Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

2006-08-12T18:04:00.000-04:00

FINALLY time for a post after some requests, namely Fang. I know I'm way overdue.

My new roommate, Justin, and I went to a nearby suburb (Manayunk) Thursday night. We met some fellow KPMG-er's at Kildare's (the bar). Apparently a girl Justin met at the Preakness (like the Kentucky Derby if you haven't heard) was at the same bar. So her and her friend came over. To make the situation even more interesting, the girl who works at our apartment pool as the lifeguard and presumably likes Justin was at the bar also.

So, the lifeguard's friend came over to talk to me as I think the lifeguard chick was talking to Justin. So this black girl and I are now talking for a few minutes and out of nowhere she tells me that I like Asian girls. I'm like WTF, how did you know, how can you tell, etc. etc. Before she gave me her reasoning, I explained my liking for Asian girls was a preference NOT a fetish. To my surprising, she actually understood because being a minority herself (an African-American), she prefers white guys.

So, she gave me four reasons why I appear to like Asian girls. The first two I agree with, the latter two I disagree with. You be the judge. The rundown:

1. I'm skinny.
2. I have dark hair.
3. I have a punk-ish kind of look. Apparently, she derived this from the FCUK shirt I was wearing. (Side note: the shirt got a lot of complements so I plan on wearing it a lot.)
4. I have an alternative look to myself also.

I was very surprised and found it quite hilarious that a total stranger was able to predict from my appearance that I liked Asian girls...who the hell would have thought?

24 hrs.

2006-06-10T14:46:00.000-04:00

Leaving in 24 hours for LA and 40 hours for Tokyo.

Me---> anxious, excited, nervous.

somone help

2006-06-06T19:25:00.000-04:00

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME WITH ACCOMMODATION IN SINGAPORE? I STILL NEED A PLACE TO STAY :( IF YOU CAN, PLEASE EMAIL ME - markjmarasco@gmail.com. I WILL BE IN SINGAPORE FROM 4 JULY TIL 24 JULY...but I'm thinking of going to Thailand from the 12th to 20th approximately.

japan so son

2006-06-04T23:35:00.000-04:00

I leave for Japan one week from now...sort of. I leave for Los Angeles next Sunday and then I'm sleeping at my friend's apartment overnight. My flight departs Monday and because of the time differences, I arrive in Tokyo on Tueday mid-afternoon.

Hiro, being the great friend, found me info. about the limousine bus for me to get from the airport to Shibuya where we could have dinner. It was my idea to have dinner the day/night I arrived. Me, being the complete stupid ass, forgot that I would have four pieces of luggage with me - my bookbag, my duffle bag, and two pieces of large luggage. Sh*t Mark, you are stupid. Like I'm sure restaurants would like you to come with luggage in tow....hahahaha. Oh well, my mind has been on sooo many things that I failed to think of this scenario...lol.

BUT, I just emailed Hiro to find out what I/we should do about meeting up again. I'm praying that everything goes smoothly, i.e. that I don't get lost getting from the airport to center Tokyo to meet Hiro.

AND, Moe and I are planning on going to Kyoto and Osaka.

AND, Hiro and I are planning on going to Mt. Fuji (not sure if Moe is coming).

JEALOUS? Muuuhahahahaha.

updates

2006-05-20T14:42:00.000-04:00

So after three and a half months of complete and utter laziness, I finally decided to change my age from 21 to 22 along with my location, favourite song, etc. in the "About Me" section. I have continually failed to find a new blogskin. Everything on www.blogskin.com is so damn feminine-looking. I have been a fresh uni graduate for about a week now. I still don't think it has sunk in yet because I feel like I've just come home for summer break. I figure it will sink in 15 August, my first day of work. According to some reports, this year's graduating class is the best in terms of receiving jobs, nice salaries, and bonuses since the dot com boom. I can probably attest to that.

Back in December, I received a mailing from US Airways asking me to choose free subscriptions to use up my frequent flier miles. I had about 7,000 from traveling during last summer's internship so I'm assuming they were acting in my interest in that this was the best way to use up the miles...free subscriptions...since you need at least 30,000 for a free roundtrip flight in the US. So I chose educational subscriptions like The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and The Economist. But, I also chose MAXIM - something extra-curricular.

In each monthly issue, MAXIM as a column called "Ask Heidi" who is also referred to as "The First Lady of Sex!" People can write in to her and get their questions answered. The following question and response came from the June 2006 issue, copyright MAXIM.

Question: "My buddy and I have a $100 bet on this one: What's a more popular request among guys who pay for sex - a threesome or an Asian chick? - Sal, 20, New York City"

Answer (by Heidi): "I would say it's 50-50. Asians are really hot right now. The standard thinking about Asian women is that they're great because they're submissive and they do anything, and there might be something to that. But beyond the whole submissive stereotype - and I know plenty of Asian women who don't fit that profile at all - Asian women always seem to have really great skin. That's part of the attraction. They look very clean and presentable in public. Guys want a girl they can bring to a charity function, then take home and get her down on all fours and do the nastiest things they ever thought of. Classy on the town and porno star in the bedroom - that's what guys are after."

This is probably the best column (...hahaha) I've read in a long time. Some of the other funny/amusing questions asked by guys in this issue were: "My friend's little sister is superhot and always coming on to me. Should I nail her even though my buddy would probably kill me?" AND "I recently started dating a women who has a reputation for being a skank. She seems like a sweet girl, but I can't help believing the rumors. What can you say that'll make me feel better about her?"

To any guy that read this post, pick up the next issue of MAXIM. To any girl that read this post, sorry for possibly being offended.

graduation

2006-05-13T14:15:00.000-04:00

Graduation < 24 hours away. Everyone is sad and depressed. I'm emotionless - neither happy nor sad. Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet that it's all over.

where i'll be living

2006-05-11T12:21:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to where I'll be living come August. It's a pretty sweet place, basically brand new. I think we'll be only the second tenants to occupy the apartment.

http://www.riverwalkapts.com/

Here's a look at the floor plan. It's the first one.

http://www.riverwalkapts.com/floorplans/index.php?plan=2bedloft

For some reason the links don't work, so you'll have to copy and paste.

so pissed

2006-05-10T23:02:00.000-04:00

I'm soooooooooooo pissed with myself right now!!!! I'm soooo stupid! ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!

you know you're bored when...

2006-05-06T21:38:00.000-04:00

You know you're bored when:

1. You check your uni email, gmail, and hotmail every half hour even though you know you won't have any new messages.

2. You start taking things off walls, pack up bags, and do other cleaning up activities a frickin week before you're scheduled to leave when you normally do it the night before.

3. You clean everyone's dishes when normally you b*tch at your roomies if they don't do them fast enough.

I'm sure I'll have more "you know you're bored when" statements soon, i.e. within 12 hours.

boredom strikes

2006-05-06T11:40:00.000-04:00

Since I'm bored out of my f-ing mind, I figured I could occupy it by blogging.

I finished uni this past Monday. I only had two finals (this week, two last week). I can't believe it's all over. In three and a half months, I will be in the real world. I've considered just staying somewhere in Asia and never going back to the US...haha. I wish I could do that. Anyways, finals and the semester went well. I got two A's, one A-, and two B+'s which gave me a semester GPA of 3.70 and a cumulative GPA of 3.70...props to me. I will also be graduating with "distinction" since I will be graduating with at least a 3.69 cum. GPA. It's sorta the equivalent of graduating "cum laude" but if you're not in the honors college (like me), you cannot be given that honor...only distinction or high distinction or highest distinction. For me, it was just a pride thing graduating with distinction. I get nothing for it except for self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

I will be "walking" next Sunday, Mother's Day. Of course, they had to schedule graduation on Mother's Day so that our mothers will have 2x the amount of tears since we're graduating AND it's Mother's Day. Please send me mom a box of tissues.
In the meantime, I have to occupy myself for the next week. I've gone out the past couple of nights but like always that gets old and expensive. It's no where near to being like Melbourne where I actually enjoyed every night out except for those high drama nights...although I guess those moments made the nights unique. Anyways, I bought two books earlier this week. I bought "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, a book about globalization and "The Smartest Guys in the Room" by Beth McLean and some other dude/chick, a book about the Enron scandal. I started reading The World is Flat, 50 pages thru, 450 more to go. I think I can finish it before graduation next Sunday.

Sooo yeah. That's about it in my unexciting life except for doing little things for my trip, for example, b*tching out Travelocity and making them accommodate me on a new domestic roundtrip flight.

I guess I can tell you about the start of my job too. I got an email yesterday from the KPMG recruiters about starting/training. You're definitely gonna be jealous after reading this. From 21 August until 31 August, I will be in Orlando, Florida at one of the Disney Resorts for my "Audit Fundamentals" training. Then, I fly back to Philly. Then, from 15 Septemeber until 19 September, I will be in Dallas, Texas ("Don't mess with Texas!") for Advisory training. Training is like a holiday, literally. Yes, you go to class, but you don't really pay attention. You have the nights to do whatever...aka go to the bars/clubs. And, our flights, hotel (extremely nice btw...like a $200 Marriott), and food are all paid for! So that's what I love, an easy first month of training and getting paid for it!

*peace*

one week from today

2006-04-24T10:10:00.000-04:00

One week from today, I will be done with uni FOREVER!!!!...or at least I think forever. If you're in my last semester of uni, which few of you are, you probably know how I feel.

2006-04-21T17:08:00.000-04:00

Only 51 days until I leave for Japan!!!!!!

kpmg success dinner

2006-04-20T14:34:00.000-04:00

Last night was the KPMG Success Dinner for all fulltime and intern hires at Zola's New World Bistro, the nicest restaurant here in State College/University Park. Since there were about 100 of us, they had to close the restaurant to the public! Seriously, you know you're working for someone kinda important when they can close a restaurant to the public for the ENTIRE night man! Some of us guessed it probably cost $10,000 which was confirmed by a KPMG recruiter. Yes, $10,000 divided by 100 people is $100/head.

Although, I was kind of disappointed. Instead of getting the menu like any other night, they made special menus where we could choose from 1 of 3 appetizers, entrees, and desserts. OK, maybe I'm spoiled and being rude, but I really wanted the Asian Calamari Salad again for my appetizer NOT the crab cakes (...hahaha). I also wanted filet mignon which wasn't one of the choices for entree. damn!

After dinner, they took us (for those over 21) to a bar and paid for our drinks! At dinner and Mad Mex, I spoke with Stephanie, a hot blond who will interning in Philly. I basically learned from her that she LOVES to party. Last school year, she claims that she partied 6 out of 7 nights, but this year she's "taking it easy." I could tell the 2nd year student sitting across from me was rather appalled by her drinking behaviour, but I also think he's a goodie-goodie that likes to study. At one point he said, "When I was in my room at 11:15 on Friday night, I could her all the girls heals clicking on the stairs." Seriously dude, get the f*ck out of your room. It's Friday night man! It's kind of funny because it seems like KPMG always hires students that are either HUGE party animals or those that don't drink at all and just like to chill at home and watch a movie or something but nothing in between. Sometimes I feel like I don't fit in because I'm one of the very few people "in between." Some nights I like to go out and party hard and other nights I just feel like staying in and watching a movie, but I'm not at the extremes.

Anyways, enough details. I rate the evening an 8 out 10 based on the food, drinks, and conversation.

BTW, prior to dinner, they had a reception aka drinking time. I tried buying a mojito, but they weren't serving liquor....BAH!!!

It was also funny seeing the former Philly recruiter after dinner ABSOLUTELY trashed which happens to be a recurring theme at Penn State/KPMG recruiting events. She fits into the "party animal" category.

Tonight, I have my organizational banquet...yippee (*slight sarcasm*). I will hopefully have details tomorrow, assuming I don't have a nasty hangover.

do you not understand english?

2006-04-17T20:12:00.000-04:00

OK, one of my friends from back home messaged me on MSN yesterday. I was busy with homework and recovering from my hangover. I told her I would not be able to talk this week until Thursday night when I will have turned in my three assignments, an essay, and my organizational banquet was over.

You would think she would understand that. But, fu**king NOOOOOO!!! Seriously, is it that hard to understand? 3 assignments, an essay, and crap to do for our banquet = no free time for Mark. I told her I couldn't talk. So now, she decideds to message me on Skype. Like WTF? Are you that f**cking stupid. ARGH!!! I hate when people did stupid shi*t like that. If have some free time or feel like procrastinating, I will message you. Then I asked her, "see my msn name?" which reads "revising an essay" and status set to Busy. OK, enough b*itching, Mark...get back to work.

what else is new

2006-04-15T13:58:00.000-04:00

I haven't blogged in 3 weeks approx. What else is new? Originally, I thought it was laziness and procrastination, but I've become to realize that I've lost my desire for blogging, somewhat. I find myself reading and not writing. There are those blog thats I check eagerly everyday because I know there is at least a 75% chance that a new post is up. There are those blogs that I check everday even though I know that individual(s) doesn't update. And finally, there are those blogs that I check every few days or every week and skim it. But, I have a feeling my blogging activity will increase once I begin my trip, and then once again I will want to share all of my experiences and pictures.

I only have two weeks of uni left! Next week is going to suck. I have assignments due on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I almost have my essay done for Tuesday, but it's complete sh*t. At this point, I don't care but deep inside I do care because of my damn self-pride that always has to get in the way of not caring. Wednesday, KPMG will be having their success dinner for all full-time hires and interns at the nicest restaurant in State College (basically Penn State). I already know that I will be getting the Asian Calamari salad. For the enree, I am still undecided. Probably filet mignon. So I will be racking up a tab of at least $50 and that's just me. They will probably go out drinking afterwards but since I have damn 8 AM's and since I don't want to puke in my fencing mask Thursday morning, I probably won't drink. :(

I've managed to bruise a tendon in my knee or somewhere around the knee, according to the doc. I've been hobbling around campus with a wrap around my leg looking like a gimp. He told me to take 1800 mg of Advil (like panadol) every day which is A LOT. So I've been taking like half that because I don't want to kill myself from overdosing. This is my first sports-related injury ever so it's kinda weird. I managed to get it from intramural soccer when my knee collided with another dude. Probably doesn't sound bad but when you can't walk up and down stairs, there's a problem. I only have an exuse from fencing and work until next Thursday which I know is not enough time. Apparently, one of my friends had the same injury earlier this semester. How I didn't know this is another question since I see my friends at least once a month. Anyways, he said it took him about a month before he felt comfortable running on it...GRRREEEAATTT! So that means when I return to fencing on Thursday, I will probably just re-aggrevate it and push back the healing again.

Ok, I'm falling alseep now in the library and must go back to my essay. I only need 150 more words of bullsh*t...wish me luck.

the den

2006-04-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

Last night, I went to a bar to meet my friend Jill who I haven't seen in awhile. I was getting kinda bored but then her roomie, Dawn, asked me if I wanted to dance. I said "sure" seeing that I had a little buzz going and it would be better than sitting mute - saying nothing to anyone. It was a lot of fun because I haven't danced in sooo damn long.

Later I danced with Jill and some of her girlfriends (or is it girl friends?). Jill told me that out of all the guys she knows, including her boyfriend (Jim), that I was the best dancer out of them all. I obviously took that as a nice compliment and thanked her. She told me how Jim can't dance at all...haha.

While we were dancing, it appeared as though a guy, while in line for the bathroom, took a picture of Jill's ass with his camera phone. She was wearing short shorts, but that's no reason to be taking a picture of a girl's ass. Although, I have no 100% proof he did what I have said, it was damn suspicious. Open phone, pointed in such a way as to take a pic of her ass, and so forth. I told Jill what I thought the guy did and by her facial expression, I realized I probably shouldn't have told her what happened. We only danced for about a minute more.

It wasn't until this morning, while in the shower, that I realized how I totally messed up, and I became irrate with myself and the dude. I should have gone to the bouncer and asked the bouncer to remove the guy from the bar because of his really f*cked up actions. Seriously, how f*cking perverted can you be? He's probably one of those guys who can never get any, goes home by himself and masterbates over the pic, and remains the desperate person he was before. (sorry to be so blunt here). If the bouncer hadn't removed him, I decided that I would have asked the guy for his phone, proceed to smash it on the floor, and finally punch him in the mouth. I really wish I could go back 20 hours to correct my mistake. Even thinking about it now is causing my heart to beat faster and probably increasing my blood pressure.

So, in short, I will never make that mistake again. I really don't know what I was thinking. I guess I thought Jill would have been flattered if a guy was taking a pic of her ass. From now, I am going to be more conscious about defending my friends and even my friend's friends.

ib article

2006-03-16T22:51:00.000-05:00

To see a very well written article, click on the following link or copy and paste it:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.port14mar14,0,6241077.story

The article was written by my international business professor and appeared in the Baltimore Sun.

new post

2006-03-09T00:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in over a month so why not start things off again with something political. Houston, I'm sure you'll like this one.

As some of you may know, Dubai Ports World (DPW) is about to acquire P&O, a British company, for $6.8 billion who currently run American port operations in six US cities, which means that DPW could soon be operating our ports...God forbid a Middle Eastern company from running our damn US ports *scoff* *scoff* (please pick up on the sarcasm there). And, if they're from the Middle East that means they're all terrorists! - mouth gaping open. (Please note: I am speaking from the 3rd person in those last two lines)

President George Bush approved of the acquisition, one of the very few things he has gotten right in his presidency thus far. However, there is now uproar in Congress and among the American people over the acquisition. How can we have a Middle Eastern company run our ports? which supposedly equates to Arabs which equates to terrorists?!?!

I believe the acqusition should be approved because I am a strong neo-liberal follower and because this deal represents no national security threat whatsoever to the United States. The latter is what Congress has been alleging all along. National security, national security, blah blah blah. Let me explain a few things which my media has neglected to explain clearly to my fellow American people. Any company that operates our ports - whether it be an American company, British, Singaporean, or Middle Eastern - has the following responsibilities: they unload the ships, transfer the containers to the ground, and transfer the containers to empty trucks to go off in the distance. There is no responsibility of inspecting the containers. That is the responsibility of US Customs, US Immigration, and the US Coast Guard, all of whom currently inspect about 5% of incoming containers. So, that would mean this - it doesn't matter who operates our ports (f*cking Osama bin Laden could operate them for all I care) these companies will not be able to stop any potential national security threat like a bomb because it is not their responsibility. It's the responsibility of my stupid ass government. One more thing before I forget. A Kuwaiti company operates ports in New York and Newark (RIGHT NOW!!!). So far, I've heard one media source on one occassion mention this. If only 275 million other people knew the same, maybe their views would change slightly.

So why are US politicians pulling all of this sh*t? Well, with November elections just around the corner, our senators and representatives want to get re-elected. Congress has been threatening to introduce legislation to block the acquisition. In response, President Bush has said he would veto any such bill. However, Congress has punched back by saying they will override his veto with the 2/3 majority which is VERY possible. Last I checked, Congress is formulating the legislation right now.

Lastly, Americans wonder why so many people around the world hate us. If they, not me because I consider myself educated on the issue and many other international issues, weren't so f*cking ignorant about other religions, cultures, and countries then this wouldn't even be an issue. The acquisition would have been completed by now. But NO, everything in life must be complicated.

I'm sure I could write more about this whole situation, but I'm giving up for now.

something i hate

2006-02-08T21:30:00.000-05:00

This is something that I hate:

Sunday night I went over to my friend's apartment (Brian...one of my accounting friends) for a Super Bowl party. My friend, David, sms'ed me Sunday night. He sent two sms's. I didn't hear the second one come in until I was at Brian's apartment watching the game. It said "...great." And, I realised he sent a sms about a half hour earlier asking me what I was doing for the Super Bowl. I hate the highly sarcastic second sms. He's done this before and it bugs the hell out of me. I'm sorry friend that I didn't hear your sms come in because I always have my mobile on the lowest volume for incoming calls and sms's for the following reasons:
1. I'm at uni
2. I'm at the library
3. I'm at work (like work, work.....job i mean)
4. sleeping
So this means I rarely check my mobile phone during the day because I am busy doing something 24/7.

It gets better. When I got home after the Super Bowl party, he instant messaged me on AOL. He first message was asking for a friend's mobile number. The second message said, ".....thanks." Another highly sarcastic, rude comment. Excuse me, but I am sorry if I forgot to put up an away message saying that I was gone. (With AOL Instant Messenger, you make away messages not like MSN where you just change your status to Away, Be right back, etc etc.) My question is why the f*ck don't you have our friend's mobile number in the first place?

In short, one of my pet peeves is people not giving you a chance to respond to messages. I always try to return sms's, instant messages, or voicemails within 24 hours. I'm sorry that I am busying all frickin day going to lectures, doing schoolwork, going to work trying to make some money, sleeping, and eating. It's not exactly by choice that I do these things. If I had my choice, I would have been able to graduate last semester, and I would be on vacation for like 7 or 8 months before having to work in the real world.

On a side note, as you might have been able to infer, I'm life is pretty crazy busy right now. working at my new job, uni, schoolwork, activities, going out occassionally, and sleeping have taken up every second of my life. It sucks because I feel like I have gotten out of touch with some people that I haven't talked to in what seems like forever.

countdown

2006-02-04T19:25:00.000-05:00

Days until I leave for Tokyo: 128

I think I might try to get a daily countdown going for my trip.

waht kind of drunk are you

2006-02-03T21:34:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Ena's blog.

You're A Passed Out Drunk

Drinking gives you that warm fuzzy feeling, until you're thrown in the back of a police car...

What Kind of Drunk Are You?

So, I would probably agree with their prediction. When I get drunk, I usually get serious munchies then drink some water then pass out. Adios amigos and amigas.

gross post

2006-01-29T18:09:00.000-05:00

The following post will be somewhat gross, so you may not want to read it. But, of course indulge if you'd like.

Last night around 3:30, I woke up to a noise. I couldn't determine what this noise was at first since I was awoken very suddenly. As I listened for about 30 seconds which gave me time to comprehend what the hell was going on, I realized it was my roomie puking. Next question to hit me: is it in the bedroom or the bathroom? As I began to wake up more, I realised he was in the bedroom at the foot of the double bunk (I'm on top.) About one minute had passed from the point I woke up to realising he was puking in our bedroom. I was like WTF!!!! I couldn't fall asleep for awhile but eventually I heard him pass out. I rolled over to the foot of my bed and shined my iPod over him (iPods are good flashlights ;) to see the disaster. He was laying on some of my clothes. WTF again!!! I just couldn't take it anymore and decided to deal with it all in the morning.

So I woke up this morning, put some drops in my eyes so I could see better, and then looked at the damage. There was puke on my Rip Curl shirt, of all f*cking shirts, he had to puke on that one. I just shook my head in disbelief and was sooo pissed at that moment. My roomie saw me check out the deadly scene and I looked at him in scorn. I took my shower. While I was in the shower, I could hear him cleaning. When I got out of the shower, he apologised for what happened even though I didn't wanna hear that sh*t...."Oh, I'm sorry for what happened last night. I don't even know how I got there." He said some bullsh*t like that. He also put my shirt in the wash to hopefully get it cleaned. However, I left before I could see if it was still stained or not. I am assuming it will be, and you better believe I am going to make him pay me for the cost of the shirt. Even if the shirt gets cleaned, I don't know whether or not I will ever want to wear it again. Instead of being one of my things from Australia, it will be one of things from Australia AND the night when my roomie puked on it. WTF man!

In short, I hate when people pull sh*t like my roommie did. Did I mention he was only three feet from the bathroom floor....one metre man! How the f*ck could you not make it a few more feet. Seriously, I have been drunk off my ass so many times, in a mental state of mind where I had no f*cking clue where I was or how I got there. For example, I visited the University of Pittsburgh my 1st year over spring break. One of my friends belonged to a frat and we started drinking at 6 pm and didn't stop until 1 am...so we drank for 7 hours straight. We somehow stumbled back to his place and I woke up in the morning passed out in the bathroom. Basically, everytime I have been trashed beyond comprehension, I have always made it to the bathroom to spew. Maybe God helps me out or something. I don't know. I am about to implement a three strike limit before I flip out on my roomie. This would have the second strike. Just waiting before I can't hold in my frustration anymore....

snowtubing

2006-01-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

Wednesday I went snowtubing thanks to KPMG. KPMG had a snowtubing social at Tussey Mountain, a "ski resort" about 15 minutes. It was my first time snowtubing on a "mountain" and it was heaps of fun. I keep putting things in quotations cause Tussey Mountain isn't really a mountain, more like a big hill and it's not really a ski resort, I don't they even have condos to rent out.....but then again, who the hell would come to central Pennsylvania to go skiing?.....no one. Anyways, we had the entire snowtubing area to ourselves. The employees were being asses and wouldn't allow us to tie the tubes together so we would go down the hill faster. But it was still fun. Too bad no pics.

Last night I played some poker and of course I didn't even come close to winning. At least I wasn't the first one out in either round. After that, I went to a bar to meet up with some friends. It was OK....just chatted. Then the girls insisted that we go to a nightclub, Player's Nite Club. Once I got there, I realized the b*tch bartender at the previous bar never gave me the right amount of change. She shorted me $10....I was soooo pissed. So, as a return favour, I will never ever tip Bar Bleu ever again since that f*cker stole my money. How do I know this? Well, I ordered a $5 drink...gave her a $20...got the change w/out counting it....threw down $1 for a tip. When I got to the nightclub, I only had the ones, no ten dollar bill. WTF!!!!! Anyways, it's not a biggie but still man, wouldn't you be slightly pissed if they ripped you off. Plus, the bartender was a huge b*tch anyways. I asked if they had $5 pitchers of Miller Lite. She said no. I asked if they had any specials. She said $5 circo drinks or sth like that. What the f*ck is a circo drink? She had a huge attitude problem and maybe she forgot that they had $5 pitchers of Miller Lite every Friday night last semester. I hate rude people.

Today, I had to wake up at 9 am to attend this fencing competition as part of my attendence and then I had to write a one page paper about it...like WTF again. It's a damn gym class, can you explain to me why we have to write again? I don't care if it's one page or ten pages....it's writing.

OK, enough b*tching from me. This upcoming week is probably going to suck tho. Wednesday I have my advanced financial accounting exam. Last semester, the exam average on the first exam was a 50. But, even if it goes badly, I will go to Club Love on Thursday for $10 all-you-can-drink entry, get extremely drunk to drink my problems temporarily away, and I'll celebrate turning the big 2-2 and my friends bday too. Time to hit the sack...

some pics

2006-01-18T21:59:00.000-05:00

Some pictures from the past...

Old Main Building - just an administrative building where our uni president and other important uni people work but it's one of the first buildings on our campus so it has a lot of symbolic importance.

From the middle of Pattee Mall looking up to Pattee Library, which is connected to Paterno Library, our newer library built about 10 years ago.

From Pattee Library looking all the way down Pattee Mall.

My fat cat, Lexus, who squinted due to the flash. Like my blanket and pillow design? hahaha.

The condo at the ski resort that we stayed at for one night. I was the fire bug in charge of making sure the fire stayed strong. The fire was not as strong as it looks....for some reason the camera made it look really big.

No more pictures....I just realized the pictures were pretty boring looking but I guess better than nothing.

100th post

2006-01-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

As I logged into blogger, I realised that this is my 100th post. Happy 100th post to my blog! I've decided to put aside the massive procrastination and finally make a post after abt four weeks. I think I'm just going to write abt my latest happenings. I just remembered I promised to post pics so I need to get on top of that....maybe later tonight if the procrastination doesn't hit too strong. Anyways, here we go.

I started my last semester of uni last Monday. I'm so glad it's my last semester. I am ready for a change in my life right now. The whole going to lecs, doing hw 24/7, studying, going to meetings, and even going to bars on the weekend-nightlife scene has gotten really old QUICK. I can't even enjoy myself anymore on the weekends. Most of it has to do with the fact that I live in a town of 40,000 people excluding the 40,000 students here which doubles the population during the school year....which means that there is nothing to do here. It's not like Philly, NYC, Boston, DC, Atlanta aka ATL, or Miami where you can always find something to do. If I had my choice, I would have graduated last semester, taken this semester off, and started working in August as is currently planned.

One of the more exciting things in my life is my fencing class. The only thing I hate abt it is the 8 am start. I absolutely hate 8 am's....and don't say who doesn't cause there are ppl that do like 8 am's. Anyways about fencing. So far we have just been conditioning which kicked my ass today. I actually had to stop towards the end of the class because I've had the flu since last Thursday and I started feeling dizzy. Luckily, the coach seems pretty understanding abt things. But, I'm actually looking forward to the whole conditioning thing more than actually learning about foil fencing. Why? Becuase I don't exercise which means I'm totally out of shape so hopefully fencing will get my back into shape.

I'm thinking of working to support my drinking habits and to save a bit of money for my trip. I need to submit the application tomorrow for working at the cafe/bistro in the business building. I'm hoping that if I get the job, they will schedule me right before or after my classes so that I can either go straight from lecs to work or visa-versa....ALL in the SAME BUILDING! Talk abt convenience. But how often do things actually work out as you intend. So, I don't really count on getting the schedule I want...if I even get the job.

Today in my international business lecture, I almost got into an argument with a fellow student. The professor had us fill out a survey he felt all managers in multinational enterprises (MNE's) or in business in general should be able to answer. Some of the questions were subjective, such as the one I wanted to fight this kid over. The question was "Do US policymakers pay too much/too little/just the right amount of time on global issues?" One girl raised her hand by saying that we do too much. She cited the case of Iraq where our government failed to think through the whole thing and how our government didn't really have a plan for after the initial invasion. Our government rushed into the situation without taking the time to develop fully a plan for invasion and peaceful reconstruction which has been a legitimate criticism of the Bush Administration. I should mention before I move on that our class had discussed briefly the whole issue over Iran. So this stupid f*ck dude raised his hand and said he disagreed with her opinion. He said these "crazy" leaders referring to Hussein and the Iranian president need to be removed from power. And yes, he said crazy. I quickly raised my hand in complete disagreement and frustration. I felt the girl made a better analysis of the Iraqi and current Iranian situations where we run to such quick judgments/decisions. I also said you can't call the leaders of these countries "crazy" when they're some of the smartest people and think through things very strategically. Many, in the US, call Kim Jong Il a crazy and dangerous person when in fact he's just the opposite. Very few people, in the US, understand that maybe if the US didn't f*ck up the 1994 Agreed Framework whereby North Korea promised to dismantle its "WMD" program and in return the US government would provide the North Korean government with light water reactors for eletric generation or sth like that, that maybe the North Koreans would even be threatening to develop WMD's currently. I also don't understand why my government can't give the North Korean government the security guarantee they want - that the US government will not invade North Korea. Some political issues are so damn frustrating concerning my government.

Basically, in short, this is what I'm trying to say. I call the guy's comments the "American ignorance/bias." I continually see people failing to look at issues from one side....usually from the American perspective, always failing to look at issues from an international perspective. Why can't people pose the question, "OK, As an American, I would react this way. But how would these actions appear to the French, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, etc. etc." Granted I was probably guilty of what I call the "American ignorance/bias" before, but after being in Australia for four months, I finally learned to look at things more from an international perspective. And, I expected this of my fellow students, most of whom have studied abroad like me.

Ok, time to do a lil research on why I think globalization is irreversible.

latest shananigans

2005-12-28T21:57:00.000-05:00

So what have I been up to the last couple of days?

This afternoon I went shopping with my mom. I tried looking for a navy blazer but was unsuccessful. Looking for a lightweight navy blazer isn't exactly the easiest/smartest during the winter season. Anywaaayyyys, I went to one of my favourite stores.....EXPRESS. I bought a pair of jeans which I love. I also put on hold a pair of black dress pants, but I don't think I'm going to buy them. I bought a pair of Arnette sunglasses at Sunglass Hut. I either misplaced my Oakley's, or they were stolen when we had people over at our apartment. Finally, I bought a pair of Adidas kicks, but I think I'm going to return them. They could only hold them until close, so I just charged them on my CC since it was the last pair of 10's. I have been shopping online for some casual kicks, and the Adidas were not on the top of my list. I think I want to buy some Puma's.....something I haven't had before.

From yesterday mid-afternoon to late morning today, my brothers, mom, and I were at a condo at a ski resort. One of my mom's friends owns the condo which they rent out. We walked around the resort, had a drink at one of the bars, and had dinner at a restaurant called French Creek Tavern. We thought about snow tubing but decided not to. After dinner, we came back to the condo....started a (cozy) fire, watched Hide and Seek, and did some family bonding. We then left at 11 am this morning, the time we had to be outta there.

Two nights ago, I went out with my friend Jill to the bars downtown. We started out at a bar called Plymouth which had quarter draft beers. I had three beers and two kamikaze shots. Then we went to Papa George's and had another beer there. Then it was off to another bar called Docksider where I ran into one of my brother's friends at the bar and said my bro was upstairs....went up to see him then came back downstairs. My friend Jill wanted to meet my brother so we went back up and then back down again cause my bro offered to buy a round of shots. I had one beer after that. Buy the time I left Docksider, I was drunk and hungry. Jill and I went to McDonald's because both of us, or least I, get the munchies when drunk. But then, who doesn't? Finally...took Jill home. Driving drunk isn't the smartest thing at all, but I seriously think I am safer driver when drunk. Both of us were drunk and both of us had to get home, so one of us had to drive. I'm sure everyone thinks I'm a retard now and a lunatic.

All in all, winter break has been pretty fun minus working at Wegmans.

P.S. Since my mom is on ancient dial-up internet (ARGGGGGHHHH!!!!!), I will post pics when I get back to uni on 8 Jan.

work

2005-12-21T23:14:00.000-05:00

Two observations from work that I forgot about:

1. There are A LOT of hot MILF's that come into the store.
2. Some people are desperate for money. Two people, who didn't look poor at all, checked the coin return on the pay telephone for loose change within one minute.

FANG:
The number from the sms's, is that your Singapore mobile #?

to everyone, download "Nasty Girl" by B.I.G featuring Diddy, Jagged Edge, Usher, and Nelly to get ya body movin'.

home

2005-12-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

I've been home now for 4 days. I have been very lazy. I haven't even been able to motivate myself to blog. I started working yesterday, and I work 34 hours this week. I work at a supermarket called Wegmans. I work inside as a cashier and outside pushing the carts back inside. Yes, a highly quality job (*sarcasm*) paying little. But, this job has given me the motivation to work hard in uni and get the grades I needed to get the job I wanted. I look at some of the people that work there, especially those that graduated high school and never went to uni or those that graduated from uni and never got a job related to their degree, and I don't see much future for them...not to be a d*ck or anything. I don't really see much of a future for my brother either who works as a bricklayer for a construction company. My mom was the first one to say it. He will most likely be performing hard physical labor for the rest of his life just getting by.

Anyways, today at work was enjoyable. I made $18 in tips loading customer's groceries into their cars. We're not supposed to accept tips, but I do because we're paid sh*t and the other employees do the same. The highlight though was watching the cops take a woman (in handcuffs) out of the store and into their car...hahahaha. She supposedly shoplifted. She appeared to be in her 20's, and for some reason her friend (and accomplice) was let go. People are sooo stupid. There are sooo many cameras in the store that it is probably one of the worst places to shoplift. Security can watch you enter the store, follow you around the store, and watch you leave the store. Who knows what this girl was thinking. My mom said maybe she was desperate like a bum or poor or something, but I don't think so. She was dressed pretty well. Just stupid.

I finally know what my semester GPA is. Here is a breakdown of my marks on my final exams (not to brag obviously):
Tax: don't know b/c we don't get our grade over email
Marketing: 94
Intermediate Financial Acctg II: 90
Commercial Transactions/UCC (Bus Law): 87
Supply Chain: 82.....not happy one bit about this grade. Anything below an 85 I consider to be a disappointment.
International Business: same reason as tax

So what did I get in my subjects then as final marks for the semester?:
Tax: B+
Marketing: A
Intermediate Financial Acctg II: A
Commercial Transactions/UCC: A
Supply Chain: B+
International Business: A

For the semester, I attained a 3.79 GPA which means I made Dean's List (need a 3.5 to get on)
My cumulative GPA is 3.72.

So now that you all think I am bragging and being arrogant and so on and so on, I'm not. Just don't know what else to blog abt.

Tomorrow I work 7:30 am to 4 pm. Yikes. But, I need the money for that trip....ya know THE trip!

annoyed

2005-12-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

OK, I am getting seriously annoyed right. I am attempting to study for my last two finals tomorrow in the library "green room." Two girls have been talking for the past half hour, and it's really pissing me off. Seriously, why the f*ck do ppl go to the library just to socialize and talk? Someone please explain. Yeah, I could care less if you talk for a few minutes (because I do it also when you see someone you know) but for over a half hour? PLZ. Honestly, what is the point?

On a more positive note, I got a 90 on my intermediate financial accounting exam yesterday which means that I will get an A in the class. I got a B+ in tax....not exactly happy but not exactly disappointed either...just content. I worked pretty damn hard in that subject so it would been nice to get an A-. Oh well. Business law today was a huge b*tch which of course I expected. The average will probably be around 50 or 60 which the prof will definitely curve. For our last exam, he initially curved the average to an 84 and then during Thanksgiving break, he dediced to curve it an additional 6 points to a 90. How generous!

Anyways, I have no motivation whatsoever to study for these last two finals. I am considering going into the exams cold turkey. I think I could probably not show up for my international business exam which is only worth 10% of my final grade and still get a B+. I am going to irate if these girls are still talking when I go back in one minute.

Leaving for home in 26 hours...

two down, four to go

2005-12-13T20:13:00.000-05:00

Two finals down, four to go.

Currently taking a break from studying financial accounting.....feel very sleepy......don't feel like studying anymore. I'm so out of it, I don't even know how to procrastinate on this computer. I've checked everyone's blogs already. It's 8:15 pm right now which means it's 9:15 am in sg and kl....not too sure bout tokyo though. So, I could risk calling someone and waking up them up and that person being like "WTF" are you calling me so early for?

Blah...I think I'll go check to see what happened today in HK and the WTO negotiations.

mental toughness

2005-12-11T21:33:00.000-05:00

This week is NOT about how smart you are.

It's about how mentally tough you are.

In short, this week is going to SUCK.

time to blog again

2005-12-10T00:19:00.000-05:00

So since I haven't blogged in over a week's time, I thought I should just to let everyone know that I am alive. Finals are next week, six in total, one every day - two on Friday. I still don't know how I am getting home...mom might have to come pick me up.

But I feel like reflecting on my law professor's "closing comments" from Thursday's lecture, our last lecture. Our class, as a whole, is made up of highly-motivated students who have high expectations of what we want to get out of life. Our professor has generalized our class with this very nice compliment although I'm not sure everyone fits into it. Or maybe I just feel that I am one of the most highly motivated students who has many goals to achieve in life (not to brag...) But, seriously, some of the students in our lecture do not fit this category of highly motivated/high expectations.

Basically, part of what our professor was saying that we shouldn't get to caught up in our expectations and trying to achieve everything and pleasing/impressing everyone around us. Why? Because someone is ALWAYS going to be on top of you. Competition can be healthy in uni because it pushes ourselves to study harder and to get better grades. However, competition in the real world can be dangerous. And so as our professor said....something along the lines of "how he's scared for us." Why? Like I said, someone will always be on top of us. Someone will have the better job, the nicer car, the nicer home, more money, and so on. Most of what drives this competition to be better than the person standing to your side is the fact that our world is so F*CKING BLOODY MATERIALISTIC.

Our professor gave us an example. Back in 1991....there was a girl....very motivated and high expectations/goals in life who landed a job with a "large accounting firm" after graduation. I am making the assumption one of the Big 4 international accounting firms, such as KPMG who I'll be working for in 9 months. Anyways, she had attempted to pass the CPA exam to become a certified public accountant (CPA). What did she do when she didn't pass the exam?

She held a gun to her head and killed herself. Why? Because, according to our professor, she couldn't deal with the immense pressures facing her......of living up to the expectation that she HAD to become a CPA in order to succeed in life.

A chill immediately ran through my body. Throughout our professor's "closing comments," I was making a connection to everything he was saying.

So, what I am getting at?

I hate living up to the expectation that I MUST become a CPA. Both my mom and dad keep asking, "Mark, you're planning on studying and then taking the CPA exam, right?" "Yes, mom/dad." Everytime I go home, I get these questions. Over Thanksgiving break, it came from my dad. I f*cking hate it when they ask me this. Did they forget that during 1st year - second semester I f*cking mapped out every subject I needed to complete to graduate? Even my academic advisor back then commented how I was one of the very few students who took such responsibility for their academics. Who the hell has a 3.71 cumulative GPA?....ummm the last time I checked a 3.67 was a A minus. Who handled all the bullsh*t (paperwork/applications, essays, meetings, etc etc) associated with studying abroad? So why, then, do my parents have to keep asking me about the CPA exam? I have no f*cking clue. I'm not like some students who still need their hand held to get through uni. I thought that crap happened in high school but apparently some people are still quite immature.

I constantly think about what could happen if I do or do not pass the CPA exam. If I do pass, that's great. I litterally have nothing to worry about because once you become a CPA, you can practically do anything your heart desires and you can name your price (how much you gotta be paid). SOO many work opportunities become available once you're a CPA. If I don't pass, that really sucks. You cannot become a manager at KPMG or any other Big 4 firm unless you have passed the exam meaning there's little promotion available. Less work opportunities. And, I have a very strong feeling that if I want to do an international rotation that I will need my CPA license.

I am tired of listening to the pressures of becoming a CPA, and graduation is still 5 and a half months away. I hate dealing with the expectation that I MUST become one. Am I going to kill myself over it? F*CK NO! What I am going to do? Move to another country...maybe SG.

Finally, from my "Empires of Profit" book that I've had to read for my international business subject:
"On the morning of Monday 3rd February 1975, he left his New York apartment for work, having said goodbye to his wife and daughter. As usual, he took the elevator to his office on the 44th floor of the Pam Am building. But on this particular morning, he used his briefcase to smash through the glass of the office window, and leapt to his death on the pavement below."

picture time

2005-11-30T02:32:00.000-05:00

Because I am bored and because I had a three hour nap earlier in the night, I've decided it's "Picture Time" since I probably won't get to bed for another two hours...it's 2:30 am now.

So here are the pictures:

The wall near my desk, and the pictures I look at every day along with Mafia poster, posties from Rach, Ena, and Hiro, and Melb Uni thingy (forget what it's called). So send me a postcard, and I will add it to the wall! My address is:

222 W Beaver Ave. Apt #601 State College, PA 16801 United States of America

My messy desk area. The poster says, "Beer....Helping White Guys Dance Since 1842!" Hopefully you understand. If you don't, white guys can't dance relative to black guys. Think of me dancing for a second. Now, think of Usher dancing. Understand?....Good.

Close-up picture of the pictures on the wall. I tried putting everyone up, but I've realized I missed a couple of people....sorry.

Some girls gettin' "dirty" in the apartment. I was playing a strip drinking game with the brunette, another girl not pictured, and three other guys after the football game. Yes, the odds were not in the guys favor, but we still won. The girls had nothing on except their thongs. That is not a typo error, you heard right. Although they covered themselves up as much as possible with their arms and hands....lol. And, I'm sure some of you are absolutely appalled, grossed out, and lost respect for me, but to be honest I don't care because you have to live life to the fullest and have some fun once in awhile. Who says Penn State doesn't know how to party? Playboy actually rated Penn State as one of the best party unis in the U.S. which helps explain the strip drinking game. Even though uni sucks with all the work I have to do, nights like that make it all worth it. Moving on....

Our football stadium, better known as BEAVER STADIUM. My friend is the video manager for the team, and this is where he tapes the games. Ridiculous view. We were playing the University of Wisconsin that late afternoon/early evening.

All of those people in the white...are the students (20,000 in all)...so you're looking at the best student section in the country. In fact, ESPN rated Penn State's student section as the best in the U.S. Fang, please explain to the girls what ESPN is.

The alumni section of our stadium with the press box above.

Our mascot, the Nittany Lion, dancing to a Michael Jackson song while getting camera time courtesy of ABC Sports. Hweng, wanna operate a camera like that?

Yes, look closely...The Nittany Lion is doing Michael Jackson's moon-walk. It's called the moon-walk, right? Or, something else? Ok, I don't really care cause it's 3 am, but nevertheless he's doing MJ's singature dance move.

"We want the Lion." The chant we yell so that we can pass the Lion all the way up the student section.

The Lion passing right by us.

Ok, that's it for the pictures. I hope everyone enjoys them.

what did I learn

2005-11-29T21:54:00.000-05:00

The old saying goes, "You learn something new every day."

What did I learn in my international business lecture today:

Singapore's standard of living has increased 14% since 1950 while Latin American countries only increased a modest 2-3%.

Now you just learned something new too but probably completely worthless information.

almost back to normal

2005-11-27T17:47:00.000-05:00

I am back at uni aka Happy Valley. Kinda sad to leave my mom but like I said before, only three weeks left. I have partially fixed my blog. As you can obviously see, I have replaced the pic of me with a very cute picture of Dino and I from the apartment "party" before I left....the night when what's his name decided to puke in the bathroom and pass out sitting on the toilet...oh the memories! LOL.

The pic kinda looks messed up, but I did my best adjusting the height/width thing. I just couldn't get it right. If you look closely, it's kinda funny because it looks like a missing tooth. I also look pale as hell...I should probably consider going tanning. Yes, guys go tanning too, and I have done it before.

I couldn't get the other side fixed up because I am html incompetent. Maybe someone could help me out. *cough...ENA*

time to bounce.

back to uni

2005-11-26T23:58:00.000-05:00

I head back to uni tomorrow morning. It's been a nice Thanksgiving Break, but it's time to go back to reality. Luckily, only two more weeks of class then a week of finals. Then, home sweet home again for 3 weeks.

I had a feared conversation with my dad when I went out to his house. Surprisingly, he was quite reasonable in what he said which kind of surprised me. I'm glad he's not choosing to be an idiot. So, I will continue to talk to him.

On a side note, I HATE Proquest. The stupid database never emailed me all of the articles I requested. So pissed! Being the smart mom that she is, she recommended going back into my history to track down the articles again. I don't mind taking the extra time to do it, but I looked at a lot of fricking articles, and I don't really remember all of the ones I chose to be emailed to myself. Oh well...what can you do?....Nada.

fast forward into time

2005-11-26T02:58:00.000-05:00

I really wish I could fast forward into time because I wish it were a certain date right NOW. I guarantee you won't be able to guess that date so don't even bother trying. However, one person might be able to. "Who is that person?", you may ask. I'm not going to say. ;)

thanksgiving

2005-11-24T23:04:00.000-05:00

Today was Thanksgiving Day which means one of the best meals of the year, football, napping after a very good meal, and quality time with family. It was a traditional Thanksigiving dinner (all wonderfully cooked and prepared by my mother) with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce, croissants, and pumpkin pie for dessert. I'm probably missing a few things but that's what I ate. Sorry for no pics, but I left my digi cam at uni which really sucks because I can't take pics of all the snow either. :( But, hopefully there will be snow at uni.

Of course, the night wouldn't be "complete" without a "heated" discussion between my mom and dad (who are divorced, if you didn't know already). And, the subject matter - me. I don't really feel like getting into the details of it all, but my dad can really really piss me off. I'm not sure if anyone really knows, but I don't really have much of a relationship with my dad. So far, when I was at uni, I think I only talked to him three times one of which only dealt with him possibly picking me up and bringing me back home for break. Whereas, I talk to my mom on a weekly basis. I have a much better and stronger relationship with my mom which I am very happy about. I wish my relationship were better with my dad, but I don't think it will ever be. If I should get married and have children, I have a fear that I will be like my father which I don't want to turn into.

But, back to the conversation b/t my 'rents. It basically dealt with my finances. My mom takes care about 90% of things, like my tuition, apartment rent, and money for groceries when she makes about half or even a third of what my dad makes.....make sense?....No. My dad, on the other hand, takes care about 10% of things which both my mom and I don't think is asking a whole lot. So when he put forth his "idea" tonight, it really pissed my mom and I off. It was another episode where I said to myself (referring to my dad): "I don't what anything to do with you anymore, and I never want to talk to you ever again."

I will be a lot happier in 9 months when I am working and making in the upper-$40's (thousands) and hence, completely financially independent of my parents. I will be paying all of my bills - rent, health insurance, car insurance, food, paying off student loans, contributing to retirement plan, etc. etc. - from ALL of MY hard-earned money. I will no longer need to depend upon my father for the little that my mom and I ask of him now.

On a brigher note, Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on those things which you are grateful and appreciative for. Here is my list:
1. My always supportive, loving, caring, "always there for you in the roughest times" mother.
2. My father (even though I'd love to punch in the face, shake him, and ask him, "What the f*ck are you thinking about sometimes?")
3. My brothers.
4. My health.
5. My friends, especially the ones that are about 15,000 miles away.
6. The fact that my mom has been able to pay for most of my college expenses and has given me the opportunity to succeed in life.
7. The simple things in life that you don't even notice on a day-to-day basis, such as clothing, a place to call "home," and food.
8. My cat. RIP Blackjack.
9. That God has give me the following qualities (not to brag): motivation, perseverence, trust, hard-working, and responsibility/accountability.
10. That I had the opportunity to work at an international accounting firm this past summer and received a full-time job offer a year ahead of my start date. :)
11. That I will be able to provide for my mother in future years when she has made the most sacrifices for me all my life. If it weren't for my mom, I wouldn't have been able to:
A. Attend a private, Catholic, all-boys high school which prepared me extremely well for uni.
B. Attend The Pennsylvania State University, one of the top-50 uni's in the U.S.
C. Visit France during spring break 2nd year which opened my eyes to culture and exposed my love for traveling, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures..
D. Study abroad across the globe and experience something I will never experience in my life again and make some of the best friends I could ever ask for.
E. Grow into a man. You may laugh at that but it's true.
F. Finally, she somehow instilled the traits of respect, motivation, hard-work, perseverence, trust, among others in me.

It's almost 2AM, and I'm sure I will wake up tomorrow morning remembering many things I have forgotten to mention which I am grateful for. But, for now, it's time to catch some Z's.

time to update

2005-11-23T01:12:00.000-05:00

It's time that I have made a post. I have been home since 2 AM Thursday night/Friday morning, and I've procrastinated since then in terms of blogging. I finally figured out what was wrong with my blog. Apparently, mypicgallery decided they could no longer be free and must charge a fee for their service. *cough...bullsh*t* Anyways, I set up an account with PhotoBucket and of course my problems weren't solved. Since I'm home now for Thanksgiving break, I don't have my computer...been using my mom's. So, I don't have any pics on this one obviously. So I tried downloading pics off of my webshot's site, and to make a long story short, I didn't work. ARGH! So, you're just gonna have to wait until I get back to uni on Sunday at which point, I will fix my blog and make it pretty again...lol.

On a brighter note, I scored an 87 on my intermediate financial acctg II exam last Wednesday. The average was a 72.6 and out of the 89 people that took the exam, only 8 scored higher than me. So, I consider that good. Since I skipped class on Monday (since I'm home and not at uni), I called my friend to see what happened in lecture. The prof added 2 points to our scores, so I really got an 89. YIPPEE. I am waiting for my tax and international business results, but I won't find out until I get back. Both exams were OK. I'm going to die if I failed either one of them. However, if I did decent on both of them, I actually have a shot at attaining another 4.0 GPA this semester since I already have 4 A's in my other classes. Sorry for all the bragging.

It's been sorta nice being home. Although I haven't really been on break per se because I have been catching up on work and even working ahead in some of my subjects because when I get back, it's going to be HELL. My idea of break is winter break when you're in between semesters and new subjects meaning there's absolutely no possible work to do. But, anyways, back to the nice things of being at home. On Sunday, I woke up at 2...yes, I am damn lazy. My wonderful and loving (no sarcasm here...she really is) mother made pancakes and bacon for me. The pancakes were DELICIOUS. They were thick and fluffy...mmmmm. I have also been watching heaps of TV which I rarely have time to do at uni.

Last night, well technically two nights ago cause it's Wednesday 130 am now, I went to two bars with my friend Jill and her friends. It was my first time at the bars in Erie since I have only been home for an entire 3 weeks out of the past 10 months. It's kinda weird cause I sorta have a crush on her for some reason. I have no idea why.

I crush on girls too easily. Rach, I can only imagine what you're thinking right now. lol. To make the story even better, there's this really really hot girl in my international business class, and luckily I know her and talk to her basically every Tuesday and Thursday we have lecture. And yes, I also have a crush on her. She will be working for KPMG in NYC after graduation. (I met her at training in Cali.) She's smart, likes to travel (she went to Spain for study abroad), and beautiful. That's all I want in a girl and the last one isn't even that important. Every guy basically runs the same test, or at least guys in the US. How many drinks would it take to make out with her? Well, I'm obviously looking for zero which is definitely possible because there are plenty of attractive girls at Penn State. Anyways, back to this girl. So, I don't know what I should do. Ask her out or do nothing. I'm hoping my friend Phil will have a Christmas party so that I can ask her to be my date. She's in a sorority which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, the girls in that sorority are frickin' HOT. Although thinking about it, there are a lot of sororities at Penn State that have a lot of hot girls.....chi o, kappa, pi phi, tri delts, kd's, asa, etc etc. Why do you think Playboy came to Penn State?

Before I left Melbourne, Fang made the prediction that I would be dating an Asian girl by the time winter break came. His prediction has yet to come true.

But, this girl.....in my class.....is Asian. So yes, laugh your head off while I ponder what my next move should be.

pissed

2005-11-16T23:45:00.000-05:00

Right now, I am fucking pissed and I need to vent my frustration. I fucking hate my international business professor. He is a fucking prick. Also, what the fuck is wrong with my blog and "Account Expired." What is that sh*t? Can someone please explain that to me?

But back to my international business professor. I fucking hate him. He's such an asshole. Fuck you Terrance. I hate everything about you. You can't fucking learn from a bunch of fucking charts about GDP and whatever else you put into your shit powerpoint slides. You have one slide of text and the rest are charts which mean absolutely nothing to everyone.

I'm really screwed for this exam tomorrow. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. And, of course, my accounting exam earlier tonight was a b*tch, and I had a huge headache afterwards. So that means even though I studied for about two hours, it did absolutely nothing because my head was spinning and is still spinning.

OK, I need something else to vent frustration. I need a punching bag or something. I need someone to talk to, but unfortunately the ppl i would like to talk to, aren't on msn. aahhh. It's kind of funny how the only people that make me feel better are the people from last semester and my mom. I don't even talk to my friends anymore about anything. *sigh*

I'm going to pop a few pills, like Advil (similar to panedol). Wish I had something stronger though. And, I wish I was just tired so I could go to sleep and wake up tomorrow morning feeling fresh and the beginning of a new day.
Good night everyone.

interesting convo

2005-11-07T20:48:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a break from reading tax in my fav. place...the library. *sarcasm*

When I left my apartment, I obviously had to wait for the elevator. As I waited, some of my neighbors, who happened to be girls, walked down the hall. The conversation went something like this:

Girls: Do you have any porn?

At this point, I was thinking "Are you serious?" But, in that short two seconds, I realized they were not joking. Anyways, back to the convo.

Me: ...On my computer.
Girls: Oh no, like on DVD?
Me: Ohhhhh....no...sorry.
Girls: Why not?
Me: Why buy it when you can download it for free?
Girls: True...good point.
Me: If you want, I can burn some on a CD for you though.
Girls: Ehhh, no.
[Short pause in the convo as they tried to figure out what to do.]
[As they went to a neighbor's door (guys live there)....I said the following]
Me: Just have the guys there burn some porn on a CD for you.

I then proceeded to get onto the elevator.

So, yes everyone, now you know I have porn on my computer. And, I am not ashamed of it either. Quite frankly, I think I have a pretty good selection...hahaha. But nothing f*cked up.

If you'd like and this only applies to girls....when I come to visit, I can put some on my laptop that I will (hopefully) have at that time and we can eat some popcorn and watch it together. hahaha.

I can only imagine what everyone thinks of me now.

Back to reading tax and the wonderful world of tax credits. *sarcasm*

Asia baby

2005-11-03T18:17:00.000-05:00

I'm coming to Asia...baby! Get ready for the American invasion! (Was it politically incorrect to say that?)

So, I spent four hours yesterday at STA Travel getting my trip priced out and trying to pay and get the damn tix. I was finally able to pick up my tix this morning. My bank was being a big pain in the ass because of security since it's such a huge purchase. It cost me $2,273 but that's nothing for having the chance to reunite with my mates that I miss.

So, here are my trip details.

I leave the US 12 June and arrive in Tokyo 13 June. I'm staying there for 2 weeks, and I'm hoping to visit Beijing for week during that time.

I leave Tokyo on 27 June and arrive into KL the same day. Fang get ready. Dino you better fly your ass over to KL, or I will never talk to you again! Kidding, of course!!! Yen Li, Linda, Kevin, and the rest of the Malaysian crew better be up for long nights of clubbing. Remember Amber? Even though I spent close to $100 that night, it was definitely one of my best nights in Melbourne.

Then I leave KL on 4 July and arrive into SINGAPORE. Ena, Rach, Kris, Anne, Mel, Houston, Hweng, who else am I missing, you all ready??? Charissa, you gon be back by then?

Then I leave SG on 24 July and arrive into Melbourne at 4:45 am 25 July. Fang, my bestest mate, can you pick me up from the airport? hahaha....sorry to make you wake up so damn early. I will buy you some drinks at a club in KL or Melb.

Finally, I leave Melbourne on 1 August and a week later, I will enter the real world and start working....boo!!!

So, yeah, it's official. I'm coming. Everyone better be back home, or else I will be living on the streets in your respective city/country. I wanna meet everyone's parents, siblings, and friends and experience your home. I'm getting so excited just thinking about it all.

Forgot one thing. I am still hoping to visit Bangkok during my time in SG....thinking about leaving for a week to visit Lyn and Naina...I haven't forgotten about you guys.

If I haven't mentioned your name. I still love you. I just remembered Niro. Yo Niro, you better be ready to do some laybacks. Fang, your 70 second record is going down. By next year, you will have had the record for a year. It's time to pass the title on to an a deserving individual such as myself. lol.

Ok, that's enough. Hopefully everyone is equally as excited as I am.

kayne west

2005-10-30T00:56:00.000-04:00

Some pictures (finally) and a post after two weeks of being way too damn busy.

Kayne West performing. One of the best concerts I've been to.

It looks like the stage is on fire (...sorta)....gotta love the lighting effects.

My roomie, Don, and me at the bar. We were giving a very happy pose. And, yes, I am growing a beard (...or at least trying to...haha) BTW, some random guy gave us that pitcher of beer for free.

Some other randon dude (not the one that gave us the pitcher of beer) who sat on a wet seat and got his ass wet.

Me (self-explanatory)....looking at my roomie.

Me, on the way home, posing with the turned over newspaper stand. LOL.

Yesterday

2005-10-17T22:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday had to be probably one of the worst days so far. As I mentioned earlier, our football team lost in a ridiculous way. Now you're probably thinking it's just footy, but no it's not. The loss was worse than anything I have ever experienced in my sports playing career. Nothing comes even close to comparing.

Then, on my way to the library around 1 pm, I called my mom to let her know that I arrived back at Penn State safely. She said she had bad news. I knew immediately what was going to come out of her mouth as much as I didn't want to hear it. She had to put our cat, Blackjack, to sleep on Saturday because of his kidney failure. For the past two months or so, Blackjack had been vomiting, not eating right, and some other stuff. But, since we have another cat (Lexus) we thought it was her because she had been the one that always puked in the past. Anyways, before I came to uni, my mom and I had figured out that Blackjack was the one causing the destruction in the house a.k.a. vomiting so then we knew something was up. Then it was time for me to come to uni. My mom kept close watch on him and noticed he wasn't eating properly. So about a month ago, my mom took him to the vet. They ran some blood work but it turned out fine. Then the vet ran some additional tests which revealed that he had kidney failure. The vet gave my mom some medicine for Blackjack but he said it was only a waiting game before it would be time to put him to sleep. So, on Saturday, my mom took Blackjack to the vet to put him to sleep. She said that he was getting very weak and didn't want him to go through any more pain. He was 13 years old and one of the best pets I could have asked for. I still remember how we got Blackjack. At our old house in the suburbs, our neighbor caught a stray cat but didn't want to keep it. Well, being the young kids that my brother and I were, we convinced my mom to adopt the cat.

After the trip to the vet to get the "sleeping juice," my mom took him out to my dad's house. My brother buried a hole in the woods and gave him a headstone. You may think this is odd and weird but thinking about it, I'm glad my mom and brother did it. Otherwise, Blackjack just would have been put into a pet bag and tossed in the dumpster and taken out to the landfill (literally, that's what they do.)

So I knew the bad news about Blackjack would be coming eventually, but I was hoping that I would somehow get to see him during Thanksgiving Break...about a month away. I was almost about to cry on the way to the library except all the people walking by prevented me from doing so. That's how much he meant to me and our family. He wasn't just a cat; he was part of the family.

Well, I should probably get back to studying financial accounting for my exam on Wed.

RIP Blackjack 10/15/2005

f*ck

2005-10-16T03:24:00.000-04:00

So I just got back from the road trip to the University of Michigan to see Jared and to watch our Nittany Lions battle on the football field. We were supposed to stay there tonight but after a devestating, demoralizing, and extremely depressing loss, we decided to head back to Penn State. People have said that it's just football, well I don't wanna hear that it's "just football." Yes, there are more things to life than collegiate football, but our team has sucked the past two years. We deserved to win that game and should have won that game. Except for our special teams sucking complete @$$.

I don't even know what to say anymore. The fact that Michigan scored a winning touchdown with one second left in the game was just completely unfathomable. F*CK! Hopefully I'll get heaps of pics up soon for everyone to look at. My bed is calling me.

haven't blogged in ages

2005-10-07T11:21:00.000-04:00

I haven't blogged in ages, or at least it seems like that once again. Last night, I had my tax exam that went pretty well. I only guessed on a few questions out of 25. Not bad according to my standards. It could have been better but it also could have been a lot worse like those managerial accounting exams. After the exam, I came back to my place, got two slices of pizza for a second dinner, and headed to the bar with a friend to meet another one.

The bar is called Saloon. It's decent. But nothing in this town can compare to Australia and the good times I had at Heat and Amber. So, anyways, Saloon has $5 Monkey Boys every Thursday night from 9-midnight. We rushed our asses there cause we thought the special ended at 11 so by 10:45 we were almost running so we wouldn't miss the "last call." As it turns out, it ends at midnight....woohoo! So we got our monkey boys and just talked, chilled, and checked out the scene (not that many hot girls).

On the way to the bar, a girl smacked my ass. I looked at her and I was like "Eh, thanks but no thanks." LOL. She was moderately attractive. Maybe if I were high or drunk, I would have said or done something...haha.

Anyways, my friends and I are just chilling when I see a girl that I think I recognize. I thought she graduated last May since it was her 4th year then. Then I started thinking maybe she did graduate and she's just back for the weekend for the football game considering that thousands of alumni come back every home football weekend. So I go up to her and start talking. As it turns out, no she didn't graduate last May cause she has a 5th year to complete...cool sh*t. We had class last fall semester and always sat next to each other and always walked and talked after class....aww how cute, huh? So we continued talking for awhile until it was time to go to the next bar. But, before I left I got her number. Her number was ***-999-****. Of course, I didn't think she was lieing when she gave me her number. But, you gotta understand that some girls definitely lie when they give you a number cause they don't wanna be mean and say no, so they just give you a fake #. So, when my friends and I got to the second bar, it hit me that this could have been the case. I recognized the area code. But the next three numbers, -999-**** seemed really odd and my friends thought the same thing. Who the hell has 999 in their number. We definitely thought she was lieing. So my friend called the number but for some reason the call didn't go through or something. Dodgey. So I called the number. It rang. And finally, her voicemail came on. So to make a long story short, she didn't lie about her number.

I just remembered the best part of the story. While I was talking to her, it hit me that I had forgotten her name somehow. I was like "Ssshhhiiiiiitttttt." I was quickly trying to determine what to do while at the same time keep talking to her and not act like I wasn't paying attention. I leaned over to my friend Brian to tell him the awkward situation. So finally, I just told myself to ask her for her name even though I was going to feel like the biggest jackass. So I asked her and apologized too for forgetting. But I honestly forgot other people's name when I came back from Melb since I was away for over 8 months.

Yeah, so I don't know what I should do - call or not to call. She's pretty good looking but I feel like something is lacking. What do you think?

2005-09-28T16:10:00.000-04:00

Here I am sitting in the library, on the computer when I should be studying for Marketing. But I don't give a f*ck about Marketing anymore. It will be my fourth exam this week and luckily my last one. I'm burnt out. I don't care about much anymore except drinking heavily this weekend to make up for last weekend and being sick even though I still am. I've come to the conclusion that I am going to be sick for the rest of the semester so I might as well adjust and learn how to drink three nights a week and be sick at the same time.

I scored a 98 on my ACCTG 472 exam. I'm awesome. Still waiting for the law score. Hoping for at least a 75, but I don't know if my chances are good. I had my Supply Chain exam earlier today and screwed up the first question. Got it completely wrong and of course I didn't realize my mistake until I turned my exam in. I was so pissed. But what can ya do? Nothing. Move on. Who cares.

Well, I should go back to studying now, but I'm really in no mood to do so. If I had my other books with me, I would do that instead because God knows I've got heaps of work to get done. I feel like procrastinating some more, so I think I'm gonna go check out some hot singaporean girls on Friendster....hahaha...COMPLETELY JOKING. I honestly don't do that. If you think I do, you can think whatever the hell you want.

my day

2005-09-26T22:19:00.000-04:00

My day so far has consisted of the following:

10 AM - wake up, shower, eat breakie, brush teeth, etc.
11 AM - leave for class
11:15-12:05 - supply chain class
12:15 - get info. on uni/class ring
12:30-1:15 - eat lunch and relax for a bit
1:15-1:30 - walk to uni library
1:30-5:30 - study for ACCTG 472 (Intermediate Financial Acctg II) exam
5:30-5:45 - walk to exam
6:00-8:00 - acctg exam...went well
8:00-8:15 - walk to union building to grab bite to eat and head back to library
8:30-10:00 - study for B LAW 444 exam (Commerical Transactions)
10:00-10:15 - walk back to apt.
10:15-now - check mail, watch TV, and BLOG

Now, it's time to study more uniform commercial code/transfer of title/risk of loss/perfect tender rule/what is a good?/warranty of title/express warranty/warranty of merchantability/warranty for fitness of a particular purpose....etc etc etc.

Tomorrow will consist of more of the same - lectures, exam, studying for more exams.

CAN'T WAIT...I'm so excited!!! (sarcasm)

2005-09-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

Haven't blogged in awhile so it's go time now. Been sick the past two/three days but feeling slightly better today. Have four exams next week - one Monday, one Tuesday, and two Wednesday. Hoping I feel better by Sunday night so I can do well on them.

Bought Kayne West tickets today. Was in line for the student tickets which cost $30. At least 1,000 people ahead of us waiting to get their's. Waited an hour and the line was barely moving. Convinced my friends to pay the extra money just to buy them on the internet at full price instead of waiting for at least another 2 hours and getting crappy seats. So, yes, paying an extra $15 was well worth not having to wait in line, especially when you're sick and you just wanna lay on your couch back home. And, we got decent seats. At least they're better than the nose-bleed seats we probably would have gotten.

The concert is October 28th. I can't wait. Definitely going to kick ass. Kayne rocked the house at Live 8 in Philly so I expect as good a performance. Also performing is Common, Fantasia - the American Idol winner - who I don't care about, and Keynesia Cole whom I've never heard of. I just wanna see Common and Kayne.

This weekend is going to be especially lame and boring. Tonight, instead of being out partying, I will be laying on the couch reading about diluted earnings per share and about the uniform commercial code...yippee. Tomorrow - more of the same and hopefully watching the Nittany Lions kick some Northwestern ass in football.

happier in another country

2005-09-18T14:21:00.000-04:00

After my international business lecture on Thursday afternoon, I walked to my next lecture with a student from the intl business class who studied abroad in Rome. I've known her since spring semester 1st year. We were talking about some of our experiences abroad and our plans for employment after graduation. She was explaining to me how she wasn't excited about having to attend the Career Fair this week. I don't blame her. Going through the whole job finding/interview process sucks. She told me she do anything to get back to Rome. She even said that she thought about flying to Rome and then telling her parents she wasn't coming back. (Something I've considered with Oz.) Oh, btw, this girl's name is Jessica....very beautiful girl. But continuing, she mentioned how much happier she would be scooping gelato for the rest of her life. I couldn't agree with her more. It got me thinking about the major I've chosen. Yes, I still believe that I made the right choice by choosing the accounting major. But, do I picture myself working for a public accounting firm or a company for the rest of my life? NO. I too would probably be a lot happier working at a stress-free job such as scooping gelato in Rome. The problem is that I would also be making about 4x (or even more) less than working for a firm or company.

On Friday night, I met up with some friends at a bar called Bar Bleu. I've been told this would be the nicest bar in State College (town Penn State co-exists with) to experience. Well once again, I was a little disappointed but it's at least better than the other bars I've been to. When I walked in, I headed for the bar first instead of trying to find my friends. I ran into someone I knew from one of my previous classes. He also studied abroad....in Barcelona. Once again, it was refreshing talking to someone who studied abroad and can TRULY understand how you feel. Similar to Jessica, we talked about some of our experiences and life back in the US since those experiences. One of the comments I made to JB was that the nightlife aka the bars in this town suck. He was with some of his friends. In response to my comment he said "I know" and shook his head in agreement. Then in response to his friends who thought my comment was kinda whack said something like "You just have to study abroad to undertand." JB then told me about about a business idea that is supposedly in development. He was explaining a bar in Barcelona to me. The bar's prices are determined by a stock market. I instantly thought of The Trader Bar in Melb. He said that he told his cousin, who works at a venture capital firm, about his idea. Supposedly, they are working on a business plan to develop a stock market bar which would become a "chain" (like Starbucks sorta.) Surprisingly, no such bar exists in the US or not that we are aware of. The fact that a venture capital firm is doing some preliminary research is pretty cool. Maybe I can become a business partner. One of my goals later in life was to own a bar/nightclub. Maybe that dream will be fulfilled sooner than I thought.

Back to reading some business law specifically strict product liability....YUM!

life still shitty

2005-09-14T01:11:00.000-04:00

Life right now still sucks, and it's going to suck until late December. All I do is wake up, go to uni, do schoolwork, attend meetings, eat, and sleep. I barely have anytime to relax and wind down. I think I watched about 1 hour of TV today and that's all I did for fun. I hate uni. I just want to graduate RIGHT NOW.

Reading Charissa's blog on her adventures makes me jealous...lol. I wish I were having as much fun. But, I guess that was me last semester - goal/focus: have as much as fun as possible without worrying a damn about uni. Now, I'm back to reality where I have to work my ass off. By far, this is the worst semester in terms of the amount of work. I calculated I have to do about 200 pages of reading per week and that's for only four out of six subjects. Then, I still have to do all the accounting-related problems/homework. One problem can take a half-hour. *SIGH* Understand why I'm already super exhausted and stressed out and the semester has barely begun?

But, enough b*tching Mark. Before I know it, the semester will be over. I just need to get C's in my classes. Not good at all compared to previous semesters of all A's and A-'s but it's my last year. My GPA in a few years will mean nothing. I have no intention of attending grad or law school either so that makes my GPA even more worthless in a few years time. All that matters is my little piece of paper that will say I graduated from The Pennsylvania State University and the Smeal College of Business. AMEN to that.

I'm sh*t-faced tired, so it's time to get about 7 hrs of sleep. Bye.

4 yr anniversary of 9/11

2005-09-11T16:25:00.000-04:00

It just hit me now that today is 11 September which means it's the four year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

I can still remember the exact time and location when I first heard about the attacks. I was in my senior year of high school. The second period of class had just begun so it was just after 9 AM. Our principal came on the intercom and made an announcement that with the permission of teachers we would be able turn on the TVs for something very important. Don't remember her exact words but it was something along those lines. So, of course, our English teacher allowed us to turn on the TV. We couldn't believe our eyes. At that point, one of the WTC buildings was already struck, and we watched the second WTC building get hit by another plane. Unreal. For the remainder of the class, we watched the buildings burn and smoke fill the sky.

At approximately 10 AM, it was time to move to our third period class. Of course, every teacher in the school allowed everyone to watch the news, except for our damn theology teachers who insisted on teaching us about the wonderful Roman Catholic ways (*cough...sarcasm*). Anways, third period was Physics. We basically ran the class because it was our teacher's first semester. We continued to watch the horror of the burning WTC towers. Then, the unthinkable occurred. People were jumping out of the windows, 100 floors up. I couldn't believe it. What a way to end your life...jumping out of a burning building. THEN...the first WTC tower came crashing down from the heat and instability. A few minutes later, the second WTC tower came down. Watching people running for their lives on the streets was another unreal sight. Everything we watched seemed unreal.

I don't have any real connection to a victim of the WTC attacks. The closest is my dad's friend. His brother was a NYC firefighter who was in one of the building as it collapsed. But, that doesn't mean that I wasn't affected.

The Freedom Tower should be built in a few years as far as I know. I think it will be the tallest building in the world at that point until Dubai builds their's.

Back to reading and studying...

f*ck this town

2005-09-10T00:21:00.000-04:00

I swear the nighlife in this town F*CKING SUCKS. I'm so bored with it. When is graduation? I'm so ready to get the hell out of here. I just lied to my friend at the bar so I could leave because I was so damn bored. At least when I was with Dino, Kev, Yen Li, Charlene, and Linda at Amber and spent $100, I had the time of my life and I will never forget that night. I have yet to have any fun since I have been here. I hate this place. Get me the hell out of here. I unfortunately have to wait about 8 months until graduation.

Anne, if you should read this, I would do anything to get a flight to Melbourne so that I could go to God's Kitchen with you. I'm sure it would be an unforgetable night and experience. And it only costs $66. ONLY $66. $66 for a lifetime memory. That's $34 less than my night at Amber. I was so fricking bored at the bar tonight, I was thinking of taking a week off from uni and flying to Melbourne just so I could have FUN. Then I realized that if I actually did that, I would no longer be able to visit Asia next summer.

Get me outta this place, puhlease.

to the singaporeans

2005-09-09T01:47:00.000-04:00

Two nights ago, our business college (faculty) had their student involvement fair. All of the student organizations in the business school were there for students to find out about. I was there representing my organization, Beta Alpha Psi, which is an honorary organization. I know from the words "Beta Alpha Psi" it sounds like we're a frat, but we're not. So heaps of students came up, inquired about our organization, and I answered their questions.

An Asian girl came up and started talking/asking questions. She mentioned that she was a first year international student from....(GUESS).....Singapore. I was really surprised. If I hadn't met you guys (you know who you are), I probably would not have thought anything of it. Yeah, I probably would have said "Wow, that's pretty cool that she's from Singapore." But, when she told me where she was from, I got really EXCITED because I knew I could carry a conversation with her. And then, just to show that I knew a lil about her country, I asked which JC she went to. She had a blank stare on her face and was kinda speechless. She didn't know what to say. There was honestly a pause for a good 10 seconds. If only I had my digi cam to take a pic to get her reaction. And then she asked about how I knew about JC's in Singapore and I told her about study abroad and all of my great friends that I had to leave behind :( Then she finally answered my question. lol.

The same thing happened when I was in California for my internship training. I met about 3 or 4 guys who were international students from Sg. I was able to talk to them so easily. I still feel like I don't much about the country, but I guess they were impressed with the little that I did know. They were probably thinking, he's actually not an ignorant American.

So thank you to everyone.

And thank you to Fang for teaching all about Malaysia to me. I remember Charlene, one of the Malaysian girls, said one night in Dino's room that I knew more about her country than she did. I'm sure she wasn't being serious, but I still took it as a compliment because I felt like she appreciated that I knew some stuff about her country. So thanks Fang.

political blog

2005-09-06T19:21:00.000-04:00

Surprisingly I don't have much work to get done this week. It helped having yesterday off, being Labor Day and all. I've just got heaps of meetings and miscellaneous things to do. In our uni newspaper they had available jobs in the classified section. One of the bars/restaurants (more of a bar though) needs a dishwasher. They only need the person from 11 AM - 4:00 PM. Perfect time for me since I don't have Friday classes and I would still be able to drink my ass off Thursday nights and wake up Friday morning with enough sleep time to recover. I need the money to finance my partying habits and just for general spending. I keep telling myself that the money I made from internship is ABSOLUTELY HANDS OFF because I need that money for my still hopeful trip to Asia next year. I also plan on putting away my $1,500 minus taxes sign-on bonus. So that money is hands off too. My checking account balance is dwindling fast...faster than thought. I'm going to call my mom to get her opinion of what I'm thinking. But she's probably going to tell me that I'm crazy and absolutely not to do it. She'll be like "What about all that money you made over summer." Still after telling what feels to be about 10 million-trillion-zillion times about how much I want to go to Asia next year and how much it would mean to me, she still doesn't understand. Which, of course, baffles me.

I will also need the money to make a trip to UPenn to visit Charissa and to look for apartments for next September.

I was watching ABC's World News Tonight like any other night. Congress believes it will cost $150 BILLION to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Bush, the dumbass, believes a fraction of that will do the job. I believe in the former cause the latter as I have learned since the past 5 years does not know SH*T. It's frustrating, disheartening, sick, f*cked up, and every other negative adjective to think that our stupid-f*ck government can go spend billions of dollars for absolutely nothing. Yes, I know our troops come home and say progress is being made. But honestly, I see no hope for Iraq. It was probably one of the worst decisions a US President has made. Absolutely no good has been achieved in my opinion. So our government can pour billions and billions of dollars into a hopeful "project," and it can't even help its own people.

I like how Bush visited the hurricane hit areas. What a public relations bullsh*t move. He says he feels for the people. Yeah, what a bunch of bullsh*t. He gets to sleep ever night in the cozy warm White House and eat a cooked breakfast, lunch, dinner, and probably snacks too. Try being separted from your loved ones, not eating for 3 days, not having anything to return to, and so on. It makes me irate and many other Americans too to see how our government can spend billions of overseas so easily and quickly and how they can move so slowly to help their own people.

F*ck Bush.

phone convo

2005-09-06T03:31:00.000-04:00

Since I couldn't get to sleep tonight and still can't (it's now 330 am), I decided to give someone a call.

I love surprising people, you can hear it in their voice when they first pick up. Usually they're in such shock, they don't even know what to say so there's just silence. I don't remember the last time I talked on the phone with this person, but it was great hearing their voice again and just simply being able to talk to them in the middle of the night. It felt like the same time I stayed up until 4 am talking to them on msn in my IH room, now only this time I'm half of a world away.

my xanga blog

2005-09-05T23:47:00.000-04:00

Visit my lame Xanga blog - http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=markjmarasco

Rach, you should especially check it out. ;)

40 yr old virgin

2005-09-04T23:04:00.000-04:00

Tonight I saw The 40 Year Old Virgin with some friends. The movie was HILARIOUS. I can't even remember the last time I laughed so much. I would definitely pay money again to see it. There aren't too many movies I would pay twice to see in the theater. So whenever it comes out in Australia or wherever you happen to be, you gotta to see. Trust me on this one...it will be well worth the money.

Tomorrow I have the day off since it's Labor Day. One of those national holidays that mean absolutely nothing but luckily you get off from work or school. I will obviously be spending the day doing some more schoolwork, but tomorrow night Miami Uni is playing Florida State in college football which will be an guaranteed good game. Maybe I'll watch it at a bar or something but then again I could drink for free in my apartment and just chill.

I'm not looking forward to starting school on Tuesday. It's going to be a pretty busy week. I've decided that I am going to accept my full-time offer with KPMG. I was happy with my internship, and I've said on numerous occasions, the interviewing/job search process is a major pain in the @$$.

On a sadder note, I called my mom yesterday after the football game to ask her a cooking-related question. So far cooking on my own hasn't been too bad. I asked her how our cat Blackjack was doing since he's been kinda sick. My mom took him to the vet and things don't look good. His days are numbered. The vet did some test work and found out Blackjack has kidney failure. He's been a great cat, and it will be sad not to see him during Thanksgiving break when I go home next. Unfortunately, the doctors can't do anything since the failure is due to his old age.

On a brighter note, I'm going to my cozy bed to get some Z's.

nightlife sucks

2005-09-03T01:30:00.000-04:00

I've come to the conclusion that the nightlife here in State College/University Park sucks d*ck. Yes, the bars are pretty cheap, but I've noticed the money spent adds up quickly. And yes, it may not be fair to compare the nightlife between Melbourne and here, but I've chosen to. I was thinking once again tonight how I would do anything to get back to Melb. I was thinking of how I could get a job there, but I think I'm sh*t outta luck.

I was thinking my boredom of the nightlife here might be due to the people I'm with, but I don't think that's the case. The only thing I want to be able to do is enjoy myself on the weekend because during the week I will be crazy busy with classes and activities, but it doesn't look the enjoyment is going to be high. I'm already thinking this is going to be a really sh*tty semester and possibly a really sh*tty year which is kind of depressing knowing that this is my last year. I was hoping my last year at uni would be the best yet, but I should probably lower my expectations WAY down.

party time

2005-09-02T20:12:00.000-04:00

Last night, I went to a bar called Saloon with some friends. Cover charge was only $3 and on Thursday nights they have a special drink called Monkey Boys. It's a pitcher of alcohol. I don't really know what they put in it...probably some vodka, rum, and who knows what else. Then they top it off with some iced tea or some other fruity drink to it. So all in all, it's a huge, fruity-tasting pitcher of unknown substances that make you drunk for only $5 a piece. Not bad.

I met up with my friend Jill who I only saw once during "summer break" when I was back home for a week after intern training. I met her boyfriend Jim who seemed really cool. I headed back home around 12:30...rather early for a night out, but I was getting bored. The place was packed, and it was hot.

I've decided the scene I like is a lounge for the chill-out session or the club to move my booty...haha.

Tonight I'm going out to a bar called Rathskeller which will probably be packed and hot. But they're supposed to have $2 Long Island Iced Teas.

I'm more excited about tomorrow. It's the first football game of the year! Approx. 100,000 people will be at the game. 100,000 people screaming the Nittany Lions on to a win (hopefully that is).

One last thing, it was kind of funny how one of the girls that lives on our floor came knocking on our door to use the bathroom last night. We could tell she was very drunk, but it's ok cause she's a nice girl and she's cute.

no san fran

2005-08-30T17:46:00.000-04:00

Well, I got a call yesterday. It was from one of the managers in the Philly office. I didn't receive an offer from the San Fran office. Kind of disappointed, but I guess it makes my decision easier. I still think I am going to accept my offer from the Philly office. I was happy with the internship, and I really don't feel like going through the stressful and time-consuming interview process again.

Today was my first day back at uni - 4 lectures from 11 am - 5 pm...busy day. This semester is going to suck! Taking 6 subjects is going to take up a lot of time and they are upper-level, intense subjects which equals no fun for Mark this semester. Some people say they are not ready to graduate because uni is too much fun. Well I think I'm ready. Uni is fun and all, but all the work associated with it sucks...*sigh* I always get nervous and feel overburdened at the beginning of every semester so I hope things smooth out like they always have.

Very hungry...time to make some dinnner.

picture mania

2005-08-27T23:50:00.000-04:00

PICTURE MANIA!!!!

As I promised, once I got to uni I would post pics from my San Fran trip and other pics from Philly since now I have a "real" internet connection. I moved back to uni today...I moved into my new apartment. This is my first year living in an apartment. I'm not sure how I am going to handle the cooking thing, but I guess I will become a good cook (hopefully) after this year. But anyways, here are plenty of pics to look at...

The first pic is from a restuarant called Julius Castle. Our faculty advisor took us there...total dinner tab for 7 people - $700. The food was so great. First row is Linda (Kirsten's mom), Keyur, Alan, and me. Second row is Kirsten, Danielle, Brian, and Bob "Bear" Kohler simply known as Bear (our faculty adviser).

From Paragon Restaurant before the Giants baseball game.

At the Golden Gate Bridge...

From an Italian restaurant before our flight home. The person on the left is Professor Charlie Smith. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He is one of the best people I have met in my life. Quotes such as "Life's short" and "You have to be willing to pump gas" will always be with me and mean so much.

The view of Bay Bridge from our hotel (two following pics)

San Francisco's Chinatown

Golden Gate Bridge plaque and bridge

Lombard Street - one of the most winding roads in the US (three pics)

San Fran Cable Car

My soufle dessert from Julius Castle restaurant...so tasty!

Pics from SBC Park...Giants baseball stadium (six pics)

View of downtown San Francisco from Golden Gate Bridge

Highlight of Trip: Getting kicked out of the club for grabbing the bartender's ass (and she was HOOTTT btw.)

blackjack puking

2005-08-25T23:26:00.000-04:00

I came downstairs to the basement/rec room to come online, and I just witnessed one of the most disgusting things EVER. My cat began to vomit. That didn't bother me...he must have been sick at that moment. BUT, then...he started to lick his own puke...EWWWWWW. I yelled at Blackjack (my cat's name) to stop but he continued so I removed him from the area.

On a brighter note, today was my last day of work. THANK GOD. I don't have to return to that hell hole until Thanksgiving break...abt 3 months away. What a reprieve.

Tomorrow I have heaps of errands to run. Gotta call various people at kpmg about various things. gotta pick up paycheck and of course cash it. gotta mow the lawn at my mom's work. gotta pack up for uni...moving saturday (FINALLY...yippee *no sarcasm...actually serious*). gotta do laundry...blah. gotta do who knows what else.

Time to sleep...

i hate work

2005-08-23T23:05:00.000-04:00

I HATE WORK!!!

I had to be at work today at 7:30 am and finished at 3. blah. less than six hours of sleep last night. I need at least 8 in order to feel good the following day. At about 130, I felt like I was going to pass out from all the standing. I had so many thoughts running through my head, like "Mark, what the hell were you thinking when you said you wanted to work these last two weeks...you definitely should not have worked and just listened to mom about not working." If my mom knew this, she would probably yell at me (but in a polite motherly way) about how she was right and how I should have just taken these last two weeks off since I worked hard this summer at my internship. But, I'm a workaholic. I need or maybe I should say want the money. But as I've mentioned before, I will go to school very motivated because I never want to work the rest of life at such a sh*t job only making $8 per hour. I won't be able to get anywhere in life working such a job. I was talking to someone that works at the supermarket in general merchandise. He said he makes $8.50 an hour. He can barely his bills. But, he never went to uni. More motivation to work and study hard at uni this year. I haven't set a goal for 1st semester yet. I am taking six subjects which is more than a normal load. I'm thinking a 3.5 GPA. I want to graduate with at least a 3.5 GPA. Two more Dean's List would be nice also.

When I got home today, I noticed a DHL package by the door. I knew it would be for me, and I had a feeling it was going to be from KPMG. It was my official offer letter for full-time employment. A couple of surprises:

First surprise...my salary according to the paperwork is $3,000 higher than what I was told during my oral offer given at the office a few weeks ago. I have received a $3,000 raise and have not even started working yet. But, I'm not about to argue with them.

Second surprise...I receive 25 paid days off for vacation, illness, and absence. I didn't really think much of it until my mom read the letter. She said something like "Mark, you get 25 paid days off, whaaaa!?!?!?" Then it hit me. 25 paid days off. That's five weeks of work that I get to take off and get paid for it! What a sweet deal! Hmm...where should I go? My mom said that I should take her to Italy. I would LOVE to go there.

Now, I just have to wait to see if I receive an offer from the San Fran office. Time will tell.

Linlin and JK marriage

2005-08-22T23:19:00.000-04:00

I talked to Frank, one of the Chinese exchange students from last semester, earlier tonight. It was the first time I have talked to him since IH. I had the wrong msn name by one letter...woops. He told me that Linlin and JK, the medicine tutor, were getting married. I was astonished, I couldn't believe it. I am happy for them, but I am so surprised at the same time. Hopefully she gets a big fat diamond ring from him.

I received my Business 2.0 magazine today. I get it for free since I'm a member of an honor society. Overall, the magazine isn't that great, definitely not as good as BusinessWeek. But in the table of contents (or whatever magazines call it for that matter), under "What's Cool" read " 130...Travel...As layovers get longer, airports are getting creative. Here are six great ways to pass the time." So I immediately flip to page 130. One of the six airports highlighted was the Singapore Changi Airport. What a surprise! Maybe I will have the opportunity to experience it next summer. But they said the following about the airport:
"Grauman's Chinese it's not, but the theater adjacent to Terminal 2 does play a free stream of second-run, English-language films 24 hours a day. Later, stretch your legs on a walk through one of the airport's many gardens - you'll find orchids, koi ponds, and sunflower mazes in Terminal 2 and an open-air cactus garden on the roof of Terminal 1. Those with a little more energy can belt our a few tunes at the karaoke lounge in Terminal 1 or catch the live jazz performances by local musicians at Harry's Bar, located on a landscaped terrace overlooking the runways."
Accurate or no? Better than their description? Hopefully I will find out next summer.

I watched ABC News' World News Tonight. They reported 87 Asian Nationals have been arrested for attempting to bring into the US $4 million in counterfeit currency. The US government suspects North Korea has a group counterfeiting US money, cigarettes, and other goods. I'm glad I took Asia-Pacific International Politics because I actually learned a lot. I never knew how much our news was biased and how the US government has tried to paint a negative picture of the North Koreans. I am quite skeptical of the whole report that was on the news (the latter that is). What proof does the US government have for such claims? I don't feel like talking politics anymore so I'll leave it at that.

I just watched Jay Leno's Jaywalking a few minutes ago. I swear some Americans are really fuc*ing stupid. I really hope these people are the minority of the population. If you can't answer the following questions, you don't deserve to be a citizen of this country:
Who is the Chief Justice (of the Supreme Court)? - William Rehnquist (spelling probably wrong, at least I know the answer)
Who is Tony Blair? - Britian's PM
Who is Benedict XVI? - the Pope
What is the President's wife's name? - Laura
Who ran in the last presidential election? - George Bush and John Kerry
What street/road is the White House on? - Pennsylvania Avenue

There were other questions but I don't recall all of the them. The point is, as an American, you should be able to answer these questions...they're very easy in my opinion. If you can't, you should be deported. That may be a lil harsh but a lot of Americans need to become more educated/informed.

march of the penguins

2005-08-21T00:03:00.000-04:00

I had dinner with my godparents, mom, and dad last night (well technically two nights ago since it's now 1205 am). It's nice that we were able to have dinner together considering there used to be some "bad blood" between my dad and godparents (mostly my godfather). And, of course, my mom and dad never really got along that well since the separation and subsequent divorce but within the past year or so it seems like they talk more and see each other more.

When we were leaving my godparent's condo, my mom and I were talking to my godfather about movies. My mom brought up "Wedding Crashers" and how funny it was. I have yet to see it, and I don't have any plans to see it soon because I'm not one of those rare people that go to movies by themselves. But, anyways, my godparents had already seen it and they thought it was very funny also. Next, my mom mentioned "March of the Penguins." It's a documentary on penguins. My godfather rolled his eyes and kind of smirked at the thought of seeing a documentary on penguins but it's been getting rave reviews. My mom replied by saying "Penguins walk 70 miles to have sex." Followed by, "Would you walk 70 miles to have sex?" My godfather answered, "I would walk 170 miles to have sex.....*pause*.......I have to BEG for it." Please keep in mind that my godfather is 70 years old. When he said this, I thought "Ewww....come on now, you just totally crossed the line." But, we all laughed at his comment because it was quite funny at the moment. I guess the good thing to know is that my Italian sex hormones will still be working very well at such an age and hopefully I won't need to use Vaigra to "get it up." hahahaha.

My godfather gave me "Coping with Difficult People...In Business and In Life" to read. Considering I read very very little in my spare time, I don't know when I'm going to read this book. I definitely won't have the time one week from now to read it cause I will be back at uni and doing better things like partying, having fun, going to football games, and of course going to lecture and studying (booooo!!!). But anyways, the book as I understand it, is basically how to deal with all of the assholes you encounter in your life. Those people that don't like you because they're jealous of who you have become. I'm more interested in reading the stuff on the coping with difficult people in business because in a year I will be entering "Corporate America."

When I got to work today, I was thinking "This job isn't too bad. It's good to be back." By the end of the workday, I was thinking "This job FU**IN sucks....I hate it! What was I thinking when I decided to work these last two weeks before uni?!?!?" Well, at least I am getting more excited about going to uni next weekend. Some of my friends have been SO hyped up about returning the past few weeks and I've been like "ehhh....yeah....uni....good times *sarcasm*" But now, I share in their enthusiasm for the start of a new school year. My last one. *sob*

I finally get to sleep in tomorrow. I don't have any plans on waking up before noon unless if my mom decides that I should.

lack of blogging

2005-08-15T23:23:00.000-04:00

I feel like I haven't made a "real" blog in the longest time, the past few have just been quick notes more or less. I tried uploading my San Fran pics to mypicgallery earlier today, but of course since I am on damn dial-up which is slower than my dead grandmother's pace of walking, they wouldn't upload. So I guess everyone will have to wait until I get to uni in two weeks where I have a real internet connection.

I start working tomorrow at one of my past summer jobs. It's a b*tch job. I get to push grocery carts back into the store for six hours which makes me a corporate b*tch. I will also be working inside as a cashier on Thursday....YIPPEE...*sarcasm* But, at least, jobs like these serve as my motivation to work hard at uni to land the "real" job (which already happened as you may know). Whenever I'm going through a rough time at uni, I always remember that I could be somewhere else doing b*tch work which pays sh*t. It's kind of funny how I will be making about only $130-$150 per week doing this crap when I made that in a day and a half at my internship.

Not much else has been going on. Yesterday was my dad's bday so I went out to his house to spend some "quality time" with him. He seemed to appreciate it. On Saturday, my mom and I went out to his house for dinner with my brother. I've noticed that my mom and dad seem to get along pretty well now. Where was this 5-10 years again when it would have meant more for me and would have helped me get through the divorce better?

back home

2005-08-13T02:11:00.000-04:00

2 am - got home to erie, pa (aka dreary erie and the mistake on the lake) 2 hrs ago.

7 hour drive home was exhausting, but traveling 150 kph was fun but not after almost causing a multi-car crash with serious damage...got really really really really lucky nothing happened. *WHEW*

tired, sleepy...bed is calling me

back to erie

2005-08-12T16:19:00.000-04:00

Got back from Montreal at 10 last night.

Moving back to Erie today.

On the road in hopefully a half hour. 430 pm now.

San Fran/Montreal details with pics to come...

exhausted

2005-08-07T22:18:00.000-04:00

I got into Philly 12 hrs ago. San Fran was awesome, incredible...I LOVED it. I leave for Montreal in 8 hrs. I'm so damn EXHAUSTED. I just wanna sleep right now, but I've got more laundry, ironing, and packing to do.

When I get back from Montreal, I will have details on the San Fran and Montreal trips. Just to give a sneak peak of what is to come...I got kicked out of a club last Thursday in San Fran...lol.

time to iron...

full time offer

2005-08-03T15:48:00.000-04:00

It's almost 4 PM. Leaving for San Francisco in a matter of minutes but just enough time to write a quick blog.

At about 11 AM, the manager brought me into the director's office. I assumed they just wanted to talk to me about some stuff...BUT....(scroll down)

They offered me full-time employment in Philly.

I receive a signing bonus if I join the firm.

I get to keep my laptop for school if I sign the letter within 6 weeks.

DAMN! It's all very tempting, but I need to think this all through. It's only the rest of my life that we're dealing with here.

Tomorrow I am visiting the KPMG office in San Francisco to meet with the staff there, and I will meet the rest of them in Montreal next week. Next hope - receive an offer from San Fran...keeping fingers crossed again.

I'm out....check ya lata :)

night before san fran

2005-08-02T23:09:00.000-04:00

Today - another easy day at the office. Obviously worked for 8 hours, but if I had worked in an efficient time manner, the work I completed in 8 hours, I could have completed in 5. But then I wouldn't have any work to do tomorrow. I need to look like I'm busy, and it looks bad if you're not doing anything. Plus the firm has to pay no matter what, whether I work slow or not. It's their fault, not mine, if they don't have work for me to do. When I've got a couple of assignments to do, I work crazy...getting everything done quickly. I also took a nap today at work...leaned back in my chair and kicked my feet up on the file cabinet under my desk...result - a lil siesta. I also wasted about a half hour browsing the internet checking google email, reading up on the six party talks, etc etc. Thinking about it, I'm about 95% sure I did this more than once.

Tomorrow I only have to work until 1:30 or so. YIPPEE!!! Then, I'm off to SAN FRANCISCO for my uni-related conference. I can't wait to go to San Fran. Everyone at work that has been there has said that the city is incredible. When I think of San Fran, I think clean, pretty safe, nice, and other positive adjectives. When I think of Philly, I think dirty, smelly, unsafe, and other negative adjectives. I'm really hoping I get to visit the KPMG office in San Fran on Thursday. I'm supposed to find out tomorrow if it's happening or not, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully I will have the chance to relocate there if I get a full-time offer next week.

So there most liley won't be any blogging until Sunday morning when I return. But be assured, I will have plenty of details and pictures too. Peace out!

these are the days i love

2005-08-01T22:01:00.000-04:00

Today was an example of the kind of day of work that I love. Roll into work a lil after 8:30. Finish up some easy client work and work on some smaller easy, meaningless assignments. Take an hour and a half long lunch break and of course someone else pays. I've only had to take care of myself at most one day out of each week...gotta love it when a manager, director, or partner pays. Get back after lunch and do some work for about an hour. Leave the office at 2:30 to play golf with some co-workers when you're supposed to be working until 5:30. And, once again, the manager picks up the tab for golf - green fees and cart. LOVin' it. I wish everyday at work were like today - easy, relaxed, stress free, fun, etc. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

surprise gift

2005-07-31T21:19:00.000-04:00

THANK YOU for the surprise gift. I really liked it. *WINK* <3

chinatown

2005-07-31T18:34:00.000-04:00

OK, I finally was able to load the pictures below...encountered some unexpected problems uploading yesterday trying to make this post.

Anyways, on Friday night, I decided that I would check out Chinatown and the Italian Market Saturday. I woke up at 10 am...showered, ate breakfast, and the like. I left my apartment at noon to go to my car to get the map of Philly. And then, my problems began. In the process of cleaning out my car, I thought it was odd that the passenger side power door lock wasn't working nor would it open all the doors when it should have. So I went to the driver side, same problem...very weird. I was thinking, "what the hell is going on, did someone mess with my car?" Next, I tried turning the car on....nothing happened, absolutely nothing. So I called my mom to tell her about the problem, and we thought it was the battery. I then called AAA, which is an emergency roadside assistance company. I waited an hour at the entrance of the parking garage for the dude to come. I got in his truck and we went up to my car. Before that happened though, he decided to have a road rage incident with some people waking on the sidewalk which I thought was slightly amusing. But to make a long story short again, the battery was dead and no longer any good, he put in a new, and my car is back to normal.

So instead of leaving at noon, I left after 2 because of the car incident. I finally took the subway to Chinatown. I walked around and checked out the scene. Here are some pics of my adventure...

I took a picture of this place. Not sure exactly what it is, but I thought it looked pretty cool so I took a pic.

Picture of egg tart that I bought at bakery #1. (I actually bought two but just took a pic of one.)

Picture of egg tarts that I bought at bakery #2.

Dino gave me some Korean noodles before I left IH. I finally made them for dinner about two weeks ago. They were good, but damn HOT! My lips felt like they were burning. Well when I was roaming through Chinatown, I walked into a random store and what do ya know! They've got the same noodles! I was sooo surprised. I instantly thought of the Malaysian pimp, Dino. So here's a pic that I took in my room of the five packs of noodles. Btw, they only cost 75 US cents each. Is that a good price? On a side note, I was telling the cashier of how I came into contact with these noodles, the Dino story. I told him it was my first time in Chinatown. He asked if I felt alright or comfortable or something along those lines since it was my first time there. Why would a Caucasian feel uncomfortable in Philadelphia's Chinatown? maybe I'm missing something or maybe I just completely misunderstood the guy.

Final picture...

Overall, I had a good time. I'm sure it would have been more fun going with someone, but I have been waiting all summer to go there with my friend's girlfriend all summer...sound dodgey? She said that she would go with me and take me to a Veitnamese restaurant, but this is my last weekend in Philly. I called her Friday for the 3rd time, but she didn't return my call. Oh well, I thought the area was kinda dirty but I was making my comparison to Melbourne's Chinatown which I found to be clean relative to Philly and Philly is kinda dirty in general too. Gotta love it when you see trash stuffed into the bottom of a lamp post.

another boring friday

2005-07-29T23:05:00.000-04:00

It's 11 PM Friday. I probably should be out drinking. Well if I were at Penn State I would be. kegstands...beer pong...flip cup...kings...and the rest of all those drinking games. But I'm not. Just chillin and listening to some music.

Just off the phone a lil bit ago with mi amigo Americano Jared. It was great catching up with him. He just got back to the US a few days. It was funny hearing about his trips to NZ and Fiji and laughing at all of his random jokes. Good 'ol Jared Robbins.

I was supposed to find out today if I was receiving a full-time job with KPMG. That didn't happen...I mean we didn't find out yet, neither the other intern nor I. wtf...I better find out before I go to San Fran on Wednesday.

Don't have much to say...usually I have a lot of random crap to say about my day and such. Maybe just too tired to think right now even though I woke up two hours ago from a 3 or 4 hour nap.

Moe sent me this pic yesterday...check it out. The morning I left IH. *sigh*

Fang, where are you?!?! Rach, you hadn't waken up I think...you BUM!

my white belt

2005-07-28T21:04:00.000-04:00

I have been wanting a white leather belt for the LONGEST time. I don't even remember when I this want not need materialized. About a week, I did an extensive search online for my white leather belt. I was having no luck. I checked all the stores I thought might sell one - Express, J. Crew, Banana Republic, Coach, Gap, FCUK, Abercrombie & Fitch, and so on.

Then I remembered studying Federated Department Stores who owns Bloomingdales and Macy's - the top of the line department store. I went to Bloomingdale's website - nothing.

MACY'S had a white belt. I was shocked. Price: $34. In my mind, CHEAP considering how much I have been willing to get my hands on a white belt I have been desiring for the longest time. So here is the Kenneth Cole belt displayed on Macy's website...

However, I do NOT like the style of the belt. I don't like the two-prong thing going on. I want one. I want something more dressy and classy looking like a regular black belt you would wear with a suit. As the description says on the website: "Punk goes proper in this retro-mod belt." Can someone please tell me why the hell Kenneth Cole is making a punk-looking belt. Puhlease! When I think of Kenneth Cole, I think sophistication, classy, dressy, and more. I was severely disappointed.

I believe it was when I went shopping for Fang's going away present with Niro and Rach that I found a white leather belt at Melbourne Central. The store started with an "M." I forget the spelling but I can sorta picture it in my mind. The belt had black stitching, but I could have dealt with that. I still looked pretty sweet. The belt cost $80AUD. At the time, I thought it was damn expensive for a belt. The most I have spent on a belt is my one from Banana Republic that cost $40USD. At this point, I would pay for a belt that cost that much. I'm desperate. When a person is desparate, they will pay any amount to get their hands on what they want. Or at least, I will or do.

Now that I think of it, I should find the Melbourne Central website for their store listing. Then google the stroe name to see if they have a website. Maybe they sell their stuff in the US? But for now, it's time to eat din din cause it's 9. I'd rather continue napping or rather just go to bed, but I need to fix that DAMN excel spreadsheet. sh*t.

back home

2005-07-28T19:08:00.000-04:00

BACK HOME...

This blog is dedicated to ENA and HUIPENG since they blame me for a recent lack of updates....just messin w/ ya girls...I woulda blogged Tuesday night when I had free internet at the hotel, but KPMG tracks every website we go to. I don't want them to know about my blog since I talk about ppl at work. If they were smart though, they could get the address anyways since I visit other ppl's blogs where I'm linked. Hopefully they don't make that kind of effort.

But, I got home about a half hour ago. I was up at 5:30 am to fly home from Florida. Of course, our flight at 8 was delayed until 830. The senior associate and I were supposed to fly out yesterday at 7 pm but the weather in Philly was really bad so they weren't allowing any arrival flights. Even the flight that was supposed to have left at 4:30 was still at the terminal....not a good sign. To make a long story short, we got a hotel room at the Marriott. Cost: $185 USD. Expensive?...Yes...Did we care?...No...Why?...The client gets to pay for it :) One nice thing bout flying home this morning is that we got to fly first class. *SMILE* I've never flown first class. I felt special...haha. There's so much room compared to the economy class. I wish I could fly business/first class all the time, but as an intern and associate you can't. I say BULLSH*T.

But yeah, the senior associate and I were performing a franchise audit near Tampa on a company. I can't give too many details because everything is confidential. I work in the FORENSIC practice. Understand? If I leaked anything, I could be A) Fired, B) Fined, or C) Jailed or a combination of these. Anyways, the company we were auditing has the right to produce a certain product. For every product they produce and sell, they have to pay a royalty fee to the company who granted the right to produce this certain product. Follow me? Probably sounds simple but it can get extremely complex which of course was happening. Luckily, the senior associate knew what she was doing and basically took care of the hard stuff.

It's 7 pm. I am DAMN TIRED. Hungry. And I have work to do for tomorrow before I go in. *SIGH* I thought bout going blading but that idea is out of the question. Way toooo tired now. I'll probably blog later even though I should be in bed sleeping.

florida tomorrow

2005-07-25T19:28:00.000-04:00

Work was fine today. Although I wasted bout 6.5 hours of my life today doing nonsense trying to reconcile the partner's credit card statements and expense reports. Sound like fun to you?!?!......well, NO! Not one bit! But hey at least they're paying me, but I would still rather be doing meaningful work.

I got a good email this morning. My manager said the partner finally got approval for the other intern and I to go to Montreal for training in August. Originally, I was supposed to be done 3 August but now I will be paid another week...yippee!

Tomorrow I am going to Tampa, Florida for some client work. I FINALLY get to do some travelling. I have been waiting all summer to get out of the damn office. I'm kinda nervous though cause I don't have a total grasp on my assignment and I don't wanna f*ck it up with me finding out on Friday if I get a full-time offer or not. I can leave a good or bad impression in the senior associate's mind about my performance so this job could make me or break me. Plus it would help if I get a good review so it increases my chances of a possible tranfer to San Francisco if I get a FT offer. Say a prayer for me plz.

It's 7:40 pm. Should go review some stuff for tomorrow so that I feel a lil more prepared plus I'm tired and need to get to bed soon. No blogging until Wednesday night when I get back.

stupid limewire

2005-07-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

All day, Limewire downloaded A Lot Like Love. Then, I "launch" the file. Windows Media Player said "Error Downloading Codec." So I google codec and download the thing. I play the file again. Same damn error message. ARGH >:

I just wanted to watch a movie tonight. Yes I have FAMILY GUY but I don't feel like watching something funny for some reason. I just want to watch A Lot Like Love. Ena really liked the movie, and I don't feel like waiting until late August to rent it. I thought my dilemma would be solved by downloading but oh no. And then my housemate has been able to download every movie he wishes off of Limewire. He's even got Batman Begins in his collection. WTF.

I could be doing a lot of other semi-productive things like washing dishes, ironing clothes for work tomorrow, cleaning up my room, and so on. But I feel like blogging and posting some more pics....so here we go. BTW - these pics are from my friend's friend who finally messaged me so I was able to get her link to her pics...ANYWAYS...check it out...

This is my friend Jeff and me at the Live 8 concert. He's from New Jersey, about a half-hour drive from Philly. The shirt on top of the head didn't do too much to protect me from the sun. Still got sunburnt and sweat like a pig.

This is me before the Live 8 concert hanging onto the light post to get a better view of the stage. I really hate being short. I had to stand on my toes if I wanted to see the performers, but for the most part I relied on the jumbo-tron screens to watch. My feet were hurting just from standing flat, on the toes...painful but it was well worth it.

This pic is definitely my favorite. After the Linkin Park/Jay-Z performance, Jeff, Kristin, and me decided to walk around and see what food they were selling and just to check out the scene. We decided not to go back to our original spots cause they would have been a pain in the ass, so we just chilled where there was plenty of space yet we could still see the jumbo-tron screens and the stage a bit. At about 430 or 5 pm that day, I decided to take a nap on the grass. I wasn't really planning on falling asleep, but I did. I was sooo damn tired from walking up at 7 am that day and standing for 7 hours straight. So Kristin thought it would be funny to take a pic of Mark while he was sleeping. According to Jeff and Kristin, a lot of people that walked by actually took pics of me. I'm not really sure why...what's so funny bout someone sleeping on the grass?

So yeah, you probably noticed by now that this pic is in the "About Me" section. That's the history of the pic.

If you're wondering why the text above is in color: I always check my posts after publishing to make sure everthing is generally ok. Who knows why, but blogger now is deciding to be retarded and changing the color of the text to something you can't read...all on it's own....like magic!

i love sleep

2005-07-24T18:23:00.000-04:00

I swear that I LOVE to sleep. It's now 6 PM. I knew I should have set the alarm on my mobile for 430 or 5. I don't feel like rollerblading. So I'm heating up leftovers from last night. I think this is the third day in a row now that I have woken up around 10 or 11 and then taken a nap around 2 or 3 and waking up a couple hours later. You know you're life is uneventful and pathetic when you're blogging about how much you sleep. I was going through some of my old pictures earlier today, and I came around this one.

This is from 1st year, 2nd semester during March. I spent all year growing my hair out to get it long enough for cornrows. I thought it looked pretty sweet when it was finally done. I was the only white guy at uni with cornrows, and everyone looked at me since usually only black people do this to their hair.

But the pic reminded me of Melbourne. I wanted to get cornrows when I was in Melb. So did Anne. I probably called 15 places to see how much they charged. Every single place was going to charge at least $100, most of them were at least $150. I was like WTF. I got it done for free, back in the day, and even if I did have to pay, it wouldn't have been more than probably $50 at the ABSOLUTE most.

It's not 6:22. Time to go to the TV room to watch World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Someone better not be there watching TV...

armstrong domination

2005-07-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

Lance Armstrong, 7-time Tour de France winner. 1999-2005. Highly doubtful anyone will win the Tour 8 times anytime soon. Will go down as one of the best American athletes, probably even one of the best athletes in the world. Everytime someone accused him of doping, he never failed. He passed hundreds of drug tests. Never once was anything found. He has had something they didn't have - the motivation, drive, ambition to succeed which lead him to train harder than anyone else and look what happened - 7-time Tour winner. And he did it right after facing death.

new fav song

2005-07-24T00:17:00.000-04:00

New Favorite Song: "Your Body" by Pretty Ricky.

Download it or ask me to transfer it over msn.

It's 12:20 am. Time to go play some beer pong in Alan's apartment...

postcard mania

2005-07-23T13:54:00.000-04:00

I received two postcards in the mail today from Ena. THANKS Ena! I would call you/her now but it's only 4 am in Melb right now. Don't think she would like getting a call now, but I can call in about 8 hours when it's noon Sunday in Melb.

One of the postcards is from Singapore (very appropriate...lol). It's a pic of the Orchard Road District and as quoted on the postcard "one of Asia's most popular shopping areas." The pic def looks nice, hopefully I will be able to find out for myself if it's truly one of Asia's most popular shopping areas.

The other postie is from Bangkok, when she visited Naina. It's a picture of the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun) against a tropial sunset. Very nice too.

This is my 3rd blog of the day. You're probably thinking who knows what, well I'm bored right now and I don't feel like going outside in the heat, I would rather just stay in my room in the A/C. A nap sounds pretty good right now actually, feeling kinda sleepy and I LOVE to sleep. I swear I am going to motivate myself to wake up around 5 though to go blading and get some exercise.

download it

2005-07-23T13:31:00.000-04:00

DOWNLOAD: Bow Wow & Ciara "Like You"

I would put it under my "Favorite Current Song" section, but I just updated that earlier today.

It's such a summer song. Just picture the following: cruisin in ur Lexus, Acura, Benz, whatever ya got and you're rolling on let' say 20 inch iced out-DUBS with the most beautiful girl by your side with her hair blowing in the wind as you cruise down the interstate highway at 120+ kph and the sun glistening off your car with this song blasting on your at least 2 amp, 2 or 3 subwoofer, 10 speaker sound system in ur car.

Too bad I don't have any of the above - car, dubs to roll on, girl, etc etc....haha BUT you should still download it!

beer pong champs

2005-07-23T11:12:00.000-04:00

Last night I was just planning on relaxing, taking it easy since Thursday night I was a mess. But, of course, things change.

I received a call on my handphone at about 11 PM. It was my friend Alan. "Mark, do you know where we can buy cups and ping pong balls?" "Why?" "For beer pong." "OHHH, riiggghhhtt...no sorry." He asked me if I wanted to come down to his room and I said I would be down in 15 mins.

When I got to his room I met his cousin Billy, who is 16, and Billy's friend Dustin, who is 19. I swear Billy looked like he was 21 and Dustin could have easily passed for 21. I told Alan we should just hit up a bar somewhere. Anyways, Alan said that someone at work told him that places deliver beer. Since when do they do that? But, he couldn't find anything online. He called Marathon Grill, a restaurant/bar, to see if they sold beer. Answer: NO....but they gave us the address of a place that does. SWEET. So Alan and I go to this place, it's a pizza joint. We buy two 12-packs of Coors Light. Cost: $22...kinda expensive but expected for the kind of place. We walk back to our apartment building.

Next goal: get some ping pong balls so that we can actually play beer pong. Before I left my apartment, my housemate told me to just ask for some at the reception desk so that we could play ping pong in the games room. GREAT idea. I def would have never thought of that. So Alan rented the ping pong set which of course we took straight to his room and not the games room. He actually had cups for the beer so we had everything we needed: beer, two ping pong balls, and a table. LET THE BEER PONG GAMES COMMENCE!

Teams: Alan & me and Billy & Dustin. In the end, Alan and I won 5 games to 3. We def kicked some ass. Some of the highlights: Somehow Alan managed to spill 3 cups of beer right when one of the games just started. WTF?!?! So, we were down 6 cups to 2 cups cause they made their first shot. Damnit! We ended up coming back and winning that came cause we f*ckin rocked. Between two games, I made 5 shots in a row which is damn good. Billy and Dustin were getting pissed that I kept making everything, but I loved it.

At this point, everyone probably thinks I'm crazy but if you only knew how much fun beer pong is and how seriously we can take it. Beer pong has become part of the US pasttime. Fathers and mothers play with their children when they visit at uni and other occassions.

Anyways, back to the Beer Pong Olympics. We ended up going through our two 12-packs of Coors. Decision: should Alan and I go back to the pizza joint to buy more beer?................OF COURSE! Another $22. Well it actually didn't come out of my pocket, but I still owe Alan $10. So we go back and play some more pong. We only played two more games when we could have played another 8 or so. Alan was drunk cause he hadn't eaten any dinner and needed to get this morning at 8 to drive Billy, Dustin, and himself to Six Flags, a rollercoaster place. I was drunk for the second night in a row. I came back to my room and ate some food cause I get MAD MUNCHIES when I'm drinking. Then I passed out.

In the end, a night of nothing turned into a drunken fun night. You never know when a friend will call you at 11 PM. Those are the times I miss at my uni. Getting a phone call when you're studying on a Wednesday night and your bro asks you if you wanna play some beer pong when you have class the next morning at 10 and of course you agree to have some fun.

Today, I'm not sure what I am going to do. I wanna go blading, but it will probably be too bloody hot out again. I could lay in the sun and get a tan, but I don't really have any books to read. hmmm. For now, I shall get some food and take a shower.

recovery over

2005-07-22T15:56:00.000-04:00

I have fully recovered from last night and yesterday in general. I haven't had that much fun probably since my last two nights in Melb.

The day started off by going to the KPMG Forensic partner's house. Everyone showed up around 12:30. We ate some lunch and eventually had our 5 minute "meeting." But, the drinking began at 1 in the arvo and continued all night for this dude. At about 3 pm, we went to the golf course to play our lil golf outing. We had 3 foursomes, some people dropped out. On my team, there was Ron (the partner), Matt (a manager), Geno (the other intern), and me. We played a scramble format (dun feel like explaining what that is and it's irrelevant). We were playing in the last group and were even par going into the last hole. While we were playing our second shot on the 9th hole, we found out from the group ahead they shot even par for 9 holes. We had to make birdie to win the tourney, make par for a playoff, or if we made bogey we lost the tourney. Matt drove the ball in the center of the fairway. Matt and Geno's second shots were shit, not even on the green. It was up to Ron and me. Ron put it on the green and I had the go ahead to go after the pin but I actually didn't get it closer cause I suck. On the green, I was the last one to put and the f*ckin ball hit the left side of the hole and "lipped" out. Couldn't frickin believe it. That was for the trophy and bragging rights of the 2nd Annual Wet Whistle Open.

We went onto a playoff. In short, we played had to make an up and down for par. The other team had 4 chances at a birdie putt, and they all missed....mwahaha. So instead of replaying the 9th hole again, we took the playoff to the practice putting green. In the end, we won the lil golf outing.

After the golf, we went into the bar which the director owns or co-owns which means OPEN BAR. Oh, I forgot to mention that we also drank some beer while playing golf...very appropriate for the occassion. But yeah getting back to this open bar. Started out with two Coronas. Then I was like beer is cheap relative to other drinks. So I decided to proceed ordering a gin and tonic. For some reason, I have come to love gin and tonics. Then I ordered vodka and cranberry...kinda a girly drink but I could down those like water. I took it easy for awhile cause I knew I would be driving home and drinking and driving is NOT a good idea. But then the following occurred:

We had a trophy for the winners. On Tuesday one of the other managers, Brian, put me in charge of putting a label (like a plaque thing) on the trophy. So I spent about 10 mins in MS Word making it look pretty, printed it out, and taped it to the trophy. I was also responsible for bringing the trophy to our event.

ANYWAYS, trust me this gets a lil better. I told Brian at some point that I thought the winners should have to drink out of the trophy. So at about 830 or 9, that came up and Brian proceeded to pour his entire gin and tonic in the trophy and told me to drink it. I got "called out," and I wasn't about to back down. I think everyone was surprised that I actually starting drinking from the trophy. Dana, the director, got her Treo out and took a picture of me drinking from it, so hopefully I will get that pic soon from her so I can put it up. BTW - did I mention I really want a Treo? Basically every upper-level business professional in the US has one or at least it seems so. It almost seems like a status thing. It shows that you're higher up in the firm or company. But back to the drinking. I wasn't drunk at all, a lil high. However, some of my co-workers were def drunk byt the time we left at about 9 pm or so. But they didn't have to drive the next day. I luckily made it home OK which means I didn't get into a crash or get pulled over by the cops which equals death.

NOW, to the better part of the blog, or at least I think so.

I got home around 9:45 or 10. I walked by my housemate's room and he said something like "Yo Mark, the girls across the hall are going out and they invited us to come." Now, let me explain. There is this one girl from Montreal that lives in that apartment who is F*CKIN HOT or as I would say with my friends here in the US, F*CKIN BANGIN'. So I was like "Martin, I'm game." I took a two minute shower and cleaned up. Martin and I went over to their apartment. She, meaning the Canadian, came to the living area and I was like DAAAMMMNNNN. She looked so good. OK enough bout this girl. So, Martin, me, Marta (the Canadian), Sarah, and Jenny got a cab and went downtown.

We went to a lounge where you could smoke shisha or sheesha, whatever the spelling is. It was not a hookah lounge. It was a lounge where you could do so if you wished. The night was pretty crazy. I was downing Rum and Cokes like water. In the end, I had about 5 and before we left I had a shot of something and don't forget that I had been drinking throughout the day. So I was a complete drunk by the time I left. But let me back up. The girls started dancing on the tables, and the DJ told them to keep "workin" it or as we like to say "TWERKIN' " At one time, I had to use the bathroom and on the way there this group of black people were chillin by the DJ. I think they were his friend. So one of the girls just started grinding/freakin with me, and I started doing the same with her. I think they liked me one move cause they all yelled "AHHHHH........shit" hahaha.

I smoked shisha for the first time last night. On the first go round, I passed. But the 2nd time round, I tried it. It was pretty cool. Well, I must have really liked it cause by the time I left I was SOOOOOOOOO F*CKED UP. Between the shisha and all the drinking, I was messed up. Earlier in the night, I noticed a couple of HOT Asian bartenders (can only imagine what everyone is thinking right now). I wanted to talk to them, but they were busy pretty much all night. But later in the night, things finally slowed down and the one was just kinda standing around. I wanted to talk to her, but I was too f*cked up to get up and make some moves. She would have known I was drunk, and I probably would have just made a fool of myself.

I smoked so much shisha and drank so much. I honestly thought I was going to vomit. That's how messed up I was. But I kept drinking and hitting the shisha cause I had so many thoughts running through my head throughout the night, that I thought it would get rid of the thoughts. But, it didn't. Towards the end, I just closed my eyes, put my hands on my head, and kinda leaned over while sitting. People were asking if I was OK. I got a lil annoyed. I was bloody OK, OK? I have been FAR WORSE than last night, and on those nights I had to take care of myself. No one was there to help me out/take care of me.

In the end, it was a really fun night besides getting too f*cked up and not talking to the Asian bartenders. About the Canadian, I never talked to her. I didn't know what to say to her. I was speechless for some reason. I didn't know how to break the ice. But, anyways it doesn't really matter cause she was talking to all her guys throughtout the night so I didn't even really have the opportunity to talk to her.

I woke up this morning at 9. I was sleeping on my left side, I proceeded to roll over to my right side to look at the clock. The dizziness hit me immediately and I closed my eyes and rolled back over to my left side and cuddled with my tazzie devil stuffed animal ena got me. I snuggle/cuddle with it everyone night. And I know I'm a guy and I should be ashamed to admit that, but it's true.

Luckily, it's about 4 PM now and I have fully recovered from last night and yesterday. I deposited my paycheck into my checking account. I came back to my room, and I have just been lounging all day. I'm thinking about taking a nap but also considering blading soon, but it's too BLOODY HOT to do so. Hmmm, nap sounds good right now.....

laughs

2005-07-20T23:36:00.000-04:00

Just finished talking on msn with Grace, who I haven't talked to in a long time. It was good catching up with her. From Grace, "She likes gay men." Next line, "She wants to marry a gay man." HAHAHA. Soooo funny.

Before that Grace called me a "Gossip Monger." sheessh. tsk. J/K Grace, I thought it was still really funny!

Man, if I only I were going back to Melb like everyone else. I've been getting info about the new Americans at IH, doesn't sound good.....sorry ppl.

nothing to blog about

2005-07-20T21:00:00.000-04:00

I don't really have much to blog about. Tomorrow night I will have a good blog to write after our "office festivities." I actually probably won't be able to blog about until Friday morn since I will be getting home late on Thursday and plus I will have something to do while I recover from my hangover Friday morn.

Update on my lost debit card...since I am an idiot, I decided to take the money and receipt from the ATM, but I somehow forgot to take my card with me. I think this is how transactions work at all ATMs worldwide where they ask you if you would like another transaction. Well, when I picked up my ATM card from the bank (since no one was able to take it) I found out that after about 30 seconds, the ATM sucks your card back into the machine if you do nothing. However, if someone were standing behind me, they could have drained my account which at that time equaled about $1,500. If that happened, I would have died. I dun know what I would have done. But, I learned my lesson. Even if you're in a rush, always remember your card....seems simple but obviously some of us (meaning me) don't think so.

Tomorrow is going to be heaps of fun. Everyone, well almost everyone (about 16 out of 18) from the Forensic practice is going to the partner's house for lunch. We will have a meeting there. Afterwards we have our golf outing and then we'll have dinner. Finally, the director in the practice owns a bar so we'll finish our night there. Did I mention everyone will be drinking starting at lunch and continuing throughout the day. Everyone is going to be so drunk. Everyone is getting really hyped about it. I can't wait to hear what comes from everyone's mouth once they're drunk, it should be interesting. I haven't figured out how I will be getting home yet cause driving home drunk isn't the smartest thing in the world with getting pulled over by cops although I've done it before and I feel like a seasoned veteran doing it. Shame on me! So until then, wait for the much anticipated Golf Outing/Beer Bash blog in two days to come.

i'm a stupid fuck

2005-07-18T20:09:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe I left my debit card in the ATM. I am such a STUPID F*CK! ARGH! >:o

What I want in a woman

2005-07-17T20:22:00.000-04:00

This is a continuation of my last blog, so if you don't understand read the bottom portion of my previous blog.

Previously, I was talking about materiality and now I feel like talking about women, well not exactly. I'm just going to describe what I want in a woman.

So, I want a woman who is:

1. educated
2. employed - making some money to live on own, which partially leads to...
3. independence
4. ambitious
5. goal-minded, in terms of career and life
6. moderately good-looking - preferably with dark hair and curly (but the latter is not necessary)...blonde, no.
7. loves to travel, which leads me to....
8. I can say, "Baby, we're leaving in 5 hours to go to Italy. Pack your bags." Personally, I think most women would probably have a panic attack realizing they have to pack bags and pack the proper clothing at which point they may even know what would be proper. Skirts? Long pants? MAKEUP? But, who cares! In the end it doesn't matter. If I have enough money for us to go to Italy, I will buy what you need in Italy. To be quite honest, I would wanna say the following:

Me: "Baby, we're leaving in a half hour to go to Italy."
Girlfriend/Wife: "Whaaa, are you serious?"
Me: "We don't have time to pack, I just bought the tickets on a whim."
Girlfriend/Wife: "OK, I don't care."

[ Mark and his girlfriend/wife subsequently fly off to Italy.]

You're probably laughing at this now, including me. But, I'm being serious.

9. I can't think of anything else at this point.

I forgot to mention in my last blog how I bought a watch. I lost or misplaced my last Fossil watch, I have no idea what happened to it. Not exactly happy bout it. It was a nice watch. It cost about $100, not exactly cheap and I had only had the watch for about 2-3 years. So, as Alan and I were walking through the King of Prussia mall last night, we walked by the Fossil store. He asked if I wanted to go in and I said sure. I wasn't even thinking about buying a watch, but the display in the front window caught my eye. I checked them out. Very nice. Classy. None of them were more than $80 - even better. I looked at the watches in the back of the store. I tried three watches on. This is the one I bought.

According to the Fossil website, this watch is for the "sophisticated gentleman." So I guess that makes me a sophisticated gentleman. J/K.

As you probably know, you can choose a tin box for your new watch for free. So I chose this one, supposedly a game from Atari. It just looked cool to me. The first pic is the top side. 2nd pic is the bottom side.

Now, here are some pics of the watch I purchased. Only $65. In my mind, good buy.

This pic is from the Fossil website. It appears as though the wristband they have displayed is different than mine.

So what do you think of the new watch? For now, I only plan on wearing to work and going out, not around the apt. just to protect it for awhile.

Gotta take care of laundry now which means ironing...ARGH!

Free Drinks on the House

2005-07-17T19:28:00.000-04:00

Last night was fun.

My friend and I went to King of Prussia Mall, the largest mall on the east coast of the U.S. We went to a restaurant called Houlihon's or something like that. I haven't had a steak in the longest time so that's what I ate for din din. However, before eating, we were talking and at one point I thought it was odd that a waiter never came to our table to take our drink orders. Finally, some waiter realized that we were just sitting there and asked if anyone had helped us at which point, we said no. He said he would be back in a minute, but eventually another waiter finally came to take our drink and meal orders. We waited five minutes, 10 at the absolute most. I ordered the 1 liter long island iced tea. Alan had the three mini martinis. These guys inc. their kids who were male saw what we ordered and inquired about the drinks. They were impressed that I had this HUGE ass mug, remember 1 L, and Alan had his three martinis. After we got our drinks, the manager came over to our table. I thought he was going to ask for ID since our waiter never did cause the waiter seemed new, he seemed kinda nervous. Anyways, the manager said our first round of drinks were on the house since we were just sitting there for our waiter initially. I was like "Whaaa, are you serious?" But, I wasn't about to argue with the guy. Any time someone offers me a free drink, I'm all over that. Alan and I did not mind one bit that were waiting 5, maybe 10 minutes. We were chatting about whatever not even realizing how much time was passing. FREE drink + tasty steak dinner = good start to the night.

I don't think I've ever walked out of a restaurant a lil high. So that's a first, but I haven't exactly had many chances to do so since I don't eat out that much and I just turned 21 relatively recently. After dinner, we walked around the mall. One of our first stops was BANANA REPUBLIC. *sigh* Alan bought his approx. $150 brown dress shoes and his three undershirts for $39. The shoes were a nice choice, but I could not have spent that much on shoes, at least right now. Maybe in 14 months when I'm working full-time. However, I was surprised that he bought the 3 t-shirts for $39. They're just undershirts. Go to a department store and buy a 3-pack of Hanes for about $15. What's the difference - NONE, except for the name on the shirt. Seriously, I like nice clothing, coats, jackets, accesssories, and so on. My black shoes and a belt, which I love, are from Banana Republic. But why buy undershirts from BR when they'll just eventually get dirty and you'll have to throw them away? Doesn't make a whole lotta sense to me, but it's not my money so he can spend it however he wishes, BUT this leads me to my next two discusssions....

First, I want to take about materiality and then about women (haha). First, about materiality. Alan seems to be turning into a material guy. Buying all this BR stuff, which is OK. But he was telling me about his co-workers and how they were shopping online at work for $300 Diesel Jeans and how they owned a pair. We got talking about this. Personally, I don't understand the point of owning a $300 pair of jeans. The most I will ever pay for a pair of jeans is $100 from Express and not even Express charges that much. Alan said that according to his co-workers, the money they make allows them to afford such a lifestyle. We continued talking about cars. After about 2 or 3 years of working, Alan plans on buying an Audi. I was really surprised by this comment. You're going to buy an Audi after 2 or 3 years of working? Seriously? Maybe it's just me and the way I am but there is no way in hell I will be buying an Audi after 2 or 3 years. Maybe after 10 years I will consider it. I told Alan I would much rather spend money on something that I will enjoy like travelling and travelling around the world. Why spend at least $30,000 when you can spend $20,000 on a decent car. So, when Alan buys his at least $30,000 Audi (probably more like $40,000 Audi) , I will buy my $20,000 whatever car and spend the $10,000 - $20,000 difference on travelling around the world experiencing stuff he probably will never experience. Maybe my thinking is just irrational, but I personally think I know where to spend my money. Cars - not important. House - moderate. Travelling - High. Clothing - low to moderate.

This question gets me to my next discussion which I believe deserves it's own space as I new blog so look above....

my dream

2005-07-16T12:37:00.000-04:00

I just woke up, it's 12:37 right now.

I had a dream. It wasn't a good dream, but it wasn't necessarily bad either. I think the dream reflects the truth though which is unfortunate from my end, the other end probably doesn't care. But I guess life goes on. I had a feeling it would have happened eventually anyways so I might as well deal with it now.

fucked up philly

2005-07-16T00:18:00.000-04:00

Just got back from Batman Begins. Great movie except for all the "theatrical" stuff at the beginning of the movie -

First, some guy started talking to his "boy" on his mobile. Everyone "sshed" him, but he obviously continued like a jackass would. This happened again.

Then, some guy wanted to start fighting people in the movie theater. WTF. Who are these people? Security even had to come in to escort the guy out.

I seriously considered walking out of the movie and asking for a refund.

Then as I was walking home and this dude was playing golf at let's see......12:10 A.M. Who the f*ck does that?

I swear Philly is one f*cked up city. If I get a job here, I swear I hope I can get a transfer to the west coast like San Fran.

More depression/disappointment

2005-07-13T21:16:00.000-04:00

At about 2:00 P.M. today I received a phone call and this is how I felt afterwards:

1. VERY DEPRESSED

2. VERY DISAPPOINTED

I was disappointed in myself for leading you on when I didn't know for sure, so I should have spoken more cautiously.

"You" probably includes you if you're reading this even if you think it doesn't. Confused?

She still doesn't understand how important it is to me. She said something like "sometimes things just don't go the way you want them to." THANKS! That made me feel sooo much better *cough - sarcasm*

I couldn't get much work done because my mind was too distracted from the phone call I was hoping I wouldn't receive delivering the bad news with its consequences.

I feel a tiny bit better now, now that some time has passed but each moment where I have time to think about it (like right now), I will probably slip into a deep coma of depression and disappointment.

blah

2005-07-12T19:56:00.000-04:00

Last night, I went up to the "Sky Lounge" on the top floor with my friend Alan. There are some tables and couches to do some homework (for students) or to chill (for Alan and me). It was pretty cool, you have about a 270 degree view of the city. Some girl was talking very loudly about some guy which was kinda annoying and at one point I thought about asking her to shut the hell up. But here are some pics of the Philadelphia downtown skyline. They didn't turn out that great considering I was taking them from inside a building but at least you can get an idea of what's it like.

It looks like the 1st and 3rd pictures turned out the best. So how bout today and my wonderful day at work...

It was a pretty boring day, what else is new? I read through a 60-page legal document in the morning which was sorta a pain because it's written by lawyers and their technical bullsh*t. In the afternoon, I read through a 130-page annual report which I kept falling alseep to. I'm wondering if they're really going to give me the opportunity to travel outside of Philadelphia to a client, or they're just going to keep telling me that so I stay interested. Who knows what will happen. One thing I know for sure is that it's def not a good thing that I already don't really look forward to going into work or think it's a drag to do so...this is only my 3rd week. It will be interesting to see how I feel about the firm at the end of the internship, and if they give me a full-time job....only time will tell I guess.

After work, Alan and I went to Chili's (a restaurant/bar) for happy hour. I ordered a strawberry margarita, only $3 which is damn good. We just chilled, talked, watched some TV including our BOY, LANCE ARMSTRONG who is back on top of the tour. GO LANCE!!!

In a few minutes I need to wash dishes and go to the supermarket to buy some essentials like milk. I bet everyone can guess what I ate for dinner and what I will be buying at the supermarket....

pasta.

A gold star if you guessed right.

Thinking about watching some TV tonight. I think the MLB All-Star game is on. I also need to call my mom - haven't talked to her in a couple of days. I'm out...keep it real!

Monday 11 July 2005

2005-07-11T19:39:00.000-04:00

Today was a decent day at work. I actually did some "actual" forensic work. At the end of the day when I put my assignment on the director's desk, I felt like I finally accomplished something and contributed to the firm. It will be another thing if the director thinks I did a good job or not. He went over this new assignment that I have to start tomorrow. I really dun know how I am going to pull it off, but maybe I should just be more confident in myself about my ability to do a good job.

A senior associate, Ron, who works in audit took me to lunch. I went to high school with his brother, and Ron went to Penn State so that's the connection. He took me to a restaurant called Bleu. BTW, I love it when I get to go out to lunch for FREE. Anyways, the restaurant was supposedly rated as having the 4th best burger in the US. I didn't think it was THAT great. The cheese, whatever kind it was, was too fancy for a burger. It tasted like some kind of cheese you would have with some dinner that runs about $50. It basically destroyed the taste of a proper-tasting burger. I still ate it though so it wouldn't go to waste. Ron asked me if I agreed with the rating, but as politely as I could say I thought it was good but not that good.

I came home from work, put down my things, checked email, and went to the TV lounge area to watch "World News Tonight." I like to catch up on national and world events in a half-hour TV program which is easier than reading the paper (partly b/c I'm lazy). I'm cooking some pasta right now. You would think I would get SICK and TIRED of eating pasta from the past two weeks, but it has yet to happen which I guess is a good thing cause it's the cheapest thing to buy at the supermarket.

I'm still trying to figure out why my paycheck still has YET to hit my checking account. For some reason, my available balance is $79.99 when it should be about 25 times that amount. Oh well. If need be, I can call the bank to see what's goin on.

I need to think of something better to blog about. I always just write about my days. I've thought about putting quotes on my blog, but I haven't been reading any books lately so that idea kinda goes down the drain. Any ideas ppl????

tomorrow

2005-07-10T23:55:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the start of a new work week.....BLAH!

Maybe if I were going out of town to a client this week like the other intern, I would be more excited about going to work this week, but I'm not. I will be sitting at my desk for eight hours finishing up training which means staring at my laptop, clicking the arrow to move forward a screen, and taking the occassional test which I'll probably fail. I'll finally be able to do some "real" work too this week, but it's not nearly as fun as doing on-site client work. Well, that's enough b*tching.

The highlight of my day had to be talking to Rachel on the phone this morning. I haven't talked to her in probably two weeks so it was nice catching up with her.

I woke up this morning at 5:45 to volunteer for the American Cancer Society Bike-A-Thon. Every year that have this bike ride to raise money for cancer research. It felt good giving my time at such an early hour on behalf of my employer and for such a cause, but it was def a rough time trying to wake up that early. After talking with Rach, I decided it was time to take a nap. I set my alarm for an hour long nap which would wake up at around noon but of course I didn't wake up until about 3:30 pm.

Didn't do much else for the rest of the day. Downloaded some stuff illegally, ate some dinner, bought some essentials at the supermarket, watched TV, and got ready for work (yippee).

Since it's 12:03 am and I have to be up in 7 hours, it's time for this fella to hit the hay...

My Pathetic Life

2005-07-09T22:11:00.000-04:00

MY LIFE IS SOOO PATHETIC. I have done absolutely nothing today, absolutely nothing. I have become a big, lazy lard of I dun know what. I'm such a waste of a life...lol.

I woke up today at 11 AM. I was supposed to call Rach, but decided not to cause it would have been 11 PM in SG. So now I have to wait until tomorrow morning to do that, when I'll be up at 5:30 AM....ARGH! I told myself last night that I would get out today and do something. Who the hell was I trying to fool? I did nothing until about 3. I just sat on my chair like I do every night after work and browsed the internet, talked to some people on msn, and that's about it. I must quote my one msn conversation, but the person asked to remain anonymous (understandably so) but the quote actually came from his friend....but this is how it goes:

"some are like toyota....unexciting, decent looking, but low maintainence and trouble free. some are like BMW.... flashy and eye catching....but high maintainence."

I thought it was pretty funny, but I'm sure if you're a girl reading this, you might be rolling your eyes right now. So yeah, my early afternoon consisted of nothing.

I checked everyone's blogs about five times today even though I know their blogs haven't been updated in the longest time or won't be updated for awhile. I know Charissa last updated her blog on 17 June early in the morning, Jarod updated last time on 20 June (I think), Hiro last updated on 26 June, Rach last updated on 22 June. This is how pathetic my life is. I've checked Ena's blog but she's in BKK, so why do I bother? I checked Anne's blog but she's in KL, so why do I bother? My life is so boring and uneventful...*sigh*

So at about 3 PM, I decided to take a stroll outside. I called my mom and talked with her for about 40 minutes about how sad my life is right now and how I have nothing to do. Afer that, I came back to my room, surfed the net for a bit and then fell asleep on my bed around 4:30 or 5 and woke up about an hour ago (it's 9:30 now.....do the math...heh).

Last night I went out with my friend Alan. We went to a restaurant called Dave and Buster's. It's a huge restaurant with an arcade...decent place, nothing special. Although Alan seems to think highly of the place. I had BBQ chicken breasts w/ mashed potatoes and green beans. It was pretty good. We both had a Long Island Iced Tea, but it was kinda strong....not so good. After dinner we headed over to the arcade. Alan had a free card with about $50 on it from a previous company event at the place. We played this horse racing game, some car racing games, then b-ball which I sucked at of course. After getting back to UPenn, we went to a couple of bars and got some drinks. I spent about $50 last night which I wasn't expecting to do, but I guess it was worth it just to get out for awhile since my life is pathetic right now.

The highlight of this night had to be talking to HIRO. It was probably the highlight of this week, actually. He's finally back from his trip! I haven't talked to him in about two or three weeks. However, long it has been, it seems like it has been FOREVER. He said that he's going to give me a call sometime soon. I really hope he does. It would be great to hear his voice. Hopefully he will call after I have a bad day at work because I know hearing his voice would make my miserable day turn into a great, happy day.

Well, it's time to wash dishes and take a shower.....what fun! *sarcasm*

boys & girls club

2005-07-07T23:26:00.000-04:00

Today was a quite an easy day, something I def needed. I went into the office because Geno (the other Forensic intern) and I were supposed to have lunch with one of the Directors in the Philadelphia office. He took us to a place called Marathon Grill....been there before, just at a different one in the city. I ordered the BBQ chicken sandwich with chips. It filled me up, and a free meal is always a plus. We went back to the office and finished up with stuff.

Geno and I were supposed to go to the Boys & Girls Club at 1:30 but we didn't get there until 2:30. Oh well, we didn't purposely show up late, Geno was taking care of his business travel arrangements for next week which took an unexpectedly long time. But the Boys & Girls Club was a good time. It's basically a place where poor, low income, inner-city children can go to have fun and be supervised. All of them were black, but that's not necessarily true. It's better that these kids go to places like the Boys & Girls Club than deal drugs on the streets. You would probably be surprised the number of kids, even younger than 13 or 14 that deal drugs. Basically the drug lords get kids hooked on dealing drugs cause if they get caught, they will only be in jail until they turn 18 because at the time of the crime, they are a juvenile. If you're over 18 and get caught, you can quite possibly spend the rest of your life in jail.

Anyways, I had a great time playing with the kids. They kept asking me if I was coming back tomorrow, and I didn't know what to say. I could really tell they enjoyed having all of the KPMG interns be there playing with them. For some reason, every kid wanted to sit on my shoulders, so of course I'll let them. At one point, when one kid was on my shoulders another one jumped on my back. My body, at least my back was sooo sore, but it was all worth it because I knew the kids enjoyed our time there.

After the fun, we went into the auditorium for drinks and food. I was kinda surprised how the one intern (and it was a girl) was b*tching about how the kids wanted to jump on her back and other things. Give me a break...we were there for these kids. Don't b*tch about having to entertain them and TRY to have fun with them. Another girl (intern) was complaining about the same thing in the playground area about how she didn't want the kids on her back or shoulders. Puhlease, get a life, suck it up and play with the damn kids.

Playing with these kids made me realize how much I have and how I take many things for granted. These kida have absolutely nothing and I mean nothing. Their parents work blue-collar jobs probably making just above minimum wage. They live in the inner-city. They wear dirty clothing. They go to school during the regular school year, but academics aren't stressed in the city like in the suburbs. They have no motivation to succeed. Most of these kids, unfortunately, will end up just like their parents in 15 years - working a shit job, and making enough money just to get by.

I found out that receiving my paycheck when I did was not in fact a mistake. I can finally deposit the money in my bank tomorrow, and I will no longer be broke. Well, sorta...cause of the almost $1,600 about $1,200 will be going to my mom to pay her back for my internship housing and to pay my credit card bill. But just to make everyone jealous because I'm such a bastard, I thought I would show you part of the check, specifically the amount, so you can start drooling....hahaha.

I think they actually overpaid me. I should try to correct that, but I've had so many other problems to deal with in the past getting things straight with them that I'm too damn tired to make the effort. It would be the ethical thing to do, but like I said I'm tired of trying to fix everything I have had to so far. If they figure out this summer that they overpaid me, they can just withdraw the money later from another paycheck or I will pay them back.

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo...lol. I'm getting paid to go to the zoo! haha. I love how today and tomorrow, we will be doing stuff for about three hours and getting paid for a full 8-hour day. That's def one thing I love about my job.

It's almost 11:30 PM and I'm tired so I'm off to bed.....