Saturday, July 31, 2010

Yoink! Thanks Gaterade!

Something magical dropped in my lap yesterday.

http://gatoradeperformance.stack.com/

Check this website out. Individual and team workout schedules for certain sports and positions. Great video's that are easy to watch for proper lifting movements. Right now I'm signed up with the Davis Senior High School Football Team as a wide receiver. I'm the only one on it as Davis High doesn't have a football team, and for some reason I couldn't find UC Davis on list of schools. Whatever. If this catches on with friends, Davis Senior High School Football Team sounds like a really cool Intramural team name.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Things I plan on Accomplishing after these Finals

I sit wide awake at the kitchen table at 3:30 in the morning. I drank a monster 6 hours ago, and recently half a cup of coffee. Just 14 hours ago I was telling Nick Young how I ultimately had 24 hours until my Bio Final, and then consecutive Ochem Final directly afterward. With that mindset, I went home to nap a 4-5 hour nap preparing myself for the all-nighter that lay ahead of me.

I'm fine with all nighters. My body has become completely immune to any weary effects that they can give to other people. My routine is to take a few hour nap the afternoon eve, and then study straight from 10oclock to whenever my big test is the next day. I've gotten really good at them that I don't even need to listen to music, and I rarely go online anymore. I don't even need adderall, or whatever you call it. You'd be surprised how much information you can soak up in 12 hours of studying.

I'll do fine on these finals. Probably end up with B's or C's in the classes, but will be extremely satisfied with either of those grades. This is my first time on my blog is a long time, and I figured I would write a few goals for post-winter quarter. Nothing too complicated, but necessary for me to feel good.

1-Sanction DUI
2-Get summer job through good interview with Davis Student Housing
3-Go trail running everyday shirtless
4-Be able to do 7 consecutive pullups the old fashioned way (non-kipping)
5-Watch "The Squid and the Whale", "Margot at the wedding", and "Greenberg". All by the same director I believe.
6-Beat Will Griffin at some crossfit workout.
7-Go home to Pleasanton to see Michael, Emily, Mom, Dad, and Twinkle
8-Get 9 hours of sleep every night
9-Learn to cook more meals with vegetables in them
10-Start conversations with girls that I'm really attracted too.

Priorities right? Now I'm gonna go back to learning about Multi-cellular organisms.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Mayonnaise

Simple task: imagine all the foods that you eat with mayonnaise. Now, imagine those foods without mayonnaise. Still taste good huh. American food culture is weird.
If you go to a Deli in Europe and ask for Mayo on your sandwich, they'll look at you funny. They don't even carry it in their shops.

The reason I wrote this status was because I see people in the sandwich line at late night who ask for mayo as if it's the only response they can give in a culture that they were raised in to eat sandwiches with Mayo. Seriously though, at late night, there are 8 other different spreads that you can get that all have ten times the amount of taste as mayo, but people don't choose them. Why is that? It's weird because I found myself doing the same thing at the beginning of the year. Now I like to get the pesto spread, and it actually adds a new flavor to the sandwich.

I see people prepare their food as if it was some menu item on a breakfast restaurant joint. It's our culture that holds down creativity for preparing food, and instead insists on standardization and consistency for meals

Why do people get sprinkles on ice cream? Why do people put powdered sugar on their pancakes? They argue that it gives the food flavor, but they don't realize that 95% of the flavor comes from the main food anyways.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Great Idea for Lost and Found

Sad news, I think I may have lost my wallet today. I think it fell out of my pocket when I was biking to class this morning. I put in a lost wallet report into the segundo area service desk, on-campus police department, and the memorial union. Even I would turn in a wallet if I found it on the ground. I'm figuring there is like a 98% chance that someone turns it in because all they would have to do is pick it up on the bike path then drop it off at any building on campus.

The reason for this post is that I had a really great idea at lunch today. When I get a girlfriend, I'm planning on doing this. My girl would take my own wallet and bring it to the information desk in the memorial union and said that she found the wallet and would like to put it in the lost and found. Then when she's in the middle of a report, I'll come up to the desk looking really frantic and ask if anyone had turned in a wallet today to the person working. Then I'll look at my girlfriend who's turning in my wallet to the lost and found, and start making out with her for a good ten seconds.

Isn't that a really good idea for a prank or whatever on the person working behind the desk? I think it's a brilliant plot.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Dear Paul

Dear Paul (sidenote: Lauren and Julie are also here)
I pre-lude you with the fact that I have never been good at convincing people to do things. I’m a pretty bad negotiator and junk like that, but I’m going to read you this letter in hopes you sway you the littlest bit if it helps.
This is the situation. My roommate Liam got below a 1.0 GPA fall quarter which put him on acedmic dismissal from the university. He had to write an essay and have an interview with some deans for an appeal of his dismissal. It sucks donkey dick, but sadly he did not get an appeal. He found out about it last night. His option now if he still wants a degree from Davis is to attend community college winter and spring quarter, then take summer classes at Davis to get back into UCD for Fall 09. That’s his plan and it’s pretty solid.
Now I officially do not have a roommate. As much as I love Liam, he is no longer considered a UC Davis student. Sometime in the future, the Student Housing Department is going to assign me another roommate that will have gone through a roommate trasnfer. I’m really scared that my new roommate will be a totally douchebag that is impossible to get along with. Liam and I had such a good thing going, and I don’t want to end up living with some wierdo that isn’t compatable with me at all. I know that’s the fear of anyone whom has ever come to college with a random roommate. Luckily, there is a way that I don’t get a random roommate.
I talked to the student housing building today and they said if there was anyone that wanted to get into the room with me, all they would need to do is go to the Student Area Service Desk (SASD for short) and get a piece of paper, then have them sign something acknowledging a room transfer, then bring it too the housing building. Basically it’d be like, “Wham Bam Thank you Maam”
It has to be done quickly though before they give up the spot to someone else. Techniqually I don’t even know if they have given the spot away already, but if not, then I assume it will be soon. Thompson is good real estate.
I do agree that there are reasons that may hold you back from quickly making this decision. First off, you have your Tercero life and Tercero friends and I understand that you would feel bad just throwing that away. Well buddy, I agree that it sucks to lose people. But I also think that you never really stop making friends in life, and if you switched to Thompson, there are many people to befriend. I’m not saying your life right now if bad, but I am saying that if you took this offer, you life would keep going on, and you would still be friends with people living in Tercero. Another biggy: you have a girlfriend that lives in Tercero. That is also a tricky subject because I know you like her a lot a lot a lot. You were away from her for an entire quarter, and now that you have the opportunity to be with her your going to take it. I get it. Also I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that there is probably some protective unconscience that you have to make sure Lauren enjoys college while living in Tercero. And you think that tranfering to Segundo would be like ditching her or something. Well guess what, you’ll still her. Even if the bike ride is an extra two minutes. All across campus there are couples that live in different locations. Even next year when you, me, Sean, and Brendan all have super hot girlfriends, it’s not like they are going to live right next to us.
I know you feel like I’m really pounding this deep inside of you really fast. You were probably solid and accepted living in Tercero till the end of the year, which is cool, but also a reason you might be iffy about transfering. I’m being so fervent about this because I see this opportunity and I want to take it. Think about these. Thompson floor two. Execelent building. Superb carpeting. Living with an athletic frisbee peorson who is interesting and somewhat good looking. The girls on our floor are somewhat interesting but not attractive at all so Lauren would not have to worry about anything. The room is huge. Uhh we have a bathroom on our floor. Our R.A. is super nice. I will give Lauren 5 dollars a month for her inconvienance of having to come all the way to segundo to hang out with you. Segundo dining hall is bigger. Closer to frisbee people like Robby Merk and Jake Ellis. Closer to the ARC. Live right across the way from Sean and Brendan. A bed that is 6 inches longer than the ones in Tercero. Kevjumba lives really close by. It’s closer to the town of Davis.
Like, I don’t even know if the spot has been given away already or anything. I just think that rooming with you would be good. Like really good. We have a lot in common you and I. We both like blink 182 and we’re athelets. I’m also still assuming that we are living in the same house next year so it’d be cool.
Don’t think of it as leaving your life, think of it as like growing into a different stage of your life with a more compatable roommate in a large room with a longer bed and a bathroom two doors away from the room. You will have a lot of fun. You’ll also see Lauren a lot. And it’s way closer to Toomey field which is wear she practices track, and in Spring it will be lovley to do track workouts there.
Think about the upgrade that has fallen into your lap Paul.
Love Ben

Friday, January 2, 2009

Goals For Winter Quater

I've had a lot of time to think this Winter break. Hmm how cliche' of a beginning post. Alright! first goal is to be cliche' free. We're onto a good start.

Seriously though, I've got my goals for Winter break. The first thing I've decided is that I want to get a job and keep it a secret from my parents for as long as possible. Not for the reason that I can get money from both parents and employment, but for the reason that I think would take a lot of pressure off of me to get a job. Then once I get a steady (no matter how small) income, I'll be able to live off my own instead of my parents.

The second thing I want to concur is my school work. The classes I feel will be some what of a challenge for me, and I want to have as little stress as possible. That's why I'm first off setting the bar at at least a 3.25 GPA. That takes off some stress. I also want to study for classes in my free time, or get good nights rest so I can show up to all my lectures. My biggest problem fall quarter wasn't the school work, but my poor attendance to class which resulted in my stressing about not knowing what material I needed to make up. The schedule I picked this winter quarter should be more accommodating for me to show up to class more often.

Thirdly, I've got a good thing going with these varied Crossfit workouts at tracks or in the weight room. Heck, Lisa said I had a 4.75 out of 5 body on new years when I wasn't wearing a shirt or pants. Then I got the two hottest girls in high school to lick my belly button. Of course I'm going to continue Crossfit. I see improvements in my body, but more importantly I notice a difference of how great the workouts make me feel compared to simple lifting.

Lastly are my dreams to become an amazing ultimate player. A lot of players on the Davis team like to imagine themselves going to nationals, and that's what motivates them. I on the other hand am not even thinking about the game-to-go final game against whomever. I'm trying to get into the mindset of understanding how to beat individual teams. Winning tournaments are important, but I think it's more important to know how to beat each team on your way to the top. I've played a few games agianst Davis's highest competitors such as UCSC, LPC, or UGMO and I feel like it's more important to focus on beating individual teams instead of focusing on winning tournaments. If you only focus on the tournament, then you commit yourself to a single offense and defense strategy, but a fluid mindset that gives you advantages at certain points is what I'm aiming to learn this quarter.

Overall I want to simplify my life. No time can be wasted.
I want to 98% focus on Schoolwork, Working, Working out, and Frisbee.
The other 2% will come from reading the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Crossfit at Foothill

Sorry to get your hopes up. Crossfit did not actually visit foothill, but some of their ideas did. Ryan Colemen, Stephen Hubbard, Karan Sharma, and I did some workouts at the football field today that were "constantly varied and high intensity". I was planning on just doing sprints and throwing with Ryan, but then my older brother came and had some really good crossfit-ish workouts. It ended up taking about 4 hours, but was all good fun. So here are the workouts so I don't forget. I also hope to repeat them later. After each work-out we tried to throw when we were tired. Each paragraph is each workout.

3x rounds of
Sprint 200m
Three-man marking drill
10 push-ups
Sprint 200m
Three-man marking drill
1 stair run

3x rounds of
Sprint 100m
5 burpees
Sprint 100m
5 burpees
20 second rest inbetween

For 12 minutes time

70 yard sprints holding 5 pound weights in each hand. (Rotating so that only one person was running at a time. Then the next person goes when the latter person finishes).

For 7 minutes time (lucky number 7's)
7 pull-ups
7 squats
7 burpees

6x rounds of
2 stair runs
sprint 50 yards
10 squats
sprint 50 yards
10 explosive jumps with 5 pound weights in each hand. (Hands touching the ground to hands in the air).