What is Art?

Value.......will have to wait...school has not been kind to moi.

But the good news is that I am building (or rather, trying to load) a website with a blog in my own domain. I spend 30 minutes trying to fix the technical errors in previous posts and gave up.

And I am learning coding from the fundamentals...was into photography and art in High School because well, these are acquired tastes, and coding can be learned later. Plus, if you are interested in something, you'll learn it anyway.

And to Tim who introduced Miro.

Ah yes, miro and existentialism.

If you are really hard core, try
























Kasimir Malevich (Suprematism)

Art, or what is accepted as Art can get pretty abstract

some people draw the line, others






















Embrace this. (Dada movement)

Some artists try to push the envelope and see exactly how much the general public can take, and I admire them for that, but personally I am fascinated by the brush strokes and the soul of the artist.

Doesn't mean that I don't like existentialism, but I would rather take Van Gogh any day.

But then, what is art?

The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

will be the prime reason for me to fly to NY.

Because:

There are depths of emotion in even the mildest man or women that would, if the universe worked as it ought, set the skies on fire and boil the oceans until the sand beneath them turned to glass.

Klimt is the one for me.

For now.

(I know that this blog looks bleak and unloved. No I am not dead. Expect a post that contains value sometime this week)

And someone needs to tell Cal's Japanese professors that stuffing chapters in our throats isn't going to work.

I didn't learn English that way.

(at least they're nice, but not enough to justify 5 hours of Japanese everyday)

The ability to say NO

is crucial

Because when your schedule is packed, it is okay to admit that your ability is limited.

But leave the door open for good relations, burning bridges is good for neither party.

Is a College Degree Really Necessary?

A: "Why are you a die-hard Haas fanatic? If you are that good, you don't need it! Look at Gates and Jobs! They didn't have a degree!"

B: "Google up the salary compensation chart, having a degree makes all the difference."

What do you think?

Mull over it for a few days, I'll insert my two cents soon.

Meanwhile.....

Have a nice one!

Does anybody else out here cooks?

Main Course



Because I too, pretend that I can




Green Tea Tiramisu


If anyone else is interested...

jaunty off to:

http://www.opensourcefood.com/

1001 ways to gain back that 300 calories I just lost doing Pilates!

Why I Do the Things that I Do

I don't think that I am narcissistic, but it might be fun to know that the person who is writing this is not a total psycho.

However boring I am

Why Berkeley?

I can afford it.

This is critical, because I haven’t seen an Ivy that is worth
its ticket-price. I would feel guilty studying there, I would
have no life as I would feel obliged to pay my parents back;
I would constantly be haunting Mckinsey’s or Goldman Sach’s
recruiters because I need to pay off this debt.

Cal has the best value for its money.

Did you know that 36 our departments (undergrad and grad) are ranked
#1 in the nation?

Tied with Harvard

Better Football

Some people go to Yale to meet interesting new people; I can
do it just fine.

* I was an international student, not qualified for scholarship+aid.

Major?

Decisions Headache

Architecture

Grandpa was an architect/civil engineer/inventor/linguist/physics
professor.
Do I sound jealous? Why yes I do….

We used to build little trebuchets when I was little, 3 feet tall

Can fling a stone 50 yards long

Cal’s wonderful program was more technical than creative

I should have known something when the ugliest building in
Cal is the Architecture Building

They have NO reason.

Molecular and Cellular Biology

So naturally I gravitated to the major with the prettiest building

Liked it. That is the problem.

I didn’t love it.

I liked serving people and interacting with them but....

Did a Surgery Internship, saw A LOT of surgeries in 2 weeks
and decided that I liked talking to the people more than going
to Med School.

Can’t justify the residency, no matter how much they pay me.

Oh, try not to motorbike, one patient was carted in with her
leg bone splintered into 5 pieces.

Business

Because I love people

And in almost 20 years, haven’t got sick of them yet.

Am fascinated by Private Equities, Venture Capitals, Consulting,
M&A, IPOs, Startups, Accounting, Finance, Web 2.0, stock
investing, brokerage services, hotel management and
in general anything goes!

But most of all, I am fascinated by people. Everyone has so much
to offer, and I love listening to them.

The janitor in Golden Bear Café who has a four year old daughter
and is bussing tables 20 hours a week while trying to get that psychology
degree so he can be a professor.

The gung ho investment banker who entered because he accrued too

much debt during his highflying college years and need that 6 digit salary

The Iowa-born African American who is absolutely fascinated by Chinese
culture and longs to teach in Tibet

The linguistic professor who translates an archaic Turkish dead language

for a living while saving up money for that Romanian Trip

The Debate Champion and influential lawyer who quit because
his conscious can’t take it anymore and now happily wakes up
at 5am in the every morning for 20 years, enlightening
High School students on the finer points of Art History.

Who did you miss while you're grocery shopping today?

When not in school?

I inhale books

and

I hit the gym everyday for at most an hour



















I don’t do this

Clubs?

Leadership Symposium, Eggster.Org, Freshman Sophomore
Business Club, Circle K (Kiwanis), Koinonia

Shortcomings?

Trivial: I spend more on my friends and family than I do on myself.
Not necessary a bad thing, but sometimes I need to learn that my
paycheck should go towards something that I wanted.

Serious: I often take on more than I can handle; fleeting
interest in mundane things, impatience (HUGE problem).

And oh, I loathe quitting. And yes, that is a problem.

And many many more that I am not aware of. It is out
there, people just need to tell me that.

I’ll bribe you...or bake you cookies!

Pieces of me

Made in China, Property of Singapore, Inherently curious, Babbles 2.5
languages (Spanish…it’s embarrassing), Art History Buff, Techie Nerd,

Two Instruments, Food Network, Yo Yo Ma Fanatic,

Klimt devotee, Dad’s family = Engineering, Mom’s =
lawyers and politicians

Don’t you just love family gatherings?

Future Ambitions?

I am not in debt, so I don’t feel obliged to haunt down Bain or Google's

recruiters.

Makes me open to more ideas….was thinking of Private Equity
and Venture Capital because it is people oriented and you build
relationships with successful people.

But web 2.0 and startups draws me in like a kid to candy.

I also like accounting and finance because they are the
backbone to business.

And Sales because it is one of the hardest fields and I
have so much respect for them (not the dishonest ones).

Marketing lets me into the minds of people.

And Consulting lets you in on the inner-working of every field.

You see where I am going with this?

I don’t know

what i am going to do for life.

All I know is that I will try everything because
20 years from now I will regret the things I've
never done more than the things I have.

I want to live a life with no regrets

I’ll be doing something that I love

And that I’ll be good at it.

What would YOU do with $5,000,000

Was a question posed to me from a professor today (or yesterday) .....

*Look at the picture a little more carefully...

1. Send my parents a catered feast

2. and papers to a Vacation House



3. Reward myself with a month's supply of socks


4. And a trip to Tibet

5. The majority into a diversified Index Fund Portfolio favoring aggressive returns .

6. And a good measure into AAPL ($10 drop? Wall Street, I love your insecurities).


















7. Give heavily to Cancer Research and Art Museums

8. The rest on my friends.

Because no matter how helpless you are, there will always be someone more deserving.

How would you spend $5 mil?

*The "about me" post will come next. This is merely for fun!
**To be fair, the market in general wasn't doing well. But -$10 for AAPL? *Hugs*

You learn something new every day....

Did you know that Diet Mountain Dew


has more caffeine per mg than your average cuppa java?

And apparently


A healthy part of your daily diet?

Welcome to:


Guess who isn't sleeping tonight?

:)

DeSean Jackson.....

Makes me want to do this.

45 - 31

Fierce!

I talk to strangers…

All the time.

And I like it that way.

But what did momma used to say?

“Don’t talk to strangers”

And for good reasons too, there are some really sick people out there.

It works on children because they are relatively innocent and inherently trusting.

But assuming that if you are reading this, you are already college-matured…or at least aspire to be.

So is that maxim still beneficial?

The majority of people (especially those who live in sprawling metropolis) still has this belief ingrained within. Walk down any street and you’ll discover people

with glasses so big they look like bugs

or

Proud ipod groupies

or

Mr. I can text so fast you won't even know what hit you.

Are you one of them?

And you wonder why you are lonely

You've seen them. They'll fiddle with their Treos every two minutes while rocking their Ipods with eyes downcast; creating this invisible shield around them. They panic when you so much as to smile at them, hoping you'll just pass them by because...

Oh, momma told them not to talk to strangers.

The average Joe live in solitude. Don't believe me? Go on craigslist personals section and search up the word

"lonely".

The average American wake up, eat, work, sleep. Repeat. Maybe the occasional restaurant scene on the weekend. They cling to their families and cliques like drowned rats to a wooden plank and refuses to venture out. And yet at the same time they long for that spark of spontaneity, that rare encounter.

Everyone from the busy Strada bar girl to the hot shot investment banker to the content janitor are really living in this endless cycle.

Are you sick of it? Living in the same predictable, routine life. Talking to the same people, doing the same thing everyday, having the same old banter. That is why divorce rates in America is so high, people want a spark of life, something unpredictable.

So talk to people.

(but use your brain, if you are walking on Telegraph Ave 3am in the morning and a gang hoods is coming your way.... RUN)

Talk to people?



Why should I? They'll think I am off my rocker! No one talks to strangers!

Precisely, no one talks to strangers, but everyone wants a little bit of human touch. Why do you think people spends hundreds in massage parlors when pilates does the same thing? Its a little bit of human touch.


But most people want to be left alone!

Do you want to be left alone? If you are happy with your current crop of friends then by all means do so. If you are content, you are one of the lucky few.

But I know that many of you out there are just dying for a little human touch, but the idea that you have to approach a complete stranger decked out in

This

absolutely terrifies you.

So how do you start? There is no one around!

Really?

Where do you go get your morning dose of caffeine? The paper boy? The grocery clerk? The awkward intern at your office? (Hire me! Raises hand) The person suffering next to you in a crowded Bart station? The neighbor that you have never talked to?

Now when you start, thread lightly. Remember that while you've overcome your barriers, the other person still has hers up in full force. Start out with something light:

"It is sweltering in here!"
"How long have you been waiting for the Bart?"
"What do you recommend? Americano or Lemonade?"
"You come here often?"
"Cal is so going to cream Tennessee"
"Orange, what an unfortunate color"

And see that person's face light up because for the love of everything holy you are the first person to acknowledge their existence today.

Even if he/she doesn't speak to you for the rest of your stay, that smile is worth it.

Well, for me at least, it is.

*I try to live my own advice, thus you'll probably find me either 1) studying or at gym 2) at school clubs or 3) chatting with random people. This blog is for my own reflections and realizations. Although I can give your average geek a run for his money in terms of computer knowledge, I love people more.
*Stay tuned, I'll still update regularly! But please understand that this blog is not my life, but a mere vestige of it. Comments make my day :)

K, CAL GAME IS NEXT!

Have a wonderful day.