Anticipation was high around this time of year.  Other schools have already sent in their acceptance letters into the top University of California colleges, while Berkeley and LA were the last to submit their approvals.  Rumors circulated within the school that the UCs colluded and one year Berkeley would be harder to get into and others LA would be the more premiere choice.  David did not care.  He was set on Davis, although his fee waivers allowed him to apply to at least 4 UCs with no charge.  He chose Santa Barbara, Davis, San Diego, and Berkeley as his Hail Mary. 

The only reason he chose Santa Barbara over LA was the cute girl that helped him with his admissions process was set on going there.   That and he did not think he would get into LA anyways.   “Are you excited?!?” she said.  His lack of care for college, his apathy towards things in general, and his cockiness that he would for sure get into Davis at the least showed as they hit the final submit button on what felt like the forever and a day process to apply into college.

“Are we finally done?” he said.  “Thank god.  That took forever.  Is the library closed yet?” 

“Yeah. Mrs.  Tobias left me the key.  She trusts me so she said to just make sure to lock up with Mr. Troublemaker over there when I finish up.”

“Nice!  Someone called me Mr.  I finally get the respect I deserve in this lower income crap school we call a home for the last 4 years.”

“HEY!” she said.  “This crap school provided you plenty of amazing mentors keeping you out of trouble and out juvi you ungrateful jerk.”

“You are the jerk!”

“Girls can’t be jerks!”

“Yeah but they can be …” he mumbled under his breath.  She slapped him playfully on the side of his leg.  The two had been long time friends  and she was accustomed to his jabs and the ways in which his charm bordered on obnoxiousness.  This was probably what drew her towards him and how he convinced her to not only miss tennis practice for the first time ever in the season, but help him with his college admissions process on the last day they were due.

“You are a lifesaver, Wendy.  What do I owe you?  Only the finest on me.  You can have your choice of anything at anywhere at Tarjay or Denise.“ His attempts at making ordinary places and restaurants sound semi-French, fancier than they were did not throw her off.  She knew he meant to say Target, a store maybe a grade or two higher than Walmart, and Denny’s, a restaurant that is probably on caliber with Mc Donald’s.   Even then, she knew it was a nice gesture.  His family did not come from much and although he was a slacker of sorts, he worked three jobs and was still able to be captain of the tennis team.  She plays alongside him and allows him to think he is fancier than he is sitting after hours in a run-down, brown-stained-ceiling-leaking-when-it-rains, ugly-orange-lighting facility that the two were in. 

“Denise, it is.”

There is some amazing writing on Quora.  Still letting all the goodness of this blog/article simmer in my head.

Excerpt:

The difference between good and great

Every block of stone has a sculpture inside it and it is the
task of the sculptor to discover it.
—Michelangelo

Sculpture is creation through deletion. You work and work and work and chisel away at the marble until you’re left with only the minimum amount of stone required to reveal the perfect figure. No more, no less.

You don’t get to a sculpture like Michelangelo’s David by attaching two jacked arms to a manly torso. Lots of good things don’t add up to a great thing.

Greatness is counterintuitive. It’s not about creation. It’s about being willing and able to eliminate all the good things that get in the way of accomplishing your goal, no more, no less. 

But this is hard in the real world. 

Read More:

The Importance of Being Ruthless

I once walked into a house of a Chinese prophet out in the outskirts of Mountain View, CA.  It wasn't that amazing of a house, but considering the area it could have easily been a million dollars.

People know people and a group of us in the business together started to network outwards and made contact with this 40 year old man.  He was a prophet, but apparently also a consultant.  On the day I came over,  there was another much older man there who supposedly owned much of the oil China was trading in the open market.  This man came to seek the counsel of this young, playful 40 year old man.   There were talks of exchanges of hundred of billions of dollars of oil and this consultant/prophet knew the next steps for this man to have his success.

Until this day, I do not know what I believe out of this scenario and what type of con-artists would set up such an elaborate trap for me to come and be swayed.  I had nothing to offer them.  It was me actually seeking to leverage their skills and expertise into my business pro bono.  My other business partner at the time bought into this man's notions and asked for help or a voodoo of sorts for his autistic older brother.  And in this moment, the prophet gave me a bit of wisdom that I hold onto this day.  He told my partner,

"There is nothing wrong with your brother.  The world thinks he is crazy, but he is perfectly normal.  He just needs to be in the right place. He needs to be in a Buddhist monastery.  There he will excel and be in perfect peace."

At first, my body convulsed at the ridiculous of this man's statement.  Obviously, my partner's older brother was autistic and not normal by any means.  

I thought about it deeper for a moment.  His statement continued to stay with me even after I left the house.  I was reminded of a quote by the Buddha I think it said "Never judge a fish on how well it climbs a tree."

And it makes sense.  The world is trying to fit us into a mold, and some of us are either too smart to fit into that mold because we want to design our own lives and some of are too eccentric to be so easily placed.

This whole time I felt like a fish swimming upstream fighting against the tides of life, but maybe I am a bird.

I need to just chill out, lay in the sun so my wings can dry. And fly away.

Wise words indeed. But was he really a prophet? Billionaire consultant? Neh.

May 2012 at 173 lbs. March 2013 at 151 lbs.  Elapsed time ~ 10 Months.  Weight loss ~ 22 lbs. 

Fawk! Right?  I am surprised how I looked yesterday morning as much as you are.  My friend said, "Wow, really? I didn't know you had abs."   I responded, "Thank you?", in which she let me know that is the closest thing I would get to a compliment from her.  Little does she know, I am going to probably get more than a compliment from her in the future .   

I apologize for my morning Myspace photo on the right, but I take daily pictures of my progress.   Narcissistic much?  And when I dug up a picture of my old self, I was shocked of how I allowed myself to walk around before weighing so much.   I remember then thinking that  even though I was 173, I had a lot of muscle and muscle weighs more than fat, so it was kind of okay.    Looking at the two pictures now, I can see how disillusioned I was.  It was never okay.

So that really is the blog.  Me flaunting my half naked picture of myself in the morning on Xanga.  I am too much of a pussy to upload this to Facebook or Instagram, and look like a douchebag.  With all my other sentimental posts on here,  I can at least pretend that I am a half decent human being.

Pretty damn proud of my progress and definitely will work on getting better.

#luckygirls #xanga #hoing #gym 

I provided some of my own tips on how I got to where I am today.   That is not the point of the blog though.  Please go back to the top and stare at the progress of my god-like body.  

Diet. You can follow me on Instagram  and I eat what I likes. But I have some tips.

• No rice- Don't eat low-nutrient fillers.  Eat the meat and the veggies. Toss the rice.  
• Cheat  - Eat what you want when you want.   Better to cheat and keep going than to give up completely.  This advice should not be taken into your dating relationships. I repeat do not take this as dating advice.
• Small changes make a big difference -  Beer and chocolate is something I cannot give up.  Heineken Light and Dark Chocolate it is!

Working out. 

• Fawk the Cardio- It's all diet.  You cannot eat an extra burger just because you went to the gym.
• Pick a sport you like-   Rock climbing and yoga.  I love this shit.  For you, it can be tennis, basketball, hikes, and even sex.   Sex is a great work out.  Anyone need a partner?  I am willing to jump start your work out routines.  

Seriously though, I do not work out that much.  At my peak, I was working out twice a week and now I work out about once a week.   Find something you love and do it consistently.   Losing 2 lbs each month does not sound like a lot, but give it a year and you will be more than happy with your results.

Weigh yourself daily.  Daily!   You don't know where you are unless you keep score.  Everyday you will  know if you are winning or losing.  And don't be too concerned about the day to day fluctuations as much as the weekly and monthly ones.   That is what matters most.

Now go get it! You can be sexy and join in on the Myspace morning photos too! 

My sister will be giving birth to her daughter, my niece Ellie, in the next 24 hours or so.  I am very excited.  I have not met her, but I love her already.  

Because no one in my family thus far has been born with a "silver spoon,"  I have bought her one from Tiffany's and Company.  I am also positive her life will have much more than me and my sister has.

Ellie My Truong. That's my nieces full name.  I love that name so much.  The middle name My is my sister's name.  My means America in Vietnamese.  My parents escaping the political, war-torn Vietnam in 1981 were so ecstatic to finally make it to America that when they had their first daughter, they named her after the country that had so graciously provided them refuge.

I was having lunch with my much older coworkers today and I did not finish my noodles in my soup.   I eat all my veggies, meats, and drink a good amount of the soup, but I almost never finish my rice or noodles.  I make an effort to eat as much nutrient dense food as possible and rice and noodles do not fall into this category.   In essence, I have nearly cut out all rice in my diet.  I am still a huge sucker for noodles and will still have a healthy amount in my meals.  

The conversation of the lunch took a turn as they realized I was throwing away my noodles.  One coworker proceeded to tell me a story of how when she goes to Vietnam, she goes to the most rural areas passing out toys and medicinal supplies to the village people and how little they truly have. My other coworker follows up asking me if I have ever been hungry?  "Like starving?" I ask.  "No, never."   They see my diet choice as wasteful and take it to mean I don't know what it means to appreciate what I have. 

My coworkers are Asian and they are much older and love to teach lessons on life.   They assume my Berkeley-educated, born in America, work-in-a-cubicle self has never known what it is like to grow up not having much.  They think I have had my world handed to me and I was born with a silver spoon.  

They don't know about being baby and wearing all of my sister's hand me downs.  They do not know that all through elementary, I had one pair of shoes and 3 pairs of clothes for the week.  That even in middle school I still only had enough clothes to have one different shirt a week.   They do not know that as a kid I stood outside of the Second Harvest food bank with my sister and my mother during Christmas to receive the one toy I would get for the year.   They do not know that during the summer when it got too hot, our subsidized apartment housing with its lack of air conditioning got so hot, that my mom would take us on a 20 minute walk to Mervyn's so we can escape the heat.   They do not know that I worked 3 jobs simultaneously during high school.  They don't know in college I lived in the living room with no privacy of a one bedroom apartment to save money.  And they don't know that every month of my professional career I give my parents money for rent, spending money, and groceries.  

I simply hold my tongue and listen.   

So I never had it that easy.  I am not saying I had it hard, but my life was never that with a silver spoon. But Ellie will most likely have that.  And that makes me happy.  

Her nursery room with crib vs my nursery room and crib.  And yes I am the one in pink.  

Ellie, prepare to have the best Uncle ever! 

Partner in Crime for the night.

Bday Girl!

Om Noms!

Being a dork!

Good looking people know good looking people.

Some of my Faves.

As long as I've got my suit and tie.

Last night as I laid in bed and I could not sleep, and I as replaying my day of the things I have done and how I interacted in certain situations.  I used to always do that.  I used to replay the entire day in my head and take notes of my interactions with those around me.  I would try to measure the ripples and if I left positive impacts to all those around me.  I would replay people's reaction to my words and how I reacted to their words and think of ways I could have done better.   

In the midst of my thoughts, I realized that I had completely forgotten it was @annieothergirl 's BDAY YESTERDAY!  

Annie is one of the happiest people on Xanga pouring out to everyone.  I see her leave comments of love and positivity to so many people on Xanga.  And if you really know Annie,  she is pretty busy getting sexy in the gym,  raising a daughter, and getting her edumacation on.  She is an amazing girl and I have been blessed by her presence and insightful words and encouragement.  I know you guys have too, so if you have a chance today, tell her HAPPY BELATED because we all suck and forgot.  

Send her eprops or whatever.  Get Dan to send her lifetime membership.   I don't know, but show her some love.  She is awesome.

Happy Birthday Annie! 

I wrote this really bad review about this General Manager at this gym my friends go to.  

http://www.yelp.com/biz/city-sports-club-san-jose#hrid:e_4LOJIf3vvWWkuiN6vRww

And I am not sure how I feel about it.   I am not the type to bad mouth someone, but at the same time this guy is pretty annoying.  There are ton of reviews about how bad their customer service is from this GM.

I wrote the review and he read it right away, because my cousin goes to the gym and the GM talked to my cousin asking, "I guess David doesn't want to come to this gym then."

And I don't want to come to that gym as much as my friends are already working out there and its convenient.

Should I take down the bad review or should I talk to the GM and work out something?  

Btw, can anyone that is yelp or yelp elite like upvote my reviews? I am working on becoming yelp elite.  :D 

It really is no secret who my favorite writers are.  My writing has been changing and as I work on my craft, it is starting to sound a bit like their voice.

You start to sound like those you surround yourselves so it makes sense to me how this may be occurring.

The following would be my own renditions of how I think they write some of these people write.

I don't write as sharply as as he does with his clear cut direction on how you should live your life.

• "It is one way or another.  You can either have what you want in life or you can sit there and cry about how the other guy got to go home with the prom queen.  Sack up, hit the gym, and learn a pick up line or two.  If you want to bang the prom queen, you can't be standing against the wall like a little pussy wishing things were better.  Get it!  With the attitude you have, a fuckin' Lambo couldn't help you."  

I am not as reflective as she is.

• "I should not have called him, but I did.  Maybe it was the hour of the night, the second glass of red wine swirling in my hand, or the fact that I have not been on a date for so long. UGHHHHHH! I remind myself I am young and ambitious and still have much of the world to conquer before I even settle down. Who does this guy think he is with his charming smile and immaculate resume that would impress any Asian mother."

I don't make love and even the end of love sound this beautiful.

• "It was the way she would lay there naked with nothing on, but my white bed sheets  covering everything but her face and the side of her leg.  She would say, "I can never be completely under the sheets. I get too hot and I feel trapped."  The irony of those words will be more than relevant in the coming moments.  I knew this would be one of the last times I would see the dimples on the small of her back or the tattoo she got when she was 17, that she swears very few people have even seen.  Was I lucky or was she, for we have ..."

Haha.   I hope I did these writers some justice, but I have enjoyed their writing through the years profusely.  I do not sit there and analyze their writing, but overtime I have been getting comments that my writing has changed and is reminiscent of some of my favorites.  Thank God, because I honestly think I use to write like shit.   Word vomit would be the best word to use here or maybe stream of consciousness.   Honestly, I free write completely and have too much attention deficit .... lets go ride bikes!!!! I hardly edit my passages and hope that my first draft is good enough.  Grammar is not my strongest suit and my use of commas are like chopsticks in the hands of a white man.  They are being used, but not with ease and not in the right way.  

At the end of it though,  the writing still needs to be mine. 

It would be the voice of a dorky, pimply, young boy who grows into a man with a penis so large that if he sent you a picture of it, you would be strolling down for days, a man that will one day make Petitetokio his ex-wife not because how successful he becomes, but he learned to become the Asshole 3.0, not only capable of shattering your dreams and not your ego, but taking your soul with it, a man that will use these jars of hearts and write stories of moment after moment of how even in the midst of heartbreaks, there was ethereal beauty which will bring the next wave of souls for the taking, that even in the breakdown there was true, satisfying love.

Time will tell and life is more than grand.  I will delight in my current marshmallows, while holding out for what the world has to offer.  

My voice is a medley of all these other voices, with its own distinct sounds and emphasis.  I hope in the end my true voice will be able to shine through.  

Note: Just kidding about breaking your heart PT, I would never do that.  <3