Battling boredom

I read somewhere that a person starts to lose the muscle tissues he gained from exercising after 4 or 5 days of inactivity. If that’s true, then the same must be true for brain tissues as well. I’m barely two weeks into my current menial and monotonous job, but my neurons are in danger of slipping into a state of atrophy. Even when I was simply staying at home I never stopped pondering about current events, my future, and life in general. Having to basically turn my higher brain functions off for 8 hours a day has been quite unpleasant. I’m once again reminded of how important it is to find an intellectually challenging and stimulating career.

I’ve decided my current condition is completely unacceptable and have devised activities to regain and maintain my mental sharpness. I’m trying to muse about anything interesting while at work, including what to write on this blog. In my spare I’m trying to do some critical reading and studying, and I'm starting to draw once again.

It is true that physical conditioning enhances mental fitness. For that part, I’m getting back into exercising, which I had abandoned after my snowboarding trip. On 3 days a week I'll run for at least 30 to 40 min.; on 3 other days I'll do body-toning exercises, and Sundays will be R&R day. Upper body strength training is not a priority, but core fitness is. I just purchased a balance ball, which seems to intensify all the regular exercises 2 to 3 folds. I had a stomach cramp after doing just 2 sets of ab exercises. It sure is effective, and this is a good start to my regiment. I’m also considering resuming a diluted version of the killer workout routine Air Alert III, which basically decreases the repetitions by 1/3 and slows the progression by 50%.

Final Four It Is

What more needs to be said? Even though the game went to overtime, it didn't feel nearly as riveting as the Duke game. Because LSU was so dominant inside I never felt Texas had a decisive advantage. Also, after the team beat Duke, I just had the sense that they can beat anyone else.

20 years ago LSU made it to the Final Four as a 11th seed. How neat is it that another 11th seed, George Mason, is back in the Big Dance with them. I don't think anyone can thoroughly explain why UConn struggled so mightily in the tourney with that supposedly superb frontline and its outstanding backcourt. Now I just hope Shaq will show up in Indianapolis to cheer on his alma mata. Earlier in the year many pundits thought SEC was a weak BBall conference, but now there's the high possibility of an all-SEC national championship game.

AWESOMENESS!!

That picture just about sums it up. LSU played the most fantastic defense ever on J.J. Redick for all 40 min. and down went Duke. I don't think anyone thought Tigers' defense could be this good, so good that Duke could not catch up even when both Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas were out with foul trouble. Garret Temple doggedly guarded Redick like a glove, Thomas was his usual athletic self, and Davis did enough damage inside. But the most important shot of the game was the huge trey made by Darrell Mitchell. Again the guy bailed out the team just when Duke was looking to break the game open. This was probably the most celebrated win for LSU in almost a whole generation, and it can really put the school's basketball program on the map. Assuming Davis and Thomas won't make the mistake of jumping into the NBA prematurely, the team next year can be absolutely electrifying. They really need a skilled point guard for next season, what high school senior or junior college point wouldn't want the chance to dish the rock on this team?

I'm getting ahead of myself, there is much more to play for in this tournament. LSU's brutal pre-conference schedule really toughened the team. Duke had beaten Texas while LSU edged W. Virginia in the regular season, but now it's time for something new for both schools. The other 2 games were also very exciting. I went to bed thinking the UCLA-Gonzaga would go as I had predicted as well, only to wake up and find out about UCLA's wild comeback.

As they say down here: GEAUX TIGERS!

Hoops Season

This is a great time for me as a basketball fan. In the NCAA Tourney last night, LSU pulled out a tough and exciting win against Texas A&M in the final seconds on a long three. LSU is finally making some noise with the tremendous talent they have. Next up is a sweet sixteen date with those snobbish, elitist Dukies on Thursday. I actually like Duke, unlike the majority of college basketball fans. I never understood the reason for all the hating.

The two teams are fairly close talent wise. The game will come down to how much LSU can keep J.J. Redick in check and whether the Tigers' frontline can outplay Sheldon Williams. LSU has a very athletic starting five that can play very effective defense, anchored by Glen Davis and block specialist Tyrus Thomas. Thomas is one of those freakishly explosive athletes. During the game, tv analysts pointed out that his head almost touched the rim when he jumped up for a block. In many ways he reminds people of Stromile Swift, who has not progressed whatsoever on the next level despite his impressive physical talent. Hopefully Thomas can avoid Swift's mistake of leaving for the NBA before he was ready. I'd say LSU has a 40% chance of winning, despite the players' youth. If you think that's too high, consider that early in the regular season they pushed UConn to the limit and lost by 1. It will be a fun game.

Speaking of Swift, his teammate and my hero, Yao Ming, is playing very inspired basketball after he came back from his toe surgery. His point production, rebounds, and minutes are all up significantly from before. Unexpectedly, the toe injury allowed Yao to rest more than he has done in long time. It's a shame that such a rare talent has been stymied from reaching his full potential by needless and short-sighted obligations imposed by the Chinese government, which has forced him to play basketball almost non-stop for the last couple of years. The Rockets won't be in the playoffs this year, but if Yao continues his growth and McGrady comes back healthy, they will have a real shot of challenging the Spurs and the Mavs next season.

And Kobe's 81 is incredible. Still hate the guy and his "bring all your hate" Nike commercial.

My best post yet deserves to be posted by itself again

I can’t believe how long I spent on putting together this entry. Yet I enjoyed the process immensely, the reason for which will soon become apparent.

I’ve been wanting to write an entry about the Winter Olympics and how much I enjoyed watching snowboard cross and figure skating. Snowboard cross is without a doubt the most exciting event to see on TV, in large part due to my own fondness for snowboarding. From my own experience I could tell right away that it is also extremely dangerous. Even in the Olympics there were some horrible spills, with several athletes being carried off in stretchers. Then I saw this in yesterday’s news: “Swedish snowboarder Jonatan Johansson died Sunday after falling during a snowboardcross run down.” The 26-year-old Olympian lost control when he was doing a jump. Even though he landed within the boundaries of the course and was wearing a helmet, the internal injuries caused by the fall were still lethal. It’s crazy enough to go down the slope at 30 to 40 miles per hour and pulling off crazy jumps, but to do it while bumping against 3 other people is just too extreme. Downhill events simply should not be made into contact sports.

Figure skating, even though it is getting more dangerous as well, is just an elegant sport to watch. It’s a shame that the Japanese girl beat out the more graceful Sasha Cohen and the more athletic Irina Slutskaya due to major mistakes made by the latter two. But that’s not why I spent so much time on this blog. If you did not watch ice dancing, then you missed out on seeing a woman whom I consider to be as close to physically perfect as any female can be: silver medalist Tanith Belbin.

To put my opinion of her into the proper perspective, below is my fantasy collection of female celebrities whom I believe to be the most beautiful and sexy. They're judged not just on physical appearances, but also on what I perceive their personalities to be.

Listed in no particular order after Jennifer Love Hewitt:

Kristin Kruek Natalie Portman

Kelly Brook Samaire Armstrong

Monica Bellucci Lee Hyori

Rachel McAdams Eva Longoria

Kate Beckinsale Beyonce

Heidi Ayumi Hamasaki

Elizabeth Hurley Alyssa Milano

Cindy Crawford Cecilia Cheung

And others who, while very pretty, lack that extra "umf" to be at the very top:

Halle Berry Charlize Theron

Salma Hayek Jessica Alba

Kournikova Sharapova

Zhang Ziyi Adriana Lima

Jessica Simpson

(Did I leave out any other super babe?)

To me, if you combine the best features of Julia Roberts, Heather Graham, and Maria Menounos,

each a gorgeous woman in her own right, and have the product be greater than the sum of all its parts, you get the single most splendid beauty in the world:

To outshine all those other women is no small feat, to say the least. I thought no one could ever supplant Jennifer Love Hewitt as #1 on my list, until now. If I were Tanith Belbin and is getting paid less than, say 2 million dollars in endorsement this year, I would fire my agent right away.

Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder, in this case, yours truly. Looking at it "scientifically," because a few of her genes lined up in a certain sequence, she'll be making more money than 99.9% of the people can ever dream of. Even though genetics is a major factor for the development of any talent, this is a gift that she doesn't have to cultivate. From an economic standpoint, however, whatever she gets paid in money is far exceeded by the amount of utility she creates just by being in the public's view. Hell, I can't even put a dollar amount on how much personal enjoyment I'm getting out of seeing her. So it is "just" for her to earn that kind of money, even if it does not seem "fair."

A New Beginning - Again; Old Posts

Ok, finally, I think I've found a new blog site that looks good and allows free commenting. After using xanga and then msn spaces, I do not want to move again. On msn spaces I posted only a few, but important entries about law school acceptance, snowboarding, and writing. So here they are, verbatim:

March 12

Observations on blogs

For the past 2 days I've been reveling in my first law school admittance. Since Wash. U is among the top 3 of my choices, it was indeed a good cause for celebrating. Only if I get in either Boston University or Boston College would I start considering other options.

I’ll make a few general observations about the blogsphere: 1. The paucity of updates is quite prevalent in most of the blogs that I check up on. Typically an entry starts with something to the effect of “I can’t believe I haven’t updated for such a long time,” which I’ve written myself. Well, I don’t expect that to be a problem for this blog for the near future. I have ample time on my hands and certainly no shortage of subjects to comment on. The challenge for me is to keep the length of each entry from becoming too great. 2. There is a significant number of blogs containing Chinese characters, either in their titles or content, which might be the case for other foreign languages as well. I’m just glad I’m able to read and respond to them.


March 11
The Words I Wanted to See the Most!
Congratulations on your admission to Washington University School of Law!

Yes, Yes Yes!!!! I didn't expect to hear back from schools this soon, but here it is! My first acceptance. Washington is a very good school, and everything else from here on out is icing on the cake. Wowwwww


YEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!

March 09

Greetings all. The creation of this page signifies the turning of a new leaf in my life. From henceforth this is where I will share my adventures and calamities, my tribulations as well as triumphs, but most of the content will be consist of my opinions and insights on the different aspects of life. Writing offers a multitude of freedoms for me – freedoms to express, dream, and reflect. The accessibility and ease of blogging make it an ideal avenue for me to write sensibly and continuously. As a bonus I might be able to entertain not just myself but an audience as well. What’s not to like?

As I said this is a new beginning for me. I’ve traveled a long and meandering road to get here, but my future is looking brighter than ever because of the path that I have traversed. Before I speak of either the past or the future, I should describe my present situation. I’m awaiting replies from the 14 law schools that I’ve applied to for this coming fall. Meanwhile, I’m in New Orleans working in the latest of several positions that I’ve held since the Hurricane. It doesn’t entail much effort or skill, but it provides the small income that I require for now.

On to more interesting topics. Over Mardi Gras weekend I took a snowboarding trip to New York, where I met up with some college buddies, some of whom I hadn’t seen since graduation from Cornell last May, others for even longer. It was great to see they’re all doing very well pursuing either further education or careers in world-renowned financial firms. They’re working very hard, 10~12 hour days, but that’s expected for jobs at just about any large corporations
nowadays, and it’s the amount of time I expect to be spending for law school and beyond.

The snowboarding itself was awesome. I hadn’t boarded in almost a year, but I was able to do most of the things that I wanted to do on the slopes. I even, for the first time, went down a couple of double black diamonds. The only problem I had was with the lack of stamina, but my techniques felt good and it was certainly exhilarating to go down those steep trails once I got into a rhythm. That was the first day. It did not prepare me for what was to come on the second day.

The place we went to on the 2nd day hadn’t seen any significant snowfall for weeks (due to those same wacky, global warming-induced weather patterns that are partially responsible for catastrophic hurricanes, but that’s a talking point for another time). What I had to deal with was fast, sandy, artificially snow-covered slopes that had numerous patches of solid ice. The result? The most spectacular wipeouts I’ve ever had, if you were looking at me from any vantage point other than my own. For the most physically painful experience I’ve had in recently memory I took a tumble that had me upended and involuntarily doing a 1 ½ back somersault, with my head hitting the ground at least twice and with my body weight landing on my tailbone. Never was I more thankful to have worn a helmet. It saved me from at least a concussion.

However, I learned quite a bit because of the touch conditions. Being frequently on my butt and back forced me to re-examine all of my techniques. I found out exactly what I was doing wrong and was able to, despite some difficulties, go down the black diamonds. Negotiating the single diamonds amid those kinds of conditions was much tougher than going down double diamonds the day before. The good news is I’ll never forget what I learned on those slopes, and I’ll pick up from where I left off the next time I snowboard.


I love to write and can probably go on forever, but I have the rest of my life to do that. I’m adding a recurring feature at the end of my entries called “Quick Wisdom.” From time to time I will record some quick insights I’ve gained about people and life. They might be ridiculous, completely off-base or dead-on. One thing is for certain, they will always be what I think is true at that time. For the first entry I present a double dose:

Quick Wisdom:

#1: On the way to JFK airport the shuttle driver pointed out to me that I had mistakenly double tipped him by $5. I decided it wasn’t much and let him keep it. Upon hearing that, his eyes just lit up and he had most grateful smile on his face. I realized my small generosity probably just made his day at 5 am in the morning. If not for that $5, it would’ve just been another mundane workday for him. I probably won’t ever see him again, but he his good mood might’ve carried over to how he treated his other customers or his family for the rest of the day. Wisdom: Sometimes it really doesn’t take much to gain someone’s good will.

#2: As I was driving one day I saw the car in front of me slowing down and swirling to left to avoid a pothole. I thought that car was too slow and drove to the right to avoid the same hole. There was no evidence indicating that the right side was better than the left, but when I glanced back into the rearview mirror I saw 2 or 3 cars behind me following my lead and swirled to the right, probably just out of reflex. Wisdom: Someone in a leadership position can have tremendous sway over others. When you’re a leader and take an action, some will follow suit instinctively, even if your action breaks the trend.

Yet another new blog

This had better work