Halloween Weekend

So now that I am both no longer and college, and no longer young enough to trick or treat, it took me a really long time to come up with a legitimate reason to celebrate this year. Apparently West Hollywood goes incredibly dumb for halloween. There are supposedly thousands and thousands of people lining the streets with drinks in hand, costumes on their bodies, and smiles on their faces. Learning about this, I promptly decided to get ready for it....

First, I decided that I should be a pharaoh. You know, not really wear a t-shirt (i realized i am a little bit voyeuristic) , but a weird neck thing with a skirt and a headress. Then that fell through and I was going to become the THING from fantastic four, another shirtless character who is stock in size. This, unfortunatley, also fell through because apparently it is impossible to do a group costume.

Therefore, I am going to be something completely different, but awesome.

Balrog from Street Fighter II, great character, great game, but incredibly racist. Seriously though, go back and look at super street fighter II. All the characters are stereotypes of the country they are from, and those stereotypes are based of japanese video game writer's perspectives. For instance, when you win the game with Deejay the jamaican martial artist, he says that he will finally be able to rock his reggae beat to the whole world; that plus him and balrog both look like sambo. And Zangief if a grossly misinterpreted version of a Russian. Pleas, don't even get me started on the meditating, yoga loving, fire breathing, elephant having Indian, Dhalsim. But, I digress. The actual thing I wanted to get across is that my costume is gonna be hilarious, Happy Halloween!

Working at the ARA

What it do fam?! I am terrible at keeping my blog up to date, but I figured that I am on my lunch break so I might as well get crackin on this.

The last post I had explained that life is hard after college and there is nothing out there for the graduates. Turns out that isn't true. I was lucky enough to get hired at the AIDS Research Alliance in Downtown Los Angeles. I am a community educator, and will eventually get trained to work in the P2 lab processing PBMCs and possible working with another compound that shall not be named (due to copyright and privacy stuff). The job is pretty cool for the most part.

They gave me my own office with a sick view:














I get to work with people in the community that are doing a lot for folks who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

My boss is young and pretty lienant.

My coworkers are cool.

There are some things that aren't that cool though:

David's office view is better:














I always forget to bring lunch, so I end up walking over to subway nearly every day.

I absolutley positively hate the drive. It is only about 10 miles, but it takes 35+ minutes in the morning and 40+ minutes on the way home. I always feel like hopping out of the car and running.

Anyways, life is all good and I'll try to post something again soon. Until then, hit me up on facebook or twitter. word.

The Graduate: May 20

Today is the third 3rd day of my post graduation life. Everyone I talk to ask me how excited I am, I tell them not very. It is hard to be excited about the real world considering the current economic crisis that we are in. How am I going to find a job that pays enough to pay off my loans, pay my credit cards, pay for med school applications, and pay rent? According to NPR, there are 2 million people that graduated or are graduating from college in the months of may and june. I don't know how many people are immediately going to grad school afterward, and therefore avoiding paying back loans, but i am envious of all of them. If I could go back and do anything differently, I would have taken the MCAT and GRE my junior year summer. That way I would have had some immediate post grad options in terms of education; however, I am no blessed/cursed with the chance to live real life for a little while. I can no longer sit at my house and choose not to go to my on campus job because I have too much homework, get student discounts at the movies, or simply woo people by telling them I am studying biochemistry. I actually have to do something. I am looking forward to my summer, and hoping that anyone who knows of job openings in the medical field will let me know about them immediately. Holla at ya boy (who wouldn't want to hire such a pretty face? see above)!!!

RUGBY RUGBY RUGBY (SURTH AFRICUR)

Sorry for being lazy on blog posts for the past few months. Times are hard. I don't have much to blog about right now, but I did just wanna give props to the Occidental College Rugby Team. Wow, what a great bunch of guys. We won our final home game against Whittier posting a score of 32-3. There were many highlights in the game. I had one of my best plays ever, and Alex Ochoa was out there in his truest form. Here is an angle of him after we scored a try.

Things I did in October

The top picture is me and my good friend george at a 49ers game, the second picture is me pointing at something at the 49ers game.  I traveled to San Francisco for my fall break this year.  It was a really good time, I was able to spend a day in the city, hang out with my best friend from home, go to a 49ers game, and sandbag that whole bay area.

The City:

The city is dope, I love san francisco.  It is just such a clean and well organized place.  There aren't way too many people, and it is a very person friendly city.  The streets are walkable, the air is fresh, there are a lot of small businesses and shops that face the street, there is plenty to do, and it is the smuggest place on the planet.  Where else in the world would you find a white dude with dreadlocks who smelled like weed running one of the biggest retail stores in the city and employing a bunch of trendy and or emo 19 yr olds who ride their bikes to work everyday, wear the ipods, drink green plant, vote for barack obama, no on prop 8, and only eat food that is local and organic.  We need places like SF to keep the rest of the world in check.  SF reminds people to care about everything and everyone, and I really do appreciate that, even if the city needs to get over itself sometimes.

Chillin with David in Berkeley:

Berkeley is dope too, and it is even more smugtastic than SF, the only difference is that it doesn't have tall buildings and everything is closed by 9PM.  I went to berkeley to kick it with David Nguyen (see post entitled david nguyen).  We had a great time kickin it.  We got drunk, we hung out with his friends from his business fraternities, and we saw our other two high school friends in an improv show.  The show was great, and both of our friends did really well (Ale Randazzo and Ryan Field); however, when we went to the after party we were there with a group of 25 people who were good friends and who had only brought 30 beers.  That inspired dave and I to buy a handle of vodka, an 18 pack of miller, and some energy drinks.  After I put together a make shift gallon of space drink, we got to drinkin and got pretty sauced.  We then returned to the after-party and had a great time.  At 1:30 we went to his other friend's apartment, and Dave tried to get me to hook up with Korean babes.  I said no thanks (nothing against Korean babes, I am seeing someone).  I pretended to smoke like 8 cigarettes, drank a bit more, and we ended up walking home at like 4 in the morning. What a night.

The 49ers Game

The 49ers Game was a lot of fun, but they suck soooo bad in the 4th quarter it is unbelievable.  They were doing fine the whole game, but when the 4th quarter came around they essentially gave up, JT O'Sullivan threw like 7 ints, and they lost by a bunch of TDs.  Too bad, but it was really tight to get to go to an NFL game and see what goes on behind the cameras.  Those guys work really hard, and they seem to care about each other too.  I was pretty hungover and had to eat a hot dog to feel better, and then I started caring as well.  Good times.

Flagstaff

I also played rugby in Flagstaff with the Oxy squad.... Ridiculous (see bottom pic).

The Drought is Over

So the drought is over, I am back to blog again.

Topic: Parking Tickets

I think that I hate parking tickets more than anything in the world.  I am like a parking ticket magnet whenever I am broke.  I never get them when I have money, but when I have two paperclips and some string in my checking account, I manage to get a parking ticket for $32.  I realize that isn't a lot of money, but it is the emotional stress of getting a parking ticket that makes it so terrible....

It was a nice day.  It was the end of the summer, I was working for Oxy's Orientation Team (I had a group of 10 incoming students that I worked with all week) and I decided to be an extra nice guy and bring my group to 21 choices in Pasadena.  When we get there, I see a spot on Colorado and I decide to park in it.  I get out to feed the meter, but it turns out that the meter is broken and it says to pay at the next meter.  On my way to the next meter, we decide to just grab some yogurt and peace.  I spent a total of 22 minutes parked in a spot that had a broken meter.  Upon returning to my car, I see that I have a fucking parking ticket.  The parking ticket is for $32, and it claims that I parked outside of a marked spot.  I was in a marked spot, but there is absolutely no way to argue it.  I would have to make a court date, and then spend ten minutes arguing with a judge trying to convince them that I had parked somehow other than what the ticket described.  He/She would never believe me, and I would have wasted a day, time, and energy trying to get a $32 citation revoked.  A few weeks pass, of course I forget to pay the ticket and I lose it.  My mom gets a copy of the ticket in the mail and calls/emails multiple times to yell at me about how good she is at not getting parking tickets and about how irresponsible I am.  I want to punch the wall everytime she does this, arguing with her is like arguing with the judge.  Either way, she sends me an electronic copy of the ticket so I can have the info to pay it.  I finally decide to go online to pay it, and when I get to the website, they say they are unable to process online payments at this time.  Really? Fuck you online payment system, just let me pay my $32 ticket that has become a $58 ticket so I can move on with my life, but no.  Then I call in to the Pasadena City Parking Ticket Department, and the line is busy for ten minutes.  I am not gonna pay this ticket anymore. I fucking hate it soooo much. I hate parking tickets. The last one I got was when I parked in a street sweeping zone outside of a school that I was working at after the street sweeper had already passed.  That one was $60, more than I made that day working way too hard and not getting paid enough for teaching underprivileged students. Fuck that.

Senior Comps

At Occidental College, all students are required to complete a Senior Comprehensive project before they graduate. Some majors require a 60 page paper, some require a 15 minute documentary, some require original research, some require presentations, and some require students to take a nationally administered test (GRE etc.).  In biochem, we have to do a 20 min presentation, a 45 minute presentation, and take a nationally administered test.

For my presentation, I chose to research low density lipoproteins (LDL "bad" cholesterol).  More specifically, I am researching the apolipoprotein component, apolipoprotein B100.  It has been really interesting so far, and the first presentation was a success, but it took a whole lot of effort, and even more time...

Anyways, I am just wondering, why are some people's comps so damn easy?  A 15 page paper in some majors? Really?! I say, anyone that only has to do that for their comps should have to make everyone else dinner, or throw a big party for everyone, or have to donate to a "funds for people who actually have difficult comps" fund. I'm just saying.