Have had several discussions regarding all the baby “stuff” that needs to be purchased.  Am amazed at how everything is built to look good but assembled cheaply (won’t last long).

This Delta dresser I just assembled, was quite impressive when assembled.  However, the drawer bottoms are simple slide in boards (like IKEA furniture), as is the back of the dresser.

Looks like if you want something to last and built well, you’ll need to spend the few hundred bucks.

Convinced the wife to try out a 2006 Lexus 400h (the hybrid SUV).  Drove smooth, had decent mileage for its size.  And it was priced lower than a new Honda CR-V that we were originally thinking about.  Made this deal easier to swallow.

Have to like Lexus quality – everything was nice and comfortable.  RX design is spacious, that trunk can hold plenty of cargo and still seat 5 comfortably.

A couple things however, changed the air filter, cabin air filter right off the bat, they were filthy, as expected.  As this was a hybrid, there’s more wear and tear on the normal car battery, so had to replace that fairly quickly as well (within the month) – Costco has cheap car batteries with 3 yr guarantees, only $70 to replace.

With all the traveling I’ve been doing lately (the year started slow), I found myself moving up in the United frequent flyer ranks …. wahoo! made the Premier Executive level which means I get to board sooner.  That’s about the only perk I need aside from free upgrades.

I accompany my CTO on occasion.  With the global services status he has, I get treated like royalty just by virtue of traveling with him.  Amazing stuff.  It has also spoiled me when I do not get to ride his elite-flier coattails.  Among the nice benefits – instant priority upgrades, automatic flight re-booking (multiple) if any connection is delayed.  And of course, you get to board before everyone else … and I mean, everyone else.  Am not sure what it takes to get to that status level but it practically means living on the road.

In light of the ever-plunging stock markets lately, here’s some funnies:

CEO –Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO — Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET — A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

BEAR MARKET — A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.

VALUE INVESTING — The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO — The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER — What my financial advisor has made me.

STANDARD & POOR — Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST — Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT — When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets
Equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER — A guy whose phone has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION — The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW– The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO — What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS — What you jump out of when you’re the sucker who bought Yahoo @$240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR — Former investor who’s now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT — An archaic word no longer used.

Was in south-central Kentucky recently, flew into Nashville and drove up to Bowling Green, en route to Jamestown. Lots of flat road, nice 70mph speed limit. Small towns. Boring. My 1.5 hour commute each way to Jamestown probably contributed a lot to my lack of sensitivity.

Not sure what’s in Bowling Green (where I stayed, closest Marriott hotel to Jamestown) – aside from being the Corvette factory. Took a peek at the privately-run National Corvette Museum. Ho-hum, nice if you like Corvettes… a lot. Bowling Green has a lot of corvettes, no surprise here but it was kinda cool to see a corvette on practically every corner.

Food selection – the usual selection of average chain restaurants. Skipped the handful of fancier restaurants in town – wasn’t in the mood. So far, Chili’s is tops, Applebees and TGIF vying for the We-Serve-Crap award. Decent hot-wings place called Buffalo Wild Wings.

I proposed. She accepted. YAY ME!

Finished watching the anime series – Death Note. No idea why this is one of the highly rated series of all time. It was average. Only managed to complete all 37 episodes because it was just 37 episodes. By the time I ran out of interest, I was on episode 26.

Movies – The Dark Knight. Yes, it’s good. What more can anyone else say?

The Andromeda Strain – a 4 hour mini-series based on the Michael Crichton book. Quite entertaining, tries to impart moral and ethical lessons about mankind and greed.

NBC sucks in Olympics coverage… again. The announcers can’t stop yapping. A LIVE Broadcast is NOT Live when I can read the results already on CNN, BBC and MSNBC. No one can keep track of what’s on which channel at weird hours. Online video streaming coverage? Uh, it’s a repetition of what is played on TV (time-delayed of course, only available after the normal TV broadcast). It’s really irritating but US residents have no choice. Would love to stream video from the BBC except it is geo-ip locked to the UK only.

Spent 2 weeks in Malaysia! Took nice photos and chilled at the beach. Ate a lot, relaxed. Miss the food already!

Watched the movie Wanted at one of the better cinemas here. It was luxurious, comfy and amazing! Each row has pairs of reclining seats, separated by a walkway and fold out tables. Regal and Loews need to catch up with the times! No more free seating either, pay and select the seat.

Townhouse is sold!

Seattle weather has improved, no more rain, sunny weather for weeks now. Almost getting too hot.

Lots of things happening! Don’t know where all my time went!

What’s going on, Seattle weather? It’s June 12, no more rain storms! It’s windy and cold. It’s even snowing in the mountains! Time for sunshine and warm hot sun!

Changed jobs. It’s a good thing. Finding new things to do, plenty of opportunity and growth. Have already done many things I never thought I could do in my former position. Compensation is acceptable (ok ok, will it ever be enough?! doubt it) , it’s the experience that I’m in for. First job that requires extensive travel. So far, it hasn’t interfered with my personal life and I’m ok with it. Just have to figure out how to maintain my exercise regime at the same time.

BTW, check out glassdoor for user-submitted reviews and salaries. Pretty good site, it can only get better with more submissions.

Heading to Malaysia for a couple weeks. Looking to have a great time, schedule is quite packed, will try to relax as much as possible. Will get some tailor-made clothing done – jeans won’t cut it in the office anymore, need to be a little more presentable. Will be going to Perhentian again – that’s going to be fantastic.

Listed my townhouse for sale, it’s been a few weeks and I’m getting irritable. Feedback shows house looks great, fantastic, priced right …. where’s the offers?!

Together with Alice, we’ll be getting a place in Bellevue too. Completion end of this year! Pretty excited about it. Great location, size and has pretty much everything we want.

Down with my 3rd cold of the year, I won’t miss another flu shot again, I can tell you right now.

Cooking. I’m good. Congee with a roasted chicken from the store is easy and amazingly good. Learned a couple new things to cook as well. Can’t wait to get back to a gas stove with a large vent hood. Asian cooking tends to stink up a place without proper air circulation (not to mention, that smoke alarm!).

Read this post on a forum… echoes my sentiments.

A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

“Very few people were true Nazis “he said,” but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools.. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp, and the Allies destroyed my factories.”

We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.

It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful majority”, the “silent majority”, is cowed and irrelevant.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of
about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us, who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: The fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Much happenings this latter half of the year.

Found a new top eats spot in town, specifically Chinatown. Place is called 663 Bistro. Cash only, great food and cheap. Almost everything is under $9. An extensive menu for home-style eats. The usual roasts (duck, pork, chicken), hot pots, noodles, rice/congee, soups. Fancier stuff in other restaurants but 663 is just fine for the staple foods.

Quite busy at work. Came down with chickenpox after attending Netbackup training in Boston. That was a fun 2.5 weeks. Killed my fitness level and workout routine. Went for ICSNS (Implementing Cisco Storage Networking Solutions) training. A great class but I would highly recommend that you are well grounded in FC technology basics prior to taking the class. Concepts are easy to understand, protocols and specific Cisco SANOS terminology are on a different level. Rolling out a new version of the enterprise backup environment in an ever-changing environment is … fun, maybe, not so much. It does keep one busy and on your toes.

Alice convinced me to get a snowboard (bindings, shoes, board) after calculating how much renting costs each visit. Quite excited to hit the slopes!

Queued up for 4 hours on Black Friday to buy 2 measly hard drives. Never again. Not worth the time and effort.

Scratched a mini-van while trying to park. Won’t try to squeeze into tight spots again. I hit my left impact strip and it came loose. Cost to replace and repaint a small area? $1100!!! And for some reason, my insurance renewal didn’t go up. Highly recommend Costco Insurance!

Xmas shopping is done! More shopping after xmas. Spending the week with the gf’s family, am told it will be an all-eating affair.