Yeah.

There are some reasons why I don’t listen to much of today’s music, like at all.

I just can’t relate.

I like the slow music. I like the melodic music. I like the sad music.

We all know that I’m not a prude or against anything offensive, but yeah, today’s hip-hop and rap is just a genre that I couldn’t get into.

Just not my cup of tea.

It’s blaring at the boba shop.

A song blaring with references to pussy juices dripping down thighs is blaring at the boba shop.

C’est la vie.

* * *

I was supposed to be doing more researching and finishing up the Rick Steven’s Best of Italy travel book today, but I opted not to. Too much planning can kind of ruin a trip and too little can be a fucking shit show. Just do the bare minimum to keep it structured and leave it open enough for some impromptu adventures.

That’s how I like to roll. Have an idea of what you are looking forward to do and keep things open and flexible.

Sure there are a few things that we’ll have to plan and book ahead, like attractions and we’ve done that for Florence. There will be other cities like Rome and the Vatican that we’ll need to do too, but I haven’t gotten to that part yet.

I’ll have to get there eventually, but right now, I’m just relaxing.

I felt like writing.

There’s a part of me that wants to get back into writing. Whether it is script writing or even back to my prose, I just want to create and write.

I miss writing and I just have to get back to it.

We’ll see what happens when I lock down the vacation planning and if I can find some inspiration.

My writing has taken a little detour, besides these little ramblings, not much writing have been done this year.

* * *

July is almost over.

The 31st is tomorrow and then we are into August.

This year has gone by fast and the first half was busy, stressful, and a shit show.

Things seemed to have slowed down starting July.

Maybe that little short vacation to The Rockies was a great idea, but the 2nd half of the year, so far, seems more my pace.

The year zipped by.

Another blink of the eye and soon we’ll be October.

Life is constant, following the strong beat and rhythm of my beating heart.

When that stops, I stop.

Move forward with each beat.

Live in the moment, the now. Don’t think about the past and don’t fret about the future. What’s done can’t be change and we can’t do anything about the unknown.

Just live.

It’s been trying and difficult to live by that, but I am working on it and for the most part, I’m able to achieve it.

Living in the moment, being mindful, is difficult.

It’s like life, a work in-progress.

* * *

I feel like I’m PMSing.

Been craving food like nothing and sugar.

Maybe I haven’t been eating clean lately.

Sugar, chips, and other stuff that I usually don’t eat, but I am.

Am I still stress eating?

I don’t think I am stressed at work, but who knows?

Maybe I am and it’s a different kind of stress.

But, I’ve been chomping down on things that I normally wouldn’t eat and not sticking to my one-meal-a-day routine.

I eat when I’m hungry and there are times when I’m not hungry but just want to snack.

No idea.

No fucking clue.

It’s probably why I’ve been feeling so tired lately too.

Maybe I’m just getting fucking old, but yeah, fucking tired by 9:30 or 10 and ready to just fall asleep.

Should definitely go back on a short cleanse and see what happens.

I finally caved and got a new computer.

The old one was about four to five years old and it was slow to begin with. I got sucked into it by the price. It was reasonable for me at that time, about a 1K for a 13″ laptop, i5 with a 500gb fusion drive type of thing, where a part of it was SSD for fast boot and the rest was a regular drive. It came with about 8 gbs of RAM and I upgraded it to 12.

Still slow. No amount of RAM that I threw at it would have done anything to fix it. None. Zero.

I managed to do with with it. It was fine for what I was doing, which was writing and doing my weekly finger taps and just basic surfing. Easy peasy. Nothing too much that needs to be done.

But now, enough is enough. Time to upgrade. Time to just man up and get a better machine. I knew exactly what I wanted in terms of specs and that’s what I got.

My budget was higher than what it was, but technology is getting cheaper and cheaper.

My basic needs are simple, a fast machine, i7, with at most 500gb of storage space, and a very high resolution screen with at least 12gb of RAM.

This Asus Zenbook fit the bill for a reasonable price. It has everything that I needed in the machine at a very very good price.

I have since retired my Samsung. I put it in the closet waiting for me to not be lazy and just completely remove my account and fix it to give it to mom so she can do whatever she wants to do with it.

This new beast should be able to last me for at least another four or five years.

Honestly, my needs aren’t much at all. Just something that works and is fast.

* * *

With something new, there are some learning pains.

The trackpad isn’t as good as I want and it seems that the keyboard is a little slow, but these are things that I can live with.

The motion gestures for the trackpad is what I am use to, but the response at times is wonky and there’s no setting for where I can adjust the sensitivity to it. I’m betting it is a software thing and not a hardware thing. Who knows?

But it works. There’s a lot of screen real estate with the 3200 x 1800 px resolution. I can actually have the full mini player on for Spotiamb.

Another reason why I had to get a new laptop was that I was going to do a lot more work work on it. It’ll give me the mobility to work anywhere in the office and show off things that I developed on SharePoint, instead of having to rely on the mini in the conference rooms.

I usually have my work stuff on my laptop or on my computer. I’d just OneDrive it and call it a day.

Just easier.

The resolution definitely will help me with the web development. It’s a win win.

Win win indeed.

* * *

Today’s entry is mostly a test of the new laptop.

Familiarizing my fingers with the new keys. The pressure it requires to type something. The flow of the trackpad. The speed of the keys and typing.

It’s me, trying to get a good feel of it and see how I can work around and adjust to the new system.

For the most part, it is okay. I can deal and I’m okay with it.

Learning pains.

* * *

Work has been good this week.

There were many wins.

I got Steve what he needed in terms of the tagging site and that cut down that second half workflow that I wasn’t aware it. It will still require a little front end work, but it’s not bad.

Win win.

Things seem to be at a calm and everything seems to be more manageable.

Things are good and I’m happy.

There’s still quite a bit of work left to do and still some issues, but that’s the whole thign about learning and rolling out a new system to the agency. Different groups have different ways of working and this is what happens, we learn about things that doesn’t work out quite well and we’ll have to figure out some workarounds.

It is what it is.

* * *

I don’t have much planned today but my normal of chilling and cooking.

Just chill and cook.

Instant Pot Hainan Chicken and Garlic Eggplant with some baby broccoli.

Nothing too fancy. I’m just curious to see how the IP handles the whole chicken.

I mean, I can get a chicken done in 11 minutes? That’s something that I need to see. It’ll be interesting to see if it really works. I hope it works.

* * *

The Italy trip is fast approaching and I need to focus on doing research and what to do.

Gonna focus on that for the next few weeks and plan this shit out.

I finally caved and got a new computer.

The old one was about four to five years old and it was slow to begin with. I got sucked into it by the price. It was reasonable for me at that time, about a 1K for a 13″ laptop, i5 with a 500gb fusion drive type of thing, where a part of it was SSD for fast boot and the rest was a regular drive. It came with about 8 gb of RAM and I upgraded it to 12.

Still slow. No amount of RAM that I threw at it would have done anything to fix it. None. Zero.

I managed with it. It was fine for what I was doing, which was writing and doing my weekly finger taps and just basic surfing. Easy peasy. Nothing too much that needs to be done.

But now, enough is enough. Time to upgrade. Time to just man up and get a better machine. I knew exactly what I wanted in terms of specs and that’s what I got.

My budget was higher than what it was, but technology is getting cheaper and cheaper.

My basic needs are simple, a fast machine, i7, with at most 500gb of storage space, and a very high resolution screen with at least 12gb of RAM.

This Asus Zenbook fit the bill for a reasonable price. It has everything that I needed in the machine at a very very good price.

I have since retired my Samsung. I put it in the closet waiting for me to not be lazy and just completely remove my account and fix it to give it to mom so she can do whatever she wants to do with it.

This new beast should be able to last me for at least another four or five years.

Honestly, my needs aren’t much at all. Just something that works and is fast.

* * *

With something new, there are some learning pains.

The trackpad isn’t as good as I want and it seems that the keyboard is a little slow, but these are things that I can live with.

The motion gestures for the trackpad is what I am use to, but the response at times is wonky and there’s no setting for where I can adjust the sensitivity to it. I’m betting it is a software thing and not a hardware thing. Who knows?

But it works. There’s a lot of screen real estate with the 3200 x 1800 px resolution. I can actually have the full mini player on for Spotiamb.

Another reason why I had to get a new laptop was that I was going to do a lot more work work on it. It’ll give me the mobility to work anywhere in the office and show off things that I developed on SharePoint, instead of having to rely on the mini in the conference rooms.

I usually have my work stuff on my laptop or on my computer. I’d just OneDrive it and call it a day.

Just easier.

The resolution definitely will help me with the web development. It’s a win win.

Win win indeed.

* * *

Today’s entry is mostly a test of the new laptop.

Familiarizing my fingers with the new keys. The pressure it requires to type something. The flow of the trackpad. The speed of the keys and typing.

It’s me, trying to get a good feel of it and see how I can work around and adjust to the new system.

For the most part, it is okay. I can deal and I’m okay with it.

Learning pains.

* * *

Work has been good this week.

There were many wins.

I got Steve what he needed in terms of the tagging site and that cut down that second half workflow that I wasn’t aware it. It will still require a little front end work, but it’s not bad.

Win win.

Things seem to be at a calm and everything seems to be more manageable.

Things are good and I’m happy.

There’s still quite a bit of work left to do and still some issues, but that’s the whole thing about learning and rolling out a new system to the agency. Different groups have different ways of working and this is what happens, we learn about things that doesn’t work out quite well and we’ll have to figure out some workarounds.

It is what it is.

* * *

I don’t have much planned today but my normal of chilling and cooking.

Just chill and cook.

Instant Pot Hainan Chicken and Garlic Eggplant with some baby broccoli.

Nothing too fancy. I’m just curious to see how the IP handles the whole chicken.

I mean, I can get a chicken done in 11 minutes? That’s something that I need to see. It’ll be interesting to see if it really works. I hope it works.

* * *

The Italy trip is fast approaching and I need to focus on doing research and what to do.

Gonna focus on that for the next few weeks and plan this shit out.

I’m here at the usual, but I’m sitting back where I usually sit, near the window. That’s my spot, or was, before my body got weak and it got too cold with the constant blowing of the AC.

They changed it, they put a little wind shield that blocks the flow from blowing my way, so it’s not as strong.

It’s still there though, but it’s not that bad.

So, I’m here, writing, doing my little thing of just mind purging.

What is there for me to say? Nothing much besides the usual bullshit about work and all the things that I’ve been doing.

I’m trying not to do work on the weekend and for the most part it is happening. I did do some research and little things here and there, but not enough for it to fill my time.

* * *

Relaxing.

Calm.

Sure, there’s still a lot of stress at work, but again, there isn’t as much pressure as there was. I think I’m able to manage it as I turn stuff in.

But, there are a few that are still left up in the air and I just need to figure it out or just forget it.

Work is work.

It’ll always be there.

* * *

I look, but don’t act.

I sit and chat, but don’t ask.

I focus on work.

I focus on my life.

I focus on food, vacation, trips, chores, errands, and my pets.

I focus on everything but that.

I need to.

The thought of it shouldn’t be the only thing in my mind. It should never be.

There are more important things in life than that.

I need to focus on nothing but me and I’m damn good at that, damn fucking good at it.

I come and sit and do my little finger tappings, sipping on my tea and Zen out.

It’s all that I can do. It’s all that I should do.

* * *

Relaxation.

I need to schedule another float session.

I thought that I was going to make it a monthly thing because it was such a revelation to me, but I guess life and general business of work just got in the way.

Surprising because it probably would have helped me deal with the stress that I was going through, but maybe I thought with all the money that I spent on getting Relish back to normal, this wouldn’t be a good idea.

But here I am, dropping money on an Italy trip and now a new laptop when this old laptop still works.

I need better. I need faster. I need something that can last me another five years.

I see the flaw in this laptop since I got it. the i5 processor was slow to my liking even though I have 12gbs of RAM on this thing. It still runs slugging at times.

Disappointing.

With the small size, I need something with better resolution and now there are quite a few laptops that have higher resolution.

Definitely time to upgrade.

Sure, it’s a personal laptop but it’ll be used for work too. Maybe I can now just work wherever I want and not be tied to my desk at times. When I need to get away and focus on other things and not have a distraction.

Who knows? I’ll have to see how things turn out.

Break.

Stress, manageable.

Done and done.

Projects get turned in and my stress level goes down. I let loose, allowing me a drink or two or five and eventually it’s a drunken night of just letting go and being relieved.

The next day is the start of my little vacation.

I’m free.

I’m relaxed.

I can breathe again and it feels magnificent…

Until I drank so much that I would just throw up.

Horrible. I did it myself. I brought it on.

I was so stressed that it was a welcome reprieve from everything that I was doing.

Sure, looking back, I regret it now like I do every drunken night, but what’s done is done. C’est la vie.

C’est la vie, indeed.

* * *

The Rocky Mountains and the Brotherly Bonding.

The trip started off rocky, pun intended, with my little hangover and the night of drinking.

Hung over and dehydrated, I had to go to the airport.

I got there early and got me some Ink Sack and just chilled.

I arrived at the airport earlier than my bro and told him to meet me at Dollar Rent-a-Car. He landed and I waited and waited.

Instead of coming to me to the Rental Center, he waited at the Dollar kiosk at the airport.

Then, when he got there, we chose our car. I originally put my stuff in a car and he said to get a different instead.

I packed up my stuff and we moved cars.

We made our way to our hotel/cabin, a place that I didn’t book, but had to redo because of the original booking fell through.

As we were making our way to Estes Park for dinner and our Ghost Tour at the Stanley Hotel, I realized that I forgot my camera bag in the other car. So, we had to rush back to the rental center and thankfully someone turned it in.

We weren’t going to make it to the tour, so we stopped off at Boulder for dinner instead.

I was so tired with everything, that it was probably a good idea that we didn’t do the tour.

We went back to the hotel and I just passed out, knowing that we have an early day the next day hiking.

* * *

Hiking Day 1.

The Rocky Mountains.

I wasn’t impressed with the views. Maybe I built it up in my head. It’s the Rockies. THE ROCKIES.

It has to be majestic, right?

Before the trip, I looked at pictures to see how it looked and wasn’t impressed with it and when I got there, I had the same reaction.

There was nothing iconic.

If I had to rank the Rocky Mountains that I’ve visited, it’ll be Banff > Glacier National Park > Rocky Mountains National Park in terms of look and beauty and just awesomeness.

Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t mean that I didn’t like it there, I did. The Rockies have great hiking, but in terms of views, not as iconic and impressionable as the others.

Breakfast wasn’t ready at the hotel, so we just went straight to the park. No coffee. Not much snacks.

Hiking.

Our plan was to hike to Odessa Lake and then maybe do a shorter hike afterward. We started our hike and about two or three miles up there was so much snow on the ground that we couldn’t find the trail to the lake anymore.

We had to turn back and find something else.

We met two Rangers on the way down and I asked them where the other trail went.

Flattop Mountain.

It was about 4.4 miles with a 3K’ elevation change.

Let’s do it.

It was one of the toughest hikes I did in my life. It’s not that it is strenuous in terms of hiking or terrain. No. There were long good switchbacks that were manageable. Sure, there were some areas where there were snows that covered the trails, but they were easy. We just had to be careful.

No. It was the elevation. That fucked us up.

So tiring.

The top of Flattop Mountain was about 12.3K’. That’s the highest that I’ve ever hiked.

It was hardcore.

There were some great views up at the top and for the most part, we took our time to get to the top. It was a great hike in terms of exertion and challenge.

We reached the top and debated to do Hallett’s Peak, which was about another 400′ up. The thing about going up, is that we still had to come down. I was tired and was hesitant and my bro was gung ho and then he had to think about coming down the hill with bad knees and opted not to.

Smart move.

The hike back down for me was uneventful. Of course, my bro took his time so I was hiking alone for the most part.

My bro had difficulties, especially with the snow-covered paths. He fell so many times. I don’t know if he just has poor balance or if his boots are shit.

Either way, we made it back down, ending our hike day close to 4pm.

Sitting in the shuttle, waiting for it to get us back to our car, I almost passed out. I have never been so tired after a hike before.

There were many things that affected me. The biggest was the challenge of the high elevation of the hike. I’m sure the poor sleep the night before and the hangover and drinking for Thursday didn’t help either.

Tired, I drove us back to the hotel where I showered and then went straight to bed for a nap.

Tired.

So fucking tired.

Our cabin/hotel is in a very secluded place. Peaceful Valley.

There’s nothing out there. There’s not even cell reception for ATT.

Our choices are limited so we decided to drive back to Boulder for dinner. It’s about a 50-minute drive and that’s what we did, every night that we were there.

We ended up at The Med, a highly rated Mediterranean restaurant on Yelp that focuses on tapas and some entrees.

One of the worst and mediocre dinners that we ever had. I don’t even know what they did to my brother’s duck. Horrible.

Besides hiking, my bro and I bonded over food. We embraced our meals and look forward to what we’ll be eating for dinner.

And yeah, The Med sucked balls.

* * *

Day 2.

Day 2 of this little entry and Day 2 of our little visit to The Rockies.

We or I decided to take it easy on the 2nd day, considering what hell we went through on the first day; something a little less strenuous.

To prepare, we decided to get breakfast before going into the park. One of the reason why we were probably tired was the lack of food/breakfast and for me, definitely was the lack of coffee.

We had our fill in Estes Park, a small mom & pop breakfast restaurant cafe type thing and then we were off. We got to the park a good hour-and-a-half later than we did the morning prior and of course, there was no parking.

We drove around for about 30 minutes to find parking and ended up parking at a turn out in between shuttle stops. We walked about half a mile to Bierstadt Lake stop and looking at the posted trail map I decided that we just do a giant loop instead and that’s what we did.

To say that the second day’s hiking experience was basically night and day compared to the first one was an understatement.

It was a cake walk. Sure, the actual mileage hiked was shorter, but the energy exerted was less too. The max elevation we did was probably 10K and not the 12.2K that we did the day before.

Less energy.

It was a good hiking day.

When we got to Bear Lake, it was packed and the popular hiking trail to Emerald Lake was crazy busy.

That trail is the most scenic at the park and I can understand why so many people do that hike. It’s easy with minimal elevation gain and the views are the best.

The problem with it being so popular is how busy it is. Again, packed and filled with tourists who aren’t natural hikers.

Of course, my curmudgeonly old man came out during the hike. These fucking tourists walking two-abreast on the trail or hiking so slowly that they slow faster people behind them.

FUCKING STOP AND MOVE TO THE FUCKING SIDE, ASSHOLES!

Oh my fucking holy hell. That pissed me the fuck off.

Our last trail back to the car was quiet and empty and I was in hiking heaven.

It was about 3:30 when we got back to the car. I originally had another hike planned for the day, but considering the time it was and the time it takes to get back to the hotel, rest up, and drive back to Boulder for dinner, we decided to not do it. Next time.

Dinner.

The best meal that we had at Boulder. Sforna Trattoria Romano.

We ordered two apps, a pasta, and two entrees. The waiter was impressed with how much we ordered and that we finished it off. Also, we had dessert.

We can eat and we hiked a shit ton over the two days we were there. Plus we wanted to make up for the shitty dinner the night before.

It was a lot of food and we walked around and explored downtown Boulder afterward. It’s a cute area.

One thing that I noticed from the few nights we were there was how white it was. It was very white.

Maybe because it was summer and school’s out, but holy hell. WHITE.

I noticed it the first night while we were at Brasserie Ten Ten. Sure, there were some POC working but in terms of patrons, white. My bro and I were the only ones I saw until another Asian couple showed up.

I don’t know why it struck out at me though. I’ve been to many cities where there aren’t as diverse given the location. Maybe I was expecting it to be more since it is such a progressive place. Who knows?

But in terms of the best dish we had in Boulder, Brasserie’s Tempura Fried Green Beans with a garlic aioli took the cake. It was so simple that I wasn’t expecting it.

I would rather have that over frites any day. It was so good that I’ve added to my cooking challenge.

Bring it.

Overall, it was a good hiking trip to The Rockies and Boulder. I would do it again, exploring more of the surrounding area and finding good hikes.

* * *

Denver.

I’ve only been to Denver once. It was a short work trip, setting up a new server for our satellite office. I had about an afternoon to explore since the server didn’t arrive in time and I couldn’t do my work.

So, I went and walked the city.

I planned a day and a half in Denver on this trip and we did the touristy thing, the Botanical Garden and Museums.

We didn’t try to find anything else. My bro likes these kinds of things and I was whatever.

Our only full day was just chill and it was the pace that I wanted after the rough hiking weekend that we had. The biggest challenge was trying to find a place to eat.

We decided on Rioja and it was fucking delicious.

The chef is a James Beard winner and it shows.

Amazing dinner. Everything was great.

Denver is a foodie town and there are so many tough choices.

There were so many dishes that we had that I just want to copycat and figure out how they made it. Looking forward to trying.

Again, dinner was amazing. Everything that we had. Amazing.

http://www.riojadenver.com

We had a late afternoon flight out of Denver. Originally my flight was at 5pm, but it got canceled and I was now flying out at 7 and my bro still had his 5:30 flight.

So, we had a morning and afternoon to burn and we did the art museum.

Overall, it was all right, but they had a great Western Film exhibit. It was very well curated and had great flow and pieces. We both loved it. Worth checking out.

Then we went to a cheap steak place for dinner and off we went to the airport and went our separate ways.

I had a few hours to burn at the airport and that’s always dangerous. Got me some expensive Ray Bans, but I think they are worth it.

* * *

Overall, I thought the trip was great.

It was a much-needed retreat into nature and a way for me to destress and not think about work and what I have to get back to.

Sure, I finished and turned in many of my projects but there are still so many on the way that it might become overbearing. The break is exactly what I needed to put things into perspective.

I would definitely do Colorado again. The hiking is great. Denver is great for food.

Looking forward to my next trip out there and looking forward to my next vacation.

It’ll be another brotherly bonding trip since our mom dropped out to go back to China and Vietnam with a few aunties.

Italy.

Can’t. Fucking. Wait.

Bring it.