hipsterfication

people who know me know that i have my own style. not good or bad. just mine. i like to be different, but not crazy. i want to stick out, but not turn heads. you know? lately, however, i find myself becoming more… hipster. v-necks and skinny jeans make up most of my daily wear. maybe it’s because of my weight loss. maybe i’ve always wanted to be a hipster, but it wasn’t until i lost weight that i could actually wear hipster clothing.

one thing i’ve wondered about my new style: how do guys carry around their keys and phone in their pockets in skinny jeans? i spent most of the day carrying around my phone and keys in my hands, and to be honest, i felt like a woman. i usually have to carry stuff in my hands like bags or a guitar and holding my keys and phone made it quite difficult. if any of my readers have any insight into this that does not require me to buy a man bag, that would be helpful.

i never thought i would follow a particular “fashion”. i just wore whatever. now i’ve fallen prey to a trend. what would you characterize your style as?

haircut = stranger

man, i feel bad for this kid posting his picture like this but i needed a good bad haircut pic.

it’s funny how a haircut can make someone look like a different person. i have a friend who had kinda long hair. he was cool. that’s right. was. as soon as he got his haircut. boom! looks like a dufus. ok, maybe not a dufus, but he looks like someone you would pick on. pre-haircut, he was a cool-looking dude. you wanna hang with him. post-haircut, i wanna punch him in the face and take his lunch money. nothing changed about who he is. same guy. but my perception of him instantly changed.

and it’s not just him. i think this way about all my friends (mostly guys) who get haircuts. for some reason, i can’t see them or treat them the same way as i did before they got their haircuts. does this mean i’m shallow? does appearance mean that much to me that any alteration of it affects my opinion and reaction towards you? btw, women, it usually doesn’t affect you as much UNLESS you get a fantastically great looking haircut, or a horrifically bad one. i might have to treat you different accordingly.

the funny thing is, i’ll act the same way as i usually do after i get a haircut as before UNTIL i see myself in the mirror and then i start acting all different. like i’m saying, “dude, you’re not supposed to act like that looking like that. you’re cool hair is gone, you gotta act like a dufus now.”

anyone else go through this?

nothing to fear

it’s ok, don’t be afraid.  this isn’t a scary blog topic.

something hit me the other day: fear hits everyone at different times.  i wondered if at any time, the same fear hits everyone.  for instance, i led worship for the first time at a new church in the past couple of months and i was pretty scared.  or call it nervousness if you will, but i find that nervousness is somewhat related to fear (fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of doing/saying something stupid).  i admitted to the band that i was a little nervous about it being my first time leading worship at the church and they weren’t shocked per se, but i think they might have found it odd.

is there ever a time where someone isn’t going to be nervous when they speak/sing in front of a big group of people?  and if so, are they liars?  i mean, i feel like whoever you are, if you’re about to speak or sing in front of a bunch of people for the first time, you’re probably going to feel some fear to some degree.  it made me think of those tough guys in middle/high school that say they’re not afraid and everyone wonders how they can be so brave.  are they really not afraid or are they lying?  are some people just inherently not afraid of things that the general population is afraid of?

public speaking, for instance.  i love public speaking.  but i still get nervous when i have to speak in front of a group.  i wouldn’t say i’m afraid of speaking, although technically the nervousness means that i am.  hmmm…

names to faces

you ever see that clip from the office where michael scott uses some kind of pneumonic device to learn peoples’ names?  well, here it is.  it’s bad quality, but you’ll understand the gist.

man, michael scott cracks me up so much.

so in the last couple of months, i’ve met what seems like 1,000 people.  that might be an exaggeration, maybe realistically more like 200-300.  that’s not so much an exaggeration.  i have 2 new jobs each with dozens of co-workers i’ve never met, i sang in the passion choir (a 200 member choir and i met maybe 50 of them), i’ve been teaching SAT prep courses at high schools with classes of 15-25 students each, i’m about to start with georgia tech’s asian christian fellowship where i will meet more students, i lead worship with very talented musicians that i’ve been meeting for the first time, and what’s more, my friends have been introducing me to their friends (either new or visiting from out-of-state).

i don’t say this to complain.  i say this so that you’ll give me a break if i forget your name if i’ve met you before.  although i feel like the demographics for my blog are more people that i know pretty well and haven’t forgotten the names of.  sometimes i just make a up a name based on what i think your name should be.  if you look like a chris, i’m going to probably call you chris even though your real name is matt (that’s if i forgot your name, i’m not going to intentionally call you chris when i know your name is matt).  and can i just say one thing i’ve observed?  white people, i’m talking to you.  you all have so many “common” names, it’s really hard to get them all straight.  i mean: matt, steve, chris, nathan, sean, shawn, brad, etc.  at least with koreans, half of our population is david/john and the other half is daniel/james and they’re usually brothers.  with women, same thing: grace or hannah/esther.  you have a pretty good chance of saying the correct name if you just guess.

i say this to be facetious of course.  i’d say i’m pretty good at learning names.  it’s just lately it’s been name overload so it’s been taking me a while.  so if you see me for the first (or second time) and i can’t get your name down, i will need some mercy.  i get this conversation all the time:

me: hey, my name is enoch.  i don’t think we’ve met

anonymous: oh, yeah.  actually we’ve met before.

me: crap. what was your name again?

anonymous: it’s anonymous.  we met at that obscure thing 4 years ago where there was a huge crowd of people and you looked at me for 1 second and i haven’t seen you since and i heard your name from someone.  that’s where we met.

me: …i see

2 months

it’s been 2 months since i got my first smart phone.  i just wanted to write about my observations and experiences with it:

– it’s like having an ipod touch that’s always connected to the internet

– autocorrect got annoying so i turned it off

– as long as i have my phone, i always have something to do

– when i first got my phone, i swore i would never leave it anywhere and would always have it by my side.  i have just last night forgot it at home when i stepped out and this morning forgot it when i went grocery shopping.

– i used to check my email about 20 times a day.  i now check it double that.  i can’t tell if i’m exaggerating or not.

– if you words with friends me, you will get immediate retaliation for your word against me.

– pandora in the car is awesome.

– less missed calls in the car.  i used to not hear my phone over the music playing, but now my phone politely turns down the music in order to let me know someone is calling.  how considerate.

– if you don’t know my new number, let me know and i’ll give it to you (no more 704, sadly).

– i love having more than a 1.4mp camera