Xbox 360 - Look me up!

Ironically, I write this right after expressing my desire to get in shape. Maybe video games are the reason I'm out of shape now, although I've had various video game consoles ever since the original Nintendo came out, and I've never really been "addicted" to any games, nor spent a whole lot of time playing them.

If you happen to have an Xbox Live account on Xbox 360, feel free to look me up. Username "jin411". The 360 so far is pretty impressive. The graphics are great. It can even pull music off my main computer and play them during games. And I can even hook my Xbox 360 up to a Windows Media Center Edition computer and watch recorded TV from the Xbox.

Anyway, other than that, I'm sure the Xbox 360 does more. I just haven't really explored yet. Some of the games have been giving me terrible motion sickness and headaches. Especially any game that involves a character walking around on various levels (like Perfect Dark Zero or Kameo).

One thing to note on the Xbox 360, the guys at Gamestop have warned me about the game discs getting ruined because of people moving their consoles around with the discs inside (a circular pattern gets scratched onto the surface, they call it the Ring of Death). This most often happens when a horizontally placed unit is moved into the verticle position DURING a game. The best thing to do would be to just keep your Xbox 360 stationary. And if you do take your console from place to place, just remember to remove the discs during transport. There's a lot regarding this topic on Google.

At age 26....

... I'm in the worst shape of my life. And it's not really a matter of "gaining weight", it's how I physically feel and how "soft" I've been getting. The 2-pack I had in high school and early college has been long gone.

I eat out too much (fast food and sit-down restaurants) and drink too much beer. It's tough when it's the most convenient way to meet up with clients and friends.

My weight has gone from 145 (high school) to 156 pounds. It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but percentage-wise, it's pretty significant. At 5'6", my BMI (body mass index) is 25.2 according to the NHLBI website. That puts me in the "Overweight" category, which is any score between 25 to 29.9 (anything 30 and over is considered "Obese". That was quite an eye-opener to realize that I'm in this category.

My goal is to get back down to 145 pounds, which would give me a BMI score of 23.4. And unlike most other people, who want to trim down for the summer months, I really want to do this so I'm in good shape to go snowboarding and to do other winter sports.

What I really should do is track what I eat and write down calories like I did in high school, but that would take a lot more time than I have lately. I will, however, make a commitment to work out more. And by that, I don't just mean going to the gym. I'll try to play more basketball, tennis and rock climb more often.

Wilsonart Flooring Project - After

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originally uploaded by jinlee.

.... and here's a picture of the Wong family room AFTER we were all finished. Tin Nguyen and I took about 3 overall days of work to get this done (which we did mostly on evenings and weekends). I did most of the floors, while Tin did all the baseboard trim and the difficult step (it's a sunken family room).

The TV stand is the only piece of furniture that was purchased, and it fits right into the space next to the fireplace.

Again, the floors are Wilsonart brand and were pretty easy to work with. I don't think we wasted a single piece due to cracking or a defect (usually, I get a few pieces that just don't fit correctly, and a couple more that crack under the pressure of the hammer). And even with 3 dogs running on them all day long, I haven't seen a single scratch.

The hardest part of the room actually had nothing to do with flooring. It was trying to hide ALL the wires that come out of that little corner.

The total cost of upgrading this room from carpet to laminate wood flooring was well under $1,000 (maybe even under $900). It's an average sized room at about 300 square feet (about 15 feet by 20 feet), but this was the more expensive laminate wood floor ($2.54 per square foot) and to top it off, buying the matching baseboard trim was more expensive than buying generic stuff.

If we had gone with a cheaper laminate floor and baseboard trim, this remodel would easily be under $500 in the end. However, it was very important to match the kitchen and entry areas that had already been done in Wilsonart.

Wilsonart Flooring Project - Before

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originally uploaded by jinlee.

Here's a shot of the Wong family room before we started putting down laminate wood flooring....

The other side of the game room

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originally uploaded by jinlee.

Here's another view of the game room that shows the little pool cue rack and TV stand that I made from scratch. Actually, I didn't want a TV in that room but I had an extra 15 inch LCD TV that fit perfectly on the top shelf so now I can watch football or something while shooting some pool with friends.

Finally, my game room is done

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originally uploaded by jinlee.

Here's my "Game Room on a Budget"

Pool Table - The 8 foot pool table is a 3 piece slate Olhausen that I bought off Craigslist a couple months ago. It's the nicest I've ever played on and FYI, takes 3 guys to just lift one end of it. I'm pretty sure this table weighs at, or over, 1000 pounds. Retail / brand new, I have no idea what these would go for, but I happily picked it up for $1400, and paid a professional billiards moving company $300 to set it up for me (ABC Billiards in Lynnwood if you're interested, they did a GREAT job).

Wine Rack - This piece might look familiar if you have recently walked through the Self Serve section at IKEA. Yes, it's from IKEA (for those of you who are IKEA bashers), but I reinforced all the corners and screws so it's more sturdy than your average IKEA shelving unit (although we'll see if that makes any difference in the long run). Paid $90 for this (which includes all the wine shelves, regular shelves, and side pieces). And I paid $20 for the Martini Bar sign (from Costco Home Store) that's currently on top. Not too bad since I see similar wine racks for 5 times the price at other furniture stores.

Rug - I was walking through Costco Home Store and decided I needed a new rug. I wanted an 8 foot by 11 footer to go under the pool table (the one I had on there before was an $80 rug from Home Depot). The salesman there tried to convince me to get a $1300 handmade, one of a kind rug. But I couldn't justify spending that much when it's just going to sit under the pool table. I decided to think about it for a little bit. Then I walked through Costco's bar stool section and noticed a rug on display that I thought looked great (and nearly identical to the hand made one). The same salesman told me that it was a machine made rug and that he had a bunch of them in stock. Total cost, $239 plus tax. I didn't hesitate to say "I'll take it."

Pub Table and Chairs - These are also from Costco Home Store. Thomas Aaron Billiards is the maker. I saw similar ones, although not as nice, at American Games and Billiards. And although I love that store, I felt like I was paying $1200 for the table and $500 for each chair only because it was a brand name (Brunswick). At Costco Home, the Thomas Aaron pub table was $250, and the spectator chairs were $270 each. And despite being cheaper than buying Brunswick, I would say this is where I splurged a little bit. I've seen pub tables and chairs at places like Fred Meyer and IKEA for $200 for a 3-piece set. But I didn't want it to look cheap either. So I feel like I found the perfect middle ground with the Thomas Aaron furniture.

Also, not picture yet because I just hung it up this morning. I bought a cool poster of Elvis Presley, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart playing pool that I hung right over the pub table. That only cost $70 framed. Not too bad.

Total cost of everything mentioned above is under $3,000. Well under my original budget.

Duvall, WA - I will miss you guys

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originally uploaded by jinlee.

Hey y'alls.

Well, I'm writing today about a friend's house in Duvall that's about to go up for sale (although I'm tempted to use their names, I won't). It's amazing how much love they put into the house and transformed it into something that's truly unique and beautiful.

This picture specifically is one that was taken of their family room. It looks like something out of a Home and Garden magazine.

It's definitely bittersweet, in that I'll miss having them so relatively close by, while on the other hand, I can understand their reasons for moving.

And not to use a tired real estate marketing term, but the "pride in ownership" at this house really does show. Everything that was done to this home was done right, right down to the paint, deck, and high end appliances.

I love watching average homes get transformed by creative owners to become special ones. This one doesn't disappoint.