The World's First Analrapist!

Over the past few years The Replacement Friends have had some fun adventures together. Late night Betos runs, manly winter camping, late night pool/hot tub runs, stoop sitting,  international cinema, and yada, yada, yada.... Now that's all changing.

This guy:

Is off to be come this:

And this guy:
Is off to become this:

I don't know what these two are going to do without each other. I'm going to miss the late night betos run, the fake machine gun fights, and their attempt to freestyle rap. I know that they both will do great at becoming a doctor and a lawyer and I will miss them both. Hopefully we can keep The Replacement Friends blog going even though we won't be having adventures together as much anymore. Good luck Richard and Stephen in Arizona and Hawaii. I know you'll guys will do great. And while those guys are off becoming rich and famous, this guy: 

Will probably end up doing this:

The Summer of Mike!

I know I know, it's a shock that there is a post on the replacement friends that isn't posted by Richard.  By the way I must say way to go Rich on keeping it going.  The past two months I just haven't really had the desire to post about anything.  Tonight though I was reading Tara's blog and I started thinking about my summer.  Beside the whole me getting engaged,  traveling all over the country and having all this fun with Whitney, my summer has been a drag.  

But Mike how can it be a drag you ask? The weekend have been amazing when I get to visit Whitney or when she comes up and visits me but it's the rest of the week that has been a bummer.  The five other days of the week I sit at my desk going over data that I have collected from the lab.  It's depressing especially since it's so beautiful outside.  I don't care what anybody says about Seattle pride and blah blah blah but truly there is no better place than Seattle in the summer.  And I feel like I'm missing it.  To make matters worse I got a taste of what it could have been, Whitney came up for the 4th and stayed the whole next week and we had a blast even though I still had to work.  The long distance thing really sucks and it really makes those five other days even more lame. 

The worst part about it is I'm coming off of one of the greatest summers I've ever had.  I might even call last summer the "Summer of Mike."  Seriously last summer consisted of me going to the pool everyday (my tan was amazing last year),  playing catch with Chad almost everyday, playing intramural softball,  going out to eat,  camping,  movie nights on the back deck,  slip n' slide, fried chicken and watermelon, many games of scrabble, golf tons and tons of golf,  living with just Chad as a roommate (our apt was the cleanest, probably cleaner than most girls apts).  The list goes on and on.  I really can't remember a summer where I had more fun everyday and that's including the kidney stone I had.  

The moral of the story is though, work ends for me on Friday and that gives me about one month to try and top last summer. It's going to be hard but me and Whitney have some fun stuff coming up (also if you haven't heard yet we pushed our wedding back till October).  We have Radiohead coming up which I'm so excited for,  we have a trip to UT to send my brother Jon off on his mission,  and Whitney will probably come up here for a couple weeks in Aug as well.  The one down side is I have to study for the MCAT but I think I can make it work still.  

In response to Tara's last post I'm going to make some of my own summertime resolutions to help me try and match the Summer of Mike so here they are:

1. No waking up before 9 unless I really have to.

2. Get some color.  I know that most of you will say... But Mike you are naturally dark already.  It may be true but by Mike Lau standards I'm pretty white.

3. Read more books.  Last summer by this time I had read probably about 20ish books.  It helped that I was going to the pool everyday.  Right now I'm probably around 10ish.  I need to pick up my game.

4. Listen to more records.  In about half a year I've amassed a pretty decent record collection.  I started out with 4 around Christmas and now I easily have over 40.  The problem is I'm never home to listen to them.  

5.  More M's games.  I've been here this whole summer and I've only been to 3 games.  Last summer I was only home for three weeks and I went to 3 games.  

I still have to work in studying for the MCAT but now that my job is over I'll have more time for that and all this other stuff and hopefully make up for all this lost time.  

To post for the sake of posting

Try this test it is fun, and let me know if you beat me... that shouldn't be hard. This was my first try. and NO using reference books.

55

Created by OnePlusYou

Rich Wood = Adam Sandler's Stunt Double

Recently, I have been getting this a lot as I have met people: "Has anyone ever told you, you like like Adam Sandler?" Well, I tried the best I could to rally together some comparisons...EXAMPLE ONE:

This one is a bit tricky. Adam Sandler and I both have the facial hair going in this one. this is the only one I tried to pose for. It was really hard to get the face right. SECOND!

This was is a bit uncanny. We definitely have a similar hair type...THIRD!

Hmm... I think he has a bit of a longer face. But still, how much do you think being an Adam Sandler stunt double pays? Also here are just couple others I am throwing out there:

Sun tanning:

There are many schools of thought when it comes to sun tanning. There are those who always use sun block and gradually build up their tan during the summer. Some go to the tanning salon before summer begins to lay down the base tan. Some never take their shirt off in the summer and get farmer tans. Others go out boating one day in the summer and neglect to where block and get a burn, which is perspicuously apparent when they come to church the next day, and lather the highest spf formula the rest of the summer. Then there are people like me...

I am a combination of these three schools of thought, however, instead of sun block I use deep tanning oil, instead of base tanning at a salon I use the sun in spring, and when I get burnt I use that as my base tan and go from there. Summer is not summer without one good burn. Also, while Lisha's family was mocking my burn one day, I learned something new. Moisturizer is bad to use on a burn because it allows the burn to sink in. I don't know if that's true, but I began to think: "Does moisturizer help my tan sink in?" So this summer I am doing some research on moisturization.

If anyone does not know, I believe it is safe to say that I have a unique family in that despite multiple bouts of skin cancer we still continue to soak up the sun's rays. My grandparents have a dark tan year round because they sit at the pool everyday during the summer, and vacation in tropical areas throughout the winter. Yes, they are my heroes.

I'll fix myself

With the upcoming elections and brothers coming and going from Scandinavian countries this past week, I have been thinking about the health system. I think we should do two things with health care: make it more affordable (it can be done), and make everyone get it. Perhaps we could just get rid of all the paperwork that medical institutions and we have to do by switching to one big system. But anyways, I wanted everyones opinion on something because I can't find an adequate reason for this fact: having car insurance is the law but having medical insurance isn't. What's the dealio? Maybe there is a simple reason for all this that I don't understand so if you know please tell me. What do you think then?

Do you like rock music? You are welcome

First of all, big shout out to Chris Florence! I freaking L-O-V-E-D your muxtape. I ended up downloading albums from Ghostland Observatory and Headlights. Both bands immediately caught my attention, and I have been thoroughly enjoying them. I have updated my muxtape, and I have filled up the maximum 12 slots with works of genius! So check it out at richrich.muxtape.com. Let me tell you a little about it:

Man, it is so good. As many of you know, I can not stop listening to Vampire Weekend. When I listen to them, I envision myself writing/playing those songs. I feel like they are mine. The lyrics are intelligent and witty and the music leaves you humming. I used to have the track "Bryn" on my muxtape but I changed it to "Walcott". If that song doesn't instantly get your heart racing... then you are dead. Next! Check out British Sea Power. For them, I put their soaring first single off of "Do You Like Rock Music?". It is titled "Waving Flags". Do you sense a little Arcade Fire? Good, because Arcade's Win Butler had a hand in the production. British Sea Power has been around for a long time but this is the freshest thing they have ever put out. This track in particular could fill a stadium and stop all wars in the world because everyone would stop and listen in awe, and bow to sheer genius. Another track I recently uploaded was Ladytron's new single "Ghosts". Ladytron formed in 1998 but already their catalogue is hard to search through. They have a devout following but their music is noisy and very inaccessible and thus a new listener to their music, like myself, will find it hard to think "Hmm, this band is good." However, "Ghosts" is a hard hitting melodic electronic foot stomper. I love the heavy bass line. It reminds me of "Death From Above 1979": a band that is awesome to listen to when you just need noise.

So there you have it. I hope you guys find something you like because music is awesome. Also, I am dying to hear some other muxtapes! I listened to Chris's like 8 times over at work, and I am dying to hear what everyone else is listening to.

Now to explain the pictures. These were pictures I took at the Dallas Museum of Art. On the top is Japanese artist named On Kawara. For more than four decades, acording to DMoA website "On Kawara has created paintings, drawings, and books that mark time in various ways, from paintings of individual dates to mailed postcards to diagrams and charts of weeks and months." The second picture is from the De Stijl movement's most famous: Piet Mondrian.