Day 1. What the hell.

2011 is here. Amidst all the facebook statuses, the blog posts, and the wonderful safe and unsafe celebrations that have occurred in anticipation for this day, it has arrived. I was a tad bit surprised and quite frankly disappointed in all the bloggers and persons on facebook complaining about how much “2010 sucked” and how much they hated the year. Honestly, if you can’t pinpoint to even one thing positive in 2010 at all, the reason for your unhappiness is unfortunately your attitude.

But enough about 2010. 2011 is here. With a new year comes new resolutions, new friends, new adventures, and quite frankly new projects – in this case being the intertwining of johnletran.com & Project 365, which starts NOW. Every day, from here until December 31st, 2011, I will post a picture, which will indicate what I have done for the day. As shown above, the picture I have chosen illustrates the new year started with quite literally, a Bang. Well, more than one game of Bang, but you get the punny joke. After that picture, will be a complete description of what I did that day, which follows below:

January 1st, 2011You could quite literally say 2011 Started with a Bang, and when I say that I mean more than one. After watching Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve (Hosted by Ryan Seacrest) With Thiep, Tiana, Brandon, and Earle at Earle’s House we were all done and ready to go home for the night. Unfortunately, while backing up to drive me home, Thiep and I both heard a loud BANG sound coming from the back of Thiep’s car. He accidentally rear ended Earle’s Dad’s company car. After we told him, he didn’t really care – because frankly nothing happened to the company car [cause it’s a Ford]. Unfortunately for Thiep, his back bumper fell loose and we had to tape it with duct tape in order to make it the rest of the way home. The lessons here folks is to buy Ford  – All American Products > Honda/Toyota.

The same day, after sleeping, I woke up and immediately downloaded Avril Lavigne’s WHAT THE HELL, hence the title of this day’s post. Because she was so generous to make her song available for download on her facebook for FREE, I dedicate this blog post for her – and also to promote her, because I honestly do think she will make a comeback in 2011. [My first prediction of the year.] Anyway, after eating breakfast as home, me and Theresa went to SouthCoast Plaza to go shopping! As always I am a horrible shopper because I don’t know my own size, and I never know what to buy. In the end, H&M was a bust, but I was able to take advantageous of Theresa’s wonderful employee Discount at Macy’s in buying a jacket and a pair of jeans! We also went to a Container Store, which until today I thought was only in located in San Diego. Little did I know…. Little did I know… That was fun and all. I will definitely miss Theresa because she’s one of my closest friends in Orange County, when she’s not working! (hehe).

Immediately upon going home, Earle picked me up so me, him, and Hiep can go to Island’s. Hiep is fortunately going to New Zealand to explore the world and be an independent woman as she was the day I met her to the present. Unfortunately for me, that means I won’t see her for a total of 6 months (She returns in June). So we had a goodbye lunch at Island’s and then we hung out for a bit inside Barnes and Nobles, where Earle & I explored Self Improvement books. I vow to buy at least one self improvement book this month online, in order to improve myself for the new year. Even if they “don’t work”, it’d be nice to gage an alternative perspective on how to live a wonderful, happy life. After that point, we said our goodbyes and hugged. Until June!

Finally, the day ended as it started, with a Bang. Earle and I went to my house, where we were soon followed by Thiep, Triet, and Brian Nguyen (the flaker who I rarely ever see). I think my camera broke, cause I was spending most of the time trying to fix it, while simultaneously playing Bang. This might hinder/jeopardize Project 365, but we’ll see how I will cope with my first problem of 2011. After playing Bang, we went to pick up Vu and ate Pho at Pho Vinh Ky. I fortunately was still full from lunch, so restrained myself from eating. (Like an anorexic Mary Kate would do). After that we went to go Boba, WHICH WAS ONLY 1.95, WHICH WAS HELLA’ CHEAP, at Coffee Zone, which is in the same Pavilion as H-Mart, Paris Baguette, and Jack in the Box (all of which bring back fond memories). Finally, we went home and banged some more until the day ended.

To wrap things up, the day started with a Bang (Thiep’s epic rear ending), and ended with a Bang (the game). Though I didn’t do anything too outrageous on January 1st, I still have 364 days left to make up for it.

I will end every Project 365 Post with three things: 1) Something of historical significance in relation to the day 2) Something ripped from the headlines/Has Global/local significance and a 3) A Postscript that can contain ANYTHING.

I-Phone Alarms allegedly FAILED to ring today. Though I am a proud owner of an Apple I-touch, I would rank Apple lowest on my list of companies I want to rule the world. I would much rather have Google take over the world, if not Facebook. No to Bill Gates (Microsoft), who stole his ideas from Apple. And No to Steve Jobs (Apple), who stole his ideas from Steve Worziak, the true founder of the personal computer. In summary Google > Facebook > Microsoft > Apple.

On January 1st, 1942, the United Nations was formed, after 26 countries (which included the United States of America) came together to sign a declaration. Though the U.N. does have a lot of flaws (Security Council), it is trying it’s best to maintain peace in today’s nuclear world.

P.S.: “Well, Life is a dream, cause’ we’re all walking in our sleep. You could see us stand in lines like we’re dead upon our feet. And we build our house of cards, and then we wait for it to fall. Always forget how strange it is just to be alive at all.”