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June 07, 2009 10:53 PM -
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| | YEAR
2008
This year started off well enough, watching fireworks at Taipei 101 and
partying into 2008 at a club in Taipei. We went to the snow 3 times, but
they were all good snow. Good vacation in Cancun for our first year
anniversary and had a good time raving with friends. After that, the stock
market took a really bad turn, which really put a damper on things, but we made
the most of it by just chilling with friends and checking out local attractions.
Lots of birthdays in the fall, got our PS3, started watching movies in HD.
Although the pictures kind of tapered off towards the latter half of the year,
it doesn't mean we didn't do much. Ok, fine....we didn't, we kind of
started just relaxing and taking it easy. Also, the real estate market
looks interesting, so we started looking around as well. We ended the year
with another trip to Taiwan, then vacationing in Bali, which stretched to 2009.
Let's hope for a better 2009!
Click here for this year's 'Shawn Speaks!'.
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YEAR 2008
(Click on the pictures or the links to view each
album) |
| Dec 20, 2008
 |
 |
Friendskit Holiday Party! - (this is a late addition, Dec 09)
Lots of fun doing a white-elephant gift exchange with potluck, and
of course, poker. Everyone had a lot of fun and Maggie was
definitely surprised by her little present. =) |
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| Dec 12-14, 2008
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Willis Bachelor Party in Vegas! - Time for the ole' boy to get
hitched, so Gordon/Jeff planned a proper send-off in Vegas! 48 hours
of just non-stop eating, drinking, gambling, dune buggying, and of
course, 'clubbing'. (Not that type of 'clubbing', girls!) |
|
| Nov 28, 2008
 |
| My
Birthday Celebration! - Yup, turned another year older this
Thanksgiving weekend. We celebrated by following up on the
previous day's gluttony with a 2/3lb custom burger, which I ate in
under 5 minutes! Although the burger was delicious, the main
reason I ate so fast was because the burger was sliding out of my
hands, so I had to eat it quick or lose in a pile on the plate! |
|
| Nov 27, 2008
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Thanksgiving Day! - Another year, another day of gluttony at
Alex/Sophia's place! As usual, we had a ton of food and people
came in & out throughout the day/night. Unlike other years, we
had a rather large contingent of Canadians, which brought some
diversity to the nationalities (although they were all asians).
Lots of PS3 Buzz games and first-person shooters rounded out the
entertainment. |
|
| Nov 9, 2008
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| SF
Academy of Science Museum - Ok, so I'm a nerd, but Maggie and
Lynn must be bigger ones since they're the ones that wanted to go
see a science museum on a weekend! hahaha! =) Man, the
place was packed, but the place had some pretty interesting exhibits
and it was kind of nice just hanging out and chilling on a Sunday
afternoon. |
|
| Nov 2, 2008
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Henry/Diana's Going-Away Party - They're leaving the country for
a couple years, so Jean/Jeff put together a fun game party to
properly send them off - Japanese-game-show-style! We had a
lot of fun playing the games outdoors with some awesome videos to
boot! The marshmallow eating contest is un-like any other
food-eating contest ever!
Rita's pics are here. |
|
| Nov 1, 2008
 |
|
Anne & Wiley's Wedding - Anne & Wiley got married in the Marin
Headlands during the first rainfall of the season. Originally,
an outside wedding, it was brought indoors and although, a tad
crowded, everything worked out in the end! |
|
| Oct 31, 2008
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Halloween 2008! - We celebrated this year's Halloween with a
party at Jeff V's party house! He and his roomies sure know
how to throw a massive party! Almost everyone came in a
costume to join in the Halloween fun - guys as girls, Elvis,
schoolgirls, girl cops, girl scouts, girl genie, white angels, dark
angels, bumble bees, nurse, bears, referees, jail mates, viking,
tacos, pocahontas, hooters girl, supergirl, and a whole bunch more!
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|
| Oct 19, 2008
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Willis' Birthday Race - After a night of drunken fun and
singing, we headed out to Stanford to work on our tan and to run
around campus like a bunch of crazed asians!! The race was a
fun puzzle of getting to know Willis better and a lot more running
than anyone expected! |
|
| Oct 18, 2008
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Ocktoberfest & Jeff L's 30th Birthday - What a great day to
celebrate the month of October, dressed in orange & a visor, to
commemorate a friend's passing into his 30's! Although it took
a lot of planning, Diana/Henry managed to pull off the surprise of
the month (possibly the year!) by putting together a surprise
birthday party at Jeff's parent's place!
PS - It's fun to play dodgeball on a tennis court, just ask Jeff!
=) |
|
| Oct 4, 2008
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LoveFest 2008 - The annual parade in downtown San Francisco,
where you see a bunch of floats representing...hmmm...different
people. Maggie and a bunch of others enjoyed the parade on a
beautiful fall day. |
|
| Oct 3, 2008
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Wayne's 30th Birthday celebration - For the dude's 30th
birthday, we went to Miyake's to have some sushi and sake bombs!
For a skinny guy, Wayne sure can drink a lot! He had like 17
drinks, either shots, sake bombs, beer, soju, etc. |
|
| Sept 20, 2008
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Jim's Macgyver Birthday - Most people throw a simple party or
have dinner/cake, but not Jim/Rita! They put together
elaborate games for their friends and this year, it's Macgyver-style!
Nice story line which fit the events that we did, we all had a
wonderful time in the park! |
|
| Aug 30-Sept 1, 2008
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Labor Day Weekend in LA - We headed to LA to do a bit of work as
well as visit family and friends in LA. Took off on Friday
evening for a nice, leisurely drive with Maggie and her parents down
to southern Cal. We took off on seperate ways on Saturday, so
while I visited friends in LA, Maggie visited her family in LA.
It was good catching up with people on this beautiful long weekend.
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|
| Aug 22-24, 2008
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Henry's 30th birthday in Sonoma - To get the party house in
Santa Rosa, Diana delayed the trip until the end of month, but it
was totally worth it! The pool, party-room, and house really
made the trip fun and the warm weather really cooperated by not
being too hot or too cold to play in the pool all day/night long!
Although we stayed two nights, it went by way too fast, guess we
were just having too much fun! =) |
|
| Aug 16, 2008
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Stephanie & Jason's Wedding - One of our high school buddies got
hitched on this beautiful Saturday afternoon in Stockton.
Several of us made the trek from LA and SF area to attend her
wedding and to see who the lucky guy she's going to be bossing
around for the rest of their lives! HAHAHA!
Congratulations, Steph and Jason! |
|
| Aug 9, 2008
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|
Tony's Birthday Dodgeball - That's right, another ball-slamming
session of dodgeball with a bunch of grown adults!
Unfortunately, no re-play of the 'perfect hit', but we did have a
man-on-man biting contest! Check out the pics to see the
results! |
|
| Aug 9, 2008
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Nancy's 30th Birthday lunch - Here's something new that I
haven't done before....have a partially self-cooked gourmet lunch at
a grocery store on a Saturday morning! But...wow! What a
tasty lunch to celebrate Maggie's friend, Nancy, turning the big
3-0. Happy Birthday, Nancy and thanks again, Jerry! |
|
| July 11-12, 2008
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Charlotte & Mark's Wedding - This couple has been going out for
almost as long as we have! Finally, they tie the knot and
poof, they're on the other side of the country a few days later!
Anyways, their wedding turned out beautifully at the Ruby Hill Golf
club, which we took a ton of photos of. In case you don't have
time to go through the full album,
feel
free to check out the highlights. |
|
| June 28-29, 2008
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|
Northstar Mountain Biking - Yup, definitely the return of the
downhill mountain biking summer trip! About a dozen of us
headed to Northstar at Tahoe to blaze down its dusty trails as fast
as we dare to go (which isn't that fast at first!). Even
though we only did a half-day, it was more than plenty to tire us
out. Note to self - ski goggles are good all year round on the
mountain! |
|
| June 14-15, 2008
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|
Cache Creek 'Lazy' Rafting Trip - After hearing all about last
year's adventurous trip, a bunch of newbies came out to brave the
rolling rapids and stuff themselves silly with 1-lb baked potatoes!
With this year's high water, we had no major injuries (unlike last
year) and we managed to get a huge space on the shady, grassy part
of the campsite! I believed that made the camping experience
much better for the newbies.
(PS: Forgot my leash for my camera, so very little on water
pics, sorry!)
Henry's pictures are here. |
|
| May 25, 2008
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|
Memorial Weekend BBQ - A Memorial weekend without a couple BBQ
is just not a proper long weekend! We had a big bbq at our
place, putting my grill to the test with some indirect grilling and
multiple reloads of coal. New games were played and people
really enjoyed all the variety of fruit and sides! We even had
pies and leftover ice-cream cake! |
|
| May 24, 2008
 |
|
ETD.POP at Cow Palace - With three rooms, Markus Schultz, Ferry
Corsten, Tiesto, and under-21 admissions, the huge 'barn' was packed
with tons of people! This type of clubbing/raving was awesome!
Wear anything you want, abundant amount of seats, and a great show!
Too bad, they had a power outage around 1am, which shut down the
place. |
|
| May 8-14, 2008
 |
|
First Anniversary vacation in Cancun - For our first
anniversary, we booked a 6-day vacation in Cancun to do some diving
(reef and cavern diving) and mainly for some much needed R&R!
Seriously, the days flew by so quick that I can still clearly
remember what we did each day and nite. Man, Mexicans really
like to get tipped!
Since I have tendency to put everything on these albums, I've also
created a
highlights album of our trip. |
|
| April 13, 2008
 |
|
New Weber Performer Grill BBQ - That's right...a BBQ to break in
the new grill! This awesome grill took me an hour to assemble
and cost almost as much as its gas brothers, but it was worth it!
We invited a few friends to partake in the event and we had a huge
turn-out! BTW - Rock Band turns grown adults to bumbling
teenagers!
Crazy Rock Band
Video - Willis, Jeff, Gordon, Jeff and Henry |
|
| April 12, 2008
 |
|
Linda's Birthday Dinner - Rino planned and cooked his
once-every-five-year meal for all of us to enjoy and of course, to
celebrate Linda's birthday! The food was awesome and even
though we had Chilean sea bass, it was 'kosher' sea bass from Whole
Foods! Even though I hardly ate anything all day, I was
stuffed after polishing off this meal! Great job, Rino and
Happy Birthday, Linda! |
|
| April 4-5, 2008
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|
BBQ Eating weekend - That's right, it's spring time and it's
time to dust off the broken grill and burn some meat on it!
HAHAHA!
Actually, I was thinking of having one last BBQ with my old grill
before my new one comes in, but Maggie convinced me to keep the old
grill as a secondary one. So, it lives on!! =) |
|
| March 14-16, 2008
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Rino/Linda's 'SOLID' Ski Trip - Although it was my first time on
Rino/Linda's Ski trip, the planning, the cabin location, the weather
could not have been better! We had a ton of fun snowboarding,
hot-tubbing, watching movies, playing Mafia, and making our own
pizzas!! |
|
| March 1, 2008
 |
|
David's Birthday Celebration - Dave's friend planned a nice
dinner at Benihana in SF and clubbing at Whisper Ultra Lounge
afterwards. The boy was toasted and danced, drank all night
with his friends. |
|
| Feb 23, 2008
 |
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Jeff W's Birthday - What do you get for a guy who expects the
un-expected for his birthday? You get all his friends together
and play dodgeball on some huge trampolines! Jean put
together this wonderful surprise and Jeff never guessed! |
|
| Feb 16, 2008
 |
|
Jean's Chinese New Year Dinner - It's officially a tradition!
For the third year in a row, Jean put together an awesome Chinese
New Year dinner! Maggie based her dessert on red beans, in the
form of a cake and soup! |
|
| Feb 15, 2008
 |
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Sugar Bowl Day Trip - Yup, that's right, we ditched work and
went boarding instead! We had a great day of fun and thanks to
Linda and Rino, we didn't have to worry about the drive! =) |
|
| Feb 14, 2008
 |
|
Valentine's Day 2008 - This year, Maggie received a box of her
favorite chocolates and a day off for Valentine's! Although
that may not sound like much, that's a ton of work for me to do all
by myself. In addition, she got a nice home-cooked seafood
feast, which is perfect for our snowboarding trip the next day! |
|
| Feb 1-3, 2008
 |
| LA
Trip - Going to LA is always fun and action-packed! This
trip is no different. Traveled to visit some old friends and
did a whole bunch of work - moving furniture!! Yup, that's
right - a 24" Budget Rent-a-Truck full of furniture and junk.
Good thing is we hired movers, so it wasn't too bad. |
|
| Jan 25-27, 2008
 |
|
Friendskit Ski Trip 2008 - This year, I asked for a little
powder, but instead we get a ton! So much so, that despite
having the cabin for 3 nights, we all took off around noon on Sunday
fearing massive traffic due to the winter snowstorm. Luckily,
people were right to leave early as a couple people who left later
got stuck in some pretty hefty traffic. Thanks to all the
people who helped out cooking and cleaning - the trip wouldn't be
the same without your hard work! =)
For your
entertainment - Arm-wrestling!
A few pics from Rita |
|
| Dec 23-Jan 1, 2008
 |
| Taiwan -
Kenting->Taichung->Taipei Trip - This year's Taiwan trip was
unlike any other because our friends decided to join us on an epic
around the island tour in our very own private tour bus with leather
seats, 7 TVs and karaoke! Of course, we had our banquet in
Taichung and then we headed to Taipei and went to Daniel's banquet
as well. In between, there was a lot of drinking, eating,
shopping, and many other activities!
Highlights
- In case you just want to browse through the highlights instead of
the huge album.
Benny Pix
- Pictures from Benny's point of view.
Pam Pix
- Pictures from Pam's point of view.
Ted Pix
- Pictures from Ted's point of view
Dave Pix
- Pictures from Dave's point of view. |
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Shawn Speaks!! - 2008
| 12/1/08 |
Can't believe it, another three months has passed and it's
almost the end of the year! Since Sept, I've been watching a lot
of TV shows on HD or Blu-Ray and I can't get enough of it! Picture
quality is just so nice! Problem is that I'm starting to feel
dumber already. I think I need to get out and something more
active and with people!
We've also been looking at properties recently due to the downturn in
real estate and in the economy as a whole and it's quite fun, although I
don't recommend seeing like 8-10 houses in an afternoon. After a
while, everything starts to look the same or have the same problems.
Everyone says that it's a good time to buy, but is it really? Will
something that looks like it's a good deal now, be a good deal 6 months
to a year from now? Tough to say when the bottom is, kinda like
picking stocks.......buy low, sell high. Sounds simple enough, but
oh so hard to do. If it wasn't, everyone would be rich, I guess! |
| 8/12/08 |
We've been watching the Olympics since last Friday and
man, HD content really fill up hard drives really, really fast!
Every hour is about 9GB and they go on several channels and for hours on
end! We cleared out over 300GB of space on our PVR for this and
we're still running low! Way too much stuff to watch! In any
case, it's been great watching the Olympics in such clarity and we're
definitely looking forward to when all TV content will be broadcasted in
the same manner. It makes watching TV so much more entertaining
when you can see the dry skin or pimples on the actors' faces!
HAHAHA! |
| 6/16/08 |
Just finished a whirlwind weekend of activities!
Man, I was so tired by Sunday evening, I fell asleep in the middle of
typing up stuff for this past weekend's pictures! I think the next
thing car manufacturers need to design is auto-drive for those times,
where you just want the car to take you home, so that you can sleep.
Seriously, I'm curious as to what the actual distinction is between
Indian casinos, regular Nevada casinos and casinos in the Bay Area.
Played craps at Cache Creek yesterday and there were these dices that
you throw, but it only determines which card gets flipped up! The
cards have a picture of the two dices with numbers on it and that
determines the pay-out. Interesting, eh? |
| 5/15/08 |
I have no idea what is up with the no liquids thing that
is going with the airlines nowadays. This past vacation to Cancun,
I purchased 6 bottles of 7oz habenero sauces at the Cancun airport AFTER
I checked in my luggage and airport shopping area. No problems
flying to Mexico City, but when boarding the plane for SF, I was not
allowed to bring my bag of sealed sauces onto the airplane. Each
sauce was individually sealed and additionally wrapped and I had the
receipt. For some reason, flying to the USA, I'm not allowed to
bring any liquids on board, only in the check-in luggage. However,
I'm on a connecting flight, how am I supposed to put the sauces into my
checked luggage!!! I finally convinced them to just do a
last-minute check-in of sauces (kind of like what you do for strollers),
but they said that I have to put it into a closed luggage. I asked
if I could zip-tie the bag, but they said that they needed real luggage
like my backpack. I told them, that the bag the sauces are in is
no less durable than my soft-sided nylon backpack and offers no more
protection, so why not just check that in since I wasn't going to give
up my backpack which had all my electronics (camera, media readers,
laptop, etc). Finally, with the gate about to close, I said fuck
it and let them throw away my bag of sauces.
Seriously, what the heck is up with the stupid rule of no liquids on
the plane flying to the USA??? What's the difference between
having the liquids in the checked-in luggage or in the passenger
compartment? And seriously, if you buy something in the boarding
area of the AIRPORT, you would think you would be able to carry that on
the plane!!! Man, that really irked me. If I couldn't take
it on the plane, why would they sell it to me? It's like stealing
money from un-informed tourists! What BS. |
| 1/4/08 |
Updating and archiving old 2007 photos. Shawn speaks
archived. Just got back from a long vacation and sooo much to do. |
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