new year's resolution

A new year is usually a time for people to reflect on what they accomplished so far, and what they need to accomplish in the near future.


But in my case, as is for many other people, life altering decisions tend to be made in a different time of the year.


But for the sake of this New Year's blog, I'll just say that I'll be continuing on some goals from last year


1) more attention on home maintenance.

As I mentioned in previous blogs, my apartment had a makeover, mostly through throwing out  a bunch of paper collections, re-organizing the stuff I have kept and be more mindful of what I have in storage. I also threw out a bed frame!

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-apartment-gets-make-over.html
Well, my year ended with the bathtub face plate broken   :(

http://www.amazon.com/Chrome-Bathtub-Overflow-Face-Plate/dp/B000DZD61C

Bathtub face plate

And my new year started with my father coming in do repairs on the bathtub face plate, as well as replacing some filters in my toilet. :)

So yep, my new year's started with focus on home maintenance.

A greater focus on home maintenance may not be so unusual for some people. For example, my mom and grandma are like Martha Stewart. My dad is a carpenter, and therefore, an expert on home improvement.  Housekeeping is their hobby!

I inherited NONE of those tendencies. Me, I have just tended to view my home as a place to sleep and storage space.

Me, I don't even like to stay in my home during the day-time, even on days when I'm not even working. 

By the time I come home at night, I just feel like eating dinner, rest and go to sleep.

I have tended to procastinate in my own housekeeping. Or as the titled of a controversial book in Mexico goes, my atttitude in housekeeping has been "mañana forever".

Well, mañana (español for tommorrow) is going out the window!

Though I'm busy with work (and side jobs), outside recreation, internet use (this blog included) and now grad school (more on that later),  I will have to use my time wisely in making sure this "mañana forever" attitude in housekeeping stays in the trash can!


2) Keep exercising

Around September 2000 (in my college sophomore year) I have made a major decision that helped me lose weight.

I stopped eating 3 big meals a day! Why eat so many calories if you're not going to use them?

Eventually, I also did more bike riding and walking.

I went from 220 pounds to 170 pounds.  I'm currently about 180 pounds.

As I'm getting older, my metabolism will likely slow down.

Time to keep up my time in the YMCA, as well as bike riding and walking! And start reducing my junk food (and reduce my rice on the plate).

http://mykindofcooking.blogspot.com/2010/05/tip-rice.html

Note to self: resist this more often!

3) Grad school and work.

I'm back to school, as a UH grad student majoring in Library and Information Science (LIS).


I'm still working as a sub teacher. However, I'm almost done with my time as a seasonal worker at Macy's.

I'll have to manage my time wisely so that I can pass my classes, as well as stay employed, fit and sane!

Good luck to myself in 2013!

2012 in review

Another year has come and gone.

Another "end of the world" I was able to survive.



This year has been a year of renewals.

For one thing, my apartment got an internal makeover.

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-war-against-clutter.html

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-apartment-gets-make-over.html

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/10/32-years-of-living.html (part 1)

--------

I have also switched my long-term career goals. Whereas I started this year with a goal of becoming a full-time teacher, I have switched my goal to eventually becoming a full-time librarian.

About my switch in goals
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/06/change-in-direction.html

I am scheduled to start the master's program in Library and Information Science (LIS) at UH-Manoa starting January 2013. I'm just waiting to wait for the orientation program (few days from now) and my financial aid to be 100% approved and dispersed. Afterwards, I'm good to go!

-----------

I have also returned to Macy's as a holiday seasonal worker on 12/1/12. This time as a flex-sales worker at the Ala Moana store.  Being a flex worker means I pick and choose the leftover shifts available.

I was finally able to get new stuff on employee discount again. And yes, I did wear the Santa hat the entire 2 weeks leading up to Christmas :)

(taken Christmas Eve)

2012 in review: music & sports

 Music

The biggest song of the year has got to be PSY's  "Gangnam Style". It was the first song in an Asian language that become a big hit on mainstream US radio stations.  The fake-horse dance will forever be a classic.

However. the craze has died down ever since the US media reported what PSY said about the US troops back in 2004, where he mentioned about "kill those Yankees" and "kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers / Kill them all slowly and painfully". 

Psy said it was in protest of US foreign policy as well as a US tank running over 2 Korean girls.  It's one thing to protest foreign policy or to criticize some bad apples within the US military.  But saying "kill those yankees" is almost the same thing as US racists saying "kill the japs" or "kill the gooks" during the various US wars in Asia.

 PSY later apologize for his words.

----------------

Chris Brown was able to not let his controversial past stop him from making hits.

His hits included

Pitbull featuring Chris Brown "International Love"
(good song with great beats and great vocals. but then again, Pitbull only mention flirting with girls from Latin America, Europe and Lebanon, ignoring large chunks of landmass with billions of people. Also, Chris Brown sang about 3 cities in the same country. The song could easily be more international)


Chris Brown "Dont Wake Me Up"

Chris Brown and Lil Wayne "I Can only Imagine"
(prominent producer David Guetta is usually credited for this song, though he doesn't do vocals)

The Game featuring Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Tyga, Wiz Kalifa "Celebration"
(this was inspired by Bone Thugs N Harmony's classic "1st of the Month")


In other Chris Brown news, his bar fight with Drake injured innocent bystanders. All this because Drake actually showed Rihanna some respect. Well, if Brown didn't beat her up, Rihanna would've still been his girl!

--------------

I nominate Flo Rida as the LL Cool J of this generation. The reason I say that is both are very muscular guys who emphasize a more positive and sensitive side on their records, while still making some dance hits as well.  They're radio-friendly but that doesn't make them soft, in fact, nobody in their right mind would ever question their manhood or their street credibility. 


Here are my favorite Flo Rida songs of the year.

Flo Rida "I Cry"

Flo Rida "Wild Ones"

Flo Rida "Good Feeling"
--------


Justin Beiber has gotten a bit older, and is now making hits for a slightly older crowd. His best song this year is "Boyfriend" with a mix of hyphy beats and acoustic guitar in the mix.

-----------

Nicki Minaj had some controversy with "No Mercy". Yeah the song had profanity, sexually graphic lyrics, expressed gang affiliation (praising Bloods, insulting Crips), and other stuff not for the radio. But NONE OF THOSE THINGS were the main part of the controversy.

It was that Minaj said  "I'm a Republican, I'm voting for Mitt Romney" . Sure, her words are rarely meant to be taken seriously or literally, but it did inspire a lot of hatred over facebook/Twitter.  The attitude was "how dare a minority favor Romney over Obama". The left-wing mob seriously needs to chill!

Meanwhile, my favorite song from Nicki Minaj this year was "Pound the Alarm".  Great party jam. And the video makes me want to visit Trinidad and Tobago!

I also like the Nicki Minaj remix of Alicia Key's "Girl on Fire"

---------

My other favorite party jams include

Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen "Good Time" 
(the ultimate boy/girl pop jam of the year)


Carly Rae Jepsen "This Kiss"


Sia "Titanium"

Blush (feat. Snoop Dogg) "Undivided"
(Blush could be the next stars from Asia to make the US mainstream charts. Stay tuned)

------------------
Some rap hits I haven't mentioned already

Big Sean, Jay-Z, Kanye West "Clique"

Far East Movement feat. Justin Bieber and LMFAO "Live My Life"

E-40 "Function"
(who said "hyphy is dead"?  It still lives on!)

Kesha "Die Young"
(this song was meant to express"life is short, let's just live it up" but it got pulled from some radio stations after the Sandy Hook shooting, as if people are too stupid to take the song title literally!)




-----------------

some alternative hits

Foster The People "Houdini"
(loved the drum intro, but the whole song was great too)

Bush "Baby Come Home"
(this band was part of the 1990's alternative wave. I didn't care much for their music back then, but I love this song!)

M-83 "Midnight City" and "We Own the Sky"

Grouplove "Tongue Tied"

Gotye feat Kimbra  ""Somebody that I used to Know"
(I rarely listen to depressing emo songs, but the way Gotye sing this song, it's a perfect song to imitate at a karaoke party)

-------

If I had more time, I could list more songs from this year. But these songs are the ones that stick out in my mind.


3) Sports

This year, UH got a new football coach, Norm Chow. Chow was a legendary assistant coach, who had coached at BYU, Southern Cal, UCLA, Utah and North Carolina State, as well as the NFL's Tennessee Titans

However, all the hype around his hiring didn't help the team win much this year. The team went 3-9 this year. Lucky thing there were 2 junk teams at the end of this year's schedule. Otherwise, the team would've been just slightly better than von Appen's 0-12 team of 1998.

Some mentioned the Chow's stubbornness in allowing starting QB Sean Schroder to stay in the game even after taking multiple beatings on the field. You can only take so much hits before you start to lose focus. This was magnified with the O-line being filled with inexperienced guys.

As for the D-line, it faced way too many injuries this year.

And the defense in general struggle to stop great running backs (ie Nevada's Stephon Jefferson).

What makes that even more depressing is that a former Hawaii high school football star is making TONS of tackles for a mainland university  :(     :(      :(         .

Imagine what Manti Te'o could've done for our defense if he played for UH instead of Notre Dame!
So now Norm Chow has the uphill battle to convince Hawaii high school stars to play for their hometown team instead of being tempted by offers to play for Notre Dame, Oregon, Stanford or other continental US schools.

---------

This is what I said in an earlier blog post about Norm Chow's rule against long hair.

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/10/32-years-of-living.html (look under part 4)

(unfortunately, new coach Norm Chow wanted his players to have short hair! This is also the worst football season since the von Appen days. Coincidence? As one caller to a talk radio show said "the rules against long hair is ruining the team spirit!" Take that Norm Chow!)

I also mentioned the issue on this blog post

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/08/vili-warrior-retired.html

For one thing, the new UH football coach started imposing regulations on the player's grooming style.

Under the new rules, the UH football players will no longer be allowed to have long hair, WHICH IS THE MOST STUPIDEST RULE ON EARTH!

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-02/sports/sns-mct-free-time-is-over.-chow-time-begins-for-real-today-20120802_1_camp-chow-time-norm-chow


The long hair was a major part of the UH-Warrior mystique in the previous decade. It made the UH haka/ha'a more real when the Warriors had the wild hair while making their chants!

check that blog post for more on that issue.

------------

UH got a new Athletic Director Ben Jay.

He came from Ohio State, which has a much larger budget!

Now, not only does Jay have to work with a smaller budget, but also the greatest travel expenses in all of college sports. Hope the oil prices don't rise too much!

Also, with so many colleges switching conferences, we hope UH doesn't get left behind in the next round of conference shuffles.

While almost all of us want the UH to be part of the Pac-12, that is unlikely, unless UH football surpasses what Boise State accomplished the last decade!

--------------


The era of instant gratification and impatience in our modern sports world has gone to a new low.


So far, I know of 2 NBA teams (Lakers, Nets) that fired their coach for not winning enough, and the season is NOT EVEN half-way done!

  Let's see, in sports, you get a second chance if you have committed spousal abuse, sexual assault or drunk driving.  But if your team hasn't won enough before the middle of the season  you have no second chance?


 If I was the commissioner of a pro league, I'll make a rule stating "once the season starts, you're stuck with the coach and the players you hired. The only exceptions would be legal or moral violations".


 This way, the coaches and players have a chance to improve on their weaknesses.   If at the end of the season, it still doesn't work, then they can release coaches and players.