i voted in my first election yesterday. it was for the california primaries. and as lame as it sounds, it was exhilarating. i love the democratic process. seriously, more people should vote.

i'm also thrilled that most of the people that i voted for ended up winning. the most prominent victory went to phil angelides.

i thoroughly enjoy a good conversation. that's the point of socializing and meeting new people, right? that's why networking sites are so popular, because people really like talking to others and opening themselves up to new individuals that they haven't met before. it's fun.

for all of you who have added me to your friends list, i thank you for acknowledging me. and for those who have taken the effort to actually converse with me, you're awesome. but for those who simply added me and have never taken the initiative to get to know me...then what was the point? am i just another digit to make your friends list look more populated? you added me, so why don't you introduce yourself? do you think it's my responsibility to talk to you first?

i'll talk to those that read what i post and respond because i know that they find me at least somewhat interesting. that's why, in turn, i'll reply back because then we might have some things in common. if you don't care, then why did you add me?

life is not a popularity contest. people aren't going to think poorly of you if you don't have tons of people on your friends list. and even if they do, that just means they're not worth your time.

i've had enough of how everything on the news is a "tragedy." you know what I'm talking about? whenever someone's child drowns in a pool (incidentally, pools are 500 times as likely to kill you as a gun, and this is without even being designed to!) it's a tragedy. uhh...no it isn't. it's an accident. September 11th was a tragedy!

calling everything a tragedy devalues the word. the same goes for "love" and "hero." when you can feel LOVE for chocolate milk and people just doing their jobs are HEROES, how can anything have the right shade of meaning attached to it?

"I love you."

"Really? Well, I love cheesecake too!"

wow, it's been a while since i've written.

i just woke up actually. but, i get the house all to myself today since my mum is out of town and she won't get home until very late in the evening.

i've been nominated to go to washington d.c. to represent my school and my community in the National Young Leaders Conference. as it says in my nomination letter: "less than 1% of all high-achieving high school students are presented with this opportunity, and many alumni of the program report that it is a life changing experience." i'll get to meet with high-ranking government officials, leaders from congress, the executive branch, the national news media, and the diplomatic corps. i'll also get to stay in a nice hotel for 10 days, tour monuments and museums, participate in debates and model congress, etc.

i can't even articulate how excited i am to go. but for now, i'm still focusing on earning some sponsorships since it'll cost about $3,000 for me to attend.

thank you, Nathan, for bringing back phusebox. i know it's a lot of hard work and we all truly appreciate it.

so i'm finally on winter break. it's fantastic because i get to sleep in until 3 in the afternoon. plus, there have been late night parties & new years eve should be incredible.

christmas was fantastic and i am very pleased with my presents. i got my shopping done last minute, as usual, but thoroughly went through the process to make sure that my gifts pleased their recipients.

i hope everyone else had a good holiday.

I've never been an advocate of capital punishment. The death penalty is based on a need for revenge. It violates the belief that humans are capable of change and strongly reinforces the idea that killing is a sufficient way of dealing with those that have hurt us. Killing a murderer does not bring his victim(s) back to life. It achieves nothing but the unnecessary death of yet another person.

We should be a nation about trust, faith, and understanding. But instead, we're all about "a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye." Well, our society has gone blind. We're the last westernized country to support the death penalty while every other westernized nation has realized the flaws in the system.

i hate seeing colossal hummers roaming the streets. not only are they hideous and an eye sore, they're also damaging the environment by polluting like crazy. the H2 is a gas whore and is depleting the ozone layer. it's also a flaming death machine! you'd better hope that you don't collide with with an H2 in your economy car. you can kiss your ass goodbye thanks to the H2's massive weight and raised bumpers.

not only that, but it's a tax loophole. under Bush's tax plan, business owners can deduct the entire cost of their $55,000 H2. if you are in the highest tax bracket, that's a tax savings of nearly $20,000. the government rewards you more savings for buying an H2 than you'd get for buying an electric car. it's absurd.

and what the hell would you drive around a hummer for when you live in the city or suburbs? Arnold Schwarzenegger has been spotted driving his around the capitol. Sacramento is not an area with rough terrain!

(that is not my middle finger, by the way)

i just got back from the sacramento newspaper building to attend a boardroom meeting with their journalists. i'm an editor for my high school newspaper, so they chose some of us to come down there to hear some of our input on what articles should be on the front page.

i made a lot of comments about the stories on the Stanley Williams case, Bush's speech on Iraq this morning, and a supreme court case that would basically chip away at Roe vs. Wade.

the journalists there seemed to really appreciate my suggestions and they asked me a few questions which created quite a debate. one of them also asked me what i intended on majoring in when i got to college, to which i confidently responded, "I'm going to have a double major in public relations and political science."

i love my friends, i really do. but sometimes they expect too much of me. while i was driving back from san francisco yesterday, my cell phone rings and sam asks me if i want to go bowling. i tell him that i'm exhausted and all i want to do is sleep.

as soon as i walk into my front door, my cell rings again and catherine wants to know if i'm up for a movie. she gets the same response. i go upstairs to doze off and right when i'm warm and toasty underneath the comforter, my cell rings again. ryan says that he wants me to come with him to a college party. once again, i decline.

by this time i've had enough. my cell phone is turned off for the duration of the afternoon and throughout the rest of the evening. i can't please everyone all the time. i can't be social 24 hours in a day. i just need some alone time, just like everyone else. 

i'm going to san francisco for thanksgiving. it should be fun since i haven't seen my cousins in a while. i can't wait to stuff my face and enjoy the san francisco nightlife. that city gets insane starting from 10 pm until around dawn.

what are your plans for turkey day?

i'm going to santa cruz with my friends this weekend. i leave in about 3 hours and i won't be back until sunday evening. we are going to party like there's no tomorrow.

everything's finalized. oh wow, i'm ecstatic! after making the commute to downtown, submitting my portfolio, sitting through several interviews, and going through the photo shoot, it's over and done. this is one of my highest paying gigs, since i don't have a steady job.

i asked the magazine representative if i could have copies of the pictures that the photographer took, and she was kind enough to lend them to me so that i could add them to my portfolio. i just uploaded them onto phusebox.

The psychological immune system is coinage for the idea that although we think that our goal in life is happiness, our brains are wired not to seek happiness, but to seek normality.

That is fascinating to me. I've always thought that I was living my life for some lofty goal of happiness, but it seems as though our brains are wired to feel unaffected. This explains why we often get over things quicker than we thought we would (when we let ourselves) or why the things we indulge in aren't ultimately as fulfilling as we thought they'd be.

Happiness, whether you're able to think of it like this or not, is really just a result of chemicals in our brain. You may think that your goal is a good job, a healthy relationship, and a nice steak dinner--but your goals are ultimately serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine.

i would like to meet a girl
that is so amazing
that i will learn to play guitar
so i can serenade her

they're absolutely insane in california. practically charging us an arm and a leg since i drive so much. i'd rather spend my money on something else.

thanks to the 23 people that have requested me as a friend these past few days. it's nice to meet all of you. you're all really awesome.

and i have a new picture from a workshop that i was at over the summer. check it out.

mm. cappucino is so good.

if you hadn't already figured this out, i'm definitely metro. if you were looking to be friends with a mundane guy, that's not me at all. i'm high maintenance and i put a lot of effort into my hair. not a ridiculous amount, but enough. i care about name brand clothing and fine dining. i go through money like water. that's not boasting, i'm actually a little ashamed of it because i know that one day it's going to bite me in the ass. it's just how i was raised. i grew up in a really affluent neighborhood and i've been surrounded by stereotypical californians that you see on the OC and laguna beach. that's my crowd.

but don't worry. i'm not a womanizer or a jerk. i'm friendly, outgoing and i'm an overall nice person. i do a lot of community service and i've donated money to charities. i'm also very involved in my schoolwork and extracurriculars. a lot of people look at me and think that i'm really stuck up because of who i associate with. i don't want you to judge me. just accept me, lifestyle included.

'ello there. Err...I'm Henri, properly pronounced EHN-ree (it's French), but I don't expect you to call me that. Everyone else addresses me by the English pronunciation anyhow.

feel free to add me. i'll kindly accept.