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It's been a while since I've really cleaned my car. Yesterday the gardeners came to the apartment to cut down a tree. They were dropping twigs and leaves on it already and if I hadn't moved the car they would have dropped the entire branch on the car. Less than a minute after rushing to move it, the entire tree fell down over my parking space. Ridiculous! What I ended up with was dust and little shavings all over the front end. So I spent today giving it a good wash, clay baring the car, waxing it, polishing it, detailing the engine bay, detailing the interior, repainting the wheels, polishing the headlights and tail lights, and cleaning the windows. Took a while but it feels smooth now and has a good shine. The only disappointment is how sandblasted my front end is from driving on the 60 fwy so much.

The past two days my schedule has been filled with interviews and info sessions. Haven't heard back from then yet, but it's almost as expected at this point. It's been a dry couple of days lately with oven-baking heat waves the moment you step out of the car or open a door. Today I picked up my stranded carless-for-a-day friend and went for some slow service, no choices, loud noise, dim sum. I don't remember when the last time I went to New Capital in SG for dim sum was, but it sucked today. I got around to ordering 6 dishes in 1 1/2 hours! That's 2 dishes every 30 minutes. Then upon leaving we get charged a "tea setting fee". What the heck is a tea setting fee? We didn't even have tea brought out to us. Just cups of ice tap water.

Anyhow, I got the Android phone/T-mobile G1/gPhone/iPhone killer/google phone/HTC Dream yesterday. Technically I got it prior, but it was "lost in the mail" ... First impression is that it's a good phone. Nice alternative to the iPhone. Easy to learn and use but takes a while to get used to finding all the hidden menus. Everything is a press-n-hold and hope for the best situation. So far one thing that bugs me is that I can't access my SIM card messages. When I looked for my contacts list I realized it was missing. This would be another gripe that I'd have against the phone but I found the option to import SIM card contacts...AFTER manually inputting each contact into Gmail. At first I didn't like how the phone syncs, but I guess it's rather convenient when you're also typing in addresses to places and misc. info. The coolest feature yet has to be the Android Market where I've found a couple barcode scanning programs. These programs use the G1's camera to "scan" in barcodes of almost any item and it'll give item descriptions, reviews, and where to purchase the item for the lowest cost. Neato! Now the only thing I have to figure out is whether or not 400 txt msgs is enough on the plan because each email that gets sent over counts as a text.

It's been 15 days since my last entry. Since then, I have applied to 30 jobs, sent in 35 resumes, been nagged by my father about finding a job at least 10 times, played board games with my cousins on 8 separate occasions, ate a year's worth of McDonalds to collect Monopoly pieces, collected over 50 pieces (yeah, that much McD's ), and upgraded to a new camera.

So job searching is the same old same old. Went for 1 interview and had 1 phone interview. Everything else so far is just "application and resume on file." I have one more interview on Tuesday, which hopefully goes well.

During these two weeks my cousins and I have been meeting up quite a bit. It's nice to be able to catch up on things and reminisce about old times. The last time we've all gotten together under the same roof without any special circumstances has been at least 2 years or more. We've bought a dozen board games totalling $200ish which was split amongst us all, but it has kept us occupied for hours at a time without spending extra money doing other miscellaneous stuff. When you account per person per hour, I guess it isn't all that bad. Each time we've met up we've also tried some new food here and there. It seems like it's been the only times I have ate something other than McDonalds, ugh..

I got a T700 camera just shipped to me yesterday. A friend's friend that works at Sony hooked it up. Not that the T100 is ancient yet, but it is giving me some problems upon boot up and lag while focusing during a shot. The splash screen lags every once in a while so I lose that "perfect moment" shot by a few seconds. The T700 is blazing fast at what it does. Point and shoot in an instant sans lag. There's still some noise in low-light environments but it's a great improvement over T100. Not sure how it compares with T200 or T300 though as I have no prior experience with either camera. Asthetically, it's cleaner. Slimmer camera with sleeker lines and larger touch display. The aluminum frame feels sturdy in the hand and the front lens cover is solid. I had a camera case ready for it sitting on my desk since for a period of time I was considering the T300 as a replacement, but it's much slimmer than expected. It's like wearing clothes 2 times larger than your normal size. When I use the camera more, I can give a better review of it's performance.

Update on my last entry: Due to my impatience to get white paint, I test screened a shirt in yellow on a red shirt. It came out quite well so I did another one on a blue shirt. The second time around it came out production-perfect. Because I was on a roll, I decided to make another MusiCat shirt in red on grey which also came out flawless.

I went to Jurassic Restaurant for the first time yesterday. The atmosphere was very interesting. Themed after Jurassic Park, they have some wood log wall dividers, rocky walls and tables, dino bones, and even a mini T-rex skeletal frame. The food is decent but far from being the best when it's located in the Hacienda Hts/City of Industry area. I have pics of the food, but it'll have to wait in line to be uploaded. Soup was unlimited refills which is nice. Apparently yesterday was a "casual Friday" for the waitresses because there was a nurse, a cop, a girl in chi-pao, a cat-ears girl, and the standard cave woman. Eye candy, food, and drink all conveniently thrown together and located next to a strip club, haha. After dinner, my cousins and I returned to my place for a couple rounds of the old-school but revamped board game, Clue.

I processed my second screen print yesterday as well. Another cat shirt to follow up with the MusiCat. Came out great but I won't be able to tell how it'll look on the shirt yet since I'm missing white fabric paint.

One of the employment opportunities I was hoping to get has turned out to be a big upset for me today. I found out that the reason I didn't get hired was because I was not familiar with my own "family happenings" and because I "can't seem to manage my finances". So the automotive place I went to for the interview happens to know my "step-mother" and knows that she is getting married to my dad. But I had failed to mention either; that I knew her or that she was getting married during my interview. Go figure, I only found out last week while other people apparently have known for over a month! And moreso, I've only met her for a month and known her as his friend. So if a person can't even keep track of what's going on in their family then it'll be even harder for them to stay on top of it at work...?? Then they lectured me on how living at an apartment isn't as economical as living at home. And how living at home allows me to save money and my "father would be proud." I told them my father wanted me out of the house, without knowing he was planning on selling the house at the time. They said it was ridiculous as long as I told him my plans to save money he would want me at home. Yeah...doesn't work out that way. Nobody clarified anything prior to making their decision so they went ahead and hired someone else. For what it's worth, the place doesn't seem like the right fit anyhow. They also claimed I lack certainty for wanting the position because they train their employees for all skills required on the job and do not encourage getting their workers getting MBAs that'll only prove to be useless, yet when asked what my goals are I said I would go back to school given the opportunity. I don't think it's wrong to think of my own future instead of fully dedicating myself to a potential employer. What if one day I did work there and decided to leave? o_O!

Anyhow..I got my car back! It's as good as new except it needs a good polish. I was able to pick it up on Monday night around 8pm.

It's been a hot end of summer to the point that you can't even tell it's fall. My car's been in the shop since Friday and wasn't ready by Saturday, so that meant they had to work on it today. But what kind of Monday is this? Out of the blue, there is rain and thunderstorms! I called the shop and perhaps it'll still be ready today, but with unexpected weather, the schedule is completely off. As of right now, instead of noon, I may have the car back by 6pm. I'll have to just wait on "lo tian yeh" and see. ("\(>.<)/")

I dropped off the car this Friday afternoon to repaint the rear bumper cover. If I'm lucky, I'll also have repainted fog covers (which were sandblasted on the 60fwy while I was still in Riverside) as long as the shop remembers. It's a weekend without my car, but it's much better than having to see the blemish everyday. I'll have pics of a before and after once I pick up the car.

Today I found that my rear bumper cover has been massively damaged to the point that urethane is peeling from a deep side swipe. Furthermore I have horizontal scrapes from the passenger side towards the center from the top to bottom of the bumper including a part of the CF diffuser. All of this and no evidence of the other car because it was all under my car cover, "supposedly" safe sitting at my apartment. It's almost like opening a present in the morning only to find it needs batteries still, but worse, much much worse. Whoever hit it did not leave a note. Who doesn't even have the decency to leave a note that says "Sorry." Definitely not a happy day for me as it feels that this blemish on the car has left a blemish on my heart and soul. I make it a habit to push shopping carts back at the market to prevent others from getting unnecessary dings and dents. Yet here I am facing what I try so hard to prevent for myself and others. Maybe today is not my day to cash in on good karma, but someday somebody somewhere will be cashing out.

o_O!! My dad is getting..married. Hehe, it's a good thing I guess. Being alone is a hard thing to do because everybody needs emotional support in the decisions that they make. I give my support although it means some random awkwardness will arise every once in a while. I believe that at my age we are still just ferns swaying with the wind.

Today is the first Sunday I'm actually at the apartment. Amazing eh? I'm always out and about until 10-11pm on Sundays these past few weeks. I have an all important family dinner to attend with some newly added members so my freebe Sunday is a bit cheated. Anyway, time to watch some Heroes. Rewatching the first two seasons to refresh my mind. Tomorrow is the premier of Villains! Very long awaited, so hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

Installed an Injen CAI on the Suby this Friday. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that it gets carb approved soon. Without the dampened sound of the stock intake, now you can really hear the turbo spool up and the blow off valve. The sucking sound can get annoying but I'm sure it'll eventually get tuned out. Had hot pot for Friday dinner with the A/C "blasting" at a supposed 45degrees. Then Saturday, washed the car, double checked the intake filter to make sure it wasn't loose, ate some pizza and quepapas, got locked out of the apartment, took Tylenol and crashed on the bed for a while. Yeah, I got the allergies and its a bugger. Oh, and yeah I got locked out of the apartment in the cold while putting on the car cover. So how do a spend a drowsy, allergy-medicated Saturday night? Watching Jabbawockeez videos on YouTube. Here's a good one, enjoy while I sleep some more:
   

If you've been wondering where I've been, wonder no more. I'm still alive and after countless moves (I really don't remember how many times I've moved stuff), I'm finally settled down. I have not been online much lately, but I should be blogging again in the near future. The good thing is I've taken a bunch of photos during my time away from the keyboard. You'll see that hibernation from the net is really just living life outside. LA County Fair in 5 minutes for example. Which reminds me, I have to go for now.

Everything at the apartment is now in the garage. Finally found a place in Hacienda Heights, so the moving has begun. Only 2 days until we need to be out of Riverside, which in some ways is rather sad. When I'm not moving, I have been helping my sister find her place in Long Beach. I've gone there at least a half dozen times now, and nothing ever comes up that looks remotely good or even just half decent. I am still currently unemployed but have been looking diligently for work. It has been a very hard second half of the month but the month is almost over and maybe it'll be lighter on the shoulders. To add to agenda, I also need to start moving out of Arcadia. The house is going to be sold sometime this year and it's got to be cleaned up for buyers to see. Not sure where the future "permanent" address will be at this time.

Went to Long Beach Aquarium today while my sister was at orientation at CSULB. During the middle of the behind-the-scenes tour, apparently there was a 5. something earthquake that was never felt while on the 3rd floor feeding the fish. I think this time I pet every ray and shark that could be pet.

After getting the coolant yesterday, I started flushing the system of its OEM red. Right away I noticed that there was a leak somewhere. With some water in the system, I tried to start up the car. No problems now with firing up, but the car kept revving on its own. A warning for low coolant levels apparently or a leak in the cooling system. I took off the throttle body again and couldn't pinpoint the area. Did it a few more times with water running through the radiator and found that the coolant would spill out from the throttle body. I guess an O-ring must have fell out when I took the TB off. After a couple hours of messing around and using an O-ring that I had (fit, but not perfect), I got the car to start up and run fine. The only thing left is to deal with any leaking coolant. I called around today for a TB gasket, but most places say to just do it yourself using a liquid gasket or gasket paper. That's not much help. The dripping I'm noticing underneath the car isn't bad right now. I'm wondering if it's leaking at all or if the fluid is just what's been built up and sitting in the under engine covers.

While getting ready to take off for lunch at PF Chang's for my sister's birthday, I find out that the car has some idling issues. I noticed it already for a while, but it was never anything serious. More of a slight vibration than a visible idle problem up until today. Well the car starts, but the idle is so low that it shuts off. With some advice, I went ahead and took off the air filter to get to the idle air control valve. I cleaned that, and the 2 throttle bodies (this is for the RX300). Now it's all put back and I'm waiting to put some red coolant back into the system.

iPod Touch has a new update which seems cool, but is a lot of trouble for me. Since I'm in the process of moving, all my CDs are already packed away. The new update, which I payed for but have yet to install, will format the songs off my iPod. Booooo... I don't have the songs on my laptop anymore because it consumes way too much space. I plug in the iPod to listen to the songs, which to me seems more efficient when trying to save portable HD space, no? So I finally found a software called PodWorks that actually works! It's the greatest discovery of the month. Senuti crashed on me and it does not transfer unicode song names (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) which is a turnoff since I have a bunch of Asian albums on the iPod. PodWorks also transfers over the album cover for most CDs except for the ones that I "get album artwork" for through iTunes, which needed me to go through each album to check if there was already artwork. It all sounds good right now, but both troubles aren't completely solved yet. After the coolant is put in, I still need to start up the car to check the idle, and as for the iPod, once the update downloads and installs, I need to see if all music can be transferred back with artwork without a hitch. Fingers crossed.

Crisis Core is starting to be an addicting game. Scratch that, by the time I considered my addiction level to this game I must have already been suckered in. I'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy VII, and this game definitely doesn't disappoint in supporting the franchise. Not that FFVII was lacking in story, but now other questions are answered. This game also gives Aerith and Sephiroth the chance to shine and, in a way, show how Cloud was a nobody until he met Zack. Speaking of Zack, he has a lot of character and could have easily replaced Cloud's fame and hero status had he been alive in FFVII. The game also shows the importance of the Buster Sword, which to me is a huge part of what it means to be the main hero. The sword defined who Cloud was and it's nice to know where it came from.

Now, as for the quote, aka Zack and Aerith's operation, we can learn that given an opportunity, one should try to make the most of it. Why not use what you have whether it is an ability or resource and turn it into something profitable. Perhaps the obvious just needs to be pointed out sometimes, but if you got flowers, build a cart and sell flowers. Now, shouldn't Square-Enix re-release FFVII for PS3?

Being back in Arcadia means I have access to the internet again. I also get some basic cable! What a nice change to be able to wake up in the next few days and be able to just go online. No more sitting outside in the sun in 100 degree heat to use some unstable WiFi. (At least not until Monday ). I also get to update my PSP firmware. WooHoo! In Crisis Core I'm at the beginning of chapter 5 now. It's the only thing I've progressed in this week, heh.

I'm slowly starting to depend less and less on the internet. I guess it could be a good thing, but I am missing out on a few job-related emails. Even 30 minutes of TV to connect me to the world would be good. Since I don't have any service at the apartment, I decided to load up my TV and just bring it back home. I've kept myself occupied by playing with the PSP. Crisis Core is quite addicting! I did my laundry yesterday evening, and decided to play Final Fantasy while I waited. The laundry was done, I kept going. The laundry was dried, I kept going. The laundry was hung, I kept going. The laundry was folded and put away, and I still couldn't put the game down. Zack is a very interesting character and you just want to continue to find out more about him and how his story ties in with FF7. But yeah, in the end, Crisis Core is still a game and if I had the internet at my disposal I'd be job searching still, haha. (By the way, connected to internet at the UV again today out in the heat. For some reason I'm getting a weak signal as opposed to Tuesday when it was working at full blast.)

So this is the second day I'm forced to leave the apartment in order to use the internet. Apparently I missed some funny scenes on Wipeout and Japanese Game Show yesterday. Oh well, I started playing a bit on the PSP (Crisis Core). It's pretty awesome. The PSP is a noisy device when the disc spins compared to a completely silent NDS. Anyway, like how I appreciate mobilenet for still working at the UV, I appreciate the A/C and WiFi at Panera Bread. Now, it's time to eat :)