[start]
i'm currently famous among dozens -- yes, i stole that line -- and obviously, a complete plagiarist. i only steal what i can't afford (that's everything). i'm a fob-shot carrying chinese person -- albeit born in taiwan. so to the politically inclined, my allegiance is on the side of china. if only because 1.3 billion tends to out-math 22.8 million. i'm an equal opportunity chinese/taiwanese food eater however.
currently i'm engaged in life and career decisions. questions like: "wait, weren't my (personal) twenties supposed to be roaring?" "is there an installment plan available on that toaster?" "is success and failure dependent on nature or nurture? or just sheer laziness?"
[school]
after a seven year sentence at an ultra-exclusive (read: expensive) private school in san diego, i took my studies to the university of michigan. i would insert a "go blue" here but i have no school pride whatsoever. i attended, hated it, loved it, continue loving it, and then left after four years. with no degree in hand. apparently there are no degrees bestowed upon those one semester short of a philosophy ba. since then i've attended summer schools, community colleges, schools in new york and san diego in an attempt to complete that degree. my mom's pride in me rests upon those missing credits.
[work]
education, or a work ethic, are pre-reqs for a successful working career, apparently. i had neither. so i've dabbled in film editing, magazine interning, lots of office work, loan consulting, video game playing, and lots of time off during the summers. my main skills lie in typing, organizing, and faxing.
somehow, through the powers of pixie dust and a magical friend, i was able to achieve a life goal and wrote a book. it's about blogging. check it out. it's also available in bookstores everywhere -- including internationally! i hope to write more books in the future; i'm taking pre-orders now. cash or checks accepted.
i also had the opportunity to attempt to become a flute mogul. i'm the scion of a flute mogul, so when he passed away, there was a chance that i too could become one. didn't happen. i can play the flute however, and explain to you how flutes are made. plus i learned to solder during this time. cool.
some statistics to supplement the essay portion of this application:number of siblings: 1, twin
number of girlfriends: 4.5
countries visited: 14-ish
typing speed: 80 wpm
driving speed: 65 mph
tattoos: 7
broken parts: 2; broken arm, knee surgery
contact prescription: -4.25; both eyes
favorite number: 21
[misc]
top five obsessions: wizard of oz, x-men, magic the gathering, (fantasy) sports, and board games. you can imagine what kind of a childhood i had. hip and cool doesn't even begin to describe it. thank goodness for chinese school; where every geek can find a home, and gain social cachet despite being, well, a geek.
i believe pop culture is a gift and not a disease."a while back...[we] agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like. books, records, films -- these things matter! call me shallow, it's the fucking truth."having opinions count. i think it's perfectly acceptable to pre-judge someone based on tastes in music, movies, books, etc. i mean, what else are we supposed to judge people on? looks? isn't that more shallow? liking something is a choice; at least stereotyping by taste yields a tiny bit of insight -- as opposed to seeking perfect facial proportions and all of that stuff.
-high fidelity-
i'm all for pre-judging, as long as you can keep an open mind afterwards. some of my best friends love "tuesdays with morrie." doesn't mean i like them any less. however, to be quite honest, having similar tastes with someone can make me like them a whole lot more.
[music]
i pretty much only listen to hip hop -- backpack rap, gather around. i supplement my musical diet with some acoustic guitar music, some alternative music from the 90s, and whatever else happens to catch my attention. apparently debbie gibson's "lost in your eyes" is my most played song according to iTunes. somehow i smell shenanigans on that one.
the first (english) songs i can recall getting really into were martika's "toy soldiers" and the beach boy's "kokomo."
i have a huge hole concerning 80s music. i was way too uncool (and recently immigrated) to retain or really listen to any music in the eighties -- which might not have been a bad thing in retrospect. the year that music really hit me was 1996. i guess before that i just audio breezed through whatever was on, i never "listened."
top five favorite musical artists: alanis morissette, jewel, gangstarr, tribe called quest, roots.
[movies] - ripe tomatoes
i watch as many movies as i can. i recently started the habit of movie hopping. i used to do it alone -- liberating and ultra-refreshing -- but now i tend to do it with whomever wants to join me. i love movie hopping. my record for movies hopped in one day is five. i detest gag-and-fart movies, you know what they are. i don't find austin powers, jim carrey, adam sandler, will ferrell or any of those guys amusing in any way. i prefer movies centered around conversation, ideas, or moments.
having said that, i'm no film snob by any stretch of the imagination. my tastes are quite plebeian; i just need a veneer of quality in the movies i'll rate highly. since i movie hop so often, i tend to watch a lot of terrible movies, so i know when to call a piece of crap "crap."
movie i've seen over and over again? top gun. i think we watched that movie twice a day for a month when we were young. and our eyes were covered every time the sex scene was on. we were babysat that summer, can you tell?
top five movies: reality bites, swingers, pulp fiction, fight club, lost in translation. extra credit goes to before sunrise/sunset.
[books] - book blob
one quote goes like this (paraphrased): "the only difference between who you are today and who you'll be in five years is what you read." the real difference between man and any other animal or creature is our ability to pass on knowledge from generation to generation. and not in an instincts or biological way.
we can read first hand accounts of humans who lived hundreds of years ago. we can accumulate knowledge on top of knowledge, all due to reading and books. that's why, in my opinion, you have to read. it's participating in the human experience. maybe school has ruined the simple joy of reading for people, but it's something that can always be re-discovered. read or die.
and there's such a difference between being able to read and actually reading. you can read magazines, the internet, newspapers, or tabloids; but that's not reading.
i've also realized that i've never really read that much true fiction -- literary or otherwise. thank goodness for book club, which has opened my eyes to some different genres and classic authors that i'd always wanted to read, but never did. it's also interesting to see how other people process the same book. when i read, i don't think i engage as much as i should. that's the key to really getting into a work of fiction; being engaged and seeing it from the book's eye-view as it were. i'm working on it.
top five books: atlas shrugged (ayn rand), fountainhead (ayn rand), immortality (milan kundera), contact (carl sagan), why big fierce animals are rare (paul colinvaux)
i'm a big believer in making lists. for faux-organization and mere entertainment. try it, it's fun.
[blogs]
i started blogging in 2000. my friend showed me his shiny new blog and i was amazed by how simple it was. then i explored some of his friends' sites (gomakross.org) and i got hooked. i had to have my own. luckily, blogging didn't cost a thing. i started a blog with me as the main character, but split into two perspectives. i was writing for an audience of two -- my friend and my roommate. i loved it. i would sit there and pretend to have conversations with myself all day long. eventually i wanted to add in some customized things like links and pictures and all of that stuff.
near the tail end of college, i had gotten into building home pages and little internet odds and ends. i couldn't code worth a lick but i learned how to copy and paste. same thing with blogging. i still can't code a single line but i can read html and copy and paste at a high amateur level. i should probably learn to really code at some point, since blogs are starting to get mega-complex.
since those early blogging experiences, i've been tirelessly promoting blogging. i personally use blogs for everything. i start up a blog whenever i can, for whatever use i can. it's an easy way to make a web page, it's an easy way to gather information, it's an easy way to do just about everything. all told, i've probably run around setting up twenty or so blogs just for personal use. most of them died, but some remain.
in addition, i tried to get anyone and everyone around me to blog. i wanted people to blog, to share, to do all of that stuff. as people started to graduate college and enter the boring corporate world, they had all sorts of time to blog. i tried to create my own blog community -- signing people up, designing their blogs, anything to get them started. tragically, most bloggers quit their blogs after a few months for one reason or another. but some friends still blog quite regularly and that's awesome.
the other thing about blogging is that i used to read anything i could about it. before blogs started popping up everywhere in the media, there was only a dribble of information and a handful of articles about blogging. i read every one and voraciously consumed it all. i used to just surf from blog to blog, looking at what the "blogsophere" had to offer. if you were an avid blog reader like me, you have certain blogs that really caught your attention, that influenced how you looked at the world (of blogging), and blogs that you still love and follow to this day.
blogs are really amazing things. there are many political, journalistic, educational, and business applications for blogging -- many of which are destined to make a wide impact -- but i'm still mostly in love with the personal side of blogging. everyone can become a rock star on their own blogs and who doesn't want to be a rock star?
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