if you ever needed a crash course on preston 101

(8:57:30 PM) Preston Chang: i'm an introvert, but i love being with people and learning about people
(8:57:36 PM) Preston Chang: and learning about their personality, like i said
(8:57:48 PM) Preston Chang: so i love playing board games with people, because it exercises my competitive side
(8:58:12 PM) Preston Chang: and a board game is a situation that has a common goal and set parameters, and it throws all the players into that microcosm
(8:58:25 PM) Preston Chang: and i love observing others and interacting with others through the game
(8:58:37 PM) Preston Chang: since, in a way, it breaks down our ways of thinking into those set parameters
(8:58:40 PM) Preston Chang: i LOVE board games.
(8:58:57 PM) Preston Chang: i like being skilled at things
(8:59:07 PM) Preston Chang: so my hobbies typically involve refining and honing my skill in a particular area
(8:59:36 PM) Preston Chang: i made a list of "stuff i've spent my time on"
(8:59:45 PM) Preston Chang: in high school, i yo-yoed
(8:59:53 PM) Preston Chang: including offstring (NOT chinese yo-yo, gosh)
(8:59:55 PM) Preston Chang: and that was neat
(9:00:06 PM) Preston Chang: but 1) i didn't have friends who shared my same desire to get better
(9:00:21 PM) Preston Chang: and 2) it took too much effort to get better
(9:00:27 PM) Preston Chang: (reason 1 also caused reason 2)
(9:00:33 PM) Preston Chang: i also solved the rubik's cuber
(9:00:34 PM) Preston Chang: cube
(9:00:47 PM) Preston Chang: that was a really fun and fascinating spatial exercise activity
(9:00:58 PM) Preston Chang: i loved learning how to solve it (through looking up online methods)
(9:01:04 PM) Preston Chang: and i highly recommend it to anyone
(9:01:10 PM) Preston Chang: it's not difficult, and it's NOT just memorizing stuff
(9:01:17 PM) Preston Chang: (but if you're going to, i would recommend you a certain method)
(9:01:29 PM) Preston Chang: going into it, i didn't want to just memorize stuff, 'cause i felt like that was lame
(9:01:42 PM) Preston Chang: so the method i found and learned and still use to this day is the lars petrus method
(9:01:48 PM) Preston Chang: and it solves 2/3 of the cube by pure logic alone
(9:01:58 PM) Preston Chang: it doesn't require memorizing algorithms until the final layer
(9:02:09 PM) Preston Chang: my favorite is the 2x2x2 cube, it's just so cute :)
(9:02:17 PM) Preston Chang: my fastest consistent time was 30 seconds on the regular 3x3x3
(9:02:27 PM) Preston Chang: i played tennis in high school
(9:02:30 PM) Preston Chang: badminton in college
(9:02:37 PM) Preston Chang: and now i'm back to tennis (because it's hard to find a place to play badminton)
(9:02:52 PM) Preston Chang: i played tetris in college (tetris arena on tetrisfriends.com)
(9:03:10 PM) Preston Chang: and typically, for all my hobbies, i would say i'm good at them, definitely "above average"
(9:03:24 PM) Preston Chang: since "above average"/"proficient" is the standard i usually set for myself
(9:03:35 PM) Preston Chang: good enough to dominate people with average skill level :p
(9:03:54 PM) Preston Chang: so in tetris i learned how to t-spin, and THAT was also a very fun intellectual exercise
(9:04:07 PM) Preston Chang: and i'm not a godly player, but i can hold my own against most people
(9:04:15 PM) Preston Chang: 65 TPM and 30 LPM when i'm on my game
(9:04:39 PM) Preston Chang: i played pool for a bit of time due to irvin's influence (since he's really into pool), 'cause he let me borrow one of his pool cues and i brought it to school
(9:04:46 PM) Preston Chang: and there are pool tables all over campus, so i got to play whenever i wanted :)
(9:05:00 PM) Preston Chang: i'm not great at pool, def better than average, but not good enough that i would say "i play pool" hahah
(9:05:15 PM) Preston Chang: for all of these things, i have/had like no friends to play with
(9:05:22 PM) Preston Chang: i'm always the passionate one and trying to get other people interested
(9:05:33 PM) Preston Chang: i love teaching, so i'd teach plenty of newbies (anyone who wanted to learn)
(9:05:43 PM) Preston Chang: but i was still missing opponents who were on my level
(9:05:51 PM) Preston Chang: i play tf2 (love team fortress) still to this day
(9:06:06 PM) Preston Chang: brawl - i'm not fantastic at it, but pretty good (all relative, of course)
(9:06:11 PM) Preston Chang: but i would say i can hold my own against most people
(9:06:19 PM) Preston Chang: i love cycling
(9:06:24 PM) Preston Chang: don't have a community to cycle with though :(
(9:06:28 PM) Preston Chang: (i know cccnc has one :D)
(9:06:31 PM) Preston Chang: i love snowboarding
(9:06:43 PM) Preston Chang: don't have regular snowboarding buddies, though, but i like to go each season
(9:06:52 PM) Preston Chang: i'm going to stratton for a 3-day trip this winter yayyyy
(9:07:06 PM) Preston Chang: i go off jumps and stuff, no spins or rails, though
(9:07:14 PM) Preston Chang: still getting comfortable being in the air and stuff
(9:07:22 PM) Preston Chang: i've gotten hurt three times over six seasons hahaha
(9:07:26 PM) Preston Chang: but i still love it
(9:07:36 PM) Preston Chang: i'm an audiophile, so i love me a good set of headphones
(9:07:58 PM) Preston Chang: i have the hifiman he-400 open headphones (planar magnetic technology!) with the jds labs o2 headphone amp
(9:08:06 PM) Preston Chang: it's a $500 audio setup
(9:08:10 PM) Preston Chang: and i love it :)
(9:08:26 PM) Preston Chang: my audio journey started in my sophomore year of college (09-10)
(9:08:36 PM) Preston Chang: with a $99 pair of headphones
(9:08:46 PM) Preston Chang: and my current one is my third pair of headphones that i've owned
(9:08:52 PM) Preston Chang: (i sold or gave away the previous ones)
(9:09:07 PM) Preston Chang: and i don't see myself upgrading for a while
(9:10:07 PM) Christine Liang: and it seems like when you get interested in something you strive for greatness in it, is that like a self-acheivement thing or like a competitive thing?
(9:10:53 PM) Preston Chang: i take pride in what i do, and my philosophy is that if i'm going to spend time on a particular hobby, i want to be good at it!  so it goes hand-in-hand with my competitive nature
(9:11:03 PM) Preston Chang: being skilled at things is fun
(9:11:07 PM) Preston Chang: being mediocre at things is not
(9:11:18 PM) Preston Chang: more time invested (/practiced) = more fun!
(9:11:39 PM) Preston Chang: basically, i like things that involve people
(9:11:50 PM) Preston Chang: and things that involve mental analyzation
(9:11:58 PM) Preston Chang: because i find both to be incredibly fun
(9:12:03 PM) Preston Chang: physics is my favorite science
(9:12:21 PM) Preston Chang: i love puzzles (rubik's cube, indie puzzler games, LOGIC PUZZLES)
(9:12:28 PM) Preston Chang: not things like crosswords or sudoku haha
(9:12:49 PM) Preston Chang: it's just not really my thing
(9:12:54 PM) Preston Chang: but i've probably heard every logic puzzle out there so..
(9:13:01 PM) Preston Chang: oh yeah LOL
(9:13:09 PM) Preston Chang: i love webcomics, too
(9:13:10 PM) Preston Chang: like xkcd
(9:13:13 PM) Christine Liang: ??
(9:13:14 PM) Preston Chang: BUTTERSAFE is probably my favorite
(9:13:15 PM) Christine Liang: eh?
(9:13:18 PM) Preston Chang: dude what
(9:13:22 PM) Christine Liang: it's like you're speaking a different language
(9:13:26 PM) Preston Chang: WEB-COMICS
(9:13:29 PM) Preston Chang: comics on the web
(9:13:35 PM) Christine Liang: buttersafe?
(9:13:37 PM) Christine Liang: xkcd?
(9:13:43 PM) Preston Chang: http://buttersafe.com/2007/05/01/jk-bird/
(9:13:47 PM) Preston Chang: buttersafe is a webcomic
(9:13:48 PM) Preston Chang: and it is adorable
(9:13:56 PM) Preston Chang: http://buttersafe.com/2008/09/11/shark-rider/
(9:14:05 PM) Preston Chang: http://buttersafe.com/2009/02/05/fire-and-water/
(9:14:13 PM) Preston Chang: http://buttersafe.com/2011/03/01/robot-cat/
(9:14:15 PM) Preston Chang: http://buttersafe.com/2011/04/26/more-robot-cat/
(9:14:19 PM) Preston Chang: http://buttersafe.com/2011/05/19/even-more-robot-cat/
(9:14:20 PM) Preston Chang: I LOVE CATS
(9:14:25 PM) Preston Chang: SO I LOVE ROBOT CAT from buttersafe
(9:14:57 PM) Preston Chang: http://www.xkcd.com/
(9:15:05 PM) Preston Chang: xkcd is a math/physics/geeky webcomic
(9:15:10 PM) Preston Chang: it's been going on for a looooooong time
(9:15:22 PM) Preston Chang: and i feel like i have a connection with randall (the writer/drawer)
(9:15:30 PM) Preston Chang: through his comics, through the forums, through his BLOG
(9:15:32 PM) Christine Liang: lolllll
(9:15:42 PM) Preston Chang: i love stuffed animals
(9:15:49 PM) Preston Chang: i'm a huge sucker for stuffed animals :|
(9:15:58 PM) Preston Chang: i love some tv shows and some anime!
(9:16:08 PM) Preston Chang: LIE TO ME and MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
(9:16:10 PM) Preston Chang: all-time favorites
(9:16:17 PM) Preston Chang: i'm still watching the walking dead right now, it's phenomenal
(9:16:25 PM) Preston Chang: and i just started attack on titan today and it is IMMENSELY AWESOME
(9:16:33 PM) Preston Chang: i haven't really watched anime since high school
(9:16:35 PM) Preston Chang: so, this is great
(9:16:48 PM) Preston Chang: i also have a ps3 and i love video games (the right kinds, of course)
(9:16:57 PM) Preston Chang: oh and i play piano <3 p="">(9:17:05 PM) Preston Chang: and i listen to music
(9:17:13 PM) Preston Chang: but if you want to ask me about what kind of music i like and listen to
(9:17:18 PM) Preston Chang: i am too tired to explain all that LOL
(9:17:36 PM) Preston Chang: i enjoy life's experiences
(9:17:37 PM) Preston Chang: i love eating
(9:17:46 PM) Preston Chang: i'm not a foodie
(9:17:55 PM) Preston Chang: but when i like a particular food, i LOVE it
(9:17:58 PM) Preston Chang: french fries and popcorn come to mind
(9:18:10 PM) Preston Chang: i love smells (i smell everything)
(9:18:16 PM) Preston Chang: i love the way things feel, too
(9:18:24 PM) Preston Chang: things with nice texture, soft - fuzzy - smooth - interesting
(9:18:33 PM) Preston Chang: and i love gadgets (like computer peripherals)
(9:18:41 PM) Preston Chang: so i have a mechanical keyboard which has a very nice sound and an even better feel
(9:18:51 PM) Preston Chang: and a nice mouse (excellent feel)
(9:18:57 PM) Preston Chang: mousepad, etc.
(9:19:26 PM) Preston Chang: sometimes i just pick up my ps3 controller and play with the joysticks for a few minutes because i love how they feel
(9:19:35 PM) Preston Chang: did i mention i love cats?
(9:19:36 PM) Preston Chang: and hamsters
(9:19:48 PM) Preston Chang: i could get a hamster now, actually, so i was considering it
(9:19:48 PM) Christine Liang: preston i am learning a lot about you
(9:19:53 PM) Preston Chang: when i had to go to the pet store with a friend recently
(9:19:59 PM) Christine Liang: do you usually have this much energy?
(9:20:03 PM) Preston Chang: yes, always
(9:20:04 PM) Christine Liang: haha yes
(9:20:16 PM) Christine Liang: i'm just impressed
(9:20:24 PM) Preston Chang: i'm a night owl but i like to wake up early to make the most of my day
(9:20:25 PM) Christine Liang: in how in depth you go
(9:20:28 PM) Preston Chang: i love typing
(9:20:30 PM) Christine Liang: loll idk why
(9:20:35 PM) Preston Chang: i love going in-depth with things
(9:20:36 PM) Christine Liang: waking up early*
(9:20:39 PM) Preston Chang: everything i do!
(9:20:45 PM) Preston Chang: relationships
(9:20:47 PM) Preston Chang: conversations
(9:20:49 PM) Preston Chang: hobbies
(9:20:53 PM) Preston Chang: analyzing things
(9:20:58 PM) Preston Chang: understanding things
(9:21:14 PM) Preston Chang: i believe there is always more than what meets the eye
(9:21:22 PM) Preston Chang: and i also believe that digging that out is always worth the effort
(9:21:47 PM) Preston Chang: everything i spend time on, i've thought it out and considered its implications and its benefits
(9:21:58 PM) Preston Chang: i'm a thinker
(9:22:14 PM) Preston Chang: i love to talk if you ask the right questions
(9:22:56 PM) Preston Chang: i also love nerdy / geeky things
(9:23:02 PM) Preston Chang: and sci-fi things
(9:23:03 PM) Preston Chang: techie things
(9:23:04 PM) Preston Chang: cute things
(9:23:32 PM) Preston Chang: but i love movies, too!
(9:23:41 PM) Preston Chang: esp the ones that involve dramatic thinking
(9:24:39 PM) Preston Chang: if i had to pick one favorite movie of all time
(9:24:44 PM) Preston Chang: first that comes to mind is the matrix
(9:24:51 PM) Christine Liang: why
(9:24:53 PM) Preston Chang: because it is fascinating
(9:25:01 PM) Preston Chang: and basically the POINT of the movie is to get us to ask questions
(9:25:05 PM) Preston Chang: and it poses really, really good questions
(9:25:18 PM) Preston Chang: i'm sure the effect of watching it now is very different than in 1999
(9:25:21 PM) Preston Chang: but it still holds its own
(9:25:27 PM) Preston Chang: yeah movies that make me think
(9:25:28 PM) Preston Chang: love 'em
(9:26:07 PM) Preston Chang: I LOVE TOM CRUISE
(9:26:09 PM) Preston Chang: HOW COULD I FORGET
(9:26:10 PM) Preston Chang: I LOVE HIM
(9:26:13 PM) Preston Chang: favorite actor ever
(9:27:23 PM) Preston Chang: I LOVE HIS SMILE
(9:27:23 PM) Preston Chang: AND HIS HAIR
(9:27:25 PM) Preston Chang: AND HIS SMILE
(9:26:20 PM) Preston Chang: i don't want to hear anything about him being short
(9:26:23 PM) Preston Chang: i've heard it all
(9:26:33 PM) Preston Chang: i also love the fast and the furious series
(9:26:40 PM) Preston Chang: vin diesel and paul walker <3 p="">(9:26:45 PM) Preston Chang: and cars are cool
(9:27:31 PM) Christine Liang: lol you're such a fan girl
(9:27:34 PM) Preston Chang: I AM A FAN GIRL
(9:27:36 PM) Preston Chang: FOR TOM CRUISE
(9:27:37 PM) Christine Liang: HAHAHHAA
(9:27:52 PM) Christine Liang: this is gold
(9:27:57 PM) Preston Chang: this is my life
(9:32:03 PM) Preston Chang: i'm tired
(9:32:05 PM) Preston Chang: from explaining all that