Garick

Oh, I hate these things. How can I sum myself up in a little box? I'd rather we chat and you got to know me personally.----------------------------I’m a people-person. I’m fascinated with the concept of community and love to watch how people interact with each other. I value qualities such as integrity and compassion and believe in honest, open, ethical, and accurate communication. There’s more to honesty than just telling the truth when asked ;)---------------------------In college, I started going to raves and was completely enraptured with the scene. Warm, friendly people, a place where there were no strangers, only friends I had yet to meet. Naturally, as I enjoyed attending these parties; I also wanted to get involved. So I began promoting them and then even coordinating a few events on my own. I liked the idea of creating an environment of happy smiling faces where people bonded and built friendships. But you can’t escape the pink elephant of drug culture being associated with rave music and I wanted to do something more practical after graduation. Finished college and it was time to grow up. Oh, I still go to them from time to time and I’ll work a few production nights a year, but I wanted more than just being a promoter.--------------------------So I turned to the travel industry. I’ve always enjoyed travel, but it takes quite a bit of time and money. I decided to circumvent those hoops by working directly as a Tour Sales Consultant, selling package tours to Asia for Singapore Airlines. Not only did I get the perks of travel with SQ, but all day long, I’d simply tell people about the wonderful places I’d been and all the magical things I’ve seen on my journeys. Granted, there are some very different ways to travel. I sold packages for 4 and 5 star hotels and the perks were amazing! I’d often get a private suite or villa, sometimes with my own swimming pool even! Sales managers would want to take me out, wine and dine me. And sure, why not? They can comp. me a room and show me a good time because I’ll give them so much more business. It’s just obvious that when someone asks me which property to recommend, I’d talk about the ones I’ve been most impressed with.-------------------------------And then there’s the experience of backpacking through Asia. This is grass-roots, staying at an $8 a night guesthouse/hostel/bungalow with no hot water and squat toilets that don’t flush. Sometimes you can hear rats scurrying about in the wall at night. But you’re among other foreigners who share the same kindred spirit, you’re much closer to the native flavor of whichever country you’re in. You’re a lot closer to the heart of the people. I guess that’s the difference between a tourist and a traveler. Tourists prefer the finer things, they’re on vacation and want to be pampered. A traveler will dig into the local culture. Best example? A tourist might seek out the closest McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, or other American food establishment. A traveler would simply pick out the caterpillars from the local dishes at a street stall and continue eating.----------------------------Roughing it with camping or VIP service treatment, which do you prefer? Both have their attractive qualities. Some of the highlights of my travel experience are: trekking through N. Thailand and staying with some of the hill-tribes there, scuba-diving through turtles and jellyfish at the Perhentian Islands off the coast of Malaysia, working as a grunt at a luxury hotel in Hong Kong for 3 months, getting interviewed over the radio in Ikoma-shi, Japan (small country-side town outside of Osaka), taking the ferry from Phnom Penh up to see the Temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, crawling through the Viet Cong tunnels slightly south of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam, convincing a local in Taipei to sign me up for this dance competition and then winning 3rd place, and being blessed with a new name, “Gede”, by an Indonesian priest in Bali.--------------------------------Alas, the travel industry is in decline. Worldwide pandemics such as SARS, avian bird flu, and tsunami’s are just icing on the cake compared to terrorism and most importantly, rising fuel surcharges. So I again switched careers and now work as a tech. recruiter. See, I had started as an ICS (Information and Computer Sciences) major at UC Irvine, but quickly learned that I did not have the patience to sit and code all day. I realized I liked people and the way we interact so I ended up graduating with a Social Ecology major. (Only offered at UCI and Harvard, Social Ecology is an interdisciplinary study of environmental analysis and design, criminology, and psychology. Basically, how our environment influences the way we think, how we then pattern our laws, how those laws affect our environment and round and round we go!)-----------------------------------Yet, I’ve always liked tech. and gadgets. So when a friend told me about an opportunity to become a tech. recruiter, I jumped at the chance! What’s this? A career where I talk to people all day and give them jobs? Incredible! It fits me exactly! So now I talk to I.T. consultants all day and find out what they do and where they want to go in their next position. I’m paid to form relationships with people and then give them work that they desire when I see it come around. As well, I’m constantly learning a lot of the new technologies these days and so that helps to quench my thirst for knowledge and learning. Ha, I do find myself getting along most with creative Flash developers or else security consultants (aka white-hat hackers)--------------------------------Now how’s that for a short book on my life? Oh, but there’s so much more to be said! I guess I can be a bit of a jabberjaw sometimes. I know I can be a bit narcisstic and it’s probably due to my insecurities. I do realize the areas I need to improve in my life and I think that being honest with oneself is the first key to developing a relationship with anyone else.---------------------------------That's me, now how about you?--------------------------And here's a nice little commercial for your further reading enjoyment:------------------------------Garick.. I'm an impossible dream.. like a butterfly wafting through a summer meadow in downtown L.A. How can I describe what is only seen in my dreams? I'm about friendship, and love; about knowing when to fight and when to walk away. For you, for me, for everybody.. Spending time with me is about all our tomorrows and all our yesterdays lived together, today. I'm about falling down and getting back up again, smiling through the pain, and laughing through the tears.