I'm in Virginia right now.  

I'm going to New  York tomorrow till Sunday (1/4), and it should be a blast.

A lot has happened since my last update.  I'll fill you in.

I moved out of Ohio, for good.  

Moving out was a pain in the ass.  I was moving crap in and out of my car all night.  It was frustrating.  

The drive was okay, I took a couple naps at rest stops.  The drive from Ohio to Virginia is really boring.  

I get into Virginia, and literally 5 minutes away from my house, I get into a car accident.  

My car is a total loss, so I don't have a car anymore.  Which kind of sucks, but the value of my car is pretty high, compared to how much it cost.  So I guess it was a blessing in disguise?

Yeah, not much since then though, except Christmas shopping, and of course, Christmas itself.  

I'm more excited for New Years.  

I hope ya'll had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and/or whatever you celebrate.  

Moving is a pain in this ass.

*4:39AM Update*

For the record, I have been up since 8:30AM December 20, 2008.

I have watched 3 movies on TBS, and am still in the process of packing my car.

I've made 5 stops to the dumpster.  Which is walking distance, but not when there are bags of trash that need to be throw away.

I don't even know why I'm taking the time to update.  I feel like I need more of a purpose to this blog.  I just ramble on about my life, and my life is boring.  

Did I tell you that I've yet to finish packing?  

I was more excited to leave columbus 24 hours ago.  But now, I just don't want to do anything.  I can count on one hand the number of things/people I will miss.  Give or take 2 fingers.  

The last time I went out to my car, I took everything out of my trunk.  Then I rearranged it.  I hope I don't have to do that again because it's dark outside, the sidewalk is very icy, and my body is sore from moving stuff all day.  

Now the question remains.  Should I go to sleep soon?  My estimated time of departure was/is 8:00AM December 21, 2008 aka in a few hours.

The logical answer would be yes, but I still have stuff to put away, and perhaps more "tetris" that needs to be played in my car so I can get optimal space usage.  I wonder if it's possible to major in ergonomics.

I have a 22 oz. bottle of NOS in my fridge.  Not the kind you use for your cars to make them go faster.  I really hope this bottle of NOS is enough for my 6-7 hours drive to Fairfax, Virginia.  

Again, I'm rambling again, and I've probably lost 80% of readers by now.  

The next time I update, I'll, hopefully, be alive and in Virginia.  

This is my last update from Ohio.  For now.  

Done Deal

I'm done with college!

Now I just need to pick up my diploma, which I will do within the next couple days from the university registrar.

I'm moving back to Fairfax, VA on Sunday.  

I haven't started packing my stuff up yet.  I have a lot of stuff, but I'm also giving away/throwing away most of it.  I need to empty out my trunk.  It has a bunch of crap, that I am probably going to keep, but must be reorganized to optimize my trunk space.  

I just beat Final Fantasy X a couple of hours ago.  I didn't get all the side quest items (sorry Cecil).  I wanted to.  I really did, but I thought to myself, "If I don't beat this game soon, I'm never going to pack, or do anything productive."  So I had to beat the game.  It was pretty easy, much like Final Fantasy XII.  I just leveled up a ton towards the end.  

But the journey has ended.  Both my college career, and Final Fantasy X.  

My friends came over today to "surprise" me.  I use quotations because I sort of knew they were coming.  But I didn't know why.  On Saturday they kept telling me, "Monday's going to be good."  and then I'd ask them why and they would just ignore me.  

But when I opened the door, I was glad to see them, even if it wasn't really a surprise.  

What I didn't know was that they were going to cook up some hot pot.  I'll post up pictures of it later.  But man I love hot pot.  

So I haven't sent my resume's out yet.  I'm still a little hesitant.  I feel like my resume still needs work, but find me one person who thinks their resume doesn't need work.  

I need to start acting more "responsible" now.  But I can't just flip a switch so I'll take baby steps.  First...

-Wake up in the morning.  Not 11:59AM, or even 11:00AM, but rather, 9-10AM.  If not, even earlier, like 7-8AM.  I need to enjoy the day.  I'll feel a lot better too, since I feel so sore all the time, probably because I don't leave the apartment much these days.  

Second...

-Sleep earlier.  No later than 1:30AM.  But even that's pretty late.  I've been going to bed at like 4-5AM the past few days.  Granted, I was playing Final Fantasy X, but still.  Even now, it's 3:55 AM as I type, yet I beat the game hours ago.  I need to be more efficient with my time.  

There is more, so much more, that I can improve upon, but I don't have the time to list them all.  Actually, that's not true, I probably DO have the time to list them all, but I'm really tired.  And I probably SHOULDN'T sit here and list them all anyways.

Damn...I still need to do some Christmas shopping...

On another note:

I don't know if she reads this but...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Peggy Leung!  

Penguin Holiday Sample Sale

TR-808

I'm having a hard time focusing.  

I should be studying for my final.  

I should be sleeping.

I shouldn't be on Facebook. 

And I shouldn't be updating my blog.

But, as I'm listening to music, Kanye's 808s and Heartbreaks, I felt compelled to update.

I didn't like Love Lockdown when it first came out.  I'm still not really feeling it, but I've come to the conclusion that I really like Kanye's latest album.  

It's so different, and supposedly genuine.  

Honestly, I take what Kanye West says with a grain of salt, but again, it sounds genuine, and it's not like I personally know the guy.  I give him mad props for this album.  It's not rap, it's pop art (don't confuse with the visual art kind of pop art).

I read up on the album on Wikipedia, because it's such a trusted source.  But for serious, I don't know what I'd do without Wikipedia sometimes.  

The album cover you see here isn't the one that comes with the CD, but this art work will be included in a special Christmas packaging for the CD.  This album art was done by KAWS.  The link leads to his website/blog.  I really like his stuff. 

So I realized that I always end up liking stuff more after I get it.  Especially music.  I'll listen to something and think it's "ehh" or "just okay", but when I listen to it again, way later, weeks, months, maybe a year, I find myself liking it.  I guess my tastes are always evolving.  Then again, if a song or group is flat out bad I try not to give second chances out of principle.  

Okay.  I really should finish my studies.  It's 3:45 AM.  My exam is in less than 12 hours.  

I'm almost done with school.  Assuming I haven't failed any classes this quarter.  

The feeling hasn't settled in yet.  I'm dreading my move out more than I am excited that I'm done.  I'm sure that will change once I put my pencil down tomorrow.  

Addiction?

Would you say I'm addicted to Final Fantasy?  

I talk about it/play it an awful lot.  

I beat Final Fantasy XII in November.  I started it last winter, but I never got to sit there and play it until this Fall.  

After beating FFXII, I kind of missed it.  I know it sound stupid, but beating a Final Fantasy, especially after purchasing it almost a year ago, is really fulfilling.  

I didn't want to start the game over, but rather, I wanted to play Final Fantasy X.  I beat it years ago, when I was still in high school.  I still remember the general plot, but I forgot a few things, and the game is significantly different than FFXII that I had to "re-learn" how to play it.  

So I'm in the midst of playing it.  I started last week.  I'm almost done.  But as Cecil recommended, I should do all the side quests and get all the Celestial weapons.  

Besides Cecil, who understands what I'm talking about?

I'm interested in knowing...

But here is my reasoning for playing so much Final Fantasy.  

My Playstation 2 is broken, has been for a while.  The thing doesn't read DVDs, and it isn't under warranty anymore.  

When I move out, I won't be able to play games anymore, that is, until I buy a new console or fix my broken one (I doubt I'll do the latter). 

I want to take advantage of it while I still can! 

On another note.  My last final is on Thursday, and after I take that, I'm virtually done with school.

Last First Final

So I didn't realize that I had a final tomorrow (technically today) until Tuesday.  Which would be one days ago, but again, technically two days ago.

I'm still not close to being prepared for it, but I also don't give a damn.  

I mean, I still want to do well, but I've had a bad case of senioritis since junior year.  I just get lazy, and take advantage of the curve.  I don't think I'm a really smart guy, but I also don't think I'm that dumb either.  I can pass a class with an above average score and do it without trying too hard.  Then again, I've had times where I tried hard and failed to get above a B.  So I guess it evens out.

I'm a man of average to (hopefully) above average intelligence.  

I don't really dwell on it though.  

Lately I've been playing a lot of video games.  I recently beat Final Fantasy XII this past November.  It's taken me almost a year to beat it.  Mostly because I never had time to play it.  But I played the hell out of it this Fall.  I felt really good after beating it.  It almost felt like I moved onto the next chapter of my life because it took so long to beat.  Even my room mates were excited.  

I give the game a 9 out of 10.  But I'm not going to review it, because that would be nerdy, and unnecessary, because there are people who dedicate their time to review games elsewhere.  They also get paid.  

BUT.  One would think, "what do you do, now that you've completed FFXII?"  

Oh, you don't think that?

Well if you did, I have started to play Final Fantasy X.  

I know, lame.

But while on my way to beating FFXII, I sort of got obsessed with Final Fantasy.  They are so much fun to play!  It's not the kind of game where you go around and shoot people, whether it be bad guys or innocent pedestrians, but a game with a quest.  A game where the focus is essentially Good vs Evil.  

These games are so EPIC.  I love epic video games.  They have such value to them.  Maybe not replay value, but when you beat it, you say to yourself, "Man.  That was worth it."

Okay I'll stop with the Final Fantasy jargon before I start sounding more lame.

So as my title suggests, my final tomorrow (today) will be my last, first final.  My last, last final is next Thursday.  Then I'm done with college!

Yay!  

I make it seem like I'm way more excited through text, but in reality, I'm not really excited.  

Let me explain.  I'm excited.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm glad I'm done with school.  But I'm not walking either, so it's not like I'm doing the whole "cap 'n' gown" thing.  

I'm a little worried about a couple things.  I have to move out this month, but I don't live in Ohio anymore.  I can't just drive back and forth from school to home.  I live in Virginia now, and it takes like 6-7 hours to drive there.  I'm not going back and forth.  

I have to throw away a lot of my belongings.  Things I really don't need.  I realized this morning that I don't have a lot of variety in my clothing.  I have a lot of clothes (mostly t-shirts), but I only cycle through 7 or 8.  Which is how it's been for the past couple years.  I can honestly fit all the clothes I wear regularly throughout the week in one laundry bin.  Then again I do have my dress clothes and my outerwear. 

I'm just going to give away or throw away some of my clothes.  Or ship some of it home.  

So after moving out, I have to go home, then after that I have to find a job.  YAY!  I'm totally not excited to look for one.  

I want a job.  I really do.  I just don't want to go through all the trouble to get one.  But I will do it, because I have to.  My motivation to get a job, will motivate me to do the necessary things to get me a job.  If that makes any sense.  

I also might go to Korea for a little if it looks like I won't get a job for a while.  It might be nice to get away, but I would also like to be in America, if I get an interview or something.  Wishful thinking perhaps?

That's my life in a nutshell.

If you are curious as to why I have a picture of a polar bear cub, I don't know what to tell ya.  

I don't know why either.  I just wanted to start the post off with a picture.  A cute one at that.  The cub's name is Knut.  That adorable polar bear cub from Germany.  Of course, Knut is no longer that cute.  Knut is probably no longer a cub either.  But it was hella cute when it was a cub.  This thing is adorable!  I want it as a pet under one condition: it has to stay that small.  

Come on science...get on that.

Last Week of Class

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  

I spent mine at my roommates house in Toledo, Ohio.

I've never been there in all my years in Ohio.  It's a pretty blue collar town, also sort of ghetto.

I didn't take any pictures, mainly because the only things I wanted to take pictures of were when I didn't have my camera on me.  

I was online earlier and I found this Portland Trailblazers fan blog, and you know how they have that yearbookyourself.com thing?

Well they did it for Greg Oden, and I thought it was/is hilarious.  

Greg Oden is tight.  Not only because he played for Ohio State, but also because he's a funny guy.  

Greg wore the same thing as me, and copied my hair style for picture day in 1980...He looks better.

These are some other pictures...I have stuff to do, but I did this instead.  

1970:

1984:

1998:

What's sad is that my face fits the fat guy outline so well.  Then again, I did put more effort in resizing the image.  

Honestly.  These pictures can keep me occupied for hours.

Summer Recap Part III will have to wait.

I want to start a "homeroom."  

Perhaps a MAIP 1974 Homeroom??

November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Summer Recap Part II

Here is Part II of my Summer Recap.  But before you continue on down, I said that this would be a "two parter."  Well I just realized that I have a ton of pictures, so this "Summer Recap" will take as many "parts" as necessary.  

I could do them all in one, but blogger doesn't let me organize pictures the way I want to.  Also, It doesn't put them in the order I put them in when I upload them.  So I have to take each picture, and drag it down, one by one.  For every picture.  It becomes a long and tedious process so that is why I'm not doing it all at once.  

So here we go:

This is the waiting area on the 6th floor @ Ogilvy.  It's Neo@Ogilvy's floor.  I think I was waiting for some people to go to a "Thirsty Thursday" event.  It was also a Media Planner's birthday.

We went to 230 Fifth, a rooftop bar in NYC.  That's the Empire State Building.  Everyone from Ogilvy that went got wristbands, and we got to eat a drink for free.  

Best free  mini-burger ever.  It was really good.  They had samosa's too, they were okay, but the inside's looked like green baby vomit.  But don't get me wrong, they were pretty good.  Their drinks on the other hand were weak.  Until we tipped the waitress.  

I forget the name of the joint, but I met up with an old friend, and met her boyfriend, and his friends, and another friend who I didn't know was going to be there.  It was fun.  My shrimp taco's were delicious.  The only issue I had was that there were only 4, and they were as long as my index finger.  I need more food.  Also, this place has the best guacamole I've ever consumed, thus far.  Mango flavored, orange flavored, they were all good.  

This is from when I went to the Siren Music Festival @ Coney Island with PK.  As usual, Coney Island was packed.  But probably more so because of the concert.  We walked around a lot, ate italian ice ($1), played skee-ball, and people watched (aka judged).  The stage was too far away to actually sit there and pay attention.  The main band I wanted to hear was Broken Social Scene, which we heard for a little, then left.  There were other bands, but I didn't want to walk over to the other stage.  

This is after the Siren Music Festival, I think the same night.  We managed to get Dark Knight tickets @ the AMC theater in Times Square.  I think it was opening week, or the week after?  Point is, the movie was sold out for practically a month.  

This was taken @ Central Park.  I went to the Summer Stage concert thing-a-ma-jig.  Santogold was playing.  I'm still not that into her, but it was fun.  Minus the whole, waiting in a line part.  I didn't take this picture though.  Anu took it, with my camera.  It's pretty neat.

So as MAIPers, we have to give back to the community.  Not only because we wanted to, but also because we had to.  This is from the TORCH event.  Where we basically set up shop and had a mini-college fair for high school students.  This was somewhere in NYC.  Near Washington Square Park.  Kimmel Center?  

I guess I can't complain, because we were organized alphabetically.  We each represented our own school.  I, of course, was representing OSU, but to my left, was UPenn.  

All those kids in the picture...were inquiring about UPenn.  Didn't even look at me, or take a brochure.  

But then a miracle happened.  Somebody stopped by and asked about OSU.  I got a little nervous.  I'm not one that is full of school spirit, but I do like my school.  I had to make us look good.  So what do I talk about?  Sports.  But we're not even that good at that anymore either...I think I was showing him a picture collage I made while I was at work.  All the picture in that collage were of athlete's.  

I knew someone felt my pain.  Randy, also representing a Big Ten school, University of Minnesota.  He sat next to a girl from NYU.  Carla I think.  I don't think she knows me.  But I know of her.  Thanks to mass MAIP emails.  (Carla not pictured)

This sushi is from Tenzen.  Nothing spectacular, but the sushi was good.  We had a "Hot Date Night."  Basically an excuse for a big group of people to go out and have dinner together.

Here's Tiffany and Ruchy.  

After Tenzen, I think we went to Crumb's?  I'm pretty sure it was Crumb.  Anywho, Geia wanted to eat the cake like this for a picture.  The first time around, I didn't look at her, but I was looking at the cake.  She then yelled, "You're supposed to look at me!"  This is the result.  

The cake was alright.  

Stephanie and Zack.

Later that evening Rudy and Tiffany stopped by my ginormous room.  I forget what we did.  I think we just watched youtube video's.  And maybe drink some beer.  I forget.  

This is from when some of us went to MoMA.  Look at all the people that are passed out.  The museum wasn't that boring...

Brandon thought it was pretty boring...

Worst piece of art.  Ever.  I really mean it.  It's seriously just a square canvas painted black.  with a ridiculous description that I will share with you another day.  If you look back far enough, I might have already blogged about it.  

Larissa 

In front of MoMa.

This is from when we walked to Dinosaur BBQ, only to not eat there because it was packed.  They eventually ate there, but I was unable to attend.  Sad face.  

So that night we didn't go to Dinosaur BBQ, we went to this Cuban place.  It was pretty good.  Brandon had a cool idea for a picture.  The right camera screen is over exposed, but it's another "eye".  You get the picture.  

Part III will be up shortly.  I hope before Thanksgiving.  

Enjoy.

Summer Recap Part I

So this is how my summer started:

-I got news that I have been accepted into the AAAA MAIP 2008 program.  Holler.

-I had to send a profile picture of myself, but I didn't have a good one, so I took one.  And still, to this day, I don't have a good profile picture of myself.  But since this is the image used in the MAIP book, I have to put it up here.  Can you say "awkward?"...

-I finally get to New York.  I didn't get a chance to relax yet, because I had finished my final exams the day before, literally.  This was my humble abode for 9 weeks, which apparently was way bigger than other peoples' rooms.  Holler??

(Air Conditioning not included)

-Here's a shot of my desk.  It got messier as the weeks went on.  

-This isn't from my first day at work.  But, this was probably within the first 2 weeks.  I really enjoyed interning at Ogilvy & Mather.  I would love to work for them.  I hope they search me after I apply for a job, and they stumble upon this blog.  It's already linked to my Facebook, which they probably check.  

-My first outing with a big MAIP group.  We went to Coney Island for the Mermaid Parade.  It was pretty fun to say the least.  I enjoyed my Nathan's hot dog.  

-First un-official MAIP party (only some knew about it, but only because nobody knew each other).  This was at a friend's APT.  We basically just ate food and had some drinks at the rooftop of their building.  Funny thing is, we had to go down 4 floors to get there.

-The night before my birthday.  Basically, it was just a regular outing for us MAIPers, except Hiro told people that it was also my birthday.  Thanks Hiro.  I really enjoyed partying in your ballroom (club's name = Hiro Ballroom).  We danced a lot.  I made friends.  

-I'm pretty sure I took this on our way back from Hiro Ballroom.  The significance of this picture is Cecil's face.  I captured it again later on.  It will most likely be in Part II of this segment.  

-The night of my birthday.  After a failed attempt at going to an Internbar.com suggestion, we went uptown to K-Town.  Specifically, La Quinta Inn (not a Korean establishment).  They have a small rooftop bar, and we drank there for a few hours.  I'm not wearing beads.  It was a shot glass necklace.  I used it once.  I wore it for the style...(pictured is Jessica and I).

-While at La Quinta Inn rooftop bar, some of us got hungry.  Hiro and I went to Woorijip (A Korean establishment), and got some Korean food.  It was really good when I ate it.  It was really gross when I threw it up on the way to my cousin's.  I ended up in Chinatown that night, by myself.  I was supposed to get off on Prince St. but the train didn't stop.  So I got off on Canal, and barfed.  It was a long night.

-The day after my birthday, Less than 12 hours after the above incident, My cousin and sister, who came to visit for my birthday, and I, went to Freeman's for an awesome brunch.  This place is tricky to get to, but my cousin knows NYC like the back of her hand (I never understood this saying, but I'll talk about that another day).  This is the alley way leading to Freeman's.  (Pictured: cousin and sister on left, random dude w/ pink shirt on bike on the right)

-This is the inside of Freeman's.  There is much more to it than this, obviously, but I feel like this captures the scene.  

-Basically this whole day was kind of my birthday celebration.  After Freeman's we walked around, and my cousin and sister went shopping.  We went to a desert place, but I didn't take any pictures.  The lady gave us a free cookie.  They were so good.  All homemade, all delicious.  We bought a cake for dinner.  We met up with my cousin Paul and his fiance Pam.  I also invited my friend Patricia.  We ate at a Thai place next to Smack, a mac n' cheese place, which I have yet to try.  

-Afterward dinner I went to go karaoke with my sister, her friend, and Patricia.

This is me and my sister singing, which looks to me, like a Korean song?  I can't read Korean that well, nor do I actually listen to Korean music on a regular basis.  

-This picture was taken during the Gay Pride Parade.  Which was pretty fun actually.  Cecil, Hiro, Larissa and I went, and got drenched from the rain, but that only made the gay people more....gay?  Here is a picture of the Google bus.

-One day we went to Tom's Diner, the one from Seinfeld.  You know, the one that they always eat at?  Well the inside doesn't look like that.  They just used the outside.  I ordered chicken fingers, and was amazed that one of my pieces was shaped like Africa.  Hiro then calls me a racist for saying that my chicken finger looks like Africa.  I was caught off guard because I had no racist intentions.  The situation was kind of hilarious.  And delicious.  

-After Tom's Diner, we walked around Columbia's campus.  We lived really close to it, and Tom's Diner was about 2 blocks away.  The campus is really nice.  Really small compared to Ohio State.  Actually, tiny would be a better way to describe it compared to Ohio State.  

-This was taken on the 4th of July.  We went to Cecil's mentor's friend's apartment.  They promised a great view for the fireworks show.  Little did they know that the barge, where the fireworks were launched was a little more upriver than the previous year.  Pictured below is the result.

-This was one of my favorite days.  A group of us went to Chinatown and got some dim sum.  We ordered a ton of food.  

-We ate a lot of food.  If you can, look at Brandon's face (middle).  Tell me that is not a full/content face?

-On another day, Anu, Larissa and I went to a bakery close to the I-House (International House), where we were living, and got some snacks.  I think I got cookies, and devoured them.  Anu got this red velvet cake.  It was alright.  Nothing special.  The cookies weren't that great either.  When I devour something, it usually means it was good, but when I devour cookies, it's only because they were cookies.  (I love cookies, even the mediocre kind)

-On a hot day in July, Hiro, Zack and I went to the Central Park zoo.  It was pretty cool.  I watched a sloth move from the ground to the top of a tree.  It only took 5 minutes.  I love the way sloth's move!  We also took this hilarious picture, but it's not on my camera, and I'm too lazy to find it, save it, and upload it.  I did see a Polar Bear though.  Two actually.  If you look closely, on the bottom right corner, there's another Polar Bear.  They are holding hands.  The other one's so dirty.  Polar Bear's aren't as white as the Coca-Cola commercial's make them out to be...

-This was after one of our Tuesday seminar's.  I think it was the production studio one?  We met on a rooftop and split up and toured this office.  It was pretty cool, except I almost fell asleep during one of the stops.  Afterwards I told some people that I'd go see the New York Philharmonics at Central Park with them.  This place was packed.  I heard that there were like, 100,000 people there.  AT ONCE!  I couldn't even see the NY Philharmonics.  I wasn't even facing them.  But I couldn't tell because we were so far away.  After the concert though they had a small fireworks show.  I LOVE fireworks.  Needless to say, I was very excited for this because our 4th of July fireworks were so...weak.  

Well, that's it for now.  I actually chose to do this instead of my Korean homework.  I also told myself that I wasn't going to do my Korean homework until I finished this post.  

But remember, this is only Part I.  Part II will be up soon.  

Do you like it when I have more pictures than words?  

Let me know.  I want to cater to my readers, all (insert small single digit number) of you.