Athletic Prowess

Today was a possibly first annual Memorial Day Softball game. I had to drive Gav to this wedding around 9AM, so I was dying in the morning; I immediately fell back asleep when I got back around 10 until 12:30. It was refreshing, but I still was tired when Anand woke me up with a call. Softball was extremely fun, yet extremely tiring. We played for at least an hr and a half of continuous batting and fielding. We think it was so tough because we only had about 10 people for 5 fielders and 1 pitcher from the opposite team pitching. Basically we figured out later that you just had to hit a ground ball and there would be no problems. I ended up wacking the ball a couple times in the air, but it would just get caught; pretty frustrating. It was a lot of fun though. It was a high scoring affair; ended up winning in the final inning 20-19 on a walkoff single by Amit.

Later we went to Alex's and enjoyed a barbeque with his roommate Jimmy and his friends. The hot dogs were freaking delicious!!!!

Not much else happened. I ended up going home when it started raining and watched the game. My sister and mom are leaving for Beijing tomorrow which is exciting for them. Hopefully they get me a pink crystal bracelet. I got one in Hong Kong, but while throwing a ball destroyed it and couldn't get all the beads back.

Lately I've been having trouble sleeping at a decent hour. I'm not sure what it is. I feel like every weekend I should go out and have more opportunities with the ladies, so when I don't go out, maybe it's a bit disappointing.

That being said, next week is gonna be ridiculous. Leaving for vegas in about 3 days and 10 hr. Unreal!!!

NYC... lets get it

Woke up around 11 to sunshine and a nice day ahead of me with no plans. I did some work the night before so I was feeling accomplished and set to bake some salmon w/stuffing for my sister and I (just got it from CostCo). It tasted decent, but I have no rice or anything for that matter at my house, so it is a bit strong. My sis didn't even finish and by the time I had finished I was feeling woozy cuz it's a bit oily. It actually gave me a pretty bad case of the runs, but I was fine.

After discussing with Gav, I was supposed to get into the city around 3, but I delayed until 4. I love doing the parking in Jersey City (no tolls to get there) then pay the 2.50 for the Gate 51 bus right into the city (total of 40 min drive and max 30 min for the bus). Convenience at its finest. I saw his roommate Ishan for the first time in a while and chatted him up for a bit. We went out to Filene's basement to look for pocket squares for his wedding later; on the same side of Union Square, we went to Coffee Shop to look for Lulu but she wasn't around (2nd miss by me in a week). We ended up eating at a barbecue place on the opposite end of Union Square which was delicious. We shared braised beef, pulled pork and half rotteserie chicken (How do you spell that?!?!). It was freaking delicious; we got mac n cheese and creamed spinach on the side. Wow what a meal!!! The white portions of the chicken were marinated so well that they were even tasty (not dry!).

Later we went back to relax and eventually met up w/Ishan at Pourhouse where he and 2 ladies were watching the game. During the rendezvous Gav made me aware of the real reason we were invited... wingmen... so I went to work (after some prodding). Chick #2 actually got up and told her friend to do a lap to find single dudes in front of us (that's how little game I was kicking in the beginning). When they returned I immediately went to work discussing NBA and how she's from the Bay Area and a HUGE Warriors fan which is impressive. She seemed to know a lot about the NBA and was really into the convo. We continued chatting and when things started to turn towards a more interest in each other level she asked how old I was after I found out she went to USC from 96-00 (my HS years); translation 30-32 yr of age. She guessed 23, "Too young for you?" I responded. She didn't really say much but I told her I was 27 and she seemed fine with that. I feel like older women really just want something above 25 (we're pretty much all the same after that anyway right?). So we discussed dancing and goin out. She told me in order to dance (like in her younger days) she'd need to get really drunk and have really great hip hop/R&B. "So you mean to get you to dance I have to get you all drunk?" To me this is a great thing; a chick telling me to get her all trashed up?????

As the 3rd quarter of the game winded down I told her we needed to leave and I'd need her number so we could hang again, that I'd take her out dancing. She began explaining that she never felt comfortable dancing with people she didn't know (mainly guys) but she always loved dancing w/"her girls". I told her I understood because maybe she treated dancing like creating art with people; if you don't have the connection, you can't do it properly (haha). I actually believe that someone could think of dancing in that way... so there.

She seemed to be trying to talk herself out of giving me her number. When I asked she said, "I'm older than you." I looked down confused and said, "Ok." And she said I'm just telling you that so you know. I was like yeah ok. (Girl trying to give me opportunities to stop pursuing; not really sure why, but it always happens).

I locked up the number and we left. Almost met up w/Rishi, Anand, Praveen and Kobe (Aravind) in NB but made it back too late. Goin to bed; I gotta wake up early to take Gav to some wedding. Kill me. Tomorrow is the big softball game. Fingers crossed for no rain!

So Amazing!

Kanye really says it best. I just finished watching Cavs/Magic and what a freaking game. Magic mount a huge comeback after a power surge in the 4th quarter. Hedo hits a shot to go up 2 w/1 sec left in Pavlovic's face and looks like he just wno the game, basically trash talking and such. I love Hedo; I always thought he was a good player since his Sacto days. Unfortunately for him and the Magic (and Stacy) the freaking best player in the league ran to the basket, got stopped, ran back to the 3 pt. line and got separation from Hedo. Caught the inbounds pass at the top of the 3 pt line, set his feet, rose and banged the 3 home for the 1 point win. It was unbelievable seeing the shot in real time. LeBron hits the shot and ran around like a mad man. Pavlovic was grabbing him, they jump in with Varejao and the entire Cavs bench, then everyone is just mobbing them. It looked like a walk off home run in baseball, except everyone was in tank tops or suits. It was truly amazing watching big Z jumping around so happy. He's an old 7 ft guy that looks like he couldn't be excited about anything. Really amazing.

Anyway today was a bit frustrating. I did some work and it was really tough. I had to reconcile some stuff and it was just too difficult. I tried doing extra work, so I wouldn't be so jammed (thanks Gav) next week before I'm off to Vegas. It looks like I'll haev to do some work over the weekend and hope that the work doesn't turn out too difficult. It is really annoying though doing something that should be easy and ends up being more tedious than originally expected.

I also taught some tennis today for 2 hours. I made my guy run and I ran with him. It was really tough. He broke both strings on his racquets and for the last half hour we just did conditioning stuff. It was great for both of us. I mean, I don't need to lose weight, but i'm sure I'll get more cut. I just need to do some more pushups.

In more good news, I took some money off bodog and receieved the check within the same week! I shoudl be cashing all my stuff tomorrow which is nice. I'll haev a lot of money to bring w/me to Vegas (going to lose freaking all of it).

Gotta sign off and sleep. I'm gonna try to not look at a screen tomorrow unless it's for work.

The New Beginning

First of all I can't wait to go to Vegas!!! It's less than a week away and I just really hope I don't infect anyone with STD's when I get back... Standard Terrible Dialogue... that's what it stands for... I assume.

Today went pretty well; I actually was doing some semi-fraud investigations for our company that we usually do throughout the year. I get really tired of looking at computer screens all day, and basically play online poker at night/watch TV so it's basically like 14-16 hr a day of watching a screen or multiple screens (sometimes I have the TV and 2 laptops going.

I had gotten my Full Tilt bankroll up to the highest its ever been, more than double, then lost my last tournament to go back to about double. I'm hoping I can get up to about triple what I have now, then I can start advancing to higher stakes (still micro limit SNG). It's been really easy though, I mean you just sit on FT, basically grind the first couple levels until there's 4-6 players left, then just become a little more aggressive, but extremely patient still. I realized you don't really need to go all in with bad hands ever... most people at the lowest stakes have extremely easy timing tells you can pick up on.

Aside from that I just realized that the NBA has somehow become good. I was almost engaged for a whole game yesterday and the final 5 minutes of all 3 conference finals have been UNBELIEVABLE!!! I think with the influx of all these talented and athletic players the league has grown extremely competitive, and it helps that there is better defense (I think) being played by the best players (LeBron, Kobe and especially Melo). I really respect what Melo has done this year; in the past he has basically (I heard) been a liability on the defensive end, but currently has just been trying to lock down Kobe 50% of the time which is admirable. He just looks like a beast on the low block and like he said in his interview during the game, "When I have the ball in my hands with one guy in front of me, I just feel like he's at my will." or something like that. I mean you pretty much can't stop him; he's very quick, he's become cerebral and his spot up jumper is just spot on.

My man Corey hollered at me tonight and confirmed for me that the asian chick his girl knows is a solid one. He apparently met her at some softball game and told me she asked his gf to tell him to bring, "his friend" which I'm assuming meant me (me being the 6'2" asian). That's basically good news since I've mostly been striking out back in America; although, I have been out only 2-3 times and I've been decently pleased with my efforts. I really just have to become more aggressive much like Trevor Ariza has been. He's just been taking the ball to the hoop often and no one really can stop him. I really like the aggressive approach and want to bring that to the bar scene. It wouldnt' help to practice that before my stint in the majors next weekend in Vegas.

Holler at me:

Vegas in 6.5 days. Watch Out.

Finally something to do on a weeknight

Today I was able to finish a lot of work and relax a bit before my tennis match with Christie. She is pretty freaking nasty. I'm not trying to make excuses either; I have not played in a while and Christie basically out hit me a couple times. Her groundstrokes are real solid; I couldn't believe it. She's a pretty small girl but was wailing away. Nasty!!!

Anyway afterwards we decided to catch a movie and she suggested Angels & Demons. I felt like i was going to sleep through the entire movie; I was dosing off. Then all of a sudden I moved up in my chair and it got exciting!! Christie noticed I may have been having problems and nudged me a little seein if I was about to fall asleep; luckily it was right when I had woken up. It ended up being a great movie where I had no idea who or what was going on. I was extremely confused in the beginning, then kind of understood what was going on, but it was tough to figure everything out. Great movie though.

I've just been chillin here since I got back. This morning I got the 4th email in response to my tennis lessons ad. This time though, when I told him/her about the rates he/she was still interested. I hope it's not a hoax; we shall see. I'm hopin I can get another customer, that would be real nice income for the summer!!!

Other than that people gotta tell me their weekend plans!!! Holler at me! I may be doin a tennis lesson Fri afternoon, not sure about saturday, Sunday softball game, and Monday hang w/Ebin.

Typical Monday

Everyone hates Mondays. They're not as bad as me since I work from home, but they're still not my favorite day. Ever since I got back from Asia I've been yearning for the weekend to come so much more than before; I just really want to go out to lounges/clubs with my friends, enjoy music, dance and just act a fool. This weekend was basically the first weekend I got to do that in a long long time and I must tell you it was extremely enjoyable! I'm looking forward to Thursday when hopefully I can compel some of my friends to go out (unlikely).

I basically did some work all day. At night I prepped for my call and when I left the message, it seemed to be too scripted and unnatural, which is unfortunate because I feel the skills I have are talking on the phone and leaving voicemails; why would I switch it up?!?!?! It's ok. I found out from my friend that my target may be taken already; that probably is the reason I didn't get a call back.

I'll have to remember to call my possible tennis client this week.

I've been playing a lot of low limit poker lately and today was able to double my bankroll. In my last 14 tournies, I've cashed 10 times, 4 thirds, 4 seconds and 2 firsts. Pretty impressive eh???

Other than that I've just been trying to stay busy. I had a lot of work today and went out to dinner w/my mom at Chili's. I couldn't believe Chili's was so epensive; I mean it's basically 1-2 dollars above what I was expecting and the $7 and under menu basically are small items or "half" orders of regular meals which is WACK.

That's about it for today. So far since I've been back I've gotten ~3 #s, 1 contact after the fact and no dates. It's ok though. I gotta step it up evey weekend and give myself opportunities during the week more. I need Manolo to come do some mall prowling with me. Lets get it!

Nice confidence booster

Sunday morning I woke up at Neha's place. We spoke for a little and then I headed out with her as she went to the trainer, and I was to meet Daigo on the East side. Daigo and I hit up Qdoba and I got a delicious burrito that forced me to blow up his bathroom approximately 30 min later. We played games on sporcle for maybe the next 30 min; by that time it was off to Anand's place for poker and basketball games. When we arrived, the game already started and the Rockets were falling behind quickly. Corey and Rishi were there and we waited a bit for Amit Patel before we decided enough was enough and began the game.

I started out hitting top pair 9s and I believe betting out on both flops and turn. Anand called me down and the river filled me up and unfortuantely gave him 3 js. I bet large, he raised all in (effectively as he had a bit left) and I called to take down a wonderful pot after just having won a large one before that from Rishi.

The poker game went fairly well for me; anand and rishi showed me various all in bluffs they pulled on me on small pots that I coudl've won which basically are not material enough for me to call. I ended up winning 4x our buy in after catching daigo leaning on the last hand pushing all in w/k9 over my aqs raise and beating anand out of a decent sized pot late.

Later we left after the Rockets already had gotten blown out and the 2nd game at 8 was starting. I just went home and relaxed; soaking in my big win.

I have noticed that in poker I feel live I give off a lot of tells about what the strengths of my hands are. This is unfortunate because people can always bluff me off a hand. It's terrible. This time I made sure to think about what the deal was with each hand and try to get some tells on opponents; it didn't really work, but I found out if I grinded and wasn't that impatient, I could win (with a few coolers).

Monday was my day of reckoning.

A weekend worth remembering

I woke to the annoying sound of my alarm, but it was downstairs, so I had to run down and turn it off; I was at Amit's and it was early. Before I went back to bed I fired off some texts to see what people were up to that night and Sunday and ask advice about and discuss how to proceed with my "accomplishment" from the night before.

When I woke back up, I realized and was disappointed I wasn't going to be able to hang out with Ebin; I was really looking forward to it. Instead, on the way home from Morristown, I stopped by the Short Hills Mall (Baller City) and picked up a John Varvatos Orange Polo for $30, regular price $85 from Bloomingdale's. Then I picked up a black belt with off color paint splatters from the store I rarely enter, A/X for $19, reg price $48! I'm trying to figure out if I should be telling people this; I think it's more baller for people to think I purchased things at full price, but lets be honest, everyone knows me.

Later I just played some online poker and was up and down again. I eventually drove over to Jersey City to catch a bus over to NYC to meet up w/Neha, Gav and Eiji. On the drive over I fedex'd some stuff to work and picked up a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich at Quik Check (Plug for just because I go there all the time for $4.99 special). It took me 2 seconds to find a parking spot and maybe 3 minutes to wait and the bus arrived. I hung with Neha at her place and saw Bhrina as well. It had been at least 3 months since we've last hung out and it was great catching up; she's my giiiiiiirl.

After telling Neha I'd probably meet her at Sin Sin, I subway'ed it down to U Square to hang w/Gav, Nancy, Eiji and Jenn at Underbar; I noticed a Bentley Sedan parked outside with the engine running and a driver on the phone. Inside the bar, we just relaxed and I was a bitch again, not hitting on women; I just really don't know what to say when approaching. The problem is I know if a girl finds you attractive you can say pretty much anything (must be coherent and articulate) and you should be ok. I need to really find a proper paragraph and rolodex of lines to pick from so I'm better prepared for battle. Hopefully we all can hang out more cuz those are 4 real cool friends of mine (one promised to bake cookies).

Rat called and we went to meet up w/him at one of my old time favorites in the West Village "Village Underground". The DJ is always holdin it down on Sat nights w/hip hop and pop music. We hung w/Rat, Priya, Neha, Rajul, Danielle, Nicole and others there. It was really a great time; we just danced basically the whole time while Amit fed me an Amaretto Sour and Scotch w/a splash of ginger ale (I promise I'm developing a tolerance). I may have picked up a new tennis customer there, although other than that didn't really make any moves on anyone. There were plenty of ladies there, one who was definitly over 35 and checking me out hard core while dancing.

I left around 1 and went over to meet up w/Neha at Sin Sin for her HS friend's BDay party. We were only there but 10 min and went back to her place to sleep. I described my adventures in Taiwan and China to her and we went to bed.

More about Sunday tomorrow. It's freaking late.

Everything is negotiable

I was feeling a bit down and Saturday it got a bit worse; I had to talk to my Brooke who made me feel a bit better about life, but I realized that I had been lazy the last couple days/weeks. I think I was complaining about not being able to go out to clubs/bars like I want to and enjoy myself, but I think it was a) me being lazy and not being proactive enough to go "far" to go out. I realized my friend Manolo comes over to Edison a lot and I've really never gone to his house (I have a job I must be home during the week is my excuse).

That being said I talked to Amit who invited me to Morristown since he and his fiancee just bought a place there. I wasn't really feeling it since I was supposed to be meeting a friend of Jenna's and Morristown is pretty far. After I called Corey and confirmed the girl said "text me later" meaning "I'm not coming", I thought about it and I don't know why I was opposed to Morristown; so what if there are only white people there and racist cops?? So I decided to GET IT and called Amit up. After showering, ordering a buffalo chicken sandwich at Wawa and the 45 min drive, I arrived at his beautiful new place and started to chow down.

After some Lost Boyz, Blackstar and Mobb Deep we walked to the bars (7 min walk!!!!). We started off at George and Martha's, pretty solid to watch sports and good sized crowd. I kind of boned it with an above average weighted brunette, but a guy who was seriously hitting on her ended up putting his forearm between me and her anyway, so good thing I was a bitch.

We went over to Darkhorse later on the recommendation of Justin, but no one was inside. The good thing about it was that the Mets made their comeback (holla at me David Wright) and tied it up w/the Giants, and more importantly, one of the most slammin bartenders I've ever seen works there (we may have to return another time, but I feel she probably is fairly unattainable because it would be tough to chat her up).

We had passed some bar whose name escapes mewith a considerable line outside on the way over to Darkhorse, so we went in there next. As soon as I walked in I noticed a really cute latina looking lady at the bar. As per the usual I decided to do nothing about it. I think I was just intimidated by her beauty as well as the 2 girls on either side of her (how would I get in there!?). Later I noticed her lookin again and she actually called me over. After doing the SNL Night at the Roxbury, "Me? Him? Him? Me? Him?" and finally going over to talk. She reached out with her long slender arms and pulled my neck in between the two other ladies and spoke in my ear, "What nationality are you?" I pulled back, looked at her , realized yes that I am not in Asia, and told her to guess. She pulled my neck in again (regularly occurred throughout the rest of the conversation), "I don't want to sound retarded and say Chinese." "You'd be correct though" So she then said hello in Chinese which was extremely impressive. We continued to chat; I learned she was extremely interested in Chinese just because she loves things that are unusual and something other people aren't interested in (pointing out spanish and french as hot languages to learn in the US). I learned she's indian and just finished up school and studying a bit of chinese; she really sounds passionate about learning more and hopes to move to China to teach English to learn more. Impressive! (one note is she asked me how to say girlfriend in Chinese for whatever reason).

As all of this was going on, I tried to figure out a way to extend the convo; I intro'd myself to her one friend who had a beautiful smile on her left and was (I found out later) indian as well. I think lady friend got bored and eventually said, "Well it was nice meeting you Ken." I replied, "Yeah nice meeting you too, give me your number and we can speak chinese to each other to practice." She immediately was interested and told me to call her. I did and she didn't even go to take her phone out of her bag (which was a bit odd). I let it ring for 15 sec and eventually turned it off. I said bye and told Amit "We have to bounce from this spot immediately!!!" So we went downstairs to chill. We sat right next to some half asian girls and danced in our seats. The group directly in our vision started to talk about us, maybe they had never seen indians and asians before (completely believable if true). I felt my phone vibrate and my girl called (for 2 seconds) and hung up. We went back upstairs right before closing and Amit was begging me to ask her to come back to his place.

I finally conceded (after saying it was really risky doing this; I usually follow up with the 2-5 day rule (I see you christie). He said he'd be outside and I'd go to work. We passed her on the way out; she was in the middle of a lot of people. I did the 2 finger wave and she motioned for me to come over (again). She seemed desperate to find out how to say goodbye in chinese. I told her and then said, I'm going back to my friend's place which is walkable; you should come by if you have no plans. She told me, "No, I honestly can't tonight, but yo uhave my number so we can talk, it would be so great if you can teach me chinese." After a bit more talking with her and her friend she grabbed my wrist REALLY firmly and told me good night. I just stared at my wrist and her hand grabbing it as if to say what the hell are you doing grabbing me like this. I said as much and she said. "Oh, Can I have that?" I looked and she was talking about my brown scorpion bracelet. "I really love it, I love it so much, can I have it?" I said, "No no, not right now, but we'll talk after we hang out a 2nd time." Amit later told me to learn the phrase, "Everything is negotiable."

We left and walked back to his place, but in some beats and eventually went to bed. Before drifting to sleep I texted my lady, "Good night beautiful" in chinese. I received and still have not received any response which is a bit disappointing, so we'll have to see what happens when I call her Monday (again 2-5 day rule). I'll let you know what happens.

Feeling good about work, feeling down about life

Well I've had several small little projects that I've had to do in the past week that I've pretty much breezed through. It has been a good confidence booster on the work front because I feel like unless you are a real stunner at work, you really can't be 100% sure you'll have a job tomorrow. I also got a vote of confidence from the Senior Manager and VP recently, so that is great news. Being done with work for the week does feel good and it is time to start relaxing. The countdown to Vegas (which I'll post on each blog post now) is 13 days... 13 days!!! less than 2 weeks! You kidding me?!?!?!?!

Onto other things; I recently have been feeling a bit down on my life lately. I've been trying hard to hang out with as many friends possible, and I've seen a few, but life right now just doesn't seem so fun. I am trying to figure out what things I look forward to, and there are just not that many things that come to mind. I'd say #1 right now maybe seeing family especially my parents which is a really large 180 from before I went to Asia. I think #2 would have to be spending time w/my L bro Ebin. It's nice to see him and hopefully I can see him weekly on a consistent basis (have my fingers crossed for tomorrow). There honestly is no #3 right now. I think I need to get out of the house more, scheme on chicks more, and hang in general with friends more.

I'm thinking maybe the low feelings have to do with the residual effects of having no girlfriend, rather no one with a really deep intimate relationship with. I think this is possible to have with a non-girlfriend girl friend. I just need to find one (ideally some) to be able to talk to, and mutually care for each other (I think). Maybe this is not the problem; I think I've just had too much time to think abuot the past, when really I need to focus on the future. It helps that work has not been completely boring and that I've been consistently getting work.

I also need to really get into my new businesses; I'm struggling to pick up new customers and every week that passes is missed revenue opportunities for both businesses. I'm unhappy that this week I will have no tennis lessons. It was a beautiful day out and perfect for some outdoor activities. I'll cross my fingers for next week.

I think I'll be heading over to Morristown tonight with my man Amit. I really foudn that recently I've been acting lazy and it really is not good for the mindset. I tried doing some pushups today which helps and I'm hoping to set some sort of pushup/pullup goal for myself for the next few weeks. I'm also gonna need to find places in the US where ladies hang out, because I may have been 5 steps away from ladies less than 10 times this entire week which is just unacceptable.

Other than that I'ev been slowly trying to grind the $7.40 on Full Tilt I have into something that can sustain $2 instead of $1 tournies that I've been playing. It is really scary to be playing with stakes that are more than 10% of your bankroll!!!!

Enjoy the weekend; I'll be back

Hump Day and everything that goes before it

The end of hump day is approaching and I really don't have much to report. My monday was pretty much boring; I got a lot of work and completed it during the day. I really don't remember what I did that night; I may have tried to do some more work and talk to some friends on the phone.

Tuesday I completed work all morning and drove up to Patterson in the afternoon to visit w/my bro Ebin. It was a good time; we got to talk and I really enjoyed seeing him. He had to eat around 4:30 so I only got to be around him for like 30 or so min and of course drove back in the terrible traffic on the parkway around 5. It really wasn't all that bad though save for a couple accidents that people love gazing at. Does it really make sense that there would be an accident on the complete opposite side of the road AFTER TREES; no one really should be able to see this, yet everyone slows down to basically a halt to look and then speeds up again!??!? REALLY?!?!?! This is why I wasted 10 min of my life?!?!?! I digress...

I got home and got a call from old friend Christie; she had a meeting to go to before she would come over my place to catch up; I haven't seen her in prob a year and a half although we live maybe 20 min from each other and she may be my only friend that lives in NJ now (sorry Martin and Corey). She gave me ample time to clean my house and that I did. I didn't get to clean all my SISTER'S SHIT FROM THE FOYER THOUGH. REMEMBER IT'S MY SISTER'S SHIT, NOT MINE. She arrived maybe 30 min after she said she left and by that time my TV room was spic and span (remember that??). We just talked about life, how she's more ambitious than me and rising through the ranks of external internal audit while I just do my thing and please my bosses. It was nice talking to her and even going over some game theory like the 3 day rule (damn girls know about that).

Today was decent too; I finished work early and went to martin's place to play some video games after work. We split 2 games of MLB the Show; I beat his Brewers with my D-Backs (Brandon Webb basically shut him down until the 8th because of a throwing error). Then he beat my 'stros with the Mets. It was a close game that I tied up in the 9th, but then he scored 3 runs in the 10th and I coudln't do anything against Pedro Feliciano's filthy curve.

As I drove over to my friend Caitlin R.'s place near TCNJ, I thoguht over the fact that I'd have a tennis lesson on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday; this is good news since I can sleep in on Saturday and just go over to Ebin's place whenever I want to hang. I don't know what I'll be doing though Sat night; maybe hang w/Justin, maybe city... who knows... I don't know if I'll have enough time.

As for Caitlin and I, it was just two old buddies catchin up. I in the swivel chair, her in her extremely comfortable looking bed. We sat for 2 hours and caught up on each others lives like two old ladies. She told me she actually reads this, so that means I'll have to give her a shout out!!!! Unfortunately she said it sounds too much like a chick writing and that I sound like 1 big Vagina (I do). She said this is too long; but then there'd be no info! I really like her bluntness because that way I can improve. By the way, have you ever heard of a girl who doesn't like men w/long hair?!?!?!?!

I left Caitlins, returned home and proceeded to just hop online to burn some time as I really don't feel like going to bed. I played 2 online tourneys for $1.25 each; airballed the short handed one and finished 1st in the 9 handed one (YES!) Sucking out a10 vs aq to get into the money and then sucking out a6 vs. 8s to finish first for a whopping 3.4 profit!!! It's more impressive when you think that's basically 300% ROI.

Well that's about it for today. I'd like to thank Caitlin R. for actually reading my blog (although she stopped). She'll be commenting on how terrible my positive spin on life is, so look forward to that all of you (1 people that read this).

Actual income

So Saturday morning I woke up and immediately went over to the Rutgers Livingston courts to meet up w/Brian to start our lessons. I arrived 30 minutes early and hadn't eaten, os I started stalking the campus for food. I drove over to Busch and paid $0.25 to park in a visitor spot; I freaking hate parking on campuses. I wakled up to the student center behind some dude; I saw him walk to the door, look up then back off and sit down on a bench near the door. I guess I should've realized it was locked, but never send a boy to do a man's work, so I found out it wasn't locked myself.

I was pretty desperate for food, so I looked for any other doors that were open. On the way back up the steps from locked door #2 I passed a cute medium chested (for an asian) asian girl with very nice eyes. I semi berated myself for not talking to her, and continued hunting for food. Behind door #3 was the dining buffet; 11.95 for a breakfast buffet that only included bagels and yogurt?!?!?!?!? REALLY??? I left and what do you know? The asian chick was walking by, so I ... Chatted her up! "Excuse me, do you know of any places to eat around here??" (the best I could come up with) I immediately noticed a big smile appear on her face while I thought how old she could be (I settled on 20). "Not right now, the student center opens up at 10:30 if you can wait til then." I told her I could not as I had to get over to Livingston (not sure if I mentioned tennis although I should've because it would've been something more to talk about). After that I kind of ran out of things to say and fake looked disappointed (well I actually was disappointed) that there was no food option in sight. She began to leave and I... no, she just left; I was a bitch and didn't get her # or anything; great.

Well I returned to the tennis courts and arrived just as Brian and his mom arrived. To my surprise they took out a ball hopper, so I wouldn't need mine (which is fine). We started out by playing a set and while warming up I kept shanking balls. Brian must've been thinking, "Wow why is my mom paying this kid to lose to me." The set went better; he basically is too inconsistent to beat me, and I just went up 5-0 pretty easily. We just stopped after that and we went over some things I saw. We worked on forehands next and then followed with backhands. I think he picked up on stuff I was telling him about, but was getting extremely tired. I decided to work on some serves, and after 15 min he hit a couple and really looked like he was comfortable already with what we changed. It looked very promising.

After the lesson I just stayed at home and played some poker. I played maybe my 10th freeroll on fulltilt and finished 6th out of 2700 people for $6!!!!! Huge cash for me because I dont' like putting money online myself. At night I just went back to my parents' houes with my sister and called it a night.

I woke up 12 hr later and felt wonderful. I basically just ate, took my mom to chinese school, then hung out w/my BOY Marc Hill who I've only seen a couple times the past 3 yr since he's been in Pittsburgh. He's back in NJ and lookin to give tennis lessons to high performance youngsters (he's a real good coach and knows loads about fitness! Axe about him!). It was nice catching up and seeing how well he's doing. Every one of my friends is making me look extremely unambitious (which I am).

At night we just ate a decent dinner; my mom didn't want to go out; she wanted to cook. We left after I demolished her in a head to head sudoku match up (1 medium, 1 hard).

It's good seeing my parents; I never really appreciated it before but I now enjoy spending time with them.

New income

Last night I warmed up for my lesson this morning with Corey. We played for maybe 20 min and I was already gassed. My wrists have become chopstick thin; I'm not even joking. Horrible; my wrist started getting sore after hitting a few.

Later, I spoke with my cousin Mark on Skype and may go visit him in Toronto sometime this summer; it's a great excuse to check out Canada in the summer and the ladies in Canada (I shouldn't be telling any dudes this) are really really cute. I'm not sure if Toronto can top Calgary though, that place is just full of the good looking ladies.

Afterwards I met up w/Corey, Jenna, Roger and Xina at Chickie's and Petes. We ordered wings which were surprisngly not very spicy despite there being an extremely strong aroma that made you choke up if you directly took it into your lungs. We also got "crab fries" which are fries sprinkled with old bay (delicious).

It was nice to see all my old friends from college (not all, but all except Jenna are old friends from TCNJ). We just shot the shit and enjoyed each other's company. They actually ordered a beer tower which was cool to have at our table. Xina ordered red headed sluts, and for those of you who don't know (basically only me), those are shots. Christina ordered, "Can we get 2 Red headed sluts?" I added, "make that 3" meaning an actual red head. No one really understood it becaues you can't really figure out the joke based on that comment; the waitress ended up actaully bringing 3 shots. "Ohhh, I actually meant to bring a red headed slut, not the shot." She laughed, "Well I'll keep a look out for you." "Thanks." I kept the joke up most of the time when she came back, but she never understood it at first. Odd; this waitress was a bit weird as well.

Jenna had said her friend was supposed to come out Friday night, but she never ended up coming because she was drinking wine in New Hope? Come on! Now, should I be excited about meeting a girl described as "slender, dresses really nice and wears really nice shoes?" To me this means she's not attractive; no mention is made about her looks/attractiveness level although a positive is she is not "nice" which would be a dagger. (Editor's note, Jenna actually mentioned that night that she was cute, the description mentioned earlier was from the night before when she realized I should meet her friend).

That brings up another point; why does everyone feel the need to introduce me to asian chicks? I don't get it; is it becaues they think I only like asian chicks? Or is it taht the asian chicks only want to date asian guys? I'm not sure; but whoever reads this, PLEASE... FEEL THE NEED TO INTRO ME TO ANY OF YOUR ATTRACTIVE FRIENDS... I don't even care if your dog looks like Lisa MacKay (See Above), INTRO ME... it can even be a chihuahua... well, actually, you gotta draw the line somewhere right?

It was a great night, and I really enjoyed meeting up w/my buddies. Again, shout out to Corey, Jenna, Xina and Roger. Holla!

That right there could drive a sane man bizzerk, not to worry Mr K to the Tsuizzie's back to wizzork

So I've been back in the US for about 5 days and it has been fairly eventful outside of work. Monday, I did some work and in the evening went to the mall to scheme on chicks with Manolo. We really didn't fare all that well as we were fairly passive. To be honest there weren't that many that met standards. The few that did, we definitely attempted with maybe 50% of them (poor percentage). We rolled up into Guess where girl A was cute and girl B was not. B approached us and asked what we were looking for to which I promptly answered, "a girlfriend." She promptly said no other words and fled like she had just wrapped her lambo around a pole (sound familiar Lance Briggs?). I'm not really sure why neither of us decided to chat up girl A, probably because we both love men.

Club Monoco was our next venue. We noticed there was a really cute slender indian looking girl in a sleek tight black dress. She was helping a customer and took an ABSURD amount of time. We literally went up and down the men's section twice at an extremely slow pace when she finally finished. I realize now that it didn't matter what we were doing in the time she was helping the customer; she couldn't have noticed because she was doing just that, HELPING THE CUSTOMER. So when I knew we had her attention I started fanning myself as the temperature must've been in excess of 85 inside. That prompted, "Yeah, it's so hot in here." I turned and replied, "Yeah, why doesn't management turn the a/c on??" "That's just it, it IS on!" "No it's not." "Yeah, it really is!" "No... it's not, it can't be." "Well it is, but it's still so hot that I'm standing next to this fan." "Well, management lied to you, it can't be on." "Yeah, I don't know, it's too hot." "Well, I'm sure they do it just so their employees wear skirts." "Hahahahaha!"

And with that I decided to stop conversation reasons unbenownst to myself. For all that could analyze that conversation, it was going great; why would our hero just stop?! No clue. I really have no reason. I think I just ran out of things to say. Here is where we must find ways of improvement. I think at this point we can always pull out things like, so how was your weekend/what are you doing this weekend/tonight, how has work been today? Lines of that nature. Then we can follow up with a number close. I think we should be very conscious that we screwed this up and improvement is necessary next time. That's the only circumstance where this conversation did not become a complete failure.

Well Tuesday I hung out with Martin; we played some "The Show '09" which is a baseball game that is straight NASTY!!! They have small things like players before the game laughign with each other, and the graphics and gameplay are very very good. I really love baseball games; the only problem is when you play a season/dynasty, the season are just too freaking long!!!!

Martin ended up scoring 4 runs in the 1st, before Jon Lackey settled down and gave up 1 run over the next 5 innings. Martin's Mets were shutting down my Angels until young Tsuizzie figured out hitting/pitching and exploded for a 2 run 3rd and 4 run 5th inning to go up 6-5. Unfortunately, Delgado destroyed a 3 run homer after 4 runs already scored in the 7th inning against a not so tired Jon Lackey. The Angels did their best to mount a comeback against surprising long reliever K ROD who came in the 7th. We scored 2 runs, but couldn't score any in the final inning for a 11-8 loss. The Angels left the bases loaded twice (with less than 2 outs both times) which killed them.

Wednesday I just stayed home, watched some basketball and went to bed early. I spoke with Michilene for a bit and realized I shoudl've scheduled a trip to Portland around my Vegas trip at the end of the month to go visit her. It would be nice to see her. We are hoping to plan a fishing outing if I ever make it over there.

Last night I went over to Corey's (a former TCNJ Lions Tennis teammate of mine) place; me, him and Jenna (his gf) drove over to All-Stars in Bordentown to watch some games and get some grub. The place was expansive and expensive as well, but their portions were also expansive and I left a happy boy after only getting through half my chicken Florentine (chicken topped w/mozzerella, spinach and crab meat) and Penne Pasta. I must shout out their quesadillas... big as hell.

We retired to his place and fired up the laptops and played poker side to side; I on Bodog, he on Pokerstars. I ended up getting 2nd in a $9 superturbo for a $17 profit while not cashing a $15 turbo for a total profit of? $1. He had a 0.10/0.25 cash game opened with a $16 3 table sit and go that he decided to be 5/6 in chips with 3 people <10bbs.

As for my weekend, I set up a tennis lesson tomorrow at 10AM; since I haven't played tennis in almost 2 months, I am going to hit with Corey tonight for 30 min. Then we'll prob play poker together before hopefully going out somewhere to scheme on chicks. Jenna actually told me she'd get her friend to come out (a small slender asian chick who apparently dresses well and wears really nice shoes). Since I'm all about the ladies, I have no problems with her meeting us.

Anyone else got plans for the weekend??? Holler at me!

Look at your ice, look at my ice, DAMN; look at your life, look at my life, DAMN!

I arrived in Japan after a quick 4 hour flight that turned into a 3 hour flight and change. There were no flight attendants that I found particularly attractive, so I could just focus on watching "Yes Man" and sleeping. We touched down almost an hour earlier than expected which was a great surprise. Once we did I tried to figure out a way to get to the Courtyard in Ginza where I was staying; my friend Atsuko told me I could find a limo bus service (just a charter bus) that stopped at the courtyard. I found the counter, purchased the 30 dollar ticket (1.5 hour drive = not bad). I then found an airport luggage storage place; I could pay 8 dollars per day (24 total) to have my big ass piece of luggage stored at the airport, so I didn't have to lug it around (it was 32kg and the pullout handle broke). When I went up the elevator, i spoke to what I thought was a cute girl at the information desk; she kept smiling at me as she told me where the storage was (the direct opposite side of the airport). I grinned at her when she told me that and pretended to be (I actually was) devastated to hear that I'd have to walk across the entire terminal. She laughed and confirmed it in fact was on the other side of the airport.

After I left, I looked back as I adjusted my broken luggage and noticed they both were looking at me and smiling. I was pressed for time as my shuttle was leaving in about 15 min, so I rushed over to the luggage storage booth. The problem I realized was that I didn't ask for the # or email of this young lady because I had not realized she was interested during the time we were talking; I don't know if I can attribute that to being extremely tired or just liking men, but I tell you I didn't really pick up on it until it was too late. I decided after I stored luggage, I'd quickly go back and ask for her info; obviously as everyone knows, this never works. She was gone, and I had missed the only opportunity I had. Horrible; it shows I need to be more observant in these situations.

I didn't get much sleep Friday morning, so I slept about an hour (to make it 4 total) on the ride to the hotel. I must tell you that I'm a platinum member at Marriott meaning I've stayed there 75 nights in the prior year and they must treat me like I'm the shit (obviosuly they get a lot of revenue from me). This hotel did not make me feel as such; I think I was put in a regular room, didn't get much benefit from being a platinum member except that when I showed up I got the platinum gift (points or food). I was very disappointed in this and am not sure I'd recommend the Courtyard Ginza. The only reason I'd recommend it is that there is a 30 dollar shuttle each way that stops there from the airport and that it's location is in Ginza which is a sick part of town.

I ended up walking around Ginza at night to check out the city and find some food. I found a street that looked like 5th avenue in NYC. THere were all the high end shops and let me tell you, a HIGH density of good looking women. It was crazy how many there were; everywhere I looked I'd see a bunch. I ended up walking aroudn for about an hour and found a small local ramen place that served delicious pork.

The next morning I woke up and hung out w/my old coworker from PwC Atsuko. She brought along her 1 yr old daughter Yuki who was unbelievably cute!!! I actually got to hold her for a bit which was scary (I think it was the first baby I've held and the closest thing I've held to a baby were Lulu's dogs). Yuki was fairly well behaved, but it was interesting, when she was bored, she would cry if Atsuko would hold her while sitting down; same position standing up? No crying. It was really interesting; anytime Atsuko would sit down, she'd scream; Atsuko gets up? silence.

Well we had some Japanese barbeque which was amazing!!! The beef was so tender. Atsuko had some fried noodles or rice (it escapes my mind). After lunch we walked around Ginza and she showed me the emperors's houses. Apparently these are people who used to rule the country, but after there became a prime minister, they no longer have any power; they just have cash money. I don't think people actually lived in the houses we looked at (only saw front doors). It actually was a large park type environment where the houses were, and most of the property was off limits. Also a tidbit, there is a law that states no buildings can be constructed high enough to be able to see into the emperors' property, so all the buildings on the side of Ginza closest to the houses are very short.

Later we ate some italian; I had a cheeseless pizza which was pretty good. Atsuko said the Italian in Japan is better than in the US; I found this laughable, but 5 seconds later I realized she was being serious. She said it was cheaper and better tasting. This I am not so sure about.

Finally, we checked out some cell phones at a popular electronics store there; they were decent, but I think the US has decent ones compared to asia. Asian cell phones are kinda big and wide. I saw there was a sale for an Acer mini laptop for $500 USD which seemed like a great deal, but I didn’t have 500 I could just drop right there, so we left.

On the way back Atsuko noted that the 5th avenue street basically was blocked off so people could walk on the streets (no cars were allowed on the street). I thought this was interesting; does this happen in NYC??

The last place we stopped before she left was a store that sold authentic Japanese items. This place was full of stationery, paper, pens, fans and bookmarks??? I thought it was a waste of time until I saw these paper origami earrings!!!! I quickly purchased 2 pairs cranes, an umbrella pair and one more pair the kind I forgot. They were about $15 each which is reasonable.

Later that evening I ventured out using the Japanese subway, which would rival NYC’s but it CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT?!?!?!??! So wack!!!! It has so many lines and seems pretty convenient; I believe all of them run every 20 minutes or so. When I got out of the subway, I walked around Roppongi Hills which is a hip area of bars/clubs/restaurants. I dined at a Hong Kong restaurant which was very nice looking. There were tons of ladies walking around all over the place which was nice, but I just couldn’t open any because I just have no game when it comes to random ass girls on the st. I set on my way to find Gas Panic (a club the hotel recommended). I walked all over Roppongi and in the last corner before I was gonna head back I found it. Before I go into what I did inside (not much), I must tell you that there was an absurd number of black people on the streets there. It was really weird. I saw basically NO black people while walking around Ginza, but black people were plentiful in Roppongi. I dunno why; lets move on. So I went in and walked around to find a nice post up spot. I started dancing by myself and this employee walks up to me and asks me what I want to drink; I tell him I’m ok, but he shows me a flier that says “Please put your drink down.” I said, “Oh ok, I don’t have a drink, I’m not tryin to drink.” He pointed to the card so I continued to read, “If you do not have a drink in your hand we will ask you to leave.” I immediately ordered a pineapple juice.

The rest of the time was really uneventful as I just stood around trying to find attractive girls (nowhere). I ended up staying for about 2 hours and leaving. Grabbed a cab home and retired for the night.

The next morning I awoke and dined at the hotel’s Japanese restaurant. I got 10% off their already cheap 10 dollar tempura lunch deal. It was amazing!!! Such fresh tempura over shrimp, fish and eggplant. It came with Miso Soup and Tuna sashimi, which I could not eat because of my intestinal infection.

The shuttle came around 12:15 and I arrived at the airport at around 130 for my 4PM flight. I had plenty of time to get my big luggage out of storage (I don’t think anything was stolen). I went to the United lounge, which was lovely. Spent some time there online and finally went to the gate.

My flight took off about a half hour late and I immediately noticed an attractive flight attendant. Unfortunately in the 12 hours we were on the flight, she gave me 0 opportunities to hit on her. She was in coach while I was in Business class. I guess I could’ve gone into the back cabin to holler but I just thought we weren’t really allowed to (i.e. I am a bitch). I tried to stand in the middle areas where the bathrooms were, but she would never walk by. She did walk by once but really swiftly before I realized. She didn’t stop or anything, gave me no opportunities, so I’ll just assume she was married and was faithful (good girl). I chatted up 3 other FA’s in business class and all were very nice. I actually picked up some good teaching information from one of them. She was originally from Japan, and moved to the US for her husband. She taught some Japanese for a while and gave me some tips on how to proceed. It was very nice of her!

Well after that my story gets a little dull. We arrived at Dulles airport; I had to go through security there as well which was extremely annoying. Then I learned my flight was delayed another hour, so I had 2 hours to burn. I wasted that online and then 30 min after we took off we landed in NJ. I got home and really just relaxed and went to bed.

What a anticlimactic ending to a wonderful trip.

He mad cuz I'm lookin, but I already touched herrrrrrr

So I had an interesting Thursday. I had a follow up appointment with the hospital to determine if I was ok (no infection). I got dropped off by coworkers and immediately asked someone where I should be going (I had a slip of paper saying where, but it was in Chinese so I had no clue). The hospital was a mad house; it looked like a school. I was to go downstairs to some room; aside from that information I had no clue what to do. I walked down the steps, turned to my right and walked inquisitively down to a line of people. It seemed like this should be where I got into line to register, so I stopped. There was just a group of people in front of a window and I sighed as I’d have to fight for myself without speaking great Chinese.

After a couple frustrating minutes I asked a lady who had come out from behind the window where I should be. She told me just across the hallway there was a door marked 25 with a digital number box. I was to go in when the # showed 5. OHhhhhhhh, ok. So after 10 minutes, I was able to walk in. I was declared ok, but needed to take some antibiotics pills as a precaution (I think).

I returned to the hotel by cab and got this delicious walnut/raisin bread from the hotel bread shop. I waited for my coworkers to go off for lunch. We dined at a “French” restaurant. Basically the only reason it was French was the time per and # of servings. It was incredibly slow. The food was delicious though; I had a seafood pasta w/tomato cream sauce. The best part was the fresh made Acai juice. Oh it was good; better than the acai blackberry vitamin water and/or Snapple.

We did some walking around then ate dinner with my aunt and uncle at the hotel restaurant. We then went out to Carrefore as Lynette bought 10 freaking bottles of vinegar (TO DRINK?!?!?!). I then hung w/Ruru for about an hour and a half and returned home. I then had a date w/Tutu. We spoke in the afternoon and she had told me since I had not called her on Thursday she didn’t come over (she had wanted to); I didn’t call because I was unbelievably tired and also forgot haha. That comment though told me she wanted to hang out, and I thought it also meant she wanted to do more than sleep in the same bed w/o much of anything else (like we did on Tuesday).

She came over and noticed the hicky Ruru gave me that night (she loved giving me hickies for some reason, not even while making out, just giving me them). Tutu immediately said, “I’m not kissing you if you got strawberries (Chinese nickname for hickies) from someone else.” I told her that was fine and turned my head and body away from her. She immediately jumped over my body and eventually began hooking up. The rest is history.

Fallen severely ill

I realize I haven't written in 4 days which is a fairly long time in the blog world, but really doesn't matter cuz I've had 2 hits in that period, so no one is missing out on anything.

So Sunday at 4AM I woke up in a hot sweat with stomach pain and for the next 6 hours I went between the toilet and the bed in 30 min intervals. I had been feeling under the weather for the past 4 days, but today my body just crashed. I spoke to 3 people, the front desk, my aunt (in Taipei) and a friend all of which asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, all of which I responded to with a “no, I’ll be fine.”

I learned from this experience that it seems if you ask me to do something I will say no, but if you tell me I need to, I probably will cave. All of the people asked me if I wanted to go, and I refused. My friend then adamantly told me she was going to take me to the hospital and I agreed.

While I was sick that morning I really had no idea how much time had gone by. My friend said she’d bring me to the hospital. She worked til 2, so I expected her to come after work. Really soon after she told me, she showed up at my door and whisked me away. I only took my wallet and eye covers for sleeping; my cell was dead.

The drive to the hospital was long and brutal; I felt nauseous the whole way and 15 min felt like an hour and a half. When we finally got there, there weren’t a huge amount of people in the front of the ER. We must’ve waited at least 15 min before Ruru got to the front of registration. They found out I had no insurance and it was on for them. After taking some preliminary tests they said I’d have to get hooked up to an IV. I was a bit scared, but then when I looked around EVERYONE was hooked up to an IV. It was my first time and to be honest, it’s not that bad. You feel a prick and sting when the needle goes in, but later not much. You just are conscious of something on your arm and you have to walk around holding the bag of fluid (or put it on one of those IV carriers).

I spent the next 12 hours in the hospital feeling woozy, sleeping, feeling nauseous, feeling cold, running a fevers and walking 40 feet to the bathroom (an arduous process to say the least). Ruru left while I was with the first Dr. and returned later around 4 to stay with me til around 10 when she just really had to sleep. Winnie and Eric came around 6 or 7 and Lynette made it around 9. They really took care of me. I ran a fever all day and the Dr. said I couldn’t go home until the next day because of that.

Luckily for the next 17 hours I was fine and at 7PM the next day they let me walk.