Positives Wed Mar 18-Wed Mar 25, 2009

*Daylight Savings Time. Checked all flashlights, smoke detectors, and wrote list of outdated drugs to purchase for the family first aid kit.

*Purchased a Nike workout tee to compare the difference between Nike and Champion workout tees.

*Sleeping with two pillows. I heard sleeping with two pillows slows aging ^__^

*Updated my resume and cover letter and uploaded both to the major job searching websites, San Jose State University career center, and my LinkedIn account.

*Celebrated my niece's six month birthday at my brother's house. Two of my uncle's families celebrated with my family. We did two activities. The first was . . .

*. . . watched Slumdog Millionaire. Great movie. I think about reading book . . . although I should >.< The second was . . .


*. . . playing an epic Settlers of Catan. The best game I ever played so far. I played with my three cousins. The final scores were 10, 9, 9, and 8. I was the 8 =( We has a string of six 7's rolled and seven out of ten rolls were 7's. The resource shortage fluctuated like every four or five rolls. For me, there were no 8's rolled during the final stretch. I needed 8's for wheat. And I got the two worse development cards which were Road Building. Road Building cards were useless in our game.

*Created a Facebook account. Please visit my Facebook. I invite more people, respond to invites, and send more invites. I'm still working on my first post.

*A half circle, a U-turn is 180 degrees.

*Purchased new headphones for my mp3 player. The new headphones are water resistant and the cord is 2ft long, perfect when running on the treadmill at the gym.

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Hey, Raymond, Do You Want To Update The Intro?

I found two desires in my life to live currently, yes, let's update the intro.

My name is Raymond Mar, and I’m still growing up. I have two life desires. My first desire is closing the holes currently in my life. I want more experiences, learn new skills, and live life with more stories to share. My second desire is to meet new people and make new friends. I continue to make mistakes and I learn when realized. I have a positive and optimistic attitude. My behavior is maturing. My wisdom is growing. Never take anything and anyone for granted.

Here is the old one:

My name is Raymond Mar, and I’m growing up. My personal project is to find who I am, the best good guy and never stop innovating my good guyness. I’m open minded. I let everyone be themselves because I want them to be so I learn their thoughts, knowledge, and experiences. I make mistakes and I learn when realized. I have a positive and optimistic attitude. I want to try anything new. My behavior is maturing. My wisdom is growing. Never take anything and anyone for granted.

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What Are You Missing In Your Life?

I want to find people, meet people, and make new friends who are similar to me. My new friends are close in age (I know I'm breaking the age is not a factor rule), hobbies, beliefs such as politics, and their way of living life daily.

I want to create new circle of friends. My circle of friends, who are awesome to hang out, have more circle of friends. I hear stories and moments from my circle of friends who hang out with their other friends doing other activities. I'm happy to hear those stories, and one day I have additional circle of friends. They believe in never stop meeting new people and making new friends. Nobody can have too many friends.

My new circle of friends has overlapping hobbies, emotions, intelligence, financial, behavior, and physical attributes. I'm grateful to find new friends having similar feelings. My best feeling is I'm growing up. (I started growing up in Oct 2008.) I'm unemployed, lost, and don't know what to do with my life. I'm going back to college. I don't know my second major.

What are some examples of the overlapping hobbies, emotions, intelligence, etc.?

For hobbies, anime, classic jazz, ballroom dancing, working out at the gym. For emotions, always have a positive attitude and staying calm. For intelligence, a college degree is a plus; however, intelligence is a lower priority. For behavior, not being a creep and not acting weird. For physical attributes, nobody obese or having a huge girth. I'm flexible. My number one attribute for my new circle of friends is don't be a creep and don't be weird. One of my friends can be 45 years old, married, drives a motorcycle, basket weaves, collects spoons, and makes me laugh and I consider him or her my friend ^__^

What are your ideal new circle of friends?

I name the two criteria for my ideal new circle of friends bonuses. The first bonus is their current living situation. They are unemployed, lost, and don't know what to do. They want something new. For me, my something new are going to a concert, visiting new places, and skydiving indoors. The second bonus is one of them in my new circle of friends is my best, best friend. The last time I had a best, best friend was in eighth grade.

Am I being picky?

Yeah, I'm being picky; however, I want to stress I'm flexible and as along as my new friends are not a creep and not weird, I'm ready to contact them for a get-together.

When are you going to start creating new circle of friends?

I started on Oct 4, 2008. I'm still finding them.

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What Do You Lack In Your Life?

I lack experience. I lack skills. I lack stories. My life is bored in one way such as I need to do more outside the house and not bored in another way such as I always have something to do and it's not watching TV eight hours a day. If I compare my life with others, there are many who have exciting lives and there are those who have boring lives. I know lots of people with more exciting lives than me. I shouldn't compare myself with those with more exciting lives; however, knowing the people with excitement lives I tell myself I must be missing something and more.

Many family, friends, and acquaintances I know have more experiences, more skills, and are making progress in their lives. They are smarter from my perspective. I feel behind. I lack confidence because I don't question other people's thoughts and knowledge. Another reason I don't question is because I feel I'm wrong and they're correct. I lack experience and skills to question other people's thoughts and knowledge. If I don't know it, I accept it. I can't remember a moment I was in a serious discussion where I was proving my thoughts and opinions. I'm afraid of conflicts and heated arguments.

I'm fortunate my friends and family help me many times and bail me out in times I can't figure out or I have no idea what's going on. They give me sources to find the information for me to learn, to correct mistakes, and/or improve myself. I'm grateful ^__^ Sometimes I feel I want to return the favor quickly. I can't return the favor because I lack the experience and knowledge to return the favor at the high magnitude. I feel I have nothing to offer back, nothing equivalent to return the favors. If I return favors indirectly or accidentally, then I have no idea what I'm doing.

As for stories, I lack adventures and lack experiences to share with others. I hear many friends and family share moments in their lives I find awesome. I have no stories to compete with those who already said something in most incidents.

What are you dong to close the lack-ness in your life?

I started closing the lack-ness in my life on Sat Oct 4, 2008, the day I started growing up. I'm reading fiction books—I'm reading more fiction than non-fiction. I have an interest in classic jazz. I have a small collection of classic jazz. I realized how important holidays are and I appreciate holidays I spend with my family. Another interest I picked up is ballroom dancing. My sister is teaching me ballroom dancing. And I have a new PC for me and my family. The old family PC the USB ports were 1.1 =P

I'm taking classes at De Anza College for Spring Quarter 2009. I want to take a dance class and beginning Japanese. Unfortunately, I signed up for another dance class and a strength development class. If I get my first classes by adding on the first day, I drop my other dance class and strength development class.

Those are a great start to shrink the gap. Do you want to do more?

Absolutely yes! I want to indoor skydive. I know a place in the Bay Area. I want to climb an indoor wall again. I climbed a wall at my Washington Canada'08 vacation. I want to attend a jazz festival. I want to visit a waterfall. I found information there are waterfalls to hike in the Bay Area. I want to visit Point Reyes around San Francisco. I want to attend a classic rock concert.

What are the keys to close the lack-ness in your life?

Patience is the number one key. Another key is heightened senses including sight and listening—be observant and seek opportunities. And timing.

Are you going to close the lack-ness in your life completely?

Absolutely no! If I find everything in my life, then my life is perfect. Life is not perfect. The best I can do is close the lack-ness to the smallest as possible. My lack-ness is going to be near 100% closed. My senior citizen years can be retired and I see myself taking a foreign language class and reading mystery novels ;)

Do you blame your parents for your lack of knowledge, lack of skills, lack of experience . . . being behind in life?

I forgive them. I forgive them for the little nurturing, little "teach your children well," and little sharing their experiences, skills, and stories while I was a child. If I asked myself the question before Sat Oct 4, 2008, then my answer is yes. Bill Gates said it best: "If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from
them."

I'm growing up. The power of forgiveness is huge. One less conflict in my life. The past is the past. Today is the time to move on, take control my life learning and finding anything new, and focus on myself. I have a new desire.

Can we say closing the lack-ness in your life is a desire?

Absolutely yes we can! My desire in life is to close the lack-ness in my life. Experience new experiences. Learn new skills. Create new stores. Make new moments. I want more memories. And there are more desires I must find. I can say my desire to close the lack-ness is a goal with an open-ended date completion.


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Positives Sun Mar 8-Tue Mar 17, 2009

*Ate graham crackers for the first time in a long, long time.

*Finished reading Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary.



*Cooked pork teriyaki from frozen pork.

*Improved my shaving by shaving with the grain and then against the grain. Now I have a smooth shave. Still need practice.

*Updated my webpage Innovate Infinitely. I could rename my webpage Innovate Infinitely 1.1 with the little, but significant updates.


*Ate Costco nonfat yogurt for the first time.

*Purchased new boxer underwear from The Gap. Man, Calvin Klein boxers are expensive at Macys. I wait for sale `__^

*Finished reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

*Played Risk board game for the first time in a long, long time with Appu, Chun, and Spiritsnare.

*Attended Nor Cal Cosplay photoshoot in Hakone Japanese Garden in Saratoga, CA.



*Watched Coraline 3D with Appu and gmontem.

*Watched Black Hawk Down, my first time I watched a movie on Blu Ray with Appu and gmontem. Also we watched Hellboy II.



*Ate white dragon roll sushi for the first time.

*Registered for classes at De Anza College Spring Quarter'09. I'm on the waiting list for Beginning Japanese and Social Dance I Part I. I signed up for Social Dance I Part II and Strength Development, my backup classes. If I get one or all of my waiting list classes, I drop out one or all of my backup class.





*Triple Play Dinner. I cooked three dinner with the frozen chicken. I used the George Foreman grill, stir fry on the wok, and cooked soup on the stove.

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Positives Thur Feb 26-Sat Mar 7, 2009

*Visited Japantown San Francisco to register for the Cherry Blossoms Parade.

*Ate Foster Farms chicken nuggets for the first time.

*Mini marathon. Watched all 13 episodes of Natsume Yuujinchou. Two episodes on Sat and ten episodes on Sun.

*Lost another 2 pounds since following the beginning weight program and cardio workout.

*Prepared my taxes to give to the family tax advisor.

*Caught up on Tsubasa Chronicles comics (manga). Next is Full Metal Alchemist.



*Purchased a gym shirt after wearing white t-shirts since 1998. The gym shirt kept my dry. I purchase more.

*My Dad showed me how to use the family SLR digital camera. Need to buy spare battery and more compact flash cards.

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