Death By Snu-snu

Basic Elements

2010-07-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

In light of Garfield Minus Garfield, (where if you photoshop out Garfield from the strips, it appears that Jon Arbuckle is slowly sliding into the depths of mental illness), I thought it might be interesting to think about what really makes a strip. The answer is surprising.

If someone weren't familiar with comic strips, and you wanted to plainly describe what some of the major ones were about, how would you do it? What are the basic elements of these strips? Well, it appears to be various forms of mental illness.

1. Obese feline
2. Bear with binge eating disorder and a young boy with beastophilia
3. Schizophrenic boy and tiger hallucination
4. Manic-depressive boy and dog with delusions of grandeur
5. Bulimic woman with general anxiety disorder
6. Suicidal cubicle worker and megalomaniac dog

Ready?

1. Garfield
2. Winnie the Pooh
3. Calvin and Hobbes
4. Peanuts
5. Cathy
6. Dilbert

Also just as funny, Realfield.

Captions, please.

2010-07-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

Eric 5.

2010-07-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

In honor of Eric's pending nuptials, here are 5 things about him that you may not know (and he may not want you to know).

1. Eric is an Eagle Scout. Ok, you probably know this.

2. Eric used to RAGE when he got mad.

3. After meeting Carol, Eric commenced his pursuit of Carol by asking for the names of her many, many siblings. Someone remind me how many there are, how many are in the US, and how many don't live in Cupertino?

4. Eric and I once simultaneously pooped, while only inches away on an outdoors "double toilet." Additionally, post infancy, Eric is among the top 3 people that I have slept within 2 feet of.

5. Eric's house was the gathering point for annual sleepovers of the core group of guys that lived in 7 springs (me, David, Victor, James, Henry, Eric). It would usually be some combination of Eric's nachos, fighting video games, A Bug's Life, pranking James because he always fell asleep first, and donuts in the morning.

And a bonus 6. For those in the know... "SOMEBODY GET ME A SOBE BOTTLE!"

Anyway, congratulations buddy.

That's what the Bachelorette is about??

2010-07-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, I watch the Bachelorette. I'm not really sure what about it appeals to me so much, but theories include the Bachelorette being really hot.

Anyway, this season the Bachelorette takes her suitors all over the world. There are dates in Istanbul, Iceland, Tahiti and New York. Based on that, I feel like I can already say that her relationship from this show won't last. It's pretty easy to generalize from this: every wonder why reality show couples don't last?

Answer: Because how can someone really get to know someone else on a perpetual vacation, where the hardest thing to deal with together is not having enough lobster at dinner? From a simple psychological standpoint, it's just conditioning someone to associate the feelings of excitement and arousal that you get from crazy activities and locations to the other person. Without the psychological analysis, it's the ability to use distractions and diversions to disguise a lack of chemistry, connection and conversation. I'd bet that there's some correlation between fantastical, outrageous and ultimately "cool" dates and the lower the chance of that couple staying together. In short, it's fabricated chemistry.

The notion of fabricated chemistry being bad is a little bit counterintuitive for males, though. That's because males usually try to use fabricated chemistry to our advantage - it's the reason we try to plan exciting and unique dates. Admittedly, most of the time our objective is to fabricate chemistry rather than find a genuine connection. So it's hard to fault the reality show folks when we do this to a smaller scale all the time in real life.

It's a funny thought that our failure and lack of money to plan such amazing Bachelorette-esque dates might actually be a key to successful dating and chemistry. If all guys could plan the dates they really want to plan, it would likely be for the worse.

Hey Bachelorette 2011, you want to really find your match? Try these dates: dish washing, living for 3 days on a tiny budget, and catering to people acting as bitchy in-laws.

I Remember Phil Collins! For now.

2010-07-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's astounding the number of hits, no less songs, that some artists have. Take Phil Collins for example. It's easy to list off at least 2-3 hits of his, courtesy of Disney's Tarzan. Taking a little more time to think, here's what I've come up with:

Take Me Home
Can't Stop Loving You
Sussudio
Another Day in Paradise
Easy Lover
You'll Be in My Heart
One More Night
Against All Odds
True Colors

Wikipedia tells me that I've missed quite a few, as well.

In his day, it seems like Phil Collins was basically king of the 1980's (with Bryan Adams and Richard Marx as his princes, and Rick Astley at this point as the court jester). Hell, he probably had more well-known songs than Michael Jackson at that point.

But he's clearly not held in the same regard as MJ. So that begs the question: if not the volume of well-known songs, what exactly does it take for an artist to have that special staying power to last through the years?

I don't know. Maybe the "timelessness" or a song, how adaptable the song is over time, and whether it was innovative or not?

Movies.

2010-07-21T00:07:00.000-07:00

Every time I have a break, either from school or work, one of my favorite past-times is watching movies. I don't mean watching movies as in going to the theaters on a Friday night - more like sprawling out in front of a screen for hours at a time, indiscriminately binging on any movie I can get my hands on.

1. Obtain movies in one of two ways. First, by bulk downloading them from torrents. Or second, because I'm in Cupertino right now, go to the library and rent a few every day.

2. Watch the first 15ish minutes at normal speed. Then, the movie is subject to a three-level categorization: if it sucks too much, eject and next. If it sucks but has potential to at least be entertaining (stupid comedies, most romantic comedies, most action films), then I'll watch it as fast as I can while still understanding the dialogue, usually around 1.50x speed. If there are subtitles, then I can go up to 2.0x speed without losing anything. If I'm going to waste time, then at least I'm going to minimize it. Finally, if it is a normal, good movie, then I'll watch it at normal speed.

3. Repeat 2-4 times a day.

After cycling through so many plotlines and twists consecutively, it's pretty easy to start to see patterns that all movies use in one form or another. Usually, it's some variation of what I call the "3/5 twist." Things will be going well for the first 3/5 of a movie, and there doesn't appear to be much left to resolve the movie conflict. But then, the second conflict of the movie is introduced, and is usually only tangentially related to the original conflict. Thankfully, it can be neatly resolved in the remaining 2/5 of the movie. Romantic movie example: Guy gets girl. Damning information about guy comes out, causes conflict, then guy wins girl over in the end. Action example: Team kills tons of putties. Apparent unexpected hitch occurs in plan. Team must use cunning to overcome hitch, often sacrificing someone, to achieve end goal.

On an unrelated note, I decided to make a list of movies that most people seem to like, but I just can't get behind for one reason or another.

All Michael Cera movies after Superbad - Let me first say that I really like Michael Cera, but I just don't think he's a great actor. I met him at a screening for Superbad, and guess what, he's really just that awkward of a person in real life. I think the reason he shone in Arrested Development was because he wasn't a central, central character. With him being a leading man, it just kind of gets stale - especially because he is himself in every movie, and every movie is so similar (Enter Michael Cera as awkward teen, play indie music, enter quirky cute girl that inexplicably has interest in Michael Cera, play indie music, they awkwardly converse, indie music, etc.).

The Blind Side - Hilarious. Oh, it wasn't a comedy. Perhaps the movie said it better than I can: "You are changing that boy's life." "No, he's changing my life."

Garden State - I don't know. Personally, I find it difficult to care about characters that are completely off the wall. Though if I'm Zach Braff, I pat myself on the back for being able to cast and makeout with Natalie Portman.

The Fountain - Wait... what? Superficially, okay, fine, immortality demands a price. But what is gained by mixing three semi-related storylines that require a number of leaps to connect?

Coyote Ugly - True, maybe most people didn't really enjoy this movie. But this movie holds a special place in movie-hell for me because it was a chick flick disguised as a sexy movie with tons of half naked girl action. That's just cruel.

There Will be Blood - I woke up just in time for the milkshake line, thank god.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It's been a while since I've seen this, so I'm just going to say that I didn't like it very much.

Up - I think if you ask anyone what the best part of the movie was, they'll invariably say that it was the beginning with Carl and Ellie. I may have shed a few tears for Ellie. But thinking back, nothing else stands out about the movie except for some of the dogs' dialogue.

Wall-e - I get it. Humans are on a slippery slope to oblivion and we're taking our planet with us. Spare me the too-obvious, smarmy social commentary and put some dialogue into that first 40 minutes so I don't drift off.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Not that this movie was bad, it just wasn't great. Here's what it really is: it's a modernly-packaged emulation of a style of movie and special effects that have been produced in Hong Kong since the 1970's. It wasn't revolutionary in the slightest, but I'll admit, for those that have never seen that style,was probably fairly awesome. As it turns out, there's a similar backlash among Indians from Slumdog Millionaire. It's the same type of movie, theme and music that have been in Bollywood for years, but are just now presented for western consumption.

Fitness #6

2010-07-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

How Intense is Your Workout?

Surprisingly, being in a gym 6-7 days a week doesn’t inspire one to workout more. If anything, you want to keep your workouts as quick as possible so you don’t hav

e to spend any more time there than necessary. However, I think this is a good policy that more people should adhere to. There’s something to be said for the intensity of a workout.

Sunday: Chest/triceps workout

-Incline Bench – 4 sets of 8 @ 215 lbs, drop set

s at 185 and 135
-Dumbbell Chest Fly – 4 sets of 8 @ 40 lbs
-Straight-Arm pullover – 2 sets of 8 @ 80 lbs, 2 sets @ 85 lbs
-Weighted Dips – 4 sets of 8 w/ 100 lbs
-Chest Fly Machine – 3 sets of 10
In and out in 45 minutes.

Now this is intense

Obviously the intensity above is something you have to work up to, but it goes back to my sand dune analogy. Doing all of the above in 1.5 hours instead of 45 minutes is just scratching a layer off of the dune, while really pushing and overloading your muscles really blitzes it. Muscles (and just about all other facets of fitness – cardio capacity, aerobic endurance, etc) grow in accordance with the overload principle (very basically, the body adapts to the stresses you place upon it; the more you put on it, the proportionally greater adaption), so it just makes sense to crank up the intensity of a workout. The ways to do it? More weight, less rest time between sets and more sets/exercises. Right now, I’m choosing to focus on having less time between sets and I’ve seen noticeable strength gains. As always, different things work for different people, but one of these intensity tactics could help you break through your plateaus.

Powerlifters and olympic lifters abstain.

Fitness #5

2010-07-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

Protein Supplementation for Weight Loss

Let me be up front – I think protein powder is a great product. Whether it’s whey, casein or egg protein, they all have their uses and it is one of the few supplements that research actually backs up. (Most supplements aren’t FDA-approved, so they can claim literally whatever they want.)

Protein typically gets all the publicity in the context of hypertrophy and generally getting big and jacked, but a far overlooked benefit of it is to those seeking to lose weight and body fat %.

In the context of weight loss, think of protein powder as a substitute. It allows you to get the protein you need to build and retain lean muscle mass while avoiding all the other macronutrients and extra calories that would usually be associated with such a large amount of protein. Avoiding the other nutrients allows you to tap into your fat stores more quickly and easily – basically the main tenet of the Atkins diet. This is especially effective in conjunction with a workout plan because you will need the additional protein for muscle growth and maintenance. Basically, you’re isolating the good parts of a steak and omitting the bad, all in a nice controlled and regulated portion of a scoop. In essence, if you’re looking to shed some pounds, you could take 1-2 scoops of protein instead of the last 1/3 or 1/2 of a meal.

Here’s an article talking about the “VDiet,” which I don’t necessarily condone, but shows the ketogenic (fat burning) effects of a protein diet. Of course, this is the extreme end of the spectrum. Root around the site for Part 2 to see his fairly amazing results.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_diet_mass/the_velocity_diet

PS. When buying protein powder, avoid the Pina Colada flavor no matter how tempting it sounds.

Fitness #4

2010-07-16T23:31:00.000-07:00

Real World Strength vs. Gym Strength

Jim Olmeyer: Are you just looking to lose weight, or do you want increased strength and flexibility as well?
Lester Burnham: I want to look good naked!
- American Beauty

I think this thought has crossed just about all of our minds. It’s sure crossed Korkie77′s. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it isn’t very conducive to real world AKA functional strength. Turns out we don’t do the bicep curl or bench press motion much in real life.

I quickly discovered this a few years ago when I was called upon with a couple of my friends to help someone move. It was before I started deadlifting regularly, but I thought “No problem, I workout way more than these guys and can bench press 300+!” Imagine my surprise when they kept pace with me and even outlasted me in carrying the heavy furnishings. My pecs were fresh, but everything else felt like a truck had run over it.

There are only three things that matter in functional terms: the grip, forearms and lower back. Make sure not to neglect these parts because if technology ever crumbles, lumberjacks will rule the world.

Here’s a good grip and forearm (and guitar) exercise: plate pinching. Make sure the smooth sides of the plates are facing outside. Start with sets of 15 seconds and 30 seconds of rest inbetween and go from there.

Fitness #3

2010-07-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

Three Quick Thoughts for the Third Month

1. Hands down, the best time to practice your technique in any lift is when you are tired. That’s when it’s the hardest to maintain even normal technique, let alone exemplary technique, so the increased focus and emphasis that you are putting in will be far more likely to carry over to your next session and have great residual effects. It also mimics conditions like when you are going heavy or just trying to pound out a couple more reps in that last set – your muscle memory during these periods of time translates quite well. When you have your technique down, it’s entirely possible that once your muscles give out, your technique can carry you through a couple more reps - and remembering to push through your heels and keep your chin high might be the difference between nailing that new squat max and failure.

2. Pre-exhaustion is a wonderful weapon to add to your arsenal when done correctly. Let’s put this into a concrete context: the bench press. The bench press has two main movers, the pectorals and triceps. Most people happen to be fairly triceps-dominant (unless you have extreme t-rex arms), so what happens is that the triceps compensate mightily for the chest and most of the force and subsequent muscle development goes to the triceps. That’s great if you’re a powerlifter, but most of us bench to hit our chests. In pre-exhaustion, you would do a fairly intense tricep exercise just before you do the bench press. That forces the pectorals to become the main movers (synergists) and will do wonders for your chest growth. So while there is logic to always doing compound, multiple muscle exercises early in the workout and saving your isolation muscle work for later, just put into consideration how this might fit in with your specific goals.

3. My best friend in the gym? My watch. He limits my time between sets, is a standard that lets me gauge how I’m doing in that workout relative to others, doesn’t let me cheat on timed exercises and intervals, makes sure my workouts are always intense and teaches me the value of every second in the gym and how to appreciate rest and make the most of it.

Fitness #2

2010-07-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

A Quick Primer on the Science of Avoiding Carbs

No, carbs aren’t inherently bad. They aren’t the devil and they don’t single-handedly cause rising rates of obesity in America. We all know McDonald’s is the cause of that! Kidding…

But the truth remains that we can all afford to cut down on carbs for a few simple scientific reasons.

1. Carbs cause insulin secretion. Insulin basically signals your body to stop burning fat and start the fat (glycogen) storing process for hours to come. In addition, the presence of insulin turns off HGH and glucagon, which are instrumental in muscle development and fat burning. Frequent insulin spikes can lead to insulin insensitivity, and we all know what that can lead to – diabetes.

2a. Carbs aren’t your primary energy source. Generally, fats are your preferred, first energy source, proteins go to your muscles and carbs are stored (a vestige of our ancestors) and your secondary energy source. So when you eat fats, they are consumed first, leaving your current stores of fats and carbs untouched and growing if your energy expenditure isn’t great enough. When you eat carbs, you’re just adding to the stockpile of calories to burn behind the fats that are always present. Basically, fats go to the front of the calorie consumption line and carbs to the back, so they are far more conducive to being stored. You’re always playing catchup.

2b. I suspect one of the biggest reasons that “fat makes you fat” became so prevalent starting in the 80′s was that fats are 9 calories per gram, whereas protein and carbs are only 4 calories per gram. This means, yes, it does take more to burn off a calorie of fat. But what good does it do if you never get past your quotient of fats to the carbs?

2a and 2b were extremely simplified for ease of application.

3. The satiation factor of carbs is far less than protein or fat. This means simply that you will need to eat more carbs to feel the same amount of fullness that you get from a smaller amount of proteins or fats. Because of this, carbs discourage portion control.

So you can see that it can be good to have a higher fat, higher protein and lower carb diet. I suggest something to the tune of 40% protein, 30% fat and 30% carbs… yes this is applicable to you women as well. (Another note about fats: there are many good and even necessary ones. The omegas are quite beneficial and your organs need a certain amount of fat. Take amenorrhea for example, the lack of body fat starts adversely affecting bodily functions.)

Oh, right.

2010-07-13T23:26:00.001-07:00

Dear paltry few readers,

Hello. Long story short, I've seen or partaken in some outrageous shit this past year that I would like to share incrementally. However, I will ease myself from into this boiling jacuzzi slowly and start with a few posts from the Sunnyvale Fitness blog, the gym where I used to work.

Missing the Point – Planning Your Program

Sometimes, a little bit of knowledge can be a bad thing.

This is especially true in the fitness sphere because there is so much unsubstantiated conjecture and dogma floating around. For example,
-Eating fat makes you fat.
-All heavy weights will do is bulk you up, light weights are for toning.
-Steady-state cardio (treadmill, elliptical, bike) will burn more fat than weights will.
(Anyone guilty of parroting any of the above?)

Basing a fitness plan off of conclusions like this, ones that don’t tell the whole story, without investigating the rationale behind them is just asking for trouble. Here are a few real-life examples that I believe illustrate this very clearly:

1. W knows that marathon runners carbo-load before races and long runs sometimes, so he starts carbo-loading before he comes in for sessions. Marathon runners will log upwards of 80 miles a week, and he trains for 3 hours a week. He doesn’t understand why he is gaining fat.

2. X knows that we utilize glucose stores when we workout. He proceeds to eat three protein bars during each 1.5 session of training in order to keep his “glycogen repositories” high. It takes at least 30 mins for the stomach to start digesting food and I don’t even know how much longer until it is able to make use of the nutrients. He doesn’t understand why he still gets tired at the end of his workouts.

3. Y knows that the spine is relatively fragile, so she avoids all movements that involve bending over. This causes muscle imbalances, posture and flexibility problems from a weak lower back that doesn’t gain strength. She doesn’t understand why she still has back pain, even though she goes to great lengths to keep it fresh.

4. Z knows that spandex breathes well, so he wears it every day. The knowledge that he’s missing is that he really should not be wearing things so form-fitting.

Just kidding (sort of) about 4, but you get the point. Make sure you are knowledgeable about the tenets you build your program around.

I am hazard

2009-05-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

This past year, I've done probably 25% of my eating while driving. I call it efficiency.

I've concluded that eating while driving is definitely more dangerous than talking on a cellphone. I can name three occasions off the top of my head when eating put me relatively close to an accident - far more so than talking on my phone ever did -

1. A burrito exploded on my lap
2. A bowl of ramen burned my tongue
3. Donut glaze crumbled all over me

What's the basis for outlawing things while driving? I don't really think it's the most distracting thing. Food is so volatile and varies in shape and form, while people on phones are mostly static in their use. I'm just surprised in hindsight that eating is still allowed... though quite thankful.

Change of plans

2009-05-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

I've always maintained that if/when I have kids, I would want sons. First-born? Male. Second-born? Another male, so he can have a playmate and foster a healthy sense of competition and drive. Third-born? Not going to be an issue.
(I'd want to top out at 2 children for 2 main reasons -
1. I wouldn't want me and my baby mama to be outnumbered
2. I wouldn't want to drive a minivan. See: Turk. )

And then when they come of age, I would in no particular order:
-teach them how to play sports
-coach their soccer teams
-talk to them about girls and how there are plenty of fish in the sea
-awkwardly tell them about the birds and the bees
-drink beer with them
-show them how to be strong yet sensitive
-take him backpacking and camping
-watch basketball together
-demonstrate lessons with tough love
-other masculine things

But today I realized that there are things that are associated with daughters, and just women in general that I might find more endearing and useful in my elder years - namely a far stronger emotional connection to their parents, which I can already see manifesting in many of my friends. Maybe continuing my family line and producing an heir become secondary later on. It's much easier to imagine a daughter caring for her sick father than a son.

A simple comparison of overall utility - daughters will be more useful and involved than a son would be, especially with my mix of Asian (communal, yet distant and respectful relationship to parents) and Western (individualistic) cultures. Also she can join girl scouts so we can get hellza cookies.

ROD BENSON!!

2009-05-17T20:00:00.001-07:00

Me: Hey! Rod Benson, right? Mind if we get a picture?
Rod: Sure thing, man.
Me: Damn, how the hell are you so sweaty?
Rod: I think the real question is how the hell are you NOT?
Me: Fair enough. Thanks for the picture!
Proceed to awkward high-five/handshake from someone that's 6'10.

Excellent.

That was underwhelming.

2009-05-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out the word I've been racking my brain for for the past 3 days.

Labradoodle.

George Gray

2009-05-03T21:39:00.001-07:00

This poem is told from a dead man's perspective, in reflection on his life. In surrounding yourself with only comfort and familiarity and avoiding risk, pain and adventure, you miss out on the things that give life meaning.

Abstract: Make mistakes. Be uncomfortable. Expand your horizons. Live life!

George Gray

By: Edgar Lee Masters

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me –
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire –
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

Well I got my wish...

2009-04-28T01:29:00.001-07:00

I wanted to spend as little time at home as possible this summer, because as Mees says, "Cupertino will be waiting.... always."

June 6- June 20
Japan

June 22-August 10
Taipei, Taiwan

August 17
Move to SF

Probably a one-of-a-kind post

2009-04-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

I was talking to someone today about the subject of democracy, the voting process and the general decline of both. It's probably the most in-depth I've thought about those things since US Government at Monta Vista, a class in which I literally laid down on the floor and slept through.

The question posed was, "Why do Californians complain so damn much?" referring to the ridiculous amount of separate referendum elections we hold. Most other states hold those only in conjunction with annual elections or federal matters, so what makes us so different/special in our own minds?

The answers I could think of - a spoiled/selfish and uninformed electorate, a disproportionate amount of people below the poverty line and those wallowing in their own wealth, an inept bureaucracy, a sense of entitlement at being "the liberal state," a sense of having to live up to being "the liberal state " - could all really apply to other states as well. Even the last two; every state creates something of a self-fulfilling prophecy by buying into it's own reputation.

So what's the difference between California and other states? My uneducated hypothesis settled on the fishbowl effect. It seems to be an unspoken fact that as California goes, so does the rest of the nation. Californian politicians seem to be acutely aware of this, and over-exaggerate matters to gain further prominence. And then the citizens follow suit, believing this activism to be the crux of a well-oiled democracy... oh by the way, elections are expensive as hell and they basically come straight out of our pockets.

This led me right back to a solution that I've been championing in hypotheticals since high school - the benevolent dictator. Replacing a democracy with such would be great for efficiency, corruption, speed, action, you name it. Democracy is like a recliner with a toilet within it, it's a great theory but in reality is seriously flawed. Yes, so is a benevolent dictator, but I guess I just like imagining being the dictator.

Also, I was doing the laundry today and a couple of thoughts occurred -
1. The vast majority of my huge load was workout clothes and socks.
2. I haven't washed my jeans in quite a while because I only wear real pants 1-2 times a week, tops.

Things overheard today

2009-04-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

A father talking about his son... "Hey, if he loses and tried his best, then he knows he tried his best and just moves on. I think that is going to make him succeed in life."

Talk about a setup for failure. Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not), but isn't that a terrible message to be sending... ANYone? Whatever happened to bettering yourself or overcoming obstacles? Life isn't the Special Olympics, Discouraging Father.

Some possible slogans for that household:
"Settle for mediocrity!"
"We're #2!"
"A is for Average!"
"< Giveup 3"

And completely unrelated:

"No one thinks it'll work.." "You just described every great success story."
Kudos to whoever knows which movie that's from.

Closet Zen

2009-04-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

It wasn't until I moved off campus from UCSD that I realized that I really like big closets. In fact, one of the notable things that I miss about being in San Diego is the closet at Via Andar. I realized that it wasn't because I was a clothes-horse (I'm not), or because I could stuff all my junk into it and have the illusion of a clean room; it was because I could see everything at once. All my options were laid out in front of me, and the rest I could take care of in my head.

With a little bit of closer thought, it turns out that that pretty much describes my approach towards life in general. I'm pretty much the opposite of rash, and like to weigh all my choices before making a decision. Because of that, I'm rarely as spontaneous as I'd like to be, and I plan and overanalyze things way too much.

Et tu, closet? Just like my mp3 player playlists... What about your personality manifests itself in your surroundings?

Boy Scouts: to be or not to be?

2009-03-31T17:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think about what I would make my kid do and how I could live vicariously through them. Without going into specifics, it got down to at least three sports, at least one musical instrument and one other unnamed hobby/activity. As I made my list, I understood why some parents (like ours) load their kids up so they have little or no free time. You want to give them opportunities to forge an identity for themselves, succeed at something, gain a skill and knowledge, and have fun while doing it all. Unless they happen to join "Junior White Power Leaders" or something, I think there is only positive that can come from these activities and the lessons they teach, especially later in life.

One thing I waver back and forth on sometimes though is Boy Scouts. I know, weird considering I'm an Eagle Scout, but...

+I did so many things that most of my friends will never do in their lives. The range of activities was amazing, especially for a young kid: building and sleeping in a snow cave, backpacking for 2 weeks in the New Mexico wild, canoeing, rowing, horseback-riding, spending a night on a submarine, learning and practicing three ways to kill (archery, rifle shooting and hatchet throwing), invaluable camping and backpacking experience, planning a 200 hour woodcraft project during which my garage got burned down. And yes, there was a point where I knew over 10 knots off the top of my head.

+You get a large dose of morality and ethics that you can apply anywhere.
+Lots of community service, which I think shaped my views quite a bit.

+Although this definitely wasn't the case growing up, the title of Eagle Scout definitely conjures up a certain amount of respect.

+Of course, it looked nice on my college transcript. In fact, I still leave it on my job resumes.. although that will probably stop after this year.

-I had all my Seven Springs friends in Boy Scouts with me, but I'm not sure how I would have fit in otherwise. Most of my troop went to small private schools and was largely WASPy... Even in Cupertino.

-The religious aspect was uncomfortable for me. People don't realize this, but Boy Scouts is a Christian organization and it shows. There are religious undertones in just about every aspect of it, and they attempted to drill it into our heads. A little bit preachy at times.

-It purports to be a scout-led organization, but the adult bureaucracy is really prevalent and detrimental to kids just wanting to have fun.

-I understand that they are a private organization and can do mostly whatever they want, but they kicked a gay scout out a few years ago and claimed that it wasn't discrimination? That's pretty short-sighted, rigid, hypocritical and an easy lawsuit.

Puerto Rico in bullet points

2009-03-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

Ambulances: Whether we were walking around old San Juan or driving on one of the poorly paved highways of Puerto Rico, one of these would zip by us at least every 30 minutes. I saw a random guy driving an ambulance stripped of any hospital markings into a fast-food drivethrough... it's like there are so many that extra ones are up for auction somewhere. I just hope that isn't the case with cop cars and their bullet-proof windows and tires. Very comforting.

Medalla: Puerto Rico's Coors. The beer of choice and sometimes you won't even get a choice; it might be all that's offered. I have to say though, in a blind taste-test with Coors, Medalla beat Coors like it stole something.

Tattoos: It seems like everyone had the exact same idea of rebellion in Puerto Rico: get a borderline disfiguring tattoo and flaunt it shamelessly. Honestly, it seems like more than half of the locals I saw had tattoos and a large portion of those were tramp stamps.

Crocs: Okay, this one makes sense given the fact that it's a tropical island. But Coach Crocs and high-heel/stiletto Crocs?

Obesity: If I had to estimate, I'd put 40% of Puerto Rico's adult population as obese. And if I were to further split that up by genders, adult males would be 30% and adult females would be 50%. What's up with that? I even saw a plus-size fashion show while I was at the mall. Perhaps it's closely tied to the next two bullets...

Ice Cream Trucks: I honestly don't recall ever seeing one of these in California, though we had them come through the neighborhood all the time when I was back in Pennsylvania. In Puerto Rico, these were everywhere, even on the beach. It was pretty funny hearing the truck's bells and seeing the aforementioned obese flock to them. Like moths to light.

Pork: Puerto Ricans love their pork. I thought this was a Polynesian thing, but pigs on spits were everywhere. And if they weren't on spits, they were wrapped in empenadas or served roasted. Pork or plantains were part of probably every meal I had there.

Reggaeton: Songs heard on Puerto Rican radio stations: reggaeton, Katy Perry, reggaeton, Lady Gaga and reggaeton.

Ice cold AC: This reminded me of the library at UCSD. I had 2-hour gaps in my schedule, so I would just kill the time in the library either sleeping or using one of the computers. I hated it because even if it was 80 degrees outside, I would have to bring a sweater to school just to not freeze in the library.

Kid leashes: I have to admit that I would probably use one of these for my own kids.

Measurement identity crisis: Maybe it's because Puerto Rico is a US territory and is thus stuck at an awkward impasse between the US and the rest of the world, but there seems to be absolutely no standardization of units used.
-Lbs (standard) used to weight food.
-Km (metric) used for distances.
-MPH (standard) signs.
-Celsius (metric) used for temperature.
-Liters (metric) used for gas.

Where have the weekends gone?

2009-03-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

"Living for the weekend."

That's usually my motto for when I'm home in Cupertino because there's not a whole lot going on here. I think two summers ago was the best example of this. Everyone had just or was on the cusp of turning 21, we were all working and had some money to burn through and could explore a whole new aspect of home that could potentially redeem it of its boredom (it hasn't).

Fast forward to this past summer and an equally ridiculous situation ensues. We had all just graduated, which was as good an excuse as any to party, and we had even more money to spend. From what little I remember, the weekends started on Thursdays and ended whenever you groggily woke up on Sunday afternoon.

Fast forward to now and things are pretty different. It's understandable; we're past the novelty and afterglow of graduation, thinking longterm, focusing on work or graduate school, might be over that scene, saving up money for cars/homes/school or maybe just trying to grow up.

I just wonder what event, if anything, will ever bring back such a carefree period of outlooks? Maybe I just want to push Daniel through another window on Castro, but does life just get too serious from here on out?

And my boy Anoop is in the American Idol Top 13! Apparently it's Michael Jackson week next week... I'm thinking "Rock With You" or "The Way You Make Me Feel."

What's Your Playlist Say About You?

2009-03-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

I got a new mp3 player this weekend. I have almost as bad luck with mp3 players as I do with printers, none of them seem to last more than a year. This is my 5th mp3 player since the summer of 2007 and I hope it meets a better fate than any of the others:

#1 spontaneously stopped working and couldn't read any of the mp3s on it anymore.
#2 I was playing catch with as I was walking to my front door and missed it, smashing it into 4 pieces.
#3 was stolen from my car along with a sandwich bag of spare change.
#4 melted in my car on the first non-freezing day of the season a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure it was 65 degrees that day tops.
#5 will last forever and deflect a bullet from my heart, thus saving my life.

Anyway I wanted to streamline the type of music that was on it - upbeat hip-hip or electronica to pump myself up at the gym... or in daily life - but looked at my playlist after I uploaded 100 songs and it's filled with the likes of The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Kooks, Musiq Soulchild and "You're the One that I Want" from Grease.

I realized that despite my efforts otherwise, I gravitate towards only one type of song: ones that I like singing to, because I think that's how I enjoy music the most. This explains two things retrospectively: my ridiculously random playlists/cd mixes and my musical ADD (anyone who I've ever driven knows this) where I spend only 10 seconds on a song before I change it to the next one. Sometimes your mood dictates what you want to sing.

So I guess it's no coincidence that my go-tos at karaoke have made it onto each of my 5 mp3 players.

I watched a girl deadlift 185 today..

2009-03-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

My god that was sexy.

Guess who's IQ is at least 118?

2009-02-28T02:07:00.000-08:00

(Okay, a hint. It is not me, it is Chris Brown, the new Bobby Brown. Gj Eric. Read the ad carefully.)

So I Like Animals

2009-02-25T23:55:00.000-08:00

I show some people just about everything that amuses me on the internet and they recently pointed out a trend - the majority of them are pictures of videos of animals doing stupid things. Here are a few.

How to break up a cat fight - watch until the very end.

The pet penguin - they trained him to wear a backpack and get fish at the fish market.

Monkey sniffs atomic finger

Lazy cat on treadmill

And a lesser degree of anthropomorphism.

Helluva Amazon Review

2009-02-24T23:23:00.000-08:00

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

"
Please allow me to share with you how "The Secret" changed my life and in a very real and substantive way allowed me to overcome a severe crisis in my personal life. It is well known that the premise of "The Secret" is the science of attracting the things in life that you desire and need and in removing from your life those things that you don't want. Before finding this book, I knew nothing of these principles, the process of positive visualization, and had actually engaged in reckless behaviors to the point of endangering my own life and wellbeing.

At age 36, I found myself in a medium security prison serving 3-5 years for destruction of government property and public intoxication. This was stiff punishment for drunkenly defecating in a mailbox but as the judge pointed out, this was my third conviction for the exact same crime. I obviously had an alcohol problem and a deep and intense disrespect for the postal system, but even more importantly I was ignoring the very fabric of our metaphysical reality and inviting destructive influences into my life.

My fourth day in prison was the first day that I was allowed in general population and while in the recreation yard I was approached by a prisoner named Marcus who calmly informed me that as a new prisoner I had been purchased by him for three packs of Winston cigarettes and 8 ounces of Pruno (prison wine). Marcus elaborated further that I could expect to be raped by him on a daily basis and that I had pretty eyes.

Needless to say, I was deeply shocked that my life had sunk to this level. Although I've never been homophobic I was discovering that I was very rape phobic and dismayed by my overall personal street value of roughly $15. I returned to my cell and sat very quietly, searching myself for answers on how I could improve my life and distance myself from harmful outside influences. At that point, in what I consider to be a miraculous moment, my cell mate Jim Norton informed me that he knew about the Marcus situation and that he had something that could solve my problems. He handed me a copy of "The Secret". Normally I wouldn't have turned to a self help book to resolve such a severe and immediate threat but I literally didn't have any other available alternatives. I immediately opened the book and began to read.

The first few chapters deal with the essence of something called the "Law of Attraction" in which a primal universal force is available to us and can be harnessed for the betterment of our lives. The theoretical nature of the first few chapters wasn't exactly putting me at peace. In fact, I had never meditated and had great difficulty with closing out the chaotic noises of the prison and visualizing the positive changes that I so dearly needed. It was when I reached Chapter 6 "The Secret to Relationships" that I realized how this book could help me distance myself from Marcus and his negative intentions. Starting with chapter six there was a cavity carved into the book and in that cavity was a prison shiv. This particular shiv was a toothbrush with a handle that had been repeatedly melted and ground into a razor sharp point.

The next day in the exercise yard I carried "The Secret" with me and when Marcus approached me I opened the book and stabbed him in the neck. The next eight weeks in solitary confinement provided ample time to practice positive visualization and the 16 hours per day of absolute darkness made visualization about the only thing that I actually could do. I'm not sure that everybody's life will be changed in such a dramatic way by this book but I'm very thankful to have found it and will continue to recommend it heartily.
"

...Yes, this review was helpful to me.

The Perfect Warriors Game

2009-02-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Let me qualify this by saying that I'm a huge Golden State Warriors fan.... but the Warriors won last night and I'm pretty annoyed about that.

They've been having a season for the dumps (injuries, Monta getting hurt, trades, bad draft picks), which typically has one silver lining: a high draft pick. But by winning and getting a mediocre record, like the Warriors have a habit of doing, you do nothing for yourself and pretty much mire yourself to purgatory. Your team doesn't do well, and it doesn't really have a great chance at improving itself through the draft.

So my perfect Warriors game for this season has these elements:
-The younger players (especially Marco, Randolph and Morrow) getting plenty of run so they can contribute next year to when our core is better and healthy.
-An exciting game where we don't get blown out. For example, the Lakers game last week - it was high scoring and we were actually up in the 4th quarter, but we all knew it was inevitable that they would choke and end up losing by a hair. At least the Warriors are dependable in some regards.
-Monta shooting over 50% on his one ankle.
-Maggette doing well so we can showcase him to be traded.
-Most importantly, a nice check in the L column.

Things I've Always Wondered About

2009-02-23T09:18:00.000-08:00

1. Why do people always slow down when they see a cop pulling someone over? It's not like he is going to suddenly jump into his car Dukes of Hazzard style and chase you down while writing a citation simultaneously.

2. What did Dr. Evil expect to do with his ransom money? It doesn't seem likely that anyone would do business with such a high-profile wanted criminal. Moreover, why wouldn't he just use his means to get the material things he wanted instead of going the circuitous route and getting money first?

3. Why when you ask someone what they're up to, the default answer is always "Nothing" or "Not much." And then they will proceed to tell you what they are up to.

4. Aren't we on the verge of potential destruction every second of the day? Suppose a nearby star suddenly goes supernova and expels its contents into a nebula that will encompass our solar system. Light traveling at light speed would inform us of the event (It only takes 8 minutes for light from our sun to reach earth), and the only lag time we would have for survival is how much slower the speed of radiation and contents expulsion is than light.

Okay, I was thinking about this one more: radiation actually does travel the speed of light because it's just an invisible part of the vision spectrum. So the question really is how damaging radiation would be by itself without its thermal or ionizing components. In any case, the window of survival just shrank considerably.

5. How my sense of direction can be so damn bad. (So's your face Sarah! jkkkk)

Bill Nye!

2009-02-21T03:19:00.000-08:00

My favorite blogs to keep up with these days are popsci.com and wiredscience.com. I think this is because I spent most of undergrad studying things that are either completely unrelated or just completely boring.

Here's a few interesting articles from the past couple of days...

1. The Real Costs of Owning a Hybrid. Hybrids are great environmentally, but I think it's a complete fallacy that the savings in gas $ determines the bottom line to purchase them. This article talks about the unexpected costs that make buying a hybrid instead of a gas car a wash.

2. The Pitch Drop Experiment. This is an experiment that shows a substance so viscous that it's dripped only 9 times since 1930.

3. Monkey Uses Brainwaves to Control Prosthetic Arm. Shows how prosthetics have advanced in recent years to the point where electrodes on the motor cortex can stimulate accurate movement. "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."

4. Liberty University Disputing Evolution. Explains the rationale behind Liberty's choice to teach literal creationism - the world was created 10,000 years ago. Proponents of

“If a frog turns into a prince with a kiss then it’s a fairy tale. If a frog turns into a prince over millions of years, it’s science,” he said, referencing the theory of evolution. “It’s almost ridiculous.”

What is Pretty Woman telling us?

2009-02-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

Does this movie say that...
A. Hollywood condones hooking
B. employing a hooker for a week is an acceptable thing to do
C. the only thing that matters is people's inner beauty
D. hookers have hearts of gold, try them out and find out
E. all that matters in a relationship is chemistry? (Which is something I subscribe to, but it's still a qualified statement whenever I say it. Servicing other men on a nightly basis might overshadow a little bit of chemistry.)

Yo, but on the real I've always felt some moral ambiguity about that movie.

5 more random thoughts

2009-02-16T00:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, since I noticed that the posts on sunnyvalefitness.wordpress.com that I give creative and long names get 100x more hits than other posts, I'm going to actually start titling here. Besides, the other day I was trying to remember something I wrote a couple months ago and pretty much had to click through every post because of the stupid lazy titles.

My rainy day thoughts:

There's a black trainer at YMCA that I talk to a lot. Today I caught myself saying something like "Yo, I know I ain't never done nothin' like that before, you know what I'm sayin?" This must stop.

Some other co-workers at YMCA abbreviate "group exercise" to "group ex." Is that really necessary? Why not just "ex," "group?" Might as well call it this:

Why must there be peanuts in every single mixed nuts, fruit and nut mix and trail mix ever conceived?

I just bought 2 tubs of protein online. One is Cupcake Batter flavored and the other is Cinnamon Bun flavored. I really hope I win my gamble and they taste awesome, or else I'm going to have a very gross next 3 months.

So I really think The Office kind of sucks now. It took a Scrubs-esque tumble; all the characters became static and one-dimensional, and the humor became based on stupid setup situations rather than character development/interaction. Plus Jim + Pam is epically boring - let's have them attend a Phish concert with Creed, get high and let the chips fall where they may. Cartoons on the other hand usually seem to get better with seasons for some reason. (Minus the Simpsons... does anyone actually watch that anymore?)

Random 21 - 25

2009-02-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

Because I used to be a really quiet kid, I often feel a need to make sure that my opinion is voiced and heard, which is probably annoying.

One of the things I always look for when I'm driving is dogs sticking their heads out of car windows.

I burned my garage down senior year of high school on accident. RIP Sentra #1.

I absolutely can't stand sugar-coating, so I don't do it and will pretty much always tell it like it is.

Every month or so, I get this urge to hermit myself and be all introspective and pensive, but then I get too bored.

Random 14 - 20

2009-02-11T22:40:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I think in depth about the steps necessary to drop everything in my life here and just move to the midwest to farm grain for a simpler and possibly more fulfilling existence.

When I graduated high school, I was 140 lbs. By the beginning of my junior year in college, I was 172, and one summer later, I was back to 150, which I still am today.

I don't like celebrating my own birthday. Something about being the center of attention only out of obligation.

I have almost been arrested.. more than once.

I really, really hate being bad at things and subsequently failure. Sometimes I think the only reason I have any drive at all is to avoid that failure.

I wish my ego was smaller.

Whenever I'm applauding something, the # of claps always falls on a multiple of 7.

Random 7 - 13

2009-02-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

Putting aside vanity, health, my job and any other reasons, a large part of why I workout as hard as I do is because I was overweight when I was a kid.

Punctuality is a big deal to me. It can usually be remedied by leaving for your destination just 5-10 minutes earlier, so why not do it? Are people not worth that? I view it as a lack of respect and common courtesy and thus always try to be early unless I'm trying to be fashionably late.

I'm most comfortable in bed when I have a pillow covering half of my face.

I use cocoa butter moisturizer for my hands after I shower everyday.

Whenever I'm bored in a library, I try to find the oldest book I can.

In junior high, I set 2-3 school track and field records until some coach dug up books from the late 80's and I was expunged from the record book.

I'm a good deal colorblind in the green spectrum.

Random 2 - 6

2009-02-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

In more situations than I'd like to admit, I find myself thinking WWFPD? What Would the Fresh Prince Do?

My first kiss was an ambush in first grade when I was still in Pennsylvania.

I'm very OCD about cutting my fingernails.

I used to associate the color silver with feeling nauseous when I was younger. I think it only lasted for about 1-2 years, but when I looked at something silver, I would literally start feeling kind of queasy.

I still hold my breath whenever I go through tunnels.

Random 1

2009-02-05T23:40:00.000-08:00

A nice little cop-out from longer posts is that vestige of junior high that's making the rounds on facebook... 25 random things about me.

1. Almost without fail, whenever I eat rice, one or two kernels gets lodged in my sinus cavity somewhere and I sniff uncomfortably for hours afterwards.

And in Anoop news, he made it through to the top 36!

Outsourced

2009-02-04T01:26:00.000-08:00

When I first started this blog, I got maybe 15 hits a day and 5 were from myself. My gym just started a blog and it got 70 hits on it's 3rd day... So I plan on contributing pretty heavily to it. That will either drastically lower the amount of posts I put here, or put me in some kind of literary mode where I write like I got beat.

It's here http://sunnyvalefitness.wordpress.com/ and I write under the name korkie77 (remember my genie story from elementary school?).

Knowledge

2009-01-28T02:05:00.000-08:00

A little bit of knowledge can sometimes be bad.

I have to deal with this a ridiculous amount at work.
-Guy knows that marathon runners carbo-load before races and long runs sometimes, so he starts carbo-loading before he comes in for sessions. Marathon runners will log upwards of 80 miles a week, and he trains for 3 hours a week. He doesn't understand why he is gaining fat.

-Guy knows that we utilize glucose stores when we workout. He proceeds to eat three protein bars during each 1.5 session of training in order to keep his "glycogen repositories" high. It takes at least 30 mins for the stomach to start digesting food and I don't even know how much longer until it is able to make use of the nutrients. He doesn't understand why he still gets tired at the end of his workouts.

-Woman knows that the spine is relatively fragile, so she avoids all movements that involve bending over. This causes muscle imbalances, posture and flexibility problems from a weak lower back that doesn't gain strength. She doesn't understand why she still has back pain, even though she goes to great lengths to keep it fresh.

-Atkins. It's fairly synonymous with "low carb," but many also make it synonymous with "eat as much fatty and junk as I can, as long as they don't have carbs."

-Guy knows that spandex breathes well, so he wears it every day. The knowledge that he's missing is that he really should not be wearing things so form-fitting.

These statements look good on their own, but when you try to integrate them with other statements, it just doesn't work out so well. A pictoral representation:

Impact

2009-01-27T02:09:00.000-08:00

I don't think we really realize the weight of our words. For example, here's a few sayings that have really stuck with me throughout the years:
1. There are always a million reasons to not do something. - Jan Levinson, The Office.
2. Whether you believe you can or can't, you will be right. - Henry Ford.
3. Save the drama for your mama. - Some fool that cleverly rhymed this.

If fictional baby mama Jan Levinson can direct me towards an attitude-changing epiphany, then what's the weight of my friends' words? (Someone's got to pick up the pieces - Will [I bet you don't even remember this]) Teachers? (Keep it simple, stupid - Grayson from Kennedy) For that matter, what about our parents' words? (Take advantage of your opportunities because I never had them - Dad)

I was talking to a client and found that despite his being only 33, has two kids that are 10 and 6. He knows that he is basically their world at that age, and as a result is constantly thinking about choosing his words carefully, trying to prevent his judgments from coloring theirs, etc. His kids will carry whatever he conveys to them for a long, long time. I distinctly remember disliking John Travolta when I was young because my Dad thought he was a greasy looking hippie. Trivial, but what if he had told me that it was because Travolta was white? Or [insert absurd prejudice.]

I recently realized that I sort of have the power to impact people like that at my job. I think it's because everything I say is interpreted as coming from a... "hierarchically higher source," for lack of a better phrase. Obviously I'm not, but such are the social dynamics of being a trainer. They get a good-sized dose of my views on fitness, nutrition and life in general, and I've noticed it really affecting a couple of them. One guy told me that he printed out an email I wrote him with some inspiring mumbo-jumbo in it and taped it onto his monitor at work.

Anyway, it's interesting to think about how the things you say, no matter how trivial you think they may be, might really affect and inspire someone.
:How would you like to be remembered?
:To have made an impact on people.
Well that's a little bit better than "Spreading my seed."

ANOOP

2009-01-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

So I took a mini-break from writing... but only in relative terms, because there was a point where I was writing posts everyday and pretty much stockpiling them. Anyway, I think some of the stuff I write about is a little too heavy for daily consumption.

With Chinese New Year's on the horizon and me saving up to travel this summer, I really wish my family.. wasn't my family. Okay, that's a bit strong, but here: In my best year I think I got about $200 total, and that was a hell of an anomaly. In junior high and the beginning of high school, my haul would be one red envelope with $20 from my parents. Then when I was a junior in high school, I got one from them that had $1 in it with a note that said "It's the thought that counts." Extrapolate a few years down the line from that and I'm guessing I'll get a lump of coal this year.

I think I'm going to actually watch American Idol this year. So two things for those of you that may not know: I sang in an a cappella group at UCSD and if I'm involved in something, I'm in 110%. I got familiar with groups from all over the nation and found a particularly good one from UNC called the Clef Hangers. They have a soloist named Anoop that I've big-time man-crushed on for the past year.. AND HE'S ON AMERICAN IDOL THIS SEASON.

Here's him covering "The Only One For Me" by Brian McKnight (Seriously, how many people can cover him?)

And here's him auditioning on American Idol

And now a female crush, Kina Grannis.

Archie

2009-01-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

Authorship (Musical)

2009-01-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

I love oldies. In my opinion, 1964 - 1979 was the greatest musical era - there was just so much innovation, talent and real musicianship. You had the rise of Motown, disco's ups and downs, Pink Floyd's psychadelic peak, the birth of electronica and powerful songs that reflected a turbulent political scene. Basically everything heard today is derivative of something from that era.

But where did those songs come from? To what extent do we just like the writers behind the hits, as opposed to the artists themselves?

Take for example, the famous Motown songwriter Norm Whitfield. I know that he wrote a couple of songs for The Temptations, but a little more research via wikipedia showed that he wrote all of these:
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
Just My Imagination
Beauty's Only Skin Deep
You're My Everything
I Wish It Would Rain
Cloud Nine
Can't Get Next To You
Psychadelic Shack
Ball of Confusion
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
(Also Car Wash - Rose Royce and War - Edwin Starr)

As a huge Temptations fan, I can tell you that that list covers every Temptations song of note except "My Girl" and "Get Ready." So I love.. Norm Whitfield? Lamp?

Semantics.

Authorship

2009-01-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

There are three books I would want to write, and they have absolutely no relation to each other.

In 6th grade, I had to write a 2 page story for some language arts assignment. It was about a genie named Korkie and his cat (this is the origin of my first e-mail address and various usernames "korkie"). I got a little carried away and ended up with 5 pages, so I just lopped off the end and fabricated some generic ending. After that, I worked on it everyday for a few weeks - until my adolescent attention span ran out and I became equally infatuated with something else. Anyway, I ended up with about 12 pages, single space 12 point font, of a story about a genie who is freed from his lamp after a millenia by a cat scratching himself on it. The cat gets three wishes and thouroughly enjoys jerking his genie around. Seemed promising back then.

Remember when Cupertino and Monta Vista was the subject of this hopelessly biased and skewed article from the Wall Street Journal? (http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/teen/teencenter/05nov_whiteflight.htm) It told about how white families felt intimidated by the influx of Asian immigrants and their emphasis on academics. It was badly written and poorly researched, but it wasn't completely without grounds. I remember meeting with a junior high friend in college who didn't attend Monta Vista, and said that only when he was surrounded by all white people did he discover that "white people also could work hard and be smart." I'd want to conduct and write about a comparative study of Cupertino vs. other upper middle class communities... namely white ones. What are the differences: Is the emphasis still heavily only on academics as it is in Cupertino, or is there a wider breadth of living encouraged? Are there similarities between Asian immigrants and European immigrants? Etc.

A book on the practical basics of fitness and nutrition. You saw this coming. I would love to dispel some of the dogma the fitness world is inundated with. Said world is for some reason exceptionally susceptible to real-life rumors; the spread of information that has no grounds, and that may or may not be true. There are certainly more educated people to write this, but I think I know what is most salient to people and what they can relate to best.

Comparison

2009-01-03T02:06:00.000-08:00

1998
2004

As always, click to enlarge.

Drunk

2008-12-29T00:27:00.000-08:00

Eating lunch with a friend today felt a little weird. I think maybe it was the absence of alcohol. Does anyone else realize that the majority of times we see other people nowadays are when we're drunk, or about to be?

"Push"

2008-12-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

Being a PT is a lot more involved of a job than I originally imagined it to be. There's no quick getting in and out.. at least not if you want to be a good one.

I quickly found that in addition to playing the trainer role, I also have to fill the roles of: conscience, teacher, nutritionist, psychologist, organizer/planner and motivator.

From my perspective, the teacher role is the most important and truly effective. "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach him to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." If you can teach someone to exercise and diet effectively and correctly, then they'll be able to make changes in their lives independently. They'll be able to build on their progress indefinitely. I think that's the #1 problem with the fad diets and workouts (you'd be surprised at some of the newfangled workouts people are pushing nowadays); there's no teaching element to illustrate why they are working. The process is more like "Dang, this workout 360XYZ was working great last month, and now I'm getting nothing out of it!" If they had learned about it, then they would know exactly why it was becoming less effective and how to modify it to work again. But then again, that may or may not be on purpose.

From the client perspective, I think the motivator role is the most important... probably because it is the most salient. I can imagine that having someone watching you the whole time, paying for PT and not wanting to let someone down are pretty powerful motivators.

There are verbal motivators that work differently for everyone, but one that I've found that's pretty universal is "Push yourself!" Without fail, I can say that and they will suddenly give a renewed 110% effort at whatever they're doing. A few more reps, 10 more seconds, 6 more jabs. The reaction is almost as if I just challenged their very identity - their sense of determination, discipline and all those related traits. I don't think anyone thinks themselves below average in those areas, so there we go: A key to good motivation is challenging something that people identify with so they aren't only motivated to prove it to you, but to themselves as well.

Stories

2008-12-25T13:36:00.000-08:00

"Everyone's got their own tales."

You know that stereotype that old people like to drone on about their younger days without end? Sometimes they've actually got interesting stuff to say. I've been a lot more accepting of it as a result of my recent optometrist visit in San Diego. Turns out there is an optometrist's office right inside that glasses store next to Chipotle.

I was greeted by a lively old optometrist with huge eyebrows and we made the requisite small-talk as I looked through those huge lens-changers. He noticed that I was in good shape and asked me if I worked out. So we talked about that for a while, and it turns out that he did some amateur bodybuilding competitions in the 50's, had a powerlifting background and used to train with this man: Sergio Oliva, who was Arnold's immediate predecessor at the top of bodybuilding. He even whipped out a picture of the two of them together from the 60's posing in trunks. He told me about some of the ways they used to train, which are probably only interesting to me and Richard.

Next, when I told him I was Chinese, he asked if I knew the name Tang Lan Hwa. His pronounciation was pretty bad, but it was a familiar name. Tang Lang Hwa is a famous Chinese singer/actress along the lines of Teresa Teng and Faye Wong, definitely a name that your parents will recognize. Turns out that he saw her quite frequently because his wife, also Chinese, was one of her best friends. They met while Tang Lan Hwa was on tour and staying at a hotel. His wife was determined to meet her, so she went to the hotel, asked for her as if she was her friend and just went up to her room. Voila, BFFs.

Then he told me about living in Chicago, how San Diego was in earlier years, the crazy patients he had as an optometrist and his visits to China. I remarked that it sounded like he had had a pretty amazing and interesting life, but he replied with something that I thought was kind of profound, "Nah... Everyone's got their own tales."

We rarely realize the moments of greatest magnitude in our lives as they are happening, so I wonder... What will end up being my tales?

EDIT: One more thing 'Ol Jack said that really stayed with me... "To get what you want in this life, you gotta have balls."

Cars

2008-12-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

I say this in the least creepy and voyeuristic way possible: I like to watch people in their cars. Mostly at stoplights. Not only does it help pass the time, it alleviates my road rage because I can just laugh at the dickhead that just cut me off. Most people seem to neglect that all the windows in their cars, not only the front and back windshields, are... well, clear.

Let's break down the most common...
-Zoning out and staring straight ahead into space
-Looking at self in rearview mirror (mostly women)
-Singing and bobbing head to music
-Talking on the phone without a headset while looking around for cops
-Picking nose covertly.. or some not so covertly
-Spilling water on face from water bottle (just one old lady, her face was priceless)

Scars

2008-12-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

The lack of sunlight during fall/winter accentuates my natural paleness, which correspondingly accentuate my stretch marks. They're located mostly on my arms, back and chest as a result of weight lifting, so while they are a little unsightly, I wear them with some degree of pride. They got me thinking about two notable scars I have.

1. Bald spot on the back of my head. I was at McDonald's when I was 3 and had just gotten a happy meal. My parents didn't often take me out to McDonald's, much less buy me toys, so it was quite a day for me. I dropped my toy on the ground and was swooping down to pick it up when I slipped off the chair and went head-first into the bolt that was holding the table in place. I vaguely remember seeing a french fry on the ground and thinking, "Isn't anyone going to eat that?" After that point, I just remember a lot of bleeding and crying... and amidst it all, I never got that stupid toy back. (Why do all kids simply love McDonald's? I remember wanting it for three meals a day back then. Are there some addictive properties of eating chicken nuggets that aren't made of chicken? Is it that creepy pedophile Ronald? The hashbrowns are awesome, though.)

2. Scar on the bottom of my left pec. Don't run with scissors.

Lassie

2008-12-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

So what if Timmy fell down the old well?

Dog drags injured friend off of highway

Quotes

2008-12-18T22:49:00.000-08:00

Some quotes from the past week...

Duct tape and WD40 can fix 99% of problems in life. If it is supposed to move and it does not - WD40. If it moves and should not - Duct tape.

Whether you believe you can or can't, you are right.
- Henry Ford

Your best bet is to act like a duck, looking calm and composed on the surface but pedaling furiously under the water.
- Steven Gilbert (Does he know how funny of a visual he created? It just makes me think of a duck quack-groaning under the strain)

From one of my clients who is a lawyer: A month before law school starts is the point at which your life ceases for the next 14 months. Just accept it.

From the same guy: Yeah, I think maybe we'll have a kid sometime. As long as he doesn't get in the way.

And not a quote yet kind of quoteworthy, today I got asked if I was married.

Race

2008-12-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I lined up at a starting line for the first time since sophomore year of high school. My last race back then was actually pretty epic, as my 4x400 relay team miraculously qualified for the CCS semis on account of everyone running out of our minds. I think I was actually the slowest at about 52.8s on my leg, and our time was in the 3:31 region.

I got semi-coerced into running the Annual Christmas Relays in SF at Lake Merced by my boss. One of the guys on his team of 4 fell sick during the week, so he asked me on Wednesday if I would fill in. I got the call at about 3:00 PM, set out for 3.5 mile run at about 3:30 and was dying by 3:40. I don't know how much it really paid off, seeing as I was sore right up until the morning of the race, but it felt good to know that I was still capable of running.

So Sunday morning rolled around, and we head off to SF at 7:30 AM for a 9:00 race start time. The course was a lap around the lake itself, 7 KM or 4.6 miles each runner. I took the first leg and finished in about 33 minutes which is about a 7:30 mile pace. And of course, it started raining about 1 mile in. At this point, I would like to thank anonymous old man, who I drafted (running right behind them, which decreases the amount of wind resistance and effort) and paced off of for 4 miles. He looked like he was about 60 years old, and I just kept thinking to myself, "There's no way in hell this guy is going to beat me." I can still see his muscular, veiny calves in my head. The other guys on my team went about 42, 32 and 30 minutes for their legs.

I can barely walk today, but it was definitely worth it and a lot more fun than I expected. The fact that it was a relay incorporated my best memories from high school track, and going with a big group of people from our gym reminded me of cross country, where everyone would cheer each other on as soon as they were done with their own races.

On a funny note, I think my team had to be THE most randomly composed team out there.
-22 year old Chinese personal trainer that's going to law school
-29 year old Indian restauranteur that owns this place: http://www.yelp.com/biz/rangoli-india-restaurant-san-jose
-38 year old Korean gym owner
-52 year old white golf pro at Deep Cliff (also the fastest guy on our team, though maybe my boss wasn't trying super hard)

We must have looked like one of those college advertisements that makes sure to feature someone of every race.

Skillz

2008-12-16T16:58:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of 'nots'... One thing I realize I'm not is a great dancer. I can move to a beat and not look totally out of place, but I'm no Michael Flatley, Mikhail Baryshnikov, or even Ronald Yuen. I accept it and don't really care because I'm going to have fun regardless.

But what triggered this epiphany? Watching Turk (Donald Faison) from Scrubs and not being able to do ANY of what he does.. at least not in the 5 minutes I allowed myself in the privacy of my own room and mirror.

Observe...

Nots

2008-12-15T21:07:00.000-08:00

EDIT: IT IS BETTER TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE NOT THAN WHAT YOU ARE.

I think I've come up with a good policy for evaluating and defining myself.

Instead of defining myself as a series of traits and qualities that I am, I think it's more accurate and productive to define myself as a series of 'nots.' Things I'm not, traits I don't possess, things I dislike.

I think the best example to clarify this with is relationships. My experiences have definitely showed me things I don't want in terms of circumstances, traits and quirks. Things that I know I wouldn't be able to stand or work around, deal-breakers perhaps. These are always easy to isolate and identify because they can stand alone and not be affected by other circumstances, so you can express your 'nots' with a constant accuracy. I try to steer clear of smokers, don't like long distance, and am not a big phone person; easy. Things I do like/want, however, aren't always so easily separated. I like showing affection and pet names; not very specific and always dependent on other factors.

Everyone searches for things that define us uniquely as individuals with passions, and I think the 'not' traits help towards that goal more. It is more descriptive to say that someone isn't X, Y and Z instead of saying that they only are X.

I guess the way I see me ultimately finding myself is through a gigantic process of elimination. I don't like hot weather? I don't like warm weather? I must like the cold. Repeat for all circumstances.

And now, a monkey enjoying a hot bath.

Relationships

2008-12-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge... I don't think there is a single person, male or female, that this doesn't hit a bit too close to home for. CRINGE.

Band

2008-12-12T12:09:00.000-08:00

I've always had a musical outlet in my life. In fact, it's a big part of how I define myself. Piano, trombone (yes...), guitar, singing... one of the above has always been able to manifest itself somehow. But I dropped band in junior high, piano lessons stopped in high school and it's hard to be in a college a cappella group when you're out of college.

Aside from my passing urges to buy a bass, that kind of leaves the guitar for now, and so one of my resolutions in my year of freedom (YOF - in reference to the period of time before law school where I have no real obligations) is to improve substantially at guitar. Wes Montgomery here I come! And since I don't have the money for my beloved Les Paul, I'm determined to do it on my Ovation acoustic-electric.

It can get sort of boring, just learning, practicing and playing on your own, so I hope for a return of Sarah and the Well-Hungs this year! We had quite a few practices and jam sessions in the summer, even got offered a gig, but things happen and people get busy.

James on solo guitar, me on rhythm, Sarah on drums and Jon on yelling gibberish.

Bathroom

2008-12-10T01:24:00.000-08:00

I thought I saw a mushroom in the toilet bowl at home today. I was pretty disgusted, but the worst part is that I wasn't even completely surprised. It turned out to be a detergent releaser that my brother had bought, which was pretty surprising for a few reasons. I've been embroiled in an extremely passive-aggressive bathroom cleaning war with my brother for the past few years, which stems from the fact that we're both too lazy to completely clean the bathroom that we share. So the fact that he's done something to benefit the both of us is puzzling... Either he's trying to usher in an era of truce or he's passively-aggressively prodding me to respond in kind.

Highlights:
-We have a towel rack next to the shower which breaks about every 2 years due to not being anchored to a stud in the wall. Last time it broke in February and he accused me of breaking it, even though I was in San Diego for the preceding months. It was broken until about July, when I finally just fixed it with drywall and paint.
-Whenever he cleans the counter/mirror, he only wipes off his side.
-The florescent light bulbs have been out/incredibly dim and flickering for the past 3 weeks, and neither of us have changed them... or even mentioned them. Which is funny because we both shower at night, and half the time I either need to re-shampoo halfway through or rinse off halfway through because I have enough foam to imitate Santa. (Though I do like that when I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I'm not blinded by the light.)
-Last summer, I ran an experiment on the toilet paper in the bathroom. I took 2 rolls and hid one under the sink - I used that one. I put the other roll in it's normal place on the dispenser for my brother to use: I kept running out of toilet paper when I needed it and wanted to compare the rates of usage. The results showed a rate of 2.5 rolls for my brother to 1 for me... which explained things. I understand being cautious to avoid the dreaded fingerpoke-through, but c'mon.

Infarction

2008-12-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

"Weave bacon"... not a phrase you hear everyday. I don't know about you, but I would devour this thing whole.
7 easy steps to a heart attack!

Jobs

2008-12-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

When I was younger I wanted to be an astronaut. I know it's a pretty generic dream, and I'm not sure how other people arrive at it, but I got there initially from my brother's influence; then I ran with it. Given the choice, I always read sci-fi books and consequently Asimov and Feynman became some of my favorite authors as a kid. My favorite merit badge as a Boy Scout was Astronomy, where my instructor took us into the mountains and woke us up at 3 AM to point out various constellations. I always wanted to go to Space Camp and spin around one in one of those human gyroscope machines. One of my old swimming teachers held his lessons in a pool right next to Moffett Field and Hangar One. I like(d) Star Trek.

It's still my ultimate dream job, even after I realized I could get motion sick even on a canoe. Hey, as long as we're dreaming, we'll just go ahead and remove my queasiness.

Another dream job that wouldn't quite work out is being a food critic. Who wouldn't like getting paid to eat and complain? But I have sort of a weak stomach, can't handle any degree of spice and am allergic to peanuts and a wide range of fruits... so there would be surprisingly many occupational hazards involved in that.

And of course being a supermodel photographer is out of the question because the models wouldn't be able to concentrate around me...

A great one that I've heard a couple of times is being some sort of host for the Travel Channel. Surely any of us could do better than Tara Reid, her horrendous boobs and IQ rivaling an eggplant's. I wouldn't necessarily want to be on TV, I would just want to be sent around the world and experience new things and cultures on someone else's tab.

But if it's a TV show, here are some working titles:
-Wild on with Pei
-Don't Offend the Natives
-Where in the World is Pei Kuo?
-What's Native For "Bathroom?"
-You do WHAT Here? (And in every episode I would say this while looking incredulously at the camera)
-Don't Ask, Just Eat It.

Origins

2008-12-06T00:15:00.000-08:00

I used to get asked a lot how I got my start in singing, and the answer is so trite that it always makes me laugh/cringe to myself a little bit. Yes, a girl.

It was about May in 7th grade and I was fresh off the heartbreak of my first girlfriend (SARAH, WHY!?!?)... Okay, maybe 'fresh' isn't too accurate. We only lasted from about November to January, but that's a long time for a junior high relationship! (I have this theory that any pre-high school relationship, and most high school ones, should be evaluated with dog years/months/weeks/whatever in regard to their significance.) Anyway, I knew that she liked singing and was going to audition to be in the school choir next year, so it seemed like a good idea at the time to audition as well and possibly have a class with her. It was a classic case of "hoes over bros," as I was potentially abandoning the whole trombone section of the school band for this girl.

I decided on the spur of the moment, and not knowing any other song by heart, I gave a stirring rendition of "A Whole New World" for my first audition ever and spent the rest of the night anxious and restless. Unbeknownst to me, because the choir was short on guys, all I had to do was pretty much just show up and not be tonedeaf.. so I got into the choir.

A couple weeks went by in the summer without seeing her at school everyday and I got over her pretty quickly, but I stayed signed up. A few more choirs, a couple of a cappella groups and some open mics and gigs later and here we are.

After 10 years, I can sing just like this!

Pleasures

2008-12-05T00:46:00.000-08:00

Life's little pleasures

-Wearing new socks
-Having a nice exchange with a stranger
-Stretching and feeling a pleasant soreness
-The sound of fingers sliding on guitar strings
-A bear hug
-The smell of a new pair of shoes
-Listening to the rain hit the roof and windows while you're going to sleep
-Hitting all green lights while driving
-A productive q-tip
-Being able to pick out Orion, Cassieopeia and Draco on clear nights
-Helping someone
-Waking up an hour before my alarm and realizing I can sleep a while longer
-Waking up in the morning with a huge bass range
-Smelling fresh laundry on your pillow and pillow case
-Blowing a can of compressed air and watching a huge amount of dust fly away
-Peeling a hard-boiled egg in one piece
-Being able to find good song immediately on the radio

Brainfog

2008-12-02T01:02:00.000-08:00

In light of my insane wake up times, I've noticed that my language skills definitely take a beating in the mornings. Most popular flubs include:

1. "How are you doing?" + "How's it going?" It's like I can't make up my mind on which to say, and both come out, which results in a garbled "How irt going?" The "are" comes out really short and the "going" comes out as "goo-ing."

2. "That's great!" + "That's good!" which comes out as "That's grood!" "Grood set... form is lookin' grood."

3a. Counting difficulties. Often, I'll count reps or time out loud. The trouble area is right around 11-14, where I suspect it might have something to do with the transition from the teens. For some reason, it just doesn't register in my head, and I'll just kind of grunt to fill the counts while I find the right number. "15, 14, 13, huh, huh, huh...9?, 8."

3b. I'll zone out and just lose complete count. That's why I prefer to not do stuff in front of mirrors where they can see me, so I can just do my take my early morning stares at my own leisure. I'm getting really good at guessing what # they are at, but it doesn't matter.. turns out that people stop counting for themselves if I do it sometimes.

4. I blank on the names of machines and exercises. As I go from exercise to exercise, I like to talk about what's in store for them, and in the mornings sometimes it's just reduced to pointing. "We'll go to the uh... that machine right after we do a set of these.. one legged... deadlifts. Oh, the lat pulldown machine, I mean."

5. I forget to get the weights or equipment that we need for the exercise. We'll be on the mat about to do some ab exercise with medicine balls, and I'll take my place beside them and realize the medicine balls aren't even there. "Oh.. holdon a second."

Of course.. not all of these happen everyday..

Bridges

2008-11-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

For those that aren't familiar with musical bridges, they're a structural and harmonic variance from a song's main melodic line that often leads up to and includes the song's climax. 99% of songs today use the intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus formula to a tee.

It occurred to me recently that the bridges of many songs nowadays suck. I think it has to do with a few factors.

1. If you're forced to meet deadlines and write/produce songs that stem from something other than your innate creativity, there is bound to be a hit in quality at some point. Not that these songs can't still be great, but I think bridges are the most apparent place for the dips. "Oh shoot, gotta meet the formula... let's just throw these chords in there, yeah?"
2. Writers often work in teams of 2-4 on a given song, with numerous outside contributors, arrangers and musicians. With so many people, I think the song can sometimes lack a singular vision, and the overarching tone and feel can get lost, especially in bridges.
3. The increased use of synthesized beats and background, which takes away from the organic-ness that could come with composing on real instruments.
4. Pandering to the lowest common denominator, which does not typically appreciate innovation, creativity or boldness. Most of us write off new-age music as music that sounds like whales mating in a Buddhist Temple, don't we?

Therefore, many bridges have been reduced to a predictably rising chord progression that only tangentially relates to the feel of the song (Disturbia). Stevie Wonder didn't have bridges in most of his songs as he preferred a change in key or instrumental break, but there's only one Stevie Wonder I guess.

Epically great bridge: Iris - Goo Goo Dolls

Crush

2008-11-29T23:11:00.000-08:00

My new crush: Olivia Munn.

1. She is smokin' hot. But she doesn't seem like a bitch, which leads me to believe that she was either a late bloomer (wherein she had to develop her personality instead of relying on her looks like an early bloomer), incredibly grounded or both.
2. She looks like she's half, but she identifies strongly as Asian.
3. She's hilarious and witty.
4. She's a tech nerd. She hosts a show called Attack of the Show on the fledgling G4 network, which focuses on technology and games.
5. She has a blog (heyolivia.com) and a twitter, which makes her more tangible and interesting than other simply hot girls. She seems pretty down to earth and genuine. She can't stop talking about her obsession with pie. And she vblogged drunk once:
6. She has a sense of humor about herself. She does ridiculous and embarrassing things on her show just to get a laugh.
7. She has Invisalign.. just like me.
8. She can beatbox.

Hey... We seem like a pretty good match! In my dreams.

Spoils

2008-11-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

This year, I opted to not waste 5 hours of my life by waiting outside of Fry's for Black Friday sales.

1. There wasn't anything that I really wanted or needed. I've gotten an external hard-drive and a nice monitor in the past, but those were out of (relative) necessity. I could probably use a new set of headphones because the foam is completely gone from mine now, but those don't warrant a wait. Or even a special trip to Fry's.

2. I'm more willing nowadays to pay $20 more for something so that I can sleep and stay warm for a night. Black Friday is probably more worth it for big-ticket items like LCD TVs or stereo systems, which is not what I would be getting. The novelty is definitely over.

3. Some people are dicks about waiting in line. The line always develops tumors of people who show up at 4, completely disregarding those who actually waited since midnight. It's the principle damnit, they need to enforce that line better. A couple years ago I remember some lady was really pissed about that and grabbed a shopping cart just so she could start ramming people who showed up later.

4. I had to work at 6-10 in the morning anyway. Which is kind of ironic because my gym is literally a block away from Fry's, so Black Friday would have been more convenient for me than ever before. I could have waited and just gone to work right after.. wouldn't be the first time I went to work in the morning without sleeping the night before.

So in summation, no thanks. It was always fun to develop plans of attack on Fry's interior with Siyu and Eric, but I'm okay with missing that.

The spoils (reads more like an errands list):
-Magazine I took from work. $0
-Planner for 2009. $6
-Birthday card. $2
-Pair of shoes. $20 (online)
-Pair of shoes for my mom. $30 (online)
-And the crown jewel: socks. I splurged $2 more for reinforced heels and toes. $10

Total: $68.

Sexified

2008-11-26T21:41:00.000-08:00

Ha, if there is anything that "buckling down" is synonymous with, it's procrastination.

Is there anything that Marvin Gaye can't sexify? Only exhibit required: Marvin Gaye singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

He could sing the dictionary and still get me in the mood.

Gap

2008-11-21T22:31:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, my dad got an AIM screen name. I'm not proud to admit it, but I did block him from time to time. It wasn't because of the overall weirdness of him veritably invading my social sphere, or that he was checking up on me all the time, or that I had to keep my profile clear of profanities... It was just his lack of internet etiquette, his AIM-sense, if you will. Though it was pretty funny when he was proud to have learned "brb" and "gtg."

We all know about the unspoken rule that you don't keep IMing someone when there's no response, idle or not. Depending on the circumstances and level of closeness it varies, but if a friend IMed you 20-30 times while you were idle, they'd just be the equivalent of Needy McNeederson (Minh-Chau... jk).

I would leave my AIM on for hours, idle the whole time, and end up with 20-30 messages from him. Every few minutes, it would just be "Pei, are you there?" "Pei, why aren't you answering me?" "This is Dad, don't ignore me." until he got bored and presumably went to go fall asleep while watching golf. Then he would call me later and ask why I didn't like talking to him. I started getting out of the habit of leaving my AIM on, and I got a call asking if I blocked him.

I'm glad he hasn't ventured into Facebook yet, but my co-workers/bosses have and I don't quite know how to deal with that. It's a lesser degree of weirdness to deal with than my Dad, but it's still a tricky boundary to navigate, the whole personal-professional distinction. On one hand, becoming Facebook friends is definitely an avenue to becoming better friends and that's something you want with a boss. It says "Hey, I'm taking more than the required minimum interest in you." On the other hand, there's a good amount of stuff that can be viewed as inappropriate (wall posts, bumper stickers [that's all you, Sandra], I'm drunk in probably half the pictures I'm tagged in, etc.).

I see 2 causes at the root of this.
1. To fulfill some need to keep our personal and professional lives separate. You don't choose your co-workers and you have nothing in common except for the fact that you work at the same place. Some friendships only work out of workplace convenience, and they might not work if you weren't confined to the same area for hours together a week... Kind of like how everyone is in love on The Real World but breaks up when the show ends.
2. A fear that people are shallow enough to judge on the basis of a profile on a website, even if they already know you. Which they are.

Algernon

2008-11-20T01:48:00.000-08:00

I'm not crying, it's just something in my eye.

Despite my studying and work, I'm still left with a good amount of free time. The thrill of Cupertino is just too much for me to handle sometimes... and I haven't quite decided on a new hobby to pick up yet (what the hell is out there, stamps?) so I've just been catching up on/rediscovering movies and books. I recently re-read Flowers For Algernon and started thinking... I've never cried because of a movie, tv show or book, but Algernon stood a fighting chance. Other close calls?

Flowers For Algernon: The whole second half of the book is pretty sad as Charlie realizes that he is destined to become retarded once again and documents his descent day by day. How would you act if someone told you you had 2 months to live?

Mr. Holland's Opus: That scene at the end where all of his former students come together for his retirement party and play his symphony that he worked on for years? C'mon.

Lion King: How this does not make anyone's list, I don't know. Right after Mufasa gets trampled by that stampede and Simba, failing to wake him up, wraps himself in Mufasa's paw. Come to think of it, dark themes for a kid's movie: assassination, revenge, coup d'etat, ghosts (Mufasa appearing in the cloud), domestic violence (of Simba's mom), probable rape (Simba's mom again) and virtual cannibalism (hyenas eating Scar). But not enough for the 8 year old me to not sing along to the soundtrack all the time.

Family Man: Right at the end when Nick Cage chases down the woman that was his wife in his other life, and he tells her about the daughter they had. Conversely, remember when he was rumored to play Superman instead of Brandon Routh? Weird.

Field of Dreams: When Kevin Costner sees his Dad in the field, "Dad, want to play catch?" If you've ever played catch with your dad...

Life is Beautiful: This should really be two movies, LIB 1 and LIB 2. It's like that Styx song "Come Sail Away," which was a slow song that prefaced a techno dance song in the same six minutes. Totally different moods and themes. In LIB 1, all the times he charms his woman, and LIB 2, when he is taken into the alleyway and shot, all the while making his son laugh.

A Walk To Remember: Yeah, yeah. Right at the end, when the camera is panning through the church and Landon Carter (freakin' horrible name) is narrating about how happy he was in their marriage before Jamie died.

Forrest Gump: I think the most emotional scene is the one where Forrest is talking to Jenny's grave about Forrest Jr. and starts breaking down. A lot of choose from here.

The Land Before Time: RIP mama brontosaurus.

Rocky: Yes, the last few really sucked, and let's hope that Rocky Balboa was really the last one. But Rocky actually won the Best Picture academy award in the 70's. Rocky was a pretty complex character with a lot of latent issues that were brought out by Mick, his trainer that only paid attention to him once he was set up to fight Apollo Creed. The best scene is where Mick comes to Rocky and offers his help, but Rocky emotionally explodes out of bitterness of being ignored for so long... only to realize that he was being just as bad as Mick, and runs to accept his offer.

Lost in Translation: One of my favorite movies.. The tone throughout the whole movie is so bleakly awesome and the end scene where they have to say goodbye always gets me.

The Full Monty: Yeah, it's about guys who organize a strip show to make money, but there's also the story of a father trying to reconnect with his son. The part that gets me, however, centers around one of the strippers, who is overweight. He backs out because he is incredibly self-conscious, and there's a scene with his wife where he declares "Who would want to see... this... strip?" And she replies "Me," which gives him the courage to go through with it.

Anchorman: When Jack Black punts Baxter off the bridge... not.

Notice that The Notebook definitely did not make the cut here.

Samples

2008-11-16T17:07:00.000-08:00

I was listening to the radio today and an old school Diddy (is that still his name?) song came on. I remember he used to get a lot of heat for using a lot of sampling in his songs, (Every Breath You Take, Mo Money Mo Problems, etc) but then I got to thinking... Every freakin song out there is probably a derivative of some older song whether they know it or not. Some realize it and are less subtle about it than others. Heck, maybe the lack of subtly is just an acknowledgement and salute to the original artist?

Anyway, here are some random songs that people might be surprised to know are completely sampled off of older songs:

Will Smith - Men in Black (Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots)
Coolio - Gangster's Paradise (Stevie Wonder - Pasttime Paradise)
Will Smith - Wild Wild West (Stevie Wonder - I Wish)
Warren G - Regulate (Michael McDonald - I keep Forgettin')
Tupac - Changes (Bruce Hornsby - The Way It Is)
Naughty By Nature - OPP (Jackson 5 - ABC)
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (David Bowie feat. Queen - Under Pressure)
Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold (Supertramp - Breakfast in America)
Puff Daddy - Can't Nobody Hold Me Down (Grandmaster Flash - The Message)

And to end, a bunch of Daft Punk samples.

Bookmarks 2

2008-11-15T13:53:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, I forgot this one which I thought was pretty funny... This one's for you, Minh-Chau!

Found out earlier this week that one of my clients moved from China just to go to Foothill College for the chance to transfer to UC Davis or Santa Barbara. He's my age and has 2 years to go at Foothill, so that would put him at 26 by the time he graduates as an undergrad. Now there's some perspective.

Bookmarks

2008-11-14T23:17:00.000-08:00

I have a folder in my bookmarks dropdown called "Pictures" where I put random pictures of videos that for one reason or another, I decided would be worth seeing again.

(click for full picture)
http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cbillart.html
Pre Calvin and Hobbes art by Bill Watterson

Classic Winnie the Pooh episode... this one was hard to find! I love the idea that Rabbit finds Pooh so unbearable that he puts a frame around Pooh's ass and disguises him as a painting.

This was my computer desktop background for a few months, as Peter knows. "NOOOOOO"

Borderline NSFW, Scooby gets his when Shaggy's not around. I don't look for these, they find me.

Also... when did Ne-Yo legitimately start approaching the same stratosphere as Usher? Or is he there already? (So Sick, Sexylove, Because of You, When You're Mad, Do You, Hate That I Love You, Closer, Miss Independent.. off the top of my head) Shoot, he's been killing it for the past couple of years and his new cd is pretty solid too.

Dependence

2008-11-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

What's a healthy amount of dependence on others? At what point should one deal with issues on their own? Are there specific issues best for that? Is someone with which you share everything with a mutually beneficial relationship down the line?

For me? The answer would be something to the effect of... very little.
When things are out of your control, you shouldn't worry about them... but only when nothing you do could possibly change that outcome, like a test, or a football game. There's no choice involved there. But when you depend on others, it seems to me that you create a situation where you actually choose to reqlinquish your control. That choice creates more factors to worry about, and people are far more unpredictable than a test or a football game.Will they be there for me? Am I being needy? Can I be there for them when they need me? Are they trustworthy? Am I crippling my ability to act independently?

Basically, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment because who, besides you, is going to be able to put you as priority #1 all of the time? Maybe your family? If you know me at all, you know I'm not a closed off or guarded person. I don't even really think I'm jaded or cynical, contrary to this blog's subject matter. It just seems like a good, logical set of consequences to keep in mind. It takes a lot of faith for me to really depend on someone, and I think the dependence has to be mutual.

Anyway on a more stupid note, I was out at a club this weekend and I was playing some age-guessing game with a girl. I guessed that she was 20. Why in the HELL would someone there be under 21? I realized my mistake... 30 hours too late.

Goals

2008-11-08T04:44:00.000-08:00

Ever since October 2007, I've had a paper tacked above my desk with some resolutions. Some of you have probably seen it because it's written in pink/blue highlighter. Why wait for New Years if you know you have something you want to improve about yourself? Here they are:

1. Patience!
2. Be nicer
3. Buck the routine
4. Overcome the mood

1. Self-explanatory, I think. Waste of time and effort to not be. Still a work in progress. C.
2. Also self-explanatory... I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and that, like most things, needs to happen in moderation. C+.
3. This one meant to expand my horizons. Put myself out of my comfort zone and experience as many things as possible. Become more well rounded. B+.
4. I tend to let small matters bug the shit out of me, so this one addressed that. Maybe it'll still bother, but don't let it affect my mood or actions. Keep an optimistic, cheerful mood. Pose the question, "What would someone's first impression of me be?" B.

When I took a gymnastics class a while ago, I added "Do a backtuck" to it... but sadly that one was never fulfilled. But at least I can do a front tuck if you give me a couple of tries.. and a big mat.

Fumes

2008-11-08T04:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's kind of weird to think that college is over. Four years later I know I've changed, grown and experienced a lot, but it seems almost for naught when I ended up right back at home in Cupertino. This subject would be fodder enough for a billion posts... so I'll focus.

One of the weirdest things to me was realizing that my friends from San Diego had now gained the "college" prefix. No longer were they normal friends, but now they were "college friends," as if they were to be classified as only part of a phase of my life. Not to say that I'm not any less close to them than before, but it is a different way of looking at relationships. It's just the kind of thing I heard my parents/older people talk about when I was younger, when I would be dragged to some awkward Chinese dinner when a "college friend" was randomly in the area. Is that what we're going to be reduced to, a series of obligatory contrived meetings running on the fumes of a years-past relationship? What bridges the gap from a "college friend" to a quotation marks-less friend?

Alcohol

2008-11-08T03:59:00.000-08:00

As if it wasn't already common sense... alcohol = bad. But here's why:

When you drink, a small portion of the alcohol is converted and stored as fat, and the rest is converted into acetate. Acetate is then released into the bloodstream and used instead of fat and glucose as a source of fuel. So you automatically store some as fat that you can't even burn because the rest of the alcohol is used for energy, which in addition leaves a large amount of excess fat/glucose calories that are just stored as glycogen... which tend to resemble love handles. Not to mention that alcohol is a diuretic and dehydrates you.

One shot = 100-200 calories.
One beer = 120-200.
One glass of wine = 80-140.
One cocktail = 250-600.
A typical relaxed night? 500. The more common binge night? Probably closer to 1000.

Anyway, I doubt this will change my habits.

Disagreement

2008-11-05T10:52:00.001-08:00

I was talking to my co-worker, another trainer, this morning and we got onto the subject of marriage. She said that she and her boyfriend didn't really believe in the institution of marriage and just dismissed it as "a ring and an expensive party." I wholeheartedly disagree (Why then were people fighting so hard against prop 8?), but didn't say anything to either direction in the interest of keeping the conversation flowing. There sometimes isn't really a tactful way to disagree with something, so why bother to put someone on the spot about it, oppose them and induce awkwardness at the cost of a nice talk?

"Yeah.. We don't believe in marriage, it's just a ring and an expensive party."
"I disagree. There are many legal advantages and privileges that are granted only to married couples. You are taking these liberties for granted, just ask any gay person around. So your boyfriend is French?"
"... "

I feel like this happens to people more than they might think. One way is when someone comes to you talking enthusiastically about tv/movie/singer that you've never heard of, and occasionally you don't want to burst his bubble so you just say... "oh yeah, I saw that, it WAS awesome." Etc. It's probably a fine line between placation/pandering and calculated avoidance. Who really cares if you say you've seen a movie, whereas if you were gay and trying to get married and were talking to my co-worker this morning, you might have to pick your battle.

Speaking of prop 8 failing, it looks like the results of these recent elections indicate that our racism (Obama winning) has been replaced with homophobia (prop 8 passing), with sexism (denying Hilary, Palin) tossed somewhere into the mix.

Food

2008-11-05T01:23:00.000-08:00

One of my clients last week told me that he carbo loaded the day and the day before he came into sessions because he felt he needed the energy. (This is a guy that I have to try to explain the feeling of soreness to because he doesn't know what it is ) He's not running a marathon everyday, for God's sake. Good thing he told me, because that's probably been a major obstacle in his self-stated goal to "get ripped." And being that he's got probably a good 15 lbs to still lose, I don't see what dogma out there convinced him to actually eat MORE and disregard that we tap into our fat stores when we exhaust our available atp/glucose/glycogen/whatever.

I outlined roughly what I eat in a day for him and it looked something like this:
1:00 pm scramble 7 eggs, leave 4 yolks in, 450 calorie protein shake
4:00 pm almonds/cashews, basically some proteiny snack
7:00 pm dinner of some kind of meat and veggies
10:30 pm another 450 calorie protein shake and another proteiny snack, like cottage cheese

So I started requiring all of my clients to keep food logs. What, when, and portions of what they eat/drink everyday. In retrospect I feel kind of bad about just starting it now, because as hard as I push them in the gym, it can be all for nought if their diets are wack. Maybe I feel more committed to them after having known them for a while. Or, results-oriented as we are, the more results they see the better a trainer I'm perceived as. Anyway the first time I'll get to see some logs is tomorrow and I wonder what I'll find... Probably a lot of curry.

On another note, sometimes I wonder how old I look and what range my age could span to people that don't exactly know it. Hey, I can grow a thing on my chin that could be called pubey. It's something I've been thinking about ever since graduation, where before you could assume that the people you meet are between 18 and 22. Or.. 16-18 for Gary. JK. It's not like you can always tell how old people are just by looking, in no small part thanks to us shifty asians. So put someone in the workforce, where people are all dressed alike to fit the context and what's the indicator?

One more related thought: If a hypothetical A that's 35 was getting along wonderfully and became best friends with hypothetical B that's 25, does that indicate:
1. A is immature for his age
2. B is old for his age
3. just a genuine connection?

Voting

2008-11-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

Fashion fads come and go with every season, every year and decade, influenced basically by what other people are doing. And this kind of thing happens in just about every other facet of life.

Example: For 2 weeks out of every four years, suddenly everyone becomes an expert on the events a gymnast competes in, or the intracacies of a flip turn because they watch the Olympics on TV. Then 2 months after, minus a Rockband commercial, it's mostly an afterthought.

Voting kind of parallels this to me. For about 2 months out of every 4 years, people suddenly start becoming outspoken so-called experts on propositions and bills based on the fact that they've read one strongly biased pamphlet on it. Obviously this doesn't apply to a good amount of people; not everyone bleached their hair and wore baggy jeans. Ultimately, it's even for the greater good because voter apathy is still a huge problem, and there are always important issues at hand. But it's just kind of funny to see how quickly this involvement will fade after the elections.

Turds

2008-11-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

You can't polish them. Wise saying of The Hurng.

I keep a few sayings in the back of my head whenever I make most decisions, here are some of them.

1. Why worry about the things I can't control? Stressing won't change the outcome. What makes me worry less is #2.
2. Get myself to the fork in the road before anything else. Stop thinking, start doing and work so that I can get myself into a position to make the choices I want to make. Apple pie vs. pumpkin pie, not an apple core vs. that crap that you pull out of pumpkins when you carve them.
3. There's always going to be a million reasons to not do something. But obviously, we do things. When am I just making an excuse for myself? And what's really the worst that can happen?
4. Like #3, what am I going to remember next month, year, decade?

Tidbits
-I get a 5:30 AM client starting next week, which puts my wakeup time at 4:45. Blah.
-I was watching "Supersize Me" tonight and they always show lots of obese people walking around from behind while the guy is narrating, "Obesity is an epidemic these days, blah blah.." Wouldn't it suck to watch the movie and then recognize yourself as one of the obese people in the movie!?

Speeches

2008-11-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

One of the best movie speeches ever, in my opinion, is from Independence Day right before the American pilots take flight against the squidbillies for their last stand. I still get goosebumps every time I hear it.

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We're going to live on!
We're going to survive!"
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

Halloween

2008-10-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

Haha... so I thought my parents were going to be giving out candy to trick or treaters like they used to, but that is not the case. I got home from work a few minutes ago and although all the cars were there, the house was completely dark. Turns out my parents were holed up in their bedroom watching tv with the lights off like a couple of refugees.

Even funnier, when I went into the kitchen to grab something to eat, my mom came down and whispered "Turn the light off! Or just open the microwave and use the light from that."
"Okay Mom... but you don't have to whisper, it's not like the kids can hear us too."

Rainy Day

2008-10-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

Hello, rainy day,
you make asphalt smell so weird.
Is that a mushroom?

also

Pitter on my panes,
at least useful for one thing:
sentra, white again.

I typically enjoy the occasional rain, especially when I'm back at home. It's been a good four years since I've been around for the changing of the seasons here in Cupertino... there isn't really a concept of seasons in San Diego. So everytime I see the streets littered with fallen leaves, frost on the grass and a gloomy rainy day I get flash-kicked with a sense of nostalgia.

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of walking home from Regnart in the rain. It was one of those days where you could look up and see the rain coming down more horizontally than vertically, leading to overflowing drains and street gutters. My black nikes were soaked to the brim and made that disgusting wet rubber squeak with every step I took, and I'm pretty sure I was bright enough to forget my umbrella and wear my green shorts that day. I had the most unpleasant feeling in the world of wet socks to deal with since recess... and despite all of that I distinctly remember enjoying it. Maybe not Shawshank Redemption-esque, when Andy bursts out of the shit pipes, but it was just a hallmark of simpler times. Carefree.

Over the summer, Jon and I talked about this general topic a number of times. We would be sitting in the library studying and right outside the window would always be kids running around doing cartwheels. It usually went something like this:
"Dude, they are so carefree and they don't even know it."
"Yeah, I'm so jealous..."
"Let's go steal their scooters, we'll flank them."

It's just hard to determine at exactly what point I started taking life so seriously. Lucky for me, I've never been a stresser anyway. On the same token, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to go live in the midwest, eschew all conventional responsibility and farm grain for a living.

I think the underlying tone is somewhere in this story, one of my favorites.

The investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with a fisher docked.

Inside the small boat were several large fish. The banker complimented the fisher on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisher replied, “Only a little while.” The banker asked, “Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The fisher said, “With this I have more than enough to support my family’s needs.” The banker then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?” The fisher said, “I sleep late, play with my children, nap with my wife, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my friends. I have a full life.”

The banker scoffed, “I have a degree in business and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several more boats and hire people to do the fishing for you. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually you could own your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to a big city to run an ever-expanding enterprise.”

The fisher asked, “But, how long would all this take?” The banker replied, “Fifteen to twenty years.” “But what then?” asked the fisher. The banker laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time was right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions?… Then what?”

The banker said, “Then you would retire! Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, nap with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your friends. Think what a full life you would have!”

Oh yeah, and I hope it rains tomorrow night so my parents don't have to deal with trick or treaters. That, or they should put out an empty bowl with a sign that says "Take one only! Happy Halloween!"

Discipline

2008-10-30T00:19:00.000-07:00

I used to think that just because I was in good shape, I was a pretty disciplined guy. I went to the gym, I ate decently, went easy on the vices and all that good stuff.

A few years later, I realize... not so much. It's really a matter of degrees, and I was lucky enough that the lowest degree of discipline met the requisite minimum for my goals. The sad truth of it is that my body is probably just genetically predisposed to respond well to resistance training and etc, the same way some of you can grow full Amish beards and porn 'staches.

My goals and motivations changed over the years, from wanting to run 10ks, bench as much as possible to looking good naked, but I never once really felt super committed and driven towards them. I'm not saying that I didn't work at them, or that things were effortless for me; I was just lucky. In a way this was kind of a startling realization for me, because I had tied my concept of discipline, drive and commitment in with those achievements for a long time. Do I know how to truly buckle down and conquer something when I'm presented with challenges? Do I actually have it in me to achieve that which isn't in my immediate reach?

One of my clients is tiny, probably 5 foot 1 and 110 lbs, and the amount to which I push her is borderline excessive. But I do it because she's got the discipline to keep with the workout and not give up so she's seeing great results accordingly. Yes, there are contextual social roles at play here, and yes people that get trainers are probably self-selected to have more discipline... But coming to a session and really bringing it to a session are two entirely different things.

Anyway, I tend to use the analogy of video games when I think about traits like that. Everyone has a certain amount of "trait points" that they can assign to themselves, and they can either max out some certain traits or spread them around in alarming mediocrity. So for me, this has no doubt come at the cost of my sense of direction (zero points), allergy resistance (zero points) and resistance to awkwardness (one point).

Portrait

2008-10-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.futurama-madhouse.com.ar/misc/FuturamaCast.png

Deterioration

2008-10-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't touch on it earlier, but another reason that I created this blog is because of my law school personal statement. As I was editing and revising it, I was getting increasingly annoyed with the sentences I was constructing. They seemed wordy, awkward and repetitive in structure. I used to consider myself a good writer, or at least a level above what I was producing in my PS. I think I had to write a grand total of 4 papers my last 2 years at UCSD, so let's say I'm out of practice.

I also blame it on the fact that the last time I did any kind of consistent reading for pleasure was, get this, in elementary school and jr high. Hell, I read Lord of the Rings in elementary school, so I guess I peaked about 14 years ago.

Point being, here we are. Reason #x: an exercise in writing.

Modesty

2008-10-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

Last month on the Caltrain, I looked around to find a seat where I wouldn't have to sit next to anyone. It was surprisingly packed for a Friday night, so I settled for sitting next to an older gentlemen... let's face it, even we feel a little more at ease sitting next to someone like that than a younger folk that looks more like us. He made an idle comment about the surroundings, and that kicked off an hour-long conversation.

He was on the Caltrain going back home to Millbrae from viewing the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit that was on loan from Italy that his wife refused to accompany him to. The way he expressed his fascination with the inventions kind of reminded me of my Dad, just a little too curious for their own good but ultimately that's what got them to where they are. Now to the moral: I asked him what exactly he did, and he just replied that he was a doctor. Having seen a bunch of people study and take the MCATs recently, I asked him about them and the whole admissions process, to which he jokingly replied "Well.. I think I passed." I asked him where he practiced and went to school, and he said "Oh, in the area," and when I finally asked which school, he just curtly said "Stanford." Oookay then. But that was the twig that held the dam, as details came spilling forth after that: he went to UCLA on a full scholarship, shared ideas with a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and had actually retired the day before as a successful clinical trials researcher.

Still, his show of modesty and the fact that he didn't feel like he needed to come outright and impress me made me admire him that much more. I'm sure he probably felt no need to show up a random 22 year old kid on the Caltrain and just wanted to go home to his semi-retirement, but I still think that behavior like that hints at deeper traits.

Let's put this is terms that are more applicable and relevant to us. You meet someone at a party, and within the first five minutes of talking to them, you discover that he lives to ski, only does triple diamond courses, and, for the hell of it, was in the Olympic trials. How would you react? "Oh, that's so cool!" but what's with the need for all the self-affirmation? Thanks for blowing your wad prematurely all over me. They already know it's cool, so what's that stank of? Maybe... a sense of identity that is tied up only in skiing, insecurity, a braggart and low confidence. Conversely, you meet someone at a party and they only bring up skiing when you mention it first. They say they're alright at it, and don't go into anymore detail. Then a mutual friend comes up and tells you that he was in the Olympic trials... Now who are you going to be more impressed by?

Anyway, I admire modesty and wish I had more of it.

Tickets

2008-10-29T00:17:00.000-07:00

Big WTF LMAONADE ROFLCOPER LOL@ME and whatever else there is to express my latest traffic ticket. Fine, this is the second time I've gotten this exact ticket in this exact spot, so maybe the onus is on me to have learned a lesson, but as Gob would say... CMON!

Violation of: CVC 22500(F) Parked on Sidewalk.

Did I mention this sidewalk was right in front of my house? My first gripe with this is that 7 Springs is supposedly private property, so cops should not be allowed to patrol the area or ticket violations they may see (kind of like when cops find evidence illegally, it is disallowed in trial). Second, there is a grass/cement island in my court that cars always park next to with their left wheels to the curb and I didn't see any tickets on those winshields. Third, being that it's the end of the month and the ticket was written just before midnight, it seems pretty obvious to me that this fool had a quota to meet. I realize it's Cupertino and the heart of suburbia, but isn't there something more productive our tax dollars can pay for? And fourth... WTF? In front of my own house!

Sadly, this might only tie for my dumbest ticket ever... with getting pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. Thank god it was before this whole "Click it or ticket" campaign or I would have gotten royally fined.

Tidbits:
-Getting fingerprinted is inkless nowadays.
-Welcome back, NBA season! I missed you.

Regulars

2008-10-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

As predicted, I sit here once again in the library with the Jons, Ronald and Hank. Oh, Hank. I'm going to stray from movies today though, partially because I already looked and found nothing of interest, but mostly because I think I could be more productive with my time. So instead of grabbing Brokeback Mountain like Jon does on a weekly basis, I decided two things. First, to start broadening my horizons musically by listening to the library's jazz CD collection, and second to replace the DVDs I check out with books. The fruits: I'm listening to Count Basie's Greatest Hits right now and have two books for later tonight, one by Vonnegut and another by Lovecraft. Suggestions would be appreciated, as my scope of books is mostly limited to sci-fi and fantasy thanks to my older brother.

On average I've spent probably 25-30 hours a week in the library over the past couple of months. You definitely start to notice the regulars at that point, and my favorite is probably the petite library clerk with the thin goatee. Always clad in khakis, he walks around with a magnified sense of purpose although the only thing I've ever heard him say is "The library is closing now, please clean up your things" in a nasally voice. A close second is confused Asian woman that wears a hat. Sometimes I watch her for a few minutes at a time, and all she really does is walk around, sit at a computer or desk for a few minutes, then get up and walk around aimlessly, all the while looking like she's waiting for someone or something. And who could forget the guy that's the spitting image of Santa Clause if Santa only had one arm. Maybe the Elves revolted against low wages and unrealistic production quotas. To cap it off, there's also the prim woman in the neat pant suit and a guy that I dubbed "the mutterer," who is insane.

So that got me thinking about retirement and what the hell people do with all that free time. Is frequenting the library simply a time-killer? Me, I apparently kill time by blogging about random things, but this is bearable because I know I'm going to be back in school next August. Sure I know that the grass is always greener on the other side, and that once school starts I'm going to be ripping my hair out.

Ideally, you've got a lot more disposable income, 401k's and are tapping into the social security system, so there's an easier avenue to do things you want: travel, eat at expensive restaurants and buying a mid-life crisis Corvette/Harley. The biggest factor might be the natural mellowing-out with age, so maybe wandering around aimlessly in the library with a hat is just a tootin' afternoon for some. No one likes to picture their golden years like that, but I guess not everyone's Jack effing LaLanne.

Tidbits:
-Harrington wants out of Golden State after Nellie just made him a captain? Fine, but he better be traded for a legit starting PG because our little tagteam of Nelson, Williams and Watson is pretty shoddy.
-Why would high school kids come to the library as much as they do? Is Monta Vista turning that much more competitive? I know we sure as hell didn't study in the library back then... but I don't remember doing much studying at all anyway.

Clients

2008-10-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

My clients are all pretty laidback, and I really like them for the most part.

They are typically in their 30's, single, Indian and looking to lose some weight for one reason or another. One is heading to India to meet his fiance, arranged or not, so he figured that he should shape up beforehand. Conversely, one gained a massive amount of weight last time he was in India that he is now trying to shed. There's another bride-to-be, and two skinny guys that are trying to build mass.

Anyway, one of my favorite clients, a guy that was trying to slim down, didn't renew his sessions this time around, so that was a bummer. At the end of 10 weeks with me, he honestly didn't need me anymore as I had gotten him through his plateaus (3 to 11 pullups, 30 to 50 pushups, lost about 3% body fat) and shown him a mess of exercises... but he was extremely intelligent and always a pleasure to talk to. As a trainer you want to be able to teach your clients, but there wasn't much that he didn't already know. Proprioception? Deadlifts work the erector spinae? Nutritional value of greens? Oh... read about those. His legs were actually probably stronger than mine too.. but maybe that's because I stopped squatting for my pants' sake.

On the flip side, he taught me a whole bunch of stuff. He worked at Microsoft in their gaming division so I learned about the technology industry and Microsoft. He talked about politics a lot, so I actually started reading more to be able to keep up with him. Indian culture was also a big part of our conversations... did you know there's a whole state in India that's waterlogged like Venice, Italy? On the occasions that I brought my mp3 player into the gym, he would recognize most of the artists I had, most surprisingly Kraftwerk, which is an early 80's German electro group. So I'll miss him.

Things I've picked up:
1. Perception is everything. My boss told me to "dress like a trainer," which meant to dress in form-fitting clothes and market my own body. Are you going to want a trainer that's overweight themselves?
2. People want their trainers to do all the thinking for them. And they'll take most things trainers say as the gospel.
3. Women have fairly predictable goals (hips, thighs, back of arms, stomach), while guys goals run the gamut.
4. Despite 3, women are a lot more fun to train because they are inherently weaker, so there is a far greater variety of exercises that are effective for them. Similarly, weaker guys are more fun to train. Also, women talk a lot more.
5. If nothing else, facial expressions are a great read on people's exertion levels. Of course I don't tell them that because a couple of them would probably fake it.

Fitness

2008-10-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

So the reaction that people typically have when they find out about my job is.. well, funny. A good half of the time, its something like "Oh wow, hey, how can I get rid of my love handles??"

Well. It's not like there's an EASY button that I can provide for you. Yo mama owns that one. I'll begin by saying that I lost about 21 lbs last summer (2007), and it sure as hell wasn't easy. One of the things that made it easiER was that I was working at a law firm, and had a pretty routine day full of busywork to keep me occupied and my mind off of food. But let's recap what I did.
-I started intermittent fasting (IF), which Richard recommended to me. This is most effective when done in conjunction with weight lifting, or some sort of physical activeness. Basically, this is where you are eating for 8 hours a day and.. not for the other 16. Example: my eating hours during that summer were usually 3 pm - 11 pm. It's not easy. For those that decry the omission of breakfast, tell me why exactly you feel that way and we'll hash it out. IF also allows you to actually feel full on days that youre eating less, so that's a pro.
- Additional macronutrient breakdowns. Carbs + proteins for lift days (3 days a week) and fats + proteins for rest days. Think about what your body breaks down first, what is stored, and it'll make sense.
-Calculated my caloric requirements and followed them to a tee. I don't quite remember them now, but I was about 170 and to trim down to my current weight of 150, I'm sure I intook somewhere around 1,900 calories on lift days and 1,500 on rest days.
-Three trips to the gym a week, not including running sprints twice a week.

So this is a rather lengthy answer to "How do I get rid of my love handles?" that's really not for everyone. But here's some stuff that's for everyone.

1. Eating before you sleep doesn't affect your metabolism, automatically store food as fat, etc. Why would your digestive system work any different when you sleep? If you ate a big meal and then sat in a chair for a couple of hours, would you store all that as fat too?
2. Insulin insulin insulin. Let me try to recap my physiology here... Food (carbs and sugar especially) = insulin. Insulin = less glucagon and GH. Those hormones in those proportions means that there is an emphasis on storing fat rather than lipolysis, which is the breakdown of fat stores for energy. So what do you do? You avoid high glycemic index foods and exercise. Pretty common sense, but for reasons other than you might suspect. This is also where intermittent fasting rears its head, as no food = no insulin = eventual ketosis (fat burning state).
3. No, hundreds of crunches a day won't work. This is a false belief in "spot reduction," which is reducing fat in one particular region, such as the stomach. Depending on what your goals are, doing that much ab work might increase your waist size from the muscle density. In the same vein, let's examine the thigh adduction machine. Can't lose fat from your thighs specifically... making the muscles larger... so isn't that actually counter productive to your goals of slimming and toning? The only way for those to happen is to reduce overall body fat %.
4. Those hours of cardio on the elliptical? Not ideal. I feel like I'm playing a broken record because I tell this to my clients all day, but for fat loss, it's useful... to a point. And that point is reached within a couple of weeks. Other benefits are obvious, such as cardiovascular health and sports-specific training. However, cardio burns fewer calories than sprints/weights mainly because sprints/weights elevate your metabolism for as long as 24 hours afterwards, which is where the bulk of the calorie burning is done. Muscle mass also burns calories.
5. In a related point, I realize that many females are reluctant to use weights because they feel that they will become too bulky. If only it were that easy! You possess neither the genetics nor the testosterone to become like that.. and you won't be intaking the nutrition that you need to build all that muscle either. Seriously, you won't get big.
6. Whether your goals are fat loss, mass building, strength, etc, just remember that 80% of the battle is in the kitchen.

SNU-SNU

2008-10-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

For those confused by this blog's name...

-Hi... my name is Futurama.
-Oh, hey I've heard of you! Nice to meet you, man. So what are you up to nowadays?
- Oh, y'know, just doing the working thing for a while. Man, wasn't school so much easier and laid back?
-Don't get me started! Zomgz living at home is just so restricting, but I guess it's good to save some money.
-Yeah, tell me about it. At least grad school is somewhere at the end of the tunnel. So who do you still keep in touch with from around here?

Oh wait, that turned into a paraphrase of the beginnings of just about every conversation I've had since I graduated. We should just have nametags with all those fields provided so we can skip the awkward conversations.

My journal (masculine version of a diary) has been in serious neglect ever since I finished my last set of finals in June, and I don't even know if I could find it if I tried. The ensuing three weeks after finals and before I moved back home are a blur punctuated by Trent yelling "LET'S DRINK" so it could be anywhere. Except where I can find it.

Anyway, since my shunning of "the Man" and the corporate world for this coming year, I've had an indecent amount of free time. I figured that I'm going to have the rest of my life to rot in an office, so why do it this year? Most of the summer was dedicated to studying for the LSAT, but now that that giant dookie is over and my personal statements are about 99% done... well.. now what? Lately when I go to the library to work on applications, there just isn't much substance left so I end up watching the dvds in the library's collection: Bend it Like Beckham, Blue Crush (horrible), 28 Weeks Later, High Fidelity (how did I miss out on this one for so long??), Elf, Highlander (Academy award for greatest movie ever), Into the Blue (horrible), Match Point, The Prestige, Friday Night Lights, Austin Powers 2, The Benny Goodman Story and Saved. This is all within the past couple of weeks.

For those of you that don't know, I've been working as a certified personal trainer at Sunnyvale Fitness for a while now, and actually just got hired at YMCA today as a trainer as well. Who wants to see a really goofy picture of me? I guess this is the face I make when I'm told to snarl.
http://www.sunnyvalefitness.com/trainer/pei.html
It's okay, I'm a lover, not a fighter. In addition to working at those two gyms now, I've been "online training" my buddy Wilmar in San Diego and I'm happy to report that he's lost 12 lbs in 3 weeks! Pretty good show of discipline and drive, if you ask me: http://wilmarlosesweight.blogspot.com/ (I'm referred to as Willard)
And lastly, James' training has been coming along quite nicely as well. I feel like I forgot what he looks like when he smiles because everytime I see him we go to the gym, and everytime we're at the gym, I'm pushing him until he looks like he's about to throw up... which he actually did last week after some sprinting. He's got the potential to dish out some major retribution for all the times we harrassed him when he was about a foot shorter.. but he should thank us for his flexibility, I say.

I suspect tomorrow's post will fall somewhere between passively reading over application material and watching a crappy movie in the library.

Tidbits:
-John Legend has a new cd coming out! Evolver is out tomorrow... I mean, I already downloaded it but still.
-I have to get fingerprinted in order to start working at the YMCA. To show that I'm not going to ogle small children in the lockerroom?
-I started putting my alarm clock on the opposite side of the room from my bed so I don't keep turning my alarms off in semi-sleep. What a stupid adaptation to develop.