Tastes: Food + Music

Food: I think I've successfully transitioned back to carnivore land. I eat meat actually pretty regularly since I went home for the holidays. My mom's turkey/ham/etc. opened up a pandora's box for me. I called this early period "flexitarian" but I think it's full-fledge meat-eating now. Although it's usually at restaurants that I do this. At home, I still prefer veg options.

Music: I love pop music and I love Scandinavian music and most of all, I love Scandinavian pop music, but I think my taste for music is transition into electronic once again. It changes so often. Let's see where this goes.

Goals: Trance and maybe France

1. Attend a house / electro / trance party this year. Currently listening to Château Flight's "Cosmic Race." Excellent!

2. Visit aforementioned friends in France. Or if that's not possible, I'd still like to get out of the country. Canada, Central/South America? We'll see.

Highlights: Departures, Offers, and Swimmers

Keeping tabs on my 2011 goings-on. Let's see if I can do this.

On January 4, one of my good friends, who I will endearingly call Gogo, left for France. What that means is I was in kind of a funk for a couple days. I gave him the best going away present though -a Texas license place! Straight from my car!

On January 10, I got a full-time offer from Facebook! What that means is I can carry on with my final semester at UT without having to worry about employment upon graduation. I feel very, very fortunate.

On January 16, I went to my first swim meet, which turned out to be a pretty legit one that had world class swimmers participating. What that means is I got to see Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte (among other big name Olympians) swim. It was pretty legendary.

Hoping that other funtastic things happen in 2011! I'm hugely optimistic :)

2010 Recap

Just a quick note to help me remember why 2010 was such a great year.

• I made some life changes after realizing that I do things because I think they'd be good for me and my future and not because I like doing them. After making an important academic decision, I lifted a heavy weight from my shoulders and I became happy again. Thanks, Professor Adams!
• Spent the summer in Sunnyvale, CA and fell in love with San Francisco
• Met a lot of great people while I was in California, including but not limited to Geetanjali (Berkeley), Mai (North Carolina), some Canadian folk from Toronto (Waterloo), and my roomie Evan (who now works for HP). I definitely still keep up with a lot of them and I'm glad that I made such good friends while I was there.
• Worked for Palm / HP - my first paid internship ever. I'm still incredibly thankful for this opportunity and grateful to my hiring manager, David, who gave it to me. I applied thinking it was a longshot, but I ended up getting it. That I'm a fan of Wes Anderson, that I blog, and that I'm a UT student helped I think (he's a UT alum). They paid for my flight, my apartment, and lent me a bike. Best thing that's happened to me so far.
• Saw Lady Gaga live in concert for free. Tickets cost $200! The experience was such a blast.
• I had a guy fall in love with me, ask me on a date, and pretty much creeped on me for a week. I'm definitely not used to that and I was really uncomfortable then, but now it makes for a funny story.
• Met a lot of great people in the Fall 2010 semester, including a lot of foreign exchange students from Europe who I plan on visiting if I ever find myself over there. Hugo & David of Toulouse, France; Veronika of Prague, Czech Republic; and Mads of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Went to New York for the first time ever and got to see a lot of Manhattan and some of Brooklyn.
• On December 14, I got out of the subway and found myself in Bryant Park, where I checked my messages and found out that a company wanted to extend to me an offer for full-time employment. Ecstatic, I called my mom and told her the good news. It was freezing balls, but it was such a great moment. I won't forget it.
• Finally, I got all A's in the Fall 2010 semester, the first time since +/- system went into effect.

I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of things that made the year so great, but I think I've highlighted the major events.

2011 is starting off a little slow, but I don't doubt that it will a great one, too. 2010 might be a little tough to top, but I'm optimistic. Very optimistic.