robert yoshioka

MCA Spring Mixer

2011-05-23T19:45:00.003-07:00

MSA Mixer Graphic

2011-05-23T19:45:00.001-07:00

EMA Blizzard Site Visit v2

2011-05-23T19:44:00.001-07:00

EMA Blizzard Site Visit v1

2011-05-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

EMA Alumni Mixer

2011-02-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

Wine Club

2011-02-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

C4C Auction

2011-02-07T10:43:00.000-08:00

EMA Pelada Screening

2011-01-25T17:53:00.001-08:00

CABE Speaker Series

2011-01-25T17:52:00.003-08:00

C4C 5k

2011-01-25T17:52:00.001-08:00

C4C 5k Logo

2011-01-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

C4C Poker and Potluck

2010-11-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

EMA Fashion and Entertainment (Manly Version)

2010-11-05T20:34:00.001-07:00

EMA Fashion and Entertainment

2010-11-05T20:33:00.001-07:00

C4C Merage Bowl

2010-11-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

C4C Halloween Party

2010-10-27T19:34:00.001-07:00

C4C Kick Off Party

2010-10-27T19:30:00.001-07:00

EMA Meet the Interns

2010-10-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Net Impact Mixer

2010-10-27T19:27:00.002-07:00

Net Impact Dodgeball

2010-10-27T19:27:00.001-07:00

Net Impact Club Fair

2010-10-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

Net Impact Clycle for Water

2010-10-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Turbo Tax FTW

2010-02-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

There is a reason why “rants” takes up a significant amount of room on my tag cloud – complaining is easy. While positive interactions make me feel good in the moment, shamefully, they rarely motivate me enough to write an entire blog post. It seems more often than not, I am drawn back to writing because of an overwhelming negative experience. To quote Anton Ego from Ratatouille:

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”

These words seem to ring especially true for my recent interaction with Turbo Tax. Like Anton, I expected to be writing this post with a venomous pen – listing off the reason why this company should be expelled from the Internet entirely. However, I find myself backtracking on my initial opinion and having a desire to share a truly remarkable experience.

My Situation: Roughly a week ago, I began my yearly tax preparation. Following the same procedure as I had during the previous five tax seasons, I logged into Turbo Tax and began to port my information. When the online form asked me if I had any changes, I felt excited to say yes, I began my Roth IRA this year and purchased a bunch of stocks and mutual funds. The system then recommended me to upgrade to the Premier service. I thought “why not, I can always downgrade later.”

I was wrong.

Suffice it to say that my conversations with Turbo Tax’s customer service representatives during the next hour were horribly unproductive and extremely aggravating. I will include a more comprehensive recap below, but to save space and time I will get to the good part now.

After my hour of misery, I did what any social media advocate would do: start a campaign to tell the world why I now hated Turbo Tax. It began with searching 40-50 of the latest people who tweeted “tax,” “turbo tax,” “1090” and “@turbotax” and replying to them about my terrible experience. It would have concluded with a scathing write up of their service were it not for a timely tweet from @prgully, the Senior Public Relations manager for Turbo Tax.

@prgully asked me for my email address to better communicate why I had such a negative experience. He sounded genuinely concerned and I wrote him a two-page letter detailing what went wrong. It was his reply and quick next steps, which completely changed my opinion of Intuit products.

@prgully’s apology email was incredibly sincere. He took time to read my letter and address every one of my issues with the experience. My favorite part was:

“Again, I am sorry it wasn’t a good experience for you. I can’t change the past but I hope that I can echo your sentiment to the highest level of the organization to ensure your voice is heard.”

This sentence would have been nice on its own, but the following day, upon receiving a letter from Bob, Vice President of Turbo Tax, I learned that he meant it.

The best thing I can say about Bob’s letter is that it was equally as sincere. He detailed how my letter was going to be circulated to all of the support teams’ leaders and posted to the FAQ section of their site. It meant a lot to me that my one experience was creating such a change within this massive corporation.

In the end, despite my terrible experience, I filed my taxes again on Turbo Tax. The genuine care @prgully and Bob extended to me proved how much this corporation cares about its customers. Unlike AT&T, Dell, Time Warner and the other companies that are a daily hate topic on twitter, Turbo Tax reached out and addressed my grievance.

I see no bigger endorsement for social media than this experience. It turned a would-be brand hater into a complete brand advocate. While their products may have flaws, they welcome criticism, using it to fuel positive change for future companies.

Thank you @prgully and Bob. I am glad leaders like you are running Turbo Tax.

----

My Situation Continued: After finding that the premier product was for HEAVY investors and realizing that it increased my costs by $30, I attempted to downgrade my service – attempted being the keyword. As I could not find any button to downgrade my account, I searched the boards and found that it was not possible on my own. Every forum said that I would need to create a new user name and begin fresh. To me, this was not an option because 5 years worth of historical filings were already under my current account.

Being a Generation Y member, I then contacted Turbo Tax’s customer service first through the live chat option. It took me 11 minutes to get connected to a service representative named Pash-something. 11 minutes which, I felt, were justified as I really wanted this issue solved. However I soon realized that my justification was gravely misplaced. Pash-something was incredibly unhelpful, in addition to being agonizingly slow when responding to my instant messages. I would ask her a question and then be forced to wait 1-3 minutes for her to respond. At this point I was getting really aggravated and just wanted to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. I reached a boiling point when she told me that she would be unable to help and I had to call a customer care line. This was now 30 minutes into our chat and I was enraged. 41 minutes spent with a non-navite English speaker to find out that she could not help me. It was a very bad experience.

My first attempt at calling the customer service line (and waiting 5 minutes on hold) landed me with Charles. Just as I was finishing explaining my issue to Charles, the line went dead. Needless to say this only exacerbated my frustrations.

My second call into customer service placed me in another holding line of 11 minutes. Now more than an hour after I began working with Turbo Tax, I finally got to speak with Jean. Jean was my first native English-speaking representative although, surprisingly she did require a lot of information to just understand my problem. I felt that accidental upgrades and subsequent downgrade requests would be plentiful, but Jean had never heard of my problem. After searching around her own manual, she told me that she couldn't find any solution and began to search the online forums. Much to my chagrin she then began to quote to what I had already found - creating a new login account.

At this point I was beyond frustrated and asked to speak with her manager. Despite her warnings that it would take a while to get one to talk to, I was still very disappointed to have to wait another 13 minutes to talk with her boss. And then the worst part of this whole experience was that after waiting the 13 minutes for her manager, I never even spoke with him. He merely asked Jean the problem and gave her the solution.

All I had to do was go to a taxfreedom.com, login with my user name from turbotax.com and hit reset. After all of my waiting and talking with three different representatives, only the floor manager knew of this simple one minute fix.

Poor. Extremely Poor.

If the fix was that easy, why isn't it posted on the site or on any of the online forums? Alternatively, if the manager just knew the solution off the top of his head why was Jean so unaware of this issue? I couldn't have been the first one to call in about this problem.

USPS

2009-08-05T12:54:00.001-07:00

USPS, honestly, why are you such fail?? While I love, LOVE receiving mail and packages, I vastly prefer UPS, FedEx and even DHL over you. You are slow, cumbersome and still living in the 1970's with your features. Other package delivery companies constantly surprise and delight me with their services / speed, yet it feels like every time I deal with you I just get more and more annoyed.

My main problem with your service is the lack of information and "government" inflexibility. Recently I was sent a small package from an ebay seller. The value of the item was no more than $15. Yet, due to the fact that it was "registered mail," the package was not left in my apartment complex's double gated and locked mailboxes. Additionally, since it was "registered" @skellietaur was unable to be my "agent" to pick it up at the post office. To exasperate the situation, not a single place on the mail slip you left me did it say that only the recipient would be able to pick it up from the facility. It merely stated that if I wanted my agent to pick it up, check here, here and sign here. Honestly, there was enough room on the slip to put a simple "if registered mail, agents are not allowed" and save us from wasting our time in line. This isn't the first time a situation like this has happened. Back in school, my mom sent me a package with a tracking number. Because the mail lady deemed my apartment a "high risk" area (college town?? really?) she did not leave the box in my locked and gated apartment complex. Really USPS, if I were to send a high value item, there would be NO way I would ship it with you! Get off your high horse and realize that my boxes are lucky if they value over $30. Your singular purpose in this world is to DELIVER mail, please stop making me drive out to pick it up from you.

My second annoyance with you is because your "tracking" service is insulting. Either improve it or stop asking me if I want to pay the extra 35 cents to include tracking / delivery confirmation / registration / etc. I don't want it. It sucks worse than your delivery reliability. Why can't you track "trackable" packages via the web like UPS?? You should update the information every time the thing moves and be able to give me an estimated time of delivery. If you are going to expect me to be available to sign for registered packages, at least give me a delivery window.

In these days of instantaneous messaging and the need for immediate gratification, why haven't you evolved. I understand that we need someone to deliver cheap packages - Grandma doesn't really care about @trackthis when she sends me cookies. But besides baked goods, post cards and lame places like LADWP that still require you to send in a check, what good are you??

Reminiscing

2009-07-14T15:49:00.001-07:00

A few nights ago @skellietaur brought home a book on stats from 1984. She was excited to show me ads for such products as a Macintosh 128k Computer or Vidal Sassoon Hair Spray. While my initial reaction was "128k?? My blog post will be bigger than 128kb!" it did lead me to wonder, what is it about the past that makes reminiscing so much fun?

In May, @skellietaur and I went on vacation to Walt Disney World and stayed at the Pop Century Resort. This hotel was themed after the previous five decades with each of its buildings modeled after a certain decade - the 60's building rocked yo-yo's and Play Doh, while the 80's building had a rubix cube and a Sony Walkman. We were stoked to be able to stay in the 90's building with its huge laptop computer running Windows 98 and Zach Morris Cellphones at each of the staircases. However now that I look back, the 90's were seriously no fun. I was a chubby Asian who loved sweat pants and who thought my purple and teal fanny pack was the bee's knees. Between MC Hammer swishy pants and Vanilla Ice topping the charts, why do we enjoy looking back to those troubled times??

I guess I understand daydreaming about times pasted, like the pirate era with vast kegs of rum and scurvy running amuck, or maybe in the 1940 Hollywood ear with their overly lavish parties. But to think back fondly on decades that you were actually present for seems a bit too mundane.

MJ

2009-06-26T11:08:00.001-07:00

I feel that it is only fitting to say goodbye to Michael with a clip of my favorite performance:

(youtube you really need to work on accepting longer videos...)

So long Michael, despite recent years on controversy, I hope you can see how much you meant to the world.

Reasons why OS X is better.

2009-06-26T09:58:00.001-07:00

In the recent months I have had numerous opportunities to explain why I believe Mac OS X is vastly superior to Windows. In honor of those discussions, and to give myself a quick reference, I have decided to keep an ongoing blog post of a. the reasons why you should by a Mac over a PC and b. what is preventing Windows from being superior to OS X.

First off my credentials on the subject:
Since my introduction to personal computers and up until my senior year of college I was a PC guy. I enjoyed finagling with registry keys, playing around with DOS, constant bios and system updates, etc. Like the PC from the Apple commercials, I believed that Macs were stupid little toys - unable to run Outlook or play any decent game. However, after succumbing to the peer pressure of my graphic design department I purchased my first Mac Book Pro in 2007 and humbly saw the error in my ways.

I could not believe how efficient, powerful and brilliant OS X was compared to my stupid Dell. There were no bios to update, there were no registry keys to hack - I plugged peripherals into the usb ports and they worked!! And I didn't even have to download drivers/updates/software tools. Without sounding too cliche, it was like someone finally opened my eyes to the true power of our technology. Now, 4ish years later, my Mac Book Pro is still running like the day I purchased it. It boots up at the same speed, opens PS, AI, ID, etc. at the same speed, multitasks like a pro and still does the gorgeous eye candy animations at the same time. I wish I could say the same of my Dell. I don't think it lasted 2 months without noticeable boot lag.

Anyways, since 2007 I have become a Mac acolyte and without further (PC-esq) delay, here are my lists:

Reasons why you should buy a Mac over a PC.

It works. Like I said above, Macs just work. There are no complicated drivers, installers, uninstallers, bios, keys, codes, codecs, etc. that you need to know to work on your Mac. You plug something in and it works. You watch a movie, it works. And come 2 years down the line, it will still work. You never have to call someone to come and install a new printer / scanner / digital camera. They accept all PC formats for music, images, word documents. They surf the same internet (usually faster) as a PC. You can even install a two-button mouse on a Mac and it will just work.
The support. My second strongest argument for going with an Apple computer is tech support. Go into any Apple store and they will be able to help you. You can get an online appointment and go in for a personal one on one “genius bar” secession. In my experience, they have always been friendly, helpful and usually willing to help me without charging me a single penny.

From my experiences with Dell, this is not the case. I can elaborate more on my own nightmares with the company, but for a more significant case study just type “dell hell” into Google and you will find a ton of others who feel the same way.

Bottom line, while you will pay more upfront for a Mac, between the support calls, replacement parts and opportunity cost while your PC is in the shop, I believe they do become cheaper in the long run.
The lifetime value of a Mac is HUGE. I know many PCs that slow down after just a few months and require intensive technical support to be able to just check email fast again. However with a Mac the start up and load speeds will always stay the same. My 2 year old Mac boots up at the same speed as when I first purchased it, and I have used it very heavily for the past 700 days.

The reason for this is that there are not really any viruses or spam software for Macs. You will notice that Dell lists “Security package 2yr anti-spyware” on many of their computers. Check an Apple store and you won't find the same listing, because frankly there is no anti-spyware software for Macs – they do not need it.
If you purchase a Mac and in a month absolutely hate your new operating system, you are able to install Windows (PC) back on to it without any repercussions. Macs are able to use an option called “Boot Camp” and install Windows onto their computers, making it a PC. If you buy a PC, you are not able to install Mac.

What is preventing Windows from besting OS X.

My biggest annoyance: chill out with your alerts/dialogues/warnings/updates/notices. I know my firewall is off, I know my system update is off, I can see you just had a fatal error and lost all my work. If I wanted my firewall/system update on, I would switch it on. Assume after the first notice that I wanted it that way and don't bug me again about it.
Drivers. I know OSs after XP attempted to include all the drivers, however when you try and install certian printers (like my Epson 1280) it requred additional downloads. Why? My MBP found, installed and even showed a pretty 1280 icon just by having me plug the thing in.
What is up with the Add/Remove Programs tool?? First, when do you EVER go there to add a program - lets eschew obfuscation and just call it the "Remove Programs" tool. Secondly, why is it that sometimes it uninstalls the program fine, sometimes it errors out and does not uninstall the program and then sometimes it shows a program that has already been uninstalled. Take a note from OS X - drag the program into the trash and be done with it. Or require more complex programs (CSs, Office, etc.) to include uninstallers.
Your End Task tool sucks. Either allow End Task to end the process totally, or make it like Force Quit. I only want to hit the bloody button once to quit it. And then don't ask me to report the problem to you. I am trying to work/play/relax, don't keep interrupting me because you failed.
IE seriously sucks. I can design a web page which will work with Firefox and Safari, but inevitably IE cannot take it. W T F man??
Why are you so ugly? In order for you to be half as pretty as OS X, Vista required people to have near-gaming rigs. I like the transparent windows, but in all honesty a little "genie" effect on minimizing would have been nice. Also - lets chat later about your "64-bit" icons.
Ok, we are in a recession, I get it. But do you really have to subsidize the price of your machines by including gigabytes of bloatware?? When I buy a machine, please just keep it to the bare minimum. Give me the OS and an internet browser and I will fill in the rest. I don't want your crappy 60-day trial programs or 18,000 ways to play an MP3. Just the OS and a browser.
Windows Media. I will just stop there. Between Media Player and Movie Maker, I honestly don't know where to begin. Why don't you just leave the media world to OS X, because right now your two attempts have been pathetic.

Charles Schwab Credit Cards

2009-06-19T13:13:00.001-07:00

It has been about a year since my last true blog post (the copy and paste cat story really didn’t count…) and since then, I have tried numerous times to restart blogging, but Twitter's less daunting 140 character tweets always held me back. During that time I would have bet heavily that a new gadget/video game/penguin discovery would have been the spark to reinvigorate my desire to blog. Tragically this is not the case.

As with any product or brand, the largest amount of buzz is caused not by the good, but by the terrible. Charles Schawb – “Chuck,” you deserve this buzz.

Early this year, I decided that I want to be rich. Not like movie star – “one day it’s there in your lap money,” but “saving, investing and working my butt off money” and the book that caught my eye (thanks to twitter) was "I will teach you to be rich" by Ramit Sethi. In short Ramit talked about automating your money with accounts that will give you a nice return. He recommended opening an IRA, a high yield checking and savings account and using credit cards that would give you rewards you can use – miles, points towards products, cash back, etc. I was completely stoked about all of these new accounts and as @skellietaur will tell you, I discussed them nonstop.

After a spot of research, I settled on T. Rowe Price for my IRA (because I loved their Retirement 2040 account), Charles Schwab to be my high yield banker (because their 2% APY savings and 1% APY checking were the best in the market) and I would keep my Costco Amex and my Platinum Dividend CitiCards (because they gave me decent cash back rewards.) Yet, after playing with my new Schwab accounts for a while, I noticed their new credit card program. This would give me a full 2% cash back at the end of each month and deposit the funds directly into my investment account. Color me excited.

I immediately applied for the card and waited with bated breath for my acceptance. I know I was a little presumptuous to assume that I would qualify, but in all honesty, I am Asian, I have a salaried job and a FICO credit score in the mid 700’s – there should be no debate here. Yet my first experience with their customer service came in the form of a 30-minute interrogation of my spending habits. I was rather shocked and naively taken aback by the types of questions they asked me. In the end I received the card, a menial $5k credit line and the realization that, “hey we are in a recession, the creditor’s life right now HAS to be miserable, lets cut them a break.”

Now, one month later with my first payment due, I am again taken aback by their customer service. To pay my bill, I went on to their site and used the bill payment feature. As I had planned to pay the amount from my Charles Schwab Bank account, I did not anticipate a verification process and only attempted to pay 3 days before my balance was due (for the record this was not out of laziness, but greed – as I wanted to earn as much interest on my bank account before paying my bills.) Unfortunately my bill was $495 and the maximum amount allowed for an “unverified” account was $400, I thus had to use two different banks. Here in lies the rub. My main bank account is from Charles Schwab. This credit card is from Charles Schwab. Why did there need to be a verification process? Can they not just call two floors up and ask if I was indeed the owner of this account with more than $495 in it? Without any other options I quickly paid the $400 from my Schwab banking account and then used WaMu to pay the remaining $95. A day later, I check the Schwab site and the payments list as "processed."

Three days goes by and I relax.

When I went in to check my WaMu account balace, I noticed that the $95 was not removed and there were no verification deposits. Alarmed I contacted Schwab Visa and discovered that the WaMu account number did not match up and the payment had not processed - thus incurring me finance charges on my next bill. Now angry, I loged on to Schwab's online banking system and saw that the payment is still listed as "processed" like the other payments that actually went through. W T F man.

I guess my anger boils down to three things:

1. If my payment did not go through, why was the payment listed as "processed" and not something like "pending?"
2. Only after I called Schwab and talked with a very unhelpful Wendy and her disgustingly sleezy manager Tony P. did I recieve a letter stating that my payment had been cancelled.
3. Why do I need to verify an account that is backed by the same company as my credit card?? Do they not have interoffice phones/databases/memos/email/im/wiki to check this sort of thing?

Bottomline: the Schwab Visa will give you a nice 2% return across the board. Whether it is worth the hassel is up to you, but NEVER call 866-724-9224. Those people are useless. Although if your alternative is this friendly Schwab customer service site

you may have no other choice. Just pray you don't speak with Wendy or Tony P.

Why cats do not deserve to be pets.

2009-03-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Because I had no other way to link this amazing story. Thanks Justin.

Excerpts from a Dog's Diary.

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary.

Day 983 of my captivity:
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event.
However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking.
I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe.

For now................

iPhone 1 Robert 0

2008-07-11T17:26:00.000-07:00

I hate you ATT... making me wait more than 6+ hours to attempt to get an iPhone. Today was your small victory, however tomorrow vengeance will be MINE!

good(er) news

2008-06-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

Good news LA, gas prices seemed to have leveled off and are staying at a steady average of $4.60! However, lets temper our excitement as the national gas price average is $4.10, and during my recent visit to New Jersey I actually saw the fabled $3.93 per gallon.

I <3 LA

good at computers or good at humans - tough call

2008-06-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

The conclusion of a recent study conducted by Mindset Media and Nielsen Research, which evaluated the "mindsets" of 25,000 American adults, found that technology fans scored high on such traits as leadership, "dynamism" and assertiveness, but had low marks in modesty and could be perceived as arrogant and conceited by others... Sounds about right.

[Thanks, engadget; hoodie from ThinkGeek]

Downed internet

2008-06-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

I know it goes without saying, but I am completely dependent on the internet. I am currently writing this as my company’s internet is down and yet I feel no shame wasting my company’s time as there is absolutely nothing to do without a connection to the infamous www. I can’t do competitive audits, I can’t check my email or even make follow up phone calls as we have ip phones. I remember back in the day when the power would go out and I would think “well, I might as just go to bed at 7pm since I can’t do anything without light.” Apparently in 5 years my needs have grown and now the internet joins electricity in the category of “Things Robert takes for Granted yet Cannot Live Without.”

Have we really evolved that much in 10 years?? The internet used to be an extravagance, charged by the minute and so slow that you would be lucky to view three web pages before your monthly allowance ran out. Back in that Stone Age we used to hear sci-fi tales about how surfing the internet would one day be like “flipping a page in a magazine.” Dialing in at 14.4 was pretty standard with the iconic beeps and fax like buzzes as our computers talked to AOL. The cool kids on the block had the 56k v.90 modems and would be able to frag you without trying, as you sat there and pleading with AOL not to boot you off. However now, if you don’t have a wireless g router, civilization has basically left you behind. I mean seriously, being tethered to the wall is so 1999.

Update: 12 hours later and I still am unable to post this blog. Word has it that it is not our IT Company, rather it is the evil Time Warner who is keeping me from enjoying connectivity this morning. My only consolation is that the City of LA is suing Time Warner.

Northwest Airlines must die

2008-06-10T15:18:00.001-07:00

Last week my mom, sister and sister’s friend came out to LA for their graduation present – a trip to LA and tickets to Gradnight at Disneyland. My entire family was pretty stoked about the event and was looking to have an awesome weekend filled with churros, enlarged mice and family frivolity. However Northwest Airlines had different plans.

When they attempted to fly out of Newark, they were informed that their flight had been cancelled and that another flight would be available the next day. Being the persistent asian that my mom is, she managed to change carriers and fly out 2 hours ahead of time on Continental. That was Wednesday. Four days later as they were attempting to fly back home, the situation occurred again. At this point I would like to pause and note that now 100% of my mom’s originally scheduled flights on Northwest have been cancelled. Thankfully, they were able to stay with us for the night and get out the next morning on a connecting flight. And while we sigh in relief, the fact of the matter is that their nightmare return flight was just beginning. They flew Continental to a connecting stop in Chicago for their last leg on none other than Northwest. By now you should begin to see a trend…

At their layover in Chicago, the flight was again cancelled. My mother found two seats on another flight that left immediately (immediately as in 3 hours after they were supposed to leave from their connecting flight) and gave the seats to Amber (the sister) and Pauline (the sister’s friend). Two hours later, they announced that my mom would be able to leave on a flight that was returning for refueling; ironically it was the same flight that my mother sat my sister on two hours earlier. Apparently the plane sat on the runway for unable to take off and thus had to come back to refuel. Anyways, they managed to get into New Jersey about 17 hours later than when they were scheduled to.

The icing on the cake is that I wrote a letter to Northwest expressing my extreme disappointment and vow to never fly on their carrier again. A day later I get an apology and a $50 credit to use on my next flight with Northwest.

I hate you Northwest, please roll over and die.

Top 40 Publicity Stunts

2008-06-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/top-40-publicity-stunts-super-gallery

... if only I were that cleaver

(yes, as in the cutting utensil)

Things to do with a Roomba

2008-06-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

Freaking awesome... makes me proud to be an asian:

free money spent

2008-05-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

I recently found this interesting website (How I Spent My Stimulus) on what people were spending their economic stimulus checks on. Bottom line: People seem to be spending their rebates on random purchases that hypothetically boost the economy. As of this weekend, the most popular category was “Travel and Vacation,” followed by “Home and Garden,” and “Debt/Credit Card” a close third. I think it’s worth browsing the site just to see what happens when you give America some free cash. If you’re curious about the ones pictured: gun, bra, camera and puppy.

So how did you spend your check? I know my unfortunate $300 is going towards my gas loving Rabbit, and Heather’s has gone towards a new set of tires… is anyone saving up for the new iPhone?

3G iPhone

2008-05-20T12:39:00.001-07:00

Gizmodo and G4 TV have just confirmed that Apple will be announcing the 3G iPhone June 9th at their Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), with the launch date to follow soon after… soooo excited and REALLY glad I haven't spent my economic stimulus check!

senior year

2008-05-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

A few days ago my sister called to tell me that she received a scholarship from the Morris Plains Rotary. She was super excited to share the news of her undisclosed amount of money and up until the point of when she asked if I received any scholarships in my senior year I was pretty excited for her too. Stupid overachieving siblings... why doesn’t she know that senior year should be spent partying and doing incredibly dumb things that you won’t do once you become 18?? Sigh, she is letting the best time of her life pass her up…

Sweet Picture: VW Love

2008-05-15T13:06:00.001-07:00

Poor rabbit!

New Read: Apocalypse How

2008-05-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

My next book purchase for when I (ironically) finish reading the bible: Apocalypse How: Turn the End-Times into the Best of Times!

Written by Rob Kuthner, this book discusses scenarios of the end of the world (e.g. death by newly sentient iPods) as well as survival methods ranging from food and shelter to the new standards of post-apocalyptic dating. Some specific tips for LA dwellers include:

1. Angelenos are already well-prepared for almost any apocalyptic scenario, thanks to "24." But just to be safe, they should steer clear of Kiefer Sutherland. Actually, that's just good advice in general.

2. Angelenos should have an escape plan to get on the other side of Beverly Hills from whatever disaster occurs, as the blast rays will be reflected off the agents' suits and absorbed by the women's "breasts."

3. Stock up on everything Trader Joe's sells now, as that will be the primary currency after the apocalypse. Yes, we don't know what Chocolate Wasabi Jicama Sticks are either, but they could buy your family a lot of petrol.

It will be the perfect follow-up to the Old Testament’s death by frogs.

knuckle cracking

2008-05-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

For all those times when our teachers said to stop cracking our knuckles:

“As for the harms associated with [cracking your knuckles], according to Anatomy and Physiology Instructors' Cooperative, only one in-depth study regarding the possible detriments of knuckle popping has been published. This study, done by Raymond Brodeur and published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, examined 300 knuckle crackers for evidence of joint damage. The results revealed no apparent connection between joint cracking and arthritis; however, habitual knuckle poppers did show signs of other types of damage, including soft tissue damage to the joint capsule and a decrease in grip strength. This damage is most likely a result of the rapid, repeated stretching of the ligaments surrounding the joint. A professional baseball pitcher experiences similar, although obviously heightened, effects in the various joints of his pitching arm. But assuming you haven't signed a multimillion dollar contract to constantly pop your knuckles, it hardly seems worth the possible risk to your joints.

On the positive side, there's evidence of increased mobility in joints right after popping. When joints are manipulated, the Golgi tendon organs (a set of nerve endings involved in humans' motion sense) are stimulated and the muscles surrounding the joint are relaxed. This is part of the reason why people can feel "loose" and invigorated after leaving the chiropractor's office, where cavitation is induced as part of the treatment. Backs, knees, elbows and all other movable joints are subject to the same kind manipulation as knuckles are.”
- http://health.howstuffworks.com/question437.htm

Thank you howstuffworks.com

pet woes

2008-05-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

For the past 5 years I have been tormenting my mother to get me a pet… more specifically a dog, bunny or penguin. This yearning for a living animal to play with actually intensified this past Christmas when Santa brought my cousins a beagle puppy. However that little adorable 2 lb ball of cute soon out grew of its adorableness when it waged a war against my Mac Book Pro’s power cord.

Since then I have been faced with quite a dilemma – I still want something cute to play with and yet said cuteness must not feed on power cords and must be pretty self sufficient out of its box – feeding and cleaning itself sans my help.

Enter Pleo… after watching this video below, I believe I have found the answer to my pet woes… (you can go ahead and fast-forward to around the two minute mark – there you'll find the true definition of a adorable.)

For those of you who want to buy me an early Christmas 2008 present... or are convinced robots are the perfect "Living in a hella expensive apartment the size of a box in LA" pet, here is a link to Pleo: pleoworld.com

big sunday

2008-05-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was "Big Sunday"… well I would say it was more like the "big weekend" of service events in LA. For those of you who don't live in LA or live in LA and are sinners (I may get smited for that comment…) here is a brief explanation of what goes down the first weekend of May:

Big Sunday is the largest annual citywide community service event in America. It's a time for community building — when volunteers of every age and from every walk of life — work together to help others. After all, when everyone helps, everyone wins.

Big Sunday expanded from a one-day annual event to a weekend-long extravaganza in 2007. (But yes, we still call it "Big Sunday." We know, it's complicated, but it works.) This year, Big Sunday will be held Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4, 2008 — we know we've already told you this, but we just can't remind you enough!

Big Sunday takes place at hundreds of different sites throughout the Southland, from downtown L.A. to the Westside, from the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley, from Orange County to the Inland Empire to Ventura County.

You can read more at bigsunday.org…

For my part, I went down with about 7 or 8 other foundry members to bring food and care packs filled with socks, tooth brushes, washcloths, etc. to the homeless in Santa Monica. In the beginning it was pretty slow, only meeting one man named Michael. We chatted with him for a while and after giving him some water, sandwiches (pb & j… it's a staple) (unless he was allergic to nuts… crap…) and cookies we continued to walk down 5^th street and over to the beach. The beach was where we hit the proverbial jackpot of needy. Apparently on the weekends another church group routinely goes down to about Ocean and Arizona to give out food and clothes. It was there that we met tons of homeless and were able to sadly exhaust our supply of goodies.

It was an amazing weekend, and while we weren’t able to feed 5,000 with 2 baskets of fish and bread, I really hope that we made a difference in those people’s days. A few weeks ago a group of former homeless people came and sang in the service. After their amazing Amazing Grace, the lead singer talked about how whenever he was super down and losing the will to live, it was always a Christian who came and sat by him in the rain. That story really inspired me and hopefully, even though it was a beautiful day out on Sunday, we were able to have that impact on someone’s life as well.

gmail primer

2008-05-06T12:38:00.001-07:00

I actually wrote this email to my family advocating the use of gmail and google calendar... but felt that it really was a good primer into the features of gmail: "Dear Family,

I wanted to share with you the amazing features of gmail and google calendar. They are both free services provided by Google as web based clients (meaning that you do not have to download anything to your computer to use them – and thus allowing you to have the same experience, interface, emails, and calendar appointments from any computer with internet access in the world.)

Now, as Uncle Keith knows, I have been a staunch MS Outlook user all of my life. I actually installed windows on my mac JUST to allow me to use Outlook. However, after using google's email and calendar for the past few months, I am surprised at how closely it rivals Outlook.

To help explain google's virtues, I will put it in a list format:

Gmail Features – google's email…
1. As stated above, this is a web based application and thus I believe that it is its strongest selling point against outlook (besides being free). No longer do you have to be on your own computer to see your emails, folders, categories, contacts, etc. Basically I can use my work computer, cell phone, pda, mac at home and have the exact same experience. It would be as if I was on all 5 of those doing the exact same thing at the same time and saving you from having to organize all of those programs separately.

2. The second most impressive feature of gmail is its conversational user interface… ok, now I know those are a lot of weird words. Basically it allows you to send an email topic… let's say this email for example. Now when I receive replies from all of you (proclaiming how much of a joy I am) it will place all of those replies under this one "conversation." Thus instead of having a reply here and then another email there and then another reply in your inbox, it keeps it pretty tidy and in organized by email conversation. For the kids – it's like a big instant message window.

3. You get 3+ gigabytes of storage just for signing up, with a 20 mb email attachment limit. Again, technical terms, but basically that is 3,000 pictures you can store in gmail or 20 pictures per email. This is HUGE. Most email clients have an attachment limit of 5mb's… meaning that you usually have to send several emails to just send a few pictures. Additionally, you never have to delete any emails... ever. I have over 3,000 email conversations stored on gmail and since it is a google product, I can search all of them instantly... for any topic or word.

4. The contact list of gmail is also a great feature. It saves all the names of all the people you ever email or just want to add in. Then the next time you hit "compose" just start to type the person's first name, or last name or email address and it will pop up magically.

5. Gmail also features a "gchat"… basically an instant message client in itself. It also will allow you to add your AOL screenname to stay in touch with those noobs who aren't on gmail yet. Additionally, it logs all of your conversations online.

6. Gmail is also a very good about controlling spam and not becoming a spammer. When you sign up (if you are not invited) you have to verify your account against a cell phone – thus eliminating thousands of new accounts being created to spam. This helps to cut back on the spam that goes to your inbox and also allows AOL and other "super secure" email providers from blocking you automatically, like they do with hotmail.

7. For the final awesome feature, it is again some technical garbage… gmail supports imap and pop email… thus allowing you to sync outlook, entourage, win mobile servers and iphones.

Google Calendar…
1. I have just started to use this calendar in the past week but so far it is amazing! To begin its features list, I believe that the ability to sync it with outlook, ical and entourage is amazing. You download this small application, type in your gmail username and password and it uploads all of your preexisting appointments automatically. So you don't have to start from ground zero.

2. It retains all of the appointment details – times, places, details and just like outlook allows you to send out invites to attendees and will alert you as to their reply (yes, no, maybe.)

3. You are also able to add text message / email alerts to your calendar as well. These alerts will notify you of changes to appointments, people accepting or declining your invites and any other changes to your calendar.

4. Google Calendar also has the ability to publish and share your calendar with other gmail users. This is actually what prompted me to advocate google today… basically; this feature will make planning our next family party a snap. We can share what times we are available (either showing detailed appointments or if we want to be secretive, just busy and free times) look at other people's calendars, plan the party and send out the invitations accordingly. It also will map the location you put in. Let say we plan the party and put the location as Tracey's address… when you get the invite there will be a link to go to google maps for the address. Saving you the step of copying and pasting into mapquest.

5. For the final techy benefit, google calendar is amazing because if you are sharing your calendar with another gmail user, you are obviously on the same network. Thus there will be no more "busy/free information could not be retrieved" when you try and book with someone who is not on your email network."

i <3 foundry

2008-04-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first time I have been to the foundry in about 2 months. I would be lying to say that it is because of family, or pressing obligations, or noble causes like saving manatees. Because basically I have just not had the desire to go – or rather I have not had a stronger desire to attend the foundry than my narcissistic desire to go to the gym.

After the opening worship, Keenan invited Enoch, our pastor of outreach, to come and join him for the sermon… no scratch that… Keenan doesn’t do sermons; he does interactive, uplifting, theological, comedy sketches. Anyways, following the theme of prepping for Big Sunday, Keenan and Enoch discussed the reasons why we as Christians are called to go out into the community and give. I will be honest and admit that I never remember too many details or even a summary overview of what is said during sermons. What I do usually remember is the feelings I have when I leave.

It is weird… I am not one to give. I am usually a pretty selfish person with little concern for other human beings. I mean, I like giving to animals or to foundations that benefits animals, but it has always been my prerogative not to help out my fellow man. Yet in the past few months, my heart which was usually stone cold towards the less fortunate has really been softened. I know that I have been heavily influenced by working at BAPC, going to foundry and especially by Heather… but I think that it is remarkable the emotions I am now privy to when I see someone who is suffering.

So, basically the point of this post is just to state publically (to my three unique visitors) and in (decently permanent) text what my future intentions are. Mid-foundry, Keenan passed out “business cards,” cards that would say our name and our position of “Missionary at Large.” On the back we were supposed to list the three goals we are setting for ourselves. I did not fill it out yet, as I figured I would post it here, use spell check and then write it on the card.

I think my goals would be, in order of board ideals to specific action:

1.To love people more. I want to be able to love the guy who you let in to your lane on the 405 and doesn’t wave thanks, or the streetsweeping ticketer or just those people who say “it’s a mute point.” I believe that if I can do this, then my life and the lives of those around me will be a little less stressful and maybe a little bit longer.

2.Try and bring more people, or at least my family, to “the church.” I put the words “the church” in quotes, because after listening to Mark Brewer these many Sundays, I know that the church is not the BAPC campus at the top of Mulholland – it is us, the congregation. Thus, to that point, I just want to share with everyone the feeling of comfort and happiness I get when I pray or attend service. I know when I was at university and not participating in any spiritual activity at all, my life was a whole lot scarier and monochromatic. Hopefully I will be able to help people out of that greyed life and into this warmer Disneyland-esq world.

3.To help out a homeless person in Santa Monica. I pass by the same 5-10 people at least twice a day (depending on my napping schedule) and while I retrospectively want to help them, at that moment I am either too busy texting, too late for work or too engrossed in my own depression of not having enough money, food, toys, that I don’t stop.

Today I took a step towards this last goal and put a box of pop tarts in Ella. I am hoping to be able to at least pass out one this week to a homeless person. I mean I just bought Ella, the least I can do is give a guy 200 calories of strawberry goodness.

bunny love

2008-04-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

I own a bunny. Her name is Ella.

Well, she is a Volkswagen Rabbit to be more exact, however as the name of the car and the logo on the trunk were pretty paramount in my purchase decision, I feel like have the right to title her a bunny.

The decision to give 33% of my entire net worth, as well as sign the next 5 years of my life away to VW came after riding around in Heather’s VW, more specifically riding in Heather’s VW as we went up Havenhurst near BAPC. At that time, I was driving Molly. Molly is a 97 Toyota Corolla; she is a wonderful companion and has served me faithfully for the past 3.5 years. I love her dearly, but when it comes to passing cars on the freeway or traveling up 30+ degree inclines… let’s just say she gets winded easily.

As today is my 1.5^stday of driving her, I can firmly say that I am definitely in love. She is everything a boy like me could want and more. When I’m hot she has her sunroof and large windows… when I am cold she has her heated seats. Thank you for having me Ella, I love you and can’t wait to see you again soon!

A few thanks to Donat Wald, Adri from Zag, Costco Autos and the Santa Monica VW dealership. I am sorry I know nothing about cars… thanks for all of your patience!

the bane of southern california

2008-04-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

While reading the LAist blog yesterday, I came across this article: http://laist.com/2008/04/24/no_you_didnt_ci.php. Now, anyone that lives within a 50 mile radius of a college in Southern California knows that street sweeping is basically the worst thing to happen to students since 8 am classes. Not only do streets bordering the university have ridiculous parking meter fees, extensive parking permits requirements and more fire hydrants and red curbs then hell, were you to find a legitimate safe parking space, it is probably on the day that it is going to be swept. However, no long being a college student, I merely scoffed at the article, said that that sucks and went about my day. Oh how the street sweepers mock me now…

After spending the night on the west side last night, I awoke to the lovely and sadly familiar site of a parking citation, thus inciting my wrath and inspiring me to write this blog. There are a few reasons why I hate street sweeping past the $50 fine… and being so fond of lists, here is my…

3 Reasons Why Street Sweeping is the Work of Satan:

1. 1. I come from NJ and while we are humorously called the “armpit of the east coast,” our true nickname is the Garden State. We have earned that nickname because (with the exception of Newark) we are green and really pretty. Our streets are lined with old style colonial homes complete with white picket fences. These Pleasantville-esq communities would not look good if our streets weren’t kept up and swept regularly… however in my extensive 13 years of inhabiting the Garden State, I have never seen a street sweeping no parking sign. And still, I have seen street sweepers, and I have seen street sweepers maneuver around my vehicle parked on the street. Could it be that New Jersey street sweepers are higher trained than the city of Los Angeles’s street sweepers? Or maybe it is because the east coast knows that were they to try this crap, they would have an uprising on par with the Boston Tea Party.

2. 2. Following the theme of poorly trained street sweepers, my second query is why the hell do they need a four hour block of time to sweep my streets?? I know they have the very arduous task of driving there zamboni-wanna-be-car along paved roads, but I would think by now that the city would have figured out how long each of the routes take and prohibit the parking during an hour window accordingly. I mean does the street sweeper have carte blanche over their weekly route? Do they wake up and feel like taking the scenic route some days?

3. 3. This flows pretty well into my next complaint… who freaking sweeps streets at 4 am?? Seriously, how much are you paying the sucker to get up before the sun and sweep the stupid streets? This could potentially solve our budget issue if you didn’t pay to have the bloody streets swept at an ungodly hour. There are 8 hours in a work day… pick one and sweep them then.

In conclusion, I hate you Bill Robertson. Were I to see your car on the street I would do everything in my power to pick it up and deposit it in a street sweeping zone –or more likely just write you an angry letter and leave it on your windshield. You are the devil.

like a drug

2008-04-24T14:46:00.001-07:00

I have decided that Subway is an addiction.

Last night after having consumed a delicious meal consisting of barbeque ribs, rice and a good sized scoop of rainbow sherbet ice cream, I suddenly had this massive craving for Subway. Subway, I mean seriously?? I just ate copious amounts of delicious cow and delicious rice and then topped it off with the only frozen dessert I can eat, and yet still I craved Subway. Their stupid 6 inches of crappy lettuce, tomatoes, meats that would make Oscar Meyer cry and awkwardly delicious veggies like pepperchinis – I was craving that.

Now I have known for some time that I have issues with Subway. I basically eat it every day at lunch and then some days on the weekend. Even while working on the promenade in Santa Monica with such establishments as PF Chang’s, CPK and Panera’s easily within walking distance, I inevitably pick that fast food sandwich chain. In retrospect I think it is because I cannot get a better meal consisting of the aforementioned ingredients for cheaper. Anyways, now as it is post 2pm and my tummy is growling, I need to excuse myself and go wallow in my 6 inch ham sandwich on wheat with everything on it and sweet onion dressing, hold the cheese… don’t toast it.

blogging

2008-04-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

While it seems a cliché and extremely trite way to begin the first post of a new blog, it must be said: I never thought I would be writing here.

I have attempted to blog in the past - back in the heyday of myspace and again with livejournal, but I never stuck with it. I would like to think that it was due to my extremely busy and popular schedule; yet am pretty sure that their demise was simply due to the fact that I never had anything to say. Now, don’t get me wrong… I still have nothing important to say – most of my twitters and facebook comments are one liners directed for and understood only by my small group of friends… but I think with my wizened experience of web 2.0, blogs in general and my overall tenure with life, I am able to ramble a little more cohesively and with more passion than before.

As for why I am starting a blog now, I again have found inspiration from my former employer, executive church director and current twitter / facebook buddy, Matt Singley. In his miniseries on new media, http://mattsingley.typepad.com/matt_singleyquips_and_mus/2008/04/new-media-prime.html, he describes that blogging is in his blood and how easy it is to create a blog. After reading that post and then looking at the large amounts of blogs I have on my feeder, this epiphany struck me: if I claim to be all savvy and in tune with current media trends on my resume – I need to follow through and actively participate in these activities. I mean in retrospect, I totally should have set one of these up before. I love twitter, I love facebook, and I love all the geeky things that go hand and hand with blogs – html, web 2.0, flash, hex… etc.

Anyways, my hopes for this blog are that my English and grammar improve to pre-design classes and their super 77 / krylon fixative destruction, my twitter does not suffer, I give a few people one more way to procrastinate while at work or in class and that I will be writing about my lovely new job and car on here six months from now. Wish me luck – see you at the next post!