Trying something new via facebook

I am trying something new here... seeing how well Facebook's RSS feed takes my blog posts and converts it into a facebook note. Hopefully this works. Anyway, there should eventually be a link at the bottom that links to the real blog.

Ant

Resurfaced

I go through these spurts where I post and post and then nothing. Well this time I have an excuse. I was moving into my new house, and had no internet for awhile! I did get it over a week ago now, but have been busy doing other things to really post on this.

But so here goes:

1. the new house is great! its alot of fun furnishing the place and getting it ready. but.. what sucks? bills, the actual cost of furniture, and the over-sized lawn. I am so glad I bought a self-propelled mower, otherwise, i'd be super super sore after mowing the yard.

2. i also don't have a recycle and yard waste container yet. its on back order? how hard is it for a waste company to get bins?? it's been a month now!

3. the sonics leaving is a crime. its absolutely ridiculous. i am outraged, but it paves way for the Seattle Sounders FC!

4. and i have season tickets to the sounders... (and the seahawk!!!)

5. its funny how things could be going so well and then a few moments later come tumbling down. that's about how i feel right now on many fronts.

6. my bi-yearly stock bonus kind of sucks compared to the first one i got 2 years ago.

7. trying to plan a trip to "somewhere" in europe... the whole Munich Oktoberfest idea is basically out now that we can't find a hostel or any sort of cheap hotel to stay at. it also coincides with my UW Grad school orientation sessions.

8. my little cousin is all grown up now and she's moving to India so soon for work! so happy for her and sad she'll be leaving since we started hanging out just in the past year or so since she turned the infamous 21.

9. softball team, the sea-men, got 2nd place in our league! we got an actually large trophy!

10. i love my man-cave.

11. if you have sigur ros / benaroya hall tickets and want to donate to a good cause, please send them to me. i will use them :) -- i am so upset i didnt have internet access during the week it went on sale and it sold out in a hurry! :(

12. i bought a new laptop - dell xps m1330 in red... comes soon. its one of many new toys and furnishings i have.

13. bbq at my place on august 9th. come!

14. more to be continued in a future post....


so anyway, i have had an up and down past few weeks. while the whole ride of purchasing a home and spending time with friends and other great people was wonderful, the past couple of weeks have been hectic, crazy, and a bit lonesome. i dont know, things were high and now they're a little bit lower. for instance, i am so busy at work planning for this and that, i am still working up until i started this post. of course, i took a break to hang out at trivia night, but i ditched out early to go home and work?! ugh. then there's the whole growing up factor. the responsibilities are actually a welcome challenge, but i do sometimes feel like i am held back from other opportunities because of owning a mortgage and being enslaved to the man. i mean, just in the past couple of weeks, my friend left the company to start a new job which is so awesome for him. its a riskier move but it has so much potential. i just dont know if i could do a move like that right now. sigh.

it'll also be harder to travel and stuff, but i am still planning on a couple of trips in the very near future; europe being one, and then maybe a domestic location somewhere. NYC? Chicago? who knows.

and then there's the other stuff which has been in the back of my mind alot lately. what did i do wrong? what happened? ahhh sigh.

i gotta get up in a few hours and for some crazy reason, i have 3 or 4 meetings before 830am. whats wrong here?

Sounders FC Uni's

A little bit out-dated now but I didn't post on it when it first was revealed. Above is a sketch of the new Seattle Sounders FC uniforms! I'm pretty stoked about professional soccer coming to Seattle! I just hope we can sign one or two of the big names that have been rumored to come here. Henry anyone?

The Beginning...

What an eventful last week. I must say, I have really kept myself busy. Buying a home is a crazy chore. I can't wait to settle all the paper work and get on with it, and face the inevitable ownage by the man. It seems like the last couple of weeks, if I'm not at work, or dealing with work at home, I'm either dealing with the house stuff, playing tennis, softball, going out with some friends at bbq the park, or the bar, or spending time with a very cool person wherever. I'm constantly keeping myself busy... It's totally a good thing. I really do enjoy the summer time feel of being active. It's nice.

Today I went trail riding on my bike at St Edwards with Dean, Joe, and Travis. It's the first time I've really done that sort of thing, and it was alot of fun, minus the up hill climbs. It's a beginning for a lot of things for me right now, and I'm trying to soak it all in and enjoy it while it lasts.

Ant buys a home

I just accepted for a new home! It's located in Brier/Lynnwood, which is pretty close to home. I'm pretty excited, scared, relieved and stressed, all at the same time. It's a HUGE responsibility I just put on myself, but it's also an interesting and welcoming challenge. Now I have to deal with a ton of paper work, phone calls, finances, and more and more paper work. And then comes the furnishings....

Ladytron's Velocifero and their live show

Last night we went to see Ladytron at the Showbox and it was one terrific show. They had lots of lightning effects and played a really good mix of new and old songs. It really helped that their new album is fantastic, as that made up the bulk of their show. They did play some old tracks though, like Seventeen, Blue Jeans, and Play Girl to name a few.

Anyway, I wanted to spend the entry discussing their new record, set to release on June 3rd. It's a must buy! I started listening to it last weekend, and it was the soundtrack of my trip. I couldn't put it down; it was irresistible. From the opening Black Cat and its fresh beat to the closing few songs, Tomorrow, and Versus, the album flat out is a winner. From their original 604 record, which was a collection of synth sounds and funky beats, to their more refined Light & Magic, and to their guitar-heavier and all encompassing step forward on Witching Hour, you can see the band progress to really define their sound. This is next step, and it's called Velocifero.

They've refined their style even more and still have fresh music to put to the table despite using their winning formula of the past. Both Mira Arroyo and Helen Marnie share vocal duties on this record, and Mira even doing some solo tracks in english, which is a rarity (most of her previous songs are in Hungarian - side note, I just read that she has a Oxford PhD in Molecular Genetics?! wow).

I could go on and on but here's my fav. tracks from the record:
Tomorrow, They Gave You a Heart They Gave You a Name, I'm Not Scared, Runaway

And here's an old video, Evil, from their stellar Light & Magic record.

Atlantic City: Day 2

I'm staying at Harrah's, and from the hotel, I can see the Atlantic City Wind Farm, which is a set 5 new wind blades which power some of the city. It's a pretty neat sight, but one of the few and rare sights. This city is a bunch of senior citizens!! Ahhh!

Today was an OKAY day. After working a 10 hour day at the FAA Tech Center, I was able to get some time to rest and relax, hang out, and TRY to go get dinner with some co-workers. Oh the horror, as Vu would say... we go to my car to find that the car won't start! The battery died, for some reason! argh. We ended up eating at the hotel cafe which was decent, and then went around the casino for a bit, lost a few bucks, and then went to deal with the car.

After getting the car restored, I took a drive around town, but was literally too scared to get ouf o the car. hahaha. This place is not only senior citizen, but totally NOT Vegas or even Reno like. The hotels are totally spread apart, even on the main strip, and between each hotel is totally ghetto and run down homes, store fronts, and abandon buildings. It's a very interesting mix of rich and poor. Those streets in Monopoly don't really fit the "property value" in the game. I drove down Pennsylvania and it was totally like going down a dark alley way. I haven't had a chance to go down the Boardwalk yet, but if I get out of work early tomorrow, I'll try to hit that up. Go outside before it gets too late!

Ladytron

I forgot to mention: albums of the plane ride...

The Knife - Silent Shout
This is such a great album which I recently discovered thanks to recommendation from Genevieve. It was the perfect record for a plane ride, and it sounded great while riding down Upper International at Alpental on Saturday.

Ladytron - Velocifero
The new record from the UK electro-rock group is fantastic! I like it more and more with every listen. They're playing a show at the Showbox this coming Saturday night and I think I'm going to go see them!

Atlantic City: Day 1

I'm not overly excited for this trip, but I held out some hope. I had about 1 hour of sleep and got to the airport around 4:15AM. That basically sucked and I was surprised at how busy Sea-Tac was at that time. After a long, grueling plane ride to Houston and then connecting flight to Philly, I had to get a rental car and drive about 1.5 hours to Atlantic City and find my hotel, Harrah's Casino & Resort.


After finding out that my hotel wasn't booked, I was able to swing a suite for less than the regular price of a normal room! I ended up meeting with the other two Boeing guys who took a different flight and had dinner and we walked around the casino floor and tried to play some slots, failed, and walked around more.

You know that movie Swingers? Of course you do. Well you know when they say about how they like to keep it old skool around here? This is Atlantic City they're talking about, not old town Vegas. Finding someone even near my age group was a rarity. There were some but even the mid-40s Boeing guys I was with felt young in this crowd of senior citizens. Crazy.

I'm hoping my cold/cough go away and I get to enjoy this trip a little bit more. I'm hoping to at least stroll the Boardwalk, check out a show or something, and relax a bit between my work. I could use a break.

Trek 6000

Well I just purchased a new bike, and after reading up on components and recommendations, I bought the 2008 Trek 6000 bike with disc brakes. I noticed that the front derailleur is actually upgraded to the SRAM X7 instead of the default X5, which is a good upgrade. :) Anyway, I've spent some money on accessories too, and hopefully will get more acquainted with riding a bike again in short time.

softball spring 2008 kicks off

The Sea-Men softball 2008 spring league kicked off today with a loss. boohoo. Our team looks improved from what I can tell, so it'll be an exciting year, despite the initial loss. I went 2-2 batting today, with a single to left and then a triple on a fly ball that apparently landed near second base on the OTHER field?! I didn't know I could do that. haha.

I should have scored on that, probably. Oh well. I need to start jogging more to get back into running shape.

Here's some other things to do:
1. Buy a bicycle - could be very imminent.
2. Buy a bike rack for car
3. Jog, tennis, softball, other outdoor activities
4. Buy a tent
5. Buy new hiking shoes, and equipment
6. BUY A HOUSE
7. lose my social life.

Other than that, everything around me is moving like a high speed roller coaster, with ups and downs and ups and downs, traveling so fast it's hard to catch up and figure out what's all really going on. It's crazy! Everything is gone mad! Maybe myself included?! nah.

wow, this is a doozy.

what an interesting morning...
indeed, the world has turned.

Yak

I should be upset, yet I should also be very happy. I don't even know where to begin, and I really don't want to be caught up in the middle of a feud, but sometimes things are the way they are because that's just the way it is, or its the way it all turned out, and you're going to just have to deal with it, either if its the consequence or the result of; hopefully there's not fall out but it's just what it is. You have to commit to something, whether that be support or total dismemberment. It's a tough choice, and one that deserves alot of thought, but make it happen, and don't do anything stupid.

Cinco de Mayo @ Alpental

Cinco de Mayo at Alpental with Adria, Bjorn, Dickerson, Teague, and about 6 or so others that Bjorn and those guys know who met us up. It was a sunny day, clear sky morning but the lines were horrendous. Only managed one run before we went to tail gating, drinking corona's and bbqin up some foods for a couple hours. Tried to go back around 2pm and the lines were still long but cleared up finally around 3ish. All in all, did 2 runs on chair 2, down international to sessel and then a run into snake dance, followed by a inspiration/debbie's run and a cascade traverse, which was alot more fun than i last remembered.

Waxing makes a big difference, i waxed my board with the quick flourowax stuff and it worked wonders. Too bad this may be the last snow day for me this seasaon.


...And here's some tail gating pictures:

Alpental Cinco de Mayo

Alpental $5 Day / Last Ski Day

I'll be going up Monday with Bjorn, Chris, and Adria, amongst others. Go and look for us!

In celebration of yet another Cinco de Mayo celebrated on Alpental's slopes, we'll be selling $5 lift tickets on Monday, May 5th, 2008 (our last scheduled day of operations). Not a good enough reason to come up on a Monday? 100% of ticket sales will be donated to Outdoors for All. Help us in supporting this great cause and get in your last turns of the season!

Also, don't forget to join us all weekend for our other Cinco de Mayo weekend events including an opportunity to win an 08-09 Big S Pass!