Thursday, May 8, 2003

its days like these when i actually learn a lot from class. today a guest speaker came into our business management class and talked about his journey up the "corporate ladder." he's a cal poly alumn...but it took him 9 years to graduate. kinda makes me feel good cuz i'm probably lookin' at a 7 year plan myself. anyways, he talked about how he moved from wisconsin to LA in hopes of being a rock star...but he didn't make it in that so he turned to little jobs like sweeping at K-Mart...kept working at it...and now he's making $300 grand a year as CEO of a brokerage firm.

one tip he told us was "pick your enemies carefully...cuz you don't want an enemy that can beat you...you want an enemy that you can squash like a bug."

another tip he told us was, as shitty as it sounds, there is no real such thing as "fairness" in business...all it comes down to is how productive you are and how much money your company is making because of you.

he also made a big deal on how you can never be overdressed for an interview. "if you can spend $1,500 on a really nice suit...get it. if you can get a $500 tie...get it too. image is everything in the corporate world."

after 1.5 hours of speaking, the theme that was prevalent throughout his lecture was how when you start out at the bottom, be good to everyone and karma will pay you back. for example, whenever he finished a big project he'd give all of the credit to his co-workers and none to himself. even though he made the effort to make his co-workers look better, everyone knew that he was the one in charge and he deserved a lot of the credit. he modesty and generosity paid off and now he's a CEO banking in $300K a year.

whoa cool!! a newspaper wants to interview me!!!

i just got an email from a (canadian) journalist that's working on an article on foreigners that grew up in saudi. if any of you guys are interested in getting interviewed or something, drop me a line and i'll see if i can hook you up.

felìz el cinco de mayo mis amigos!! el queso está viejo y petrido. donde está el baño?

sorry, that's all the spanish i know....

today's a good day!! no, i didn't get laid or anything (inshallah) but i was talkin' to some cute girls in class this morning. also i just finished a kick ass design for my justbball.com...by far the coolest design i've ever done!! hopefully i'll have it up within a week.

another cool thing is i found someone that is really tight with the guy that runs the Summer Pro League in long beach. its a HUGE hookup because a lot of bball superstars play there...which means a whole shit load of national publicity...and i might actually get my site promoted there!!! just watch, one of these days kobe bryant and other stars are gonna be sporting justbball gear!! man, this networking shit is cool!!

on the way to lunch i watched two ducks doing it. mr. duck was all biting her neck and doing it rough and shit...it was was funny but also strangely arousing... :bigthumbup:

the dinner table is meant for dining, not talking. so the next time your at a restaurant with a friend or significant other, ignore their asses and clean house.

aight, so last night i've been having all kinds of crap since i tried to upgrade my computer. i promised myself that i wouldn't go to bed til i got everything up and running because the next day i have a paper to do. we finally get it done and i pass out around 5 in the morning.

for some reason in my sleep, i woke up around 8:44 because i had a feeling that i set my alarm clock to PM instead of AM again...low and behold i was right.

"fuck...i've got 15 minutes to get ready and get my ass in the far building!!"

so i throw on some clothes (kinda as fast as i could but i also wanted to put on something decent cuz of this one cutie i sit next to) and i run to the bathroom, brush my teeth while i'm firing my morning missle and take off to class.

i'm totally hauling ass cuz i have to turn in my part of the group assignment and the TA is super-anal about tardiness. the entire time i'm running i'm thinkin' to myself, "god damnit, i'm gonna be late...wtf its so late that there isn't even anyone else walking around....everyone else is already in their classes!! fuck oh fuck of fuck oh fuck. why the fuck did i wake up at 8:44...i have class at 10, damnit...wait...class at 10...wtf...ITS NOT EVEN 9:30..."

i loathe myself...

UPDATE: i found $30 on the street on the way to my class!!! :thefinger:

alan came over for the weekend. played a lot of bball thursday night then went straight to my crib in long beach. when i finished taking a shower i realized i forgot to bring extra pairs of boxers...so i went commando....for 3 days.

and now its late sunday and honestly...i kinda like freeballin. less laundry...no more need to buy boxers...its like a newfound freedom...i could get used to this...

damn, so the other day i weighed myself for the first time since before spring break...and i swear, the scale has to be off by 6 lbs. the scale now says i'm 231...which is by far the most i've ever weighed...looks like its time to go back on a diet.

i'm not gonna go on the Ziad Crash Diet and cut out all carbs from my life...fuck sake, i'm asian...i live on rice, damnit. instead i'm just gonna go back to the subway diet...this time around i'm gonna eat a 6 inch sweet onion chicken teriyaki for dinner and another 6 inch a couple hours later.

and when i do lose 45 lbs, i'm gonna go spandex crazy, baby!!! just kidding

Friday, April 4, 2003

the past week i've learned a lot about myself. my econ professor, mr. martinez started off the quarter by telling us how he used to be a major fuckup in his college days. that was a shame because he was really smart in high school and junior high. his first year of college he had a 0.5 gpa, and he kept telling us all of his stories of him goin' to mexico and getting wasted throughout his first year of college. he was living off of his mom and seemed to be destined to fail. but then all of that changed for him.

his future wife tried real hard to help him get his shit together. she promised that she'd go to class with him and take notes for him. hell, she would go to class for him even when he wasn't there. that helped him change a bit...but it wasn't until the the day they had their first child that he realized he had to get his shit together.

it was at that point that his mom cut him off financially. "if you're man enough to have a child then you're man enough to make your own money." from there, he went back to school, graduated and even finished grad school. he did all this other shit because he had a family now. he told us of the old phrase, "behind every strong man is an even stronger woman."

that seemed rather mushy for me...but then he continued on saying a few years after his second child, his wife was killed in a car accident....at that point the entire classroom was dead silent. he then looked at the picture of his wife in his binder and said, "i was destined for failure but then she came along...i do everything for her now...she is my motivation...that's what all of you guys have to find...your motivation. i didn't think i had one but then i finally found it...and it was her...."

his story actually reminds me of me...i had a 0.25 gpa first quarter and i still lack the motivation to get straight A's and B's like i did back in saudi. i've gotta find that motivation again.

there's also been some other things that's happened this week...specifically, my april fools day prank on julie. well, it wasn't really the prank itself but rather the backlash afterwards. i find it real hard when my closest friends, even though they know it was all just a prank, start accusing me of being something that i'm not. that prank took a lot of it out of me and now all of a sudden, gay jokes don't seem so funny to me anymore.

because of all this, i'm making it official that i'm giving up on gay jokes. i'm also gonna cut back heavily on the perverted shit....its like i've been carrying the same immature 6th grade humor with me for the past 9 years. this probably explains why i have never been in a long term relationship...i could never joke around about anything other than perverted gay jokes.

but all of that's gonna change starting today. i'm 21 now. its time for me to start acting like it.