Positives Thur Nov 27-Fri Nov 28, 2008

*Thanksgiving Day with my family. I brought back an old tradition watching Planes, Trains & Automobiles movie. Great classic movie. I drank sparkling apple cedar for the first time. Very strong for me. I drink five or six sips and that's it =__= And after dinner, we watched Bullitt starting Steve McQueen.

*Shopped Black Friday. Purchased Intel Quad Q6600 and a IDE/SATA adapter cable.

*Hung out with a friend from SoCal visiting family for Thanksgiving in Los Gatos. We ate breakfast and then visited Santa Cruz.

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Positives Mon Nov 24-Wed Nov 26, 2008

*Finished catching up emails.

*Watched The Departed movie. Actors were great. Movie itself was so-so. Overrated IMO.

*Got back to working out at the gym and watching anime.

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Positives Sat Nov 22-Sun Nov 23, 2008

*Completed personal errands: laundry, ironing, clean up and reorganize my room, update my expense database, pay bills, and catch up emails.

*Watched Hancock (shhhhh) and A View To A Kill.

*Cooked lunch the stir fry way. Looking forward to stir fry more XD

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Positives Sat Nov 15-Fri Nov 21, 2008

*Vacationed in Washington and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with my friend. Highlights included winning money in craps, visiting Victoria, experiencing Seattle rain, visiting rock 'n roll and science fiction museum, climbing an indoor wall for the first time, and visiting Hurricane Ridge. I also purchased souvenirs including books and DVDs.

*Sold ten books at Half Price Books freeing space in my bookshelf =)

*Ate lunch with a friend during his lunch hour at work.

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Positives Thur Nov 13-Fri Nov 14, 2008

*Donated my old clothes at one of Cisco's collection bins for the Xmas holiday.

*Washed and ironed my new clothes ready to wear =)

*Went to gym Thur evening after sleeping extra hours Wed night (-,-)

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Positives Sat Nov 8-Wed Nov 12, 2008

*Replaced all flashlights with new batteries. I checked the flashlight batteries when daylight savings begins and ends. I choose to replace all batteries instead of checking batteries for voltage.

*Watched The 40 Year Old Virgin movie. If you’re 40 and over and barring medical conditions and you can’t drive, grow up and learn how to drive. And I own one PVC figure ~~

*Purchased leather jacket and slippers to wear around the house. Also purchased another new pair of shoes and a new tablecloth for the dining room table.

*Tried cranberry juice for the first time. I like it cold and with ice. Thank you Hot Fuzz movie =D

*Checked smoke alarms and replaced batteries.

*My short paragraph was published in the local newspaper. The article ask readers to share what we discovered by completing the sentence, “Recently, I discovered . . .” (Pic below)



*Finished quarterly reports for my department. Finally!

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Positives Mon Nov 3-Fri Nov 7, 2008

*Listened to my first jazz CD. The CD is Bill Evans’ Greatest Hits. I listened after eating dinner and relaxing before going to the gym. Jazz was so relaxing I choose to work out Tues, Wed, and Thur. Going with the flow ^__^ I dreamed randomly and my eyes were closed the entire time. The only time my eyes opened was when I wrote down my random dreams. I must have been tired from work or jazz is outrageously good! Here’s what I wrote down verbatim and with sentences:

--I was in a restaurant in the 1920s. I sat on a stool in front of the counter. I talked to the cook behind the counter schools fail to teach failure—learning by failure. Schools taught by rewarding correct answers. I asked how could I teach failure.

--I lived alone in a house. I lied down on a sofa listening to jazz.

--I thought about falling in love with a friend.

--Life. Reality is rejection, failure, disappointment, frustration. Can’t avoid. Must learn to prevent and equally important gain strength to deal and to learn.

--Visiting the arcade museum in San Francisco Fisherman’s Warf. (Forgot name of museum.)

--Being Elliott Ness.

--Climbing a climbing wall.

--Thought of a Charles Schwab commercial.

--Going inside a Borders bookstore.

--Listening to jazz every Friday at work.

--Bellagio casino in Las Vegas. There was a gun shootout as if I’m in a movie and jazz music playing in the background and providing the background music.

--Making love listening to jazz.

--Spending a day in San Francisco and I was bored.

--Realized when I bend my left leg, I’m in a good mood. Especially when I’m driving. I consciously stretch my left leg when needed.

--Remembering shopping for school clothing to make me look cool at Macys in 1987.

--Barry Manilow concert.

I listened to the CD a second time. I went to bed on the second song. I didn’t brush my teeth. I woke up around 1:30am to turn off the light and set the alarm. Further, I listen to jazz when I eat breakfast (*__*)

*Voted by absentee ballot. I dropped off the absentee at my polling place. There was nobody there.

*Talked to a co-worker from my old building. We chatted for a few minutes.

*Mailed my rebates for my video card and power supply for my new PC I’m building.

*Felt good working out after working out for two days last week. And best cardio workout since I started my new workout plan.

*Quarterly PowerPoint draft #1 and draft #2 completed. Hope to finish before Fri Nov 14.

*Another busy week at work. It’s good to keep busy. Better than watching YouTube videos -__-

*Went to Tap-X to hang out with my friends after missing a few weeks due to various reasons :D

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Positives Sun Nov 2, 2008

*Purchased new pair of shoes.

*Checked and updated first aid kit.

*Tried Chicken Rotini soup for the first time during dinner.

*Upgraded, promoted, power up, leveled up, wise up background color FRM blog from marine blue to silver =)

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Positives Sat Nov 1, 2008

*Watched anime movie "The Place Promised in Our Early Days," a rare weekend I watched anime. And I watched Hot Fuzz. Hot Fuzz hilarious!

*Purchased my video card cheaper at Micro Center with rebate and returned the same video card at Fry's.

*Watched two exciting college games at the end. The first was Pittsburg vs. Notre Dame going four overtimes eating lunch and Texas vs. Texas Tech end of third quarter and all of fourth quarter eating dinner.

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How Do You Handle Frustrations?

The frustrations question came up in my mind when I walked to the Cisco security badge building to reactivate my badge Thur late morning. I was frustrated earlier when my direct manager and my department manager I support choose to modify the criteria for the quarterly numbers. I was really frustrated. Really!! I said in the conference call, “You’re kidding . . . .” Then I caught my error and said, “And that’s with respect.” Everyone laughed `__* And I kept my calm by speaking calmly. I didn’t raise my voice. Whew :>

I do a poor job handling frustrations. The reason is I rarely experience frustrations. I do a good job avoiding frustrations by preventing possible frustrations when I complete my responsibilities and plan ahead for assignments, errands, and events. Later in my life as I earn more responsibilities and participate in more activities the chances I experience frustrations increase, and it’s scary :O

Frustrations happen daily anywhere and anytime. Frustrations are normal. Frustrations are a valid human emotion. The process to deal with the frustrations determines who is grown up and mature or immature and just gives up. The frustration I experienced Thur morning after I calmed down, I accepted the new criteria and recalculated the quarterly numbers. I accepted the quarterly reports were going to be completed past due date and management recognizes the set back. Go with the flow and remember to take a deep breath *inhale, exhale*

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China’s Birthday Traditions

My first lighthearted FRM blog entry, LOL ~~ According to Uncle John’s Great Big Bathroom Reader page 232, in China, a baby’s birthday is celebrated 30 days old, one year old, tenth birthday, and every ten years as long as the person lives. In particular, the 30th anniversary is important because the child becomes an adult. Hmmm, I’m 34 years old and I’m growing up to be an adult. I must be a late bloomer :D

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Positives Sun Oct 26-Fri Oct 31, 2008

*Reorganized my ties. Old ties to be donated and keep my good looking ties =)~

*Purchased five jazz music CDs online. The jazz music reminded me of going to some restaurants that played jazz. My first jazz CDs ;)

*Finished watching The Godfather trilogy. Must see movies! The movies are on my all-time favorite movies list.

*Purchased power supply unit for my new PC. I still have more hardware to purchase.

*Wore my light black jacket to work. Temperatures are cooling finally!

*Free day off Mon as my manager failed to renew my job status. No network access, no email, no internet, no voice mail, and no security access. Yet . . .

*. . . Another busy week at work. The busiest week in a while as my department is working on its quarterly reports. It’s good to be busy from a job security point of view =__= I don’t have to work on the weekends. Lucky!

*Took day off from gym Wed to rest and take it slowly to finish the rest of the busy week ^_^

*Went to get a haircut at my usual salon. As expected, the salon closed and I improvised by going to a Supercuts. No brainer here. It’s a simple example never think one sided *__*

*Halloween events. Wore my Chrono cosplay at work and attended the cosplay gathering at Winchester Mystery House.

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