As promised, more skii stories coming up.
The last weekend, or simply just 2 days ago, was AMAZING! I hereby certify that i'm a snowboarding fan. When i did a complete S run down the slope, I went high..high on snowboarding.

It was a weekend at Tahoe! My second skii trip but this time we were staying overnight at the hotel. First day was at kirkwood. Fun was all there is to say for the day. I started experimenting with the S runs down the slopes at kirkwood and ended up with the usual falls. After a while, somehow i got the hang of it and i could do 2 or 3 turns on my S runs before kissing the white snow again. I was beaming when the first successful S turn happened. Machiam like a kid who got his long-prayed power ranger toy. Evening came and we had to call it a day. Had a mini bbq before we left kirkwood and retreat to our hotels at the heavenly town area. Reached the hotel and got ourselves cleaned up. Spent the rest of the night at the town area; visited the american casinos and sat down at a pub for some food and drinks.



Casino Harrah's



Wheel of fortune. Big money!

Day 2 arrived and it was time for heavenly. And it was indeed heavenly. This place is the closest you can get to heaven. Standing over 10,000 feet high and i thought i felt like mr king-ow-of-the-world. If i had ever mentioned that the view at kirkwood was beyond breaktaking, the scenary up at heavenly is "breast"-taking...(this just came off my mind while typing, no offenses)


Me on top of heavenly

It was at heavenly that I got better at my S turns and when you get the S turns right, that is when the real fun begins. No amount of words can do justice to the intensity of fun i had on that day...(frankly..i'm actually too tired to continue typing)
Just take a look at the pictures.



Me and weijie



Freaking scary ride on the skii lift, nice view though



A skii-MX spotted! (BMX equivalent on the snow)

The day ended with aches and sores, but it was one of the best weekends ever.

I was down with some serious flu virus for the past week...and getting sick while overseas is no joke. It was one of the worst illness i've gotten in my life, felt simply weak for the whole week. Was bed-ridden from monday till thursday, cant do anything, and going to the toilet to pee seems like the most daunting task ever. Life was basically all about sleep for 4 days. Thursday came and i regained some energy, and somehow, i thot being able to walk around the house without feeling feeble is the sign of complete recovery..it was pure stupidity. I happily left the house and drove down to stanford in the evening for some networking session. That very night, evil brother fever came again...i was down again. And if that din teach me a lesson well enough... I woke up on friday feeling a bit better and went for the YouTube visit in the morning. By afternoon, I was back to my dazy, feverish mode. Its really surprising how some people can get so stubborn and plain stupid. I always thot i wasnt one of them...Friday night was "Wake up your idea la..CB!" night. Temp shot up to 38.9 and i started worrying. i better start taking care of my body. I was taking shots of panadols and downing gallons of water that night. Toilet visiting hit a record high and thankfully i got better on saturday morning. It was a guai guai stay at home weekend.

Nonetheless, youtube visit quite an experience, tho the youtube building was nowhere near impressive. Freaking boring and dull building. Saw Chad Hurley and we had a mini interaction session with him for an hour or so, and as we left the building, steve chen was just making his way in...They dont look like multi-millionaires at all.

Anyway, another skii trip coming up this weekend. Which means more Skii pictures coming on to the journal..haha..boring boring..need to do something new.

Just like the professionals..










on the skii lift

Its been over 2 weeks since the last entry. So many things happened over the past few weeks! Work alone is beyond interesting.. been doing totally new things that have always been strange to me. Thrown with a business plan for a new company product and working with PhDs and medical gurus with over 10 years of experience. I'm just pampered with this opportunity..what have i done in the my 24 years to qualify myself to work alongside all these champions...i've been asking myself this question everyday..
Anyway..this week is course week! will be attending some networking course for the whole of this week, 8-5.

Last saturday was SNOWBOARDING day!!! And as of saturday 17th of feb 2007, i became a snowboard fan...It was damn fun..but it was expensive fun, freaking cost me over a 100 bucks for the whole trip! Hm..but the high cost was becos of the lessons we attended for beginners and the bus trip up lake tahoe. The whole snowboarding experience was full of ups and downs. Up becos we have to take the skii lift all the way up to the top of the slope (around 300metres up) and board our way down. And down, becos it was a fall-ful day. I did all the stuns you could see on tv...360 somersault..but starting without me knowing and ending with me lying face-down on the snow slope. I fell a 1000000 times basically and couldnt walk properly for the next 2 days. Well done...and i still love it.

Anyway the scenery up lake tahoe was breath-robbery...it was beyond breathtaking. It is really one of the scenes you see in lord of the rings...the snow capped mountains..the white tipped cone trees..and everywhere is white white white white..

I witnessed my 1st accident on the road today, but i wasnt involved, thank goodness. It was scary. I was driving on the left most lane on the freeway (btw left lane is the outermost lane on US roads) when i saw this car on my left across the road divider flew up and did my snowboarding stun. It was the freaking 1st time i saw a car flipped up like that..I was 3 metres away.
And I pray that the drivers are ok.

Hm...dunno whether its me or not, but things haven been too smooth. I needed to get my social security number done, so I went down to the office on wednesday and apply for it. After queueing for the whole morning, i was told by the admin staff that i can only apply for it 10 days after i arrived in the US. Damn..I knew i had to wait for ten days, it was stated, but the rest of the guys had their's done in the 1st week!! Probably i met a difficult SSN staff. After the SSN office, i went down to the DMV to try my luck on taking my probation CALI driving licence, it din work out either. Suppose to get my SSN before i can go for the licence, I know this cos its stated, but then again the rest of the guys got it on their 1st week also! I waited for friday and i went down SSN office again...this time they told me 15 days! and its 15 working days, not counting saturdays and sundays. I cursed and sweared.

Never mind, take it slow as i always remind myself.

Here are more pictures!



Dinner time! I'm not resposible for the cooking, still learning..



Toilet in my house.


Kitchen!


Sophia with the Saturn



Me in my Mirage.

Thats all for now, weekend is here! going shopping tomorrow with daxiang and christine. And clubbing at night!! woo!!

This is a closet



This is a "bed"




This is a cupboard

And that is all there is to see in my room...haha..damn pathetic rite.
Cant furnish it further la, cos really broke alr...Thomas was suggesting i go sell my ass for some additional income, but its ang mors' XL dick over here, so better not try.

Today is my first day at work. Feels so weird to be surrounded by the americans..have to get used to it soon. Its a great company i'm working in, great project that i'll be involved in, great supervisor(i hope he remains nice throughout). But still, there is a need for adjustment and i need just a bit more time to settle in really nice and comfortably. Still have quite a few things to settle....my SSN..atm card..my driving licence..etc etc etc...

Ok..dont get it wrong. I'm not that rich to own 2 cars. Its just that Sophia wanted that Saturn SL2 so I had to give it up to her, since she was the one who found the car in the 1st place. I just went down to make payment. Ok, there was a bit of confusion in who wanted that car, but in the end she took it, and its her now.

So no Saturn for me as i began my car search number 2. In fact, i was surfing craigslist that day when i found an unbelieveable deal. A 2000 mitsubishi mirage going for 2,700! It is too good a deal to be true, but it was stated to be in a fair condition, so i reckoned that there might be some problems with the car and decided to make a trip down and take a look.

True enuff, that mitsubishi is not in her perfect condition. It had a kiss at the back (though the owner insist that the car reversed into a shopping trolley), but the trolley alone is not enuff to cause that amount of dent la. Never mind. Took the car for a test drive around the neighbourhood and it was a smooth drive. I am a smooth driver btw..haha..of course with an automatic car. I suck in manual. I was actually very happy with the car....and i bought it. *smiles*

I drove the car back home, of course with julian leading in the front. Guess what, halfway through the journey back home, his tyre went puncture! We pulled over outside some building and I had my 1st practical tyre changing lesson...Finally the tyre was fixed and we made our way back home.

While parking my mirage darling in the carpark, she made some weird noise...I was damn worried that the car might have more problems than what i think initially. Ok i shall keep my fingers crossed and send it to the mechanic soon, please make sure she doesnt have automobile AIDS or anything...I pray for her.

Work starts tomorrow and I am so excited about it...

Yes..got my 1st car. Saturn SL2.




It isnt one of those dream sports car that everyone in the valley is looking for. Doesnt have an impressive exterior, doesnt run as fast as what the others got..and it is an old car, 94. But still i'm a happy man with the car. The amount of exhilaration I got from my 1st drive back home is amazing. It was a satisfyingly gan jeong drive back to my house, gan jeong for i haven been driving regularly..a simple man with a simple car la. Too bad I can only leave the car in the carpark for this weekend cos i'm travelling down to vasque to meet the rest over the weekend. Oh yah..i'm already at vasque while typing this entry. That was another long treacherous ride in BART and caltrain...no horlannd this time though. Met an indo-cheena family, who spent half their life in singapore, on the caltrain. It made the ride more enjoyable talking to them.

It wasnt an enjoyable day...
We were supposed to be at the office for a briefing at 630pm. Julian and Sophia had a company dinner to attend in the evening so they cannot give me a ride to the office, which means i had to find my way there. So the plan is this, I'll make a trip down to Gundeep's workplace, which is in San Francisco city, meet her and the both of us will take a caltrain to mountain view station. Finally bernard will pick us up from there. A sound plan indeed.

Ok..the start of fuckups: firstly, I had to take the BART (which is MRT at home) to Gundeep's workplace, and the night before this...she told me "San Francisco BART station", meet at the bank of america, thats all she mentioned. So it was a cool 40 minutes walk from my house to the nearest BART station, Castro Valley. I din complain a bit, in fact i was all prepared to make this little roadmarch to the station. I left at 2pm..supposed to meet gundeep 445pm at the "san francisco station" (i repeat again, she only mentioned san fran station). So cheerfully i took the long stroll down to the Castro station, 40 mins it took, no joke. There wasnt a "San fran station" like she mentioned according to the BART station map. The closest it got was "South San fran station", and the rest of the station names were nowhere near "San Fran", the next closest was probably "San bruno" becos of the "san". Boarded the BART and reached "south san fran" station at around 4pm. I was thinking of walking around San fran city before meeting gundeep so i was there early.

I alighted at "South San fran", and i asked a lady:" where is the bank of america?" She looked stun cos there doesnt seem to be a BOA around and gave some hum-tum directions. I had the feeling that this might not be the right station and so i gave gundeep a call, telling her that i'm at "south san fran station", where do i go from there? She told me to look for some market street and again throwing me with landmarks like GAP, Carls JR. Ok...i was convinced that this might be the correct station, I took another 10 mins walk down the street, asking ppl along the way where BOA is? where market street is? No one seems to know, and i kept on walking to find more ppl to ask. Finally i gave up...i decided to call her again. The 1st thing I said was :"I alighted at the SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO STATION, is that the correct station?" "Oh no" was the reply from her, it was supposed to be "POWELL STATION". That is the first time in my life i heard that word pronuonced from her mouth...P-O-W-E-L-L. Backtracked to the south san fran BART station, and flew down in the BART to POWELL station. In fact, Powell is between Castro Valley and South San Fran. When i reached powell, gundeep told me we are really late for the briefing so we better take the BART to MILLBRAE station and take the caltrain from there. I was like...WHAT THE HELL??! MILLBRAE is 2 stops further down the South san fran station! I could have meet her there instead! LL suck thumb, took the BART (past South San fran station again) down to Millbrae and the caltrain to mountain view. Bernard was suppose to pick us up at mountain view station. To end off this treacherous trip, Bernard and Shuyang Horlannd-ed on the way to the noc office. A less than 10 mins drive turned out to be half an hour...I left the house at 2pm, only to arrive at the office at 730pm...

Ok..that was a grandmother's long winded story. For those who want a summarised analogy, here it goes: walked 40mins to city hall mrt from my house, take the mrt down to tanah merah, take the mrt back to kallang, then take the train to changi airport. Plus the Caltrain trip and the horlaand-ed car trip to the office...

But then again, this is nothing compared to what happened in BV....Bless them...

For those who dunno what happened...

MR Daniel has arrived in the Calfornia, safe and sound...but barely. One of the craziest thing nearly happen to me while on the flight to US. I thank the big brother up there who sent his angel down and bless me. While transitting over at Japan Tokyo, I was in a blur state due to a lack sleep, reached there at around 145pm. My ticket says "boarding at 245pm", so happily i went to check for which gate to report and I saw "NW6 245pm". NW stands for northwest, which is my airline. So I mai tu liao, went for "quick 1" and reported to the gate17 at around 215pm. I showed my ticket to the champion at the gate counter, she took it, checked and "argigato-koszaimust-ed" me into the plane. 16B my ticket reads, as i happily found my seat and sat down comfortably. Suddenly, angel appeared...This man in his forties came up to me and asked:" Hi, did you get the wrong seat? cos my ticket says 16B". I took out my ticket and double checked. It is 16B no doubt and I showed him the seat number. He replied:" Strange, how can the airline issue 2 tickets of the same seat?" I told him its alright cos i can always shift into the inner seat and give him that 16B seat. After the 2 of us were nicely seated, somehow or rather I decided to ask for his ticket.....and it doesnt read SAN FRANCISCO. It reads some dunno ulu US city. I springed up from my seat immediately, and with the skills mastered in mambo night at zouk, i squeezed through the many ppl making their way in to flash my ticket to the nearest stewardess i can get hold of. YES, I WAS ON THE WRONG FLIGHT! She showed me out of the plane and I was saved...

This particular act of mine shld never be imitated, pls dont try this at home.

view from my apartment

my home in San leandro!

Yes the damned gate 17. If you take a closer look under the economy sign, you can also see the damned pony-tailed-airport-crew who let me in. I curse her to land herself in africa if she goes US the next time...

the ntu ppl came!

My parents

saying goodbyes at the airport