Cowboy Take Me Away

Next Friday, Brandon and I will have been married for 10 years. Instead of celebrating on our actual anniversary weekend, we had to do it this past weekend instead.  Brandon’s certification course begins next Saturday. A while back, I bought a Groupon for a horseback riding and wine tasting package with Wine Country Trails by Horseback at Wilson Creek Winery. Now that Brandon is learning to enjoy wine, we thought we’d make a weekend in Temecula out of it. Besides, with my current employment situation, we can’t quite get ourselves to Hawaii like we wanted to do originally. We spent...
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Chasing Down a Memory

If you can believe it, I was a shy international student when I arrived at the Orange County private school back in 1993.  I wasn’t “shy” because that was what I was. I was “shy” because I was insecure with my English skills and with being a total foreigner in a school full of mostly white kids. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to make friends. My host mom Bonnie, also one of our school’s counselor at the time, had it planned out for me perfectly. She enrolled me in handbell choir with ultra small class...
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Oddball Questions? Nah.

Olaina posted this article about craziest interview questions people were asked in 2011. I have never been asked anything crazy before, lucky me I guess. I was asked once about what social media campaign I think was successful. And my answer was nothing I can think of. Why not? Because so far nothing grab my attention as brilliant just yet. So there, I might’ve just shot myself in the foot but seriously. If it’s good enough, it would have had ME, a social media nerd, all participating in it by now. But anyways. I thought I’d take a crack at...
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10 Goals for 2012

OakMonster.com - Oakley Boren

2011. The year of changes. So much so that I pretty much forgot that I had set goals for the year. Someone asks why I set goals. Well, I’m trying to set a habit-forming goals instead of something I know I can’t attain.  Whatever I did well, I’ll keep up with for the years to come. Goal #10 has been a growing list, and I would like to keep it growing each year. Now, let’s first look at what a failure I have been in 2011 before we move on to set goals for 2012. 2011 Recap: 5 out of...
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2011: An Oakley Odyssey

It’s about gone, kids. 2011. All done. 2011 has been a serious roller coaster for me professionally and personally. It seems like it was just yesterday when I was updating the 2010 end of the year list! Golly. 2011 in Pictures Jan – March: Welcome to the family, Robin Hood the Hyundai Sonata! / Custom made truffles from Drago Centro / Got laid off April – June: New Zealand vacation / Cochon 555 / The Nerd Machine Slave Leia PSA July – September: 4th of July at the Los Alamitos Base / Camping on Catalina / USC football season October...
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A Thanksgiving Ode to Matt

Sure, sure. People give the lip service how how thankful they are around Thanksgiving all the time. But I, for one, really am thankful this year for my friend Matt. Without Matt, I wouldn’t be working at this contract, making new friends, learning new skills. I surely wouldn’t have found a work environment I truly feel at home in. Without Matt, I wouldn’t have the budget to continue to host a Thanksgiving feast for my “orphan” friends as I have done for the past few years. I would say that I owe Matt my first born for his help, but...
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