~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..