The Real Reason I Celebrate Christmas

I don't really celebrate Christmas.  In fact, if you base the holiday on religious aspects, I'm probably the last person that should be celebrating Christmas since I'm probably one of the most non-religious people out there.  For years as a kid growing up, I partook in the festivities, mostly the commercial part, as I looked forward to putting up a Christmas tree, opening my presents in the morning, and learning about characters like Santa and Frosty.

But like every innocent kid, we all grow up and learn the real truths behind Christmas and our beliefs change.  I went through a period in early college where I wanted to completely abandon anything related to Christmas.  While my parents were indifferent, some of my friends were saddened to hear that I would no longer be taking part in Christmas traditions, such as exchanging gifts for our circle of friends or enjoying a glass of eggnog and brandy at midnight on Christmas Day.  It's pretty safe to say I wasn't exactly the most mature person in my very early 20s.  I made several mistakes and arrogantly thought I knew everything about myself and everyone else.

Fortunately, we never stop growing up and many years later, I've started to realize the real reason I enjoy Christmas.  It's not for the presents, holiday music, or Christmas lights (actually, while I don't really do the commercial aspect of Christmas as much anymore, I won't completely dismiss it and still get presents for my nieces and nephew).  I enjoy Christmas now because it brings my friends and family home for the holidays.  Many of the people I grew up with have moved away from Arizona to have their lives, but for many, Arizona is still home and I can still expect many to be in town during the holidays.  Life is about the people, the friendships and relationships you've built over decades, because without others, life becomes pretty meaningless.  People coming home for the holidays is what I look forward to every Christmas now and that reason alone is enough to celebrate!

So whatever your reasons for celebrating Christmas, I wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you keep up with those friendships and traditions you've enjoyed for so many years.  Merry Christmas from the Lin family: Andy and Duncan!

Termites! :( ...and Landscaping! :)

Termites Invade My Home... :(

My friend Matt recently suggested that I check my house for termites.  As a first time homeowner, this is not really something I've ever done or even thought about doing before.  He told me termites are easy to check for, especially with newer houses where the foundation goes in at the base, you can usually see little mud tunnels along your wall if there is a presence of termites in your house.  So one day I went outside to check and wouldn't you know it...

This was about 2 weeks ago, but they've probably been around for much longer.  I honestly don't recall seeing these in the past several years I've lived at my house, but then again, I've never known to look for them.  Anyhoo, I started talking to some friends about companies to inquire services from...

My friend Xav was actually getting his house in Tucson treated for Tucson at the same time.  He got quotes from Orkin and Five Star and apparently those were $1,700 and $900 respectively.  Hearing those numbers freaked me out a bit..."uh oh, it's gonna be expensive." :(

My friend Jen didn't really know of anyone, but suggested Truly Nolan based on those notable yellow mouse cars they drive around.  They were the first people to inspect my home, but seemed very lackadaisical in their inspection.  They said stuff like, "yeah, those have been there for a while" and "here's what we'll do" without ever really doing anything more than just standing and looking at the exterior.

My friend Matt (the one who had me check for termites in the first place; thanks Matt!) suggested Got Bugs since he used them for his house in Tucson, albeit for other types of pest control.  The inspection from Got Bugs was great and felt really personal.  The guy did a full inspection of my home inside and out.  He educated me on all kinds of termite-related things.  I was very impressed with the inspection and the explanation of options.

My sister Elsa had also had her house treated for termites.  She gave me a couple companies, one that she used and another her friend had tried.  The first was Wildcat Exterminating.  When Wildcat came out, the inspection was similar to Truly Nolan, but by then I had realized that the treatment is pretty much gonna be the same no matter what company I went with, so it was more a matter of price.  The final company was A-Security Pest Control, a very small company that I felt had the most promise since my sister knew the owner, but when they called me they said they had driven by, taken a look at the foundations within the subdivision, and would mail me a proposal treatment.  It seemed very quick and obviously not thorough at all.

So overall, here is was each company proposed to me:
Truly Nolan - $494 for treatment, annual warranty renewable for $150 a year
Got Bugs - $484 for treatment, annual warranty renewable for $125 a year
Wildcat Exterminating - $568 for treatment + 2-year warranty, extendable annual warranty renewable for $135 a year
A-Security Pest Control - $400 for treatment, annual warranty renewable for $165 a year

In the end, I decided to go with Wildcat Exterminating.  I chose them mostly due to price (I get a 2-year warranty right off the bat for $100).  It was really between them and Got Bugs since both treatments were identical.  I hope the termites get exterminated and will be gone for good!

Landscaping! :)

So part of the Got Bugs inspection pointed out how the collection of weeds and tree debris can attract pests.  As you know, the battle between me and my yard is never-ending due to the slope next to the west side of my house bringing in lots of water for weeds and the two large mesquite trees in the back that shed tons of leaves and pods.  Cleaning the yard is a long and exhausting chore because of how bad it gets in my yard, that I finally decided to inquire about landscaping services that can clean my yard for me.  My friend Jonathan found a very small landscaping company that is run by a Hispanic family.  The father doesn't even speak great English, but the quality of work you get in return is as good as anyone's and you just can't beat their price.

For $275 they took out all the weeds around my house, cut out a few dead shrubs and large desert bushes in my front yard, and then raked and cleaned all the leaves and pods in the back.  He told me I am not paying for hours, but for the work.  They worked for 3 hours today and another 2 hours today and after all is said and done, the yard looks great! Wahoo!

South Side of Home with Slope:

Before

After

 
Backyard with 2 Mesquite Trees:

After

APA: Big Money Tournament = Big Winners!

My 8-ball team ended up 1st place in the standings in the Tuesday night league pool league at Fox and Hound for Summer of 2013.  As a result, we are automatically entered into an end-of-session tournament called Tri-Cup a.k.a. the Big Money Tournament.  At this tournament, the winners of each of the 8 leagues across the city of Tucson play against each other in a single elimination format.  Each team only plays up to 2 matches against randomly selected teams from leagues outside of your own.  If you win the first match, you qualify for the annual City Tournament (that is ultimately a qualifier for nationals).  After the first round, 8 teams remain and you play a second round that if you win your team wins $1000 in prize money!  There are 4 winners at Tri-Cup, which basically means you can only win $1000 and so it's not a winner-take-all deal.

Anyway, my team played in this tournament today, our second attempt since we've started pool league.  The first time was back in the Spring, but two key players (myself and Chris) were out of town, so we sent to the tournament whoever was available but not our strongest lineup.  We ended up winning the first match, which qualified us for City, but we lost the second match and didn't win any money. :(

This time around, we had everyone available to play.  The first match we sent up Chris and Anthony who both won.  The third match I sent up Erica against the other team's sole 6 skill-rated player.  She won the first game, but immediately following after had a panic attack and couldn't play anymore. :( Don't worry, she is fine now, it was just too much caffeine and an adrenaline rush from playing!  But fortunately, it turns out the other team only had 4 players and given the scoring format that I won't go into detail, they were forced to forfeit and ultimately could not win the match.  Erica winning that one game allowed us to advance to second round!

The second round we were against a full squad of players.  However, Anthony, Tyler, and Chris all won their matches, so it was over by the 3rd game.  Yep, yours truly wasn't even needed today and The Dollar Menu ended up taking 1000 dollars in winnings, woohoo!!! :P Almost one year ago I could've only imagined this team - of friends I assembled whom nobody knew of - would have become so successful and strong as we are today!  I'm quite proud!

James's Wedding in Brazil!

Destination weddings are becoming very common these days for me, but over the past weekend I traveled the farthest I ever have to see one of my good friends from high school get married.  This last Saturday, my friend James married his love Mariana and they held their wedding in her hometown in Brazil.  Since I've starting blogging, this will be my first post about travel to another country.  I'm also writing this on one of my long flights home so be prepared, it may be a bit long to read!

Getting prepared for my first trip to the southern hemisphere wasn't too difficult.  To visit the country of Brazil, all that's required is to prepare a tourist visa ahead of time, which I was able to do all from home and online.  I used Passports and Visas.com to apply for a visa, mailed in the very straightforward application along with my passport, and within 30 days my passport with mailed back to me with my visa in it, good for up to 10 years.  It was a bit pricey to travel to Brazil as a roundtrip ticket ran me about $1,400 and the visa was $300 itself.  However, the good news is that when I got to Brazil, everything was very affordable and I don't think I spent much more than a few hundred while I was there!

I left Phoenix on Wednesday morning at around 10am with connections planned in Charlotte and Sao Paolo to reach my final destination: Florianópolis (a.k.a. Floripa).  It took forever to board the plane in Phoenix (I guess some previous passengers had to reboard and were holding up the show).  Ultimately, the plane was about 40 minutes late, which wasn't enough time for me to catch my plane in Charlotte where I only had a 50 minute layover to begin with. I ended up getting rerouted to Rio de Janiero, but that flight wouldn't leave Charlotte for another 4 hours. :(

After a 9-hour flight, we finally landed in Rio and interestly enough, I ran into Kyle and Jamie in the immigration and customs line at the airport!  They were also booked through the same flight out of Rio to Floripa, which was pretty awesome to not have to enter the foreign country completely on my own.  While we checked our bags in Rio, an American girl about the same age as us came up and asked us if she could follow us into the departures area...she had heard us speaking English and didn't want to be alone in an airport where they only speak Portuguese.  Coincidentally enough, it turns out she was also en route to James and Mariana's wedding in Floripa!  And so we picked up Michelle in our party as we waited in Rio for a few hours for our departing flight.

Once we arrived in Floripa, getting a taxi was a little uncomfortable.  A few guys coordinating the taxi line spoke English and offered to taxi us over to our destination in an unmarked vehicle (it just looked like the guy's personal car to be honest).  Everyone's seen the movie Taken by now, so of course we were all thinking the worst.  There's also a story out there about how James once got kidnapped in a foreign country and only got out of it because he knew the native language.  Nonetheless, we were able to kindly refuse their offer and get into an airport taxi.  Unfortunately, the driver didn't know any English, but we got to the bed and breakfast safely.

When we arrived at Colinas de Lagoa, there were several Americans for the wedding already there.  Rooms were a bit limited, so I found myself sharing a room with 4 of James' guyfriends...everyone called it the "Frat House" since it was literally two rooms with 6 beds and one bathroom.  The room literally only had twin beds in it, one right next to the other lol.  Hence it felt to me more like a hostel than a bed and breakfast.

 

That night, the girls were scheduled to have a bachelorette party for Mariana, so James took the guys out to an English pub where we could watch American sports on TV.  They had the Dodgers-Braves game and the Bills-Browns on, albiet Brazil is 4 hours ahead of Arizona time.  The interesting part about Brazilian restaurants and bars is that they give you a ticket at the beginning of the night and as you order items, it gets marked on the ticket what you've ordered (similar to how dim sum is run).  You have to hold on to the ticket however and when you're ready to leave you just pay the total.  I guess a lost ticket is about $50 US, which made us wonder if it's actually worth it purposely "lose" your ticket if you've ordered a lot more. :P After the pub, we headed downtown to witness some of Floripa's more exciting nightlife.  The night turned out being James' unofficial bachelor party.  Basically all the key people who couldn't make it to his actual bachelor party in Portland in August were in Brazil.  I guess now would be a good time to give you my evaluation of the women of Florianopolis.  In my opinion, the average woman is much more attractive and svelte than in America, but I feel like the cream of the crop is still better in the U.S.  I guess you could say Brazil has less 5's and below, more 7's and 8's, but less 9's and 10's.  Anyway, that's just my estimation!

On Friday morning, several people were scheduled to leave at 10am (that's 6am Arizona time!) on a tour of Floripa for the day, but seeing how we didn't get to bed until 3am, yours truly decided to pass on the tour and get an extra couple hours of sleep instead. :) Spencer tried to urge me to get up for the tour, suggesting that there was nothing to do in the city.  I agreed with him at the time, but man, I was just too tired haha!  I woke up at noon, and to my suprise, Kyle and Jamie had also opted out of the tour.  James had spent the night at the "Frat House" and had errands planned for the day, but when Adam, Kyle, Jamie, and I wanted to get some lunch, he decided he had enough time to join us and took us to one of his favorite all-you-can-eat buffets in Floripa, which was very good, especially the Brazilian barbecue.  His sisters and parents eventually joined us for lunch as well, but more funny was that Mariana and her brother Bruno coincidentally ended up going to the same place for lunch!  After lunch we planned on going to a beach, and Mariana told James to forget about his errands for the afternoon and just hang out with everyone at the beach.  So in the end, the decision to pass on the tour turned out to be a good one as I got to steal invaluable time with the bride and groom!  It was a relaxing day at the beach, where we tossed a frisbee around, played the Brazilian game frescobol, and we did some boogie boarding as well.

That night, there was a dinner for all the Americans in town at a pizzeria where we enjoyed all-you-can-eat pizza and drinks.  Yes, "buffet livre" as they call it is very common in Floripa!  The pizza in Brazil is very "playful" as Mariana puts it, meaning they put all sorts of crazy ingredients on their pies that you normally wouldn't find on pizzas in America.  There's even a dessert pizza at the end that's covered in chocolate lol.  At the end of the dinner, James impressed the 30 or so people there by impromptly speaking in front of everyone and giving each individual in attendance a personal introduction of how they're connected to him or Mariana.
Saturday was the day of the wedding with the ceremony starting at 4pm.  Beforehand, I ventured out on the city by myself, going on a jog and having lunch on the seafood avenue where James claimed the restaurants had the best seafood in Floripa.  I ended up getting 12 ostras au natural (raw oysters) for only $10 US!  I felt the desire to splurge a little, so I got a bowl of camarão au bafo (steamed shrimp) as well.

The Catholic wedding ceremony was held at a church where James and Mariana occasionaly go and I believe it is also where James proposed to her.  It was built in the 1700's and there was both a Porteguese and English translation.  Following the wedding, everyone was shuttled to the Almeda Casa Rosa where the reception and dancing party was held.  At the bar, I tried these really stiff drinks called caipirinha that came in flavors of lime, strawberry, kiwi, or pineapple.  After 3, I figured they were just too sweet and strong and my stomach started feeling upset, but once I made the switch to beer, it was all systems go!  The best part about the Brazilian wedding is that servers come around constantly to fill your glass with whatever your drinking.  Too often I couldn't even drink my glass of beer before finishing it completely and I had absolutely no idea how many drinks I consumed. :D The dancing was also very entertaining and the bartenders even got in the dancing show, including the blonde girl with the very tight pants who I thought was pretty hot. :P  The wedding was filled with plenty of drinking, eating, dancing, speeches and slideshows - business as usual - and ended around 2 in the morning.  I was really glad James and Mariana invited me and I was able to come experience it all with them!

On Sunday I got up late again after having cashed in at 4:30am, lol.  So at noon, everyone who was staying in Floripa longer had already left to the beach, so I ventured out to the English pub to catch the Broncos-Cowboys on TV, which was a very exciting game!  It was at the pub that I ran into another American from Wisconsin who spoke just about as much Porteguese as me.  He had bought a one-way-ticket to Floripa and had only been in the city for 2 weeks.  It was also then that I learned that it's still the same non-existent love story in Brazil for the hopeless Asian. :/ A group of 4 native women had been staking out at the bar all afternoon and at the end, it was the Caucasian that was asked for their number and not the Asian's!  I guess this just confirms that no matter what continent I go to, I likely won't find anything.  Makes the decision to not leave Tucson that much easier haha!  After the game, I had some sushi for dinner (James had mentioned it), although I think I had to settle for one that was within walking distance and it was not as good.  The only nigiri they had was tuna and sake salmon. :(  After dinner, I got an email from Spencer that everyone was having dinner with James and Mariana, so I met up with them while they had pizza.  That was the last I would see of the newlywed couple!

I didn't leave Floripa until Monday evening.  Unfortunately, there were only so many flights available from Floripa to Phoenix that day. :/ Monday was very boring for me.  Everyone was pretty much gone and I had no car, so I could only go to places within walking distance.  After finding a buffet livre com frutas do mar (seafood buffet), I burned 5 hours by walking aimlessly around the coast and city, exploring about a square-mile of the city.  I'd occasionally take breaks and find a bench to sit at, either checking out more of the talent walking around or playing Candy Crush on my iPhone.  Unfortunately, the rest of my travel was just as lengthy.  My flight out of Florianopolis arrived in Sao Paolo at midnight and the flight to Charlotte didn't leave until 8:25am. :'( Fortunately, Sao Paolo is much bigger than the airport in Rio de Janiero.  I was able to find myself a very uncomfortable set of airport seats where I salvaged about 4 hours of sleep.  Fortunately, I got a whole row to myself on the flight home to the U.S., so I could sprawl out and get some Zzz's!

And so concludes my first trip to the southern hemisphere!  Four continents down!  While Brazil is very beautiful, the people are friendly, the food is great and cheap, and the women on average are more attractive than the U.S., I still think I prefer America in the end!  Thanks James and Mariana for the wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Congratulations!

Chris's Wedding in Princeton!

My friend Chris called me last year and asked me if I would be a groomsman in his wedding.  It's always an honor to be considered for that, and about a year later, Chris married Priya in Princeton, NJ.

It's been a while since I've flown out to the East coast to visit Chris.  I visited him while he still lived in Manhattan, and there were other times he'd coordinate visits to see Mike with me.  So I decided to fly into Jersey a little early and hang out a night with Chris in Hoboken where he and Priya currently live.  I got in around 7pm on Thursday night and had heard about how Hoboken was one of the top cities in the nation for singles to mingle.  Hoboken is really, really small (1 square mile), so everything is pretty much walking distance from Chris's apartment.  When we left apartment, we were immediately called upon by a girl in her early 20's who had just parked her car across the street and was asking if she could get a help carrying her beer and boxed wine.  She was walking in the same direction as us, so we offered her a hand and as we were walking, she was very friendly, saying how she was having a bunch of her girlfriends over for drinks.  We dropped the beer and wine off with her at an intersection a block later where her friends were just about to pull up and went on our way to dinner.  It made for a funny story.  Chris says that has never happened to him, but the one day Single Andy comes to visit, go figure!  Lol.  Hoboken was pretty much what I expected and lived up to it's standards: lots of young people, most of them you could tell were fresh out of the college scene.  If I were maybe 10 years younger, I probably would want to live here myself!  After hitting a couple bars and scouting the environment, we turned in...with Chris forcing me to go to bed early at around 2am EST, which is 11pm back in AZ!  Oy, somehow I managed to get a full night of rest and set myself to the east coast schedule.

On Friday, Chris and I hopped a train to Princeton, which is about 45 minutes away.  We were greeted by his father and brother, who gave us a ride to the Mens Wearhouse to grab our tuxes and then we checked into the hotel around 4pm.  I grabbed a couple Yuenglings at the bar and then the had dinner with Chris's family and relatives at Tre Piani, a nice restaurant inside the same plaza as the Westin.  After dinner, Chris and I stayed up and had some drinks at the Salt Creek Grille, but called it a night fairly early since there aren't really any bars in that plaza and they aren't open very late. :(

Saturday morning, the groomsmen were scheduled to play a round of golf at the TPC Jasna Polana, the same venue where the American Ceremony and reception was to be held.  When we arrived, I was immediately told that I couldn't play with cargo shorts on (I don't own any other khaki pants), so I had to buy a pair of shorts from the pro shop. :( The golf course is a really beautiful course, it's just too bad I suck at golf!  There were 6 of us playing, all individual stroke play, and Chris ended up with the best score of 82, with his father shortly behind at 84.  Yours truly shot a 139, but I did manage to hit my first par ever on hole 11, a par 3 where I shot into the rough, chipped it onto the green, and then sank a 12-foot putt for par!  Hey, for $170 (the shorts were $70) I made sure I was going to enjoy this round of golf and I did! :) In fact, I actually think I played better than I usually do!

Saturday evening was the rehearsal and dinner at Salt Creek Grille.  Mike & Keri, Nate & Elizabeth, and Kyle & Jamie were the other friends from Scottsdale who came to Chris and Priya's wedding.  There's not a whole lot to do in that plaza, no real bars other than the hotel lobby, but I guess it wasn't the night to stay out late and get hammered with a long wedding day ahead the next day.

Chris and Priya had two ceremonies arranged on their wedding day: a Hindu ceremony in the morning and a Christian ceremony in the evening.  The Hindu ceremony was really interesting and something I have never experienced before, so to be also in it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  It started with a Barrat, where the groom traditionally rides on a chariot pulled by a stallion, is accompanied by his family and friends, and the entire crowd walks over to greet the bride's family and friends.  However, in the modern world we live in, Priya chose to have Chris ride in on the back of a Lamborghini, which was absolutely hilarious!  Then all of Chris's family and friends danced in the street and parking lot outside the Westin for about 30 minutes, LOL.  I felt kind of bad for them since they had no idea what they were getting into, but they were all champs and danced for the entire period!

When the groom meets the bride, apparently he's supposed to be carried up and in.  This wasn't part of the rehearsal, but I was standing next to Chris at the time the MC asked me to pick him up, so I had to carry him for a good 5 minutes for the ceremony as you can see below.  Pretty interesting and funny stuff for sure!

There was a beautiful arrangement set up for the Hindu ceremony at the Princeton Westin.  I stood to the right of the main seating area where Chris and Priya and their parents all partook in a series of symbolic traditions.  There was a lot of flicking rice on the couple, sprinkling spices into a fire, passing around a coconut to both sides of the family and in the audience to receive everyone's blessing, and placing a toe ring on Priya's foot.  It ran for about an hour (which was pretty intense to stand the whole time through), but apparently it was even shorter than most traditional Hindu ceremonies that usually run over 2 hours.

After the Hindu ceremony, a catered lunch buffet of Indian food was provided and I was so impressed by the quality and variety of choices.  I for one love Indian food and wish I had the stomach (and time) to have eaten more than one plate.  After I scarfed down what I could, I went out for pictures and went up to my room to shower and change into my tuxedo for the evening.  The American ceremony was only a couple hours a away and at a different venue, so we had to be ready to be picked up by the limousine in almost no time.

The Christian ceremony would be held at the Jasna Polana, which is where the groomsmen played a round of golf the day earlier.  It was pretty standard and more of what you're used to.  Quick 20-minute ceremony that I think got shortened because it was really humid and everyone was sweating.  The reception followed shortly after and was a blast, mostly because weddings are slightly more fun when you're in them than when you're just spectating.  Having Mike, Kyle, and Nate there also made it more enjoyable as well!  I don't remember drinking that much to be honest, but apparently I did.  I sometimes think that I drink so much on a regular basis where it becomes harder and harder to actually get drunk...is that possible?  Anyway, a long and busy day for me but an amazing and excellent wedding to be a part of.  Thanks and congratulations to Chris and Priya!

The Big 3-Oh!

I entered the 4th decade of my life this last Friday.  Usually for my birthday, I just do something small like a get together in Tucson for one night.  Over the last few years ever since I started "Making It Happen", I have been traveling and going out of my way to visit people, attend their weddings and celebrations, etc.  While it doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary, I began to realize how much I actually spend indirectly on other people.  For example, I just spent $2,000 on a plane ticket and Visa to go to my friend James' wedding in Brazil in October.  So I started thinking, why not spend more on myself?  For my 30th birthday, I decided I go full out and really treat myself.  So I booked 5 rooms at the Hyatt and planned this amazing weekend in Scottsdale where I would do basically everything that I wanted to do for a change.  I was pleased with the results and how everything turned out!

My birthday was on Friday August 16th and Ann drove me up to the Phoenix area at noon, arriving in Tempe where I had a sushi lunch at Teharu.  My friend Lucky, Dori, and Mike from Seattle joined me in taking down a few plates of sushi and I enjoyed a sake bomb.  Barry showed up shortly after.

The plan was to have lunch at 2pm, and afterwards I picked up a bottle of Goose, Jameson, Patron, and 2 30 packs of beer and headed to the Scottsdale Hyatt at Gainey Ranch.  I checked into the resort around 4pm and was greeted by a note from Nate and Elizabeth (and Casey) wishing me a happy birthday.  I put on my swim trunks, filled a small cooler of beer, and Jeff, Jennie, Ben, and Ham joined the party where we all enjoyed some pool volleyball for a couple hours.  When I got back to the room, the resort had left a bottle of champagne in my room as well as a plate of chocolates for my birthday!  I also asked them to put a cot in each room for more comfortable sleeping arrangements for everyone and they did it on the house.  The Hyatt really took care of me this weekend, but I guess when you drop a G on 5 rooms they are gonna give you a little special treatment. :)

 

Dinner was at the Village Tavern that night, so we all got dressed up to go eat and then head out to Old town afterwards.  Chris, Anthony, Nate, Elizabeth, Cooper, Wes, Ryan, and Jessica all joined me at dinner, so there were about 15 people there.  I ordered the 16oz prime rib with a bottle of red wine that Jennie and I split, but the steak was so filling I couldn't finish my sides of mashed potatoes and mac 'n cheese. :( Thanks Wes for buying my dinner!

From dinner we all headed straight to Old Town Scottsdale.  I started off at Dos Gringos since it's a large venue with plenty of room for everyone.  But in actuality, it was really hot at that bar and since there were only 15 in my party, I decided to move to Gilligan's.  Dori, Teqas, Kurth, Josh, Tina, and Tyler would all join me at Gilligans', where I proceeded to drink to my heart's content (someone always made sure there was a drink in my hand).  I spun the wheel but ended up with a Blue Waffle (it's just pure food coloring, no alcohol) so I threw that out right away.  Instead, Wes decided to get me a plunger shot of Buttery Nipple with green food coloring. :/ I knew what it would do to my mouth if I drank that shit, so I forced both Wes and Ann to do it first.  After they did, I was like okay, I'll go ahead and take the rest. :P

My goal for the weekend was to have 30 drinks across the two days, and I think I crushed about 20 in the first day alone.  I lost track of count, but I was feeling pretty good by the end of the night.  I couldn't get super-hammered since I knew I had a long day ahead on Saturday as well, but I was pretty drunk to say the least.

On Saturday, I started off with a lunch buffet at the Wandering Horse inside the Talking Stick casino.  I invited my parents to lunch, who met many of my friends for the first time.  Lunch was pretty pleasant as additional attendants such as Brian, Kelly, Amber, Ryan, Lucky, Jen, Jon, and another Anthony joined the party train.  The plan was to gamble for a couple hours afterwards, but only Anthony, Barry, and I hit the blackjack table.  For my birthday, I bought in for $500 and really let my gambling go loose, playing two hands at a time at $25 a hand.  Blackjack has it's ups and downs and I ended up $350 down by the end, but it was still very entertaining (Anthony ended up winning about $400 and Barry $100 so collectively the group did well!).

After gambling, I headed back to the Hyatt for more pool time, this time playing a couple games of 3-on-3 and 2-on-2 pool basketball.  I really scraped up the bottom of my toes pushing off the pool deck, but it was worth it how fun real pool basketball is. :D I also was an idiot and tried to do a backflip in the water, but forgot that the pool I was in at the time was only 3 feet deep.  As a result, I have a huge scrape on my forehead.  Hopefully it doesn't leave a scar!  Everyone called me "Asian Harry Potter" the rest of the weekend, haha.  At the pool, I got to see Matt, Pamela, their son Ryan, Jonny, and Jody for a brief period as well.

The night would end at Jeff's house, were I bought 9 pizzas from Barro's to feed everyone.  More people showed up throughout the night and it was a pretty chill night of beer pong, pool, and hookah.  Ann baked me a StarCraft with a tiny Duncan decoration on top that we all enjoyed.  Thanks Ann!  And at the end of the night, Lucky and Jeff sprayed me with a couple bottles of champagne and I pretended that I was LeBron James winning the NBA championship. :P

Everyone ducked out of the party by like 1am, but the after party continued at the Hyatt where their pools never close.  I finally passed out around 3am.

The only thing left on the list was Senor Taco for lunch on Sunday before we headed back to Tucson.  It was about a 20-minute detour, but I think it was well worth it as everyone seemed to enjoy what they got.  I mean, how can you not?  It's Senor Taco! :) The weekend was concluded and overall it was mission accomplished!  Even though several people didn't show and a few key people were missing, I did myself right by really going full out for my 30th birthday.

People ask how it feels to be 30 and to be honest, I feel accomplished.  I feel like I have gotten my life to the stage I want it at and to do that by the age of 30 is an achievement.  People ask me what my goals are for this decade are or what I want to do next, but when you get to this age and realize how good a life you have, there's not really much left to ask for!  Anyway, it was a amazing celebration and I'm very proud of the person I've become after 30 years!  Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and for helping Make It Happen!

R.I.P. Tree

The Tucson monsoons hit pretty hard this year and one of the first storms knocked over the mesquite tree in my front yard. :( As you can see in the picture, it didn't fall over completely, but the wind was strong enough to uproot the tree and force it leaning.  Leaning Tower of Treesa let's call it, heh.

Fortunately, the tree wasn't in danger of falling into the house and if it did fall over completely, it'd probably just roll into my neighbors driveway.  I contemplated on what to do with the tree.  Do I save it or just remove it?  The tree doesn't provide enough shade to cool the house down (unlike the two in my backyard that are big enough), so it was there purely for aesthetic value. 

This tree also required the most trimming of any of my trees.  My neighbor would come over to my house and ask me to trim it since it extended over and into his yard.  If not trimmed, it would sometimes blocked vision of his house from the street.  Apparently one day, a car was parked on his driveway and broken into, and he blamed it on the tree being able to "cover" that area and make it easier for criminals to get away without being seen.  So as a result, I would trim the tree at least once a year and haul the branches over to a nearby dumpster.

As you know, I'm all about convenience, and it just didn't seem convenient to save the tree and sign myself up for more annual chores.  One of my friends has a friend in the tree removal service, so they were able to come by and remove the tree for $150.  I thought the asking price was pretty reasonable and they even complied with my request to chop up the tree so that I could have some firewood. :) Thanks to Matt for that idea.

So anyway, R.I.P. tree.  You will be missed but I guess life will go on!

Andy Lin: You're Just Too Nice

I get told a lot that I'm just too nice a person.  It's true, I'm pretty generous and looking in the best interest of others.  And a lot of times I put others in front of myself.  But really, I just can't see another way of living life.  I'm a very fortunate person, blessed with great qualities and I've earned everything I've lived for to this point.  I just haven't got any real issues (definitely compared to some of the shit others have to go through).

I'm nice because I enjoy being nice, it makes me feel like a good person.  Nothing but good feelings are shared when you're nice.  And I just do unto others as I would like others to do unto me.  Life is really simplified for me, and I all I can do is appreciate how lucky I am.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I will always be nice and I will not change who I am.  And if you think I'm too nice, well, what probably should say is "go fuck yourself", but being the Mr. Nice Guy that I am, I'll just try and think of ways to make things better.

You've all heard of "Making It Happen" by now, but I'm embracing a new motto that I heard from my friend Chris's friend Peter: "Do the right thing."  While I can't control the bad decisions others constantly make on a daily basis, I can control mine.

"Do the right thing."

IBM X: A Decade at IBM, But Is It Really Worth Celebrating?

Sunday will mark my 10-year-anniversary at IBM.  I don't talk about my job ever on my blog, but figured I'd describe my career at IBM so far, especially after this significant milestone.  10 years at the same company is a long time, and all before the age of 30.  But is it really something worth celebrating?  Grab a beer and let us reminisce and discuss.

 

I started my co-op (a.k.a. internship) at IBM exactly a decade ago when I was a young lad at the age of 19.  June 30th, 2003 was my first day.  I had just finished my sophomore year of college and was looking for a summer job, just something to keep me occupied, to put on my resume, and to make some extra cash so I could spend it during the school year.  As a student in computer engineering, I figured I'd apply to some local engineering corporations.  I applied to two places off the bat: Honeywell and IBM.  My interview at Honeywell was very short.  A couple of engineers met me in the lobby and described the job I'd be doing as writing up lab reports.  They asked me a few questions and after 20 minutes, I was on my way.  A few days later, I had an interview at IBM.  At IBM, I actually went inside their building and I met with several engineers from this team called Performance.  They showed me all the cool computers they had in the lab and I sat down with this jolly, older fellow named Sonny who talked to me for about 45 minutes about this thing called "disaster recovery".  My entire interview at IBM lasted about 2 hours and I was pretty certain if I had to pick between Honeywell and IBM, I would pick IBM in a heartbeat.  Later that week, I got offers from both IBM and Honeywell and I respectfully declined Honeywell and happily accepted IBM.

As a soon to be junior at the U of A, IBM paid me very well at about $19/hr.  Considering I came from being a courtesy clerk at Fry's making $5.50/hr and a file clerk at U-Haul making $6/hr, I was extremely happy with the pay.  My friend called me "Moneybags Andy" that summer since I was making so much more than everyone else.  The internship was originally intended to be just a summer job, but I guess IBM enjoyed my fellowship and contributions enough that they decided to keep me around part time during my junior and senior years of school.  I can still remember how challenging those years were for me to handle and it's amazing that I didn't just collapse from it all.  I was still averaging 16 units a semester in the college of Computer Engineering and trying to maintain 12-20 hours a week of part-time work at IBM.  I constantly found myself only getting about 4 hours of sleep on most nights, falling asleep in class, driving 20 minutes to and from the IBM office on school days, and sometimes falling asleep at work even with my coworkers right next to me.  Yet I was able to muscle through the tough times and come the end of my senior year, IBM decided that they wanted to have me join their workforce after I graduated, so my focus became solely on finishing college and getting my degree.  And so I started fulltime at IBM on May 11, 2005.

After working at IBM as a co-op for 2 years, I had saved up quite a bit of money in my bank account.  The year was 2005 and you may recall that it was a very popular time to purchase homes.  I can still remember all the people who suggested to me, "buy a house!"  I had the money to afford a home and at the time, I too thought it would be a good investment, it'd be a step up in a life, and so I set a 5-year plan: live in Tucson for 5 years at IBM and by then I can move on to something else.  So I ended up buying this 3-bedroom 2-bath house over on the west side of Tucson.  Of course, as you know by now, 2005 was close to the peak of the housing market that would ultimately crash several years later.  I now live in a house that's about 36% underwater with no possibility of selling it anytime soon.  Oh, and that 5-year plan is now going on year #8.  While it's depressing to think about, I'm okay with it since I like my house enough and it's perfect for me and Duncan.

At IBM, I was hired on the Performance team, mostly working the first several years on the DS8K product line.  Lately I have moved around a bit more, working on the SONAS storage system and the new FlashSystem.  I've spent my entire career here in Performance, which is not uncommon; some of my team members have been here for almost all of their career, 20 years+.  At IBM, I've had a chance to work with some amazing people both on my team and external to my department.  I consider myself a pretty social guy and have met so many IBMers through work, the softball, basketball, and bowling leagues, and even via the online gaming arena of StarCraft 2.  To me, the people at IBM have always been very friendly and laid back like myself and while not everyone fits this mold, most seem to.  I've learned a lot from all my colleagues, yet there is still one person who will always stand out in my mind: Ime.

Ime started at IBM a few years after I started and joined the Performance team here in Tucson.  Ime is a couple years older than me, but he befriended me immediately and he was someone I really looked up to.  No matter who thinks otherwise, at the age of 23 you are still very immature.  I was arrogant and felt I was mature and had everything figured out, but Ime really opened my eyes to a new way of embracing life and truly being a good person, not just acting like one.  If you didn't know Ime, he was a very charismatic person, but he was always thinking about how his actions and his personality affected the people around him.  He always maintained a cool, positive outlook on life and he was the kind of person everyone wanted to know and be friends with.  Sure, he was also 6'5", black, and the ladies deemed him "a beautiful man", but he was never arrogant and he never looked down on people.  He trusted you and respected you and if you gave him a reason not to, he'd just challenge you to be a better person instead of giving up on you.  Ime is a big reason I've become the amiable and remarkable person I am now.  While I personally came up with the phrase "Make It Happen" on my own, it was Ime's example that led me to that lifestyle and I am very thankful to him for teaching so much, perhaps more than he'll ever realize.  The culture and social network at IBM is definitely a big reason why I enjoy working here.

The work at IBM has always been very interesting yet challenging for me.  One of the aspects that first drew me to this company was the fact that I got to work so closely with the computer hardware that I benchmark.  The hands-on-experience is something that I love having access to, even on days when I'd rather not be in the office.  While the work is challenging, I feel like it is all within my abilities, or I'm fortunate that there are enough great minds to help me through the obstacles I encounter.  However, one of the biggest benefits I love from my particular job is the flexible schedule.  I am fortunate to work in a department that truly rates your performance on the results you deliver, not the hours you put into your work.  I have the opportunity to work my own hours and I have the option of working remotely.  This is not to say that I've never worked really late nights or weekends, but usually it's on me to decide when I need to work off-peak hours.  The flexible schedule really helps keep the stress level down, largely due to the fact that I can almost always get a full night of rest each day and I rarely feel like I've 'been at the office for too long'.  I almost never am stressed out from work to be honest and I think that only increases my productivity.  I also believe I can say that I cater my work around my lifestyle instead catering my lifestyle around my work, and that's not something many people can brag about.

One thing I will always have to thank IBM for is repairing my knee.  In the 2006 IBM Basketball League, I tore my ACL during a league game driving my way to the basket.  My knee was completely torn and surgery would be required to repair it.  However, because the injury happened in IBM Basketball League at a time where IBM was covering its employees playing in the league, I was able to claim Worker's Compensation. :) IBM's life insurance covered my arthroscopic surgery, covered 3 months worth of physical therapy, and I received "personal impairment" checks for 6 months.  I never saw a single bill on how much they spent on me, but I can only imagine that it was at least $40,000 in services.  IBM repaired my knee and ever since I've been able to play basketball again with no restraints, winning myself 2 championships and making finals appearances in 6 of my 8 years playing in IBM Basketball League.

IBM has allowed me to live the life I want to live, mostly due to the great schedule and the great pay (I think I am paid well and you can argue with me if you'd like).  Thus, I'm able to enjoy my social life, enjoy my extracurricular activities, enjoy traveling, and enjoy the luxuries of life since time and money are never an issue for me.  As for the city of Tucson, I really enjoy living here, but that's because I'm a simple man with simple needs.  To name a few things, I look forward to my sports leagues on certain days of the week, know exactly what days I'm going to work out at the gym, and I enjoy having the local bars and restaurants around here that I love.  I personally don't need to live in a big city, live by the beach or in the mountains to be happy; I feel like the city has enough for me.  One could say that my life here in Tucson is pretty much perfect, but that person would be lying.  There is obviously one big thing missing in my life, but I attribute it to the poor dating scene here in Tucson and the mentality of the women living here that just doesn't seem to match up with mine very often.  There aren't a lot of young professional women who are around my level in terms of age, career, and personality.  Or maybe there are and I've just been unlucky and haven't met anyone who like that yet!  In my past 10 years in Tucson I've never met anyone I could have a serious relationship with and perhaps I wouldn't have so few options if I were living in a bigger city with more women who match up well with me.

So in the end, a decade of my life has passed.  I've spent 10 years at IBM and living in Tucson.  Now the question is, "Is my 10-year anniversary at IBM worth celebrating?"  The answer is a no-brainer: "Absolutely!"  I am very happy with my life and the person I've become.  I have a great career and a great reputation and if possible, I would love to retire with IBM.  I am never stressed out from work, which only makes my a happier person to be and be around.  I have met so many great people at IBM and in Tucson and have more friends than I can make time for.  I make more than my single ass can spend on my own.  While I've somewhat sacrificed my lovelife to live and work here, I have no regrets about that and will continue to work here for as long as I can.  Thanks IBM for everything you've provided for me so far and I can only hope to continue on towards a great future!

Now I'm gonna go out, drink my ass off, and celebrate...because I can! WOOOOOO!! IBM X!!!

Lexus IS 250/350: How to Replace the Cruise Control Lever

One day my cruise control lever broke when I accidentally pressed it downward too hard.  The shaft snapped in half and I was forced to take it apart with just the bare wires hanging since it would flop around every time I turned the wheel otherwise.

I asked the Lexus dealer how much it would cost me to have them fix it and they wanted $150 for the part and $175 for labor, bringing the grand total to a whopping $325!  That seemed like a lot to pay for such a simple part that theoretically still worked, so I explored my Do-It-Yourself options and what I found only cost me $85 for the part!

How-To Guide: Replacing the Cruise Control Lever on a Lexus IS250/350
Note: My car is the 2006 IS250 model, not sure if newer models are different.
DISCLAIMER: If you follow my guide to fix your cruise control lever, you do so at your own risk. I am not liable for any resulting damage, injury, or expense. I am not a professional mechanic in any sense and this guide is solely for informational purposes. 

PURCHASE PART ONLINE:
-Adaptive Cruise Control Lever #CCA1022 (~$85 after shipping at rockauto.com)
 

STEP 1:
Disconnect the car battery.  This is a safety precaution obviously!

STEP 2: 
Locate the side panels on each side of your steering wheel and pop them off gently with a knife

 
Use a special screwdriver to unscrew the fastener that keeps the front panel / airbag in place.

STEP 3:

Carefully lift the front panel / airbag and set it above your steering wheel.  I didn't have to disconnect the airbag to access the cruise control lever and I imagine you shouldn't unless you absolutely need to.

Unscrew the two screws holding the cruise control lever onto the wheel and remove the old piece.  All that will remain is the electrical connector.

Connect your new cruise control lever and then put everything back together!  Don't forget to reconnect your battery too!

This literally took me like 15 minutes to execute but it was my first time (and hopefully the last since I will be more gentle when I set my my cruise control from now on)!

MORE LEXUS IS250/350 GUIDES BY ANDY:
Lexus IS 250/350: How to Perform an Oil Change

Tucson APA 8-Ball City Tournament!

NEW UPDATE!

You may recall back in April I blogged about a bunch of the sports I was currently competing in.  While IBM basketball league didn't fair so well and I failed to make the finals for just the 2nd time in 8 years, today I am here to write to you about the upcoming city tournament for my pool league!

Back in April, my Tuesday night 8-ball team (nicknamed "The Dollar Menu") was fighting for 1st place overall and it came down pretty much to the last night, but we were victorious and we won the session as well as a bid into the Tri-Cup tournament.  That tournament actually occurred over Memorial Day Weekend while I was in New Orleans, but fortunately my team did well enough without me to qualify for the City Tournament, where the winners will have a chance to play in Vegas!

Below you will find the bracket.  I'm really excited to play in something like this, although it could encompass the entire weekend, depending on how we do.  Wish us luck!  Who could of thought a bunch of beginner type players could make it this far in just their first year of APA pool league!?

TOURNAMENT RESULTS:

On Friday night, our team played The Outlawz.  I put players up mostly based on how they were feeling that night, but as team captain I'm still very strategic in the order and matchups I want my players to get.  Unfortunately, every player I sent up that night against this team lost, and we found ourselves in the losers bracket coming back Saturday afternoon.

 

Our next match was Saturday at 2:30pm.  As team captain, I'm always an advocate of trying to give every player a chance to play in the tournament, so I put up 2 new players against team South Tucson Deadstrokes (yes, STDs lol).  The two players I sent up lost and our team quickly found ourselves down 0-2, 1 loss away from tournament elimination.  I hadn't played my strongest player Erica yet, and while most captains would probably do so here, I decided at that point that I just wanted a chance to play since I hadn't yet.  I ended up playing a 5 (I'm a 3, but don't forget I was Top-Gun in city last year...if they had a Top Gun for city).  I ended up "Racklessing" the guy 2-0 (that's where they don't get a chance to break a rack).  I was happy that team finally won a match, but the news I heard next would be most surprising.  Apparently the other team had to forfeit the final two matches because their 4th player was already playing in a different match and their 5th was never going to show up to begin with.  So we ended up advancing to the next round!  It was super lucky on my part that we advanced, since had I played Erica instead where she would have to win more games, that 4th player might've been able to play after all.  Nonetheless, we took the win and stayed for our 7pm matchup against Yup!.

 

For the 7pm match I continued to strategize, still trying to pick each matchup to give our team the best chance to win.  Chris ended up winning the first match and there was one player left on our team who had not played all weekend, so I let Vanessa play the 2nd game in a 3-2 race.  She ended up winning as well!  And for the final match I put up Tyler against a 6 (because I wanted to save Erica for later if needed), but Tyler ended up winning as well, so we went 3-0 and advanced to Sunday!

 

After a late night of partying Saturday night, I headed back to Clicks on Sunday around 11 to find that Anthony had lost the first match against team 8 Balls of Fire.  He was pretty exhausted all weekend from having to drive from Vegas just days earlier and wasn't playing well throughout most of the tournament.  I put Erica up next so she could go to work for a few hours and she solidly won her matchup.  The next player was a 3, but I knew she was a Top Gun for her tier in her league, so I put myself up.  It was a good battle but I ended up taking that match and Chris took the next so we won 3-1 and found ourselves in the semifinals!

 

At 2:30pm we found ourselves against The Outlawz once again.  This time I threw new players at them they had not seen before and we started out even at 1-1.  I put Erica up against a 4, but their 4 played very well and was able to steal that match from our team. :( Tyler was up 4th and found himself up against another strong 4 that ended up winning and taking the series 1-3.  I was left on the bench but was saving myself for the possible sudden death match. :/

 

All in all, I was really proud of my team and how far we came, just series away from Vegas in our first year playing pool league.  We're still getting better and I'm sure we'll have more chances in future years if we all stay together.  We're already on our way as we're in 1st place again this session through 5 weeks.  The APA city tournament was a lot of fun and I'm glad I could be a part of it; I love competing!!!

New Orleans - An Amazing City!

Over the Memorial holiday weekend, I went New Orleans with Mike and a bunch of his east coast friends.  Let me tell you about this AMAZING city that I've always wanted to go check out!

Mike and his friends got in on Wednesday, but I elected to leave on Thursday morning because I have IBM Basketball League on Wednesday nights. :) Anyway, I booked a 5am flight out of Tucson that would put me in New Orleans by noon on Thursday.  Running on 5 hours of broken airline sleep, I landed in New Orleans at the same time as two other couples: Steve and Sarah from D.C. and Sam and Steph from New York. (Yes, I joked about them all having names starting with S.)  The five of us caught a cab to town and got Deanie's for lunch since the others had already eaten.  Deanie's had some delicious crawfish boil...I got 2 pounds worth LOL. :)  I enjoyed it so much that I would actually end up getting this on the last day before I flew back home.

After Deanie's, we all met up on Bourbon street, which was within walking distance from our hotel.  Bourbon street is the most popular street in New Orleans for bars and partying.  It's where you get to see drunk girls make fools of themselves and flash their boobies for beads.  And yes, I saw 3 pairs of nice tits on this trip just as I was walking along the street. :P Thursday ended up being pretty crazy.  We kicked off the afternoon with some very strong Hand Grenades (imagine a frozen, lime skittle flavored drink made with Everclear).  We then went to Pat O'Brien's and Mike introduced us to this $120 mega-huge drink that we all shared.  The glass is so large that it requires a $75 deposit as well.  It tasted kind of like sangria, and I hear there were about 40 shots of vodka in it, ha!

The drinks in New Orleans are very strong! And when I say that, it's almost an understatement.  By nighttime, everyone in our group was super wasted and we ended up actually forgetting to eat dinner.  I remember stopping by some pizza shop on the street and eating some delicious Buffalo Wing Pizza.  Around 8pm, my shorts were stained red from the frozen mixed drinks that we had been drinking, and I actually got lost in all the bar-hopping.  There's actually a hilarious sequence of text messages between me and Mike when I got lost.

What I loved the most about this trip were the people and their mentality.  Everyone in our group wanted to have a good time and we all got very drunk to the same level.  We all know that sometimes it gets annoying when your friend is drunk and your sober or vice-versa, but everyone was just wasted every night we were out.  It was my kind of group, one that could actually keep up for a change! :) I mean, New Orleans was the first city where I ever saw a 3-for-1 special.  3-for-1!!!  That blew my mind and I just had to order 6 beers at a time! :P

When we weren't out drinking or eating, we tried to do some other touristy things.  On Friday we took an airboat tour in the bayous surrounding Lake Salvador.  We actually had plans to start the tour at 1pm, but that tour ended up getting rained out.  We were contemplating whether it was worth staying for the 4pm tour, but it totally was!  The first time our guide caught a gator and brought him onto our boat, I was a little nervous, especially since I was in the front row.  But I got a ton of great pictures of the swamps and marshes, and I got to hold the guide's pet alligator.  This tour was well worth the wait and the $75 it costs.

Saturday was more of relaxing day where we tried to check out any parts of New Orleans that we had not had a chance to visit.  This included going down to the French Market, playing so craps at the casino, and drinking on Frenchman Street.  All in all, it was a great trip and I'm really glad I went.  There were 15 of us total and for the most part we tried to stay together and there wasn't a bunch of drama, just a bunch of fun stories. :)  If you ever do get the chance to go to New Orleans, I would highly recommend Deanie's Seafood, Felix's Restaurant, and Willie's Chicken Shack as must-visit food places.  I really wanted to try Acme Oyster House and the beignets at Cafe du Monde, but couldn't because the wait was always so long...it's better to try and go to those places during the week before the weekends get packed with tourists.  I can't wait to go back to New Orleans and I will definitely go back again as it is now one of my favorite cities to visit!

Austin, TX

For Chris's bachelor party, he decided to go to Austin, TX.  He had never been and neither had I, but I had always heard about the great nightlife and that it was definitely a city to check out sometime.  Having traveled there, I definitely confirm that there are just rows of bars in downtown...it's like something I've never seen before.  There's literally one bar next to each other with almost no end in sight, it's kind of amazing that bars can stay competitive like this, but I guess people in Austin just love to drink and party...

I left for Austin on Thursday afternoon and it was a crazy start to my vacation.  My flight out of Tucson was originally scheduled for a 12:10pm departure, but right as I was driving away from my house at 11:00am, I got an e-mail saying the flight was delayed until 1:45pm.  Rather than wait at the airport for an hour and a half, I figured I'd just play some Diablo at home and then get some BK Taco Stand before my flight.  12:00pm rolls around and I get a new e-mail saying that the new departure time is 1:15pm, so I'm like, "okay, I should leave now so I can still grab some food, but I guess I will settle for the other BK."  As I pull into the drive-thru at Burger King and am waiting for my food, I get a new e-mail saying the flight leaves at 12:45 now.  Ruh roh!  So now I have like 25 minutes make it to the airport AND park my car.  As I run into the Southwest check-in stand at 12:40, I ask the lady if I can still make that flight.  She calls the gate and tells me, "probably not, but you should run to the gate and try."  Fortunately there was only 1 other person in the security line (man I love Tucson airport) and as I was running to my gate, I hear on the intercom, "Last call for Andrew Lin, doors closing in 5 seconds."  I make it to the gate and it's already closed, but the attendant opens it and lets me through, lol.  Such a close call and I'm extremely pissed at Southwest for the misleading e-mails!  I guess moral of the story is to not take too many chances and next time just go to the airport bar and drink...

Finally in Austin several hours later 'cause I had a connection in Las Vegas...

On the first night I met up with Chris, Nate, Pete, and other Chris, but that Chris passed out early from too much day drinking, a common theme of this particular bachelor party lol.  We headed out to 6th street that night, spending most of it at Kung Fu Saloon, a pretty chill bar with several video games to play (skeeball too but it was busy).  It was a fairly chill night, but we did stop by Magnolia Cafe on the way home, which I will say has awesome Queso Dip and great food.  I know I might've been drunk, but my tastebuds still function fine even then!

The next day, the rest of the party arrived in Austin including Chris's brother Mike, Lee, Adam, Doug, and Matt.  We started out with some Tex Mex lunch at Iron Cactus on 6th street, which was delicious but expensive in my opinion.  We then made our way over to Bikinis and had several shots and Dos Equis as shown below!

For the most part, Chris's bachelor party was a bunch of drinking at various bars around downtown.  Interestingly enough, Nate, Mike, and I did wander into the Pecan Street Festival on Saturday when we were trying to go back to 6th street.  Being the alcoholic that I am, I decided to get myself a 24oz Coors Light for only $4.  Mike and Nate weren't really day drinking much at that point, so they decided to meet up with Chris and some other guys to check out UT's campus.  I kept on drinking and checked out the festival, not really finding much interesting other than a big fat turkey leg.  Ugh, I ate soooo much this weekend and followed up a 1 lb turkey leg with a 22oz rib-eye steak at the Roaring Fork just a few hours later, lol.

In the end, a solid bachelor party and I think Chris got everything he wanted out of it.  Now it's just the waiting game until his wedding in New Jersey come September!

On Sunday I met up with my friend Mike who used to work at the IBM in Tucson but transferred to the IBM in Austin.  He took me to one of his favorite dive bars called C-Hunts Ice House where there's an ice trough at the bar where you can stash your beer.  Although there is really no reason to ever nurse a beer so long enough that it would go warm... Nonetheless, a novel idea!  I went to IBM Austin on Monday to say hello to a few coworkers and just check out the plant, but I think I definitely enjoy the Tucson site better.

Austin was a pretty cool city to check out, but it wouldn't be on one of my top cities to live in.  Anyhoos, was just great to be on vacation again since it had been a while!  Next stop Apache Lake and then New Orleans! W00T W00T!

Sports Competition Updates!

Shortly after the New Year, I blogged about a bunch of extracurricular sports leagues I was participating in.  Several months later, it's time to give you a much needed update!

IBM Bowling League:
The team was unable to make it back to the championship game, missing the finals for the first time in 5 years. I think part of the problem was 2 bowlers started out with 200-pin averages (Tony and myself) and we were unable to maintain it, which really hurt towards the end of the season.  After about 15 weeks I had a 198 average, but I fell to 191 by the end of week 24.  I feel like I just got mentally and maybe physically fatigued.  I had joined a 9-week summer league for fun beforehand, but when you tack that on to the regular 25-week season, maybe it was just all too much.  191 is still an improvement from 190 last year however, and I will be looking to improve on next season!  Towards the end of the year I even invested in a non-reactive straight ball that I use to throw at 10-pins.  My pickup rate on the 10-pin went from 50% to 80% in the last few weeks, so I'm hoping that I can take my game to the next level next season!

After Hours Gaming League:
The AHGL StarCraft season was going well up until the semifinals when team IBM faced a very strong opponent in Microsoft.  We had the matchups we wanted going into that battle, but 2 players who we were expecting to win didn't, myself included.  Team IBM ended up losing in the semis and unfortunately won't be going back to Santa Monica this year.  There were just so many good teams with good players this year's league that it really could've gone either way.  While disappointing and depressing, it was still a fun season and I met even more great StarCraft players who are also IBMers.  We look forward to getting back at it next season!

It should be noted that Team IBM was 0-3 this season when ATrain lost his game.  That guy needs to step it up next time! >:O

Tucson APA 8-Ball League:
There are a few 8-Ball leagues for APA (American Poolplayers Association) in Tucson, but I play in the Tuesday league at the Fox and Hound.  Our team, nicknamed "The Dollar Menu" features a band of my friends who I recruited to come drink some cheap pints, have some fun, and maybe play some pool.  The pool league is a handicap league where a lower skilled player can actually have a chance of beating a higher skilled player on any given night (although generally the higher skilled players will be winning more often).  The team as a whole must not exceed a certain number of skill level points, which means you can't just stack a team with awesome players.

The funny thing about our team is that we really are a bunch of noobs.  Skill levels range from 2-7 with 2 being the lowest, and to give you an idea, last year we had on our team two 2's, and three 3's (you play 5 players a night and the maximum skill level total cannot exceed 23; so you can see we were playing with 13 points LOL).  We were really bad and got our butts handed to us last season, but this year we've improved a lot, added a couple players, and wouldn't you know it, we're in 1st place going into the last week of the season!  It's really crazy because we are all lower-leveled players, but in a way other teams have been rooting for us to do well...it shows a lot about the handicap system and never before has a team with these skill levels done so well!

Going into the final week of the regular season, my team sits on top at 1st place with a 2-point cushion over the 2nd place team.  We came up huge against that team last week winning 4 out of 5 points and we'd basically have to have a meltdown tonight to lose our grip on 1st place.  The 1st place team of the league will get an automatic bid into the city 8-ball tournament that includes all the leagues from all over the city...and not to mention we win a fat stack of monies as well. :)

But that's not all.  There's an award called "Top Gun" that goes to the player with the most Top Gun points in the league for each skill level tier.  Each time you beat a player, you earn Top Gun points equivalent to their skill level.  I have a 3-point lead in my skill level tier and if I can maintain it in the final week I will win a patch!  But there's still more.  The Top Gun award extends into the city and if you are the highest player in all the leagues in the city, you get a plaque!  My 31 points are tied with another player, so really it all comes down to tonight and whether I can get a solid win against a decently skilled opponent!

Either way, it's been amazing season and I am so happy I joined the pool league here in Tucson.  I've had so much fun and have met so many new and fun people!

IBM Basketball League:
IBM basketball league has begun and we are already 4 weeks into the season!  I took over as co-commissioner this year and helped register our league at the gym we play at (Clements Center), got insurance coverage to cover the gym (since IBM no longer sponsors us; yeah, sucky, we're kind of an independent league now), and got IBMers and their guests to sign up and play!

As the defending champ, my team is built around it's core of 3 players: myself, Ryan, and Cooper.  Ryan is the best player in the league and arguably one of the best in Tucson.  To give you an idea of how good we are, in week 2 we scored a whopping 79 points to the tune of a 79-62 victory where Ryan dropped 40 (thus overshadowing my solid 22 points of production heh). 

But I bear some bad news.  Last week we were 3-0 going into week 4, but 10 minutes into the 2nd half, Ryan's foot got caught on another player's foot and he ended up dislocating his ankle and sustaining a small fracture. :'(  It was the worst case scenario and my star player is pretty much done for the season.  I'm really sad because a talent like Ryan's can't be released and he will surely be missed.  We ended up losing that game unfortunately.  Going into future weeks we have recruited replacements to help fill out our roster and bench, but the road to the repeat will surely be more difficult this year.  Time for me to step up my game!

Upcoming Travel and Fun Stuff!
When I'm not enjoying my leagues, I'll be out and about, still making it happen!  The next 6 weekends will be jam packed for me, but I'm looking forward to all of it.  We have on our way:
1. Birthday parties in Tucson for Matt (4/26) and Wes (4/27).
2. Bachelor Party for Chris and visiting Mike in Austin, TX (5/2 - 5/6).
3. Birthday party in Tucson for Dori (5/11).
4. Wakeboarding at Apache Lake with Matt, Doug, and Jonny (5/16 - 5/18).
5. New Orleans with Mike (5/23 - 5/26).
6. Salt River Tubing with Ann, Dori, and Wes (6/1).
Can't wait for May to roll around!  Gonna be fun!  Thanks for stopping by Andy Andy Blog and see ya next time!