...But I'll talk about that later. First off, I started watching House MD over the break. Hugh Laurie is awesome, though I have to say his character is a huge son of a bitch, but in a good way, if that's really possible.

Now, I haven't been diligently watching every single episode, as I did with How I Met Your Mother, but several examples stick out in my mind that illustrate this point:

In the episode where the gay guy with flown-blown AIDs is admitted and House needs a blood sample from the guy's father, the crazy SoB takes his cane and whacks the man in the stomach to make him cough blood :O

At  the beginning of the episode with John Cho, who plays the crazy masochist who likes being strangled, House gets what he thinks is piss spilled all over him by John Cho's character.

/cup of yellow liquid spills on House
"Who walks around with an open urine sample??!!"
/Wilson sniffs House's shirt
"It's apple juice..."
Lmfao XD

All the while, this Asian masochist character has run off into a corner and starts having a seizure, prompting him to be admitted to the hospital.

His overall attitude towards his patients, such as never revealing himself to them unless it is absolutely necessary, as well as the extremely blunt and insensitive manner in which he tells his patients that they are dying all contribute to his SoB aura that House has emanating from him.

Despite it all though, I really like the character. Well, I don't like the character, more like I like the concept of him. Indeed, he is a medical Sherlock Holmes in many many ways. Both Holmes and House are forensics geniuses, both are addicted to some kind of drug, both are not social people with few real friends, and both are interested only in very particular cases (House would use the word "interesting"). There are also the name similarities: Holmes :: House, Watson :: Wilson, etc.

I'm still watching the series, though I can already say I quite enjoy it. How I Met Your Mother is still better though. Sorry.

I have also become quite addicted to Final Fantasy XIII, especially its music, which I keep blasting on a loop over and over again. It's just so epic! Makes me want a PS3...

It's ok.... I'll get over myself....

It just so happens that the only Final Fantasy game coming out for Wii (the Crystal Bearers) looks only good enough to be called XIII's bastard brain-child... /sob

Now that that's over with, heading down to LA tomorrow with my badminton homies for USBDF. Yep... me playing my first age tournament... U19 and U22 singles. Fancy me playing up ^^;
Oh god it's gonna be horrible... But at the same time it'll be loads of fun too, right? It better.

Music: Final Fantasy XIII Soundtrack: Battle Theme Remix (Trance)

Yaaaayyyyyyyyy, first quarter is done with :D

That was hands down the most stress-free finals week I've gone through ever (haha, what do you expect from community college)!

When I transfer though, it'll be back to long-ass nights spent vainly trying to pump my veins full of caffeine in order to study D:

Ok, just think in the present for now boy, that's still a ways away..

Just look forward to Christmas break and seeing old friends again and going down to LA for USBDF (which brings about a strange culmination of both nerve-wrecking fear and absolute excitement).

As long as I get past round, I'll be happy with myself.

Now I'm having second thoughts about that red and orange Yonex shirt I spent $30 on >>;
Proooobably should've gone with something a little less blatant, but it was on closeout so no returns/refunds ><

Ok, whatever. I'm pretty happy that things have been turning out well recently :]

It was so fun seeing the old Toga friends again~

School, has put me in such a massive fun withdrawal; I felt high (or at least, my notion of what I think it feels to be high of course :P) that whole night.

Everyone looked the same in terms of appearance, except that Wooho has gone emo now..

I didn't know whether to laugh or what..

All he was missing was the black fingernail polish.

Just glad that he didn't act emo haha.

So we halo-ed and poker-ed until about 12:30, chatting about college and classes, upon which we decided to make an In N Out run like last time.

Last time, however, we drove in Wooho's $70000 Lexus. This time, we took my $16000 Maxima..

My car definitely pales in comparison XD

Plus, it wasn't me driving, it was Jeff, the car buff, who decided to tax my cheapo sedan to the limit :O

/revs the car engine

Wooho: "OHMYGOD WE'RE GONNA BLOW UP!!"

/accelerates to 90 mph

Me: "OHMYGOD JEFF YOU'RE GONNA KILL US ALL!!!"

/braking from 90 mph cruising speed

Jeff: "OHMYGOD YOUR BRAKES SUCK!!"

At least we made it there in one piece, though I think the engine was smoking underneath the hood, and I could smell burned rubber ._.

So we ordered, and, after receiving our food, Wooho introduced us to a Berkeley orchestra tradition of sorts: ketchup saturated with pepper. When I say saturated, I mean absolutely overflowing! The mixture was about half ketchup and half pepper, and looked like dirt mixed with blood..

It was surprisingly good though, and not too peppery :D

Thank god Jeff only took it to 80 mph max on the way back.

Haha, gosh, can't wait for winter break now ^^

Music: Far Away - Jay Sean ft. Keisha Buchanan

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :]

If for nothing else, I'm glad for this four-day respite; I've been plagued by migraines and headaches for the past two weeks T_T

Must be all the pressure to succeed in school and stuff.. Seriously, I never worked this hard in high school.. Haha, what a pity XD

Also will be seeing the old high school peeps :]
Going to Vik or Lun's house to play video games and rush to In N Out at 1 in the morning. Ah, that'll be great. I haven't experienced that kind of fun in some time now.

After so many let downs when it comes to girls, I think my psyche is actually starting to toughen up ._.
Surprisingly..

From here on out I'm going to make a conscious effort to not become enthralled with girls and to chase after them like a love-sick puppy. I'm really not good at it..

Now to go have Thanksgiving dinner with the family. We're eating Chinese! Hahaha
Figures.

Just got done with BAO. I wouldn't say I'm terribly happy with the result, but it's an improvement over every other tournament I've played thus far.

At least it was a good tournament for many of D players. Jack and Ryan both move up for sure, while Derek and Lawrence might also, at couch's discretion.

Our B players got absolutely raped this tournament though XD

None of them made it past first round.. Kind of sad :/

Now I'm motivated to start going to practice again! Haha, well, at least twice a week.

Next tournament belongs to Brian, Eric, and me x]

Sometimes I wish that independent girls aren't

The only type that

Strike my fancy

Their nonchalant demeanor as well as

Their inherent confidence in everything they do

Rattles my heart and soul

And yet

It is these same qualities of character

That wound me

It drives me over the cliff and

Into

A sad and depressed state

We'll talk for hours on end

But ultimately they still treat me

Just like any other

Love is hard enough as is

Without

Adding on more obstacles

But despite all the pain that

My heart has endured

I will not deviate or give in

One day, I know that

My perseverence

Will be rewarded

Bye bye October. You were a bit of a gloomy month for the most part. Let's hope November is nicer to me..

Another Halloween come and gone~ Hurray! Haha, yea.. I don't like Halloween; what a gloomy, cold, depressing, and, not to mention, annoying time of year. And I was forced to dress up this year too :[

Dumb Halloween parties..

And yes, I know, at first I thought the whole deal with jazzing up my hair in the asian fashion was going to be such a cool experience, until I actually got around to dipping my fingers in that apple-scented hair clay and smearing it into my hair..

Haha, I think I used to much, but even then, my hair doesn't seem to appreciate my smearing of apple-scented pasty stuff into it. My hair turned out looking like Eric Chuang's.. Ugh..

So yea, fyi, I went to a Halloween party as an asian pop star XD

Ahh, and then got no sleep at said Halloween party (it was a sleepover sort of thing) and lost $10 at the poker table to boot D:

Haha, stupid Halloween..

So looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmastime now ^^

Lalala, been neglecting Livejournal a bit too much. Forgive me..

Hmm, I suppose life at De Anza isn't totally unbearable. Coming to a place like this allows me to meet people I never would have otherwise. Like, there's this eighteen-year-old single father who sits next to me in speech class. He's a really chill dude, and I would have had no idea that he was bearing such a responsibility on his shoulders until we were assigned to get up in front of the class and talk about a personal experience of ours.

At first, he was planning to talk about what how much fun he'd had at Love Fest in SF the past weekend. However, most of the class talked about totally sad or depressing experiences, things that had affected them dearly over the course of their lives (thank God I went second..), and so when it was finally his turn, he just completely ditched his original idea and in front of the whole class he announced, "For those of you who don't know me, I'm a single father."

Whoa. And he proceeds to talk about what had happened, how he had to fight for custody of his beloved daughter, and how he had just celebrated her second birthday not long ago. It really was touching.

Really, had I gone directly to one of the colleges of my choice right after high school, I would have just immediately surrounded myself with people I knew how to be friends with; kids from schools like SHS. I would never have had the chance to befriend people from totally different spectrums of society. Originally, before coming to De Anza, I had envisioned being a total social outcast amongst people that I wouldn't allow myself to mingle with. How haughty of me. Now I see that no matter where they are from, people are people; all with their own lives, stories and unique situations.

So far it's been a real eye-opening experience.

I've also befriended a bunch of fobs
One in particular is a petite girl from Guiling province in China who decided to call herself Miki when she came here. I love the way she speaks English. Now, she's been here nine months, so her English is far from bad, but her accent and the way she tries to pronounce words she's never heard of just makes me lol. I try to make it easier on her by speaking with her in Chinese :P

Just this past Friday she brought me along to a Christian congregation that she is involved with. The people were cool and the food was good. As for all the speeches and sermons about God and his recovery and stuff, I mean, that's not really my cup of tea. But I guess it wasn't too unbearable to sit through.

Hm, so yea, that's life at De Anza so far. If things continue this way, I guess two years here won't be nearly as unbearable as I had first contrived.

Valley Fair has too many damn clothing stores T_T

Ugh, not a fun place to hang out...

Orrr, next time I should just bring Daniel and Tony and ditch Noah and Jaz :P

Yea, I've truly been assimilated into the fob clique now ╮(╯▽╰)╭

At least I get to practice my chinese around them, which is always a plus, since its been rusting in some dark and desolate closet in the back of my brain.

It is a bit strange in part cause I can listen to their conversation and understand them, but then I'm too embarrassed to reply back in chinese cause I have a weird accent, plus my vocabulary is the pits compared to theirs, who all came from China, Taiwan, or Malaysia.

Their english though is definitely better than my chinese XD

Oh, I'm so gonna turn into a fob ╮(╯▽╰)╭

It's still relatively early, but I've already begun adapting to this new lifestyle, regardless of whether I like said change or not.

The classes, the people, the environment; everything here is so different from what I was used to in high school, and yet I've adapted surprisingly well.

The classes are engaging enough though not too challenging, except for my calc class, which is challenging as hell ._.

I find it very amusing how everyone here thinks I'm some fob straight from China. Well, they only draw that conclusion as a first impression. Of course, once I open my mouth and talk, they can most definitely tell that I'm not. I guess it doesn't help that I actually kind of dress like a fob now and haven't gotten a haircut since before we left for Europe. One group has already whisked me into their click (cause all asians seem to hang around only with each other), which is cool and all, though I make it a point that they won't be my exclusive friends during my stay here.

What drove us together was my joining their study group for our ridiculously difficult and scary calc teacher ._.
He has his students in a perpetual death glare every class, and we're all so frickin' scared to say anything...

If I can get through calc this quarter, I'll be all set :O

My econ professor is AWESOME! :D

If I had any doubts about majoring in econ, they were all swept away today by this ancient, dour-looking gentleman who could've been taken straight out of early 20th century England (I was very surprised when he didn't speak with an English accent :O).

Yes, he's  this tall dour gentleman by the name of Anderson who wears an ancient suit and thick glasses that he always whips on and off between reading and staring at the class. He looked to be the most conservative man I'd ever met in my life, and, well I guess he still is a conservative, but only because he knows Obama's healthcare plan is gonna crash and burn. He said as much in class today in front of a hundred die-hard California democrats.

Of course, we didn't believe (or didn't want to), so he proved it to us with the most complicated series of economic equations and jargon I'd never heard of. Bummer... It was completely fascinating listening to him ramble on and on about the global economy and the US economy's inevitable peril, even with Obama at the helm.

Looking forward to his classes :D

 

People consider high school to be the turning point from childhood to adulthood. Makes sense right? One's mentality and maturity levels are worlds apart from age fourteen to age eighteen. People on weight-loss commercials brag about "feeling better than I did in high school," like that was the height of their adult physicality.

Indeed, we learn to be self-sufficient during that four year time of hormonal transitions. We learn to drive, what it means to be in a relationship (most of us at any rate ._.), find out what it means to have a job and the responsibilities that come with it. Yes, we experience many of the things that become routine in everyday adulthood, and make decisions during this transitional period that shape our adult lives in ways we can't possibly fathom as a scruffy teenager.

So then, is high school the point at which we grow into the person we are to be for the rest of our entire lives? I certainly don't think so. I listen to those weight-loss commercials and think, is this the best I'm ever gonna feel? Oh kill me now then if it be so. Now that we're eighteen and legal, our mentality has overnight switched into "adult mood" now hasn't it?

For some people that may hold true. However, personally, I feel as far away from adulthood now as I did as a five-year old. The responsibilities and trivialities that come with having your own job, paying your own bills, taking care of your own family; I know what those responsibilities entail, and yet, right now I cringe at the idea of what would happen if suddenly all that was thrust upon me now.

Ok fine, if high school is too early a period to become self-sufficient, then certainly college right? We truly experience living on our own with no parental supervision, get to know what it's like to be drunk and get laid. All that jazz. Do our brains switch into adult mood then instantaneously? I'm not so sure mine will even then.

As an eighteen-year old, I guess I've grown up, though in every respect I do not at all feel like a "grown up"; I don't think I will feel ready for that for a long time to come. Yet when it does comes in earnest, I'm not sure I'll be entirely able to accept  it, to face what needs to be done and do it. Ah well, we shall see won't we?

Perhaps growing up for some people is a never-ending process, not one that is simple "completed" by a certain point in one's life.

Ten more days till school starts ._.

I mean...nothing with wrong with that I suppose (of course, that's my perspective now; we'll see when I'm two weeks into the quarter), just that the day is rushing towards me at quite an alarming pace and I'll wake up on the morning of September 21 and go "whoa". 

Chilled with some of the Berkeley crew last weekend when they returned for Labor Day weekend. Left 4 Dead with Ren and one of his floor mates who joined us online (apparently its a big fad at Berkeley) and Halo with Jeff and Wooho, who incidentally, got much better; I mean, he actually stopped feeding kills this time around! And racing for In N' Out at 1 in the morning, gunning the engine to 120 mph in an attempt to make it in time before closing. It really makes me sad knowing that I'm missing out on so much of the college experience, i.e. dorm living, making new friends, not having parents within fifty miles of my person and all that... Sigh.

And why in the world has society been gripped by the young-and-hot vampire theme? I caught a glimpse of a new show on TV called "The Vampire Diaries", which is just a regurgitation of Twilight into a one-hour television show. The male female protagonist is a lot better looking than the actress who played Bella in the Twilight movie though ._.

Speaking of movies, since I was so sick of being cooped up in the house with nothing to watch but the US Open (more on that later), I went and saw the new movie 9, by myself, like the stinking loner I am D:

Whatever, I had the whole back row all to myself (matinee showing on a weekday). And though the movie wasn't as epic in terms of brilliantly-rendered violent action scenes involving little dolls brought to life slicing off the heads of gigantic mechanized wolves with scythes as I had hoped, it was all right, though very predictable. Basically your average post-apocalypse movie with the little dolls brought to life as a bit of a twist.

And now, the US Open, which has kept me teetering on the brink of sanity instead of allowing me to slip down that dark hole wrought by brain-numbing boredom. Pretty typical results until the fourth round, where Andy Murray got knocked out (NOOOOOOOO!! T_T) by Marin Cilic, some nobody who had never reached a quarterfinal in a major before in his life, and who them proceeded to lose that quarterfinal to Del Potro. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. ANDY HOW COULD YOU??? You fail...  You're just like Lee Chong Wei in badminton, always second place, never able to win any major titles... Oh, well, Roddick also got knocked out really early as well; in the, what, third round? Yea, by a 6' 9" giant named Isner. 6' 9" ._. What's the cutoff in height between normal growth and having contracted gigantism? Cause this guy certainly is close to it for sure. Anyways, now I'm just hoping Nadal gets to the final to face (who else?) Federer. If Murray is Lee Chong Wei, Federer is Lin Dan right-handed. Nadal...doesn't really have a corresponding badminton player. Bao Chun Lai? Nah, Bao isn't as good.

There, a summary of everything worth mentioning that's happened since my last post, for no particular reason other than I thought I should get around to updating my lj. And before I go to sleep, The Fray is the frickin' best band evar! :D

Just finished One L by Scott Turow, an autobiographical account of the author's experiences at Harvard Law School as a 1L, or first year student. Turow writes a very detailed description of the going's on at the most prestigious law school in the country, starting from his first days at orientation in September of 1975 to his final exams in June of 1976.

Turow's account of his first year as a law student doesn't make for nice reading, though it is a good book. His tone is downright depressing and pessimistic throughout his account, though this was probably done as a way to convey the wracked nerves and anxiety that pervaded him and his fellow students. Indeed, his tone of anxiety seems to transfer to the reader; at times I couldn't stop myself from putting the book down when it felt like my stomach had turned queasy and my hands and feet felt clammy.

"It is Monday morning, and when I walk into the central building, I can feel my stomach clench. For the next five days I will assume that I am somewhat less intelligent than anyone around me. At most moments I'll suspect that the privilege I enjoy was conferred as some kind of peculiar hoax. I will be certain that no matter what I do, I will not do it well enough; and when I fail, I know that I will burn with shame. By Friday my nerves will be so brittle from sleeplessness and pressure and intellectual fatigue that I will not be certain I can make it through the day. After years off, I have begun to smoke cigarettes again; lately, I seem to be drinking a little every night. I do not have the time to read a novel or a magazine, and I am so far removed from the news of world events that I often feel as if I've fallen off the dark side of the planet. I am distracted at most times and have difficulty keeping up a conversation, even with my wife. At random instants, I am likely to be stricken with acute feelings of panic, depression, indefinite need, and the pep talks and irony I practice on myself only seem to make it worse. I am a student in my first year at the law, and there many moments when I am simply a mess."

This passage, I think, summarizes the first year at its worst, when one is just burned out by the classes, the 300-page reading assignments, studying, and exams, not to mention the competition to succeed amongst a sea of bright and successful students to win the praise of professors, top grades, and a coveted spot on the Harvard Law Review.

For me though, this book put much of what I've thought I've wanted to do with my future in perspective. I never expected law school to be easy; hell, you might be thinking, "why am I even worrying about this stuff now, I haven't even gotten into law school," which is probably just as trying as being a 1L itself. This book hasn't altered my decision about becoming a lawyer in the future though, it's just shown me what it is going to take to get to where I want to go. That's not to say Turow's book hasn't revealed to me aspects of becoming a lawyer that I'd rather wish I didn't have to go through. Turow writes about one in particular:

"'Legal thinking is nasty,' I said to Gina at one point in our conversation, and I began to think later I'd hit on a substantial truth. Thinking like a lawyer involved being suspicious and distrustful. You reevaluated statements, inferred from silences, looked for loopholes and ambiguities. You did everything but take a statement at face value. So on one hand you believed nothing. And on the other, for the sake of logical consistency, and to preserve long-established rules, you would accept the most ridiculous fictions--that a corporation was a person, that an apartment tenant was renting land and not a dwelling. What all of that showed me was that the law as a way of looking at the world and my own more personal way of seeing things could not be thoroughly meshed; and that at some point, somehow, I would have to learn those habits of mind without making them my own in the deepest sense. I had no idea quite how I'd go about that, but I knew that it was necessary."

In many ways it seems, to become a successful lawyer means you cannot be a decent person, one who is trusting and sincere, because those principles of decency go against everything you are taught in order to be a successful lawyer. In the world of courtroom trials and law, there is always a winner and a loser. To come out as the victor, you must undermine and outmaneuver the opposing counsel, and, at least during the trial, decency isn't a luxury that can be afforded to the opponent.

However, I have met real-life lawyers who turned to be very decent, honest people as well as successful lawyers. I guess lawyers are probably some of the most two-faced people on the planet; nice people at home, absolute cut-throats when at work.

I chide myself in knowing I will eventually join their ranks.

I need to find a way to kill three weeks' time  D:

Now that I'm only practicing one day a week, my days are wide open.

Is summer really a boon? Sometimes it sure doesn't feel that way...

Seems my parent's marriage is built on conflict and antagonism.

Funny as it sounds, they seem to argue over anything, from bills and money to things like superstitions and historical topics. Even over trivial things, their arguments are always quite heated and usually get physical. Both of them just seem to have very opposing viewpoints to anything you can think of.

Don't get the wrong impression that they like it, like they run around screaming and laughing while throwing pillows at each other like a young couple embroiled in adolescent love; its like what you'd expect from heated argument between husband and wife who have been married almost twenty years.

I really kind of wonder what was going on in their heads before they were married. Nowadays, Mom just seems to complain that Dad doesn't do anything right: the chores, his job, his habits. She claims she had no idea he was really like this when they were dating, and I guess now she's paying her dues for that mistake.

Oh, I don't think divorce is ever a viable option for them these days; they're too old, and honestly, I doubt I would care if they split up. When I was younger though, and these arguments of theirs would ensue, I was so scared that they would split up, which at the time, I thought would be the absolute end of my world. Subconsciously, I think their almost-constant bickering scarred me to the bone.

If one good thing has come out of living with two parents who act this way, it's set a sound example with me of exactly how not to do it.

Or maybe I'm just a bad son ._.

Finally have internet back :O

AT&T is stupid and should go bankrupt for their shitty customer service.

Two weeks ago they had to cut off our internet service cause of some mechanical problem, and basically, due to internal misunderstandings or some other such crap, our internet has been dead until this afternoon, when they could finally get a mechanic out to our house to fix the stinking problem (turns out all he had to do was flip a switch on at their hub T_T). Dad of course was calling them oh so frequently, asking them what was going on and when we'd get our internet back (he was suffocating so very much), and more often than not, these phone conversations turned into screaming-and-arguing fests with whichever unlucky AT&T representative happened to pick up our call.

So now that that whole ugly situation is done with, I can finally get back to watching my badminton videos (oh how many I have missed :O), read manga online, and get on livejournal and post what has been going on over the past month or so.

For the most part, I've reading much more avidly over the past couple of weeks than I have in a while; basically anything I can get my hands on in the house, to while away the hours that I'm cooped up with no where to go. I won't give reviews or even quick synopses of the books I've read; that'd just take way too long...

Other than that, nothing too out of the usual, going to practice, watching the odd movie or two (none of them chick flicks...), dinner parties with my mom's relatives, etc.

Mm, yes, it's been a most unproductive summer.

I'm not one who remembers my dreams in great detail (it seems to be a talent for some people), but last night I had a dream that as of yet hasn't flown off into the ether so I shall endeavor to describe it.

The whole of SHS was a boarding school, and so we all lived in dorm buildings, though we all had our own separate rooms unlike real boarding schools where all the guys sleep in one room and the girls sleep in another. The school was structured very much like the Sport Hotel back in Schladming, with lots of empty passageways and dark, deserted corridors, and I remember to get to my own room, I had to proceed down a specific stairwell, jump a floor, and spill some of my own blood on a nondescript part of wall, which would open to reveal a hidden door.

Though it may have been structured like the hotel in Schladming, the building with all our rooms was very reminiscent of the Covenant capital city in Halo 2. For those who haven't played Halo, well, don't worry about it.

There was also a quad of course, though it was much bigger, much neater, and much more aesthetically pleasing. It was basically an outdoor mall of sorts, with lots of stores framing the perimeter and lots of tables where we all sat and ate our lunches and talked, y'know, what we do during lunch at school.

So anyways, this long-winded dream of mine followed me around in my day-to-day affairs. There were some wacky classes that seemed to come straight out of Hogwarts, and... and... Kucer there still teaching AP Bio. Oh god...

After a morning of classes, I went to lunch and sat down at a table with Carolyn and Tina, and this girl, whom I'd never met in real life sits down next to me, and I think she was my girlfriend or something, cause we acted like a couple, doing... all those things that couples do... Strange how in the dream I seemed to know that we had some sort of relationship even though after waking up, I have no idea who the heck she was; I can't even remember her face clearly.

She was kind of short, like half a head shorter than I am, with short hair and a round face (of course she was Asian), and she seemed to be very much into computers -- she always lugged a laptop around in her backpack. She wasn't as cute as I would have expected, and she appeared to be at least two or three years younger than me, though I'm not one who finds younger girls all that attractive.

And so, we IMed, went on dates, sat together at lunch, even went to a fancy dinner function where I was dressed in a tux and her in a dress, and it was all very surreal and euphoric. This dream of mine didn't really go anywhere, and hell if I know what it means, or even if it means anything at all.

Sitting here reflecting on this bizarre head trip, thinking to myself that I would never actually date a girl like that in real life.

 

Took me about a week to watch a 50-episode show.

But anyways, I have found another anime to grace my standing of all-time best anime I've ever watched: Gundam 00.

Code Geass being the first one to make my list, Gundam 00 is another anime with tons of mecha, many well-developed characters, and a well-written story.

I'd never watched any of the other Gundam franchises such as Wing, Seed, or Seed Destiny, but someone made an amv of it playing alongside "Haru Haru" on Youtube and it looked interesting, so I looked it up and was quickly hooked.

In comparison, the ending isn't as epic as Code Geass's was (the main character doesn't die at the end for one thing), and it doesn't boast as many dimensions as Code Geass either. Gundam 00 is almost exclusively just a lot of mecha shooting and slashing it out with beam sabres and particle rifles, though I must add that Gundam's are much cooler-looking than Knightmare frames.

Also, whereas Code Geass focused on one central protagonist (if you can really attribute that term to Lelouch), Gundam 00 follows four Gundam meisters in their quest to change the world.

Boiled down, the story of both these anime are the same, with the protagonist(s) seeking to eradicate war and conflict by going against the rest of society. Different plot elements are just used to get to the same point.

I guess I'm just a fan of Sunrise. The story of Gundam 00 was decent enough, though I have to admit that Code Geass had more interesting plot elements, more depth, and more twists in it. I just like watching Gundams slug it out :P