With every new year comes a new workout, at least for some people. For example, last year, we finally got free gym memberships from our health insurance at work, so I started going to the gym approximately twice a week, but with quite a few lapses throughout. Last year, I also started teaching kung fu again to the guys at work, but, as any of those guys will tell you, kung fu sessions were pretty haphazardly scheduled as well (in the sense that they were often cancelled due to weather, work, or plain laziness!).
Last weekend, at Orientation, the results of my weak exercise schedule manifested themselves as our new student IDs were distributed. You see, I got a new UF student ID in 2007 when I began my Outreach Engineering Management program, and when I got my new student ID last weekend, complete with a mug shot taken that very day, I was shocked at how much "rounder" I had become in just 16 months! To make matters worse, I made a second comparison with my drivers license photo, which was taken when I was lean and mean at just age 22... and I'll just leave it at that before I get too depressed.
Well, last week, Ed showed me the site www.iwantsixpackabs.com. It was created by a personal trainer named Arnel. I won't go much into detail about it, because you can learn all about him and his program by just going to his site. However, I will tell you that I am attempting his incredibly tough 16-week program and will let you all know how if and when I get my body fat down somewhere near where it was in my early 20s!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
MBA Orientation Weekend: Day 2
Day 2 was arguably the most exciting day. On this day, we went off campus in the morning to Camp McConnell for a field day on the ropes course. There, we met Albert and his team of counselors, who taught us about the importance of the people in a team, effective planning, courage and persistence, and of course teamwork. I participated in group 1, which also included Brandon, fellow OEM and West Melbourne resident Kevin, and Sergio, who later revealed himself to be quite the martial arts enthusiast! Our group had the dignity of being one of the only groups the counselors had seen that was able to change our group cheer on the fly, in unison. The fact that our cheer included the name of a pre-agreed-upon state helped tremendously, but all of the counselors (and I would presume most of the other students) were pretty amused nonetheless.
Our group participated in several events. The first event was memory by volleyballs. We first had to memorize each of our group members' names, and then toss a ball to each member, calling out his/her name when transitioning the ball and never visiting the same person twice. Next, we had to toss the ball in the same order that we did when we were calling out the names, only now, we had to be silent. Then, a second ball was added, but we had to toss the ball in the opposite direction of the first ball. Finally, a third ball, moving in the same direction as the first, was added. Needless to say, it took a few tries and some priority and rule setting to accomplish this task without the balls crashing into each other.
The second event was something of a teamwork exercise using hula hoops. The team of 11 gathered in a circle and pointed their fingers towards the center of the circle. Then, a hula hoop was placed on top of all of our fingers. Our task was simple - lower the hoop to the ground, but under no circumstances was any one finger to lose contact with the hoop! Interestingly, on our first, oh, 15 or so tries, the hoop not only didn't lower to the ground, we actually managed to move the hoop upwards very quickly! Finally, after the realization that we needed the services of a single coordinator, we were able to lower the hoop to the ground.
The third event was the rock wall. Now this was something I was good at. I scaled the wall (the hard side, no less) like a bona fide Cliffhanger in roughly a minute, garnering the admiration of my teammates (and some possible smirks at my showing off!).
Next was another very interesting event. We were to climb up a 25-30 foot telephone pole, stand up on the platform, and jump off of the platform and ring a bell about 10 feet away on the way down. To prevent instant injury, the rest of the team flanked either side of the pole with a pulley and a rope that was fastened to the jumper's full-body harness. Again, this activity wasn't particularly difficult for me, but it was quite fun nonetheless. Plus, the view of the lake from the top of the pole was great!
Our last station for the morning was with Rick, who manned the Spider Web and the Rocket activities (there was also a beach ball activity and a water ball activity, but these were kind of lame). The Spider Web activity consisted of, not surprisingly, a spider web-like apparatus with ropes forming nine gaps. The team was to get from one side of the web to the opposite side, using each gap only once (we could use two gaps of our choice twice, since we had 11 group members) and without touching the web. The complication was, we had to plan carefully to make sure there were enough able bodied men on both sides of the web to carry the smaller members of the team through the gaps on the top half of the web that were too tall to crawl through. Make one mistake, and the entire group had to come back to the original side and sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" before trying again.
The Rocket activity consisted of a tall post (probably around 12 feet) and a hula hoop. The objective was to put the hoop over the pole, and guide it to the bottom of the post without either us or the hoop touching the post. It seemed daunting at first, but we relied (quite literally) on the shoulders of Jason, a 6'2" former Marine who had gained a few pounds over the years. Jason lifted Sergio on his shoulders, who was able to easily guide the loop to the top of the post and hand it down to us waiting below. Unfortunately, Rick then pointed out to us that we had installed the hoop the wrong way, revealing a "This Side Up" marking on the bottom off the hoop. We had to then do it again, only Jason and Sergio could no longer participate, as they had "gone home at the end of their shift". To compensate, I used my cheerleader base skills (developed several years ago during a Chinese American Student Association modern dance show) to lift Nicholl high enough to re-install the hoop.
Our last outdoor event of the day consisted of us volleying a ball back and forth, keeping it in play as long as possible. The objective was to set a reasonable goal, so we set the goal at 20 volleys. However, we ended up continuing on to nearly 50 volleys - Rick attributed this phenomenon to our overachieving personalities, stating that, when working with groups of delinquents, they would simply quit as soon as they reached the pre-determined goal. I thought it had more to the fact that none of us wanted to be the loser to drop the ball!
After a long morning, we went and had a lunch of barbecue chicken. Not bad, except I got a chicken breast, and anyone that knows me fairly well knows I'm a leg and thigh type of guy! After lunch, we began our team building exercises in earnest. First, we were arranged by our personality types, which were determined by a personality test we had each taken prior to the day. There were Guardians, Rationals, Idealists, and Artisans - I was an Artisan, which I thought was very inaccurate at the time. Each group was assigned to design a house with a $7 million budget. After about 30 minutes, each group presented their house, and the instructor revealed several predictions about each personality type. Guardians tended to be very traditional in their tastes, but focused a lot on the details. Rationals turned out to be not very rational at all, designing extravagant yet environmentally friendly houses that would not likely fit in the pre-established budget. Also, they enjoyed depicting themselves doing various activities as stick figures, and often included animals in their drawings. Idealists were the crazies, opting to build their houses into the sides of cliffs or even underwater. Lastly, Artisans were somewhat like Guardians, but were more laid-back and focused on fun facilities rather than details. Sure enough, our Guardian groups had their traditional McMansions and were so detailed that they often drew the elevations of their houses in addition to the floorplans. Our Rationals indeed focused on Green features and had extravagant features such as helicopter pads (which was also predicted by studies of previous groups). Our lone Idealist group had half of their house underwater, and my Artisan group featured a traditional McMansion floorplan with indoor sports facilities. A common feature of all the groups was that we preferred to be either on the water, in the mountains, or, in my groups' case, both!
The last endeavor of the day was to form our actual teams. We each filled out a mini-resume and posted it on the wall. Next, we voted for who we thought should be a team captain. The top twelve candidates then participated in a "fantasy draft" (which we were not allowed to be present for) - that is, they would take turns drafting in the order that they were ranked for the first round, then draft in the opposite order for the second round, all the way through five rounds. After what seemed like hours of deliberation, we were finally let back into the room to find out which teams we now belonged to. I teamed up with Kat (who was actually our team captain), Ryan, Don, and Larry, to form the very awesome The CLAMS. The name will have to just tickle your brains for a while because I'm not at liberty to explain!
Our group participated in several events. The first event was memory by volleyballs. We first had to memorize each of our group members' names, and then toss a ball to each member, calling out his/her name when transitioning the ball and never visiting the same person twice. Next, we had to toss the ball in the same order that we did when we were calling out the names, only now, we had to be silent. Then, a second ball was added, but we had to toss the ball in the opposite direction of the first ball. Finally, a third ball, moving in the same direction as the first, was added. Needless to say, it took a few tries and some priority and rule setting to accomplish this task without the balls crashing into each other.
The second event was something of a teamwork exercise using hula hoops. The team of 11 gathered in a circle and pointed their fingers towards the center of the circle. Then, a hula hoop was placed on top of all of our fingers. Our task was simple - lower the hoop to the ground, but under no circumstances was any one finger to lose contact with the hoop! Interestingly, on our first, oh, 15 or so tries, the hoop not only didn't lower to the ground, we actually managed to move the hoop upwards very quickly! Finally, after the realization that we needed the services of a single coordinator, we were able to lower the hoop to the ground.
The third event was the rock wall. Now this was something I was good at. I scaled the wall (the hard side, no less) like a bona fide Cliffhanger in roughly a minute, garnering the admiration of my teammates (and some possible smirks at my showing off!).
Next was another very interesting event. We were to climb up a 25-30 foot telephone pole, stand up on the platform, and jump off of the platform and ring a bell about 10 feet away on the way down. To prevent instant injury, the rest of the team flanked either side of the pole with a pulley and a rope that was fastened to the jumper's full-body harness. Again, this activity wasn't particularly difficult for me, but it was quite fun nonetheless. Plus, the view of the lake from the top of the pole was great!
Our last station for the morning was with Rick, who manned the Spider Web and the Rocket activities (there was also a beach ball activity and a water ball activity, but these were kind of lame). The Spider Web activity consisted of, not surprisingly, a spider web-like apparatus with ropes forming nine gaps. The team was to get from one side of the web to the opposite side, using each gap only once (we could use two gaps of our choice twice, since we had 11 group members) and without touching the web. The complication was, we had to plan carefully to make sure there were enough able bodied men on both sides of the web to carry the smaller members of the team through the gaps on the top half of the web that were too tall to crawl through. Make one mistake, and the entire group had to come back to the original side and sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" before trying again.
The Rocket activity consisted of a tall post (probably around 12 feet) and a hula hoop. The objective was to put the hoop over the pole, and guide it to the bottom of the post without either us or the hoop touching the post. It seemed daunting at first, but we relied (quite literally) on the shoulders of Jason, a 6'2" former Marine who had gained a few pounds over the years. Jason lifted Sergio on his shoulders, who was able to easily guide the loop to the top of the post and hand it down to us waiting below. Unfortunately, Rick then pointed out to us that we had installed the hoop the wrong way, revealing a "This Side Up" marking on the bottom off the hoop. We had to then do it again, only Jason and Sergio could no longer participate, as they had "gone home at the end of their shift". To compensate, I used my cheerleader base skills (developed several years ago during a Chinese American Student Association modern dance show) to lift Nicholl high enough to re-install the hoop.
Our last outdoor event of the day consisted of us volleying a ball back and forth, keeping it in play as long as possible. The objective was to set a reasonable goal, so we set the goal at 20 volleys. However, we ended up continuing on to nearly 50 volleys - Rick attributed this phenomenon to our overachieving personalities, stating that, when working with groups of delinquents, they would simply quit as soon as they reached the pre-determined goal. I thought it had more to the fact that none of us wanted to be the loser to drop the ball!
After a long morning, we went and had a lunch of barbecue chicken. Not bad, except I got a chicken breast, and anyone that knows me fairly well knows I'm a leg and thigh type of guy! After lunch, we began our team building exercises in earnest. First, we were arranged by our personality types, which were determined by a personality test we had each taken prior to the day. There were Guardians, Rationals, Idealists, and Artisans - I was an Artisan, which I thought was very inaccurate at the time. Each group was assigned to design a house with a $7 million budget. After about 30 minutes, each group presented their house, and the instructor revealed several predictions about each personality type. Guardians tended to be very traditional in their tastes, but focused a lot on the details. Rationals turned out to be not very rational at all, designing extravagant yet environmentally friendly houses that would not likely fit in the pre-established budget. Also, they enjoyed depicting themselves doing various activities as stick figures, and often included animals in their drawings. Idealists were the crazies, opting to build their houses into the sides of cliffs or even underwater. Lastly, Artisans were somewhat like Guardians, but were more laid-back and focused on fun facilities rather than details. Sure enough, our Guardian groups had their traditional McMansions and were so detailed that they often drew the elevations of their houses in addition to the floorplans. Our Rationals indeed focused on Green features and had extravagant features such as helicopter pads (which was also predicted by studies of previous groups). Our lone Idealist group had half of their house underwater, and my Artisan group featured a traditional McMansion floorplan with indoor sports facilities. A common feature of all the groups was that we preferred to be either on the water, in the mountains, or, in my groups' case, both!
The last endeavor of the day was to form our actual teams. We each filled out a mini-resume and posted it on the wall. Next, we voted for who we thought should be a team captain. The top twelve candidates then participated in a "fantasy draft" (which we were not allowed to be present for) - that is, they would take turns drafting in the order that they were ranked for the first round, then draft in the opposite order for the second round, all the way through five rounds. After what seemed like hours of deliberation, we were finally let back into the room to find out which teams we now belonged to. I teamed up with Kat (who was actually our team captain), Ryan, Don, and Larry, to form the very awesome The CLAMS. The name will have to just tickle your brains for a while because I'm not at liberty to explain!
Monday, January 26, 2009
MBA Orientation Weekend: Day One
After a wonderfully long hiatus from schoolwork, I finally had classes again this weekend. Only, this time, it wasn't for my Outreach Engineering Program (at least mostly not, anyway), it was for my UF MBA!
As avid readers should know, I was accepted to the UF Internet MBA program late last year. This weekend (starting on Friday, no less) was our kickoff weekend. I arrived in Gainesville on Thursday night and went to bed early because we had a 7:30 start time on Friday morning. Friday morning was also quite an adventure... I had to scrape ice off the windshield! What is this, Iowa? After getting settled in, the presentations started.
First was a kickoff introduction, followed by some statistics of my class, the class of 2010. The class of 2010 consists of 58 students, of which about half were from Florida. Interestingly, five students were from West Melbourne, and to add to the curiousity, we were all from the same zip code! Not coincidentally, we were also all engineers that participated in the OEM program the last two years. There were also a number of students that hailed originally from New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, but very few actually lived there currently. As far as individual experience, the students ranged in age from the early 20's to what appeared to be mid- to late- 50's, and did everything from engineering to banking to running their own businesses.
After the statistics were presented, they went over some more boring information about the program, and then we broke for lunch. At lunch, we had our first major opportunity to meet and greet the other students. I had a bit of an advantage, since I was already familiar with eight of the other students (who all studied in the OEM program). Among others I met were Brandon, who is a fellow employee at my company but located at HQ in Iowa, Ashley, a retail manager in Minnesota, and Kat, a manager at a local bank in South Florida.
The moment after lunch was arguably the most exciting point in the day - we received our new laptops! Curiously, they weren't the laptops we were expecting - Dell Latitudes. Apparently, at the last second (even the program's directors weren't aware of the swap), the head IT guy of the Business School decided that Latitudes are t3H sUx0rZ and instead ordered up some XPS M1330s, pimped out with a dual core 2.4GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 160GB hard disk, DVD-RW+ drive, 802.11a/b/g/n compatibility, Windows Vista Ultimate, a bluetooth mouse, a 250GB backup USB hard drive, built-in webcam, and biometric security! Unfortunately, we wouldn't get to play with our new toys until near the end of the day. On the flip side, the toys didn't stop at that, we also were furnished with a 32 GB 2nd generation iPod Touch, customized with a UF MBA print on the mirrored back and complete with a neoprene UF MBA sleeve!
Keep an eye out for Day 2, coming your way soon!
As avid readers should know, I was accepted to the UF Internet MBA program late last year. This weekend (starting on Friday, no less) was our kickoff weekend. I arrived in Gainesville on Thursday night and went to bed early because we had a 7:30 start time on Friday morning. Friday morning was also quite an adventure... I had to scrape ice off the windshield! What is this, Iowa? After getting settled in, the presentations started.
First was a kickoff introduction, followed by some statistics of my class, the class of 2010. The class of 2010 consists of 58 students, of which about half were from Florida. Interestingly, five students were from West Melbourne, and to add to the curiousity, we were all from the same zip code! Not coincidentally, we were also all engineers that participated in the OEM program the last two years. There were also a number of students that hailed originally from New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, but very few actually lived there currently. As far as individual experience, the students ranged in age from the early 20's to what appeared to be mid- to late- 50's, and did everything from engineering to banking to running their own businesses.
After the statistics were presented, they went over some more boring information about the program, and then we broke for lunch. At lunch, we had our first major opportunity to meet and greet the other students. I had a bit of an advantage, since I was already familiar with eight of the other students (who all studied in the OEM program). Among others I met were Brandon, who is a fellow employee at my company but located at HQ in Iowa, Ashley, a retail manager in Minnesota, and Kat, a manager at a local bank in South Florida.
The moment after lunch was arguably the most exciting point in the day - we received our new laptops! Curiously, they weren't the laptops we were expecting - Dell Latitudes. Apparently, at the last second (even the program's directors weren't aware of the swap), the head IT guy of the Business School decided that Latitudes are t3H sUx0rZ and instead ordered up some XPS M1330s, pimped out with a dual core 2.4GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 160GB hard disk, DVD-RW+ drive, 802.11a/b/g/n compatibility, Windows Vista Ultimate, a bluetooth mouse, a 250GB backup USB hard drive, built-in webcam, and biometric security! Unfortunately, we wouldn't get to play with our new toys until near the end of the day. On the flip side, the toys didn't stop at that, we also were furnished with a 32 GB 2nd generation iPod Touch, customized with a UF MBA print on the mirrored back and complete with a neoprene UF MBA sleeve!
Keep an eye out for Day 2, coming your way soon!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Lincoln O'Sirus
For the uninitiated, Lincoln O'Sirus was Kirk Lazarus' character in the fake Vietnam movie, Tropic Thunder, who in turn was Robert Downey Jr.'s character in the movie about Tropic Thunder, also named Tropic Thunder. The series of videos below is "behind the scenes" footage of Kirk Lazarus, the film's "method actor" fully living his role as Lincoln O'Sirus by actually moving in with the actual veteran's family in Texas. Unfortunately, he suffers from a bit of post-traumatic syndrome... Hilarious! Enjoy!
And, as a bonus, here is Tom Cruise's, or Les Grossman's, awesome dance during the credits at the end of the film:
And, as a bonus, here is Tom Cruise's, or Les Grossman's, awesome dance during the credits at the end of the film:
Monday, January 19, 2009
Winter 2008 - Part IV: George Washington's Mount Vernon
Day five of our Winter Family Trip was Cherrie's favorite day. Not only was it Christmas Day, it was the day we visited George Washington's house at Mount Vernon!
Prior to this latest trip to Washington DC, I was always a bit skeptical of the skills of America's Founding Fathers. I guess you can say I thought of them as poorly educated rednecks who had a lot of passion and got lucky with some foreign support. However, after this trip, and particularly after visiting Mount Vernon, I found that it was quite the opposite. George Washington, despite considering his education to be incomplete (as he was the only one amongst his brothers that did not receive education in England), he was still a very bright and innovative man.
Aside from his famous military exploits and his famous first presidency, in which he set several precedents for all future presidents to follow, George Washington had several other interests, including farming (he actually was a big contributor in the development of crop rotation) and, more unusually, exotic animals. So fascinated with exotic animals was he that he actually once rented a camel to entertain his guests during one of his Christmas parties. We got to celebrate that same tradition on our visit that day, since it was Christmas yet again!
Of course, the main attraction was George Washington's house itself. The mansion itself is not all that big, but it features many original pieces. Of note are the key to the city of Paris, which was a gift to Washington from the French general Lafayette, and the bedchambers used by Mrs. Washington in mourning after the first President passed away (we couldn't take photos inside the house, so I'm just going to show you a photo of one of his horse drawn carts!)
Mount Vernon showcases a large piece of Washington property, all of which is now owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. George Washington had no heirs of his own, only stepchildren, who passed away very young leaving George and Martha to care for Martha's grandchildren. However, shortly after George and Martha passed away, the Ladies Association purchased the property, presumably from Washington's distant heirs, to keep it in tip top shape for visitors to enjoy. Among the preserved properties is the farmland Washington had in the back and some replicas of one of his farming innovations, a mule-powered wheat grinder. Although mules had been bred prior to George Washington's time, mule breeding in the New World is largely attributed to Washington, who bred them for their superior work ability.
Also on the farmlands are the graves of the Washingtons and several of their close relatives, but also of many of the 300+ slaves that served Washington at Mount Vernon. George Washington had strong opinions on the ethics of slavery, but did not contend the point of slavery during his presidency, as the practice of slavery was too widespread in his day. However, he did express his disdain for slavery by freeing the 150+ slaves that were wholly owned by him when he passed away. The graveyard also honors several of his most loyal and beloved slaves, in particular several who went to the battlefield with him during the Revolution.
By far my favorite part of Washington's home was his absolutely spectacular view of the Potomac River in his backyard. It's no wonder Washington said that his home in Mount Vernon was one of the most pleasant places on Earth. Look at that view!
The last attraction at Mount Vernon is the huge museum at the front of the property, which had an awesome holographic projection of Washington's face that would follow you as you moved around. In addition, it had several exhibits featuring several of the Washington family's belongings, such as George Washington's dentures (no they are not made of wood!)!
After spending way more time than we expected to at George Washington's Mount Vernon, we had dinner with our second cousin and his (very young) girlfriend, then finally headed over to the National Mall, where the National Christmas Tree is erected each year. Around it were several smaller trees representing the states and territories of the United States, as well as several plaques explaining the tradition of the National Tree (none of which I read, unfortunately... Of course, we had to get a photo of it, though!
I end this segment of the Winter 2008 series with yet another DS on Location feature, this time starring myself at George Washington's Mount Vernon!
Prior to this latest trip to Washington DC, I was always a bit skeptical of the skills of America's Founding Fathers. I guess you can say I thought of them as poorly educated rednecks who had a lot of passion and got lucky with some foreign support. However, after this trip, and particularly after visiting Mount Vernon, I found that it was quite the opposite. George Washington, despite considering his education to be incomplete (as he was the only one amongst his brothers that did not receive education in England), he was still a very bright and innovative man.
Aside from his famous military exploits and his famous first presidency, in which he set several precedents for all future presidents to follow, George Washington had several other interests, including farming (he actually was a big contributor in the development of crop rotation) and, more unusually, exotic animals. So fascinated with exotic animals was he that he actually once rented a camel to entertain his guests during one of his Christmas parties. We got to celebrate that same tradition on our visit that day, since it was Christmas yet again!
Of course, the main attraction was George Washington's house itself. The mansion itself is not all that big, but it features many original pieces. Of note are the key to the city of Paris, which was a gift to Washington from the French general Lafayette, and the bedchambers used by Mrs. Washington in mourning after the first President passed away (we couldn't take photos inside the house, so I'm just going to show you a photo of one of his horse drawn carts!)
Mount Vernon showcases a large piece of Washington property, all of which is now owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. George Washington had no heirs of his own, only stepchildren, who passed away very young leaving George and Martha to care for Martha's grandchildren. However, shortly after George and Martha passed away, the Ladies Association purchased the property, presumably from Washington's distant heirs, to keep it in tip top shape for visitors to enjoy. Among the preserved properties is the farmland Washington had in the back and some replicas of one of his farming innovations, a mule-powered wheat grinder. Although mules had been bred prior to George Washington's time, mule breeding in the New World is largely attributed to Washington, who bred them for their superior work ability.
Also on the farmlands are the graves of the Washingtons and several of their close relatives, but also of many of the 300+ slaves that served Washington at Mount Vernon. George Washington had strong opinions on the ethics of slavery, but did not contend the point of slavery during his presidency, as the practice of slavery was too widespread in his day. However, he did express his disdain for slavery by freeing the 150+ slaves that were wholly owned by him when he passed away. The graveyard also honors several of his most loyal and beloved slaves, in particular several who went to the battlefield with him during the Revolution.
By far my favorite part of Washington's home was his absolutely spectacular view of the Potomac River in his backyard. It's no wonder Washington said that his home in Mount Vernon was one of the most pleasant places on Earth. Look at that view!
The last attraction at Mount Vernon is the huge museum at the front of the property, which had an awesome holographic projection of Washington's face that would follow you as you moved around. In addition, it had several exhibits featuring several of the Washington family's belongings, such as George Washington's dentures (no they are not made of wood!)!
After spending way more time than we expected to at George Washington's Mount Vernon, we had dinner with our second cousin and his (very young) girlfriend, then finally headed over to the National Mall, where the National Christmas Tree is erected each year. Around it were several smaller trees representing the states and territories of the United States, as well as several plaques explaining the tradition of the National Tree (none of which I read, unfortunately... Of course, we had to get a photo of it, though!
I end this segment of the Winter 2008 series with yet another DS on Location feature, this time starring myself at George Washington's Mount Vernon!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Winter 2008 - Part III: Day One in DC
First, a shot of us in the O'Connell Center during the 2009 BCS National Championship Game, as requested:
And now, to continue with the story of our 2008 Winter Family Trip!
Our first day in Washington DC started a bit late, and we didn't get out of the hotel until almost 10 AM. For our first stop, we decided to check out the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This museum is easily one of the most famous museums in the world, featuring a large number of full dinosaur skeletons, a Giant Squid that was caught in a fisherman's net, and the famous blue Hope Diamond.
We didn't get to stay at the Natural History museum long though, because we were soon ushered out to meet one of my mom's cousins, Wenwei. In Chinese culture, that would make him my uncle, since he is from the same generation as my parents. However, I'm somewhat under the impression that in Western culture, he is actually considered my second cousin. Anyone want to verify that for me?
We met up with Uncle (or cousin?) Wenwei at a somewhat well known chain restaurant called Legal Seafood, but not before seeing our only snow of the whole trip!
The restaurant itself wasn't too bad, but it was a bit pricey for what it was. I should have known better than to eat catfish north of Georgia anyway, right?
After parting ways with Wenwei, we headed to another Smithsonian museum, the National Air and Space museum. You would have thought that for someone like me, who works in the aerospace industry, this would have been a really interesting stop, but my mom was feeling sick, and it was also pretty late in the day, so we didn't have a chance to really enjoy it much. Still, any Smithsonian museum is good enough for a DS on Location feature!
After we took Mom back to the hotel, Dad took the rest of us to Washington DC's Chinatown. I didn't even know there was a Chinatown in Washington DC, but there it was, complete with a Friendship Gate and everything!
More interesting to us than the Friendship Gate, however, was seeing Jackie Chan's restaurant! It looked kind of slummy though - plus, they spelled his English name wrong. The Chinese characters are really his name, though.
Of course, no one goes to Chinatown to just walk around and take pictures. Everyone knows that the best food is in Chinatown! After wracking our brains for over a half hour trying to pick one of the scrumptious looking restaurants around, we finally settled on a 烧腊 (shao la), or Chinese barbecue place.
Finally, after a pretty long day, we decided to head back to the hotel. However, our evil GPS, who had been giving us questionable directions during the whole trip, directed us to a small access road behind the Pentagon! Confused, my dad accidentally ran a stop sign and was pulled over. The cop didn't believe that we were just lost and insisted that we must have seen the sign because my dad had apparently pumped the brake, but in the end, he finally let us go because it was Christmas Eve.
Back at the hotel, my other Uncle (or second cousin, if you will), Wenyi (who happens to be Wenwei's younger brother) and his family had stopped in to say hi. They were actually on their way to visit Florida, so we were pretty fortunate to run into them!
That's it for this action packed (and photo packed) post! Stay tuned for Day Two!
And now, to continue with the story of our 2008 Winter Family Trip!
Our first day in Washington DC started a bit late, and we didn't get out of the hotel until almost 10 AM. For our first stop, we decided to check out the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This museum is easily one of the most famous museums in the world, featuring a large number of full dinosaur skeletons, a Giant Squid that was caught in a fisherman's net, and the famous blue Hope Diamond.
We didn't get to stay at the Natural History museum long though, because we were soon ushered out to meet one of my mom's cousins, Wenwei. In Chinese culture, that would make him my uncle, since he is from the same generation as my parents. However, I'm somewhat under the impression that in Western culture, he is actually considered my second cousin. Anyone want to verify that for me?
We met up with Uncle (or cousin?) Wenwei at a somewhat well known chain restaurant called Legal Seafood, but not before seeing our only snow of the whole trip!
The restaurant itself wasn't too bad, but it was a bit pricey for what it was. I should have known better than to eat catfish north of Georgia anyway, right?
After parting ways with Wenwei, we headed to another Smithsonian museum, the National Air and Space museum. You would have thought that for someone like me, who works in the aerospace industry, this would have been a really interesting stop, but my mom was feeling sick, and it was also pretty late in the day, so we didn't have a chance to really enjoy it much. Still, any Smithsonian museum is good enough for a DS on Location feature!
After we took Mom back to the hotel, Dad took the rest of us to Washington DC's Chinatown. I didn't even know there was a Chinatown in Washington DC, but there it was, complete with a Friendship Gate and everything!
More interesting to us than the Friendship Gate, however, was seeing Jackie Chan's restaurant! It looked kind of slummy though - plus, they spelled his English name wrong. The Chinese characters are really his name, though.
Of course, no one goes to Chinatown to just walk around and take pictures. Everyone knows that the best food is in Chinatown! After wracking our brains for over a half hour trying to pick one of the scrumptious looking restaurants around, we finally settled on a 烧腊 (shao la), or Chinese barbecue place.
Finally, after a pretty long day, we decided to head back to the hotel. However, our evil GPS, who had been giving us questionable directions during the whole trip, directed us to a small access road behind the Pentagon! Confused, my dad accidentally ran a stop sign and was pulled over. The cop didn't believe that we were just lost and insisted that we must have seen the sign because my dad had apparently pumped the brake, but in the end, he finally let us go because it was Christmas Eve.
Back at the hotel, my other Uncle (or second cousin, if you will), Wenyi (who happens to be Wenwei's younger brother) and his family had stopped in to say hi. They were actually on their way to visit Florida, so we were pretty fortunate to run into them!
That's it for this action packed (and photo packed) post! Stay tuned for Day Two!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
One More Year!
Cherrie and I went to the National Championship Celebration today at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The actual celebration was from about 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM, but they replayed the national championship game prior to the event. We got up kind of late, but we still made it to campus in time to shop around a bit, so I picked up a 2008 National Champions long-sleeved T-shirt to wear to the event.
The weather was a bit nasty, but still entertaining nonetheless. Mick Hubert, the "voice of the Gators", kicked off the announcing. Among the other speakers were wide receiver Louis Murphy, who very articulately (sarcasm!) spoke for the 2008-2009 senior class, who have all graduated or will graduate by this spring semester. Also speaking were the "Twin Towers", Mike and Maurkice Pouncey, who interviewed tight end Aaron Hernandez, defensive MVP of the National Championship Game Carlos Dunlap, defensive backs Joe Haden and Ahmad Black, and the stars of the team themselves, Percy Harvin and Tim Tebow, as the fans chanted "One More Year!"
Shortly after the interviews, former Gators Lawrence Wright and Vernell Brown got up to "crunk it up", teaching younger players and fans the "Gator Bait" cheers. Then Danny Wuerffel brought out the crystal ball and passed it off to Chris Leak, who finally handed it to Tim Tebow, all to the theme song of the Superman films. Following the mounting of the crystal ball into its stand, the 2008 SEC championship and National Championship plaques were unveiled in the south end zone. Finally, Tim Tebow gave his obligatory speech, ending it by thanking the coaches, the team, and the fans for their support and all of his great memories at UF. Much to the disappointment of some 40,000 fans in the Swamp, not one word about next season was mentioned in his short speech.
On his way off the podium however, Tebow stopped, turned around, and made our dreams come true with the words, "Oh, by the way, one more thing. Let's do it again next year, I'm coming back!"
I only got one thing to say... It's Great to be a Florida Gator!
The weather was a bit nasty, but still entertaining nonetheless. Mick Hubert, the "voice of the Gators", kicked off the announcing. Among the other speakers were wide receiver Louis Murphy, who very articulately (sarcasm!) spoke for the 2008-2009 senior class, who have all graduated or will graduate by this spring semester. Also speaking were the "Twin Towers", Mike and Maurkice Pouncey, who interviewed tight end Aaron Hernandez, defensive MVP of the National Championship Game Carlos Dunlap, defensive backs Joe Haden and Ahmad Black, and the stars of the team themselves, Percy Harvin and Tim Tebow, as the fans chanted "One More Year!"
Shortly after the interviews, former Gators Lawrence Wright and Vernell Brown got up to "crunk it up", teaching younger players and fans the "Gator Bait" cheers. Then Danny Wuerffel brought out the crystal ball and passed it off to Chris Leak, who finally handed it to Tim Tebow, all to the theme song of the Superman films. Following the mounting of the crystal ball into its stand, the 2008 SEC championship and National Championship plaques were unveiled in the south end zone. Finally, Tim Tebow gave his obligatory speech, ending it by thanking the coaches, the team, and the fans for their support and all of his great memories at UF. Much to the disappointment of some 40,000 fans in the Swamp, not one word about next season was mentioned in his short speech.
On his way off the podium however, Tebow stopped, turned around, and made our dreams come true with the words, "Oh, by the way, one more thing. Let's do it again next year, I'm coming back!"
I only got one thing to say... It's Great to be a Florida Gator!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
2008 BCS National Championship Highlights
More video for your viewing pleasure. Also, for those of you who want to see/relive the whole thing, it's available on Hulu here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/52078/bcs-national-championship-fedex-national-championship-game-oklahoma-vs-florida
Go Gators!
Go Gators!
More Hilarity
I must have missed this in the mayhem at the O'Connell Center... but the commentary really makes this funny. Enjoy!
"Big Game Bob" in his last 5 BCS games
Just wanted to share this with my loyal readers - Since winning the National Championship in 2000, Oklahoma has lost 5 straight BCS bowl games. The captions below tell the story:
The best caption is the one with Boise St. from the 2006 season - Oklahoma got paired with the BCS buster that year and must have thought for sure that they would win, but alas, one of the most memorable trick plays in college football history made sure that it wouldn't happen!
The best caption is the one with Boise St. from the 2006 season - Oklahoma got paired with the BCS buster that year and must have thought for sure that they would win, but alas, one of the most memorable trick plays in college football history made sure that it wouldn't happen!
Friday, January 09, 2009
Happiness is...
Witnessing your team win their second national championship in three years with 10,000 of your closest friends in the school basketball dome. That's what I did last night at the O'Connell Center, despite that the Gators defeated Oklahoma 24-14 just a few hours away from my house in Miami's Dolphin Stadium.
The experience was crazy. I was a little disappointed at first when we found out that the screens we would be watching the game on were just the built-in Jumbotrons in the O'Connell center - I was expecting that they would put up a screen and projector so that we could get a real Big Screen view of the game - but the atmosphere more than made up for it. We hooked up with one of my childhood friends, Jason, at the beginning of the game but eventually we split up to try to get better views.
The game itself was a very strange one, to say the least. Despite matching up two of the most prolific offenses from this season (and in Oklahoma's case, in college football history), it turned out to be defined by defense. The first quarter was scoreless, and the game was tied at 7 at the half, before Tim Tebow and a somewhat gimpy Percy Harvin decided that enough was enough and took the game into their own hands. Tebow finished with over 340 total yards of offense, 2 passing TDs, and two INTs (both from the first half), collecting the hardware for Offensive MVP, but Harvin was no slouch either, racking up 122 rushing yards and one TD on just 9 carries and adding another 50+ receiving yards.
But the game was really a showcase of both defenses. Oklahoma's ridiculed defense proved to be a bit more formidable than expected, although in the end, they allowed a season low 24 points - right about their season average for opponent scoring. However, the Gators held the vaunted Sooner offense (54 ppg) to a season low 14 points - also right around the season average, thanks large in part to two huge stops on the goal line.
By far, the play of the game was Florida safety Ahmad Black wrestling the ball away from standout Oklahoma receiver Juaquin Iglesias, allowing Tebow and company to march down the field one last time and score on the trademark "jump pass" to David Nelson to end scoring for the night.
Of all the games I've been to, I've never been as amped up as I was following each big hit or big play. The O'Connell center erupted on each of the goal line stops, and we flooded the street as soon as the clock ran out, chanting "It's Great to be a Florida Gator." Priceless.
Expect photos from Gainesville and more football commentary over the next week or so!
The experience was crazy. I was a little disappointed at first when we found out that the screens we would be watching the game on were just the built-in Jumbotrons in the O'Connell center - I was expecting that they would put up a screen and projector so that we could get a real Big Screen view of the game - but the atmosphere more than made up for it. We hooked up with one of my childhood friends, Jason, at the beginning of the game but eventually we split up to try to get better views.
The game itself was a very strange one, to say the least. Despite matching up two of the most prolific offenses from this season (and in Oklahoma's case, in college football history), it turned out to be defined by defense. The first quarter was scoreless, and the game was tied at 7 at the half, before Tim Tebow and a somewhat gimpy Percy Harvin decided that enough was enough and took the game into their own hands. Tebow finished with over 340 total yards of offense, 2 passing TDs, and two INTs (both from the first half), collecting the hardware for Offensive MVP, but Harvin was no slouch either, racking up 122 rushing yards and one TD on just 9 carries and adding another 50+ receiving yards.
But the game was really a showcase of both defenses. Oklahoma's ridiculed defense proved to be a bit more formidable than expected, although in the end, they allowed a season low 24 points - right about their season average for opponent scoring. However, the Gators held the vaunted Sooner offense (54 ppg) to a season low 14 points - also right around the season average, thanks large in part to two huge stops on the goal line.
By far, the play of the game was Florida safety Ahmad Black wrestling the ball away from standout Oklahoma receiver Juaquin Iglesias, allowing Tebow and company to march down the field one last time and score on the trademark "jump pass" to David Nelson to end scoring for the night.
Of all the games I've been to, I've never been as amped up as I was following each big hit or big play. The O'Connell center erupted on each of the goal line stops, and we flooded the street as soon as the clock ran out, chanting "It's Great to be a Florida Gator." Priceless.
Expect photos from Gainesville and more football commentary over the next week or so!
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
24 Hours Left...
...Until the Gators meet the Sooners to compete for their 2nd National Championship title in the last three years and third title overall!
I will be going up to Gainesville to partake in what will surely be madness in the streets!
Get Psyched!
The Winter 2008 series is gonna have to wait until after that... but keep an eye out!
I will be going up to Gainesville to partake in what will surely be madness in the streets!
Get Psyched!
The Winter 2008 series is gonna have to wait until after that... but keep an eye out!
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Winter 2008 - Part II: Wilmington, North Carolina
What a crazy bowl season it's turning out to be! Vanderbilt, going to their first bowl game since 1982, won their first one since the 1950's this week, over somewhat perennial ACC contender Boston College no less! Kentucky took care of early "BCS Buster" candidate Eastern Carolina in the waning seconds of the game, and Ole' Miss showed the country that it is, indeed, a good football team by rolling over 500 yards of offense beating Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl (which is held in Texas, giving a "home-field advantage" to Tech). The SEC also had strong showings with LSU's crushing of red-hot Georgia Tech in the Peach Bowl (which is held in Atlanta) and UGA's victory over Michigan State in the Capital One bowl. However, Iowa embarrassed Steve Spurrier's USC Gamecocks in the Outback bowl and Utah stunned Alabama 31-17 in last nights Sugar bowl, the second of the BCS bowls. Shameful, 'Bama, shameful...
The last bowl of note (there were a few others that I showed some interest in, such as FAU over Central Michigan, Notre Dame over Hawaii, and FSU over Wisconsin), was the Rose Bowl, in which USC proved what all of us already knew, that Penn State and the rest of the Big Ten are being left behind in this era of speed. USC piled up 21 points in the second quarter and never looked back, allowing Penn State to score some garbage TDs in the fourth quarter while winning their 3rd consecutive Rose Bowl (Michigan in '06, Illinois in '07, and Penn State this year).
Today was the first round of NFL playoffs, so there weren't any bowl games I was interested in. Instead, Cherrie and I got to work laying down a new layer of mulch for our landscaping! It took a whopping 13 bags of red mulch and about 3 hours of work, but it looks smoking good now. w00T!
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming, part II of the Winter 2008 series!
We drove up to Wilmington, North Carolina the night after visiting Fort Pulaski in Savannah and planned out our next few sights. The first sight was the Wilmington Aquarium, on nearby Pleasure Island. Wilmington Aquarium turned out to be a very nice little aquatic facility, complete with numerous sharks, jellyfish, icky icky amphibians and snakes, and coral reef tanks, but also featuring a rainforest compound and a very nice outdoor garden exhibit. It was worthy enough for yet another "DS on Location" feature:
Next, we stopped at another Civil War monument, Fort Fisher. Unlike Fort Pulaski, Fort Fisher was almost exclusively an earthworks fort - that is, it was almost completely constructed of mounds of dirt. It turns out that, by 1865, the Confederates had figured out that traditional masonry forts like Fort Pulaski didn't provide much protection against newfangled rifled artillery. In fact, mounds of dirt like the ones from the remains of the fort below were much, much more effective.
Fort Fisher was one of the last critical battles of the Civil War. The fort defended a major Confederate port at Wilmington and its capture by the Union in 1865 essentially cut off the last remaining supply routes for the Confederates and forced surrender just three months later.
Next, we stopped for lunch at an awesome chain restaurant that simply deserves mentioning on Grant's Pad, "Bojangles". It's sort of like "Popeye's Chicken", and is delicious. They use real, 100% honey to top off their biscuits, meals come with a half gallon of real, Southern sweet tea, and their dirty rice is to die for. Or at least to take a "DS on Location" photo for!
Our last stop of the day, before a last long haul to Washington DC, was the battleship U.S.S. North Carolina, the first of the two new fast and heavily armed North Carolina-class battleships that were built and served during World War II. The U.S.S. North Carolina, or "Showboat" as she was fondly referred to, boasts a spectacular service record that almost exactly traces the island hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater, including the sortie with the largest battleship ever built, Japanese battleship Yamato.
Following Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet was relieved by this new and powerful battleship that featured 9 16-inch guns and bristled with firepower, allowing it to protect the precious aircraft carriers. It was crewed by over 2000 men, and had several luxuries such as a bakery, several convenience stores, and even an ice cream machine and soda jerk! Throughout it's entire distinguished career, the U.S.S. North Carolina received 15 Battle Stars, shot down over 25 enemy aircraft, and lost just a handful of men before being decommissioned in 1947 and eventually being purchased by North Carolina school children for $330,000 to serve as the WWII memorial it is today. Definitely worthy of yet another "DS on Location feature, yes?
Keep an eye out for Part III of the Winter 2008 series!
The last bowl of note (there were a few others that I showed some interest in, such as FAU over Central Michigan, Notre Dame over Hawaii, and FSU over Wisconsin), was the Rose Bowl, in which USC proved what all of us already knew, that Penn State and the rest of the Big Ten are being left behind in this era of speed. USC piled up 21 points in the second quarter and never looked back, allowing Penn State to score some garbage TDs in the fourth quarter while winning their 3rd consecutive Rose Bowl (Michigan in '06, Illinois in '07, and Penn State this year).
Today was the first round of NFL playoffs, so there weren't any bowl games I was interested in. Instead, Cherrie and I got to work laying down a new layer of mulch for our landscaping! It took a whopping 13 bags of red mulch and about 3 hours of work, but it looks smoking good now. w00T!
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming, part II of the Winter 2008 series!
We drove up to Wilmington, North Carolina the night after visiting Fort Pulaski in Savannah and planned out our next few sights. The first sight was the Wilmington Aquarium, on nearby Pleasure Island. Wilmington Aquarium turned out to be a very nice little aquatic facility, complete with numerous sharks, jellyfish, icky icky amphibians and snakes, and coral reef tanks, but also featuring a rainforest compound and a very nice outdoor garden exhibit. It was worthy enough for yet another "DS on Location" feature:
Next, we stopped at another Civil War monument, Fort Fisher. Unlike Fort Pulaski, Fort Fisher was almost exclusively an earthworks fort - that is, it was almost completely constructed of mounds of dirt. It turns out that, by 1865, the Confederates had figured out that traditional masonry forts like Fort Pulaski didn't provide much protection against newfangled rifled artillery. In fact, mounds of dirt like the ones from the remains of the fort below were much, much more effective.Fort Fisher was one of the last critical battles of the Civil War. The fort defended a major Confederate port at Wilmington and its capture by the Union in 1865 essentially cut off the last remaining supply routes for the Confederates and forced surrender just three months later.Next, we stopped for lunch at an awesome chain restaurant that simply deserves mentioning on Grant's Pad, "Bojangles". It's sort of like "Popeye's Chicken", and is delicious. They use real, 100% honey to top off their biscuits, meals come with a half gallon of real, Southern sweet tea, and their dirty rice is to die for. Or at least to take a "DS on Location" photo for!
Our last stop of the day, before a last long haul to Washington DC, was the battleship U.S.S. North Carolina, the first of the two new fast and heavily armed North Carolina-class battleships that were built and served during World War II. The U.S.S. North Carolina, or "Showboat" as she was fondly referred to, boasts a spectacular service record that almost exactly traces the island hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater, including the sortie with the largest battleship ever built, Japanese battleship Yamato.
Following Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet was relieved by this new and powerful battleship that featured 9 16-inch guns and bristled with firepower, allowing it to protect the precious aircraft carriers. It was crewed by over 2000 men, and had several luxuries such as a bakery, several convenience stores, and even an ice cream machine and soda jerk! Throughout it's entire distinguished career, the U.S.S. North Carolina received 15 Battle Stars, shot down over 25 enemy aircraft, and lost just a handful of men before being decommissioned in 1947 and eventually being purchased by North Carolina school children for $330,000 to serve as the WWII memorial it is today. Definitely worthy of yet another "DS on Location feature, yes?
Keep an eye out for Part III of the Winter 2008 series!
Friday, January 02, 2009
Winter 2008 - Part I: Savannah
Our first stop this year was supposed to be Gainesville, then Atlanta, but a last second change of schedule had us skipping Atlanta and therefore skipping Gainesville in favor of hitting one of the South's most famous towns, Savannah.
We got to Savannah in the afternoon, and decided to take a stroll along the river, hitting at least two of the four major historical squares around town. We toured a little boat docked at the river and visited several confectioneries (apparently, Savannah is famous for peanut brittle and, more deliciously, praline... sweet pieces of heaven thingies). Savannah's riverside was also the first featured "DS on Location" photo opportunity, as you can see below:
The next day, a very cold and blistery day, we headed a bit further north to a National Historic Landmark, Fort Pulaski. Fort Pulaski was built as one of a series of coastal fortifications after Britain exposed the U.S.'s lack of naval defense in the War of 1812. The fort was named in honor of General Pulaski, a Polish officer who died in combat helping the Americans during the American Revolution. However, Fort Pulaski itself did not see any combat action until a critical battle in 1862, at the dawn of the Civil War. In this battle, General Lee himself actually allowed Union forces to take over nearby Tybee Beach, believing that Fort Pulaski's walls could not be breached at that distance. However, the "Federals" put their new, rifled artillery to their first real battle test, and they performed remarkably, penetrating Fort Pulaski's walls within two days and forcing the Confederates to surrender shortly after. Following this battle, the key port of Savannah was in Union hands and the Confederate supply chain would never be the same.
Today, Fort Pulaski serves as the second featured "DS on Location" site! You can still see much of the artillery damage around the rebuilt portion of the wall (the Union, after capturing Fort Pulaski, quickly repaired the wall they blasted down and used the fort primarily as a prison and storage facility for the remainder of the Civil War).
We got to Savannah in the afternoon, and decided to take a stroll along the river, hitting at least two of the four major historical squares around town. We toured a little boat docked at the river and visited several confectioneries (apparently, Savannah is famous for peanut brittle and, more deliciously, praline... sweet pieces of heaven thingies). Savannah's riverside was also the first featured "DS on Location" photo opportunity, as you can see below:The next day, a very cold and blistery day, we headed a bit further north to a National Historic Landmark, Fort Pulaski. Fort Pulaski was built as one of a series of coastal fortifications after Britain exposed the U.S.'s lack of naval defense in the War of 1812. The fort was named in honor of General Pulaski, a Polish officer who died in combat helping the Americans during the American Revolution. However, Fort Pulaski itself did not see any combat action until a critical battle in 1862, at the dawn of the Civil War. In this battle, General Lee himself actually allowed Union forces to take over nearby Tybee Beach, believing that Fort Pulaski's walls could not be breached at that distance. However, the "Federals" put their new, rifled artillery to their first real battle test, and they performed remarkably, penetrating Fort Pulaski's walls within two days and forcing the Confederates to surrender shortly after. Following this battle, the key port of Savannah was in Union hands and the Confederate supply chain would never be the same.Today, Fort Pulaski serves as the second featured "DS on Location" site! You can still see much of the artillery damage around the rebuilt portion of the wall (the Union, after capturing Fort Pulaski, quickly repaired the wall they blasted down and used the fort primarily as a prison and storage facility for the remainder of the Civil War).
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Happy 2009!
A quick Happy New Year before I go to bed finally. We actually didn't do anything special this year, in fact I just sat around and played video games at home. In particular, we played Animal Crossing, because they were shooting off fireworks in-game!
I hope everyone can have a wonderful 2009 and get through all of their trials and tribulations, whether in their professional or personal lives. As always, I hope to be able to get in better shape than ever (this is actually more important this year because, to be frank, I really let myself get out of shape in 2008... I blame the DS for that haha)! I hope that I will be able to excel in my MBA program as well as do good work in my career, and I hope that my family will be healthy and happy throughout the year.
Stay tuned for holiday travelogues!
I hope everyone can have a wonderful 2009 and get through all of their trials and tribulations, whether in their professional or personal lives. As always, I hope to be able to get in better shape than ever (this is actually more important this year because, to be frank, I really let myself get out of shape in 2008... I blame the DS for that haha)! I hope that I will be able to excel in my MBA program as well as do good work in my career, and I hope that my family will be healthy and happy throughout the year.
Stay tuned for holiday travelogues!
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