6th Annual Wongsgiving

It's been 6 freaking consecutive years that I have hosted Wongsgiving! Holy cow, who knew this tradition would've lasted so long. Despite the attendees constantly changing throughout the years, I think we have a pretty set core now to our group. This was one of the prettiest years yet. Thanks to the help of Vanessa with the decor shopping, I was able to set up the most beautiful dinner table for the party of 16. With setting up the lights, moving my backyard around, decorating the tables, and cooking the turkey, I was pretty stressed the day of. This seems to always happen to me. Despite having a rough afternoon, the night was nice. The weather wasn't too cold and the food that everyone brought was delicious as always. I don't think this tradition will be ending anytime soon, I hope.

I'm a Machine

Nearly 10 years ago,  I listened to a band called Death from Above 1979.  They were one of the first new age rock groups that I stumbled upon thanks to Sherman and Marty.  A few years later, they disbanded, leaving me hating myself for never making an effort to go see them.

Seven years later, Death from Above 1979 announced a reunion tour, launching a new album.  I made no mistake again this time and got tickets as soon as they were available.  The two people I went to the show with were nostalgically Sherman and Marty.  It was an awesome night watching two talented people making all that noise with just a base guitar, keyboard, and drums.  It felt like high school all over again for one night.

La Catrina

The Day of the Dead was always taught to me as a child growing up, but I never had a chance to experience it until this year. Vanessa and her family always have great decor for any occasion, and this holiday was no exception. When I saw pictures of Vanessa in full "skeleton" makeup, I was determined to set up a photo shoot. The pictures, however, came out decent due to having bad lighting. But nonetheless, my girlfriend can pull off a gorgeous skeleton look. Who knew. :)

Have you seen my cap?

Two years ago, we were all Batman for Halloween. This year, coincidentally, we were the villians. This might have been the coolest group costume we had ever accomplished. With over a month in advance to create our villians, the end results were solid. To top it all off, Vanessa's house was ready just in time to throw an extravagant Halloween party. We spent about 2 full days in setting up, decorating, and cooking for the event. Thanks to pinterest, we were able to make a lot of spooky themed treats and thanks to Vanessa's parents, we had a more than enough decor to fill up the entire place. The party and our costumes were a success, and I can't wait for next years group theme, whatever it may be.

BattleBounce

A week after the Halloween, the Batman villains' group continued their mischief in Las Vegas. Vanessa and I were able to get an amazing suite for 3 nights at the Hilton due to our timeshare meeting.  The first night was relatively low key.  Braimy, Vanessa and I spent a majority of the night playing the all new exciting game of BattleBounce.  It is a drinking game fusion of battleship and beerpong that was invented by Brian and the name was coined by Amy.  

The highlight of the trip was being able to walk the strip in our costumes on Halloween night.  Nearly every single person on the strip was in costume and we received a good amount of praise and requests for photos.  We met plenty of Batman villains in the process, creating massive group photos.  It was a solid Vegas trip with a small, but good, group of people.

Melting Ice Cream

Casey invited us back for a second photoshoot to help build his portfolio for a rather new style of shooting. The location this time around was in Downtown Claremont, the location of Vanessa and I's first date. He was looking into posed positions instead of just freely roaming around like last time. This in turn, required more props, fake laughs, and awkward public awareness. We managed to pull through, and out came these beautiful pictures.

Happiest Last Day on Earth

So we decided to discontinue our Disneyland annual pass.  It has been an awesome and memorable two years.  I can always guarantee a stress-free day very time I step foot into that place.  This will be just a little break with a definite future of returning back to the happiest place on Earth.  We were able to squeeze in one final visit to California Adventure, where we rode Toy Story Mania, had our caricatures drawn, and ate at the exclusive Carthay Circle Restaurant. It was a nice way to end our Disneyland chapter. Until next time.

Back to the Books

Four years ago, the day after I graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, I was willing to bet anyone my whole life savings of probably 100 bucks that I would never attend school again.

But here I am, somewhat defeated by the world haha.  This is going to be two dreadful years.

I am attending Azusa Pacific University to obtain a Masters in Emotional Disturbance with a BCBA certification.  The main goal here is for that BCBA certification, in which it will triple my salary immediately. Classes started last week and its been pretty calm, it will be the online classes that will screw me over.

Wish me luck!

Zion!

Vanessa and I went on our next adventure in early August. The destination this time was the spectacular Zion National Park in Utah. This was Vanessa's second time, so I just followed her lead this time around. It was about an 7 hour drive, passing Vegas at a record time of 2.75 hours! By Friday morning at 10, we reached our hotel in Springdale, the official town in which it provides free shuttles that takes you directly to the trails. We conquered two strenuous trails, one in which conquered my right knee (again). We saw the breathtaking overview of the park known as the Observation Point and we hiked through water with walls as tall as skyscrapers guiding us along the way known as The Narrows. I have only seen places like these in travel magazines and movies, but to see it in real life made any pain worth it. I was so happy to sleep in a hotel room instead of a tent this time around.

Rivers and Roads

Ever since informed me that she was going to leave indefinitely to move in with Evan up north, I realized that I hadn't hung out with my little sister in a really long time. We were able catch up over tea, celebrate her birthday, eat corndogs at Disneyland, and record three songs! Out of the three songs, my favorite was our last one that was recorded two days before she left. This is also the first song I've uploaded to my soundcloud this year. Goodluck up there sis! Thanks for introducing Vanessa and I to Tsum Tsums!

Stars Fell on Alabama 

ft. Hannah Choo

Drakaris

Ever since the ending of the masterpiece called Breaking Bad, we had been contemplating on which shows to start (and finish).  So in the past four months, we've caught up with Game of Thrones, True Detective, Orange is the New Black, and Attack on Titan.

Attack on Titan is an odd ball out of the group of shows that we watched, considering that it is an anime.  It is an ongoing action series that doesn't stray away from the typical Japanese anime recipe of dragging out its story at times.  We aren't quite sure if we will be continuing with the series, but we sure enjoyed the action and twists during its finest moments.

True Detective was a brilliant miniseries that consisted about a dozen episodes.  It revolves around one single case that took about a decade to crack.  And with the help of McConaughey and Harrison's charismatic chemistry, it makes us sad to know that it was only for one season.

Orange is the New Black caught us off guard.  It was heavily female driven drama/comedy that took us by surprise at how addicting it was.  With season 2 ending a little weaker than the way it began, I hope the next season redeems itself early!

Our favorite show of the batch was Game of Thrones.  I always knew fantasy drama would be a great show, but I was always hesitant of starting because it would require a lot of time to invest.  With 4 full length seasons to catch up, Vanessa and I managed to binge it in less than 3 weeks!  So many great characters and memorable moments caused Vanessa to read in the midst of waiting for season 5!

Waldena Osuna

After nine years of knowing Waldo Osuna, I get to see him finally take the oath. I always knew this day would come, the question was just when. Well it happened last week as I watched him place his ring into Jena's finger. I was honored to stand by his side as a groomsman, along with some of the closest friends in my life.

The wedding was lovely and the people were beautiful. I looked forward to this day for a very long time, given that a majority of all my friends were were going to be at the wedding. Everyone had smiles and most of us drank without hesitation. All of us danced our hearts out, a sight that I had never seen before. There were pictures taken in all angles and people conversed with one another as if they were close friends. It was an awesome night. A perfect wedding. Congratulations Waldo and Jena Osuna.

Marly

Junora

Chrisney

Braimy

Waldena

Whatever it was, Carly didn't find it funny.

HAHAHA

Best Speech Award

Who dat, who dat?

Vanessa's birthday was a nice change in scenery.  I helped planned a beach day event with a nice turnout! We made a four gallon, alcoholic, mix drink and to my surprise, people actually liked it.  For food, Vanessa premade a huge container of pasta and I grilled hot dogs at the spot.  It was quite stressful a few days prior when we were trying to gather all materials for this event, but it worked out very well in the end.  Friends from different groups were introduced to each other and got along easily due to activities such as; volleyball, swimming, and football.  It was a nice birthday for her :).

The Bachelor

It was Waldo's bachelor weekend celebration last month and it will go down as one of the craziest weekends in my life. The best man, Justin, booked our suite at the Venetian for three sinful nights. With it being the Memorial weekend, prices were high and the Strip was packed. Justin planned a successful itinerary, in which it was filled with manly events.

We went to a hardcore shooting range in which we shot 8 guns you only see in Call of Duty. The instructors were serious about us keeping our goggles and hearing protections on at all times. We soon found out why right when we heard Waldo shoot the first gun. From shotguns to assault rifles and Desert Eagles to a gun turrett, we all felt the need to yell "America" to the top of our lungs. I also won the Desert Eagle competition in which I shot an overwhelmingly awesome score of 48/50.

Another big event was paintball. We were all pretty excited and nervous about this one due to the weather and the anticipated pain. Most of us just wore shorts and tshirts heading into our private match, and the heat reached to about 95 degrees. The anxiety of the pain was alleviated when the instructor said we could rent jumpsuits for 8 bucks per person. Waldo and Justin chose their players and I landed on Waldo's team alongside G, Money Mike, and Brian. Despite the heat, we had about 10 matches and we were all surprised at how fun this turned out to be. We came out victorious and Waldo suffered the most as we shot our remaining paintballs at him before we left.

Other than shooting, we did traditional bachelor/vegas activities such as strip clubs, pool, bars, and gambling. Sleeping was avoided for the most of us as I stayed up till 5 AM every night. I spent way too much that weekend, more than I ever had in any Vegas trip. But it was a memorable trip, quite fitting for the holiday at the time. This was my first bachelor party, and it lives up to all the hype.

No matter what you say.

It's been rare to have a full weekend to ourselves in the past couple months. So Vanessa and I decided to take advantage of the weekend that we did. The plan for Saturday was to first watch Godzilla in one of those fancy dinner theaters in Pasadena, but failed due to some misleading information from the internet. Then we left for a long scenic drive to Antelope Valley, home of the poppy fields. Despite missing the peak of the poppy season, we were able to make the best out of it and snap a few good pictures. For Sunday, we went to Mt. Baldy and took the ski lift up to the peak of the mountain. The weather surprised us both as it was around 55 degrees. Thanks to the groupon, we enjoyed a hefty meal at the restaurant and proceeded to purchase to souvenir sweaters, haha.

A lot of the outdoors that weekend, and it was a nice change of scenery for the both of us.