.: What’s Bruin :.

Here are the first four pictures I took with my new lens, the Lensbaby. I bought it the other day with some Christmas money that I got from my parents. My professional photographer friend, Andy, says I should use aaperture-priority mode with this thing. It’s gonna take some time to learn to get the right look on certain shots. But so far I like it. I can’t wait to learn how to use it better.

First picture- Christmas cookie jar

Second picture- Josephine in focus

Third picture- Josephine with eyes closed

Fourth picture- Mini Gifts

Tags: CoolPix , Lensbaby, Photography

My Christmas dinner–Greek salad, prime rib, mashed potatoes

Tags: Christmas, CoolPix , Food, Life, Photography

I hung up outside lights for the first time

Tags: Christmas, CoolPix , Life, lights, Photography

I rejoined blockbuster.com the other day. I got an email offer of reactivating my membership for only one buck for the first month.

So I’ll try both Blockbuster and Netflix for about $20 for total for the next month–six movies at a time.

So far, Blockbuster is winning. The Blockbuster movies arrived in one day instead of two (as stated on the expected arrival), which is roughly the same as Netflix. Plus, I get two coupons each month for a free rental from any Blockbuster store.

Right now, the only thing Netflix has going for me is that I can use an RSS feed on my web site to document what I’m watching in my “Netflix Theatre”.

Tags: Blockbuster, Movies, Netflix

He came as the King of Kings, but not in glory; born in poverty, but rich in grace, kindness, and mercy. With great power He was born miraculously, power restrained so as not to overwhelm, but to bring healing from and witness to the Father.

He bypassed the rich, powerful, and religious, for they had access to Him all the time. He came for the unlovely, the unwanted, the unlovable, and the unforgivable– the ones for whom none cared.

He came today to give me new eyes so that I can extend compassion, mercy, and forgiveness. I remember He came to this earth to die. And He died for her too.

Tags: Christmas, compassion, forgiveness, Jesus, mercy, Spiritual

To All:

Have a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Поздравляю тебя с Рождеством!
¡Feliz Navidad!
Joyeux Noel!
Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun
Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Καλά Χριστούγεννα!
Mo’adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Maligayang Pasko!

Merry Christmas

Tags: Christmas, CoolPix , Life, Photography

I found this new web site/forum. Don’t know if I’ll like it too much yet, but it has a cool name– “Sith Order“.

Tags: quick_links, Star_Wars

Still sick after 9 days! So much preventive nutrition this year. My first sickness in over two years and this one is a doozie.

I felt better in the morning three days ago, but by the middle of the day at work, I started to feel worse, congested, and now had a new symptom– a sore throat. My first thought at this point was now I had a throat infection. I actually felt relieved because I surmised that if I went to the doctor, I would be prescribed a powerful antibiotic to kill the invaders in my throat.

So after feeling miserable again yesterday with a low-grade fever, throbbing sinuses, throbbing gums, and a sore throat, I left the office early and headed off to Urgent Care.

After wasting almost two hours there, I paid $10 (my co-pay) for the doctor to tell me that I tested negative for strep. Hence, no antibiotics and basically nothing that modern medicine could do for me since what I had was certainly two different viral infections. My somewhat expensive discharge papers stated that I should:

1. Get plenty of rest.
2. Drink lots of fluids
3. Use over the counter cold remedies
4. Take lozenges if throat is sore
5. blah, blah, blah

Sheesh. I paid $10 for what I already knew.

Rest of the evening, I rested while watching two semi-lame movies, Four Brothers (Widescreen Edition) and The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Special Edition, Unrated)

The good news is though I got to sleep in this morning until 9:30 AM (off today), which equals about 11 hours of sleep! I feel the best that I’ve felt in the past nine days. Sleep does wonders. Looking forward to more of it this long holiday weekend.

Tags: cold, Life, sick

Blowing out a canlde on a flan at Acapulco’s

Tags: birthday, Life, Pourpa

One of the Navy guys working with us here wore this annoying hat after lunch.

It was kind of annoying. I sure hope they lose to Texas in the national championship game coming up.

Tags: Career, Sports, USC-sucks, work

I’ve been up since 2:30 this morning. My nose is congested and sometimes running. I was sneezing. After laying in bed for an hour, I decided to just get up and do some work out of my home office. In addition to working two hours from home last night, I’ve put in a couple of hours already for a total of four. I like working remotely like this, but it sucks not being able to sleep or breathe very well.

Working remotely may have its advantages, but they are totally negated when you are sick.

Good news is that my manager said I can log the hours I’ve put in as regular time and any balance from 8 hours not worked as personal time. This is a plus so that I don’t have to use a full day of “vacation” time for being home sick.

Tags: Career, Life, sick, work

Here’s a new meaning for STFU. I love poking fun at the public education system. What a failed system it is today.

Tags: education_and_training, Humor, quick_links

When I first saw this headline on Drudge, “Students Arrested for Oral Sex In Classroom“, I thought it was Natasha and Kayla (from VMHS), the two hoes in my former math class who were freshmen at the time. They often talked about themselves in this way while they were supposed to be solving math problems. I’m so glad I’m not a teacher anymore.

Tags: education_and_training, Humor, quick_links

It’s rare that it happens to me…

But I have a cold.

Yup, it’s the first time that I’ve been sick in over two years. I felt it in my throat two night ago, so yesterday my throat hurt all day. Today, my nose is alternating between being congested and running.

This is mild compared to how I used to get a cold. I’m a firm believer in eating high-quality nutritional products. Both Josephine and I can attest to that. A cold used to put me out for an entire week. Now, it’s more of a nuisance.

Hope it goes away before Friday because I have a long drive up to UCLA to pick up Pourpa. He’s coming home for Christmas after final exams.

Tags: cold, Life, sick

Takamine Santa Fe

As you can see, this is my beautiful, hand-crafted guitar. It’s a Takamine Santa Fe. I’m glad I didn’t sell it.

I haven’t been able to practice that much. And since I haven’t played in years, my fingers hurt. I’ll need to practice a lot more in order to build up the old callouses I had on my left fingertips. It’s pretty humbling to listen to myself. My chord switching is not as good and I currently sound horrible. But I’m in no rush. I’d like to play and enjoy the music. In time, I’m sure I’ll be my old self again.

Tags: guitar, Life, Music, Takamine