(Not) Working out

One of my favorite things to poke fun at is the gluttony of the American lifestyle. Just venturing out to the ballpark proves this point with the non stop onslaught of hot dogs, fries, churros, ice cream, hot chocolate, nachos, etc (don't forget copious cups of your favorite alcoholic beverage). And then you sit on your ass for four hours to watch the game. No wonder they call baseball our national pastime - America has an obesity epidemic, so what better activity to represent it than going to a baseball game! Sitting on your ass for hours on end and binge eating!

Those of you who know me well know that I have been on a "healthy" lifestyle for a good 4 years now (started right after I got my freshman 30 - I have pictures to prove). And by now it has become just my normal lifestyle as I don't even think about it (nor is it hard to do - anymore). And it is really basic too - eat right (no sugar, low carb, good fats, fiber, and metric tons of protein), exercise (just MOVE!), water (again, by the metric tons), and good ole slumber, Sure I deviate from the "plan" plenty of times (hard to imagine, but yes it does happen), and to be honest I don't even feel guilty about "cheating" anymore. It is all just par for the course.

What is my point? To be healthy is not really a chore at all once you get used to it. But of course this is America, we want to sit on our ass and eat what ever the fuck we want and still somehow look thin and fit (some of you out there with good genetic makeup and/or super metabolisms notwithstanding). IF only that was true, then heck I would do that too. But obviously that is not how the laws of thermodynamics work (also the saying garbage in garbage out). Energy not spent is energy stored - and we all know where that gets stored in people's bodies. Hey, look at it this way, the American lifestyle has sustained a billion dollar magic weight loss food and exercise equipment industry! As a business major, I can appreciate that. 

Of course you can't have your cake and eat it too (mmm, cake). As with anything, to get the results you want, you need to work (goes with being a glutton also - just that the process to get fat is much more enjoyable, I GUESS). Speaking from my experience I don't see how anybody CAN"T do what I do (being healthy) and still enjoy the best foods out there (I eat out quite often nowadays actually), and sit on your ass all day (I sit 8 hours plus per day EASY). It is all about self control, discipline, and understanding of the bigger goal.

What is the bigger goal? Well, do you want to live long and prosper? (thanks Spock). Or spend your later years frequenting a clinic, full of health problems? Sure medicine advances millions of miles per day (probably working towards that magic weight loss pill), but I don't think for the immediate term it will save anybody from the pains of lifestyle related cardiovascular disease. Even when we bring it down to more of a compress timeline, how about not having a cold every time the season changes? But what am I saying, we ALL understand the tremendous benefits of being healthy - it is the work and sacrifice to get there we don't want to do (America, a reactive, and not a proactive country).

The number one, single best goal/reason to be healthy? VANITY. I would be absolutely lying if I said vanity was not the main reason I started working out and eating right (Freud would be proud). It may not be as crazy as Asia, but I would say vanity and body image is pretty important in America. Who does not want to look their best? (Well, clearly not everybody). Honestly, you don't really need any other reason (the other benefits are just... the icing on the cake). And it is not really about ego, it is about an ethic - one of constantly improving and putting your best self forward. I sure would hire someone who is like that over someone that is well, not (probably discrimination, but whatever). 

Yes, eating a bucket of ice cream (my favorite food!) is a much more promising form of living in terms of the the enjoyment factor compared to exercising. But honestly, if you are not willing to put in work for the most important thing in this world to you (that would be YOU), then what does that say really? Having millions of dollars while crippled on a hospital bed (exaggeration alert) is like not having it at all is it not? As my mothership will say, if you don't have your health, you have nothing.

Plus, I am not at all pleased seeing my tax dollars going to treat people that have diseases that are entirely preventable with the proper lifestyle. 

Smile - random thoughts

Again there was no Giants game tonight so there goes three hours that I would have otherwise devoted to it (amongst other things of course). Needed a mental sports day off anyways because the Giants have been doing so much winning lately (FOUR straight series win!) that if I don't get a day off I might burst from too much enthusiasm (second live game of the season this Sunday!).

Speaking of the Giants, I am very sad that the organization decided to sent Brandon Belt back to the minors. I completely understand the move, but still it is quite disappointing, as I feel Belt needed a longer time at the majors and a fair shake. But the odds were against him really. He was not exactly lighting it up on fire like Posey did last year, and the Giants just have way too many outfielders right now with the return of Cody Ross to keep Belt, who have what they call "options" (established players with a certain amount of years in the big leagues CANNOT be sent down to the minors, except for injury rehab reasons).

Today is Thursday right? (Rebecca Black?) I almost forgotten due to the super weird day that Monday was. First of all due to various circumstances, my work schedule on campus has completely changed, to now I work at night Monday to Thursday, and my usual morning hours on Friday. So thus on Monday I did not have to be on campus until 2pm, due to the fact I work at night now, and 2pm is my first (and only) class that day.

Working at night means I have to once again do my workouts in the morning - which is not so bad. The only problem is that I am not nearly as flexible in the morning as I am later in the day (can't even touch my toes with my legs straight), so stretching is a bit compromised. Other than that, the only difference is, instead of going straight to slumber after working out at night, I still now have a full day ahead of me (please don't ask me to lift that box). The thing is though, it is very satisfying to get my workout for the day out of the way and not have to think about it.

So right, on Monday I worked out and ate breakfast, only to then find that my 2pm class was cancelled due to my professor having inflammation flare ups (take your fish oil, kids). I was like okay great, guess I won't have to be on campus until 6ish. So I figure I just chill and Facebook until then (ah, the freedom of college I will miss). Well turns out the SFSU campus lost power in a catastrophic fashion, hence all classes in the afternoon and night is cancelled. Well since there is no class, it makes my job on campus redundant, hence yes I did not have to go to work on Monday either.

Overall it was just too weird. Try adjusting to a brand new schedule on the first day and then having it turn completely upside down. Sure I can't ultimately complain about it as I kind of sort of had an extra day off attached to the weekend, but I did go back to work the next day wondering to myself how much it feels like a Monday. Thankfully the rest of the week was much less confusing and straight forward. 

Today for my internship I went to a middle school's earth day extravaganza to promote and sell the company's environmental friendly stationary and pencils. And man do I feel old (I'm ONLY 23!?). Hard to believe I am almost a decade removed from my middle school days. So it was indeed a bit of nostalgia visiting a middle school, even if it was not my own. I even got to have some school food for lunch, which brought back some good memories, in that back in middle I could eat what ever the fuck I wanted and still be stick skinny (it is how I got to be so tall I bet). 

Speaking of food - what the heck are they feeding the middle school children these days? Man are they tall! Either puberty is really robust or it is the water they are drinking. At first I ask my boss is it really a junior high and not a high school we are going to. I swear most of the girls were like taller than five foot five, and the dudes were massive. Thank heavens for genetically altered, mass produced food I guess. 

So recently I have move sort of a bit beyond photography and going into videography and video editing. At this juncture I would like to say that it is better to be great at one thing than good at many things. Suffice to say I am going to keep working on photography for a long while before I move on to other visual media. It is not that videography is hard (well, maybe), it is just that like photography, there is just so many things to learn that it can be overwhelming at first. The thing is, after you learn the stuff, it is more like muscle memory and everything just clicks (that goes with everything I guess). 

The good thing is though with digital art, anything and everything you can and want to learn is available online for free. I kind of wish this kind of proliferation of knowledge was available back when I was much younger, so that by now I could have much more knowledge. Nonetheless it is probably the golden age of actually learning anything, because the internet has made it so accessible (and FREE!). So for my cooking inept friends, you no longer need to watch the food channel - just get an app on your phone). There is absolutely no reason you should stop learning things after you graduated from college (t-minus 4 weeks). 

I paid $45 dollars for tank of gas yesterday. This is getting out of control! I drive an economy car for pete's sake! Though interesting that in the latest survey by consumer report, even with the high gas prices, Americans are generally not interested in downsizing their automobiles on their next purchase (Europeans are laughing at us). Well I guess people have deeper pockets than I do, and you know what, as long as the demand is there, automobile makers will continue to make big cars that is beyond what people needs (I understand, a nice big van is very comfortable for the kids, but if you only have two, do you REALLY need the extra third row? How about just get a very tall car?).

I wonder when are we going to see news reports of people stealing gas from people's tanks again (why do they put it at such a convenient location!). You how you can save gas and have screaming fast performance? Get a bike! I would so get one if not for the fact I don't have a cover garage to safely store it from the elements. Also I am not the type to like to carry a lot of gear with me, so all that motorcycle gear I have to lug around everywhere I go is no bueno. But man can bikes rev to stratospheric levels (10k rpm +)! Sounds freaking sweet.

Sometimes I would have the inability to turn of my sarcasm tone (I run on sarcasms), and instead of saying something is meant to be sincere and meaningful, it turns sarcastic, which has the opposite affect (does not work well when you tell a girl how beautiful she is). What I need is that machine Stephen Hawking has, which is only one tone and very clear. 

What a great idea to schedule a trip to LA next weekend, when everything is piling up. 

Technology is great

Recently I performed open heart surgery to my PC as the five years old parts that were in it finally decided to go kaput and not work on me. Now I would say it is quite an accomplishment seeing as the average PC only last about two years for the average person due to various reasons (your operating system clogging up is a major contributor). Me getting five years out of it then means I actually got my moneys worth. But sadly it came to a crashing halt a couple of weeks ago when my PC no longer boot into windows in a stable manner, even when I reinstalled Windows cleanly.

So I rip out all the old computer chip, motherboard, and memory and replaced it with brand new, state of the art ones from Intel, Intel, and Kingston, respectively. Everything else I just reused with the new components as they were still in good shape (not to mention, high quality parts that were not cheap back when I first bought them). A man, what a difference five years make in terms of performance! I was seeing almost 7 times the performance while ripping videos. With new technology also came efficiency, and I bet my newly reconstructed computer probably suck more than half as much power from the grid (hehe, TRON). I mean the exhausted air sure feels much cooler (though I can no longer use it as a space heater).

Feels productive to have my PC running again, as I can schedule tasks for it to do while I am away from home with my mac laptop. And when I am home, having a second computer increases multitasking on so many levels (because there comes a limit where you just can't play a video while photo editing at the same time on one computer). Plus, there is one thing a PC does better than a Mac - being a media center. Hence my PC is also my media center PC thus all my media files go through it, and not my macbook. It is hard to explain to people why having an extra computer on hand is such a boost (much a kin to having a second or third monitor). It is one of those things where you just have to try for yourself. Once you do, you can't go back.

I was just tweeting the other day about how weird it is that I have 8gb of memory on both my computers and yet my first computer back in 1999 barely have 6gb in hard drive space (there was also one picture where it showed an iPhone 4 of today is more powerful than the first colored iMacs). It is during these moments where you think to yourself just how the heck did you live with it back then (Sim City 2000 was the shit). But of course I was not nearly productive with a computer as I was back when I was I think 13? Back then it was all about games and surfing the web. While today it is still about games and surfing the web, the digital artist side of me realizes that the computer and the internet are powerful tools to create and publish my ideas.

My first PC's screen was 13in (one of those ginormous CRT monitors no less), and now I stare at a 30in screen everyday (I had a 20in also, and back then I thought IT was huge). What a difference a decade makes. 

Of course with the rapid pace of advancement in technology comes the great wallet drain also - for those people that choose to chase it. Do I want to be that person? Maybe, I mean who does not want the latest and greatest. However my poor (in monetary terms) upbringing taught me to be (somewhat) frugal, so no I don't go after what is new all the time (still happily tapping away on my original iPad). My Macbook Pro is now two years old, not going to upgrade it any time soon unless my creative software no longer run at a pace that is satisfactory. I think unless something new is so revolutionary that it changes the game, there is just no need for me to upgrade (hey, I held off on upgrading my PC for 5 years did I not?). The last time this happened was when Apple introduced the aluminum unibody Macbook Pros with glass screen and LED backlit LCD. It was so much better compared to my white plastic macbook that I literally just dumped it to my little brother and bought the new one. 

Technology may advance in a fast pace, but it is too expensive to run along with it. 

Case in point for me is when it comes to phones. I am generally one revolution behind everybody else. Remember when color screens first came to cell phones? I was a year behind everybody in getting that. Texting phones? A good two years behind. I still have yet to upgrade to a smart phone, which is already on its next revolution with computing power that rivals small PCs (iPhone 5, come soon please). Of course when it is me that is not paying the bills, I cannot really complain now can I. Though when I get a smart phone the one footing the bill will be me. That is why I welcome the end of unlimited data plans and the introduction of cheaper entry level ones. I probably don't use that much data (in fact as of right now I don't use ANY!), and wifi is so abundant that there is not reason not to use it. The cost savings, extrapolated over a two year contract is substantial. 

Speaking of smart phones as powerful as computers, I think that is where the future is heading. The computer industry have already transitions pretty much from the desktop to the laptop (more laptops are sold than desktops). Even creative professionals can live off of a laptop because computing power are no longer exclusive to non mobile platforms as thermal efficiency in chips improves. Heck I hardly know anybody that don't do there computing on a laptop. Well, the next transition is from laptops to tablets and smart phones. I mean, it is all about getting smaller, and being portable (before that happens, laptops will getting lighter and thinner). But what about actual work? You seriously can't expect to type the great American novel on a smart phone! Actually I think you can, as all you need to add to it is a connection to a monitor and a keyboard. When it comes down to it, the major things we do with computers boils down to these things - internet, games, media, office suites. I can see all this migrating to the smart phone package. In fact, it has already begun. 

One thing technology has destroyed in the process of being great is the enjoyment of music. Don't get me wrong, without the mp3 revolution, I would not have 10% of the music I have now. The accessibility and potential exposure to all types of music is one thing mp3s brought to the table. But I think the essence of music have lost some of its luster with the breaking down of albums into individual songs for sale. Albums used to tell stories, and the order of songs is something artist put a lot of thought into. Nowadays they just lump songs together and call it an album. Heck over in Asia, many artists don't even put out albums anymore, instead putting out singles or mini albums. Leave it to the indie artist to still put together albums that have meanings and interconnections between songs.

And when is the last time you actually listened to an album from beginning to end? Radio and per song purchasing has allowed us to pick apart album and just get the songs we want (not to say that is not GOOD). I remember it was still cassettes and CDs, I would buy an album and actually listen to the whole thing. I still try to do this with my digital music when I can, as for sure I don't always buy the whole album for an artist. Enjoy music for what is, because it is not something to listen to while you are doing other things. The meaning, the vocals, the instruments, the production, etc, these things in an album need to be enjoyed in a quiet environment, sitting down, and a pair of headphones on (of course, the highest quality of mp3 you can get haha). Then again, artist needs to put the same thought back into music, and not just cobble some beats and call it a hit just because it is catchy.  

So yes, technology is great. The best thing you can do is leverage it, and not let it go to waste. 

Black Day - random thoughts

Uh let see um don't know where to begin with this one. No Giants game tonight so kind of don't know what to do with myself really. (but don't you have studies?) No not really. I don't think it is senioritis at all (really, it is not haha), but I feel like I have not really done much at all this semester academic wise, and yet it is for certain now that I will graduate in mere five weeks from now (it is mid April already!?)

Just when I think it will be the week I finally give my car a bath, it freaking rains during the days before! It is as if the sky itself does not want me to do it. It has indeed been awhile. The mothership questions why I don't wash my car often, as back a couple of years ago I use to wash it religiously every 2 weeks, the weather be damned. But it is not because I have grown out of my automobile interest, it is just have been things to do with my time? I mean at least my interior is pretty clean! Honestly when it comes down to it cars are just appliances that gets you somewhere and through your productive day. Would I like to a drive a washed car? sure! But it is worth the effort? Eh not when I have more productive things to do - as long as the car is not falling apart of rusting haha.

Went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown this past weekend - first time in a long time. While there was not really much to see to be honest, but everybody goes for the food anyways (how could you not when there is a whole block just dedicated to food?) It reminds me of the street foods back home in Asia, where at the night blocks will be line up with just foods of all kinds, usually just small finger foods. Nostalgia and bad parking aside, it was just a good opportunity to pig out I guess on some Japanese food that is not made by that Mexican chef in the back of the restaurant.

Well I guess now is as good a time as any to gripe about gas prices again. I finally passed the four dollar threshold during my last fill up (at Costco no less!). Small efficient car not withstanding, it still hurts to have your gas bill go over $40 (those of you that drives SUV, I don't really have much pity haha). It does indeed makes you think twice about making an extra trip doing something that can be combined with another. It also makes you think of ridiculous stuff like taking out all passenger and back seats in order to save some weight (because honestly, 95% of the time its only me?). Then again it was during another blog post couple of weeks back where I said I welcome the high gas prices (in terms of the big picture for America), so I should not be complaining. You know I love San Francisco, but having the highest average pas price in the nation is just one of the side affects (like parking, street cleaning, and oh did I mention parking?)

I did not think it was possible, but I guess one can get sick of costco food. I mean you eat that pizza or hot dog often enough and it just does not taste good anymore. And costco is a such a big foods company, you would think they would have came up with more variety by now (remember when Churros went away and now came back? there used to be Pretzels?). But you know just as you are getting sick of it, you are then reminded the fact of just how cheap the food is. By that time you have no choice but resolve yourself to still patronize. Because $1.50 for a whole meal is nothing to sneeze at, even if your breathe will smell like hotdog for a few hours afterwards. You know what, new business idea - Costco food stands all over the place, and not just exclusive to Costco locations. Imagine what $1.50 hot dogs and soda will make in a place like downtown SF (that hotdog stand by Macy will probably not be happy).

I fully support restaurants posting calorie counts right on the menu. It tells me that just about 80% of the item of the menu, I cannot eat! I mean, you really going to have to at least think about it right? Seeing that meal you are about to order is 1500 calories have to people some thoughts (unless they are really hungry). But I will be honest, sometimes it is hard to put into mind that so little stuff can amount to large amount of calorie. Puts into your mind like "how the heck can this little thing be xxxx calories?". It is the eyes playing tricks on us? Perhaps we are so adapted to the visual volume of food that if it does not look like it is a lot, then even if it IS a lot calorie wise, we still won't be satisfied (it is why when I eat protein bars, even if the label say its 350 cal, I still feel like I barely ate anything). 

Case in point: this past weekend I ate at a diner for some American style breakfast and the portions where huge! I mean who the heck needs three eggs, three sausage, three strips of bacon, three pancakes, and a gang load of potatoes JUST for breakfast? (Don't get me wrong the food was fabulous). I ate like half of it and it was already more than I had wanted to eat. Had the restaurant showed the calorie count on the menu I would have passed on it and just ordered some eggs and cheese (like I would make at home, or just a bowl of oatmeal). As Chinese I was taught to eat everything that is given on the plate/bowl, so I feel extremely bad leaving half uneaten to be thrown away (because you really don't want American style breakfast for two meals in a roll, not me anyways).

Whoa times up, going to get off work soon. Until Monday.