Pumpkin Bread for Halloween

Today, I made pumpkin bread before going to a party.

Here is the break down. With pictures!


In the beginning there was nothing...



I got Ashley helping me out this time.






Wet ingredients mixed and sugar mixed together






Dry ingredients



Mixing wet ingredients properly



The mixing of wet and dry






Ingredients in perfect harmony



Sitting in the pan. I only had one which made it really frustrating.



In the oven for a ridiculous 50 minutes plus some more because the oven sucks.



DONE



Admire that texture

-muffinman

My Life is Boring

Unlike some people, my life is not full of drama. Also, unlike emoinacloset, I probably won't be going out tonight even though it is Halloween. This is because I have three midterms next week. I've decided that Economics is my worst subject ever, although this should not be surprising since I didn't pass the AP Econ test in high school. I wonder why I ever thought Environmental Econ would be cool major.

In other news, the Sacramento Kings invited the Cal Band to play at their season opener, which is pretty cool.

I've also watched Ace of Cakes obsessively, and I feel like muffinman should aspire to be Chef Duff and make awesome cakes.

That's my quick update, muffinman.

- don'tscuffmyshoes

PS:
1. Music: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Wham!
2. Video: I are cute kitten - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZSbC09qgLI

That's all.

Nevermind

I was going to write a post, because emoinacloset and muffinman have been trying to force me out of my warm hermit hole (screw you, it's almost winter) since forever.

However, I realized that I could just shoot a video and upload that instead. It would take 10 seconds.

So, I'll be doing that sometime soon. I tried to shoot a video yesterday with Pinnacle Studio 12, but jesus.. my computer just will not run Pinnacle Studio faster than a snail's pace.

I'm going to download some other software.

-Robocop

p.s. Many of you are probably thinking, "Yeah, he says he's going to upload a video, but we probably won't see it for another thousand years. Lazy dumbass."

Well, you bitches are absolutely CORRECT!
See you in the afterlife.

People in glass houses should not throw stones FINAL PART

After the events of the comment war, I have decided that Michael has sufficiently embarrassed himself, Gloria and Ashley, so for this reason I am not going to respond to his letter. I think it is better to end this today, especially since I told Ashley that I would anyway.

So what happened this week and what did I learn?

A numbered list:

1) Lots of blog traffic was generated and possibly new readers added too. These series of posts have been the most read and most commented on and that just makes me smile. Emoinacloset and I have been scratching our heads over how to generate traffic and get our friends interested, and here comes the answer. Though I do not believe that Emoinacloset is a fan of this kind of traffic even though we used to do this stuff at ARC all the time.

2) Michael committed social suicide by snapping over some silly blog comments. Which surprised me and gave me a good laugh. I can tell this is going to become a running joke in the coffee group and other blog readers. What I learned from the limited interaction with Michael through the blog comments is that he is just a poor soul that has been bullied for "double digits" number of years and that we should not be surprised by his short fuse and propensity to become a "strong, testosterone-driven teenage male" and slap Gloria around. Just kidding, we all know that Gloria wears the pants in this relationship. On a more serious note, you can see here how making assumptions off second hand information can make an ass out of you.

3) This blog brings people together! Well for the most part anyway. People who normally just passively read or do not read at all are suddenly coming together, posting and choosing sides. Most surprisingly is that Mike, someone who I have not talked to in well over a year came out of nowhere to check up on me and catch up. Well Mike, I am glad you know what I am doing these days and I reciprocated the act with a quick check of your facebook and a chat with a mutual friend. I am glad that you have overcome your homophobia from high school and even embraced the gay lifestyle a bit. Our mutual friend tells me you have developed a fetish for tight jeans and a quick look at your profile picture reveals your new hobby of prancing around shirtless (Is that a run on? I am not very good at grammar and the sentence seems long). Surely you will not stay single for long with this kind of attitude and will soon have the chance to experience a "failed relationship" as well. I believe that coming into this fray to accompany Gloria is really scoring you some points. Dare I say that you are on the verge of stealing her away from Michael?

4) Katrina posts extremely witty and sharp comments. I wish I could see more of that wit when I see you in person. Of course not to be outdone, Kevin comes in at the right moment to break up the tension with his just plain ridiculous comments. I miss you two a lot.

5) We have all seriously embarrassed Ashley with how much this has escalated. Sorry Ashley, sometimes I escalate things till they get out of hand.

-muffinman

PS: Did I mention I got a job today?

The Fancy Person's Club: DENIED

So my friends and I were trying to create a club here at NYU. We get $1000 a semester to do whatever we want with it and we figured we could take that money and spend it on nice food for ourselves. That way we'd have more money for drinking and eat nice dinners at expensive restaurants, courtesy of NYU.

We decided to create a Fancy Person's club, where we would all have to dress in fancy clothing and eat fancy dinners. We wrote up a whole charter and club structure in order to petition to the school's activities board. We were certain that it should have made it; after all, NYU has a cookies club. All they do is eat cookies all the time so we figured we had a pretty good shot. Unfortunately, we were met with this stinging reply from NYU:

Dear Founding Members,

On behalf of the Student Activities Board, I regret to inform you that your application to be a New Club in Development has been denied. The board had the following concerns:

1) The programming and goals of the club are questioned by the board because they may be offensive to the NYU community at large.
2) There is no real benefit and/or contribution to the NYU community through the fancy dress-up or normal dressing and interaction during club events as has been suggested. There is no need for All-Square status if people seek to dress up. This can be done without Kimmel space and an official club name.
3) Screening movies is not allowed for the most part because most groups that do seek to do film screenings, don't obtain copyrights. Sincerely, Student Activities Board

I can't help but think this is somehow race-related.

-Emoinacloset

Interview success!

Taking a break from all this Gloria stuff.

Today I had my first interview of the year, and hopefully my last. The interview went really well and I think I really impressed my interviewer who was the marketing director. Of course she was also the only permanent member of marketing so you can understand the scope of their marketing operation.

The interview was really short to, but, I believe that I made a big impression on my interviewer. It began with the question, "Why are you so excited to be here"? Thankfully I prepped for this answer, so I gave canned speech about how I want to find a position where I can grow more skills since my dream is to work in the marketing field. After she described what kind of programming that station does, I dropped some serious knowledge by telling her that I was familiar with this kind of programming as I go on Digg and watch FORA TV once in awhile. I told her that I saw potential in Digg for the channel. After I said that, I swear I saw her eyes light up and she told me that no one had proposed such an idea before.

The interview ended with a run down of what I can expect to do in a typical day, and, it seems pretty standard secretarial work with some hints of marketing thrown in. The interviewer was impressed with the suit I was wearing. She told me "My boyfriend is 38 and he just went out and bought his first suit yesterday!" To which I responded, "Well since I was interviewing for a marketing position, I figured I would dress to impress." There were smiles all around.

Hopefully I can clinch this job and stop being broke. Though I still have to pay off my laptop like I promised myself. So I will probably be broke for a little while longer. Sorry UCSD friends, looks like I will be cutting back on the amount of drinks I buy you.

-muffinman

People in glass houses should not throw stones PART 3

The situation has escalated even further especially now that Gloria's boyfriend has joined in the fray and started issuing some thinly veiled threats. Cannot find the time to to write a response right now, so I am just going to put Michael's message up for now.

Michael's letter:

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you. I am Michael, the Michael of "Michael and Gloria" that you have heard of via our mutual friend, Ashley.

The reason I am taking time out of my studies to write you is this: your blog post caught my eye and sent a wave of deep frustration coursing through my veins. You see, Muffinman, based on you publishing in a public venue a message that was private and then responding with your cunning and sarcastic tones, I already have the impression that you have an elevated opinion of yourself. Combine that with the reputation that precedes you as a jerk and a violent person, and I believe most would share my first impression of you: weak, insecure, and bullying.

Now, to be fair, I will admit that I do not have your side of the story - but I do know the victim's side, and in this situation that is enough evidence to suffice. You claim you are Ashley's friend. Okay. But let me ask you this, Muffinman. If you had a young sister, say in middle school, would you appreciate bullies on the playground calling her bitch, slut, and retard? I think it is safe to say that is a "No." If you had friends that were violent toward you, would you want to spend more time with them? Again, probably not.

The difference I see is this: you are a young man in his late teens, strong and able to defend himself when necessary. If someone were treating you badly, you would let them know how you felt, or you would deal with it however you deal with those types of social situations. However, Ashley is not a strong, testosterone-driven teenage male, and she may be afraid of how you would react if she stood up for herself. She certainly is the victim in this situation, and most victims tend to be frightened of approaching their aggressor.

Muffinman, I say this as Ashley's friend. Please change the way you speak to Ashley, as well as the way you act around her. If she isn't saying it to you, I am. Either change your behavior, or leave her alone, because she doesn't deserve this treatment from anyone. She has enough stress in her life, and I care about her too much to see people beating on her emotions in the way you are.

And now, Muffinman, I say this as Gloria's partner. I find it extremely perturbing that you would publish a private note asking you to change how you treat her best friend on your public blog. I find it more frustrating that you used such sarcastic tones to whittle her down in response to her request. I have tried to keep my composure as professional as possible here, but don't you fucking dare talk to Gloria that way. I will not tolerate it.

And now, I bid you adieu, "muffinman". I hope you had as much fun reading this as you experienced while writing your response to Gloria. Someday, you may learn that the way to achieving ultimate success is not through being a jerk, but through being a caring friend. Because in the end, your friends are the ones that will give you breaks.

-Michael

How deep will this rabbit hole go?
-muffinman

People in glass houses should not throw stones PART 2

Gloria responded pretty quickly to the message, I guess she really was waiting for my letter. Her letter can be summed up in one sentence. "I cannot think of anything to write back so I am going to reiterate the fact that I am the better friend."

The only appropriate response to this is "Yes, you probably are, but, that does not mean you should act like a bitch about it."



Gloria's response

very mature of you replying back with basically what i said, and the way you mock is so.. i don't even know how to say it.
man. you probably think that you are such a great and entertaining writer, especially with your blogs. keep on working on that along with stressing her out (along with me) to make her life better.
i think that if you were her friend since middle school, her life would have been so difficult back then. we talk stuff out and actually attempt at understanding each other, unlike you. you probably think that you're always right about everything and that you're this perfect friend who has an excuse to act the way you do.
and also in response to me "always" bugging her, you have no idea how many times we've talked about you.
but ultimately, i am so tired of you. remember that time when you pushed down jenn after school during senior year? that illustrates how great of a friend you are.
anyway, i'm done. don't bother replying.

-gloria

No response required
-muffinman

People in glass houses should not throw stones

I was surprised this morning to see Gloria had sent me a a private message on facebook. A glance at the message preview revealed that this was one of Gloria's notorious rant letters. Excited like a child on Christmas eve, I opened the message and was greeted by a poorly worded, grammatically tragic and outspoken rant. This letter was taken straight out of her middle school notebook. Needless to say, a smile spread across my face when I read it. The letter was filled with so much hypocrisy that I cringed to think of what I could say since I knew about the way Gloria treated Ashley. However, I am going to take the high road this time and let this rant slide, especially since I am better than that and two wrongs do not make a right.


Just kidding.

Gloria's letter:

hi muffinman,

i'm just going to cut right to it.
i'm really sick of how you treat ashley, and you may see it as "playful" and not serious, but in actuality, it's not quite the way you think it is.
if you still haven't gotten the hint that you're such a terrible friend to ashley sometimes, then i guess that she can't do anything cus that's just the way you are: someone who is stupidly violent and likes to call people offensive names. cus, really? you call her "retard," "bitch," and "slut" for fun? and it doesn't always seem so "playful," especially when you call her that stuff for being such a downer or whatever and then you kick or punch her. i don't know what else you do. but, if you were a really decent friend, you'd at least change that bit of your personality for her if you consider her as a good friend of yours. as far as friendship goes for me, i don't call my friends names like that or kick them. and i wouldn't want to befriend anyone who has that same quality that you do.
we both know that ashley's too nice and sometimes a bit of a pushover because she wants to be a good friend. she feels bad more often than she should, and i hate it cus it's usually due to stupid reasons.
ashley doesn't need you to add to her stress. so, i would really appreciate it if you'd grow up and be caring of her. i actually thought that you had somewhat changed over the summer, but i guess i got ahead of myself.

-gloria

My letter:

Hello Gloria,

Since you cut right to it, I am going to beat around the bush a little bit first. So how are you doing Gloria? I have not talked to you in awhile, sad that our first contact come under such circumstances. How are things going with Mike? You two look like such a happy couple and Ashley has told me you are deeply in love with him. Is Davis treating you right? Because I am having a blast down here in San Diego and I hope it is the same for you too.

What a coincidence that you are sick of how I treat Ashley because I am sick of how you treat her too. I do not remember how many times over the summer I went over to her house and heard her say "I think Gloria is mad at me." You may see it as not being a big deal, but the fact is it really stresses Ashley out. She always complained to me over all the petty things that you would get really worked up over like her bad driving on the Socal trip and how she did not invite you to work on a puzzle with her apartment mate. If you still have not gotten the hint, you are being a great friend. The matter of the fact is that Ashley is too nice to stand up for herself and you are helping in keeping it that way. I do not know what else you did over the summer, but whatever it is, it is wrecking Ashley's emotions and for that I give you two thumbs up.

However, what disappoints me and the reason I am writing back is the fact that you are stressing Ashley out at such a low level. Have you not thought about expanding your horizons and wreaking more havoc with her emotions? She is already a pushover for feeling guilty for hurting your increasingly fragile feelings and apologizing for it like it was her fault. If you would just change your personality and shed the faked niceness you would begin to really dominate Ashley. You of course do not have to adopt the same methods that I use. I respect the fact that you stress Ashley out in your own way especially since you have been doing it since at least middle school. The bottom line is that I would really appreciate it if you would grow up and start handing it to Ashley in a more mature way. We both know that Ashley needs this stress to make her a better person, and I am thankful or the fact that you are contributing so much to this effort.

Please keep throwing stones from your glass house
-muffinman

PS: I had way too much fun writing this

Whoa... How'd I Get Here?

Don't worry, I didn't wake up stripped of all my possesions and lying face-down in an alleyway on top of a pile of garbage. I woke up at 2:30 in my bed, and as I was waking up, my thought process went something like this:

'What a great night'

'...Wait a moment, how'd I get here again? I remember walking home with Jim and Andy from kareoke and causing them a lot of trouble on the way -- going in the opposite direction when we were crossing streets and so on -- but that's the last thing I remember.'

'Why/How did I put this shirt on... and it's backwards?!'

'What's this cup of water doing on my desk... and why is it only half-full?'

?confusion?

-Emoinacloset

Disappointment

I'm not going to present for Fed Challenge.

It would have been really awesome to be one of five people to present for a panel of judges (not to mention that I could put that on my resume), but it it didn't happen for me. I was always concerned that I might not make it as a presenter. Out of the eight people working on Fed Challenge, three spots were virtually secured, which meant there were only two spots open between five people. We decided who was going to present by voting among ourselves. It eventually got to a run-off between me and TJ but he won out, unfortunately for me.

But no hard feelings. I'll still be involved in the team in preparing the script and giving the presenters Q&A. As long as we win I won't mind so much but saying that, we better win!

-Emointhecloset

FUCK BLOOMBERG

Friday night started out great.

I woke up at 2:00PM, got a haircut, went to a club meeting and went out for drinks with them afterwards. Unfortunately, I couldn't end-of-midterms party-hop with one of my friends because I needed to make a couple graphs for Fed Challenge by Saturday, so after having a couple of drinks I went over to Stern's Bloomberg terminal to quickly download some data, make the graph and be out of there in 30 min.

At least, that's what I thought.

I'm sure you guys are wondering, what is this Bloomberg thing and why are you fucking it? Well, Bloomberg is a computer program that has all the financial information you could ever possibly think of. I only needed to look for and download 3 data sets after which making graphs and such would be incredibly easy. Unfortunately, it's also incredibly complicated and has the layout and command processes like the old school Windows DOS.

Holy shit, I'm supposed to use this?!

Around 10, I came into Stern red-faced and bypassed the security guard. Drunk, and feeling a little belligerent, I turned on Bloomberg and got ready to quickly do some work and rejoin my friends. However, as I got into it, I slowly realized in my drunken stupor -- I didn't know how to use the damn thing.

After three hours of chatting with customer support trying to get the data download program to work, I became sober, frustrated, angry, and ready to killabitch. But at 1:30AM, the fucking toolbar decides to randomly show up of it's own accord. You could have been there AT 10PM YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!

So to Bloomberg I say, FUCK YOU. You wasted what could have been an epic night you shithole assface.

-Emoinacloset

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: It's now 3:00AM and the mouse failed on me. fml

Quick Update

Today I woke up realizing that my midterms were on Tuesday and Wednesday, not Wednesday and Thursday like I had originally thought.

My realization process this morning

1) Wake up and lie in bed
2) Starts thinking about upcoming midterms
3) Wonders how it is possible that my econ 100 midterm is on Wednesday when the class is scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays and how my econ 120 midterm is on Thursday when the class scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays.
4) Panic!!!
5) Checks Syllabuses
6) Cries in despair
7) Studies furiously

Oh and another great development today. I just realized my interest got into a relationship the day I found her to be interesting. Even more hilarious, we were talking about whether she should go out with this guy since she has only known him for about a week. Of course I was pushing her to turn him down for her own good and I thought I was getting through but I guess not. I need to brush up on my persuasive skills.

Fuck this shit
-muffinman

Some Thoughts @ the Half-Way Point

Life feels like it's moving both slow and fast at the same time.

It only feels slow because I've done so many things in such a short amount of time; when look back on each day, I feel like life has become stretched out like a long piece of taffy. For example, just last week I pulled an all-nighter to study for two midterms last week, but it feels like I did that a whole month ago. Even now, I can't believe it's only been a month and a half since school started; just the overwhelming amount of things I've managed to do seems incredible compared to what I'd accomplished last year (i.e. nothing). By this logic, I've improved 100x times over, but I can't let that fool me -- I'm still playing catch-up. There are plenty of people who were involved in clubs last year that set them up to attain leadership positions this year and there are those who have jobs now because they looked for them months before I even thought to apply. Ever hear of compounding interest? I'm pretty sure this applies to this situation.

And yet, even as life feels long and stretched out it also feels like a blur. If you asked me to visualize sophomore year so far, it would look like one of those overexposed pictures of an train moving at breakneck speed.


Half the semester is almost over. The whole day rolls along and it's tomorrow. This keeps up until it becomes the weekend, and then the weekend goes by in a flash and before you know it it's the following week with a whole other set of issues, events, and obstacles you have to deal with. Sometimes I feel like I'm unproductive -- I've been meaning to clean and organize my room for a while but I never seem to get around to it -- and other times I feel very productive.

To add to this post, I've put up a list of things I need to work on until I come home. I've always felt constant improvement is a must because otherwise the only direction you can go is down.

1) getting up in time to catch the shuttle bus
2) working out/getting a six pack
3) get a job? But with Fed Challenge taking up a large chunk of my time and with my two credit course starting next week I don't know if this is going to happen. If I feel ambitious enough, maybe.
4) Being on time/being early for everything -- this is a really big problem for me. I always seem to misjudge the time it takes for me to get ready or go from point A to point B.
5) cleaning my room so it looks hospitable to life

-Emoinacloset

Life back on track

What a week for getting my life back on track.

1) Still been attending classes. This is really important for me due to the numerous amount of classes that I have ditched in the past. Suddenly going to class is not as repulsive anymore, I am pretty sure this is due to the fact that I have friends in class now. The plus side of having major classes is that you start having the same people in every class.

2) Got my first on campus job interview!!! I finally got a reply back after sending out a shit load of resumes. My interview is for a UCSD TV assistant position where I assist the marketing director. This probably means a lot of bitch work, but I think it is worth it since I get to be near some actual marketing work. Hopefully I will not mess up this interview as much as my first one with Resnet. Wish me luck for next Monday.

3) On Friday, I finally got around to the studying abroad office to ask about studying in Shanghai. Taking my first steps towards my dream of spending a year in China. I talked with a returnee from one of the programs I wanted to do and it just seems all the more possible and amazing now. I also schedule an appointment with an adviser and hopefully with her help I can get the ball rolling and SEE EMOINACLOSET IN SHANGHAI NEXT FALL. Just imagining writing joint entries with emoinacloset in Shanghai, blows my mind.

4) I studied on a Saturday. Midterms are coming up this coming week and I have actually been responsible and took the time to study on a Saturday. It helped that I had friends who dragged me into it, but really it was my own ambition. Does this study secession signal a change of pace? A turning of a new leaf? I hope not, I really just want to get wasted on Saturdays.

5) Found a new girl interest.

-muffinman

I have a hugging problem

I discovered on the day that I got my birthday present that I give awkward hugs.

After I gave Jennet a hug for the compass, the hug was immediately criticized as being "awkward." At that point in time I did not think much of it, "Jennet is just being retarded" I thought to myself. The rest of the night went on fine. I saw first hand how Jennet deals with unwanted suitors and wow is it cold and awkward. I wished the guy, Kelly, had gotten the hint and left because it was embarrassing watching him struggle to have a conversation with Jennet. At the end of the night I gave another hug to Jennet and this was apparently even more awkward than the first Then I attempted to make up for the awkward hug by giving her another one and she called me out on it, saying it was the most awkward hug she had ever received.

Annoyed at Jennet, I walked back to my apartment wondering if she the exception or the rule. I immediately emailed Ashley as soon as I got back and in devastating fashion, she told me I gave awkward hugs.

Ashley broke it down for me:
Ashley: haha, you go like.. "blahblahblah.. huuugg!" and you wrap your arms around the person before they hug you back
Ashley: i think that's what makes it awkward. you just go to hug the person before they actually go to hug you back

Later that night I texted Jennet for further clarification, but all she could come up with was that it was as if I was a bad dancer, you just know it when you see it.

So today when Ashley came over, we worked on my hugs and I think I got it down.
Step by step:
1) I need to give enough time to let the other person know that I am going thug them
2) I need to place my hands at about shoulder level, anything lower and the person I am hugging will be unable to hug me back due to having his/her arms pinned to her body
3) When I hug I should not continue driving forward, I am not performing a take down move

-muffinman

My Mind Just Got Blown by the Economy

I just got back from the most intense, blow your mind discussion ever.

We were meeting for Fed Challenge and compiling our individual researchs to create an outline for our presentation, but holy shit was it amazing. It must have been the most intellectually stimulating conversation I've ever had that actually used substance and background knowledge to back up our claims. We were bouncing ideas to each other, sparks were flying back and forth, and our brainstorming bubbled up to an orgasm of intellectual mindpower. At times it was intense debate -- and yet other times we were fooling around talking about conspiricy theories, wondering if our advisor might reimburse us for food we could order, and laughing about whether or not our advisor would crank call us and pretend he was Santa Claus. What was supposed to be a thirty minute discussion spilled over to three hours, but I hardly noticed the time go by; I was having too much fun.

We don't really have a solution yet, but the groundwork is there for greatness. If we can pull this off, our shit will blow everyone else out of the water.

Talking about the current state of the economy, the short-term outlook, and the long-term outlook of the United States has made me realize how fucked we are. This recession isn't over.

-Emoinacloset

0h Hai, L1f3 Pwns M3

Last weekend was really hectic; the only thing I'm remotely satisfied with are the two midterms I had on Monday. For all the hours I spent studying, including an all-nighter on Sunday, I feel like I didn't do too badly.

Unfortunately, some of the other stuff going on was a complete fail.


First off, I interviewed for an E-Committee position in Finance Society (a club).

Good points: I knew three out of the four people who were interviewing me – one is my mentor from BAP, another is in Fed Challenge with me, and the last person I’ve met from some kind of event. I also felt like I answered the questions pretty well.
Bad points: One, I did not go to a single Finance Society meeting or event last year, and two, the fourth interviewer was really against me because I was going to be studying abroad for two semesters.

His concern was legitimate – after all, here I am applying for a leadership position for a club that I wasn’t even part of last year, and on top of that I was going to be gone for all of 2010. Even if I were interviewing me, I’d be thinking, ‘Who the fuck does this jerk-off think he is?’ Once he found out I was studying abroad two semesters, he kept reminding me why I was a shitty candidate. By the time the interview was done, my spidey-senses told me I probably wouldn’t get the position.


Next, Fed Challenge.

To make a long story short, my group was covering the financial sector for our presentation, but our senior dropped out because he got too caught up trying to find a job. The worst part of this is that Imran and I were waiting on our drop-out so that all of us could discuss what we were going to talk about, but in the end he didn’t even show up to the meetings, much less do any work. Our group of two was forced to do three people’s work in the four days we had left before presenting our results to everyone else. Keep in mind we were supposed to have two weeks to work on this, so while everyone else had fully fleshed out presentations, our presentation was the equivalent of a starving dog that had been kicked to the curb – just sad and pathetic.


The most epic failure of all was my second interview.

This was a phone interview, so I really had no excuse to fuck it up. I should have had a whole bunch of notes in front of me about the company, what the position was about, why I wanted this job and other important stuff like how many ping pong balls can fit into a bathtub. However, between midterms and Fed Challenge I completely forgot to prepare anything. The conversation went something like this:

“Hi, Emoinacloset, how are you doing? Do you understand what the position entails?”
“Well, I’m going to, like, be doing stuff with people that involves, like, things… uhhh and other stuffs too?”
“You have no idea what we do, do you.”
“Shit, this is so FUBAR”
“BAI N00B, GTFO”
--Employer has kickbanned Emoinacloset


Life's harsh.

-Emoinacloset

Thanks everyone!

Jennet instant messages me today, telling me that I owe her 88 dollars and for something else that was good for me. She refused to elaborate on what it was that she had in store for me, so my mind began to wander. "God I hope she is not going to tell me that she got back with Oliver," was my first and final thought as I met up with her at Price center.

What awaited me was not Oliver (Good thing because I would have beat the shit out of Jennet if she got back with him) but a late birthday present. At first, I was confused and jealous when I saw that Brian had sent a package to Jennet. "Why Jennet and not me?" I thought to myself when I saw the return address on the package, but surprise, surprise the package was for me.

I opened the box to find a beautiful pocket compass. "What an strange present," I wondered out loud. Then I realized that it fit me quite well, considering I am terrible at directions. I read all the cards/letters. Robocop's was by far the gayest, but I appreciated the emotion despite its awkwardness. Emoinacloset's card was inappropriately sexual but the part about why he appreciates me was very touching. I burst out laughing when I read dontscuffmyshoes's letter because it represented exactly who she was with the awkward and choppy sentences. I do not know what the fuck Eric meant with his "I dare you to hug a Punk," phrase and drawing of a mohawk penguin, but thanks.

I love the compass, and will carry it with me as soon as I find a chain for it. I am also going to try to get it engraved with my name because I am vain like that.

Thank You,
-muffinman

WTF am I doing?

Just minutes ago I realized, I am hella screwing up.

My to do list that was started at the beginning of this quarter has completely stagnated. Despite having ample time to do so, I have not:
1) Gone to the academic advising office
2) Gone to the study abroad office
3) Done any reading for my courses
Instead what I have managed to do, is get wasted like emoinacloset last night.

Everything is so convoluted right now, what seemed simple minutes ago is incredibly complex now. I am beginning to realize that double majoring in conjunction with studying abroad is a major problem. I do not think I can get enough major courses if I study abroad, so this means I might have to compromise and cut my studying abroad short. Which of course sounds terrible, I want to go to China or wherever for a year. To add on top of that I just looked at the study abroad website and it says that I need an American passport to go to China. How the fuck am I supposed to get a passport ready for next year when I am not even a citizen?!

This is of course all on top of my growing pile of course work that I have not touched. I am beginning to realize that this year is very different from the last. There is far less direction and as a result I have begun to get lost. I have no idea what I should be doing in Anthropology besides reading and attending lecture, it feels like I am so behind but according to the course calendar, I am keeping up? Both courses of economics are confusing the shit out of me. When I go to lecture I just mindlessly copy the board without any idea of what it all means.

I need to seriously get my shit together right now
-muffinman

Who Are You?!

So remember how I said I wasn't going to go out this weekend? Well, I was wrong -- I got hammered last night. On top of that I have a wicked hangover.

There was a BAP event for us pledges to get to know our mentors and our mentor groups better. The event itself was alright, but the mentors spiced it up a bit. Here's an example:

"Hey, Emoinacloset, you want some?" (offers me water bottle)
"What's in it?"
"Skittle vodka."

Keep in mind this was still at the BAP event, which was supposed to be sober. Afterwards, the mentors invited us out to drink and I thought, ehh it won't hurt to chill, drink a couple of beers, and get to know everyone better, right?

Well I was wrong. It wasn't just a couple of beers. It was a lot of fucking shit all mixed up together. And when I say a lot, it was a lot. I drank a whole water bottle full of that skittle vodka during the walk to pregame, two pineapple mango vodkas, three beers, two shots of soju, and three scotch + iced tea things. That's 12-13 shots easy.

More ridiculous shit: after the event and before we went to pregame, one of the mentors went down to his locker to pick up his stash. A stash in his locker? Who fucking does that?!

After pregaming, we went to karaoke, where we were joined by a shitload of BAP people singing Chinese, Korean, American, whatever suited their fancy. We had a belligerent time and I went home drunk as fuck.

The next morning I woke up with a really bad hangover. This was probably compounded by the fact I had eaten barely anything for dinner the other night -- two slices of pizza the size of my fist is not a satisfying meal. So, not only did I have a vicious headache, I was really craving some food and in our apartment, food isn't really in abundance.

Somehow I walked 20 blocks to campus and managed to grab food on the way there. I don't know how I did it, but I'm pretty sure I had a 'ooo I hope I don't throw up on the street' frowny face during my walk. As of now I'm still trying to get over my hangover which doesn't seem to want to go away anytime soon. Oh yea, and I still have two midterms I need to study for.

What a glorious night.

-Emoinacloset

Looks Like Rain This Weekend

Fuck me.

I have two midterms in Intro to Finance and Intro to Marketing on Monday back-to-back, and I have to prepare a presentation by next week for Fed Challenge with my group on an analysis of financial markets. I also need to get ready for a phone interview I have on Tuesday. I suppose I’m not going out this weekend, or sleeping much for that matter.

I just wanted to update what was going on so I got right to the point. Now excuse me while I get back to mutilating my face with a cheese grater so I won’t feel so stressed out.

-Emoinacloset

Swine? Oh, you probably got it from someone in band.

So, it's been a bit busy for the past month or so. I guess I'll try to list out everything that happened.

1. I got Swine Flu. Best Thing EVER. I missed the week of classes right before my midterms.

2. I'm almost done with my midterms. It's funny how some people just started school.

3. I'm switching majors, which means I have to switch colleges from L&S to Conservation of Natural Resources. I think I'm going to major in Conservation and Resource Studies.

4. Cal Football sucks. Riley is as bad as Longshore. It makes Cal fans bitter because we always hope they'll be good throughout the season, not just in the beginning. PS...Cal Student Section and Mic Men also suck. Why aren't you making noise? Still, Go Bears!

5. U$C Band sucks. They managed to make MJ boring. Who does that? Their halftime show was pretty much "Songs Cal Band Has Played in the Last Two Years. Except With Bad Arrangements." Also, they played those two stupid songs 24 and 16 times. If I were a $C fan, I would be so fucking annoyed if my band played the same thing over and over again. To compare, we play Fight for California like maybe 5 or 6 times a game depending on how well the football team does, and I sometimes get bored of the song. But to play it so many fucking times? Glad I'm not in the $C band.

6. Cal Band played at a 49ers game.. Pretty cool, except there were still U$C fans there that were also 49ers fans, and they were booing us. The 49ers invited us to play for them, STFU!!

7. I spent 80 bucks on food last week.

8. I'm going down to fUCLA next week for the game.

9. Glee is a really good TV show. I hear Family Guy has also gotten better from last season. Better Off Ted is also a good show, as is the Office.

10. Craig Ferguson is still the funniest Late Night/Late Late Night TV host. Ellen Degeneres is still the funniest daytime talk show host.

11. I can't wait till Where the Wild Things Are comes out in theatres.

Music: Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
Video: At around 43 seconds, watch the security guard near the entrance of the tunnel. His fault, he was told to move at least 3 times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfZQBxWrP-Q

-Don'tScuffMyShoes

FUCK!

The marketing position that I was hella tailoring and working on my resume for has been filled before I even sent in my resume!

-muffinman

Joining Beta Alpha Psi

Beta Alpha Psi is an “honor society” (but most people refer to it as if it were a frat) that was originally supposed to cater to accountants. Somehow at Stern, it’s become an accounting/finance/information systems frat, but that’s like all of Stern anyways so it’s not really excluding anyone. However, the social dynamic is largely subdued; you won't see any hazing or drinking parties here (at least none that I've seen so far) compared to some of the other professional frats here.

My hopes for BAP are that first, they’ll get me a job, and second, I’ll be able to get to know and be close to more Sternies.

I’ve always felt disconnected from the Stern community. Don’t get me wrong, I love the school, my classes and professors, and all the business students who not only know how to party but also get serious and can talk about the latest issue in the Wall Street Journal. Only at a party full of Sternies can you be intoxicated yet still have a coherent conversation on the latest finance/macroeconomic trends. Call me a nerd, but I really like this stuff; I know Stern was right for me and I know this is what I want to do, but to be honest I didn’t feel like I was a part of anything at Stern.

In my freshman year, I devoted time to making friends on my floor rather than get to know the other Sternies; I didn’t branch out my network enough. I made great friends in and out of Stern and I don’t regret it, but I wonder if maybe I spent a little too much time in my dorm. I didn’t do any Stern clubs or find my own group of friends within Stern, and so I always felt like a black sheep in a sea of white, slightly awkward and terribly self-conscious. This feeling probably exacerbated the situation; after classes I would go straight back to my dorm and hang out with the people on my floor instead of mingling and getting to know some of my classmates.

By the time I realized my situation it was too late: groups had been locked down and I had failed to establish my place in at least one of them. Of course, I know a couple of Sternies, but I only feel like I’m truly friends with a couple of them, whereas the rest of them are clinging on that fine line between mere acquaintances and down-to-earth friendship.

Good news though. This year I’ve gotten to know more people through the World Studies Track (with a size of about 35 students, it’s impossible to not meet anyone) and I’ve already met a bunch of people through BAP that I probably wouldn’t have had a chance to otherwise. Things are looking up for the better.

-Emoinacloset

Frustrations of a college life

Last night was terrible.

It started off like any other Friday night with the beer pong and shots flowing, the only downside to tonight was the fact that I was sick. Who knew the night would end in such a disaster.

Things started when Angela got wasted to the point where she was having problems staying in her chair. If that was not bad enough, Vince takes her back to his room for another shot. Only when Angela is on the ground does she tell me that she was drinking on an empty stomach. Next thing I know, Vince and I are carrying her back to my apartment and all along the way she was fighting us to play another game of beer pong. Long story short Kevin, Ashley and I spent the next two hours taking care of Angela. Her case was bad, but it definitely was not the worse I had to deal with, Robocop gets that honor.

Last night when the shit ht the fan, my friends really came through for me. If Kevin had not helped in taking care of Angela, the night would have been a lot longer and a lot messier. I was asking a lot of Kevin since I woke him up twice to help and he barely knows Angela. Ashley's role that night was also crucial, I was so lucky to have her come when I called at 1am, with no questions or complaints. Thank God, for Shelly who lives above me for supplying me with stuff at three in the morning, with no complaints even when I woke her up. I owe all of you a lot, so expect some baked goods soon, as a sign of gratitude.

When I woke up this morning I was hella pissed at Angela, all I could think about was how I was never going to invite her to drink with me again. I initially started this post to vent my frustrations with her, but as the day went by my anger subsided and this post has turned from a "I hate Angela" post to more of a "I love my friends" post. After meeting up with her tonight (no way of avoiding her, God knows I was trying today) I realize I am not that upset with her at all because I know my apartment mates and I are going to make fun of her for this night a lot, so she is going to be paying for this for a long time.

You hella owe me Angela but you can still drink with me
-muffinman

I'm Going to Fix the Economy

On a Friday morning when I normally don’t have class, I had to go to a Fed Challenge seminar from 8:30 AM until 3:00 PM and listen in on economists talk about the current state of the economy. The speakers on the state of the economy and on what caused the housing crisis were interesting, but that was the only good part of the day. The rest of it was just boring. I was cramped between two people, and it wasn’t even like there was a petite Asian girl sitting next to me that I could steal leg room from. On my left was my fellow teammate, who is taller than I am, and on my right was this fat guy who was encroaching on my territory – so the seating arrangement was unpleasant to say the least. Sitting there from nine to three made it unbearable. On top of that they didn’t even provide any food for lunch; for an institution that can mint money at will, you would have thought they could have printed a couple of hundreds and buy us sandwiches or something.

For those of you who don’t know what Fed Challenge is, we determine Federal Reserve monetary policy (or any sort of policy that the Fed could pull off) and analyze economic data to prove why our solution is the best. For those of you who don’t know what that means, that’s OK; I’m not sure I get what I’m supposed to be doing myself.

Out of 11 people that tried out for the team, seven of us made it, bringing the total number of people working on this up to nine, including the members from last year. Unfortunately, only 5 people actually present; the rest of us end up only making lots of economic graphs. It’s a risky gamble, but it’s one I’m willing to take – hopefully I’ll be one of the ones that’ll be able to actually present in the competition. After all, I don’t have much on my resume to show what I did last year (which is nothing), but I also find this stuff interesting. I think it would be good to understand how the economy actually works and complement that with what I learn at school.

I’m not paying fifty grand a year just to go to class. If I wanted to just go to school I could have gone to one of the UCs and saved me and my parents a LOT of money. No, the reason why I’m paying the money that I am is because of the people you meet, the clubs you go to, and the connections you make outside of class. Classes and GPAs aren’t that important. It’s a convenient benchmark for the type of talent firms and organizations want to attract, but it’s what’s behind that GPA that matter. I hope I’m taking the right step towards accomplishing that.

By the way, if there’s someone who wants me to elaborate on the state of the economy, I took notes if anyone’s interested in that stuff. But, that's not what this blog is for.

-Emoinacloset

A week of firsts

Thursday ends my first full week of school and with it a lot of firsts too.

1) First week in a long time that I went to all my classes and discussions.
This was a big deal since I attended maybe one course a quarter consistently last year. Not sure if I am getting more out of school by attending class, but I heard you are supposed to attend class so I am going to stick with it for a little while longer. It is really hard to get up in the morning and motivate myself to go to class and pay attention, props to whoever is still attending all their classes. This week I also learned that 80 minute classes and night classes are terrible.

2) First time in the career center
I no longer just notice that big career services building as of this week I can now say that I have stepped foot in it. This achievement is really thanks to emoinacloset and Ashley. My pride is not letting me fall behind emoinacloset, I need something to show him up. Thanks to Ashley for telling me and pushing me to go to the resume workshop, she really got the ball rolling for me. As a result a of my efforts, I now have a kick ass resume. It is so good that if I were in charge of hiring someone for a marketing job I would immediately choose me off my resume alone. Oh and thanks to Joe in the career services center for reviewing my resume, you have no idea how much you helped me.

3) First Anthropology class
This class is blowing my mind, when I can pay attention. Learning about things like social selection and why Asians are far more likely to be lactose intolerant than Europeans is fascinating. If only the professor was somewhat competent in lecturing. Listening to him is an overwhelming experience as his lecture does not facilitate note taking at all. The professor talks a mile a minute, backtracks on his lectures and jumps on to tangents, it is hard to tell what is important and what is not. I fear for my midterm.

-muffinman