Life update: things are looking up!

Family is not something you choose - it's something you're stuck with.

But it's sure nice to be stuck with great people.

This initial chunk will be a tribute to how cool my brother and sister are. I enjoy my quiet time during most of the day when they are in summer school. Once they walk in through the balcony windows, the party starts. We joke around, make fun of each other, give each other advice, call each other a-holes, help each other out. I find chilling with them quite calming, relaxing, and surprisingly entertaining. In a way, we are like our own little comedy show. Rarely a day passes when we all laugh our butts off rolling around on the bedroom floor.

We've been through a lot together, through a lot of tough bits especially during our elementary school days. I remember that there times when it felt that it was just us three versus the world, and we were the only ones there to support each other. Thankfully things got a bit better as we got into high school, and now everything's great.

My sister is very artsy, and brings a different take on things to the table. She doesn't like being around too many people in general, and likes to live in her own world most of the time. My brother is very practical/creative. He's designed and created several awesome things (working minecraft costume!) on numerous occasions, and also happens to be quite popular in his grade while maintaining great marks. I'm just a bit jelly. Unfortunately he tends to lose his temper frequently.

*end sibling brag. A and S, you two are the coolest!


Things could not be going much better in the summer! I finally got my first official painting assignment. Fuck yeah, employment here I come! Later this week, I will be standing outside in the sweltering heat sweating my balls off while painting and pressure washing for various clients in Richmond and in White Rock. Tough work, but I am looking forward to it. I can't shake off the feeling that I'm going to mess up on something badly though :(

Consistent cash income through tutoring (until it ends), salary through painting, teaching myself some more Java, maybe start on discrete math... great summer. Life should be simple. And enjoyable.


More things to do:

Fireworks this Saturday (?) (Caro, Jenn: what's going on with that?)
Grouse Grind every 2 weeks (on non-working days) (stop being so fat and lazy Albert)
Plan out a 3d animation skit (thinking of featuring an angry woman slapping her man)

Couldn't sleep 'till 1am yesterday

Wow, lying on my bed for an hour not being able to sleep is undoubtedly the worst feeling ever. All these random thoughts popping out, transitioning into other thoughts... I haven't felt that confused in a long time.

Time to set my head straight.

I wonder if I'm unknowingly worried about something.

Summer Blues

Well that's that. No internship spots left, although the supervisor mentioned that I'll probably get a spot next summer if I apply. Well thanks :(

Will I have to resort to working at McDonalds now? I was honestly looking for a 'nicer' job, but with only one month available to work, I doubt that many places would want to hire me. I am considering getting some UBC food services job, which will give me a nice excuse to spend some quality quiet summer time on campus and relax before September. Any readers know of food places that are open for the rest of the summer?

On the bright side, I'll still be getting paid in cold hard cash until my tutee's summer class ends in early August, Enjoy employment while it lasts, Albert.

On a side note:

For the heck of it, I decided to record audio journals since a few weeks ago. I think everybody knows dat feel when they hear their own voice, so I wanted to get over that strange feeling as well as recognize any strange speech behaviour that I may be showing. After several recordings, I gotta say that I don't sound half as bad as I initially thought. Since I had a morbid fear of speaking in elementary school, I always held a thought that my words always came out quiet, a bit muffled and unclear, but I was able to tell what I was saying quite easily. A problem I found is that I tend to have a bunch of pauses during my talks, which I prefer over saying 'um' fillers. I can't actually talk and think at the same time, so occasionally I need brief breaks to let my brain catch up to my mouth. I hope to minimize that soon. Goal: be able to give a strong presentation without sounding goofy (ahh, the good ol' days at Toastmasters).

On another side note:

I have been watching way too much of 'The Office', to the point of not getting anything done, but I am past the point of no return. I am too invested in the characters, and I absolutely must see what is going to happen to all the romances that are going on. I told my sister that I thought Angela was the coolest character in the series, but she just brushed off my opinion saying that she was too much of a bitch.

Well, yeah. She is a stone cold bitch, but a really cool one at that. I told this to my ENFP buddy (who is supposed to help me get in touch with my emotional, human side), and combined with everything else he knows about me, he suspects that I subconsciously like to dominate girls. Wat? I don't even know how people come up with conclusions like that.

He also suspects that I'm innocent looking, but in reality I am a heartless man who is thirsty for all the power I can get my hands on, and will bring people down in order to achieve it. Hmm.

Summer planning

Immediately after I finish my summer English course that I'm not particularly fond of, my real summer starts. For maximum productivity, I should draw out my plans for my free month of August before hell starts up in September (which I'm looking forward to)

3D animation mini project:

I've learned from my habits over the years that I'll never be able to complete a full length ambitious project featuring multiple pixar level characters and story development. There's only so much one person can do, and unfortunately I don't have a 3D partner.

I'll start out simple by planning an animation that'll last anywhere from 15 seconds to a full minute (depending on complexity) preferably featuring some character interaction that goes beyond killing each other. Will think about the simple storyboard once I get inspiration.

Sample of something from a loong time ago:

Internship (cross fingers):

My friend alerted me on this potential position at some massive Vancouver shipping corporation. If they have a spot open, I'll jump in and get paid 13 an hour full time. 500 dollars a week? Yes please.

Chances of there being an open spot seems to a a bit iffy at the moment though. The intern supervisor emailed me saying that there are no spots in commercial, but will look into human resources. If I could cross my fingers any harder, I would.


Fitness:

Just the usual. Hit the weights 2-3 times a week, jog once a week, and climb up Grouse every 1 or 2 weeks (depending on the weather and my mood).


Java:

I haven't learned squat in programming for the past week and a half, thanks to my brain wasting many many hours trying to think up of a very good thesis for my research essay. Fortunately it turned out well, but I cringe when I think about the amount of time I needed to think of it.

Self-learning can only get me so far, but I don't want to walk into class a total noob. I will pick up on expanding my knowledge on this stuff right after I hand in my research essay this Thursday.

Ugh, I feel sloppy.



And that's all off the top of my head. I need more stuff to do. Probably my biggest priority would be making money over the summer, in case that cool internship doesn't turn out. If I have to go back to McDonalds, I'll do it.

Grouse #3

1 hour 8 minutes. Wow, Jenn. You could easily have whooped my ass on the Grind time.

Here are some pretty pictures from the hike, including a video!

(note how surreal the whole place looked)

It's nice how it started pouring rain just as we reached the base of the mountain. I was soaked head to toe. Something was always dripping into my eye, and I couldn't tell whether it was rain or sweat. We heard thunder in the background. Definitely a strange experience to remember.

Heading back in two weeks time. Cya later

Cars

Starting off with a song:

^my kind of song to have playing when I'm feeling relaxed, home alone.




I've been seeing a lot of classy cars out in the streets of Richmond recently (result of summer?), so naturally it got me thinking about cars.

I'm not really sure how much I want one.

My family got by all our lives without owning a car, and we're still quite alive. We've managed to do all our shopping by bus, even though it is a pain bussing for 2 hours to get to some exotic store a world away and bussing back. My mom works conveniently near a bus stop, and we live 1 minute away from one too. Life doesn't seem so bad.

What would getting a car really do? It'd tack on insurance and gas prices. I'm not even sure what we'd use it for. My mom wouldn't use it to drive to work, as bussing is convenient enough already. I probably can't drive for shit, so I wouldn't be taking that thing to school.

I remember the reason why I wanted a car is because every other family I knew had one. It seemed like something that was supposed to be owned. All my friends got to drive one around occasionally when their parents let them, and I always thought being in a car was cool as heck. Steering wheels feel heavy and solid in the hand, and the light humming from the engine is nice to listen to. But what is a common household purchase hardly seems like a necessity.

While reading the newspaper, sometimes my mom will joke about how a nice car came out and how we should totally buy it. I used to feel a bit irked, as I thought actually owning a car would be awesome. Now, I'll just go along with the joke. I still want that Audi, but it's hardly on the top of the list. And if a girl complains that I don't have my N yet... well she's probably a spoiled hoe anyways.


Anyways, Audi R8 at $135,000 no big deal.

brb becoming sexy

about to head out to my lawn (1st floor apartment, fk yeah) for a nice tan. ppl can stare all they want.

plus today is my workout day. will ask mom for a significant protein-loaded meal.


i didn't even do anything productive today, but i feel good anyways

Helping kids out

Because my painting manager's a goofball, he ran out of painting jobs by the middle of summer. Bummer. Now he's running around White Rock cold-calling for more assignments. Thankfully, I landed myself a nice 'job' tutoring a dude physics 12.

Of course, it'd be nice if this was just a typical student: someone who's trying hard to get into some specific program at some prestigious university - but that's not the case. This guy, who I'll refer to as D, is almost the same age as me and is still taking high school courses.

Well shucks.

He has failed numerous courses, the majority of them probably being in English. His other marks are nothing to show off about except his 90s math mark.

It was definitely a bit unnerving. After all, I've never associated myself with kids who failed courses for the entirety of my life. I was surprised in high school when I discovered that such kids even existed. How do I talk to people like this? Are they thugs? Would they think I'm being too much of a smartass?

But I took a chill pill, and head over armed with a sheet of paper and a physics workbook to teach D physics last week. I suggested that we do two sessions before the summer class actually started, so that he has an advantage when we actually walks into class, starting off with a crash course on every single chapter and the basic concepts for each one, with some tips on each one from personal experience.

He got a 98 on his first test. Granted, it is just the beginning of the course, but he feels confident on the subjects he's learning so far. His mom also took the effort to tell me how much D likes my style of teaching, and asked if I could head over three times a week, for $30 an hour. Well, hell yeah I would like to.

I learned that D isn't retarded, as demonstrated by his math marks. He was merely unmotivated. He didn't understand what he was learning in the first place, which made it hard for him to give a shit later on in all of his courses. It makes me wonder how the hell these teachers are teaching their courses if they can't make students at least somewhat interested in their subject.

It's definitely a cool feeling to help a guy up in academics. D took physics 12 before, but received a poor mark and didn't find it enjoyable at all; now, he understands what he's doing and is quite excited for my tutor sessions. His mom's quite happy too, so now I won't feel shitty charging $30 an hour (even though it was their idea). To be optimistic, maybe I can help him get into a post-secondary program of choice as well.

I gotta help my sister with physics 12 and math 12, and my brother with math 10 over the summer. In addition, though unlikely, K might ask for some tips with physics 102, as well as buddy of mine who has a math 103 (or something like that) final coming up soon. That is a lot of talking to do, but as long as I can help people understand things better and eventually feel confident in themselves as they walk in to take a test, I'll be satisfied.

Ridin' Solo

So I wanted to beat my previous Grouse Grind time of 58 minutes. I set out to go today. Initially I wanted to bring some people over with me, but later on realized that hell, I didn't want all these uninspirational whiny kids slowing me down. And plus, I would be able to listen to music during the whole time without having to take my earbuds out to pretend to listen and talk back. I set out solo with a backpack containing my read-on-bus book "The Art of Seduction" and my lunch.

^ at the base of Grouse. Not a very exciting photo due to the thick thick cloud cover


Early on, I felt great. Positive emotions at an all time high, absolutely amazing scenery (partial fog covering the entire forest), only a slight burn on my calves, and awesome music blasting into my ears. Near the halfway altitude point, my legs slowly started to die away, and almost wished that I had a whiny buddy with me to slow me down.

My mini-goal to keep on moving up was to find a girl with a nice ass/legs, tail her for a bit, then move ahead to find the next one. This was not as easy as one may think: it's hard as heck to increase climbing speed all of a sudden, and the weather wasn't too lot, resulting in an unfortunate lack of miniskirts (jkjk) and short shorts. The leggings were numerous though, and occupied me until near the end, when I felt nothing but the pain in my legs.

Eventually, I made it up with a self-recorded time of 1 hour 6 minutes. That's 8 minutes slower than my best :(... I was inclined to believe that I didn't record properly when I scored the 58 minutes.

I'll write down some tips for aspiring grinders.

-You will feel tired very quickly (probably about 10 minutes into the climb). Don't think about turning back, and just keep on trekking forward. That tired feeling will mostly go away by the 1/3 point. Congrats, you have crossed the mental barrier.

-You will later, however, encounter another barrier: your physical barrier. Unfortunately, you can't overcome this just by enduring. It just means that you've been a huge pussy and that you haven't exercised when you should have. As you near the 3/4 point, your physical barrier should be made very clear to you. Adjust your pace accordingly. Aim for consistency over speed: in the end, consistency will always win.

I really enjoy the feeling at the end of the grind - the feeling of accomplishment, of overcoming a bunch of difficulties along the way, of the hot sweat all over, plus the bonus feeling of being a bit fitter than you were yesterday. Likely, I'll make this a twice-a-month event to see how much I can improve myself by the end of the summer. Maaaybe invite people along.