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Bumbuku
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Name: Brian
Country: United States
State: California
Birthday: 5/7/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: Staunch Advocate of short person rights, procrastinating, sleeping, a combination of the above, and going crazy.
Expertise: making smiley's  , :c), ,
 , >_<,o_0, *_*, ^_^, 
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
Member Since:
10/16/2002
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| Funny discovery today, If you search for bumbuku, this blog that I haven't touched in around a year is no. 4 on the list on google if you search for "bumbuku".
So i am stuck at work, at hour 14, and I wondered what should I do. Well looks like I'm dusting the old blog. It is very funny observing the proliferation of the so called "blogosphere" from when blogs first came in vogue. When this thing first seemed to start, it was the mostly asian fashionable thing to do. Now some people think that the only un-corporate modern media sanitized information comes from blogs. Heh.
Oh well, I don't to feel like talking about modern media. Well at least from the political philosophical point of view. I figure it's about time to make an update.
A year after I have graduated from Pitzer class of 2006 (It's okay if you haven't heard of it... its small, and odds are if you've heard of it, you know a lot of really small liberal arts colleges that no one else has heard of. A liberal arts college nerd so to speak), I have been doing what everyone says that we should be doing after college. I got a job. Well more accurately a job got me.
I had a revelation after going to school and not knowing what to do, i.e. I thought of most every white collar profession that spending more money at some graduate school would eventually result in some decently paying "respected" occupation. For those of you that don't know the basic list this included: Lawyer, Doctor, Finance Guy, Engineer... you get the picture. The summer after I had graduated, in fact the day after I graduated I had the pleasure of waking up at 7:30 in the morning (after getting rip roaringly drunk celebrating my graduation from college) in order to start taking an intense physics in which a year of college physics would be finished in an 8 week period in order to finish pre-med reqs.
The life of the full time physics student seemed to suit me fine, I bought a couple of mcat books, and was preparing myself, for entering in another wonderful however many years of school, and becoming a doctor. However, before I knew it I was getting burnt out. You don't really notice at first. You know class will be intense. That exhaustion is normal from dealing with nothing but physics 5 days a week for 8 hours a day. However, its harder to notice that all you begin to think about is not what you are doing. You don't want to be there but you feel committed. A maxim of my life since I was about 5 was what my mom always said: 3 days, 3 months, 3 years. Basically if you commit yourself to something you commit. Thats kind of my problem I wasn't quite prepared to commit. Without having made that conscious and unconscious decision I got burnt out. I went to class like people go to jobs every day that they hate. You don't really know what this means until you start really working.
So after one semester (I had the decency to at least stick out the remaining week or so), I knew had enough. I phoned home, got a refund on my next semester, used what savings I had and moved to sunny santa monica, to sleep in the bedroom of a friend who was out of the country. The next few months were what I needed, a few months of really being a bum. Not having any responsibility, living as meager as possible, and playing a ton of video games.
Eventually my friend came back into the country, and I did what I think any person should do at some point in their life. Sleep on a friends couch for a couple of months. It gives you a lot of perspective when you don't really have a home, It lets you know what you value and what is not so important. It is now 12:47 am and I got to work 15 hours ago and I no longer need to stay. So looks like I will have to write again later.
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| As of now I have two main vices: Smoking and World of Warcraft. It is
arguable as to which is more addictive and more destructive to my
health - cigarettes having the downside of shortness of breath,
inability to prolonged amounts of excercise and this thing called
cancer that for some reason everyone gets their panties up in a bunch
about, and WoW having the downside of taking up large amounts of time
when something productive could be accomplished, and also resulting in
me staying up until the wee hours of the morning because I don't need
to worry about work until late in the afternoon. But the target of this
rant will be smoking.
Recently I have come to realize that neither vice is particularly good
for me, but what are vices for. A vice is one of those things that one
does fully knowing that the thing that they are doing has negative
consequences. However, a quandry is in regards to the positive side of
a vice. Yes, vices have downsides, but they also have upsides. A vice
is not a vice unless you enjoy it, but a vice must also hav
consequences that could interfere with doing other things. Smoking does
give you a high in the sense that nicotine fucks with your brain and
makes you feel a little more togather. This is the case in regards to
people smoking while they are stressed. As an upside I don't think this
is nearly as important as the twon main reasons why I would smoke
cigarettes: after a meal, and with other people. From a pure
physiological point, speaking for myself, I think there is nothing
quite like eating yourself to the unbuckle the belt, sit in your chair,
stare blankly at the while, the group your eating with is too full to
speak point from eating good food. I love eating, and I love food, and
a smoke after a binge on korean food, or hot pot, sushi, steak etc...
Chemically I have no idea what the cigarette does in this situation.
Supposedly cigarettes are an upper - they constrict blood vessels, and
shrink the stomach. I would think neither of those responses would be
all that helpful after a large meal, but to me smoking a cigarette
seems just perfect. It may be that I have a nice 5 min period in which
I can think about all the scrumptious things that now reside in a
puddle of acid in my stomach. It may be that the cigarette gives me a
pick me up sensation as food coma starts to crush my will to do
anything like a fat person sitting on me. Regardless of the random
effect of the smoke, smoking after a meal seems like a perfect desert,
or the perfect desert after desert.
The other situation in which smoking feels good is when you do it with
other people. For some reason I feel like this is a logical fallacy in
someway... but I'm not quite sure how to articulate it (something like
a vicious cycle chicken and egg quandry, I smoke because of the people
who smoke, and other people smoke because I smoke), but smoking with
other people has an effect that is somewhat like the formation of a
minority in-group. I know a lot of you out there are probably not too
appreciative about me comparing smoking to minority groups, but the
smokers stick togather like the Asian stick togather in a sense.
Smoking is a voluntary act (after a while anyways), and those that
choose to participate are instantly seperated from many non-smokers -
for many reasons (i.e. we have do deal with annoying pre-pubescent high
schooler trying to impress a lot of high school girls who like to
exclaim to some young looking smoking stranger "Don;t you know smoking
is bad for you", while we think 'well the last time I checked, I know I
can read the warning on the side of the pack', and promptly tell the
little grommit "Don't you know smokers are 5 times as likely to beat
the crap out of little pre-pubescent shits like you"... okay enough of
this tangent), and back to the point smoking seperates the smoking
group from the non-smoking group. As a result of this in-group
identification, members inside this group psychologically feel closer
to each other. While people may smoke for different reasons, people who
do smoke can identify another smoker like another asian can spot
another asian. Instead of looking for black hair and squinty eyes,
smokers look for the two outstreched fingers and the trail of smoke.
Instantly regardless of any other markers - smokers when finding
another smoker instantly feel closer. As a result often very unrelated
people will be able to socialize on the common ground of smoking, and
honestly it's much more natural to start a conversation after someone
asks "can I bum a light" vs. "Hey your asian, what's up". Because of
in-group membership, other group dividing lines such as rank in a
company, hey your a hot girl but I have no idea who you are but you
smoke, are often crossed. In my case smoking at work in which a
significant portion of the workplace (ranging from editors, VP's,
Graphics design people, to the company mom) all smoke means that I have
a chance to interact with those people on a more regular basis. When
I'm smoking outside with another co-worker it is much easier to make
conversations as opposed to trying to make conversation as people to
and fro. Taking a smoke break results in a 5-?? min window in which you
are not so concerned about work and can talk with people. For a person
with aspirations of moving up, socializing with higher-ups is a huge
perk.
The social benefits of smoking can also be seen at bars most anywhere.
For some reason more people like to smoke when they are drunk/drinking.
Some say that this is because people like to have something to do with
their hands. In the bar most everyone is holding a drink. When you no
longer want to hold a drink, your hands want to be entertained, so you
start stirring your empty drink, fiddling with the napkin/coaster, or
going out for a smoke. Going out for a smoke has the tactical advantage
in the situations of... whoa I drank too much and I need to escape so a
person doesn't push another drink to me... hey I'll follow the smokers.
Besides the tactile benefits of smoking, the chemical affects alluded
to before (constrict of blood vessels, shrinking of the stomach) would
have a benefit of dealing with the alcohol (upper fighting the downing
effects of the booze), but that's not as interesting. The social
benefit while smoking while drinking is that not only do you get to
take a break, you are with people of your smoking in-group, and you are
probably drunk. As a result it is even easier to deal with the: hey
your hot but I have no idea who you are, but I'm drunk and your
smoking, situation.
However, when reading this rant, one needs to know that i am not an
advocate of smoking. Yes I smoke, but the more I do, the more I realize
my body doesn;t feel to good. I like playing sports, and excercising.
But it is really friggin hard to play tennis when you get winded after
every rally. You find yourself panting for breath after walking up a a
hill and 2 flights of stairs. I hate this part of smoking. So as of now
I am in a quandry related to smoking. There are some reasons why I
still smoke. I can;t say that i'm gonna quit, but I definitely know I
can't go smoking 7-10 cigarettes a day. So my solution to the problem
is to smoke only in the situations in which i find the most benefit.
After a meal and with other people. Granted this guarauntees at least 3
cigarettes in a day if I ate three meals, but I usually sleep through
breakfast anyways . So thats 2 a day from meals. At work I can
imagine smoking at least 2 or 3 with other people. If I only smoke
while other people are smoking this would be the case. The loophole I
need to figure out is that often times if i end up smoking by myself at
first, someone will end up wandering out to smoke also. But that would
be against the rule of only smoke with other people as I am initially
smoking by myself. However that line of argumentation is loaded in the
sense that if i smoke only after other people are smoking... they would
probably finish first leaving me in a position of I am the only one
smoking. So in my attempt to cut back on this vice: only under two
conditions can I smoke - after a meal, and with other people. The first
and last issue above, will be ameliorated by only being able to smoke
after other people initiate smoking first. The above conditions are
overruled when a pregnant person is nearby. This probably won;t be such
a problem if my friends don;t have bebies for a while. But for those
that do I'll try my best to not make your kid retarded. If the kid ends
up being retarded - I blame the parents genetics.
p.s. One thing I didn;t think about out is smoking is often a good
period for retrospection. You go outside, stare at the sky, or the
swaying trees, think and smoke. I find it weird to just sit outside not
doing anything. But these perk is not nearly as important as the other
two.
p.p.s The conditions come into effect after I smoke this cigarette.
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| It's been a while since I've typed anything using this mode of
communication but boredom sets in, and as I am Asian (questionably
AzN), and since this website is mostly dominated by Asians, hell why
not go back to my roots. Recently I just started my first job as a the
Night Runner at an Editing house in Los Angeles. Basically my job
entails getting into work at 4pm (so I it is near impossible for me to
miss making it to my job), and I do a lots of odds and ends...
dutifully using all 4 years of my college education to its fullest
potential doing difficult tasks such as stocking the fridge, stocking
the booze fridge, buying stuff to put into the fridge, washing
the dishes, delivering packages, picking up packages, ordering dinner,
picking up dinner, making take-out food look nice for clients, and
restocking the fridge.
After four years of education I know we are kicked into the real world
with lofty expectations of changing the world, kicking ass and taking
names one at a time right out the door, but being able to hold the part
of my head that is constantly murmuring "Dude you took a bunch of
science classes, know a bunch of esoteric political concepts, you were
in charge of a sponsor program etc... Why the #$%@ are you stocking a
stupid fridge" off the tip of my tongue has had suprising results.As
mentally unchallenging the job is, I can honestly say I love my job and
my workplace. Yes I am doing menial work, but the environment I am in
is just wonderful. For my first job out of college I work at an office
with a pool table and a foos ball table, a fully stocked full size
drink fridge (although I can't drink booze since I drive), and with a
group of people that are absolutely awesome. Plus meals are
provided. I pause to describe every person in colorful detail...
but needless to say the people are not only nice to work with, but
always have good stories. I've had a lot of fun playing pool against an
editor who's toured with slayer... and has a lot of funny stories that
always seem to end up with him lighting his hotel on fire. Or the boss
who thought it was awesome me and my friend who got me this job (who I
am now indebted to) started to smoke cigars and without batting an eye
gave us each a cuban cigar... and a humidor to boot.
This job would be even more ridiculous if I made say... 30,000 a year
(roughly $15 an hour)... but the one downside is I make $11 an hour,
and I am only considered part time as the night runner... so I get mb
25-30 hours a week and I don;t get benefits, but I thank my mom
profusely for giving me health insurance until I turn 24.
What makes this job truely amazing in my mind is the upside with the
job. Yes I'm getting paid hardly anything, but the potential for
advancment truely boggles my mind. Many of the people who are now
Assistant editors, Sound mixers, Operations managers had my job a
couple years ago. The possibility of moving to full-time gets me
excited. After 3 months I would get benefits, and not only that I would
get to take classes related to editing for close to free at this place
called moviola
Beyond having a job I enjoy (and what is very weird is that I stress a
lot about a job that is pretty much strss free), I am really lucky to
live with people, and be surrounded by people I like being with. Some
Pitzer kids have kindly let me in, as I live a half-way home after
college existence on the very comfortable couch. I'm lucky enough to
work with a buddy who can be an emo-douchebag but also seems to have a
photographic memory of anything related to rock-n-roll, and is always
fun to hang out with. Being with people I like at work and at
psuedo-homeI can't really complain. Yes I can be jealous of my friends
who are making a lot more money than me, Yes there are still things
that I wish I could be doing, but for the first time in a really long
time I am very happy.
So in an attempt to make this rant on the website that is designed for
ranting, and usually useless for usefull information... after college
just try to find something you enjoy doing (yes very cliche), but I am
pretty sure I am much happier doing what i am doing now as opposed to
forcing myself to enjoy something. Serendipity is a wonderful thing.
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| I just got my license to kill. Passed the drive test and missed 5 points. | | |
| I just got my license to kill. Passed the drive test and missed 5 points. | | |
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