Saturday, December 29, 2007

Lack of Reading....

Growing up I used to love reading. I read so many books! I think that was one the reasons why I was able to learn English to quickly and compete with the native speakers in my class. I remember taking entire summers and reading a bunch of books, just for fun. Although, I never really got into word games (crosswords, jumble, ect.) to help my vocabulary (which I regret), I had a decent enough vocabulary to help me with my writing just from reading.


At some point during college, I just stopped reading for fun. In the last few years I have not read that many books for fun. The number of pages I read during college was phenomenal, and even more so in law school (at least 2,000 pages of dense reading this term), yet my leisure reading has dropped to a couple of books year. This is disturbing to me. It seems that I now see reading as a chore, and decide to watch TV instead. Now that I have a Netflix account and Hulu I am always choosing TV over book. Below is a list of the TV shows that I have seen since the summer.



Dawson's Creek (Seasons 1-5)

The West Wing(Seasons 1-7, which I own)

Prison Break(Season 1, Season 3 on TV)

Heroes(First half of season 2 on TV)

Stargate SG-1(Seasons 1-10, this took a long time!)

30 Rock(Season 1, half of season 2 on TV)

Big Bang Theory (Half of the first season on TV)

Cane(Half of first season on TV)

Sliders(Season 4)

Roswell(Season 1)

Chuck(Half of season 1, on TV)

Pushing Daisies(Half of the first season on TV)



Wow, that was a lot. Maybe I should cut back. Well, in the meantime I just need to finish my two on going projects: My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks.

However, I am trying to read more for fun. While I was looking for a gift for my friend I stumbled upon a cheap copy of Wuthering Heights and purchased it immediately. I had not been so excited about a book in such a long time. I am going to bring it on my trip tomorrow and read on the nice warm Florida beaches. This is going to be better than the last book that I brought to the beach, Patent Law.

I'm out.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Xmas ...

First of all, I wish all my friends a merry Christmas. For the non-christian ones, happy holidays. For all, happy new year. I'm in Riverside for a few days, so that should be enjoyable. I hope to see some old friends from high school before I get back.


All around I see holiday cheer, whether in the commercial sense at the mall, or more familial the neighborhood decorations.


Since all the gyms are closed, I decided to go for a jog today. A little background first. A few days before Thanksgiving I decided to have a reverse new year's resolution. I was going to the gym every single day, until the new year. I weighted 168 lbs., and wanted to get back too my summer weight of 155. So far I have been able to go to the gym every single day. I usually do 37 minutes on the elliptical machine and another half hour of lifting (usually longer). As a result, I've lost 10 pounds (3 pounds away from my goal!), and I've gotten much stronger. I think will keep up the regiment past new year's, probably less intense.


While I was jogging I made three observations. First, jogging is much harder than the elliptical. Second, the crash of the housing market is huge, I saw about 7 houses for sale in my 2 mile run. Third, people are a**holes, even on a holiday. Let me expand on this. While I was jogging some guy honked at me, slowed down, and flipped me off! WTF?


I assume that the person thought I was being jerk for exercising during Christmas. Aside from that I have no idea. I spent maybe 6 days in Riverside in 2007, so I know I don't have any enemies. Maybe he confused me with somebody else. I don't know, it was just rude.


Anyways, I will end on a happy note. Happy holidays to all. I bought my brothers a radio controlled airplane and I am just as excited as they are to go fly it. Take care all.





Friday, December 21, 2007

Not on Beauty and the Geek

So nobody called me today from the show. I guess this means that I am not going to be on TV. Oh well. Long shot, but it was fun thinking about it.




Thursday, December 20, 2007

Half Way Done With Law School....

This makes me happy. I spent some time trying to teach Andy some products liability concepts, there is actually a lot of material I learned this term. As always, I was impressed with Andy's ability to understand difficult concepts.


Anyways, now that I am halfway done I guess I officially have the "J" in my "J.D."




Saturday, December 15, 2007

Top Flickr Photos...

A couple of days ago Flickr announced that pro accounts can now access statistics about all the pictures on the account since it was first opened. Since I have over 4,500 pictures, I was interested in seeing which ones are the most popular.


Not surprisingly, most of my top pictures are from Madagascar. I guess this makes sense since these are the most unique pictures that I have on there. Some other top pictures surprised me. Here is a list of my most viewed Flickr pictures.


# 1: 204 views

Madagascar 207
This one makes sense. A picture of a Gorgeous Grandidier's baobab. Most people have not see these types of trees.


#2: 176 views


me_wet_suit
Picture of Felicia in a wetsuit when she was in middle school. No nudity, no interesting background. Why is this #2?


#3: 151 views


Madagascar 213
Local Malagasy girls. Makes sense, very cultural.


#4 views: 139


DSCF0002
Andy sitting on my couch sophomore year at Caltech. I don't think he should be that interesting.



So in conclusion, people are weird. I have so many great pictures, and many of the ones that get viewed are not interesting at all. This of course might have to do with the fact that not that many people look at my pictures to begin with. A top view of 204 is pathetic on the web. I also don't do that good of a job tagging or geo tagging my pictures. Oh well ... I'll try to get better pictures.


Thursday, December 13, 2007

Geek is chic?

Apparently being a geek is now cool. I read this article that was linked on msnbc and part of a Today show segment yesterday. They even have a field guide for women, to help them find geeks. My reaction ... when do I get to benefit from this?


I'm certainly consider myself a geek. This is of course apparent when I tell them about my Stargate SG-1 obsession, the fact that I love to tutor calculus, and computer hobbies. I have yet to see an improvement in my dating life. Maybe this has a lot to do with being in school all the time. Law school does not give me much time to meet people outside of the school. I guess I have to wait a bit longer to reap the benefits of this cultural shift.


Any ladies out there, feel free to contact me.




Birthday Stuff ...

So I'm 23, and I feel old. After waking up really late, I went to the gym and left to spend most of the day with my friend Bruce. Bruce has known me since I was seven. He knew me since the first day that I came to the U.S., before I could even speak english. We had not seen each other for years, so I figured this would be a good time to take a day off from finals and go visit him.


He now has a 2 year old daughter, and she is beautiful. This really makes me feel old. All my friends are getting married and having kids. It's so weird to see him with a child. I had a great time just catching up with him. I was stupid and forgot my camera, so no pictures. I guess this just means that I have to go back and visit again.




Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Beauty and the Geek Auditions ...

Last month I got an email from the Caltech Alumni Association advertising an open cast call for season five of Beauty and the Geek. Since I needed I study break I decided to show up for the audition. By the time that I got there, there were only nine people ahead of me. I only had to wait for about 20 minutes before I got an interview. This interview took literally four minutes and I was offered a call back at the studio. The interview was today.

I went to Manhattan Beach to the 3Ball Productions office for an on camera interview. I was given directions and asked that I wear a shirt that reflects my personality or interest and props that somehow show how unique of a geek I am. After talking a lot of people I decided to wear a shirt that said "You Got Served ... FRCP 4." If you are not a lawyer or law student you are not going to get this. Basically FRCP stands for Federal Rules of Civil Procedures, and rule 4 relates to serving people with notice that they are part of law suit. Yeah I know ..lame, but that was the point. I did not have any clue as to what else to bring. Somebody suggested that I bring my computer since I am a computer nerd. I agreed.

I was surprised by the amount of security that I encountered on my way in. First I needed to give my ID to the lady at the front gate, and once in the building I needed key card access to operate the elevator, so somebody had to come down and get me. Once in the actual office, I only had to wait for a few minutes.

One of the casting directors took me to a nearby room, turned on the camera and started the interview. I was asked to list my academic accomplishments , explain my shirt, talk about my computer. Then I was asked questions that I had no answers for, they usually dealt with fashion. The two that I remembered was what kind of store was Sephora and what the fashion rule after labor day was. I think I made a fool out of myself .... excellent. In the end the interviewer's comments were promising. He first told me that not that many people make to the second round on-camera interview , and that my interview went on for 20 minutes when it's usually 15 minutes. He said I should find out by 21st of December.

I am not holding my breath and probably won't make it, but at least it's fun to think about.

Oh yeah ... it's going to be my birthday in 6 minutes. Go me.

Monday, December 10, 2007

This is a test...

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions. This is only a test.