Still alive

I haven’t been blogging lately because I’ve had a very busy week but I promised that I wouldn’t let this blog die!

Things have been going rather swimmingly lately, although I do feel as busy as I have always been. Circle K-wise, I’m still reviewing the past year, filling out OSKI awards, thinking about all the projects and all the things we’ve accomplished in the past year. Stepping back from board hasn’t been bad at all. I guess now I appreciate why we have banquet meetings. In many ways, it’s the past board’s last gift to the club as well as a gift from the club to the past board – a last chance for us to work together, shine, and slowly step away.

In Nerdy News, I finally received my new laptop yesterday! No wobbly leg this time and as far as I can tell, there aren’t any problems. Before ordering my system I had a lot of concerns about using 64-bit Vista. I’ve heard some bad things about Vista (actually…mostly bad things) so far, it just seems like a sexier-looking, more anal version of XP. It’s not really user-friendly at all and I’m disappointed that it’s not more customizable. But after getting rid of many of the “new and improved” functions such as search indexing and UAC which constantly asks for my approval before I do anything, it’s working out well.

I’ve been resetting my priorities lately. I just want to enjoy my last days as an undergraduate. School can wait at the back of the line (along with laundry and ASUC elections).

View from the top

So a lot of people have been asking me how it feels to finally be done with Presidency. I can definitely say it feels bittersweet. On one hand it's such a relief. When you're going through difficult times, in order to stay motivated there always has to be a light at the end of the tunnel. I guess this is the end of the tunnel for me. It's such a satisfying feeling to finally look up from my work and see all of my achievements in the past year. It's like climbing Mt. Everest and finally looking out from the top. 

On the other hand, there is definitely a little bit of sadness. I remember reading an article a few years ago about how sadness is almost always associated with a feeling of loss. I think that is undoubtedly true in this case. Along with my title will go many feelings that I have come to appreciate throughout the year. 

I'm going to miss the way my chairs come to me for advice, even when I don't have the right answer. I'm going to miss spending busy nights working on Circle K, knowing that my performance will have a big impact on others. I'm going to miss the way people look at me when I tell them I'm President. I'm going to miss leaving board meetings feel tired but satisfied that I had accomplished a lot that day. I'm going to miss the challenge of pulling things together, even when it seems all odds are against us. Most of all, I'm going to miss my board. 

I know for a fact that eventually things will go back to normal. I know that there will come a time when I won't be able to recite the Circle K calendar on request. But you have to understand that Circle K board has been my life for the past 3 years. For years I woke up in the morning thinking Circle K and went to sleep at night dreaming Circle K. I guess we'll have to be a little patient. Just as the saying goes, old habits die hard.

That's it

First Place - Total Achievement (Gold Division)

First Place - District Service Initiative Award

First Place - Single Service Award

First Place - Mei Po Wong Overall Service Award (Gold Division)

First Place - Outstanding Interclub Award

Frank Bliss - Kiwanian of the Year

Second Place - Outstanding Non-traditional Scrapbook

Second Place - Outstanding Club Website

Second Place - Outstanding Club Newsletter

Petey - Most Funds Raised for PTP

Moolah - Most Funds Raised for all DFIs 

Second Place - Talent Act

Vijay Suzuki - Third Place Oratory Contest

Growth Enhances Membership Award (Diamond Division)

100% On-time MRFs

Distinguished Kiwanis Family Award

Distinguished MD&E Award

Virginia Liu - Distinguished Club Treasurer

Kathleen Wong - Distinguished Club Secretary

Josh Lomeli - Distinguished Vice President

Joe Lee - Distinguished Vice President

James Lee - Distinguished President

Gail Nipitnorasate - William A. Dunlap Fellowship

Alex Chu - William A. Dunlap Fellowship

James Lee - Carthage Pullman Award

Distinguished Club Award

Golden Gate - Divisional Unity Award

Most Members In Attendance

Most Miles Traveled

Wow. That's it. The year has passed just as quickly as it came. 

I'm still not sure what happened this year. I don't know if the stars were aligned or if magic was in the air but this year has far exceeded my expectations. 

I remember starting my term last March, terrified of how the year was going to go. I had confidence in myself and my board, but I knew there are always factors out of our control. Was anybody going to come? Will our members be dedicated? Will we have the resources to lead a great club? 

Things did not always go smoothly. For me, personally, there were many challenges. I had to learn to communicate and open up. I sacrificed for the club and I came to understand what it meant to "do the right thing". I learned it wasn't always black and white and that sometimes there's more than one right answer. 

Now, at the end of the line, I have no regrets about the path I took. For me, the most rewarding aspect of District Convention was seeing the joy in my board and my members.

I am proud of Darrell for winning single service. I wanted him to win it for the members who selflessly sacrificed so much for the children that may not have always shown their appreciation.

I am proud of Andrea, Mimi, and Vijay. What their awards didn't capture was the true value of their projects. The point of Scrapbook, Newsletter, and Website isn't to be the best. These committees gave members the opportunity to work together toward a common goal. It gave them the chance to bond and feel like they were part of something special, like they were members of a close-knit team. In this sense, they were invaluable to our success. 

I am proud of Monica. Often Kiwanis Family is one of the most underappreciated aspects of Circle K. I hope now the club realizes all that she has done to keep this club feeling like a real family.

I am proud of Joe. Joe has dedicated his life to Circle K and more than anything this year, I wanted to see him be happy. It brings me to tears to see him finally recognized.

I am proud of the rest of the board and every single member. This year is theirs. I am just grateful for having the honor of being a part of it.

Top 10

...And now it's tomorrow and nope, I did not get any real work done (at least none that I have physical proof of). 

I hung out with some high school friends today. It was a refreshing experience because they see me in such a different way than people at Berkeley see me. It's probably because we've known each other since we were 8 and let's just say I went through many awkward/embarrassing/immature phases as a child/adolescent. But alas, here I am at 22, a little more mature, wiser, and probably nerdier than ever.

This brings me to my next point. I spent the end of my mostly-unproductive day creating the material for my President's workshop at District Convention. There's just volumes of advice I could give for Presidents of this coming Circle K year and if I were to cover all the major topics, my workshop would probably be weeks long. To compensate for the limited time I do have, I decided to conclude my workshop with the "Top 10 things I learned as President".

Creating my list, admittedly, was difficult at first. But as soon as I got going, all these pieces of advice started spilling out. Years of experience taught me things (some specific to myself) like "don't forget to show appreciation for others" or "write stuff down as soon as you think of them!" I realized how much I had learned about myself, about working with others, and about making things happen. 

I was reading an article about "how to give constructive criticism" and "how to inspire others" the other day and I realized all the tips that were mentioned in the articles were things that I do naturally. Moreover, I realized these were skills that I did not possess going into college (I was horrible at giving criticism) and that somewhere on my journey to now I had developed these skills through trial and error. For me, that was a pleasant surprise. I guess it's always good to know that you're on the right track. 

I ended my list with #10: "Most of the time, you're not going to know the right answer". I think learning that was probably my biggest step toward becoming a good President. Getting over myself and not having that pressure to make the correct decision all the time helped me discover an ability that's much more important than knowing the right answer: knowing how to find the right answer. 

Of course, I could be wrong.

New things learned

To be perfectly honest, I didn't do much today. All I can blog about are these new things that I learned:

• All of China is currently blocked from YouTube.
• According to AskMen, the #1 gentlemanly gesture is holding the door for a woman. #2 and #3, respectively, are introducing her to people you meet and turning off your phone at the table. 
• Offshore accounts are expensive and often require you to own property in the foreign country. In return you can receive tax benefits or hightened confidentiality about your assets. 
• The Battle Tower in Pokemon Crystal is super difficult to beat.
• According to AskMen, I'm allowed to have a mancrush on Barack Obama. He's a straightshooter, he owns up to his shortcomings, and he stands up for his beliefs like a man.

Tomorrow I'll do some real work.

Financial crisis

So I was watching a dateline special last night about the financial crisis that we're in right now. Much of it was explaining how the problem arised in simple terms, but some of it included very real stories of people involved in it. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how the collapse of our economy came to be, here's a quick run down:

• First, lending companies started loaning money to people who couldn't afford the loans they were given. People then used the money to buy houses they couldn't afford.
• Many loans were grouped together, creating investments (bonds) that could be traded on the market. These loans had high rates of return and they were (falsey) rated very safe by rating institutes (like S & P).
• Big companies began buying these bonds in bulk because they seemed to be risk-free, money-making investments.
• Housing prices rose and more and more people started buying houses at prices they couldn't afford by taking out loans they couldn't pay back.
• Eventually, peopled started defaulting on their loans. This meant that lenders weren't getting their money back and all those bonds became worthless.
• People were evicted from their homes, lenders went out of business, and big companies that bought the bonds lost tons of money.
• Executives walked off with big bonuses before their companies toppled to the ground.

Lots of people (important people, like Congress) are now asking, who's to blame? I think when it comes down to it, you have desperate people taking out loans they can't pay back and you have shady lending companies giving them loans they can't handle. 

It was painful to watch interviews with "victims" of the mortgage crisis. They really think that they've been wronged, although in reality they were living off money they didn't have in the first place.  Of course, this is easy to say coming from someone blogging in his comfortable home. But the truth is, America was living in an illusion of wealth for a few years.

Though the crisis is ultimately due to the greed and irresponsibility of big companies, in many ways it was the loaners and lenders that gave them the match to light the fire.

What do you think?

New toys

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the most badass toy ever:

4 wings that move into "X" formation during battle, a tiny kickstand for use in landing position, 5 characters to choose from, and a tiny lightsaber compartment.

Coolest thing ever!! Thanks, Amy.

And may I also introduce another new toy:

XPS M1330 

2.2 GHz processor

4 Gb RAM

500 Gb hard drive 

I know lots of people probably have this computer but it's just so cool looking. There was only one problem with it:

Floating leg!! It only stands on 3 of the 4 rubber feet and as a result it wobbles when I type. 

I guess this is a minor problem but I feel like if I'm going to be using this computer for the next 3-4 years, this wobbly leg thing would start bothering me until I go crazy. 

I called Dell support and they're sending me another one. I guess for now I must practice patience...

Dell could probably learn from this problem, as it seems to be a recurring issue with these models. On the bright side, there is a solution:

One word: unibody. Unfortunately, I'm still not ready to go to the Apple side. Their hardware is overpriced and I feel like I can be just as productive with Windows. I'm still waiting on that Macbook Wheel to come out before I buy.

Until that happens, though, I'll still be blogging off my Dell.