Iceskating

Every Friday night, BU has this special night even that takes place at the roof. There it is possible to ice-skate from 6 to 10 pm. One thing to know about me is that I love ice-skating. It is such a great place to socialize, meet people, and have fun at the same time. I believe it is also a romantic place to date someone. If your partner doesn’t know how to skate, just grab her hand and ice skate according to her speed. If she’s better than you, then grab her even tighter. If you’re lucky, you might even fall together romantic style ^^.

What I also like about Ice-skating is the speed sensation. It reminds me a winter sport. I can go relatively fast and do some nice tricks as well. When I went to the roof I was looking forward to get on the ice. However there was a little hiccup. The ice skate they give me was ridiculously old. It was so hard to put them on and after only 5 min, my feet started to hurt like hell. Each step was so painful and I looked so ridiculous too. All I wanted to do is to get rid of these ice-skating shoes, go home and massage my feet. However, my friends seemed to enjoy the rink. So we just stay a little longer and as for me, I just chilled on the ice for a while.

Eye of the Tiger

Since my 2 weeks of work out didn’t really make me lose any weight whatsoever, I’ve decided to push myself harder and focus on cardio. Now the thing about cardio is that it’s only effective when you keep your heart running for at least 30 to 45 minute. Below this time, you basically burn nothing but the energy you have ready at hand.

Me: “So to make it simple, I just need to keep my heart running for 30 minutes? This shouldn’t be too hard”.

Dave: “Well you need to run for AT LEAST above 30 minutes. Only after then, the energy you’ll burn after this lap of time will be depleted from your fat. I also suggest you to run with your sweater on so you can sweat more and burn more fat.”

Me: “Alright”

Dave:” Also remember to play a power song when you feel tired to give you a mental boost… Ready? Alright, let’s go tiger”.

This day, I’ve come prepared with all the required equipments:

• New Nike shoes I’ve just bought for 90 bucks, READY!
• Ipod with arm strap loaded with power song, READY!
• Bottle of water, READY!

Today, there is no way I’m coming back home without losing at least 5 lbs of fat! So I’ve decided to run for one hour on one of those treadmills. I pressed the button “Quick start” and “3…”, “2…”, “1…”. and the tread started to move. Let’s put the speed at 6 for a little warm up…

As I run, I couldn’t help noticing this little timer that tracks my running time, a calorie meter and distance meter. Alright, today, I’m going explode those numbers!

• 2 min 14sec: I couldn’t help notice how boring running was.
• 3 min: My thirst is kicking in… humpff.. I’ve never thought it would be that hard to drink while running…
• 3min 20: My first drop of sweat falls. And my legs starts to get heavy… At this rate, I won’t last much longer. Power song! Power song! I need mental boost!

“Power song played: Eye of the tiger from Rocky…”

Tuuuuduuuutuuuuu… tuduuuduuuuu…!!

Alright baby! I’m back in the game… But lets speed down by a bit...

…

Oh no powersong is over… I’ve got nothing else to do besides running and …

Oh man… NO… Don’t look at the clock… Don’t look… crap…

What the?? oO 4 min 11 sec. How is that even possible? Have I entered in some sort of time distortion or something? At this rate, I’m going to kill myself. Let’s walk a little to regain my breath. All I need is to keep my heart running, so walking a little bit should be fine.

Breath… breath… the key is breathing…

After couple minutes, my body sweated as it never sweated before. My grey T-shirt who was supposedly grey turned black and sticky. I felt like my body was evaporating and that warm thick sweatshirt didn’t help at all. Doh... No wonder it's called a SWEATshirt. From this very moment, I only had one objective… to survive at least 10 min on the treadmill… To survive so I don’t look like an asthmatic rookie. After 10 minutes, tI barely made it alive…the calorie meter indicate 90 cal burnt… Barely enough to burn off a Coke…

Weight check

It's been 2 weeks I've been training and dieting non-stop and it's time to check if my work out sessions has done its magic. And for that, nothing is better than a weight check. So I wake up early in the morning, go for the toilet, took a leak, took my t-shirt out and every possible thing that could made me lighter... Here I go!!! Oo. What the?... The weight machine might have bugged the first time. Let's step on it again... How is it even possible?? Let's try to step on the weight machine with one foot. Sometimes it "does" works...

Well, according the weight machine which I believe it's totally wrong, there is a good news and a bad news. Let's start with the good news, I haven't gain more weight. As for the bad news... I haven't lost neither. It is such a disapointment not to be rewarded from any kind of hardwork.

From this very moment, people usually have 2 options. You either give up or work even harder. So I looked down at the weight machine and:

"Alright, you wanna put me into a challenge? See you tomorrow for mass cardio running! I will not yield.!"

"Yeah! that's the spirit!!"

Well you know, sometimes you gotta cheer yourself up in order not to lose hope -_-

Cover letter for Lucas Film

Lucasfilm University Relations

Attn: Jedi Academy Internships

P.O. Box 29919

San Francisco, CA 94129-0919

To whom it may concerns

I am an international graduated student from Paris Graduate School of Management and it is with great interest that I am applying for a business internship in your organization. I’m interested in any available position but more specifically marketing and advertising to complete my forth year of study. I have also notice an interesting internship position as Project management intern that I would like to apply for the period between July and December.

Academically, my extensive course work in international marketing department at the Boston University and Paris Graduate school of Management has allowed me to gain some knowledge and method and I would like to apply them in concrete situation. I am really interested into advertising and I often find myself analyzing commercial advertisements. Though my lack of professional experience in the marketing area, my team and I created a virtual event agency for a school project. Our goal was to promote and increase the notoriety of a brand name “Chupa Chups”. This project allowed us to be creative in making the company, from its name to its logo, and organized our product campaign.

As for my international experience, I had 5 months internship in Silicon Valley of California. I was to program an interface that would allow people to insert subtitles in any video support. At first, it was rather hard but I learn how to adapt and be autonomous in the company. I also studied for a year in Liverpool John More University and graduated in the computer and control system major. There, I learned how to work in team and improved my English communication skill. Thanks to these experience, I believe I’ve gain a broaden view of the world and its different culture as well as people behavior.

I’ve known the company since my childhood thanks to all Georges Lucas movies and several games I’ve played from The Jedi Knight series to X-wing series. I’m a big fan of video games and the universe involving the mysteries around Jedis. Therefore, I believe I will be fit to work in your environment.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Quang Khai Nguyen

Fenni Chen

This night, I went to the “Fondation bar” for a change. It is located near Kenmore T station. The bar is rather small and the music is ok. I danced a little, didn’t have any drink at all... Well not really an exciting night. However, the most interesting part was on my way home. I was walking with a girl I’ve met some days ago (she’s the one who thought I was gay in a previous party). Her name is Fenni Chen. You may know her since she happens to be an opera singer. She is famous in Taiwan as. And she sang for many events and even for the mayor of Boston. First, I didn’t really believe her at all... I mean it’s not every day someone comes across an opera singer, right? So I asked her to sing something for me own our way home. I expected some boring song. We were walking through the BU campus; no one was there, only the 2 of us…

“Somewheeeeeeere oveeeer the raiiiiiinbow, wayyy up highhhh”

“And the dreams that you dreamed of, once a lullabyyyyy”

“Somewhereeeere oveeer the Rainnbow, bluee birds flyyyy”

“And the dreaams that you dreamed of, dreams really come truuue”

Her voice echoed in the silenced street. After her performance… I just couldn’t say anything. I was just completely astonished. I just heard the most angelic voice in my life. It was so beautiful and I guess, some kind of romantic at the same time. I asked her why she left Taiwan for Boston. Indeed, she’s famous and is considered as a star in her home country… I don’t want to say too much about it but what I’ve learned from her is fame cannot buy everything. It may be better to sometime lay low to enjoy your life.

Walking down boston university

Like almost Wednesday of the week, I have to attempt Bruce’s class. However his class is the only one that starts at 1 pm instead of 9 pm. Does it really matter? Well it’s a great deal in my opinion for integrating BU. Unlike my 6 pm classes, when I walk down the street, I see many students walking the campus. It’s daylight. And I feel most of the student life happens during this period. People chitchat, study, eat together and so on. Even though I don’t know them, I’m doing what they are doing: heading to class. And this makes me feel I’m a part of BU. When I arrived in Boston I expected to do exactly what they are doing. This was supposed to be my opportunity to learn about the American culture by living their life. Not some sort of night program dedicated to foreign students. Indeed, my classes usually start at 6 pm therefore the environment is totally different. The street are not as full and it starts to get dark. It kind of feels like having a night job and therefore, I feel like out casted. To bad “Introduction to management” only happen once a week.

30 sec speech

I don’t know whether my dream job is advertising but I feel more and more interesting in this field. So if by any chance, I was to be stuck in the elevator with someone who handles the recruitment for future advertisers, what was I to say to attract his attention?

Well I would first show my interest in advertising in a concrete situation. Since I only have 30 second to talk about it, these notions will be short and simple. The idea is to show a short profile of mine so I can open another opportunity.

However, the hardest part would be to bring the subject naturally in the table. So what I would do is first to look at some advertisement either in the elevator or in some newspaper and show my feelings about it:

Me: “Oh this is such a good and interesting ad. I’ve been looking at it and now, all I want to eat is an American Cheese Burger.”

Recruiter: “Why do you think this is a good ad?

Me: “ Well if you look at eat, the ads doesn’t just show a burger like most ad would do. It attracts the customer by using a certain sense of humor and only after then, they create some sort of needs to whoever is looking at it.”

Recruiter: “This is such a deep analyses. Why are you so much interest in ads? Many people considers them as parasite”

Me: “Well first, from my point of view, it is considers as parasite because the ad itself failed to fulfill its role. As for me, good ads must be creative and logic. Creative because you first want to reach people and not just claims your brand or product and this requires creativity.

And I don’t especially like watching ads… I like watching good and entertaining ads. Like any movies or books… Some are good, some are bad. If I had the opportunity of creating an ad, I would’ve first focus on how to reach the audience before claiming anything”.

From this last session, I’m showing my interest of working in the ad industry and hoping he’s going to give me his card.

How to Blog Seriously...

This week, I am completely overwhelmed with homework. Not only I have to start with my papers, projects and case studies due for the next week but I also have to write a fifteen minutes blog that usually takes me roughly an hour. Why do I take so long to write a simple entry? Well… This is going to be the subject of this entry… Me bloging a 15 min entry for one hour… In this very post, I’m going to share with you how I proceed in bloging, how I chose my subject and where I get my inspiration.

The most important thing in writing is how to get your inspiration. And this is the hardest part for most people. However, they are many different ways to get inspirations:

If you were to write an essay on specific topic, one way would be to get yourself involved in the topic. I’m not saying you got to put effort into it; you just have to find some elements that connect you and the subject so you can write something with enthusiasm and even illustrate your saying. This part is really important since it makes the job much easier. If you can’t involve yourself than you can involve someone else you know. For example, I had to write something about the mayor of Boston who basically have the power to do anything he pleases. However he can’t do it because it may have bad consequences… And what does that reminds me? Spiderman 3: “ With great power comes great responsibility”. It’s fun, it illustrate the idea very well and it makes me write something… Anything you can connect to the subject is welcome. And if you can’t find anything, LIE. It’s not like there is going to be an investigation about what you’re writing. It generally requires a flexible morality.

The other technique would be to focus on the “how” when you have to write something that doesn’t interest you. As for example, I don’t write a blog about some birthday parties but more over “how” did the party go. Such as my sausage party, which was a complete failure. There several post on my blog where I focus a lot on the “how”.

As for this post, which technique do you think I’ve used?

Dieting

Since I’ve made a post about working out, I thought it would be fair to make an entry about dieting. Indeed, working out is just 50 percent of the job if you want to be cut. It’s rather hard, requires strength, you sweat and stink. The other fifty comes from dieting. It requires patience, a lot of will power, self-control and a certain taste for disgusting food. In my situation, dieting is no easy task. As I’m writing this post, I’m eating a brownie. I should be ashamed of myself… but somehow… I’m not… Anyway I have this 14 days meal plan which means I can eat twice a day at the dinning hall… You know… The “ All You Can Eat” style type of restaurant dedicated for students. So now you understand my frustration… Not only you have to eat healthy but you also have to eat very little. And the fact that it’s all you can eat is not going to help me at all.

As for the healthy part of dieting… It is so unfair. My roommate told me:

Dave: “You have to change your way of life and exclude all unhealthy food such as pizza, burgers, ice-cream and cheese.”

He obviously forgot that I come from France. We, French people, praise cheese like no other food in the world. It’s in our culture; it’s in our blood. There is no way on earth that I’ll be cutting on my precious cheese. So I was like:

Khai: “What? Cheese…”

Dave: “Don’t worry Khai, I knew French guy wouldn’t give up on this one. There is this cheese that unlike other cheese, is very healthy for you. I eat it every time”.

And Dave showed me something I’ve never seen before. It was white… liquid and solid at the same time. He calls it “cottage cheese”.

Me: “ Huh oO? That’s cheese? You’re kinding me right? Looks like a snowman threw up in your bowl. Put that away from my face… I ain’t eating none of his puke”

Dave: “Well you wanna be cut, right?”

Me: “Hell yeah I do”

Dave: “Then you gotta make some sacrifice”

Me: “But this is madness”

Dave: “No pain, No gain”.

Hann man… I hope this is really worth it…

Unexpected outcome

Yesterday, there was a birthday party going on. I didn’t even know who the birthday boy was but hey... A friend’s friend of mine invited me… so it’s not really an issue. All excuses are good to party and beside, I’ve been working out a little, I’m on diet and I’m feeling in shape. There is no way I’m going home empty handed. I had couple drinks… couple beers, couple whisky… couple of… I don’t remember what it was… But it felt so goood…and oh wow… I was feeling hot… My hips, legs… no let me rephrase it, my entire body was just moving by itself. It felt like it had a mind on its own. I can’t help it… I can’t fight it… Just let it go and have the music groove your body. It just moved naturally according to the beat of the music… This night, I was the king of the dance floor… Then a girl came to me. Oh man, I guess working out has done its magic ^^. And beside who could possibly resist to my hip move? So she came and I will always remember what she asked me. She whispered me softly in my ears…

“Are you gay?”… I was like oO? Seriously, that was totally unexpected.

“Huh what are you talking about?

“Well you just dance like a girl… You seem to be on diet cuz you had no cake and you've just been eating carrot since you arrived " ( hum yeah... that was true... Since I didn't want to mess up my diet, I only ate the little carrots in the bowls)… So I was like …

“ Euh no… This is hip hop style… -_-, and... I love carrots... and no… I’m totally not gay… “

“You sure?”

“Hell yeah… I ain’t gay and I’m 110 % sure… I mean cmon trust me… I may be everything, but not gay.”

And I spent the entire night convincing this cute girl that I wasn’t gay. My friend couldn’t help laughing at me… I guess I have to work a little on my dance move as well as my body now… As for this night... Not only I went home empty handed but I had to convince myself that i was not gay too.

Just when you think things cannot get any worse, they will.

Working out

After spring break, I decided to make some good resolutions. I decided to work out like hell and diet a lot so I can be cut before summer... Indeed, I wanna be sexy and feel no shame when I'll take off this large T-shirt of mine. So, I ordered 6 pack, some biceps and pec but this comes with a price... PAIN... So I asked my roomate, Dave to train me everyday and to show me no mercy... As everyone says, no pain, no gain, right?

So today was my first day at the fitrec. We woke up at 7h30 and did some lifting. During our workout sessions, I was a bit confused and suprised... Either he's super strong or I'm super weak... Maybe both. Dave can lift up more than double the weight I'm lifting without getting tired. I remember when he finished lifting up, he asked to pull the weight out of the bar. So I just took it out and I didn't expect it to be so heavy so it sliped off my hand, and landed on my foot... BOOM... It just hurt a little, but no worries. Beeing cut will take much longer than I thought.

What is my dream job?

What is my dream job? This topic reminds me a lot of souvenirs. We all asked ourselves this question at least once because our future will be based upon our decision. Therefore, it’s a very big deal and everyone should consider this question seriously.

As for me, I remember having this conversation with my cousin in the car. He asked me what I’d like to do in the future for a living after graduating… Well, at the very moment, I didn’t really know what to say… I’m not even sure of what I can do with all my degrees… I just don’t want to wake up every morning, feeling grumpy and thinking myself “ Hannn man! I gotta go to work”. So to make it more interesting, he told me to assume that I was the wealthiest person in the world. That money was the least thing I had to worry about. In this situation, what would you like to be? From this point of view, I thought it was a really original way of presenting things. If money is not an issue anymore therefore I’m not corrupted by its power and can make my decision based upon what I truly want to do.

From this angle, it’s really simple. Do I want to be a movie actor? No. Do I want to earn lot of money? No. But I guess having some cash doesn’t hurt either. I want a job that will allow me to have connection with people. I want to reach them and… No even more, I’d like to influence them and be reliable. I want to be a model to follow and share my values… Nah I don’t want to be a president. I want to be something even more than a president. I want to leave something when I pass out. Something that will prove my existence through time… Oh wait... Are we still talking about a job? Well, yes I am. A job, which will allow me to share my experience, my success and my mistakes. A job that will help every one I was able to reach.

I guess I simply want to teach.

Berkeley

Today, I decided to visit Berkeley. It’s California’s public university also known as Cal. The beers… whoop, I mean the bear represent their mascot and their color is dark blue and yellow. I believe colors and mascot are very important for universities since it represent such unique visual identity. What strikes me the most is the structure of the campus. It is such a nice area. There is lots of space, lot of green grass with tall trees. And the buildings are simply gorgeous. Indeed almost all of them truly look like huge Greek temples. You’ re not going to like this, but Berkeley’s campus looks far better than Boston University in almost every aspect. The campus is also located on small grass hills and they are lots of areas to relax. In the very campus, Berkeley has its own student bar called “the bear’s layer”. The bartenders (mostly girls) wear this t-shirt with the words “ Go beers” (originally taken from “go bears” in sports event). A bar in a campus is unexpected. My cousin told me it was a cool place to relax and have a beer. This couldn’t be more true and I agree 110% ^^. On every Thursday, the bar organizes an event at 4h pm called “Beat the clock”. The pitches of beer cost 5 dollars and every one-hour, the prices raises by 1 dollar. No need to tell you that the place was really crowded at the time. After getting a little buzzed (yep, ¾ of a pitch all by myself), we went home safely and… humm what happened next???

Nightlife

Today's post will about the California Academy of Science. It's a scientific museum that has been recently renovated. The interesting innovation about this museum is not about its renovation but more over its advertising method. Indeed, every Thursday night, the Academy creates an event called Nightlife. A social event where you can visit the museum in a nightclub ambiance.

During our visit, there was a loud techno music and a lot of alcohol. Every single person had either a beer or a cocktail, which is really unexpected, and the music is pretty catchy too. It seemed like a very high fashion nightclub surrounded by scientific and nature research. Some rooms were claimed to be very special such as the artificial jungle and the living roof. This latter is just a roof covered with grass however; plants can take root even though the metallic structure.

Nightlife was really interesting from several points of view. First of all, from the advertising perspective since it's a really nice and original way to advertise the museum. Then the event really felt like clubbing in a very fancy environment even though I didn’t dance at all.

Devil's Grip

What an awkward and frightening title for a blog entry, isn’t it? Well in this post entry I’m going to share one of my spring break afternoon doing exactly nothing. And by nothing, I mean no movement, no talking… just laying down on my bed… Paralyzed. I was under the effect of the “Devil’s Grip”, commonly known as sleep paralysis.

It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m completely exhausted from jet lag. Even thought it’s been 2 days since I arrived. It is said that for each hour of jet lag, you need a day to recover. Three hours gap from Boston and San Francisco; that would make 3 days for me to recover. So I decided to take a 30 min nap that lasted 2 hours. Well this at least how I felt when under the “Devils Grip”.

How does it feel to be under his control? The effect may vary depending on people. Some people may experiment frightening hallucination. From a ghost watching you to raping, your worst nightmare just comes alive. As for me, “devils grip" doesn’t go that far. It feels like I’m completely paralyzed. It’s impossible to move any single muscle and breathing becomes an issue. It’s like you forget the feeling of moving your body and thus you don’t know how your body works. Your brain is conscious but your body is paralyzed. You’re crying out for help silently but everyone thinks you’re sleeping quietly. It’s a very frightening paradox. Only a single finger touch would’ve been enough to fully wake me up from this nightmare. But nope, I had to make my way through.

However, since I’ve experimented “Devil’s Grip” several times, I know a way to cope with it. It’s still hard to fight your way through but it worked for me sometimes. My body is paralyzed so there isn’t much thing I can do about it… I’m having trouble to breath but this latter is still kicking. And thanks to that, I’m going to exploit my airflow. So what I usually do is focus hard on my breathing pattern to regain full control of it. Then take deeper breathes to move your chest up and down and therefore to remember the feeling of “moving”. When the “moving sensation” is finally back, try to move a part of your body to free yourself from the demon. If I fail… Oh well, I usually just go back to sleep. Not a very big deal heh. 

Home Sweet Home

For spring break, I decided to go to San Fransisco to visit my family from my mom’s side. Indeed, I only see them once a year during summer vacation and I would like to spend more time with them. So no crazy spring break near the beach, no beers and no parties for me. Just a cool and revitilazing spring break.

It’s already been rougly 15 years that I visit my cousins. Their house is now like a second home for me and it is loaded with many memories. I learned all my English in this little house thanks to my cousin who was only 7 years old at that time. And for 15 years, each summer, he teaches me English. In some way, I guess I kind of grew and learn some of my value there.

One funny thing to know about my uncle he would never throw away something that doesn’t belong to him. So when I entered the room I usually sleep in, I couldn’t help notice this « Joystick » magazine that was issue in 2002. I bought this magazine in France right before the plane take off so I could have something to read during my trip. Now each year , during summer vacation, I have this funny rendez vous with my magazine. I always read the same articles, look at the same pictures and think myself of how games looked so good at that time. And this year was no different from the others. Reading this magazine has become a ritual whenever I visit my family.