Quote of the week:

"Hi my name is Cletus! I'm just a regular kid..."
- Jokabim Mugatu from Zoolander.

Good bye California. Hello North Carolina.

sidenote: My last days in Calfornia have been such crap. Aileen fell down the stairs, broke her tailbone (the day she arrived mind you), and has been bed ridden ever since. Poor her, sure... but... she's been getting the royal treatment and acts as if she's queen of the universe. "ANDY! Get me In 'n Out!" "ANDY! Put my socks on for me!" "Andy! Bring me water!" I can't wait till my wife gets pregnant.
I have done nothing that I wanted to do.

why am i such a sucker for anything that says "tabasco" or "hot & spicy" on the label? i bought these "hot and spicy" cheez-its that are flavored with tabasco sauce without even thinking twice. i mean, come on, cheez-its with tabasco sauce? how gross does that sound when you really think about it - for oh... let's say 3 seconds? there is a reason why it was 5 boxes for 5 dollars (i bought 3 boxes)! they are definitely disgusting. full of just partially hydrogenated crap.

i just said good bye to the first group of people yesterday night. people i knew from the days at deltagen. i think it was the second time i felt sad for leaving california. it was pretty shocking to see the people who came out to dinner to say good bye... people i haven't talked to since last year or people i was never even really close with. yet, they still came out to say bye. one guy drove all the way from oakland to mountain view. another person cancelled her plans to come out. they paid for my dinner and i even got a present. crazy. i guess it just makes me realize that the only thing i really gained from the now bankrupt company was not molecular biology knowledge, lab techniques, or business contacts but life long friends.

also it made me think that none of these people were christian, yet they made so much effort to see someone they knew, or barely knew in some cases. and my christian friends? i know that 97% of them would not make this much effort for someone else.

so i guess it's ironic that as i left church, the only thing i really did gain was the bible knowledge and business contacts...with the exception of a few people out of more than 100.

MORE tips for interviewing:

when asked "what are your career goals and where do you see yourself in 3 years?" don't answer like this:

"Umm... well... a lot of my friends are pretty established and have really good jobs making money and stuff... sometimes we like to go shopping at JCrew and they like buy shirts that are $60 dollars... and i'm like, woah! 60 dollars! so i guess in three years, i want to be in a job where i can make good money and be happy and maybe buy shirts that cost like 60 dollars."

also, when asked about any past writing experience... writing an e-mail to your fellow fantasy football leaguers does not count. i don't care if you were the commissioner.

last and not least, get the company name right when you are writing a thank you letter. i don't work for "flextronics."

my fortune cookie today:

"hope for the best, prepare for the worst."

great. just great.

who's better (relative to their eras, of course)?

shaq, kobe, payton, malone.

or...

worthy, abdul-jabbar, magic, green, byron scott.

and if i was phil jackson, i would not put malone in the remaining minutes of the Finals championship game unless it's a blow out. don't want him missing those free those again...

i crack myself up. i am currently reviewing a version of the card game "craps" for the cell phone... and i really don't like this software company because they are such a pain to deal with. so for my review, i'm thinking of the following for the title...

"Craps for your cell phone"
"Give your phone the Craps!"
"This game is the CRAPS."

i did it. i have sunk to a new low. with the long absence of aileen and my lost desire to study accounting... i have joined a warcraft clan. i now have a tag on my wacraft name. it's not because i'm good at the actual game, but it's because there is a custom game called "sheep tag" that i am obsessed with... and people have always been asking me to join their clan. did i mention it's a "sheep tag" clan? i am not going to divulge the actual name of the clan because i fear serious ridicule, as if i won't get enough already. in any case, they have been pestering me for days to join and the members are quite good at sheep tag... so i finally gave in and said 'okay i'll just play around with you guys.' turns out that it definitely has it's benefits though... no more long waits to search for an open game (they will boot anyone to open a spot for me) and i always get to play some pretty decent games. i know my reasons alone are pretty lame, but to be honest, it sure is convenient.
yesterday, i found out that there was even some drama, because a guy got promoted and started abusing his powers, so he had to be kicked out of the clan. when asked what i thought, i pretended to care but i really didn't. how business-like of me.
also, a rule of thumb when playing warcraft: never tell anyone your age if you are over 20. people kept asking my age and i keep ignoring it. they ask "are you old like in COLLEGE?!?!" and i just stay silent. more so, the 2nd in command of the clan is.... 11 years old. yes.... eleven. he is not even half my age. someone said the comment "wow, i have sperm older than you." and he didn't get it. his reponse was "???... okay... ???" man, i feel so pathetic.
there is even a girl in the clan, and she is.... 15. yes, 15 years old. i know that there are people my age in the clan because of the way they talk, the things they do, and the fact that they don't live at home. but i think we are all too chicken to admit our age in public.

in any case, i guess this just goes to show how my life would have been, if it were not for aileen constantly yelling at me everytime i play a video game when she is over. guess i really do need her.

Why are people so pro-asian to the point that they won't even talk to another person unless he/she is asian? steve and i were at the movie theaters in line for T3. the line was quite long and an asian dad was literally walking down the line looking for other asians in order to ask what movie the line was for. i was just watching him as he scanned so obviously, dragging his son along holding his hand. i knew he was looking for an asian to ask, and when he finally saw me, he pointed at me and asked "excuse me, what movie is this for?" i told him it was for terminator 3, he thanked me, and went back to the end of the long line. by not having to ask an asian but someone further back in the line, he could have gotten in line and not lost a few spots. even more, i was sitting on the floor with my hood on with people crowding and towering over me, making myself less accessible. but he just could not ask any other race. i thought it was ridiculous but steve thought it was totally reasonable (steve tends to be very pro-asian). his reasoning, which i agree, is that people are just more comfortable with familiar faces. the part i don't agree with is when steve said that we have "more in common with each other." (he even said outloud, with white people next to us, that "white people were mean." i immediately told him to shut up and prayed that nobody heard him.) while the fact that our faces may seem more "familiar" is true to some extent, it does not justify that man's actions. just because we "look" the same, it does not mean we have anything in common. and even if we do look more "familiar," so what? what kind of reasoning is it that we cannot even ask a person outside of our race a stupid question?
i believe that this is the kind of thinking that makes california so apart from other states. it may be true everywhere else, but there are just so many asians, it can only support, encourage and magnify the practice of this heinous philosophy.

went clubbing for the first time in a long time, and out of all places, went to DrinkClub... once again, verifying my belief that asian clubs are really just made up of 3 groups of people:

1) couples who like to dance (rather inappropriately)
2) really nasty girls who go to feel wanted - just so they can have the pleasure of rejecting a guy since they never get to in real life.
3) guys who would even mate with a pole.

normal people who go just for a good time? sure they exist... like... 5 people.

i had my first experience as the "interviewer" yesterday when i interviewed people to replace my job. my boss and i conducted the interview together, and we do pretty well as a team. we interviewed straight from 1pm-5pm, despite the fact that i had a project due at 4(which i didn't finish), and was going to leave work early to hang out with dave, but ended up leaving at 730.

in any case, it is definitely interesting to see what it's like to be on the other end of an interview. i kept asking to myself "did i do the same thing?" or "was i this fake?" sometimes, people would laugh at some of my comments which they THOUGHT were jokes, but really weren't. they were THAT ready to jump the gun. also, here's a tip for people who are interviewing: if you are asked a specific task that you HAVE NEVER DONE, then BE HONEST. it's amazing the things that people would say just to try so hard and prove they are a good fit for the job.

here's an example:
"do you have any writing experience?"
"yes. i wrote papers in college and edited my friends' papers all the time."

okay, that is a really bad answer. here is what he should have said:
"do you have any writing experience?"
"no, not professionally - however, i love writing other than the many papers i wrote in college. i also have really good editing skills, having edited my friend's papers all the time."

now, that's not the best answer, but it sure beats an answer that starts with "yes."

in any case, i guess i made this really weird realization that i really love my job here. after talking about all the good points of my job to other people, it just really made me realize that this was really awesome. i totally recommend everyone to work in a small company at least once in their lives.