Life, Friendships, Attitude...

Today's post will be a little bit different... It will be full of words and maybe couple pics. Today's post will be much of my personal feeling of all these craps happened lately... Just feel like a free lance... write whatever I feel like to... no worries... no plans...

Things do not flow on my ways lately. I had all the craps these couple weeks. First, started with my candidacy at Deloitte, then the dramas that kept going on within our group of friends. All these craps make me feel like running away for a short breaks. One of my friends said, life is full of challenges, ups and downs, just like a roller coaster, and full of unexpectedness as you'll never know what will going to happen or who you'll meet in the next moment. When life turned dull, I think is the time to step back or runaway from one place to another. Once you stepped back, I am sure you will see lot of different things.

Life, to me, is just like a blank drawing pad. It's depend on how you paint it and experience it to make it more colorful or interesting. The remarkable things is we have a choice every day regarding the colors we will embrace for that day. It's all depend on what colors you choose for the day. It could be red for happiness, blue for disappointment, or like chemical effect, blue mix with red could turn into different colors. Obviously, we cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing that we can do is to play on the one string that we have, or to create, and paint your drawing pad-life-, that your colors - experience-, to make your life more interesting and more colorful. Well, that's far easier said than done, as things are not always flow on your way. However, we have to experience it as we grow, if not our life will be like a blank drawing pad, no colors, no memories, NOTHING!! If we experience it and paint it with different colors, your life will be a beautiful painting with lot of sweet memories, more interesting, more colorful... Nobody ever said it was going to be easy. Accomplishment is challenging, and we've all been blessed with challenges along the way. As I always remind myself, grey day will be over one day and luck and success will come along to my way. Life is short, you may need to forgive people quickly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile...

Friendship. No matter how old you are, sooner or later you will run into this dilemma, one of your friendships will be seriously threatened and possibly broken. Maybe sometimes, you do not even know what happened, or maybe you do not even care. I do not how many people are familiar with the word "acquaintance". Before we move on, I am here to address the different between acquaintance and friendships. An acquaintance is someone we hang out with, maybe even go places with, but do not really share anything deeper than a cup of coffee with. They are easily found and lost. On the other hand, the real friend is something very hard to find. Those are the rate people that stay by our side in good times as well as in bad and are more often then not found standing shoulder to shoulder with you when times get tough. You may not talk to them daily, but you are always close. Those are the ones you can count on to tell you the truth and have your back. If you are lucky, you may be able to count 1 or 2 true friends in your entire life and if you have one right now, hold them close and thank your lucky stars. Personally, I have half and I will hold it tight and turn it to be 1 true friend. How many true friends do you have??

By saying all these, it's simply because I saw lot of dramas going on within our group of friends, that including me. The suddenness and severity of these dramas lead me to the thoughts of Friendship. Sometimes, acquaintance could be turn into true friend. I am kind like agree with it. However, it will be pretty sad when people put some efforts on building a friendship and in turn being betrayed by him/her, or they never ever treated you as friend or do not even care. Well, people might think why all in sudden lead me to this subject. Like I said, I saw some dramas going on these days. The longer I live, the more I realize. People might feel sad for their broken friendship, so do i. But my thought is, is the friendship worth restoring, do they care? If yes, what can we do to restore or repair for the broken friendship, and how?

What can lead to the broken friendship? There are tons of reasons. It could be repeated thoughtless acts or the complete changing of one self. Personally, I think at times, it is just simply because of the poison tongue of a 3rd party. In most cases, I think that is the point that caused the broken friendship. Whatsoever, TRUST NO ONE BUT YOURSELF... Sometimes, what you heard and saw might not be the truth. But you have to calm down and think about what you saw and heard. Use you brain to judgment without affecting by others. Handle yourself, use you brain; handle others, use your heart! Thing goes around, turns around!

Many people will walk in and out of my life, but only true friends will leave footprint in my heart. So far, no one really left footprint in my heart. Some of them did, but unfortunately, their footprints somehow disappear. I really wish I could hold 1 or 2 true friends from my entire life. That's far easier said that done!! If you consider me as your true friend, hold me tight. Life is short, do not get regret of anything! :)

Since all these craps happened to me, I think what I can do is to change the attitude of how I perceive things, because attitude it is the ONLY thing that we have always control of. I read an article, the author said: "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life". I am totally agree with it. Attitude is everything! Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than past, than money, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. Believe it or not, attitude will make or break a family, relationship, even a corporation. I am convinced that life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to the life. We are the people in charge of our attitudes! Believe it or not, change your attitude of how you react things, you will see that you are much more easy to get along with people and make more friends. I am not saint, even I have good attitude to certain degree, I still have amendment to make. People make mistakes, but learn from the mistakes! Are you striving to change your attitude... so do I...

I do not how these three things related to each other and I do not why all in sudden I have these thoughts to post all these. But still, I would like to share with you all. If you are not ready to experience your life, think about it and start now! If you are in a broken friendship, I think forgive is the greatest gift that one friend can give to another and so is understanding. I know that's far easier said that done. Neither comes easy, but I think if you think that's the friendship that worth for saving, this is the thing that you need to do to mend a broken friendship. If you are striving for changing your attitude, great and keep going! All these are the things that I've been working with...

If you read till this point, I really appreciate your time that you spent in reading my post. But please do not blame me if you read till this point, you still cannot get what is my point of writing this post. Obviously, as I mentioned at the very beginning, I am just feel like to be a free lance, no plans, no worries, So... there is no points... haha... Still, thank you for your time. This is my longest post ever these years. I welcome for any feedback or disagreement.

Detroit Pistons Vs. Boston Celtics, Arburn Hills, Nov. 9

We went on a trip to the Detroit Pistons vs. Boston Celtics on November 9 at Arburn Hills. Why all of sudden we decided to go a Pistons game and shell out about $50 bucks for ticket, parking, food, etc? Well, there are couple reasons...

First, it's simply because I have never been any NBA games since I've been United States for so long, and we got the great deal for the package. Another reason is the player below, Allen Iverson, former Denver Nuggets player, was acquired by Detroit Piston in exchange for Chauncey Billups (1) and Antonio McDyess. One of my friends is Allen Iverson's big fan, so we decided to go for the Pistons game at Arburn Hills. Actually, I was there part of the reason is because of the big three, Ray Allen(20), Kevin Garnett(5), and Paul Pierce(34) from Boston Celtics. Boston Celtics was the NBA Champion team last year. Woooow... I prefer Ray Allen, he plays as shooting guard. He is sooooo goood...

Allen Iverson, right, the newest addition to the Pistons, holds up his new jersey with team president Joe Dumars during a news conference Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, at the Palace.
Former Pistons player, Chauncey Billups (1) was traded by Pistons in exchange for Allen Iverson. He is now playing for Denver Nuggets, Jersey #7. He did a great job while playing with Detroit Pistons. Hope he will do well in Denver Nuggets too.
Boston Celtics Big Three... Start from left, Ray Allen (20), Kevin Garnett (5), Paul Pierce (34). Wooow... Paul Pierce was last season NBA MVP. But still, I prefer Ray Allen. He is the man... Three Point Shooter...
The game started at 6pm on November 9 at Arburn Hills. We departed around 2pm from Ann Arbor. After driving for an hour, we got Palace of Arburn Hills stadium. We got there earlier to avoid the traffic. It was cold that day. Here are some pics from Palace of Arburn Hills Stadium:

Will and I with the huge Pistons Basketball Shoe

As we got there earlier, we decided to shop around at Pistons Looker room.

Former Pistons Player, Billups's Jersey #1. Now it's being replaced by Iverson #1. But the price still freaking expensive. Over $100 bucks per piece... Woooww.... We bought one to Andy two years ago. He did not wear it that day, as Jersey #1 at Pistons is no longer belongs to Billups... hehe... Believe it or not, I saw people wear the Jersey with a big cross at the billups's Jersey... it's funny!!
Rodney Stuckey (3), Pistons bench player last season, but has a great potential to become a NBA superstar. Pictured with Rodney Stuckey's Jersey at Locker Room:

Detroit Pistons

Hanging out at Looker Room... Act like Richard Hamilton... haha...
For sure, there are some activities going on at Palace Arburn Hill Stadium... Basketball hoops for kids.

We got the magazine for free from Locker Room

Finally got the tickets, as we ordered it online and pick up later. Here is the ticket:

Group picture

Chauncey Billups Pictures at Palace Arburn Hills stadium

Here is the ticket. We sat at second floor, gate 222. It was far away from the court. $99 for 4 tickets, what do you expect for the seats. Hehe... I think the front seat next to the court in NBA final season is around $2500 per piece. So, stop complaining for the seat.
After lining up for half an hour, we were being able to get into the stadium. We got free Piston Calendar for all the games schedule at Palace Arburn Hill Stadium. It is a nice Calendar with all Pistons Players pictures.

We lined up for a picture at Pistons basketball court. It was included in our package. Pictures from Pistons Basketball court:

Pregame warm-up in the Palace Arburn Hills stadium. Boston Celtics players were warming up in on court.

Pistons Player -- Tayshaun Prince (22) were shooting around the court for the pregame warm-up. I never ever so close to the NBA star. He is a great player at Pistons. He was the top scorer in the game that night.

Tayshaun Prince, one of my favorite Pistons's player

We took a group picture at Detroit Pistons basketball court. I never thought that I could stepped on the NBA court. Amazing!! When I was a kid, I watched NBA from TV and wished that I could been there one day. But I never thought I really been here in United States!! So closed to the NBA Stars!!!

History of Detroit Pistons

We got some snacks before the game starts. We went for Buffalo Wild Wings to get a dozen of wings. That's my favorite wings.
It was crowded!! The Palace of Arburn Hills stadium was crowded with Detroit and Boston fans!

Pregame warm-up on the court

Show brought by High School Cheerleaders:

Popcorn!!

Boston Celtics players on the court

Count down... 17:39 for the game starts

Warming up before the game

Look!! HoT.. HOT>>>>!! Cheerleaders!!!

OMG!!! HOT... HOT.... keke....

I taped some introducing videos for both teams. I tried to upload it next time.

Deeefense.... Deeetroit baaaasketball....

Time out show

Ray Allen were warming up before the second half starts

Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on the court

Kevin Garnett

Second half starts...

It was a sold out ticket game!! It was so crowded!!

Andy bought the alcoholic drink

Noise... Noise... Noise... Wooowwwwww....

OMG!! what can I say... HOT!!!

Detroit Piston got beaten up Boston Celtics. The picture below shows the final score, 76-88. Detroit was down by 20 points in the third quarter. They caught up a little when Tayshaun Prince scored couples three-points. I knew Piston would get killed by Celtics. I think It was an easy win for Boston Celtics. Well, I was there to support Piston anyways!! Go!! Go!! Pistons!!!
Overall, that happened to be my first time in watching NBA game and so closed to the NBA stars. It was a great experience and fun!! I am looking forward for my next NBA game, which will be next year, Detroit Pistons host Los Angelas Lakers --> Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher!!! Start looking for the ticket... keke...