i'm rich, i can't help being wasteful

The presidential race has picked up some steam lately. I always look forward to hearing what politicians have to say, especially in response to the "hard" questions.
With all the hub-bub going on with the presidential race, though, it seems that the local race for mayor and city attorney usually takes a back seat. But, the local races are quite interesting, as well.
The other day I was listening to KPBS/NPR and Tom Fudge on "These Days" was interviewing the City Council President, Scott Peters, who is a candidate for city attorney. Like many other San Diegans, Peters expressed his dissatisfaction with the job that current city attorney, Michael Aguirre, has done.
Fudge, who can usually be counted on to be as close to partial as possible, came back with a question for Peters.
"So, Scott, research has shown that City Council members are excessive users of water in their households, while you yourself had the highest usage by far (something like 5-6 times the avg. household uses). How do you respond to that?"
Peters answered, "Well, Tom, that a great question... and the answer is, to be honest, my property is rather large. We're currently trying to switch over to drip system, but really, our property is just big."
I got a kick out of that.
With all the media surrounding politics these days, its highly unlikely that a candidate will go unscathed during the course of his or her campaign and I sure love it when the media takes advantage and puts politicians in those tough situations.

you know that look on someone's face when they have to go number 2? well i don't...

so the other day i was at the library during my usual morning slot on Tues/Thurs (after chinese history and before chinese). since i haven't had a chance to go to the gym recently, i've found that walking up the stairs at geisel from 2nd floor to 7th floor is more than adequate exercise. usually by the time i reach the 7th floor I'm huffing and puffing. it's actually quite embarrassing to be breathing so hard in the library, so in order to catch my breath i head over to the bathroom. it's about this time, too, that i feel "The Urge" to let loose and relieve myself of my business (#2 business that is). but on this particular day i didn't feel "The Urge" so i left the bathroom, unrelieved. i know, this may seem like a strange routine, but hey at least 1) it gets some blood flowing and 2) it allows me to study with no need for later distractions.

anyways, so after that i usually head to my favorite study spot. if someone has assumed my spot, i'll shoot that person a dirty look and grudgingly look for an adequate substitute location. (kidding about the dirty look). well, on this particular day since i didn't feel "The Urge" during the normal time that it usual comes, i knew it would come at any minute, so i waited and waited (and studied). i finally felt it just before i had to leave for class. well, this is when my true adventure began...

i quickly packed up my belongings and fast-walked over to the 7th floor bathroom... stall in use. great, i thought, now i'll just go one floor down. 6th floor... same result, stall in use. okay how about 5th floor. STALL IN USE. it was probably about this time when i had "the face." you know that determined look people get when they have to get something done... when every part of their face is cringed oh so tightly? yeah that was me. so my last hope was 4th floor. and sure enough the stall was empty. so instead of having to hold poo for 1 hour and 20 minutes, i was able to take care of business, as usual.

IBD'S 10 secrets to success

i came across this recently...

investor's business daily's 10 secrets to success
1) how you think is everything - always be positive. think success, not failure. beware of a negative environment
2) decide upon your true dreams and goals - write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them
3) take action - goals are nothing without action. don't be afraid to get started. just do it.
4) never stop learning - go back to school or read books. get training and acquire skills.
5) be persistent and work hard - success is a marathon, not a sprint. never give up.
6) learn to analyze details - get all the facts, all the input. learn from your mistakes.
7) focus your time and money - don't let other people or things distract you.
8) don't be afraid to innovate; be different - following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity
9) deal and communicate with ppl effectively - no person is an island. learn to understand and motivate others
10) be honest and dependable; take responsibility - otherwise nos. 1-9 won't matter

can you spell w-o-w?

i usually cut people slack when it comes to grammatical and spelling errors, because i know i probably make tons of them too. shoot, i've probably made one already... and i know there are plenty of english nerds out there who absolutely cannot stand it when someone says something like "the monster ate george and I." of course it should be the monster ate george and me since the people getting eaten aren't the subjects in the sentence...
but c'mon you'd expect your chemistry professor to be able to spell words correctly... right? at least chemistry terms... wrong! i cannot believe how bad my prof is at spelling. i'm not talking about those infrequent i'm-a-little-tired today so i misspelled one word instances... i'm talking something more like, every class count how many words she can spell correctly. it's almost come to the point where i wonder where she was when you learn how to spell in elementary school. dood c'mon. so here are a couple classic examples of what i'm talking about...

1) "Mechanisum 1" okay maybe an honest mistake right? yeah so she writes under that... "Mechanisum 2" (where does the "u" come into that word... i have no idea)
2) she spells "need" like this... "nead" are you kidding me? a first grader can spell "need" blindfolded
3) "incorporated" as "encorporated"
4) "matterial" "fossile"
5) "consentration"
this is getting embarrassing so i am going to stop here...

so one time, she was writing some equations on the board and then she spelled something completely wrong. i think it was earlier in the year, so the whole class (at least the part of the class that wasn't sleeping in their drool) realized that 1) she wasn't kidding and 2) it wasn't just a careless error, when she spelled "balanced" "balenced" with a big fat "e" after the "l" and before the "n" and so everyone just busted out laughing. so then she says... "quiet down now class, some people ACTUALLY want to learn here." are you for real? apparently so.
every class i am closer and closer to raising my hand when she asks... "any more questions?" and say "yeah you spelled that wrong, and according to my log you've only spelled about 10 words right this entire quarter" i am serious... i don't even think she knows that she can't spell.
at first it was a little funny... now it's just sad.
good thing there are anonymous evaluations at the end of the year...

one size does not fit all

it is a rarity when i find clothes that fit well. i'm not talking about aesthetics here, because that's a whole different story; i'm talking about fitting in terms of size. as i walk around campus i see tons of asians that share the same problem. so i've concluded that 1) they don't care that their jeans are all ripped up and that their sweatshirts are like ponchos 2) they actually like big clothes (believe me there are ppl out there like that) or, like me 3) they can't find clothes that fit, as much as they would like. the more i think about this peculiarity, the more i realize it is probably the 3rd reason. aside from the g-unit constituency and those that would like to think that they are black, how many people actually like their jeans dragging halfway across the floor?
i'm telling you asians are the forgotten race. see, they are for the most part smaller and lighter than most african americans, caucasians, etc... but probably not hispanics. i'm not trying to be p.c. here, because i probably crossed that line a while ago... so if you are of the naturally "bigger" races, you can shop in any adult section no problem. medium, large, extra large, yeah you know the deal. okay now you are gonna say, what about hispanics, don't they have it worse than asians? yes and no. yes they probably do, given that they are GENERALLY shorter than asians, but if they have found the solution that i have so cleverly deduced then no they do not have it worse than asians. two words, juniors' section. ding dong. case closed. asians, mind you, are small but not that small.
i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that asian males have it the worst. okay asian females can at least go to the petite section... tell me if i am wrong but i have never seen a petite section for guys and i think it would be a bit strange if there was such a thing.
i say that asian males are of the lowest status in society today. yeah yeah maybe you could argue that some other race&gender has it worst, but common we are talking about the bottom feeders here. no need to argue.
i've seen plenty of asian sheladies with white guys, black guys, whatever guys, you name it. but asian males? don't even get me started. unless the said asian guy has a buttmunching load of money, or some other compelling factor, he will probably have no choice but to take what he can get.
as much as this seems like a whole lotta complaining, i don't really care because it is. maybe you could offer me an example of an anomaly here or there, but for the most part this is pretty rock solid stuff.
people just don't care enough about asian guys to manufacture clothes that actually fit. unless your body goes against all odds and you are a seven-foot-beastly-asian like yao or something i'm not sure there's much hope. believe me, it's not about the status persay... i'd just like to find clothes that fit and aren't outrageously priced.
so for all y'all asian fell-ahs out there (who are in the fivefootsomethin-please-another-couple-inches range), just throw your hands up in the air because i have nothing to tell you but dealll son!

Trusty ol' shirt

My dad has this shirt and it's yellow. Kinda like the bright yellow that makes your eyes tear up cuz it's so yellow. Anyways, when i was a kid every time my dad got mad... he was wearing that same ol' shirt. you know on those saturday mornings when it's just you and your dad cuz your mom went out to the supermarket or something... and that's bad enough cuz you didn't practice your violin or you got a B+ and you needed a parent signature? yeah, well think about that for a second. ok good. so if you are asian you'd most likely see your dad put on a good ol' trusty shirt to do some chores. if your dad is anything like my dad, it would be the same shirt week in and week out. my dad would usually bust out this neon yellow shirt and whenever i'd wake up and see him wearing it, i'd know to stay away... far far away, just until he took the shirt off.
So, more about the shirt. If the brightness of the shirt wasn't bad enough, the fact that my dad's face would turn so red when he found out i did something wrong would just top it off. man, just think of a big ol' red stop sign and one of those yellow caution up ahead signs. yeah that was what it was like. you had to see it though... man those were the days. i think a while back i told my dad about this observation of mine and he's consciously avoided that shirt.

yo its vince

Oh it feels good to start a new blog. Good is not exactly the word I've been throwing around recently... midterms with only one week in between does that to you. But, enough of all that melodramatic stuff... You could say that I've been suckered in by the uh-mazing skills of gil-arenas and rod benson's blogs. I get such a kick out of reading their blogs just because 1) they are straight up funny and 2) they have such amusing content to write about since they're pro-basketball players... I'll have the worst day of my life (and believe me I've had some saywhat? kinda days recently) then I'll mosey on over to gil's blog or benson's blog and boomshakalaka I'll get such a kick that I'll forget that life is killing me... no not really (life is good).
so first of all, for all you who don't know who I am, I am not a professional basketball player... so cut me some slack. yeah, maybe i did once aspire to be the first legit asian rep in the NBA... but, somewhere in between Yao Ming (i sure hope you know who that is) and realizing that asians just don't cut it if they aren't min. 7 feet tall, I put two and two together and knew it wasn't happening. So, with all that good stuff out in open, I'm not going to have the fall-outta-your chair kinda stuff that they have, but I'll do my best. (btw, yes I do fall out of my chair laughing sometimes and no it does not hurt) second, as great as my ebonic skills are... it's just not the same coming outta an asian guy.... so i'll stick with what i know. anyways, if this blog serves any purpose whatsoever, I hope that it would give you a good o' kick because ppl are way too up tight these days.
alright i'm done for now... but before i leave i just need to say this....
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! OHHH Sdflkj! Okay i'm done... the colts just got beat and the chargers almost self-destructed. I actually don't care much for the chargers, or the colts except for the fact that my fantasy team has peyton and addai. yeah i know i just got shafted this week.... 6 ints from the Manning v.2 and 56 yds from JA ain't gonna cut it.