Wangtang Clan

SF & Canceled

2007-07-29T20:39:00.001-07:00

Went to SF last Thursday. Met with Playfirst for a spur of the moment interview.
Had dinner with Neil and Dan.

Marin on Friday. Met with Nihilistic to go over some outsourcing.

Long Time No Post

2007-07-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to try getting this posting business more regular... It's been quite a while since I've kept a journal, and the last year feels like a blur now...

I guess in summary, I pretty much stopped blogging/journaling regularly once I started working at Disney, so since March 20, 2006, thoughts and memories are just bouncing around in my frazzled brain.

Highlights of the past year:

1) Hit 1K status on United from many trips to Asia. Lots of trips to Shanghai and Tokyo... also had a few side trips to Taipei, Hong Kong, Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Osaka, Kyoto.

2) Vacations - Managed to squeeze in a few mini-vacations into the mix. We had a bunch of short trips: Newport Weekend in September, Santa Fe for Xmas, and Orlando Disney Cruise and Disneyworld with Thao and Tuyen in February, Guam with Winnie in May.

3) Disney overload - Between many many trips to Disneyland and the Disney bombardment of the February trip, we had almost toxic levels of "Magic".

4) Lozars - We hung out with the Lozars quite a bit since they moved down to Carlsbad.

This is how Disney views my job:

Anyway, I'm going to try to keep this blog a little more up to date... :)

Knicks Brawl

2006-12-28T01:07:00.000-08:00

Mark Twain

2006-11-30T02:32:00.000-08:00

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. ...Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

Long Hiatus

2006-11-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since posting.. Lots of craziness...

Spent a month in Asia in Sept and Oct... Then last week, spent the week in Shanghai, including my birthday, and this week, I'm in Tokyo...

PS3 vs. Wii

2006-08-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Alison Dinner Party

2006-08-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

Went to Alison's LA dinner party. Alan from Blizzard, Chad and Mark from IW also came. We went to Asia De Cuba for dinner... There was quite an array of fine bodies, silicone, and botox there. Mostly, in the flavor of platinum blonde.

The food was fusion Cuban and Asian flavors as one might imagine. We got the crispy fried fish, lamb, skirt steak, and some appetizers. All of it was quite good. Also had some mojitos which were great, with real cane sugar. Pricey though... Lots of WoW talk.

Afterwards, we went to a club called LAX. Rode in Mark's 350Z convertible on the way over. The club was supposedly one of the hottest clubs in the country, and it was ok... Might have been more fun with different company than 3 other game developers and Alison, but it was interesting. The bottle service was ridiculously pricey - $375/bottle, with 2 bottle minimum. I think the total check must have been around $900... Good thing Alison has a beefy expense account.

After the club, went to Alison's hotel room listened to Alison bitch about her social life for a while. I was falling asleep... Had a late night snack at Mel's then drove all the way back to San Diego.

Stacey and Natalie

2006-08-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

Sat in as Andy Mooney during the practice run for the Bob Iger meeting...
In the afternoon, had a McKinsey meeting... Working on the QA Studio.

Went out tonight with Stacey to Octopus... Had some dinner and good conversation until about 10 pm. She's a cool girl.

Then went out and met Natalie out in Santa Monica - she had her dudes entourage with her, but it was cool. Started at Makai (sp?) on Ocean, then ended up at Busby. Met Joey and some other dudes.

Online Day 2

2006-07-26T23:42:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of the conference. Met Antonio and Brad.

Went out to dinner with Kat and Cyn. We went to the Thai restaurant in XTD. It was some good stuff... Radiance guys happened to be there at the next table.

Online Game Conference

2006-07-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

Day one of online game conference.
Lunch at the conference - and I think David and I grabbed dinner together somewhere...

Met Winnie briefly... She was the conference manager... Cutie.

Arrival in Shanghai

2006-07-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

Arrived late in Shanghai... grabbed some dinner with David.

China

2006-07-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Off to Shanghai today. Morning flight...

Willy dropped me off.

Comicon

2006-07-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

Went to Comicon with Wil. We walked around and checked it out.

Met up with Frank Moran and we had some dinner at a Mexican place in the Gaslamp.

Jump In My Car

2006-07-11T00:17:00.000-07:00


Wow. Speechless...

Verita

2006-07-10T02:13:00.001-07:00

Verita!

What do you like best about being a part of Crimsonthorn?
The "family atmosphere" and having the freedom to randomly toss a few guildies off a cliff now and then.

Where is your favorite place to hang out in Azeroth and why?
Azshara is my little paradise...I would like to build a home there someday...lol. I can't tell you why...it's my little secret, although I will say there are lots of cliffs if visitors should come.

If you were an herb, what herb would you be?
Dreamfoil! I currently have a love/hate relationship with this flower and of course because everyone needs it.

If you could pick anyone in the whole game to push YOU off a clif, who would it be and why?
Hmmm....toughy. I can't really think of anyone who would want to harm me...

Wait, I know. Grun. Because the moment before the deed he would feel so guilty he would jump instead and I would remain Queen V.

Update Update

2006-07-10T02:13:00.000-07:00

Been a long time since I've posted and it has been a busy 2 months.

Taipei

2006-05-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Taipei after the super long flight... Flew from San Diego to SFO to Nagoya to Taipei... Door to door, I think it took almost 24 hours. I was exhausted.

The next day, I logged onto WoW for a bit in the morning and hung out until lunch time. We went to my Dad's work for Xiao Long Bao and some other stuff.

Had a meeting with Interserv at their offices.

Thinking about taking some Chinese classes, since I'm illiterate:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2005/schools/college/ealc/courses.html

Restructure

2006-05-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

We had a restructure this week. They let Bob, Adam, and Chris go... We had a goodbye party on Thursday at Timmy Nolands', which was like an Irish pub. I had fun hanging out with Suzy and Natalie towards the end of the evening... Good times.

Googled and found Natalie online: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1726306/ ... Hottie.

Fun Weekend

2006-05-22T01:07:00.000-07:00

Went to Disneyland on Saturday and Legoland on Sunday.

We did California Adventure - Alison joined us there for a bit. The Aladdin show was pretty good - Genie was funny. We headed home after the Electric Light Parade.

The weather was overcast at Legoland, but the kids had a good time. The Lozars joined us for a bit late in the afternoon.

On Sunday evening, I drove up to Newport Beach to meet up with Alison. We went to the Madonna concert in the evening up at the Forum in Inglewood. Awesome show, but I think I was one of the few straight guys at the show.

E3

2006-05-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

Had E3 last week. Lots and lots of meetings.

On Wednesday, we had lunch with C4 at Morton's Steakhouse. Dinner was with Alison, Ray, Bruno and Bret at some restaurant that had Fire Engine in its name. Jaime joined us too. Afterwards, we hit the House of Blues for some Access Hollywood party. There were some insanely hot girls there, esp. the gogo girls dancing on the stage.

Thursday, we went to dinner at Ago - it was a big dinner arranged by Alison. The service was slow and the food was just ok. The parking lot was spectacular - Bentleys, Ferraris, and the like all over.

Friday, I had a chance to walk the floor a bit. Pretty fried mentally. Went to the hotel that the Streamline guys were at after the show and hung out with the twins, Ester, and Neil. Afterwards, I headed home.

Low Update Rate

2006-05-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

I need to get back on my blogging - time is flying by.

So, it's been almost 2 months on the job now. So far, I'm really enjoying it.

Went to IHOP for brunch, then CostCo for some shopping.

Been playing WoW still - we did some AQ and ZG today... A bit brutal, 2nd boss in AQ.

Gadget Day

2006-04-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

Bought a Motorola 850 wireless earpiece.

Received my iPod and my Blackberry 8700c today.

Family in LA - House Hunting in Valencia

2006-04-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

Brought the family up on Thursday... Probably not a great idea. Kids trashed my apartment... Thuyen was bored to death...

On Saturday - we went house hunting in Valencia with Bob. Looked at a lot of places. We loved the Woodlands neighborhood in Valencia.

Game Illuminati

2006-04-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

Went to the Orange County Game Illuminati meeting. Ate dinner at a Mexican place in the Irvine Spectrum called Javier's... Had some margaritas which were good, but ended up being quite expensive.

Met a bunch of Ready at Dawn people, who were mostly ex-Blizzard as well as a Blizzard designer, Josh from Obsidian, someone from Pandemic, and Fisa from Sony Online.

Drove home to San Diego afterwards.

Salt Lake City

2006-04-14T22:31:00.000-07:00

Flew into SLC to meet with the Avalanche guys. We stayed at the Hotel Monaco (Kimpton)