Arun is Bringing You...Your Daily Remedy

Ninja Time Management

2011-12-06T17:32:00.000-08:00

So I've been recently trying to refrain from too many boring personal blog posts about this and that. In the early days, I was much more liberal with what I was blogging about (hence I was able to set a sizzling pace of 3 posts per week)!

Now a days, I only like to write GOLD! (obviously, this means all recent and forthcoming posts will be awesome).

That being said, I'm currently in the midst of the busiest time of my life.

I know what you're thinking: "Oh common ARUN! I know you! You're extremely handsome, you love going out, partying, writing blogs about how you are soooooo awesome, and general adventuring! You expect me to buy into all this 'busy-ness'??"

Well you are correct in your evaluation of me, but yes, I do expect you to believe me. In fact, everytime I get great ideas recently, I never have the energy/time to sit down and write out a quality post.

These things usually go through a couple of editing iterations before I'm happy enough to post.

In fact, as I'm typing this right now, I am taking a break from an absolutely insane schedule today. I just got off of a 1.5 hour conference call and needed to do something for myself (and your self) so here it is!

Truth be told, I'm kind of a time management ninja. You know I can't post without giving myself at least one pat on the back.

People never seem to understand how I have time to hang out and do fun things with the amount on my plate. I am involved in FAR more things than anybody I know. Here's a sample:

I'm enrolled as a full-time MBA student - I NEVER miss class.
I'm a teaching assistant for 1st year MBA classes
I'm the event chair for the San Diego Downtown Relay for Life
I work "full time" in internet marketing
I'm involved in a consulting project with a company making recommendations to improve their customer relations
I am doing a social media research project with food trucks in San Diego that is essentially like another job
I am a Rady School of Management Ambassador

These are all things that I categorize under "work." Of course, I probably have twice as many things I would categorize as "play".

The key to ninja time management is efficiency: I am probably 90% efficient on a day-to-day basis. What I mean is, I spend 90% of my time doing things that are either essential, or really fulfilling.

For example, writing this post would count as efficient. Surfing Facebook - not efficient.

School work, internet marketing, networking events, working out = efficient

Watching TV, puttering around = not efficient

Reading books, hanging out with friends doing fun stuff, playing sports = efficient.

Lengthy recreational phone conversations, internet chatting = not efficient.

Basically, I waste VERY little of my days. I would actually say that the average person is maybe 60% efficient but thinks they are 90% efficient.

I see it all the times. People go through the motions and think they're getting things done, but there is no output to show for it.

I know people who get together to study for HOURS but very little gets done.

Not my style.

I mean, I'm all for hanging out with people, but lets actually hang out. Doing so under the guise of "studying" makes both processes mediocre.

I'm serious when I say I think people I know in my position would have a panic attack.

Honestly, even I have moments where I'll feel totally overwhelmed. But that feeling is only fleeting and after taking a minute to organize things in my mind, its gone.

So that's what is up. Expect some really good posts coming up though. I've got a sort of break coming up so they'll be some hilarious stuff coming your way.

Thanks for your patience!

Wedding Do's and Don'ts

2011-09-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

I'll be the first to admit weddings are fun.

Who doesn't like a big party with food, cake, booze, and old people getting drunk and dancing their little tushies off?

I've been to several weddings in my time, and have partaken in a myriad of different styles. From the short and quick ceremonies, to the long and sleep inducing. From Christian, to Catholic, to Hindu. Indoor, outdoor, from California to Alaska.

Now I'm not getting married ANY time soon, but I've definitely learned a little bit about what to do, and not to do in wedding execution.

DO...

have a nice quick wedding ceremony so that the real reason we're all here (the reception) can start.

DON'T...

Allow the ceremony to extend beyond say 15 minutes.

First of all, weddings are usually in the summertime.

Summer = hot.

Now I'm no mathematician, but it seems to me, if you multiply the above equation with the coefficient of typical wedding attire, you end up with an answer that equals sweaty discomfort.

I've been to a couple of outdoor weddings where I'm sweating my well-dressed ass off waiting for the damn "I do's" so we can get in the shade. I'm adhering to dress code wearing my pressed suit jacket that somehow is not available with Nike moisture wicking technology. But when we finally get in the shade, the well-insulated suit jacket has got to stay on because pit stains are not exactly the "I'm single and awesome" statement I'm looking to make.

I know what you're thinking..."Arun you poor adorable thing! BUT, what if the wedding is indoors?"

Keep. It. Short.

Have you ever sat on one of those church benches for more then 5 minutes? As far as asses go, mine is decently meaty (although some might say "steel-like"), but even my booty starts going numb after sitting on that thing for more than a few minutes.

But this summer I was thrown a curve ball - an indoor wedding, not at a Church, seated in folding chairs, with ice-cream served during the ceremony.

Too good to be true, I know. So what was the catch?

Well, it was an Indian wedding....and the ceremony lasted over two hours.

OVER TWO HOURS!

Indian weddings are cool and all, but the novelty of the ceremony wore off on me after the first 15 minutes (by which point I was finished with my ice-cream). Ok, back to the Do's.

DO...

Get a minister who knows exactly what you want and what they are doing.

DON'T

Allow the minister to forget to tell the wedding goers to "please be seated" after the bride gets to the alter.

This was a first for me. I was at a wedding last week, and after the bride made it to the alter, the ministress (what do you call a female minister?) FORGOT to tell the 170 in attendance to "be seated." So we're ALL standing during the whole damn ceremony....outdoors....in the heat.

To boot, I meticulously directed chair setup the previous night to get everything lined up and staggered just right so everyone could see while seated.

Thanks to our absent minded ministress, the girls 5 rows back saw nothing but the backsides of the amazingly well-dressed and devlishly good-looking 6+ foot men in row 3 (Did I mention I was in row 3?).

DO...

Hire a DJ with a good, diverse music collection that knows you by name.

DON'T

Hire the cousin of a friend of a friend whose entire music catalogue consists of Country's Greatest Hits and a few select disco numbers on his computer.

The wedding last week had another issue.

First, the DJ couldn't pronounce the Groom's (and new bride's) last name properly. It's a pretty simple name ("Haupt" pronounced like "Howp") yet he repeatedly announced "Please welcome Mr. and Mrs. Hopt!!!"

Ok, ok...honest mistake, he's a DJ not a linguist, so just play us some hits.

Or Not.

It's a wedding. I'm not expecting much more than some current hits as well as the old wedding favorites. I thoroughly warmed up my shoulders the night before for a little "YMCA" action, and I dusted off my dancing shoes for some Electric Sliding.

Disappointment.

Instead, we got steady dose of Miley Cirus, and Cool and the Gang. Somehow, audience response wasn't quite as excited as usual when I busted out "The Worm of Wonder" during Miley Cirus' "The Climb".

DO...

Have an organized parking situation for guests.

DON'T...

Ask your brother to round up his friends to shotgun valet.

A few years ago, my buddy Jesse asked a few of us to valet for his sister's wedding. Ok no problem. I'm a good driver. I can parallel park. How hard can it be?

(Note to self: Anytime you think to yourself "how hard can it be?" its going to SUCK)

First, the wedding was at this house on top of a HUGE hill. They had the good sense to have it indoors because it was so damn hot, but we had to park each car in a dirt lot at the bottom of the hill and then sprint back up to the top as the queue of cars was growing.

Did I mention I was wearing a suit and tie...and it was hot....and it was a MAJOR hill?

So we managed to kill ourselves running up and down this hill and got all the cars finally parked. Aaaaaahhhh, re-lax-ation!...until the guests started to leave.

Four guys. We have neither ANY valet experience, nor are we organized. We have a drawer full of keys, and a dirt lot at the bottom of Mount-effing-Vesuvius full of cars. And now its dark and, of course, the lot isn't lighted.

Obviously a plan for success.

The process consisted of this:

Guest who is ready to leave asks for car. (So far so good. We are awesome!)
We jointly rummage through a drawer full of tangled keys to find the right one.
Its dark though so at least two cell phones are needed for light to identify one key from another.
Once key is found, one of us sprints down the mountain to retrieve car.
Arun eats sh!t on one such downhill dash through uneven terrain and dirties suit. Ego is preserved though because it's dark and no one sees.
We run back and forth through the dirt lot hitting the remote lock/unlock (and occasionally alarm) button to find the right car in the pitch black dark.
Guest wonders why he hears his car alarm in the distance.
Arun returns with car and guests ask why suit had become muddy and wrinkled. Ego destroyed.

And Lastly....

DO...

Act like you're involved (if you're a man) in the wedding planning and give opinions on things.

DON'T...

EVER make ANY decision without consulting the bride-to-be or say something ambivalent like "you pick what you like best!" if you want to live to enjoy your wedding.

I've seen many a good man go down for these over the years. It's a delicate balance. You need to "act" involved and provide an opinion that you should be ready to change depending on the bride's reaction.

Even though she's making the decisions, you've got to make her feel like its a joint effort.

And of course, if you try and make a decision on your own, you shouldn't be getting married in the first place because you obviously have no idea what you're doing. Murphy's Law necessitates that you WILL make the wrong decision and into the dog-house you go.

So I think its fairly obvious that I now know how to perfectly plan a wedding. I've always thought it'd be cool to be one of those wedding planners running around with the headset, barking out orders.

If you're interested in hiring me now as a "Wedding Consultant of Awesomeness" feel free to contact me. As for valeting, me and my friends will be no where near that department.

Bachelors, Bachelorettes, and Arun

2011-08-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Last week was an entirely new experience for me.

So a couple of months ago, my friend Liberty invited me to a fundraiser for the Challenged Athletes Foundation here in San Diego. As you know, I'm all about participating in charitable events and was all set to participate, until I found out the catch.

It was a bachelor / bachelorette auction!

Ok, ok...so this sounds like the perfect Arun-esque adventure right? I mean, what better use of a the face of an angel and a chisled body forged by the hands of God himself, than to raise money for a charity?

(and when I say "chisled body" I'm not referring to the "loose muscle" surrounding my midsection)

Honestly, my hesitation had more to do with the fact that I had a feeling that the bidders would be old, aging women. In other words, I thought I'd be getting sold to uglies.

Material and artificial of me, I know, but at least I'm honest about it.

But alas, Liberty needed another person, so I relented. Hey, it's for the kids!

So when I arrive, I'm actually pleasantly surprised. Not only is everyone fairly youngish and good-looking, but there's a TON of food, and all the bachelors and bachelorettes are treated to an open bar.

Now HERE's a party I can get on board with.

So towards the beginning of the evening, people are a little gun shy about bidding. It's kind of a silent auction and our pictures are framed and placed on different tables (the picture in this post is the one they framed of me) and there's a bidding sheet and date description next to them. I start talking to a girl who is 25 and VERY attractive. Turns out she's actually one of the bachelorettes. We're chatting for a while and she comes up with a brilliant idea:

Hot Bachelorette Chick (hereon referred to as 'HBC'): "I've got a great idea to get this started!"

Me: "Oh yea what's that?"

HBC: "How about we each put $100 bids on each other. That way, its high enough where we'll raise serious money if someone actually outbids us."

Me: "Ok, sure"

I'm acting all nonchalant and cavalier about everything, but on the inside I'm thinking "Score! I may end up going out TWICE with this hot chick!"

Yes, even I can be an insecure goober sometimes.

So people start bidding and she ends up going for like $400 bucks. There's no way I'm spending that kind of change on anyone for a single date. Interestingly, for me, there ends up being a little bidding war between HBC, and a mystery lady.

BUT, in the end, the mystery lady wins over HBC. Unfortunate, considering HBC was probably the best looking girl in attendance.

When the dust finally settles, I meet this mystery lady...

She's probably like 10 years older than me. Of COURSE the cougar with money outbids the hot 25 year old.

I still haven't gone out with her, but now I'm getting nervous...she shelled out $200 for me, and who knows what she's expecting!

But there were a couple of other surprises too.

One of the other Bachelors was actually a soap opera star (Alex Musser) who played some guy named "Del Henry" on All My Children for a couple of years - he only went for I think $20 more than me, so the natural conclusion is that I should be starring on TV too.

At one point, I also was introduced to this good looking couple. They had weird names, and I joked that we should start a club of people with weird names ("Arun" isn't exactly run-of-the-mill in San Diego).

So I'm hanging out with this couple by the stage when Liberty announces that she wants to introduce the celebrities in attendance. I turn and semi-joke to the couple, "Step aside guys, I'm about to get my big introduction!"

They smile.

As Liberty continues to talk, I'm actually wondering who she's going to introduce. I turn to the couple and ask sincerely, "WHO the heck are these celebrities she's talking about?!"

They smile.

Liberty: "Please welcome to the stage, from ABC's The Bachelore, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor Pad, Kiptyn Locke and Tenley Molzahn!"

I'm standing their bewildered with egg on my face as said couple strolls onto stage.

Oops.

Apparently, they were on all of those "Bachelor" reality shows and happen to be friends with my friend Liberty. Who knew? I've never seen the show (ok, ok...I may have watched ONE episode last season).

BUT, after chatting with Kiptyn and Tenley, I kind of want to try out! First of all, Tenley is good-looking, and apparently so are all of the girls on the show. Second, although I lack the huge muscles and 8 pack that all the guys sport on the show, I make up for it with quick wit and charm.

Not to mention, I think my antics and knack for innocently stirring the pot would make for good TV.

Watch out America...Arun may be joining "The Bachelor"???

Lateral Meniscectomy and Microfracture - The Road to Recovery

2011-07-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

I know what you're thinking.

"Ok, Arun. I get it. You had knee surgery. But what's with all the jargon? What makes you think I have any idea what the thread title is even talking about!?!"

And you're right. A few months ago, I wouldn't have been interested either. BUT, I decided to deviate from my usual extremely witty commentaries and crazy adventures because, before I had this procedure, I was scouring the internet for Partial Lateral Meniscectomy and Microfracture info, and its a bit hard to find, and the treatment and recovery is all over the board.

So, now, when people search, with any luck they'll find a couple of posts by yours truly, and maybe have a couple of questions answered (and obviously discover the most amazing collection of witty writing ever amassed, by "His Humbleness"...ME).

So here's the how it went down.

Several months ago, I had an MRI revealing a partially torn lateral meniscus and lateral articular cartilage damage in my right knee. That didn't sound good, so I went to an orthopedist.

The first doc revealed I would probably need microfracture surgery which, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, is a relatively new-ish surgery in which holes are drilled into the bone such that stem-cell-containing bone marrow bleeds out into the area devoid of cartilage. The stem cells stimulate new cartilage growth, and in a few months, you're theoretically back in action.

There are a couple of caveats though: for starters, the surgery is not 100% effective and there's about 20% of people for whom cartilage regrowth doesn't happen.

Bummer.

Second, a number of professional athletes have never totally gotten back to their pre-surgery all-star form (ie Tracy McGrady and Chris Webber). This bummed me out until I realized A) Those guys are slightly better at basketball than me anyways, B) I'm exactly known for my extreme jumping abilities and C) If I return at Tracy McGrady or Chris Webber's basketball form, I will be 100 times better at basketball than I've ever been.

The biggest bummer of them all though is the recovery time she told me about: six weeks on crutches, no driving, physical therapy for 3 months thereafter.

There goes Arun's summer of awesomeness.

So I did what any sensible person who doesn't care for the prognosis does - I got a second and third opinion and elected to do the surgery with the last guy.

Here's where things get interesting. The last two orthopedists work together in the same practice and have a LOT of experience. They also proceed with recovery much more aggressively than most orthopedists as their experience shows identical post - op results while minimizing patient inconvenience.

So here's my recovery:

Procedure: Partial Lateral Meniscectomy and Femoral Microfracture

Post Op Days 1 - 10: Crutches and non weight bearing. On day 5, I started daily stationary bike with no resistance. Off of pain meds by Day 3 (and probably could have been a day sooner).

Day 10: Full weight bearing allowed while wearing brace. Physical Therapy begins.

Day 12: By now, my limp is pretty much gone and I'm walking without the brace with minimal discomfort.

So here I am now at day 22. My knee is certainly not normal yet, but there's definite improvement. Walking is for the most part, pain free. Occasional dull ache is the knee at both meniscus sight and microfracture sight (though not necessarily at the same time). I've started some light elliptical training and physical therapy is slowing escalating in impact.

Overall, I think I'm definitely headed in the right direction and am well ahead of schedule. Now I won't be running or playing sports for another couple of months, but hopefully I've provided some of you with some positive feedback and information if you're about to get microfracture.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

The Gift of Walking

2011-07-05T14:49:00.001-07:00

It's interesting how taking the ability to do something that we do everyday makes you realize how important that ability is.

And no, I'm not talking about the ability to look at yourself in the mirror.

I'm talking about the "gift" of being able to walk...unassisted.

Last week I had knee surgery, and for the last two weeks I've been crutching around town. Along with the knee surgery came some other unforeseen minor complications:

Since the surgery was on my right knee, and since the doctors orders were to basically not do anything with that leg, I haven't been alowed to drive. Boom - Independence gone.
The main problem with crutches is that walking just a couple of blocks can be exhausting, so travelling long distances on foot (and by "foot," I mean literally ONE foot) is not an option
A further complication with crutches is that your ability to hold anything while standing is gone. Just to get a bowl of cereal means I have to grab the bowl, set it on the counter, shimmy to the left, stop and move the bowl to the left, shimmy again, move the bowl, etc...until I get to the edge of the kitchen and within plopping distance of the couch where I can sit down and reach the bowl. Going to the kitchen to get food is such a pain that I've opted to just skip my normal snacking (probably good since my normal activity level is way down).
The first 3 nights after the surgery, I had to sleep with this huge knee immobilizer brace thing on my leg which was heavy, uncomfortable, and hot.

Luckily, I'm now 10 days removed from the surgery and have gotten clearance to start walking again.

(In my best Braveheart voice) Freeeeeeeeeeeedooooooooome!!!

I will say this though...the crutches also had an unforeseen BENEFIT.

On Saturday, I went out for about an hour and a half for a friends birthday, and I tell you this: I was approached by four different women within an hour who were offering me their seat, asking me if I was alright, and generally showering me with attention and I was literally doing NOTHING.

Huh...maybe I should go back to the Doc and see if I can keep the crutches for another couple of weeks?

The attention however was unfortunately not just limited to those carrying x-chromosomes. I had a small encounter later that evening. I was hanging out with some friends at a lounge when a HUGE dude (I'm talkin like 6'8", muscles ripping out of his shirt, Jamaican dude) comes up to me. The encounter went like this:

Big Muscle Dude: "Hey Dude. I don't know where you're from, but you're F**kin Beautiful!"

Me: "Uhh....thanks man, I appreciate that"

BMD: "My name's Abdule. What's your name and where you from?!"

Me: "I'm Arun. My family's from India"

BMD: "Mmm Mmm Mmm! Beautiful name, country, AND body. What's it gonna take for you to let me buy you a drink?"

Me: "I appreciate the offer man, but I'm with some friends and I'm straight"

BMD: "Oh ok man, but if you change your mind, I'll be here and you won't have to buy another drink tonight."

Yikes!

I mean, I suppose its flattering. This type of thing has happened before, and I always try to be nice, but on this occasion I made sure to be particularly cordial because BMD aka Abdule could have kicked (or taken) my ass if he wanted! With my limited mobility, escape would have been impossible!

Oh, those crutches. Attention grabbing would be an understatement.

Finding Your Dream Job

2011-06-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not exactly ultra-qualified to speak on the various aspects of different job industry's, functions, and finding work. I've had a total of three "real" jobs my entire life, along with whatever you would call what I do now.

But I will say this.

There's a common theme for most people who enjoy what they do, and it's probably the most important thing for me when it comes to enjoying what I do.

It's a huge reason I left Engineering.

It's the reason that I have the entrepreneurial bug (in addition to the fact that I want to be disgustingly rich).

And a lot of people who have it (in combination with success) are happy.

Job autonomy.

There's nothing better than feeling no personal obligation to have to be somewhere everyday. It's why most people with office jobs dislike what they do.

The minute you are granted freedom (providing you also bring success) things turn the corner.

One of the things I've been studying recently is the science of creativity and motivation. Studies upon studies have shown that intrinsic motivation and creativity are notably higher in a person when he has a high degree of autonomy.

Take Google for example. A lot of there employees work long hours. BUT guess what? None of them are constrained by the "8-5" model of working. Come in and perform quality work, hours be damned.

In fact, Google asks each employee to spend 20% of their work time working on "pet projects" of their own. Essentially, Google is giving their employees free reign to be mini-entrepreneurs within Google. In return, Google has earned billions of dollars from some of these ideas (and I'm sure the idea generators were appropriately rewarded as well).

Why every company doesn't attempt to operate at the highest level of personal autonomy possible, I'm not sure. Given, not every company can have their employees working from home everyday (ie, I'm not sure how the barista at Cafe 976 where I am right now would be able to provide me service from home), but they should try to maximize autonomy and creative freedom as much as possible.

Both the employees and the company benefit.

So a lot of people think they are doomed because they chose the wrong industry. But I actually think a lot of that "doom" could be turned around if they were able to find a job in the same industry, but with a high degree of personal freedom.

Lets look at me. I'll admit, I really don't have any substantial interest in engineering - hence the career change. BUT, looking back, I imagine that if I had worked at a company in which I felt a high degree of intrinsic motivation and enjoyed autonomy close to what I have now, I would have been far less motivated to change careers.

But I learned my lesson.

I don't think I'll ever be happy working an office job. That's simply no longer an option for me. I suppose it might be OK if it was MY office, but that I would mean I'm the CEO and thus have the ultimate authority on me and my work.

And I'll admit that there are a lot of people who go to an office and love what they do. But guess what? I bet they have a lot of control and responsibility when it comes to making decisions. They have a high degree of autonomy hence they love going to work.

Now I'm not trying to associate job autonomy with working less. It just means that you can work when and where you want. In fact, I work practically every day. I have deadlines that I need to meet, and meetings to "attend" (usually teleconferences) and I schedule accordingly. I frequently even work on Saturdays.

BUT, I also know that I can work whenever and where ever I want. Today, I'm at a coffee shop near the beach. If I don't want to work tomorrow, then maybe I'll hunker down for a couple of hours tonight, and do some more work.

Flexibility = Happy Arun.

The job market is tough right now, but do yourself a favor. If you don't have a job and are looking, then sure take whatever you can get. But just because you have a job, doesn't mean you should stop looking. Unless your really, REALLY happy, look for an opportunity where they trust you to be responsible for your work and your productivity, and where you don't need to put in the 8-5 office "face time."

And think about starting a business. Not every idea is capitally intensive to start. If you're risk averse, or simply don't have the means to invest heavily, there are still tons of ideas out there for the taking.

How much did Facebook take to start?

I was working as an Engineer when I developed and launched my ebook. Now, at this point, its nearly enough income to sustain me, but it's something, and it brought me a lot of opportunities.

More importantly, if you do have an amazing idea and are too scared or do not want to be bothered with bringing it to market, send it to me. I'll use it on my way to World Domination ;)

How Starting a Blog Changed My Life

2011-05-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

It's funny how one crazy little thing can snowball into a life-changing monster.

Take this blog for example. The decision to start writing a blog literally changed my life in some pretty big and awesome ways. But it all started very innocently. In the beginning I had no idea what was ahead...

It all started way back around 2006. I had moved to San Diego and was working at a (what I thought was) comfortable job. At said job, I had entirely not enough do, so I had some free time to do some internet cruising. At the time, I was relatively unaware of the existence of blogs. I knew a couple of people who had online journals, but those were boring and packed with mundane and trivial details of days activities that I didn't care about.

Somehow I stumbled onto a blog that was called at the time "Better Than Your Boyfriend."

Hmmm...a name I can relate with.

It was chalk full of wild and crazy stories of this guy Tynan who tried to buy a penguin and created an indoor swimming pool for it, moved to Hollywood on a whim to become a pickup artist, built a swing hanging off the balcony of his highrise condo, and climbed radio towers for fun.

Huh....Here's a guy who's adventures border on lunacy. Sounds like me (only not quite as devilishly good looking and charming ;)

One day I stumbled across a post in which Tynan mentioned monetizing his blog and making money.

Dollar signs in my eyes. At the time, since I had just started working a job in which I actually made somewhat serious money, I was reading all about finance and two words resounded with me:

Passive Income. Money coming in without doing anything in particular. Obviously this sounded like an unbelievably awesome plan.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how many adventures, stories, and rants I had to write about. Furthermore, I thought about how awesome I think I am and "why the heck wouldn't the whole world want to read about me!?"

Ok. So. Maybe I got a smidgen carried away.

But I started Your Daily Remedy. Your Daily Remedy was a way for me to tell stories, give advice that my friends didn't want to always here, and rant about things on a whim. My audience grew, and my writing improved. Everything was hunky-dory except for one little detail.

I wasn't making any money.

At the point I realized I wasn't really making much, I was already in love with writing so I didn't really care too much. However, I really wanted to expand on my audience.

So, I submitted expanded versions of this post as well as this post to a couple of local magazines here in San Diego. Low and behold, they got published.

Woot! A new career as a writer!???

Well, not exactly. You see, it turns out, writers do not get paid nearly enough. For the amount of time I was spending thinking up unique article slants and trying to make things perfect, the money was not exactly changing my tax bracket.

Then, I began noticing something. A post I wrote, The Power of Being Social, was blowing up. In fact, if you type the search terms "being social" in google, my post is actually the number one result.

This got the "Arun Brain Gears of Awesome Ideas" turning. A growing innovation on the internet was the idea of downloadable books - ebooks. Since being extremely social is something I know a lot about, why don't I just write about it?

Rule number 63 in "Arun's Guide to Lifetime Awesomeness": ALWAYS pursue ideas that seem awesome.

At the time when I made the decision to go full steam ahead, I really knew nothing about what I was doing. But, I figured I could either toil for a long time trying to figure out the best way to go forward, or I could go full steam ahead and figure things out as I go.

I chose the latter. And thus was born my ebook, The Social Charmer.

Now I will admit, because of my eagerness, I did a LOT of things wrong in publishing it. I've since fixed some of those things, but I still have quite a few things to improve on / add this summer that will improve the whole experience for customers and newsletter subscribers (I've been ridiculously bad about publishing newsletters) as well as increase my income.

So here I am, its 2009 and I'm working as an Engineer, writing a blog, writing for magazines, and getting some (kind of) passive income from an ebook all because I decided to start a blog three years before.

But I wasn't finished.

Soon thereafter a guy named Gabriel Angelo contacted me about doing an interview on being social for his customers. His website "The Social Natural, by the way has a lot great resources for becoming more social. I'm not exactly sure what happened to the interview but I believe he distributed it to his customers.

Then, in early 2010 I exchanged a few emails with a VERY well known guy in the "Pickup/Dating Community" who was interested in someone with my experiences of being social, writing, and internet marketing.

One thing lead to another and all of a sudden I became the marketing manager for his company. The best part was that I was working from home, whenever/where ever I wanted.

Now it was around February 2010, and I was making enough money where I could quit Engineering forever! Not only that, but as long as I am working remotely, why confine myself to San Diego? Why not Palm Springs, or Alaska, or France, or China, or Australia?

Suffice it to say, I went to all of those places over the summer, all the while "working."

Then it was time to start my MBA program. For me, this was the next logical step in my path to World Domination. Plus, I needed to get some more tools to feed my inner entrepreneur. The funny thing is, in all of my interviews, people were extremely intrigued with my whole story.

From Manager to Engineer to Blogger to Writer to book publisher to Internet Marketer and all of my other adventures in between.

I really can't imagine where I'd be write now had I not started this blog, but I can't imagine that I'd be in a better position than I am now. I never imagined things would happen as they did, but with a little ambition, a few crazy ideas, and some social savvy anyone can go far.

So in case you haven't done this already, your homework assignment is to start a blog (or, if you'd prefer, the "Arun Fanclub of Awesomeness Homepage").

Clinton Global Initiative - Chillin with the President

2011-04-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Ok. So. I should probably preface this that A) "Chillin" might be a bit of a stretch in my interactions with Mr. President, and B) It wasn't Barack, but rather Bill (who, in my opinion is equally awesome to meet).

Last weekend, I was invited to an awesome event: The Clinton Global Initiative University. I, along with a couple of friends from school I am working on an idea that would integrate music with sick children.

I can't get too much into the details because at this point, we are still in the building process of the idea so shouting out our plan of World Domination may not be the best course of action.

Conveniently, this year the conference was held in San Diego. So on Friday, it all started with a big dinner/networking session. They must've know I was coming because if there's two things I'm good at in life, one is eating, and the other is talking. When performed in tandem, I am unstoppable!

So Mikey (my partner) and I entered the fray and started working the room. Aside from meeting a lot of people from around the country AND around the world (I believe there were 120 countries represented) it was awesome hearing about other people's amazing ideas, from incentivizing inner city youth education with sports, to building houses in Ghana, to inventing a soccer ball that can power an LED for 3 hours after just 15 minutes of play.

It's amazing the kind of networking that one can accomplish with a mouthful of meatballs and a cupcake in hand.

Across the room, I spotted a brunette bombshell (Yes, I'm here for charity but I'm still Arun). I quickly downed the cupcake and chased it with a shot of iced tea. I moseyed on over prepared to charm her socks off with my devilish good looks, witty banter, and gentle humanitarian soul. As I got closer, she started walking to the front of the room, then up to the stage.

"Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome Mandy Moore!"

Well, that would explain why she's so good looking. Suffice it to say, the recently married Mandy Moore seemed resistant to my charms (although, I'm SURE as soon as she spotted me, on the inside she was cursing herself for having already been married ;)

After the dinner thing, we got our first taste of President Bill Clinton. They introduced him, and he came strutting out on stage to a hip-hop beat. Yes, Bill Clinton has his own opening music that he struts out to.

Dude is a Baller.

It's funny because, everyone (including me) was so enamored and in awe of him on Friday night. But, by Sunday, we've seen Bill so damn much that its not a big deal anymore. On Friday, I entranced by him, but by Sunday, he's standing right next to me and he's just Bill - no biggy.

I've gotta say though, this event is awesome. It really gets you amped to "do well by doing good" and is pretty darn inspirational to see what other people are doing at such a young age. It's also cool meeting celebrities (Sean Penn, Drew Barrymore, Mandy Moore, and a handful of other actors/famous people/athletes were on hand).

In fact, Nnamdi Asomugha of the Oakland Raiders, one of the best defensive players in the National Football League, was extremely helpful and spent a good amount of time speaking with Mikey and I on reaching out to certain contacts to develop our business model.

Honestly, it pains me to say anything good about someone who plays for the Raiders, but Nnamdi was incredibly well-spoken, friendly, and helpful, and it's good to see guys like him taking an active role in helping others.

Now if he could just go a little easier on my KC Chiefs, then maybe we could be friends.

I'm definitely gonna try and go next year (where ever the event is held). I think our idea should develop enough in a year where I don't think getting a second invite should be a problem.

Considering Mandy Moore is a celebrity, she should be divorced by then.

Why You Should Always Prioritize

2011-04-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

At any given moment, I have a big list of things to do. Now, despite this huge and growing list, I make sure to fit in lots of fun, excitement, and of course (my personal favorite), ADVENTURE.

Rule number 22 in "Arun's Guide to Lifetime Awesomeness" - prioritize things so you get them done, but not at the expense of fun, excitement, and adventure.

I know what you're thinking..."Oh get real Arun and stop living in fantasy land! If you didn't expense fun, excitement, and adventure, you'd never get anything done! All this time away from

blogging has made you crazy you big (attractive) oaf!"

Well, you might be right about the slightly crazy part, but hear me out.

Recreation to me is not nearly as much fun when I have important things to do. I will admit that I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing things so I don't think about them when I don't need to, but I also enjoy my "off time" so much more when I've been productive and knocked tasks off my list.

So I mentioned that at any given time I have a list of things to do. In that list, I also have priorities - things that I absolutely MUST complete during the day. Sometimes they can be as simple as completing a reading for school, or queueing up emails for work, but I will make sure I get them done.

Let's take today for example. When I woke up, I had two things scheduled on my calendar: brunch with friends, and dinner with friends (tough schedule, I know).

BUT, I had things I wanted to prioritize which I am making sure to do, so that when I sit down for dinner at my friends house, I can enjoy it 100%.

Arun's Priorities for today:

Cardio Workout
Strength Training Workout
Work on Affiliate Promo's (work)
Set up web page headline test (more work)
Complete readings for Strategy and Lab 2 Market (school)
Set up Meeting with Dean (school / business idea)
Admire self in the mirror for at least 3.6 hours

As of right now, I've finished everything but number 2 which I'll be doing as soon as I'm done writing this. (and obviously number 7 is a high priority ;)

Prioritizing is my way of never procrastinating. Honestly, I almost NEVER have to stay up late working on something with a deadline looming. At school, I put minimal time in studying for tests because I keep up to date with all of the readings and assignments. As a result, I never have to stress about things.

Obviously, the blog has taken a bit of a back seat recently. But I can explain.

I'm not a fan of short blurbs. I like my posts to be stories or essays that you can read through and find useful or interesting. As a result, these things usually take some time.

BUT, I'm really working on getting my posting frequency back up. The advantage of not having posted in awhile is that I have a backlog of awesome stories to post.

No. I haven't become a hermit. No I haven't lost my stories of awesomeness. Yes ridiculous things still happen to me. But somehow, the pieces always wind up in my favor.

More blogging coming.

Don't worry...I'll try to make it a priority ;)

Doing Vegas the Right (and Wrong) Way

2011-01-29T12:37:00.001-08:00

Every time I get back from Vegas, I tell myself, "Arun, you amazing guy you - Vegas is fun, but instead of coming here every year, go somewhere new!"

In theory, this sounds like a brilliant plan each time I say this to myself, but every year, someone, or something comes up where I would be an idiot not to go. Generally, I make it a rule to avoid such situations of idiocy.

So this year, again I had no such plans of visiting Las Vegas. I've been four times, and sure each time has been filled with chaos and adventure, but how about saving my time and money, and doing something different?

Then I found out about the "Super Duper MBA Vegas Weekend of Madness"(not the official name, but I find this more descriptive) that happens every year in Vegas. Basically, Caesar's Palace puts on a huge poker tournament + festivities for MBA students around the world to come and enjoy.

I was skeptical at first, until I started getting emails from people who have been before:

"You HAVE to GO!"

"Event of the YEAR!"

"Can't MISS weekend!"

Ok, I'm convinced.

Rule number 212 in "Arun's Guide to Lifetime Awesomeness" states: "Thou shalt not pass up awesome opportunities or adventures when phrases like 'can't miss' are tossed around"

I'm not one to break my own rules, so as you can see, I had no choice but to book a flight.

So why is this weekend so great you ask? Well for starters, the deal is unbelievable. For $70, you are entered into a Poker Tournament on Friday (cash prizes for the top 20 finishers), a two hour dinner event with Open bar on Friday, and an open bar at a club on Saturday.

Yes, you heard that right. In the city with probably the most expensive drinks in the country, we are drinking for FREE both nights. Suffice it to say, no one was drinking anything less than Patron, Belvedere, and Jack Daniels for the entire weekend, and an hour into every event, no one felt ANY pain ;)

Seriously, it's worth entering an MBA program just for this trip alone.

On Saturday, while watching football at a sports bar in New York New York, we actually ran into the "Lingerie Bowl Girls" who apparently play football in, well, lingerie at half time during the Super Bowl. That's some of em in the picture up top.

But wait...if you've read the title carefully, you're probably wondering, "Gee Arun, this sounds like an amazing trip of awesomeness that I'm extremely jealous of, but what's this about the 'wrong way'?"

Good Question.

So the original plan was for a bunch of us to get this 2500 square foot suite in Caesar's palace. It would have been a bunch of us running amuck in this awesome suite having a lot of fun...But then, at the last minute, people started bailing for cheaper options. At that point, I thought the Presidential Suite might be a little much for me (but, then again, I have always thought of myself as rather presidential).

At that point, our options were limited and I left it in Jeff's hands to book us a room. Unfortunately, with only a couple of days before departure, there wasn't much in terms of selection.

Welcome to Imperial Palace - possibly (for lack of a better, more PG word) the luxury slum of Vegas.

So we walk in, and immediately I know I don't belong...lets just say the tenants of "I.P." (I refuse to call this place a "palace") aren't exactly lookers (yes, materialistic and judgmental, I know, but you weren't there, and we all know how amazing I think I look).

We are greeted by a broken automatic front door which meant all weekend, people were bumping into each other going in and out of the exit.

Check-in took forever, and once we finally checked in we made our way to the "Capri" tower which was not in the same building as the rest.

I got excited thinking the "Capri" must be the luxury tower of I.P. Maybe this place won't be so bad after all!

Welp, we make our way through some building with stained carpets and wreaking of cigarette smoke. Totally disgusting. We're searching for our room and finally see a sign that directs us through another door.

Now we are OUTSIDE. On one side is what looks like motel rooms, and on the other is a parking structure with car alarms resounding. At the end of the walkway, we see our rooms.

We didn't even walk in. We marched back to the front desk and "upgraded" to a room in the main tower. Of course, only one of the three elevators worked which means it took like 20 minutes to actually catch an elevator with enough space to squeeze a couple more people in.

The funny part is, during the initial check-in (before we had seen the room) Jeff was joking to our friend Carlos that we may have to "slum-it in the room next to them" to which the check-in clerk scoffed, "Huh! They are NOT slums!"

Au Contraire, mon frere.

Calling it a slum was probably a nicer term...these were more like "projects".

I was so embarrassed by our abode, that when people asked where we were staying I'd simply point in the direction of I.P. (which was conveniently located right across from Caesar's Palace), and respond, "We're staying at the Palace!"

But at least now I've seen another side of Vegas. Not everyone can afford the best of the best (including me) but if there's two things you should take away from this post, they are this: 1) NEVER stay at I.P. and 2) join an MBA program to go to this event next year.

And next year I'm definitely getting the damn suite.

2010 Evaluation and 2011 Goals

2011-01-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

To be honest, I've been kind of dreading writing this post. Why? Well because as I've gotten older, I find my personal need for making resolutions gets less and less.

A big reason for this is that, at this point in time, my life is totally unpredictable. Honestly, I couldn't tell you what I'll be doing in three months, let alone the rest of the year. I mean, I have a vague idea, but the whole point of making successful resolutions is to be specific.

Also, my goals tend to change as the year wears on. January is just another month for me. I never look at the new year in terms of a "clean slate." To me, the symbolism of January is just the same as July (except for January symbolizes frigid cold and July symbolizes warmth, the beach, and summer vacation).

That being said, it is fun making a short list of goals and then going back and evaluating last year's goals to see how I've done.

ARUN'S 2010 GOALS OF AWESOMENESS:

1. Take an Amazing International Trip

Ok, I think it's pretty obvious that I deserve a 10/10 on this one. I traveled literally around the world and explored France, China, and Australia. One of the most amazing things I've ever done, and the trip definitely made me want to travel a LOT more (as well as never want to eat Duck Brain ever again).

2. Grow the Social Charmer

This was pretty much a total failure. In the last year, I've tweaked a few things and continued to send newsletters, but in all honesty, I didn't accomplish what I set out to do. I have TONS of ideas of features and products I want to add, but time has been a MAJOR crunch recently. I'll give myself a 1/10 on this.

3. Join More Activities

10/10! I'm back on the track of awesomeness (but let's be fair...when am I ever off the track of awesomeness ;) I think joining an MBA program is a pretty major activity. In addition, I started volunteering at the San Diego Braille Institute, joined a tennis club, and am a Rady School of Management Ambassador. I've made a ton of new friends this year and my social life has been MORE than fulfilled.

4. Develop Another Business Plan.

Hmmmm....probably 5/10 here. While I DO have a new business idea as well as an additional book idea that I'd like to get published, that's where the progress has stopped. The key is to move these ideas towards some type of fruition which I haven't done.

And now for this year:

ARUN'S 2011 NEW YEAR'S GOALS OF AWESOMENESS!

1. Narrow Career Focus

I pretty much know the general direction I want to go in, but I am hoping to narrow this to something more specific, be it a commitment to a business plan, or a step towards becoming "Dr. Arun" (BTW, how awesome does "Dr. Arun" sound? I may have to get a PhD if for no other reason than having an awesome professional prefix). This is a tough goal to define, and an even tougher one to say "tomorrow I'm going to work on this goal" because it's something that requires experience to develop. Additionally, I know I NEVER want to work in a 9-5 corporate type job ever again. So I guess the goal is then to pursue experiential opportunities which will narrow my career focus.

2. Post More Frequently

This last year, I severely neglected posting on this blog. It's funny because this blog has actually opened up a LOT of doors for me personally which is something I never expected to happen when I first started it. This year, I am going to make sure I post at LEAST twice per month, and hopefully more.

3. Start Implementing New Cash Flow Ideas

This is basically a fancy way of saying "Get My Ass In Gear and Start My New Book Idea and Actually Develop a Viable Business Plan". I really want to realize these and I know exactly what I want to write about...it's just a matter of putting pen to paper (or, in this case, finger to keyboard) and writing it. It's daunting because, writing a book is a hell of an effort, especially knowing that getting published is incredibly difficult. But, I need to look at the product as a personal accomplishment more than a purely monetary device.

And I think that'll do it! Again, because of the lack of regularity in my life, time is at a premium, and my goals are constantly evolving. I can't promise that I'll make it 100%, but I can tell you that every week, I'll work towards realizing each of these goals.

It's time to DOMINATE 2011 ;)

Be Nice, But Not the Nice Guy

2010-12-22T16:58:00.000-08:00

“Nice guys finish last”

We’ve all heard this age-old aphorism and more often than not, we find that it’s commonly true. It seems so unfair. Why should “Nice Guys” be punished for being good members of society?

Welp, I hate to break it to you, but the statement IS true. Nice Guys do indeed finish last.

But why?

Well lets see…what is a “nice guy” anyways? Well aside from being friendly, I think we can safely assign some other characteristics that are pretty common among nice guys. Nice guys:

Usually look out for the interest of others first
Don’t step on others toes
Avoid Conflict
Shy away from causing unrest

That’s just the beginning of myriad of characteristics we could name, but let’s just go with these to make it simple.

So why do these characteristics lead to a lack of success? Basically, all of these qualities lead to a lack of initiative. In order to take initiative, you need to be unafraid of a little conflict. That’s not to say you should start conflict, but you need to be unafraid of a little social discomfort.

But let’s look at some real world examples. Usually we always think about Nice Guys never getting the girl. All girls say they want to end up with a nice guy, but that’s actually untrue.

Girls see nice guys as boring and uninteresting. Sorry to break it to you, but it’s true. What they really want is a guy who is respectful and honest, but is not afraid to test and challenge them. While a nice guy may put a girl on a pedestal, a “non-nice guy” treats her as a partner in crime.

I am NOT a “nice guy.”

I am extremely friendly and get along with everyone but I have a mischievous streak. I’m obviously good-natured and people seem to appreciate my teasing. I love talking about anything and everything including topics which most people would be afraid to touch.

Women respond to emotional arousal. A nice guy doesn’t generate this. He’s simply too nice. A Bad-ass does, but usually girls tire of “bad-assness” after a while. You stimulate emotional arousal by being interesting, conversationally free, confident, and challenging. These are qualities that nice-guys generally lack because they are too concerned with preserving status-quo comfort levels.

The opposite of Love is not Hate. It’s indifference. And indifference is a common feeling surrounding nice-guy interactions.

The only way to BUILD comfort though is by actively exhibiting the aforementioned qualities. With girls, this is the difference between being just another friend, or someone they are romantically interested in. With other guys, this is the difference between being a just another friend, or someone that we actively want to hang out with and invite out. Where a nice guy doesn’t really change the group dynamic,

The misconception is that the only way to move up in the world is to be a douche-bag and not care about anyone else.

Not true at all.

You can still be nice, respectful, and caring, but in order to move up, you need to be unafraid of situations in which emotional reactions may result. That includes challenging others, and standing up for your ideas. By not being overly agreeable, you earn respect, especially when you defend your thoughts with poise, humor, and good-naturedness.

Coincidentally, this is also a major factor in being Charming. My Specialty ;)

It’s true, nice people can finish first…just don’t be the nice guy.

The Dreaded Line

2010-12-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Lines (queues) are an interesting beast. I say “beast” because they are pretty much universally hated.

Think about it…have you ever actually enjoyed waiting in line?

“Oh look! There’s six people with loaded carts ahead of me in line! YES!”

“Hey! This line only has one person, so we should probably switch to the one over there with three.”

“I’ve got a great idea! Why don’t I wait in this line and you in the one over there, and whoever gets to the front first and switch to the line of whomever is still waiting!”

I think you get the point….we don’t like lines.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain Theme Park. When we got in line, the security guy told us the wait was three hours. THREE FLIPPING HOURS! To boot, the guy in front of us was smoking like a chimney.

Oh Joy. A three hour wait in line is all I need to have the lungs of a 10 year smoker and clothes that smell like a chimney.

After some discussion, we ejected and decided to buy the “Fast Pass” Upgrades. $100 later, I was waiting only 20 minutes for each ride, and getting to ride everything TWICE in a row! (literally, the roller coaster would come back to the station, the restraints would come up, and we’d pull em’ right back down as the twelve year olds next in line gave us murderous looks for being able to stay on).

Grocery store lines are another animal though. There’s an ultra fast calculation that most of us do when picking a line. This calculation factors in such things as: amount of people, amount of groceries (taking into account produce takes longer to ring up than normal store items), age of shoppers (are they young and spry or old and slow?), likelihood of tobacco purchase (since they have to go to that special case to get the tobacco) etc.

Things get really thrown off though when someone decides to pull out the ol’ checkbook. You’re paying with a CHECK!?! Really? REALLY? Pulling out a checkbook at the grocery store line is like rear ending someone on the freeway and causing traffic to back up.

Not only does Checky McCheckerson have to fill out the stupid check, but he has to record the expense in that log in the back of the checkbook (which I don’t understand since you have on-hand a carbon copy of every check you write). Then, the clerk has to run the check through that weird receipt machine. THEN, they have to open the drawer, take the entire change holder out, and stick the check underneath.

Good. Lord.

Checks should be eradicated. They’re incredibly primitive and cumbersome to use. God invented credit/debit cards for a reason people! The only time I use a check these days is to pay rent. Even this could be avoided if the landlord had a paypal account.

Most of the time, I go for the self-checkout. But even this can cause problems. Most people are incredibly slow with the self-checkout. They get confused with produce. Then they panic and need the clerk to walk them through. Meanwhile the guy at the next checkout needs the clerk to approve his alcohol purchase, but since she’s too busy helping grandma ring up her club soda, the whole damn thing gets backed up.

But even this is a cake walk compared to return lines. I rarely ever return anything because the process of returning is so painful. Somehow, the process is at least twice as long as purchasing. And the longer someone takes at the front, the more you start to hate them.

Last year, I had to go to Costco to return something. At the front of this line, their was a lady returning Bananas.

Who returns Bananas? When you buy produce, especially something like bananas, you should be aware that they have a shelf life. And it’s not like bananas are some big mystery as to the state of their ripeness. There’s no pressing of the skin, smelling, thumping it with your fist.

If it’s green, it’s not ripe. If it’s brown it’s too ripe. And If it’s yellow….surprise of the century, I know….it’s ripe!

It baffles me how people spend hours in line on Black Friday (for you internationals, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving on which every store has crazy sales and discounts). Last year, driving home after Thanksgiving dinner, I saw a huge line outside of Best Buy. People even had tents!

It's interesting how little people value their time and will waste it for meager discounts.

Last year, Baskin Robbins had this 25 cent scoop day. I was going to stop by, but when I got there, the line was around the block.

Really? People are waiting 30 or 40 minutes just to pay 75 cents for 3 scoops of ice cream thats normally $4. Yes, that's a whopping $3.25 in savings.

Sometimes, it’s just easier just shopping online ;)

Self Awareness

2010-12-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

Self Awareness is an essential characteristic one must have to be a successful long-term leader

My Leadership professor emphasized this phrase, and when I first heard it, I didn’t really consider it as all too important.

“Yea Ok Professor…I am self aware that I am AWESOME!”

Ok I didn’t actually say that, but the thought did cross my mind.

Actually we discussed this topic more, and the further we delved, the more I realized that self-awareness is not only requisite to be a great leader, but also to simply live life awesomely.

Self awareness is basically being able to objectively and accurately identify your strengths and weaknesses. It’s also being able to accept character traits that maybe other people have identified that have gone undetected on your personal radar.

Take me for example:

I know I LOVE food. I also know that when it’s immediately available, I have little self-control. I’ve identified this “weakness” and in order to compensate for it, I NEVER buy unhealthy groceries. Seriously, if I buy a half gallon of ice cream, it’s gone in two days. In fact, I can never understand how people buy things like ice cream or potato chips and let them sit around for weeks. As soon as I buy ice cream, it begins to call for me and I have no will to resist it’s beckoning.

Suffice it to say, the only food that I allow to call for me by having in my kitchen, is healthy stuff.

I also know that I have a tendency to take on a lot of different activities and projects. BUT, as a result, I rarely master any one thing completely. As much as I’d like to be a renaissance man, I’m probably more of a Jack-of-all-trades.

Having identified this though, I’ve also realized that I derive a lot of pleasure from the variety of my involvement. I also like being good at a lot of things and, for me, am happier being good at many things than a master at one. This probably stems from my extreme competitiveness.

In fact, competitiveness is another self-trait I’ve identified. It seriously kills me to lose. I hate it. That being said, I am aware that I have this trait and can thus control myself when I’m losing (yes, I’ll admit it…I’ve actually lost at stuff before). I’ve actually won a couple of sportsmanship awards before (the award they give ONLY to losers when they lose gracefully).

Believe you me, I’d much rather win, but it does feel good knowing that despite a sub par performance, I can be amiable, easy-going, and well-liked.

Being honest with yourself, and identifying your strengths and ESPECIALLY your derailers is essential in becoming successful. Don’t allow yourself to make excuses, and if you do, at least be able to identify that you’re making an excuse so that you are fully aware of what you are doing.

Sure I buy junk food sometimes. But I’m well aware of what I’m doing and willingly accept the consequences (then workout twice as hard the next day).

Make an honest list, and start thinking about it! Good Luck ;)

Embracing Irregularity

2010-11-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

In the last year, my life has taken a lot of turns.

I spent the first 3 months rapping up my nearly 4 year tenure at the old 9-5 engineering job I used to have. (Thank God that's over)

Then, I threw myself a little more seriously into internet marketing where I was spending a good chunk of my day at various San Diego coffee shops and beaches, working away.

Then, I ventured around the world for a couple of months where I essentially had no schedule, worked when I could, and adventured everywhere in between.

Now, I work and study in my pockets of time between classes, and adventure and socialize during the rest of the time.

Basically, there is no semblance of regularity or routine in my day-to-day life. I have classes here and there, I have weird days off, there's ALWAYS events going on at school, and my friends (including the my 60 new classmates) are always down to hang out.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

There's something totally refreshing about living a dynamic life. I once wrote a post about the importance of establishing some sort of routine. I STILL think this is incredibly important.

I know what you're thinking..."Ha Arun! I'm totally calling you out! You're contradicting yourself and making absolutely NO sense for the first time in your life. Get with it!"

Settle down and allow me to explain. I am still incredibly routine about certain things. I exercise everyday without fail. I usually spend some time playing music. I study almost everyday.

Basically, there exists certain activities that I do EVERY DAY. They may happen at different times, but they are there, and ingrained in my daily schedule. The key to keeping these things around is to create a semblance of a plan every morning. If I know I have a busy evening ahead, I sneak over to the gym in the afternoon and bang out a workout. If I have an adventurous Saturday in the works, I'll plan a 3 or 4 our block on Sunday to get all my studying taken care of.

I usually have a mental map of my schedule for about the next five days. This allows me to fit everything in while wasting very little time.

It's all about eliminating "down" time.

In fact, last night I was out with a bunch of my friends from school, and one of my friends was sarcastically lamenting to the group about how much he "hates" me.

"I HATE Arun! He always tells me about how incredible his weekends were and all these adventures that I missed out on! He always has some hot date lined up for the week, plays 50 different instruments, reads 1000 page novels, AND somehow manages to get all his homework done and do better on the tests than me...WHAT an asshole!!!"

Obviously he was exaggerating a bit, but I DO like being active andthe only way I can get away with it, is by being an excellent time manager and planner.

I used to think it would be hard to get back into the student lifestyle, but on the contrary, it's been anything but. I love school, I love studying (yes...I'm a nerd-baller), and I love having the off Wednesday afternoon to just ditch everything and go to the beach.

Irregularity opens up your days to so many more possibilities and makes life more interesting. So much so that I don't think I can EVER go back to being "regular."

I'm Baaaaaaack!

2010-11-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

I know what you're thinking...

"Arun! I thought I'd lost you forever! Where have you been???"

Good question, and I'm glad you're concerned.

Welp, to put it simply, after returning from my "Round the World Trip-O-Awesomeness," things got busy...very busy. So busy in fact that writing took a back seat.

The week after I returned, I moved to a new place closer to Downtown San Diego. I'm FINALLY able to walk to some really awesome restaurants (and for those of you who know my affinity for food in general, you know how dangerous this is for me!).

Then, I started school.

That's right. I am know a member of the UCSD Rady School of Management, class of 2012. Let me tell you, MBA school is no joke. There's a TON of work, group projects, presentations, etc. In addition to school, I'm still doing my internet marketing stuff, and a few other tasks.

Bottom line is, things are crazy busy, but that's just the way I like it! Unfortunately, the blog updates won't be as they once were, BUT, I promise to be more regular and not take another 3 month break (at least no time soon).

Also, I may change the format a bit in the interest of posting more frequency. Posts might be a little shorter, but hopefully more frequent. I've got a lot of things to write about though including adventures, advice, and (my personal favorites), RANTS!

By the way, the picture at the top really has nothing to do with anything. A friend invited me for some "Backstage Pass" at the San Diego Zoo where you get to be up close and personal with some of the animals.

Stay tuned. Your Daily Remedy is BACK!

Abseiling Adventures in Australia

2010-08-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, yes, I know this is post is a little delayed. I have indeed returned to the good ol' U.S of A, but things have been hectic since I've been back to say the least. I've had to catch up on some work stuff (since I neglected a few things between my adventuring) and I also moved...again.

Anyways, Australia.

Totally amazing, and I WILL go back. I traveled around the South East coast including Sydney and Melbourne but wasn't able to make it to Queensland and New Zealand, which means I'll either need to move there for awhile or take another multiple month trip.

Hmmm.

The highlight of the trip though, occurred on the second to last day. It was simultaneously the most amazing and TERRIFYING thing I've done in my life. I was in Sydney and saw an ad for abseiling in the outback. Apparently "abseiling" is the British equivalent of rappelling. Sounds awesome, so I coerced my friend Kelly to sign up with me.

The next day, we wake up 4:45am and catch a 2 hour train out to Katoomba (how's that for an awesome town name?) for this little excursion. We get to the place and find out we are the only two people signed up for the day since, being winter time in Australia, it's the offseason.

Even better - more attention from our guide.

Slight problem though. When you aren't travelling with a lot of luggage, generally you aren't really prepared for things like abseiling in the jungle in the middle of winter.

We show up, in shorts and sweatshirts...not exactly ideal apparel, so we have to run over to K-mart and gear up. After we return, Corky, our guide for the day (I should've known better at this point...nothing good can ever come out of having an adventure guide named "Corky"), gives us a quick breakdown of our plans for the day, before we jump into the four-wheeler and start trekking into the rain forest/jungle/whatever.

After a short hike, we get to the first cliff. The "easy" one. It's about 30 feet which, before signing up, I imagined would be the longest rappel.

Not Quite.

I make it through without any issues.

"I am awesome! I DOMINATE abseiling!"

Little did I know that Corky was just warming us up. Our morning descents included rappels of 30, 100, and 200 feet. By lunchtime, I was feeling confident and smooth. Sure, hanging off of a cliff by a thin little rope with 200 feet of trees, rock, and cliff below is a smidgen unsettling, but after six or seven abseils, I was feeling good.

Then Corky took us to "The Fold".

We drove out to another location, hiked a little ways, until Corky halted us.

"Don't Move Mates! If I don't set this safety line, you're cooked!"

I took a peak at what he was looking at around the bend, and instantly became nauseous. He was traversing a cliff wall with ledge that only about four or five inches of his foot could fit on....1100 feet below were the tops of 50 foot trees to "catch" us in case of any snafus.

Comforting.

"Come on guys!"

Although we had a safety line to hook on to, there were multiple reasons for my nerves:

The safety line is very loose, so in the event of a fall, you would still drop a good 10 feet before slamming into the cliff wall. At that point, I'm not even sure how you would get back up.
As the safety line is loose, you don't really feel like there's a line connected to you. Basically, the whole traverse feels like you're free climbing.
We were personally in charge of detaching and re-attaching our own safety line to the traverse line Corky was setting on the cliff wall at each point where it is connected to the wall. I was surprised that he trusted us so soon to be in charge of our own safety. I wasn't so trusting of me.

When we got to the meat of the fold, I realized I was in a major pinch. The fold is basically a spot where two cliffs come together. The first obstacle is climbing through. It's pretty narrow, and, just in case I wasn't already peeing my pants, as you continue through, your are essentially straddling the crevasse which, if you were to fall through, would be a 120o foot drop.

Oh Corky, how I love thee.

At this point, there's really no option of turning back either. We've rappelled some other cliffs to get to this point, so the only way I'm getting out of here, is by going forward.

To further complicate things, the start of this rappel is straight down through the crevasse, then over another cliff. Corky also had me go first to set up a safety line below.

And if things weren't complicated enough, it was "the second windiest day I've ever seen in The Fold!" and Corky didn't want to through the end of my rope down to the bottom for fear of it getting tangled. His solution? He tied a back pack to my waist, hanging between my legs which the end of my rope would feed out of. The whole time I was going down, I kept thinking, "what if he accidentally put the wrong length of rope in the bag and I end up being short?" Well, to answer my own question, I would be touching down with a not-so-cushy landing 1200 feet below.

Only slightly unsettling.

And just in case I wasn't already terrified, as I was going down, the rope got knotted and caught in the backpack while I was going down.

Good Grief. So here I am, hanging by a rope with death looming below, undoing a knot in my lifeline. Like I said, not an adventure for the feint of heart.

I will say this. The views that we had during these insane rappels were among the BEST I've ever seen. Completely breath-taking.

Somehow, Kelly and I made it out alive, and with an AMAZING adventure under our belts. Truthfully, if I had known how terrifying this would've been, I may not have signed up, but I am SOOOOO glad I did, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Another day, another adventure!

Adventures in New South Whales, Australia

2010-07-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Ahhh…I never thought the sound of English would be so amazing – especially when it has an Aussie accent attached to it.

Spending a month in non-English speaking countries definitely wears on you for awhile, and it’s surprisingly refreshing to be able to communicate fluently with everyone. I’m also FINALLY the “guy with the accent”.

I’ve always wanted to be the “guy with a cute American accent” ;)

Interestingly, I was hanging out with some Aussies who not only said I have an accent, but "You've got a pretty major accent there mate!" How is it they don't realize that THEY'RE the ones with the cool accents?! ;) Regardless, I'm loving the fact that English is everywhere again.

Now don’t get me wrong. I would LOVE to live in a foreign country for a year or two and learn the language, culture, and tradition. But nevertheless, I still love me some good ol’ fashioned, finger-lickin good, English.

So right now I’m sitting on the train at Central Station in Sydney waiting to leave up to Gosford – a small coastal town about an hour North of Sydney. This is where Frederico lives…well, until Monday that is.

Conveniently, my stay in Australia just so happens to coincide with Frederico having to move up to New Castle…not so fun for me, but especially convenient for Freddy who now has a freakishly strong friend around to help him move.

So far though, my stay has been filled with touristy activities and nightlife.

AND, by an amazing stroke of good-fortune, my friend Kelly happens to be in Sydney with a couple of her friends. So today, I left Freddy up in Gosford to pack while I waltzed around Sydney with Kelly and my new friends.

There’s nothing like a little waltzing around new turf.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, I generally write posts in one go, but when I start getting sleepy, my usual wit and charm starts to dwindle and typos abound. So now, I'm continuing the post some three days later. I'm now sitting in a Mall up in Gosford. Frederico, my friend who lives here, is at home cleaning for his final inspection before we head up to New Castle.

Tomorrow, I'm flying down to Melbourne for a week. I'm hoping there's a spot down there where I can go and hold a Koala (not quite as cute as baby Panda's, but they will suffice ;)

When I get back to Sydney, I'm actually looking into maybe hang gliding (it's a tandem glide with with an instructor...don't worry Mom) and canyoning!

The adventures continue mates!

BTW, my Australian accent that's oh so convincing in American is not quite as much so here. Go figure.

Shanghai Shananigans

2010-07-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

Shanghai, China...

The business capital of the country. A huge metropolis of skyscrapers, lights, and fancy restaurants...yet pretty much NO ONE speaks English.

Luckily, my fluent yet slim knowledge of Mandarin consists of four words...Nee-hau (Basically - "hello"), Shi-Shea (thank you), La-wai (foreigner) and Yo-gwai (right turn).

As you can imagine, doing things can be a little challenging, but at least I can get places provided I figure out a route consisting of only right turns ;)

It is a MAJOR bonus having my friend Gina living here though. For starters, her company has her living in the Marriott Executive Apartments in Union Square. Upon my arrival, she has been staying with her boyfriend downstairs, so I have a whole, huge suite overlooking downtown Shanghai, all to myself. This is easily the nicest place I've ever stayed at.

Not exactly "backpacking" around China, but I'll take it ;)

Then there's the added bonus that, since Gina and Aaron have lived here for almost two years, they pretty much know all the best places to eat, shop, etc.

I also conveniently met a girl on the plane over to Shanghai that showed me around for a couple of days. It's amazing to get the history and Chinese perspective on different things from a local!

For the most part, you can get things for dirt cheap around here. Now, things aren't necessarily of the same quality, and you have to haggle quite a bit to get a fair "Chinese Price", but still, when you can have a seven course dinner for 10 bucks and get a personally tailored shirt for $12, you're doing pretty well.

And speaking of food, I've had a lot of it. I know what you're thinking..."Gee Arun, BIG surprise that you're eating a lot, but I want to know if you've had anything CRAZY!??"

Good Question. So far, my friends have made me try Duck Brain, Chicken Heart, Chicken Cartilage, Octopus, Jellyfish, and Beef Stomach.

I wouldn't necessarily order any of it on my own, but they were actually NOT repulsive.

And what are these "Shananigans" that I speak of? I'm glad you asked.

- Yesterday we went to the Shanghai Wild Animal Park. But this is no ordinary zoo. If you pay 20 Kuai, you can ride this bus through the tiger, lion, cheetah, and bear reserves...but there's a catch.

The bus doesn't have walls, but rather a cage. When you go through, the animals basically start climbing up on the sides of the cage/bus/deathtrap. Why are they climbing onto it? Because on the sides are these little shoots that people drop live chickens through.

Basically, passengers buy a chicken from the driver, dangle and tease the lions/tigers/whatever with it, then drop it down the shoot for them the tear apart and devour.

Awesome to see in real life, but also a little scary, being nose to nose with and smelling tiger breath. Ironically, HE was the one roaming free, and WE were in the cage.

Oh, and in typical Chinese form, while we were bussing around, someone left one of the gates open one of the cheetahs almost escaped into the deer/camel/wildabeast habitat. Can you imagine the carnage that would've taken place? After a long delay in which the cheetah was salivating across the last ditch safety barrier, he was shoe'd back across and the gate closed.

Oh and we got to see 10 baby Pandas too. Seriously, is there ANYTHING cuter than baby pandas???

- Massages are really cheap in China...but sometimes you have to work to find a "decent" place.

And by "decent" I don't mean "good", I mean a place that won't try a sex you up.

I walked into one the other day to check it out. Some very attractive women opened it. I took a look at the "massage menu" with the different types of massages and the prices. The receptionist pointed to one and said "this best!" I read the English description:

"We take you to deepest realms of pleasure with three therapists working on you. One dressed as nurse, one dressed as student, one prepared for body to body ecstasies..."

I can't remember the rest, but for some reason, I had a feeling that this place wasn't on the up-and-up. Suffice it to say, I left and found a place that didn't describe what the therapists are wearing on the the menu ;)

- The Fourth of July was interesting. You see, although "technically" illegal, you can still buy fireworks in the city, and $300 goes a LOT further in China than it does in the United States.

So, on Independence day, we found a nice little courtyard in an upscale apartment complex, and let em rip. The stuff we bought was basically enough pyrotechnics for a professional fireworks show.

Apparently, the apartment residents weren't so stoked on our amazingly bright and noisy fireworks display exploding feet away from there windows ;)

We were kicked out by security afterwords, but it was WELL worth it.

So today, I'm leaving for Australia. I'm going to make sure to get to the airport EXTRA early, because we all know what happened in Beijing ;)

The Bumbling Beijing Adventure

2010-07-06T06:36:00.001-07:00

I had no idea a stop in Beijing, China was on my itinerary...But, apparently my trip was going a little too well, and an adventure needed to happen.

Although my flight itinerary was technically a straight shot from Paris to Shanghai, there was a little asterisk that noted a "technical stop" in Beijing. Ok. No big deal. We stop in Beijing. I'll chill on the plane. Maybe hop off and grab a quick snack, and jump back on.

That would've been too easy.

When I de-boarded the airplane in Beijing, there was a Chinese lady asking passengers in a thick Chinese accent "transfer Shanghai?"

Me: "Ah, that's me!"
Agent: "Ok, go up through immigration and come back. Hurry!"
Me: "Ok, but should I go through domestic or intern-"
Agent: (now yelling at me and shoeing me away) "CHA-CHI-BY-BOW!!"

I have no idea what that translates to, but I assume it meant "You need to move your ass you amazingly good-looking man!"

She then put some special transfer sticker on my shirt. I thought this sticker would assist me in moving through the airport quicker and facilitate everything (silly Arun), so I hustled my tushy up the stairs. This is where I started getting confused. I had to go through either the International transfer area, or the domestic transfer area. I asked around, and I'm not sure if they understood me, but I was pointed towards the domestic transfer.

Makes sense since Beijing to Shanghai is a domestic flight, but then again, should I really be transferring anywhere since I'm supposed to be on the same flight?

I proceeded as told, went through immigration and asked somebody else where to go. They pointed me towards the tram. Hmmm...this didn't seem right, but if that's what they say...

I took the tram, and when I get off, I realize that I'm now in the baggage claim area. Wait...why am I at the baggage claim?

I go to the information desk and tell them I'm supposed to get back on my flight...and FAST. She had no idea what I was talking about and pointed me to another employee all the way across the baggage claim area.

And the dominoes begin to pick up speed.

At this point, I'm starting to get a little nervous because between immigration, the tram, and now not knowing where to go, this is all taking awhile, and the gate agent yelling at me in Mandarin to hurry is still reverberating in my mind.

This person tells me that I need to wait for my bag, then re-enter the gate through customs. I thought my little bag was checked through to Shanghai, but she insisted I have to wait.

So I waited...and waited...all the while praying that my plane doesn't leave without me. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. No bag.

I jog over to the Air China baggage claim office and ask them what I'm supposed to do because my plane is about to take off. I show them my ticket stub and confusion breaks out. Three people are looking at each other talking in VERY animated Mandarin.

Great.

The guy goes back to check on something and comes out exclaiming, "What are you doing here!? Your bag is going Shanghai!"

Frustration.

They are confused and say I need to go through customs right now and get to my plane. Now I'm booking it across the terminal over to customs. Good thing I'm wearing running shoes.

I get to customs, hook slide under the line rope, plead with everyone to let me get to the front of the line, and try to explain the situation to see where to go. Of course, the customs official speaks little English and needs to get help. All the while I'm pleading with people and pointing at my transfer sticker to explain an apparently confusing situation.

The transfer identification sticker the gate agent gave me is doing NOTHING.

Finally, a lady comes to try and help me (I found that during this whole ordeal, the female Air China employees were much more helpful and sympathetic to me. I'm sure it helped that I was putting my hands together and desperately pleading with people to help me.

She ran with me out and up to the Air China ticket counter took me to the front of the line (much to other customers chagrin) and dropped me off. I made her stay because she seemed to be sympathetic to my cause.

This ticket agent, after about ten minutes of me pleading and my new customs official friend yelling at him to hurry up, told me my plane is about to take off.

Discovery of the century Sherlock.

Then he said I have to go back to the baggage claim and get my bag, then come back to the counter to get a ticket.

"YOU SON OF A !@&^%$ MOTHER #&%*@!! NO GOOD %$#&^!." Ok, well I didn't say those words exactly, but I was thinking it.

I sprint downstairs, but the problem now is, you have to be on the other side of security to be in the baggage claim area. I plead with the security official randomly pointing to my ticket stub and transfer sticker (now barely holding on to my sweaty shirt due to all the running) and he lets me through.

I never knew someone could actually go backwards through security!

Still no bag.

I run back to the baggage claim office, sure that I've missed my plane, and the guy looks at me like I'm the biggest idiot in the world, running around the airport for 40 minutes, ending up back here.

"What you doing here?!?"

He sees my expression, and realizes and should stop asking me questions. He grabs my ticket stub, types on the computer, writes down a gate number and tells me "J Terminal! 51C! RUN NOW!

Here we go again.

I confusedly run around, looking for the terminal, FINALLY find it, and book it over to security. When I finally get to security, I have to go through another passport checkpoint. They won't let me through though because I only have a ticket stub and not an actual boarding pass (which they ripped off when I initially boarded the plane in Paris).

What else can go wrong here?

After more pleading, and people calling managers, somebody finally escorts me through. Now I'm at security, and unloading all of my crap onto the x-ray belt. Of COURSE, every time I go through the security screener, I set it off. Once. Twice. Third time. (this NEVER happens!) Now I have to stand on the damn pedestal and get radar wanded. Once that's through (and because I have SO MUCH time to spare) they also decide to search my backpack.

I've lost all patience at this point.

Then, this very important looking lady shows up (an angel) and tells me she is escorting me to my plane. Thank GOD.

We hop on this cart-thing, and cruise though the airport, siren and lights on, bobbing and weaving through traffic. We get to an elevator, and I INSIST that she comes with me. I finally found someone who seems to know I have a plane to catch and LATCH ON!

I finally get to the secondary gate where she leaves me with a guy who I made promise to get me on the plane before she could leave. He looks at me and asks me for my transfer ticket. I tell him all they gave me is this sticker. He looks at the other agent, says something in Chinese, and they both erupt in laughter, looking at my sticker.

I am not amused.

They escort me on to another tram which drops me off on the actual runway area where I climb the stairs into the plane. Luckily the plane was delayed due to mechanical issues, which is the ONLY reason I was able to make the flight.

Good Lord, no one should ever have to go through that. All in all, I think no fewer than 20 different airport employees were involved, and I spent about an hour and a half running around Beijing International.

I would love to see the airport security cameras of me running all over place, pleading with everyone, jumping up and down, frantically pointing at my dumb useless transfer sticker (damn that first gate agent!).

But, in the end, I made it to Shanghai, and it all worked out.

Just another adventure ;)

Tripping Within Trips

2010-07-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Bon Voyage Paris.

Now before you go getting carried away with the title of this post, NO I did not do acid or any other hallucinogenic drug while in France. I did however tour the entire Northwest region on a vacation within my vacation.

I think I made it pretty clear last week that I love Paris. Who wouldn’t? Beautiful art, beautiful architecture, beautiful people (which obviously went up during my stay ;) I mean, what’s not to love?

Welp…along with all of that, Paris is a big bustling city that is, as is any big city, highly commercialized. That’s why it was amazing to get out of Paris for a week to tour the Northwest Coast and Countryside.

Now, getting out of Paris was no easy feet. For the amount of traveling we were doing, we had to rent a car, and driving in Paris is absolutely insane. I mean, it’s not quite “India Insane”, but it’s close. Once we got out of the city (which, to drive like 4 miles, took an hour), the driving was relatively smooth sailing (especially for me in the passenger seat ;) Some interesting things we noticed about driving in France though.

Apparently, the French don’t believe in traffic patrol. In all of our travels, we saw not one single highway patrol or traffic police ANYWHERE.

Instead, they apparently have radars on the highways the somehow catch you if you speed. Despite the signs and warnings, we didn’t see one camera or radar. Maybe they’re hidden? Maybe they’re bluffing? Who knows?

They also don’t believe in using many traffic lights. Instead they have roundabouts. Lots and LOTS of roundabouts. I went through literally 20 times more roundabouts in the week of traveling, than I have in my entire life.

If you plan on driving in Paris, GET A GPS. There are so many side roads and little alleys that you would just as well miss that you actually have to drive through to get places.

Apparently, on these one lane roads, it’s ok to stop, throw on the hazards, and take your sweet time loading crap into your truck while traffic accumulates behind you. This happened numerous times. This had me audibly cursing the French.

When I first turned on the radio, I was happy to hear a mix of French and English hits. Joke’s on me! They don’t believe in variety in France. I heard the same 10 U.S. hits, and the same 5 crappy French songs every damn minute. I had seven stations I was shuffling between and they ALL played the SAME DAMN SONGS. One can only take so much Lady Antebellum.

But aside from the driving weirdness, the trip was amazing. Our stops included: Giverny - to see Claude Monet’s house, garden, and museum, Rouen – saw the sight where Joan of Arc was burned and indulged in the best chocolate of Normandie, Honfleur – to enjoy the amazing harbor, Mont. St. Michel, Dinan, Cancale, Aboise, and Vouvrey.

This all covered three provinces: Normandy (where we saw the D-Day beaches, specifically: Gold, Utah, and Omaha), Britagne (amazing crepes!), and Loir Valley (where we toured castles and drank lots of wine).

My French also improved mightily on the trip as English speakers aren’t quite as abundant in the country as they are in Paris. During our wine tour in Loir, none of the wine people really spoke English. We met Aurori, Laetitia, and Bresson. We spent an hour chatting with Bresson, the owner of a winery we visited who didn’t speak a word of English.

Outside of Dinan, we stayed at possibly the most amazing hotel I’ve ever stayed at. It was basically a huge converted barn out in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere. It was owned by an amazing French couple, Patrick and Ann-France, who ran it more like a bed and breakfast. They cooked homemade French Dinners and Breakfast for us, and showed us around there amazing property.

So in a nutshell (well, I suppose it’s too late to really nutshell this post, but oh well) the Northwest countryside of France was AMAZING!

Je t'aime Paris

2010-06-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

I love Paris.

No, it's not because the cute hostess at the Italian Restaurant said in French that I "parlez beau français" (speak beautiful French) and winked at me. (She also rubbed the same eye later, but I'm pretty sure she winked.)

It's not because the architecture here is AMAZING.

It's not because the food is pretty Damn good.

It's not because the Seine river romantically flows gracefully through the city.

And it's not because the artwork and museums are world class.

But it might be because my cute tour guide was giving me seductive glances and winks throughout our cruise on the Seine River. (Ok, Ok....it might be because the sun was hitting her right in the eyes, but I'm pretty sure we visually connected ;)

I definitely want to move to Paris for a little while and perfect my French. I studied for 4 years in school (and some time after school as well) and it's amazing how fast it comes back. I speak enough to "get by" and have a pretty darn good conversation with a 3 year old, but I will be toddler level speaking by the time I leave. The advantage I have though is that my accent is in fact very good and perfectly understandable. I just need to refresh my verb conjugation and beef up my vocab.

As for what we've done/seen in Paris, the list is exhaustive. We did all of the standard tourist stuff (Tour d'Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, Cathedral Notre Dame, Le Louvre, Palaise de Versailles) as well as some non-typical stuff (Musee' d'Orsee', Musee' Rodin, Montmartre, Seine Cruise, etc).

I've walked all over the city, and just for good measure, ridden the metro, bus, train, RER, and taxi. I've had croisant and cafe' au lait everyday for breakfast, and enjoyed Berthillion ice cream for after dinner dessert. I've had traditional French fair and French-Thai food (a little different than U.S...no Pad Thai on the menu!).

I've had Frech wine and French Crepes. I'm telling you, I've done it all...and I still have a week left. Tomorrow, we leave for Normandy - our first stop in touring the West coast/countryside of France.

There are some peculiarities I've noticed thus far though:

Things are REALLY expensive. A "Coke Light" ranges from 2-4 Euros (2.50 - 6.00 dollars). A scoop of ice cream? 5 bucks. A coffee? Anywhere from 4-7 dollars. Ridiculous.
Tip is included in restaurant prices (which are exorbitant as well). I guess that's good.
When you pay the bill by credit card, they bring the machine over to your table and ring you up there and take the receipt. There's no taking the credit card to a hidden station, running it, and leaving it at your table to sign at leisure.
Soda refills are NOT free (I learned the hard way by paying 4 euros [6 bucks] for a refill in the restaurant at the Louvre). In fact, most places don't even have a fountain machine. (Speaking of which, have you ever notice that NO Thai restaurants in the U.S. have soda machines and always serve soda by the can?)
People eat late (so did we).
The French LOVE to party. We are staying on the Ile Saint Louis near the Seine and it seems like every night, there is a party going on on the streets.
The French get a bad rap for being rude. I've encountered pretty much no rudeness (or at least, no more than in the states). My speaking decent French may help, but my Mom usually asks questions in English and people have been pretty helpful.
The French deserve the rap they get from their lack of deodorant usage. Paris is infested with Smelly McSmellersons.
Every website on my computer is showing up in French and I'm too tired to figure out how to fix this. My Google automatically goes to "Google French". My spell check is highlighting every word in this post because it's checking for "Francaise". So, forgive me if this post is sloppy (as opposed to my normal perfection ;)

So, admittedly, I haven't posted as frequently as I intended. We've been out and about pretty much all the time so I haven't had a lot of down time. I also haven't uploaded my pictures to my compy yet (except for the "Cave of Wines" I took with my phone at the grocery store. Seriously, every grocery should have one of these. In the U.S., it'd be the "Cave du Bieres")

Tomorrow, we're headed for Normandy. Then the rest of the Western coast/countryside. It'll be interesting to REALLY experience France, away from the Urbanized setting.

More updates to come!

Around the World in 45 days: Prologue

2010-06-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Welp, the trip has officially begun. I'm sitting here in the tiny commuter terminal at San Diego International waiting to board the first flight of my "Round the World Trip O' Awesomeness!" and it is a DOOZY.....a whole 49 minutes up to L.A.

OK, so maybe that was a little anticlimactic, but commuter planes are the worst. To start, you begin in the Commuter Terminal which is by far the worst place to me in the airport. Once you pass security, there is a little snack stand with sodas on sale at 2 for $8! There is also a single male/female bathroom with ONE repository.

Once you board the plane, you have "valet" anything that won't fit under the seat in front of you...for these planes that almost everything since there's barely enough leg room to fit your own legs. In fact, calling it leg "room" is a little ridiculous.

Once in the air, there's a whole new barrel of inconveniences. Obviously, there's no in flight entertainment on these flights - understandable. But good luck trying to listen to music. The engines on these flying tin cans are so loud that even at max volume you can only hear when Celine Dion hits the high notes (not that I'm listening to her).

Ok, so music is out. Maybe I'll read a good book! Yea!

Uhh No.

The problem with these little planes is that they're also quite turbulent. Trying to read is just ASKING to get to use the lovely lunch sacks they leave in the seat pocket in front of you.

So this will be the first leg of my trip. Ok, so I'll admit I've exaggerated the badness of these short flights, but they're not fun....luckily they're also short.

In L.A. I have a 10.5 hour flight waiting to take me to Paris. My biggest issue with this flight??? I'M MISSING GAME 7 OF THE NBA FINALS!!! AHHHH!! I'm so pissed about this because I'm a huge Laker fan. I'm PRAYING that my airplane has satellite TV (unlikely but possible). I'm even considering upgrading my seat if that's what it's going to take.

International flights are usually pretty decent though. Good food, lots of entertainment, etc. Ironically though, this 10.5 hour flight is actually my SHORTEST flight after the San Diego to LA one. By the time this trip is over, I'll be an airplane flying expert!

But getting ready for a big trip is an interesting feeling. I had a big dinner with a bunch of friends as a send off. It'll be really weird getting out of my normal routine for so long. Not exercising regularly, eating sporadically, etc...but it'll be good for me. Routine can sometimes make you stagnant.

It's also interesting packing for two months. If you saw what I have, you'd probably think I'm packing for a week or two. I didn't bring a lot. One duffel and one backpack, neither all that full. I suppose I'll have to buy some stuff to bring back!

So here we go. Goodbye San Diego, Bonjour Paris!

Always Be a Hustler

2010-06-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

The term "Hustler" many times has a negative connotation. Most people attribute "hustling" to basically finding illegitimate ways of making money. In reality, it just means you're outworking everyone else (out-"hustling" if you will) and finding non-conventional ways to make a buck.

In Hip-Hop culture, we usually associate that with selling drugs. (Do they work hard? Check. Is it an unconventional way to make a buck? Check.)

It also doesn't help that Larry Flynt publishes an "unconventional" magazine entitled Hustler as well.

I am a Hustler.

No, I don't peddle "special" brownies in the Ghettos of La Jolla, California nor do I publish or pose for any pornographic publications (although, when you have a body of a Greek God that looks forged by the hands of Zeus himself, could you blame me? ;) but I DO hustle.

For most of us, once we find a primary source of income, we don't hustle. We become content and ride out a "career" until retirement. But when you're a hustler, you give yourself options, you protect yourself from layoffs, you earn career flexibility, and you learn a lot.

When I was an Engineer, I started getting bored with having a "normal career." So, I started hustling. First, it was delving into something I like to do: writing. I had visions of making a fortune writing a blog and making a fortune on advertisements. Once I realized that the things I like to write about here are not conducive to effective ad placement, I changed my approach.

I began submitting articles and such to magazines and other websites. BOOM! Real money started coming in. Then, I decided to write the ebook. BAM! More money. Next, my Poker playing friend needed a consultant to establish trends on opponents. Having an aptitude for math, and I jumped on the opportunity. Again, more dollars.

Then, I saw an opportunity for an internet marketing position. Now, my internet marketing experience consisted only of what I did for The Social Charmer. But, I happen to be a pretty good writer (a bonus), and a very good interviewer. I won them over with my cover letter and my interviews.

By Hustling, I gave myself an opportunity to:

Leave an incredibly boring corporate job.
Work from the comfort of wherever I want that has an internet connection.
Travel the World while still having some income.
Work 10-20 hours per week.

To be fair, if I weren't entering graduate school in the fall, I would probably be hustling harder right now because I don't make enough to fully support everything I want to do in the long term. BUT, I still Hustle. I do periodic modeling gigs here and there. When I see a payed opportunity for writing or internet marketing, I apply. etc.

When I applied for graduate school, the only reason I was admitted to so many schools was because of my hustle. Without it, my resume would show a nice little career as a Logistics Engineer and a degree from Cal Poly. In other words, it would look like everyone else's. Instead, I was able to sight experience publishing a book, a newsletter, running a "company", a high position in a Nationally recognized charitable organization, and internet marketing...all while Engineering. All of a sudden I become interesting.

Without fail, the number one question I received in interviews was, "What can you tell me about this book you wrote??? I'm so curious!"

Additionally, by delving into writing four years ago, I have become a MUCH better writer which again translated into unique, funny college essays.

In the fall, my Hustle will take a new direction. I'll be hustling for opportunities at UCSD that will push me in the ultimate direction of Professorship and Entrepreneurship. This means I'll be emailing around for research opportunities, volunteering for any entrepreneurial experiences, and basically outworking other people for opportunities outside of the classroom.

Don't get stuck in the routine of what everyone else is doing. Outwork them. Be Creative. Take risks. If you want to get ahead. If you want to WIN. If you want to do what you WANT, you have to Always Be a Hustler.

How to Travel Around the World

2010-05-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

So in a couple of weeks, "Your Daily Remedy" shall be changing focus for a little while. Before you get suicidal and start thinking that I'm leaving or changing the way I'm writing or anything...don't worry. I'm not leaving you and will continue with my usual clever wit, and narcissistic style ;)

In case you couldn't tell from the post title, Your Daily Remedy will become a Travel Blog for a good portion of the summer.

And in case you also couldn't tell from the post title, I will literally be travelling AROUND THE WORLD! That's right. Leaving San Diego, traveling east, circumnavigating the globe.

I know what you're thinking..."Arun! That's awesome! YOU are awesome! But what makes you think you're even ROMOTELY qualified to write a post about How to Travel Around the World when you haven't even done so??!!?"

Thanks for the compliment and point well taken.

There are two aspects to a trip like this...positioning yourself to do an around the world trip, and learning from experience during/after the trip. Today, I'm writing about the former.

Most of us are NOT in a position to take this much time to take a trip. We have career commitments, monetary shortages, school, children, etc.

I worked for a company for nearly 4 years and never ONCE did I consider an around the world trip. Why? Because in order to do so, I would have had to not take a single vacation for the entire four years to accumulate enough time to do it! Obviously this is impractical.

So, I will explain how I positioned myself for this opportunity:

1. Either take a leave of absence, accumulate copious vacation, quit working for a company, or work for yourself

I did two of these things. I left my company because I disliked engineering and the corporate culture from the bottom looking up. I also started my own ventures to have some cash flow. As a result I have the flexibility to not have to be in any particular location to get some of my work done (although I will be working much less while on the trip).

2. Identify your destinations. Since I don't necessarily have an indefinite amount of time, I can't just spend a year going everywhere. I'm taking a couple of months and going to select destinations.

So, I have two options - either use my time to visit as many places as possible, or visit fewer destinations but stay and immerse myself in the culture. I chose the later. I want to get more than just a preview. I want to KNOW each country I visit. So I'm only going to three countries.

France -> China -> Australia.

I'm going to spend enough time in each area to really know it, have a girlfriend there (maybe two), and continue on.

3. Buy the ticket. This was obviously the most painful part because a "round the world" ticket costs a little more than your weekly allowance. I recommend using airtreks.com. They offer the best rates and the travel agent optimizes everything for you.

They offer travel insurance, which I decided to buy but I would recommend NOT insuring the entire amount of the ticket. The likelihood of my entire trip falling through due to some unforeseen incident is slim, and the insurance isn't all that cheap. I insured for roughly 1/3rd of the cost of the ticket.

4. Get a Capital One Visa Card. It's the only credit card available that doesn't charge you for foreign transactions.

5. Identify travel needs. I've had to buy a bunch of new stuff to prepare for the trip including: all-in-one power converters, outlet multipliers (to charge multiple things at once), travel chargers, an ipod touch (yea!), a new backpack for frequent use etc.

The goal is to travel light (I won't be checking anything on the planes) yet comfortable. I'm going to be gone for awhile so I want to make things as homely as possible!

6. Choose destinations where you know people. I like people too much to ever do a trip like this on my own. Sooo, the only portions of this trip that I'm doing solo are the actual flights. I strategically chose destinations that A) Not only I wanted to go, but B) I had friends living there so I could have someone to hang out with.

I'm touring France with my Mom.

My friend Gina is putting me up in an AMAZING looking hotel that her work provides her: The Shanghai Union Square Marriot.

And my friend Frederico lives near Sydney, Australia. (As a side note, I'm particularly excited about Australia because I will FINALLY be the "charming American" guy with the accent! Ausi women watch out!)

This is a great way to save money AND hang out with friends (and Mom's).

So stay tuned! "Arun's 'Round The World Adventures of Awesomeness" will be coming soon!

The Non-work Work Day

2010-05-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

It's a wonder I actually got anything done when I worked an 8-5 job. Now, even more than before, I always feel like there's not enough hours in the day.

Most of my friends assume that I putter around all day doing this and that to pass the time. The truth is, I never get everything done that I have on my daily agenda. For example, I've been meaning to write a post for the past week-an- a-half, but simply haven't gotten around to it. My days are actually busier than they were when I had a corporate job!

When I worked as an Engineer, I spent a lot of hours at my desk, "working." Truth is, I completed a lot of work ahead of schedule which left me some time to complete other various odds and ends that needed taking care of. Now however, my time is ENTIRELY my own. I don't have to "be" anywhere simply for the sake of being there. I don't spend nearly as much time surfing youtube, reading blogs, etc. I try to keep my efficiency as high as possible and waste minimal amount of time.

I don't watch TV during the day (except ESPN while eating lunch when I'm at home).

I set my alarm at 7:22am every morning (why 7:22 you ask? because that is when that is when the radio morning show dishes out celebrity gossip...totally ridiculous, I know, but it's an entertaining way to start the day).

And what do I do during my 99% efficiency days?

7:22 - Wake up

7:45 - Out the door to gym for cardio workout

9:30 - Coffee Shop near the beach where I work on my laptop

1:30 - Weight Training

2:30 - Lunch

3:15 - More work / play music / general errands

6:00 - Evening activities

So that's a standard sort of day. The thing is, now that I don't work though, everyone always knows I'm available to hang out. So, for example, today I'm meeting Silvia for lunch. Yesterday I played tennis with Jenna in the morning.

Also, I'm much more willing to go out and do stuff in the evenings knowing that I don't have to trudge through an 8 hour day at work. Sure I'll still be tired the next morning (I still wake up at 7:22 even if I'm up late), but the day is WAY more manageable when I'm doing things I enjoy.

It's interesting to notice too, how many people really hate going to work. I almost PREFER weekdays now because I feel so much more productive than on the weekends and have fewer commitments to attend to. But log-on to facebook at anytime, and you'll see a myriad of status updates from people complaining about work.

Quitting Engineering is one of the best moves I've ever made. You spend 0ne-third of your life working, and you only live something like 25,000 days. That's a lot of days spent in misery if you're doing something you don't enjoy.

Now, I ENJOY working because I have a much higher sense of personal investment. Also, I am COMPLETELY in charge of when and where I work. It certainly takes a certain amount of discipline not to waste time puttering around and doing useless things.

STILL though, even though I don't work eight hours a day, there's things I don't have time for:

I've been meaning to brush up on my French - Je ne parles pas bien.

I want to start doing music production again - Haven't even touched the software

I need to start sending newsletters out regularly - only doing them once every two weeks

I just don't know how any of you people work....there's just not enough time in the day ;)

Gladiator Ventures and Urban Adventures

2010-04-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

As much as I'd like to say that last Saturday was another typical Saturday, it was anything but...

It all started with the City Solve Urban Race. In case you don't know, I discovered the magic of Urban Racing last year. It's awesome. So when I found out about the City Solve Urban Race I knew I had to participate.

For this race though, I decided to switch partners out. I ran the "Great Urban Race" with my friend Darren...he's solid, steady, and you know what you're gonna get from him. For this race though, I teamed up with Jeff. For you regular (and awesome) readers, you know all about this Jeff character...he frequently stars in many of the more bumbling and blundering adventures that I write about. Jeff is a bit of a wild card...I knew by partnering up with him, we'd either DOMINATE the race, or end up in Mexico riding circus ponies.

So when the race started, I had mentioned to my friend Cassandra that in the last Urban Race, I'd worked together with other friends in deciphering the clues. She was under the understanding that we'd be doing the same thing on this day. As soon as the first clue was revealed however, I went running out the door.

Oops.

Suffice it to say, when we saw Cassandra and Ashley at the end of the race, they weren't too pleased at my selfish abandonment. Oh well...

One of the caveats with Urban Racing is that the only allowable transportation is via foot or public transit (bus, trolley, tram). No bikes, taxis, cars, etc. Being the extremely hardcore individuals that we are, Jeff and I decided to foot nearly the ENTIRE RACE. That equaled about 10 miles of running all over the city.

The strategy paid off as Jeff and I came in with the second fastest time (although we unfortunately were assessed penalty time for messing up one of the clues).

Basically, we DOMINATED (and managed to avoid Mexico and circus ponies all together).

After the race, we were all hungry so Jeff, Ashley, Cass and I decided to go have lunch. BUT, on the way to lunch, we came across a commandeered parking lot downtown with all types of crazy apparatus and cameras everywhere. I looked up and saw the sign:

"Welcome to the Cuervo Games"

We went in to check it out, and someone came up to us:

"Hey do you guys want to sign up? You will be the last team to sign up today and you have about 30 more seconds before we shut down registration"

OBVIOUSLY, we signed up. Basically, the Cuervo Games are four crazy events where we compete against other teams in games similar to the ones on MXC. Once signed up, we were assigned team uniforms and a team manager, who took us to get fitted for knee pads, elbow pads, helmets, and mouth guards.

Good lord I've never done anything that REQUIRED a mouth guard.

Then we had to sign papers saying that if we died, they wouldn't be responsible.

Reassuring.

The first event was the "Tahona Tumber." Basically, the four of us each stand on these small platforms as a padded bar goes round-and-round which we have to jump over while remaining balanced on the platform.

Being the superior athlete that I am, I was sure that I would be able to handle the 30 seconds of time we were required to stay up to gain team points. As the tumbler started, I skied high and easily cleared the first jump. When the other side came around, I bent my knees ready to fly over the next hurdle, however in mid air I realized this side of the tumbler was a DOUBLE hurdle - twice as wide. I flailed wildly in mid air to keep afloat.

Apparently wild flailing does nothing to keep one in afloat.

As I peeled myself off the mat to see the status of the rest of my team, I saw three other empty platforms. I turned to my right and saw a big round yellow pad...hey look its still moving! Closer?

Suddenly, my helmet is on sideways and my head is rattling, and laughter from the bystanders watching has ensued....yes, to add insult to injury, the tumbler came around and nailed me in the noggin.

I'm off to a great start.

The next event was the "Barrel Roll." Think "American Gladiators." Basically, there's a giant blowup pyramid that each player has to run up, grab a flag, jump back down, and tag your partner to get the next one. The catch is, "Gladiators" at the top of the pyramid are throwing rubber barrels at you as you try and make your way up.

We're competing against another team as well as the clock. I volunteer to go first and serve as inspiration to my team. I figure once they see me bob and weave my way up the pyramid and fly back down, they'll be inspired to dominate this event!

The horn sounds, and I'm off! The first barrel is hurled at me and I do a spin move and dodge out of the way, all while moving up the pyramid.

I am awesome!

As I revel in my awesomeness and make way for the second step, I realize there's a problem...I can't see the top of the pyramid anymore. Then I realize why. Yes, I am on the receiving end of a face full of barrel.

Tasty.

I eventually make it up and down.

The third event was definitely the scariest: The "Agave Airwalk." Only two team members are allowed to do this one, and you can't be scared of heights. I volunteered, but honestly, I was moderately terrified (and by "moderately terrified" I mean I had to take my mental focus to unrealized plains just to prevent wetting my shorts).

For this event, each partner had to scale across these planks suspended some 50 feet in the air while grabbing rubber agave fruits. Easier said than done. Ashley went first, grabbed a bunch of fruit, made it across, and tagged me...the only problem is I only had about 45 seconds to make it across.

As I made my way across, I knew I had no time to grab fruit! I made it to the last plank as the announcer was counting down at 5. I was swinging wildly out of control. The only way I was going to make it across in time would be to jump!

"3....2...."

Nope. Even though we're harnessed in, it's totally unnatural to take a leap of faith while hanging onto an unstable plank 50 ft in the air. I wasn't about to test the safety features of the harness assembly either.

The fourth and final event was the "Waterfall Climb." For this, the four of us have to scale a rock climbing wall, while water is being fired at us from the top at 8 gallons per second. This posed a particular challenge for me as I have never in my life rock climbed...but after not taking the leap of faith in the last event, I knew I had to perform.

The horn sounded and I was off! The challenge proved ridiculously difficult though. As you look up to find hand-holds, you get a face full of water! I was getting soaked and blindly trying to make my way up the wall. The countdown began. "5....4....3..."

Not again! I need to ring that damn bell at the top!

Leap of faith.

I jumped and managed to grab and ring the bell as the final horn blew. BOO YAH!!! Waterfall Climb done and dominated!

We didn't actually win the Cuervo games, but for a team that didn't even expect to participate, we did pretty darn well!

Just another Saturday...

The High Maintenance Chick

2010-04-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

I can smell a high maintenance chick (HMC) from a mile away…it usually has a hint of Versace the small amount of which entering my nasal passage, probably costs more than I want to know. Behind the scent, there’s probably a poor sap who’s shelling out for it.

(Disclaimer: Before you yell at me and send me nasty emails saying “Arun how dare you! I’m an independent woman and I buy my own Versace Perfume! Go suck an egg!” please note that I am not referring to you, and would prefer to defer my egg-sucking to a later date when I forget to add a disclaimer).

I actually have a guilty pleasure I have to admit. When I turn on the Television and start flipping through the guide, somehow my finger always selects “Millionaire Matchmaker” if it’s on. It’s a horrible show, I know and I’m ashamed to admit that I occasionally watch it. But it IS sickly entertaining.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, here’s the gist: This lady has a club known as “The Millionaire Club” consisting of Millionaires who pay a large sum of money to be included. She in return also has a “database” of women that have signed on to date millionaires. In each episode, she has two millionaires whom she works on. First she holds a “mixer” with her two millionaires where they meet a handpicked batch of like 20 women. Then they pick one to go on a date with. The show goes on to chronicle the date.

It’s the saddest display of leeching I’ve ever seen.

I could go on about how ridiculously stupid and idiotic the Millionaire men are, but since this post is entitled “The High Maintenance Chick” I’ll go ahead and reserve my bashing for only them.

First of all, how do these guys ever think they are going to find true love (the goal of the show) from a group of women who are essentially signing up to date millionaires? Many of the guys lament about how they “want a woman interested in me and not my money.”

Great strategy Paco.

I suppose they’re so desperate they don’t care? On a recent episode, the millionaire took his date to some designer store to buy a new “red carpet” dress and diamond studded jewelry.

At the end of the date she proclaimed that she was “totally falling for him.” Go figure.

On another episode, the millionaire flew his pick to Vegas for their first date. At the end of the episode, he proposed to her with a rock the size of Gibraltar.

She accepted…surprise of the century.

But HMC’s appear everywhere. I’ve been unlucky enough to have encountered many in my day. They’re not necessarily mean, but they are so into themselves that they can be utterly repulsive.

Example:

A couple of weeks ago, my buddy Abraham – “Abe the Babe” (his self-proclaimed nick name), met some chicks from out of town. He calls me up the day after meeting them:

Abe: “Arun! Hey I’m showing these five Latinas around town today, but they’re kind of a handful. You wanna meet up with us for dinner?”

OK, obviously I didn’t have to think about this too long before making a few suggestions of places for us to go to dinner. He does warn me with the following text message though: “Caution, these are the ‘I’m a hot Latina and you need to take care of me’ type”

Obviously I’m not thrilled about this but I’ve dealt with such obstacles before, and obstacles are worth dodging on occasions when you are surrounded by chicks.

So I meet up for dinner with Abe and the five chicks. The group is three sisters, and two friends of one of the sisters. Everything is going fine: they’re laughing at all of my jokes, generally eating out of the palm of my hands, and two of the sisters are giving me “the eyes”. When the bill arrives, my thinking is:

A. Obviously I will pay for myself, and

B. So will everyone else considering I had just met them a couple of hours ago, and Abe has only known them a day and a half.

Apparently they didn’t get that memo. The three sisters don’t lift a finger to pay. I guess since Abe was gracious enough to show them around all day, he has earned the privilege of being able to pay for their meal.

I immediately cross them off my list.

After dinner, they head over to their hotel downtown to change and Abe and I go back to his pad to have a couple of drinks and bring some tasty beverage selections over to their hotel to enjoy before heading out. When we arrive at the hotel about an hour and a half later, we hear a cacophony of commotion from inside the room.

None of them are even close to being ready.

But, one of them opens the door slightly. Hey, maybe I’m wrong! An arm pokes through the cracked door and grabs the bag of beverages from Abe’s hand, pulls it in, and shuts the door.

Oh heeeeeyyyyyallllll no!

Girls from behind the door: “Come back in another hour, we’re not ready!”

Now I’m a little pissed. Abe has been more than generous with them, and they’re milking every single ounce of restraint from me. But, oh well, it won’t ruin my night. We head to Darren’s pad, hang out with some other friends, and return in an hour and have a drink with the girls before heading out.

At the first venue, I’ve narrowed it down to one of the five that I will up the charm with. Although I obviously am not a fan of The High Maintenance Chick, given the present company I don’t have much of a choice, plus I DO enjoy a challenge. It’s time to transform from “Normal Charming Arun” to “Super Charming Arun!” So, after about twenty minutes of chatting with the one HMC, I relish in the fact that she has offered and is buying ME a drink…sometimes it’s just too easy ;)

My ego rises yet another notch off the scale.

We venue change again to a place where there is more dancing. I’m dancing the night away with said Latina HMC until the place starts closing down and we have to leave. At that point I get a text message from Abe:

Abe: “Hey, ‘Andrea’ (one of the sisters) and I decided to leave. She doesn’t want her sisters to know. Keep them entertained and we’ll be back later.

Now the sisters are asking “where is Andrea?!” The Latina blood is starting to boil and I’m frantically trying to extinguish.

Me: “Ummm, I think she and Abe went to go get a drink somewhere.” (I thought this was a pretty good explanation considering I had roughly 2.5 seconds to come up with it).

They apparently don’t like this answer.

“She wouldn’t leave without telling us!!! You’re lying! Where is Abe!? Call him!”

I get another text, this time from Andrea. “Hi Arun, tell them everything’s ok and I’ll be back at the hotel later. I just wanted to hang out with Abe alone.“

I show them the text and they’re still not satisfied. They’re acting like Abe is some kind of a kidnapper which is obviously not the case. Darren and I spend the next five minutes trying to convince them that Andrea was smitten with Abe-The-Babe, and left to, ummm, watch movies and snuggle. Then one of sisters says something that puts me in stitches laughing: “Well we’re leaving! Get me a cab and give me money for us to get home!!!”

Moohoohahaha! This is the joke of the century and I can’t stop laughing. There’s no way in God’s Green Earth that I am giving this girl a dime. She obviously doesn’t know me. My laughter makes her even madder, and the angrier she gets the funnier I find the whole thing. (BTW, their hotel is a whopping 5 blocks away). Meanwhile, the “friend” that I had been charming is red with embarrassment. They march off in a huff as she is profusely apologizing trying to give me her phone number.

I accept it (just to be nice) and promptly delete it.

The next morning, I have breakfast with Abe, and drops a little mini-bombshell on me.

Abe: “So this morning when I was dropping Andrea off, she was acting a little weird and being all quiet. I asked her what was wrong and she said, ‘I have to tell you something’. Then she takes a ring off of her right hand and puts it on her left ring finger.”

“Umm, I actually married.”

And the plot thickens!

I would be willing to bet that her husband probably has more than a couple of bucks to his name and a bank account to which she is married. Obviously she doesn’t find HIM all that satisfying.

So from this story, I think you can see there are several reasons why I generally choose to avoid The High Maintenance Chick;

1. They’re always late. They need to look flawless which takes hours. On top of that, The High Maintenance Chick thinks the party doesn’t ever start until she arrives…even if she’s just meeting you for coffee. One of my pet peeves is people who are chronically late. It’s disrespectful and indicates that you obviously don’t value the appointment.

2. They lack athleticism. I love sports, and high maintenance chicks almost ALWAYS lack athleticism and don’t play sports. I once dated a girl who didn’t play sports because she “didn’t want to get hurt.” These sports included running long distances…really.

3. They accumulate regrets and don’t appreciate experiences. High maintenance chick always seemed to be irritated with the world because things are going on around them, infringing on their world of material perfection. At the same time, The High Maintenance Chick has no appreciation for grand experiences because she EXPECTS grand experiences.

4. They always expect men to pander to their whims. If you don’t pander, you don’t stand much of a chance.

5. They expect people they don’t know to pay for everything for them. It’s not even about the money. Even if I had a bajillion dollars, a chick that demands I find a cab and pay for the five blocks of travel, is asking for a face full of laughter.

Hey, some guys don’t mind them, but count me out. I’ll take my independent, confident, sporty, “I-don’t-need-no-man-unless-his-name-is Arun”, woman over the HMC any day of the week ;)

The Work Fun Balance

2010-03-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

Allow me to paint a picture for you…

It’s Wednesday afternoon. I just finished eating lunch with a friend, and now I’m “back to work” sitting on a beach in San Diego sipping my ice coffee, typing away. The weather is sunny and seventy two degrees right now and everytime I look up, I see the surfers gleefully riding the waves back home (ok, ok...there may be a few bikini clad college girls walking around too ;)

The picture I've included here is the view from "my office" that I just snapped with my phone.

It’s a tough life I live.

Seriously, there is nothing more satisfying than spending time out and about on a day like this, especially when I know that most of the world is inside somewhere working. Then, I think about what I would have been doing last month on a Wednesday afternoon – writing technical documentation on some engineering project on my computer in my windowless office – and I feel even better!

One temptation to resist though is the inclination to lose productivity. With so much free time, it’s easy to want to waste a lot of it doing frivolous things. The truth is, I have been more productive than EVER these last several weeks. In fact, I watch probably less than an hour of TV each day (if that!) and am constantly on the go.

Sure it takes discipline, but it’s well worth it.

In terms of work, I actually have four things on my plate right now. I have the ebook which requires constant attention especially since I've boosted advertising recently, I’m the Marketing Campaign Manager for another internet company, I do statistical analysis and trending for my friend who is a professional poker player, and I’m in the beginning stages of another book project (can't reveal too much yet!) that I'm working on with a friend.
I love being busy especially when, in the grand scheme of things, I’m working for myself (and on the beach!).

But with work, comes fun. (This is the part where I brag to you about some awesome adventure I’ve just been on)

So, as you may know, I am a self-proclaimed “Tennis Warehouse Legend”! Basically, I worked as a supervisor there for a couple of years and implemented a few new things that are still used today! I also happen to still know all of the managers, the President, and both owners. Since I left, Tennis Warehouse has just exploded in popularity and influence (all due to ME of course).

So, one of the perks is being able to enjoy the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells California (think Palm Springs). I went last year for a couple of days and got to meet James Blake, Ana Ivanovic, and Caroline Wozniaki.

This year was more of the same.

In fact, I got to see a tennis match with four of the greatest players to ever play the game! That’s right. I watched the Roger Federer and Pete Sampras versus Raphael Nadal and Andre Agassi match – from box seats no less! Totally amazing. Although Sampras is my favorite player of all time, Agassi just made the match with his constant joking around (the players were mic’d up).

So what else did I get to do?

Well aside from watching a lot of tennis and hanging out with some old friends, I got to meet and work autograph security for Maria Sharapova, Raphael Nadal, Caroline Wozniaki, and Kim Clijsters (sooo nice!). To be fair, the security thing is really just me standing next to the player as they sign autographs and nicely telling fans to “keep the line moving, no personal pictures, one autograph per person!’ and basically look tough (obviously why they chose me) to make sure nothing happens. All the while, I’m thinking of the one thing I can say to the hot tennis players that will make them instantly fall in love with me.

Nothing came to mind.

But Maria gave me a smile and a wink while we were talking, and last year, Ana Ivanovic said she would remember me (although I missed her this year!). Somehow, we’re going to have to figure out a way to make our long distance relationship work better than seeing each other once a year in Indian Wells.

As we did last year, Nick and I got a little adventurous and jumped onto one of the practice courts exclusively reserved for players and coaches, and hit some balls. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was on the court next to us and watched us hit for a while. I think he must’ve been thinking “who the hell is that really good-looking Indian guy that’s really good at tennis! I hope I don’t have to play him!”

Don't worry, I’ll go easy on you Jo.

A little while later, Alana Bondarenko and her coach kicked us off because they had the court reserved. Oh well. I suppose I can give up the court to a hot tennis player.

To earn my way though, I actually did some free work for Tennis Warehouse including helping customers and stringing racquets. Afterall, I am still a certified “Master Racquet Technician” and several customers were ecstatic with my customer service.

As much as I wanted to stay longer than the five days I was there, I knew I had to come back to San Diego. I needed to preserve the Work-Fun Balance. I didn’t work at all while I was there. On top of that, I didn’t work out other than playing a little tennis, and was eating like crap.

So, I reluctantly returned, jumped back into my two-a-day workouts, and my “hard” work by the beach!

In fact, even though I don’t have any “regular” job that I have to be at, I still set my alarm and wake up early in the morning to start my day. I go to the gym and workout first thing in the morning, then do some work for a couple of hours. It certainly does take some discipline to go to bed at a decent hour each night and wake up early, but it’s a healthy sacrifice I’m willing to make to successful at the “non-regular job” lifestyle.

So far, I can’t complain ;)

Exercise Your Freedom

2010-03-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

I think most people would agree that among all big picture goals, Freedom is probably at the top. We all want freedom. Freedom from monetary constraints, freedom of time, freedom to travel, or freedom to do any damn thing we want.

A lot of people lose track of the fact that Freedom can frequently be a choice. They become stuck in a life with limited Freedom because all they know is a life of constraint and venturing out seems riskier than it actually is. This is the same reason that long time inmates struggle with life once they leave prison. The World and its opportunities are overwhelming and the regimented world they became accustomed to, has disappeared.

The chains that prevent most people from being totally happy, are the ol’ occupational bindings. I would venture that most people do not enjoy their job. Working seems to be a sacrifice that we must make in order to have money to enjoy the rest of our lives. But when you consider that we spend about half of our waking hours working, and then a bunch more time thinking and dreaming about work, it seems like a travesty that many of us do not enjoy what we do.

I was in the same boat…until I quit.

I spent the last four years of my life working as an Engineer. In college, I began to realize that I disliked Engineering. Working as a Logistics Engineer validated my initial inkling as well as enlightened me to the fact that I hate corporate culture.

When I told people I was quitting, they thought I was crazy. Quitting a “good” job in this economy? Admittedly, the company itself was pretty good. BUT, I hated the work I was doing and I wasn’t a fan of my Supervisor. The bottom line was, I hated Monday mornings, and time spent at work felt like such a waste.

Most people probably would have stuck with the company. I never hated going to work, but I certainly didn’t enjoy it. The money and benefits were good too. BUT, going to work didn’t excite me. For a while, I never really considered quitting. I thought this is how life is supposed to be. Grind through work, and enjoy my evenings and weekends. Use my Paid Time Off, to go on nice trips, then come back and earn myself another vacation.

Then I started thinking. Why should the enjoyment I feel on weekends and vacations only be fleeting? People who get to work from home all the time are so lucky! People who love what they do are so lucky! People who became successful at their passions are so lucky! Then I had a mini-epiphany.

It’s not luck.

Most of us are too scared to exercise our Freedom and really pursue what we want to do. The more I thought about things, the more I realized I could come up with no good reason NOT to quit. But first, I needed a plan.

There’re certain things I wanted in a job: lots of interpersonal interaction, autonomy, time off, a high degree of personal interest, and yes, a lot of money. So I’ve decided to become a College Professor in Organizational Behavior and Management. I love teaching and Professorship would satisfy the interpersonal interaction aspect. Professors have a high degree of autonomy with scheduling and curriculum. Obviously, there is ample time off between holidays and summer break. And, as an Organizational Behavior and Management Professor, my interests would be satisfied (I love sociology which is a major aspect of O.B.). Oh, and business Profs make top dollar as well  As a bonus, the scheduling flexibility would allow me to continue to exercise my entrepreneurial spirit!

I wrote in detail about my decision to go back to school over a year ago.

In the last year, I’ve also made some very beneficial moves financially and entrepreneurially that have me in a position where I can live comfortably while waiting for school to start. I certainly wouldn’t have quit my job had a not had a stream of steady income set up.

To be fair, some people have a lot more obstacles to hurdle in order to exercise their freedom. Many people don’t have the money to quit, or are supporting a family. As an independent 26 year old, I am lucky enough to have very few responsibilities to worry about. To those who DO want to exercise their Freedom but cannot due to supporting a family or other circumstances, I would say that you should ALWAYS keep in mind what and where you want to be. EVERY DAY you should take a step to move closer to be in a position to exercise your freedom. If you want to start a business but don’t have the money, set a bench mark then work towards earning and saving enough to reach the bench mark. If time is an issue, dedicate 10 minutes everyday that you will fully commit towards positioning yourself for freedom.

So for the last two weeks, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying life! Monday mornings feel like Saturday mornings and aside from my own personal work and projects, I have a lot more free time! I am enjoying the fruits of my freedom! AND, I’m excited for school to start in the fall! So from now until September, I’ve got a lot of time to adventure and travel.

I’ve already had one little adventure, and a couple more are in the works! Stay tuned…

Olympic Inspiration

2010-02-22T14:20:00.000-08:00

It feels like the Summer Olympics JUST happened! Not that I'm complaining. I love everything about the Olympics, except for the increased amount of time I spend watching TV as well as totally non-athletic sports such as Air-pistol and Equestrian among many others.

In fact, how DOES the Olympic committee decide on a sport? I mean, if Air Pistol can be a sport, why not bowling, billiards, and snowshoeing? How about Golf? That's a truly international sport that, while being generally non-athletic unless your name is Tiger Woods, should be considered based on the other events they allow in.

Do they accept international "games of skill?" If so, then I'm a legitimate contender to represent the U.S. in Checkers for the 2012 Games. Athleticism is certainly not required, otherwise they'd get rid of anything involving target shooting.

Also, what's with the Biathlon? It just seems like a weird combination of two "sports" - Shooting and Skiing. As long as we're doing combinations, why not have Michael Phelps hop out of the pool after a lap, run across a balance beam and dismount with a triple axel?

But speaking of the Olympics, I actually have a friend competing in the Winter Games. She was in the Torino games four years ago, and is back for more this year in Vancouver. Her name is Kikkan Randall and she's competing in the Cross-Country Skiing Sprint and Team Event. Kikkan and I went to middle school and high school together and she's actually the first U.S. Women EVER to win the Cross Country World Cup Skiing!

Make no mistake, I take every opportunity to boost my social status by actively informing people that I'm friends with an Olympic athlete. "I am friends with Olympic Athlete Kikkan Randall...revel in my awesomeness!"

For extra motivation, I've informed her that medaling this year will boost me a couple of rungs up the social ladder...just in case she needs extra reason to medal. I HAVE used my love for Olympics for things beyond social status though.

I've been battling a nagging hamstring injury for the last couple of months. I've tried training around it, but it just won't go away, so I decided to make a drastic change in my workouts until it completely heals. Instead of running, stairmaster, sports, and spin class, I'm doing yoga and swimming.

Now the yoga part is fine because I do that anyways and am starting to get better. Swimming on the other hand is not exactly my forte. I had no choice though because that's the only cardio I can do that puts no strain on my hamstring.

So Saturday, I drove to the gym first thing in the morning to get some laps in. My plan was to do 30 laps in multiple sets. My previous record of "laps in a row without a break" was 10.

When I arrived to the pool, it was cloudy, windy and bitterly cold (55F - the gym is on a roof in downtown San Diego, so the wind chill was exacerbated). I looked at the water with bitter contempt and reluctantly jumped in. I waited for the "pool shock" to settle in, strapped my $5 goggles on, and got going.

2 laps in, I was ready to quit. I've never really had swim lessons so my form needs work, and I probably work twice as hard to move the same distance as an experienced swimmer in double the time.

This was ridiculous. 30 laps will take ages if I have to stop and rest every two laps. I cursed myself in my head and told myself to "STEP IT UP!!!"

I started again, and made it 10 laps. I rested for two minutes, then did a set of 20! RECORD DEMOLISHED! Then, I went at it again and did 30!

By the end of my session, I had completed 74 laps (70 real laps and 4 with me messing around seeing how far I can get holding my breath, trying the butterfly stroke, underwater crawling etc).

With a great workout under my belt, I returned Sunday and planned to do 80 laps in sets of 20. What followed though, was and effort I never, NEVER thought I could do. I started swimming, and after the first 10 laps or so, I was feeling pretty good.

I hit 20 and decided to go ahead and do 30 before resting.

When I hit 30, I figured I might as well do 40 and complete 2 sets in one go.

At 40 I thought "Wouldn't it be cool to say I did 50 laps in a row!?"

At 50 I was thinking that getting to 60 I could rest and finish the last 20 in one go.

At 60 I started getting an idea.

At 70 it started raining and I was developing a side cramp, but there was no turning back and I was going to complete my mission.

100 laps without resting. ONE HUNDRED LAPS BABY!

Keeping in mind my previous record was TEN LAPS, I was and am ecstatic. I love pushing myself, and this was Damn difficult. Honestly, I'm going to swim next weekend, but I'm not sure if I can do this again. Considering how hard I try and how slowly I actually move, 100 laps took quite a while.

We'll see, but this is definitely one that I'm proud of, and makes me think I should do a triathlon after my hammy heals up.

And speaking of my Hammy, I have an acupuncture appointment this week. I've never done acupuncture before, so this should be another interesting experience which could possible make for a good story.

You'll have to wait and see ;)

Hollywood Hills & Mansion Mayhem

2010-02-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

I knew Hollywood was filled with people in show business, but this was ridiculous. On Saturday I was at a party in a Mansion up in the Hollywood Hills. A good friend of mine who is a professional poker player, resides in this house overlooking all of Santa Monica, and decided to throw a little housewarming party with his Mansion-mates.

Although I suppose "little" wouldn't really be all that accurate.

Now it wasn't quite a "Shabang" as there were probably only about 50 or 60 people within the copious square footage of luxury but the set up was like a true Hollywood mixer. Since the tenants are new to LA, they hired a promoter to bring in quality guests. They also had a bartender and a a DJ to add further party legitimacy.

And for the final and most important touch of legitimacy...they invited ME ;)

In typical Hollywood fashion, EVERYBODY was either an actor, singer, director, or producer.

Ok...while I respect their efforts to try and "make it," it started getting a little ridiculous. Sure their were some people who seemed to have a shot at doing something. One guy I met is supposedly going to appear on "Lost" next month. We chatted for awhile, although he may not like me anymore since a girl I had an "encounter" with who I think might have been his girlfriend. Oh well...it'll be a good story if he ever becomes famous.

It really took some restraint not to laugh though when people started telling me they were producers. Producers?! Seriously? I mean, what the hell does a producer really do anyways? Aren't producers usually people who work in other areas (directing, acting, etc) before becoming producers? To me, moving to Hollywood to become a producer seems a little like taking a job as a Starbucks barista with the intent of becoming CEO.

When people asked what I did for a living, I told the truth...well, at least 75% of it. "Oh I am a writer and a musician."

"Hollywood Arun" failed to mention that he is also an Engineer and soon-to-be student, because that wouldn't be very Hollywood of me ;)

Somehow, by the end of the night, I had like six new phone numbers and emails in my phone, not because I am some sex magnet (surprising, I know) but because everyone in West Hollywood is all about networking. People figure that when I make it huge as a Romantic Novel Writer or Weird-Al-Parody Rockstar, I'll be good to know.

Little do they know that the prerequisite for asking me to pull strings with my future Hollywood Hot-Shot Buddies, is that they be regular readers of my blog.

I like to take care of fellow geniuses and people with great taste ;)

The next day was also activity filled. I peeled myself off the mansion floor the next morning after three and a half hours of sleep, and went to the Santa Monica pier to meet my Mom and some family friends who had just flown in to visit. We drove up to Santa Barbara for Lunch (obviously not my idea), came back, ate at some Sushi place near Staples center where we sat next to actor Beau Bridges, and then went to the Comedy tour kickoff of Russell Peters at the Nokia Theater.

I'm a harsh critic when it comes to stand-up comedy, but that guy is funny (and by "funny," I mean his sense of humor is only 10% less than my amazing wit ;)

Maybe at the next mansion party I should tell people I'm a comedian!

Airports and Arizona

2010-01-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Airports are an interesting beast. Despite their best efforts to be secure and orderly, they generally disintegrate into a maelstrom of chaos.

I happen to be in the heart of the maelstrom as I write this.

I honestly feel sorry for people who work at airports. Ticket counter representatives, security, customer service, all receiving a non-stop barrage of pissed off travelers. An old lady behind me just yelled at the ticket agent because our flight is two hours delayed and the gate just changed. Obviously the ticket agent is solely responsible for the plain being stuck in Oakland with mechanical issues.

I just hope she didn't check in any baggage.

I arrived a little over an hour before takeoff having followed my typical preflight routine: I never pack until about an hour before I have to leave and usually arrive at the airport a little over an hour before my flight. Saves time and stress, and I have yet to forget anything important or miss flight (knock on wood).

When I arrived this morning, I was a little surprised. The line for the Southwest Airlines ticket counter wrapped around multiple times and extended OUTSIDE to the curb dropoff area.

Just peachy.

As I searched for the end of the line, I realized several E-ticket check in kiosks were curiously available. Then I looked back at the line and realized all these poor souls (SUCKERS!!!) had to check in bags. I smugly strolled passed everyone, to the E-ticked check in.

Bodda Bing Bodda Boom, I'm at my gate patiently waiting as Old Women are yelling and an annoying kid is running around screaming as if he's playing the best game in world.

Serenity.

And now it's time to board.

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So I'm sitting here at the Tempe Starbucks on Mill Ave. getting ready to meet my friend Heather for dinner before heading back to San Diego. This was my first trip to Arizona. I came down for an interview at Arizona State's Business College for the MBA program which is top 30 in the nation.

I've been strolling around campus all day today in a suit and tie. Normally I would feel very businessman like, however my backpack pretty much makes me look like a college kid playing dress up.

After my interview, I went for a stroll down Mill, and stumbled upon an ice cream shop that was having its "Grand Opening." Hmmm...guess I should see what all the hype is about and have some. A little while later whilst doing some more afternoon strolling, I see another shop advertising it has the "Best Ice-cream Sandwiches EVER!"

Naturally, I peek in only to have a look. I honestly wasn't intending to buy anything. Somehow though, the people inside managed to say EXACTLY the right combination of words, and I happily continued down the street with a Cookie-ice-cream-sandwich in hand.

I have no self-control.

If I end up going to ASU though, I sense this place healthily contributing weekend "cheat" days.
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So down I'm back in San Diego. I'm working for 2.5 days before heading up to Mammoth for a little skiing.

It's a tough life I live ;)

2010 Resolution Evolution

2010-01-04T14:20:00.000-08:00

Jeez, we're already into the double digits of the 2000's. I vividly remember my sister being shocked that I was finally hitting the double digits on my tenth birthday. At that time, I also used to wonder what I'd be like in the year 2000. I never once considered what I'd be like in 2010 because that was so far out of my range of age-imagination that the only thought that came to mind about myself in 2010, was "old."

Good Lord I am old.

But, with age comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes evolution of resolutions, of which mine have certainly evolved from general goals which were rarely achieved, to specific milestones that I work on everyday.

Today reminded me that it was indeed the New Year. I went to the Gym this afternoon, and it was packed. I had to scramble just to nab a stair-stepper as soon as someone got off for fear some workout rookie would nab it from me and spend 10 minutes trying to figure out how to operate it before stepping off out of frustration and heading for the ol' treadmill for 10 minutes of intense strolling.

He won't last past January.

Being that it is the New Year, it's time again for me to analyze the goals I set for myself last year and list a few for this year.

Last Years Resolutions:

1. Get in Marathon Shape.

I'm gonna give myself a 10/10 on this one. I was really able to find the extra gear and get in pretty great running shape. From January to June, I went on some extremely tough training runs. On May 31st, I completed my first marathon, and did so in a competitive time. My goal was to finish in under 4 hours which is very ambitious for a non-runner and first-time marathoner.

I took that baby out in 3:51:22. And, it would have been under 3:50 had I not started cramping in the end. To put this in perspective, a college roommate of mine who was on the triathlon team and a regular runner, ran his first marathon in 4:10.

I give myself a 10 not only because I accomplished my 4 hour goal, but because I went on every single Sunday morning training run and never once made an excuse.

2. Make the San Diego Relay for Life Awesome.

10/10! As the Team Recruitment and Events Chair, I put a lot of work in to this puppy, and the payoff was amazing. I stated a goal of growing from 18 teams to 45. Welp - we got 55 teams! Even better, we went from having about 200 participants to 600. The biggest achievement however was the increased fund-raising from $18,000 raised to over $82,000 raised.

Hmmm...maybe I should start a "Relay for Arun's Pocket" event.

The American Cancer Society recommends an 18% growth rate per year, and we completely obliterated that goal. In fact our Relay was so successful, the American Cancer Society presented us with 4 awards, and we were nationally recognized for our achievement.

I'm holding the same committee position this year, and we've raised the growth bar yet again. The event will be amazing and I encourage everyone to get involved! I'm not listing it as a goal however because I'm taking it as a given that I will put in enough work to make the event awesome again.

3. Lauch my Ebook
Another 10/10! This is actually shaping up to be the most productive year ever. Not only did I publish The Social Charmer, but I completed the website and began my (modest) marketing campaign. Things are going well so far and my audience is growing. This is an accomplishment I'm really proud of. Anybody who's sold something they made can relate to the intense satisfaction you feel when someone actually pays money for something you've created.

4. Increase my Musical Opportunities:
7/10. Welp, it turns out I'm NOT Perfect (surprising, I know). Honestly though, I did pretty darn well on this one. I played several open mics and wrote a few new songs. Could I have played more? Definitely. I had several invitations to play at various venues but turned them down, either because I've been so busy, or because I was simply too tired/lazy to go on a weeknight.

Had I been better about playing more, wrote a couple of songs, and been a little more proactive, I probably would be headlining a couple of my own shows by now. I'm not terribly disappointed by this, but I could have done better.

5. Increase my Writing Opportunities.
2/10. Yikes! Honestly, I'm not too disappointed by this. Last year, I was doing some paid writing and actually writing a lot more in general (see numbers of monthly blog posts). However, although I enjoy writing, it is very solitary and I only like spending a limited amount of time each day doing it. This year, I've probably written almost as much, however the writing was for "The Social Charmer" newsletters, advertising copy, and college application essays. As such, I didn't pursue any additional opportunities for a couple of reasons:

a. No time for the reasons mentioned above.
b. The comparative pay to what I have been making as a Statistical Poker Consultant for a friend is monumental for the time commitment. Do I enjoy writing more than crunching stats? Definitely. But when the latter pays 5 times as much on a per hour basis, I chose the dollars.

So, this lack of accomplishment is more due to a changing of goals than a lack of achievement because in retrospect, I wouldn't have done anything different.

6. Begin my Educational pursuit

10/10 baby! I've spent the last several months working diligently on Graduate School applications and essays. It's a lot of work (and money) but I'd say I've done as well as I could have hoped. I should see the fruits of my labor in the next few months.

And now for my 2010 goals:

Before I start though, I should note that it's difficult for me to set entirely tangible growth goals since this year is going to involve a lot of change. I'm heading back to school and probably moving. When and to where I really don't know. It may not even be in this country! With that being said, here they are.

1. Take an Amazing International Trip
I love traveling. Actually, I love being in new places and could do without the uncomfortable Airplane ride. This summer I want to go on an international excursion. Where? Good question. Asia? Africa? Europe? South America? Australia? Maybe E, all of the above!

2. Grow The Social Charmer
Now that the ebook is launched, it's time for me to make it better. I'll probably add an audio supplement to the package as a freebie. I also want to increase site traffic, so I'm gonna have to put my advertising and marketing hat on (although I suppose I should make the hat first).

3. Join More Activities
When I look at my calendar, I get excited when I see activities lined up. Be it a Relay for Life meeting, an Iron Chef Cookoff with a friend, a Kickball game, or a hot date, they're all exciting. That being said, I'm going to get even MORE involved in stuff. I'm already planning on joining a Competitive/Social Tennis League. I'm also going to start playing music more. We'll see what else I can add.

4. Develop another Business Plan
I'm a continuous schemer and like to always have some kind of plan "on deck." Currently, between work, the ebook, school applications, and fun, and haven't had an opportunity to cook anything up. I want to have another practical business plan in place that I can work on while in school.

So there you have it. A short list of goals that I am going to accomplish this year barring any changing of goals. Hopefully, I'll start writing (and blogging) more, but I don't want to make a commitment that I'm unsure about.

Self Security

2009-12-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

If we would define one who is "insecure" as someone lacking self-esteem and self confidence, then I suppose I would we the opposite of "insecure": I'm Self Secure. While one who is insecure is sensitive to criticism and vulnerable to outside influence, I'm locked down like Fort freaking Knox surrounded by the U.S. Military and a Nuclear Mote with Jackie Chan manning surveillance.

Ok, so maybe I'm a smidgen *too* Self-secure.

Anyways, being Self-Secure, I'm not afraid to bring up personal interests or other things that might otherwise prove embarrassing to most people. I feel that bringing up embarrassing anecdotes about myself humanizes me beyond the Greek God-like looks and Charming personality that people usually perceive upon meeting me (see, I told you I was Self-Secure ;)

Today, I thought I would share a list of various tidbits that I'm not necessarily proud to associate myself with.

1. I have two Britney Spears Songs on my IPOD. I actually don't like Britney's music for the most part, but "Crazy" and "Lucky" are just so damn catchy I can't resist.

2. I also have "Mmmbop" by Hanson.

3. This is painful to admit, but I have a few New Kids on the Block tunes as well. "Please Don't Go Girl" always brings a tear to my eye. Their new album actually isn't half bad. On my computer, I've disguised their name to NKOTB. A girl I once dated however saw through my attempted disguise and called me out. I became flustered scrambling for some plausible excuse to have New Kids on the Block on my computer. Luckily, she thought it was "cute."

4. As long as I'm making music admissions, I also have "As Long as You Love Me" by the Backstreet Boys, and a couple of NSYNC songs. I also have an entire folder of music dedicated to the Muppets.

5. Speaking of the Muppets, I love the Muppets and Old School Sesame Street. I bought the DVD of "Sesame Street Goes to the Metropolitan Museum" when I was recently in New York because, aside from being very nostalgic, it's hilarious! Jim Henson is a GENIUS and the Muppets are awesome! In fact, I was recently showing a girl I was dating a youtube video of a hilarious Ernie and Bert episode when she dropped a bomb on me: "I don't really like the Muppets."

WHAT!?!

I knew it wouldn't last after that ;)

6. My first bicycle as a kid was my Sister's old bike...it had a Banana seat and was Pink. At least I ripped off the streamers.

7. I like to play the "list of celebrities your allowed to hook up with" game with my friends...girls LOVE playing this game. I've got some amazing women on my list but I'm secure enough in my Manhood that I have no problem telling girls that Adrien Brody belongs on no woman's list and Hugh Jackman should top all of theirs.

7. I went to a Boyz II Men Concert last month and LOVED it. I'm a fan of R&B music and I've always been a BIIM fan. I jokingly put a Facebook post up before the concert saying something to the effect of "Ladies, don't judge me if you see me up front at the Boyz II Men Concert, elbowing you out of the way to get a rose from Wanya during I'll Make Love to You."

Well, at the concert, Vanessa and I weren't quite up front at the stage, but we were about 8 feet back. As expected, during I'll Make Love to You they started handing out roses to all the ladies up front. Now, I was actually joking when I made that Facebook post...sort of.

Towards the end of the song, Nate decided to loft one of the roses over the heads of the people cramming at the stage. As soon as it was airborne, everything went into slow motion. I had to make a decision. I knew I could out jump the company around me. Do I sky high and snatch it out of the air, or let it fall into the arms of the lucky lady beside me?

SCREW HER I'M GOING FOR IT!

I snatched it out of the air and landed softly, protecting the rose with my off-hand.

I made Vanessa carry the rose out for me (ok, so I guess I'm not TOTALLY secure) with the understanding that she was just holding it for me and I was NOT giving it to her!

So now that you think I'm a fruitcake, I should probably make sure you know I love SPORTS, CARS, BEER, and TUPAC!

Don't Judge me....

The Thanksgiving Weekend of Awesomeness

2009-12-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

I love the Holidays.

For me, the Holidays start as soon as Halloween is over. Leaves are turning colors (well, sort-of in San Diego), the weather is getting cold (or "less-warm" in San Diego), and I can start start wearing jeans instead of shorts with my sandals (only in San Diego).

But best of all, there's an abundance of Holiday Treats that go around! Cookies, Cakes, Turkeys...I love it all! As one who has no self-control when good food is in the immediate vicinity, I never bake or make any of these unhealthy treats because I would never be able to bring myself to share them. Instead, I'm just opportunistic when I happen to stumble upon a treasure chest of food goodness.

With the Holidays, there is, what I affectionately refer to as the "Prime Time Zone." What is the Prime Time Zone you ask??? Allow me to enlighten you:

The Prime Time Zone is the span of Days that goes from the Day Before thanksgiving, to New Years Day. It is in this span that the best Holiday foods and snacks are in abundance everywhere, and that we allow ourselves a little extra indulgence. Afterall, it is the Holidays.

But why does it start the Day before Thanksgiving? Everyone knows that we all go on vacation the day before a major Holiday. People may show up to work, but they don't work as hard. In my case, I may follow my normal healthy diet until Wednesday night at which point I tell Vanessa that I saw Pumpkin pies on sale for only 3 dollars and what a travesty it would be to not get one and eat the whole thing that same evening. (not that I did that or anything)

On Thanksgiving Day, I ran the "Run for the Hungry" again this year. I love volunteering and participating in charitable work, and this one allowed me the bonus of getting to burn off a few servings of Mashed Potatoes before the big meal! This year, for a little extra pie, I ran BOTH, the 5K and the 10K - extra difficult considering I've run exactly TWICE since the Marathon in May.

For dinner, I drove out to the country in Vista, and had dinner with Jeff's family (as I do nearly every year). I had firsts, seconds, AND thirds of the main meal and followed it with a walk around the mountain to make room for the couple of slices of pie I downed.

This was only the beginning of the weekend food mayhem.

Saturday was probably even worse.

My friend Jon has an annual "Turducken Day Feast" every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Now, Jon loves to cook, and his Dad, who was also present, is the head Chef of a popular restaurant in Harrisburg, PA. Additionally, Jon has no shame when it comes to "cooking for taste." Allow me to explain by documenting my food intake chronologically.

2:00 Upon arrival, I help myself to a light beer...innocent enough right?

2:10 I spot "light eggnog." I love Eggnog, so I down the beer and move onto beverage number 2.

2:20 I spot the regular, non-light Eggnog. Hmmm, a little taste won't hurt. Good lord that's heaven in a milk carton! I'll go ahead and have a glass...afterall, it's the Holidays!

2:22 I am informed that Eggnog should be consumed with a splash of Brandi. Not being one to argue with tradition, I partake.

2:30 I spot a huge box of stuff. When I inquire, I am informed by Jon that it contains 15 pounds of Bacon. FIFTEEN POUNDS OF BACON!

2:35 I partake in the Bacon wrapped shrimps. Shrimp is healthy right?

2:40 I partake in the mini-blt's. Lettuce is healthy right?

2:45 Braeden is eating a Klondike Ice Cream Bar in front of me. I have no self control and attack the freezer. Ice cream is hea....ahh, who am I kidding.

3:00 Someone arrives with Loompias and more Eggnog. To be polite, I help myself to both.

3:30 Layla informs me that she made cookie bars that are to die for. How am I supposed to say no to that? I have two.

4:00 Eggnog is out. Back to beer.

4:30 I am in a heated game of "Blokus" (which is one of my new favorite board-games) and forget to eat for about an hour. Unforgivable.

5:30 Dinner is served! For those of you who don't know, Turducken is a de-boned Turkey stuffed with a Duck, which is in-turn stuffed with a Chicken. In between the birds are layers of stuffing and, as Jon's personal touch, BACON.

5:40 Jon informs us that he also secretly cooked a "Bacon Explosion" also known as "The Most Unhealthy Food in the World." The Bacon Explosion is a lattice of seasoned bacon covered with a thick layer of Italian Sausage which is then covered with fried bacon. This is then rolled into a log and cooked.

It is especially useful for those looking to have an instant heart attack. Naturally, I had two slices from the Bacon Explosion log.

7:00 Time for dessert. Kahlua balls, Apple Pie, and Pumpkin pie. I'll have one of each please.

7:20 Dessert seconds.

I believe that marked the end of my Turducken day debauchery. I did run eight miles earlier to offset some of the damage, but I probably would have had to run a marathon to due that. AND, just to put an exclamation point on my love for unhealthy eating before heading up to Alaska for the rest of the Holidays, I am a food and dessert judge for the Operations and Quality Engineering party at my office.

I love the Holidays!

Why I am a Terrible Blogger

2009-11-20T16:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, Ok...I know YOU don't think I'm a terrible blogger. I also know YOU know I don't think I'm a terrible blogger either. BUT, I have been downright neglectful in updating this damn thing. It's called "Arun is Bringing You Your Daily Remedy" not "Arun is Bringing You Your Bi-weekly Remedy Unless He Gets Busy in Which Case He Brings a Once a Month Remedy."

Guilty as Charged.

But I do feel like I have a valid excuse. As I mentioned previously, I'm on the Road Back to School and, as such, every piece of free time has been spent on filling out College Applications. I also happen to be applying to quite a few schools - somewhere between 12-14. AND each of these schools requires, on average, three essays apiece!

As an astute mathematician, my calculations reveal that's about 40 essays. Yes. FORTY DAD-GUM ESSAYS!

As you know, I like writing, but 40 essays is a weencey-bit excessive. To further complicate matters, all of the essay topics are about ME: strengths and weaknesses, short term and long term goals, what I bring to the table etc. I know what you're thinking: "Oh Common Arun! I've read this blog long enough to know you LOVE talking about yourself! Just copy and paste a couple of old blogs and Bodda Boom! You got yourself an essay!"

Well, that would all be fine and dandy if college admissions committees had an appreciation for gross self-indulgence, narcissism, and pictures of me flexing my Schwarzenegger-esque muscles. Unfortunately, they prefer the traditional approach of humility, honesty, and academic essays.

Good lord, I hope they don't Google me.

So, just because I haven't been writing as much, doesn't mean I haven't been going on any fewer adventures, or stopped living life awesome. A lot of my free time is spent filling out applications and writing essays, and when I'm actually not doing those things during my free time, I don't much feel like writing. But, once these college apps start finishing up, I should be Back on the Blogging Bandwagon (how's that for good alliteration?).

And speaking of college applications, I don't know how in the hell some people afford to even APPLY to graduate school!?! A lot of these application fees are over $200. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS just to apply! Not only do these schools make a killing off of tuition, but also off of the suckers like me who apply to twelve schools of which they can only go to one. I don't want to think about how many dollars down the drain that is.

Can you imagine what the applications committee thinks when someone sends in an application and they happen to be under qualified?

"Yea, there is NO-WAY this guy is not going here. Welp, thanks for the $200 Bucks Sucker! Pizza anyone?"

This got me thinking, maybe I should start a University. "Arun's University of Lifetime Awesomeness." I'll charge $199.99 to apply (have to beat the competition!) and then admit 5 percent of the applicants. People will see how selective I am and place A.U.L.A. in the same league as Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton.

Ivy League, Schmivy League!

Unlike those schools, who charge an arm and a leg on tuition, I'll charge about half the amount so everyone will want to apply to my school. Then, since I'm only admitting 5% of applicants, I'm making all my money on people I don't actually have to use money to educate.

Plans like this are why I am going to business school. I have vision, creativity, ambition, and devilish good looks (You knew I was gonna say it...this is why I can't send blogs in as essays), but I just need a little more business savvy :)

The Great Urban Race

2009-10-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

I think it's fairly obvious that I like adventures.

You can imagine my excitement when my friend Jenny told me about the Great Urban Race in San Diego. Actually, they have Urban Races in pretty much every major city in the country, and the top finishers automatically qualify for the National Finals. Unfortunately, in my rookie attempt, we did not manage to qualify, but Darren and I, Team "Kick Your CompAss" (I came up with the name) finished 109 out of about 500! For first timers, it was a pretty damn good effort.

I know what you're thinking: "What the heck is this Urban Race, Arun!?? Is it another marathon? Is it a charity event like Relay for Life? Is it an Urban Modeling Walkoff?!?"

For those of you who are familiar with the television show "The Amazing Race" apparently its like that. Basically, The Great Urban Race is a citywide race/scavenger hunt. So all participants are part of a two person team. Each team must have coordinated costumes, usually either something outrageous or the official race shirts. Teams are also allowed to work together.

So Darren and I teamed up with six of my other friends in our "Alliance of Power and Good Looks." All participants met at Dick's Last Resort Restaurant in the middle of Downtown San Diego where we all received an envelope of clues. When the race starts, everyone opens the envelope and are presented with 12 clues we have to decipher.

The clues are things like trivia questions, logic puzzles, word scrambles, riddles, etc. Once you decipher the clue, the answer is usually a location in San Diego that you have to go to and perform a task, take a picture of yourself doing something, or collect specific evidence of completing the task. The kicker is that no private transportation is allowed! No bikes, cars, ore taxis. You are ONLY allowed to use your feet or use public transportation.

Some of the tasks we had to perform included:

Going to a boxing studio where we had to take a lesson (which as some of you may know I need a little work

Proposing to a total stranger

Finding an obscure crafts shop and braiding a bracelet

Finding an obscure Chinese restaurant and making origami

Locating a roaming St. Judes rep and taking a picture with her after making a $5 donation.

Riding Go-carts around a track

Eating Pancakes from a specific pancake house

Getting a temporary tattoo from a specific tattoo parlor

The list goes on, but we were basically all over central San Diego. In fact, it was hilarious seeing the expression of random residents who didn't know what was going on. Imagine, you see people running all over the place in no singular direction, everybody's got different costumes on, yet we all have race numbers. Suffice it to say, we were inundated with confused looks and inquiries. Because I like to stir the pot, I even did a couple of "Loop-de-loops" around unsuspecting citizens to further confuse them as to what the hell is going on.

When we finally finished our last task, we sprinted the last mile to the finish line where we were sure we were in the top 25! When we arrived to the approximately 200 people (100 teams) who finished before us, our hopes were a smidgen dashed.

Oh well. Next year!

Afterwards, we were all exhausted. Nearly four hours of running around the city under the hot sun (I love San Diego) will do that to you, so we dialed up a little Pizza and Beer to recover!

I highly recommend participating in this event. For those of you in the States, it's there's probably one in a city near you. Check it out, and if you do well, I'll see you in next years national championship!

First Date Blunders

2009-10-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

Last week I was having dinner with a bunch of friends, and the conversation steered to "First Dates." It's always an awesome group conversation because everyone's got at least one funny story, and everyone has an opinion on what's right and wrong. The one thing that always perplexes me is how much pressure people put on the experience of the first date. Before writing this, I googled "First Date mistakes" to make sure I wasn't rehashing a bunch of articles. What I found was an overwhelming amount of "Do's and Don'ts" that would make any guy go nuts.

Even worse, a lot of them are filled with bad advice. I don't claim to be an expert, but I do OK ;) and I know what things are just completely BAD. So instead of overwhelming you with a huge checklist of things to think about, I'm just going to tell you who you shouldn't be.

Timmy Try Hard
Timmy has good intentions but he blows it right away by trying *too* hard. Timmy dresses in his Sunday Best, and shows up with flowers. I'm all for looking good and being nice, but unless you're going to the opera on Valentine's Day (and the only reason you should be going to the opera on a first date is if you're singing in it), leave suit and flowers at home. Also, there's no need to go to a dimly lit hugely expensive restaurant where you'll be surrounded by married couples celebrating their anniversary. I suppose if you're extremely ugly and prefer dim lighting, or worse, your date is extremely ugly, this could be a legitimate option, but otherwise, nix the the fancy schmancy first date spot.

Freddy Pheromone
Freddy is of the same breed as Timmy, but I feel like he deserves a blurb of his own. You definitely want to smell good when you're out, but you don't need to smell good from 20 feet away nor does the car need to turn into some kind of flowery-musk gas chamber of death.

1 spritz = "Ooh this guys smells hot!"
3+ spritz = "Good Lord, are covering up a missed shower?"

Tommy Trickster
Apparently there's a group of men who attempt to "trick" girls into going on a date with them. I was unaware of this until it was explained to me by multiple girls. Apparently Tommy calls and sets up a "hangout" under the pretense that there will either probably be other people, or that its strictly platonic (hence the term "hang out").

You see this is very tricky. I can call up my buddy Jeff and say "Hey, let's hang out!" But, I will never call him to "GO out." I GO out with girls I'm interested in. I hang out with friends. That's generally the accepted definition, but Tommy Trickster ropes them in with the ol' hang out, and tries to do the "Go out transfer of Magic."

Uh-uh. They are on to you.

Nicky Nicealot
Poor Guy. He's not sleazy, mean, or even try-hard...he's just clueless. Nicky is classic "boring date guy." First of all, he has no plan. I'll be the first to admit, I can be pretty indecisive about some things, but on a date, especially a first date, a guy has got to make a decision and have a plan!

Sometimes girls will get tricky and ask YOU (the guy) out. One might think the pressure of planning then falls on her shoulders.

Ding-dong, you're wrong.

All this means is that they may suggest an activity, but you are expected to be the decider for any subsequent activities on the date.

The second mistake Nicky makes, is he conducts the "Nervous First Date Interview". "So, where are you from? What movies do you like? What hobbies do you have?" Then he follows it up by doing the extra gentlemanly things. Again, I'm all for being a gentleman and opening doors and such for company, but some things are a little excessive.

Pulling the chair out for a girl before sitting? Running around, opening the car door, then running back to the driver's side? If I don't intend to do these things three weeks from now, why should I put on a show and do them now? It's a little excessive.

I'm probably gonna get blasted for some of this stuff, but it all sounds nice when it's not you.

Sammy McSexYouUp
Sammy might be the worst first date. I've seen him in action from afar. He bear-hugs his date as she keeps her arms pressed up against the front of her body in a desperate attempt to create some kind of buffer. He goes for the kiss and gets the ol' head turn from her. Sammy specializes in the 2am drunken girl pickups, but in the first date, where some semblance of intellect comes into play, he's out of his element. It's like chopping an onion with an axe: just a little too much to handle.

So that's the list. If you avoid turning into any of these amazing men, you might have a shot at a second date. As obvious as they seem, you'd be surprised at the lack of informed men roaming the streets of your city. BTW, feel free to share your bad date story. They're always good for a chuckle ;)

Arun Visits Sex and the City 2

2009-09-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

Vacations are always nice, especially when there's a lot of fun and mischief involved. New York City just so happened to be one of those "nice" vacations. Sure we did the normal stuff: Statue of Liberty, Metropolitan Museum, Cruise around the Island, Empire State, Central Park, etc. But the real awesome stuff was the atypical experiences that NYC brings.

I love tennis, so naturally we went to the US Open. I've been to a number of tennis tournaments, but going to a Grand Slam is definitely a different experience. It also helps that I have a soft spot for my *friend*, finalist Caroline Wozniaki (pictured below).

A few days later, we happened to get tickets to the Letterman show. This was a bit tricky because after you request them, you get a phone call from someone who gives you a trivia question you have to answer about the show in order to get the tickets. Well I almost never watch the Late Show, so this presented a complication...luckily I'm clever, resourceful, and shamelessly fraudulent. The call went like this:

Letterman Lady: "So in order for you to get the tics, you have to answer this trivia question."
Me: "Uhhh, Okay"
Lady: "Dave likes to visit a place of business owned by a Rupert (something inaudible that rhymes with "wee"). What business does he own?"
Me: "Oh!!! I uhhhhhh knooooooooooow this ooooooooooone"

Basically I was stalling as I was secretly trying to google the question. Thank God google has autofinish because after typing just "Letterman Rup" it finished the search field for me as "Letterman Rupert Jee visits". I hit enter and stalled some more.

Me: "Ohhhhh...It's on the tip of my tongue! Lettermaaaaaaaaaan visits....uhhh....OH YEA!" (as if I just remembered as google spits out the answer) "It's the Helo Deli!"

Yea! I am awesome! (never mind, shameless)

It's crazy how much the Letterman staff tries to pump you up before the show. Seriously, I think we encountered at least five people enthusiastically yelling/asking how much fun we're going to have while jumping up and down. Then, they issue empty threats saying that if Dave doesn't think we're a fun enough audience, he won't use his best jokes (as if they're going to rewrite the content in five minutes).

The show itself was pretty fun. We saw former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and television actress Juliana Marguiles. The taping went by pretty quick and the studio is a lot smaller than it looks on TV.

BUT, the highlight of the trip was probably getting on the set of Sex and the City 2. Now I've actually never seen the show or the first movie, but that wasn't the point...I just wanted to be on a movie set.

Earlier in the day, I was walking through Time Square with Darren, when I began to feel and little rumbly in my tumbly. Across the street I noticed an indescript table with food. Yea Food! We moseyed on over and noticed a sign that read "cast and crew only."

Naturally, my mind began to scheme.

There was a peculiar door adjacent to the table that opened into a narrow stairwell. I immediately wanted to check it out. Darren was resistant. Luckily, I can be very convincing ;) So we went up four or five flights of stairs until we came upon an open door that with a sign: "Set -> Sex and the City 2."

Jackpot Baby! This was too good.

Inside there was a bunch of crew moving pieces of set around. There was a bar in the back and some of the actors were taking a break and having a drink. Near the windows overlooking Time Square however, was where all the action was taking place. Darren had this huge camera hanging over his shoulder, so I used it as an opportunity to act like we belonged there. As we shuffled around the set, I barked out orders to him as if I was his supervisor:

Me: "Now make sure you're ready to take the shot when they need it! I think this lighting is decent for what we need. I want to capture MAGIC today! Now be ready to shoot and stay out of the way otherwise!"

Ok, Ok...I may have been hamming it up a little excessively.

On set, they were setting up a shot with some sexy secretary with thick rimmed glasses at a desk with big windows overlooking Times Square behind her. The director was giving her instructions and Kim Cattrall was getting pampered with beverages as she sat in the chair labeled "Kim Cattrall." It was pretty interesting to see that each major crew/cast member actually had their own special chair with a label.

After being their for probably 20 or 25 minutes, the producer finally came up to us:

Producer: "And you guys are???"
Me: "Oh we're just NYU film students. Carry on!"
Producer: "And you're here because?"
Me: "Oh just checking stuff out. Thought it'd be a nice learning experience! Don't worry about us!"
Producer: "You guys can't be here and need to leave right now. And by the way, if you ARE film students, you shouldn't just walk on to movie sets."

We took off, but only after I grabbed one of the water bottles reserved for the "A-Cast." I embedded the crappy video (since obviously we weren't supposed to be taking video). Funny enough, when I looked up Sex and the City 2 after getting back to the hotel, the first article that popped up was one about how they've had to beef up security because fans were getting too close to Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall.

Obviously their security needs some work ;)

Challenge Yourself to Be More Social

2009-09-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

If you're a regular reader (although "regular" would be a bit of a stretch considering how terrible I've been about posting recently) of the most awesome blog on the planet (this one, OBVIOUSLY) then you know that I'm a big advocate of trying to be a social as possible. I detail the benefits in my post The Power of Being Social, and go into extensive detail in my book The Social Charmer. One of the things I advocate in my book is taking initiative in putting yourself in situations that are only fun if your willing to break out of your social shell!

There's never an excuse to be standing off to the side on your own. People will open up to you if you give them the chance!

Most people shy away from situations in which they know hardly anyone. I personally LOVE these situations, and many times look at being in a room with a bunch of people I don't know, as a challenge of my social skills and charm. FOUR, such occassions happened recently which I'm obviously going to tell you about :)

It all started with an Art Show: A few weeks ago I got an invitation to an Art / Music show from a friend. Now she's not exactly a close friend so the option of going and clinging to her all night wasn't really in play (although the "clinger" option should realistically NEVER be in play!). Even though I knew no one else who was going, I decided to suit up and go!

Of course when I arrived, I didn't just blast in and start yapping away. I got some wine, checked out the art, got some more wine, checked out the music etc. But in the midst of my bouncing around, I decided that the "modern art" was either obsurdly simplistic or I am just an undiscovered art prodigy that finds the complexities of modern art entirely juvenile. Of course I began telling everyone that I will be submitting my finest modern work for the next display including "Dot on Canvas" and "Left-handed Signature on Notebook Paper."

Among the many people I met was a girl named Jenny. How did I meet her? Well, as the event photographer was taking pictures of people checking out the art, he happened to be taking shots of her looking at some picture, and trying to look "natural." Of COURSE I had to make fun of her.

In my best photographer voice:
"Yes! Yes! Give me natural! Give me passion! Where's the passion!?! Where's the bloody passion!!?! FIRED! FIRED! We can't work with you!"

We talked for awhile and she invited me and my friend to her birthday shin-dig that weekend. Yes! Another event where I know NO ONE!

Most people would have made up an excuse and not gone. I had just met this girl, and she had invited me to hang out with her and 30 friends, none of which I know.

You can imagine her pleasant surprise when I showed up! Again, the night was a lot of fun and I ended up going away with 30 new friends.

The next day, I was invited to an Engagement Party Pub Crawl of Awesomeness (what a way to get engaged!). Again, there were a ton of people I had never met, but I had a great time and met some great people (Including Syrus from the Real World).

Fast forward to a couple of days ago while I was in New York, and I decided to meet up with a friend from grade school whom I hadn't seen for like 9 years. So I had to take the subway to queens, transfer, and then the subway to Brooklyn. We go have dinner then she invites me to go to a "Going away get together" for one of her dear friends, at which all of her other best friends who I have of course never met, will be. New place, new people, and the one person I know I haven't seen in nearly a decade.

Here we go!

Again, I had an awesome night and met some incredible people. It's not that I've been somehow lucky enough to fall into situations where people are particularly endearing towards the new guy. Each and every time I've definitely had to work my way into "part of the gang," especially in NYC where the group I was hanging out with was very tight knit.

So what's the big secret? Well, it's not just one thing, but the biggest thing I've noticed that makes people warm up to you right away, is when you ASSUME familiarity. What I mean is, treat everyone like they're an old friend. I love teasing people I've just met, expecially because most people only do this with old friends.

Common protocol when two people don't know each other is to ask a lot of surface questions, don't risk offense, keep the tone relatively unemotional.

I do the exact opposite. I make up silly nick names for people, I give them a hard time, I certainly ask questions, but I dig deeper than the surface, because THAT's where people reveal their passion.

When you ACT like you've known someone for a long time, somehow, the feeling of familiarity between the two of you seems to accelerate far beyond normal pleasantries.

I also enjoy telling funny, embarassing stories about me. Again, most people wouldn't reveal something embarassing about themselves in front of people they've just met. But who are usually the only people to know embarassing stories about you? Your close friends. All of a sudden, everyone is laughing and know they know ME from not only the content of my story, but from the way I tell the story which reveals a lot about my personality.

Don't be afraid to jump into a group of new people. Once you do behave as you would amongst your good friends. You'll be surprised at how much fun you have, and you just might walk away with a new friend or fifty!

The 2009 Relay for Life of Awesomeness

2009-08-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

It's amazing the fulfillment one can get by helping those in need.

The last three years, I've been involved in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event. Relay for Life is basically a huge fundraiser that takes place at different times in the year at various locations all around the world, and is a 24 hour event to raise money for the fight against cancer.

At first, I hesitated to jump head first into the cause. I've never known anyone close to me personally to be directly affected by cancer, so the cause didn't resound to me. Then, after watching the luminaria ceremony honoring those lost, and finding out that 1 in 3 people are directly affected by cancer at some point in their life, the cause became much more important.

Odds are, you or me, or someone we're extremely close to will get cancer. It's high time we get our charitable booty in gear!

So this year, I became the Team Recruitment Committee Chair and Events Coordinator for the San Diego Downtown Relay for life. I've previously posted about my first relay, last years relay and the beginning of my involvement this year which have all been great experiences.

This year, we made HUGE progress! We went from 18 teams to 46, from 200+ participants to 600, and from $18,000 raised to $80,000!

As team recruitment chair, I actually made the "Big Catch" of the event by getting the Fish Market restaurant to have a team! How did I do this? By way of a little Social Charm :)

One Saturday morning, while walking around Sea Port Village to secure any possible donations, I walked into the Fish Market and requested the manager. After explaining exactly who I am and that I'm not selling anything, I proceeded to butter up the manager with some smooth talking and a bat of the eyes.

Putty in my hands.

Before I knew it, they had not only donated a dinner for two to auction of for charity, but lead all Relay teams in team members, fundraising, and even agreed to provide food for part of the event.

Sometimes I even impress MYSELF with my charm! (ok, ok...the fish market restaurant manager will contend that I happened to be at the right place at the right time, and neither my charm nor devilish good looks had anything to do with their participation, but rather the cause of the event. I still maintain otherwise!!!)

Being such an integral part of the event this year, I couldn't let our Relay for Life be just ordinary ;) It had to wreak of awesomeness and debauchery!

You see, most Relay for Lifes take place on high school tracks (BORING!). We already had a head start because we were at the North Embarcadero in San Diego, right on the water with incredible views of Downtown! Additionally, most Relays don't have a ton of events or entertainment.

We are the complete opposite.

But, to boost the awesomeness to Arun levels, I of course had to incorporate a little "Arun flair."

As you know, I like competitions, so I made sure the event was littered with them. We had the good ol' fashioned 3-legged race, the balloon toss, wheelbarrow race, and my personal favorite, and the event I've been hyping to team captains for the last 4 months, the Hot Dog Eating Contest! (see the videos)

So after 24 straight hours of games, various musical entertainment (I opened with a little performance), a LOT of walking and eating (we had amazing food donated all day from various downtown restaurants), and socializing, it was time to rest....which is exactly what we DIDN'T do! (common, you should know this by now)

Instead, we went to "Dick's Last Resort" who opened early for us to have our after party. Since we can't consume alcohol at the event, we proceeded to drink our sleepy delirium away...at 10 in the morning.

Suffice it to say, come 8 o'clock, I was feeling all types of loopy and exactly radiate good looks. I proceeded to crash for 12 hours.

Thank God this event is only once a year...I don't think I'd be able to take much more in my old quarter-century age :)

Life Initiative

2009-08-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ok...first of all, yes, I know I've been awful about posting recently. I've been pretty busy with a few things, and more relevantly, I've actually had a tough time thinking of anything worth posting.

Part of the problem is, I don't like posting half-ass single paragraph blurbs. I'm more of a "full-ass" kind of guy and I like more complete works of writing! I'll try and re-up my posting frequency...but no promises. Dilution of the best blog ever (according to me...and my Mom) is not an option!!!

Rule number 18 in "Arun's Guide to Lifetime Awesomeness" states: Thou shalt take initiative in life and ignore trivial consequences." I'm not sure why I decided to write rule 18 in Old English, but it sounds more important that way.

I take a lot of pleasure in the act of moving forward. Despite being "happy" I don't know if I'm ever fully "content" with anything. That is, while I may be thoroughly satisfied with the present state of something, I will not stop working towards making it better.

This applies to EVERYTHING.

I like sports and am pretty good at most of them, but I actually spend time practicing because I enjoy improving (and winning). I never dreamed of running a marathon, but the satisfaction of improving my fitness to a point where I could not only finish one, but do so in a respectable time was amazing! And the consequences were trivial...waking up early on weekends, some minor injuries, and the general physical discomfort of busting my ass.

A common trend is for people to plan on running a marathon, but they never take initiative and SIGN UP because the consequences scare them too much.

I have a very good job, but I am certainly not ready to settle into an "OK" career. I want something I am passionate about, so soon enough, I'll be heading back to school and going in a more self satisfying direction. Again, many people would quell this desire and plan for big things in the future without ever doing them because the short term consequences (reentering school, applying, not making money, etc) are too intimidating.

I just completed the GMAT and am studying for the GRE in preparation for Graduate School application season. I'm taking initiative.

This behavior happens socially as well. For many people, once they have a couple of close friends, they don't feel the need to reach out and bring other people into their lives. Even though I have a close circle of relationships, I make it a point to extend myself socially to meet other people, because, quite frankly, there are a lot of diamonds in the rough.

It all starts with one. Think of something you really want, accept the consequences and take a tangible step towards it TODAY. Show some life initiative and soon enough, the consequences will seem trivial.

Wedding Crashers

2009-07-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

My Birthday is in the Fall, Winter brings Christmas, Spring has, well, Spring Break, and Summer delights with Wedding Season!

I thought I had finished my Summer's worth of weddings last month when I attended two awesome weddings. The first was one of my best friends from College who had probably the most fun wedding I've been to. Aside from some of my really good friends who hardly get to see anymore being there, there was AMAZING food (always adds mucho points to any festivity in my book) as well as an open bar (ditto).

Postulate 58 in "Arun's Guide to Lifetime Awesomeness" states: Weddings shall be planned such that the ceremony is kept to minimal length (15 minutes max) such that extra time may be added to the reception (the real reason everyone goes to weddings anyways). Reception shall include Ample food and booze, as well as a regulation dance floor, and at least one beautiful, single, woman.

Becca's wedding satisfied all of my criteria of awesomeness.

The second was Jeff's sister's wedding.

Apparently, Jeff's Mom was quite happy I attended. According to Jeff, I was the M.E.G. ("Most Entertaining Guest) of the night.

So this last Saturday brought me to yet another wedding, and of COURSE I wanted to keep up my reputation as the M.E.G., only this time, I didn't know the Bride OR the Groom.

Allow me to expound.

I was supposed to go to this bowling alley/bar downtown on Saturday evening for a friends birthday shindig. In the afternoon though, I was invited to someone's pool party, so I thought, "Hey! What better way to warm up for a birthday party, than by going to a pool party before hand!" Seemed logical enough.

So my friend AK and I head over and meet our friends Jenny and Rashelle over there. The one thing you need to know about Jenny and Rashelle is that they LOVE to play Flip Cup (a popular competitive drinking game).

One hour later, half the party is involved in a giant flip cup game. Fast forward another couple of hours and it's about 6:30. AK and I were supposed to be at the birthday thing at 4:30.

Oops.

As we get ready to take off, Rashelle enlightens us with this little tidbit. "There's a Padres game at 7:00, so not only will you be fighting traffic all the way downtown, but parking is gonna be a bitch! Why don't you guys come to Kate Sessions Park with us and continue the flip cup magic, then go downtown when the traffic has settled?!?"

As we established earlier, I'm not one to argue with good logic, so to the park we went!

Upon re-commencement of our flip cup game, we noticed a wedding reception just beginning. The DJ was awesome so we set up our table nearby to enjoy the tunes. Soon, wedding goers started noticing our awesome game and migrated over to have a peek. Yes, they wanted to join in.

The more the merrier, so soon, a bunch of people from the wedding party were rabidly involved in a flip cup battle! As the battle waged on, we noticed, as part of the reception, they had one of those huge inflatable bouncy rooms.

Suffice to say, we ended the game and got our bounce on. I was bouncing so hard, I managed to bounce my way to a broken belt. Once thoroughly exhausted, we joined the dance party at the reception and enjoyed whatever delicious dessert it was they were serving. We were dancing up such a storm that the wedding photographer was taking a bunch of action shots of us...should be interesting when the bride and groom get the pics and wonder who the hell we are :) When it came "Garter Belt toss" time, AK and I joined in! (Though I wonder what would've happened if one of us caught it).

At this point the Birthday party was thoroughly forgotten and I was only focused on maintaining my reputation as the M.E.G.

Until next wedding season...

How to Spend Lots of Money in Vegas Without Gambling

2009-07-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

Vegas is always a good time. BUT, a good time in Vegas frequently runs you a buck or two. Usually people return from Vegas lamenting about how far "up" they were before a streak of "bad luck" (also know as "normal luck") took them into the red.

Well I recently returned from Vegas in the red alright, but it sure wasn't because of gambling. In fact, I almost never gamble in Vegas. I HATE giving money to casinos and even losing twenty bucks makes me cringe.

But, for those of you interested in throwing lots of money around without gambling in Vegas, I've constructed an easy-to-follow, step by step guide for your spending pleasure!

Step 1: Go with a friend(s) who likes to spend money. When people around you start spending, you generally follow suit. My buddy 'CT' was the originator of the Vegas plan and he definitely likes to drop change...he's also a professional online poker player. And when I say professional, I mean he has no other job other than playing poker online and making a comfortable living off of everyone else's money!

This seemed pretty glamorous to me for awhile, but the amount of time I would have to spend to get as good as he is, is simply not worth it.

Step 2: Have said friend book the hotel for the trip. In my previous visits to Las Vegas, I have stayed at Mandalay Bay, The Venetian, and the Rio - all reasonably priced. This time however, CT booked us in the "Tower Suites" of the Wynn Hotel. According to Wikipedia, the Tower Suites are the only 5 star rated suites in Vegas.

The nice bonus here is that I really don't know exactly how much this cost. CT owed me a bunch of money for some consulting work I did for him, so rather than having to write him a check, I actually just RECEIVED a big deposit from him with the amount deducted...as far as I was concerned, I was making money!

Step 3: Fly to Vegas. The previous three trips, I had driven. Driving there is all fine and dandy - the excitement makes it worth it. BUT, driving back is HELL. You're tired and battered, and you won't get back until late Sunday, just in time to prepare for Monday work.

Flying was awesome! San Diego to Vegas is less than an hour, and in all fairness, the rates weren't that bad, although I had to change my ticket date at the last minute which added a little expense. On the plane, I probably looked like your typical Vegas tourist as I sat there reading "Bringing Down the House: How a Group of MIT students took Vegas for Millions!" I suppose in order for me to do that, I'd have to start gambling.

Step 4: Lose Credit Card Roulette at dinner the first night. Me and some of my friends do this on occasion by having the waiter pick a random credit card to foot the bill. I've generally had good luck at "CCR" and in the spirit of Vegas, we decided to roll the dice.

Welp...the dice rolled right into my pocket and moseyed on out carrying $140 bucks.

Step 5: Order Bottle Service at Tryst in the Wynn. Tryst was awesome and it was great having a table and not having to wait in line, but I don't think I have to elaborate on the extravagant prices of bottle service at a top Vegas club.

Step 6: Go see the Cirque Du Soleil: 'O' at the Bellagio. Tickets are pricey, but honestly, really worth it. I've now seen three Cirque shows in Vegas: Mystere, Ka, and now 'O', and the later was the BEST one yet! If you don't mind shelling out, I'd definitely recommend it.

Step 7: DON'T have a friend you know in Vegas get you in places for free. OK, ok...I have to confess. The last night in Vegas, my friend who lives there came out and used his connections to get us into places without paying or waiting in line. So if you are just burning to burn some Benji's, then by all means order bottle service again.

Step 8: Buy pointless stuff and eat out a lot I got suckered into buying some silly magic trick at the magic store in New York New York. We also ate out for our meals. My "cheap" meal was a Panini Sandwich with no sides for a measly 12 bucks. TWELVE DOLLARS for some freakin toasted bread, chicken and cheese!?!

So there you have it. Happy spending! And if you still have some extra desire to burn some more dough, I am available as a personal consultant for you to spend money on in Vegas as well :)

One Man's Influence Over a Population, and a Person

2009-06-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

You never really realize the significance of someone until they're gone. It seems like everyone, including myself, is realizing today what Michael Jackson meant to the world, and to themselves.

From a grand perspective, it's impossible to ignore Michael Jackson's contribution to pop culture. He's the biggest selling solo artist of all time, owns the number one selling album in history, embarked on the most profitable tour ever, and is responsible for the two best selling musical home videos to date.

Not too shabby.

Michael Jackson broke barriers down not only for people of color, but for a musical style that everyone embraced. MTV wouldn't play black artists before Michael Jackson and he ushered in a new era of music video mini-movies.

I think it's safe to say that MJ is a musical and performance icon.

But what's often overlooked is the NON-music side of MJ; the sensitive, caring, and incredibly giving person that he was. Most people aren't aware that Michael Jackson made EXTENSIVE charitable contributions to charities world-wide. He co-wrote "We Are The World" with Lionel Richie which raised tens of millions of dollars to combat the hunger problem in Africa. He funded an entire hospital operation for burn victims with the settlement he received from Pepsi after his own experience with burning. (Please check out the video below).

He profoundly affected millions of people around the world....including me.

Michael Jackson was my first idol. He is THE reason I learned how to dance. My best moves are all modeled after MJ. As a musician, he's shaped precisely who I am when I perform. Seeing that I spend most of my youth belting out Michael Jackson tunes, I guess this is no surprise ;)

I love Michael Jackson, and I've never made this a secret. MJ has been unfairly brutalized my the media more than any celebrity in history. Is he eccentric? Certainly. But isn't that his prerogative? Look at where he came from:

He worked harder than most people do in their entire lives, at the age of four. Rest wasn't an option, and mistakes were punished with the force of a switch, belt, electrical cord, or any other convenient device. Most of us have family to fall back on when we are teased. His father and brothers teased him mercilessly about his "huge" nose and his acne.

Most of us battle incredible insecurity when a pimple pops up prominently on our face, but when you can't count on the closest people you know to comfort you, where do you go? To add to that, he had a skin condition called Vitiligo which completely destroys the pigmentation of the skin and mostly affects black people.

I can't imagine the feeling of identity loss and the psychological toll that would accompany such an involuntary transformation.

Most people don't know these things, and/or refuse to believe them because he was frequently portrayed as a freak by the media in order to boost ratings. As a kid, I learned a great deal about independence and confidence when I stepped up to defend the guy I idolized.

It's not easy defending someone who everyone makes fun of when you're in middle / high school. But I never once relented. I was frequently alone against the masses, but when it came to Michael Jackson, I ALWAYS had his back.

I never believed any of the ludicrous allegations against him.

I used to watch every interview and every music video. I read his autobiography at least twice. To this day, if I could meet anyone in the world, it would be Michael Jackson.

His passing yesterday was certainly a shock. I was excited for a forthcoming album and was ready to jump on the comeback train. For all the years his music and example supported me, I owed him my support.

I don't know how different I would be today had MJ never existed, but I'm sure I'm a better person because of him. His example of hard work, perfectionism, and generosity is one that everyone should embrace.

Michael Jackson didn't know me, but I certainly knew him.

Why You Should Be Late to the Technology Party

2009-06-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

I'm never the first one with the new toy...but I end up with it eventually.

I'm generally a pretty smart shopper, and in general, am always looking for the biggest bang for the least buck: but I'm also a sucker for sweet deals. When it comes to tech purchases, I almost never buy things as soon as they come out despite all the buzz.

First, they always cost entirely too much money. Take the I-phone for example. When it first came out, it was around 500 bucks. Now, you can get one for about $200, and guess what? It's still one of the most (if not the most) state of the art phones out there!

Secondly, the initial release of new technology ALWAYS has design and/or software issues. So, not only are you paying an ice-cream-loving motherload for the new toy, but your new toy is breaking an awful lot. Your buck is not doing a whole lot of banging.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new computer. But before I did, I wanted to figure out the best way to get my buck to bang like Casanova on Spring Break. First: what do I need? Well, I really like having a laptop, but I've been disappointed by the difficulty in upgrading components as well as the generally short lifespan they have. Plus 75% of the time, I'm not really taking my laptop anywhere.

So, I resolved to buy a desktop as well as a new hard drive for my struggling laptop which should remedy it's current crappy performance. Now, I have a laptop to take with me to do anything I would need a computer to do, along with a kick-ass powerhouse computer at home for me to gawk at while I check email on my unnecessarily huge 23 inch screen.

Now, where do I buy it? I checked prices online for the configurations I liked. Then, I checked arguably the best store ever in the world and did some comparisons.

Costco never fails me.

The HP's loaded with the features I wanted were at least a couple hundred bucks less than anywhere else! To boot, Costco has an excellent return policy. To double boot, as an executive member, I get cash back on the purchase. To double boot, plus one sequined white glove, I get cash back on my American Express card too! To double boot, plus one sequined white glove plus a smooth looking fedora, by paying on my American express, they double the initial warranty on the product!

Of course, being an admitted sucker for deals, I went ahead and paid another $150 to get a bigger monitor and a whole slew of upgrades which I really don't need. But my bucks are the star of the party!

Now that I had the computer though, I felt like one other thing needed an upgrade. I had been talking about upgrading my old-school flip phone to a fancy schmancy Smart phone. As I mentioned above, the prices these days are pretty bangin.

So, I did my research, and as a Verizon Wireless Customer, narrowed my choices down to the Blackberry Storm, Samsung Omnia, and LG Envy touch. I was all set to purchase the Samsung until I went into the store to do one last personal inspection.

I had heard mixed reviews about the BB Storm, but apparently these issues have since been mitigated by the latest Blackberry software updates. The LG Envy Touch had a smallish touch screen plus a qwerty k-pad which to me is useless when you have a touch screen. The Omnia was sleek, but the ergonomics of the interface were difficult and you needed to use this rinky-dink stylus hung on the side of the phone to dial and text on the crammed keypad.

But I still wasn't ready to purchase. Today I watched a few video's online evaluating the Storm and comparing it to the I-phone (arguably the most popular phone on the market) and it's pretty much neck and neck. Apparently some of the luke-warm reviews I have been reading were posted before the recent software upgrades.

Blackberry it is!

So today I'm gonna roll in and get my new Blackberry state-of-the-art phone for only 100 buckaroos!

Sure, I might be late to the party, but aren't those the guys who get the most "bang" anyways? ;)

The Social Charmer

2009-06-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well it FINALLY happened. After months of delay and a lot of work, I've finally launched my first ebook! That's right: the anxiously awaited (by me), long anticipated (by me), ebook of the millenium (according to me) is finally here!

The Social Charmer

This idea started a long time ago after I wrote the post The Power of Being Social. Even now, over two years later, that is still one of the most popular posts on here. In fact, it's usually found by Googlers who search terms like, "being social," "how to be more social," etc.

Coincidentally, around the same time, I had begun to use ebooks as a source of reading and information including a couple of purchases. Soon a little bell in my head went off. Hey, if there's one thing I'm really good at and could actually teach a large amount of people about, it's being more sociable to open up life opportunities.

Generally, I'm pretty entrepreneurial minded, so I decided to write an ebook. I probably finished the first draft like eight months ago. Revision took a little while, but the most time consuming and unfulfilling part was building the web-page. I'm not super web savvy, so building the site took some time along with writing the ad-copy (which, coincidentally, I hate doing...I've never liked sales), and getting the right pictures for the product.

Soooo, after over a year of work on and off, the site, the BOOK is finally launched! Check it out! (oh, and feel free to order a copy too ;)

The Marathon Man

2009-06-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Check another one off the bucket list.

It is now Wednesday and I am STILL hobbling around from Sunday's "San Diego Rock N' Roll Marathon." To say I'm sore would be a gross understatement. To say my legs ache so much that I wish I could go back in time and sucker punch the inventor of the stair, would be slightly more accurate.

BUT, it was all worth it. My goal for my first marathon was to beat 4 hours (a very respectable time...especially for a first-time marathoner). In order to provide you with the full marathon experience, I will breakdown the the day of the marathon and the marathon itself mile by mile for your entertainment:

4:30am - Alarm goes off. I'm utterly confused as to why my alarm is going off, blaring "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers as it's pitch black and drizzling outside...oh yea...I have a marathon today.

4:31am: - Phone alarm goes off playing an annoying midi version of "When the Saints Go Marching In." I learned my two-alarm setting lesson from watching Seinfeld!

5:00am: Arrive downtown with a belly half full of Gatorade, a Cliff bar, and banana. I don't like exercising on a full stomach.

5:15am: Nerves are killing me and I have to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes.

5:45am: Walk 1 mile over to the starting line in Balboa Park. The line at each of the like 30 portapotties is ludicrous so we head over to the canyon with all of the other smart guys and hydrate the vegetation.

6:25am: National Anthem ~ meh...pretty good but I can do better after all of my shower practice.

6:30am: Starting Gun! I start in Corral 2 of like 30 thus avoiding having to bob and weave around people since I'm in the front.

Mile 1: Feeling good, looking good....and the Kenyans are nearly out of sight already.

Mile 2: Heading into Hillcrest...Is that pancakes I smell?

Mile 3: It was Definitely pancakes...mmmm pancakes. I like pancakes.

Mile 4: First encounter with friends on the course. They're cheering, I'm waving and yelling..yea! Feeling good! Marathon Shmarathon!

Mile 5: Heading back into downtown passed the trolley station. Is that urine I smell? Yep definitely urine.

Mile 6: Friend group #2. They don't see me in the crowd but I call out, jump up and down and wave to get their attention. Look how much energy I have!

Mile 7: Passing the Ballpark. I should go to a game this year...oooh, on two for one hotdog night!

Mile 8: Rocking out to a band playing "Old Time Rock N Roll" by Bob Segar...great song!

Mile 9: Heading onto HW 163. Awesome! Never thought I'd have to chance to actually run in the middle of the freeway!

Mile 10: Two attractive girls in front of me are running a pretty good pace. Might as well follow! :)

Mile 11: The novelty of running up the freeway has worn off and I'm now ready for bigger crowds. BUT, I'm still feeling great!

Mile 12: Heading through Mission Valley. Crowds going nuts and I'm feeling great! Still drafting behind two cute girls.

Mile 13: Hit the halfway point at 1 hour, 51 minutes and feeling great! I start having visions of shattering my four hour goal and finishing in the 3:30's.

Mile 14: Cute girls be damned...I'm passing them! I rule!

Mile 15: One of the many Elvis guys on the course is passing me and yet still has the time to stop, pose for pictures, then pass me again. AND he dressed in the full get up! How is he doing this?

Mile 16: Mission Bay is awesome. Beautiful views of the water! My legs are feeling a slight tingle of fatigue but nothing major.

Mile 17: Approaching Pacific Beach. My buddy Chris jumps in to run with me for the last nine miles. Fatigue beginning to set in.

Mile 18: Still feeling a little fatigue but not too bad. People always talk about hitting "the wall" around mile 18 to which I say aloud "Wall Shmall!"

Mile 19: Hi five some more friends who came out to watch. I got this! Only 7 miles to go!

Mile 20: Starting to slow down a bit to which Chris says to me, "Common Arun! Only 6 miles to go!" Then a girl in front of us turns around and says, "Hate to break it to you guys, but it's actually Eight point TWO miles left!".....smart ass.

Mile 21: Ok...so...maybe it was a bit too soon to yell "Wall Shmall." My legs are dying now and each mile seems a lot longer.

Mile 22: I see Lauren cheering me on, but there is no more jumping or yelling. I only have the energy for a little smile.

Mile 23: My left leg is cramping everytime I push off. I grab a salt packet and down it as this is supposed to help cramping. Brilliantly, there is no aid station with water for another 3/4 mile so I'm stuck with this disgusting taste in my mouth!

Mile 24: So close! I feel like I'm hardly moving. My dreams of 3:30 are gone but my goal of under 4 is easily reachable!

Mile 25: Still cramping but pushing through! I can taste the finish!

Mile 26: I enter the military base where the race finishes and start sprinting...the only problem is, the finish line is further than I thought so I have to dial it back again.

Finish: 3:51:22! I beat 4 hours! I'm COMPLETELY whiped out and have nothing left. I go to the medical tent and get ice on my quads while refueling with a banana and chocolate milk.

Later, I get hooked up to the electrical stimulus machine which sends weird pulses through your legs and makes em' jiggle like crazy. Supposedly this facilitates toxin release.

Physically, this is probably the hardest thing I've ever done. Mentally, you truly have to overcome the pain barrier and push yourself to new limits! Not only does this make you physically more fit, but mentally, you become stronger as well.

Will I run another marathon? Not sure, but I would say probably. The feeling with the HUGE crowds cheering you on is amazing!

The feeling now of having to use my shopping cart as a "walker" when I go out because my legs are too sore to walk normally, is not quite as amazing. But it is well worth the accomplishment.

Facebook, Twitter, and Status Litter

2009-05-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

"Susie is: Going to the beach with my Bubby to cuddle!"

"John: has the best Schmoopy ever...I win!"

"Sarah is: beach, swim, lunch with Scotty-too-hotty, spa, massage, drinks with the girls, pack for Jamaica!"

The world today has many problems: The economy, Swine flu, Terrorism...and online status litter. Although I am admittedly well-integrated into the world of online social networking, I rarely find an occasion to provide a stream-of-conciousness insight to my life that has become the Facebook (or twitter) status update.

Any rational person realizes how nausea-inducing some of these status updates are.

First we have the POLDA offenders (Public On-Line Display of Affection). As it is, I'm not a fan of seeing people sucking face while I'm walking through the park or waiting at the bar for a drink. Now they have invaded my HOME!

POLDAers seem to think they can skirt around normal PDA by simply using cuddly phrases like "I have the best Snookums ever!"

Ding Dong, Your Wrong!

I'm not sure if they're trying to publicly validate their relationship by showing people how much they love each other or what, but seriously, when you see someone nearly everyday, what other reason can there be for advertising to the world how "lovey wuvvy" your relationship is?

Yes I have friends that do this and they are solidly on my POLDA-LOVI-WUVI (Public On-Line Display of Affection - List Of Vomit Inducing - Willfully Unacceptable Viral Indecencies).

Although we can still be friends if you are on my POLDA-LOVI-WUVI, you should know that I thoroughly disapprove of your online shenanigans.

Aside from the POLDAers, we also have the people who feel the need to put their daily agenda up for the world to see.

"Jenny: ran 5 miles, was fed lunch by the Awesome Committee, beach, massage, and getting ready for the yacht party!"

Ok...I get it. Jenny, your life is awesome and I'm jealous. These people post daily highlights that make them sound like a retired rock star. Either that, or they post a laundry list of incredibly mundane activities which are even worse to read.

Others prefer to bombard the online community with hourly (or even minutely) updates as to what they're doing/thinking/wanting/hating/eating/watching etc.

How about the sympathy update? Things like "Michelle is having an awful day :(" These always get the desired response of attention with like people responding asking what's wrong and what they can do. If it's a hot chick, there'll be 10 responses with 7 of them male.

Occasionally people use the status update as it was meant to be used: to post interesting blurbs about something cool you're doing that will make others chuckle or take interest.

That's what I usually go for (although my status updates are few and far between). Yes, it's a strict code to live by - but all in the name of lifetime awesomeness!

The 4th Annual 2 on 2 Co-Ed Leroy Invitational

2009-05-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

If there's a competition going on, you can generally count on two things with me:

1. I don't care what it is, I want in
2. I will have already begun trash-talking, regardless of my skill level in the chosen sport.

So, when my friend Silvia asked me if I'd be her partner in the 2009 Leroy Invitational basketball tournament, my answer was, "Yes! And we are going to DOMINATE everyone like the Harlem Globetrotters embarrass the Washington Capitals every week!"

In preparation for the Leroy, we needed a team theme as well as creative bios. Silvia left his in my hands since she knows I like to write. I had however forgotten to write them until about 15 minutes before the deadline, so in my haste, I whipped up these beauties:

80's Allstars

Silvia - "Slice n' Dice":
'Slice' leads the 80's All Stars into battle this year with experience, athleticism,
and style. Whether she's sippin on the finest red wine, or dominating people on the court, she's not afraid to rock the neon spandex. This year, Slice has prepared for Leroy ownage by cross training with such sports as kickball, bocci-ball, and sex. Though small in size, she's not afraid to throw a hard, hospital sending foul if you get past her. Don't let the pretty face fool you...Silvia "Slice n Dice" Noriega will eff you up!

Arun - "The Face":
Arun earned the nickname "The Face of San Diego" from his runway prowess, but the name extends to the court as well. He's not afraid to throw the ball in YOUR face. Arun specializes in Trash Talk Distraction (TTD). He gets in your head, does cartwheels, and doesn't get out! Although he is a Leroy rookie, his basketball experience is far from novice. Arun has extensive experience from Freshman year basketball tryouts (after which he was cut). Furthermore, he has an impeccable H-O-R-S-E record and even more impeccable P-I-G record. He plays a nice enough game, but if you touch his most prized possession, his Face, BEWARE - he just might challenge you to a walkoff!

Suffice it to say, the competition was intimidated when these bios came out in the pre-tournament program.

So Sunday arrived, and Silvia were decked out in our Sunday Best - for some people this means a suit and tie, but for me it is ultra short shorts, an old school Jersey, and a headband. The crowd went wild when Silvia and I arrived.

The tournament went well and we were on a winning streak! All was looking good until I we ran into Big Ben, or more appropriately, Crazily Tall Ben. Silvia matched up fine against his partner, Michelle, but something about 6-2 Arun matched up against 6-9 Ben seems a tiny bit lop-sided.

This may come as a surprise to you, but he blocked several of my shots. Equally surprising may be that I managed to block exactly zero of his.

I will conveniently spare you the details of my ass-whipping, but we did manage to wind up on one side of the winners podium!

I still went home a winner though! At the post tournament barbecue, I'm pretty sure I managed to win the title for "most tacos consumed." Sure nobody else knew there was a contest going on, but since going home a loser was not an option, I conveniently neglected to inform everyone as I stuffed my face :)

The Confidence Scale

2009-05-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

On the confidence scale, there is definitely a pretty small area in which “Healthy Confidence” falls. It may come as a surprise to you that I push the upper bounds of healthy confidence to extremes never tested :)

On the high extreme are people who are supremely over-confident. There’s a whole myriad of problems that accompany this issue. Over-confidence leads to getting into situations that are way over your head. Over-confident people think they can handle anything and everything, and never admit that maybe they are not the expert. As you can imagine, a lot of different problems can happen when you think you know what you’re doing, but really have no clue. Overconfidence/arrogance are a recipe for disaster as well as people not liking you.

On the other end are people who have an extreme lack of confidence. This can manifest itself in two ways, both of which can be annoying.

The first, and less annoying way, are the people who don't think they can do anything. They're favorite response when asked to do something is "I'll Try" or "I'll try my best!" The lack of confidence then perpetuates because, how in the hell are you supposed to do anything well when you can't envision success?

You can't!

The accumulation of failure or minimal success just reinforces the low self esteem.

The other types of people who lack confidence are those who try and hide it or make up for it by showing an overly confident facade.

There's a guy I play basketball with, lets call him Mo, who suffers from this "I'm the best, and you're going hear about it" syndrome. Generally, he's a nice guy and we get along...mostly because I don't feel the need to call him out on a lot of the "Bovine fecal matter" that he comes up with.

For example, last week he's going on and on about how he goes up to Riverside and he has like a harem of women who are all over him. Not quite the exact story, but that's the gist. I know that this is all nonsense, but I like humoring him to see how much more stuff he'll make up.

Mo: "Damn Arun, I went up to Riverside last week cuz this girl's been callin me...when I came back, she wasn't a virgin!"

Me: "Gee Mo, you've got a lotta game man."

Mo: "I've got me a lotta girls up there dawg!"

Then later on the basketball court, he's not exactly having a stellar day. Conveniently, he jams his finger. While it's entirely possible that he jammed his finger, the whole rest of the day he's looking at his hand shaking it around....and not playing very well.

Mo: "Wait till next week guys when my finger's better! Imma ball y'all up!"

Again, a truly confident person doesn't want anyone to know he's hurt. When Michael Jordan, Pete Sampras, or Tiger Woods played hurt, they never used that excuse.

A healthy confidence means you don't feel the need to brag about yourself on a constant basis. I don't need to tell the world that a very cute girl asked ME out last night because I earn respect not by the company I keep, but by the way I behave. (although I suppose I just told you all :)

I've talked ad nauseum about the The Power of Self Confidence before, but I think a lot of people fool themselves into thinking they're confident when they're really not.

One shouldn't have to tell people you're confident. It should naturally show. That's not to say I'm 100% healthily confident as I still get butterflies and thoroughly enjoy tooting my own horn (and a quite good-looking horn it is if I do say so :), but at least I realize it!

Moral of the rant: Be yourself, believe in yourself, and the result will be a more confident person. And, start a blog so you can tell people how awesome you think you are so you don't feel the need to in person. (although, come to think of it, I quite the ego-maniac in person too!)

Dim Sum's and Training Runs

2009-05-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

So here is a little email transcript from last week that my friend Mark sends out to my little running group:
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Mark:

Hi all,
How about 7 am at the SDAC on Sunday for a relaxing 22?

::::::::::::

Arun:

Isn't "a relaxing 22" an oxymoron? Somehow I don't think I'll be finding this all too relaxing, but count me in.

BRING ON THE MILES!

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So the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon is on May 31st which means yesterday was supposed to be our longest run before tapering back to save the legs before the race. Well it turns out the sort of "leader" of the group, Mark, couldn't make it, so our friend Gary decided to step up and chart a nice route for us to run and get our mileage in.

The problem is, it's difficult to be precise when your running 22 miles. I glanced at the route he had planned for us, but at a glance, it's difficult to tell a few miles difference.

I should have looked harder because after 15 miles or so, EVERY MILE COUNTS.

So we take off from downtown San Diego and begin our run through the city. It's amazing how much ground you can cover while running for many hours at a time. We seriously ran ALL OVER the city! For those of you who know San Diego, our route was something like this:

Downtown -> Petco Park -> Hillcrest -> Balboa Park -> Friars Road in Mission Valley ->Marina Blvd -> Mission Bay Park -> Sea World -> Old Town -> Liberty Station in Point Loma -> Harbor Drive -> Downtown!

The problem was, Gary underestimated the mileage on our route. Rather than going for a "relaxing 22" we ended up going for a BRUTAL 25! That's right. TWENTY FIVE MILES!

What makes this especially painful is that, unlike how I will prepare for the marathon, my legs take a beating throughout the week. On Wednesdays, I do lower body weight training including squats and lunges. Tuesday and Thursday I do a spin class. Wednesday I play basketball, and Saturday I play outdoor basketball generally for at least two hours.

Now I'm no mathematician, but when you add in a 25 mile run that seems like a formula for PAIN.

Apparently my math was correct.

About 15 miles into the run, my legs started to hurt. Cardiovascularly, I can go for days, but these long runs are all about training the muscles for endurance (and in this case, your mind).

By about mile 18, I was just repeating in my mind, "four miles to go Arun. Four Miles! 32 more minutes of pain!"

Little did I know I still had more than an hour of running left.

The last few miles were absolutely brutal. I desperately wanted to walk, but I wouldn't let myself.

"Will and Determination. Will and Determination" I kept repeating those words to myself along with a few other colorful choice words that I don't think need repeating :)

When we finally arrived back at our starting point, I think the worst part was stopping. I soon as I stopped, my legs started aching like hell. It took almost an hour for the constant pain to subside.

I've definitely gained a new respect for endurance athletes. It's just as mental as it is physical, and resolving to push through the pain barrier is the only way to successfully compete. Sunday's run was physically one of the hardest things I've done.

Afterwards, I called my friends up to go get some authentic Chinese Dim Sum. My super awesome Garmin running watch registered me as having burned 4200 calories!

I suppose I earned a decent meal.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dim Sum, you basically sit at a table while servers bring these carts around with different types of chinese food. They're all small portions, so you can try a wide variety of foods as they bring by new stuff every few minutes.

Now the problem is, all of the servers were very, VERY, Chinese. What I mean is, they weren't exactly speaking the Queens English. This was a problem because none of us had any clue what was in the food they were bringing. Each time we asked, they politely answered, but I had no clue what they were saying.

I'm usually very good at understanding through accents, but this was too thick for even me.

Arun: "What's that one?"
Server: "Ahh, that swee pow baahng"
Arun: "Come again?"
Server: "Swee pow baahng, eet vei goo!"

I was so hungry after the run that I didn't care and we just started choosing things based on how they looked. Turns out "swee pow baahng" is "sweet pork bun" - actually very good.

In fact, everything was awesome.

Despite the pain of the long run, there's nothing like eating a great meal afterwards. And if there's one activity at which I'm a naturally gifted athlete, it's eating!

Habits: The Funny and The Annoying

2009-04-21T07:52:00.001-07:00

I am a fan of observing daily life. When you look, really look around, its interesting to notice the funny habits we have that for some reason propagate among the general population. They're not confined to just one individual, but rather, it seems like most people have some of these peculiar behaviors. For those behaviors that came to mind today, I decided to classify them into two categories for you: yes you guessed it, "The Funny" and "The Annoying."

The Funny:

The Multiple Button Press - Why push a button once when you can push it fifty times for the same effect? Next time you're crossing a street on foot, take a gander at the person pressing the walk signal (or if you're footing solo, pay attention to yourself). Almost nobody EVER pushes the walk signal just once! Somehow, we feel that the more we push the button, the faster the traffic signal will decided to change for us to cross the street.

Even better is when you push the button, wait for a couple minutes, then go back and push it a few more times as if the traffic signal didn't hear us the first time.

The "Door Close" button in elevators is another popular target for "button wearout."

Topping Off - Do you stop filling when the automatic gas cut-off engages, or do you try to squeeze in as much gas as you can in the tank? Well, I'd guess AT LEAST 50% of us are routine "Topper Offers."

So lets look at those of us who top off. How many of us are actually driving until the tank is so bone-dry where that the extra 0.3 gallons of gas is going to save us from stalling out somewhere? In all the years I've driven, or been driving with someone, I have never once run out of gas. Conveniently, cars have a brilliant invention known as the "Gas Gauge" which actually senses how much gas is in the tank so you know when to fill up before running out!

Genius!

But, for those of you whose gauge is off by exactly 0.3 gallons, I suppose it makes sense to top off.

Electronic Bangers - Somewhere along our natural progression of learning, we somehow deduced that banging things will make them operate better. "Maybe if I break it MORE it'll work again!" Ironically, this habit actually used to make sense despite how idiotic it seems.

I remember having an old TV growing up that would sometimes intermittently display everything in a shade of blue. But, if I gave it a couple of good Ninja Turtle Judo Chops to the side and maybe bent the left bunny ear a touch, the normal display colors would return!

So for those of us over, say, 20 years old, I suppose electronic banging is an ingrained habit that used to work but is hard to break. I have a feeling Judo Kicking the LCD TV in my living room won't result in anything more than my roommate yelling at me for harming his baby.

Moving Walkway Abusers - Ok, I can understand the purpose of escalators because for some people, climbing stairs is indeed a lot of effort. But moving walkways are totally abused!

Generally, you only find moving walkways in airports along long stretches of terminal. Functionally, they make sense for people who have short connections. Rather than having them run wildly through the airport toting a roley and lugging a backpack, the airport has kindly provided a means by which the hustlers can speed walk down towards their gate at super-human walking speeds!

It sounds good in theory, but the plethora of lazy airport commuters ruin the invention.

Why in the world do people feel the need to STAND on moving walkways!?! Are we so lazy that we can't even WALK? I understand if it's an elderly person or something, but it's absolutely ludicrous that people forgo the oh-so energy consuming task of walking.

Further adding to the annoyance is that the "standers" make it difficult for the walkway walkers to get anywhere fast because they have to bob and weave between the people standing on the walkway.

I make it a point NEVER to stand or even walk (unless I'm in a rush) on those things unless absolutely necessary.

Shopping Cart Ditchers: One day in the history of the world, God invented shopping cart bays so paying customers would not have to walk all the way back to the store to return their carts. But, underestimating our laziness, he neglected to make a bay in between EVERY SINGLE CAR.

How hard is it to walk a few steps and deposit your shopping cart into the common shopping cart deposit area? Instead, people put it in between spots or nestled up against the median, sticking out just far enough so that you have to navigate around it while pulling it, and gingerly open your door to avoid chipping the paint job on the nice new cart.

"Watch My Stuff" - This just happened to me yesterday. I was at the coffee shop studying, and this girl was kind of looking over. I think she liked me, but I was not attracted. Anyways, after a couple of minutes, she came over:

Her: "Hi, are you going to be here for a little while?"
Me: "Sure"
Her: "I'll be back, would you mind watching my stuff?"
Me: "Yea, no problem"

I really didn't understand why she wanted me to watch her stuff in the first place. All that was there was a couple of tattered MCAT study books, a water bottle, and a pencil. I would like to meet the thief that could actually find some use in stealing this stuff. Last I heard, there's not a huge demand for Medical School study books on the black market.

Anyways, I went about my studying, glancing over on occasion to make sure her table was undisturbed. An hour later, I'm about done, and this girl STILL isn't back!

Ok...how are you going to ask a stranger to watch your stuff for a "little while" and then take off for an hour!?! The "Watch my stuff" commitment expires after 10, maybe 15 minutes, but after that, the watcher's obligation is released. So now I was in a pickle. I am ready to go, but I have no idea when/IF she's coming back. Luckily, I was fairly confident that the "Med-School Menace" was not going to strike tonight, so I just took off.

Maybe she was stuck across the street because she only pushed the button once.

Becoming a Famous Tennis Player

2009-04-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'll admit...the title may be a smidgen misleading, but it'll all make sense once I explain.

You know the ol' saying - "It's not what you know, but who you know."

A few weeks ago this was certainly the case when I decided watch some live tennis at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells California. Basically this tournament is one notch down from the Grand Slams in terms of importance, but all of the top players show up which was especially true this year since I showed up ;)

I've mentioned before that I like finagling my way into VIP experiences but I never expected the good fortune that my friends would bestow upon me.

In college, I worked for a company called Tennis Warehouse which happens to be the largest distributor of Tennis Products (among other things) in the world. They also happen to be a huge fixture at this tennis tournament.

So when I decided I wanted to go, I put in a phone call to my old buddy and former roommate who happens to run the gigantic tennis warehouse area at the tournament, to see if I could get tickets (the event was already sold out for the days we were planning on going).

Not only did he come through with Tickets, but he came through with FREE tickets. Honestly, is there any better four letter word than "free?" Actually, I suppose I can think of one...it starts with an 'A' and ends with an "R-U-N" ;) (You knew it was coming, don't act surprised ;).

The Freebees were just beginning though. When we arrived, we received a FREE parking pass (normally runs $10 per day) to park in the VIP parking lot. This lot is awesome because rather than twiddling your thumbs and singing along to "She-Bop" on the radio behind a mile of cars in the normal lots, you get to effortlessly shimmy on in, park on a spacious field, and a guy in a golf cart picks you up and drops you off right at the entrance.

At the entrance there was the "normal person" line and the VIP line. The normal line was of course MUCH busier, but since we (my buddy Nick and I) were wearing our "Tennis Warehouse" credentials, we got to stroll right in without waiting.

I don't even think security had to check my credentials because the goofy I'm-not-used-to-being-a-super-VIP-and-I-can't-get-rid-of-my-"Haha you have to wait in line"-grin I couldn't get rid of gave it away.

When I received the tics, I was ecstatic to find out that Tennis Warehouse had box-seats about 12 rows up from stadium court! So for most of the day, Nick and I walked around, watched tennis, and hung out in our awesome seats.

But things got better.

Tennis Warehouse also happens to run all public autograph signings at the tournament as well as conducts interviews with a number of players. (As an aside, the interviews and such only began a couple of years ago, and one of the things that burns me up is knowing that, had I stayed at TW, I would have been the guy doing a lot of these interviews!)

So that afternoon I got to hang out with Caroline Wozniaki (Number 9 female tennis player in the world, and certainly not hard on the eyes) and briefly met the Bryan Brothers (Number 1 doubles team in the world). But the icing on the cake was getting to be Ana Ivanovic's (Former number 1, Grand Slam winner, and HOT) personal security during her autograph signing. My job was to keep the autograph getters moving, make sure everything around her was generally ok, and to chat her up (ok, fine, the part wasn't required, but I wanted her to feel EXTRA comfortable :)

She was SUPER nice and we got on great. In fact, Don, the PR President of Tennis Warehouse commented to me afterwards, "Arun, I think she likes you!"

My day...nay...my YEAR was made! I've begun wedding planning.

I don't know if Ana has a blog, but if she does, I'm sure she's also written a post about how smitten she was with this charming (not to mention devilishly handsome) Arun guy she met at the tournament :)

That evening though, we didn't get to use the box seats. Why would we not use the box seats? Because Fila invited us up to their personal SUITE on Stadium Court.

So there we are, hanging out in the Fila Suite, eating free food and drinking free booze, mingling with people who generally don't have goofy grins when walking through VIP lines.

Day 2 was even better. Tennis Magazine gave us tickets to there suite for the entire day, so again we watched in the lap of luxury. I also met Svetlana Kuznetsova, Sorana Chirstea, and got to hang out with and do security for James Blake.

James was also real nice.

"Great story Arun, but why the heck did you title this 'Becoming a Famous Tennis Player!"

Well, later in the day, Nick and I spotted an empty practice court. Now usually these are reserved for all of the pro's to practice on their days off or in between matches and crowds come by to watch them practice up close. Nick and I happen to hit well enough where people wouldn't be able to tell right away that we're a tier or three down from the pros.

So we grabbed a couple of rackets and jumped on the court! Low and behold, after 10 minutes we had a small group of people watching us hit, including a mini-entourage of high school girls holding those jumbo tennis balls, waiting to get autographs.

As tempted as I was, I didn't want to be a TOTAL fraud (I can handle being a partial fraud), so I just told them I wasn't doing autographs that day.

Although I suppose I should have signed something for them. Afterall, I DO have a moderately popular blog and am the future Mr. Ana Ivanovic ;)

Change Your Reality

2009-04-04T13:06:00.001-07:00

For most people, being unhappy is a choice.

Ok, ok - before you start yelling at me, let me explain.

Of course no one enjoys being unhappy. So why would anybody choose to be miserable? Well, it’s not that they choose to be that way, it’s that they choose to wallow in a state of despair rather than change the reality of everything around them. It's easy to feel sorry for yourself.

Obviously there are severe instances, such as great tragedies or mental conditions that may affect one’s ability to make themselves happy, however most of us have the power to be happy 99 percent of the time.

I’m almost always in some state of general happiness. Sure I get pissed off and annoyed from time to time, but that’s only a fleeting emotion and doesn’t affect my general state of well being. I was never really sure how to describe the way that I make myself feel positive all the time until my friend Frederico started expounding on Quantum Physics lessons he’d recently been reading about.

He mentioned that one of the ways that he battled out of his Post-Raul-Disaster Depression, was by changing the reality of things around him – or more accurately, changing his perceived reality.

Now I really don’t know much about quantum physics, so my explanation of changing your reality is probably not the same as the “accepted definition” in quantum physics, but it works nonetheless.

If we simplify things a bit, everything around you is a figment of your perception. The leaves on the tree outside are green because you see them that way. If you were color blind and those leaves appeared blue, then for all intensive purposes, they would be blue because in your reality, that’s what they are.

Similarly, if you see an absolutely slammin hot chick walking towards you, and you elbow your buddy to take a look to which he replies, “Meh, she’s alright,” that doesn’t change the way she looks. Maybe she’s not his type, and in his reality, she’s not attractive. But in your world, this girl looks the same regardless of anybody else’s perception. Every guy in the world will have a slightly different perception of her.

So what does this have to do with happiness?

A lot of people let trivial problems get in the way of happiness. But, when you reframe the problem into a learning experience, a blessing, or a non-issue, it becomes exactly what it is: trivial.

Right now I’m sitting in the airport in Maui, waiting for my Mom to arrive. I had expected to get here after she did, so I saved my appetite thinking we’d be off to get a nice dinner as soon as I landed. Turns out, she’s not only getting here after me, but her flight is delayed. When all is said and done, I’ll end up being here probably three hours waiting. To boot, the airport isn’t exactly a bustle of activity. On the outside of security, the only food is at a Starbucks, there are no TV’s, so I’m missing March Madness College Basketball, and there’s nothing within walking distance. There’s not even the token airport bookstore.

I finished the book I brought on the plane so I have no reading material (brilliant planning Arun), and there is no wireless internet connection available. I have a reason to be a little bummed out don’t I?

Of course not!

A lot of people would let this compounding of annoyances affect their mood, but I’ve instead thought about how lucky I am. I GET to go to Hawaii. My posting has been sparse, and had I not had this break in the airport, there probably would have been no post this week. In fact, just writing this blog right now makes me feel overwhelming happiness for everything happening!

Let’s pretend I didn’t have my laptop though. Then what would I do?!? Welp, I’d probably listen to my ipod and walk laps around the parking lot for exercise.

Yesterday, it looked like my Mom wouldn’t be able to make it to Hawaii for a couple of days because there’s a volcano erupting in Alaska that’s canceling a lot of flights. She was so nervous that I’d be upset about having to figure out the rental car and condo situation that she had booked plus having to hang out by myself for a few days.

She was relieved and somewhat surprised when I was unreactive. Sure it wouldn’t have been ideal, but I would make the situation fun. There are far too many things to enjoy and be grateful for, for me to waste my time stressing out or being unhappy.

When you have a job that stresses you out, you can either waste time being unhappy, or you can take this as a building opportunity. A lot of us let our job take over our LIVES. You come home and spend the evening being unhappy about the day and stressed out about having to go back the next. This is your chance to learn what you really want to do. Maybe you can take this opportunity to learn a new skill, trade, or research a new investment.

Working 40 hours a week for the rest of my life, and having to “bank” up vacation just to travel is certainly not my ideal future. Something like this could tempt me to unhappiness. So now I’m taking every opportunity to do something about it. I’m creating other sources of income, and studying to delve into something else.

If I got laid off, I would take it as an opportunity to learn something new or travel with the new found time.

My reality is what I make it and my reaction to my environment is totally up to me.

Once you realize that 90% of your happiness is up to you, you’ll be happy 99% of the time!

The Great Border Caper Part 4 - The Rise and Fall of the Partnership

2009-03-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Now with Raul in the country, he and Frederico could now begin building their car business.

Frederico's plan was to begin doing repairs for the cars of anyone he knew who needed them, as well as to buy old cars, fix them up, and resell them. Raul would be the expert mechanic (with Frederico's helping hand), and Frederico would handle all of the business aspects and front the money for all purchases (since Raul had essentially nothing).

The first thing they needed was to live in a place with space, so Frederico sold the sail boat he was living on, and they rented a house out in Chula Vista (or as Frederico called it, "Little Mexico").

Raul and Frederico were giddy with excitement. They now had a garage, ample space to begin their car business, as well as a couple of customers (acquaintances of Frederico's) already!

Frederico cut his regular hours (he is a diver and cleans boats) by more than half to dedicate time to the car business. The giddyness however was short lived. Once the short list of customers dried up, Frederico and Raul began to venture out and purchase cars that had problems to fix up.

Problems began immediately. First of all, it took days for them to find cars that were a worthy investment; many calls, driving all over the county to personally inspect the cars, and then only if it was a worthwhile investment, pulling the trigger and buying one.

After the first few cars were turned over, Frederico quickly realized that things were not going well. He was losing money. They were not making nearly enough profit on the vehicles based on the hours of work and expense going into fixing each one.

Raul needed to get a job.

He was resistant to try though. Raul insisted that everything was going to work out, and they just needed more time. Frederico however was the one losing money hand over fist, and could not afford more time. They argued about Raul finding a job until finally Frederico had to threaten him with cutting off his financial "loans" and leaving him on his own.

The next day Raul found a job. How much was he making? A whopping FIVE DOLLARS PER HOUR.

As an illegal immigrant, Raul didn't exactly have a lot of bargaining power. Minimum wage laws don't apply to him, but at least he wasn't paying taxes.

Meanwhile, they continued trying to turn over used cars, but Frederico soon realized that Raul's mechanical evaluations of the cars they were buying were not very good.

When questioned by Frederico about potential repairs needed on the cars before purchase, Raul would always reply, "I can Fix it!" But, once they bought the car, they would find new problems that Raul had overlooked, or more frustrating yet, problems they knew about that Raul couldn't really fix. He could however "cover up" the problem so that the car appeared to be fine for the time being only to later breakdown.

While this is common practice in Brazil and Mexico, Frederico, being an incredibly honest guy, wanted absolutely no part of this. Soon another argument spawned, but no resolution was definitively made.

The next night, Raul after having had several beers, left to go pick up a Mexican girl he was dating that he met in his English class. The next morning Frederico got a call from Raul....in Prison. He had been arrested for DUI.

Goodbye Raul.

Frederico was initially furious, but soon began to sink into a mini-depression for a few weeks. He now had four cars that he didn't know what to do with, rent for a two bedroom place that he now had to pay entirely on his own, and an impounded car that would end up costing him an additional $600 to get out.

He was in a financial mess.

Soon the depression of the mess he felt he had caused wore off, and he got to work. He had get rid of these cars. The first two he sold for a few hundred dollars loss. The third car, an old BMW, proved a major problem though.

They had purchased the car for $8000, but there were NUMEROUS problems. The first guy who came to look at the car found dirt and water in the engine and refused to buy it. Fred subsequently cleaned out the "evidence" of dirt so that, by looking, the problem wasn't apparent.

In his desperation, Frederico realized that he was becoming a scammer!

The next guy came to look at the car, and after revving the engine quite a bit, opened up the hood for a look. While inspecting the radiator though, it literally BLEW UP in his face, and got gunk all over him!

Suffice to say, after some yelling, he didn't purchase the car.

The next day, while inspecting his posted ads on craigslist, Frederico found a new posting.

"Don't buy any cars from a guy named Fred!!! HE IS A SCAM ARTIST!!" The ad had all of his info. Suddenly, all calls about the car stopped and the people who had previously set up appointments to see the car were now "not interested."

Frederico then found another car website where you had to pay to post listings. He figured no one would pay to post a scam alert.

Eventually he set up an appointment with a young guy interested in the car. Frederico told him that the car had numerous problems but they were all fixable. The guy was in love with the car. He came back later that day with his mechanic friend to further inspect the car. The mechanic found every problem that the previous customers had found.

Mechanic: "Dude these repairs will cost another $4,000. Don't buy this car!"
Customer: "But it's sooo cool!"
Mechanic: "Dude it's a terrible investment! There's too many problems."
Customer: "Mmmmm, ok, you're right."
Frederico: "I'll knock off a thousand bucks and sell it for $7,000"
Customer: "Deal!"

Finally, Frederico had rid himself of the nightmare car...or so he thought. Two days later, the buyer called in a panic.

"I just took the car to the dealership to get inspected and they said it's not even safe to drive! They're saying the repairs will cost MORE than the price of the car itself! You gotta do something man! They didn't even want me to drive it off the lot for liability reasons!"

Frederico didn't know what to do, so he did nothing. These were problems he did not know about (since he is not a mechanic) AND the customer brought his own mechanic to inspect the car before purchasing it. Despite his mechanic friend's recommendation to leave the car, he bought it.

Frederico took over a $1500 loss on the car, but was happy to be rid of it.

A week later, he moved out of the place in Chula Vista and back onto a boat, now having a much emptier wallet, but happy that the whole mess was behind him.

Raul, after spending a month in detainment, is now back in Brazil. Frederico has only had brief and abrupt conversations with him. The last one ended with him saying, "Listen man, don't call me anymore. I'll see you in Brazil."

So what's Frederico's plan now? Well, he's going back to Brazil next month for a brief stop before heading to New Castle Australia to attend school for a nutrition degree. He knows Raul will never be able to repay the thousands of dollars he owes him, but he has forgiven the loan.

Frederico, being the ridiculously nice guy that he is does not want Raul to feel broken or defeated (despite the numerous TOTALLY irresponsible things he did), and plans on having a talk with him back in Brazil, basically "forgiving" the entire series of mishaps.

Things may not have worked out as planned, but at least it was a great adventure and a hell of a story.

The Great Border Caper Part 3 - The Sailing Adventure

2009-03-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Now that Frederico had become comfortable with the mechanics of Sailing, it was time to step up to the plate and execute the plan.

Frederico discovered that there was a weekend sail boating race from San Diego to Mexico taking place soon. This was the perfect opportunity. With so many sailboats going over, and then coming back across, he could likely blend in to an extent (although his Sailboat is pretty rickety).

Frederico called Raul who had subsequently flown back to Mexico, and told him to go to Ensenada. He spared the details but simply said, "On X date, I will meet you at Y hotel in Ensenada."

The night of departure finally arrived. Frederico had to be extremely careful heading down to Mexico. While sailing down to Mexico is certainly not illegal, Frederico's Visa had since expired, thus any encounter with the border patrol would mean the end of his life in the US.

At the time, he spared me a lot of the details as well. He dropped off some of his valuables to me in case anything happened, but seemed pretty confident that everything would work out.

At about 10 O'clock at night, Frederico set sail. He left shore with a plan for every possible scenario. He had with him quite a few gallons of extra gas for the motor, he had mounted an outboard motor as a backup in case the primary died, night vision goggles, scuba gear in case water entry was needed, and a GPS tracking device for blind navigation.

He set off under the cover of night and headed toward the Coronado Islands about 8 miles off shore. His plan was to get far enough away from the border patrol coverage zones to pass through undetected. Sailing proved difficult as the winds that night were quite erratic, so he went on engine power. Furthermore, in was so dark this far away from shore that he was navigating solely with the GPS.

About an hour into the trip, the GPS indicated that he was at the islands, but there was absolutely no visual sign of anything. In order to go though the channel between the islands, he had to have SOME visual guidance, otherwise he would surely wreck. Suddenly, a towering black cliff appeared just a few feet away.

The Island.

He followed the cliff around through the channel and began heading south, now amply far away from the shore.

About fifteen minutes later though, a major problem reared its head. The primary engine began smoking, and died. Frederico inspected and found that the engine had guzzled nearly all of the gas in the tank!

He now had two options:

1) Go back to shore, fix everything, and try again later.

or

2) Take the risk and go the remainder of the trip (another 15 hours) on the back up engine and spare gas.

He chose option 2. But yet ANOTHER problem popped up. The outboard engine wasn't starting. He tried for quite a while and there was nothing doing. Finally, he got his flashlight out, and took apart the engine.

As he was consulting the user manual and engine interior, Frederico realized he had forgotten to do one important thing: take his sea-sick pills. The waters were rough and as he was focusing on the engine, he was getting sick. He'd spend a few seconds looking at the manual, then yack overboard. Then, a few more seconds looking at the engine, and yack overboard some more.

Things were not going well.

Finally, he realized a gear was stuck in between neutral and power, and after fixing it, the engine started up like a champ! Fred took his pills and was off to Mexico.

15 hours later, he arrived in Ensenada and met Raul. They rested the remainder of the day, and took off the next morning.

Again, they traveled far from shore, but there were still a few boats travelling in the same direction though much closer to shore, that they could "follow" into the states. About an hour from San Diego, Raul spotted a boarder patrol boat coming near and began to panic. He rushed inside the boat.

Frederico on the other hand was so supremely confident that he waved back to the coast guard and continued on his way.

Finally, some 50 hours after leaving San Diego, Frederico and Raul arrived and began planning the business venture that Frederico had been dreaming about the last two years.

But, they were in for some BIG, BIG surprises....(yes there's more!)

The Great Border Caper Part 2 - The Setup

2009-03-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

May of last year rolled around and the lease at the place we were living was expiring. At the time, I was living with Frederico and another friend, Danny. During this time, Frederico had a falling out with his cousin as she strongly disapproved of what he was doing and threatened to tell his parents (They have since reconciled).

Danny moved in with his Grammy to save money, I moved into a Condo closer to the beach, and Frederico, well....he wanted to be closer to the ocean...nay...he wanted to be IN the ocean.

Yes, he bought an old Sailboat. This is also the same sailboat I showed off my amazing sailing skills on last summer.

Anyways, the reasons for the Sailboat purchase were two-fold: Frederico wanted to see what living on a boat was like (it didn't hurt that it was extremely cheap because the marina didn't know he was living there. Had they known, he and his boat would have been immediately evicted), AND he had a plan to bring Raul back over to the U.S.

At this point, Frederico didn't know how exactly he was going to accomplish this, but he now had a major asset that could help in the pending caper.

In order to prepare, Frederico began taking sailing lessons from everyone who knew how to sail. He knew he needed to have solid sailing skills in order to successfully make the journey down to Mexico and back. Along with that, he began helping out his friend who is a boat mechanic in order to learn all he could about engines and any repairs that may be fixed at sea.

He was arming himself with knowledge in preparation for the expedition.

Finally, Frederico reached a point of Sailing prowess and mechanical knowledge where he knew it was time to make a move. But, he couldn't just sail down to Mexico, pick up Raul, and sail back. The waters at the border are crawling with coast guard and border patrol.

Frederico is a thinker and meticulously developed a detailed plan.

He was going to risk the life he had built in America, all in one adventure, just for the chance to start a business in the U.S. with his friend. You'll have to come back next week to see how it turned out :)

The Great Border Caper

2009-03-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

"I've been roughed up, robbed, and now I'm in jail"

Last weekend my buddy Frederico, while having an awesome lunch at Souplantation, gave me a detailed account of "The Great Border Caper," the incredible aftermath, and where everything stands today. I had been aware of had been going on, but he finally spilled all of the details to me and Marianna.

I had been wanting to write a story about this a YEAR ago. Thank goodness I didn't because some seriously crazy stuff happened since that makes this even more entertaining. I just hope I can remember all the details.

Seriously, this story could be made into an amazing movie. Of course, I would play lead with Antonio Banderas playing my stunt double.

It all started a little over a year ago. Frederico is a very entrepreneurial-minded guy and has long wanted to start a business. Coincidentally, one of his best friends in Brazil, Raul, happens to be an expert mechanic and, according to Frederico, "knows EVERYTHING about cars."

For the past two years, Raul had been trying to get some sort of Visa to either the U.S., Canada, or Australia. None of them were taking. About a year ago, Raul became desperate, obtained his Mexican Visa, and flew to "the city of the future" - Tijuana. Lord help us if that's the state of our future cities.

At this point, Raul and Frederico were scheming ways to get Raul across as affordably as possible. Raul, coming from a lower class background, didn't have a lot of money and Frederico was basically paying for his living expenses. Mexican "Coyotes" apparently charge $5,000 to smuggle you across through the desert, and after meeting a few shady operators, Frederico decided to try his luck elsewhere.

They spent weeks trying to find affordable and "trustworthy" coyotes (ironic considering coyotes make a living by being dishonest), Frederico here in America, and Raul looking in Tijuana. Frederico was having no luck, and Raul was getting the run around. Guys would charge him for info and then just send him to someone else who would do the same thing. It was an expensive road to nowhere.

Somewhere along the way, a guy mugged Raul and took his money.

Raul: "This plan is not working. Everyone here is a lying bastard!"

Frederico, being a licensed diver, came up with a plan: wait until the tide is just right, drive down to Mexico, teach Raul to scuba, and swim back together underwater, under the cover of night. He was so serious about this idea that he bought a Sea-scooter and began doing training runs in Mission Bay to see how long and how far he could go on the Sea Scooter battery with varying numbers of oxygen tanks.

He was all set to pull the trigger, but at the last moment, this plan was scrapped. Scuba diving at night for such a distance was far too dangerous for Frederico, let alone a rookie scuba diver like Raul. Furthermore, the Sea-scooters wouldn't have enough juice to get them all the way, so they'd have to ditch it, as well as the empty oxygen tanks, in the ocean and snorkel the last leg.

Too risky.

Raul meanwhile had his money robbed from him again while returning from lunch the next day.

Fast forward a week, and Raul, having received money from Frederico, boarded up with an elderly woman who was extremely nice. She fed him, gave him a cheap room-rate, and promised to help find him someone reliable to get him across the border. Several days later, Raul returned home to a not-so-pleasant surprise:

Raul: "Where are all my things!?!"
Lady: "I don't know what you're talking about"
Raul: "My clothes! My money!"
Lady: "You have no business here, now leave!"

Raul was furious and began yelling. As he began his tirade however, five or six men walked in. Suffice to say, Raul was roughed up and thrown out as they kept all of his things.

According to Frederico, Raul called him in tears...a broken man. Thrice robbed, roughed up, and now homeless. All the while, he was too ashamed to tell his family back in Brazil that he was not yet in America but rather slumming in Mexico. So instead, he shared stories of how amazing and wonderful life in America is.

They had no idea.

A few days later, as luck would have it, Raul spots one of the thugs on the street. He immediately rushes him, pins him against a wall, and demands his things. Raul's a decent sized guy, so he can be pretty intimidating if he wants to. He manages to get only his clothes back, but predictably everything of value was gone.

At this level of desperation, there was no choice. They hired a decently honest Mexican Coyote who specializes in desert smuggling. A week later, Raul and the Coyotes left from Tecate under the cover of night and trekked through the dessert.

At the border, the six travellers began to make their way across. One at a time, they'd run across, diving behind bushes and rocks, and signaling the next when the coast was clear. After three of them made it across, Raul was set to go.

All of sudden, the three across the border began waving them away. Boarderpatrol was car was coming through the area.

The three on the Mexican side including Raul, had to abort! The next day they found out the border patrol had discovered this "route" and essentially closed it down.

A week later, the coyotes got a lead on a new plan. Apparently there was an open sewer pipe that allowed passage across. The next day they went. Raul entered, but problems appeared right away. He became stuck in the pipe!

Minor snafu.

After finally freeing him, this plan was abandoned as well.

Another week later, they found yet another desert crossing route. This time, finally, Raul made it across! Some 30 hours later, he called Frederico.

He was in America. Frederico was to drive and pick him up at the next phone call after he made it passed the border checkpoint.

The next day he gets the call.

Raul: "I'm in jail"
Fred: "What!?!"

Apparently as they made there way to civilization, an off duty CHP just happened to spot them. Busted. Interestingly, Raul enjoyed his stay in prison much more than his stay in Tijuana.

After all of this, Raul was deported back to Brazil...

But this is not even close to the end of the story. It gets better! You'll just have to wait until next post!

Say Yes

2009-02-26T07:18:00.000-08:00

I was flying down the mountain, wind and snow piercing my face...not exactly ideal considering my skis had flown off about 3 seconds ago.
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I was flailing around while simultaneously yelping in pain. Meanwhile everyone around me was laughing hysterically at my sensitivity to brow waxing.
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All of a sudden my income skyrocketed, and my pupils were replaced by dollar signs. Maybe I should build a money-bin?

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I looked down which was a big mistake. One slip, and I'd be falling down about 2000 incredibly steep steps. Look up, and keep climbing Arun.
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I read recently that statistics and testimonies indicate that general happiness has more to do with experiences than it does with possessions. After some thought, I realized how true this is!

I always try to be a "Yes" man. What I mean is, when people ask me to do something, even if inherent laziness or fear creeps in, I always try to suck it up and do it. 99 times out of a hundred, I'm glad I did. The experiences above are just some examples of things I hesitated to say 'yes' to, but pulled the trigger anyways because I knew, if nothing else, the experience would be entertaining and memorable.

Last weekend, I went skiing in Mammoth. I had previously skied two years ago at Mammoth and before that, not since I was like 11 years old. Suffice to say, I'm not exactly Twinkle Toes on skis...especially for an Alaskan.

Naturally when my friends asked me if I wanted to go to the TOP of the mountain, I said yes :)

So there we are at the top, wind howling, cold biting, snow blowing, and Arun Aruning.

We decided to take "Dave's Run" down. Sounds simple enough right?

WRONG.

Dave and his damn run decided to take me on a little jaunt down his hill, ass first, for about 200 feet. The experience was cold, uncomfortable, and painful.

I'm glad I said yes.

By day 2, I was carving my way down black diamonds! I definitely made a huge jump in my skiing skills that would not have been possible had I not decided to accept the challenge of skiing (or my personal technique, which I call "ass-ing") my way down some crazy runs at the top of the mountain.

The second example was from my little waxing adventure. Sure it was painful, but I wound up even MORE devilishly handsome (hard to believe, I know) and it made for a good story.

The third example is from a recent "career opportunity" that I accepted doing some work for a friend. In fact, I think I'll write a post all about his unique career and my roll in it soon.

Anyways, when he asked me if I would do some work for him, I was initially resistant. It was going to take a lot of time with everything else I have going on, and I would have to do some extra studying and learning to do everything he needs properly. But, I am a Yes Man, so I accepted.

What a great decision. I'm getting to be a pro at the work, and I'm finding ways to minimize my time commitment while maximizing my income. The one drawback however, is my ebook is taking forever to publish since, between working, exercising, marathon training, and gmat studying, there's not a heck of a lot of time.

The last little image was from climbing the pyramids in Teotihuacan Mexico. Sure they were scary and dangerous, but the view at the top was unforgettable.

These are just three examples off the top of my head. Overall, I'm always the one my friends can usually count on to join them in something fun, interesting, or new. If I'm tired or resistant, I usually just convince myself to sack up and go out. Then I imagine the greatest scenario of what could possibly happen, happening. Obviously this doesn't always happen, but in the end, I'm happier having said 'yes' and enjoying the experience.

Finding the Extra Gear

2009-02-18T09:35:00.000-08:00

Recently I've noticed that most people don't really know, or have the heart, to dig deep. Occasionally, some adrenalin inducing situation may arise where we have to force ourselves to kick our physical effort to the next gear, but for most people that's extremely rare, which in my mind, is a separating quality between average people and people who accomplish their goals.

One of my goals for this year is to run the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon. Not only do I want to run a marathon, but I want to do it in a decent time.

There will be no walking.

There will be no excessive stopping to re-tie "loose" shoelaces (as we all used to do in elementary school to buy some rest time during "the mile run").

It's not that I particularly enjoy running, and to be quite honest, I'm not exactly Jolly McJollyson waking up at 7am Sunday mornings to go train, but I dig deep and get it done.

I find the extra gear. I've gone running with some people who, sure, they at least get up and make it out, but they don't know how to find the extra gear and really push themselves. The minute they get tired, they start walking.

As Arnold Swartzeneggar says in the movie Pumping Iron, "the ability to push through the pain barrier (while training) is what separates the elite from the average."

Last Sunday morning, I went on one of the most brutal runs I've been on. 12 miles of HILLS! Believe me, when I was climbing the first mountain, my lungs on fire and my calves screaming bloody murder, I really wanted to walk, but mentally I wouldn't let myself.

My calves are still mad at me.

I found the extra gear and made it to the top. The picture above shows the elevation changes each mile as tracked by my awesome new GPS watch (Thanks Mom)!

Last week, I hopped in on the spin class at the gym for only like the second time this year. I'm not a great biker, but varying training styles is good. I'd bet at least 50% of the class are better bikers than me. The crazy thing is, I'm certain I worked harder than everyone.

A lot of people gave up on some of the hard climbs much earlier than they could have. They didn't have the desire to dig deep and find the extra gear.

I absolutely HATE HATE HATE that damn spin class! In fact, I hate it so much that I'm going again tomorrow.

Why do I torture myself?

Because I know it's good for me and I feel like it's a test of my will. If I can get used to pushing through the pain and really digging deep, then it won't be so difficult when I really have to (like at the end of a marathon).

If everyone practiced finding the extra gear, we'd all be much better off (and in much better shape!). In fact, you can apply this principal of pushing yourself to practically anything (although, I'm probably not the best example of doing this which is why I'm conveniently leaving other applications out :)

Now if only I could somehow transfer this will power to resisting dessert ;)

Boobs and Botox

2009-02-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

Good ol' Southern California.

If there's one thing you see a lot of down here, it's boobs and botox. Many people are smart about how they go about "enhancing" their size and/or smoothness. Generally, younger people seem to go for the borderline "au naturale" look: pleasantly busty cantaloupes as opposed to state-fair winning watermelons.

Older chicks on the other hand, get downright reckless.

Au naturale is out...they just want to get as boobalicious as possible.

The gym I work out at has a lot of older woman who obviously have a few extra bucks to invest in "personal growth." Now I think it's perfectly fine that some of them want to enhance their looks, but wouldn't you realize if your bra size is two letters passed 'K' that you may have gotten a touch carried away?

One of the ladies I see all the time is an aerobics instructor. Yes, an AEROBICS INSTRUCTOR! It is seriously a feat of epic proportions (and I mean EPIC PROPORTIONS)that she can teach an aerobics class with those things bobbing around. How she manages to stay upright without losing her balance is beyond me. She's pretty small too - like 5'2" but I swear each bazoom-zoom is as big as her head.

Then there's another Brazilian chick with two kids that's in phenominal shape. She has a six-pack, but I can't for the life of me figure out how her abs get any work when she does sit-ups. Her torso moves up like two inches before her Babaloos collide softly with her knees.

These ladies likely know they're not fooling anyone, and probably don't care either.

On the hand, women who get the botox treatment will definitely lie about their age. Most of the time, they can get away with it too...unless they're not wearing a turtleneck and gloves.

When older women get facelifts or botox injections, their necks are always dead giveaways. Sure you have a nice tight, maybe expressionless face, but when your neck looks like a turkey's, you're not fooling anyone. And if she has excellent foresight and gets a "neckjob," the hands reveal all.

There's no escaping!

Exhibit A: Susan Lucci.

And people say I'm unobservant! :)

The Fast and the Ridiculous

2009-02-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

I was about to post an article today about the different types of women in the gym, but I think I'll save that juicy little nugget of truth for next week.

Today I'm going to post another article I wrote a few months ago about Sports Cars. So what do I know about sports cars you ask?

Absolutely nothing. I'm no car expert. I'm more of a look, dream of driving, and admire type of guy. BUT, when the request was made for an article about 2009 sports cars, I narrowed down my favorite ones, looked up some stats in Motor trend magazine, threw in some "Arun Flava" and went to town!

The Fast and The Ridiculous: Top 5 2009 Sports Cars
By Arun Srinivasan

Driving up the San Diego coastline this morning, an all too familiar occurrence caught my attention. A glimpse of green in my rear view mirror. The high pitched engine scream. A flash of neon zipping by my left. Ah yes; another Lamborghini.

As much as I love my little Toyota Corolla, I sometimes long for a gas guzzling, speed-limit destroying, hot-chick attracting, sports car (big surprise, I know). But not just any sports car, mind you. Only the best will suffice for I, owner of the best small sedan in the land! So without further ado, I present to you, the top five sports cars of 2009.

5. Maserati GranTurismo
A sports car with more luxury than most “luxury cars.” Despite being longer, wider, and heavier than its closest competitors, the GranTurismo tops them all in handling and luxury while maintaining it’s trademark “giddyup.” They say a car is an embodiment of its driver, in which case the GranTurismo is perfect for me: beautiful, classy, and longer than its peers :)

The coolest part about this car? If/when I get in a high speed pursuit, I can just hit the “sport” button on the dash to increase the throttle responsiveness by twenty percent! They’ll never catch me.

4. Ferrari F430 Scuderia
I don’t think any fan of Magnum P.I. can make a list of top sports cars without including a Ferrari. Turns out “Scuderia” is Italian for “stable.” So how did they make the Scuderia more stable than the old F430? They made it lighter and added more power. I’m not sure how this logic works out, but I like it.

But this particular Ferrari is extra special. It’s particularly catered to Ferrari’s most passionate and sports-car-driving clients (as opposed to the normal, Ferrari clients). This car is a must have starting at only $272,306 (floor mats not included).

3. Aston Martin DBS
I don’t know if there is any better combination of speed, performance, and class than an Aston Martin sports car, and they’ve outdone themselves with the latest DBS. Not only is this the fastest Aston Martin available, but it features improved stability as well as a luxury interior. This baby is meant to move. Even the interior carpet that nestles between your toes is made from ultra light material.

As I was salivating over the specs on motortrend.com, I couldn’t help but get light headed when they described the engine as a “massaged V-12.” I know I perform well after a good massage, and I can only assume high-end engines respond the same. If it’s good enough for James Bond to roll around in, then it’s obviously suitable for me.

2. Lamborghini Gallardo
If you like speed and power, you could just tie up a wagon to 560 horses and crack the whip…or you can get the 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo. If you’re going to get a sports car, you might as well get the fastest and flashiest! This is for those of us who enjoy the feeling of passing out due to extreme G-forces. I suppose 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds should accomplish that. Unlike last year’s model which topped out at a paltry 194 mph, the 2009 tops the 200 mark with a pedal-to-the-floor 202 mph. And, if you really love that “flying through the air so fast it feels like your face is going to peel off” feeling, it comes in a convertible version as well!

When you throw in the fact that the 2009 Gallardo emits 18% less carbon dioxide and gets 3 more miles to the gallon (for a whopping 17 mpg) than last years model, it just screams “commuter car!”

1. Honda Civic Hybrid
Ok, ok…so I know a Civic isn’t a true sports car, but slap a spoiler on that baby, and dog-gonnit I’m calling it one! With fuel costing as much as it does these days, give me a hybrid car and I’m happy. In 2006, Honda actually presented a concept Civic Sports/Hybrid car, but it is yet to come to fruition. Unfortunately, air cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars are not up for sale yet (plus, I don’t know if they have versions that come with spoilers).

So there you have it. The “who’s who” among 2009 performance vehicles. If you’d like to know more about any of the vehicles above, feel free to donate one to me and I promise to test drive it thoroughly and report back to you assuming I’m still alive and/or not in jail.