Read, Eat, Sleep, Watch Sports

Watching 4th quarter of game 2 of the NBA finals. Durant is killing it and I want a piece of Westbrook for myself, but I don't get why OKC makes things so difficult for themselves, digging big holes to crawl out of at the end of the game.

Maybe they're just baiting another choke from 'KingJames'.

Anyway, post-Aruba, staying at home for an extra week since it seems pointless to sit in my apartment alone when I could be hanging with my fam and watching the little bro play another tennis tourney especially since I won't have the time to lounge around like this next summer.


The last few days in Aruba were much, much better than the first. We managed to find a few hidden gems frequented by locals but are too out of the way for most tourists. This means we had to rely on the kindness and generosity of people who had cars to give us rides. (Take note: if you're going to visit Aruba and plan to leave the resort bubble, RENT A CAR. Preferably a 4x4 Jeep to overcome the natural landscape.)

Wednesday we went to Mangel Halto, a beautiful little bay known for snorkeling. While the water wasn't as clear and the fish weren't as bright or plentiful as Hanauma Bay in Hawaii, it was a nice piece o beach with a pretty distinct mangrove forest to tunnel through to get to the water. A little farther off the coast there's apparently a shipwreck and pretty good diving-- definitely added to the list of things to try. Then went to dinner on a dock. Really cool atmosphere, good food, and not outrageous prices.

An iguana on the beach at Mangel Halto!

Inter-species marriage?

Love this! Someone built a ladder to a rock. 

Silhouetted Mom in the sunset. We just walked up this dirt
road along the coast from beach to dinner.

Found this anchor on the side of the road.

Our dinner table at Marina Pirata!

 Thursday we hitched a ride down to San Nicholas, site of a huge oil refinery formerly owned by Valero but recently shut down and acquired by China. That was one of the really unexpected things about Aruba-- there are a ton of Chinese immigrants there! Apparently they initially arrived for something oil-related in the 40's and now nearly every grocery store on the island is Chinese-run. That's the other thing. Nearly all of the fruits and vegetables are imported. Did I already write about this? The most easily developed parts of the island are dedicated to tourism and majority of the remaining land is extremely rocky and arid. No space for farming. Anyway, went to baby beach, known for its calm, clear, shallow waters, followed by a undistinct but fun little music festival that night.

Clear blue waters at Baby beach.

Sand crab! He's so cute!!

Charlie's Bar! Apparently an Aruban landmark. Fun place
and decor, but kindof just an excuse for expensive American
bar food and draft beer.

Balashi, Aruba's Beer. One of the few things
actually produced on the island. Aruba also
has one of the world's largest water
desalination plants.

Charlie's Honeymoon Sauce. It was really tasty.

Creeping on the photo shoot next to our hotel.

Gogurt sky sunset! Mom on the dock.

Cool costumes along the back street at the music festival.
Hellions represent!

The last day before airport day consisted of a jeep tour led by the amazing local woman. Mother of 6 and grandmother of 7, she's one of the liveliest, happiest, most carefree yet adventurous and loving people I've ever met. She took us to Andicuri beach on the northern coast, totally secluded and serene but with rough waves and rocky coast. Then the natural bridge was pretty majestic and the natural pool was filled wish fish and eels which we called to the surface with bread.

The Jeep. Janky, but so bad ass. The door latches only work
sufficiently to prevent them from flying outward and the entire
body is covered in Sharpie messages. Canvas top, open air,
perfect for adventuring.

Me on the natural bridge.

Climbing down to be under the bridge = good idea.

Drive through the Arikok national park.

Natural rock formations surround a pool.

The walk down to be poolside. This was after a 20 minute,
bumpy ass ride into the park.

We signed her Jeep. All in all a good trip.
Mom-daughter time!

Since I've been back Nadal won a record 7th Roland Garros title, I've finally finished the Harry Potter series, Charlie is still in Europe, and Boeing's relocation assistance has proven amazing.

Glad I got to see Alex before she left for her internship at Goldman Sachs. And she turned 21!! Happy belated. It's our 10th year of friendship.

D'aww! The caption should be in present tense but Alex was
still in high school when she made this. Forgivable.

Oh, and I get to see Ben Sollee live again! I need to broaden my musical horizons. Suggestions? I'll take book suggestions too!

Aaaaaand after some huge shots by KD to bring the game within 2, the Heat win game 2 100-96. Boo.

Last thing-- a piece of unsolicited advice for those still early in their college careers. Choose a major depending on potential future job prospects. They tell you to do what you enjoy. Don't listen. Unless you also plan to enjoy being unemployed :)

Aruba: Pre-packaged Fun

So... Aruba is not all it's cracked up to be. We went to Oranjestad, the capital, which I expected to be a sort of cultural center of the island: lively, fun, delicious... No such thing. Even the government-sponsored tourist info center was NON-EXISTENT. Like, there's a little 'i' in a circle on the map between the Renaissance Hotel and the Parliament building-- we get there-- no information center. Everyone we ask looks at us like we're stupid. Considering tourism is their main source of income you'd think they would try a little harder to be helpful. The capital consists of 2 blocks of sketchy jewelry stores, a shopping center that looks like Dutch Cake Fairyland (Royal Plaza), a giant bus hub which was actually really useful, a Valero gas station, and a ton of sketchy alleys and construction.

Confused Licious in Oranjestad, in front of the
Norse Frosting Plaza, or whatever.

So there's a sign but no information center.
I don't <3 you right now, Aruba!

Apparently anything worth seeing has been moved to the high-rise part of the island where all of the main resorts are, around Palm beach and the northwestern end. This leaves Oranjestad pathetically lackluster. Even the touted Bon Bini cultural festival every Tuesday night seemed like a government-induced waste of effort. We didn't spend the $5 to go in because the whole 'city' was so run down and uncomfortable, and the official tourism website where I got a lot of other information had already proved unreliable.

The high-rise area is known to local people as Little Miami and that's exactly what it is. Yes, the beaches are covered with white sand and the water is nice and calm, but all of the areas that are a little nicer or more relaxing are fully manufactured. Giant shopping centers filled with the finest American retailers and average American restaurants, fancy all-inclusive resorts with their own expensive and thoroughly-advertised restaurants and pools and spas, it's anything you can get at any other resort in the world. All of the activites that are available are what I refer to as pre-packaged or manufactured fun. Like Disneyland, but with less thought and creativity and engineering efforts. Things like guided RV tours, glass-bottom boats, and sitting on a floaty thing while being dragged around in a circle by a small motorboat just aren't fun to me. Oh, but there are casinos here too. No thanks. Also, the beaches are nice but honestly nothing special enough to merit a visit here. (Hawaii)

I did enjoy riding the bus away from Oranjestad to Palm Beach, lounging there, and then walking back south through all the beaches and along all of the hotels and resorts. All of the beaches here are public so the resorts can't block them off for private use only. That's nice. Unless you're paying $500/night to stay there. I still say that public transport and walking around are the best way to see a new place, even if it takes a lot more time and energy. Obviously this isn't true wherever you go, but I think this is generally how I get the best sense of a new place. (Sydney)

A nice part of Eagle beach, just south of Palm beach.

Wandering. The beach in this segment was tiny and rocky
and therefore there were no establishments in sight.

One redeeming part of Aruba is the little place where we're staying. It's in Savaneta, on the opposite side of the island that's meant for tourists, but it's a lovely, cozy little family-run place that has about 7 rooms total and a unique array of really friendly, outgoing people. Of course, it takes a specific kind of person to turn down the resort vacation that Aruba is known for and instead opt for a tiny, out-of-the-way place that's surrounded by dirt roads and is a 10 minute walk from the nearest bus stop. So yes, nice place, friendly travelers, really great owners, but the inconvenience and inaccessibility of everything is a major downside. Even so, we managed a pretty nice dinner the first night. We walked to a local fish market down the street and bought some fresh mahi mahi and shrimp and grilled it. There was also a teeny little bakery with fresh breads and snacks. Slightly disappointed with the lack of local food readily available for purchase. Maybe it's just because they don't grow anything here and import almost all fruits and vegetables... I just thought that with Dutch affiliation and Caribbean location there would be something more unique. (Taiwan)

At least the scenery was really nice on our walk.

The teeny little snack shop. Even my head almost hit the awning.
Charming in its own way but not a reliable resource.

The view from our room really is gorgeous.

Dinner, night 1! Fresh grilled mahi mahi and shrimp.

This guy was ginormo. And a shrimp. Ginormo shrimp. Haha.

 You might be wondering-- why the hell would I come to a vacation destination in the Caribbean and not stay in a nicer place with more accessible amenities? That's not how I do. If you are new to reading this blog or are too dense to tell, I like experiencing things for their true value and identity and all-inclusive resorts just aren't enjoyable to me. Yes, I've stayed at them and yes, it's nice to be waited on and served at your every whisper but I don't enjoy it as much as others might so really it's not worth it for me. I like wandering around and exploring local life and culture and seeing and learning about how things and people and cultures differ so widely in various places. There's really just not much here.

A nice tree on the northern bit of Eagle beach. Really serene.

A DIY swing. Hilarious and surprisingly sturdy.

Maybe I'm being unfair and maybe I'm spoiled to have so many other amazing adventures to compare this to but really, if you aren't into spending a million dollars for a completely manufactured and less-than-distinct island experience, maybe Aruba shouldn't be at the top of your list.

Hopefully the next few days will have more interesting things in store, but really if they don't I'm ok just lounging around the mini-hotel's nice patio furniture. Though the beach here is really small and rocky, the water is still nice, the sun shines, and the island breeze carries away any worry.

Other quick updates:
I got a car! Black Toyota Corolla. I'll have in LA when I'm back in a few weeks! My brother suggested getting the license plate to say 'Lish'. Thoughts?

Also, I got to see that same little bro win a doubles tourney the day before leaving for Aruba.

BIG first serve. Too fast for me to capture the contact point.

SHO PROUD, LITTLE BRO!!

Boeing ✈

Things I've done since graduating from USC:
-Received a job offer from Boeing
-Witnessed/benefitted from the power and reach of the Trojan family
-Passed a drug test... background check still pending
-Attended a grad party featuring the USC band (Shoutout: Mallory)
-Spent time with my wonderful family
-Wrote 10 thank you cards
-Bought and delivered small tokens of appreciation
-Updated my resume
-Cleaned and organized my computer files
-Uploaded pictures (to private albums)
-Taken four 10000 scan carbon NMRs, a last ditch effort to get my name on this paper that should've been published a year ago

Needless to say it's been an overwhelming week but it feels amazing and I've never felt more blessed. Everything's fallen into place and while I worked hard these last four years to try to put my life together I never would have imagined, especially after multiple minor crises in life re-routing, that things would have turned out so well.

For starters, I have an amazing family and we share this mutual love and support that is absolutely invaluable and crucial to my existence. My mom, dad, brother, and grandmother flew out to join me in this milestone weekend and our four days together were more memorable than possibly anticipated. It started with a mess of an arrival on Thursday night and an early departure to plant our asses in stiff, plastic, white chairs for the main commencement ceremony. Value of attendence there is questionable. Then we went to the satellite ceremony where it felt like an eternity before my name was called, and sitting through the neuroscience and biology majors would have been a ride to hell and back, which is why I was one of those defiant graduates who took off my cap, stood up, said "Fuck it," and marched down the center aisle alone to join my family and relieve them from the misery of 400 bio majors.

The fam!

 As we were leaving campus I got a phone call from an unknown number. I didn't pick up, figuring they could just leave a message if it was important. A few minutes later I got a new email notification which I snuck a glance at enough to see that it was a contingent job offer from Boeing. Yes, this is the position that at the end of my last whiny, lost puppy post I said I would accept on the spot, and as soon as I let it sink in and believe that the offer was real, I clicked the 'Accept' button.

The rest of the weekend consisted of extended family and close family friends which the entire internet (all 4 of you who read this) don't need to hear details about :)

A little more about my opinion and experience on the job front--
I'm excited. Like, really excited. This position at Boeing is as good as it gets for someone in my shoes. No bio, all chem, and an analytical application totally different from what I've been doing and hating through college. More importantly, it's not a lab bitch position. Materials science for use in satellite development sounds awesome, and the fact that my work will be engineering based, and therefore geared toward perfecting a product rather than attempting a novel discovery, is really provoking. I like efficiency and productivity and this job won't just be following the same protocol. Critical thinking and creativity are a part of it in a different way than in research. The tools will all be there and the challenge will be figuring out how to use them to get the product we want (very o chem synthesis-like, tehe). Boeing is the best in their field, and having a chance to be a part of it and learn from it and soak it all in for a few years before re-evaluating and deciding where I want to go from there is exactly what I need.

Also, a permanent position means I get to buy a car, find a real apartment, invest in a couch, and be in LA for football season!! I am also looking forward to a regular 9-5 schedule because that means my evenings, nights, and weekends are MINE! No more being busy until 10 pm M-Th. That means more time for cooking, grocery shopping, working out, hopefully playing ultimate, reading, and real time for real hobbies since work gets left at work, and home life is separate.

I thought I was going to have a lot more to write about but instead, here are a bunch of pictures from the last few weeks:

Cousin, Gma, and I in SF.

Seniors-- Regionals in Scottsdale.

Criss-crossed In-n-Out trees in front of an In-n-Out!!

Results of table hockey. Love frolf.

Philippe's French Dip after the Advanced Biochem final,
my last final ever! Plus potato salad and French onion soup.

Seeds Cobb Sandwich, the last bit of my discresh.

Salmon, Yellowtail Belly, White Tuna sashimi, post-drug test.

Commencement Regalia!

Dim sum with the extended fam.

10 piece Trojan marching band at Mallory's bad ass grad party.

Eggs Benedict is divine in Irvine.

A rare, clear view of dt LA as seen from the USC Dental School.

Today I ventured up to Larchmont Village. The main purpose was to buy little gifts from Chocoholic (formerly Leonidas), a small Belgian chocolate shop. Tiny, but everything is divine. I custom-created small gift boxes and the woman there was really helpful in helping me decide what to get. She insisted on one ganache, one caramel, one praline, with an assorment of milk and dark coatings, with either a white or an additional milk. The standard box received a pure ganache in dark, caramel sea salt in dark, hazelnut cream in milk, and lime cream in white.

Ze little chocolate gift boxes!

I spent a small fortune there and moved onto the wine shop where the selection is great but the gourmet deli sandwiches are even better. I got a salami soppressata (salami-- real salami, dry, paper thin, with thick, rich spots of fat-- Spanish manchego, sun dried tomato spread, evoo, balsamic, and mixed greens on a French bagutte). Absolutely divine. Like, could die of happiness and satisfaction divine. Then I walked past Village Pizza, caught a whiff as they were opening for business, and couldn't resist. Their thin crust is New York style, sauce is slightly tart but oh-so-fresh, perfect amount of cheese, and fresh baked to order. Oh, and they have homemade sausage and meatball topping. Got 2 slices, ate one, and have another hidden in an undisclosed location for future consumption.

As Todd Lieman touted in my sports business class this semester, this was a day well lived. And many more to come.

Un-inspiration

I've been passively engaging in the job search process for the last few months now and I've recently made a development that I'm doing something terribly wrong. My resume squishes as many academic achievements into a sheet of paper as possible and I'd like to think my qualifications are on par, but the one gaping hole is any sort of passion or desire for the opportunities I've come across. Those who have known me lately will probably think that my work ethic toward academics was never really existent and to an extent that is true but not because I'm inherently a lazy person. To the contrary, I think I am not only able but also willing to put forth maximal effort. When it's something worth working fore. Therein lies my biggest problem which is that I don't have a fundamental interest in biochemistry. I declared the major with the intent of pursuing medical school and while I've gained a passable scientific knowledge base, my lack of fascination in the field makes any technical skill irrelevant.

I know myself well enough to know (as if these four years as a biochemistry major weren't evidence enough) that if I end up in a position where I don't think the effort required to be the best is effort worth expending, I won't give a shit. I'll do an adequate job but nothing more. Just like college.

I've been watching Charlie spend hours on end, every day, working to prepare his undergraduate honors thesis which he'll be presenting tomorrow afternoon. It's the compilation of all of the research he's done in a molecular marine bio lab for the past year or 2, including full time last summer. In a way I'm jealous because I don't care nearly as much about my research. It was an interesting exercise in organic synthetic lab techniques and experimental procedures, but nothing more. I only want to publish a paper on the principle of wanting to be productive and wanting to produce some evidence of my time trapped in an underfunded lab where no one has accountability. I don't actually care about nitrohydroxylation and the bullshit potential 'applications' that are supposed to make it somehow relevant.

So this leads me to think that I should just scrap what I've been doing simply because it seems like the logical next step. It's not. It can't be, because it would be a waste for me to not wake up every day excited to be productive. It would be a shame for me to settle for a field where I dread any excess effort, where I try to cleverly only do a passable job simply because I don't care enough to do more.

Now, then, is the issue of identifying the things I actually care about and using the education and background that I already have in a productive way to get me to the next step. Or not. I honestly wouldn't care if my hard science degree becomes totally irrelevant in my near future, given that I find something I actually care about. I just seem to think a degree sounds better than no degree but then again, I always said a bachelor's is really just to prove that you're willing to play the game long enough for them to give you that sheet of paper. Apparently that's worth more than actual skill in our society.

ANYWAY. Things I actually care about and love to spend time doing/learning about:
-Right to die, and other Kevorkian-inspired medical ethics issues
-Food tastyness, not that I have any skill in its actual preparation, only eating and critiquing. Haha. Useful.
-Gay rights.
-Puppies.
-Organizing things. Logistics. Anyone who's seen my spreadsheets know how anal I am about this, but I'm good at it.
-Sports med. Guess I kindof missed the boat on that one. Rather, I still love the idea of ortho and all but I'm just not sure I'm ready to deal with the whole med school thing.
-World travel. So many good things.

I figure even if some of these seem stupid, recent events have shown me that there are markets and opportunities for things I would never consider as traditional job options. Kids that go to school 2 days a week and go snowboarding or surfing or do other crazy extreme sports for the other 5 days per week I would previously doom to failure. But no. They end up landing jobs with companies like GoPro, making
snowboarding videos that THEY WOULD BE DOING ANYWAY. That's what they love spending their time on, and now they're going to be paid for doing exactly what they would do if real-life obligations didn't have to be a consideration. What could be better?

Yes, I'm jealous. I'm really jealous. I'm jealous that 1-- they had the balls to just say fuck school, do ok and get an easy fuck business degree, and instead spend time and effort on what they actually care about. Caring that much makes it so easy to be good at. 2-- they weren't sucked into thinking that education and prestige should be the sole focus. I just need to get over this strange ego thing and thinking that academic rigor actually matters. It doesn't. I'm over it. When comm kids in my sports business class are getting internships with Nike and jobs at the Pac-12 Network-- an industry where a shitty, sorry-ass team was just bought from a crook for $2.15 billion dollars because of a $4 BILLION MEDIA RIGHTS DEAL, I have no place to hate. They're doing something right. I'm the one staring in the face of multiple $15/hour lab bitch temp jobs that no one wants.

What I really miss is that feeling when I read a description of something and it sounds so perfect and so appealing that I'm giddy. I envision how it fits into my plan of my future and how relevant it is and where I'll go next. I had this feeling when I found this orthopedic surgery internship. I had it when I read about USC's RHP program. It seemed inevitable. I HAD to get these opportunities, and when you care that much and want it and anticipate it so clearly, things tend to work out. I'm desperate for something that gives me that feeling again. Otherwise I'm just going to become some soul-less lab bitch who just tries to make a shit ton of money doing something I don't give a damn about (patent law, anyone?)

Hm. So this ended up being much more of a messy rant than I had intended, but the point is that something has to change. I need to be inspired into action, and it's up to me to find something that I actively want to work for. Sorting out my thoughts is good. Maybe I'll post a follow-up later. I need to do something about this, it's getting ridiculous.

Even so, if Boeing makes me an offer I'll accept it on the spot.

Appendix: Want to vom?
http://www.bama.ua.edu/~chem/undergraduate/undergradprograms/chem-careers.html
http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_SUPERARTICLE&node_id=1188&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=37697451-6b88-487a-a825-8034e2d1bc9b

Yeah, nothing interesting here. Blegh.