Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Positives Sun Aug 12-Tue Aug 28, 2012

*Family birthday dinner. I celebrated my birthday at a Chinese restaurant.

*Watched The Dark Knight Rises.

*Purchased The Hunger Games. I also downloaded a digital copy of a movie which was The Hunger Games for the first time.

*Attended the Palo Alto Arts Festival.

*Purchased a emergency sewing kit.

*Ate at Pluto's for the first time.

*Car maintenance: oil change, tire rotation & balance, fuel injection cleaner, and alignment check.

*Second interview with the same company in San Jose.

*Played For The Win board game for the first time.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Misses, Undeserving, Overvalue, Undervalue, Overrated, Upsets Part 2

I want to think about my opportunities and moments I missed, didn’t deserve, awarded for the wrong reasons, or never given the opportunity. I wonder my life could have and should have been different if some of these events happened to me in my past. My timeline could have gone a different direction. There is a high probability I’m a better person. I become stronger, smarter, and realized I must grow up at an earlier age.

Part 2 is my years at San Jose State University (SJSU). Part 1 was my high school years (Misses, Undeserving, Overvalue, Undervalue, Overrated, Upsets Part 1). The two moments happened in the Fall Semester 1993.

Computer Science 46A. I was a math major starting my second year at SJSU. Math majors were required to take one semester of computer science. The timing was bad because C++ was the new programming language for the department and my professor taught C++ for the first time. If I took CS 46A in 1992, then I learned PASCAL which was easier.

I struggled with C++. My homework grades kept me from failing. I sought help from the professor during his office hours. The professor was one of the best programmers in the department. I told him I was struggling and I was a math major who just needed to pass one computer science class. I wasn't ready for the final. He assured me everything was going to be okay. He said there could be magic on the day of the final.

I studied hard. The final was difficult. My intuition answered most of the questions. A few classmates gave me tips for the final. One of them said my perfect attendance was an advantage determining my final grade because it showed I cared about my classwork. My final grade was a C-.

The professor should have failed me. I didn't deserve a C-. The false lesson I learned was I took my classes for granted. More importantly, I took life for granted. I should have retaken the class and earned what I truly deserved. Furthermore, the fake lesson cost me As and Bs in other classes.

English 1B. On the other hand, I should have passed English 1B. There were students who had worse writing skills than me. Maybe it was bad luck and bad timing I was the worst of the worst in my section. The professor gave me bad writing skills advice when I visited her office hours.

SJSU's grading policy on English 1A and 1B classes was A, B, C or no pass. Students couldn't fail the class. I took my English 1B at a junior college. I transferred the credits to SJSU. It was a waste of my time and money retaking English 1B.

The professor who taught me how to write was my Economics professor who taught the Economics Writing Workshop major requirement. I learned most of my writing style from the workshop. I forgot everything I learned in my English classes. I admit I'm not the perfect writer in the world. My writing skills are solid I can get a job and I communicate clearly.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Positives Sat July 21-Sat Aug 11, 2012

*Finished watching Fate/Zero anime series.

*Watched Scavenger Hunt, K-ON, Run Lola Run, and 10,000 BC movies.

*Satisfied learning and refreshing by reading Excel 2007 The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald.

*Resume and Cover Letter. Minor edited my resume and rewrote my entire cover letter for searching a job.

*Ate at Su Hong Chinese Restaurant.

*Showered using Old Spice Matterhorn Body Wash.

*Visited Hoover Tower in Stanford University and Felton Covered Bridge Park for a going away get-together.

*Interviewed for a job located in Downtown San Jose.

*Installed a hard drive enclosure for my old laptop hard drive.

*Watched a meteor shower for the first time.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Top Mistakes The Final Part

Part 7 and the final Top Mistakes. I recap the six parts and the mistakes learned:

1. Always meet new people and make new friends. Always. I never met new people.
2. Never take life for granted. I took life for granted.
3. Follow a gym workout plan. My workouts were ineffective.

4. Read fiction books, any literature. I used to read non-fiction books such as business, investment, and self-help only.
5. Life is really not that bad. I criticized, complained, nagged, took my disappointments on others on my life.
6. Grow up. I was immature.

7. Trivia can be common knowledge. Trivia was too trivial for me.
8. Get out and do something, anything. I had no interest in new experiences, new adventures, and learning something new. Update: My new motto is "get up and do something, anything."
9. Food does make a difference in a person's life. Put effort, love, and sincerity cooking. Food was just food.

10. Never be afraid being wrong. Be assertive my abstract thinking, abstract mind. I was afraid communicating my thoughts being wrong.
11. Be a good guy. I was a nice guy.
12. There is no such thing as fate. I believed in fate, letting life came to me.

13a. Don't quit after making one mistake. I was discouraged easily.
13b. I learn from my mistakes. I was a person who never made mistakes. I didn't make mistakes because I was scared to try something new.
14. Quit when something is not working out. I was stubborn and arrogant to quit.
15. Never stop learning, even for children on vacation. It was fun, fun, fun during my childhood vacations. No job, no extra activities, very little parent involvement.

16. Trust my gut feeling and intuition. I didn't trust my gut feeling to save me from problems.
17. My humor strength is dry, slow, optimistic, and ha ha non-lol laughing. Never stop improving my humor side. I was serious all the time because I afraid to be funny.
18. Trust my face, trust my looks. I failed to realize people did recognize my unique face.

Here are the last three mistakes:

Mistake 19: I Was Quiet With A Group Of People

I was a quiet person from my childhood to early 30s. I talked when I was with people I knew well and family I saw many times. However, I was quiet at new places and with new people I saw for the first time. I was a bad conversationalist when I talked to new people. That explained why I had trouble making new friends in the past. That affected my confidence when I approached new people. That affected the way I lived. I lived with few friends in my life. Making new friends was rare.

The lesson I learned is know and practice good conversation skills. The skills are important to get to know other people, make connections, and socialize. Conversation skills are important in the professional world. We talk to our co-workers, management, customers, and competitors daily. If people want to get along with other people, then be a good conversationalist.

Mistake 20: I Could Do It Alone.

My second job after I graduated college I was a bad-ass, did it myself, mistake free, all-star worker. I handled everything myself. I didn't need help. I wanted nobody to "waste" time for me. I was an expert. I solved my own problems. I was a loner.

I realized being a loner was alienating others. I created a shield blocking others trying to help me, trying to correct my terrible work attitude, and correcting my bad behavior. My co-workers wanted to help me, wanted to show support and recognize I worked with a dumb-ass next to my work station. I was stubborn for refusing help and support. My co-workers were afraid to call me out and correct how I should work professionally.

The lesson I learned is support, knowing people, having connections, and networking with peers are important to be successful. I request help and support when I'm in trouble. I share my problems and voice my concerns to others. I have people backing me up during the worse times. People help each other. I help people. I should let people help me.

Mistake 21: I Was Immature For My Age

I was in my mid 30s and I had the wisdom of a 24 year old. I realized it was time to catch up what I missed throughout my life from the day I was born to today on Sat Oct 4, 2008. I feel smarter and wiser correcting my mistakes I made in my past. I'm gaining wisdom never to repeat again.

There is still more to learn, more wisdom to acquire, new experiences, new adventures, new people to meet, new activities to try, new food to eat, new hobbies to explore--just something, anything for my life. I'm not ready to die. I'm happy to say I'm doing a good job catching up to my current years in life.