The past week has been busy sending out e-mail newsletters and working on videos for my work. I've included one of my earlier movies below.

I'm surprised it's been a month since my last post because so much has happened. Last time I posted, I had just attended the Coldplay concert with Dan and Sarah. That was a great concert that I'll definitely remember for a long time.

That weekend (July 18-19), I went to a going away party for my
classmates Michael and Mari. They were one of my earliest friends at Rady
and I will miss them dearly. Returning home to Mexico City to be closer
to family and for business opportunities. I hope to visit them in the
next 12 months, as I've promised them that I will come by. I think I'll
have to plan that trip for early next year.

The following week was Comic Con week. One of my favorite weeks of the summer. Thomas decided to stay in San Diego with me, and spending time with him is always great. I also got to meet up with Russ and Brooks, who are fellow GDC volunteers with me. I had a great conversation about Twitter which I immediately implemented in the PixelActive strategy upon returning to work. Other people I saw that weekend were Dan, Sarah, Cheryl, Geoff, Mandy, Ameesh, and Tammy. I sat in a bunch of panels and was bummed that I was in a panel with an old HS classmate, Kieth, and didn't even know he was in the same panel. Some panels of note were for the Simpson's, True Blood, V, State of the Animation Industry, Fables, Marvell Animation, DC Animation. All and all, another great Con. We also ate at Lou & Mickey's as well as Nobu. They broke the bank, but were worth it one time a year.

The other weeks were spent catching up with people around the area. A co-worker that also interned at Qualcomm last summer, playing soccer with my cousin and her husband, cooking steaks with Dan and Sarah at their new place in Ramona, networking lunches and happy hours, celebrating Adam's new arcade machine, watching Skye jam out, and a lot of running. The most recent highlight was the completion of the AFC Half Marathon where I finished in 1:45, a personal record (PR) for the course. I also completed the Triple Crown (Carlsbad Half, La Jolla Half, AFC Half), something that I wanted to complete last year but couldn't.

The next month looks to be just as exciting as the last. I've started doing P90X, and it is kicking my butt. I hope to be in excellent shape after I finish though. Looking to potentially buy a house near the coast, and working hard for PixelActive and spending time with friends.

July has been flying by but includes some notable events that I found extremely rewarding. At work, I've been able to get a handle of my tasks and am slowly making my way through them. Things feel much less chaotic, and more manageable. That's not to say that everything is easy. I've work at so many small companies and start-ups, that the feeling to doing so many different things while still keeping your head level on marketing and strategy don't feel awkward. I'm working on some exciting campaigns in the next quarter, and am thoroughly excited.

Outside of work, there are some small business ventures that I'm looking into that I think will be rewarding and fun.

On to the more interesting things. So Tuesday night I was chatting with @camelgod about Coldplay and he mentioned that Live Nation was running a promotion for $29 tickets without a service charge. On top of that, they were giving out vouchers for free hot dogs and a drink. I had seen Coldplay once before at Coachella, and really enjoyed it. The opportunity to see them again for $29 was too good to pass up. We chatted until midnight, after which point I got the tickets for us. The next day, @supercute11 cleared her schedule and was planning to attend the show with us.

The show lived up to be as great as the last one I attended. Chris Martin has the ability to be silly, charismatic, and authentic at the same time. I think that lends to their success. Small adventure in getting our free hot dogs. We waited in line for 30-45 minutes and by the time we got to the window, they were sold out. We promptly ran to another kiosk and was fortunate enough to have another patron allow us to piggyback on their order. With hot dog in hand, we went and enjoyed the show. A couple memorable events from that evening include the song Yellow, where they released several dozen large (4 feet diameter) yellow balloons into the crowd. They also played on two super small stages within the crowd. one halfway up, the second in the lawn section. They topped off their lawn performance with a cover of Billie Jean.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to keep Em posting as we start our partnership!

I've been procrastinating on Xanga because of my new found addiction to Twitter. You can follow me @joecool79. But as a deal signed with Em, I will conceed to a Xanga post because I've been up to so much since my last update that 140 characters just won't suffice. And on to the pictures!

First big news: Gagan is married. I've known this guy since high school when his family first immigrated to the US. Great person and I couldn't be happier for him. Found a beautiful wife and had the wedding ceremony and reception at the RB Inn. After seeing the event there, it's definitely only my top 10 for locations for a wedding. Check out the picture for yourself.

Moving forward along my Flickr timeline, we have the awesome Red Bull Air Races. It was attended by Jason, Dawn, Karin, and I, though the image only shows the fabulous Karin and Joseph.

Damn I dislike Xanga. You're on the verge of going over to wordpress. If it wasn't for Biz Stone, I would have left this place long ago. Moving on. We have some excellent adventures at my graduation. Yes, I graduated from my MBA program at UCSD. And I'm fortunate enough that I was able to land a job at PixelActive, the company I had been interning at since March of last year. Let's take a look at some pictures.

That's a great picture of Karin, myself and John. It was a short ceremony and had a reception with champagne and fondue. I don't think there was much to complain about there.

I might mention that somewhere in between all of this was a summit of Mt. Whitney. I don't know where those pictures are. But as soon as I find them, you're damn certain that I'll post them on Flickr.

After graduating, I immediately took a flight to Cincinnati. What for? To visit my brother! But while he was out at work, I found time to visit the art museum, Mt Adams, and the other main attraction of Cincinnati, the Ohio River. After 1 hour, the attraction loses its luster. So the following day I went to Paramount's Kings Island where I went on the faster roller coaster in the world, Diamondback!

The first pictures show me hanging out with Dora the Explorer. She welcomed all the guests and happily took pictures with us for minimum wage. The second picture shows me ascenting Diamondback before taking off on the adventure of a lifetime. If you want to see the footage, you can check out my recording on YouTube. Though you can't see it from the film, somewhere along that ride, my iPhone fell out of my pocket. A situation that quickly came to a head during the docking of the train. I'm happy to say that the iPhone is now happily back in my possession after 2 weeks of absence. But that's really another story. Let's see if these images will show up! And just for good fun, more pictures of Marley!

By chance, I'll be climbing Mt. Whitney
next Thursday and Friday. I'll be climbing with a long time friend,
Geoff, and I can't wait. I've never been mountaineering but am excited to experience it after reading Into Thin Air
several years ago. I think the
biggest mountain I've ever scaled is Mt. Ironside off the 67 in Poway.
I'll be sure to post some pics after I go, but I hope they'll compare
in beauty to the ones Em puts up often.

School is winding down. I have 3 weeks left before I graduate, and it's
definitely hard to focus on school when you see the finish line so
close. I'll definitely need to kick it in gear the next couple of weeks
though with a final and some big deliverables in the next couple of
weeks.

Watched Star Trek in IMAX last weekend. Great movie. I think I may have
to watch all movies in theaters in IMAX. Otherwise, i should just wait
for DVD/Netflix.

My Macbook Pro took a spill from the guard rails in a public bathroom to the floor. I thought it would balance. It thought otherwise. Even though the laptop was in my backpack, it fell on its head, the only unprotected side. Just my luck. So now the charging mechanism doesn't work. I had to order a separate battery charger and won't be able to charge and use the laptop at the same time. Quite the bummer. I knew I should have gone for the unibody design when I had the chance.

Aside from that, things are going great! Graduating in 2 months. Got some opportunities available. It's looking up. Ask me again in 1 month.

The quarter is finally over. This marked the end of our capstone course, Lab 2 Market (L2M), and I must say that it was a fun, difficult, exciting, and rewarding 3 quarter program. Aside from that, stuff at work has been ramping up. It took way too long to plan GDC but everything's set. I was also a TA for marketing which was both good and bad. I was able to go over my core marketing skills again. The problem was the 60 cases I had to grade every two weeks that took up a good 8-12 hours. But in the end I found it very rewarding as well since I was able to learn from all the other student's marketing styles. I hope it makes me a better marketer moving forward.

The reason there's a question mark on the title is because I really don't get a spring break this year. I'll be leaving on a flight to San Francisco for the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in a couple of minutes and I'll be working there representing my company, PixelActive. This gives me great exposure to our customers, something I haven't been able to do with Siggraph and I/ITSEC. The disadvantage is that I'm also signed up as a volunteer for the expo, meaning that I won't be able to attend all the sessions that I usually enjoy watching. Bummer! The triple wammy is that the marketing professor changed the final exam from in class to take home. They'll be submitting the exams by midnight on Monday. I guess I'll be grading exams at night in a hotel room. As a whole I'm positive about what's going on though. I have one quarter left and am excited about the courses I'll be taking. I also have some job opportunities lined up. As long as I can capitalize on them. I'll be stoked!

So it's been an exciting end of year. I suppose this post should have been written last week during 2008, but I'm still making it within the 2008 window (IMO). The year ended with a bang. After my finals, Karin and I packed up and moved from Las Flores apartment complex in La Jolla back to Poway. There were many reasons for the move, but I believe the most important factor was finances. Marley also enjoys having his own yard to play in and the reduction in driving between two living areas also helps.

Immediately after moving, I started working full time at PixelActive until Christmas. That reduced my ability to unpack, and I still have boxes laying around with stuff that needs to be unpacked, sold, donated, and otherwise. It's quite a mess here, and the year is already taking off on us.

Christmas Eve was spent with the Karin's family, where we enjoyed a meal prepared by Karin's sister and boyfriend, Stacy and Carlos. Marley got a new toy for Christmas, which he proceeded to immediately play with. I got some convenient gift cards, and am thankful for all the kindness of friends during the holidays.

I was able to carry on the "Uncle Billy" gifts for the Mosses. Unfortunately, I arrived a bit late, and everyone left shortly afterwards. My dad was here for Christmas, and we got to enjoy a meal at home. Something I haven't had in a while mostly because of me going over to a friend's house.

After Christmas, my brother flew in town and we took off to Mammoth Mountain the following Monday. We ended up renting a Hummer H3, which resulted in a fun ride for the first couple of hours. After realizing that it isn't built to seat 5 people for long rides, the remainder of the drive was mediocre. Getting on the mountains again was a blast after being away for so long. My brother was right to start the initiative in winter ski trips again. I think I'll enjoy it significantly more next year when I'm not going to school/working/going crazy. I was able to ski this trip as well, with my brother renting some skiis to ride with his wife. Being on skiis after snowboarding for 10 years is quite an experience. But it really is like riding a bike. Once the muscle memory is there, you never forget it.

Back to the title of the post. Since returning, my brother asked me to get a computer working for him and Hiedi. Both of their computers are hosed with crap right now, and getting them up and running is a priority. I took the initiative to install Vista on my Macbook Pro, and that has lead to all kinds of problems. Oh man. I hate it. Makes me want to go back to a big company (like QCOM) where you can call someone up and they fix all your computer problems. It really is quite nice.

So the quarter ended and I finished both my Independent Studies Projects. Don't think I'll do those again anytime soon. Also finished Research for Marketing (loved it!), Lab 2 Market (turning more into an exercise than business venture), Project Management (the material was interesting, the class was so-so), and Advanced Leadership (great group).

So what do I do the weekend after finals? Move of course! The rate that we moved in to Las Flores at was $1300. When it was time to renew, they bumped up the rent to $1600. Comparing $1600 to live in La Jolla vs. $free.99 to live in Poway, the choice was obvious. So we moved back home. We got most of the important stuff moved already; bed, dresser, clothes, TV, electronics. But there's still a closet full of storage that needs to be transported to Poway for storage. Unfortunately, a large portion of the house has become just that... storage space. There's an initiative to get that cleaned up. And I hope it will happen in the near future.

For the time being, let's enjoy the holidays with a chocolate peanut butter malt ball!

If you notice, the top of the image looks like it was photoshopped in. Nope, my iPhone is just taking some messed up photos. I hope I'll have time this holiday season to reformat and re-install. My phone and computer are running quite slow these days.

Started with the Joy of Cooking water bath recipe, and made a thicker crust for Karin and added frozen organic blueberries from Costco. I'm putting it through the taste test tonight: Van and Heidi.