Near Santa Monica pier, there's this thing...  
I went on my lunch break to get some fresh air and work out a little.
I usually only go about 2 round trips total, but today I went 5-6 times.
Wth was I thinking! I've been going to Bally's Fitness for about 2 months
now and I feel much lighter and physically capable, so I think I got overly
confident. I think also, that european stunt youtube video I posted a few days
ago also influenced me to go extra crazy. I tried to go upside down vertical
like the picture above. It actually worked.. but.. when I did my last round,
my right hand got so %&*#'ed up! When I looked into my palm, I saw 2 large
patches of skin scraped off my hand! The skin was just hanging there! I won't
be able to use my right hand effectively for a while. Always look at the positive
side of events.. 1. this will help me to become more ambidextrous. 2. this will
trigger life into my dormant right brain 3. this will create an new appreciation for my right hand.

Absolutely disrelated picture I'd like to share... this is my trading desk w/ my puppy Chi. I actually made money trading this week. It's a miracle. I had the worst losing streak ever. Summer is over and stock volume is returning. I made sure to learn from all my mistakes and my losses are decreasing.

During highschool, I polevaulted my last 2 years at Loyola Highschool in Los Angeles. My record height was 13'6. I also polevaulted a little at UCIrvine, but never competed officially because I wanted to concentrate on my studies. I really want to polevault again and clear atleast 15 feet during this lifetime. I think I can take classes at Mt. Sac and still be eligible to compete.

World record holder of the polevault - Sergei Bubka of Ukraine.

I enjoy watching sports that are.. extreme, dynamic, fast and fun. Xgames, track & field races, breakdancers, gymnastics, surfing, martial arts, pride fighting, etc... Although they might be fun to participate in, I can't stand watching sports like baseball and soccer, so damn slow. Anyways, my main reason for this post was to show you guys this youtube video below. it's a european guy with bigtime athletic skills. check him out! he's nuts!

the blackflip off the roof at around 2:39 is sick! jumping off the bridge onto the big pipes at 5:41 takes some balls too.

thx Jae for showing me how to post youtubes!

This past month, I've been trying the affirmation.. "Be happy for the success of others."
Although on the surface I seemed happy for them, I felt myself deep down.. still a little bitter and jealous of others who are smarter, doing better than me, look better than me, or are happier than I am.

So I started to investigate. What was causing me to feel this way? In general, I am of the asshole variety, and I always knew I really needed to improve this side of me. When I watch my thoughts, my mind is on auto-criticizer mode. Constantly finding faults, making corrections and looking for ways to lower the other person in comparison to me. I know this sounds pretty bad thus far.. but bare with me.

So I started to list some affirmations that might help me subdue the critic in me. Listed a dozen of them, but none seemed appropriate or effective. Then it happened.. Boom out of nowhere..  I don't know, maybe it was the Xanga princess of affirmations that came down from heaven and planted it in my heart. "Don't hold grudges." Seemingly disrelated, but it was exactly what was needed. It wasn't till the next day, when I started to actually use the affirmation, that I realize what a far-reaching breakthrough it was.  It's unbelievable how many small and massive grudges I have piled up within me against various people, things  events, in the past & present. I observed my thoughts and I was creating grudges against the people I was encountering in real-time!  No wonder I was bitter against those who I felt were superior to me, no matter how hard I tried to be happy for them. I spent maybe the past 3-4 days undoing these grudges I have built up. At first it was difficult, but after a dozen times, admitting to fault and/or forgiving and letting go of the grudges became easier. After a while, it felt very good to let go of these things. I got so confident about it, I roamed my memory of past grudges & events and try to let go of those too.

The result? My mind is very quiet now.  It kinda feels like I am at peace with those people I held grudges against for such a long time. Can't believe a silent, internal, grudgefest was being fought within me without me knowing about it. "I don't hold grudges." Invaluable. I observe my mind today, and it's a totally different environment. The critical thoughts pop up once in a while, but I slam it down immediately and it has no choice but to stfu. It's amazing how many small grudges I had built up over the smallest, most insignificant things. I'm gonna try to make this affirmation totally become a part of me through habit and repetition. I have a feeling doing so will change my personality quite a bit, for the better, in the long run.

Contemplating whether to delete this entry or not...

Good night! & have a good weekend, yo.

Ey, guess what? I had jury duty today. It was on the 11th floor of a building on Temple & N. Broadway. The view was sweet. It overlooked the 101 freeway and you could see China Town, Dodgers Stadium in the distance. Lasted from 7:45am till 4:30, with a lunch break from 12:00-1:30. Didn't get summoned once, just sat there all day, staring at the view, reading a book by Napolean Hill.

For lunch I walked over to Little Tokyo and bought some sushi at
Marukai. I took this lunch and ate it on the steps of City Hall. I
chose this spot because there where hundreds of engineer union members
(EEA) on strike. They were holding up signs, chanting, walking in circles,
yelling at employees who refused to go on strike, honking horns, etc...
It wasn't a peaceful lunch, but it was very entertaining! Although the
matter was serious, everyone there was having fun while they were
protesting. I hope they get a raise!

The courthouse was seeing major activity today... coincidently, the John Binet case was being tried there. News trucks all over.. there was paparazzi swarming all over the place. It was eerie watching the news in the waiting room about the John-Binet case knowing that crazy dude was in the same building.

It was an odd day where I really felt like I was part of Los Angeles. Everything that I experienced today seemed to be on the news.

After jury duty, I drove to West LA for work. Oh, I got work everyday this week. Usually only 3 days a week, but our employee has to babysit her grandkids so I fill in. Sucks... Maybe it's a blessing in disguise, the stock markets are weak anyways...

I usually stay on top of reading all the Xanga users I am subscribed to, but this week, it'll be tough. Today I got back and checked... there is an avalanche of new posts!  I love reading all y'all posts.. I learn a lot from them. Some are informative & educational, some deep & emotional, some very cute, and some hilarious! I'm gonna go read them now! Later.

Mouse gestures > https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/39/

Gmail Notifier >  https://addons.mozilla.org/mozilla/173/

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Google's Online Word Processor Beta >  http://www.writely.com/?action=tour

-Homeless, Meter Poker-
Stopped by the Nissei Week festival again at Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. This time around I found parking! Yesssss! Hilarious thing.. when I found the parking spot a homeless black person started jabbing the parking meter with a paper clip. I told him it says FAILED! Nonetheless, he continued  poking the parking meter and soon enough I see the meter go from FAILED to 0:00 to 0:15 to 0:30 to 0:45 to 1:00. Whoa! this homeless dude just hooked me up! lol In appreciation of the miracle and in-line with his objective, I gave him the change I had in my pocket, and thanked him. Everytime I visit Little Tokyo, I am always hit up by a homeless person and become a target of one of their cons. Luckily this time it was a pleasant experience.

-Nissei Week- http://www.niseiweek.org/
There were tons of booths set up.. books, clothes, and food. At JACCC they had Japanese artwork, calligraphy, bonsai trees on display.  At Weller Court, a rock band was performing. The lead Japanese singer had a huge mohawk w/ moustache, drummer was Japanese female with purple hair with white streaks. I couldn't tell if it was good music. Ok, maybe it kinda sucked. But the drummer was going all out! And, they were singing their hearts out w/ huge smiles on their faces! I wanted to watch longer, but I only had an hour. At Japanese Village Plaza, there was a group of non-asians dressed in Karate gear performing to late 80's music. I just walked passed this. Booths, booths and more booths. Tired of booths, I took off for work.

-Bally's on Bundy-
But before work, I went to Ballys Fitness on Bundy in West LA. Mostly caucasians. You know what? They have superior training equipment there compared to Rosemead. Why is this? Don't they all pay about the same for membership? I'm gonna start working out here more often. Tons of equipment I never saw before, my body is in shock from working out areas I never reached before. This Ballys rocks.

-Work-
Work was work.

-Lee's Sandwiches- http://www.leesandwiches.com/
After work, I swung by the Lee's Sandwiches on Valley in Alhambra. It was recommended to me by Jae from Xanga. thx! The menu was full of normal sandwiches.. turkey, ham, chicken etc... So I chose something I never heard of before. Jambon, Pate & Cheese Croissant. WTH is Jambon?

Jambon

n : meat cut from the thigh of a hog (usually smoked)

It was good.

i'm getting royally rocked in the stock market. they say the summer market is the hardest to trade because of the low volume. i learned the hard way that this is indeed true. lol i think i'm gonna papertrade until September or October. papertrading is trading w/ imaginary shares -- practice w/o putting real money on the line. if anyone tells you it's easy making money in the stock market, don't believe them. these traders deserve every cent they earn - it's one of the most difficult ways to earn a living, on a consistent basis.

After I installed the newer firefox version. Whenever I visited Xanga blogs with Flash, my firefox browser would start acting funny. Clicking on the YouTube wouldn't work either. It was easier to fix than I thought. Just download the flash plugin... HERE.

-update-
So I was doing backflips and cartwheels after I thought I fixed by firefox problem right?
Then I visit a xanga site w/ a quicktime feature enabled and my firefox freezes again w/ an annoying sound that goes.. dadadadadadadadadadadadada. I revisted that firefox plugin site and downloaded the quicktime plug-in hopefully this fixes it.

-little tokyo-
today, passing through little tokyo, i noticed nissei week had begun, they had a block of street next to JACCC (Japanese American Cultural Community Center) blocked off for the "Tofu Festival." I wanted to check it out right after work, but I couldn't find any parking. looked packed! if you want to check it out, here's the schedule...  http://www.niseiweek.org/

took these a few mins ago. (toy poodle, 4 months old)

chiiiiii!

chiii-tan!