Colored Contacts Review (Eyecandylenses): Geo Angel Violet + Dali Extra Size Green

For many years now, I've been wanting to experiment with colored contacts. Brown eyes are nice, but sometimes they appear dull and well ... brown. A few years ago I tried some blue Acuvue ones at my eye doctor's office but I just ended up looking like a bionic weirdo.

I'm a wary online shopper, so I decided to ask friends who were already sporting the famed Korean Geo contact lenses where they bought their new eye colours. I got a list of about 3 sites from which one friend bought her lenses and decided EyeCandyLenses.com was the best choice with their cute website design, huge variety of brands and colours, and customers-first attitude.

EyeCandyLenses.com is based in Canada and they ship worldwide while frequently offering discounts (buy 2 get 1 pair free/Facebook discounts etc) year round. They operate on a Batch-ordering system, which only makes sense because if you were to purchase your own few pairs directly from Korea, shipping would be abysmal. So, place your order with a Paypal account (or concealed USD or CAD) and be patient! (I know many of you don't have Paypal accounts but perhaps you can work out a deal with your friend to borrow his or hers).

My order was Batch 28 and I ordered on October 4 (the beginning of the batch month) and received all my contacts in perfect condition around December 4. The wait seemed like forever, but it was reasonable considering the distance, the batches, and the distribution.

So, here's a picture-filled adventure of opening up my lenses!

The cute little packages! Thank you Chloe!

Geo lenses with Authenticity scratch-off thing (I didn't bother checking but you can online):

There's my lens! Creepppyyy :D

Free contacts case with every pair purchased! How convenient : )

Here's the Dali extra size green one:

I thought the green would would look more natural because of the gentle blending around the outer edge:

In case you were wondering how to open the bottle, you carefully use both thumbs to press up against the white part of the cap and go around the entire cap, trying to pry it loose a little bit. Once it is loosened up, if you press a little harder with both thumbnails, it will pop open and you can twist off the silver part too (like opening a jug of milk). There is a rubbery stopper covering the bottle's mouth, so just pop that off and pour out the solution slowly and let your lens slide out into your hand. Now soak your contacts in fresh solution for a few hours (in those nice pink contacts cases Chloe provided if you want) and then enjoy! If you wear the contacts immediately, your eyes will feel irritable after an hour or two so it's better to be safe and get all the harsh preservatives out first!


Doo doo doo: Trying on the contacts!

My eyes looked ridiculously huge when I put in the Extra Size Dali Green ones. I have relatively bigger eyes to begin with, so now I look really bug-eyed. My friends didn't notice the green at first, but they certainly noticed the size. Also, because the diameter of the contact is so big, it tended to irritate my right eye very often. The picture above is without flash.

The colours blended very well but my first impression was that I looked like a kitty. These aren't the most natural looking contacts, but they're great for looking dolly-eyed.

I was playing with green makeup to see if it would enhance the green but my camera didn't catch the colours right. The green still wasn't super obvious even with green makeup.

This is with flash. The brown of my natural eye colour is a lot more obvious:



I also love purple and was REALLY impressed with the Geo Magic Color Violet lenses. They look super natural and subtle in room lighting but people definitely notice that there's something different about my eyes but it's not in a bad way. The dark outer black ring may seem unnatural at first but when you put it on, it's just fine. In brighter lighting, the purple really pops and works great with purple shades of makeup. Yay!

Verdict:

Geo Magic Color Angel Violet lenses 14.0 mm (can be purchased here)
Price: $23.00 USD
I'll give them a 9/10 for being very good for their price. In the wrong lighting they can look bionic but in most conditions they blend perfectly.

Dali Extra Size Green lenses 14.2 mm (can be purchased here)
Price: $28.60 USD
.2 mm makes a big difference! I think these more expensive bigger lenses weren't necessarily as good as I had hoped. I'm sure normal Geo lenses in green would be just as good. It's really hard to find nice green contacts that are not freaky looking and also have prescriptions. I give a 7/10

Eyecandylenses.com is a great company to order from! Products are shipped reliably and are packaged with care. Thanks Chloe for helping me purchase my first pairs of colored contacts!
I give the site a 10/10!

Forever 21 Twist: Oui, Oui, Tres Paris!

Christmas Shopping time is here! I went to Westfield Mall in Escondido today and was impressed by the number of shops and variety there. I mean, they even had a pet store filled with adorable puppies! But of course, my weakness lies in my obsession with Forever 21 and I stepped in to see what they had in "store" (okay, I'll stop with the puns .. maybe).

Forever 21 has become the store of glitz and glam and glitter. Flashy sequins, beaded shirts, walking disco balls, essentially. It'd be nice at the club, but all that shininess isn't practical for sitting in a classroom half the day or wearing to work. Thus, I have felt limited this year as far as practical clothes go. Off the shoulder tops and dresses are also incredibly popular, along with cage pumps and chunky jewelry.

This is taking it too far .. creating the illusion of a tank top with big sequins + frilly ruffles will make you look like a pregnant, sparkly whale-fish (and we all know whales are mammals).



I wonder if these Cage Pumps are even comfortable ... they seem to go great with leggings or skinny jeans and are all the rage.

For Winter 2009, it seems Forever 21 is phasing in loose, wide necklines and cinched waists. Sweet little cardigans are also in stock, along with faux biker jackets and brass-studded military-inspired jackets. The frustrating thing about fashion is the First Law of Beauty: Beauty is Pain! So if you live in a cold, blizzardy place, it's hard to look dazzling in 3 layers of chunky sweaters.

On a happier note, I really appreciate that Forever 21 has reached out and explored with ballet, French, and disco-inspired clothing. In particular, I have become enamored with the Tres Paris line and bought this adorable outfit (with a different beret and tights):

I'm a tee and skinny jeans kind of girl, with a love for basic black+white and artistic embellishments. This outfit would be what I call risque high fashion, since the shirt doesn't even reach my belly button but the skirt is so granny high rise that it makes up for it.
+ + = Tres Paris indeed

The Eiffel Tower Silhouette Top was $14.80, the Bow Front Skirt $19.80 and the Wool Blend Studded Beret &7.80, so with tax it's about $35 for the entire batch. Pretty good steal, eh? (I will upload pictures later)

With classy black and white with a pop of red, the Tres Paris line is an affordable way to embrace Parisian fashion without having to hop on a plane or break the bank. Berets, funky tights and high rise skirts are a must, slap on some red lipstick and you'll have everyone saying, "Oui, oui!"



Here's the rest of my haul:

Fab Turtleneck Top in Navy ($8.50) - it has a cute peephole in the back but mine is half-sleeves

Dotted Strip Tights ($5.80) - these actually look a lot more dark navy when not stretched out on a plaster white mannequin .. I haven't tried them on yet though.

Luxuriant Bracelet Set ($6.80) - Mom thought it was a good deal

I also got black Sweater Knit Food Tights ($5.80) for St. Louis year-long winters. Yay warm legs!

Enjoy the last-minute shopping, everyone! If you need stocking stuffers, Forever 21 has great makeup products for $1-3 and very cheap jewelry under $5. Meanwhile, Happy Holidays!

Researchers Have Found That Uncertainty Induces Stress Cell Growth

I don't like uncertainty. I mean, who does? It's driving me nuts checking Webstac every hour waiting for Orgo grades to come in, and I have to close my eyes and pray as I scroll down the page to the doom spot. And .. there's a blank. Still. It just makes me ANGSTY.

I also really don't like the fact that I may be moving again. To where, you might ask. Back. To. Oklahoma T__T Here we come, right back where we started from. Wait .. isn't that song about California? I wish.

Come on, Dad! Give me a break! I just got here just long enough to enjoy the sweet sunshine. Just long enough to get used to sharing a bunk bed with my teenage brother. Just long enough to feel somewhat at home in my already displaced world. I was born in China, grew up in Ohio, went to high school in Oklahoma, attend college in St. Louis, and now live in San Diego. I need some form of stability in the location I identify with, whatever it may be at this point!

I will be sad to leave here because even though I've spent a lot of time in the Midwest suburbs, I still feel like I'm a big city girl at heart. I need excitement. I need flavour. I need CULTURE. When I collected my suitcase and exited the terminal, I saw huge palm trees and felt the warm harbor breeze. That was strange, but it was so thrilling. And it may all be gone very soon. Or not?

This is why I hate uncertainty. When I was moving before high school, it was totally up in the air. Hershey, Pennsylvania? West Virginia? It ended up being Oklahoma, far from that area. During freshman year of college, Mom said it was between Toledo, Atlanta, and California. There are so many choices but I don't have a say in the matter. Why should I? Dad makes the big bucks and I'm spending way too much of of it on my fancy private university, in which my GPA is getting beat up like the runt of the litter in the doggy park.

In all honesty, I don't want to leave here because of med schools. We all know it's getting harder and harder to get in, nevertheless get to the West Coast for sunny schooling. I was so excited to move here also for the residency factor. There are plenty of UC med schools and they all cost several whales less than the cheapest private university. And med schools just so happen to favour their in-state kiddos. I don't even know which state I belong to now. I'm registered to vote in Missouri, I have lived for the past 5 years in Oklahoma, but now my official home address is in Cali. I don't want to go to OU for med school, but it would have been okay if I had just stayed in-state for undergrad. But I didn't. I decided to escape and go to St. Louis, the land of cold and pre-med woes. All this money, energy, all-nighters, bad GPAs all gone down the drain. I don't even know who would accept me out of state anymore if I move back.

Uncertainty ruins plans, too. Last summer, I was just waiting to move, packing little by little, hoping to be out of there by early July at the latest but we waited until mid-August to get a move on (no pun intended). Now, I don't even know what will happen this summer, where I planned to do research at Dad's lab. Or I was going to take Physics or something at UCSD. Now I forsee another summer of the same nightmare repeated. At least there's no house to scrub and show to unwilling buyers.

I will heave out a big sigh and leave it at that. I just wish that for once, the breadwinner could make a decision and stick with it. That way, I can prepare for the 3-day trek back to Sooner Land or feel relieved and safe in enjoying the beautiful weather and ocean water. Dad said this place was like a vacation home and too good to be true.

Well, all my big dreams of vacation, med school choices, and stability are probably just that. Dreams.

Untitled

     My footsteps echoed as heel met hardwood floor. The gentle perspiration on my hands glistened from the overbearing lights above. I bowed low with eyes closed, to me, to my parents, to my teacher, to Chopin, to Schumann, to Bach. The black fabric of my dress dragged slowly against the cushioned seat as I slid into position. Heel pressed against ground, toes feeling the brass pedal through the soles, already hearing the rich thick voice that would ring the second I push. Hands draped delicately at the edge of the two-toned pool, I poise for the dive.

     The first note splashed and painted red on the canvas of my ears. My fingers danced across hills, leaped furiously and elegantly in exotic flamenco. I breathed in the scent of mahogany, of ivory. Fingertips stroking the silky keys, every chord escaping from the music box, the strings vibrating, the hammers tapping, the music swirling and embracing me like wisps of perfume. My heart beating in rhythm with the contemporary piece I was banging out, boom boom little drummer, caged by ribs not sturdy enough to bear such dedicated pounding. Once again, I cover my eyes in red-tinged darkness and start to see the notes endlessly flowing, the woman Beethoven was courting, the moon reflected on the surface of a still pond. I feel the prick on the back of my neck, then on every inch of skin, the sensations of eyes probing, reaching, touching the music enveloping me.

     A quivering chord lingers in the still air as my pinky nearly collapses with fatigue. My breath comes in shaky rasps. I press to the core of the instrument, squeezing the last bit of juicy reverberation from its insides. Finally removing the veil, I stand up and bow to the rows and rows of velvet seats. Silence is as loud as the missing applause of the audience.

     My footsteps echoed to the ceiling of the empty hall.


[This is something I wrote for Visiting Writer Week in Writing 1. I think I will start sharing more of my works from now on]

Asian Dramas: Worth the Addiction?

So what is it that makes us Asian girls grip the edges of our computer screens and scream NOOOO when the rich guy gets back with his bratty rich ex-girlfriend and the underdog unfortunate mademoiselle is left in the corner sobbing? What makes us drool as we gaze for hours on end mindlessly at the male lead, fantasizing our own happy endings with Mr. Tall, Rich, and "Handsome"? What makes us sit through 24 episodes only to find out that we wasted all of break watching the same cookie-cutter storyline, plus or minus a few different spiky haired celebrities and a slight twist on how-he-hurts-her-again-and-again-then-they-kiss-and-make-up (not to mention with 5 different zoom-in's on that fated kiss and ladida music rolling in the background)?

Well, I have certain theories about the mystifying reason why Asian girls all over the world tune into dramas religiously:

1) The Hair
Yes, the spikier the better! Above, I have a lovely picture of Jiro Wang, a Taiwanese pop star/actor (Fahrenheit). Take an Asian boy, send his head through a shredder and voila! There you have it, an Asian drama sensation. Now, give him the girliest - sorry - metro clothes available on the market and it's even better. Automatic fan base and screaming doting girls who plaster 5 foot pictures of your face on their walls, ceilings, pillows, their boyfriend, I mean ... It's all about the gel, baby.
However, there have been cases where hair has gone incredibly wrong in my opinion, but it doesn't seem to stop anyone:

Yeah yeah, I know Meteor Garden's relatively old, but please. Every time i had to look at Vanness Wu's long beautiful locks (farthest left), I nearly gagged into my ramen (because Asians don't eat popcorn while watching drama pfft).

The new star of Boys over Flowers 2

2) The Fighting
If Asian people don't fight enough in real life, they certainly name-call with added gusto in dramas. Personally, I can't stand the bickering (Meteor Garden, Love or Bread) but it seems like a good way to stretch out a 5 minute argument into 50 minutes of showbiz. Sometimes it does happen to be funny though, with the angry mother beating up the rich, handsome businessman who impregnated her poor, socially awkward daughter (Fated to Love You). Other times, it turns a good actor like Joe Cheng into a turn-off when he goes from quiet, disgruntled genius Jiang Zhi Shu to big-mouthed, unscrupulous Cai Jin Lai (Frank).

3) I Can Haz Boifrend?!
It makes me sad that a lot of Asian girls are afraid to try dating real boys. I don't know whether it's because of the doom factor on grades, the lack of a good pool to fish from, or just non-existent chivalry in the 21st century - they're all waiting for their Prince Charming (Tall/Handsome). Thus, they project all their feelings onto these dramas and live out their romantic scenes through other actors. Tough luck girlies, but you know this is just TV, right? You probably won't meet a guy that horrible in your life, and he probably won't be a successful businessman with girl problems, and even if you have managed to make it this far, you won't be able to change them that easily. I know, reality sucks. Just ignore my rantings and go back to episode 573.

4) The Hot(?) Kiss
So, you've beasted through 40 hours straight and your eyes are bloodshot and you're ready to see some smooching. When it happens, the producer repeats the scene for the next hour with close-ups from every angle possible and you gush and open a fresh new tissue box. They finally love each other! After all that hate and fighting and meanie-poo, they get along. This is the moment you've all been waiting for! But wait ... the kissing wasn't that good, and they merely mashed their faces together long enough before CUT and both parties probably wiped furiously at their lips and mouth. Ewww cooties. Where's the passion? I don't know about you, but I like immediate gratification. I can't stay up for 2 days straight without feeling slightly disappointed when the kiss finally happens.

So if you must continue pulling out your (spiky) hair while waiting for next episode's english subs to load, power to ya. Mysoju has the most popular Asian dramas all subbed for your viewing pleasure, along with Korean, Canto, Mainland, Taiwanese, Japanese movies.

Verdict:
Some dramas are worth it, but usually only the most popular. Check ratings before you commit or quit! My favourite of all time has to be Fated to Love You simply because it was quirky and cute, with some great acting and hilarious mother character. I rate it 10/10 because it made me wait for every Sunday like my life depended on it, and I did beast through 17 episodes in a row. I was in love.

They're cute and you know it! *gush*

Winners!
- Fated to Love You
- It Started With A Kiss
- It Started With A Kiss 2 (wish it could have continued too!)
- Princess Hours (not a fave though ...)

Dramas I haven't been able to sit through:
- Meteor Garden (too much yelling, disgusting hair)
- Smiling Pasta (too excessively cute, Nicholas Teo looks weird)
- Hana Kimi (first drama ever - not bad actually)
- Love or Bread (too slow)

Winter Break + Reflections on Fall 09 Semester

The last final has been turned in, all the pages have been scrawled on to the best of my abilities - it's time to catch up on sleep on the plane!

I cannot fully describe in words how grateful I am for HOME and family and food and good weather and everything that is not sophomore year. Yes, it is my fault for not keeping up with Orgo. Yes, it is my fault for choosing classes whose midterms all happened to overlap in the same day. Yes, it is my fault I chose to go to WashU. All that matters is that I get a full month away from that nonsense. Huzzah!

Tis the season for spending all day watching drama (starting Love or Bread by the way), being lazy, filling tummies full of homecooked wondrous food. Yesterday, I got home after a transfer in Phoenix at about 9:30 PM Pacific time - thank goodness without the delays I suffered last year at this time (stuck in a re-route at Kansas City for about 10 hours ...). I nearly finished Microtrends on the plane and slept til 1 in the afternoon today. Winter Break, commence!

However, before all the festivities begin, I wanted to do a "hindsight" review on this past semester, namely my courses. It's fun to compare before and after's and also eye-opening for avoiding mistakes next time around.

Organic Chemistry 261:
Insight: Oh. My. God. Do not do not DO NOT ever fall behind! I took that advice for granted and thus I suffered miserably before every exam! I hear from successful fellow students that the key is doing problems, problems, problems. I failed to do the end of chapter problems and studied the weekend before .. along with CogPsych and usually Chinese. Making flashcards seems extremely helpful for the mechanisms .. because it's partially memorization and partially understanding. There's no real good way to do it except START EARLY.
Prof: He (will be unnamed for the sake of anonymity) seems to lack enthusiasm and goes in this automated predictable list .. Here's the mechanism. Push some electrons. Valence bond, molecular orbital, next. I never liked FMO but he seems obsessed with it gahhh. He finally perked up when explaining tidbits of his research concerning the mechanisms underlying skin cancer. So, sitting through 40 lectures of monotony before getting to the gin and tonic black light party discussion didn't really help.
Book: Organic Chemistry by Wade 8th edition - very readable. I would say it's worth the $200 in comparison to Oxtoby for Gen Chem, but it's still so terribly costly. There is the ebook version though! The code comes with the purchase of a textbook, so no more lugging this 10-pounder around (though I still prefer marking up the text).

Organic Chemistry Lab
Insight: The grading is super tough on the reports! Make sure you write water in your table of reactants and products .. it is a chemical after all. Product yield is always a killer but watching crystals form is pretty neat. However, recrystallizations every single time gets old and organic solvents smell like death. Don't inhale them either - easy way to kill those precious brain cells.
Prof: He's the bomb! He made every single lecture interesting and worthwhile. In fact, I really wish he taught the regular orgo lectures too. He's also probably one of the few people in the whole field who doesn't try to kick students down and out of premed with discouragement.
Book: Lab Manual .. listen to your TA because it sometimes lies.

Cognitive Psychology 360
Insight: This class wasn't exactly as neurologically-based as I thought it would be. It's very much theory and model concepts with little anatomy, but I certainly learned a lot. Reading all those cognitive psychology books over the summer helped a little, but those cute anecdotes didn't help learn the recognition by components, linguistics, or base rate in the long run. The key to studying is going through slides in great detail and reading over the book. There are short answer questions on every exam and the points are scaled down to 25/exam ... meaning it's extremely tough to get an A (lowest one is a 93). The means are usually 73 or 74, which means most of the class gets B's and C's. So I must say, I'm really darn proud of having pulled myself up from an A- to an A for the win!
** Don't ever take this with Orgo 261!!! Exams overlap to the day and that is bad news for your grades in both classes**
Prof: Most of my warm feelings towards him vaporized after the first exam. He is still kind, but not nearly as caring towards the students as I originally thought. Though well-known in the field with many publications, he's not exactly what you'd call modest.
Book: Cognition by Reisberg, 3rd edition (media version is not necessary at all). It's pretty readable but sometimes I feel like it spoonfeeds too much. However, summaries are great for condensing the material.

Chinese 427:
Insight: Your same old Chinese run-down but much faster paced than Chinese 3: dictations every day, 4 midterms each covering 2-3 chapters, essays (500-800 words) and oral presentations. Halfway through the semester, I definitely lost my passion for learning because it just felt like grinding and grinding and grinding and shoving more vocab up the wazoo an hour before class. I was dismayed at some of the other students' attitudes towards the class because their behavior openly screamed disrespect. I am not taking Chinese 4 next semester but I may continue in spring of Junior year. I was originally going to pursue a minor in Chinese, but I apparently need 2 full years of Chinese language, and another 300-level class. I might as well get a Chinese major, but currently, that is unnecessary.
Prof: I feel like she lost a lot of her passion between Chinese 3 and now. I think it's the way the students treat her, but at one point I felt like she was expecting more out of me than everyone else on the oral presentations. Other than that, her tests are pretty straight forward and I learned plenty of Chinese.

Principles of Biology 2970
Insight: Genetics + Evolution - a possible mix? Well, it did and I certainly learned a lot. However, I disliked that problem sets were 5 million times easier than the tests (first half of course was crazy tough on the genetics problems). Lecture quizzes were a pain in the butt but they only count for probaby 7% of the total grade in the course. Bomb away! Oh, and work hard on the midterms because you can drop the final. However, they don't tell you what the cutoffs are, so go figure.
Prof 1: Draws some stuff on the board, walks around and trips over the vents. Awkward much, but a caring parent. It's this whole facade to make you pity until he rakes you with the exams. Still a nice, caring guy though.
Prof 2: Has to be the most interesting character ever. Explains stuff very thoroughly and slowly, and definitely goes by slides (lots of statistical analysis). Did a pretty good job teaching some confusing material.
Book: iGenetics: A Mendelian Approach by Russell. The diagrams are amazing but the text is pretty boring to read. Not too helpful unless you need some mild clarifications.

Calc III 233:
Yeah I dropped it like it's hot. That's right.

Take-home message? Sophomore slump! It's when your life seems to go to bits and you're tired of studying but you can't stop because then you'll get raked by the exam that you can no longer cram for but you have 3 other ones in the same 24 hours and you're working all the time but yet it doesn't pay off. Excuse my run-on but that's how the last four months felt. I feel older and just plain old. With orgo, 18 credits is more like 25 credits, so taking it easy on the courseload is rational. However, it's not the end of the world and there's plenty of/too much room for improvement. I thought I learned the hard lessons a year ago, but it came around and slapped me in the face. Multiple times.

Not to fear, kiddos. NOW is the time for Christmas cheer. So watch this video, and it will do an SN2 on all of your Organic Chemistry sorrows : )

Fifth MedPrep Shadowing

This was the first time I shadowed Saturdays and it was definitely tiring! I forgot what room I was supposed to be in, so on the way to TCC, I bumped into Dr. Polites, the MedPrep professor and today's attending. With 2 other shadows crowded into the room, it was kind of hard to see what was going on. Either way, I witnessed quit a bit, I'm not even sure I can capture everything:

- 32 yo w female with heart problems, dialysis. Nurses were putting a peripheral IV into her using an ultrasound when we entered. Later during scans, the IV was pulled out. Taught her 11 yo daughter to set up dialysis and tear it down (so independent!) Her catheter came out bit by bit so they have to call in the whole team to put it in again.
- 50 yo b female with HIV, drug use. Pneumonia, coughed up dark brown phlegm, low oxygen levels
- heard someone fell 12 ft off a deer stand (hunting)
- w male Grand Mal seizured in the CT room, turned purple, put on air. He had 2 types of aphasia, thought to be from stroke but that was actually another seizure. He could understand questions but his answers were complete babbling. See dark patch on brain scans right hemisphere from previous stroke.
- 25 yo b male with 3 gunshot wounds, 2 going through right arm (no bullet), one near the tailbone, which will not be removed. He absolutely reeked and you could see layer upon layer of black dirt on the soles of his feet. At first it smelled like cumen, but then it was just fetid putrid needs-to-shower. The catch: he was shot Thursday and just came in today because he didn't feel like walking earlier. Okay ..
- b female with redness around stitching (surgery)
- b male heroin and alcohol overdose. Relatively unresponsive. Gave him 10 mg narcan to counter the effects of the opiates. Withdrawal
- w male with some pain, missing front tooth, didn't really catch what was wrong with him
- w male with breathing issues. Could not speak, had a weird tube around his mouth. Cast around right leg. Said to be "classic textbook case" of something.
- 89 yo b male with colon cancer, bladder cancer, completely unconscious. Sounds like water in lungs, would not respond to foot scratch test, possible MI, possible cardiac arrest, possible infection. There was a tube connected to something and it smelled putrid when drained. This was the last case I saw of the day.
- Learned that some people fake seizures ...
- Saw records of one patient who has visited BJH probably over 200 times so far in 2009. His records go back to 1997.