Moment of Missing

In March, Alvin and I brought to LA a car full of items to bring to East Asia. Every week we have been back in Dallas, I have donated a bag or more of items. The last few days we have been giving or selling our furniture.

The funny thing is that I have not missed any of my stuff, that much. I missed my stamps because instead of just making a b-day card, I had to buy one. Also, I am getting a little tired of wearing the same 7 shirts and it has only been three weeks. I will probably be wearing the same 7 shirts when I am overseas too.

But the first big twinge of sadness came today while watching movie trailers online. No, it was not Star Trek. Alvin will have to really sell me and educate me on the movie for me to watch it. (As you can see below, he doesn't like to answer my questions. After asking him a couple times, he finally told me Star Trek has nothing to do with Highlander.)

It was watching the trailer for Up. I thought it looked so funny, the graphics are beautiful, and I think the wilderness explorer is a cute Asian boy. It also is 3D. I have never seen a 3D movie, and heard great things about them. But then, I saw the release date: May 29th. Noooooo! We are supposed to leave on May 27th. I know what some of you are thinking: "You can still buy DVDs where you are going." But I will never be able to watch it in 3D. =(

I know I will get over it, but this incident helped me on the first step of grieving leaving. Tell me if the movie is any good. Maybe when I finally get the DVD, I could run forward and backwards towards the tv to pretend things are flying at me.

When Your Wife is Not a Geek

Today, we're filing. That is, we're going through tons and tons of papers... from school days, and home records, and taxes, and stuff... to see what will be thrown out and what will be scanned and archived. It's a tedious process, but a good one. And it's nice to rummage through things that I've worked on but not looked at in 7+ years.

It's during times like these... when we're rifling through papers and removing staples... that I get interesting questions from my wife. Questions that reveal to me that she is not - like, definitely not - a geek.

"So umm... Captain Kirk and Captain Picard... are they the same person?"

*sigh* No. That's why they have different names.

"How come Captain Kirk is more famous than Captain Picard?"

Says who? I beg to differ.

"Well, if Captain Picard came afterward, then did he have a Spock?

I'm not sure that I... understand... the question. Is that like asking if Edward has a Bethany?

--silence--

--more silence--

"So... Star Trek... that doesn't have anything to do with... Highlander... does it?"

Starting to Kick In

You know when you get a headache or have some sort of aches and pains, and then you take an ibuprofen... and it takes maybe 30 minutes to kick in? Or maybe it takes 20 minutes for that cup of coffee to kick in and really get you moving? Well, even though we began this process, really, years ago, and have been more concretely preparing for our move in recent months... I think, for me, it was yesterday when it finally started to kick in. We're leaving this place. We're headed for some huge changes in the days ahead. But even though it's big, unknown changes ahead... I'm excited.

We had a super encouraging time at our Sunday morning gathering, as friends from all around gathered to get ready to send us and our friends off overseas. Remaining time in Dallas is 16 days. And then in LA after that... 14 days. And then... G'willing, off we go.

We were so encouraged by the words and the well wishes of everybody on Sunday. If anything, we just really feel like our community here in Dallas is fully behind us - especially supporting us by remembering us - as we set out on our new adventure.

Our place is slowly emptying out - couch and coffee tables are gone. Dining table should go by early next week. Dresser... well, I'm just waiting for somebody to respond to me on craigslist. And the bed... perhaps I'll post that tonight.

And, perhaps the most significant of moving milestones... tonight, I cleaned and packed up our Capresso 10-cup coffee maker, to send tomorrow to my sister. The switch from coffee maker to French press... it's definitely starting to kick in.

Goodbye Tour - Pizza Edition

One of the items I have not given away is my deep dish pizza pan. I received the pizza pan for my birthday in 2005 and have enjoyed plenty of pizzas. Thanks to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's Zachary's recipe, homemade pizza is possible. We haven't ordered from Pizza Hut at home in years.

I was holding on to the hope that maybe my oven overseas will be big enough to fit the pan. I guess I have to keep dreaming. Yet I am not emotionally ready to give up the pan.

Here is probably my last homemade pizza in the states. In the morning, I made the dough, sausage, and sauce. To prepare for the dinner, I made the Lau's be my servants. Charis and Alvin rolled and filled the pizza. I had Sam make the salad. I made the dressing as well as being in charge of walking around the apartment bossing them around. They called me "tyrant." I know I can kind of be picky when I am cooking.


Now here is the product before it cooks:


There is not a picture of the finished product. We ate it too fast that we forgot to take a picture.

Something's Missing

Well thanks to some list maintained by a guy named Craig, we have sold our couch. I am glad that our first craigslist experience has been a positive one. I would always want for people's first ebay or craigslist experience to be positive.

And so, just like that... our couch is gone. You can even still see the carpet marks left by the feet.

This is the same couch that I got when I first moved into this place back in 2002. And, this is the couch on which Bethany was sitting when I proposed to her back in 2003. Why I ended up proposing here, on this couch, with a bowl of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream (instead of over dessert at the Oasis in Austin) is a whole other story.

But yeah, that was almost 6 years ago! Since you weren't there to witness it, we've done a still reenactment... our very last picture with this couch.

It Makes Me Cry and I Like It

For many years, since Survivor All Stars back in 2002-2003, I have been hooked on Survivor. I watched almost every season, minus one or two. Yet the last two years, ever since Yau-man was voted off the first time, my loyalty started to waiver. I didn't like how the good guy wasn't guaranteed to win. I was mad that Aras won, was angrier and in shock when Parvati won, and wasn't even rooting for Bob last season because I didn't want my hopes squashed since good guys never win. When Bob actually won, I had already detached myself from him so much it was too late to jump on his fan club.

Yet this year, I am not watching Survivor. I'm not even watching American Idol. Only one show have I been faithfully waiting for and watching. (I do catch Lost online when I have time). This show is called Biggest Loser.

Before, I always thought the show was a little lame. I thought, why would I want to watch people lose weight?

Yet after persuasion from the Laus and CWang, I gave it a try. Fell for it on first viewing.

"The Biggest Loser Club changes lives!" That's the slogan from the show, and I believe it. This season, there is a father, who weighed close to 400 lbs, and his 18 year old son, who weighed about the same. The father was told that if he didn't change his life, he would have one year to live. His son, who wants to be a doctor, was told that he would have about five years to live. After 16 weeks, the father lost close to 100 lbs, while the son has lost over 150 lbs. There was a 16 year old boy who weighed 400 lbs, and after losing 40 lbs, was told that he would not need insulin anymore. (I have no idea the medical reason for why he can get off insulin, but see, The Biggest Loser Club changes lives!)

Every single show, I cry. The people on the show are so inspirational. One girl, who weighed 300 lbs, but now weighs 180, ran a half marathon in 2 hours and 15 minutes. These people are throwing off their food addictions and reclaiming their lives.

Last week, when they had their makeover by Tim Gunn and haircut by Tabitha, I cried non-stop. I cried when the 18 year old, mentioned above, met up with his brother. His 16 year old brother was crying because he was the only fat one in the family. The 18 year old then told him that he would do anything to help change that.

After two hours of straight crying, I felt exhausted, but really inspired. Wow, I Heart BL. Wait, that looks like I love myself.

Sun Salutation

If you know what the title of this blog entry refers to, then you already know that I'm going to blog about. Today... yoga.

I have gained about 7 pounds so far in 2009. Yeah, yeah, you're going to say, "Finally. You need to gain some weight..." Ok, maybe, but these 7 pounds have been just from eating (traveling + seeing friends and family = lots of eating) and from doing hardly anything physical. So, in these remaining weeks in Dallas, we are trying to exercise 4 times a week or so.

One of the ways of exercising that we've been wanting to try is a free Tuesday evening yoga class at lululemon in the Galleria. Bethany has done this class a few times before. We tried coming a few weeks ago but got the start time wrong and so showed up when the class was nearly over. But today... today was my first day ever taking a yoga class.

The good thing about this class is that they encourage people to be beginners - if you need to fall over, then fall over. If that stretch is too intense, then do it this way instead. You don't need to be perfect. I had a really good time. Got in a good, one-hour yoga workout, but also left refreshed. But admittedly (insert ego here), when the instructor says, "Alright, for you beginners out there, you can modify this one and make it easier by..." I would ignore her. Even if we're allowed to be beginners and aren't expected to be perfect, I didn't want to be the guy that does the push-up position from his knees.

I think I did fairly well for my first time in a yoga class. This is probably because I'm a little bit lighter, have pretty good balance, and am fairly flexible. By the way, I attribute my lifelong flexibility to a gymnastics class that I took when I was in kindergarten - a class in which I was the only boy. Kinda felt like today's yoga class (25 students. I was 1 of 4 men.).

What to Do Before I Leave Dallas

KLou asked me the other day if there is anything I haven't done in Dallas that I would like to do.

The only thing I thought of was the Sixth Floor Museum. I was supposed to have gone, but instead, Alvin and I took our parents' to the Conspiracy Museum. Not the same.

Yet after looking up the price, I didn't want to go to the Sixth Floor Museum for $13.

So my friend and I went to Neiman Marcus instead where we had lunch at the Zodiac Room. This Neiman's was the original store. The Zodiac Room was pretty fancy for a lunch place that serves sandwiches, salads, soups, and some entrees. I think it was good, not to die for though.

I don't think there is anything else I really want to go to before I leave. Maybe Reunion Tower now that they have redone it.

What places would you recommend going to in Dallas before leaving?

6 weeks = Habit

Back in February, my dentist told me that it takes 6 weeks of doing something regularly in order for it to become a habit. At the time, she was talking to me about flossing.

One of the best pieces of advice she said was, "You know how, when you floss right now, your gums bleed? Floss every day and it'll stop doing that by next week." Wow, really? Just a few days of flossing and it'll stop? So I tried it. And she was right.

And some of you might remember how I confessed online to all the world about how I didn't floss every day but would try starting to since I saw it as all coming down to a matter of self-control. The lesson was this: if I don't even have the self-control to be able to do something every day that's as simple as flossing, then how I can expect to do every day anything else that I should be doing every day?

Well, it has been 60 days... exactly. More than 8 weeks now. And except for 1 - maybe 2 - days that I accidentally missed because of extenuating circumstances... I have pretty much flossed every day. Congratulate me. It has become a habit.

Can You Tell I'm Chinese By My Eyes?

This past week, Alvin and I stopped in Midland/Odessa, Texas (where the Bush's used to live) on our way home.

And I learned a lesson there: I am a city-ist. I made assumptions about the city being racist, and in the end, I learned that I am the one with prejudices against the city.

Alvin and I stopped at a gas station where it was connected to the Subway and McDonald's. We were sitting there eating a subway sandwich when a kid kept staring at me. She kept running up to me and staring at me. She didn't stare at Alvin, just me. The mom kept yelling, "Brianne, come back here. Stop bothering those people." But Brianne kept coming by.

So I started thinking that she was staring because we were Asians, and maybe she has never seen Asians before. And so I started thinking about how kids used to make fun of Asians by pulling at the corner of their eyes to make them slanted. About the third time Brianne came by, she started bringing her fingers to her eyes. I thought to myself, "oh here comes the eye pull."

Instead, she takes her fingers to her eyes, and starts pulling them apart vertically. She says, "why are your eyes SO BIG?"

I started laughing. Haha, she wasn't interested in us because we were Asians, she was interested in me because I have huge eyes. She wasn't racist, she was curious at my bigger than usual size eyes.

So I learned my lesson about judging Odessa/Midland.

By the way, I started thinking about the kids back in elementary school that pulled their eyes at me and said, "Chinese, Japanese." Could they not see that my eyes are probably bigger than theirs? I clearly could see that.

Blogger's Block = Photo Entry

I couldn't think of what to blog tonight. So I decided I would just show you a few fun pictures from our lives from the past few years. I will go in order from most recent to oldest...

This was recent - just last week - from the California Screamin' ride at California Adventure. They shoot the picture on the ride, which we didn't want to order. So I shot a picture of the screen showing the picture from the ride. As you can see, I'm all cool looking, enjoying the ride as if it's no big thing. Bethany, on the other hand, is more... excited.



This one brings us back to July of 2007. My, how our niece is growing up so quickly. Pretty soon, she'll be a teenager (well, in 7 years).



This is a shot from Disneyworld when we went on a family trip back in 2006. There's a giant Mickey hat building in the background here at Disneyland Hollywood Studies. We like taking these random camera-trick shots.



This is from a 2x2 sand volleyball tournament that I played in with JLowe back in September of 2005. This is before we started picking up volleyball again more regularly here in Dallas. It was a fun tournament, but we got killed, and we were dead tired at the end of the day. I definitely prefer indoor 6's over sand ball. I like this picture because it leaves to your imagination the end result of this point. Most likely, I shanked the ball into the net and then fell on my back in the sand...



And here is us in London in the summer of 2005. I still have that yellow backpack (it's now my volleyball gear backpack). And I believe Bethany still has that blue sweater, or at least... the blue sweater is on the goodbye tour.



And here is us nearly 5 years ago (!), on our honeymoon. Don't we look like young kids compared to now? Probably. Perhaps in these last few years, the world has been pretty rough on us... heh heh.



It's strange to think about what pictures I'll be taking and what I'll be looking back on 5 years from now.

Well, hope you enjoyed this little slide show stroll down memory lane. G'nite. :)

Thoughts on Twitter

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

Does anyone know where the above quote comes from?

This past week while driving from LA to Dallas, I have been listening to podcasts. I know I already wrote about my thoughts on "Security Now," but there is another show that Alvin makes me listen to called, "This Week in Technology (TWIT)." The host will have guests come on to talk about the latest in the tech world. The big thing they talk about these days is Twitter. They all have Twitter accounts and massive amount of followers. They complain that Facebook is no good because it has a 5,000 friend limit. Most of these tech guys have anywhere from 100,000 to 400,000 followers on Twitter.

One of the guests on the show was talking about how Twitter and Facebook is extremely popular because we are all looking for realness/vulnerability in our connections with others. So with Twitter, a person can have a connection with someone they highly admire, like Ashton Kutcher or Britney. Yet, in reality, this connection on Twitter is anything but real and vulnerable. Having 100,000 followers does not make you any less lonely. After hearing about this concept on the podcast, I started thinking of the quote listed above. We are all looking for real connections, that we cling on to whatever substitute that the world provides.

Countless number of people told me that I needed Facebook to talk to my old friends. After being forced on, I reconnected with the three people I haven't talk to in a while and was satisfied. Yes, my old high school friends have "friended" me, but we haven't wrote on each other's walls, we don't e-mail, we haven't talked on the phone. I find Facebook (along with Twitter) to be another electronic invention that makes me feel guilty because I neglect it.

Can anyone say that our friendship is more real because of all the new technologies?

Let me know what you think. You can reach me by e-mail, cell phone, land line, snail mail, Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, Classmates.com, AIM, Skype, or blog.

Same Chair All Day

You'll be proud of me. I didn't goto Starbucks today. I stayed home. But I did notice, as I was just about to shutdown and head to bed, that I have been sitting in this same chair, in front of this same computer, for about 12 of the last 15 hours.

Apart from running some errands this morning (hit the post office to send off my taxes), and an afternoon walk around the park with Bethany... today has been a sit-down-and-get-things-done day. And a lot has gotten done today! But I am one of those people who, when he is in the zone, can sit for hours and hours, just plugging away - no food, no drink (ok, maybe coffee within arm's reach), no bathroom. That is one reason that I haven't really allowed myself to get into an online gaming... I know that I could end up like that one guy who played Starcraft for 50 hours straight and then died. So yeah, no gaming for me.

For coffee today, I tried the Starbucks VIA... which is their shot at the instant coffee market. Instant coffee means... no real brewing needed. Just stir into hot water and drink. Starbucks sent me some samples of VIA to try. It was pretty good. The convenience factor definitely gets me - nothing to brew, nothing to clean up. It's great, especially if you have a Zojirushi. Flavor-wise, I was only mildly impressed. It makes for a pretty good cup of coffee, but it did feel a little bit watered down. Maybe I just added too much water. Will try again tomorrow.

But who knows... Starbucks might just break into the huge instant coffee market that is in Asia. Nobody out there "brews" coffee... they just stir in NesCafe. I think I could see myself keeping a box of these stashed away ($9.95 for 12 1-cup instant packs) in case of an emergency...

Goodbye Tour (Part III)

Alvin and I are now finally back in Dallas after some fun times in LA, Phoenix, and Tucson.

The morning before we left to drive to Phoenix, Alvin and I had the opportunity to see one of our nephews sing in a Easter performance. Here is a picture taken by our 6 year old niece:


In Phoenix, we were able to catch up with Debbie and her family. We met Brayden for the first time.

Lastly, we spent a wonderful weekend in Tucson. Here is my beautiful niece Savan playing piano:

Overall, our one month trip was quite eventful. We played with 15 kids under the age of seven, and lived in the same house with six of them (four of those six kids are ages one and under). We changed diapers a total of five times, fed the nighttime bottle three times, read a bunch of kids' books, and took a three year old and six year old to eat sushi without their parents. It was a memorable time with the kids, even though most of the kids won't even remember us when we return in a couple years. Yet I will cherish these moments with the kids (and of course their parents.)

Learning English

I grew up in a Cantonese speaking home. Don't know which one Cantonese is? It's the louder one. In fact, one of the first times Bethany came over to our home back when we were dating, she heard my parents talking in the kitchen, and she said, "Woah, are your parents arguing?" I said, "Uhh, no... they're Cantonese. That's just how Cantonese sounds."

So, growing up, I got the basics of home-language-Cantonese. The standard, "Deen gai nei jung tai gun deen see ahhh?!" (Why are you still watching tv?) and, "Gum yut nei yau mo tan kum?" (Have you practiced piano yet today?) Most kids like me had to take Chinese school on Saturday mornings. Somehow, I got out of Chinese school after 3 months so that I could play AYSO instead.

All in all, my Cantonese is quite limited. It's just ok. I wish it were better.

This makes me wonder whether, 10 or whenever years from now, it will be like a bizarro world reversal for us and our kids when we live overseas. (No, we don't have kids. No, there are no kids on the way that we know of. This is all part of the just wondering bit.)

I wonder if my kids' Chinese will be awesome (or just, natural) because that's what they will have grown up hearing all around them. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to say things without an accent.

I wonder if it'll be a chore to try to get my kids to speak English in the home with us, where we'll ask them a question in English but they'll answer us in Chinese.

I wonder if we'll get fearful that our kids won't have a good grasp of English and so we'll force them to go to English school on Saturday mornings. And on the way to English school, they'll complain, "我不要去英文可！ 我想打足球！"

Well, I'll force them to go to English school anyways. They'll thank me for it later. I mean, hey, I haven't touched a soccer ball in 10 years... but I sure wish my Chinese was better than it is.

Arizona is not flat

Every once in a while I hear people tell me that Arizona is flat. I get slightly irritated by it, especially since one of these people happen to my husband who has been to Arizona a couple of times. I say, how about the Grand Canyon, and he said that a canyon is not a mountain.

So now we are back in Phoenix and I want to prove my point. Last night, when we were driving to dinner, I said, look at these mountains around us. He said, "those are hills."

So on Friday morning, I took him for a walk around my neighborhood. We walked to the mountain reserves and walked up a mountain. Ok, this mountain is more like a very big hill, I admit. But on top of this hill, we see mountain ranges all around us. There is Squaw Peak (now called Piestewa) and Camelback Mountain. Squaw Peak, the one near our house just changed their name recently. I remember back in high school there were protests to change the name because the name is supposed to be a Native American derogatory slang against women. Not sure the validity of this rumor.

There are 14 mountain ranges higher than 2000 feet in the county I live in. There are two mountain ranges in AZ over 12,000 feet.

When we were on top of the hill/mountain, Alvin finally agreed: "Arizona is not flat."

I have always thought that Dallas is flat. What is the validity of that statement?

Heading East... No ABQ

In Tucson right now, making our way eastward. I will have to make sure to get one last fix of In-N-Out before we leave AZ. That'll be Sunday.

We've been debating over the last week or two about what route we'll take from Tucson to Dallas. We were really tempted to head northward to get back to Albuquerque (and the Hyatt Tamaya), but that would probably extend our driving by about 3-4 hours out of the way. So, we decided to just head east/southeast... through El Paso. Yay. El Paso. But, the driving will be faster, and we were able to priceline a Hyatt Place out there.

Now the debate is whether we go straight from El Paso to Dallas in one shot... that's about 10 hours of driving. Or, we make a halfway point stop in... Abilene. Yay. Abilene. We'll probably end up making the stop (just need to priceline a hotel tonight) so that we can divide the drive into two 5-hour segments.

Driving long distances has gotten easier. If I've got the right environment - coffee in me, ipod set to anything twit.tv, and some snacks to munch on here or there... I think I can pull off 5-6 hours these days. Very different from years past.

10:20PM Edit -
Alright, wasn't able to get an Abilene priceline hotel on the first try. Talked it over and decided to shoot right through the city town and not look back. El Paso to Abilene is 450 miles. Abilene to Dallas is only another 180 miles. So, we'll just do all 630 miles in one shot. Better download some old episodes of Security Now and Twit Live.

Packing Round 1

When we drove out from Dallas almost a month ago, Alvin and I tried to bring almost everything from our place in Dallas that we need to go overseas. After many weeks of organizing, selling, and donating, we stuffed our trunk and backseat full of these items.

Our last two days in LA has been spent packing 4 suitcases to prepare for moving. Total, we are thinking of bringing 6 suitcases plus 2 carry-on bags. These 2 other suitcases and carry-on bags will come from the things left in Dallas.

So we worked hard on Tuesday night, and packed everything in 4 suitcases. But today, we went to Target and bought Space Saver bags. Yeah.

Here is a photo demonstration of the Space Saver bags:

Things we put in:

... a blanket.


... a king-size comforter.


... a winter coat.


... and now, the Space Saver Bag.


Before the vacuum...


... and after!


More things fit better. Here are our final weights for the bags (50 lbs. is the weight limit): 43 lbs, 47 lbs, 49 lbs, 49 lbs. I know, cutting it close. You may say to yourself, why not switch around the weight, but the space issue does not allow this to happen.

Wow, it took a lot of work, and a lot of having Alvin stand on a scale carrying a suitcase, but I am glad almost half of our packing is done.

And just like that... we're gone.

We left Dallas on March 16th... trekking through north Texas and on to Albuquerque, and then Phoenix, and then to the coast. At the time, we were telling people it would be just a little over 2 months until we would be heading overseas.

Now it's April 7th 8th. Already. In less than 2 days, we begin trekking back eastward, for just a few remaining weeks in Dallas. It's no longer "2 months till we move." Now it's "we're heading overseas... next month."

Pretty soon, it'll be, "Yup, we're getting on a plane... next week." Crazyness. I cannot believe how quickly time is ticking away.

And... for bonus blog comment points, can anybody guess where this picture was taken?

Goodbye Tour (Part II)

Well Alvin and I are back in LA and alive, bruised, but alive.

We will be leaving LA on Thursday to head to Phoenix, and so I thought I would continue on the goodbye tour of our stuff.

So here is a picture of a painting I gave to Sherise last year when she moved back to SF.


Here is Sushi Lion with his new adopted mom, Abby:
(Sushi Lion was given to me by Alvin on our first date.)


Here we are visiting the Chans at Ellen's work place:



And here are some of the people who went with us on our Tahoe trip:

Aches and Pains - Pass the Bengay

The last time I did this was maybe 3 years ago. It's great fun just to be able to hang out with some of our California friends of many years. We (well, I... and then later on for a few years, Bethany too) used to do this every year in April. I think these are the trips where I started learning how to snowboard. 10 years ago?

Maybe it was the 2nd year or so when I was picking it up, and picking up speed. I remember going pretty fast and then hitting my toe edge and then... flying through the air. With friends watching from up the mountain, they saw... arms extended... legs in the air... and then a mushroom cloud poof of snow. I cracked my goggles and bruised a rib. But falling... is part of learning. And I was back up on the mountain by the next day.

Now, it is close to 10 years later, and I'm on the other side of 30. We did 3 days in a row. I don't bounce back as quickly as I used to. I start doing that thing where you sit in a chair and then... you have to hold onto things nearby to help you get out of the chair, the whole time saying, "Oh man... I think I need to take some ibuprofen."

But... I was still able to go over a box in the terrain park and land one or two (low) jumps. Hooray for me.

We're done now. That's it for me. No more. Perhaps for a few years (?).

I think I need to take some ibuprofen.

Snowboarding

Alvin and I are in Lake Tahoe, CA, this weekend with our Los Angeles friends. We are going skiing/snowboarding for three days.

I have only been snowboarding once before this weekend, but I told Alvin I would try snowboarding at least one day. So on Friday, I went snowboarding and Alvin was my teacher. We were a little scared that we would be frustrated with the learning process. The first day was difficult. I ended up falling every time I tried to turn. Not only would I fall, but I would fall hard. I kept hitting my butt, and then after I hit my butt, my head would swing back and hit the floor too. The falls and getting back up really took the energy out of me. Man, snowboarding is really hard. Yet, I really appreciated Alvin being there for me and being so patient.

On Saturday, I said I wouldn't give up and went snowboarding again. By the second run, I was actually getting it. I still fell, but not as much. By the 4th run, I started to enjoy it. When I did fall, it still hurt, but not as bad as last time. This time I fell more on my knees. My knees are all bruised up now. I'm glad that I went the second day, or else I would have hated snowboarding all my life.

Even though I finally enjoyed snowboarding, tomorrow, I will go skiing.

I Heart Computer Programming

I don't know if people know this, but I some self-employed web development work on the side. This helps keep me (somewhat) sharp as a programmer and a problem solver. I've also been benefited greatly by working more closely with The Captain on these projects over recent months. Considering aspects such as code quality, personal integrity, and idea creativity, I have found that working with someone else has been well worth it.

Some weeks are busier than others, depending on projects and deadlines. My hours are flexible, which means if there is work to do, then I try to set aside time here and there to do it. This has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that I can take off a whole day and just... goto DL with my wife for her birthday.

But one disadvantage, I'm finding, is that my life and sleep schedule can be thrown totally out of whack, simply because I ♥ Computer Programming. That is, when I get into the zone, I can sit down and write and debug code for 6+ hours without standing up to drink, eat, or go to the bathroom. Dangerous? Probably not. Obsessive? Maybe. But I really do enjoy it that much.

Which leads to the schedule problem. Because what if I get into the zone at... 10PM? Then, it's quite possible that I can sit there, in the dark, and just... code. Until... 2, 3, 4 in the morning. Even though it's a super-productive time, that can throw me off body-schedule-wise for two days. Even tonight, I sat down at about 12:45AM just to debug some stuff on a small project. Was going to spend... 15 minutes, put it away, and goto bed. But I got into the zone, and didn't want to put off until tomorrow (oh wait, it's already tomorrow) the things that were going through my mind which I could just do right now. So, before I know it, it's 2AM.

I am finding that my most productive hours are usually the AM hours. That could be 7AM-11AM. Or... that could be 12AM-4AM. I think that the former is preferable, for my sanity, my physical health, and my marriage.

I Heart DL

On Tuesday, I went to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday. I already found out that Disneyland is free on your birthday.

But there were many more neat gifts!

First, when I got to the Low's house, Abby and Jenn had a surprise for me. Last time, Abby, Jenn, Isaac, and I made up a "I Heart DL" cheer. So this time they made "I Heart DL" shirts for Alvin and me. DL stands for Disneyland, not Dan Low or Dave Lau or Dennis Lee.

The back of our shirts have our names in Mickey.

The second surprise was when we met the DL polka band. Jenn asked them to play Happy Birthday to me. Then one guy shouted, "say hi to Darren Lieberman for me!" Haha.

I also wore a Happy Birthday button that DL gave me. More than 30 people, and not just Disney cast members, told me Happy Birthday!


The last surprise was that we ran into two women that got us right into the front of the line of Its a Small World. By the way, I think the new additions to the ride are great!

Here were Alvin and my tour guides: Walt (Jenn) and Mickey (Abby). Thanks! You guys were great. You make DL superfun!


Lastly, thanks to Alvin for coming to celebrate. Thanks for wearing the shirt and also not complaining the whole day.