~talent?

so i've been reading a bunch of stuff recently about people getting good at stuff. a lot of it is saying that there's no real such thing as innate talent. getting good at something meant that you just put a ridiculous amount of time and energy into doing that something.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/index.htm

http://www.hooversbiz.com/2007/12/05/the-work-ethic-of-will-smith-deliberate-practice-in-action/

and outliers (http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html)

pretty intense. they talk about the 10000 hour rule, basically saying that if you do anything seriously for 10000 hours, you get sexy at whatever you do.

in other news, bone in rib roasts are on sale at ralphs for 3.79/lb. i think i might purchase 4-5 bones worth, dry age it in the fridge for a couple days, season with salt and pepper, roast in an oven for a few hours over a pan to catch drippings, deglaze the pan with some water and wine and serve. i wish it was choice, but it's select. i wonder if that'll make a big difference.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3002979
fascinating..
i guess it won't be too sexy, but i guess i should try.. it's only gonna be like 20 bucks.

oh, and i've come to the conclusion that i suck at dota. and it's tough to learn in pugs i think.. or is it better? because i was spoiled by all the good instance runs that nate ran me through, so it was tough for me to run things with noobs.

121408: open-minded

so i was driving this morning, and for some reason i felt really receptive to the music that i was listening to. i got the cd a couple of days ago from japan, and listened to it a bit, but i don't think i fully appreciated it until today. i can't wait for shekhar to get here and check these tracks out. you know, it's like when you walk past a mannequin and think, "oh shit, i think ____ would look good in that." hmm, that's never happened to me before.. but whatevers.

toe - all i understand is i don't understand -- pretty simple, yet lyrical guitar riffs that guide an intricate drum pattern. i think my favorite part is in the middle, where everything drops off except for the guitar, which goes into 7/8 and then all the other instruments come in one by one matching the new time signature. it's so sexy.. >_<

toe - c -- this one starts with an aggressive drum track, but it's weirdly matched with a fairly simple motif done by two guitars that just develops into really pretty rock instrumental music that manages to contain the percussion's intensity. the arrangement is so well done, especially the piano that ends the song.

it's crazy because i'm not missing the lack of vocals at all.

i wish i could just turn this on and off. being receptive i mean. i'm pretty sure it's because the clutter of everyday thinking sharply reduces my attention span. how much cooler would it be just to be in that state of mind all the time? i think i'm going to meditate or something tomorrow..

oh, and i saw nate today. ^_^

~good movies

i've seen two in the past couple days.

jsa

philadelphia

both named after places i guess.

but yeah.. they are amazing films.

i think i did better last week than i did in oct. but we'll see. two more weeks!!

120408: incompetence

so i went to kaplan today with plans to take the most recent prep test at 1030. but they only had two copies of it, and two other people were going to take it at 1030. wtf. why do you only have two copies? the girl said they've had it for two weeks, but didn't have time to make laminated copies. wtf. so i took another test while these two people were taking test 54.. and then i took it afterward. what's worse? the fucker who used my booklet before me wrote all over the test. and even though he tried to erase it all, i could still see his answers. also, since it was one of only two copies that kaplan had, i couldn't write on the test. logic games.. wasn't as bad. but how am i supposed to do reading comp w/o writing in the book?? arg.. not only that.. kaplan is "green" now and they wouldn't give me a printout of my score.. just showed it to me on the screen.. i have never cared so little about the environment than at that moment.. it's two fucking sheets of white paper..

because of what happened at kaplan, i had to cancel my dinner appointment with de and miss the tritones show. but after getting back home and relaxing a little, i'm tired in a good way and so imma pass out now. i need to get a little bit more used to being up in the morning for sat.

a bit of consolation is that i got a 175 on the first test. i only missed five lr on one section and misbubbled (wtf!) a logic game question.. but got 'em all right on the other two sections. lucky? perhaps.. but woot anyway. test 54.. due to the circumstances.. wasn't realistic at all.. but i still managed a 169.

crap, i missed the office, but i guess i can wake up to it tomorrow. yay!

120208: rest day

so today i didn't study as much. the past two days have been pretty intense and i needed a break. i still did some games, and already i'm running out of stuff to do in the mastery book.

i saw sympathy for lady vengeance a couple days ago. i really liked it. although cast members, motifs and a bunch of other things are taken from old boy, i still thoroughly enjoyed the film. waiting for sympathy for mr. vengeance, it's netflixing in tomorrow. i'm also waiting for this toe album. i got an email from the vendor saying it's coming from japan via airmail and should be here in a few days. that was a few days ago.

mom talked to me about a bunch of stuff yesterday. how things are going in virginia and how she feels about what i'm doing. it's funny.. i wanted to hear about the former but didn't really like what i heard. i didn't want to hear about the latter, and didn't really like what i heard about that either.. but i guess i needed to hear it.

so i've obtained a bunch of new music recently. i'm behind in listening to it.

let's see..

gary moore
the smiths
ne-yo
john legend
demi lovato
morrissey
the smiths
santana
camera obscura
the magic numbers

i have my work cut out for me.. lol

120108:countdown

so i did a shitton of games today. and i think i'm getting better at them.

tomorrow, i'm going to wake up early and practice writing the writing sample.

just a few days left..

113008: more studying

yesterday.. i didn't do what i had planned, but i finished the two pacing sections so on that test i got 174.

but today, i got 168. i thought i raped it too..

i think i've hit a limit on what i can do until saturday on rc and lr. the percentage i get right on those sections is pretty stable, but it's just the logic games that are inconsistent. and on the tests i do well on games, i get 170+.

eh, i'm not stressin too much. this week i'm going to wake up every day in the morning to get myself ready.

can't wait for this to be over!!

112808: studying, dota and more studying

so today i took another practice test. i got 171, but there was a mapping game that i lost big points on. i got all the rc right and only two lr wrong. i got one role of a statement wrong, because i misidentified the main conclusion, and an assumption wrong because i flipped the sufficient and necessary clauses. for logic games, i got one sequencing wrong because i miscopied a rule. i got two hybrids wrong because i overlooked two rules. and i got four mapping questions wrong because mapping games are of the ghey.

except for the mapping game that screwed me.. if i did this well on game day.. i'd be ecstatic. not only was the scale on this test closer to more recent scales. i just have to be able to reproduce this consistently and be up every morning until the day of the real test.

to celebrate my performance i played dota, then i uninstalled it. i'm going to give the cd to someone until after the test. no more temptations.

after uninstall, i did two pacing sections. i got one paradox question wrong because i didn't read the stimulus carefully enough. i got one sequencing wrong because i didn't follow through all the rules.

tomorrow i'm going to finish two more pacing sections to finish prep test 43 and do another whole lsat. but after i bike with daniel bay again.

one more week!!

112708: steak, hills and redemption

yesterday, i didn't study that much..

today, we ate steak instead of turkey.

i biked four miles with daniel bay, but there was this big hill.. and it was infinitely tougher than the six mile bike ride last week. gotta stop smoking.. haha

i did 2 lsats today. i did really well on one of them, until the games section put me at a 168, and the second one had a tricky logical reasoning section and a harder scale so i got 166. man, i really need to work on games..

that's all.

112508: sleeping in, thank you note and rain

today i slept in, a lot. and i felt super guilty. so the rest of the day i think i was sort of productive.

i wrote and sent a thank you note to the hr person that i talked with yesterday. it was harder than i thought, and i even had to write it over (correction fluid/cross outs are a nono). but i'm glad i got it off. now it's the waiting game i guess..

today, i got 172.
i missed 5 lr, 3 rc, 3 lg
i missed four lr on the last section, i think i started getting tired/lazy. today's games should have been easier, but i slipped up somewhere. these scales are really generous. i wish the newer tests were like that, but they're not.

it rained today. yay!!

112408: phone interview, wonder bread and logic games meltdown

so i had my phone interview today. i think it went well, i blanked out like once or twice, but pretty much gave them all the right answers (i think). my interviewer also talked for a long time afterward, and she wouldn't do that if she didn't think i would be qualified, right? now it's just waiting until a job opens up, and then another interview. i hope they put me in san diego as a claims representative, cause it's more money than a claims processor and it'd be in san diego. i'm kind of sick of living at home..

i went into ralphs today to get some wonder bread for grilled cheese sandwiches, and they didn't have any! i was shocked. but instead i got some ralphs value bread.. a loaf for 99 cents. but of course, it's hard for me to go to a grocery store and not spend some time looking at all of the wonderful things that modern grocery stores have. the ralphs near my house doesn't have a good meat/seafood section.. but still there are plenty of other things to check out. for example, they have bone marrow and pickled pigs feet and "roast beef" in a can. interesting..

anyway, today wasn't as productive lsat wise. i just did a practice test, but not really realistically.

today, i got a 167
i missed 6 lr, 3rc, and 4lg. i also melted down on the lg section and didn't answer an entire game.. five unanswered questions..
today's scale was extremely generous..

but yeah, i need to work on logic games tomorrow.

i hate this, every day it's some other section that needs work. it's like after fixing one leak, another forms..

tomorrow, more realistic practice!!

112408: grindstart

so i have less than two weeks until i take it again, so i'm going to for sure take a full length exam every single day until then and log how i'm doing here. also, i'm going to take additional pacing sections. part of me is wondering how effective this will be, because i've done most all the materials once before, but i suppose it can't hurt.

today, i got a 173
i missed 4 lr, 4 rc and 3 lg
i'm going to work on rc tomorrow.

in other news, i updated my netflix queue, and it's about 30 movies long now. can't wait for them to start rolling in.

phone interview tomorrow.. wish me luck!

112008-112208: pre-employment test, air filters and six miles

on thursday, i went in to take my pre-employment test. it was pretty easy. now there's a phone interview on monday.

yesterday, the cabin air filters and the engine air filter that i ordered came in the mail. so i replaced them both in my car. it was pretty easy, the cabin air filters were inside my glove box and the engine air filter was inside the hood. no screws or tools needed. i can't believe jiffylube would have charged me more than a 100 bucks for the service, when i paid 40 bucks for the parts and did it myself. btw, the cabin air filters were especially grody.. i plan on changing them again in 15k miles. i found out that doing car work by yourself is incredibly fulfilling. i noticed a difference straight away both in both engine performance and the air quality inside my car. perhaps next week i will change the oil, because jiffylube put in shitty oil.

oh and yesterday i biked around 6.5 miles with daniel bay. his leisurely pace translated into heaving breaths, spasm-y legs and a funny waddle for me. still, it was good exercise and i slept extremely well yesterday. although part of me thinks i overslept because i ate a 2/3rds of a frozen cpk pizza and some ice cream. talk about negation.. anyway, i might even get a 24 hr fitness membership because we passed by one on our ride. 2.5 mile bike warm-up would be pretty nice.. i didn't do any biking today, but starting tomorrow.. i shall do it.. semi-regularly..

okay, two more sections and then gonna try to get to bed.

111408-111708: minus the bear, lechon and longevity

john, jini, aram and i went to soma to see the minus the bear on friday. the band that played before them, the annuals, weren't too impressive. their sound was too eclectic and their songs weren't focused. minus the bear was AWEsome. their live sound is very close to the album, and it's a trip to watch dave knudson tap the cool riffs. i wore ear plugs until they played drilling, and then i took them off for that song and their encore set. i'm really glad john told me to get 'em. otherwise my ears would have been DONE.

it was a really good concert for me because of a bunch of reasons. 1. i did my homework, so i knew all the songs except for their new song and one of their old old songs. it makes a big difference if you go to a concert knowing the songs rather than not knowing. otherwise it wouldn't have been worth 18 bucks. 2. the song order was good. i told myself beforehand that i'd take out my ear plugs when they played drilling, and that was the last song of their set before their encore in which they played absinthe party and white mystery 3. they were just damn sexy.

the next day, john and i went to his parents' place in palmdale. it was his grandmother's 80th birthday as well as two of his brothers' birthdays. when he invited me a couple of weeks ago, he told me that the whole day would be nothing but eating the whole day. that was true. lechon was the highlight of the meals. basically we were at this retirement community where john's grandmother lived and all day, all we did was eat. the chafing dishes weren't too effective, so a lot of the food tasted salty (i think food tastes saltier when it's cold). still, it was a blast. the lechon was delicious.. especially the part i carved from the cheek. it was like.. the oyster from a chicken.. but from a pig. the skin was a bit harder than i had imagined, but i liked how it went from crispy to chewy as i ate it.

there was this old italian man there, he was 89, but he didn't seem older than late 60s. the whole time he was cracking jokes and telling all kinds of crazy stories about his past. i think having such a sense of humor can definitely prolong your life. oh, and i think he's drunk wine regularly almost his whole life. hmm. his wife made some bomb diggity pasta as well for the party.

i don't have much family, and going to john's home home where there were at least 20-25 people in his family was really eye-opening.

that's all i guess for now.

111108: state farm, cheese steak and shopping

so it's november 11th. yesterday i was thinking about where i'd be in 11/11/11. it's only a short three years away. so i set some goals for myself, and hopefully i'll be able to meet them.

it's funny because i was with my cousin the other day and as we drove past the house he used to live in when he first came to the states, he said something like, "wow, that guy who used to live there had no idea what was going to happen to him." he's been through a lot of shit, mostly through his own bad habits and stuff. i guess that's true with everyone.

it reminds me of an article i read where older people are happier because they have lower expectations. but now's the time i guess to dream large and still be balanced enough to shrug off the setbacks that come your way.

i hate tuesdays because it's street cleaning day and i have to move my car out of my neighborhood. today was a little better because i went to the park to park and then rode my bike back. mom dropped me off to pick up my car when she left to work.

today i talked with some hr woman from state farm. she was really nice. tomorrow i'm going to fill out the online application, and if things don't go well in san diego, i might just start work here. but of course, that's if they hire me. she told me that it's been really slow...

oh, i went shopping today. it's an activity that i don't really enjoy, but hopefully that will change in the future. you see, i get all self-conscious because i don't really know much about clothes. so anyway, i got a pair of jeans, a sweater, two dress shirts and two ties for around 150. gotta love macy's veteran's day sale. i also spent a lot of time walking around the mall, but didn't really end up buying nething else.. save for a philly cheesesteak at great steak.

there was a funny incident when i was about to leave.

anyway, somewhat productive day. going to go play some more bass and then read some more korean and then knock out.