I am not always balanced and moderate. In fact, I was just thinking back to a few distinct times in my life when my life's balance was whacked.
About 10 months into my mission, I was having a difficult time reaching goals, so I determined I was going to take my determination and hard work to the next level. My new resolve took on the form of waking up at 5:30 AM, talking to everyone and their dog, not taking lunches at home (or if we did take lunches, making them super short), and sacrificing time on p-days for preparing lessons and working. I think back to one particular time, my poor junior companion and I were in a remote part of our area lunchtime. I remember eating our lunch of crabsticks standing up because I couldn't justify taking a little relaxing break sitting down. After we finished eating our food, we continued contacting. It is clear to me now that I had taken the work aspect of missionary work to the extreme.
When I was a junior in college, I was determined to do well in an advanced computer programming class--CS 240. That semester, I can't remember going on a date or even hanging out with friends that much. Instead, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the catacombs of the Talmage building. The final project was intense. We had to write up a chess program basically from scratch using a very low level language. The week leading up to the final deadline I probably spent 60 hours on the project. This is while I was enrolled in other classes and even working part time. My desire to do well in this one class led me to become an extreme computer geek.
Another unbalanced time was law school. The truth of law school is that if you really want to get good grades, there isn't a way around making your life unbalanced. There is just too much work to do and too much competition to let you get by without focusing all your energy on law school. I sacrificed balance for good grades.
Looking back, I can tell that when I get out of balance, it inevitably leads to an unhappy, unsettled feeling. Some unbalanced times can be justified because they are temporary (like a deadline for a big project), but focusing so much time and effort into one thing is not sustainable. Knowing this, I still take things to the extreme. Take for instance this past week. I was determined that I would make a boatload of money through web development and cellphone apps. Even though I did a good job of working hard and my desire did not get burnt out, I realized I was a less happy individual because I was being stretched too thin by competing tasks I had going on.
It's easy for me to take things to the extreme. I have a somewhat proactive disposition--I believe that if something needs to be done, I have the power and ability to do it myself. So it's natural for me to take things to the extreme, especially when I feel like drastic changes are in order. Also, it's good to get fired up in a particular resolve because that draws a lot of attention to the problem. However, working like a maniac is unsustainable, and it makes me realize that when I become unbalanced, red flags should go off in my head.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Sunday, July 04, 2010
The Girl I Would One Day Marry
When I was 22, I sold satellites in Vancouver, Washington door-to-door. I remember talking to one woman who was not interested in a Dish, but was interested in talking with me. She found out I was Mormon and we started talking religion (She turned out to be Episcopalian). The conversation strangely enough drifted into marriage. I told her I was not married and that I was on the lookout for that special someone. She talked about how I should get married, but because her tone was a little too holier-than-thou I couldn't take her completely seriously. Because I hated knocking doors at this point in the summer, however, and because she seemed very willing to talk to me, I continued the conversation by asking her where I would find my companion. I asked this more out of curiosity of what she'd say rather than because I believed she would provide me an answer I could rely on. Her answer was very succinct and without hesitation: "You'll find her at church."
It took me about 280 church services (over 5 and a half years), but that is exactly how I "found" the girl I will marry. I had met Amy long before the church meeting over last Christmas break, but that meeting was the catalyst that started our relationship. As many of you already may know, a couple weeks ago, I proposed to my girlfriend Amy at her cabin in Idaho and she said yes. We will be getting married in the Draper temple December 29th. I am really happy in this stage of my life, a stage that I had doubts I would ever experience. It's fun to be engaged and to plan the future with someone else that you love. I look forward to and feel very good about the future with my little Blueberry.
Because I don't believe in ending blog posts on cheesy notes, here are some pictures of us that are too awkward to post on facebook, but funny enough that I couldn't stand with a clear conscience before Amy for not publishing them somewhere.
This is us driving across the country. Here, Amy is pretending like she's sleeping and here is me doing a very poor job of focusing on the road.
This is Amy's birthday night. As we were getting ready to begin our Provo Canyon date, we decided to do a picture to resemble high school dance pictures. Did we do a good job?
Here, Amy is looking cute (nothing unusual about that) and I seem to be starting a campfire rap: "Hook a brother up with a peach, yeah!"
Amy insisted on this picture, much to my dismay, but now I'm glad this picture happened. It paints a very real picture of my backyard. The collapsed basketball standard, one of the many motorcycle tires, the peeling white paint, the unkempt patio all contribute greatly to the aesthetics of this photo.
It took me about 280 church services (over 5 and a half years), but that is exactly how I "found" the girl I will marry. I had met Amy long before the church meeting over last Christmas break, but that meeting was the catalyst that started our relationship. As many of you already may know, a couple weeks ago, I proposed to my girlfriend Amy at her cabin in Idaho and she said yes. We will be getting married in the Draper temple December 29th. I am really happy in this stage of my life, a stage that I had doubts I would ever experience. It's fun to be engaged and to plan the future with someone else that you love. I look forward to and feel very good about the future with my little Blueberry.
Because I don't believe in ending blog posts on cheesy notes, here are some pictures of us that are too awkward to post on facebook, but funny enough that I couldn't stand with a clear conscience before Amy for not publishing them somewhere.
This is us driving across the country. Here, Amy is pretending like she's sleeping and here is me doing a very poor job of focusing on the road.
This is Amy's birthday night. As we were getting ready to begin our Provo Canyon date, we decided to do a picture to resemble high school dance pictures. Did we do a good job?
Here, Amy is looking cute (nothing unusual about that) and I seem to be starting a campfire rap: "Hook a brother up with a peach, yeah!"
Amy insisted on this picture, much to my dismay, but now I'm glad this picture happened. It paints a very real picture of my backyard. The collapsed basketball standard, one of the many motorcycle tires, the peeling white paint, the unkempt patio all contribute greatly to the aesthetics of this photo.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Simple Formula: Good Customer Service = Retention
It's been almost a year since my Bank of America tirade. It's time for me now to give a positive review on a company: T-Mobile.
A few weeks ago, I downsized my phone plan from data to no data. It was in the middle of the month and I was fully expecting T-mobile to charge me the data fee for the entire month. As a loftier thought, I thought T-mobile would prorate the data I used and only charge me for that. The customer service rep said that he wasn't going to charge me at all for any of the data used that month. I was shocked.
In a time when companies are trying to nickel and dime the customers that make their companies possible, this little gesture was a bright spot in my bleak mental imagery of corporate America. I commend T-mobile for doing nice things for customers.
My brother called me up on last Monday trying to get me to switch to a Sprint family plan with him. Even after Weston reassured me that Sprint's network has undoubtedly improved since my experience 4 years ago, I had no desire to change plans. My sense of loyalty towards T-mobile could not be denied.
A few weeks ago, I downsized my phone plan from data to no data. It was in the middle of the month and I was fully expecting T-mobile to charge me the data fee for the entire month. As a loftier thought, I thought T-mobile would prorate the data I used and only charge me for that. The customer service rep said that he wasn't going to charge me at all for any of the data used that month. I was shocked.
In a time when companies are trying to nickel and dime the customers that make their companies possible, this little gesture was a bright spot in my bleak mental imagery of corporate America. I commend T-mobile for doing nice things for customers.
My brother called me up on last Monday trying to get me to switch to a Sprint family plan with him. Even after Weston reassured me that Sprint's network has undoubtedly improved since my experience 4 years ago, I had no desire to change plans. My sense of loyalty towards T-mobile could not be denied.
Monday, May 03, 2010
One reason why I love New England
Sometimes when you really wish you could sleep, you just can't. What to do? Because lying in bed is a waste of time, I will blog about an experience I just had that reinforced why I love living in New England.
I was laying in my bed and the air in the room was pretty warm. As an aside, the temperature today got up to 89 degrees here in New Hampshire and the warm air still lingered in my room. But this wasn't ordinary warm air; it was humid east coast warm air.
I opened the window and relatively cool spring air flowed in. The air was so humid that it felt like there was a certain texture to it. I was then brought back to the couple summers that I lived in Boston.
Have you noticed that memories associated with the non-obvious memory senses (touch, smell) seem to let you relive memories the best? Well, I was very much brought back to when I lived in Boston and the humid warm air was an everyday reality. What an awesome memory.
Now I better get back to trying to sleep. I've got a big final tomorrow.
I was laying in my bed and the air in the room was pretty warm. As an aside, the temperature today got up to 89 degrees here in New Hampshire and the warm air still lingered in my room. But this wasn't ordinary warm air; it was humid east coast warm air.
I opened the window and relatively cool spring air flowed in. The air was so humid that it felt like there was a certain texture to it. I was then brought back to the couple summers that I lived in Boston.
Have you noticed that memories associated with the non-obvious memory senses (touch, smell) seem to let you relive memories the best? Well, I was very much brought back to when I lived in Boston and the humid warm air was an everyday reality. What an awesome memory.
Now I better get back to trying to sleep. I've got a big final tomorrow.
Monday, April 26, 2010
The General Lee method
Thinking back, I learned some valuable things in college applying to unexpected areas of my life. Here is one such example.
I took a Physics class from a really old professor. The only two things I remember from that class is the professor talking about his grandma and how to solve problems. The professor would always explain solving problems in terms of the Robert E. Lee method and the Ulysses S. Grant method. As you may recall, Robert E. Lee was a very crafty and efficient general who made due with the resources he had. General Grant, on the other hand, was successful in large part because of the advantage in more resources and men. Some physics students, apparently, adhered to the inefficient General Grant approach in solving physics problems.
In another class, computer science, I learned about the same concept under a different name: the brute force technique. The technique involves a non-elegant algorithm that exhaustively iterates over and over until a solution is found. The advantage to this technique is that it's an easy way to approach solving a problem. The downside is that the implementation of the brute force technique is inefficient, drains resources, and can be so much slower in solving the problem. Some students, were a little too eager to jump into tackling the problem without thoroughly planning ahead. And without mapping out the best approach, the code turned brute.
The same dichotomy exists with everything in life. Everything (e.g. school, work, fitness, friendships) can be done efficiently or non-efficiently. Over time and with practice, one can become more efficient at anything. If you have extra time, money, or resources to burn, maybe you can afford the brute force approach. But not me; I always need more time. My name is not Robert E. Lee, but I am becoming Mr. efficiency.
I took a Physics class from a really old professor. The only two things I remember from that class is the professor talking about his grandma and how to solve problems. The professor would always explain solving problems in terms of the Robert E. Lee method and the Ulysses S. Grant method. As you may recall, Robert E. Lee was a very crafty and efficient general who made due with the resources he had. General Grant, on the other hand, was successful in large part because of the advantage in more resources and men. Some physics students, apparently, adhered to the inefficient General Grant approach in solving physics problems.
In another class, computer science, I learned about the same concept under a different name: the brute force technique. The technique involves a non-elegant algorithm that exhaustively iterates over and over until a solution is found. The advantage to this technique is that it's an easy way to approach solving a problem. The downside is that the implementation of the brute force technique is inefficient, drains resources, and can be so much slower in solving the problem. Some students, were a little too eager to jump into tackling the problem without thoroughly planning ahead. And without mapping out the best approach, the code turned brute.
The same dichotomy exists with everything in life. Everything (e.g. school, work, fitness, friendships) can be done efficiently or non-efficiently. Over time and with practice, one can become more efficient at anything. If you have extra time, money, or resources to burn, maybe you can afford the brute force approach. But not me; I always need more time. My name is not Robert E. Lee, but I am becoming Mr. efficiency.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Job Search
My brother Weston was in my opinion my most interesting sibling growing up. He took the most risks, was the most passionate, the most adventuresome, the most interested in other people and the most curious. Growing up, Weston would do the jobs that no one else wanted to do. When someone lost something in our oftentimes cluttered house, Weston would surprise everyone by coming up with the lost item. He eventually earned the title of "Mr. Find-it." He also seemed to enjoy fixing things. Hence the other title of Mr. Fix-it. By praising Weston with such titles, I'll admit that we older siblings might have influenced him to do things in our favor more than we deserved. But Weston was the type of brother that probably wouldn't have even cared.
Weston was also never shy about anything. He would literally do anything, even if everyone else around him thought he was weird. When we were all pretty young, we would watch "Land Before Time" a lot. In the opening scenes of that movie, different sized bubbles flash across the screen. We developed a tradition whenever we'd watch this movie to exaggeratedly say, "Whoaaaa!" whenever the big bubbles would flash across the screen. The bigger the bubbles, the louder we would exclaim "Whoaaa!" This tradition is all fine and good in the house, but in the Scera movie theater it is a different story. As we were sitting in the theater, watching the introductory scenes, the bubbles start flashing across the screen. In a moment when the bubbles were truly huge (with the theater sized screen), Weston could not help himself and literally shouted "Whoaaaaa!" to a very-much silent room full of people. The rest of the audience did not seem to be as equally impressed with the size of the bubbles. Weston would do things without really caring about what others thought of him. If we were at a store and we wanted information about something, but were too shy or hesitant to ask, we would get Weston to do it because he never got embarrassed. After a while, I think he caught on to our tactics and was less willing to go along with our enticements. But after explicitly giving him the title of "the one who never gets embarrassed," it became an honor to live up to such a title for Weston.
When I turned 16, I wanted a job. Our family was poor and I wanted money. My brother Graden and I briefly tried a morning paper route. I enjoyed driving the car (as all 16 year-olds do), but the schedule of waking up so early was awful. I had no idea how to get a regular job. My dream job Target would never get back to me. Other nearby jobs also did not show me any interest. Then, my brother Weston surprised me big-time. He said that he saw one of those trailers on the side of State street with a big Carl's Jr. "Now Hiring" sign. My brother approached the general manager, who was inside the little building, and said that his older brother was looking for a job. (See? The dude truly never got embarrassed. He just did things without thinking twice.) The manager was most likely taken aback by this 11 year-old signing his brother up for an interview. However, after I talked on the phone with the manager and later interviewed with him, I got the job, which turned out to be really good for me.
Now, as I'm finishing up my 2nd year of law school, I'm already feeling anxiety about finding a job. I've had a lot of great jobs since Carl's Jr., and I'm pretty well-qualified in my opinion. You wouldn't think that I would be too concerned about securing good employment, but the economy has never been this bad in all my life. This past year, I have seen so many well-qualified friends and family struggle with finding a job.
Now my graduation date is still a ways away and I'm going to stay optimistic, but I kind of wish Weston was in Boston looking for a job for me.
Weston was also never shy about anything. He would literally do anything, even if everyone else around him thought he was weird. When we were all pretty young, we would watch "Land Before Time" a lot. In the opening scenes of that movie, different sized bubbles flash across the screen. We developed a tradition whenever we'd watch this movie to exaggeratedly say, "Whoaaaa!" whenever the big bubbles would flash across the screen. The bigger the bubbles, the louder we would exclaim "Whoaaa!" This tradition is all fine and good in the house, but in the Scera movie theater it is a different story. As we were sitting in the theater, watching the introductory scenes, the bubbles start flashing across the screen. In a moment when the bubbles were truly huge (with the theater sized screen), Weston could not help himself and literally shouted "Whoaaaaa!" to a very-much silent room full of people. The rest of the audience did not seem to be as equally impressed with the size of the bubbles. Weston would do things without really caring about what others thought of him. If we were at a store and we wanted information about something, but were too shy or hesitant to ask, we would get Weston to do it because he never got embarrassed. After a while, I think he caught on to our tactics and was less willing to go along with our enticements. But after explicitly giving him the title of "the one who never gets embarrassed," it became an honor to live up to such a title for Weston.
When I turned 16, I wanted a job. Our family was poor and I wanted money. My brother Graden and I briefly tried a morning paper route. I enjoyed driving the car (as all 16 year-olds do), but the schedule of waking up so early was awful. I had no idea how to get a regular job. My dream job Target would never get back to me. Other nearby jobs also did not show me any interest. Then, my brother Weston surprised me big-time. He said that he saw one of those trailers on the side of State street with a big Carl's Jr. "Now Hiring" sign. My brother approached the general manager, who was inside the little building, and said that his older brother was looking for a job. (See? The dude truly never got embarrassed. He just did things without thinking twice.) The manager was most likely taken aback by this 11 year-old signing his brother up for an interview. However, after I talked on the phone with the manager and later interviewed with him, I got the job, which turned out to be really good for me.
Now, as I'm finishing up my 2nd year of law school, I'm already feeling anxiety about finding a job. I've had a lot of great jobs since Carl's Jr., and I'm pretty well-qualified in my opinion. You wouldn't think that I would be too concerned about securing good employment, but the economy has never been this bad in all my life. This past year, I have seen so many well-qualified friends and family struggle with finding a job.
Now my graduation date is still a ways away and I'm going to stay optimistic, but I kind of wish Weston was in Boston looking for a job for me.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Statistics
It's time to get a little reminiscent. I've now had my blog for three and a half years. I'll have to admit that the main reason I started a blog was to make money. The relationship between traffic and money is pretty direct, especially when you are good at streamlining ads onto your site. But my blog evolved into a means for me to talk about myself, and I don't necessarily want everyone to know about me, even if that means that I must sacrifice making lots of money. Maybe I will generate lots of traffic with another blog (I have already started another blog and it has met relative success). This is not to say that I make no money on this blog. This past year alone, I have made $1.62 from the ads that you see on the right sidebar. Every time someone clicks on one of those ads, it generates smooth cash.
I have discovered some interesting statistics about my blog. The top three most popular posts involve me talking about 1) taking the LSAT, 2) a very buff woman I saw at the gym, and 3) three funny words. It's strange that these would be my most popular posts, but it also makes sense considering that over a quarter of my traffic comes from search engines.
I have discovered some interesting statistics about my blog. The top three most popular posts involve me talking about 1) taking the LSAT, 2) a very buff woman I saw at the gym, and 3) three funny words. It's strange that these would be my most popular posts, but it also makes sense considering that over a quarter of my traffic comes from search engines.
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