogy, but i'm suppose to be working. ahhahahaha)
alright im done. it's a different privilege, the one im talking about. haha. maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't iuno. haha.
HEHEHE. i like being in the cubicle. i can't eat lunch today with coworkers cause still no appetite :( sigh. i will have to fool myself into eating again.
next week is going to be hecka busy T_T. monday i'm reviewing my presentation for the vp with my manager. tuesday is reviewing intern project presentation with the Human Capital Team in Minnesota. wednesday morning is my intern project presentation (though i don't have to present ! =] but i have to get here at 7 am T_T) wednesday afternoon is reviewing of my documentation project with the vp, the directors, &my manager. i is skurrred. T_T iuno what to say :( so today i am preparing for that review process. as to what i'm going to say. what section i'm going to walk them through. etc. ughh. scary scary scary.
this weekend shall be quite fun though. tonight, my parents are speaking on guy-girl relationships at the fellowship for singles/couples w/o kids on the chinese side. ima go listen. saturday, we have our last bible study, &then we're praying & fasting for the church retreat & leadership, &then we're going to downtown disney to watch fireworks! sunday, there is retreat leadership meeting &then meeting up with church friends after that for a catch-up session... a wayyy long overdue catch up session.
ohman. i hope i get enough rest this weekend & next week. ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS OF INTERNSHIP LEFT! wowwww. :)
Christine and I have pretty much been using song lyrics for our titles for the past 100 or so blog posts. Haha. If you guys can guess correctly which song the lyric is from than props to you. Drop your guesses in the comments.
Anyway yesterday I was out of the office cause we had a job walk out in Oakley. Yeah the city of Oakley, but I don't think they are the founders of the sunglasses, they just have the same name. One of our projects is going out to bid soon, it's the one I'm currently working on right now the Fish Screen. Basically they are implementing a fish screen in a canal before one of our pump intakes so we don't end up killing a mass population of fishies. And for the job walk, potential contractors come out and we explain to them the project and let them tour the site (preconstruction) so that they wont be completely confused and know exactly to expect when they bid for the job and do construction out there. Construction projects typically operate by bidding, meaning that the contractor with the lowest bid will get to work on the project, of course they have to ensure that the work will be properly done according to plans and specs and they are other stipulations they must pass such as having a high credit surety. Anyway back to the point, there were about 25 contractors or so that came so we got a bus for the short tour, so the site wouldn’t have like 50 million cars on it (the owner would have been hella pissed) but the whole time, watching everyone get on and off the bus with their cameras it felt like a high school field trip for grown men. Haha. I was in a separate SUV with my boss cause there wasn't enough space but seriously it was kinda funny cause the guy who was heading the trip, one of the associate engineers here, kept yelling "alrightt everyone into the bus, we're heading to the other part of the jobsite" and then every like 10 minutes of walking we would stop for them to explain something from the plans. Haha. Yep high school field trip for grown men. [I say men cause all the contractors are men, haha everyone in Construction so far has been male--more posts on this topic later]
So the project is basically on the some owner's farm land and basically she hates the fact that we are doing a project on her land but it’s a public project so sucks to be her. I don't think she will get compensated unless she can find evidence that she will lose money while we are doing construction. Out there she has a bunch of cows, at first they were all there sitting lazily in the field mooing to each other randomly. About like 15 minutes into the tour, one of the cows started mooing and then got up and started walking into a grassy patch area (I'm guessing to eat grass), and then all of the sudden all other ones got up and started walking in the same direction. It was like a parade of cows flocking together to go eat. It's strange to me how cows communicate cause seriously, all their moos sound the same.
The project is worth 40 million dollars. Yeah that’s ALOT of money to move some earth and implement a fish screen. And it's all government stimulus money. My supervisor said that if I could design and install it for 20 million, that they'd give me the rest of the 20 million to pocket. So 20 million to go into it and 20 million for me. So… where my crew of engineers at? This could be our time to shine, one hit wonder - never have to work again. Hit me back if you are interested, drop a comment or something. I'll need some geotechs as well, and if you are not an engineer and want to work for me well you can do the construction --haha. And for the record I'll compensate you about 5k more than this article suggests:
>1. TODAY! we had a fire drill. this is no fun when you are on the 5th floor. at the rate we made our way to 1st floor, we'd all be dead if it weren't just a drill. T_T
>2. i gots ice cream cake from my coworker today. it was dericious. :) my appetite has returned for lunch! i is happy ^_^
>3. i'm starting to listen to a series on 1 peter now. since most of the work i get from my coworker is pretty much just mindlessly checking the rates to make sure nothing went wrong. it's quite boring. but at least i get to do something i guess :)
>4. paycheck today. except. taxes went up as my net income goes up T_T they took off 24% for taxes this time. SIGH.
so when my coworkers eat out, &there is a ginormous bill. they usually just have one person pay & send out a bill with all the calculations done out as to who pays how much. maybe it's just because im an Excel nerd, but i found the model SO COOL & FUN. haha. lookie: dude look at that. complete with color coding, drop down menus, &vlookups. 8] we should do this next year. haha. looks so fancy schmancy. actuaries are fancy schmancy.
so here's a random fact. my mom usually packs my water for me. &lately i think it's been getting hotter & hotter T_T today's water is too hot to drink. i have to let it sit for awhile before i can drink it. :(
yesterday's dinner with church friends was fuuuun. we talked about marriage &about past memories in church &how the leaders that led us when we were in jr high were all married &had cute babies. lol. it is weird to realize that we will all get married some day. esp with church people i think. because i've grown up with them. &we still remember things like girl rivalries in church, which really js consisted of who could get to the front row of sunday school first. which group of girls were picked to do the transparency for worship (ohmygosh we used to use transparencies for worship lyrics, not ppt, so old school). minor hs crushes. cooties &tag. &now like 8 years later, we're so different yet not. &imagining them getting married is like like imagining a brother or sister getting married. weiiirdd. but yet so exciting :) hehehe.
actually, i am not. haha. but i like the song (we run la). &whenever i hear that line it reminds me of how completely opposite God's kingdom is compared to the world's standards.
ANYWAY. >1. in response to anthony's post. my blog DOES look good. haha. green & pretty. here's a screen shot. YAHHH so pretty. &i have my documentation project behind it. lol thanks anthony for all the hard work you went through to download it :D
>2. yesterday i went to the boiling crab with coworkers. it is delicious. i got a half pound of shrimp. no one eats shrimp heads. & they were amused that i do. i should probably stop doing that since it is high in cholesterol. haha. the price was decent. my coworkers are quite chill & cool. i think hanging out with them yesterday was a mild version of what going to happy hour with coworkers would be like.
>3. i finished the sermon series on ephesians. &i tried listening to the radio today. but it is blocked at work T_T i guess i might start another sermon series. HMMS.
>4. today after work i will be going to hang out with some church friends for dinner. yay! i am excited :) i think it'll be quite different from yesterday's coworker hang out. hahaha. &then we might go to the prayer meeting if we do not eat way too long. i am excited to hang out with them, since i rarely get to because of work.
>5. lately i've been eating in the cubicle. why? because i want to take only 30 minute lunches so i can leave at 4:30. AND, i've still been having no appetite. so to fool myself into actually eating without feeling like i want to puke, i surf the web & chat while eating. i feel like i am dealing with a 2 year old, and must distract them with toys so they dont notice they are chewing & eating what they didn't want to....SIGH. i hope this morning nausea + loss of appetite goes away soon :(
okay that is all i can think of. i will now go distract myself with random articles to read while i attempt to finish my lunch.
BUT IT FEELS SO DAMN GOOD.<< it really doesn't... [AND I DO KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED cause ...]
Yesterday at work, CHRISTINE GAVE ME A VIRUS. She told me to go to this link and download something for her… and so I did, and then a butt load of pop ups came up and then MY COMPUTER BECAME INFECTED. I panicked for like 5 minutes and then used the majority of my lunch break to research how to get rid of it. Good thing no one was in the office during lunch and that no one can really see my computer else it would have been all bad. But using my tech savy-ness I was able to get rid of it with the company's built in virus scanner. [I HAD TO SCAN LIKE 4 TIMES] Hopefully it's gone. No more going on sketchy websites and downloading random blogspot templates. Christine's template better look good. Haha. [EDIT]: IT'S NOT GONE. but its better now cause I only get pop-ups every 15 minutes or so...
In other tech news… my phone is dead. Not like battery dead but like SIM card DEAD. What that means is that my phone works perfectly fine, its just that it won't read my SIM card -- so I can't place calls, receive calls or access my address book. I think I'm going to try to get it fixed sometime during this weekend hopefully. Technology sucks sometimes, especially when it they all come bite me in the butt at the same time. Good thing I have my work cell, but I'm supposedly charged for making any personal calls so I'm not giving that number out. Other than that you can reach me on gchat or email me haha.
my favorite part about blogging is making the title. HEHE.
i have no appetite lately. it is weird :( sigh. today, i got some work. i am taking my sweet time doing it. that way my manager won't look so upset when i bother him every 5 min. T_T after work, im going to go to the boiling crab with coworkers. hopefully by then i'll have an appetite.
i changed the template layout on my personal blog. now it is all pretty. i had anthony download it for me. &he got a virus. hahaha. i just stole his post topic. HEHE. but he got rid of the virus, &now i have a pretty layout ! :)
here is my schedule for the next semester: my classes are so far T_T all the way on the north edge of campus T_T i shall be fit next year.
>1. intern hang out on friday was aiite. the part i liked best was driving home at 80 on the freeway to play with my lappytop ^_^ >2. lunch with hs friends yesterday was awesome. took a walk down memory lane. i can't believe how close i use to be with them, one starting from jr high school, the other going all the way back to 5th grade. sigh i miss jr high &high school. it's weird thinking about how old we are. how my brother is going to college & how when they use to call they'd mistake my brother for me because he hadn't gone through puberty yet. hahaha. or how our bball coach & teammates would get some of us confused because we're asian & apparently all asians look the same to non asians. >3. i still have that weird morning sickness/nausea feeling in the mornings sometimes. esp when i don't get enough sleep & feel super tired in the morning. :( i looked it up online. &apparently a lot of people experience it, but no one knows the reason or a way to get rid of it T_T there are some other more extreme reasons that may be the cause of it.. like pituitary tumors... or POTS... they sound scary T_T >4. on saturday i went to my optometrist. i am now interested in optometry. haha. they took a picture of the back of my eyes &my optometrist showed it to me & explained to me what was going on. SO COOOL. i shall look into optometry.
looking forward to: >1. last bible study on saturday & downtown disney on saturday ^_^ >2. wednesday dinner with church friends >3. church friends hangout on sunday! hopefully i gets to see a puppy. =]
work related: still no work. but next week is gonna be busy. tuesday, i'll be reviewing my project with the vp & the directors. wednesday is my intern group project presentation at 7 am. east coast people do not realize how early their 9 am is for us T_T &then i must start preparing for the final presentation of what i've done this internship.... lol.
Recently at work I've been doing some class scheduling stuff cause I don't know, lots of time, computer--internet, why not? Plus Eric's new prespace website (which would be better if it showed you your schedule on the side while you choose classes but no complaints) and every one else's mass telebears schedule coming up so really why not? Anyway I only need 24 units to graduate so that’s 12 a semester which is considerably less than the 16 I've been averaging the past 4 years at Cal. Also I realized that all my EPM classes are Tues/Thurs so that means I have no MWF next semester o_O, the only sucky part is that it starts at 8am and goes to 5pm with two 1.5 hour breaks (one for lunch and I guess the other for napping). But hey four day weekends why not? The BEST part about my potential schedule next year is that I ONLY HAVE ONE FINAL. That is freakin' unheard of, especially in ENGINEERING and what the heck GRAD SCHOOL? I'm starting to dig this grad life already -- 4 day weekends, 4 classes and 1 final.
Oh, Jason Jung, a former EPM student, also assured me that the EPM classes are easy. O_O
One down side I have right now is that I only have 3 classes that I'm for sure taking. One I am looking in to, but I'm up for any suggestions or "fun classes"? One class has to be CEE, I could potentially take another "fun class" to bump my unit count to 16, but it better be pretty enticing.
BTW val is back. HELLOOO. =]
i'm going to fenton's today with the interns after work. ice cream and hot days mix well together.
HELLO MY DEARLY MISSED FRIENDS! I'M BACK!! WOOHOO i didnt think i'd miss copenhagen this much...
i see that the webpage design has changed a bit. cool.
here are some pictures from my trip!
this was booze cruise #1
this was an ad on the boat it is cool because jonathan rhys meyers' shirt completes the perspectival view! i am such a nerd...
this is the buffet on the boat! SO SCRUMPTIOUS.
this church was really cool looking. LOOKIT THAT SKY!
the clouds all over scandinavia were BEAUTIFUL.
squirrels here.. are puny.
this was a modern art museum in helsinki. isnt this space amazing? i think it's just brilliant.
this church was so pretty and sooooo huge!
landscape of finland outside of the alvar aalto (famous finnish architect) summer/experimental house. marshy and rainy. yum.
this is a lamp designed by aalto. it's pretttty niftayyy
i think this chapel is beautiful. the light comes in and just lights up a little bit of the building. all the churches here are less decorated and have this beautiful play on light inside.
this was another church in... finland i think.
BEAUTY AND BEAST LIBRARY!
so. in stockholm, sweden, there was a museum with an exhibit for ikea cuz.. ikea is swedish.
this is a page out of my sketchbook. that's a view of the royal area at the old center of the city, and below is the royal treasury.
i think i definitely improved in sketching. but right now, i'm SKETCHED OUT. x___x
Winston Churchill once attended a formal banquet in which the distinguished guests were asked the question, “If you could not be who you are, who would you like to be?”
Everyone was curious as to how Churchill would answer. When his turn finally came, he stood and said, “If I could not be who I am, I would most like to be” and he paused to take his wife’s hand “Lady Churchill’s second husband.”
aww :) chuck swindoll was talking about right relationships in marriage (ephesians 5) on a similar note, marriage is jonny's favorite topic.
I apologize that my blogs are not as funny as christine's or anthony's. I also just read mike k-a-f-#-c-k cheng's blog, and it' s WAY cooler than mine :[ ESPP? (epic sober pity party)
Work has been okay. I think earlier this week was way more chill. Now, everyone has deadlines. and on top of the construction, not many people pay attention to me. HEHE ... :X bad worker.
Yesterday at lunch, one of my bosses regaled his 2 sexual innuendo moments to a coworker that just got back from his honeymoon in Spain.
1. the staff recently participated in an anonymous questionnaire. one of the statements was "I feel that my abilities are fully utilized." most people answered "disagree" or "undecided." at the staff meeting, the boss brought this up. he said, "we want all of you to be learning and working etc etc... so if you feel like you have an ability that is untapped, we'd like to, well... -slight pause- tap that." of course, we're all mature people, so we giggle a little. then the other boss, realizing this opportunity, tells our in-house drafter: "okay nick, get on the table."
2. the boss once confused "fist-bump" to be just "fist"... so he said, "I fisted matt..." yeah. you get it.
Cause I'm bored and haven't posted in awhile. Plus Christine is like hogging up all the posting space. Haha and we haven't heard from Tim in like decades. His cubicle probably made him too flowery for this blog. But nah, I talked to him last night, he gets to hangout with his co-workers soon too, they are going to STRIKES and also to visit some B-2 bombers. crazy stuff there.
Seems like everyone is hanging out with their co-workers this week, haha i guess thats just how we work people roll. We had two intern hangouts this week, one was the fieldtrip that was organized by the company the other was the intern happy hour. Pretty much last night after work we went to this pub-brewery, EJ PHAIRS, they had some good beer and some good hard cider. Afterwards we walked about the town square a little, explored Concord, the farmers market and the live jazz band they had playing there. it was pretty fun. hella hot in concord.
Today, i think our bosses are taking us out for some deep fried sushi lunch. Apparently it happens every 2 weeks, the construction department and the water resources. Haha free sushi, who can complain. =] After work today, I meeting up with alvin and some hs-church friends, i think we're going to hit up fenton's. y'all should meet us there.
Anywho i do work faster than they expect me to, so i have a lotta down time. maybe i shall post pictures soon too, of my new shoes and of my dog that everyone's anticipating to see. haha.
this weekend mike will be cutting my hair. please pray for that. o_O"
oh well! today is a good GOOD day. :) BECAUSE >1. my laptop shall arrive TODAY. yes TODAY. i ordered it last friday &having it delivered TODAY is amazing since mike told me it'd take 2-4 weeks. i guess lenovo just likes me. :) hehehe >2. hang out with the other socal interns after work! >3. my manager is not here today as he is on PTO again so i have no work again. ^_^ >4. i posted on my blog >5. i am wearing the new converses my brother bought for me in taiwan ^_^ HEHEHE. fishies. fishies are cute &double tongue is cool.
sooo plans for the next half week: >friday: socal interns hang out >saturday: bible study + doctor appointments >sunday: hs friends lunch + church friends hang out >tuesday: boiling crab with coworkers >wednesday: dinner with church friends
i haven't done this much stuff ... all summer.
even though i have no work work. i have other side stuff to do. so i shall go do it now. GBYE :)
so for our intern project we have to email in a picture of ourselves (since we've got teammates in minnesota and cali). i don't have a picture on me at work, so i decided to google myself to see if i can find some pictures or websites. &i found these! this was back in 10th grade &this is my AP euro class, a class of 23 overachievers who made the bad mistake of testing into ap euro but learned the valuable lessons of slacking&stressing. haha.
class plus teacher: (i'm the one on the left with shirt sleeves rolled up)
i don't remember why we took this picture: guy on far left is the overachiever of overachievers. he goes to harvard now. haha.
ohmygosh. i look so young! and my hair is so straight... haha. sigh. i miss hs. &ap euro. :)
today we had an ice cream social for the building. they asked for suggestions to improve the work place. funny: "get better toilet paper." "make a gigantic slide going from 5th floor to the parking lot."
not so funny: my coworkers (two guys) were checking out these two girls while we were in line. my other coworker (female) showed me who they were. me: oh, they look old though? like they're 30. female coworker: :O i'm 30! male coworker: she wishes she were 30. me: *oh snap. must find a hole to crawl into* hahaha. -_____-;; i thought all my female coworkers were about 25 :( sighzors.
