After a quick and lively final interview with the general manager at Best Buy at Lakeline, I was re-admitted into the Best Buy family. Obviously, this is all contingent on me passing the drug test and background check, but I do not forsee any problems in that regard. Honestly, it isn't much, but its a start. After the string of failures to gain employment elsewhere (besides being self-employed, which was what I've been doing for the past several months), this is finally a step in the right direction.

So what does this mean, with Stages I and II completed? All that remains is completing III and IV. . . and possibly V if time and resources allow. If all three stages are completed, I would be returning to a very powerful position, but if only two are completed, I would at least be back on my feet again. If only one is completed, I'm doomed.

After that, I plopped myself down in front of the XBox in the ACM office and plugged in at least two hours immersing myself in Project Gotham Racing. Surprisingly enough, it does everything that Gran Turismo III should've done as far as gameplay is concerned, and even the vehicle selection in PGR is equal to, if not better than, GT3. My only complaint is that PGR rated a Ford Focus as better than a Porsche Boxster. Personally, I have a very hard time seeing that. . .

At the end of the afternoon I decided to drop in at the ACM LAN party and see what was up. As expected, there was a pretty good turn out, and lots of digital fragging ensued. At first I wasn't really expecting to actually join in the fragging, but in the end I succumbed and partook in a few Counterstrike games. So I spent the rest of the evening switching between hunting down terrorists as a counter-terrorist, cursing at PGR and watching a Ford Focus pull ahead of my Porsche Boxster, and just general yapping with the other ACMers. Unfortunately, the expected DDR tournament never took place.

Actually. . . that's a pretty accurate description of me. . . I was very surprised by the results from the quiz at mutedfaith.com

Since I was pretty much done with Quincy Pro, I turned it back over to Bonnie's dad on Thursday morning. He invited me to lunch, and since I had to be out at the Office of the Attorney General at 3PM anyways, I accepted. The food was good, the company was decent, so I couldn't ask for much else. The reason I went to the OAG today was because a group of us are trying to pursue some sort of legal action against Anshin (the company that offered us employment as Network Administrators). This was initiated because it seemed that the company was not holding up its end of the contract in good faith, and furthermore because there's currently a lawsuit in progress in Missouri that is dealing with the same type of business practices that this one is exhibiting. So I guess we're pretty much cutting our losses, and try to recover what we can. The person we spoke to about this matter couldn't offer much assurance that it could be resolved properly, but they said the matter will be looked into. That's probably the best we can do at this point (unless we pursue our own class action lawsuit).

1st dream put me in a security officer persona, where I'm investigating this old abandoned mansion that used to be a private school. The twist of it is, there's a ghost haunting the place, and everyone who went in to investigate has never came back out. Yeah yeah. . . I know, cheesy movie setup. . . but it was strange nonetheless because usually my dreams don't involve ghosts. . . in fact I think this was the first dream I had that involved ghosts. . . I don't quite remember the details, other than me sitting in a car looking through the front gates of the estate. . . hmm. . . kind of reminds me of House of the Dead, now that I think about it. . . except the ghost was the Red Queen from Resident Evil. But since both of them has alot of similarities (bio-weapons research), I can see why my sub-conscious mixed them up.

2nd dream was a bit more straight-forward. I think. . . This one took place in the wild wild west, where I was a lone gunman (Trigun-style) just traveling the wasteland, until I came across a town with a beautiful woman, whom I fell madly in love with, but it was a futile venture, because she was madly in love with a Army colonel who was an obvious playboy. Nonetheless I befriended her and stood by her side whenever she ran into difficulties. The bizzare love triangle was soon broken, when she agreed to marry her heart's desire, and my feelings were conveyed to her by a mutual friend. We acted like adults and went our separate ways, but before I left town a train came in, bearing evidence that destroyed the Army colonel's credibility. However, the train (without its crew) suddenly took off on its own with passengers aboard, headed towards a broken bridge. So I ran and ran and ran until I hopped onto the engine and did my best to stop the train (by blowing up the engine). I was thrown off the train, and landed in a rock pile, and subsequently lost consciousness. When I came to, I was informed that the passengers were saved because of me, and that the woman I fell in love with changed her mind when she realized that the person who had been there for her the most was the right one for her.

After that, I spent the bulk of the afternoon working with Rus and resolving some of his minor computer problems. Apparently he ran out of hard drive space, but while working on that there was a few other minor issues that he requested me to address while I was there. Managed to resolve everything, except for the hard drive, which was not in stock at Fry's. So I pointed him to a online merchant which did carry the drive, and now we're just waiting for the drive to arrive.

By around 4PM I finally made my own back to Design Edge to meet up with James to see about moving the bike. The poor girl has been sitting (neglected) in Foohey's backyard for the past six months, and she was a pitiful site when we drove up. Spent fifteen minutes trying to start her up, and finally gave up due to a dying battery. So James drove us over to a car mechanic place he used to work at, and borrowed their heavy-duty industrial-strength battery charger. Thirty minutes later we were on our way back to Foohey's place, with a freshly charged battery. Unfortunately, it appeared that a recharged battery wasn't going to do it, as she still was not starting up. It was quite heart-rending. But after a few more coaxings, she finally started up with a full throttled roar. Obviously I was grinning from ear to ear when I heard her growl like that. Even though she wasn't street-legal (due to the crash back in August), I carefully rode her to a place where we could roll it onto James' truck, and then proceeded at a cautious pace to Kyle's place (where the repairs will actually take place).

Kyle actually has a pretty good setup at his recently moved-in house, as we soon found out. James and I were both pleasantly surprised at how Kyle is furnishing his place (having a separate garage AND a workshop is quite nice). Once we moved the bike into his shop, we began a preliminary checklist on what needed to be replaced, and what could be repaired. As expected, the internal damage is not severe, but the cosmetic damage will cost me a bundle. Still. . . it was definitely nice being on a bike once again. . . and I cannot wait until she's ready to tackle the roads once again.

However, yesterday before I made the trip from Plano to Austin, I received a call from the Best Buy store near Lakeline. I had previously submitted an application for Best Buy online, and was informed that they would call me back for an interview. And so they did. I went in for the first interview today and everything seemed to go well. I have a few more interviews to go through before I'm offered a job, so I'm not counting any chickens just yet.

Figures. . . I try to alter course and things suddenly roll into place. 'course, now that I've said this I probably just jinxed myself and condemned myself to unemployment hell. :P

After much indecision and researching into this matter, I finally made up my mind about which direction my life will be heading towards for the immediate future:

I have decided to make a slight career change, and begin applying at the Police Academy.

I can give a lot of reasons I have for making this change, and while some of them are not very convincing, most of it simply has to do with the idea that whatever I do on the job just might make a difference in someone's life. Like I said above, this was not an easy decision, and it took me a while to reconcile some differences of opinions inside my head. My parents took the news surprisingly well, reassuring me that whatever I do is fine as long as I am sure that this is what I want to do, and that I am not risking my life for some pointless venture.

What is my goal in joining the police force? Quite simple. . . my ideal position would be divided as thus: I would spend most of my time in the cyber-crimes division, while on stand-by call as a SWAT member. I realize that it will be a long while before I get there (optimistically, at least 5 years, conservatively, 8 years), but its been a dream of mine to do that for quite some time now.

So as soon as I return to OC4 on Monday (I'm currently back in Plano), I will be submitting my application and began the SEALs physical training in earnest.

Dinner with Jennifer was pretty peaceful. I picked her up and we went for pho, and they messed up my vietnamese coffee slightly, but I wasn't going to ruin the evening over that. Some minor reminiscing of Hell ensued, but mostly discussed about current events (Iraq, Columbia, the meaning of Godot. . . okay, not Godot. . .). Then we jetted over to OC4 so she could check the place out. She insisted on buying me coffee at Seattle's Best Coffee because I bought her dinner, but chance would have it SBC was closed by the time we got there. So instead I made her some cappuacino, and we chatted about Chinese New Years and Mardi Gras (which I'm considering attending this year). Because she had a flight tomorrow to go see her boyfriend in California, I drove her home before it got too late.

Except the battlefield was closed. Turns out Blazer Lazer is closed on Tuesdays and Wedensdays. So instead, the bunch of us (Matt, Austin, Dan, Matt, and a couple of others and myself) headed towards Dave & Busters for some alternative gaming.

And boy was it my night. First game I played was Daytona, and finished 1st place out of 4 by inching ahead 3 milliseconds in front of my nearest competitor and smacking Dan against the wall (sent him flying too :) ). Next was 911 Police (the motion sensor real-life simulation thingie) and got all the way up to Deputy Chief before running out of time; it was the first time I stayed alive that long. Then I tried the Pump It Up DDR-wannabe with Matt, and proceeded to kick all manners of booty (managed to gather a large crowd who were cheering me on. . . felt really good. . .). After that was Arctic Thunder (which I never played before), and stole 1st place from Sam by kicking his rider off his snowmobile. *evil grin*. And then I played some Silent Scope (was scoring way more head shots than I normal could have possibly made) but didn't get very far. My proudest achievement for the night was finishing the Sega F15 Strike Fighter simulator. . . I've been playing that everytime I go to D&B, and always died by the 3rd or 4th mission. But this time, I flew through the entire game with only minor scratches to the paintjob, and with a couple of close calls on the mission time limit. That's one more thing scratched off of my life's-to-do list. :)

After D&B we chowed down at Kerbey North, and then Dan and Austin followed me home to check out the new Outpost Command IV. Some more DDR action ensued, but my pads began to show significant wear and tear. Guess I'm going to have to break them apart and resurface them. . . which is at least an full-afternoon job. . .

The premise of the story is about a futuristic Earth under siege from visiting aliens. I mean visiting by them just dropping from the sky and touching down at some place on Earth, and heads towards an area named Pilgrimage Point (since all the aliens to date have set their course to that area). Unfortunately, in their passage they leave behind wide swaths of destruction, partly because they inadvertently smash through a metropolis, and partly because the military become over-enthusiastic in trying to stop it.

Hence we have the ultra-secret military organization named FUNERAL whose sole purpose is to stop the marauding aliens, which happens to acquire an abnormal alien and adds it to their arsenal in their fight against the invaders. Reminds you of Evangelion, doesn't it? Among the FUNERAL members is one reclusive pilot who joined FUNERAL with an eternal hatred towards the abnormal alien (because he thinks it killed his girlfriend). However, as the story progresses, he finds that not all truths are absolute.

And the viewer will be treated with twists and turns after each episode. What was once considered "right" can change to "wrong" in the very next minute. What is considered to be the line between allies and enemies can very well be turned against us when we least expect it. But through it all, individuals are still capable of demonstrate courage, honor, loyalty, strength, and love even in the face of the gravest situations.

What I do find relevant is that the series contain within it a story of a mission of space exploration gone awry. Because of that catastrophe, mankind became reclusive, in fear of anything that is extraterristrial. With that fear also comes power struggles between those who yearn for discovery, and those who wishes to control discovery. In the aftermath of the Columbia, it is my hopes that humanity does not become blind to the benefits of exploration just because of the fear of failure. Accidents do happen, just as surely as mistakes made by human beings. This is by no means making light of the sacrifices made by those souls who pursued the dreams of humanity. But to turn our backs to the paths they've created for us is to make a mockery of their deaths.

Overall, the plot of the film was fairly predictable. The special effects rivaled that of The Matrix, although I have to admit in some senses it went overboard in the special effects department. Then again, most asian films do stretch the limits of imagination. Hey, I'm asian. I can say that.

There were some solemn moments during the final battle between the two main soccer teams, whereas the rest of the film had a very healthy dose of slapstick comedy. Of course, there had to be the female love interest thrown into the mix, but in this artistic compilation it comes shaken, not stirred.

Overall, I think the general sentiment (which I voiced) for the film was "Final Fantasy in the Soccer world". Which in the end made a lot of sense.

In attendence for the film was Will (who brought it up in the first place), Paul, Joshua, Dan, and Shrew. I thought everyone would be eating here, and proceeded to make a flavorful feast, but it turns out Dan and Shrew brought their own food, while everyone else ordered pizza. Oh well, at least I have enough food to last me for the next few days. :P

Sleepy time. . .

After Chinese New Years we took a small break by going shopping, but on Tuesday things turned a bit sour. One of our guests had scheduled two business meetings in Austin. We departed from Plano a bit late, and it was up to me to make sure we got there on time. So of the three hours and thirty minutes that the trip would normally take, I got us there in three and change. The Venture probably suffered some minor stress damage on the engines because I was pushing it so hard, but it couldn't be helped. Dad was sitting in the passenger seat constantly monitoring my speed, but didn't say much because he knew we were going to be late. End result, we were only ten minutes late, as opposed to the forty minutes projected in a worst case scenario. After a quick lunch with Foxconn executives I became The Driver again and whisked our guest to 3M's Innovation Center. After that, I flew back to the restaurant, picked everyone up, and proceeded to give them a crash tour of Austin (UT in particular). A few hours later we got a call saying the meeting was over, and once again I chauffered everyone to 3M before we started for home. Throughout all that I was trying to contact an internet seller to conclude an auction for one of our guests, and I am proud to say that on that day everything was concluded in a satisfactory manner. For the trip home I left the piloting duties to dad, because I was too worn out. Woke up with a terrible back pain the next morning too.

My only regret for the past week was that they had to leave so soon (they left on a early Thursday morning flight). Just when I thought I was getting along with Zhi-Fong pretty well, happy days came to an end.

Throughout all this I managed to come up with a new motto, which I think is fitting for the coming year. . .