MasterCKO's Xanga

death knoll may be ringing for my xanga blog

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 10:00:27 GMT

Wow, amazing, you haven't heard from me in a while, right? hah! Well, I'm still alive.

Anyway, I'm about to start posting again and I've come to the decision that I'm going to phase out this (xanga) blog. It was my first and therefore holds a special place in my heart, but there are way more features in other blogging tools that I would like to use. And I dislike posting the same thing twice as I have in the past.

So, I'm going to only post goings-on in my life in my livejournal blog. Also, I might start an art journal/blog at blogspot, but I have yet to figure out exactly how I'm going to work that out.

My livejournal can be found at http://mastercko.livejournal.com Expect no new posts for a little while though as I work myself back into the habit
If and when I start the art one, I'll let you know the address to it. One major hurdle to that, though, is the need for a scanner. Back at Stanford, I could use theirs, but no such luxury any more. sigh

Oh, and as a parting bit of information, for those who don't know, I own a motorcycle now. 8^D

weak sauce...

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 07:45:31 GMT

Current Mood: melancholy

so I tend to put stuff off and make excuses for myself....even now...

something happened related to that, and even though it probably wouldn't have turned out differently, I still feel kinda shitty about the whole thing. Like, if I wasn't a frikkin' wuss, maybe it would have been different or something...

so much for my journey of self-growth...I've got a long way to go, I guess.

BTW, on more pleasant news, for those that don't know yet. I'm working for Google now (I started last Monday). I'm on a temp-to-hire track, so right now, I'm a contracted temp employee, but after a few mos they have an eval, at which point (if I did well), I'm invited to be a Full-timer, which is when I get all the juicy benefits. Right now, I'm stuck at 3 FREE square meals a day and free drinks and free snacks and free gym (thank god for that, or I would gain like so much weight...who am I kidding, I'm probably not going to use it)...still, those are pretty good perks for a temp employee.

I still can't shake the feeling that I'm seriously missing the memo regarding what I'm supposed to do with my life, though. Don't get me wrong, Google is cool, but I really feel like I'm missing whatever it is that is going to be IT, you know? like THE job. And I don't know what I should be looking for. 悔しい。

Oh, I'm living in Cupertino with a bunch of my friends from Stanford. It's pretty cool. They're all really fun. And into comics and manga. AWESOME.

I saw Talladega Nights. omg, so fucking hilarious. Seriously. HILARIOUS. If you like Will Ferrell at all, go see it. NOW. Stop wasting time reading this and GO SEE IT. this will still be here for you to finish reading when you get back.

I just found out that my friend in Japan has been sexually harassed multiple times by this dept. head, and not one of those edge, not-quite-sure cases of it. It's clear cut that the head of some other department in her company is harassing her and it pisses me off. The dude is a fucking asshole. She's taking it up with her HR dept. I told her she should look into hiring a lawyer if they don't do anything. Japan's not litigious, I know, but still, it's ridiculous.

Probably going to start doing Kendo again starting tomorrow (today actually, now). But I'm going to go to a different Dojo, so I won't get to train with my old sensei, which is too bad. I liked him. Oh well. meeting new ppl, I guess.

Oh, lastly, I might separate out these two blogs that I have, but I'm not sure how yet. They're just going to continue mirroring each other for now.

That's it for now, actually. I'm getting back into posting now, I think. I hope. And now, off to bed.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Mon, 01 May 2006 09:37:05 GMT

Current Mood: melancholy

why am I so disoriented?

*sigh*

Google Desktop is the coolest...

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 10:41:56 GMT

Current Mood: excited

It's just blown my mind. Seriously. Man, I love that company.

Sony Bravia Commercial

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:12:47 GMT

oh, and I just saw this great Sony Commercial for their new line of LCD TVs (Bravia).

You can see it here: http://www.bravia-advert.com

It's so cool, and no, not done in CGI.

And the song, which is great, btw, is 'Heartbeats' by Jose Gonzalez. I think that I'm going to attempt to learn how to play it.

musings on poorly raised people and poorly designed software on the internet...

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:07:34 GMT

Current Mood: exhausted

...they're both stupid.

nothing ruins a forum quicker and crappier than a person who thinks they're so cool that they can just do or say whatever they want. Then when reminded that they are being somewhat annoying (this after being given the benefit of the doubt for a while), they get all uppity and pretend like they're taking some sort of high ground, all the while putting down anyone and everyone else in the forum ("let's all get along. don't fight. you're so immature. you should be more like me."). I see it so often. It's very annoying. Here's a hint to those people. If you have to tell people that you're taking the high road, YOU'RE NOT TAKING THE HIGH ROAD.

*sigh*

and the webapp that we use at my job to schedule shifts is so very annoyingly bad. I won't go into it, but it's supposed to be convenient with this autoscheduling thing, but the algorithm that it uses is really poor. It always requires hours of tweaking afterwards to optimize everything. ARGH. I just finished doing that. Hence, I'm up right now. Dammit.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 08:31:37 GMT

I fixed the name of the YYY's lead singer (to Karen O, not Sandra Oh, haha) don't know how I mixed them up in my head...thanks for the correction, mel.

I really should do these more often...

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 20:29:36 GMT

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Weezer - Pink Triangle

It's been quite a while since I last posted, so there's going to be a lot of stuff...(btw I'm trying out a new format that I ripped off of Kenneth, bolding words, let me know what you think -- does it help in scanning the entry?)

I've been doing kendo for a couple of months now. It's been going really well. Now that I'm wearing armor, I've been able to do some shiai (match) practice exercises and recently I was in my first official shiai ever. It was cool and lots of fun. Everyone kept coming up to me and saying that it was a really good match and were all surprised that it was my first one (even though I didn't even have a uniform at the time). It makes me think that I actually have some talent at this stuff. Now I just need to work really hard at it to get good. Oh, and I just got the uniform, and I should be getting my own armor this coming Tuesday (I've been borrowing my sensei's up till now).

I got to ride in one of those little electric vehicles that staff drive around campus for the first time recently. It was fun.

Oh, last quarter, Cecilia came to visit me, and while she was here, somehow I got ultra sick. She stayed right by me, and bought food for me and did my laundry while I was bedridden. I really love her for doing stuff like that for me without even thinking twice about it. 8^)

Last quarters most useful class for me was the one that I was taking on Japanese Sociolinguistics taught by Kazuyuki Satou (a Socioling prof from Japan). It was great cuz he asked a lot of questions regarding my thesis, which I didn't really like at first, but were actually VERY useful in getting me thinking in the right direction as far as writing the damn thing. It was cool. Good times.

I'm currently trying to learn "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the guitar. It's pretty complicated.

Budweiser beer sucks big time.

I've recently started listening to a lot of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They're fucking awesome. Karen O (the lead singer) is crazy, but cool. And apparently half-Korean. Interesting. I recommend them, but only if you like garage-y unpolished stuff.

I finally did it. I signed up for motorcycle class. I've been through one classroom session and one practical riding session. It's been VERY cool so far, but there are some things that I need to work on. I have no experience with stick shifts, so the whole clutch thing is somewhat problematic for me. Also, I need to practice some other things. But otherwise, it's actually a lot of fun. But very mentally draining. Also, I bought gear (helmet, jacket, gloves), but I think that I need to trade the helmet in for something a little bigger.

Oh, I really like driving in the Bonneville (the car that I use). It's luxurious and not too small. Also, it's got a pretty nice engine for it's size/class, so I can do a lot of accelerating off the line and in traffic. And it makes a pleasant roar. Haha. I just had to take it in for service and because of that, they allowed me to rent a pickup truck. Going back to the Bonneville made me happy, and I appreciate the car more. It's just fun to drive.

Oh, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) finished sorta recently with a victory by Japan (right?). I really think that the WBC is a great idea, but that's just me.

Lastly, I am now the proud owner of a Lenovo Thinkpad z60t laptop. It's so cool. Ah, finally mobility. I just finished getting it up to speed (as in, customized to my use). Oh, and I bought a new laptop for Cecilia, too (actually, I paid for half and she paid for half). She's been having all kinds of trouble with her current one, and it's really heavy, so she kinda needed a new, lighter one.

Ok, that's it for now. I know that I promised drawings in this one, but I haven't gotten around to it. And now I have to focus on my thesis and finishing up this whole school thing (oh, and getting a job). Lalala.

You can't get rid of me that easily!

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 07:54:22 GMT

The reports of my death (or that of my blog) are greatly exaggerated.

I don't have much to say right now except that I'm behind in just about everything and procrastination is a bitch. I really need to stop doing that. *sigh* Tomorrow I'll be good and do nothing but reading/writing. I've got a heavy case of senioritis going on, though...*SIGH*

My break was good, btw. Except for the second fender-bender that I was in...sheesh...

Oh, and I've been invited to the wedding of a couple of my friends. And get this...the date that it's set for is the day before my birthday. How weird is that?

I have some drawings to scan, and some that I have scanned but haven't put up...what else is new...

And here are some cool/funny videos on Google Videos:
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7247304136151735536 (very awesome if you haven't seen it already)
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4860483760049380308 (yes, steve ballmer, as in CEO of Microsoft)
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6924441427330680168 (these guys are out of control -- I suggest searching for and watching their other stuff, too)

I'm such a misanthrope and computer news

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 23:52:04 GMT

Current Mood: Excited
Current Music: Tori Amos - 1000 Oceans

Sometimes, when I'm in a hurry, I become such a misanthrope. I already dislike crowds, but when they're in my way and I have to get somewhere, it's like hell on Earth.

*sigh*

In brighter news, I just majorly upgraded my computer. New mobo (with SLi capability), new CPU (Athlon64 x2 3800+ dual-core), and graphics card (Geforce 7800 GT) with some other miscellany. Those first three are the real upgrade, though. And they were so worth it. The comp is running much faster. I have yet to take it on its maiden gaming voyage, but I can't wait. I'm planning on upgrading the sound and hard drives and adding more memory soon (the memory is prolly going to be first, since it' easier).

Lastly, Emiley and I have started a mixed drink review blog. Check it out here: The Cosmopolitan