Mid-2006 News
Hello again!

I'm going to try to pick up where my last update left off, so if you hadn't received that, you can go here (password's the same).

January was pretty uneventful from what I remember. Actually, I don't remember much of January, so I'm assuming it was uneventful. At any rate, it must'nt've been that important, and if it was I apologize. (I had never seen a double contraction until a few months ago, and I *like* it. It was actually on a mailing list I subscribe to: someone used "should'nt've" as a contraction for "should not have". The one I just did is sorta harder to pronounce, tho'. Woot.)

Let's go to February. February is the time of my dad and my birthdays. For my dad's birthday, I went kayaking with him and my mom in the Newport backbay. I hadn't kayaked since the summers of high school, when I went to Hume Lake, and it was as enjoyable as I remember it. My mom and dad shared a kayak, and I had a single one. My mom liked enjoying the scenery and paddling whenever she thought it was good, but my dad was getting a little frustrated when she didn't keep very good timing (playful frustration). We were out for a few hours, and by the end of the afternoon, my dad had decided was going to buy a kayak. I've been out with him a few times since then, in a double kayak he got from Costco.

February is also when Valentine's Day is. I didn't have one. I actually had something better by the end of February: my own bonnie lass, Margret. We decided to date again and took a trip up to Disneyland together (so that day it really was the happiest place on earth for me). Through this June, I'm happy to say we've been doing really well. Sure, we've had our problems, but the sheer goodness of our time together has made those problems inconsequential. The goodness was increased when I joined her at her sister's wedding (where she was the maid of honor) in June, having a wonderful time hanging out with her family. Her house holds two of her brothers and two of her sisters (not counting the one that got hitched), one of her aunts, one of her grandmoms, her parents, and plenty of fried food. I'm not a big fan of fried foods, but I got used to it real quick. Anyway, it was definitely some good times spent with her family.

Unfortunately, those good times won't repeat soon because Margret left me. What I mean is that she's in Italy studying abroad for six months, so I probably won't visit her family up in San Jose until she gets back. She'' be in Rome until the beginning of August, and then she's going to Trento until the end of December. It actually looks like I'll be able to take a trip over there to visit her (my first trip outside NA) ! However, the time when we'll both be the least busy isn't until December, so all we get to do is wring our hands in anticipation. In between the wringing, we still get to shared keep in contact through Skype (which works pretty well, I might add: david.romano is my screenname), GoogleChat, and Shutterfly. So although we're apart, we've been able talk quite frequently, her telling me all about how wonderful Rome is, and me telling her how work is going.

I'm still working at Parity Computing, but things have changed quite a bit. In mid-February, I was shifted over to doing software development for a new project, and so I wasn't developing only grammars anymore. I still was using regexes, but also took part in developing the software that used the regexes. Since the company has been using Java for their solutions, I am now a Java developer (my heart still bleeds Perl tho'). During the months of March and April, I worked like crazy, but since I liked doing what I did it made the hours more bearable.

Now I'm digressing a bit and telling you about the completion of my plans that I mentioned in my last update. It looks like my short-term goals are going to sorta be fulfilled. First of all, I'm going to Europe this December, second of all, it doesn't look like I'm going to be teaching abroad within the next few years, nor will I have a quick sum of money to be able to relocate easily. The last few months I decided to move back to Orange County at the start of this month (July) and live with my parents as I pursue a teacher's credential for secondary education math and a Master's in Education. I've applied to a small liberal arts college called Concordia University (no relation to the one in Canada) and will find out in the next week or so if I have been accepted. I hope to be done with my credential and have a job secured by the beginning of 2008, and I hope to be able to coach a sport wherever I teach. In my off-time (during the summer months) is when I hope to spend time abroad, traveling and maybe helping out with some missionary and linguistics organizations.

Now back to work! I knew it would be impractical for me to commute down there every day, especially with the cost of transportation, so I decided to try my hand and negotiating employment for just the summer or possibly even for part-time when classes start at the end of August. I let my supervisor know about my plans of moving up to OC (n.b. no "the") a couple months before leaving San Diego and during that next month or so my supervisors didn't really broach the subject much. However, during the last month I planned to be there, it seemed I was talking with one of my supervisors about my employment every couple of days. We came to an agreement where I would work from home and just come in in Fridays.

Before that work schedule started, and before I moved up to OC, there is still some of May and June to talk of. I believe almost every weekend I was gone doing something (must've been nice for my roommate). I worked with my dad (who's a land surveyor) up in Yucca Valley some weekends, went to some weddings, went up with Richard Ahn to visit Vincenzo di Nicola and Ben Strong at Stanford, went to Disneyland again with Margret (it was happy that time too), hung out with Margret and my family on Memorial Day in San Luis Obispo, and hiked Half Dome with my brother and my cousin Vaughn. I wa really getting tired with all the traveling, but it was good kind of tired. Anyway, the climax of my travels was taking a week off from work at the end of June and going to Chicago for YAPC, where I had a wonderful time learning more of Perl and meeting interesting people.

When I got back from YAPC, I had a memorable meetup with "one Mr. T.J. Tallie" in Old Town. We hadn't been able to hang out in a while, and we were able to spend some quality time catching up on each others' lives. The next day I moved out of my apartment (which I shared with three cool guys: Ravi, Tony, and John) up to Orange. That was July 2nd, July 3rd was a Monday I had off from work, and July 4th was, well, a holiday. Since then I've been on the commuting schedule, working from home. You would think that that would afford me ample time to do other things, but, as it has turned out, I feel more busy than ever. Work is just a few keyboard strokes away, so I've ended up still spending more time working than I originally intended. It's nice that there's work to be done, but right now there's too much for this current project and I feel I'm never getting caught up. The project is going through the end of this summer (at least), and I'm thinking of leaving when school starts so I don't get sucked into work during my studies.

Anyway, I think that about sums up the last six months. Sheesh, I wrote a lot. Maybe I should start doing quarterly or monthly updates. I hope y'all are doing well, and would love to hear anything new with you guys.

Peace,
David

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First Bay Trip

I went to the Bay Area for my first time about a month ago, and man is it a cool place! [1] Having lived in SoCal and being used to the late and at times inconvenient mass transit, I was quite impressed with the practicality and efficiency of BART. Anyway, the main area that I was so amazed at was downtown San Francisco, which I visited for a whole 8 hours. I went there with Margret (I was staying with her family while I was up there) and we met up with Kirk in SF at the Civic Center. We meandered through Chinatown and Little Italy, and then walked up all the way to Coit Tower.

We decided to go all the way up to the top of the tower, in hopes to get a nice view of San Francisco. The top of the tower gave us beautiful views of our surroundings, and, coincidentally, also allowed Kirk to be right next to a man who proposed marriage to a woman (who happily agreed)! It was pretty cool, because then we all just looked on as they hugged, had a terse but affectionate kiss, and went back to enjoying the view. Since Kirk and Margret brought digital cameras, they took pictures (*cough* which I still haven't received copies of *cough*) of the views (and I believe the newly-engaged couple).

After hiking up to Coit Tower and down, we were more than ready to mangia [2]. On Kirk's suggestion, we went to Pomodoro's to eat, and it was pretty good food. I can't remember what I ordered, but I remember it tasted good. Kirk (he was sort of the guide that day) then took us to this place to get gelatto, and then finally to Cafe Trieste. The gelatto was good, but since I don't drink coffee, I can only take it on faith that it really does make good coffee.

We then decided to head up to Pier 39 to look at the shops. The only shop that we went in was a babushka shop. The shop had some pretty big babushkas, and some of them were based on past Russian leaders. There were also these signs (which Kirk had never noticed before) telling a bit about the history and facts of Pier 39. One of the signs talked about how the pier had to be totally re-done with a cement substratum, which saved it from eventual condemnation by making it much safer.

From there we went to Ghirardelli Square, which wasn't that exciting: good chocolate, but not much else going on. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we're doing this all on foot, so our legs were getting a good work out by walking everywhere. Anyway, so on our way back from Ghirardelli Square, we went to Lombard Street. Lombard Street doesn't have anything that makes it really cool, save its crookedness, and that was enough for me.

From Lombard Street, we walked back down to Little Italy and went to ? Bookstore. Kirk and I immediately tried to find the language section, and Kirk dived into a book on Old English. I, on the other hand, just looked at the titles, and kept interrupting Kirk with a "Oh, look at this!" and a "Wow, this looks cool!". In the meantime, Margret was in another section of the store, and I didn't ever find out what she was flippin' through. We stayed there for about 1/2 hour, and since we weren't buying anything we decided to jet.

By this time it was getting dark, and so we headed back down to the Montgomery BART Station. We had decided to meet up with Ben Strong for a bit, so we had arranged to meet him in San Jose where he lives. Now Margret lives in Milpitas and so we had taken the BART from Fremont. Kirk, on the other hand, lives in Turlock so he had taken the BART from Dublin/Pleasanton. Therefore we decided to go to Fremont, drive to San Jose to meet up with Ben, and then drive to the Pleasanton station to drop off Kirk at his car. However, the direct line to Fremont was no longer running, so we had to hop on the Dublin/Pleasanton line, then transfer to the ?Richmond to Fremont line.

On the the Dublin/Pleasanton line, we had a good conversation with a parent about the relationship between them and their teenager. All of us agreed that teenagers don't realized how much their parents mean to them, and only realize it afterward; it's just tough for the parent to get survive those teenage years where the teenagers act stupidly. The parent was really nice, and we had a wonderful talk about their little son, who was with them too. The kid was very inquisitive and didn't seem to be causing his parent too much trouble.

Well, when we finally met up with Ben, it ended up being at the Denny's where Margret worked last summer. Her brother's girlfriend was our waitress, and we had a good time having a night breakfast and catching up with Ben. He's working at Stanford in a lab, and he's doing much better than he was doing when he first started it about a year ago. It really was good to see him so happy, and he's just one of those people who just makes me laugh every time around him. Anyway, he had to wake up early the next morning to catch a flight to San Diego, so we left after about an hour of chillage.

The other days I was up there I spent with Margret and her family: going to Boomer's (great company, but nothin' new for me), to Marine World (good rides and attractions, and Margret's family is tireless!), and to church (good homily). Nothin' came close to amazing me more than downtown SF did, and since I think this entry is way too long already, I'm stopping.

[1] I know, it's quite pathetic that I've lived in Cali for my whole life and never been to the Bay. However, I have been to NorCal in general: I went to Hume Lake once a year during high school, except for one year when I went to California Golden Boys State which was held at CSU Sacramento. I also went to the Monterey Aquarium with my family after freshman year of college, so that counts too, right? return

[2] Sadly, this is one of the only things I have that point to my Italian heritage (my last name is the only other one I can think off of the top of my head). I actually didn't know "mangia" wasn't English until I came to college and my friends didn't understand when I said, "Anybody wanna mangia?" Of course, I know it's not the right conjugation in Italian or anything like that, but like I said, it's one of the few things that I point to part of my heritage. return

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End of 2005 News

Dear Family and Friends,

Another year has gone by, and I'm so thankful to God for all that has happened! Sure, there's been some bad times, but whether the times were good or bad, God used them to teach me some lessons. There's a saying, which I am hopefully rendering somewhat correctly, that goes: Someone foolish doesn't learn from their mistakes, someone smart learns from their mistakes, and someone wise learns from other people's mistakes. Reflecting on this past year, it looks like I'm upgrading from foolish to smart (woo-hoo!). At any rate, I just wanted to take some time to update y'all on some stuff I've been doing, and what might be in store for me in the months ahead. Some of you I haven't talked to in ages (not more than a decade, tho'!), and some of you I've talked with just this past week. If it gets boring (or you just don't want to read a lengthy e-mail) just skip to the last paragraph. Alright, here it goes.

This August, in the midst of reflecting on my life and worrying about my then current situation, I broke down crying in the shower at my parents' house. Over the past few years I wasn't liking who I was turning into. I wanted to be true to what I believed, and I wasn't. My parents had done their part in instilling in me the values of loving others and God, yet like so many things in my life I had a "book knowledge" of them rather than an "experiential knowledge" (sorta like UCSD Engineering students, save people like Hart). I thought more along the values of being loved by others and God (and, unlike the former, I had great experiences of both). That's not to say that I never did do the former (i.e., love others and God), it's just that they were not as valuable to me as the latter. Sometimes the former was fueled by the latter. But notice the grammatical difference: the former is in the so-called active voice; the latter is in the passive voice. I was wanting things to happen to me, but (if I could help it) I was not really active in making things happen. At any rate, from August I've been focusing more on how to love than be loved: how to love both God and others. So far, it has been really hard, but the rewards have already been wonderful when I do: less stress, less strife, more joy out of life:

Last November I started a "relationship" with Margret Gonzales. I use the quotes because we had a relationship before, but it wasn't a "relationship" ;) She's a third-year at UCSD who's majoring in Religion and Political Science/International Relations, and probably the sweetest person you'll ever meet (if you are lucky enough to do so). She's from San Jose, and has a wonderful family of two parents (like all of us) and five siblings (definitely not like me). Some of her favorite hobbies include painting, journaling, and learning guitar. What attracted me to her in the first place was how she treated others, her apparent bright outlook on life, her smile, and, well, how she looked

Hmm...apparently she's not ready to be introduced. Maybe by the end of this paragraph she'll open up a bit. So as I was saying, Margret's a great gal, and we've been able to share wonderful moments together, from walking on the beach at night (one of her favorite things to do) to walking around in Balboa Park to practicing Italian or another language (one of my favorite things to do). In every situation, I've learned more about how to love someone better and better instead of nurturing my Goddamned selfishness. I've enjoyed spending all my time with her, and have learned something which might have been apparent to all of you already: quality time takes a quantity of time. Let's see what Margret's up to:

Even tho' we've had great times together, our relationship hasn't been free from the bad times, as some of you know (I blame myself for all of them, and rightly so as you will see). I broke up with her in January for a couple months when I needed to "focus on my relationship with God" (notice the use of quotes again). After a couple of months of personal reflection, some kinks got ironed out on my end and we started dating again in March. Then at the end of November, in the midst of many changes in my life that I didn't know how to handle all at once, I broke up with her again. Coincidentally, it was right after our one-year anniversary (in hindsight, really bad timing). Despite the bad timing, we were able to talk about my (yes, they are my) problems and she agreed that our "relationship" needs some time off. And so whether for a month, a few months, or more, we're not going to date. We still consider each other best of friends, but realize that if we want this to work out in the long run, sometimes a step back is better than a step forward...especially when a person like me can't even walk straight. Seriously tho', I thank God for her. I know I don't deserve to know such a great person. Oh!, looks like someone is happy to hear that compliment!

This year was my last year as an undergrad and was also my first year living off-campus. I lived with four other guys, and now that I think about it, it was a good experience. I got along with all of them most of the time, and strengthened relationships with them. Probably the biggest thing (even tho' it was a small thing) that I learned was to handle the sight of this (sans the rubber ducky and companion):

In June I graduated from UC San Diego. Some of you might have thought I was going to make a career out of being a student, so sorry to disappoint. :) I received a Bachelor of Arts in General Linguistics, even tho' I spent just little over a year in the major (I received a minor in Electrical Engineering for my other three and a half years of college). I did some research on stop epenthesis in nasal-fricative clusters (e.g., the homophony of 'sense' and 'cents') with one of my professors, Amalia Arvaniti. I finished up working on that over the summer, and realized at the end that phonetics wasn't the subfield I liked the most (I think I like syntax or semantics (particularly pragmatics) the most):

Fortunately, another of my professors, Eric Bakovic, forwarded me a job listing that was sent to him, and my first real job out of college landed me at Parity Computing where I work on developing grammars (yes, my title is "Grammar Developer"). What my job entails is better described (albeit a bit succinctly) by the company website, but it does a better job than I probably could. The blue area in the middle, yeah, that's what I work on. It's a really wonderful job and I've learned a lot from just being in the work environment. I actually get to work with one of my former TA's, Karen Tanenbaum (no relation to the Royal ones). She's my direct supervisor, and she's really helpful in providing feedback and helping me when I get stuck with something. I've learned that I can't do everything (surprise!) because I want a life outside of my job, and she definitely helps me in my job. There are a couple bonuses from having the job, too. I don't have to dress up every day, and I can work practically any hours I want, as long as I put in 8 hours a day. I do try to dress up a bit and get to work early, because that means two things: I can slowly get used to dressing up for whichever job I have next, and I can enjoy the afternoon sun even in the wintertime. All in all, I'm excited to have this job!

Now for my plans for the (many) months ahead. I have a few short term goals and a few long term goals, but I'll just share the shorter ones (i.e., less than 5 years to complete). My first short term goal is to save enough money to (easily) relocate if I need to. My second short term goal will hopefully be made easier by the first: teach abroad (hopefully East Asia) for at least a year. My third short term goal will hopefully be made easier by the first two: visit a few different countries outside of North America, especially in Europe.

Do you see a pattern there? All my short term goals involve movement (the first involves moving money from my wallet to my bank: very hard). I want to explore a bit of the world, and God willing I will. I have only been to Mexico (San Felipe) and Canada (stepped foot on Canadian soil right above Montana), but besides that have never been outside of the United States. The goal to teach abroad in East Asia is driven mostly by my desire to learn more about that part of the world and the many cultures thriving there. The goal to visit Europe in particular is mainly because I met some really cool people in I-House a couple years ago who now live in Europe; it would be great to see them again and to catch up with what's going on in their lives. I actually hope to get the first and second goals done by the end of 2007, and see a I-Houser in Europe by the end 2008, but I know things don't always work the way I want them to, so I'm trying to keep that in mind as well :)

So yeah, those are what I'll be working toward in the upcoming months. Sharing some of the highlights of my life from this past year hopefully allowed you to see my perspective on events in my life and how I've changed (hopefully for the good of us all). Because you are my friends, I wanted to make sure you knew at least some major events that have been going on in my life, despite any lack of communication we've had recently. I'm so thankful to each of you for your friendship, and I wish you the best for the new year. I hope we keep in touch.

God bless,
David

David!

I am so glad to have heard from you! It sounds like you have had a wonderful year.

Yay! to all your goals; they sound very realistic and attainable. You are quite a driven person and I have no doubt that you will soon be making a new goal list because you've accomplished these!

I'm going to be moving down to San Diego once again on January 1. Perhaps we can grab a bite and really catch up.

Merry Christmas!

*mwah*
Kristel

David "The Italian Stallion" Romano,

Good to hear updates from you. I had feared you had return to the Valley of Yuca to engage in mundane activities such as roosting dirt bikes while high on PCP, but luckily you have a solid head on your shoulders... I've always respected that about you. "Grammar Developer" huh? We don't need no stinkin' grammar *cue ogre battle*. Anyhow, just wanted to wish you a happy "give-your-atheist-child-a-present" day (credit Dave Barry, a more PC term was never created). Good luck with work, women, and weblogging, and lest I should commit any more heinous acts of forced alliteration, good day sir.

Hart - you said it right, Romano is the "Italian Stallion"!

Romano, thanks for the update man. We haven't been able to talk a lot lately and it was good to hear about what has been happening in your life lately. I'm glad that you've been able to recognize some of your personal problems and that you're working to change how you live your life. You were cool before, you can only get cooler

Come by Cuzco if you ever want to hang out. Stay cool man, you're a lucky man. You and Margret are too cute ;) Oh yeah, and I loved the quote about UCSD engineering students, too much "book knowledge" haha.

hey Dave! so... good update! i guess that explained things a little better than you wanted to last night. It was so great to see you. sorry i ditched out on you guys but i'm sure you had a great time. I'll be keeping in touch! bye bro! ~BEKA~

what's with these epic updates? you and charity are ruining my evenings... i haven't read this much in one sitting since i cracked blue like jazz. but for real, tahnks for teh soulbaring and comprehensive update. I feel like i just stepped out of the confessional booth with you :) keep it real and i can't wait to hang soon!
-the other stallion (del norte)

i just wanna give you a BIG hug after reading all that. why? becuase i love hearing about your life--whether it's lil tidbits over the phone (the usual) or epic updates online (rare, but oh so cool!). i'm so grateful to have you for a lil bro! I love that you tried to share from your heart and really reflect on the past year...oddly enough, reflection is such a powerful tool in moving forward in life...and I def see you moving forward. (and usually it's hard for a big sis to recognize a lil bro's growing up). i admire so much about you--you're so different from me in so many ways and i'm amazed at your intellect, passion and dedication (among other things). (i'll stop with the big sister bragging now). Not to say that you don't have your weaknesses (but who doesn't--it's not so much about what you're weaknesses are, but what you decide to do about them). As for your goals, hopes and dreams....just remember "seek first the Kingdom of God and then all those other things will be added unto you..." (and since you're quite literary, i'll say that context with this passage DOES matter so look it up and figure it out for yourself)! (and now i'll stop with the big sister guidance lesson). :)
loveya,
charitts

hi dave!
the old school SDers got a hold of this website and now we are passing it around to try and see what you are up to, glad to hear that your life is going well, and i hope to hear from you soon. oh yeah, you should really check out www.ftta.org. there is a school like that located in London. you could prolly travel out here and what not. i am here in London/ Cambridge, and visiting for a little bit, welps, catch ya later. hope all your plans and dreams work themselves out.
ciao!
-helena chu
ps. i taught english in the south of china and i suggest it, it was an experience which i will never forget. if you get the chance, i suggest you take it.

Great to hear from you Helena! Thanks for the tip about ftta.org: I'll check it out. Hope you're having a great time in England, and we definitely need to have an "old school" reunion :)

Website? Me, a website. We will leave that to the "what generation are you?" generation. Dave, as your mom, I'm sad to hear of your tears, but those times are so beautiful between us and God, that the pain and cleansing are worth the sadness that brings us there. I love you so much. Your life has changed me for the better.

I look forward to more updates and the newer David I will meet each time.

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. 1 Cor 2:8-10

I can attest to this Truth.

Love
MOM

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