(Almost) mid-year update

Hard to believe it is already mid May of the year that is 2012 (cue the obligatory "where did all the time go?" spiel). I think it is the proper time to give an update on this very blog of mine just what the heck have I been doing so far this year. Since this is the first paragraph of this blog post, I am suppose to give you a preview of what is to come right? Well, I have only one word for you: busy.

BLOG? WHAT BLOG?  

So busy in fact that the amount of blog post of far this year on this very blog has diminished to an alarmingly low rate (according to my own personal standards) compared to previous years. However free flowing are lack of grammatical correction my blog posts are, they usually take quite a decent amount fo time to write. 2,000 words (about the average amount of words I write each time I blog) of anything just does not write itself within the hour, no matter what the procrastinating college student tells you otherwise (been there, done that). So apologies to myself (new years resolution was to write plenty) and the readers of this blog (count of which can probably be done with the digits on my limbs) for the lack of content these past months. 

Sidebar: I have to say though, that piece about my experience with jury duty was probably the longest blog post I have ever wrote. Took me three days to completely flush it out and begrudgingly edit it.

HARDLY WORKING

What was I so busy with? Mainly work. I of course still work for O'BON; pandering our Eco-friendly school and office supplies to the United States consumer market. My role with the company has shifted and expanded a lot from the guy with the still camera that I was originally hired for (and would not have otherwise graduated undergrad if not for that). That tend to happen often in these small startup companies, where in order to save on labor cost, employees are forced to wear many hats (and not paid nearly as much as they should - America's false sense of high productivity). So yes, I took on many more hats on top of the photographer's hat I was already wearing: social media, marketing, design, email sales, shipping, and office admin.

It has been great to be present for so many facets O'BON (not really all the hard when the company is three people small), and learning from it constantly. I very much enjoy looking at the macro level of things - seeing how all the different compartment fits into the whole picture. Perhaps that is just the "control freak" personality trait that is innate within me (played too much of Sim City during my childhood). Granted, I think few that aspire to start their own company haven't got that obsessive compulsive nature of wanting to control everything, right down the most minute detail.

So that is my day job, if you want to call it that. I only get a little more than half time kind of work hours at O'BON (26.5 hours) so it is not exactly what you would like to refer as satisfactory - especially since I am not longer in school. I was okay with this situation for a bit though (extremely proud to contribute to the under employed statistic), because like many of my recently graduated peers, the job market is just not all that vibrant for us (go to college they said, you'll get a job they said.) Honestly though the pay is absolutely at the bottom of what can be considered as "entry level", and while I am frugal as frugal gets (excluding consumer electronics), I share my mother's worries about not earning enough to befit my college level education (hello there, sense of entitlement). 

WORKING HARD

As luck would have it, early February I found another part time job to supplement my paltry income. Thanks to my hard work and dedication during my four year tenure as a student assistant at the Academic Technology department of San Francisco State University (ha!), I was lucky enough to get brought back into the fold as the night staff for AT distribution. It was familiar and surreal at the same time to be back at the place of employment during my college years. Thank heavens all the knowledge I have ascertained did not escape me even though I was more than nine months removed from having last worked there. 

It was one of the best things to happen to me so far this year. 

There was a running joke at the time back in my college years that if I was there to see SFSU's new library finish and use it, then something is wrong (ie. still haven't graduated undergrad after five years - my apologies to those in majoring in bio or chemistry as the standard operating procedure for you guys is like six years plus). Well, these kind of things have a funny way of unravelling themselves because due to me being hired as the night staff for AT, it meant that I will be working at, that's right, the new library. In fact a week after I was hired, the whole department moved into the new digs. Who would have thought.

Cumulatively then, I went from working 26 hours a week to now a bit over 50. While it was financially awesome, it was definitely not physically or mentally awesome (commuting sucks no matter how you slice it). 12 hour work days takes a toll on you as I have already been sick three times so far this year. My usually exercise schedule is all out of kilter, as nowadays I have to force myself to wake up at 7am to get the workout in. Weekdays I don't get home until 11pm, and then I immediately get ready for bed because I value sleep so damn much (muscles don't repair themselves, you know). At this point I would like to give a shout out to caffeine, because without it, none of this would have been possible.

As you can see, I really haven't got much time these past months for anything else. In fact I have only gone out shooting (photography, not guns) once, which is a great shame. Weekends are definitely for recharging, with the Saturday night to Sunday morning 10 hours of slumber being especially awesome. With the summer months coming up and me ceasing to work night hours due to regular university semester being over, I hope to use the extra time to devote back to my hobbies and other activities. 

ONE DISTRACTION

Of course, that means plenty of baseball. 

As previously blogged, nothing quite compared the joys the Giants baseball season provides. While I won't rehash what I said here, let's just say it is a wonderful outlet and distraction from the all the "normal" stuff. It has been a great shame that due to my work hours, I have not been able to go to games during the weekdays (I am still peeved I missed the Phillies series). Not only did I missed a few key match ups, most important of all weekday games are MUCH cheaper than weekend games and I could have gone to multiple of them for the cost of one. Cannot wait for the summer time (one week away!) when I no longer work night time hours and I can finally go to weekday games again - because living in San Francisco is awesome for this: eat dinner, drive to park, park bit a way for free, and walk to the park just in time for a 7:15pm start time. Yeah, summer nights are awesome like that.

Remember one of my new years resolution for 2012 is to go to more baseball games than the previous year (20+). While I am off to a slow start due to my work schedule, having only gone to a grand total of four games, at least the team's winning percentage while I am at those games is already tremendously better than last years abysmal record. Yes, going to the ballpark, no matter win or lose, is an infinitely better experience than watching it on the tube, but honestly seeing a Giants win live at the ballpark and hearing the sweet sounds of Tony Bennet singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" as you exit is like nothing else. 

PHOTOGRAPHY IS PROHIBITED

Sad to say with all the business going on, my main hobby of photography was horribly neglected to far this year (not as severe as my gaming hobby though - I don't think my PS3 has been turned on at all this year). One bit of good news (for me) is that I finally ditched my entry level Canon Rebel XSi camera and stepped up to the big leagues with a professional grade Canon 7D (yes, it's a crop sensor. I haven't got the cash at the time for a full frame 5D Mark III). The difference in just handling and build quality of the two camera is absolutely night and day, not to mention the functionality and higher quality components. The limited shooting I have done with the 7D have been a joy (of course I am saying this partly because I spent a relative fortune on it), and the only negative thing is that it makes me want to reshoot everything that I have already shot with the XSi (not going to happen). 

Happy to report that my photo a day 366 project (due to this year being a leap year, it's a 366 project, not 365) is still going extremely well. But it goes without saying that for the rest of this year I need get back into the swing of things and go out and shoot much more often than I have (lest I risk blowing another of my new years resolutions). I am also looking forward to actually making some prints of the stuff I have done, either through a commercial entity or buying a photo printer for myself (oh, be still my wallet). 

(HALF) MID-LIFE

So what are the plans for the rest of this year? Definitely more of the same with regards to work (and baseball!). You can say I am basically in work and save money kind of mode right now. I am still contemplating the merits of a MBA graduate degree (outside of appeasing the hopes and dreams of my parents - how filial of me) so I think I will put that off another year just to be sure I am not dumping a few tens of thousands into tuition just for the sake of it. 

I turn 25 at the end of the year, and I guess that is a symbolic number as it signals the quarter of one's life (even though it does not make mathematical sense since the average life expectancy in the United States is still somewhere in the mid 80s). I have ask around and it seems like having a quarter life crisis is not all that uncommon these days (granted, not exactly a statistical sound kind of polling i did). I guess age 25 coincides quite coincidentally with most people's end of higher education (or imminent end) and thus they are stuck in the chasm between all they have ever known (education!) and full on adulthood (work for the rest of your life!). Age 25 is the "ho lee shit" moment.  

Well, in Stephen Colbert fashion, I am determined to have my OWN quarter life crisis, but not in a negative kind of way. I am going to embrace the ambiguity that exist between now and the future, and just take things as they come. Like the midlife crisis, I am going to buy a sports car. All in all, there is only one way I am determined to go:

Onwards and upwards.  

Twenty four

For me, turning 24 years old has much more meaning than the much vaunted 25, also known as the quarter century mark. Granted when I do turn 25 next year, it will occur on the very special numerical date of 12/12/12, and it is going to be awesome (not to mention my automobile insurance will take a plunge to the cheap side.) Nonetheless, I turned 24 years of age yesterday, and with the usual lack of fanfare that is my birthdays over with, it is time to write down some random thoughts on the significance (if any) of turning 24.

Well, my parents can no longer claim me as a dependent (goodbye tax deductions, sorry Mother). So while turning the age pf 21 may traditionally signaled the beginning of adulthood and all the boozed up debauchery that goes along with it, in America nothing informs you of your adultness quite like having to file your own taxes. Here is to a life long tenure of paying annual tributes to "the man". Good thing we live amongst the age of great technology where there are programs that will allow me to file my own taxes no matter how complicated things get (right, like I make enough money to even begin to talk about deductions and itemizing). You know what would have been the perfect birthday present? Turbotax. 

Being patently Chinese (it annoys me when people say something is "patently" false), I am infinitely familiar with the Chinese zodiac. In Chinese culture, each new year is represented by an animal from the zodiac, in which there are 12. Thus every 12 years the rotation starts all over again. Birthdays in multiples of 12 are quite significant because the year of the particular zodiac in which you are born will repeat itself. I was born in 1987, the year of the rabbit. During the year when i turn 12, it was the year of the rabbit once again. No surprise, 2011 is the year of the rabbit, when I turned 24. Though sadly you certainly don't receive more Lunar New Year money for being the same birth zodiac animal as the current year (disregard nearly 3000 years of culture and start a new tradition anyone?).

Age of 24 also have educational ambition implications for me. According to the what now seemed highly naive plan, I was suppose to finish graduate school at 24, because that was the plan right? Graduate from high school at 18, four years of undergrad makes 22, and 2 years of graduate school leaves us with 24 (I can only laugh). So much for that, as I am just barely past half a year finished with my undergraduate studies. Whether it was due to personal failure of character (note: lazy) or economic situations (because having enough classes to take was never a problem during my tenure at SFSU..), things just did not work out as plan. 

Not only did I finish undergrad a year late, but to make matters worse I probably won't start my graduate studies for at least another year and a half (not like I am just sitting at home twiddling my thumbs - it is a matter of the application's necessities). So at this point it looks like I won't be done with the original plan at 24 until I am 28! Now on appearance this makes it looks like I am taking up something major like anything related to a hospital or an science lab - disciplines that naturally take a relatively long period to accomplish. But no, all I am going for is a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). So perhaps I am just a bit behind the curve?

Honestly, I don't think so. As I often tell my peers, our generation will live a really long time. The natural positive progression of medical technology, dietary (well, some of us) and hygiene means barring catastrophic acts of god (that would be natural disasters for your atheists) or nuclear annihilation, me and you will be seeing plenty of each other for decades to come. This means it is perfectly okay for me to be behind schedule on my educational goals set many years ago. So what if by the time I get my masters I will be at the twilight of my twenties? My asian genes promise that I will look just the same I do today (maybe even better). 

All the being established, for me being 24 years old  means one of those life transitions (though it kind of started a bit before that.) I am indeed done with undergrad, and have joined the workforce (99% in the house). No longer do I have to slave through a day of books sand numbers and come back home and still have to think about it some more. Something inherently liberating about leaving work and not have to think about it until the next day. Time is the thing that returns a bit to you, allowing me to spend more time with important people (or you know, watching lots of television).

The perspective and focus changes a fair bit. It may be incredibly cliche, but people do start to look at and wonder about what to do with the rest of their life once they have finished their undergraduate work. It is somehow that innate sense of boundary of what is planned for you and what you will plan for yourself. Having typical Chinese parents means education all the way up to undergrad is a given, but anything after that is entirely up to me. 

So that has been the meaning of turning 24 years old. Most importantly, 24 it is just a nice round and even number - much better looking than 25. 

What I learned from four years as AV support at SFSU

So I have been working on campus at Academic Technology for the past four years and in less than two weeks it will come to an end seeing as they don’t really allow you to work on a school campus unless you go to the school (well, job for students anyways). Anyways what the team and I do essentially is help the faculty of SFSU with their technology needs. Things such as laptops, projectors, video cameras, etc. We also troubleshoot all the machines that are installed in classrooms that teachers and students use to either present, show a video, or get cable broadcast (which originates from us too). 

Four years doing customer service strengthens you up and teaches you a lot about the finer things in dealing with people. So as I prepare to leave the place of establishment and move on to bigger things and a less secure paycheck, I figure it is time for me to share some of the knowledge in worker’s manual style sort of list:

• There is no reason to be rude to a stranger no matter how terrible your day was. Unfortunately that does not go both ways as certain faculty members treat us like slaves.
• Some faculty members just are not meant to use technology. How the heck are you going to forget what I just told you how to do only YESTERDAY?!
• It is NEVER personal, it is just business.
• Teachers that feel that their way is the best even when it is completely wrong, sometimes you just have to go along with it and let them see their own failure (especially sweet if it is in front of a packed class)
• Not everybody is as smart as you. When giving directions over the phone, give directions as if you are talking to a five year old. 
• Most of the time people completely ignores the virtue of putting things back as they were when they first receive them (tangled to hell cables anyone?). This is plain selfish - even if it is my job to put things back as they are once faculty returns equipment. 
• Anticipate and you will have less problems. Takes five minutes to look over the schedule of inflows and outflows and have a game plan. This goes for any job really. 
• Wash you hands regularly. Loaned out equipment of any kind is absolutely filthy. 
• When teachers are mad and fired up about things going bad, you should always stay calm. The more mad they get, the more calm you become. Not to brag but I have this thing down to a T (also explains why I get sent out to all the mean ones).
• General courtesy is very much lost these days. Who the heck enters a room of work and not say a hint of salutations? Are we suppose to just notice you’ve entered? A simple hello will get you everywhere my friend.
• Faculty and students alike NEVER prepare for year end presentations with regards to the technological equipment that they are going to use. So inevitably when things go wrong or they don’t have the thing they need (mac adapter anyone?), we are the ones to bend over backwards just to help them out. Makes you wonder how these students will get on in their real jobs…
• The best teachers will still execute their lesson plan even when the equipment they need is malfunctioning (projector in classroom out, no powerpoint for the day). Unfortunately there are only a handful at SFSU.
• Generally speaking, people don’t plan. You know what they say, failing to plan is planning to fail. Just be glad we are so accommodating with your last minute request. 
• People generally don’t have much patience either. NO WE ARE NOT THE LIBRARY - you can’t just return things by merely dropping it off. WAIT for us to check and make sure shit is there.
• NOBODY reads directions. Even when they are attached to the machine they are using. Hey guess what? When you call us, we are looking at the SAME directions. 
• Sometimes teachers will call just to vent like we are some hotline for the depressed and angry.
• If the computer you are using takes more than 3 minutes to completely load into the operating system - it is time for a new computer.
• I tend to walk slower to your classroom to troubleshoot your problems if you were rude to me on the phone (sorry, bum knee).
• Speaking of walking, if you have two functioning legs, we are not too far from you. Suck it up and come to our office to pick up equipment. It can be your exercise for the year.  
• There is no common sense sometimes with some of the requests. NO we cannot bring the sound back if you failed to capture ANY during the video recording (physics anybody?)
• Teachers assume it is the same person on the phone they whole day (we are open 7:45am - 10:30pm). Hence they don’t identify themselves. I can’t really do anything for you if your first words when I pick up is “Hi, I am ready to see my video” (WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?!?!?).
• Always delete your browsing history if you are on a borrowed or a public computer. We’ve had much laughs looking through people’s browsing history. As a matter of fact, you are on a public computer - you should know better. Just saying.
• Telling you on phone “would you please hold” is a rhetorical question. If you are going to keep talking I am just going to put you on hold anyways.
• Teacher’s that knows what they are doing gets insulted when you start your troubleshoot with them at the most basic level. Sorry, but that is just standard operating procedure. 
• People don’t read room directions either. Even when they are plastered all over the walls (what I do is walk outside and point at the piece of paper). And no we are not a directory - I don’t know where the closest computer lab is.
• Don’t get mad if I don’t know how to work you computer. After all, it is YOUR computer. My responsibility is equipment that belongs to department.
• Be kind rewind. If we can charge a fee we would be rich.
• Email warnings about overdue items are surprisingly effective. It is not like we charge a fee for late items either. Go figure.
• Teachers assume we are psychic and automatically knows what building they are in when we ask them what room they are in. Sorry they haven’t installed caller location tag on our phones yet.
• Teachers generally don’t have any interest in learning how you fixed the problem, just as long as the problem is fixed. Don’t be surprised if they call the next day with the same problem.
• Customer is always right, even when they are not. In that case you just have to spin it so that it makes them feel like they are right. 

So that is pretty much it. It have been a fun four years of working at Academic Technology, along with some interesting characters to boot (which makes it double the fun). A big shout out to Dave LaCosta for giving me the opportunity to gain some valuable work experience, and a steady stream of disposable income every month. Going to miss this place.

Reminds me of the hunt!

The following is some more shallow thoughts by a graduating senior (and I am legally obligated to say this: assuming I pass all my classes). This post's topic revolves around employment - you know, the phrase of one's life after he or she is done with the educational system (cue the wise person saying we never stop learning). And what a great time to be graduating! I mean two years ago the great country we live in suffered the worst economy meltdown since the great depression, and currently we are still in the midst of the recovery (with high unemployment!)

So its not exactly the best time to be graduating and jobless? Sure the recovery is on going but unemployment is still quite high (especially California, which economic future is projected to be more dire than other states), and the hiring freeze all over is still at the beginning stages of thawing. Now I don't want to jinx myself, but if only I am graduating one year later, the prospects of finding gainful employment will be much easier (assuming people at wall street don't fuck everything up again).

Good luck Californians! 

(But wait are you not an entrepreneur major?) Why yes I am! And I hope to be sometime in the future, but just not in the immediate days after graduation. You see to start a business you need something called capital, otherwise known as straight cash (homie!). Now appearances may be deceiving but I don't have much money at all, nor does my family (don't Asians save? yeah they don't tell you how MUCH they save either...). So no money no business? Well I can borrow from a bank but going through the entrepreneur program has taught me is that Bank loan interest will more often than not absolutely wreck with your cash flows in the first year and then... well you won't have a business after that.

To the unemployment line it is, because after graduation I can no longer work on campus for obvious reasons. And I am just not super optimistic about any immediacy that I would actually find a job post grad. I say this from experience because it just so happens that for one of my entrepreneur classes, we the students (of the United States of SFSU) need to find an internship for ourselves with a startup company (and pay attention closely, find one OURSELVES - meaning nothing was setup for us). This is just as good as telling us you've graduated as an entrepreneur, now go find yourself a job with a startup.

Many conflicts arises. First of all, any startup will be way too busy trying to SURVIVE their first years of opening to actually find the time to keep an intern. Heck most of them are too busy to even answer emails (now they could also be rude, but I criticize no man, much like Abraham Lincoln). Another conflict is painfully obvious once I've started looking for internships. The problem is that since this is for class credit, we are representing the university, hence strictly NO SELLING. Meaning the internship cannot be a sales position. Now I don't know about you, but it appears that the single most important thing to a new startup business is to MAKE SALES.

To say finding an internship was hard would be an understatement. Turns out offering free labor is not as attractive to companies as it appears (especially one with the burden of mentoring). Now I understand the feelings of some of my friends who graduated earlier than I have - that feeling of sending out 100s of cover letters and resumes and receive nothing back. If one thing this internship searching has taught me is that it is NEVER personal, it is just business (thank you, Godfather).

Connections are important. It may be the biggest thing we know, but the world is a small place, thus it does you zero good to burn bridges. Never assume you will never see that person again. Be courteous and be nice.

The thrill of the hunt.