This is the obligatory flashback of the previous year and bold predictions of the current year.
2011 was a good year. All in all I made some terrific friends and had a decent year. Top highlights include the return of Chadwick Huang (I think that was 2011) and several memorable trips with great company. There was the infamous pretzel-throwing extravaganza in Reno, Tiesto in Vegas, beach-housin' in Santa Cruz, head-thrashing in EDC, the Seattle adventures, and projectile-vomiting Portland. I went camping for the second time ever and drove a boat.
But it was not all peachy. Some definite lowlights include Anjuli moving away and losing a few friends. It took some time to adjust to the move, but I am glad she is happy where she is. As for losing the other friends, it is probably for the best. Cady said you have to suck all the poison out of your life and I believe it. Why keep people around who are a cancer to your life and happiness? Some friendships and relationships are just not worth saving. Other friendships, like Anjuli, are the ones you wish you had more of...
Looking forward, I am hoping to build on 2011's mild successes. Although I have already failed to write up my 100 item bucket list in time, I will likely start it this year. Be on the look out for a new blog for my bucket list.
Some goals never change but here they are:
Finish writing my bucket list and start
More ink
Vespa
Purchase a home and move in
Become more independent; be less needy
Finish one full cycle of p90x
Stay sober for a month
Probably some more but nothing I can think of right now. I think one of the biggest problems with setting New Year's resolution is not having a specific goal. I think if I set goals with a definitive endpoint, I will have a higher rate of success. I guess we will find out in 2013 how I did.
What is there to say... Not much. I am supposed to be reading for class right now, but instead I am talking to you.
Changes. Changes are coming. By the end of the year I will not be the same person you know now. I guarantee it. They say if you do not have enemies, you have not accomplished anything. By this time next year, I will have new enemies.
"During this fight, I've seen a lot of changing, in the way you feel about me, and in the way I feel about you. In here, there were two guys killing each other, but I guess that's better than twenty million. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change." -Mr. Balboa
Until next time,
Money can’t buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy.
People have been asking me a lot lately if I have started my Yes Man project because I guess I have been doing a lot of uncharacteristic things. After my first semester, I feel like I finally have the time to go a little nuts and I guess people are getting confused. I am definitely having a great winter break so far and hope it continues to be just as good. I have not been very productive though...
I started to clean my room but gave up when I saw how much junk I have. I tried to fix my uncle's computer but could not figure out why it was having trouble booting up. My work out plan is sporadic at best. I am however getting a lot of partying done.
In preparation for Vegas in March, I have been familiarizing myself with more house, electronica, and, dare i say, trance. More house than anything though. One of my classmates made me three CDs of an artist that has a pretty unique sound.
The going gets good around @1:00. His name is Parov Stelar. He's considered the founding father of Electroswing and hails from Australia. I have always enjoyed swing music and big band music like Hey Pachuco! but never really looked for more songs or artists. Now that I have some time between now and the 10th of January, maybe I will look for more. Or just let Pandora take care of it for me.
In the past few weeks I have also came up with some ideas for some new ink. The one that I will probably get first is a falling King (chess piece) on the inside of my left bicep. You might be thinking, "Alex, how can you make it look like it's falling?!" "With a shadow, my friend!" I would say. The only thing holding me back is I am not sure what size I want. Ideally, it would run almost six inches. But, I am afraid it will be too big and stick out of my tee shirt sleeves. Not looking to get caught by the parentals.
A possible third would be Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici across my collarbone. Or a smaller version under my left collarbone. I have been back and forth on this one since I actually stole the idea from a friend who already has the tattoo. It's also very hard deciding on what font to use. While searching for more Latin phrases, I came across some very funny ones:
Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri? - (At a barbeque) Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus! - Let's all wear mood rings!
Braccae illae virides cum subucula rosea et tunica Caledonia-quam elenganter concinnatur! - Those green pants go so well with that pink shirt and the plaid jacket!
Brevior saltare cum deformibus mulieribus est vita - Life is too short to dance with ugly women
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam - I have a catapult. Give me all your money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head
In dentibus anticis frustrum magnum spiniciae habes - You have a big piece of spinach in your front teeth
A few months ago, Calvin borrowed my iTouch to crack his PS3. After returning it, I had to redownload my apps. While looking for more free ones, I decided to download a free version of chess. I have been playing it everyday for at least half an hour. I think one of my New Year's resolutions will be to learn how to play chess at a higher level. It's always been fun but I never understood all the terminology or strategies. After a decent Wikipedia adventure, I was introduced to some of the intricacies of the games and read up on some of the more memorable matches. I know I will never be competing in a nationally ranked tournament, but it would be nice to go play with the gang on 5th and Market one day. Right now one of my biggest problem is seeing all the possible moves with the clock running. Playing chess under time constraints is very difficult...
Until next time,
A game of chess is normally divided into three phases: opening, typically the first 10 to 25 moves, when players move their pieces into useful positions for the coming battle; middlegame, usually the fiercest part of the game; and endgame, when most of the pieces are gone, kings typically take a more active part in the struggle, and pawn promotion is often decisive.
I really should be finishing up my personal statements but seeing as I haven't updated in a while, I'll just leave a quick blurb.
I've been working the last couple of Sundays which has completely changed my weekend outings. This past weekend specifically, was immensely uneventful. Other than the Sharks game, I did absolutely nothing. I can't remember the last time I didn't go out for at least one day out of the weekend. And by out, I mean out drinking.
Looking back at it, it's surprisingly refreshing to have some of that pressure gone. Every weekend I have high hopes of something fun happening and I'm rarely disappointed. But now that I've had time to digest the nothingness that was the weekend, I realized how much calmer my life had been. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I think I may begin looking for more non-nightlife things to do around The City. I'm not exactly sure what else there is to do since I hate a lot of things like watching movies in theaters. If anyone knows of any social gatherings that frequently occur please let me know. If I had my scooter, I could attend local scoot-abouts. I'm not sure that's what they're called but that's definitely a cool name for it.
I'd really like to meet more people...and actually possibly remember them. Alcohol is deteriorating my mind. I feel like I'm getting stupider with every drink. Will I(t) ever stop? I don't know. Turn off the lights and I'll glow. To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal. Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle. Dance. Hellz yeah, bitch. See what I mean? I'm also finding more money in my pockets. I didn't even need to go to the ATM for the past two weeks.
To all you fellow bloggers, your comments for your posts will be arriving shortly. I'll get to it :]
Yesterday I accomplished something I thought was near impossible. I was able to run all the way to 47th avenue and back. A total of 50 blocks or 3.5 miles. It was amazing because I've been running the same route and I never made it past 41st avenue (on the way back). The amazing thing was that I wasn't as fatigued as I thought. I probably could have ran a little further but I was already home. Even more surprisingly, I am not sore. My self esteem is at an all time high and I have started working out again. But enough about that.
Two days ago I posted about something at work that was absolutely hilarious. And I'm about to show you. To give you a refresher on the background of these photos, building security provided a binder of emergency procedures and such. Inside, I found this.
Take a closer look.
What the eff?! "Did you place the bomb?" I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this page. My coworkers had no idea why I was laughing. This form was so strange I had to take a picture to capture the memories.
Yesterday I was talking to my mom and she said something that I knew was a lie. I called her out on it and said she was a big fat liar. She looked at me and said, "DO YOU SEE MY PANTS ON FIRE?!" If there was a show called "Moms Say the Darndest Things", she would totally be on it.
^^Very interesting video. I love the ending but the build up takes too long.
Today was full of visuals. Started off the day watching new music videos on the telly while getting dressed and such. Saw the "new" Rihanna video (sort of) and some other videos that I had no idea who they were. On the way to work, a very beautiful lady stood in front of me on the bus. I had something pretty to look at for the next 25 minutes or so. I guess you can say it balanced out the homeless man sitting behind me drinking two Sierra Nevada's that he had hidden in his jeans. Boy was she beautiful. It's quite rare to see someone that beautiful riding public transportation. Usually the bus is just filled with normal people or ugs (and the occasional homeless drinking in public).
At work I read an interesting article about optical illusions (yes I purposely titled this post "allusion" to allude to the content of my post).
All of the orange circles are the same size but it's quite tricky.
The same goes for this picture. Picture (b) was quite tricky for me. If you'd like to read the article here it is:
Then I saw this video which was completely mind bottling. "You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle?"
After work I came home and watched two hours and a half hours of PBS. There was the NOVA special that runs every so often and this particular episode was titled "What Are Dreams?" The episode discussed all parts of dreams and how they relate to our lives. I lost interest at some parts and got distracted with my dinner (although I did not taste much. See previous post). The second show was a lot more interesting. The show, Human Senses, spent the first half hour discussing our sense of touch while the second half discussed vision. The first half hour was also somewhat uninformative since I already knew about most of the topics they discussed. Main points were that pain can be altered depending on influences. During the test the show conducted, a panel of volunteers were given one of two pills. The first pill was said to enhance sensation and pain while the other was a painkiller. Both were just flour and sugar but the volunteers were not made aware of this. The experiment used electrical pulses to sent a shocking sensation to the volunteers and those who took the "pain-enhancing" pills had a stronger reaction to the same level of stimuli. Those who took the "painkillers" felt little sensation. The first segment also introduced hypnotherapy as a way of using mind over matter to reduce the amount of pain felt. The most interesting part of the segment was definitely the part where the host's body was altered to show where the most sensitive parts of the body were. It looked something like this:
The only difference was that the host was of course, moving. And the lips on the host were a lot bigger. "Steven Tyler would be proud." The second segment about vision was a lot more interesting. The opening of the segment explains the basic operations of the eye and how it works. Then there was an experiment where volunteers were hooked up to a machine that detects their eye movements. The volunteers then waited in a bar for the tester and were unaware that their eye movements were being monitored and recorded. The room was filled with hired models and beautiful people and then the volunteers were shown what they were looking at. It was interesting to see how people had no idea they were looking at certain people for a long time. They were either staring or made a lot of visual passes at the same people numerous times. The episode then moved onto another experiment which I totally want to try. Somewhere (I forgot where), a man developed goggles to invert images. When the host put on the goggles, everything he saw was inverted. He was tested for 8+ hours where he had to learn to adjust to the changes. The inventor had been wearing the goggles for 14 days without taking them off and had learned to ride a bike with the goggles on. The argument was that given time, your eyes could adjust to a lot of stuff. Because of the inverted vision, the host had trouble reaching into a refrigerator for a bottle of milk. It was hilarious seeing him hit the top of the refrigerator over and over trying to get to the milk. Definitely something I'd want to try. Two other experiments were done to prove that vision can be distorted when distracted. The first experiment involved the host asking a random person directions before a couple of construction workers pass between the person and the host holding a door. During the pass, the host switches with one of the people holding the door to test if the person had noticed that the person who asked for directions had changed. More than half of the people had no idea that the person had switched out. They were preoccupied with thinking about directions and explaining on where to go. The second experiment involved five basketball players. They were told to pass three balls as part of an exercise. They were recorded while doing their passing drills and a group of volunteers were asked to see how many times the players in the yellow jersey touched the ball. What the volunteers failed to notice was another person dressed in a gorilla costume walking in the middle and pounding on his chest before stepping back out of the clip. Only five people noticed the gorilla out of a group of over 20 people. Of course, I thought to myself, "How stupid are these people that they didn't see a gorilla walk in the middle?" Then the host said, "I know you're thinking, 'How stupid are these people that they didn't see a gorilla walk in the middle?' Throughout the episode, a gorilla has been in plain view. How many times did you spot the gorilla?" And to be honest, I actually only noticed it twice. Maybe a third if I think back to it really hard. The host the went back and showed all the different places a gorilla can be seen in the background. There were a total of five gorillas. I guess two out of five isn't that bad.
Side note: I spent about an hour reading up on eugenics and euthenics. Very interesting. I may have to buy some books to read up on it. I keep saying I'm going to read more but I always end up watching the telly and wasting my life.
Rappers and singers with accents are awesome. For a long time I didn't understand how an accent could make a woman hot, but in the past few years it's been growing on me. I guess when I would think of a hot girl it would be more superficial. Now, I notice more things beyond physical appearances that are very attractive. Accents is one of them.
It's been a hectic week or so which means no blogging. To catch you up on my life, my post will be a significantly long one to try and cover all bases. It will not be told in chronological order, but in the order that the events come to me as I am typing. And the story begins with a dream.
Two nights ago, I had another bizarre dream. In this particular dream, Andy, Chadwick, and I were all sitting down having a nice afternoon meal at some Chinese restaurant. Out of the blue, some Arab guy, about our age, ran in the restaurant and told us that the Arabian mob was following him. He asked if he could sit with us because he was scared of the people after him. So being the good people that we are, we told him he could sit with us. Then, a whole mess of people came spilling in the doorway looking for this guy. Sure enough, it was the mob the guy was talking about. They didn't see him right away so they sat down at a table and began scoping the place out. All of a sudden one of the guys recognizes the guy at points at our table. Without even getting up, they all pull out their pistols and uzis and start spraying in our direction. I duck out of the way but Andy, Chad, and the Arab guy just sit there - backs straight, chin up, without flinching. Bullets are flying and hitting them in the face and chest but bouncing off. The three of them just look at the mob and shrug it off. I ask, "What the hell just happened?" Then I look over and see Brian in the corner of the restaurant and he says "How did you do that?!" Andy and Chad explained that they had used an anti-bullet spray on themselves which makes them immune to all gunfire. Brian looks over at me and I'm still ducking. He asks me "Did you use it too?" I give him the eye and reply "If I had used it would I be ducking?! Of course I didn't use it!" He stares back at me and says "I don't believe you." Then he pulls out his own pistol and shoots me in the chest. What...the...hell... I look down and I'm bleeding and I can feel the bullet lodged in my lungs. I start to panic and experience a shortness of breath. Then I woke up. I can't believe Brian didn't believe me. He dream-murdered me.
The evening before that, Andy, Chadwick, Gary and I went to Poleng Lounge for Kate and Annie's birthday. I pass by it every day on the 5 on my way to work but I never really noticed it. It was dead and we ended up just sitting down and chatting. It wasn't that bad except for the part where I got tricked into donating money to hurricane victims. Now, I'm a victim too. Had a couple of beers there and then took off to meet one of Andy's friends at Ambassador. It was my first time there but it seemed like an okay spot. Not too bad. Just hung out with the boys for a while and challenged Gary to a chugging contest. The first one was too close to call but the second round I beat him by about a half of a second. It was pretty intense. I knew I had the second round even though Chadwick had his money on Gary. The official record is 1-1-1 and Gary said every time we go to a pub we should continue the tradition. Sounds like fun. Then we went to some pizza place across the street and it was delicious. Greasy food after alcohol always tastes good. Gary let me have a few bites of his slice since I didn't want to eat a whole one. Still watching my weight. And it's working.
Been spending most of my time this week applying to two programs for graduate school. Unfortunately, I think it may have been a complete waste of time. The deadline is December 1 and I have not received any of the three letters or recommendations that I asked for. But, I realized yesterday, that this may in fact work out in my favor. The program I am applying to begins in Fall 2010, but the program also has a second session beginning in Spring. If I change my application for the Spring semester, it will give me more time to complete my 18 month contract at Wells Fargo. I guess there's always an upside. I can't believe I'm becoming a glass-half-full kind of guy. The program that I really want to be in has an April deadline so there's plenty of time for that one. Probably will have a sit down meeting with the program director in the next month or so. She seems really nice.
About this gun law situation. Apparently it is legal to carry a gun as long as it's holstered, unloaded, and not concealed. If I had known that earlier, I would have carried a gun everywhere. I'm preferable to the p228. Nice and compact. It really only takes one bullet to kill someone if you know what you're doing, so I don't need a giant magnum or anything silly like that. A simple p228 will do the job. If I don't kill them with the first shot, I'll at least have immobilized the person. Time to exercise my rights granted to me by the second amendment.
Something has been bothering me for the last half year or so. Ever since Chadwick's brother started playing Magic (the Gathering of course), I got sucked back into it. I really don't mind except for the fact that I have no one to play with other than him. Also, it sucks that sometimes it's all I think about. I know this makes me sound like a loser but I don't care. Sometimes all I do is think about how much better I could make my deck if I had certain cards. I've actually gone out of my way to ask people I know who used to play to see if they had these cards. It's just annoying knowing that my deck has not met its full potential. But it's also satisfying to know that it beats Wilton's decks more than 50% of the time. And it's even more satisfying knowing that he gets angry when he loses. I love winning... I doesn't matter if I win against a four year old or a 90 year old. Winning is winning. FnF reference. I need some howling mines. When I get really desperate to play, I'll just walk down to the comic store. There's always nerds there. I have to buff up my deck first though so I don't get embarrassed. I sometimes think about how awesome it would be to walk into the comic book store as an unknown and challenge everyone there. They'd have no idea what my deck is capable of. Yes. I am a loser.
Last night I finally got a chance to listen to the Howard Stern rant about religion and Kirk Cameron's ridiculous arguments for public schools to not just include intelligent design, but make it the main topic of science classes. I don't like to use profanity in my blog but what a fucking tool. Howard Stern made a lot of great points about religion and argued that evolution is the only thing that should be taught in public schools. Agree 100%. Kirk Cameron is such a douche. These are the people that are so completely ignorant they just make me want to punch their babies. Listen to this if you have time. Part 1 of 2, totaling about 18 minutes.
Black Friday is coming up. I'm scheduled to work but if there are deals that I have to line up for then I might have to call it a half day. I worked a half day on Thursday and my boss let me count it as a full day. That's four hours of work for free. I hope she'll let me keep the eight hours on record if I take a half day on Friday too. This year, I'm looking for a new TV for my room. Looking for at least a 46", 1080p, 120Hz LCD. Brand isn't so important but I definitely would prefer a Samsung, Sony, Sharp, or maybe a Vizio. Other than the TV, there's not much to line up for. Also on my list for "wants" but not necessarily something I'd skip work for is a flash drive, a microsd card, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia DVD seasons 3-4 + A Very Sunny Christmas, Monk (the seasons I don't have but I'm not sure which ones they are), Fearless Platinum edition, some board games, a new laptop, and maybe some other stuff, but those are the things I can name off the top of my head. This is, of course, assuming there are amazing deals. I have a price in mind for all of those items. We'll see how it is when I get all the ads. I'd also like my own PS3. There's no point of buying a blu-ray player when you can buy a PS3. I figure when I move out I'll want my own anyways so if it's cheap, I'll probably end up buying one. I know I will eventually.
That's all for now. I'm also trying to think of a more creative sign off. There needs to be more pizazz to my closing signature. Time to experiment.
^^One of six new tracks on the re-release of Fearless. Probably my favorite of the six.
Let's start off November's blog with dream sequences. Last week I had a couple of dreams that were memorable for different reasons. In the first dream, me, Anjuli, Andy, and a few other friends were walking out of some store and through the parking lot. As we were walking to our car, hundreds of field mice scurried their way out of the bushes from an island between the parked cars. I grabbed one by the tail and put it in a plastic box, the kind that turtles are sold in. Then, I took it home and put some water in the box. Just enough to cover its feet. The mouse started absorbing all of the water like the spongy dinosaurs that you soak in water. It grew big enough to fill the box and that's all I remember. My second dream was terrifying. I was in my room arguing with my dad for some reason and it got really heated. He muttered in Chinese something like, "My own kids don't even love or respect me." He started to walk away towards my sister room and I tried to stop him. As I approached the doorway of my sister's room, I saw him open the window. I could tell this was not going to end well. He opened the window and jumped out as I reached out to stop him. That's all I remember and it was pretty depressing to wake up from that dream.
It made me feel guilty for mistreating him for all these years. My father is a very difficult man to understand and deal with which is still no excuse. For the past few days, I've been trying to talk to him more, but, like me, he's in a funk that he can't shake. It's depressing just knowing how depressed he is. My mom also tells me that he may be going through the initial stages of Alzheimer's which is even more depressing. It's believable. My mom said he probably has five to ten years left before it really starts to affect his daily life. At this point, he's already forgetting people's names and has trouble remembering little things. I guess I'll need to try and patch things up. Time to learn to be more patient.
Unfortunately, my patience has run out for a certain someone. This person will remain nameless but a few people know what's going on. I guess it's interesting to actually know someone THAT narcissistic. To be clear, narcissism does not mean loving yourself. The correct definition of a narcissist is someone who loves the image they project of themselves. You may not like who you are on the inside, but you take pride and enjoy the image you present of yourself to others.
People are oblivious. To quote Frank Outlaw, "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." Definitely one of my favorite quotes of all time and applicable to everyday life. If everyone would be more aware of their actions and how it affects everyone else, the world would be a better place. I am, in no way, saying that I am perfect. But, I at least take responsibility for my actions. For the most part. I think... But, what can we do. The human race is built on selfishness. Challenge?
Which brings me to my next point. If I ever go back to school, I am definitely joining the debate team. Doesn't matter what school. I don't think I enjoy anything as much as winning an argument.
