I'm Not Confident, Good Thing? and Help Me Make My Playlist

So, Final #3 is out of the way. I finished MCB C100A this morning in a humbling experience. I'm not confident at all, which is probably a bad thing, but it might be ok given that my last midterm was terrible (I even told my parents that I probably bombed it) and I still managed the 4th highest in the class.

Anyways, given that my next final isn't until Wednesday, I've decided to take today to relax and what better way to relax than to make a new playlist that I've been procrastinating on for the last couple of months. In fact, all I've listened to is a playlist comprised of 5 albums (2 Mates of States, Fort Minor, Nine Inch Nails, and Arcade Fire - yeah, real eclectic) and Yellowcard in preparation for their concert.

So, I'm asking you to help me make my playlist by playing a game. Essentially it's this: If you could only have 10 songs on an mp3 player, which 10 songs would you have to have. List them out. I'll add them to my playlist and if I don't have it, I'll get it. Sound good? Great.

I'm gonna start with my top 10, in no particular order and with no particular significance.

10. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights.
Emo-classic and UPS, could it be better?

9. The Fray - How to Save a Life.
Overplayed, maybe. Awesome-played, definitely.

8. Snow Patrol - Set the Fire to the Third Bar.
Tough choice between this, Chasing Cars, and Chocolate, but the duet is gorgeous.

7. Fort Minor - Where'd You Go.
Another gorgeous song with Mike Shinoda rapping.

6. Linkin Park - Numb.
Tough to pick a classic LP, but Numb is pretty close to being the best.

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californiacation.
I thought about Love Rollercoaster, cause if you say it fast it sounds like LOLercoaster. But meh.

4. Rob Dougan - Chateau.
Best Matrix based piece ever. It'll get you going every morning of every day of every year.

3. Death Cab For Cutie - Title and Registration.
This song (and Such Great Heights) started my transition into emo-indie. I think I'm a better person because of it...don't you?

2. Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
Hot. Animated Gorrilas. Hot. Blur. Not so hot.

1. The Postal Service - Be Still My Heart.
It's my song (with Maggie). Might be cheesy, but it's gonna stay. <3

I really wanted to throw in some DMB, Cake, and more LP, but like I said: Top 10, can't go wrong; if you had to choose this or sex, you'd choose this kinda thing. Now it's up to you to keep me going.

The Cramping of the Hand

Phew.

I finished two finals today. One for Bio1A, the other for Asian Studies 10B. In between , I got my lab exam 2 final back and I wasted a Guac'd Chipotle Burrito (It fell apart halfway through eating it). Sigh.

The finals weren't too bad today. I definitely didn't bomb either of them. They might not have been perfect, but what can you do...

I passed Bio Lab though. I beat the mean by 20 points in my section, which means a good grade for me. Yay.

Got to study for MCB though, so I'm not done. Maggie is stressing, and I'm kinda bumming around since I'm so tired...

Oh, and my hand is still cramping after writing 9 pages for my Asian Studies final. Hap Hap Joy.

In the Calm

It's true. There is a calm. Right before the storm, the sense of foreboding silence is overwhelming. I'm there right now. Right before the torrential rain of questions and answers. It's time for finals.

It looks like I'm done studying, but I've got to get some sleep for my 8am biology final and my 12:30 Asian Studies final.

Wish me luck. Let's hope I don't end up like New Orleans after the storm. I like my debauchery and boobs.

I'm a Researcher!

I turned in my human research ethics training certificates and I worked with my first subjects today.

Let me say this. It's definitely awkward trying to explain things in layman terms and I'm definitely not the most personable guy in the world (especially in the morning without coffee...). Still I think I managed to run things pretty smoothly and without major incident. The data should be usable, but I won't know until I go in next week to play with it. Luckily, I've got the four subjects coming back tomorrow along with a fifth subject.

The ball is rolling. Let's roll.

Don't Steal My Moneymakers

Now, I've been playing around with a lot of stuff on this blog. Some just at random, some for practice, and some just to see what I can do with a blog. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed that no one comments...cause I want to comment back, but I supposed that has to do with my low readership and the lack of incentive to actually "say" something. At any rate, I try to stay on top of things for the sake of staying motivated and actually seeing something through.

The conflict of interest lies in how public I really want to make this blog. Obviously, the more public I make it, the more people read it, the more likely someone will make a comment that will spur more discussion and more commentary. At some point, though, an overly public blog will make me question whether I want to publish more intimate "private" thoughts or not.

Now I know some people like to emo-whine about how crappy their lives are, or talk about all the sex they're having, or something about how hot Jessica Alba really is. But is that really appropriate for this medium? I don't know. With that in mind, I like having a more intimate audience for my thoughts. You and me, just chatting together, a two-way dialogue between my friends and my thoughts. Still, I can't help but wonder how different it'd be if more than six people read this everyday...(how do I know this? It's one of those things I'm fooling around with. So I know. EVERYTHING).

Having said all that, I've got this strange suspicion that a really good blog could be a pretty decent money maker in the long run. If I can advertise it out in the open, with an thematic idea and a solid writing cast (either me pre-writing a lot of stuff or collaborating with other people to maintain a steady stream of solid content), I could be making a lot of traffic and a lot of ad dollars. Now, I've been thinking about spending the summer developing some stuff, potentially even try to run a small Web 2.0 site with some interactive things (using LAMP), but more importantly, I'd like to start up a solid topic-centric blog (unlike this random milieu of thoughts). I'd like to work on my html coding, my CSS design, and my photoshop skills, but that'd all be with the goal of publish a really good blog that more than a handful of people would want to read and would come back to read.

What ideas do I have for that? Well, they're good ones...let me tell you that.

Cal Football Blog. Commentary and analysis of games and matchups; score predictions; injury reports; interviews; news clippings. Upside - instant audience in a pretty empty market niche. Downside - I don't have inside access to the team, the facilities, or anyone on the team to make it big.

College Student Financial Blog. Insights and advice for college-aged students to start investing their money for the future. Discussion of high-yield, high-risk investments, the value of compounded returns, even stuff on credit. Upside - potential to attract of lot of different people on a global scale, plus, I could cross reference the blog with a newspaper article (say...Daily Cal?). Downside - what do I know about finance? I'm not even a business major (although I'm pretty good at explaining why it's better to risk higher yields now as a 20 year old than invest in pedestrian index funds...)

Pre-Med Blog. Insight and experience of a pre-med undergraduate preparing and applying for medical school. I and other people could share their experiences and let other pre-med's around the country comment on our successes and failures. Upside - Interesting idea with a lot of short-term potential. Downside - really short-term. Unless I continued it into medical school or I keep up the site for other pre-med contributions.

Poker Blog. Cliche and definitely "boring", it'd be the biggest and most consistent audience I'd probably get. Daily results, thoughts, hand histories with user submitted commentary. Upside - lots of hits (probably), easy to advertise, and easy to do as long as I play. Downside - I've got to play, and with me, it's hard to stay motivated while I'm losing money.

TV Review Blog. This is a new idea that I came up with last night, but basically, I'd do play-by-play reviews of TV shows that I want and let other people collaborate and submit their reviews of certain shows that they watch. Upside - easy to organize and promote, enjoyable since I watch the shows anyways. Downside - hard to say something compelling all the time and continue to publish on a schedule. Could be big though.

Oh, and I just got off the phone with my mom. Apparently, my dad is thinking about working in Shanghai. That'll be weird if my family moves again...

The Unbearable Heat

Wow, it's hot. Let me understate it again. Wow. Hot. Real hot.

Now, I have a final on Friday followed by a final on Friday followed by a final on Saturday and I can't study for any of them because it's so hot. Compounding the heat is my apartment and the fact that it's so unbearably hot.

If I fail because of this weather, I'm going to cry.

On a brighter note, the Detroit Red Wings defeated our home-ish-town San Jose Sharks by a score of 2-0 tonight, clinching the series 4-2. That sets up a Conference finals matchup against the heralded Ducks of Anaheim (no longer mighty). It'll be a good series, and unfortunately for the Ducks, the Wings are playing pretty good and weren't pushed around enough by the Sharks. I just hope the Ducks can keep up the pressure they demonstrated in the series against the Canucks and they don't fizzle out like they did last year to Edmonton.

Oh, and the Warriors lost after leading for most of the game. Sucks. Believe nothing. Lamers. GG, etc.

Video of the Week: Optimus Prime

Getting excited about the new movie season. The worst of the bunch might be Transformers, but I can't help myself.



Go Go Optimus Prime. Looks awesome. Michael Bay might surprise, who knows...

Oh, and the new Shattuck Tap Ex isn't too bad for the price...