White Elephant Hangout

Yesterday, I had a White Elephant with some friends. It was my second time doing White Elephant. But, I think it's pretty fun and everyone gets to leave with a present. The other two times that I have played White Elephant, I didn't actually bring a gift myself. Instead, I was told that there was going to be a White Elephant event going on that day and that there was a present I could use to participate. Since it was my first time actually providing a gift for White Elephant, I wasn't sure what to give. I decided to put in a bunch of random things together. Among the items I put together were a handkerchief, 3x5 cards, post-its, and a clean thing that was given to me a few years back. Of course, none of the products were used before and were just somewhere in my home for a long period of time.

I played with four other people. We decided the order by writing down a number and putting that in a bag. Everyone choose number and it was decided that the lowest numbers would start off the game. The first person to open a gift was Juliet. Juliet decided to open my gift. She seemed kind of confused about what the cleaning thing was for and the handkerchief. Next, Chen opened a gift and it was a make up set from Vy. Mei decided to take Chen's makeup set instead of opening one up. So, Chen had the choice again of opening another one up or stealing the other gifts that were open. Chen choose to open another gift and it was a small office supply set with pins, labels, a stapler, and tape. Vy didn't want to take anything, but she decided to open one of the two remaining gifts. Vy opened the present that was supplied by Chen and it was a bag. I knew that I wanted to leave with something I like, so I took Chen's gift, the small office supply set. Chen decided to open the last gift and it was a picture frame. She looked happy because she can put it in her cubicle for the job she just started.

Overall, I think the White Elephant went well yesterday. Everybody left home with a gift that was useful or that they really liked. I also felt that what put ended up with were probably the best choice for that person.

100 Movies in Theater

I just finished watching my 100th movie in theaters. 10 years ago, I would never have imagined that I would even come close to that number! But, how can I be sure that I watched 100 movies in theater already? I been keeping track for over a year now because I realized I watched too many movies and love staying organized.

How was it like watching 100 movies in a theater? I got to say that it went by fast and I hardly knew that I was watching so many movies, despite the fact that I kept track. I do know that my volunteering in 2009 for TUTD is the main reason that I watch so many movies. Before I volunteered at TUTD, I watched about zero movies a month and then it progressed to about 2-3 movies a month.

Although I watched so many movies in the past couple of years, they aren't always movies I enjoyed. I watched so many movies most people would not go and watch, but I watched anyway to review the movie or just to watch the movie. There has been rare cases, in which, I had the movie theater to myself and/or with a friend. I been to different theaters in Vacaville, Sacramento, and Davis. However, I haven't been to all the theaters around those areas.

I remember the first movie I ever watched in theaters and that is "Without a Paddle" and I watched it with my brother and sister. I remembered it being a cheap movie and the movie was hilarious. The last movie that I watched is "Skyfall". Although I was keeping track of the movies I watched up to 100, I decided to go with the flow and not watch most movies to get a certain number.

I made it a lifetime goal to watch 100 movies in theaters. I have reached that goal. But, I'm not ready to stop watching movies. Instead, I aim to reach higher and continue to watch movies. I know that my volunteer work with TUTD will end in a few weeks, but my movie watching will persist.

Movies I've Watched in Theaters

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	Date	Name	Where?	Why?
1		A Nightmare on Elm Street	G Street	TUTD
2		African Cats	F st	TUTD
3		Alice in Wonderland	SAC DT
4	12/26/09	Avatar	SAC DT	FUN
5		Black Swan	2nd Street
6		Bride Wars	F st
7	10/2/10	Case 39	??	TUTD
8		Crazyheart	Davis?	TUTD
9		Due Date	F st	Hang out
10		Eat. Pray. Love.	Tower????
11		Exit through the gift shop	Tower	TUTD
12		Fast 5	G st	TUTD
13		For the Colored Girls		TUTD
14	2/7/09	Gran Tarino	Davis 5
15		Gulliver's Travels		TUTD
16		Harry Brown	Crest
17	2/14/09	He's just not that into you	?	Hang out
18		Hoodwinked Too! Hood v. Evil	F st
19		How to train a Dragon	SAC DT
20	8/29/10	Inception	G st	TUTD
21	12/1310	Inside Job	Tower	TUTD
22	12/26/09	It's Complicated	SAC DT
23		Letters to Juliet	G st	TUTD
24	6/12/08	Man of Honor?
25		No Strings Attached		TUTD
26	10/25/10	Paranormal Activity 2		TUTD
27		Post Grad
28		Precious	Arden Century
29		Shrek 3D. Shrek 4 Forever After	UA EK	TUTD
30		Sex and the City 2	SAC DT	TUTD
31		She's out of my League		TUTD
32		Sorority Row	G st
33		Suckerpunch
34		The American		TUTD
35		Expendables		TUTD
36		The Fighter		TUTD
37		The Final Destination	SAC DT	TUTD
38		The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard		TUTD
39		The Kids Are Alright.	2nd Street	TUTD
40		SAW VI	F st
41		The Rite	PG-13	TUTD
42	8/20/09	The Time Traveler's Wife	Century Laguna	FUN
43		The Young Victoria	DVD	TUTD
44		Unstoppable	F st	FUN
45		Valentine's Day	UA Arden	FUN
46		The Lincoln Lawyer	Santa Monica Promenade	TUTD
47		Whiteout	DT	TUTD
48		Youth in Revolt		TUTD
49		The Art of Getting By	Century Laguna	TUTD
50		Transformers 3D	Century Laguna	FUN
51	15-Apr	Scary Movie 4
52		Horrible Bosses	Century Laguna	TUTD
53		Without a Paddle	Sunrise
54		Watchmen
55	1-Jul	Click	SAC DT
56		Priest 3D	F st
57		The Simpsons	Century Arden Ethan	FUN
58		Jumping the Broom		TUTD
59	20-Jul-11	Cowboys and Aliens	F st	TUTD
60		The Help		TUTD
61		Harold and Kumar Christmas	Arden Century	FUN
62	20-Dec	Young Adult		TUTD
63	Nov-11	Jack and Jill
64		Tower Heist		TUTD
65		My Week With Marilyn	Tower	TUTD
66		Fright Night		TUTD
67		Contraband	Tower	TUTD
68		The Grey	F st	TUTD
69		Carnage	F st	TUTD
70		The Devil Inside	F st	TUTD
71	Oct-09	Couples Retreat
72	11/28/09	The Boondocks II: All Saints Day	Folsom	TUTD
73		Wanderlust		TUTD
74	Mar-10	Silent House		TUTD
75	30-Mar-12	Hunger Games	Century Arden Ethan	FUN
76	31-Mar-12	Salmon Fishing in the Yemen		TUTD
77		American Reunion	F st	TUTD
78	28-Apr	The Five Year Engagement	F st	TUTD
79		Jeff, who lives at Home	Regal, Arden	TUTD
80	4-May	Marvel's The Avengers	F st	FUN
81	11-May	Dark Shadows	G st	FUN
82	18-May	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	Tower	TUTD
83	23-May	The Dictator	G st	Free Movie Ticket
84	3-Jun-12	Men in Black III	F st	FUN
85	24-Jun-12	Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter	Century Laguna	TUTD
86		The Intouchables	Tower	TUTD
87		Snow White and the Huntsman	G st	Fun
88	28-Jun-12	Seeking a Friend at the End of the World	Century Laguna	Fun
89	30-Jun-12	Magic Mike	UA Laguna	TUTD
90	8-Jul-12	Savages	UA Laguna	TUTD
91	8/5/12	Take This Waltz	Crest	TUTD
92	8/12/12	The Campaign	Century Arden Ethan	TUTD
93	8/17/12	Expendables 2	UA Laguna	TUTD/FUN
94		Ruby Sparks	Tower	TUTD
95	9/2/12	Farewell My Queen	Crest	TUTD
96	9/8/12	Lawless	Century Arden Ethan	TUTD
97	10/1/12	Looper	Century Laguna	TUTD
98	10/14/12	Seven Psychopaths	Century Laguna	TUTD
99	11/2/12	Wreck it Ralph	Century Laguna	TUTD/FUN
100	10-Nov-12	Skyfall	Century Laguna	FUN

Job Searching

I feel like I have been going in circles the past couple of months. I have endlessly been applying for jobs of interest. I knew it was hard before I started job searching, but I have to admit that it's very stressful and difficult.

It's definitely a learning process. In order to apply for jobs, I have to understand my work/internship/volunteer experiences and skills, but I have to market them to each job I apply in order to achieve results. I feel that each time I work on a cover letter, I notice something that I can improve on whether its using better keywords, applying more relevant skills, and/or the sentence structure. In addition, I feel that people who have reviewed my resume and cover letter have been very helpful in my improvement. Each person has their own perspective and it helps to know what someone thinks of a one page document that you use to describe yourself through experiences and skills.

I have received a number of interviews. There were some interviews that I had to decline because I realized that the work is something I couldn't imagine myself doing in the future. Other times, I went through an interview for companies of interests really hoping to receive an offer, but usually don't get a response back.

It's very tiring to know that I don't know when I will be hearing back. Some places might respond a few days or hours after applying, while some take weeks or months to inform me of a status. Since I am a person that likes to achieve results and plan things out ahead of time, job searching makes it much more difficult since it can't be planned, as it in the decision of employers/hiring managers. In the meantime, I'm staying positive and I'm going to keep applying!