So I'm not much of a writer.

But I've managed to consistently spend a few days a week for four years of my life in and out of the little building tucked between the Mechanical Engineering Research Lab and Terman Engineering Building, which are, incidentally, where I spent the rest of my time in college. Ever since a fellow resident in Burbank, my sophomore dorm, who was into photography told me that I could shoot pictures for The Daily, I've managed to find myself sitting at the photo desk, tweaking, cropping, captioning and re-coloring the night away. The question now, looking back on it, is why the hell I did it.

Not that I did it for the money (I think I would have made more swiping cards at Stern Dining), or the fame (the rush of seeing my pictures in print every week subsides just as quickly as the buzz you get from smoking cheap Mexican cigarettes). And it definitely wasn't due to any fondness for the way the men's bathroom smells (which, in the time I've been here, has only gotten worse). The free beer and ice cream definitely helped (I was a free-food moocher even before becoming a graduate student), as did the fact that Camille Ricketts was the Editor-in-Chief IC for the entirety of my first year at The Daily. (Although Julie comes pretty close on the awesome and hotness scale.)

Aside from the vices of photography, I even wrote four or five columns two summers ago when I was in Berlin, about the World Cup, about why you should go streaking, and about how I got a free beer when I went to see the premiere of Snakes on a Plane (probably one of the best things that's ever happened to me). I was of course inspired by Darren Franich, who I got to know in Germany. I clearly didn't fill those big shoes he left behind.

Don't get me wrong; being a Daily photographer definitely has perks, like how much more trusting people are when you have a giant camera. When Chelsea FC (the soccer team) visited last summer, I managed to walk into the stadium without a ticket, walk past three lines of security and onto the pitch without having to show any form of ID, and ended up being 5 feet from Didier Drogba's ass when he was doing warm-ups. So really, working at The Daily is not about getting paid, or getting recognition, it's really about getting you the opportunity to point a camera at famous people's rear ends. And that's why I got two engineering degrees from Stanford.

Watch out Hollywood, here I come!

John Shen wants to let you know that he's available for photographing all kinds of asses. He'll also be working in San Jose putting those degrees to use.