Proust Questionnaire

So i'm not the greatest conversationalist when it comes to meeting new people.  Its hard for me to pull questions out of the air to ask that aren't just small talk. Small talk is good, but its just that, small talk. So in an attempt to find a list of questions that won't lead to small talk, I came across the Proust Questionnaire....

I remember vaguely James Lipton having his own version off the Proust Questionnaire that he uses in Inside the Actor's Studio. If its good enough for James Lipton & his celebrity guests, its good enough for me. So here are my answers to the original Proust Questionnaire...first take at least...

• Your favorite virtue : Love, Humility
• Your favorite qualities in a man: Bravery & Responsibility in the guise of Manhood.
• Your favorite qualities in a woman: Loyalty, grace, warmth
• Your chief characteristic: if i only knew... cool headed ness ??
• What you appreciate the most in your friends: loyalty, non-judgmental, acceptance
• Your main fault: lack of action
• Your favourite occupation: film maker, record producer, entrepreneur
• Your idea of happiness: having no regrets, sharing moments with loved ones
• Your idea of misery: no hope, loneliness
• If not yourself, who would you be? 
• Where would you like to live? San Diego, NYC
• Your favourite colour and flower:Blue, 
• Your favorite prose authors: Tim ferris, John Wooden,
• Your favorite poets: Tu Pac Shakur
• Your favorite heroes in fiction: Batman, the classic hero where he has to sacrifice himself.
• Your favorite heroines in fiction: 
• Your favorite painters and composers: Van Gough, Mozart
• Your heroes in real life: Jesus, Kobe, Obama, Pope John Paul II, Bill Gates
• Your favorite heroines in real life: My Mom, All strong women & single mothers
• What characters in history do you most dislike: Hitler,
• Your heroines in World history: Coco Channel,
• Your favorite food and drink: Sushi, Mexican taco shops, Coke
• Your favorite names: Aaron
• What I hate the most: Betrayal, arrogance
• World history characters I hate the most: Hitler again
• The military event I admire the most: Getting Osama...that's bad ass..
• The reform I admire the most: 
• The natural talent I'd like to be gifted with: Eloquence, Gumption, speed reading, memory,
• How I wish to die: not lying down
• What is your present state of mind: lost
• For what fault have you most toleration? 
• Your favorite motto:

South of North America, North of South America

So just got back (kinda) from my trip to central america. There are way too many memories and stories to share to put down in this blog. So hopefully I can convey the gist of it..


So everyone loves pictures and that's what the people want...

• To see the best of the best check out my flickr.
• To see the more complete album (115 photos), check out my Picasa.

Also i made a mixtape of music i heard in CA. Its all over the place and a lot of the songs are english anyways but have some significance for the trip. Check out the mixtape on http://achuidian.com/music.html or by clicking the cover art below.

So for those that weren't aware, I went to Central America (CA)this summer with my friend Shaun and new friend Jack. Shaun I've known since grade school and met Jack on this trip since he hosted us in Nicaragua and pretty much showed us around CA a bit too. Jack worked mostly during the day while Shaun & I explored. So the basic itinerary was Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. We didn't plan too much and left a lot of room for spontaneity. I think that was best because it allowed us to explore a bit. Overall it was an adventure.  It was super hot and humid in all countries and I have plenty of bug bites as well. I got sunburned (mostly in Roatan, Honduras) and met some new friends as well. I wished i spoke Spanish, because i felt i could have connected more. Put that on my todo list please. The food was okay, only three real meals worth talking about: Pupusas in El Salvador, Machuca in Honduras (see video) and Cat Cora's kitchen in Houston hahahaha. Overall most of the countries reminded me of the Philippines in one way or another: developing tropical country, similar hectic feel, similar rural feed, western influence, brown people. What else what else...not to sure since there a bunch of things to say...after the jump is kinda bullet point list of what happened each day, if you're real interested, ask me about one of them.

i'll also post two videos of the two best stories i have from the trip..just been super lazy to try to find a video camera haha..but those will be up...

The what! Honda CR-Z

The why ? First Hybrid Sports Coupe with a Manual Transmission
Leica M9 Limited Edition

Trek District, Lance Armstrong Edition

Aaron's Annual Materialistic Christmas List

Dear Santa,


After providing the world health care access, ending extreme poverty, and general world peace..oh yeah, and finding love, ...here is what i want for christmas in no particular order


Nike Zoom Kobe IV cut



nikon d90



dream fixie bicycle


my old CD collection back :(
a digital piano


3G iPhone


Blacked out Ferrari





THANKS SANTA!

how to chop beats, by just blaze

Just Blaze: www.mikechav.com chopping samples in Logic from Mike Chav on Vimeo.

welcome back!!! the return of the blog...

we're back

experiment over

so yea, it seems i can never really keep a blog for so long. I'm BUSY! Deal with it! i might open a new blog during winter break. but till then check out... http://thinkbigucla.blogspot.com

peace,
-A.

life's passion

so, stuck here at work, with my summer project completely, nothing left to do but do write ups, which will take me all of 20min to do...so here i am day dreaming..what would my dream record label be.. not set not the name, but "life's passion" is a start for my record label name..below is a roster of all the artists,producers, and music people that will be apart of the label.

The Producers - The magnifecent seven




The Artists




So thats the basic roster for my record label. The line between artist/producer is very thin. i.e. a producer can be an artist and an artist can be a producer. In fact, i really shouldnt have made a division between the two except that sometime kanye's rhyming gets annoying to me. haha, so yea look out for us. we're taking over the music world and putting it back in the hands of the creative,insightful and soulful.

blame it on ADD

i've actually been writing posts but like a lot of things, i get bored and don't finish it. i honestly think i have adult ADD. So in a vain attempt to catch up, here is a list of what i was gonna write about....

-hot new song: DJ Jazzy Jeff , Live at the DNA Lounge... its what real hip hop is like & Jazzy Jeff shows why he is one of pioneers in DJing, and he can still rock the crowd !!!

-Stress sucks!!!!

-stress makes me eat...

-went nite fishing wit billy. was fun, didnt catch anything so im dying to go out again until i catch a fish. My technique now is flawless...

-making a dope beat...y'all should hear it, its a kanye,Dilla style beat...

-absolutely love Macs now, have been on the apple webpage non-stop...new imac's came out..they look sexy, still gonna get a MacBook though and upgrade it..might get it at the end of summer to cash in on the deals they have at the UCLA store

-i'm addicted to xbox360, i want one..but know i can spend my time better & more productive...but oohh soo fun and addicting..played Gears of War with Rafael, intense.

-i want to put together a THinK biG!! mixtape..had an idea of indie music instrumentals blended with hip hop vocals.

-excited about Rosarito

-even more excited about Las Vegas!!! on the real, its really the only thing that keeps me going right now lol

-I have an intern presentation that i must present to the managers, other interns, people in my group and anyone else in the company that wants to see. Should be interesting. Still need a lot of work to do on it.

-

Finding forever

Bought this album the first day it came out, haha during my lunch break. Well being the hip hop enthusaist that i am, i got an advance copy to get a sneak peek. Most of the tracks from the advanced album ended up being on the commercial release, which was a big dissappoiment. The album only had 12 tracks, and i've already heard 8 of them by the time the album got out. That's what i get for sneaking a peek.

After a the first week, i can say that this album is good but not great. Not as soulful or creative as "Be". A lot of the kanye beats get boring since they follow the same formula of a high pitched sampled chorus over a lazy beat. Not many tracks jump at you or move you. A lot of the tracks i heard from the advanced album i though were throw away tracks you would hear in a mixtape. However, there are three tracks that i do enjoy.

The first track that i enjoy is the single "the people", Common's flow carries the track and is one of the only more energetic, head banging joints. The second track is "so far to go" produced by J Dilla and featuring D'Angelo. Now this is one of the tracks that has some soul to it. Its smooth and seductive. Finally, "Break my Heart" produced by kanye is a head banger and is very catchy.

i'm gonna give it a another month to grow on me before i make my final judgement