thissss weeeeeeeek

the semester has been pretty challenging , but i really have learned to appreciate school for what it is. i mean, i get to come into class and learn something new every time. i know that when i (hopefully) start working in industry, that that will almost never be the case.

today i got blasted by my professor on my sloppy contribution to the presentation. and he was right, it was pretty sloppy, and the part i hate about it is that it didn't really represent how much time i put into all the other work for the lab, and that sucks, because the professor didn't see my last presentation which went a lot better, and prolly won't see my next one, which i have promised to improve upon. 

i feel that pretty much 90% of your monetary success in the professional world is dictated on how well you professionally present yourself. and although i've admitted to myself that this is a pretty big problem for me, i have never strived to improve that aspect of myself while in school. i really hate how it has to work that way. i mean, i know it doesn't have to be this way, and that you can have success by "just being yourself", but more often than not, people tell me that the more interviews that you do, the more you'll know what to say because you'll know what they're looking for. to me, that sounds kinna like you'll know exactly what to say to get the job, regardless of how qualified you really are. 

then what's the point? what's the point of trying so hard to do well in school, when all this studying to be able to work as engineer comes down to how well i've learned to present myself? we only take one class on technical communication, which i guess counts as professional training, but that was an easy class. so still, i'm pretty much lost when it comes to being able to professionally present myself.

that being said, i would like to point something out about berkeley engineering as the gold standard for studying engineering. if you look, most of the ranking done for engineering schools is usually actually ranking the engineering graduate schools, and not the undergrad. and while this high rank distinction for the grad schools might translate to a good undergrad program. that's not always the case. and in my opinion, for the most part berkeley focuses more on engineering research, and not engineering practice. this is good because many important technological discoveries happen because of research, but bad because i still don't have a solid idea of what it means to be an engineer, as opposed to just a scientist, or other technician. 

that being said, sleep has been irregular this week. and i haven't gotten much fresh air. and i'm staring at a computer for prolly close to 80% of my awake hours.

i have managed to improve my omelet technique, and my biscuit technique as well. i have a bottle of 2006 charles shaw merlot that i've been wanting to open for awhile now but i don't have a bottle opener in the apartment! maybe i'll start buying the twist cap wines, since i prolly won't be able to tell the difference in my young sommelier career. (i spelled that right on the first try)

can't wait for the weekend. i love gameday (food)!

miss lead

that last post was misleading..

berkeley doesn't force you to care about politics.

rather, like many other colleges, i assume, berkeley forces you to be aware about politics. i'm pretty sure you can get by without having a real opinion about anything, but that'd be pretty hard. 

it just so happens that i care about a lot of issues centered around the issue of race. hence the frequent blogs on race. i also care about the environment, a bunch actually, but not as much as some of the folks here. and recently, i've been caring about animal rights. not that i'm planning on becoming a vegetarian anytime soon, but i'm TRYING to buy more humanely produced foods.

do you how they make foie gras?

or what makes a cage-free bird cage free?

it kinna sucks. the more i learn about these things, the more inclined i am to pay for the more expensive organic/free-range stuff. but at least it's forcing me to eat my vegetables. 

i do offset my spending on food with not spending on movies that i can download or copy, or cds from artists that like to flaunt their wealth on tv. they deserve it!

i love school

college football is americana

the cal bears football team needs a new defensive coordinator. incumbent, bob gregory, is a way too conservative. and we all know, berkeley is not a place to be too conservative.

actually, i take that back. berkeley has a surprising number of conservatives. people just don't know that because their view of berkeley is a place where drugs run wild and hippies don't wear shoes and don't cut their hairs or shower, and pierce every inch of cartilage possible. i'm almost certain of this. for work, i once made a call to a company located somewhere in southern california, and the dude was talking to me, and was like "oh your name is Joshua? is that the biblical Joshua? i bet a name like that in berkeley is difficult, huh?"

yes, he really said that shit. like berkeley is SOOOOO liberal and anti-conservative/anti-catholic that ANY reference to anything related to conservative side is gonna spark a protest. i really didn't know what to make of that. i mean, this fool wasn't from texas, but from california. i guess it goes to show what the world thinks of us wild and crazy UC berkeley folk.


a lot of times, when i come back home and see old friends, they'll always say something like "you only care about that stuff now cuz you go to berkeley" or something like "why you so against white people, josh?". you know, the type of stuff that makes you feel that your friends think you think you're part of and elitist group and that you think less of them for not caring or knowing about the things you care or know about, all because you went to berkeley. when in the back of my head, i'm thinkin, "why the fuck don't you care about this? it's screwing you over too!" or "why don't you racist hate white people too?" i mean, i never thought that i thought of things that differently from the people around me, but every time that i come home back from berkeley, that's what it feels like, that i think differently from everybody. but at the same time, i'm only thinking through the same head that i've always been thinking. it's quite a lonely feeling. whenever i come home, i feel like more and more people don't understand who i am anymore.

i don't think i'm any better than any of my friends or anybody else back home. i used to think that i was special/unique cuz i got into berkeley, but really i wish everybody i knew got into berkeley too. i wish they could go through this experience, so that maybe they'd understand me more. berkeley doesn't make you more political, per se. just because i care about politics doesn't mean that i wanna be a politician or anything close to politics. i think that berkeley just really helps you to think on your own, which really isn't as common as it should be in this world.


....


shit, i just took a break from writing, and i totally forgot how i wanted to end this blog.
ehh.. that's ok.

shoutout to bob marley

ain't too proud to brag

that title doesn't really make sense now, does it?

well i'm not bragging, but i would like to mark this day.
cuz i spent 12 hours today, from 3pm to 3am, in 2107 etcheverry.
which doesn't even account for the 5 hours i spent at work in cory, from 10am-3pm.

but it wasn't like a was working the whole time.
i had to eat dinner while working,
and i also had to draft bball players while working.

i maybe coulda wrote the program faster, but still, you gotta admit, 12 hours in one room is a pretty cool accomplishment, if you can even call it that.

youze a FUCKIN PUNK!!

i've been meaning post this one since last friday, i think..
and then i saw something else, and wanted to post it again on monday..
and now it's thursday and something happened today, and now i have all the emotion i need to post it...

alton brown, foodtv celebrity via "good eats" and host of the next iron chef - YOUZE A SNOBBY FUCKIN PUNK!
alton brown made his stardom hosting a show that claimed that good food was not that hard to make for the home chef, pretty much what every tv chef is aiming to do, but brown did it in a nerdy but entertaining way.. so more of a general audience was attracted to watching the show.. so much so that he's gotten pretty fatter since his earlier days.. cuz you know that's what happens when normal people get famous fast (see beyonce, chandler from "friends", me, except i didn't get famous, just fatter).

in fact, i used to really like alton brown, i have all three of his books, up until last monday, when i read an interview he did, and in the same day watched an episode of the next iron chef. in his interview, alton brown dissed one of my favorite tv shows, Bravo's Top Chef, while trying to promote the next iron chef, saying that top chef had no credibility because their contestants "are barely out of Denny's". excuse me? top chef is judged by credible judges, they have some of the top restaurant chefs in the nation guest judging every week, and their head judge, tom colicchio, is a james beard award winner. alton brown, my friend, you have never won anything, and prolly wouldn't even be able to make it on the line at denny's (neither would i, but i ain't the one dissing top chef) you cook way too slow on your show.

and on the show, the next iron chef, alton brown gets to boss around some of the most promising young chefs in the kitchen like he's the shit or something, when we know in fact, he himself has no actually chef credibility, just a popular show. who do you think you are?? a punk!!

prince fielder - first baseman of the milwaukee brewers, son of old time great cecil fielder, YOUZE A SPOILED FUCKIN PUNK!
i was watching espn and i saw this special on how prince and his father don't talk anymore. actually when prince hit his 50th homerun this season, he took shots at his father calling him "not that bright of a guy". they stop talking around the time when cecil and prince's mother divorced, and his mom gained custody of prince, i think. but anyways, cecil went to one of prince's games, to be able to talk to prince, but prince wasn't havin it, he didn't even want to see him, and when cecil asked prince's wife if she'd at least take a picture of him and prince's kids, cecil's only grandkids, she replied "i'll have to ask their father first".

WHAT?!? you spoiled shit. everything you've ever been given in your life was a result of your father's success in baseball. you prolly never even had a real job because your father had the richest contract in baseball at that time. and you don't have the decency to even show some respect to the man. grow up you little punk.

(it should be noted that they couldn't get a hold of prince fielder for the espn special, so my view is pretty biased, but i still think there are some valid points)

asian intramural referee, thursday 815 game - YOUZE A FUCKIN TWINKIE PUNK!!
i don't really have any history on this dude, but if you were there to see the game, you'd know what i was talkin about. this fool was prolly the biggest reason that our team lost that game. not only was he a jackass, he was a jackass specifically to our team. the most BS travelling call coming when i jumped to get a rebound, get knocked down while trying to call a timeout, when our team was up by 2. only calling the close calls against our all pilipino team while your partner, a white referee was playing fair. YOU LIL SHIT YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK ME IN THE FUCKING EYE WHEN I MADE THE EFFORT TO SHAKE YOUR HAND AFTER WE LOST!!

i hate you, you twinkie shit. i bet you drive a yellow car with a white interior. i hope you become famous for being a twinkie, and that calling somebody a twinkie is replaced by calling them your name instead. and then i hope they make a movie about it, with a soundtrack by an emo rock band called "the twinkieshitz". because i had to deal with you personally, you take the title of FUCKIN PUNK of the week, you twinkie punk shit!

okies.. it's out of my system.. i feel better..