Sorry all.

Finals, Dead week, and other random things in life have kept me away from posting. The fact that I now have 3-4 weeks to myself makes me wonder how to the heck I’m going to divide up my time. Oh, right! Here’s my list that I’m not going to bother checking twice:

• Spend more time with friends and family.
• Read the books I couldn’t get to at GT. (Btw, it isn’t Calculus.)
• Setup my LLC.
• Begin work on several web projects.
• Wonder what Christmas is all about.
• Sleep
• Play Call of Duty 4, but not before finishing this beast…

Stay tuned!

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Lesson 3: Play Your Cards Right

Right off the bat, I knew I couldn’t get the 5.0 GPA I was aiming for in 10^th Grade. Apparently in my circumstance, an “A” and Pre-AP Chemistry did not coexist in the same universe. School was…well, repetitive. At this point in my life, I’ve never really aspired to be anything. To me, everything followed a cyclical trend:

1. Wake up
2. Hit Snooze button
3. Wake up again
4. Breakfast
5. Go to school
6. Lunch
7. Finish school
8. Walk home
9. Do homework
10. Dinner
11. Do more homework
12. Sneak in Counter-Strike time with a twitchy hand on Alt and Tab
13. Shower
14. Sleep
15. Rinse and Repeat

(Somewhere along the line there was SAT/PSAT preparation too)

Anyways, this cycle continued all the way till the end of my Junior year. Almost two years of autonomous nonsense.

Actually, to be honest, I wanted to be a Professional Counter-Strike player…there I said it. I had some crazy mad headshotting skill back then!

Now I’m about to go into a pretty embarrassing portion of my life. I’m pretty sure that I’ll regret this in the future, but it’s one of those mistakes imperfect people, like myself, make.

There once was a great evil that would deplete all the money I’ve saved up as a child. It is a force to be reckoned with. An addiction. A drug. It also doesn’t help when a card store is just down the street…

That’s right. Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards!

I remember on one occasion, this kid wanted to take a look at my cards during lunch. Being the naïve person that I was, I let him hold my silver card-protected deck in all its glory. He suddenly started walking away with my cards. I frantically rushed after him as he headed up three flights of stairs. Next thing I know, we were together in the restroom. The kid was holding my cards hostage over the toilet, and I finally figured out punk kids existed. I was staring right at one. At this point, I believe my mouth was set to repeat, saying “Please don’t” a million times. Luckily, my negotiation skills weren’t too terrible (especially while on my knees while being slightly annoying) that I came out of that situation without any of my precious babies falling to their watery doom.

Trading cards are probably the worst possible investment anyone could every make. Yet, I fell for it. I don’t remember whether it was the emotion when flipping a “trap card” or scoring an ultra-rare “Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon” card from a booster pack. But whatever it was, it was fueling my addiction, and stole all my birthday money. So much for startup capital…

I could’ve used that money to buy a video card, and improve my CS skill, setting me on the path to become a professional gamer. Or…

I could’ve used that money to pick up a book, perhaps the book was Rich Dad Poor Dad, setting me on the path of an entrepreneur much earlier in my life. Or…

I could’ve dated a girl, lose all my money from our dates, setting me on the path to not date women for a very long time…since they usually have very low ROIs.

Life tends to give you a special hand of cards, it’s up to you to play them right.

So I was flying through life playing the wrong cards…literally. What was my solution to the problem? Will I ever get back on the right track? Will the Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards meet their watery doom? To be continued in the next lesson…

Goals at the time: Flush? Y/N

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The screen on my T-Mobile Dash died Friday. Pretty much when I power it up, I get a nice white screen that tells me absolutely nothing, even though the phone still functions (Woot for Microsoft Voice Command!). The replacement covered by warranty should arrive sometime within the next week free of charge. T-Mobile certainly knows how to deal with their customers!

Surprisingly, I had a pretty entertaining chat with the customer service lady, even though the Dash was the only phone I had in Georgia (I was desperate [oh noes! my QWERTY!]). After the phone conversation, I realized that even the smallest hint of sincere appreciation can change the tone of any conversation, and ultimately the outcome. I’m sure if I treated the customer representative rashly with impatience, I would be out shopping for a new phone! So remember:

The smallest bit of honest appreciation that can brighten someone else’s day, can, in turn, brighten yours.

Anyways, please drop me a line via the Contact page or IM me if you really need to contact me. Luckily I still can receive calls, but unable to identify them… excellent time for ex-girlfriends to phone me up and start making threats!

EDIT: Wow that was quick! I got my replacement Dash today (11/13/07), and it even has Windows Mobile 6 installed! Excellent work T-Mobile!

EDIT 2: Apparently I rank strongly in Google for this so called “WSOD” that affects the T-mobile Dash and HTC S620. My advice to those people out there with this problem is to contact T-mobile and make sure you are within the warranty period. If you are, you should be able to get the phone replaced for free. T-mobile sends you a box with a replacement phone that is as bare as it gets - Just the phone without a battery or battery cover. You have to use your existing battery and cover. Those of you that are out of the warranty period, if you are up to the challenge, you can purchase a replacement screen and DIY(see video below), otherwise you are out of luck

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Even while at college, I probably spend more time reading Personal/Religious books than my actual class textbooks. Currently in my library I am reading or planning to read:

• The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
• How to Win Friends & Influence People
• The 4-Hour Workweek
• PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites
• Head Rush AJAX
• Smart Start-Ups
• Campus CEO
• Inside Facebook
• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days
• Business @ the Speed of Thought
• Getting Real

These are just the books in my drawers in Atlanta, and I have more books sitting in my closet in Houston. I recently finished my 40-day journey with Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life, and what an adventure! If you’re a Christian, you definitely have to read this book in your lifetime.

I was once told that 9 times out of 10, if you walk into a home that cost less than $120,000, you will find a Big Screen Television!

However, if you walked into a home that cost $200,000 or more you would always find a library.

I love getting educated, and not just within academia. Education shapes your identity, your perception of things, and eventually your future. So again, what’s in your library?

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Earlier, I was at the Bank of America ATM in the Student Center withdrawing money to pay back a friend. While trying to find a place to set down my drink, I managed to find another Bank of America card lying on top of the ATM machine. Because I realized the special role social networks play when it comes to returning lost bank cards, I quickly whipped out my Dash and logged into our LAWN WiFi system.

Within seconds, I was on m.facebook.com and already had the person’s profile on my phone. Given my phone’s limited capabilities, I decided sending a message through Facebook was the best way to get in contact with the person(especially when most college students spend 99% of their time on Facebook). I gave the card to the Lost and Found at the information desk and hoped the owner is a compulsive Facebook user.

So now I can finally say that Facebook and their nicely designed mobile client has made me somewhat of a good Samaritan. Maybe social networks are not doomed after all!

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