Unexpected Changes!

Hey, y'all (Y'all? Does anyone even say this anymore???), happy Monday to you all! Hope you guys are all nice and cool against the summer heat - in my area, it got to over 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) over the weekend, so there were several (about 3?) brushfires in my area. I swear you could smell the burning woods/grass.

Anyhow, as I have mentioned, I have made some unexpected changes in my life, namely moving to a new location! I now live with my (slightly younger, by a year) brother in his apartment. He needed a roommate to help him cut costs and rent in order to save up for his wedding (lucky bastard...). SO! I ended up spending all of last week and some of the weekend getting all of my things together and tying up loose ends in my previous place in order for this to happen. All in all, this all happened spontaneously and it's more exciting than frightening to live life without much of a fallback. 

Basically, I missed out on blogging last week. So, yeah, I'm sorry for that. I'm more settled now, so I'm back to my Mon-Wed-Fri schedule of writing.

So far, it's smooth sailing here - the only big challenge I have to tackle is learning to cook. Oh, and job hunting. Yeah, it's still a thing, sadly, and not much progress has been made with this unexpected move. And I'll be sure to write about it soon enough.

So, cooking. No experience. Well, that's an exaggeration - I can prepare cereals, pastas/spaghettis, eggs, salads, quesadillas, and even meat (but that's mostly luck though). So I have some foundation of cooking, right?! But today, on my first day. I wimped out. I bought breakfast and lunch at diners today. I know, I know. Today was a fluke! I'll start to get it right starting tomorrow! Anyhow, that's really the big news I've got for you, and possibly the lame excuse I've got. I'll be living life and moving forward and growing up now! It's an amazing time to be alive! :D

Job Hunting - Day 1

"Good morning, VIETNAM!!!" - such a classic movie.

Seriously, happy Friday to all of you! 

As the title says, today's the first (serious) day of my job hunting. I've tried to job hunt before, but I've been quite lazy and uninterested in said job hunting. With my recent graduation and a grandiose $50k of debt (thank you, high quality college education) hanging over my head, I can't afford to spend any more time lounging about. 

The truth of the matter is, I don't know what I'm doing! Although, that can be said of any recent college graduate, I'm the first in my family to have made it this far. I'm the first with a formal education in my family (whether I'm truly educated or not, that can be debated), and I'm the first to be seeking a career, not a job. It's a bizarre feeling that I'm the first in the family to make a positive impact in my family.

So today, I set up a LinkdIn account, to portray my more professional side(???, I don't know what to say), as well as erasing (well, to the extent of my power) any dubious "events" on my social media (I really don't have any...I think, but I can never be too safe, I suppose). Oh, and I've got a résumé down. And that's all I got.

Not. Very. Productive.

The problem lies with me - "What do I to be? Who do I want to be?" I've been so used to being the busboy, the landscaper, the cashier, or the manufacturer that I don't know what else I could be! I can't see myself being in the upper echelons of the workforce here in the US. I'm too accustomed to being a blue-collar worker that becoming a white-collar worker seems an impossible goal to achieve.

I must reflect on what I want for myself career-wise and go from there. In the mean time, I'll be looking for postings online and nearby and hope to the Good Lord Upstairs that I can find something that I want and can do and can be immensely satisfying. It's such a shame to end today's post on a bummer note, but on the positive side, this also is a good exercise in whittling out what I don't want to do for my career, which is nice. I'll update you guys this upcoming Monday. Until then, fellow readers!

P.S.: I've gotta find a new name for you guys - "Readers" is too generic for my taste. You guys need a cool name or something.

Setbacks and Unfriendings

Ugh. I had been hoping to kickstart the beginnings of August with a running start. I spent so much time in July being so lax/lazy with moving forward in life, that I wanted to change that with the beginnings of this month, August.

What I've gotten to do in the past few day is Spring Cleaning. IN %@#!*^ JULY. All thanks to my family feeling the need to clean up our modest apartment. I don't know why or where this is coming from, but since I'm living with the family for now, I am respectfully helping them out (I was adamant on opposing this). It'll all be over in another day or two and then I can my plans for the month of August.

So for now, I've got to say, it's a bizarre sensation to know I've unfriended so many people. Ninety-five percent (95%), to be more precise. It's nice to see my Facebook and Instagram feeds devoid of such pointless and unoriginal posts (or in FB, sharing lame stories and memes). Surprisingly, I haven't gotten any flack from those who noticed I've unfriended them (Will and Daren, the podcast I mentioned in the previous post, got lots of flack for unfriending the majority of their friends on FB). The next step now is to find more established people to follow - find sources of inspiration that can challenge me to grow and develop, as a person and as content creator. I know I'm not the most creative person out there, but I've learned that I'm capable of doing so. As of now, I don't see myself making any money off of my creative endeavors, but I do like to learn new skills and, more importantly, it's so insanely satisfying to know that I can do these types of things and receive positive feedback.

Well, at least to me, which is why I'm doing this to begin with. But I'm a few days behind. Oh, well, tomorrow's a new day, right? Until next time, fellow readers!

I'm Back!!! (for the Umpteenth Time Now...)

After having two somewhat surprising posts sprinkled in a desolate landscape of nothingness (I'm talking about California Institute of Abnormal Arts and moving to Tumblr), I've decided to kickstart this blog post again, in hopes to become more consistent with this. 

It began with She Didn't Text Back, a podcast in which two friends, Will and Daren, discuss anything and everything that comes to their minds. In one of their more recent episodes, they had talked about how they had to remove all the clutter in their lives in order to make room and make more time for their passions, comedy and music (Will and Daren, respectively). One of the few things they've done was removing just about everyone from their friends list on all social media platforms and instead, replacing those friends by following people that inspire them to do greater.

I have to say, it's a pretty ballsy move, since they definitely got a lot of flack for doing so, but that advice stuck out to me. I want make room and time for my passions too (namely music and writing), and having so many people weigh me down isn't helping. Furthermore, I don't even know over half of these people *personally*!

They are people I don't know at all!

So why am I so caught up on trying to befriend them? At first, I had decided to delete my Facebook. Though after hearing that particular episode of She Didn't Text Back (ep. 9 or 10, I forget), I began to realize, "It's not me, it's them!" And so, as a first measure, I've decided to remove 95% of the people from my social media platforms - these are people that don't do anything to help me, nor do I do anything to help them. Essentially, they are dead relationships and I don't want them in my life anymore. If they want to still be connected (and I don't know why would they, considering our tenuous connections) they can find me here, on Instagram, and Tumblr

Tomorrow, I will write more about what the plan is for the rest of August and more importantly, what I'll be doing next to get my life going forward again.

The California Institute of Abnormal Arts

“Circus. Museum. Nightclub.”

These are the three words in which the owner describes this one-of-a-kind place, but it’s more than just those three words. Above all, it’s an experience. 

Here, you’ll find mummified remains of famous performers of the Orient and the West, as well as items that will perplex and mystify you (many of the items in possession by the owner are rumored to be blessed and cursed). It’s a respectful homage to the the freak shows of the past, where two bits will get you a gander at the bearded lady, or the Siamese twins, or the mysterious (and elusive) Missing Link in our evolutionary chain. Best part of all, the owner, Carl Crew, graced us with private tour for myself and my brother and friend. We were the only people there at the time, and he was ecstatic to present his collection to us. 

We only heard of this place because our dear friend of both my brother and me randomly googled “weird things to do in LA” (yes, that’s what he googled), and this was one of the top hits in his search. What convinced us to go was that the place boasted to have a mummified clown in their possession. After the tour was over, we concluded that was true. And it couldn’t be any cooler. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures (nor did I want to: Crew warned that that those who photograph a certain item are guaranteed to disappear without a trace, never to be hear from again *gulp!*), but here is their Facebook page: CIAbnormalArts. So if you’re in the NoHo (North Hollywood) area, this is a place worth experiencing. 

I'm Back! And I Moved to Tumblr (#SorryNotSorry)

After half a year more or less (I think, I don’t remember anymore - just know it’s been too long) of not blogging, I was recently given inspiration to begin anew. I had a delight blogging about my past adventures, and I wanted to keep going. 

Blogging became a catharsis for me, especially now that I could read and reflect upon my recent past. It was effective and I had truly felt I had grown up wholly as a person. 

So! This brings me to this post: I want start up again (for the fifth time already), and I want to be more consistent with it. I like having to spend an hour or so every few days to think back and reflect what's new and what's different (or not...I have my boring days, too).

As the title suggests, I have a Tumblr account now! It's aDorkyHipster (someone took the same spelling as this one - I was aiming for consistency). Now, for the most part, the posts will be the same content, but the different layouts between both sites mean that posts won't be exactly the same (especially when images and videos are involved). I will need some playtime with Tumblr to figure out how things are done there. Additionally, I'd like to focus more on Tumblr for the time being, so head over there first for the latest posts (the same post will arrive here on Blogger some days later). That being said, I'm back, and it feels so right! Until next time, fellow readers!

Gravity

You were probably thinking of Alfonso Cuaron's film, Gravity, weren't you? Although, Cuaron has directed some fantastic movies, including Children of Men and Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too when translated).

However, the "Gravity" that I am talking about is (of all things) from John Mayer. Hey, I'm surprised myself, considering my taste in music. So yeah, he got on my radar and I decided to check out his music. What the hell, why not?

All in all, he's a bit of a hit-or-miss. Some of his work I find to infectious, especially his more mellow, bluesy sound, like "Gravity" and "Daughters"; but his more arena-rock sound, like "Bigger than My Body", feels like it's missing something. I mean, it's not bad, but it doesn't have the same impact as his bluesy songs. Lately, I've been feeling the need to immerse myself in emotional music - it's not that my tastes in music currently don't meet that need; it's more that I'm looking for something that is different, and somewhat unconventional, to my usual tastes. Something to perhaps  change up my routine in a subtle way through music, specifically from someone like John Mayer in this case, is the best way to invoke that subtle change. All said, maybe, I just need some time to come around to Mayer's music. Give the records a few spins - that's usually how I learn to appreciate music from someone new in my collection.