It’s close to 3am. I just finished showering after getting back from the gym. I was really tempted to skip the gym. Because I could’ve slept. And I was playing video games before going to the gym. Playing video games would’ve been so much better. But then I felt like I needed to rush and stop the video games in order to get to the gym. Weird. Rushing to a save point and quitting so I can get to the gym.

The night time walk. I don’t remember when I started doing them. But I really enjoy walks at 1am or just late at night. It’s pure darkness and total silence. It’s so nice. I think part of the reason that I prefer the late night workouts is that I enjoy the late night walks. And then when I got to the gym. There was only one other person besides me. Man. For some reason that just made me really happy. I have the entire gym to myself. I work out when other people are sleeping. The pure silence at the gym is quite nice also.

I’m gonna miss the late night walks in fidi. The buildings are actually really nice. And tonight felt like summer. It’s still 20C degrees. Even at 3am. Only in San Francisco. I’m gonna struggle to wake up tomorrow morning. But I think it’s the good kind of struggle. Like.. totally worth it. I guess the alternative is someone working minimum wage and working multi jobs and shifts.

I think survival on minimum wage would be way too hard. But that’s a long topic for another day. Well. Time to have some strawberries and read some high output management. Life is good.

I did a crazy task today which was unblock this other team that was missing data. And the work to do it would’ve taken teams of people but I hacked it and now I feel badass. I think… I might have wrote about it but no biggie. Repetition is practice and reading it again will make you better. There’s always a problem or goal. And you should just do whatever it is that helps you accomplish your goal. Don’t worry about doing it the ‘proper’ way.

It reminds me of the street fighter book on winning. There’s no such thing as cheap. There’s only winning or losing. If your strategy works against you’re opponent even if it’s not officially viable or you feel dirty doing it. Just do it and win. WHen it comes to solving problems and reaching goals. Do whatever is the least amount of work necessary to achieve what you want. I actually didn’t complete the task today, but I managed to do enough so that I unblocked the other team.

I think it goes back to being an effective engineer. You want to do the least amount of work possible and get the most output in terms of work. But when it comes to real life… you still want to do the least to get the most. Unless it’s working out or stuff where you can’t really optimize as much and you literally need practice / putting in the hours.

tl;dr - I feel badass an effective because I did the the impossible by focusing on the high leverage activity

Check out the original here.

So… tired. And lazy. Feel like not exercising. But…. I guess I gotta go. Nothing comes before my health and time. And exercise is the shit. Okay. I’m convinced. Gonna nap then gym.

Don’t think with your emotions.

Emotions are the enemy of logical thought: loneliness, perfectionism, fear, elation, guilt, pride, stress, vengefulness, boredom, humiliation, insecurity, regret, and despair cloud your ability to make good choices.

If you want to make a smart decision, you have to leave your emotions out of it. This is why the best decisions are made on paper: by writing everything down, and basing your decision on what’s been written down, you become aware of any emotions impacting your judgement.

I just meditated for 15 minutes for the first time in a week. I didn’t think that I needed to meditate… but it turns out that I totally did. I think that when I don’t meditate… sometimes my emotions just spike for no reason. Meditation keeps me calm and collected. Today my instacart delivery person dropped off my groceries on the wrong floor. And that made me hella pissed. Like. I can’t believe that I got groceries shopped and delivered and I had to spend 15 minutes texting a guy and then walk up three flights of stairs to get the groceries that he misplaced. After meditating… looking back that seemed like a such a trivial issue. And it is. But in the moment I was hella emotional and being emotional isn’t good. I think things will work out despite being emotional.. but it’s generally better to meditate and be calm. It lets you make the most rational choice which generally is the best choice.

tl;dr - emotions pretty much never help. meditate and stay calm

I got it from my daddy.

I wanted to write a thankful.. but it feels kinda repetitive. I do have one thing I’m thankful for which is the cool and fun people that I’ve met through dance. I’m thankful that I got to play jenga and connect four at a boba place before crushing it on stage with my teammates.

So anyways. This song - I stumbled upon it listening to a mix. And it was pretty catchy. Then I realized it was psy and that just made it so much better. Gangnam style blew my mind in 2012. All I would do was play gangnam style non stop while living in rez and it drove my roommates nuts.

The video and dance is hella catchy and entertaining. Also… CL of 2NE1. Psy has the best guest appearances. Snoop, Hyuna, and now someone from 2NE1.

On a completely unrelated note. I’ve also been listening to I took a pill in ibiza. The sennheiser hd 650 just makes it sound so good. Now go watch daddy.

I got it from mah daddy.

Fucking up won’t kill you… even if you think it will. So I just finished the colloboration dance competition and uh.. I definitely didn’t perform to the best of my abilities. But at the same time… I guess it could’ve been a lot worse. Although things can always be worse so that’s nothing to really be happy about.

The thing is - fucking up won’t ever kill you. So don’t worry about fucking up. Honestly, most people probably wouldn’t even notice it… because it’s hard to notice. So that applies to real life too. If you fuck up in real life. 99.9% of the world won’t know you fucked up. So that don’t matter. No matter how badly you do… you can always move to a different area and no one will know you.

The other thing is… I think it goes back to the brain and psychology. The lizard brain… thinks fuck ups will kill you. If you tripped when running from a tiger… you dead. But in real life…most fuck ups won’t kill you. Failures won’t kill you. It’s hard to fail to the point of death. But the system that you’re programmed with… it’s programmed to think that a mistake will cause death. While that was true in the old days, in modern society most mistakes won’t kill you.

I think my fear response is probably stronger than most people. So many things are life and death. But in reality - it’s not. Don’t let the fear or making a mistake prevent you from going after what you want. After all - it won’t kill you. Probably.

Check it out here

My own personal thoughts on quitting… I think it’s important to quit for the right reason. There’s no point in rejecting reality. If you try to build a product and then there’s no users… maybe there is no market for your product. On the other hand… maybe you shouldn’t give up too soon. One on hand I believe that you can through sheer force of will make shit happen.

On the other hand… you need to think about whether the path you’re taking is optimal or not. I quit things all the time because I use the time for something else that I think is more important. But I don’t ever quit going for something that I want. Because there’s always a way and you never give up.

Like the original. You need to realize when you’re digging a hole and going down the wrong path. And you gotta stop. So don’t brute force the wrong path… but don’t be afraid to brute force a shitty detour.

Just got back from shuffling. Gotta interview a guy at 10am tomorrow. Blargh. So early. Whoops. Need to stop complaining. It’s great that I can influence who we hire so that we only hire the amazingly impressive people.

Dance competition / performance is this Saturday. Which means that it’s…. less than 48 hours away. Whoa. Too crazy.

I’ve been thinking about EDC alot. I really want to go… but if I do go it throws a wrench into my existing travel plans. Plus it’ll cost a small fortune. But…. I think my reasons / excuses for not going is rooted in fear. Fear that I’ll be poor… or just bad reasons like I rather stay at home and sleep. On one hand… a lot of my friends are going and it’s almost like… it’s now or never. On the other hand… it’s never too late~

I think it’s almost time for another future me email. Since… I think my future is too uncertain. Well… I’ve planned it a certain way… and so far it’s Keikaku no doori. But… man… I gotta say taking the leap is really scary man. It’s just really scary. Sigh. Whatever. I’m sure I can do it.

I learned the reverse t step. So now I’ll be able to all all the things…. almost. I started taking my dominican republic vaccines and drugs. It’s… so close. My vacation. Can’t wait.

Possibly my single most extravagent purchase ever. Get it here.

So my history with headphones is essentially. Garbage -> ATH-AD700 -> Sennheiser HD 598 -> Sennheiser HD 650.

I think at this point I’m all in the open headphones camp. The bass isn’t as strong, but honestly it’s good enough. And when listening to instrumentals / orchestral music. It just blows my mind.

So I’m a big fan of open headphones. The Sennheiser 598s were so unexpectedly good. When I first got it back in 2013. All old music was new again. It’s like.. you get to hear new details and stuff. And then… the HD 650 is I would say a half step above it. I mean… it’s noticably better. But like. The 598s was as Peter Thiel would put it. 0 -> 1. Going from the Sennheiser 598 -> 650 is 1 -> 2? But the gap between 0 -> 1 is like an immeasurable chasm. But I digress.

First off, the HD 650 aren’t as comfortable. When I wear glasses, the clamping force of it is really strong. And when I’m not wearing glasses, the clamping force is still strong. I think the limit is around 2 or 3 hours before I start feeling slightly uncomfortable from the clamping. But from a sound perspective. It’s better in every way. There’s stronger base… and the instrumentals are even better.

Specifically the piano, violin and guitar instrumentals just sound so great. Honestly, everything about it is good. The jump of old music to new music is there again. You notice more details in the music. Even if the source file is the same. Also, when listening to vocals, it feels like they’re right there. There being nearby. It’s like having a concert all the time.

I actually don’t use the headphones for movies / anime / video games. But I imagine that it would be really good for all of the above. You get to hear all the fine details of people’s voices and footsteps in video games.

In conclusion I’m more shocked that I bought $400 headphones for myself. My headphones is equivalent to a PS4. It’s more expensive than my cellphone + tablet. And when I’m planning on getting a laptop in 2016… It’s gonna only be ~$500. I’d say it’s totally worth it though. Considering the joy that music brings me.

I feel compelled to write one negative thing about it so here it is. The bad thing about these headphones besides the clamping and lack of comfort compared to the 598s. Is that the music is just so captivating. When I listen to music with it during reading / coding. Sometimes I just end up enjoying the music and spacing out. Clamp / discomfort and the sound is too distracting.

tl;dr - enjoy music on another level. just get it

This is just a placeholder for saturday. I’m gonna sleep at 9:30PM. I’m thankful that I get to sleep now. Sleep is the shit.

Today was a typical sunday. But at the same time it was way different and for that I’m thankful. Work has been crazy. And now that I’m on the 6 day workweek… Sunday has just been recovery days for me. But I still managed to get all the things that I needed to get done. So I’m thankful for the habits that I’ve cultivated.

I’m thankful that laundry is only 2 blocks away. It use to be zero blocks… and I totally took it for granted. Now I’m kinda use to it though… it felt easier today than normal despite the fact that I’m so outta it. I’m thankful that I have a grocery store that’s 2 blocks away. I actually bought my own milk today.

I’m thankful that I can get costco delivered. It’s happening tomorrow. I’m thankful that I get to work from home tomorrow while waiting for groceries to get delivered.

I gotta start calculating my uh… malaria and whatever vaccine that I gotta start eating in early April. Wow. It’s almost april. I’ve been hella lazy recently… but even in my lazy state I think I’ve been to the gym at least twice a week. So my death mode is still higher than most people and I’m thankful for that.

I’m thankful that my dancer / psychology friend gave/lent me her book Wooden on Leadership. It’s kinda crazy. Leadership of a team / organization also applies to just leading your life and steering the ship. I still remember stealing the mantra of steve. Things often go the way I plan because I steer the motherfucking ship.

I’m thankful that I have more media to consume than possible. Currently watching Arslan Senki. I’m thankful of all the improvements that I’ve made over time and through practice. I was practicing shuffle at the gym and I’m starting to hit the beats more and more.

So I just got back from playing magic and I got crushed. I tried to build a 4 color deck in 4 booster draft. And uh. It didn’t work at all. The thing is… trying to play 4 colors is way too hard and way to diverse. If you don’t get the lands and have mismatched cards. You basically can’t play anything. At one point I was holding 8 cards and had to discard. This happened 3 turns in a row. It’s like… when you try to do too many things… you end up being unable to do anything because you never have enough.

I already know and most people agree that multitasking is a scam. Whenever there’s an article or lifehack on how to multi-task in my mind I’m like - this guy is retarded. Or the author is retarded. Because multi-tasking is a scam. When someone tells me their good at multi tasking… it’s just like. Uhhh…? Okay.

Anyways. Trying too many things is bad. Let me give some more examples. At the office we have street fighter 5. And.. everyone that plays wants to try all the characters. Or.. they try to learn one character. Give up. And then end up learning another. But then they can never get past a certain level because they don’t focus on one character. Blargh. Focus on one character and get better. Then it’ll translate to other characters as well.

I don’t get why people read multiple books at once and have a book ongoing. Or the same thing with video games. I think that just detracts from the enjoyment of the game or book. Plus you tend to forget since you’ve been focused on other stuff. Well. For some video games I guess it’s okay if it’s like dynasty warriors, and devil may cry or something. But for most games that would be bad. Yeah. I think I’m beating a zombie horse at this time.

tl;dr - don’t play too many colors in magic. Don’t try too many things in real life. Focus and dedication brings results

Everyday I’m shuffling. So I just got back from a shuffle session and the slow room was unavailable so we only had the one mega fast room. I can’t shuffle at full speed in the fast room. Well… I can but only for about 4 beats. Anyways. I skip the middle step when I try to make the beat because it’s too fast for me. In a sense… I practiced bad habits today. And practicing bad habits are the worse. It’s why change is so hard.

Let’s say you want to change something. If you’ve been say. Smoking for 10 years. You have 10 years of bad habits learned and then unlearning it is really hard. Just like how… today I think it’ll take me more work to unlearn some of the bad practice I had. I was really conscious of it so I would stop once I caught myself. But I still ended up practicing a few bad habits.

I guess. As soon as you decide on a change. Your old behaviour has had probably years of experience. You know. Years of the bad habit… and each time you do a bad habit it’s like -10. Vs the good habit which is +1. So one bad action sets you back 10 good actions. It’s like going on a healthy diet. If you have the chocolate cake… that’ll set you back the equivalent of 10 healthy meals. Or something like that. The ratio isn’t exact. But it’s at least 2:1. Basically. Don’t practice bad habits. Step one is to recognize. And step to is to do stop the bad habit. Just by stopping the bad habit… it’s good enough I’d say. It prevents you from going into the negative. Of course… practicing the good habit is ideal.

tl;dr - bad practice and bad habits compound. don’t do it. It’s like -10 vs +1 for a good action. Each misstep cost much more than a positive action

Whoa shit. Almost forgot about my weekly. Damn. too scary. My streak.

My sleep… is all messed up. I think that sleep deprivation causes me to uh.. be dizzy and off balance. It literally throws off my orientation when I’m sleep deprived. And I’ve been hella sleep deprived. And I gotta work this saturday.

On the other hand… I guess I’m better than the people that have to work multiple jobs in order to put food on the table. I guess. First world problems.

Oh man. Soo hilarious I’m in tears.

Jason statham. Delivery gold man. Jason Statham actually showing off his acting chops by delivering lines with a straight face. Deng.

This movie was so hilarious. Sometimes I think that the humor is written just for me cause the jokes are like.. so good. But maybe I have mainstream humor afterall… since I feel this was a very mainstream movie.

Highly recommended. You would not expect a Jason Statham / Jude Law to be this hilarious.

Uh. Global translator means thai to chinese and chinese to thai. But then you need to do thai to chinese -> chinese to chinese -> chinese to thai. Dafaq. Why do you need a chinese to chinese translator?

So I just watched this movie. And holy shiet. I was so shocked as I wanted it. The actors in this movie are uh… pretty top notch martial artists.

Max Zhang. Tony Jaa. And Wu Jing. I think I would watch a Wu Jing fight just by himself. To think that he got to share the screen with Tony Jaa and some other top tier dude. Shiet yo. The level of martial arts going into martial arts film is getting higher and higher. I’m pretty excited. Imagine if… there were more prime donnie yens or something. Maybe it’s the new age of cinema with actual martial artists filming the martial arts. It’s pretty sick.

I’ve always wondered what the point of the plot of a movie like SPL is. To be honest… sure there’s a plot. Gangsters, Drugs, saving poor innocent girls. Won’t somebody think of the children? But honestly… it’s all about the fight scenes. That’s what we came for. That’s what we expect when we or I come to watch this film. And boy oh boy. Did the fight scenes deliver.

The fight scenes especially in this movie especially the last fight of the 2v1. Whoops. Spoilers. Whatever. you’ve probably seen the trailers and if not you can infer that there’ll be some 2v1 action since we have 3 mega martial arts stars in this movie. But holy shit. I think this is a fight scene for the history books. Wow. I’m calling it now. History has been made possibly.

Which makes me think. Cinema fight choreo is like… the fusion between art and sport. It’s like… damn. You have the real muay thai, wushu, brazilian jiu jitsu applied with an art style like dance. And it’s presented via beautiful cinematography. my mind is quite blown.

Oh right. I’ve always wondered why there aren’t more movies where it’s basically pure fight scenes. Like… imagine a movie with the HxH version of the heavenly tower. Where you just follow this badass advancing his way through the floors of challenges. And then you have like… 120 fights with each fight being… 3 to 5 minutes. The ultimate kumite and just pure martial arts movie. I think… the art required to choreo the whole thing and practice it might be… not as easy? But shit. I’d watch that.

That’s almost what the expendables 3 was. Except they still had somewhat of a plot. Imagine literally not plot. It’s like… tekken + hxh tower in real life. Someday… when I’m a billionaire. I’ll make this movie.

You can even guest star UFC fighters or something. And then you can have Wu Jing just go through everyone. Damn. Wu Jing was so badass in this film. Like… even though it’s choreo’d. The speed at which they can do the choreo is so damn impressive. It’s like.. you know it’s fake. But Deng. That’s some real skills.

**tl;dr - this movie doesn’t have a plot. well it does but i think it’s pointless. The fight scenes though. Damn. Watch it just for that. So good. **