So I was talking with Zach and he mentioned how his blogger was seen by someone he should only know through work and such and she read some of his personal thoughts about his life and such because he just happened to put it on there and he wasn't expecting someone that wasn't his friend to check it out.

That's been on my mind for the past week and a half. And then my dad was telling me about how I pretty much share my entire life online and how it could skew the thoughts or perceptions of me in a business environment if people knew what I wrote about on my site and what I did in my life outside of work...

Well, for those people who see me at work, I work hard and I don't really screw around. And this website really only talks about a slice of my life. If you're interesed in the rest of my life. E-mail me.

Wanted: Female competitor for 'Chubby Bunny' Tournament.

Also...

Eddie Izzard Rocks! Wicked crazy clothes and makeup but one really funny dude.

So I have finally solved one of our major problems in competition wit the japanese in eating competitions...

We need to play 'Chubby Bunny'. You know- the game where you stick marshmallows in your mouth one by one and then say 'chubby bunny'. First off- I really think we have an advantage because we don't have the accent issue... I mean - we could say 'chubby bunny' no problem but they'd say something like 'churry rurry' or something wicked nuts. Not only that but I'm sure we've got them beat in maximum oral volume. Like- our guys could really kick butt in that department.

You may be wondering why I'm posting this... and I think it's because - I believe I can make a difference. And hopefully some of my fellow crop circle supporters and sponsors will join the cause and champion my ideas to ESPN4 - the Quattro. ESPN4 is pretty good but those guys on ESPN8 - the Ocho - have a lot more coverage on some better games like Dodgeball and stuff. Hey- eating contests are coming back though... mark my words.

So apparently my reputation online precedes me... no, really, it does.

Proof number 1:

Jessica (9:32:45 PM): how do you know lily wang? from church?
Jessica (9:33:03 PM): i just was on her site and saw she had pandapower down as one of her favorite links!

This would be entirely normal... if I knew a Lily Wang. Maybe I do and don't know it? I don't know. I think I do. I didn't know she had a web site. And if I do know a Lily Wang - which I'm beginning to think I do, I didn't know she knew I had a web site.

Anyway- onward to Proof number 2:

Apparently there are a lot of web sites out there that talk about crop circles and I guess sometime in 2002 when they were looking for sponsors and supporters - I signed up without even thinking...

Click this link and scroll down...

You'll see this:



Yeah- apparently- I'm a supporter.

In other news, back on Sunday, January 19, 2003 I had 21,659 visitors to my pandapower.com web site. 4,983 hits later on September 24, 2004, I have a total of 26,642. Wicked!!

Bad news this week:

Bad news number 1: My friend's mother passed away on Monday.
Bad news number 2: I'm not going on my CA trip because I have a funeral to go to tomorrow.

Yes! Someone finally found the damn AC switch for Arizona! Winter - HERE WE COME BABY!

I don't really like to pat myself on the back ever but I'm gonna have to on something I created recently. In the photo below, the photo I took is the bottom and what I made it into is the image on top. The top image will most likely be used for some type of community site.

2 cool things happened today.

1) My dad was driving my car and my mom was in the back with me sitting shotgun. He was testing out my new tires to see how they felt and he was pleased. We were driving and then someone just turned out in front of us and stopped when they realized that we could have just killed them. I instinctively threw up the double birds and yelled out 'f*@% you'.

Hahahaah- how many times in your life do you get to do that in front of your parents and they're ok with it? It didn't even occur to me until later how odd that was.

2) Driving back to my house I saw these kids who were waiting by a big puddle of water. They were hoping to be splashed by cars driving by and so I stopped - gave them the thumbs up - smiled - and then drove up next to them and splashed them silly. They gave me a thumbs up as I drove away and I threw them back a thumbs up out the sunroof.

So fun.


c.

So my brother was looking for a bicycle lock and apparently there's a Kryptonite lock out there that can simply be opened with a twist of a Bic Pen.

David, meet Goliath.

Bic Pen + Cannondale locked with Kryptonite lock = Yours!

In other news, I checked out the stereo setup in the car and the rear speakers in the doors are pretty much toast. They were being powered by a good amp and were getting some serious power but not enough. So now my car is only running on 3 channels and one amp. 2 channels going to the fronts with 200watts rms each and 2 channels that are bridged to the subs in the trunk. The amp was overheating a bit (I would be too if I were in a little trunk making a lot of noise in 100 degree weather) and the bass wasn't as loud as I wanted it to be. (I know Mom, I won't listen to it as loud as I used to before...) And so I turned up the gains on the amp and then removed the factory subwoofer for 2 reasons: 1- to let the trunk breath and 2- to provide a route for the bass to go into the cabin with ease and it sounds super nice and healthy. YAAAAAAAAAAY.

Not as healthy as Peter's Tahoe though. Goodness gracious - if you ever have any ear wax buildup that you'd like to get rid of - take a ride with Peter and that stuff will fall right outta yer ear!!

For those of you who know of my bountiful amounts of water in the garage... I'm down to 16 cases from 20 a month and a half ago. It's funny- when you have 480 bottles of Arrowhead water at your disposal- suddenly the idea of using bottled water for hamburger helper is reasonably entertainable.

Ok... gotta stop by work to retrieve some graphic files.

YAAAAAAAAY.

Wow- I'm spending a lot of time on the computer today!

2 photos to share:

My trip miles on my last road trip... I need an oil change again. :(



And - one word to describe the most jubilant pledge rushing the fraternity right now...

"Supastah!"

CD Collections.

Everyone has them, and most likely - the collection has taken quite a long time to accumulate. And with the widely popular mp3 format spreading music faster than gossip among a bunch of high school girls, it's interesting how the rate of growth CD collections have seen has plateaued recently. (Did you ever notice that the word "plateaue" has 4 freakin vowels in a row??!?!?!?!) So what got me thinking about CD collections was the overwhelming number of blank CDs that populate my massive CD cases.

And in going through them... here are a few CDs that I normally wouldn't admit to owning but hey- you've all caught me at a time where I'm going to be really really honest...

Here are the top 5 CDs I'd rather not have people know that I own...

5) Aqua's Aquarium - This band's most popular song was - "Barbie Girl". Lyrics here just in case you want to sing the next time this song is on the radio...

4) Soundtrack to Waiting to Exhale. Umm... yeaaaaaaah...

3) Mariah Carey's CD single "Honey". I think I got this for free. I certainly hope I didn't pay for it.

2) Sixpence None the Richer's CD single "Kiss Me". I actually think I DID buy this on a whim when I was in college. I think I just like how crisp the voices are in the song and I wanted to see how it sounded in my first car's stereo.

And the number one CD that I can't believe I own but somehow found it in my CD collection is...



1) Spice Girls' CD single "2 Become 1". I think I bought this on a whim in college too. I ummmm... really have no excuse for owning this CD. But since I don't want to waste plastic, I'll keep it.

I've been wondering about a few things lately...

1) Am I the only one that tries not to hit those little reflective bumps between lanes when changing lanes on the freeway?

2) Why is it that in the fraternity for which I advise, the ALUMNI are more of a liability than the actives and pledges?

3) My group will be ramping up next week and but I'm hesitant on taking my road trip to NorCal because I'll be gone for two days. "Should I stay or should I go now..."

4) I posted some of my photos on sxc.hu and they say I have had 199 downloaded photos from my online collection. Makes me wonder what people are using the photos for... If you wanna see go check them out here.

5) So I used to know this gal named Alaina Brown years ago... I wonder what she's up to nowadays. And the gal who I thought was so cute when I was in 5th grade... Brooke Helt- I wonder what ever happened with her too.

6) Last night I spoke with someone in the fraternity and shared with them the thought process I go through whenever I have to make an important decision. (My mother would probably guess that I didn't go through this process when I went 131mph... HI MOM!) Anyway- the advice is super simple. When I have a decision to make, there's always the right thing to do and there's always what you WANT to do. If you always choose the right thing to do, I really don't think anyone can fault you for doing so. People will always jump at the chance though to accuse someone for making a decision that weighs favorably in the decision maker's direction. For example- you always hear about politicians voting for or championing campaigns for something with selfish intentions. It's rare, or it isn't and I'm sure it just gets less press, to come across the stories of people who fight the good fight with no selfish intentions behind their actions.

Finally, a free night to do whatever.
so this whole week was booked full of plans and then one by one almost alll have been broken...

monday I met with Joanna from the fraternity to talk about professional events.

tuesday my mentor meeting fell through.

wednesday I went to softball games and forgot my church bible study and the blogger meeting at coffee plantation.

thursday I had dinner plans and a meeting about more fraternity stuff but that fell through.

So my tan head is starting to peel. I looked in the mirror the other day and I was sorely reminded of the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Yes, that would suggest I have a mark on my head. And boy what a mark it is! It's kinda gross but kinda cool at the same time. I would have taken a photo and posted it but I'm sure you all don't want to puke on your keyboards so I'll save you the trouble.

Hope all is well with every one of you.

c.

btw, vacation photos can be found here...

Sometimes you get a long stretch of good smooth freeway and you happen to be in a nice car with BRAND NEW tires... and during those times your brain begins to think-

'if only my car could gobble up more road faster, then i could be where i want to go a lot faster.'

so you accelerate...



and then you hit a certain mph...




and then you hit another certain mph... and this is where you put away your cheesy smile and put your game face on...


because you could seriously be in a heap of trouble if things go wrong at this speed...



And then you slow down and thank all of the people who made it possible at Lexus, Yokohama, the parents, the company...

Vacation report.
days: 4 full days
miles traversed: 1,275.4
photos taken: 674
trip hotspots: la jolla, mtv real world house, san diego, carlsbad, flower field, legoland, la, ikea, encinitas, the grove, scripps research center and park.
movies watched in car: bumfights, bad boys 2, 2fast 2furious.
friends visited: jen w, mike t, mike d, ed d, amber o, kim m, debbie h, frank l, justin k, teresa k.

tuesday recap: changed tires in az. drove out to sd at 1pm. met up with a long time friend from h.s. and then went out to tony romas for some nice ribs.

wednesday: drove around and hung out with ed. we went up the pch to carlsbad and by the scripps research center. went to dinner with mike d.

thursday: woke up and drove around up to encinitas to meet with a client. ate lunch and then checked out the real world house and took more photos. saw legoland and the flower fields in carlsbad. went back to sd and ate dinner with jen and mike t.

friday: went up to la with ed and watched bumfights in the car. ate dinner with amber and ed. after that we all went to a bar with justin and teresa and their friend from church, brandon. we then went to amber's place and hung out till 2am. got back to sd at 4am

saturday: woke up at 8:30am and went to ikea and then headed home to phx.

wild week!!!

and when I came into town I had a Positive Impact charity banquet to go to where I wore scrubs, a viking hat and sponge bob slippers. woooooo! got home after hanging out a 2am again. CRAZY!!!!

Goin back to AZ now...
stopped by subway and starbucks and ikea . i'm full, caffienated, and ikea'd. let's go!!

6 words...
amber
ed
me
grove
l.a.
fun

today was a productive day. i woke up at 8am, went out and started snapping photographs immediately. went for a drive down to the beach and just took cool photos of houses here and there. met up with ed and we drove all over town and went up north to carlsbad along the pacific coast highway. unfortunately, my windows and sunroof were open the whole day so needless to say my head and neck and arms are SUPER RED (i've ethnically defected to the native indians - my new name is 'squints at sun').

so i probably clicked off a hundred shots today- AT LEAST! and i had dinner with mikey d down in little italy. it was a great dinner and then he gave me a tour of the town and we stopped by the real world house in SD. super cool. i 'bookmarked' it in the gps unit so i can go back tomorrow morning.

wow.

the skin on my head REALLY hurts. my head looks like the top of a fire hydrant. :(

anyway- enough of wednesday. i'll be hanging out all thursday and might go up to LA for a drive or maybe go to IKEA. love ikea.

woo hooo!

c.

I am in california now...
Chillin at LaJolla Shores with my sexy rockstar friend, Jen.

suhweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

So tomorrow I finally leave for California. I know I'm making a pretty big deal with all of this but it just reminds me of my move back in 2000 when I drove out to CA for my first job.

I got this e-mail the other day and I cannot express how retarded I felt responding to the e-mail.

Clifford, could you please send John your E-mail address. Only part
of it shows on the data base. He has something he needs to send to
you ASAP.

Thanks

Why would someone send this e-mail?

Time to move to Norway...

The annual ranking is based largely on average levels of education and income, combined with expected length of lifetime.

The report measured standards of living in 177 countries around the world. Other Nordic countries also ranked high, with Iceland in 7th place, Finland 13th and Denmark 17th.

Norway's gross national product per person amounted to USD 36,600, beaten only by Luxembourg. Its men and women are expected to live to an age of 78.9 years and Norway is one of 19 countries in the world with no measurable rates of illiteracy.

Source

Wouldn't that be great? To live in a place where everything is just better.

Reason number 215 to not have kids and to be nice to your parents:

Having kids will lower your IQ!

I read this article and am seriously scared and hesitant to have kids now. What if their findings are true??? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

What if the parents have more than one child? Does that make the IQ score go lower?

Indiana University study: having children significantly lowers parents’IQs

By Mike Gaddis, THG News

A five-year study run by Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction proves what many in the scientific community have always suspected: having children significantly lowers the IQ of both male and female parents.

Researchers at the Kinsey Institute began their study in 1999 by giving 200 married couples who were planning on starting families within the next four years Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests. By 2003, all but 27 of these couples had conceived.

Another IQ test was given to each set of parents successful in conceiving and birthing a baby six months after their child was born. These results were compared to the previous intelligence tests.

In every single one of the 173 cases, both parents scored at least twelve points lower on the second IQ test, with the majority of parents losing twenty or more IQ points.

Dr. Hosung Lee, director of the study, was not surprised with the findings. “The research proved that our hypothesis was correct. Having children does retard one’s brain activity, and since both parents lost intelligence, we must assume that this loss has a psychological rather than biological cause.”

The IQ tests show that when a child is born, the part of the brain that makes one think objectively takes the biggest hit when it comes to losing brainpower. “This explains why every parent thinks their child is the smartest kid in class or the best athlete, even if that child is as dumb as a box of rocks or needs a calendar to time their forty-yard dash. People who before were intelligent and open-minded turn into raving lunatics who want to blame a teacher or coach every time their mediocre child fails,” said Lee.

Lee says the Kinsey Institute will continue to test the couples participating in the study to determine if the loss of intelligence is reversible once children grow up and leave the nest and if parents who continue having children lose even more intelligence.

Source

I've always liked a good party but for some reason- when I get weekly e-mails about the parties at local clubs- I seriously find it difficult to conjure up any excitement to go out to a club where I'll undoubtedly be surrounded by 30,000 dollar millionaires who live their lives for friday and saturday.

Sorry- ummm. Terets.

In other news, I was at a party over the weekend and I find it difficult to justify why a Chapter Advisor of a business fraternity needs to apologize for lewd and drunken behavior that was exhibited by Alumni from that same business fraternity.

So in my quest for stock photos at work, it was requested that we have more photos of people and I came across this photo...

Can you say- 'table for 5 please...'?



HAHAHA!

Oh goodness, cover up!

So I'm just hanging out at home and I'm so ridiculously bored. I'm supposed to go to California right now however the sidewalls on my car's tires are dangerously cracked.



So like I said, I'm bored and because of my boredom - I've rearranged some furniture in the house. I think you all saw it before so here are the 'after' pics.

So I'm driving home from the Blowout party and I almost get sideswiped by an older LS400 driven by some young blonde who was trying to go around a car that was making a right turn.

Not only that- but 5 minutes later, I'm driving in the middle lane and all of a sudden a car comes flying out from the right side and just about runs into me - good thing I slammed on the brakes and swerved to the left to avoid the car. I then called 911 on the guy and reported his license plate and car. Why does everyone want to crash into me???

Oh yeah- one more thing- if you're ever in Vegas and you don't wanna spend any loot. Check out these 10 free things you can do.

ok- later skater.

So the wild life of clifford continues...

The next 24 hours of my life will include:

-A day at work.
-Giving a speech at 'Meet the Chapter' for my fraternity.
-Hopefully enough sleep for me to last tomorrow.
-Breakfast with my mentor kid who lives in South Phoenix.
-Dinner today sometime but I don't know when because I'm doing fraternity stuff right after work.
-Trading the bmw back for my lexus.
-Partying with the fraternity and then making sure they all get home ok.
-Taking photos of something cool hopefully to add to my collection.
-Driving everywhere for all this stuff!!!


I need another Clifford to help me out!

Friday was an interesting day. Key events of the day:

1) Had a meeting with the Desert Botanical Garden this morning for 3 hours.
2) Camera came in the mail. Check out the zoom here!
3) XD card for camera came in the mail - one problem: wrong brand XD card!
4) Traded cars with my friends Paul and Kelly. They got the lexus for a day and I'm cruising around in the bmw 528i. It's a nice car, very solidly built but a little harsh for my senior citizen rump. HID lamps are the B.A.P. (it's a 'paul moore' thing). It's interesting, I think the bmw commands more attention from other cars and people on the sidewalks. It truly looks like a low slung race car with 4 doors. Perhaps that's what the lexus needs? some eibach springs (already have them) and some bilstein shocks? this would be the same as the l-tuned setup on l-tuned factory lexus vehicles.
5) Went to ASU to take some photos.
6) Click here to check out my latest photos.
7) Had dinner at Kona Grill. Love that place. And no Ericka, it actually is a REALLY clean place to eat. Ericka, my food-diva friend, thinks she read somewhere that Kona Grill is really dirty and that Cheesecake Factory is better. So we went the other day and it was 'ok'. I had the 'Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp' but I forgot to tell them to hold off on the shrimp and I accidentally ate one. I always get a stomach ache when I eat shrimp now- I'm not sure why.

Sep 1, 2004 9:09 PM
At local FedEx facility
PHOENIX, AZ

Ok- this may not look significant however I assure you- this is A very big deal...

This timestamp is the last known location of my digital camera. It's in Phoenix. That's right - for those who aren't SCM majors out there - the package is being delivered TOMORROW.

Suhweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Goal: Procure set of bunny slippers
Option 1: look all over for bunny slippers and risk wasting a lot of time.

Option 2: buy two little bunny stuffed animals. cut holes in their backs. pull out the stuffing. stick them on my feet.

hmmmmmm...

The camera is on it's way!!
Apparently I called and maybe made a difference. The camera is supposed to be here in 2-3 days because it's getting shipped 2-day FEDEX. I really hope it gets here because I'm dying to take some rockin photos.

My plan is to put up 8 to 10 8x10 black and white photos in black frames in the house along the wall in my room or in the living room. Or maybe string them together and have them hang down where the beer bong hangs right now. We'll see...

Treo
so on my trip... i'll be updating my site from the treo. this phone is so sweet! I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a planner and phone and all around geeky gadget.

i'm still severely disappointed in Olympus' shipping options.

Olympus' shipping methods SUCK!
Today was the first day of RUSH. It was a lot of fun and it looks like we'll have a good group this semester. So far we have 130 people who are interested and we're only in the 2nd day of RUSH.

WOOOOOOOO HOOOO!

In other news, my kickass digital camera won't be here until Tuesday. Four days into my vacation. Crap!!! I guess I could stay in town and head out Tuesday after picking it up from the office and charge the sucker in the car but then I'll miss out on 3-4 days in Ca.

CRAP!!!!

Why doesn't Olympus ship USPS?? USPS Priority delivers in 3 business days and it's freaking cheap! I used to send stuff all the freakin time when I was in college and I never had a problem. Crap!!

I'm so ridiculously disappointed...

What's up kids?!!

I just got home from our second day of Rush and it was great. Lots of great kids are coming out and I'm really excited for this semester's pledge class.

In other news, my web-connected cousin Amber sent me an invite to get a gmail account. Way super groovy! Thank you so much Amber! You can now send me a 1gig e-mail to cliffordjwong at gmail.com - woo hoo!

Ok- I'm dead tired, the sooner I go to sleep and wake up - and then go to sleep and then wake up again- the sooner it will be Thursday and I can expect my digital camera in the mail at work.

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet...

Later Skaters!