Super T...Optometrist by Day, DJ by Night

Awaken at 4am to "Toan call the police!"

2009-01-16T09:05:00.005-06:00

We got back from our Thailand/Vietnam trip about a week ago and we've been trying to fight the jet lag. The jet lag problem has been better, but our clocks are still a couple of hours off. Last night, Cindy and I crawled into bed at about 10:00 pm (our usual is about midnight). I slept pretty well because I had a hard time sleeping the night before due to congestion.

At 4:00am, I hear "Toan...Toan...Toan...call the police!" coming from downstairs. Asian parents are known for their "yelling" tendencies. My parents are of the stereotype. They love to yell instead of walking upstairs and knocking on my door. Cindy and I wake up and think it's something bad. I run downstairs to see my parents looking out the front door. There's a loud scratching/thumping noise hitting the glass. I calm down seeing that my parents are obviously okay and just mad that they can't go to work because there's a dog outside.

I look out to see the following german shepherd.

I opened the front door because we had a glass door and see this German Shepherd just jumping at me through the glass. Thump Thump! He's not foaming at the mouth or anything, but he's quite the large puppy. On all fours he was about barely below my waist and if he was on his hind legs, he was up to my chest.
I shut the door and my dad says to call someone to come and get him. Cindy looks up animal control and we find out that they are closed (of course at 4am). The message told us to call the police. I tell them the story and they said they will have someone call me soon.
During this time, my mom is freaking out like an Asian mom should while my dad is being the protective dad. I look in the kitchen and I see Pimpy barking up a storm because of the dog in the front door. (Pimpy usually stays in the garage over night)
Mom says, "Toan come and close the garage while Dad and I run out to the car and go to work!"
O_o (The looks on Cindy, me and my Dad's face)
I ask my mom, "Why did you have me call the police if this is what you wanted to do? Maybe I didn't need to just do all of that. What if he bites you and something happens? Is it necessary for you to risk that and just wait until we get a solution?"
Mom says, "He ran in the garage earlier and he didn't bite us. We heard Pimpy barking earlier but didn't know this dog was out there. We should be ok, we need to get to work."
Dad gives her the keys and says, "Ok woman, you go."
Cindy and I look at each other and *sigh*.
So I get dressed, come down stairs to the front door and attempt to distract the dog throught he glass door. I can see that my parents already walked outside towards the car. I see this dog running and jumping on their backs as they get in the car. As my dad is about to shut the door on the car, the dog runs into our garage! Of course, my dad is the one that has to deal with this, not my mom who was the brave soul that forced my dad to run out there with her. He's yelling and was fortunate to get the dog out and close the garage. They leave. The dog comes to the front porch and sits there starring at me. Great!
Cindy says, "How do I get to work?"
Minutes later, I get a phone call from animal control. In summary, this is what was discussed. Keep in mind this is at about 4:25am.
She asked if the dog was aggressive or just excited. I told her its jumping up and down at my front glass door, I'm sure it's excitement but he's not foaming at the mouth or anything. Since he's not aggressive, animal control can't come out there until 8am. "It's not an emergency" They will send an officer to go pick up the dog by then. She also asks me to grab the dog and tie him up and put him in the garage or the backyard. Are you kidding me? I am asking her to get someone here to get the dog and she's telling me to capture him. LOL. There are 3-4 breeds of dogs I don't mess with. German shepherds are one of them.
We go back to our rooms and Cindy runs upstairs and looks out the window to see two cop cars parked almost in front of my house. They don't come in, they just park there and observe for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, this dog is running around the cars and literally putting his paws in the front of the car, side of the cars and on the back trunks of the cars trying to get their attn. The cops stay inside the car. If these guys are not willing to get out of their cars to get this dog, why would I do that? 20 minutes pass and the cops leave!! Ok...I'm confused but now too tired to deal with it. We'll just wait it out and see what happens.
I let Cindy sleep until she needs to get up while I watch some TV until then. By 7:15 am, Cindy leaves without seeing the dog around. I found him about 5 minutes later still running around the front yard of my neighbors house. After that, no sign of the loose dog, no sign of the animal control or police officer that was suppose to come get him. *shrugs*
Great start to my day huh?

Thailand and Vietnam bound!

2008-12-16T13:21:00.004-06:00

Cindy and I and our families are heading out to Thailand and Vietnam for our first ever FAMILY trip. We're very excited and hope to update with lots of pictures and information about what's going on in Asia. Let's hope the Internet Cafe's are better than what they were in 2002!

iPhone 3G Cover - Zagg's InvisibleSHIELD

2008-12-05T14:15:00.006-06:00

Product: Zagg.com's InvisibleSHIELD
For: Apple's iPhone 3G

Cindy and I found out about this when we went to Best Buy after we got her the iPhone in September. It's expensive at retail stores but much cheaper at Zagg.com. Front and back cover for the iPhone is $25 off Zagg. Look for coupon codes on retailmenot.com or other locations.

Application of the SHIELD:

I just applied my invisibleSHIELD last night on the front and the back of my phone. The front is really simple. The back takes more detailed work but it turns out better than what you think it will as you're doing it. I almost pulled out some scissors and wanted to cut off some of the pieces of the back because I thought it wouldn't work. But Cindy and I worked it out for the better and now it looks really clean.

Why the back is difficult? Be patient...

For the back shield, the company made some weird cutting lines to make the product actually fit about 95% of the back and side/top edges of your iPhone. You just follow their instructions and lay down the SHIELD piece with the use of the spray bottle and plastic squeegee. My recommendation is to use three points of alignment when the SHIELD piece is moveable and wet.

1 - The camera hole. Start with this and line up the top left side.

2 - The headphone jack. This will be for the top right edge.

3 - Ringer/Vibrator switch and Volume buttons. This is the hardest one to line up on the right edge.

If you can do that in successive order, your SHIELD piece should be lined up pretty well. Next, Squeegee out the remaining water as best you can DOWN the phone to the bottom and then do the sides afterwards. The side edges should overlap over to your side silver border leading to the front of your iPhone. Depending on how you aligned it, it should ALMOST cover the entire silver piece. Now for the rounded corners which is the difficult part. You can squeegee out as much as you can for for this and then for those dangling pieces, just use your fingers to align it and stick it to the phone. Don't worry about all the bubbles because within 12-24 hours, it'll be gone. Last of all there's a thin top Silver border piece and a bottom silver border piece that goes on your iPhone. I didn't know that it existed until Ants told me about it. I just put it on today and it looks pretty good.

So the product actually covers about 95-98% of the surface of your iPhone. Good stuff.

Now for the cool part...check out the video below.

Super T Review:

The Pros:

From 2-3 feet away. It looks like the iPhone is naked and you can't tell that there's anything on there.
No bulky cover/case needed
Great for scratch protection in case you need to sell it later on. iPhones have great resell value. Just check Ebay. =)
Easy to clean and you don't have to worry about scratching it while cleaning.
Its cheap for a front and back cover. ($25)
Fairly easy to install, and actually kind of fun.
LIFETIME WARRANTY. Register your product and send it back when it's going bad. The company actually automatically registers you when you purchase the product from their website. But just click register once you get it to make sure. I love lifetime warranties. People that don't take advantage of this is because they are too lazy to contact customer service or just don't like to deal with customer service. I don't know how much money I've saved because of a simple phone call and letter/package sent out.

The Cons:

Tends to pick up a bit of lint along the edges of the material. I haven't found a way to get the lint off but I'm sure there's a way. It comes from placing it in your pockets and there's some bit of adhesiveness to the product.
Because of the lint situation, it actually looks better on the black model then the white. The white makes your phone look a bit dirty.
This is probably the worse CON of the product. It won't scratch but it WILL INDENT. Cindy has an indention on the face of her phone because she placed her phone in her purse. Something was putting pressure on the face of the phone and left a 3 mm indention which she can see and notice. But she's contacting them and sending hers back for a new piece.

The In between:

Cindy doesn't like the sticky feel of the Shield, I personally love it because without it I had to clean it a lot. If you're a girl and you have lotion on your hands all the time OR if you have sweaty hands, you may not like the feel of this. But if you have dry fingers and hands like me, you might prefer the feel of this over anti-glare products. I also like it that I don't have to clean it as much and it feels more secure when I hold it.

Pictures of my iPhone WITH the invisibleSHIELD:

Look for the grainy texture off the reflection in the pictures. Don't let my handsome features distract you from the invisibleSHIELD

iPhone 3G App - Sportacular Review

2008-11-24T09:43:00.004-06:00

Sportacular - Free iPhone 3G App

About (sourced from other sites)

Release Date: 07/20/2008
Size: 1.1 MB
Languages: English
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3G and iPod touch Requires iPhone 2.1 Software Update
URL: http://www.streamingscores.com/mac
Basic Information: Sportacular provides you with fast, up to the minute access to scores, standings, stats, and news for several of the major pro and college sports. - automatically updated scores and details for MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA football and basketball games - season and in-game stats for MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL - league and conference standings & NCAA top 25 updated daily - create your own custom groups for keeping track of your favorite players and fantasy teams ** Sportacular is now part of Citizen Sports! **

Super T Review:

Why I Got It: Since I'm still a "noobie" with this iPhone, getting new apps that is usable for me is still in its testing stages. I'll update as I find out more about the application or if I find something more useful. Andrew Twittered this App to me because I wanted to find out the score of the Cowboys - 49ers game. I looked it upm, downloaded it and found it to be beyond my expectations.
The Pros:

Clean interface
Multiple Sports
Game and Season Stats
Pictures (I like these)
Easy Navigation
***Fantasy Team addition.

The Cons:

It's shut down a couple of times on me but that could be just me.
None thus far other than what I just mentioned.

SPORTACTULAR

Snap Tell Explorer: Free iPhone App

2008-11-23T10:56:00.003-06:00

So Vo emails me about this BAMF App for iPhone 3G. Cindy and I check it out...and IT IS A BAMF!!

THE INFORMATION FOR THE SNAP TELL EXPLORER

This free download, powered by SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get image recognition technology, gives camera phone users instant information on virtually any book, movie DVD, video game or music CD.

We all know you can’t judge a book by its cover, and the same goes for films, music, and games. But fret not, because SnapTell’s new Mobile Movie Explorer can help make sure that you never have buyer’s remorse again -- just snap the picture, send it to SnapTell, and you’ll get comprehensive information and reviews for the product you’re interested in right on your iPhone.

Don't own an iPhone? No problem. You can access the same information on virtually any camera phone, just snap a picture and send it via MMS to fun@snaptell.com or use the shortcode SNAPIT (762748).

You wait about 5 seconds and it gives you what you need. Even if your picture is slightly blurry, it somehow figures it out! Amazing! Tell me that ain't BAMF? So I snapped a BIOLOGY book and a OLD Tevin Campbell CD with scratches and light glare all over it. The Application picks it up with no problem.

I even tried the Lipton Green Tea Box. No Dice Yo! LOL

GO GET YOURS IF YOU HAVE THE IPHONE BY CLICKING BELOW:

Compatible with iPhone
Requires iPhone 2.1 Software Update
Snap Tell Inc Website

Vo's Birthday and Deion Sander's Step Dance

2008-11-22T12:36:00.007-06:00

Happy 29th Birthday!

Last night we celebrated Vo's Bday at Blue Fish with about 30 friends. It was a good time and the goal was to eventually get Vo Drunk since Minh hasn't really seen him drunk. The great thing is Vo never complains about taking a drink so it cancels out him saying, "I'm not getting drunk." We all played our part in taking shots with him and eventually by the time we left the party, he was pretty buzzed. Happy 29th Birthday Vo! Thanks to everyone that came and ate/hung out/drank.

Vo likes to Dance when's buzzed/drunk. Check out his moves in the parking lot.

Christmas Presents

2008-11-21T13:44:00.003-06:00

Giving during the Holiday Season

Ever since being with Cindy, I've learned the importance of giving during the holiday season. She's great with giving to people even when she can't afford too much to her family and closest friends. We all say that friendship can be one of the best gifts that we can give someone but Cindy's taught me that you can always do more through little things that you give people.

Cindy and I through the past 4 years has compiled a list of people and presents and budget list that we keep track of every year. The list can change from year to year depending on our place of residency (i.e. I was in PR for most of that time). Some people are removed and some added in placement of proximity. Family presents tend to just get bigger because of new additions to the family (i.e. inlaws, babies, etc)

The List and Purchasing Wisely

This year we have a list of about 100 people with our budget being over $2,500. Yes..it's a lot, trust me I know. But nothing beats seeing people's faces when they get or open their presents. It's a moment to treasure and what the Holiday season is all about. To save money on our purchases, we try to go way before Thanksgiving when have free time so we can shop wisely and get the great deals and better gift purchases than if you were stressing out and fighting shopping frenzies. Shopping is never fun when you have RUSH the purchases.

With the economy on a downward spiral, it's even harder for people to give presents nowadays. The online sales and free shipping (and even returns) help out the budget and can save actual shopping time. If you can't afford to buy actual gifts, a holiday card is always nice! Just to let people know that you're thinking of them.

Waiting for the New Mac Book Pro

2008-11-20T07:03:00.004-06:00

Date/Time

Activity

Location

Details

Nov 20, 2008

11:01 AM

Left FedEx origin facility

SHANGHAI CN

10:48 AM

Picked up

SHANGHAI CN

Package received after FedEx cutoff

8:42 AM

Package data transmitted to FedEx

This is THIRD Mac Book Pro that I will be getting since the middle of October. It was Apple's fault for the return this most recent time. The first exchange was provided to me generously by Apple.

I was a PC. I still am right now...until I get my new MBP! =) Waiting patiently...

The 1st Mac Book Pro - the MAC Devirginizer
1. I got it and used it for about 2 weeks before the NEW generation of Mac Book Pros came out so I was able to return it for a new generation MBP for the same price. What's the difference? Check it out below.

The 2nd Mac Book Pro - The F*cking F Key.
2. Apple has great customer service. I told them that I had just purchased the MBP and then the New Gen one came out in less than 3 weeks!

Rep: "We can get you a new one, just send us your old one back with what was in it. And it'll be free shipping also."

Me: "Awesome!"

So...I had two options...

Option 1: Return this one and wait for it to process and then they would get my New Gen one but it would take like 3 weeks to entirely process and ship to me. It would take about a week for the old one to get there. Then once it gets there, they can start customizing the new one and then ship it directly to me.
Option 2: Make a completely NEW ORDER for the New Gen MBP and then wait until it's almost there and then send off the Old Gen one to get a refund. The Rep told me this when I told him I didn't want to go without one for so long.

I chose Option 2 Duh! A week and a half later, I get the new one and then we have the "ohhhh's" and the "ahhhhh's". I opened it up, set it up nicely on my desk and started playing with it. Everyftime I was ftyping I fwould get frandom "f's" throughout my fwords! How annoying! I thought it was just my fingers being too heavy on the keys, but apparently, it was just the fffffffffffreaking f key! That's literally how things started looking. Appalled by my heavy finger, I said, I'm going to wait until Cindy gets back and let her type. Let's see what happens when she's on the MBP. Same result, time for a return! UGH.

3rd Mac Book Pro - Is the third one the lucky one?
So I've been back on a PC for about a week and a half waiting for this new one to come in. I didn't have the 2 options again and just succumbed to the fact that I would be without one for 2-3 weeks. Time to go back to a PC. Big Deal? Not really, but you do kind of miss using the Mac. Let's just say it made a believer out of me!

Overall reviews on going from PC to MAC:
I love it. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. The F key set it back a star! It's weird, but I just like how clever things are done and put together by Mac. I definitely think it's a bit expensive, but I do like it more than using PCs right now. It takes a couple of weeks to get used to new ways to doing things, but I really think you just have to use one to really understand why someone would love it. I wonder if Apple rents them out to you. If they do...and you're thinking about a mac, rent one!

Rematch Dallas vs Houston

2008-11-19T16:17:00.001-06:00

Tonight at 7pm Central.

ESPN or ESPN360.com

Enuff said.

Vo Sent me this pic.

GO HANNAH!

Update on Sprint to ATT Dilemma

2008-11-19T12:52:00.004-06:00

So after I had posted about switching over to ATT, my man David Vo tells me that it only applies to NEW Customers from November 2, 2008! ARGH! So that means I still have to pay $200 for an Early Termination Fee, buy an iPhone and get charged with an activation fee with ATT. Miss Minh then tells me that AT&T also has this thing where when the Nights and Weekends starts for AT&T, and you're actually calling MOBILE TO MOBILE, instead of charging the minutes M to M, the minutes applies to N's and W's. How dumb is that?!? It's obviously tougher for long distance couples to deal with this dilemma because they do alot of talking during the Nights and Weekends.

So what should I do? Pull out some extra cash and pay for the new iPhone with activation, etc. Or should I just stick with sprint until next year when I can "possibly" get prorated on my ETF. *sigh*. I'm paying $99 bucks with sprint right now with unlimited everything. Minutes, Data, Texting, etc. Going to AT&T would probably cost about the same, but I then get an iPhone to play with. Do I need it that bad? Tough decision to make. What to do, what to do.

It's time to change from Sprint to AT&T

2008-11-15T22:52:00.007-06:00

I've been with Sprint for 13 years. It's time to change to ATT.

Since Cindy and I separated our phone bills (Me - Sprint, Her - ATT), we've had to manage some changes in mobile to mobile. I've never had to really worry about my phone bill much with Sprint. It was always consistent and I was happy with the services and reception. Well, I happen to check my bill today and it was over $300! YIKES! Without the mobile to mobile minutes, I went over on my Anytime minutes by 500 minutes! Being the perfectionist I am, I looked into the call history and details.

Phone call from Cindy's # on Date blah @ 6:32pm Incoming PU (Plan Used) 170 minutes. Phone call from Cindy's # on Date blah @ 6:50pm Incoming PU (Plan Used) 79 minutes.

My nights and weekends start at 7pm and ends at 7am. Most phone plans are this way now. What do you notice that's wrong with this call history? So instead of making the minutes past 7pm become Nights and Weekend Minutes, they charged it to my ANYTIME PLAN MINUTES.

Knowing of the technology that we have now, I felt that this was unfair. Sprint's computer system should be able to AUTOMATICALLY change my Anytime Minutes to Nights and Weekends without having me to HANG UP and call again to make that happen. I figured I'll give Customer Service a call and just let them know so that they can fix the problem and analyze my actual OVERAGES and charge me for that.

I start off and explain to the representative what's going on and that I felt it was unfair for the company to charge me like that when most of my minutes are falling into the N and W's even though the phone call started on the "Anytime Plan". I didn't think it was necessary for me to have to hang up with someone and call them back because I was THAT worried about my N and W minutes. (Apparently I was wrong). The representative gives me the "explanations" that pushes me over the edge and makes me lose my patience.

Quoting them as best I can:

1. Well sir, that's why we have the nights and weekends. You should wait until after 7pm to make the phone call. Because you called before that time, it was charged to your anytime minutes.

- Did I just not explain to them why I thought that was unfair and have to do that?

2. Sir, if you didn't have the nights and weekends option, you would have paid way more charges in overages than what you have to pay right now.

- Toan's thinking..."Don't make me bitch slap you. *sigh*" So I ask, "What does that have to do with the issue? I know what plan I have."

3. If you switch over to the $99 Unlimited Minutes and unlimited data, I can give you partial discount off your bill.

- So now they are advertising another plan when they haven't fixed my current problem. I rebutt out of anger, "I will switch IF you can actually start telling me how much you can take off my bill because of these unfair charges."

Eventually after an hour of my time, they said that they can take off $145 off my bill for the problem and they are going to change my account to $99 unlimited anytime from $69 450 Anytime Minutes. The funny thing is that they didn't ask me if I wanted to change it, but instead they were just doing it because they got tired of dealing with me. I had enough of the BS. I didn't want to make this siutation any worse, so I changed the subject and asked about the Early Termination Fee.

Me:
"I know there's a $200 Early Termination Fee and my contract ends in August of 2009. When does the prorating of the ETF begin? I know it's suppose to be in effect pretty soon."

Them:
"Sir, it will be cheaper for you if you were to cancel near your contract."

Me:
At this point, I figured that I was dealing with a dumbass and I would just find out for myself.

Them:
"Thank you for calling Sprint, were you satisfied with my services today?"

Me:
I said, "Thanks, you did the best you can. I have no further questions."

Sprint's Early Termination Fee Policy - Pro-rating in effect November 2, 2008

I did my own research and found out that the policy change was in effect already. Since that's the case, instead of paying $200 bucks I would pay alot less since I only have 9 months left on my contract. To read more about it CLICK HERE. So I'm going to go to Sprint tomorrow and cancel my service and then head over to ATT and get an iPhone and add myself back with Cindy and pay less overall.

Menage Trois CD - coming out soon!

2008-11-14T15:49:00.006-06:00

I need to bring DJ SUPER T back out from hiding and start working on music again in my free time. I need to finish the last CD of my Volume 6 Trilogy CD collection. It's going to be called "Menage Trois" because its my "Bump and Grind" CD. The first CD of the Trilogy was for the guys and the second CD of the Trilogy was for the ladies. So when you combine both sexes, you get the Bump and Grind CD. Man meets woman, music gets people in the mood, good things happen after that. =)

My best man David Vo came up with the name for this new CD because it has the it has a sexual innuendo (Menage) to it and it's the 3rd CD (Trois). So that's going to be the name of the new cd. I'm hoping to have it done by the time I leave for Vietnam (Mid Dec). I'm currently trying to gather up tracks for it. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know the title/song/artist in the comment section.

If you haven't gotten my first two CDs of the Trilogy, you can download them below.
You can either click on the album cover or right click with your mouse over it and SAVE AS/SAVE TARGET AS.

First Part of the Trilogy - "The Gangsta's Anthem"

Second Part of the Trilogy, "The Ladies Mix"

Spend alot at Starbucks? Get Starbucks Gold Card

2008-11-13T01:22:00.003-06:00

www.Starbucksgold.com

Starbucks just came out with something called the "Starbucks Gold Card" for those caffeine addicts that spend lots of money at their shops. *Raises Hand* That's me! I qualify as one of those addicts. I happen to spend a lot of time at Starbucks, especially when I'm not working but spending a full day of studying there. Sometimes, I end up spending up to $10+ bucks a day! All those days of studying and moments of caffiene withdrawal leads me right back to that oh familiar circular green sign with the mermaid on it. Well this lady in front of me pulled out her card to day and I saw that she got 10% off her drink! So when I came up to the register to put in my order, I asked for more info. Here it goes...

- $25 membership fee (yearly)
- 10% off all drinks and food. (No CDs and third party commission items.)
- Get a free drink on your birthday and your first purchase with the card.
- If you spend over $250 a year at starbucks, then the card is paying for itself.

So I did a quick Calculation in my head. I average $20 bucks a week (5-6 drinks - I know right?) x 40 weeks in the year that I would spend with or WITHOUT Cindy. That's $800 bucks! I would save about $80 - $25 = $55 bucks. It might not seem much now, but if I pull out my card for those big group purchases, its a great deal!

So for those of you Starbuckers out there. You might want to consider this card. I'm sure there will be more benefits later and starbucks try to push their customers to purchase more from them.

Engagement Ceremony Planning...Stressful?

2008-11-11T09:50:00.003-06:00

Cindy and I have our OFFICIAL Engagement Ceremony in Wichita, KS the day after Thanksgiving. Many people have asked me if I was nervous, stressed or something along those lines.

Honestly...NO I'M NEITHER NERVOUS OR STRESSED.

Why should I be? It should be a happy moment for Cindy and I and our family. I'm truly looking forward to it and being with my family and the people that I love. Yes, there are things to plan and set up. But it's nothing out of hand. I guess we've had several months to prepare but it shouldn't be a stressful issue. If you're a man getting ready to take these steps, you might want to read on.

I can say that I'm lucky to have a fiancee who's taking charge and very proactive about these things. However, it does not mean that I can just sit back and NOT do anything. I have to play my part and have my say also. I think most grooms think they can sit back and let things just "happen". No sir, remember that this is YOUR Engagement and Wedding too. You have to include your opinion and contribute to the ideas and communicate with your fiancee AND parents. The most important thing may be for you to understand your fiancee's ideas and speak up for her RESPECTFULLY against your parents when there's an issue that needs to be taken care of. You do not want to put her in position where she has to make an argument and go against your parents.

I like to say to my friends, "It's time for you to man up and do it respectfully." Through experience, I can say that my parents and I have great communication as a SON and an ADULT. It was a battle ever since college, but the fact that I can stand up to them and express my opinions and views without disrespecting them was vital for our relationship at this point in time. I'm still their son 100% of the time, but they understand that I am an adult and can make the right decision even when it's not always their decision.

I personally think the "stressful" part is communicating with parents. My parents are traditional parents, Cindy's parents are laid back and going with the flow, yet traditional in some means; While Cindy and I are somewhere in between. Working the details out with the parents are an important step in lowering the stressful moments. In order to do this, Cindy and I try to have dinner at least twice a week with my parents and subtly bring up the subject and give them our updates and they can give us theirs. What I've learned through my 29 years as the typical Vietnamese/Chinese son is that "Parents" are not good with communicating with their kids. Most Asian kids will agree with me on that. So you have to play the initiator and bring up topics and what you can do to ease the stress. I feel that Cindy and I have played our roles as the "MEDIATORS" between the families. We've strategically helped the parents communicate and get our two cents in without big stressful moments. I'm happy for that. If you fellas out there need a man's moment to soften up and talk about these issues, holla at your boy!

New Funkymix 120 Issue

2008-11-06T09:50:00.004-06:00

Just got the new Funkymix Issue 120. I've always been a big fan of funkymixes because of it's clean sounds and samples that they add to the song. Too bad they don't do more remixes than they release. They've been getting more competition lately from other remix companies like X-Mix, Crooklyn Clan, etc. Regardless, I still like their style of remixing. If you're a new DJ and looking for good clean edit tracks that still sound original but have good samples and remixes to them, go for the funkymix issues.

Funkymix Issue 120:

1: Live Your Life
by: T.I. f/ Rihanna (80 BPM) (6:17)
Mix by Stacy Mier

2: Whatcha Think About That
by: Pussycat Dolls f/ Missy Elliott (120 BPM) (5:28)
Edit by Mark Roberts

3: Right Now (Na Na Na)
by: Akon (138 BPM) (5:36)
Mix by Stacy Mier

4: Krazy
by: Pitbull f/ Lil' Jon (125 BPM) (4:23)
Mix by Doc Roc

5: Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
by: Beyonce' (97 BPM) (5:27)
Mix by Mark Roberts

6: Green Light
by: John Legend f/ Andre 3000 (78/155 BPM) (5:22)
Mix by DJ Richie Rich

7: Love Lockdown
by: Kanye' West (120 BPM) (5:37)
Mix by Mark Roberts

8: Spotlight
by: Jennifer Hudson (109 BPM) (6:09)
Mix by Mark Roberts

9: Let It Rock
by: Kevin Rudolf f/ Lil' Wayne (112 BPM) (5:24)
:CD CUT ONLY:
Mix by Mark Roberts

10: First Of The Drinks
by: The Urban Sophisticates (94 BPM) (5:07)
:CD CUT ONLY:
Mix by Coe Ramsey

DJ SUPER T REVIEW OF NEW FUNKYMIX 120

1. Living My Life

For T.I.'s track Living My Life, I would probably still go with the original. The original is pretty good for the club scene. I haven't heard many remixes that have really kept the original sound with some clean good samples on it. I've heard DJ DiSbJoHN play a clean remix of it, but it includes other rappers. It's a club hopper right now and the funkymix version may not have the same hype as the original.

2. Whatcha Think About That

I'm not really feeling the PCD's track. Enough said.

3. Right Now (Na Na Na)

It's a good bumping track. Original is still good but this will be easier to mix in since it has a good intro bar with some samples. There's a nice remix out with Rihanna (unsure) that is a good remix of.

4. Krazy

The quality of Pitbull and Lil' Jon tracks are going down hill IMO. No comment on this funkymix version.

5. Single Ladies

Funkymix does a good job with the beats but the song is blah to me. Sounds like most other Beyonce Songs.

6. Green Light

This is probably one of the hottest club tracks to play currently. Funkymix does a good job introducing the song for mixing at a low 78 bpm to speed up your dance floor during those slow bpm mixing sets. Best track on this album.

7. Love Lockdown

Technically, this song isn't good for after midnight play for a club, but funkymix speeds it up and adds some head bobbing ability to the track. You might get a mix feeling on this track, some people like it and some don't, I would jam this version after a few fast pace songs to slow down the people on the dance floor. Time for Alcohol break!

8. Spotlight

It's Jennifer Hudson, what more can I say. The ladies may like it but it's not a dance floor filler. Play between 10-1130 for lounging purposes.

9. Let It Rock

I think this is one of the more underplayed songs right now. It's a pretty hype mix of rock and hip hop with Lil' Wayne. This Version is a little slower, but you can always speed it up. I would recommend a short hop mix of this during hype hours.

10. First of the Drinks

I'm not feeling it. I've actually never heard it before until now. The melody takes too long to come in. It has more of a lounge feel.

What's your opinion of the tracks? Let me know if you got any good remixes of these tracks out there.

President-Elect Obama's Speech in Grant Park, Chicago, IL

2008-11-05T13:17:00.004-06:00

Cindy's former roommate Taylor and her bf Jacob (who works on the Obama Campaign was able to snap some pictures last night during Obama's Speech. We thought we were close watching on TV, look how close Taylor was!

Thanks for the snap shots Taylor and Jacob! Great work Jacob!

Historical Moment - Doctors and Obama

2008-11-05T09:53:00.006-06:00

Cindy and I stayed up watching the polls and watching Obama sweep over the states with electoral votes by 10:14pm central time. When I got back from my 3 mile jog at 7:15pm, my parents were pretty confident that McCain was going to win. I told them that it's way too early and you just have to wait it out with the states that matter. I was thoroughly impressed with Obama's Campaign and I had a gut feeling that all the grass roots promotions and campaigning would pull a major victory. You could see and hear Obama's positive campaign everywhere! The Radio Stations, TV, Oprah, Hip Hop Artists and rappers, the streets signs, stickers on cars, in front of houses, Athletes on ESPN, etc. His campaign hit the markets that mattered the most. The younger generation and the middle class that see and hear these means of advertisement every day of their lives. That's the impact that grass roots promotions can have on anyone's event.

I voted for Obama despite being a "Doctor". There are some issues that Doctors may have with President-Elect Obama and/or Democratic party. Most doctors may have issues with being taxed more because of income, or not being able to own their own hospitals. I can understand those fears, but are you really going to worry about surviving and taking care of your family? I truly believe that doctors should not worry about being taxed more or should not worried about being regulated. They should worry about the middle class people not having money or insurance to come see them. Medical Doctors may not see much decline in patients, but maybe Dentists, Optometrists, Chiropractors, etc may see a decline of economic growth in their part of the field if the middle class are losing jobs and putting their money elsewhere. People will go see a doctor if they are really sick. They may not if they have a cavity or need a new prescription. They can always get by. Doctors should be happy that Obama is pushing for health insurances for all people and allowing them to make their choices. This really determines how good of a doctor you may be. I'm not saying Obama's way may be the right way compared to McCain's, but I'm saying it was the better choice for America as a whole right now and the next 4 years.

Obama vs McCain - Election Day

2008-11-04T08:10:00.000-06:00

It's Election Day and it's going to be exciting tonight to see who will win the election. I believe that Obama's campaign did a great job "promoting" for their party. They used grass roots promotions and worked hard on the streets to get the hype for their candidate as high as possible. It's going to be a tough one for McCain to pull off tonight. But don't be surprised when the Baby Boomers come out voting republican out of no where. There's alot of baby boomers that just work and lay low waiting for election day to come out and cast their vote. That's going to make the difference. Good luck to both.