Double life take over

Sorry for the lack of post. No excuse, just plan laziness and getting a regular routine, which I find nothing exciting to share.

This was a thought that popped in my head and I wanted to express it somewhere. So here it is.

So at work, everyone calls me by my given name. It makes since since I use that name for professional things like my resume or when I introduce myself to other professionals. I joked around at first telling people that I live double lives, where outside work in my normal life and work is just work. However, I feel that my work life is slowly taking over and becoming my dominate life.

I guess that makes since, pretty much most of my day is devoted to work, the majority of the people that I interact with calls me by my real name. I was sitting here thinking and when people call me by my nickname, I have an inkily of the same feeling I did when people used my real name instead of my nickname I more commonly went by. It's like in Spanish class, everyone picks a name to go by, you call each other by that name, but you're thinking, "Yes it is my name, but not my name."

Crazy water head

This week I finished my second week of work. During this week I've been trying to find projects and works to do. It's been hard because there are a lot of projects wrapping up and I'm still new and trying to learn how to do things, etc. However, I'm starting to get the hang of things. However, I realized I am lacking some skills, especially with AutoCAD.

I liked the work place. This Friday we had a baby shower for one of the employees. Not a lot of people could not attend because of the project that was due this week. I also got a nickname by the admin. She calls me Bouncy because of all the energy I have.

Saturday was pretty chill. Woke up and had breakfast with Har, P. and Sak. Then Har went out to hang out with some friends. For most of the day I chilled with P and Sak. We went out to take Pocky to the dog park. Pocky had a really great time. Afterwards we went to Mixed Grain, a Korean Restaurant, for lunch.

After lunch, we went to a toy store for Sak to play with toys. They had Calico Critters, these Japanese toys that Sak really likes.

In the toy store I also found that playmobil made some judoka! I was very tempted to buy them on the spot, but I'll see how much they cost online.

In the same area, there was a weird head statue. I thought it was interesting, so I took a picture of it. I guess Sak also likes it and likes to take picture of it as well.

Wrapping up the week and weekend

Worked Thursday and Friday. On Thursday I started working on another project analyzing crash data and also creating shapefile in GIS. It's cool being able to apply skills I learned in school.

Friday was half day, so I came back after having lunch with eh co-workers. Then I helped watched Sak so Har could go out. When Sak woke up, she was not happy, so I calmed her down with Ferdinan, my shark. Then we went and ate some snacks.

Sak and Ferdinan are good friends

 Then we played with the legos. The engineering came out of me and built Sak multiple houses out of her legos.

Sak and Minnie's house

Cousin Sw was in town for an interview. He arrived Tuesday night and stayed the night. Then we came back Friday night. SAK enjoyed having another friend around

Sak with Uncle Swe!

Saturday morning P, Sak, and I took Pocky on a walk. Pocky was really happen since there were a lot of kids that wanted to pet him. At the park there was one of Sak's friends, so they played for a while.

Sak walking Pocky

After playing in the park we went shopping for food for hot pot that night and also to pick up a frezzer from Sears. After we got back home, we found out they gave us the wrong one... so Har has been trying to get in contract with the right people to get it fixed.

Saturday night we had hot pot. At dinner another cousin Bny and some of P and Har friends came over. There was a lot of good food. One family is filipino and they brought this pastry called puto. It's soo good.

 On Sunday I went to church in the morning. Sak and Har were already up went I left. Then after church I came back to have some left overs. Then I drove to the BART station and took the BART into SF to meet up with the cousin. We met up at Union square were they had ice skating going on.

After Union square we went to Uniqlo. In the windows they had three dresses made from sanrio plushies. Sak was really happy to see the Hello Kitty one. We went in to look inside and Swe really liked it. The store at Union Square is a lot smaller than the ones I've been to in NY, but it's better than nothing.

Hello Kitty dress!

After Uniqlo we went back home and had dinner. After cleaning up and such I took Pocky on a walk. Then I chilled with the cos over some tea and oranges. It's a good way to end the weekend before another week starts.

First few days of work

It's been a few days of work. So far a like it very much. My buddy
has been finding task for projects  to work on. For the most part it involes inputting data. I'm slowly getting to used to how things done at the office. The coworkers are great. Everyone is nice and gives me lots of advice.

Today after work some of us went to the food bank. We sorted out the food.

First day on the job

Today was the first day on the job. Last night I picked out my clothes: red vest sweater and black slacks to show company pride, however, I changed it after I put on this morning for a black sweater. Today we left the house at 630 to beat the morning rush and we did exactly that. We got to work at 700. I chilled in the lobby until 720 and then made my way up to the office.

When I got in there was a welcome sign for me. :) my buddy Ben was there too and he gave me a pseudo tour of the office (we did all the non-people stuff first). We did some orientation stuff like logging into the computer, the company intrawebsite, etc. Once more people arrived I met some more people. I met another recent grad; she started last week. Then I helped prepare some materials for someone who was going out in the field later that afternoon. Afterwards I met up with the hr rep to go over my paper work and benefits and so on.

By that time my mind was full and trying to sort all this information. Luckily it was time for lunch. The whole office went out the eat lunch at the California pizza kitchen. It was nice chatting and getting to know everyone.

After lunch I walked back to the office and finished up my hr items. Then for the rest of the day I helped work on my project my imputing data. I was happy to help. Before I knew it, it was 530 and I started to pack up my things and P came to pick me up.

The drive back was nice, got home ok in like 40 mins. Had dinner and now calling it a day. It's amazing how much time goes by while working.
Hope tomorrow is another great day :D

New ward and a new dog.

Today was my first Sunday here. I was trying to be a more proactive member, so I tried called the Bishop earlier in the week to let him know I was new and would be coming on Sunday. I didn't get a reply, so I was a little worried about going to church today.

The chruch is pretty close, about a 5 minute drive from the house. I got there a couple minutes early in case I had time to figure out who the Bishop was and to introduce myself. I ended up sitting on the last row and talked with a very nice gentleman. Right before the meeting started I was greeted by the Bishop. It looked out that the ward already received my records. Sacrament meeting was good, nothing out of the norm.

After sacrament I was looking around... not sure where to go and a very nice lady, Lisa came and showed me around. This ward and the other ward that share the building combine their primary and youth. So we have sacrament first, then the other ward comes and primary and the youth are combined, and then the other ward has their sacrament. Second block was RS and third block as sunday school in the chapel. Overall I really like the ward. I met a lot of nice people. There was one couple that recently moved from Singapore. After Sunday school I spoke with them and we talked about people we knew such as the Nefs and the Bywaters.

Once church was done I met up with the cousins. They were out looking for a freezer and I didn't have a key to the house so I tagged along. They also took Pocky to the groomers. When I saw Pocky after the groomers it was as if there he was a new dog! His hair is soo short now that he kinda shivers in the house.

Sak with the new Pocky

For dinner we had grilled mackerel. =D I thought it was good, but it wasn't very fresh, so it was on the dry side. I thought it was good. =D

After dinner I got ready for my first day of work. haha need to go to bed early.

Farmer's Market and Berkley

Yesterday I forgot to write an entry, but a lot of things happen. =D

The night before, Paul mentioned that the weather was nice and we should all wake up early and go somewhere like the zoo or the park. I forgot to set an alarm, but I woke up around 9 and frantically got ready because I didn't want to the last one awake. It turned out that only Haruka and I were the only ones awake.

We decided to go to the farmer's market nearby to get some veggies and such. Haha I think only in California, there is still some farmer's market open in January. Farmer's markets make me happy. I just feel so hungry looking at all the good looking fruits and veggies.

Farmer's Market

Afterwards we got back, we got ready to go down to Berkley. We went to this really cool shopping place off of Fourth Street. There were a lot of little boutiques and outlets. The area is also very pet-friendly, so Pocky was able to come with us =D.

 First stop at Berkley was Cafe M for lunch. I ordered a burger. It was really good.

While waiting for our food Sak played with the jam packets.

 Then we walked around the area. It was fun walking with Pocky and Sak.

There was a Crate and Barrel outlet and a CB2. I found out that CB2 is another Crate and Barrel, but geared more towards younger folk. At CB2 I found this book that I really like. It's titled Stick man's really bad day. It's all pictures, but describes the day of the stick man and uses all those warning signs. Pretty funny. I think I'll look around online and order myself a copy.

One of the stores we went was the Paper Source. It's pretty much a stationary store. There were some items that really screamed ALBERTA, such as...

Hedge hogs....

and mushtases

 The last stop for the area was the Pasta Shop to buy some tea. This is a really cool place. They had a lot of of good looking pastries, foods, chocolates, pretty much a cool place.

 After Fourth street we went to Tokyo Fish Market. It's pretty much a Japanses grocery store.

 After the long day of traveling around, we came home and had muscles for dinner. Yummy. =D