So This Is How it Feels

To win the lottery!!!

Ok I didn't, but it feels like it.  I don't even know how to act right now.  In shock. 



Thanks to everybody who joined forces and kept their fingers crossed.  

我得到了！
ah maa, ngo duk joh lah!
I did it! woooooooooooooooo

What next? plane tickets to ___, take family out, take family out, take friends out, take a time out (breathe) ,take friends out, take family out, rince rinse* repeat

*Note to self: Start reading and writing proper English again, you're going to need it. Fool.

New Low

Ladies and Gents, I've hit a new low.

145.8

Is what I saw on the scale today.  What the hell happened you ask?  Well most recently I ran into a terrible sickness that lasted over a week.  Remember my post about my red face?  It got worse, much worse.  My face continued to swell up, get redder as a rash spread to my upper torso.  I was then bed-ridden for the next 3 days.  It was my cousin's spring break, and I barely got to see them!  When my relatives saw me, they thought I was going to die.  So naturally, they wrote me up a bucket list :)

1.  Done
2.  pending
3.  I did once! but I swear that demon dog still hates me.  Makes me sad that it keeps barking at me, makes me miss Bear.
4.  Do it all the time
5.  that's a good one, I'll work on this one! who's with me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PY7iWPxF1s&NR=1
6.  ...what?
7. hmm.. seems easy enough, but not fulfilling enough for a bucket list
8.  done
9.  yea.. i really should do that.  Maybe as a metaphor for life: get rid of garbage
10.  CMON TOPANGA, shawn hair flip, cory 'hair flip', "that farmhouse, there", Angela, the Wilson half face joke, Feeny... that's 7, help me finish guys?

Running On Empty

The most exciting time we've ever had driving economically.  

Dylan and I were driving back from Eugene to Corvallis.  I was in dire need of gas because the meter was at the last tick.  The estimated miles was calculated to be 34miles.  I remember from Eugene to the Shell near Corvallis was around 30-something miles.  We both thought the same stupid idea.  Could we make it before the gas runs out?  As you may know by now, we like a challenge. 

So off we went.  I was really tired, so I let D take the wheel.  It was a hell of an adventure for the next 40 minutes.  We had to drive around 60mph the whole way and we might not even make it.   So we thought of everything we could to conserve gas.  We closed the windows and sunroof.   We turned off the stereo.  We turned off the headlamps (luckily the sun was still out).  We turned off the A/C (shit. the sun's still out).  It was around 8 o clock so the sun was at perfect eye level, blinding the hell out of us, baking the inside of the oven that we had just created.  But whatever, we are not going to back down.  

Beads of sweat started forming and the temperature was rising.  I looked at the GPS.  16miles to go.  Looked at the estimated miles left: 18 MILES.   okay we're in good shape.  So I turn on the fan to cool off a little bit, you know, so as to not suffocate?  Instantly, the meter jumps down to 15Miles.  I panic and shut the fans off.  What the heck just happened?!  at this point we're yelling and panicking not knowing what to do.  He's yelling at me for turning on the fans, I'm yelling back for him to calm down and focus, it was a mess.  

But wait.  We see a big semi truck coming ahead of us.  We both smiled.  Let's draft that sommabich all the way there!  Cutting out all that headwind+aerodynamics mumbo jumbo would be huge for us.  So the next 11 miles D is trying his hardest to stay as close as he can to that semi.  It gets nerve racking as I look between the GPS and the mileage meter.  7...7,  6....6,  4....3  NOOOO what happened?!  we're so close!  1.2 ....0  a big fat zero shows up on the meter.  and we have 1.2 miles to go.  What does this mean?!  We're panicking even more than before, I'm imagining hiking over a mile for gas.  It was like waiting for a time bomb to explode.  

But it never did.  We coasted in neutral to exit, and slowly drove into the Shell station.  We made it!!  I look over at the data meter thing and was ecstatic.   I had driven nearly 500miles on that one tank.  Record broken!

I usually get around 400 for a tank.  but 496.2! That came out to 36.25 MPG.  (previous record was 462miles from my Davis to Eugene trip on one tank)

Who knew driving economically could be so fun?  The ambition, the panic, the pure joy.  Now I know why "Hypermilers" do what they do.  This can easily turn into an addiction.  Good times ol' chap.  Good times.

Crack of Dawn at Farch Mountain

Last week, I was talking about where to go fishing in Portland with my Uncle and he was listing off all these lakes that I have now forgotten. Anyways, we started talking about scenic points and he mentions Farch Mountain having a great view of the sunrise. He jokes, "Wanna wake up at 4AM and drive up there? wahaha" Calling his bluff, I look at him deadpanned and go, "sure, lets do it!"... "ooh ok.. we'll go then, sure you can wake up?"

Haha when 4AM rolls by, I feel like crap and just snooze until 4:30AM. Then Wilton runs up the stairs bursting with energy, "Chad! Are we going? It's 4:30! I just ate two burritos!" The kid stayed up all night for this haha and I didn't have the heart to say no. I check out the sunrise time and it's 5:36. It takes about an hour to get there. So I'm like if we're gonna go we gotta go now!

About 30 minutes of driving, I start hitting the twisties to go up Farch Mountain. The sky is already brightening up, yet it was kinda foggy. Crap. I shrugged it off because we already drove so far. Twisties always bring a smile to my face, so I step on it. Wilton's been kinda quiet, so I look over and ask him if he's alright. He mutters that he's a bit carsick, so I dial it down a bit. I wasn't going fast just for the fun of it, I wanted to get there on time too! Apparently I didn't slow down enough. I totally forgot that he had eaten two burritos right before the trip. He ended up not going to see the sunrise at all. He threw up in the back of my car into a bag (thank god I had that bag)

I was probably about 5-10 minutes too late. When I left the parking lot, I had about a 1/4 mile trail to walk up to the viewpoint. From the parking lot the sun was poking out already...nooooooooooooo. But it made an awesome picture:

ooOOOoo, if I only had a better camera

Once I saw that starburst of a sun, I booked it.  Running like mad up the trails and I encounter the steps.  DUN DUN DUN

How far up? HOW FAR??

Luckily it wasn't that far up (but on my way down there was this heavy-set dude that was struggling so hard to get up there.  he had to rest every 3 steps.  ah man, poor guy).  When I made it to the top, I was gasping for air......

.....because the view was so breathtaking! (couldn't resist. i know, it's an illness and i believe its contagious)

Wish I was here before it rose.

I like this rock formation

Mt. Hood: Where snowboarding happens.

Above the clouds

What I saw when I first got up there, made me go Wow out loud. 

Staring at this kinda trips me out

The trees directly across from the sun provided a cool backdrop.  Yeah, I was alone, my uncle didn't wake up and my brother was passed out in the car.  But it was so awesome up there, even if it was by myself.  The sun was slowly rising, a sea of clouds below you, and five mountains in the distance all around you.  It was peaceful and quiet, I just let my mind go blank for a few minutes.  So relaxing... until the mosquitos found me.  RUN!!!!

Motivation by Humiliation

So I was just kickin' it with my cousin Dylan one day, you know driving around having the same old "let's get back into shape" conversation we've had many, many times before.  The main problem with trying to get into shape is staying motivated.  Last time we scheduled a fight against each other as motivation.  This time, we're going another route.  Instead of our pride on the line, it's humiliation.

Deadline: August 1, 2010

His goal: Lose weight
How much? ~ 8 lbs.  He has to weigh 160.7lbs or less during weigh-in, wearing nothing but boxers. 
What's on the line?:  If he weighs 160.8lbs or more, he's going to have to shave one leg and leave the other leg unshaven for 1 month.  Doesn't sound humiliating right? Well his reasoning is that, he plays basketball almost everyday, and he'll definitely get heckled on the courts looking like this:

yes he's that hairy.

My Goal: Perform 60 clean, steady paced pushups (not pounding them like a jackhammer).  Perform 15 clean pullups with no jerking or swinging. 

How Much?: 60 Pushups, 15 Pullups

What's on the line?: haha i feel like the sucker of this deal.  If I can't reach my goal by August, *sigh*.  I will have to shave half of each of my eyebrows.  That's right.  But what's motivation without extreme humiliation right??  K, readers: in case of my failure please choose my fate

So.... which one will get the ladies? 

hahaha oh man. I feel like working out now. SO BAD

Modern Day Gandhi?

I talked about the nice sunshine fun half of Saturday, but later on that night things took a turn for the crazy.  I went out with my cousin (let's call him GS) and his friends for some drinks and dancing at a local college bar and it started out like a normal night.  When we leave the place, we're all in great moods just joking and laughing in the streets.  All of a sudden some husky fellar comes over and kicks GS in the behind.  I'm laughing thinking this guy knows GS.  Then the husky fellar starts mouthing off:

"Get the F out of our corner! You're embarassing our house!"  (oh.. it's some douche frat kid)
"I'm in a bad mood today! F off!"

We are all totally confused, this guy was totally looking for a fight so we all start walking away from his crazy ass.  Then from the corner of my eye I see him walk up to GS and straight up punches him.  This couldn't be happening.  I wasn't even sure if GS got punched, because GS was standing there apologizing and reasoning with the guy trying to calm him down.  So I walk toward them to see what was going on.  Out of no where the frat guy punches GS right in the face again.  oh hell no,  something snaps in my drunken state and i go up and shove the guy to get him away from my cousin.  The crazy thing is that GS was completely unfazed by this punch and was still trying to reason with the guy.  When we got back to their apartment we found out that one of GS's friends got punched too.  This was ridiculous.  Who the hell would do this to people who showed no signs of animosity?  We were all outraged and thoughts of vengeance flashed through our minds.  But GS told us to stop, and not to blame the frat guys.  He said that the guy was probably just having a rough day, and was drunk. 

I looked at him and I saw that he was completely sincere.   I stopped my vengeful thoughts and realized that I really respected what he did or didn't do.  I was proud that he took the high road and didn't retaliate against that fool.  I don't know if I could have let it go like that.  We were joking that he was like our Gandhi haha. Before this incident, I always saw GS as the strongest and toughest in our family.  Meaning that if it came down to it mano-a-mano he'd be capable of ending some one.   I remember me and my other cousin GC were thinking that it would be freaking awesome if we got to witness someone getting destroyed by GS.  But we (including GS) found out that it wasn't his personality to resort to violence.  Even though some jerk kicked him, and sucker punched him in the face twice.  He stood tall.  He didn't flinch.  He didn't waver.  He just looked the guy in the eye and taught him a thing or two about humanity.  I really see GS as one of my role models for doing this. 

Unfortunately GS just found out from the doctors that his jaw is broken, requiring surgery to re-align.  Right now only two teeth make contact when he bites down, and if nothing was done his jaw would stay like that.  It's so unfair how GS has to go through this.  It's ridiculous.  That frat fool was probably so drunk he wouldn't remember what happened.  But now GS has to have surgery even though he did the right thing.  I hope everything works out so that those responsible would pay for the medical bills. 

DMV FAIL

So my cousin (let's call him Rafael for anonymity's sake) is 16 now.  This is a very exciting time, because it's when you learn to drive!   I decided to take him because I've been lagging on establishing my Oregon residence, which.. comes with perks like MUCH cheaper annual vehicle registration fees.  yay

Rafaels

But we ran into so many roadblocks along the way.  I'm just gonna list them so that we can look back one day and laugh.

1.  Saturday, we decide to go to the DMV and the closest one that was open on a Saturday was at the mall.  We go there, and find out that it doesn't do the written tests.  Fail.
2.  Monday we decide to go to the DMV and the GPS got SE Powell St. and E Powell St. mixed up.  Let's just say I drove from 120Ave to 22nd Ave (what the.. where's the DMV? STUPID GPS) and then finally 22nd Ave to 242nd Ave.  Fail.
3.  When we get there, the form says he needs parent or guardian signature.  I don't qualify as guardian.  Fail.
4.  But I got to take the test! and I passed, woohoo! I am now an Oregonian.  Pass!
5.  Rafael finally gets to take the test the next day and guess what?  Fail. :)

 The first time I got my license, I was 135lbs.  So every time I get a new license, it's +10 lbs. DUN DUN DUNN.....

Either I start living an active lifestyle or.. I never get another license again.. hmmm...

Oregomi

HAH, I just thought of the title like RIGHT now.  Ain't it clever?

...

Anyways.. I was checking up on Kenneth after dinner to see what he was up to.  This is the cousin that tried to get me sick.  Yep he's a interesting dude that spends all of his time in his room either playing Starcraft or playing guitar.  But today, I walk into his room and theres mangled up colored square papers all over the place.

"What are you up to Kenneth?"
"I'm folding Origami."
(wow that's different)
"Check out my ninja star!!" *chucks it fullforce at me and it bounces off my head*
"Ow! that hurt what the hell Kenneth!" 

I picked up his work of art, and it was actually pretty cool.  a star made up of 5 dollar bills.  He also offers me some "french fries", which to my dissapointment were also made from paper.  I don't even like french fries! but my fatass still wanted to eat some.  We then started looking at this Origami website with everything from Cookie Monster to Tyrannosaurus (thank you spellcheck) Rex.  I got excited when i saw the Pegasus which was classified C for complex.

Kenneth was all like, thats hard man, what have you folded before?  I was like PSHH I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering bitch! I can do it! ..... I couldn't get past the 1st page before my square paper turned into a ball.  So we kept looking, couldn't even fold the Swan, so we kept looking.  Then we came across the "1-fold Stegosaurus" and busted up laughing:

 Do you see the Stegosaurus? haha

That was the first thing I was able to fold -_- ... baby steps.  baby steps.  By the end of it all though, I made something I was proud of!

Can you guess what it is? First correct answer in the comments um... gets to have it! hahaha


French Fries:


5 Dollar Ninja Star!


5 Dollar Origami Star - The most popular videos are here

Mt. Hood Snowboarding

I've been having great weekends here.  Mt. Hood is so accessible from Portland! You can see the mountain from the city.  It only takes a little over an hour to get there and back, and combined with the $25 nightboarding deal equals a great weekend day.

View of Mt. Hood from Portland. (Together!): "oOOOOoo"

The first time I went, I took Daniel and Kenneth for their first time boarding.  They had this great $25 lesson+rental+lift ticket deal for beginners that we took advantage of.  We arrived an hour early so I decided to take them up myself and teach them some things before their lesson.  Since friends so graciously took the time to teach me, I had to give back.  It was pretty fun and funny showing the eager lads the ropes.  After the 2nd run, it was time for their lesson (woohoo! it was my secret ploy to have 2 hours to myself).

but...

Kenneth was just sitting there.  He sat there for a long time.  When he started walking toward us, I saw his hand was in an awkward stiff position.  Crap.  He hurt his thumb.  We spent an hour at the clinic, and I ended up teaching Daniel.  Don't get me wrong it was fun, but I was so eager to go up higher and work on carving.

poor kid, injured on the 2nd run.

MINI SUV
My car only has room for 3 people + board (see post) so I couldn't bring little Celina with us the first time.  She looked so sad the night before, like she was going to cry.  So....

Tada!

Roof Rack baby!

Whattaya think? They were OEM MINI branded, so I didn't have to drill holes in my roof.  I kinda like 'em.  It definitely changes the look, but they don't look out of place.  The rack works wonders, I bought a Thule 4 snowboard attachment for it, and I took all the kids the 2nd weekend.  I was extremely pleased because 1st of all no one got injured, and 2ndly they all took their 2hr lessons :)

and...NACHOS!

 They were damned good, and damned expensive.  Just like Hookers!

TV is garbage

After dinner today, we were watching some TV and my Uncle is just channel surfing because they have all these free trial channels for 3 months.  It's a normal evening you know, people are talking about Food network and some of their favorite shows, when BAM he surfs to a channel amidst a rape scene.  Awkward!

He quickly switches to the next channel as the kids are like what the...

phewf!

It's a cop walking with a girl that just got her car stolen.  He's taking her to the station to help find her car, but.. somethings not right.  They walk to this back alley with a warehouse.  The cop explains that its the substation because the station doesn't have enough offices.  The warehouse is locked, because his partner didn't come back yet.  So he tells her to get into a yellow buggy and starts to drive.  She gets smart and realizes hes not driving to the station.

By now we all know it's not gonna end well.  She starts punching the hell out of his face, and we're all like yea! kick his ass!! but he pulls over and threatens her with a gun.  He then proceeds to....*channel changes*

It was quite awkward with the uncle and cousins.  Man.. there's so much garbage on TV nowadays.

Learn Chinese: R's and L's

I just realized something today.

To mock Cantonese accents, you say "velly lomantic"
but to mock a mandarin accent, you say "harooo rara"

R's =>L's, L's =>R's  wahh..

Today was my uncles birthday so he poured me some "baijiu" in a cup (about 3 shots).  He looks at the bottle and shakes his head muttering "jah yeh" (weakstuff).  I'm thinking it's probably like twenty something, but when I take a look: 38%!! haha the label said 62% water 38% alcohol.  Stuff was pretty potent, but it actually went down pretty smooth.

In China, especially during the upcoming Chinese New Year, people start drinking like crazy.  My pops told me if you don't drink at the table you get severely ostracized, so it's a social thing.  When I was there several years ago, I saw my dad and his brothers get piss drunk over MaoTai (54-55%)haha.  It was pretty funny, and everyone had a great time. 

From the great teacher Wikipedia:

• The Maotai of today originated during the Qing Dynasty and first won international fame when winning a gold medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
• Henry Kissinger once remarked to Deng Xiaoping that "if we drink enough Maotai we can solve anything."
• Mao Zedong served maotai at state dinners during Richard Nixon's state visit to China

Gan Bei! 干杯！

Kenny

My cousin Kenny (previous story) cracks me up:

(we get into my car to go to Target)
K: whoa is that a crack on your windshield?
C: yep
K: was it acorn?
C: corn?
K: did acorn do that?
C: you mean an acorn? Hahah what? That’s impossible, it was a rock. An acorn can’t crack your windshield
K: ooh, cus I was thinking rocks don’t fall from trees, but acorns do.
C: !!

Settling In

So many things have been going on recently and I finally have some time to sit down and write.

It’s pretty damned surreal sitting here in my “office” (which is actually a dining/kitchen room) 500 miles away from SF. Overall, I’m coping well living here so far. It’s really helpful to be living so close to family because familiar faces are always comforting. They even cook me dinner everyday! So it’s a sweet deal. I was asking about the stove at my place, and they were like you’re not eating dinner by yourself stupid haha.

I love having my own place! I can’t believe this unit was just sitting here unused for so long. It was actually in pretty decent shape, but I wanted to thoroughly clean it anyways. So the past 2-3 days, I’ve been spending a lot of time vacuuming, scrubbing, re-arranging. Bathroom cleaning, and fridge cleaning sucks. But with cleaning, once I clean one corner, something clicks in my head and I MUST finish the rest. It’s so much work because this place is huge! It’s really meant for 2-3 people to live in so it’s a shame I can’t share it with friends.

Coolest part of this place so far? The Mini Pool/Ping Pong/Air Hockey Table in the living room. It’s been pretty fun playing with my cousins, but it would be damned sweet if I had a set up like this in SF.

The rest of the house is pretty empty. It has so much potential! Once I make some scratch:

Living Room
- 47” LCD 1080P 120Hz tv
- PS3
- Couch/Futon?
- Plants. You gotta have plants

Spare Bedroom
- Makeshift audio recording studio for fun?!

Basement
- Darts
- Punching Bag
- Weight Room
- Wine Cellar

Life is like a box of chocolates

You never know what you're gonna get.  Or where you're going to wind up. 

Yea I was gonna do a New Years post about the great times of 2009, but its 4AM now and I won't do 2009 justice if I try to power through.  So this will be an announcement of sorts of the huge change in 2010 that I'm going through.  It's kind of a new chapter in life.

My uncle has asked me to help out on his new design project and business venture.  Pretty exciting!  But the thing is, I'll be spending most of my time in Portland.  Wow, I've been in the Bay Area my whole life so this will be a complete lifestyle change.  All of my closest friends are here in the city, and it's going to be tough being away from everybody. 

But I've made my decision.  This project we're doing is something I'mvery interested in.  It involves implementing green technology and will really help the environment. (I'm not gonna post the details online, but you can ask me in the real world!) It's going to take a lot of hard work and dedication because it will certainly be challenging.  I'm going to be able to do a lot of engineering design which is what I really like doing.  So I guess this is somewhat of a calling. 

I've been telling people little by little, and I'm happy all my friends have been supportive.  There's some suggestions of a going away party, but I really don't want that.  Those things are way too emotional.  For these two weeks in SF, I'd just wanna hang out with my friends and chill.  Portland's not far away, and I'll definitely be back a few times every year.  But I'm gonna miss everybody and the fun of the citay by the bay.

From: San Francisco

To: Portland

2009 was all play and pretty much no work :P heh

2010 will be my productive year!  It's time to make something of myself. 

Goooooodnight!

Christmas with the Family

Ahh I had a great Christmas with my family this year.  We've had many of these Christmases and having 7 cousins in one house every single day is rowdy as hell.  We all generally get along pretty well and have a lot of fun and laughs every time we get together.  Our traditional go-to games to play are Charades, wrestling, and human stacking feats ("I bet you can't carry two of us up the stairs at the same time!" "I bet you can't carry three kids at once!" "I wonder if the kids (108-115lbs) can support us (155-175lbs) in a pyramid this year")  This year we had some new games like: Blokus!! Counterstrike! Mario Wii!


This is how our family is structured:
Ages 21-23: David, Dillon, Me
Ages 14-16: Wilton, Kenneth, and Daniel
Age 10: Celina the only girl (Dude, my little 10 year old cousin Celina was quick-scoping in Counter-strike and got the most sniping kills USING A TOUCHPAD. savage. )


You can see how rowdy it can get with so many guys.  It's never a dull moment.  And we pretty much got to feast on my Dad's cooking every single day.  RIBS godamn. that almost made me tear up they were so good.


This year's X-mas Loot:

1.  Haha this was the most awesome gift wrapping I ever got.  A Mario question mark box that Dillon told me to punch to get the gift inside.

What could be inside?

 A mushroom of course! hahah this is totally going in my car.. for the extra boost of course :)

2. Failblog book for the toilet, and a TMNT shirt!  sweeeeet

2b. (or not 2b?) a warm winter jacket siiccck.. as Brian put it:  Plaid for Chad haha.  You can see it in my hand.

 3.  Tempur-pedic slippers!  So warm and cushy

4. Flight of the Bumble-bee sheet music (yes!)
5. Heated Mattress Pad (woohooo)

6. And of course.. HELLA cookies

Merry Christmas!

What about NYE you ask?

• Sober.
• Turned on TV at 11:46.
• Countdown with the Seacrest and Dick Clark.
• Eat Cheesecake.
• Play 2 hours of Counterstrike.

(it was actually more fun than it sounds heh)