Akira Toriyama and Ordinary Angels

It was a tragic week in the world of anime/video games as acclaimed creator, Akira Toriyama, most known for creating the Dragon Ball series, passed away. Toriyama was the main character and monster designer for the Dragon Quest video games series, along with being the creator of its manga series. The Dragon Quest video game, which was originally called Dragon Warrior in the U.S., was what pretty much got me into the swords and sorcery fantasy genre. Akira Toriyama played no small part in my fascination with the fantasy genre, which now is a huge part of my adult life as I am trying to become a successful fantasy author. Outside of that, Dragon Ball Z was one of the earliest anime that I watched. Along with everything else, he designed the characters for one of the best JRPG video games ever created in Chrono Trigger. The outpouring of sadness from fans and some of their stories in how his works affected their lives was quite something. Akira Toriyama will surely be missed.

My wife and I also watched a really inspirational movie class “Ordinary Angels.” It was based on a true story of a struggling hairdresser in Louisville, Kentucky, who meets a widowed father working hard to care for his two daughters. With his youngest critically ill and waiting for a liver transplant, she rallies the entire community to help. It was a tear-jerker for sure seeing the struggles that the family goes through, but then seeing so many in the community helping. Hilary Swank was fantastic as the lead and really commanded the screen. The story itself though shows how regular people can create miracles, and it was great to see.

The story of Ordinary Angels and the works of Akira Toriyama show that individuals who are complete strangers can reach and connect with others in mysterious and beneficial ways. In Ordinary Angels, one person who helped clear snow said that he never met the little girl who needed the liver transplant, but it was a great thing to help her. I have never met Akira Toriyama, but his works have helped shaped me in ways that he most likely never knew.

Things to Get Done and Demon Slayer: To The Hashira Training Movie

This month, my wife and I are planning to get some things done in this month of March. We want to get gym memberships at a local LA Fitness that is just down the street from us. Exercising regularly has been a goal of ours, and we figure that now is a better time than any to do so. I also want to get a language program to learn to speak and understand Tagalog. It was something that eluded me, and considering how many times that I travel to the Philippines, it would have been very helpful to know the language. Other things like teaching my wife to drive, doctor’s appointments and whatnot need to be done, and it is just getting around to doing them.

Also, my wife, my first cousin once removed and I watched the Demon Slayer: To The Hashira Training movie. It is not really much of a movie, as it is a recap of the previous story arcs, and the first episode of the upcoming Hashira Training story arc. However, it was really nice seeing Demon Slayer on the big screen along with being able to revisit these characters. The animation from Ufotable was top-notch, as they always are, and the few fights scenes that they had were also nicely animated. I own and have read the whole Demon Slayer manga series, so I know what to expect, but it is still good to see this series in anime form.

Hopefully, we can get a long of things done and out of the way this month. Even with the movie, we have been meaning to spend time with my cousin, and we finally did it. Now, we have got to keep going to get things done.

Chance Encounters and Celebrations

This weekend, my wife and I encountered two chance encounters. For a while in our condo complex, we have always passed by an older gentleman that would hang out around the parking lot. He obviously lived there, but I just so happened to be taking out the trash at the same time he was. My wife was with me, and we talked for the first time, and it turned out that he had Filipino relatives. The next day at brunch, my wife and I wanted to try out this café that we always passed by. At the parking lot, we ran into an acquaintance of mine that used to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with me, and he was with his mother. The host thought that we were all together, so we ended up eating brunch together. It was neat as we are Filipino, and they are Brazilian. It was also entirely unexpected, as they only went there after church and just googled brunch places nearby.

My aunt turned ninety the other day, and we celebrated the event. It was nice seeing my whole family as we have our own lives and do not always get to see each other. It is also good that my aunt turned ninety but is still going strong. There was a time when I would be one of the only single men in an event like that while everyone else was married and/or had children. It is good not to be in that situation anymore.

I am sure that there will have more of this to come. Unexpected things happen, and sometimes, they are good, and sometimes, they are not. I enjoy meeting new people and seeing those that I have not seen in a long time.

WWE Raw and Being Busy

My wife and I attended a WWE Monday Night Raw event. I am the professional wrestling fan, and I dragged her along. It was a lot of fun, and the venue looked like it sold out. CM Punk made a surprise appearance after the Raw broadcast, which got me to cheer loudly. It was nice seeing fans just so into the product, bringing champion belts, wearing luchador masks and wearing other WWE merchandise. Many families went as well with a good amount of children in attendance. Everything from the in-ring action to the production looked top-notch, and it is no wonder that the WWE product is at a high right now.

Otherwise, we have been very busy as of late, always having something to do on the weekends. Even with this three-day weekend, I was hosting a UFC event on Saturday, my wife had an event to go to on Sunday, and we went to WWE Raw on Monday. Some time off would be welcome, but busy times like these are just a thing that will occur being adults and married. We have not attended any open houses lately, but now have certain financial goals. We also have some health and exercise goals that we are going to implement soon. It has been busy, but a good busy, yet we could use some downtime sooner rather than later.

Being married adults have obligations to go with it. It is not uncommon to sacrifice time and convenience. However, it is better than being idle.

Super Bowl LVIII and House Hunting

My wife and I watched the latest Super Bowl with family, and it was a fun experience. The Kansas City Chiefs ended up winning in a very close game that went into overtime. It is crazy how on the highest level of any sporting competition that the outcome can be dictated by a game of inches, as one blocked one-point conversion was the difference-maker in the 49ers losing. Resiliency also played a factor, as the Chiefs were committing to runs and short passes during overtime to win the whole thing. It is unfortunate seeing one time being able to taste victory in that way, only to have it taken away in the last minute, but that is how life can work sometimes.

We also looked at a two open houses, one single family home and one townhome. We fell in love with the townhome and were strongly considering making an offer on it, getting the down payment by selling our current home. After crunching the numbers, it was a case where even if we got approved for a mortgage, the costs of everything would leave us with very little left monetarily. We could get roommates, but it would be a situation where we would be strongly relying on their rent, which we just were not comfortable with. We had to make the decision to hold off on making an offer. It is refreshing to see that we are on the cusp of being able to upgrade to an even bigger place, and getting one within the next year or two looks like a very real possibility.

Sometimes opportunities come before us, but certain circumstances make it where we are not always allowed to capitalize on these opportunities. That is fine though as there is always “next time,” and we can learn from the missed opportunities and plan for the future.

Single For a Few Days and a Lack of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

My wife went on a girl’s trip for a few days, and it was the first time in a while where I was living the bachelor life. While it was fun, it also confirmed that being with someone is better than being a bachelor. I woke up when I wanted, watched whatever I wanted, hung out with friends and whatnot, but it was really mundane to me. Things just feel different in a better way just having someone there, and it is difficult to explain what that is. While I think it is fun every once in a while, to live the single life again, it does show its limitations and how quickly routine it gets.

Something that is generally routine for me but has not been lately is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Different situations have arisen where I just could not go. On some days, the roof of the gym collapsed due to heavy rains. My wife was sick, so I did not want to go so as not to spread anything as a precautionary measure. However, I do miss it. My coach said that life gets in the way of jiu jitsu, and getting older and now married, that is most definitely true. My goal of receiving my black belt has not changed, but it is admittedly getting more difficult getting to the gym for one reason or another. I suppose that is just how life is, and I can only control what I can.

Things in life change, and once something changes, it is hard to go back to way things were before. Sometimes though, that is a good thing and shows a level of progress, and sometimes, it can be a detriment. In the end though, we can only do what we can.

Future Housing Decisions and WWE Royal Rumble 2024

I have worked in real estate in the past and currently work in mortgage, so I feel that I am very in-tune with housing. My wife and I have been putting some thought into buying a bigger home. Everything is in the very early stages right now, but one thing that has been discussed was whether or not to sell our current condo in order to get the down payment for a bigger place, which is what I did for my last property. However, my wife and I came to a consensus that we should try to keep our current condo as an investment property and find other avenues to get a down payment for a bigger place. Personally, besides the fact that our current place is worth much more than what I purchased it for, it does have sentimental value to me. Also, I can see long-term uses for it.

Otherwise, I invited friends over to watch the WWE Royal Rumble 2024, and it was fun. I barbecued some steaks and had other food prepared, and we just had a good time. We will most likely do it again for one of the nights of WrestleMania. The Women’s Royal Rumble, in my opinion, was much better than the Men’s Royal Rumble. With surprise entrants like TNA Wrestling’s Women’s Champion Jordynne Grace and the debut of Jade Cargill, the Women’s Rumble just had more to it. The Men’s Rumble was fine, if predictable, and the right choice won in Cody Rhodes. Bayley winning the Women’s Rumble was also the right choice, especially for the story that they have going with her and Damage Control.

There are some serious things to look forward to in the far future, and some just fun things to look forward to in the near future. It is also good to look forward to something, and it is always good to have certain goals to strive for.

Our One Year Anniversary and Looking Back

My wife and I celebrated our one-year anniversary and decided to spend it in San Diego. We went to the Little Italy part of town, ate some good Italian food, saw the shops and stayed the night. The next day, we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and it was actually a lot of fun. I did not think that I would enjoy seeing rhinoceros, lions, giraffes and other animals as much as I did. It rained a little, but it was not so bad that it detracted from this mini vacation.

This one year went by fast, and it is definitely interesting to look back. When my wife got here, we were getting by with my single income. That was definitely a tough time having to penny pinch and hoping that no sudden expenses would come about. Somewhere along the way, we got a dog. My wife got her work visa, then got a job, and that was a load off our shoulders. Recently, she received her green card. Those were just some of the bigger events that happened. It all went by so fast and not without struggles, but it turned out really good, and we definitely got stronger from any struggles. We were definitely fortunate that some of the immigration stuff went about as quickly and smoothly as it did, as others are not so fortunate.

It is good to have gratitude for these blessings. I look forward to what comes next, and we have goals like buying a house, having kids, getting my book out, buying property in the Philippines, buying a new car, travelling and whatnot. I can only wonder what the future holds.

Green Card and The Beekeeper

My wife received her Green Card, so she is now a permanent resident of the United States. We have been waiting for this for a long time, and we have been blessed that this process was not as difficult as it has been with others. Getting a work permit and now this green card was relatively quick, and my wife did not have to do an interview for the green card. With this, she is able to do a lot from getting a driver’s license to travelling to various countries. A top priority for us is travelling back to the Philippines later this year. Vacationing outside of the U.S. is now much easier, and my wife is also eligible to drive. When I saw a Priority Mail package addressed to me and my wife, I admittedly let out a gasp that my wife saw. I knew right away that it was the green card.

We also watched the movie, The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham. It was pretty much what one would expect from a modern-day Jason Statham movie, in that it was a silly, fun action flick. The villains were tech people scamming ignorant folks of their money online with no remorse. The main antagonist was a very unlikeable character who openly used drugs, hired prostitutes and used his powerful mother’s power and influence to his advantage. Statham played the typical extremely stoic hero of the story with an unlimited amount of fighting skills. Overall, it was just dumb fun.

Speaking of fun, we also went to the Brea Improv to watch comedian, JR DeGuzman. We have been to one of his shows already at the Irvine Improv, but he was still funny even though we knew some of the jokes. Also, Brea is just a nice city.

We have started the year very well, and this green card is just such a blessing. We greatly look forward to what is in store later this year.

First Week of 2024 and Parking

This first week of 2024 was busy. My wife and I mainly did events and things related to church. However, we are planning for our one-year anniversary along with other plans for the year. Admittedly, our anniversary came very quickly, and it is amazing that it has already been a year being married. We have booked a place for us to stay overnight in San Diego, and the process of doing that was a bit stressful along with all the hidden fees that just seem to pop up. Overall, we are looking forward to this mini vacation.

Another thing that happened was that some young man and his friend in their late teens or early twenties parked in our parking spot. My wife was not happy with this, and she was not having a great day, so she forsook any niceties like leaving a letter. She just called the towing company. Luckily for them, they made it back to their car before the tow truck arrived. We did confront the two, and they had flippant responses claiming that they could not find any guest parking (there is a lot of guest parking in our condo complex, but it seemed like these two did not bother to look very hard). We rolled our eyes at this obviously pathetic excuse, and they drove away.

This first week of the new year was one of building and busyness. We are already looking forward to our immediate plans, while planning and saving for our future plans.

New Years 2024 and Wonka

My wife and I spent New Years with family, and it was the first New Years that I spent with my wife in the U.S. A memory on Facebook came up where I was staying in a quarantine hotel in the Philippines, waiting to meet who would be my future wife for the first time in person. Two years later, and we are now spending New Years in the U.S. We have a lot of plans for 2024, and that includes travelling to the Philippines. My wife has been approved of getting her green card, so that is exciting and relieving at the same time. We also have comedy shows, baseball games, family birthdays, and professional wrestling shows to go to already planned within these first three months of 2024.

We also watched Wonka last weekend, and we both liked it. It was just a wholesome movie with no messaging of any sort, and if we had kids, we’d watch it with them. The movie is a prequel, and everything was just fun with some catchy and nostalgic music in there as well. It definitely had a sense of magic, and also real magic as part of the movie. Honestly, with so many movie offerings being subpar, overly long, or full of various messaging, it was nice to watch offerings like Wonka or Godzilla: Minus One recently.

2024 looks like a big year for us. With my wife potentially getting her green card, it opens a lot more of what we can do together. Things like purchasing a new car, buying property in the Philippines, or finally putting out The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom are on the table for 2024, which are exciting prospects.

Japanese Movies and the Holidays

My wife and I watched Godzilla Minus One the other day, and it was really good. Godzilla really was just a monster to be taken down by the Japanese people still recovering and rebuilding from World War II. The main characters was a kamikaze pilot who could not go through with his mission, and subsequently, could not move past the war or his need for revenge against Godzilla. Considering that there were a few big budget movies with a production budget in the hundred millions that flopped, it was incredible that a Japanese movie with English subtitles that had a fifteen million dollar production budget did as well as it did.

We also watched The Boy and the Heron, the latest Studio Ghibli film. It was very artistic and metaphorical, but still a good film. It seemed something of a compilation of Hayao Miyazaki’s greatest hits, in that tropes and ideas that he has utilize in other movies are used here. The motley crew of heroes, environmental messaging, non-adult protagonist, talking animals, villains that become allies, and many other things from previous Miyazaki movies can be seen here. However, the focus on family throughout the movie is strong, going through generations. It was a contemplative movie, for sure.

Besides the movies, my wife co-hosted and event for our church, which was a fun event. She used to host events in the Philippines, but that was the first time that I have seen it in person. Otherwise, we are just looking forward to New Years coming up and 2024 in general.

Pauly Shore and Being Sick

This past week, the company that my wife works for was hosting an event for clients at the Improv. The headlining comedian was Pauly Shore. I grew up during the height of his popularity when he was on MTV and in movies like Encino Man. His act was really funny, as he acknowledged his age and that only a particular age group and generation would really recognize him. He does a lot of physical comedy as well. It was great as he said a joke, and I reacted, and he acknowledged me and my reaction. It definitely made my day, and I had a lot of fun overall.

However, I got sick with something that seems to be changing every few days. I started with a sore throat and runny nose, and it became a chest cold with a cough and runny nose. Many people in my church were sick, and I would just hear about friends or acquaintances getting sick as well. Something is going around, but it is no surprise this time of year when it is colder, and people are indoors a lot more. Hopefully, it will pass sooner rather than later, and it looks like something that is just going around.

Otherwise, we are entering the holiday weekends, and I can only hope that we get better by then. It will be more of a week for rest and recovery, as it is just work and staying home after work. At least we can catch up on movies or shows.

Eating Out and Meeting People

This week, my wife and I ate out with friends or family quite a bit for various occasions. Birthday parties, game nights or just having a casual dinner with friends and family were all reasons this week to go. It is always fun to see people, but it really does take a lot of time. Some of the people we ate with were unfamiliar with how my wife and I got together, so we had to go down memory lane and recall how it all happened. Looking back, it is difficult not to see some sort of divine intervention in us getting together, as there were too many coincidences that had to happen all at once for us to have gotten together.

These discussions made us realize that many people along the way will help in achieving something. For example, had I not met a coworker, who would end up being a friend, back when I worked for Williams Lea, I would not have gotten the job that I have now, and subsequently, owning property. With owning property, instead of renting or some other situation, it gave us something of a head start in our marriage. It is interesting how certain things just end up working out for the better.

This coming week, I would like to watch The Boy and The Heron and Godzilla Minus One with my wife along with the plans that we already have. This holiday season looks like it will be busy.

The Book Jewel and The Shift

My wife and I had to drop off our parents in LAX, and we decided to get brunch at The Coffee Company down the street afterwards. On the same street were street stalls and a place called The Book Jewel. We decided to check everything out, going to the bookstore first. It just so happened that an author was having a book reading for her very first book. Her book was about her grandmother which resonated with my wife. She talked to the author, who seemed authentically pleased that her book reached another person. She also revealed to us that she is self-published, which allowed her more freedom. The whole experience made me think of becoming an author. I would like someone to read The Mustard Prince or another one of my works and resonate with the book in some way.

We also watched the movie, The Shift, made by Angel Studios. It was a good movie with many religious overtones, Biblical allegories, but also some science fiction elements as well. I did not know what to expect from it as it was a science fiction tale inspired by the Book of Job. Neal McDonough as the Benefactor was really good as the villain of the story. There is a multiverse, and I do not think that the heavy Judeo-Christian themes and ideas will hit with everyone, but I found it inspirational and thought-provoking.

This week was really busy, but I am glad that we got to watch some movies, attend a storytelling event, eat out and whatnot. It is good that there was a level of inspiration as far as being an author is concerned. We got to see an author put herself out there to promote her self-published book, which in turn just inspires me to get The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom out there.

Thanksgiving 2023 and Napoleon

My wife and I attended Thanksgiving with family. It was my wife’s first Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and it went really well. We prepared a turkey and other food items, while the rest of my family prepared and provided other foods and snacks. Seeing family and mingling during the holidays is always a good thing, and I got to eat my favorite Thanksgiving food, honey baked ham. There is definitely a lot to be thankful for this year especially with getting married. It is no longer the case where I go to family events, and I am the only single guy there while everyone else is married with children. We are planning to one day own a bigger home, either a townhome or a single-family home, and hopefully, we can have Thanksgiving and other family events there.

We also went to see the movie, Napoleon. There was a much higher focus in this movie on Napoleon’s relationship with Josephine. His exploits in battle were there but not the major focus of this movie. It was long, for sure, and the use of comedy and modern dialogue took me out of the movie sometimes. Apparently, there are French historians that questioned its historical accuracy. Overall, I thought that it was decent. There were a few gruesome depictions of violence with beheadings and cannon fire. The acting was fine, and it was interesting.

With the holiday season, it does not look like we are slowing down anytime soon. It has been go, go, go for us, and we generally have something planned every weekend. Thanksgiving is over already, and the last month of 2024, December, is upon us.

Aftermath of Las Vegas and Journey to Bethlehem

Getting home from Las Vegas surprisingly did not have much traffic. We decided to go eat at Golden Corral, as there aren’t any near where we live, but one in Hesperia, CA, and one in San Bernardino, CA. They were on the way home, and it has been about ten years since I ate there, and my wife has never eaten there. We decided to eat at the Golden Corral in San Bernardino, CA, and with it being the weekend of Veteran’s Day, they got a deal. It was just as good as I remembered it, and such a departure from the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Strip. We were both sleepy the next two days once we got home but have since adjusted back to our normal routine.

We have not watched a movie in theaters for a while despite having Regal Movie Passes, so we decided to check something out. Choices, admittedly, were limited but chose to watch Journey to Bethlehem. It was a musical romantic comedy. If you are looking for a strictly historically accurate adaptation of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, this was not the movie for it, and the creators admitted to taking a few liberties with the story. It was a cute movie though, but it did have many modern-day sensibilities that just would not even be a consideration for that time in history.

We are now looking forward to our first Thanksgiving together here in the U.S. Last year at this time, I was in the Philippines visiting my wife, doing paperwork and whatnot before our wedding. A year later, and here we are, and it came very quickly.

Road Trip and Las Vegas

My wife and I took a three-day vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada. It has been over a decade since I had last gone there, and it was my wife’s first time. We decided to rent a car for the trip and drive there. Admittedly, I was apprehensive to do a relatively far drive. However, being with someone in the car and having something on during the drive made it go by pretty fast. The desert and mountains were beautiful, and we stopped by Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner in Yermo, CA and the world’s tallest thermometer in Baker, CA. Peggy Sue’s had a lot of charm to it along with some good food and atmosphere.

We stayed at Caesar’s Palace, and we still did not see what the whole hotel/casino had to offer. The Las Vegas Strip is a sight to behold with gigantic hotels and buildings in a city that never sleeps. We watched Cirque du Soleil Mystere at Treasure Island, and it was amazing. The production, stunts, costumes and performances were awesome. I went to a Cirque Du Soleil in Costa Mesa, CA in a giant tent, but this one was far superior. We also went to Madame Tussauds wax museum at The Venetian. It was a lot of fun seeing wax replicas of celebrities that were very well done.

Overall, it was a fun trip, and we will definitely go back to Las Vegas one of these days. The road trip, quite honestly, was a lot of fun, and we only scratched the surface of things to do and see in Las Vegas.

Marriage Panel and Little Tokyo

I was a part of a four-man panel talking about marriage with our church the other day. It was not something that I volunteered for, and my wife was in the audience. It was very informative as the other individuals on the panel had much more experience being married. Their responses to questions had much more insight into them, and they had stories to tell that relates to the questions asked. It shows that there will have a lot more experiences to come in our marriage, and there is so much more to know about each other in the future.

My wife, her cousin and I went to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. I have been there before a little after businesses started opening up after the lockdowns. We surprisingly did not encounter too many homeless individuals, as the last time that I was there with friends, a tent city was nearby right behind a bus stop. New shops opened up, and the influence of anime was highly prevalent with what many shops were selling. It Is always a bit different of an experience going to places with my wife instead of with friends. With friends, we try to fulfill our geekier side, but it is about exploration and fun with my spouse. Hopefully, we will come back there soon.

Speaking of soon, I am hopeful that I can start selling The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom, as we have received necessary artwork for this book. I am anxious to put it out, and it feels like a long time coming.

Friends and Housing

While my wife and I have been hanging out with family more as of late, it is still imperative to hang out with friends. Growing up, I hung out more with friends than family, especially in high school where high school was its own world. It is also something that we just see more in American culture, generally speaking, as opposed to in other cultures where hanging out with cousins and other distant relatives Is more of the norm. As I got older, friends got married, got children and moved away, and the importance of family became more prevalent. However, hanging out with friends has its own benefits. Talking about marriage, spouses, finances, exercising, buying houses, mortgage rates and whatnot are interesting and relevant things to discuss. It is nice knowing that others are in the same boat as me.

One thing that I talk about with friends is buying homes. In south Orange County, pretty much all single-family homes are upwards of one million dollars. I also work in the mortgage industry, and it surprises me that people are able to buy homes at this price and at this high mortgage rate. My wife and I go to open houses, as I like to see what is out there, the generally prices of homes in certain neighborhoods, floor plans and whatnot. My current condo has two master bedrooms/bathrooms, and it is surprisingly difficult to find three-bedroom residences with rooms that are big and with ample closet space. We are just collecting data at the moment, but these open houses are research for the future when we become serious home buyers. From what it looks like, the next step for us housing-wise will most likely be a three-bedroom townhome if we want to stay in south Orange County.

Things are good, and we are always looking towards the future with optimism and motivation. Our current situation is quite good, but we always want to achieve more.