r . a . n . t . s .

Main reason I’m not using this blog anymore is because I got a spot as a blogger for a local newspaper website here in Lubbock, TX. Here’s the link:

http://blogs.lubbockonline.com/frugal/index.php

The blog is about being frugal, web stumbles, and anything about science and technology that catches my attention. Anyway, you won’t see me rant about religion and other sensitive stuff in there, but go ahead and check it out!

(I also have a twitter account… but that’s top secret as it holds my inner most thoughts! and we all know how naughty that can be! nyahaha!)

Since the 1st of November, I had no new blog articles and no new friendster pics. It’s not that I don’t want to do those things anymore, but it was because I was busy doing other stuff. So for all of you, my friendster friends, here’s a quick update on what has been going on in my life…

I went to Vegas! My company sent me to a 3-day convention at the Venetian Hotel. I brought Hazel with me and we stayed there for free! Highlights of the trip were:

1. The strip and Margarita Bongs! We walked down the strip and had one of those bongs every night! We loved it so much that we brought a couple of those bongs home.

2. Our kick-ass Venetian Hotel. I can’t remember how much it cost but the room was pretty fancy. We got a great view two TVs, a living room, a king size bed, and a bathroom as big as my old apartment!
   

I bought a House! Yes! I’ve never imagined owning a house before I’m 30, but it happened. Anyway, it was more out of necessity than fulfilling a dream. My old apartment studio is not big enough for me, Hazel, and her two cats so we had to move out to a bigger apartment… or a house. We were fortunate enough to find a 3-bedroom, 1 bath, 1-garage house that will cost us the same as renting a 2-bedroom apartment in monthly payments.

The house has a lot of room for us, but it was no near perfect when we got it. The previous owners had a dog and the whole house smelled like dog slobber. To buy the house for a low price, we agreed to change the carpet and paint the walls ourselves instead of having the sellers do it for us. Anyway, here’s some before and after pics…

Before:

 

After:

Instead of getting new carpet, I installed new wood laminates myself. Yes, I did the floors and paint myself and Hazel with the help of Joanna, Mike, and Jeremy (tsaka si Annalie, kahit pinaglaruan lng ung walls ko hehe). Sorry about the mess in the living room, I’m watching the superbowl… hehe

   

I bought stocks! Owning our house made me think seriously about my future so I started reading about investing. The first book I read was The Richest Man in Babylon, which stories taught me the basics of acquiring wealth and encouraged me to learn how to save money and invest. The second book was The Wealthy Barber, which introduced me to mutual funds and dollar-cost-averaging. And the third book was Poor Dad, Rich Dad. This book challenged me to think differently about money and its role in life. It encouraged me to live below my means, invest early, and to think about starting a business. I’ve been reading financial books regularly since then and I’m trying to put all the stuff I learned to practice as soon as I could. Because you know what they say… time is money!

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Yeah… yeah. It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. I guess it’s because I’m having too much fun at work, but no worries - I got hazel to keep me sane at home. Without her I would be buried in the abyss of my thoughts. It sounds geeky, but it’s nice to be "normal" once in a while. I probably won’t be going out of my apartment at all if it wasn’t for her since all I really want to do is read, smoke weed, and tirelessly analyze my existence.

Anywaaaayyy…. what prompted me on writing again on this blog is this comic strip. The character, Marten, reminds me of my mindset several months ago. I tend to over think stuff (which I still do). Also, I used to think like the Make-out Hobo:

• Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
• When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
• Follow the three Rs: *Respect for self *Respect for others and *Responsibility for all your actions.
• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
• Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
• Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
• When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
• Spend some time alone every day.
• Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
• A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
• In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
• Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
• Be gentle with the earth.
• Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
• Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
• Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Finally got my SRI installed last night. I was kinda hesitant at first, coz a lot of people are getting CELs from the install but luckily no CELs thrown yet! woot! Also got my alignment done today. The mechanic said that the right side was ok and there’s only a slight toe action on the left side due to the new springs.

Anyway, here are some pics from my recent mod rush…

H&R Race Springs installed…

Cosmo SRI installed…

Power Acoustik DVD/MP4 Player installed…

Next mods would be Megan Racing strut bars, 2-way Alarm w/ Remote Start, and SQ sound setup. I’ll prolly won’t be able to get these ’till I got all my credit card bills from my manila trip paid. hehe!

Does anybody really know the secret? Or the combination for this life,
and where they keep it? It’s kinda sad when u don’t know the meaning. But everything happens for a reason. I don’t even know what i should say, cause I’m an idiot,
a loser, a super friendly user. I analyze every second i exist — beating on my mind every second with my fists. And everybody wanna judge. Everybody wanna hide from the god. You can take a ride through this life, if you want, but you cant take the edge off my mind because it’s all that I got. 

And now you want your money back. But you’ve been denied, cause your brain’s fried from the sack. And there ain’t nothing i can do. Because life is a lesson, you learn it when your through.

See you in hell motha fucka… oh shit we’re already here. yeah we’re burning with guilt, and who’s fault is it? You look around, but the only person you can see is just you. So stop, take a hold of your life like you should. Don’t care bout the world — coz they don’t give a shit why ur whining, so stop complaning.. They don’t give a fuck when ur a ghost. So you shouldn’t really care on what they pretend they really know.

/pif … nuff ranting for today. thanks, pareng fred…

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Ok, I decided to use this blog again since I’m just gonna use napshock.com as one of my portfolios for getting a job in web development. I don’t think employers would like to hire a ranting infidel… hehehe!

Anyway, got a short story that has been stuck in my head for a while. The other day a coworker of mine was talkin’ to me about Hazel’s BAR Tab when the topic suddenly jumped to the big bang! lolz! This dude is a hardcore evangelical xian and I guess he was suprised when he found out that a couple of people in the office had high scores (i got $490, but one of us had about $740!!! That’s why I call him my Man-Hoe haha).

Anyway, we got into a long discussion on why creationism is not taught in schools where I told him that "sure, we can always teach creationism in schools… just don’t treat it as a science subject ‘coz it didn’t used the the scientific method." I’ve been trying to keep my cool and trying to not give away the fact that I don’t believe in unicorns, dragons, and a creator. In doing so, I suggested to do a "holy" version of the bar tab in hope to change the topic a little bit — we called it the "offering basket". So we started to make the list and thought of things that a jesus-like person would do in today’s world.

After about 10 minutes of brainstorming, we managed to write two lines:

Have you ever…
1. Helped someone in need even though you were really busy - $15
2. Read the whole bible - $150

I was amazed by my coworker’s reaction to the 2nd line as he said something like… "I’ve never read the bible completely, and I don’t know anyone that has read it all." Then he asked me if I did, so I told him that I read the bible almost twice since my grandma taught me this habit of reading a chapter a day from the book of Genesis thru the Revelations. I admitted to him that, since I was still a kiddo when I read the bible, I didn’t really understood all of it. That sealed the deal! We were finally off the topic of religion! He started explaining how he was a slow reader since he was a kid and never really liked reading. So I told him about audiobooks! lololz.

This will be my last blog post here in friendster… I got my own web host now that I use for my school so I setup my own blog there just for fun. I’m willing to host some blogs for my friends for free… just drop me a message if you’re interested.

Here’s my new blog address: www.napshock.com