I hurt my wrist the other day. I can't tell if I injured it from lifting or typing but it hurts when I do either. I think I will just tell people I hurt it from lifting because that sounds a lot less gay. So this morning I was just sitting on the couch in my boxers watching T.V. when I heard the doorbell ring and someone knock on the door. I was pretty sure it was the post office guy dropping something off at the door. Yes, I was correct. So I opened the door in my boxers and bent down and picked up the package. Before I could close my front door, the post office guy yells from the sidewalk "HEY! Do you have a band-aid?" He had cut his knuckle while stuffing mail in our mailbox. I said yeah and went around the house looking for it. I haven't been home for a while so I forget where my mom keeps all the stuff but eventually I found the band-aids and also found some neosporin. When I went to give it to him, I noticed his other hand was full of mail and he didn't seem to be putting anything down so instinctively I just applied the neosporin on for him. The neosporin was some special neosporin or something because it also had "pain relief" and the cream was all white instead of clear and was hard to apply. I couldn't get the cream to break off from the opening of the tube so I had to use my other hand to apply it on his wound. First of all, it was already pretty awkward that I was even talking to him on my front doorstep half naked and now I was applying cream on his hand. I failed miserably at getting the neosporin on the cut so I decided to just apply it to the bandaid and then stick it on. So I unwrapped the band-aid and carefully put some neosporin on the white cotton part. I then carefully put the band aid on his extended hand while only touching the sticky parts with my fingers. I put so much neosporin on earlier that the bandaid wasn't even sticking it was just like gliding around on his hand. I asked him if he wanted another band-aid but I'm pretty sure he felt really awkward too and was just like "that's a lot that's a lot thank you thank you thank you" and left. I guess it isn't everyday you have a random naked guy put a band-aid on for you.
So this will be the last post in my blog that I will be posting up on facebook. I plan on deactivating my facebook when I return to Irvine just so I will stop wasting time and potential employers can't spy on me. So if you have a blog, add me as a friend or however that works. I'm still a bit confused on how people do all that stuff with their blogs but yeah. I am a blog noob. Anyways I am going to stop typing now since I hurt my wrist from lifting the other day.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Crossfit
For those of you who have noticed, yes I have been posting a lot more in my blog. It is because I have been in Norcal, home alone with not much to do. Even though nobody I really talk to is back in Fremont, I have not exactly been that bored here.
So I got a one month pass to this gym in Milpitas called Milpitas fitness. It is kind of different from other gyms I've been in. It is a bit more hardcore, doesn't have as many decorations and it's workers are hell of a lot less anal. They pretty much just asked for my name in order to get the month pass, where as 24 hour fitness would ID you, sit you down and talk to you for about 30 minutes. Anyways, there is one section of the gym which is dedicated to Crossfit training. I have briefly heard about Crossfit before but didn't know anything about it. I peeked into the class several times on numerous occasions while I was lifting and really liked what I saw. It seemed like they did a shit load of powerlifting and compound lifts in a very high intensity environment. Everyone that I saw walk out of the class was completely drenched in sweat. They also kept their music blasting at all times. Intrigued, I went over and asked the instructor if I could try the class out. He was extremely nice and gave me his number to schedule a time.
I contacted him and came in the next day. I was under the impression he would be re-teaching me the basics of power lifting (which is what I wanted) but I guess he had something else in mind. When I entered the weight room, everyone immediately introduced themselves to me. Some people seriously formed a line to shake my hand. They were incredibly friendly and I felt very welcomed. Apparently that day they were doing something different. They were doing this workout which I guess was kind of like a competition. It was a circuit of five different exercises which consisted of the push press, rowing, throwing this big ass ball in the air, high pull (I think), and box jumping. Each exercise lasts one minute and you try to do as many reps as you can do in that time and then immediately switch to the next exercise. After you complete all five exercises, you rest for a minute and you do it again. You are finished after three rounds. I am well aware that I have only been training for strength this past year and have not focused much on endurance. Three rounds sounded like a lot to me but I figured the weights were not exactly super heavy and it should be fairly easy for me to complete.
They broke us off into pairs. Your partner is responsible for counting the number of reps you did for each exercise and writing it down. I was paired up with a guy named Reagan. He looked relatively fit. The instructor told him to go first so I could see how everything is done. I counted enthusiastically for every rep Reagan did and tried to give him encouraging comments. Such as... "You can do it!" and "You're almost there!" I tried not to use his name because I wasn't 100% sure it was Reagan. Anyways, in my head I was thinking, "damn this guy is not really listening to me... he seems to be slowing down I wonder why he isn't giving it his all... when it is my turn I will surely do this faster..." Boy, was I wrong. Holy fucking shit, that shit was so fucking tiring.
I started out pretty good... for about the first 30 seconds. Then I realized oh.... shit this is going to be tiring. I began to pace myself and finished the first round with a relatively good score. Don't get me wrong, I still felt like dying and looked like I just took a shower. The second round was not as good. I realized I was nearing my limit and understood why Reagan was ignoring me when he was doing it. You are so tired and concentrated you don't have time to say anything. That shit is a lot easier when you're just watching. Anyways I pushed through the rest of it with Reagan's words of encouragement. In the second round, I scored about 60% of what I scored in the first. While I was sitting there heaving during the sixty second break, Reagan showed me my scores and politely yelled at me, telling me I better not decrease that much in the third round. I then pushed through the third round doing better, slightly improving from my previous score. When the final timer bell rang I had to try my best to not collapse on the floor. Definitely did not want to look like a bitch on my first day. Note, there are a lot of chicks in this class. I would say at least half of the class is made up of girls. Incredibly strong girls.
The instructor came up to me and said I got a pretty good score for my first time. I was not sure if he was just saying that. Either way, I was feeling so great from finishing it. My head was seriously spinning and my vision was a bit blurry but I was all smiles. Everybody in that class was so friendly and the environment was so intense. I was really hooked. I wish I didn't have to go back to Irvine just so I could enroll in the class. I was just sitting there and looking at everyone else who also looked incredibly tired but incredibly happy. I didn't feel the awkwardness you feel when first meeting a group of strangers at all.
I really really liked this Crossfit class. Apparently it is actually a really big thing and they have a lot of classes all over. I plan on signing up for one in Irvine if I get hired for that SAT job I was talking about. I don't think it will really get you that huge, but will definitely increase core strength and endurance. Also it seems like a great way to make friends. If anyone in the Irvine area is also interested in signing up, let me know! (girls can do it too)
So I got a one month pass to this gym in Milpitas called Milpitas fitness. It is kind of different from other gyms I've been in. It is a bit more hardcore, doesn't have as many decorations and it's workers are hell of a lot less anal. They pretty much just asked for my name in order to get the month pass, where as 24 hour fitness would ID you, sit you down and talk to you for about 30 minutes. Anyways, there is one section of the gym which is dedicated to Crossfit training. I have briefly heard about Crossfit before but didn't know anything about it. I peeked into the class several times on numerous occasions while I was lifting and really liked what I saw. It seemed like they did a shit load of powerlifting and compound lifts in a very high intensity environment. Everyone that I saw walk out of the class was completely drenched in sweat. They also kept their music blasting at all times. Intrigued, I went over and asked the instructor if I could try the class out. He was extremely nice and gave me his number to schedule a time.
I contacted him and came in the next day. I was under the impression he would be re-teaching me the basics of power lifting (which is what I wanted) but I guess he had something else in mind. When I entered the weight room, everyone immediately introduced themselves to me. Some people seriously formed a line to shake my hand. They were incredibly friendly and I felt very welcomed. Apparently that day they were doing something different. They were doing this workout which I guess was kind of like a competition. It was a circuit of five different exercises which consisted of the push press, rowing, throwing this big ass ball in the air, high pull (I think), and box jumping. Each exercise lasts one minute and you try to do as many reps as you can do in that time and then immediately switch to the next exercise. After you complete all five exercises, you rest for a minute and you do it again. You are finished after three rounds. I am well aware that I have only been training for strength this past year and have not focused much on endurance. Three rounds sounded like a lot to me but I figured the weights were not exactly super heavy and it should be fairly easy for me to complete.
They broke us off into pairs. Your partner is responsible for counting the number of reps you did for each exercise and writing it down. I was paired up with a guy named Reagan. He looked relatively fit. The instructor told him to go first so I could see how everything is done. I counted enthusiastically for every rep Reagan did and tried to give him encouraging comments. Such as... "You can do it!" and "You're almost there!" I tried not to use his name because I wasn't 100% sure it was Reagan. Anyways, in my head I was thinking, "damn this guy is not really listening to me... he seems to be slowing down I wonder why he isn't giving it his all... when it is my turn I will surely do this faster..." Boy, was I wrong. Holy fucking shit, that shit was so fucking tiring.
I started out pretty good... for about the first 30 seconds. Then I realized oh.... shit this is going to be tiring. I began to pace myself and finished the first round with a relatively good score. Don't get me wrong, I still felt like dying and looked like I just took a shower. The second round was not as good. I realized I was nearing my limit and understood why Reagan was ignoring me when he was doing it. You are so tired and concentrated you don't have time to say anything. That shit is a lot easier when you're just watching. Anyways I pushed through the rest of it with Reagan's words of encouragement. In the second round, I scored about 60% of what I scored in the first. While I was sitting there heaving during the sixty second break, Reagan showed me my scores and politely yelled at me, telling me I better not decrease that much in the third round. I then pushed through the third round doing better, slightly improving from my previous score. When the final timer bell rang I had to try my best to not collapse on the floor. Definitely did not want to look like a bitch on my first day. Note, there are a lot of chicks in this class. I would say at least half of the class is made up of girls. Incredibly strong girls.
The instructor came up to me and said I got a pretty good score for my first time. I was not sure if he was just saying that. Either way, I was feeling so great from finishing it. My head was seriously spinning and my vision was a bit blurry but I was all smiles. Everybody in that class was so friendly and the environment was so intense. I was really hooked. I wish I didn't have to go back to Irvine just so I could enroll in the class. I was just sitting there and looking at everyone else who also looked incredibly tired but incredibly happy. I didn't feel the awkwardness you feel when first meeting a group of strangers at all.
I really really liked this Crossfit class. Apparently it is actually a really big thing and they have a lot of classes all over. I plan on signing up for one in Irvine if I get hired for that SAT job I was talking about. I don't think it will really get you that huge, but will definitely increase core strength and endurance. Also it seems like a great way to make friends. If anyone in the Irvine area is also interested in signing up, let me know! (girls can do it too)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Hu Nan
I went to visit my grandparents in San Jose today. I particularly like visiting my paternal grandparents because my grandpa always acts like it is a big deal when I come home. Anyways he called me yesterday because he wanted me to drive them to a BBQ an association was hosting. The association is made up of people who were originally from Hu-nan province and now live in the San Jose area. Apparently 我是湖南人. The BBQ is comprised of a lot of random people, however, I am quite familiar with how these Chinese get-togethers made up of strangers work. I've been to a few in the past.
Now let me tell you something about Chinese people in large groups, especially old Chinese people in large groups. They don't really like to wait in line for food and they really will crowd you if you give them the chance. Personal space is not a big deal. So I was standing there with a plastic plate waiting my turn while people kept passing me up. I'm cool with it because I don't want to seem really eager to eat and when you let someone go in front of you everyone will go in front of you. You can't show any weakness with these people. Haha just kidding. On another note about Chinese BBQs, the last Chinese BBQ I attended was for my father's school reunion. It was similar to this one, just that they had a keg. So basically... Chinese people cant drink... and they also like free shit... I think its easy to guess what happend at the end of the BBQ. The keg was still full and people were crowding around and filling up water bottles with beer so they can take them home. No, I am not making this up.
Anyways, eventually I got to the food and was mainly interested in the meat. They had a whole plate of BBQ chicken legs but every single piece was black as shit. They were so incredibly burnt I actually started laughing out loud. Everyone was walking around with a burnt ass piece of meat on their plate. It was incredibly funny. So after I ate my burnt drumstick I went over to the people who were bar-be-que-ing and waited for some Korean BBQ ribs. Watching them cook was kind of painful. One guy kept flipping the thing like every 30 seconds and I watched like three of them burn while I was next in line. Anyways, I got my meat and went back and sat with my grandparents. My grandma insisted I wore her straw sun hat becasue I was sitting in the sun. She took off her own hat and put it on my head and then she got out a little wooden thing which was like a lot of wooden pieces attached to a hinge which turns into a hat. So now the three of us are sitting at the picnic table eating korean bbq and wearing sun hats.
The meat is hard to eat with just a plastic fork. My grandma goes into her purse, pulls out a paper envelope, opens it and then pulls out a piece of wood and a metal knife and begins to cut the meat using the wood as a cutting board. I thought this was hilarious. Apparently she has been to a few bbqs in the past also. She says her teeth are not good enough to tear the meat. We eat the meat and my grandma talks about how bad the people who were cooking the meat were. I agreed. I thought it was really funny because usually when I talk to my grandma we have two separate conversations because she is hard of hearing. I would say something to her and she would say something totally different and then I would try to tell her again and she would respond as if I had said something else. Eventually it would be so far off I would just nod and smile to her. Later my grandma surprised me again when the Hu-nan Chinese Association moved onto the next part of their picnic celebration. The entertainment. So they had this lady up there singing some song in the old Chinese style with a megaphone. My god it was fucking horrible. Not only that, the song lasted like 10 minutes. My grandma came up behind me and whispered in my ear something which roughly translates into "Wow she fucking sucks!" Just kidding, she just said that she sings really bad, but I thought it was funny that she had even said that. Hanging out with my grandparents was actually really fun. It was funny seeing how excited my grandpa got when he got lei'd for being one of the oldest members there. He got over excited and went up before they even got to his age bracket. All and all, it was a good Sunday.
So while I was writing this post, I was watching TV and someone lost my remote and it is stuck on MTV. I think "Daddy's Girls" is the only show where I look forward to when the commercials come on.
Now let me tell you something about Chinese people in large groups, especially old Chinese people in large groups. They don't really like to wait in line for food and they really will crowd you if you give them the chance. Personal space is not a big deal. So I was standing there with a plastic plate waiting my turn while people kept passing me up. I'm cool with it because I don't want to seem really eager to eat and when you let someone go in front of you everyone will go in front of you. You can't show any weakness with these people. Haha just kidding. On another note about Chinese BBQs, the last Chinese BBQ I attended was for my father's school reunion. It was similar to this one, just that they had a keg. So basically... Chinese people cant drink... and they also like free shit... I think its easy to guess what happend at the end of the BBQ. The keg was still full and people were crowding around and filling up water bottles with beer so they can take them home. No, I am not making this up.
Anyways, eventually I got to the food and was mainly interested in the meat. They had a whole plate of BBQ chicken legs but every single piece was black as shit. They were so incredibly burnt I actually started laughing out loud. Everyone was walking around with a burnt ass piece of meat on their plate. It was incredibly funny. So after I ate my burnt drumstick I went over to the people who were bar-be-que-ing and waited for some Korean BBQ ribs. Watching them cook was kind of painful. One guy kept flipping the thing like every 30 seconds and I watched like three of them burn while I was next in line. Anyways, I got my meat and went back and sat with my grandparents. My grandma insisted I wore her straw sun hat becasue I was sitting in the sun. She took off her own hat and put it on my head and then she got out a little wooden thing which was like a lot of wooden pieces attached to a hinge which turns into a hat. So now the three of us are sitting at the picnic table eating korean bbq and wearing sun hats.
The meat is hard to eat with just a plastic fork. My grandma goes into her purse, pulls out a paper envelope, opens it and then pulls out a piece of wood and a metal knife and begins to cut the meat using the wood as a cutting board. I thought this was hilarious. Apparently she has been to a few bbqs in the past also. She says her teeth are not good enough to tear the meat. We eat the meat and my grandma talks about how bad the people who were cooking the meat were. I agreed. I thought it was really funny because usually when I talk to my grandma we have two separate conversations because she is hard of hearing. I would say something to her and she would say something totally different and then I would try to tell her again and she would respond as if I had said something else. Eventually it would be so far off I would just nod and smile to her. Later my grandma surprised me again when the Hu-nan Chinese Association moved onto the next part of their picnic celebration. The entertainment. So they had this lady up there singing some song in the old Chinese style with a megaphone. My god it was fucking horrible. Not only that, the song lasted like 10 minutes. My grandma came up behind me and whispered in my ear something which roughly translates into "Wow she fucking sucks!" Just kidding, she just said that she sings really bad, but I thought it was funny that she had even said that. Hanging out with my grandparents was actually really fun. It was funny seeing how excited my grandpa got when he got lei'd for being one of the oldest members there. He got over excited and went up before they even got to his age bracket. All and all, it was a good Sunday.
So while I was writing this post, I was watching TV and someone lost my remote and it is stuck on MTV. I think "Daddy's Girls" is the only show where I look forward to when the commercials come on.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
ride-along
So I guess this post will be part 2 of my post from yesterday.
I woke up this morning kind of like how a kid would wake up on Christmas day (to a lesser extent of course). My reticular formation really snapped me into action. I opened my eyes and instantly sat up 15 minutes before my alarm even rang, immediately grabbed my phone and called Captain Place, the captain I talked about earlier. Despite only sleeping 3 hours, I felt relatively energized. Place double checked his schedule and said it was cool for me to come in today.
Long story short, I was probably at the station for about seven hours and they didn't get a single call. Well actually the engine (the truck that has all the hoses and water) got two calls while I was out on the truck (the truck that has all the ladders and other shit). Even though I didn't get to see them help anyone, I still had a great time. I got to ride in two different fire trucks around town and got to see what firefighters do at the station. Also, it feels pretty awesome riding in a firetruck just to run errands. Everyday, they play a game which involves cards and dice to see who is cooking dinner for the night. Everyone chips in some cash and the loser goes to Costco or another grocery store and buys the groceries around lunch time. It just so happened that they had free coupons to Chipotle today too, so I got a free burrito for lunch, SWEET. It was also pretty cool just to walk around Costco with them and see how many people wave at them. One of the firefighters I was with said "The difference between us and cops is that people wave at us with all five fingers." Haha, I thought that was pretty funny. Spending the day at the fire station was definitely a great experience. I got to see the more social aspect of the job. Hopefully I can go back on Thursday and see some actual cool shit.
In other news, that neck pain I was talking about earlier has reduced drastically. I am definitely pretty happy about that. The only problem is I now naturally tilt my head to the side for some reason and apparently it bothers my parents a lot. My dad keeps pushing my head into position every 5 minutes. I also got a really strange weird haircut the other day. Apparently the lady was able to correctly see that I have no sense of style and decided to cut my hair the way she thought would look best. For some reason she didn't cut the top of my hair any shorter and just kept using those scissors that thin your hair out. So now my hair is very thin and the length of my hair varies dramatically. It is like I have a regular hair length and then I have a scarce number of other hairs that stick up far above. Don't really know how else to describe it. And me, not really knowing what's suppose to look good and what's not, didn't say anything to her about it. I thought it was cool until I came home and my mom was like what the hell? Haha.. oh well.
I woke up this morning kind of like how a kid would wake up on Christmas day (to a lesser extent of course). My reticular formation really snapped me into action. I opened my eyes and instantly sat up 15 minutes before my alarm even rang, immediately grabbed my phone and called Captain Place, the captain I talked about earlier. Despite only sleeping 3 hours, I felt relatively energized. Place double checked his schedule and said it was cool for me to come in today.
Long story short, I was probably at the station for about seven hours and they didn't get a single call. Well actually the engine (the truck that has all the hoses and water) got two calls while I was out on the truck (the truck that has all the ladders and other shit). Even though I didn't get to see them help anyone, I still had a great time. I got to ride in two different fire trucks around town and got to see what firefighters do at the station. Also, it feels pretty awesome riding in a firetruck just to run errands. Everyday, they play a game which involves cards and dice to see who is cooking dinner for the night. Everyone chips in some cash and the loser goes to Costco or another grocery store and buys the groceries around lunch time. It just so happened that they had free coupons to Chipotle today too, so I got a free burrito for lunch, SWEET. It was also pretty cool just to walk around Costco with them and see how many people wave at them. One of the firefighters I was with said "The difference between us and cops is that people wave at us with all five fingers." Haha, I thought that was pretty funny. Spending the day at the fire station was definitely a great experience. I got to see the more social aspect of the job. Hopefully I can go back on Thursday and see some actual cool shit.
In other news, that neck pain I was talking about earlier has reduced drastically. I am definitely pretty happy about that. The only problem is I now naturally tilt my head to the side for some reason and apparently it bothers my parents a lot. My dad keeps pushing my head into position every 5 minutes. I also got a really strange weird haircut the other day. Apparently the lady was able to correctly see that I have no sense of style and decided to cut my hair the way she thought would look best. For some reason she didn't cut the top of my hair any shorter and just kept using those scissors that thin your hair out. So now my hair is very thin and the length of my hair varies dramatically. It is like I have a regular hair length and then I have a scarce number of other hairs that stick up far above. Don't really know how else to describe it. And me, not really knowing what's suppose to look good and what's not, didn't say anything to her about it. I thought it was cool until I came home and my mom was like what the hell? Haha.. oh well.
making it up as I go along
Well. I just spent about 20 minutes reading blogs of friends of friends or other people I don't know. People put a lot of personal stuff on their blogs. I guess it is kind of interesting to read what people are doing in their lives even if I don't know them.
So my dad asked me a few days ago if I would want to work in Washington (the state). He says he has a friend who is starting a business over there. It was just an idea and nothing is even close to happening yet but I kind of surprised myself when I said yes. I always thought I would want to stay in Irvine after graduation but I don't think I really do. Yes, I will miss you all and everything but I really want to go out and do new things and explore new places. I think even living in Fremont now would be kind of new. By the way, you will never guess how much firefighters make here. Starting salary is $92,000.
I have a ride along with the Fremont Fire Department tomorrow and I am very excited. It is like 5 AM and I can't fall asleep. When I went over there to ask about the necessary paperwork to get the ride along, the captain sat me down and talked to me for about 45 minutes. He talked to me for so long I kind of didn't even want to talk to him anymore. I mean he was incredibly nice and I got a better feel about his department but damn, I thought the visit would have lasted about 3 minutes. I guess it was a very pleasant surprise. I can't wait to ride in the fire truck tomorrow. Or actually.... in 4 hours.
Anyways, in other news in the life of me, I hurt my neck lifting some how. I am now unable to turn my head to the left. It is incredibly painful but I have high hopes it will get better soon. I hope tomorrow they don't ask me to do anything super physical where I will look like a bitch if my neck gets in the way. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to man it up for a day. Not to be selfish, but god I really hope there is a fire tomorrow. Maybe they will let me pull hose for them.
I have also made another life changing decision today. Haha... not really. I will most likely be deactivating my facebook account. It takes up too much of my time and I don't want potential employers to be looking at it. Especially if I am trying to get hired by a fire department (even though that will be in forever). I mean they make you log in for them and then look at all pictures, friends, etc. Also I think it will help me stay focused on my dreams and goals. I recently bought a composition notebook where I planned to write all my goals for the day or errands I wished to complete. It seemed like a great idea but I only did it for one day. Maybe I will start that up again soon. It makes you feel very accomplished at the end of the day.
Anyways, I guess this post wasn't really funny or entertaining to read. I probably wont have many of these bland posts. I try to make most entries more interesting to read. I actually kind of really like writing now. Not gonna lie... hahaha.
So my dad asked me a few days ago if I would want to work in Washington (the state). He says he has a friend who is starting a business over there. It was just an idea and nothing is even close to happening yet but I kind of surprised myself when I said yes. I always thought I would want to stay in Irvine after graduation but I don't think I really do. Yes, I will miss you all and everything but I really want to go out and do new things and explore new places. I think even living in Fremont now would be kind of new. By the way, you will never guess how much firefighters make here. Starting salary is $92,000.
I have a ride along with the Fremont Fire Department tomorrow and I am very excited. It is like 5 AM and I can't fall asleep. When I went over there to ask about the necessary paperwork to get the ride along, the captain sat me down and talked to me for about 45 minutes. He talked to me for so long I kind of didn't even want to talk to him anymore. I mean he was incredibly nice and I got a better feel about his department but damn, I thought the visit would have lasted about 3 minutes. I guess it was a very pleasant surprise. I can't wait to ride in the fire truck tomorrow. Or actually.... in 4 hours.
Anyways, in other news in the life of me, I hurt my neck lifting some how. I am now unable to turn my head to the left. It is incredibly painful but I have high hopes it will get better soon. I hope tomorrow they don't ask me to do anything super physical where I will look like a bitch if my neck gets in the way. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to man it up for a day. Not to be selfish, but god I really hope there is a fire tomorrow. Maybe they will let me pull hose for them.
I have also made another life changing decision today. Haha... not really. I will most likely be deactivating my facebook account. It takes up too much of my time and I don't want potential employers to be looking at it. Especially if I am trying to get hired by a fire department (even though that will be in forever). I mean they make you log in for them and then look at all pictures, friends, etc. Also I think it will help me stay focused on my dreams and goals. I recently bought a composition notebook where I planned to write all my goals for the day or errands I wished to complete. It seemed like a great idea but I only did it for one day. Maybe I will start that up again soon. It makes you feel very accomplished at the end of the day.
Anyways, I guess this post wasn't really funny or entertaining to read. I probably wont have many of these bland posts. I try to make most entries more interesting to read. I actually kind of really like writing now. Not gonna lie... hahaha.
Monday, August 10, 2009
un-productivity
So I realized an easy way to increase my productivity yesterday. It came to me while I was lying in bed unable to fall asleep since I slept at 6 am the night before (doing nothing). Oops, I didn't mean to confuse you when I said I found a way to increase my productivity; it is more like I found a way to decrease the amount of time I waste. So in the past I have tried numerous ways to stop myself from wasting time, such as not going online every other day or not going online before 10pm or other ideas which involved not going online that didn't work. Between facebook, youtube, surfthechannel, wikipedia, google, aim and porn, I can easily waste many hours on my laptop accomplishing nothing that is really in the best interest of my long term future.
Almost all of the time I spend in my room, I spend lying flat on my bed, face up with my laptop resting on my chin while typing with my 4 fingers and balancing the laptop with my thumbs.
I know it sounds a little complicated but I have already concluded, after much testing, that it is the most comfortable way to watch youtube videos. So anyways the bright idea I came up with was this: don't use your laptop when you're on your bed. YES, I am a genius. It's actually worked pretty well for the 1 day I've used it. Pretty much whenever I am bored I tend to naturally grab my laptop without thinking, open it and log into facebook or aim or whatever. And usually when I am really bored on my computer, I instant message people on aim or facebook chat who I rarely talk to and try to force a conversation. Usually it is entertaining for about five minutes until we run out of things to talk about and then I remember why I rarely talk to that person. By the way if I have randomly messaged you recently, this does not mean I do not like talking to you. But by being forced out of bed in order to use my laptop, it cuts down internet usage a good percentage, maybe up to 50% even!
So on another note, I almost finally got a job tutoring an SAT1 math class. I just had my second interview today where I had to pretend to teach a 30 year old Chinese lady how to do algebra problems while she graded me on my teaching skills. I was kind of nervous but I think it went relatively well. I don't want to get too excited just in case I don't get hired. I tend to have the problem where I count my chickens before they hatch. I was planning to have made over a thousand dollars in the month of July from that Korean summer camp job but look how that turned out. I was telling my dad I was going to be paying my own rent from now on and everything too. Ha, I haven't even received my check for those three short days I worked yet. I ended up losing money at that job. Damn, kids! Anyways, hopefully I will get this job and will be less financially reliant on good ol' dad. I am also very happy that this place is a Chinese place and not a Korean place. There's no question people are nicer to their own kind. I remember when the new boss man called me for an interview, I was having a hard time discriminating whether his accent was Korean or Chinese. His last name was also Chu, not exactly a predominately Chinese or Korean name. And when I was sitting in the lobby waiting for him to show up for the interview, I couldn't tell if the kids around me were Chinese or Korean either. I frantically looked around and THANK GOD! I saw a paper with some Chinese on it. Not that I don't like being called Aur-burt all day, but I am particularly good at sucking up to Chinese parents. Actually I am very good; it might even be one of my top 5 skills. (Yes, I don't have many great skills). Anyways I am still looking for more hours to work if people are willing to hire me though, maybe something that is more related to my major. If anyone knows anyone... you know who to tell.
(me)
Almost all of the time I spend in my room, I spend lying flat on my bed, face up with my laptop resting on my chin while typing with my 4 fingers and balancing the laptop with my thumbs.
I know it sounds a little complicated but I have already concluded, after much testing, that it is the most comfortable way to watch youtube videos. So anyways the bright idea I came up with was this: don't use your laptop when you're on your bed. YES, I am a genius. It's actually worked pretty well for the 1 day I've used it. Pretty much whenever I am bored I tend to naturally grab my laptop without thinking, open it and log into facebook or aim or whatever. And usually when I am really bored on my computer, I instant message people on aim or facebook chat who I rarely talk to and try to force a conversation. Usually it is entertaining for about five minutes until we run out of things to talk about and then I remember why I rarely talk to that person. By the way if I have randomly messaged you recently, this does not mean I do not like talking to you. But by being forced out of bed in order to use my laptop, it cuts down internet usage a good percentage, maybe up to 50% even!
So on another note, I almost finally got a job tutoring an SAT1 math class. I just had my second interview today where I had to pretend to teach a 30 year old Chinese lady how to do algebra problems while she graded me on my teaching skills. I was kind of nervous but I think it went relatively well. I don't want to get too excited just in case I don't get hired. I tend to have the problem where I count my chickens before they hatch. I was planning to have made over a thousand dollars in the month of July from that Korean summer camp job but look how that turned out. I was telling my dad I was going to be paying my own rent from now on and everything too. Ha, I haven't even received my check for those three short days I worked yet. I ended up losing money at that job. Damn, kids! Anyways, hopefully I will get this job and will be less financially reliant on good ol' dad. I am also very happy that this place is a Chinese place and not a Korean place. There's no question people are nicer to their own kind. I remember when the new boss man called me for an interview, I was having a hard time discriminating whether his accent was Korean or Chinese. His last name was also Chu, not exactly a predominately Chinese or Korean name. And when I was sitting in the lobby waiting for him to show up for the interview, I couldn't tell if the kids around me were Chinese or Korean either. I frantically looked around and THANK GOD! I saw a paper with some Chinese on it. Not that I don't like being called Aur-burt all day, but I am particularly good at sucking up to Chinese parents. Actually I am very good; it might even be one of my top 5 skills. (Yes, I don't have many great skills). Anyways I am still looking for more hours to work if people are willing to hire me though, maybe something that is more related to my major. If anyone knows anyone... you know who to tell.
(me)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
soliciting
So on my quest to find a new part time job, I came across a posting on Craigslist which was titled "LOVE YOUR JOB AGAIN!" Wow. It looked very intriguing. It was posted by a chiropractic firm that was looking for more customers. Basically the job description was noted as a marketing job where you would go out to places around Irvine and get people to fill out surveys and give them a coupon for a free session and massage or something. Anyways, I went to the interview which pretty much was just me sitting there with 3 or 4 other young people and one really annoying old woman listening to the doctor give us a deeper description of the job. As he described it further (with many many suck-up comment interruptions from the old woman) the job sounded more and more like soliciting. At the end of his speech, the doctor basically said that it was actually a working interview, and now he wanted us to all go out and solicit for an hour and he will pay us for the hour when we return. Then the old woman asked some more ass kissing questions and we each got a stack of gift certificates and left. The gift certificates have a tear off section where the person is suppose to write down their name and number so I can call them later and harass them to come in for the free session.
Anyways, the whole time I was listening to this job description I was thinking to myself "Wow, I'm probably going to be really good at this" and "Wow, I am probably going to get hired and that old lady isn't" and "Wow, this lady is really fucking old." I based these thoughts on the fact that I have spent my last three years in college rushing people for LTD's and I have gotten pretty damn good at it. I have also mastered the art of flyering and faking interest in people I talk to. This job is going to be pretty much the same thing.
After I got the gift certificates and left the chiropractic office, I debated on whether or not I should do this job legitimately. I figured since I almost never do anything legitimately, I would try it for once. So I went over to The District in my dress shirt and tie and stood outside Target holding large neon green coupons. Immediately I realized I had a problem. Talking to Asian kids about joining a fraternity is nothing like talking to middle age white women about getting a free chiropractic massage. I'm not even that great at talking to white people my age, let alone old white people.
So I was standing awkwardly outside Target in my shirt and tie (while sweating), trying to convince people to give me their phone number in return for a free massage coupon. Needless to say, I was very nervous. I probably let a pretty good amount of people pass by before I was able to even open my mouth, and all I was able to say to these two older women was "Hello! How are you!" They said hello back and walked past. YES! Improvement! After about 15 more minutes of letting people pass by me without talking to them, I concluded that this is a really stupid job and went home. During that time span, I was able to give out one coupon without getting her number and got rejected once. On the drive home I was feeling kind of down because I realized I actually suck at talking to strangers which was something I thought I was relatively good at. I didn't even go back to the chiropractic office to get my money since I was embarrassed I didn't get any numbers. So I only slept for 4 hours that night, wasted about 2 hours on the interview and sweated a lot in my only good dress shirt (which I don't wash often), just so I could find out that I suck at talking to strangers. Not the best morning to have.
But then I took a nap realized I will probably never have to get a stranger's number in exchange for a free chiropractic message coupon ever in my life again. So its cool.
HAGS
Anyways, the whole time I was listening to this job description I was thinking to myself "Wow, I'm probably going to be really good at this" and "Wow, I am probably going to get hired and that old lady isn't" and "Wow, this lady is really fucking old." I based these thoughts on the fact that I have spent my last three years in college rushing people for LTD's and I have gotten pretty damn good at it. I have also mastered the art of flyering and faking interest in people I talk to. This job is going to be pretty much the same thing.
After I got the gift certificates and left the chiropractic office, I debated on whether or not I should do this job legitimately. I figured since I almost never do anything legitimately, I would try it for once. So I went over to The District in my dress shirt and tie and stood outside Target holding large neon green coupons. Immediately I realized I had a problem. Talking to Asian kids about joining a fraternity is nothing like talking to middle age white women about getting a free chiropractic massage. I'm not even that great at talking to white people my age, let alone old white people.
So I was standing awkwardly outside Target in my shirt and tie (while sweating), trying to convince people to give me their phone number in return for a free massage coupon. Needless to say, I was very nervous. I probably let a pretty good amount of people pass by before I was able to even open my mouth, and all I was able to say to these two older women was "Hello! How are you!" They said hello back and walked past. YES! Improvement! After about 15 more minutes of letting people pass by me without talking to them, I concluded that this is a really stupid job and went home. During that time span, I was able to give out one coupon without getting her number and got rejected once. On the drive home I was feeling kind of down because I realized I actually suck at talking to strangers which was something I thought I was relatively good at. I didn't even go back to the chiropractic office to get my money since I was embarrassed I didn't get any numbers. So I only slept for 4 hours that night, wasted about 2 hours on the interview and sweated a lot in my only good dress shirt (which I don't wash often), just so I could find out that I suck at talking to strangers. Not the best morning to have.
But then I took a nap realized I will probably never have to get a stranger's number in exchange for a free chiropractic message coupon ever in my life again. So its cool.
HAGS
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