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2012 Honda Civic Si Coupe w/ Navi

December 23, 2011 in Auto, Civic Si Coupe, Gadgets, Life

Put down a deposit today for a factory ordered 2012 Honda Civic Si Coupe with Navigation (Taffeta White) and I’M SO EXCITED!!!

2012-honda-civic-si-coupe-taffeta-white

It will have ZERO miles on it when I pick it up. I’ll be getting the “Early Warning” Lo-jack system installed so no one tries to steal this from me -_- With the early warning system, you get a fob that you put on your keychain that disarms the warning system when it’s inside the car, so if someone hot-wires it and takes off without it, Lo-jack will notify police and they can respond immediately. Stats show that the Civic is the 2nd most stolen vehicle in the US (Accord is #1). I’ll also be getting some other accessories to help keep it clean (all season floor mats, trunk tray, and splash guards). I’ve already started to think about other interior accessories (iPhone USB lighter charger, iPhone holster, etc.) – counting my eggs before they hatch. Send ideas my way!

After speaking to many many dealerships and sleazy salesmen (and saleswomen), so far it looks like CarsDirect is the recommended way to go. It’s like having a real estate agent, but for a car. You get a dedicated agent who works with various dealerships and gets you an upfront quote without stupid sales gimmicks. It seems a little too good to be true, so I’m still a little skeptical, but I’ll post an update/review once I’ve finished through the entire process.

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Goal achieved!

December 1, 2011 in Diet, Fitness, Health, Life

I’m a couple days late, but I don’t care! The first goal I set for myself has been achieved!!! I ordered myself a LoseIt T-shirt to celebrate =)

goal-achieved

loseit-down-11-6-lbs

I’m not quite where I want to be yet, but it’s exciting reaching a goal that I’ve set for myself. I’ll post progress pictures tonight when I get a chance. In the mean time, I’m setting a new goal of reaching 130lbs (target date: Feb 16th). Diet is hard, but if you stick with it, the pounds shed off – it’s science!

*Update* Here are the pictures I promised:

Comparison pic:

before-during

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Working towards a new me

October 11, 2011 in Diet, Fitness, Gadgets, Health, Life

I’ve got in the habbit of going down to the gym and running on the elliptical daily for 30 mins (incentivised by reading A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin on my Kindle) but still have yet to improve my diet. So far I have seen improvements in my endurance during soccer and frisbee games and a lowering of blood pressure just from the cardio, but I’ve yet to see any physical improvements.

As advised by my doctor, I’ve been measuring my blood pressure regularly on my new Withings Blood Pressure Monitor (purchased after buying and very much enjoying the Withings Wifi Body Scale).

Withings graph

Both offer the convenience of measuring bp/weight and storing measurements online. You can easily monitor these measurements online in graph format as well as on your iPhone. Unfortunately, the salty foods I enjoy are the reasons for my high blood pressure.

80% of losing weight is diet and 20% is exercise

Now with two reasons to improve my diet, I need to stop making excuses. I’m going to start logging what I eat on loseit.com and find ways to eat healthier. Hopefully, posting my progress online will keep me honest. I’ve also signed up for fitocracy.com where they give you little goals/quests/achievements for completing certain workouts. I want to be able to post a success story on Reddit (/r/loseit or /r/fitness) someday with a dramatic difference in my before/after pics. Wish me luck!

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Happy Birthday Mom!!!

October 10, 2011 in Family, Life

I love my mom. Her nagging can get annoying at times, but she does it with good intentions. I’d never admit it to her but, more often than not, she knows me better than I know myself.

Anyways, happy 57th birthday Mom! I hope you enjoyed dinner and cake with the whole family last night (plus a few extended family members – Matt, Zhong, Catherine, Lily, and Jamie).

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Development

October 10, 2011 in Life, Work

Living the life of a developer is interesting. From the four years I’ve worked, here’s what I’ve gathered:

  • Getting to work by 10:15 is a much easier task than waking up for an 8:00am class.
  • Having an awesome salary straight out of college can lead you into buying stupid frivolous things – although I am trying to be more responsible with my money (ie. buying a house)
  • Working with very smart/dorky people can be a pro and a con – ie. generally work is done well/correctly, not-so-common cases where something is not done correctly it’s hard for a developer to admit fault and fix his mistake. (Also, developers can be somewhat socially awkward/weird as well…)
  • From what I’ve observed, the best developers undervalue themselves and the worst, overvalue themselves.
  • You cannot move up without having good business sense (ie. very difficult for awkward developers to get promoted)
Probably more to come. I find that I generally fit in with the more successful (somewhat less awkward) developers at my company, however, I lack in technical ability compared to them. It’s a weakness I wish I could gradually improve upon, but I always find myself sliding backwards…I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing wrong, but maybe getting some guidance from my new manager will help =/

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iPhone 4S

October 10, 2011 in Gadgets, Life

Ordered the iPhone 4S.

Having used the iPhone 3G for a while now, the time to upgrade is long overdue. Unlike some people who get a new phone every couple months (*hint* Mimi / Phillip *hint*), this will be my first new phone for almost 3 years. I’m not too keen on the square back that it shares with its predecessor, but who knows…it might grow on me.

“I heard from a friend that I could drop my phone a hundred times and apple would still let me exchange it for a brand new one cuz I’m cute”

- Mimi Liu

Buying the thing was such a headache…As I expected, the new store didn’t go up exactly at 12am PST (3am EST). Took apple about an hour to get the new site launched. With the delay, I figured I should try to get through the order process as quickly as possible to beat the server hammering, but…unfortunately, I couldn’t. I even tried the AT&T website with no luck. By 4am, I decided to take a break from getting the “no response from server” error messages and wait it out. I proceeded to take one hour naps and tried again each time I woke. Apple eventually had to take down the site at 5am. By 6am, it was fully functional and I got my order through!

I should be getting it Friday, October 14th – so stay tuned!

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Hello world!

October 10, 2011 in Life

I’ve FINALLY set up WordPress on my website! I’ll be posting anything and everything I feel like here, including (so far): life, work, gaming, and gadgets I either wanna get or did get :-P

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