DFW vs. Austin (Nostalgia of the places I used to live in)

I grew up in the DFW area for about 20 years. I must say that all the places I've been since then have given me a much better experience. This is a review of the pros and cons of the places I've lived.

Most people grow up in a city, call it home, and can say that there is no other place they would rather be. Yet I find myself having quite the opposite point of view. I grew up in the DFW area and have felt like it was crap compared to Austin and San Francisco.

I remember having great times with my friends from high school there, because we were adventurers, but believe it or not, most of them never stuck around. One of them is in Maine, The other one left to Oklahoma then College Station. The other one is just staying there because of his family, which I probably would've done too. Another thing, none of them were Texas natives: one from Boston, one from Kansas, and one from Argentina. If you were a friend of mine, you were an exception to this review of Dallas.

Oh...before I go on I should tell you my background a perspective, because I think it could have a lot to do with this. I am a 23 year old, 6" 2' Asian male who grew up in Arlington, then Southlake, then West Plano. The culture I grew up around has been mostly Caucasian-American and suburban as anyone who went to school there.

Summary?

Dallas, TX - "Affluent people rule"; the land of the 30,000 dollar-millionaires, and people who lease BMW's. I would lease a BMW there, you can get one for $300 a month and in the land of low cost of living, and good economy, you can afford one. I believe part of adapting to Dallas means having a well-paid job. People there are generally fit and on the attractive side. It seems superficial at times. I like the conservative atmosphere, but it can be much at times. When it came to talking to people, I felt like most of them have never met an Asian person before, or at least had an understanding of one. Drinking at bars is huge here, not alot of mom-pop shops for coffee. In fact the franchise food here beats anything in California. For example I think the KenTacoHuts in Dallas are better than the one in California. When it came to talking to girls there, it seemed like it mattered a lot where I was going with my career or what kind of car I drove. Great place for cars though. I owe my material-passion for Fast cars to Dallas. The Car meets here are amazing. But of course, you need money to buy nice cars.

Bottom Line: Great if you like livin large, having a job that pays well, good urban planning, good business

Austin, TX- "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover". When I first moved here from Dallas, I was slightly annoyed at the poor urban planning of the roads. Dallas has the George Bush Turnpike at 70mph which charges extra tolls, and limits traffic. In Dallas if you miss an exit, you can take the next exit 1/4 mile down. In Austin, if you miss an exit you might be screwed for an extra 2 miles, In California, even more so.

Before I actually lived in Austin, I visited Austin, and didn't find much to do here. But let me tell ya, going school here and living here I found the cream of the crop when it came to people and friendship. The friends I made here were musical, intellectual, filled with wonder and adventurers as well. One was an Austin Native, Another from Houston, and believe it or not a couple of Dallas people as well.

I imagined it as the elite collection of almost every group you can find. This place was like Dallas's cooler cousin. By that I mean, you had a diverse range of people, from internationals, from California, from Colorado, from Houston, and farm type people. The mom-pop shops were great. I remember spending many of great nights at Hipster Spider-House Coffee, or the Retro-Kirby Lane Breakfast place. There's also a neat 80's club called "Barbarella". This city introduced me to retro music and made retro cool again. Might I add that Spider-House serves a variety of food, Alcoholic beverage, and coffee. It's a one stop shop for every thing. I have yet to find a place like this in Dallas, I know they have it in California though. The food here is a amazing. Mexican, BBQ, Korean, and then all three put together at a food truck called Corianos.

The word "Weird" is now synonymous with "greatness" in the city of Austin. It was also the first city to expose me to the Libertarian ideas, which I must say seems like a great political party. When it came to talking to girls there, I definitely had an easier time. This time it wasn't about the money or the career, it was about something more. Sure there are some that still do, probably from Dallas or the rest of Texas. There are some people that seemed like they hadn't experienced very much in their life, probably from small towns in Texas. But then there were the intellectuals, and those that were open minded. I have had my most philosophical conversations in this city. What I like about Austin, is that it was a huge melting pot in all the favorable ways for me. Most of the people here seemed really cool. Although the Texas heat can be a pain in the summers, Austin will make it enjoyable with the Lake and Barton Springs to cool you down. I miss this place. Now I'm hungry just thinking about the food there.

Bottom Line: I wouldn't judge Austin based on a visit, I would live there to experience it. Great if you like diversity, perspective, live music, originality, and want to stay in Texas, but want the free-spirit of California.

Let's face it though, Austin is the only city of its kind in Texas. Really, Austin is the only city of its kind anywhere. You take a conservative southern state, and you open a free-spirited, diverse, musical city. It's really something.

Sometimes Silence can speak louder than words

It's Friday afternoon, and I am exhausted...but in a good way. I had an interview last night in San Francisco, and one this morning in Santa Rosa. Both of which were preliminary.

I am definitely getting better at these interviews, and learning how to drive in San Francisco. This time no one flicked me off, which means I must have done something right. I've also learned that there are certain places that will charge you less to park depending on how far you are willing to walk. For example, I found a parking garage (Thanks to Yelp) that will only charge you $2 per hour or a max of $20 per day. Some will do $10 per day. The Embarcadero for example will charge you $3 every 15 minutes because it's located in the center of the financial district. I also learned to pack snacks in the car for these trips. From now on when I go on these California trips, I am yelping to find the best prices and the best reviews. Seems like a no-brainier now, but I'm not used to paying for parking on a daily basis.

When I arrived to the hiring event in San Francisco, I was Thirty minutes early and was able to mingle a little bit with the other applicants. There was just one other applicant at the time and he was an engineer from San Luis Obispo(which is mid California; really nice beaches!). We chatted a few, and he showed up business casual, with a hoodie. I started to think I was overdressed wearing the suit and tie. Turns out I wasn't.

Thirty minutes later it was time to go to the event, and forty applicants showed up (in suits)! I was absolutely surprised, and not surprised at the same time.

 I was surprised at how I felt inside because it had been such a long time, since I had been to an event like this; two years to be exact. I wasn't surprised because the unemployment rate is high these days and it was San Francisco. People wanted to work there. The salary has a really competitive base. Most of all I was surprised at the number of experienced professionals. Most of these applicants were two years out of college with experience. Here I was just 3 months out, I was probably the on of the youngest applicant there.

I wasn't surprised for long thanks to UT's business program, and I had actually learned how to handle these career events. I failed miserably in the past and learned that talking too much was a bad thing, but that was accounting. Could sales & marketing be any different?

After a few moments, I regained my consiousness and went into survival mode. Like a flash of lightning I remembered all that I have learned and all the "conversation" books I have read recently. I paid close attention to body language: people's feet, people's gestures.

 It was like a feeding frenzy as many applicants forcibly introduced themselves. Some were smooth, most of them, not so smooth. Realize that sometimes you may think standing around and listening is awkward, but it actually commands more respect than just forcibly talking over people.

Sometimes silence can speak louder than words: your eyes, your feet, and your hands. Knowing when to say something and how to say it is key. Most of all, ask good questions, and genuinely let people know that you find them interesting. In recent years, I have learned that it's not about being yourself, it's not about being someone else, it's about putting your best self out there. Really listen and listen good. (The 007 James Bond movies shows a really good example of this.)

Also find the better applicants, and team up with them. Talk to them and buddy together to talk to an executive can help because you know the recruiters are watching. Heck, she was taking pictures (probably to screen later). 

Good news is I got a call from the company this morning to come in for an interview next week :) Yay!!! Hopefully this is a legit company. It's a start up, so we'll see.

Wow! My blogs are too long. Next time I'll have to tell you about the Santa Rosa interview, a totally different experience.

Sports and Business

Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Boston marathon bombing. I have been reading up on it to figure out who's responsible and understand the consequences of such an event. It's important for most of us to not only mourn for an even such as this, but most importantly be aware that "Freedom isn't free". There's no other country I'd rather be in. There's a lot wrong with this country right now and it is our duty as citizens to contribute, look out for each other. Be informed. Pay attention to the signs. Again, my condolences go out to the ones harmed most by this event.

It's April 16th and I am still without a job, but today's blog will be filled with optimism.

I have two "Pre-liminary" interviews this week. The positive side of this is that I am still getting interviews. I have also decided to join the Meet-up groups for active 20's and 30's in Napa Valley as well as socialize with the locals at the Alston Dog park in Napa. It's strange, but I feel like I'm starting to like this place. I've joined my church choir and take up golfing again.

I haven't golfed for two years due to school. Golf is a peaceful sport and a good skill to have for a business career. Quite a bit of business can happen on the golf course and has happened for many business men before. I went to the local driving range and found myself remember the few lessons I took years ago on how to swing nine-iron and the Driver. I managed to shoot 150 yards, 100 yards, and most of them ended up in the pond. SCORE!!! I was terrible, but none-the-less I have felt the need to brush up.

In addition to golf, I have also decided to start reading up on the sports page.

I said earlier that I have two preliminary interviews coming up. Preliminary meaning a casual lunch and dinner event to decide whether I would be worthy of receiving an interview. The recruiter said I would be interacting with the executives of the company and they would ultimately decide whether I would get an interview or not. Seems legit. I think social events bring out a different side of people. Hopefully for me, it's the better side.

In my recent experiences, numerous companies have asked me, "Do you follow sports? Do you play sports? Do you play basketball? (because I'm tall)". If you know me, I'm not a big sports guy. I enjoy playing softball and watching a little football and basketball during the play-offs, but I've never actually followed it too closely. When it comes to talking about sports it's always been my weakness.

So I've decided to follow sports as well as current events in order to participate in my career. It's a challenge, but I enjoy a good challenge. Sports are big in America. It's big in business, especially in the work place. It's a conversation topic fit for small talk that won't be insulting to anybody, except anyone who might follow it religiously.  I've learned the San Francisco Giants fans do not like Los Anglese Dodger's fans. Nonetheless, I think I might use this to make a funny conversation.

California Sports Updates for conversation? Kobe Bryant on the Lakers is injured, Golden State Warriors have lost to the Lakers recently even though they are highly ranked, The SF Giants Beat the Cubs 10-7, (not to be confused with the New York Giants). Any other news would be appreciated, Thank You.

A Philisophical Opinion "Not all opportunities are equal"

"Not all opportunities are equal"

I sometimes wonder how my choices lead me to the events which I am currently in and whether my thinking will lead me to success. I will start out with a story.

During one of my vacations, I was able to have an intellectual conversation with one of my friends. We'll call him Leeroy. Leeroy is a genius. He is at the top of his class, and truly intelligent. I have met few truly intelligent people of his caliber in my life. How do I know he is a genius? Smart people never truly show that they are smart. They can learn anything and find few subjects a challenge to learn. They have a genuine interest and ability to absorb information at an instant. They would never call anyone "stupid" because deep down they know the statement itself is "primitive". They are also generally pretty humble because even if you have the ability to absorb information at an instant, you can't possibly know everything. I admire Leeroy very much. He has a sense of humor that is clever and is logical about all his conclusions. Most of all he is able to make sense of an idea I might convey even when all the details aren't there. I am a man who explains ideas in a broader light, and with little detail which therefore is usually misunderstood. One day I decided to ask him about measuring opportunity cost.

After talking to Leeroy about career choices, it seemed he was set on learning the specific skill of computer programming.

"Are you aware that if you choose this specific career path that you miss out on all the other career paths?" These are the things that I always think about. You can always switch or go back later, but not if you take into consideration that there are windows of opportunity throughout time which would allow a maximum learning capacity. For example, if you choose to learn a language when you are young it is much easier than learning it when you are older. If you choose to be athletic since you were four you would have it much easier than when you start at 15.

Overtime our bodies and our minds age and we lose the opportunity to hone in on specific abilities. If you choose just one, that would mean you may lose the a plethora of abilities on the other. I have always known this and as a result, I choose to spend my time looking for the ones that would be applicable to the most opportunities in the future. Here's the hard part. How do you know which skills will be applicable to the most opportunities in the future?

Let's say I decide to specialize in becoming a doctor. People who become doctors practice memorization skills, and all the scientific critical thinking. They are highly valued for the difficulty of expertise and value to society to prolong life. But what is the true cost of becoming a doctor. You spend years in medical school which means you will miss out on certain events in life. You might spend less family time. You might get fat as a result of stress. You might not have the time to go camping, or computer programming. You might lose sleep. You keep telling yourself this is worth it, it will pay off later. You meet specific doctors that might put you in a cynical state of mind. You learn people don't take care of themselves even when doctors try to help.

When you graduate, being a doctor might be the only thing you are capable of because you've neglected certain parts of your life. Or not. You decide you are going to try something else. You're in your 40's now and realize being a doctor for the past 20 years didn't make you happy. Remember when you wanted to become a master in a martial arts style? Remember when you wanted to be a Race car driver? How about an actor? (Ref. Ken Jeong). Well now you can do these things with the addition of so many years of becoming  If you don't have any other obligations that hinder you from the test of time.

You become an actor. A pretty good one too. It makes you wonder, what it would have been like if you became one early on, you might have even gone further than you are today. But instead of going out there and discovering all your abilities, you just decided to stick with one for that 20 years in becoming a doctor. See where playing it safe gets you?

Is it a matter of luck when it comes to finding out what your good at? The most successful people in life don't play it safe. They don't just do the most acceptable things. They take risks, they discover, and they are constantly learning different things, until they find out the one thing they want to do. For some people this is something they cannot live without once they've discovered it.

Maximize your opportunities. Learn as much about the world as you possibly can before you decide to commit yourself. There is an amazing opportunity for success out there. But unless you develop the skills to meet those opportunities, you can't take them.

Power is the ability and will to do what others can't. Not everyone is born with certain opportunities. Therefore I find value in taking the opportunities others wouldn't or couldn't. I find value in the opportunities that grant me even more opportunities. I don't find value in being limited to one or a few. Most of all...this is a leap of faith.

After my talk with Leeroy, we both agreed. It is not measurable the amount or cost one opportunity may have over another. It is subjective, infinite and it is out of our control to know the exact future which lies ahead for each path that we take. You can either choose to take the path that so many people have gone before, or you can take a chance. Take a path that might seem stupid to most, but just may end up giving you something that no one might ever possess. The higher the reward the higher the risk.

The best achievements are planned out, but cannot be predicted. Failure is expected, but never aimed for. Danger is invited, but never expected to arrive. This is purely just my opinion.

Being committed when it comes to career choices

It's a Wednesday night, and I have had a full day of modifying my resume and job searching. I have had to recently change my resume and implement the key words and experiences that would be related to my position. Since I have had ten jobs(three of which were internships), employers in recent interviews kept asking me why I had so many different experiences. I found it to be a strange question, because I thought having more professional experiences were more appealing than having consistent experience. What do I mean exactly?

In my work experience I have had technical, medical, educational, financial, and sales experience. When I would apply for an accounting position they would ask about why I had non-accounting experiences. If I applied for sales, they would ask why I bothered with accounting. It would appear that some fields are at odds. But most importantly employers don't like a resume with too many different experiences. It spells out "the candidate wasn't sure about what he wanted to pursue". I think to myself that's funny, I didn't realize I had to know exactly what I had to do since freshman year of college.

Honestly I feel that employers are just doing anything they can to "weed out" or filter applicants. That's fine with me because that is just apart of capitalism. We get more competitive during tough times. Whether the true winner ends up on top or not, we leave in conclusion with good faith. Some might disagree. But again this is not a political article, therefore we shall move on.

Today a long-time good friend of mine gave me a call from Texas A&M. We'll call him "Donatello". Since being isolated from my friends and everything I have ever known, I was extremely excited. Donatello is graduating with an engineering degree this semester and  called me to ask me for advice on whether he should take a pending job offer. How did I respond?

The day before I had reflected on a job offer I had last semester in Austin for a $42,000 as a Credit Analyst. I hadn't graduated yet, and thought that this offer was low for the average salary a mccombs accounting student was getting. Plus it wasn't the job I really wanted. If I had taken that job I would have always wondered if I could have done better without even knowing. I even told the recruiter I thought he was low-balling me. He said "considering the market, I don't think so". I realized now after three months of job searching that he was right. It wasn't a low offer.

So I responded to my Donatello and told him "it depends on what you want".  He wanted to live in Texas but the job might take him out-of-state. He was considering graduate school and or waiting it out to look for a job in Texas. I told him that few people get exactly what they want and that he would be better off taking the right job even if it wasn't in the right location.

"I've known engineering grads who didn't become engineers. They became the IT Business Analyst that is in demand today. And you know what? They will never be able to switch to engineering again (unless the go to graduate school). It's a loss of skills that they never get to apply"

The moral of this story? Companies don't like to see college grads who look like they don't know exactly what career they want to pursue. They would rather see you just one experience applicable to your job than one experiences accompanied by others. Employers want depth of knowledge rather than breadth of knowledge. College grads do not have the greatest reputation right now. Most of them are perceived as non-committal when it comes to a specific career.

If you have the opportunity to accept a position that would get you out of the college grad title, go for it. If you have the opportunity to find professional experience that contributes to what you want to do, make sure you would do it regardless of pay or location. Most importantly find out what you want to do before you graduate.

But if your anything like me and you prefer a breadth of knowledge, you prefer to be flexible and limitless, this is easier said than done. Without my plethora of different experiences, I would always wonder what would have happened if I went a different route. Personally I perceive some career choices to be a limiting. To me some choices made in life give you less freedom than others. One opportunity taken is another opportunity lost. More on this later...

Things I've Learned During the Unemployed Phase

"It’s been quite a blessing experience, and for that I am truly grateful"

Businesses can’t take risks in employing college graduates these days. When I look up entry-level positions, they want someone with 2-5 years of experience. This reduces the risk companies have to take in training someone they don’t know will stay with the company. 75% of cost is unrecovered in the first six months of training a graduate. Most college graduates don’t really know what career path they want to stick to either. Businesses can’t take a lot of risk in general. Why not? 

I have become more aware of our economic playground. If I had gotten into a job out of college I probably wouldn’t pay much attention to the economy and the decisions that politicians make. Increases in Tax legislation can decrease income. Businesses now have less money. That means less money to invest and take risk with. There's too much risk in hiring college grads without solid experience. It’s not just the politicians that affect our economy; it’s also the moral compass that our country is shifting to.  But this isn’t a political article, and more on this may come later.

At this point though, I’ve learned more progressive chord changes on the guitar as well as the piano. I’ve written four new songs, and rewritten three of them. As you know, writing music is a hobby of mine. This part of me probably wouldn’t change even if I were employed. I love music. Sure would be nice to have some people to jam with.

I’ve learned how to cook. When you live at home, and you aren’t employed you have quite a bit of free time. Because both my parents work full time jobs, I decided to volunteer by cooking. It’s easy right? You just look up a recipe online and follow it. Wrong? Remember that a Teaspoon is not the same as a tablespoon and if it’s salt you’re adding, that can be a problem. Oops! “Isn’t this amazing Dad? Who would’ve thought your son would cook you dinner?” I can cook a pretty good set of corn bread.

I’ve driven across Northern California, and I am now familiar with the surrounding cities of the San Francisco Bay Area: Pleasanton, Bodega Bay, Sebastopol and basically all the cities you would know by the time you became a local. I feel that I have had quite the experience in meeting Californians, though I haven’t actually gotten to know any yet.

The Napa Valley Drivers are slow. I’m guessing it has to do with the simple life and the scenic view. Tourists like to come here and just drive slow, especially on the curves.

As an auto enthusiast, if you’ve ever wanted to drive a muscle car in manual transmission, this is not the place to do it. There is quite a bit of stop and go traffic, large populations, and plenty of curves. If your car can’t handle curves, you might find it rather enjoyable on long drives.

I have always wanted to go to the shooting range. Strange that I lived in Texas my whole life where guns are a popular thing to experience but I never found the time to do it. Not to mention, guns honestly scare me. When I see a gun I can’t help but think “dangerous”. But hey, I’ll use the Second Amendment and “Dangers” My middle name.

I have always known California to be liberal, but I haven’t seen anything that

Would be absurd? I did notice that when I asked for a local “bible study” the church constituents looked at me strange and responded “Bible study?” for the high school kids maybe. But it might just be the Napa Valley Catholic Church; that and Texas is part of the Bible belt. If I ever prayed for anything it was to learn and experience something new and I think my prayers for that have been answered.

In addition to that, working out with no equipment has been interesting. Napa Valley doesn’t have any worthwhile gyms that are under $100 per month. I doubt there are very many “smart” girls there to talk to either. As I result I now do squats, push-ups, sit-ups, dips, and much more using only my body weight. Believe me, that is not a problem. There is plenty of body weight to lift here.

The biggest accomplishment so far is figuring out what I want to do for a career. So far, I have two interviews scheduled: one this Wednesday with and one on Monday. We’ll see how this goes. The companies aren’t scams either. I learned how to scope those out as well. 

It’s been quite a blessing experience, and for that I am truly grateful.

When Optimism Can Get the Best of You, Desperate times...

The last blog I wrote, I mentioned I was a glass-half-full guy. Generally I like to keep a positive outlook even when times are bad, at least most of the time. This is a blog about how this positive outlook can blind you from what's actually there. I will be writing this blog in a disappointed fashion, so bare with me if the writing is choppy.

The day before yesterday I had received a phone call for a position I had just applied to in the same day. It was a position of the entry level and sounded great. The offered paid training, and sounded very professional.

The company was called Verity Concepts, Inc. Before I go on an interview I generally like to research on the company's history as well as its management team. I looked up their LinkedIn as well as their Glass door reviews.  I found a person on LinkedIn who was a recent graduate from UC Santa Cruz and had worked for them for two months. I also found their Facebook page. It was great, as they had photos of all these employees having a good time and they had all these popular fortune 500 companies as their clients.

Yesterday morning, I drove to their location in Concord, and found their office to be quite alive. On their door was a familiar symbol of a golden lion scratching a globe.

As soon as I walked in I was met with a room that wasn't stuffy, and there was another girl sitting by the waiting chairs. I think she was waiting to be interviewed. I was then met by the recruiter who preceded to give me an application to fill out and told me to attach my resume.
 
The receptionist at the desk in the room was a girl in her 20's who seemed pretty "smart". She was talking about a funny movie scene she had just recently watched. "Are you talking about Dumb and Dumber?" I asked. We started to talk about Jim Carey Movies, and how she was this huge fan. I paid attention as I noticed the recruiters were watching. Remember that recruiters generally like people who can converse will with the employees of the company. It may prove that you are a good fit.

When it was my time to interview, the interview went great. I was so excited. The interviewer was this manager who happened to be from 'DALLAS'. He even "mentioned" he went to UT Dallas; that's where I transferred to UT Austin from. We made jokes, and talked about how we both grew up in the area. He even mentioned that Verity Concepts was located across the Galleria Mall, in the same area as my previous employer.

It struck me, "Oh yeah, I thought I'd seen your symbol somewhere before, you worked right next to us" I told him. We cracked jokes about our experiences, and I couldn't help but smile. The guy seemed really well-rehearsed, and really outgoing. I thought, this must be a great company to work for. I walked out shaking hands, noticing the video game room in the back, which added to my excitement. This must be a fun place to work. It was creative, colorful, and had people in their 20's like me. They said they'd call me later today to tell me if I made the second round of interviews.

That day I had spread the word to all my friends, to share my excitement. I told my parents how well the interview had went. It was a good day, and so I thought. I received two phone calls later that day. One was from a company that my Aunt works for. I had been waiting for a call from them for two weeks. The second call was from Verity Concepts, and the invited me to a second interview. Whoopee!!!!

Sounds great right? WRONG! Later that night, my mom had gotten back to me to tell me that the company seems shady. She looked up their upper management and found strange information. I thought "it's probably just a small company, Mom". She said the "VP" didn't look intelligent, and the company had been open since 1990. For an advertising company it should have a better website, and more credentials. It must've started over and went bankrupt somewhere in the mysterious timeline.

I decided to research the company some more to find out if it was a scam. I have been met by scams before. Like meeting someone and finding out they were dead the whole time, like finding out you were talking to a ghost, I read a blog talking about the company. The blogger had gone on this second interview with them and mentioned it was a "Door-to-door" selling pyramid scheme. In which the company hires fresh graduates, convincing them that it will lead to the ultimate job. The pay is completely commission based, and they will use you up.

http://entryleveljobscamsblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/verity-concepts-inc-concord-ca.html

I was sickened. I was struck with utter disappointment; what a waste of time. After all the excitement and after feeling like I had come some close to finding something, it was absolutely desolate. It wasn't real. That's what gets me, none of this was real. I felt like Pinocchio visiting "pleasure island". "The receptionist was probably just a friend sitting there having a good time", my mom said.

The bright side of course is that I have a mother to help me figure this out before it got worse. My parents told me that had this been 20 years ago, companies like that would die out before they got started. Today, job postings are free and can go unfiltered. They can be convincing. Most of all, these are desperate times, and people are willing to do anything they think would get their foot in the door.

A deeper feeling inside me feels mixed. I feel like I had driven on the edge of something. I have yet to tell the company that I will not be going to that second interview. I feel like I need to do something. But what am I going to do, I had been cheated. I "almost" had been cheated. Others will be cheated though.

(sigh)

Technically, they aren't doing anything illegal, just unethical.

I looked for more job postings that night, and now have the awareness to spot the fakes.  If it sounds like an amazing entry-level position just type the "name" of the company and type "scam" right next to it.

"When optimism can get the best of you, desperate times call for desperate measures"

It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn

So....

It's the day after Easter and I've decided to take up working out again. I've had some recent inspiration to feel empowered. Not having a job for awhile can make you feel pretty bummed out after awhile. Although I am a glass-half-full-kind of guy, sometimes that glass needs to be filled with something NOT chocolate milk.

In recent events, it is also my little sister's Spring Break and I volunteered to take care of her. My parents were going to send her to camp, but I thought I'd help them save money. She's seven years old and has unlimited amounts of energy. Today I made her read a book, made sure she didn't have too much sugar, took her for a hike in Napa Valley. We even had a jam session to sing some songs that she likes. Have you heard the music seven-year olds are into these days? Cher Lloyd's "Want you back". Ahhh!!!! Why?

We even sat and watch a movie called "Cats & Dogs". It wasn't bad.  Let me tell you, she's a Wonka kid. Y'know like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Imagine the rudeness of Verruca Salt and the appetite of Augustus Glupe. Don't worry, I reprimand her, but I can only do so much before it feels like the world is going to fall apart. Do I like kids? Well...if you ever hear my response, then you'll know why.  I would make a terrible parent. Enough about this. It was good day. I'm just exhausted. I rest and think about how different life has become.

To my main point...in all of this...do you ever feel like you missed out in life? But not because anyone made you miss out, but because you can't change who you are. I look on my facebook, and I see the fun that people seem to be having in the pictures they post. I think deeply about the friends I made, and the people I never made the time to talk to. I think about all the useless hours I spent studying for that exam. Sometime I feel like I didn't learn anything in school. I made all these friends that will come and go as time goes by, because God only knows I can't keep up with all of them. People will change, and friends get too busy to call their friends.

Something I miss about living in a college town like Austin was the ease of meeting so many people, especially the ladies. In Austin, the girls were not only "smart", they were everywhere. You could simply just walk outside, and talk to a girl walking by. You could maybe go to the gym, or the food courts; the mixers and the study halls. Planning the events and getting the numbers.  My friends and I would go out and be each other's wingman.  Man, do I miss this. Of course, none of us ever took this seriously. It was all just fun and laughs.

You would never take that seriously in college, because you went to school to accomplish something. You went there to obtain a great education which would lead to a career. You didn't bother with the distractions because you focused on your studies. You told yourself that you would work hard in school, because that's what you were there for. You graduate, and you move out of there like you had planned from the start. You never knew exactly where you might go, but you knew you weren't going to stay.

Now I am in a town where none of that is here. You don't have your friends, and you no longer live in a college town with everything you know. You are not a college kid anymore, and you realized that during last semester when conversation topics changed. You don't relate with college kids on the same level as you used to.  If I had to go back and do it all again, I wouldn't have done it differently. Because I couldn't. There's no regret here. Just pure nostalgia. You start to think, could I have gotten more out of college in any other way? Maybe. Maybe not.

What did I learn? I learned that the more and more you learn, you realize that you actually don't know anything at all. And that none of this seems to be in your control. You can't predict the future and you can't know the things you don't know. So you might as well just be glad you learned something, even if it's not what you expected and move forward. Life is good, and life will get better. Remember at times that it's always darkest before the dawn.