no matter how good you think you’re doing, there is always someone to remind you that you could be doing better, and there are always people who are 10 steps ahead of you.

emotionally
socially
romantically
fiscally
physically

today, i am a failure.

yah thats right, i’m going to school this fall.

its not that big of a deal. i will only be taking 2 classes at SMC. i was interested in taking a few more but i don’t really have the time. i will be in class monday-thursday every evening from 6:30-10pm.

i convinced chris cool to take japanese with me weee, it will be fun. japanese will be on tuesdays and thrusdays, and i will be taking art on monday and wednesdays.

hawaii was great. congratulations to irene and randy on their wedding! the food was really delicious and the reception was extremely joyous! it was wonderful to see christine and james again after so many years and your beautiful son! val, arthur and their daughter too. you guys need to stop having babies and getting married. no matter where we are in life i seem to be so far behind the curve haha .

my nephew skyler is the cutest thing in the world. its amazing how much you can love someone so completely when you’ve spent so little time with them. i want to spoil him and give him the world. i wish i didn’t have to miss so much of his childhood. i love him with all my heart.

hawaii beaches rule. california beaches suck. thats all i really have to say about that.

darla my latest niece (my sisters new jack russell puppy girl) is adorable. she is quite possibly the cutest puppy i have ever seen. she’s soft, tiny, light, and when she waddles around all clumsy like, i just want to pick her up and squeeze her and vomit from her utter cuteness!!

i have wonderful pictures but joel accidental left his usb cable to upload the pictures from his camera at my sisters. hopefully she can mail it soon and i can show off all the pictures!

i got to see most all of my immediate family and it was really good to see them. sometimes you just forget that you miss something until you see it again.

it was good to see everyone. and for those of you i didn’t see, you were definitely in my thoughts. though you will never read these, lynn, roxanne, jason, billy, mercy i miss all of you and maybe one day ill see you all again.

for now its back to la, and work. see you all soon!

2 more days till we’re in hawaii.. 3 more days till Irene’s wedding. its strange to think about now, but i would have never thought, back in the day, that i wouldn’t have been a part of the celebration. i guess i still am, but just as a simple guest.

i wonder who were going to be seated with? other strangers? her new friends i know nothing about? distance and detachment have changed a lot of aspects of my former relationships. i almost feel uncomfortable going.

i am very excited for her, out of everyone in Hawaii she was the only one who was interested in keeping in touch and so we have. i wonder how everyone else is doing.

goatie pasted this on irc, and i wanted to share it with you guys. its really cute and i think is a great representation of how i feel sometimes at work, not to mention the rapid typing of idiots at work, i only wish would end up in bloody pulps!

weee!

the exterior transformation of my car is still yet to take place. i ordered Volk Racing TE37 16″ White from Upgrade Motoring. Thanks to Glenn of Upgrade Motoring for all his help and time, these guys are pretty cool and I recommend them if you’re looking for Rays wheels at a great price.

Because of the size/color/lug count, the wheel is not held in stock locally and had to be special ordered from the motherland. It should be about 30 more days before they get here! I haven’t picked a final tire to go with it just yet but Glenn gave me a list of what he recommends. I still haven’t decided between a brembo big brake kit 16″ (they’re the only ppl who offer 16″ big brake kit upgrades), or just painting my calipers red and upgrading my pads and lines and rotors independently.

Thankfully, my JDM ITR optional side skirts and rear valances have arrived and are in good shape.

** this is not my car, im merely showing a shot of what the side skirts look like on my car

** this is not my car, im merely showing a shot of what the rear valances look like on my car

I am still waiting to hear back from Password JDM regarding my JDM ITR front end conversion w/HID. The last time I spoke to them they informed me the cargo was being held at the ports by custom and they have no definite ETA but to keep checking back.

I still need to get a new wing and side mirrors as my driver side mirror was molested and horrifically tackled to the floor by a homeless bicyclist. In the meantime I need to start finding out which shops I want to get estimates from. I’m probably going to be without my car from about 3 weeks to a month . I will be having the front end conversion body work done, shaved doors, swapping of my stock to itr wing, adding side and rear skirts, installing new functional side mirrors, then a beautiful paint job in championship white! yes thats right, honda’s very own racing white! weeeee!

This will pretty much be the last of my exterior changes to the cars. the interior changes i am going to be implemented are changing to a short shifter with JDM ITR shift boot and shift knob (still debating if i wanna spend 200 on an authentic titanium oem knob, or 30 for an aluminum replica or go with a different brand). i am still debating between JDM ITR Recaro red seats or just purchasing new aftermarket sparco seats. I am also still deciding which pedals I want to go with. Possibly two-tone coloring the interior with red suede as well…

This year is pretty much going to end with just cosmetic and suspension changes. Next year i’ll start with engine drive power mods. I’m sure my “plans” will change as they keep doing from month to month. See you on the streets and tracks!

15 more days till hawaii! we’ll be flying out of LAX around 7pm PST/4pm HST, arriving in Hawaii around 10pm.

Irene’s wedding is the following day on the 16th. We’ll be in Hawaii between July 15-24 weeee. This will be my second time back.. in 9 years.

It is quite the pity that I don’t really have a lot of friends back there aside from Irene. I mean I do but i think a few have moved away, and the few that are still there, I cant get a hold of. It’s amazing for how small the island is, nobody keeps in touch.

I will get to see my sister and boomer, my pops, brother and my adorable nephew!!! I can’t wait to see them!

When I first bought my car, I had every intention of working on it. Not so much hands on, but making it the fun project car it was meant to be. Unfortunately I had just never gotten around to it. It was always “ill do it next month”. Joel was doing the same thing. We both needed to fix some things about our car but neither of us got around to it. We were both in this love-hate relationship with our cars.

Every time I looked at my car, I was always filled with as much inspiration as I was disappointment. I could see all the things I loved about it, all the things I wanted to spoil her with, then I remembered all the things about her that made me want to kick her. I was a bad owner. I wasn’t treating her right, and in the end all the things about her that made me dislike her were things I needed to fix.

Get the ball rolling right? So I have. With the help of Bryan, Ive been able to start the upgrades and investments into my car. Investments? Yes. Not because it increases its dollar value, but because it makes me like it all over again. Its an investment of my own self interest and self gratification. Ive slowly begun to re-ignite the love affair with my car.

Its amazing what 2 small “upgrades” do to the car. New Suspension and New Exhaust.

RS*R ExMag Exhaust
I have replaced my Greddy Evo with the RS*R ExMag Exhaust. While the Greddy is a popular choice, it was always just an interim choice for me. I needed to get rid of the mexican rice exhaust that plagued my car when i first bought it and the Greddy was a cheap and quick solution. While it was significantly quieter and a better performer, it still left a lot to be desired.

My new exhaust is not only extremely and amazingly quiet, the sound she does emit is very appealing. I can actually hear my engine and my vtec. It also just has a very pleasant hum to it. It looks great on the car as well. It fits perfectly with my GS-R rear bumper. It also has noticeable performance gains. Well worth every penny.

TEIN Super Street Damper
My existing suspension was shot. My shocks and struts were dead and the skunk2 coilovers that were in place just weren’t cutting it. Swapping out my suspension had always been an initial change I had intended on doing but like all else, it just never happened. I have upgraded to the TEIN ss coilovers and they are fucking amazing.

My car handles amazingly well. Even with stock front strut bar. The TEIN SS Coilovers offer me 16 levels of damping force, and ride height adjustable springs. I had intended on getting the EDFC, but I think i will hold off for now.

Bryan has recommended a few strut bar and sway/tie bar kits. That along with new wheels is next. I will be converting to a 5 lug wheel so we’ll see what I get next!

I keep thinking saying “I’m going to post” because something relevant happens that I actually want to blog about, but then I never manage to get it done.

OMG, I have a normal sleeping schedule..
So lets recap. Ive doing a pretty fun contract with Erik’s company, CBA Media. I forget how enjoyable it is to work with someone who you know is exceptional at what they do, and someone who is confident and aware of your own skillset. It’s been a lot of work, but definitely fun. It’s also been a lot of work, on my sleep schedule! I’m all regular now. I wake up at 7am and fall asleep around midnight.

Las Vegas… Superbowl… Zumanity..
Over Superbowl weekend, Joel and I went to Vegas and met up with my family. I didn’t really get to see my Dad though we hung out with my sister Gina, Boomer, Jeff, Reb, Lynn, Kehau, and some other ppl. It was a lot of fun. We all had a really good time, though its quite unfortunate we only got to see them for a day.

We spent the next day being tourist vacationers and avoiding the superbowl completely. We shopped around and bought Joel a really nice sport coat. Ive been telling him for some time now that he should get a few. He has the perfect build for it and it helps to accessorize or define what your wearing. He said he use to define the “level” of dress he had with shoes. I think the job is better done with a Jacket. (or both). Since he got his new glasses, the entire ensemble attire made him look really… refined. haha. NERDY

Afterward we went to NYNY to watch Zumanity. It was really good. The entire sexual atmosphere was intriguing and definitely alluring. The adult humor and comedy is what really defined this show from any other cirque de soleil Ive seen. Besides, how can you argue with bouncing boobies everywhere? While most had the very slim fit body of an acrobat a few were “dancers” and had cute bouncy boobs. As you think it doesn’t get any stranger, there was an amazing acrobat.. MIDGET. While I’m not giving this show any justice with my brief synopsis, it was quite amazing and encourage any of you to see it.

High School Reunion
Fuck, I am old. 2005 marks my High School Graduating Class of 95’s Tenth Year Reunion. I am not really that excited by the prospect of it. I feel pretty indifferent. When i last visited Hawaii, everything was pretty disconnected. All of my friends have moved on, in fact most of my friends didn’t even keep in touch with each other. A lot of them have never changed. What use to seem such a big part of my is slowly starting to feel insignificant.

I use to always refer to my friends from Hawaii as my “good” friends or “best” friends.. now I don’t know what to call them. My sister said that your friends in Hawaii will always be your friends. No matter when you go back they will always be your friends. I guess this is true. If i moved back i could probably just spend time with them and the relationship would have significance. Perhaps it just makes me sad because these people who were important to me, have simply outgrown me.

We will be in Las Vegas on superbowl weekend. Nuts right? You bet. Were going because my father, a grip of his friends, gina and boomer, lynn and her “friend” and probably lance is going! My sister will also be in california for about 2 weeks. I’m excited. I haven’t seen her since I got back from Hawaii, almost a year ago.

For those of you interested in going to LV, I will have more precise dates posted soon. Just a side note for many of you, because its superbowl weekend, you will probably have to reserve the entire weekend. most places will not allow single night stays and are only offering full weekend reservations. Also, because its superbowl weekend, the prices are high. Ways to cut the cost, stay in old vegas instead of on the strip.

While the hotel costs are going to be a tad price gouging, the flights on the other hand seem to be cheap. southwest and jetblue seem to be dropping prices for competition and to get ppl TO vegas. they know its going to be a big weekend so the rates as of now are good. don’t wait till the last minute or else you will get screwed.

I want to go to zumanity and maybe some other cool shows. Mostly, I’m sure its going to be awesome to see the sis!