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Journal Entry: Bell Tower Starbucks
July 31, 2011 Xi’an, China Sipping a latte at the Bell Tower Starbucks. There are four smokin’ hot Russian models sitting across from me, all tall and skinny and European looking. How do I know they are models? I talked to one of them while we were both mixing sugar into our coffee. I asked…
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Video: Xi’an Surroundings
Made this video for family and friends to get a glimpse of my surroundings in Xi’an. It wasn’t too hard to make, I just whipped out my camera whenever there’s something interesting to shoot or talk about. Footage from 3 different days.
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Journal Entry: Moving to Xi’an
July 10, 2011 Xi’an, China Lots have happened since I wrote the last entry. I left Virginia on May 26, taking a twenty hour flight on Air Nippon to Hong Kong, with a layover in Tokyo. Spent the weekend in Hong Kong, stayed at a hostel called “YesInSpace” in Mongkok for around $40 a night.…
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Farewell Rackspace
To my most affectionate Rackers, April 1st is my last day at Rackspace. It has been quite a journey this past 8 years growing and sharing experiences with you all. We’ve laughed together and danced together and sweat through rough times together. We’ve labored through long days and toiled through late nights and built digital…
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lyrics – xa em ky niem
Xa Em Kỷ Niệm Ngày ta yêu nhau mùa thu đến có lá thu rơi The day we fell in love, Fall had came, autumn leaves were falling Đôi ta bước bên nhau không nói năng chi tim yêu chứa chan. We walked side by side not speaking, only our hearts are filled with love.…
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A Tale of Two Wives
According to my mom, my dad married two women on the same night. One of them was my mom, the other was his real love. This my mom told me, and of course I didn’t fully believe her. That’s so crazy, like something out of a television drama! (old family pic with youngest aunt, mom…
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A Tale of Two Wives, pt 4
< read part 3 There’s even more craziness to how this story ends. Being the only daughter he had, Nga’s father had given her an ultimatum after the wedding. She’d be excommunicated from the family if she didn’t leave my dad. So that particular night when she was visiting them, she made her decision, took…
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A Tale of Two Wives, pt 3
< read part 2 But my mom noticed a strange woman at the wedding that tagged along all through out the day. She had a gloom about her, and was always a step behind, looking sad and forlorn. She even fought her way to sit in the front seat of the wedding car. Who is this…
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A Tale of Two Wives, pt 2
< read part 1 At the same time, my mom’s granddad had developed a close relationship with my dad. They were great friends, and my dad reminded him of his lost son who had died years earlier. There were also other reasons my mom explained involving the compatibility of our last names and such, but…
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Growing up in Vietnam: Flaming Paper Airplanes
Vinny and I caused a lot of trouble when we were kids. I mean, we weren’t spoiled brats or anything. We were obedient, respectful of our elders, and fairly good kids, considering. But man, we were curious and active and got into everything! Case in point, here’s a memory I have of one of our…
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Why I Want to Teach English in China
This was the letter I wrote to the academy in China where I will teach English for 6 months starting in September. The interview process took a few weeks over several Skype sessions, and I officially accepted their contract today. I’m so excited! But if you’re curious to know why I’m quitting a well paying…
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I Took the Strength Finder Test Twice
The company I work for have stacks and stacks of the Gallup Press’s Strengths Finder books. Everyone that work for us have to take the test to find their top 5 strengths. New recruits will have a print out of their strengths by the end of the orientation process, to be taken to their cubicles…
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Playa del Carmen, part 2
< read part 1 We fought our hangovers and got out of bed relatively early the next day (around 9 o’clock). After a hearty Mexican breakfast at the resort’s buffet, we prepared to go on our jungle excursions by grabbing as many beach towels as we can find. Berger and Angela hugged them like they…
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Playa del Carmen, storm’s 30th
For her 30th birthday, Pat Matthews flew his little sis, Angela, and the entire Matthews clan to Mexico to celebrate. Only a handful of friends managed to book the last minute flights to join them. The 30th birthday seems to be a big deal for the Matthews, as they’ve thrown crazy parties for both Pat…
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My Brother’s Old MySpace Blog
So I’m cleaning up my files and found a saved archive of my brother’s MySpace blogs. I don’t know why I saved it 4 years ago, but it only took a few mouse-clicks and I figured what the heck. Well, it’s 4 years later and he no longer uses MySpace. He thought he saved the…
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Nostalgic Blacksburg
I made this video in the winter of ’09 before I left Blacksburg for Austin. It’s only been a year, but those days seem so long ago. I miss everyone there, thanks for being a part of my cherished memories. On a side note … I figured out to convert a video to flash…
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DC Events on Oct 30th
A few people on the Daily Show forums has expressed interest in finding out which special events are going on that day after the rally. Being the helpful guy that I am, here’s a compiled list of noteworthy links and events for October 30, 2010. I tried to list only events that are after 5pm.…
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Richie Ren – dui men de nuihai kan guo lai lyrics
========================================================== 對面的女孩看過來, 看過來, 看過來 Duìmiàn de nǚhái kàn guòlái, kàn guòlái, kàn guòlái The girls across the way, look over here, look over here 這裡的表演很精彩, 請不要假裝不理不睬 Zhèlǐ de biǎoyǎn hěn jīngcǎi, qǐng bùyào jiǎzhuāng bù lǐ bù cǎi The performances here are wonderful, please do not pretend to be cold 對面的女孩看過來, 看過來, 看過來 Duìmiàn de nǚhái kàn…
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Excellence Playa Mujeres, Cancun
I did not know the resort was meant for couples and honeymooners when I booked it for my brother and I. It got 4.5 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor (out of 1200+ reviews) and the price, $1080 per person for an all inclusive package, including airfare, all your meals and drinks, and three…
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Word of Warning Regarding Timeshare
This was our first time to Cancun, so we didn’t know where to go or what to do, and I’ve forgotten to print out the vouchers and instructions telling us where to meet our ride to the hotel. So Vinny and I decided to approach one of the official looking men under the “hotels and…
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Car2go Austin
Stu and I took a little time out of this hazy Sunday to test out the new car2go program that recently launched here in Austin. Created by the German automobile manufacturer, Daimler, this car-sharing service has just recently completed its beta phase and is now available to the public. Being the hip and trendy nerd-geeks…
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My Uncle, Who Is Named Sam
I’ve always wanted to hear the story of how my uncle came to America, because without him, the rest of our family wouldn’t be here. One day I decided to give him an interview about his trip from Vietnam to the U.S. It is such an amazing story, and I’m glad I had the opportunity…
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The Greatest Mom in the World
When my dad married my mom, he was 39 and she was 21. When they were young, my mom’s granddad loved my dad like a son. One day, he asked my dad to pick one of his oldest three granddaughters to be his wife. My mom was granddaughter number 3, and he picked her.…
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A Tour of Castle
Here is an unofficial, hacked up tour of the Rackspace office in San Antonio, which we lovingly named “Castle” after its predecessor, the Windsor Park Mall. It has been mentioned before, but worth mentioning again: Rackspace is all about substance over flash. Instead of spending a crapload of money building a new campus from the…
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Birthday Pranks at the Blacksburg Office
This is both a testament to the creativity of my fellow Rackspace co-workers, and the amount of free time they have at work. In either case, these are exercises in love and compassion for each other …in the let-me-pull-your-hair-because-I-like-you kind of way.