CIF

So Friday night was my last game for high school soccer. In the incredibly strong rain I played my last game for Tustin High against the Mission Viejo High School Diablos. It was a really competitive game. We could have easily won. But in the end, we lost with a scoreline that in no way was representative of how the game went: 2-0.

The individual game wasn't particularly what made me feel motivated enough to write about it here. It was one of the most memorable games of my four years definitely, but the idea that it was my last game in high school hit me hard. It was one of the steps toward graduation that really woke me up.

I realized that I probably wouldn't ever see any of these guys again. Or at least not after we graduate. And that all those old memories would never have the chance of coming up again. This sounds very melodramatic. But the idea of never seeing your soccer team again grows into never seeing your high school friends again. Which I can deal with, but its just a big leap.

It all hit me that the year, and what I know of life right now, will be gone after I graduate. So just like CIF essentially ended my relationship to the soccer team from player to former member, graduation will change me from student to alumni. And my world will change drastically.

But I guess that is growing up.

Banksy

Banksy, as I have mentioned before as one of my favorite artists, is in LA. Many believe it is due to his movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" being nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary Film, and he is creating some hype for the movie by making some artistic appearances throughout the LA area.

I really dont care why he is here. I am just excited he is here. I love his art, I love his message, and I loved his movie. Most of his work is done in his native Britain, but the prospect of him being here in the United States makes me pretty excited. He has already made a few "pieces" here in LA this last week, including a mockery of Charlie Brown and the American Dream. I am really excited to see what other pieces come up and how American politics/society influences him to do unique things with his art.

And when his movie wins the Oscar, he will most likely make a mockery of that too. I can imagine that golden little statue man might get a little spraypaint on it.

Whatever happens, I am excited to see an artist with such social, cultural, and political influence so close to home.

American Idol

My mother loves American Idol. Like loves it. Every night whenever it comes on, nothing else matters. Drop everything and run to the television, turn on Fox, and get quiet. Cause Idol is on.

Due to the inherent nature of the program, and the way my mother reacts to it, I have trouble explaining how much I dislike American Idol.

I think the funniest part about this whole thing is what my mother does after the show. She calls her mom. And they talk about the show, the contestants, blah blah blah. The talk then proceeds to be about whatever, something random. Usually the events of the day, the way old people make every insignificant event a long drawn out boring story. And my mom insists on walking from room to room with the phone on speakerphone. Meaning she spreads the noise very loudly, and tells you to be quiet when you speak cause Grandma can hear it all.

Ugh.

Anyways,

Seacrest out.

Stanford Kids

Ok so today I went to an Orange County Stanford Acceptance meeting. Basically anyone that had been accepted to Stanford already met in some community recreation area in Huntington Beach and got to know each other. So all these high school seniors who had been accepted on Early Action met and talked about a variety of things, mainly school related.

It was an interesting group of people that created very interesting conversations. Yet I noticed a couple things in common with the majority of these kids.

Firstly, as expected, these kids were undoubtedly smart. They were using big words and subtly bragging about their accomplishments. I didn't mind, I mean I played that game too, but they definitely had some knowledge or achievements. Not that I expected to be, but I will definitely not be the smartest person at this school. There are some really brilliant kids, and I only met the ones from OC.

Secondly, they all seemed to have money. They were complaining about how high the tuition was and how it was going to rob their wallets and their parents wallets as well. I, on the other hand, am going to be receiving a very significant amount of financial aid in order to attend this institution. This means that the difference in the salaries of our parents is fairly different. And by fairly I mean very largely. These kids' parents are making a lot more money than mine. Also a lot of them went to private schools or more academically focused schools than Tustin High. Which implies that they are either more financially well-off or have parents that make more money to live in nicer areas with nicer schools. Point is most of them were wealthy, or wealthier than my family and I are.

Next point, a lot of them were Asian. I have nothing against Asians, I am simply stating a fact. Probably 50% of them were Asian. Which is a lot.

Also, they seemed to have parents that were very tight on them. Like the now infamous "Tiger Parents." These parents seemed to have large amounts of influence and involvement on the academic lives of these kids. I can honestly say that my parents are not that involved in mine. I go through my studies with little to no interference or guidance from my parents. I do it mostly by myself. But I have a feeling that despite these kids being very smart, they have their parents constantly watching over their shoulders when it comes to schoolwork.

Overall, I found myself to have a lot in common with these kids (besides obviously the above points.) I learned a lot more about Stanford and am absolutely positive I will love my four (+) years there.

By the way, University had at last 5 kids get accepted Early Action to Stanford. Thats a lot. Like wayyy too many.

Midnight Snack

Microwave food tastes significantly better at night. That Asian soup-noodle bowl took about three minutes to make, but damn it was satisfying. Pink Lemonade to wash it down.

The combination of sodium and sugar was probably not the best thing I could do for my body at midnight, but I will live to see another day.

1984

So today, along with probably all my classmates, I started the novel 1984 by George Orwell. We were only assigned the first 20 or so pages and thats as far as I read. But from that little snippet introduction to the novel and the story I can immediately tell that I am going to enjoy reading this novel. Why? Besides being a classically good book, it relates to so much of the art movements seen today in the contemporary modern scene.

Who? I am referencing Shepard Fairey. Many people don't know who he is but they know his work. His most widely publicized piece of art is the Obama poster with any variety of captions including "Hope" & "Change." If you attend high school you have undoubtedly seen kids wear his shirts with the distinct red and beige stenciled-out prints. But the one I have to relate to 1984 is his famous print of Andre the Giant with the command OBEY below it.

Of course the famous thing taken from George Orwell's 1984 is the phrase "Big Brother is Watching You." The novel revolves around the idea of an ever-present totalitarian government that strives off of propaganda and mind control. This phrase and the subsequent relation of big government to "Big Brother" is present in pop culture and referenced often.

I knew of Shepard Fairey through mainly his clothing brand which is also named Obey. Yet when I watched the Banksy documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (you really should see it if possible here is the trailer) I learned a lot more about Mr. Fairey, his philosophy, and his artwork. I learned that the initial print of his famous Andre the Giant OBEY poster was meant to be somewhat of a social experiment. He came across the idea that if something is is repeated enough times, people will accept it as true. So to test this he put up posters, sticker, stencils, whatever he could of the Giant and the script OBEY. Apparently people eventually began to ask about it and what it meant and all that. He was an underground celebrity and a founder in the underground art scene. His depictions of fascist leaders, social corruption, and the degradation of morals show the problems in the world that he sees today and for the future.

I think George Orwell (Eric Blair) was the 1940's equivalent to our Shepard Fairey. I think his political and social ideas were very similar to the ideas of Fairey. I really feel that if Orwell were alive today the type of messages that he would send in his medium of literature would be eerily similar to the motivation and ideology found behind Shepard Fairey's work. I saw this mural by Fairey which reminded me of The Party's three mottos in Orwell's 1984: "War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, Ignorance is Strength." I think this art piece really shows a connection between the two artists.

I found out after I wrote this blog, while searching for pictures to put in it, that in fact Fairey has made large murals and prints with the quote "Big Brother is Watching You." He also made special edition covers for Orwell's two most famous pieces: Animal Farm and 1984. So apparently my insight was not that profound or unique, but I definitely wanted to share it.

Dancing

Ok so while I was at the SuperBowl party the subject of dancing was brought up by some of the parents and more elderly folks. This was caused by the Black-Eyed Peas and their momentary segment of shuffling. Once the young-ones mentioned the word shuffling the older folks became very interested. They wanted to know "how teenagers danced nowadays."

This was bad.

Ok so first of all they wanted us to shuffle in front of them. I was over it, and my brother thought it was hilarious they were even saying the words shuffling. Then my dad tried to shuffle, and looked like Forrest Gump with stilts on. Yeah I compared my father to Forrest Gump. It was hilarious.

But this is where it got bad. One of the older people asked us if this was how we danced at school dances. After the awkward pause trying to avoid the conversation my dad said: "Freak Dancing." I tried to avoid it even more. Discussing freak dancing with older people, especially parents and grandparent type figures is so awkward.

But it gets worse. They asked us to show them what Freak Dancing was. I just ignored it as long as I could. I did NOT want to get up there and show them that. NO WAY.

Eventually the awkward requests subsided and my dad explained to the others that Freak Dancing is basically dry humping. And the facial expressions were classic. Amazing. All these old people were like "woah" but with their faces. Awesome. My dad eventually called Freak Dancing a "ritualistic simulation of coitus." Which is terrible and funny all together.

I really have to defend the idea of Freak Dancing though. I don't know why, but I feel that I must. First of all, its one of the few ways of dancing our generation has been taught. Really all we know how to do for dancing is that, and things that take incredible skill or coordination. And considering that many of us are too bad of dancers or too lazy to be coordinated it ends up that Freak Dancing is the only thing we know how to do. Secondly, it is natural for us teenagers. We are raging with hormones. Lots and lots of hormones. And the majority of hese hormones tell us to go and hump the opposite sex. So Freak Dancing falls in this category and simply makes sense. Lastly, it is basically the only type of dancing that works with the type of music we listen to today. I am not saying hat if they played Swing music we would dance like we were from the 50's, but I am saying that this music played at dances really is meant for the bumping and grinding that is Freak Dancing. Even though I am not the biggest Freak Dancer ever I felt the urge to defend it.

Thankfully I didn't bring up the Cat Daddy.

Moral of the story:

Watching your father try to do the most current dance is hilarious, and worth the necessary awkwardness.

Superbowl XLV

Just got home from a party I attended with my parents for the Superbowl. I am pretty full, mostly junk food and cake. But I found the game to be fairly disappointing. The rallying points of the game were meager, and the overall tempo of the play seemed boring, especially in comparison to some of the playoff games leading up to it. So yeah.

I like Aaron Rogers though. He seemed like a good guy, and an exceptionally skilled quarterback. His composure in the pocket is pretty amazing. I know I couldn't remain that calm, or even look that calm with a bunch of 400 pound men running at me. No way.

Earlier today I was thinking about some of the ridiculous things about the Superbowl. Like how even those who don't watch professional football, like myself, watch the game. And how it is essentially an unofficial holiday for millions of Americans, and even non-Americans, every year. I also thought about the ridiculous amount of money spent in this singular game, specifically in the advertising. I know that the ads are often more entertaining than the game itself, which seemed t be the case this year. But the absurd amount of money spent on seconds of advertising really astonishes me. I mean it makes sense, but the pure amount of money that goes into it is ridiculous. I mean public high schools run out of paper all the time, but like 10 million dollars for 20 seconds of advertising. Done.

Halftime show, that was bad. I like the Black-Eyed Peas. They are a group thats interesting to listen to. But live, they were awful! It was bad. They are quite obviously a studio band, too much editing and auto-tuning. It just doesn't do well. And when I have to look at their gaudy and over-extravagant futuristic costumes it just makes it worse. Slash was a nice touch though. That segment was actually alright. I also thought it was funny that the giant stage that was supposed to spell LOVE ended up not lighting up all the way so it kinda looked like LO\E. Which is embarrassing for some roadie out there. Additionally, the coordinated dancers will never be as good as the Beijing Olympics ones. Those Chinese kids were awesome! Amazing. And they all did it for the price of a bowl of rice a day. That Chinese labor market just likes to prove us Americans wrong everytime.

Which brings me to an interesting point: What do people in foreign countries think about the Superbowl? (Besides the obvious non-comprehension of our "barbaric" sport) I mean when they see that ridiculously strange, extravagant, crazy halftime show, what do they think? Just saying, I mean I would like to know. Do they think we could be spending that money on other things like education or green energy? Or do hey embrace it and love America for it? Probably both.

So Congrats to the Green Bay Packers. And to Capitalism and Advertising. And to America. Next playoff game I will care about: not really sure. NBA? Only if Lakers are there. March Madness? Doubt it. MLB World Series? Definitely not. Most likely NCAA Football, since I will actually be attending a school with a decent team. Not for sure though. Only certainty will be next Superbowl. Which is sad.

I really wish the World Cup would come around. Soccer is the only sport I can really enjoy watching.

Social Network

Just got finished watching The Social Network with my family. Well, everyone but my mom cause she sleeps anytime we sit down to wach any sort of cinematic piece.

Just before I go on about The Social Network I would like to say that however fictitious and libelous it is, it is a damn good movie. Like a wonderful movie. This was the third time I saw it, and I noticed a few things about the tone and the rhythm of the movie that have convinced both my father and I that David Fincher deserves the Oscar for Best Director this year. And the score by Trent Reznor really set a stage for tension as well as awe.

Anyways, the point of this post was to draw the connection between what I am doing now in high school and what Jesse Eisenberg did as Mark Zuckerburg in The Social Network, Facebook. I am referencing our little company that has stemmed from Tustin High School, blacApps. I want to make some comparisons to and some contrasts from my venture and the one detailed in the movie.

Firstly, I am blogging. This is not because I want to replicate Zuckerburg or Eisenberg's character in any way, shape, or form. First contrast: I am not intoxicated, or comparing women to farm animals. I am not calling a girl a bitch, nor do I think this blog will end up being a major regret of my life or career. I am doing this blog cause I wanted to, and I need to vent in the form of writing somehow.

Ok but seriously when it comes to comparisons the alleged beginnings of Facebook in the movie and the actual growth and development of the company blacApps are very similar. Both had inspired young minds: Zuckerburg for Facebook obviously, and the four of us in blacApps. Both had a willing investor: Eduardo Saverin for Facebook, and Mr. Chad Smith for blacApps. These comparisons are obviously incredibly broad but the point is still there.

Additionally, each company has a range of specialists, those with particular talents or skills that will contribute to the company. In the movie there is a scene where Eisenberg (as Zuckerburg) wants to expand the Facebook experience from just Harvard to Yale and Columbia. Saverin then mentions that Stanford should also be included (Yay!). But this is the moment that drew my attention to this topic, this comparison. At that point Eisenberg tells Dustin Moskovitz in the movie to work on additional coding alongside him for the expansion. He tells Saverin that he will need a larger, more capable server to handle the amount of internet traffic. He then tells some other guy whose name escapes me to market the deal, to help make sure that people get to know whats going on and to ensure that Facebook spreads like wildfire into these schools. He proceeds to tell the Asian girls on the couch to remain comfortable. Besides having hot Asian girls on our couch, this scene is very similar to that of the blacApps company inner workings. Chad Smith runs the business, although he owns only 8% he is the little extra business glue in the operation, and he assumes that leadership position to make sure all of us are assigned jobs and that we follow through with them. Conner Fromknecht and I are the Zuckerberg and Moskovitz of the situation. Conner is obviously a way more talented programmer and code writer than I, making him Zuckerburg and myself Moskovitz. Chad Smith is the investor, the one allowing for initial capital investments, but also like Saverin he is looking to monetize the company, make sure it generates some revenue. Long Huynh and Brandon Leventhal are like that other guy who was in charge of the marketing, the will ensure that our company gets as big as possible as fast as possible. And just like Saverin did in the movie by making a little suggestion with the addition of Stanford onto the list of schools, all of us are key parts to both the creative and business genius that is blacApps. All of us have our parts, but all of us do everything as well.

Key differences that we hope to draw from the movie The Social Network is the business agreement. Obviously we are close friends like Zuckerburg and Saverin were, but we don't plan on splitting up or suing each other for hundreds of millions of dollars. We have in place firm business agreements, written in ink, and not just verbally agreed to as the movie portrayed. We have an elder involved. This makes him sound incredibly old but we have Mr. Chad Smith involved as an overseer, who has invested interest in the company but is not the central core of the company. By having him there he can help to make us more stable, more secure, and less likely to be corrupted by greed or success. We also have a system set in place for rapid growth. In the movie they say: "Facebook is growing faster than we expected." This means they weren't prepared for it to grow at such a rate. With the help of Mr. Smith we have prepared ourselves for success, in fact we have probably over prepared. But this is alright because the idea of losing large amount of money in settlements is a reminder of the necessity for preparedness. Definitely not the last of the differences but the last I am going to mention is the lack of outside influence. In the movie Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker, creator of Napster. His presence in the movie and the company is definitely portrayed as one of bias and skewed negativity. It is obvious to the viewer of The Social Network that his presence in Facebook led its crumbling and its loss of coherence between its founding members. At blacApps we are determined to make sure this does not happen, and that we stay together as a company and as friends through high school, through college, and into our professional lives.

Look forward to more news on blacApps as we plan to launch our Applications soon.

Grounded

Being grounded sucks. It really does.

Especially when you are being grounded for the most ridiculous thing.

My parents accused me of not caring about my Education. Right. Like I dont care. I was only accepted to Stanford on Early Action. Only 1 of 754. And I don't care about my education. They threatened to not pay for the portion of the tuition Stanford wants them to pay. Maybe thats the price I have to pay to avoid them.

Worth it? Ehh.

Now I must return to filling out Scholarships for Minorities on a Saturday night. Cause I dont care about my education.