Joseph Chen

It might sound kind of dumb to write about this, but throughout my life I have found, to my dismay, that there are many other Joseph Chens in this world. It only figures, because Chen is one of the most popular Chinese names, and Joseph is a Biblical name which is also very popular, at least in the Western world. So I guess my mom and dad, in addition to the many other mom and dads named Chen, put the two together and a brand spankin new little Joe Chen is born. People named David Kim or Esther Lee probably know exactly what I'm talking about here.

One of the guys my Dad did business with in Taiwan when I was little was named Joseph Chen, and I remember he had a business card which I always wanted to get. What a 8 year old kid needs a business card for, I don't know. So back then and there, I knew there was another Joseph Chen in this world, which I guess might have seemed cool for a little kid. Then, when I lived in Taiwan my freshman year of high school, there was a guy named Joseph Chen there at Taipei American School, who happened to be the same year as me too. Even better, the lockers there were assigned by alphabetical order so his locker was right above mine. Suprisingly, though, our paths crossed only a few times that year. I think the longest conversation we had went something like this:

Him: Oh, so you're the other Joseph Chen I heard about
Me: Yep, that's me
Him: That's kind of weird, man
Me: You don't say
Him: Ok, well vote for me, Student Council Treasurer next week
Me: Yeah, ok I will

Seriously, that was about it. And even that much was somewhat awkward. After that, I don't think I met any more same-name buddies in person. But recently, when I was trying to sign up for a new email account to replace my students UIUC email, I ran into some problems. I think a lot of other people basically just transferred their students ID to a yahoo or hotmail ID. Pretty standard, really. (that's a line from Dr. Evil, if you didn't know. Austin Powers III, July 26th anyone?)

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that simple for me. First I tried entering "jychen@yahoo.com" but that was taken. "Fiddlesticks," I cursed... but to no avail, someone else got there before me so what could I do. Yahoo is pretty big, and to be fair, they probably weren't all named Joseph Chen anyways. I figure there's got to be quite a bunch of Joshes, Jameses, Jeffs, Johns, maybe even a couple Juwanna Chens too. So I moved on and tried "josephchen@yahoo.com" but that didn't work either. Now I was kind of mad. I thought about hunting down that kid from TAS cause it was probably him, but common sense won out.

The last straw was when I tried "josephychen@yahoo.com," and that didn't work. No, I am not joking. I wanted to throw the computer out the window. Someone else is named Joseph Y. Chen, and registered his name on Yahoo??? What kind of crap is that! I was getting so mad I couldn't think straight, and I even tried to rationalize that maybe there was someone named "Josephy Chen" before I realized that I was losing it. Yahoo was no help either, they offered me the accounts "josephychen1980@yahoo.com" and "josephychen1@yahoo.com" as alternatives. Yeah right, like I'm gonna be that desperate to use an email like that. "josephychen@yahoo.com" is already more tedious than I wanted, why would I sink even lower to be "josephychen1"?

So in case you are wondering what I ended up doing, I just stuck to my original "dudo509@yahoo.com" account. Yes, good old dudo509, lets just hope nobody else gets that nickname. So my resume now lists "dudo509@yahoo.com" as my email, which probably doesn't sound too professional, but if potential employers have a problem with that, I don't really care anymore. They can email me at "bite.me@screwyou.com" if it makes them happy. I'm definitely not going through any more of this stress just to find a more official sounding address.

Do Not Let Advertising Sell You On Drugs You Don't Need

A couple days ago I wrote a short thing about how I don't like taking medicine. Then earlier today I saw this commercial on TV that said "Do not let advertising sell you on drugs you don't need." Basically that's what I was trying to say... nowadays there's all these drugs that people take just because someone made it and marketed it well. You think people didn't have allergies for hundreds of years before today? They all seem to have made it fine without Claritin or Allegra.

I was all patting myself on the back for being insightful and having a TV commercial back me up, but then I noticed that the ad was a public service announcement by AARP. What's AARP, you ask? American Association of Retired Persons, if I'm not mistaken. So that was kind of a downer. A bunch of old people agree with me. I'm still wise beyond my years though, so screw you all...

R. Kelly

It never fails to surprise me how our quick we as a society can turn on someone. I mean, this is supposed to be a country where people are "innocent until proven guilty" and we are all entitled to due process by law. It's also strange to me how there is a double standard when it comes to certain crimes or sins compared to others.

I am not trying to defend R. Kelly here or anything. If you asked me my opinion, I would probably say that I think he is guilty of this whole underage sex thing. But it's troubling to see how people have reacted to these allegations against him, when nothing has really been proven about any of it.

WGCI has been playing his song, "Heaven I Need A Hug" since last week, which is supposed to be his defense to all of his critics. (If you haven't heard it, I can send you an mp3). Anyways, because this radio station is choosing to air this song, activist groups are already organizing boycotts and protests against WGCI because they are promoting a child sex offender. This is the kind of thing that bothers me. First of all, even if he was guilty, there is still this thing called the First Amendment. The song's lyrics aren't that great, but it's not like he is promoting sex with underage girls or even disrespecting anyone. It's not like WGCI is causing more sex crimes to happen by playing this song. Secondly, if you personally don't want to hear R. Kelly's music, just change the station yourself. Organizing a boycott is basically something you do out of spite and only adds fuel to the conflagration (Chip Caray-ism).

The other thing that is weird is how people react with such shock and disbelief against R. Kelly for this scandal, meanwhile the rest of the rap world is filled with killers, pimps, and drug dealers, which is glorified. I'm not saying what he did (or at least is accused of doing) is ok, or is a light offense, but neither are those other things. Yeah, let's kill all we want and shoot up heroin every day but *gasp* when someone has sex with a 17 year old and tapes it, now that's not allowed.

Plus, aren't there more important things to worry about in this world? I mean, kids in Africa are starving, and have been for as long as I can remember. There's a war about to break out between Pakistan and India, two nuclear powers. The US economy is still slumping, terrorism is still a threat, and huge corporations like Enron and WorldCom are frauding people out of billions of dollars. Yet all people seem to care about is R. Kelly this, R. Kelly that. What is it about us that likes to go "tsk tsk" and is so fascinated with stuff like this? Can we really learn anything from following this story? Yes, thanks to the vigilant reporting by the media and investigative work by the Chicago Police Department, I now know that if I am ever a 33-year old R&B singer, I should NEVER, EVER engage in sexual activity with a minor. But if I do, definitely I should NOT videotape it.

Believe me, I wouldn't be surprised if he's found guilty, and if he is, then I say punish him to the fullest extent of the law. As for us, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Matthew 7:1-2). In his own less elegant words "Church folks ya'll need to stop judgin... or you will be the first to be judged."

For now, everyone needs to just chill and mind their own business. Just let the courts handle it, and if justice is not served by them, I believe that he (and everyone else) will have to answer to God someday anyways.

The Origin of Dudo

Yesterday, in my Starcraft essay, I talked about where 509 came from. The tougher part is explaining the whole "dudo" thing. Honestly, I can't give a great explanation about how I got that name. I can give a story relating to it, but none of it really makes sense.

It goes back once again to freshman year. You can picture me back then, when I had longer hair which I parted in the middle. I was also even skinnier than I am now, maybe about 125 lbs to my imposing 140 lb figure today. Not to mention entering U of I as a Koehler Outstanding Freshman in the ECE Department and James Scholar (based on my SAT/ACT score). The point is, I was a bigger nerd back then, if you can imagine that.

Anyways, I was kind of the "smart, dorky" one out of all the ~509~ boys who were all about picking up girls and stuff. You can ask them and they would tell you the same. It was all good though, cause we had so much fun that year and we all got along like bros for the most part. And I could tell so many stories about what kind of dumb and crazy things happened. Sadly, no girls ever noticed me, but it was ok since I would probably be too scared to talk to them if they did. Basically, I am the same person now except I have shorter hair and 15 more lbs of weight.

So back to the story... for some reason, one night Will and Andy decided to rent The Big Lebowski from the front desk of FAR, and the three of us started watching that movie in our room (509). I'm not sure if those two had been drinking that night or something, or more likely they were just being obnoxious like usual, but they weren't really paying that much attention to the movie. As for myself, being sober and not having Attention-Deficit-Disorder, I was actually trying to follow the story and hear what they were saying in the movie, a lost cause at that. Yet strangely enough, they were paying enough attention to the movie to find it so funny that the main character (Jeff Bridges) called himself "the Dude" and had an answering message of something like "Dude is not here, leave a message."

That's a frickin hilarious story, eh? "Dude is not here..." so they decided to change our answering machine to say "You've reached Andy and Dude's room..." which of course I didn't like but what could I do. Then one weekend Will and Andy went home and when they came back, they found that all their Mountain Dew was gone. I know I didn't drink it, cause I don't like Mountain Dew, but they accused me of drinking it all anyways and started calling me "Mountain Dude." Ah, to be immature freshman again...

Nobody likes to be called Mountain Dude, let me tell you that much. But you know how it is, the more I didn't like it, the more funny they thought it would be to call me that. Somewhere along the way, it changed to "dudo," I'm not sure but I think it was something to the effect of them saying I looked like "Where's Waldo?" when I wore glasses, and morphed "dude" to "dudo." Whatever it was, the name started to stick for no good reason. When they would introduce me to people, they would introduce me as "dudo." When people called on the phone for "Joe," they would be like "who? oh, you mean dudo..."

Eventually, I had no choice but to get used to it. When we all started Starcraft names, what else would I pick but Dudo~509~. Andy ended up with the name "Walro" cause Steve Buscemi's character in that movie kept saying "I am the Walrus," and me and Will thought he reminded us of Andy. Will was just "Willo," and the others ended up with 509 names all with their own dumb stories.

It doesn't really make much sense, but I got used to using a name I didn't like at first, to the point where almost all my accounts are named dudo509 (AIM, blog, Yahoo, fantasy baseball), probably more due to lack of creativity. Now, I don't mind the name and sometimes I even get confused when people call me Joe. All because of those two homos I lived with freshman year. Oh, but those were good times. When I see Will or Andy or any of those guys nowadays, we still always talk about the stupid things we did back then. Like I said, there's a million stories, but now that you've heard this one about how I got the name "dudo," I'm sure you are thoroughly confused and I'll spare you the rest of our dumb pointless anecdotes.

Medicine is For Losers

I just took an Advil like 20 minutes ago. This may come as a huge surprise to people who know me but it's complicated. Anyways, my head has been hurting since Sunday at Wisconsin, and today after I had my lunch I just popped one in.

Now, I understand that it will be hard for people to not feel offended by my title up there, but let me just explain why I don't like medicine. To me, it seems like the easy way out. If you've got a headache or cold, just suck it up and take it like a man. These days, there's a pill for everything. Nagging cough? Buy Halls Vapor Action this and that. Allergies? Allegra, Claritin, you name it. Menstrual cramps? Ok, I better stay away from that one because that could bring me more trouble than I can handle. Anyways, I don't pretend to have suffered all these illnesses and severe conditions myself, and I'll admit that in more serious cases there are times when taking something is understandable or even necessary. So, not everyone who takes medicine is a loser.

But I've had my share of headaches, coughs, stuffy noses, etc., and rarely have I resorted to taking Tylenol or the 'Tussin. The way I look at it, your body has an immune system, let it take care of you instead of depending on some pill that other people cooked up so they could have a multi-billion dollar industry. Plus, I have to believe that every drug has its side effects, big or small. Since I don't know exactly what causes cancer, Alzheimer's, or even ulcers, I stay away from caffienated drinks, tobacco products, and yes, aspirin, ibuprofen, and even cough medicine. I can bear a little discomfort now if it means I will be healthier and less drug-dependent in the long run.

So here I am, now 40 minutes removed from taking that Advil, and guess what? Headache's still there. Maybe it still needs some time to kick in, but I already regret taking it. By the way, those things remind me of Skittles or M&M's, no wonder they have to use those child-safety caps. Anyways, not only do I still have a headache, I have probably increased my chances of getting an ulcer by 0.1% or something. this sucks...

Starcraft and Me

Much like an alcoholic starts with just a sip of beer, my addiction to Starcraft began so innocently in the early days of my freshman year at U of I. Me, my roommate Andy, and a third pseudo-roommate Will probably did basically nothing other than play video games and watch movies in our room in those times. Needless to say, studying was not in the picture for room 509 of Oglesby that year (thankfully, there were other places for me to keep my Engineering status afloat). Anyways, a friend let us borrow a Starcraft CD, which we ended up burning some copies of, and in no time, we were all on Battle.net playing against other people online.

Soon, it spread from me, Will, and Andy to our next door neighbors, and almost by accident, the ~509~ clan was born. Before I knew it, all of my friends were into Starcraft, and over the next couple years I must have spent over a thousand hours playing that game. At our height, the 509ers grew in number and we played so much that people would notice us by our names when we joined or created games. For a while, I even thought I was unbeatable and that I had become as good I as I could ever be.

But inevitably, times changed, schoolwork started to take over and as studying, sleeping, and video games clashed, something had to give. Not to mention the girl factor, even though she likes playing Starcraft herself (which is definitely a huge plus in my book). As I played less, my skills suffered, and though my love for the game has never waned, a younger generation of 'crafters with higher potential and more dedication passed me by.

Today, I still play semi-regularly, if not for fun, then mostly for the sake of not letting my skills deteriorate. As for the rest of the original 509 boys, only a few still show up in our channel nowadays. Most have moved on by now, possibly to fancier games like Counterstrike or onto a job and career. The people I do see in channel 509, I no longer recognize, and none of them have that once-revered ~509~ extension to their name. It's a far cry from our glory days, that's for sure.

As I reminisce about the old times, I must say that even though the game has probably dropped my GPA by as much as a half point cumulatively from what it could have been, I look back and think only positive things about the whole experience. Call me an addict, but I still love Starcraft no matter what you say. A friend once planned to write a poem entitled "Starcraft and Fellowship," and while it has yet to be released, I am quite sure that this blessed man is in the same boat as myself; he understands what true love for the game means. Other people on the internet have dedicated entire webpages to the game and even produced songs for it. Nerds, but I respect that.

There's just something about the game that sets it apart. Starcraft is not just another video game, for I have played many others in my life without ever becoming nearly as addicted. Battle.net is a community where people all over the world, of all ages can gather and all collectively be entertained by a common interest. When you play together with someone, you can't help but feel some sense of brotherhood as you save a partner from attack or he sends you an overlord to help your cause. When you look at your map, you feel like a king controlling his army and taking care of all his little men. When you win or lose, it can have severe effects on your ego as well as on your mood for the rest of the day.

It's hard to explain it all. For people who have never played the game seriously, you all probably think I am an idiot for writing all this crap. Not that I could blame you, but if you had experienced the crafting sensation for yourself, then maybe you would understand.

Mind Steroids

All this talk about 'roids in baseball got me thinking... there's stuff you can take to make your muscles bigger, but is there anything you could take to increase brainpower? I mean, if you're a professional athlete and you want to win at all costs, steroids are there for you. What about for the rest of us? I was on math team in high school (that's right, a mathlete haha) and basically there's no shortcuts there, no matter how badly you wanted to stomp the competition.

Or, say you were one of those kids at the National Spelling Bee. There's thousands of dollars at stake there, you know? I'd think that somebody, somewhere must have found a way by now to give them an edge over the rest.

I heard once that some Chinese herbal medicine or ginseng or something is supposed to clinically increase the rate of firing in your brain's neuronic network, but I have no idea if it's true. And there's that thing about listening to Mozart before taking SAT's or whatever. For the most part, though, it seems like if you want to be smart, you're gonna have to be born with a good brain and exercise it frequently by educating yourself and stuff. There's no cheap fix there, just how it should be in the first place.

Still, wouldn't it be funny if there was some sort of mind steroid out there? They'd have to test those Spelling Bee kids before competition. Once in a while some hapless fool might overdose and his brain would melt or something. Maybe they would also have that lovely side effect of shrinking your testicles like real steroids do.

Call me crazy, buy with the way biological research is progressing nowadays, I have a strange feeling that we might see something along those lines in the not too distant future. But you won't ever see me go near anything like that. I personally feel that shrunken testes are probably too high of a cost for increased intelligence. Plus, nobody really likes smartypants anyways.

Whitewater Rafting

Well, I spent the past weekend in Wisconsin doing some camping and Whitewater rafting. It was a good experience and I've now returned with some more scattered thoughts....

Mosquitoes suck. Can you imagine a life lasting only a few hours or days, during which the only way for you to survive is to make the lives of others miserable? These little vampires serve no useful function in the ecosystem, yet they are so highly evolved that it's doubtful we'll ever be able to get rid of them. Kind of like those Campus Parking workers at U of I.

I don't need a cell phone. I don't really need high speed internet or cable TV either, for that matter. Technology is great, but how much do we need it all? I remember last summer taking Leisure Studies 100 down at U of I (that could be a whole blog in itself probably), and they were telling us that studies showed people were making more money now than 20 years ago or so, but they were less happy. It's easy to forget, but the key to happiness is not adding to our possessions, but subtracting from our wants (no, I didn't come up with that little saying myself). That doesn't mean I'm gonna go cancel my cell phone, internet, and cable, because those things are still useful to me even if they aren't a necessity. But one thing I realized is that if I want to live a happy life, at some point I will have to be satisfied with where I am and what I have. Right now, I sometimes think that I will be happy once I have a good job, marry the girl I love, have two or three kids, and drive a BMW M5. Yet I have a feeling that even if I make it to that point, I'll only want more. I'll want a better job, expect my wife and kids to be perfect, and trade in the M5 for a Ferrari. So the point is, it's not necessarily bad to want certain things in life, just that you shouldn't expect them to make you happy. It sounds cheesy of course, but happiness comes from within.

My car makes for a better sleeping spot than a tent with a hole in it set on rocky, uneven ground. Leather seats and a quiet night's rest. Can't beat that. Except maybe on a waterbed. Or a normal bed. Or even a cot.

It's nature's world, and we just live in it. I've always grown up in a well developed area, surrounded by technology and nice amenities like clean showers, air conditioning, and ESPN Sportscenter. But up there, it's all trees, fields, rivers, and then a couple people and a few buildings. I always kill these spiders and flies that get in or around my house like a badass, but I think all those bugs got their revenge on me this weekend. It's like they were saying, "welcome to our house, biatch" and proceeding to feed away on my blood. Well, now that I'm back home, maybe the little experience will make me more merciful to these guys. Actually, that's not too bloody likely. It's on, little bloodsuckers, I'm a hard man and I don't forgive easily...

So there's a little of what you all missed as I was away. I'm still recovering from the many many bites, the blisters on my hand from rowing, a little headache possibly from mild smoke inhalation or sunburn, but it's alright. I'm gonna be fine.

AZN Pride

Everyone probably knows someone who is all about the whole "AZN" thing. You know who I'm talking about, that punk kid with a riced out car, tries to talk ghetto, listens to nothing but techno or trance, etc. Supposedly that's how Asians are supposed to be, and if you don't act like that then you're a sellout or "whitewashed." Cause that's how you show pride for your ethnic background, right? Get lots of traffic tickets for drag racing and annoy the crap out of everyone who's not hip with the scene.

As for me, I've never been called whitewashed or anything like that, which is good because I'm not. I actually have a lot of friends who fit those things I described, and they're actually pretty cool people, so not everyone with a lowered Honda and wRyTeZ LyKe DiS is that bad. But I've also never been a part of the AZN thing either, and never want to be.

Sure, most of my friends are Asian. But that's more because of how things worked out when I was little. My best friends happened to all be the kids of my mom and dad's friends. I went to an Asian church. At school, there were maybe 1 or 2 other Chinese kids in my class so you do the math. Like it or not, there is still racism in America, even among grade school kids and not only against Black people. But what I'm trying to say is that just having mostly Asian friends doesn't automatically mean you're running with the AZN crowd.

I even drive a Japanese car that has a few mods. But that doesn't make me A-Z-N either. I just did it cause I wanted my car to look, sound, and drive exactly the way I liked it to. I didn't do it to attract girls, drag race, or to top out my speedometer needle at 140 (even though I came pretty close once, in my pre-speedingtickets days, just to see if it was possible, before I chickened out and started to hit traffic when I got to low 130's). I don't think it's that bad to work on your car a lot and even soup it up a little. It's all a matter of doing it with some taste and discretion. For example, is it really necessary to have an exhaust the size of a garbage can, or for it to be loud enough to shake the neighborhood around you? Just get one that sounds and performs better (not neccessarily louder) than stock without making it look ugly and violate city noise ordinances. Spoilers can be way overdone too. They might make the car look a little better to a point, but some people cross that line and put metal-park bench looking things on their Honda Civic.

While I'm on the topic of Civics, yes, they are nice cars and all, but no matter what you do to it, it's still supposed to be a freakin economy car (excluding the SI maybe). Yes, it's well built and reliable enough to handle a lot of mods, but don't act like it's the best car ever. I hate those people who will be like "i engine swapped with a integra GSR into my EX, added intake headers exhaust, turbo kit, took out my back seat, blue bottle, +5 hp Greddy sticker, and I ate a BMW M5 for breakfast at the track the other day." Being faster than a M5 doesn't make it better. Just look at your car, dude, it's a rice mobile. Plus now you ain't got no back seat, dumbass.

Ok, well back to what I was trying to say about Asian pride. These kids all talk about it but what they do is more like Asian shame to me. When people think of Asians, I don't want them to think we are all a bunch of obnoxious ghetto wannabe posers tryin to act all bad and hating on all white people. I'd seriously rather people just think of us as being stingy, nerdy, and slanty-eyed.

Still, I take pride in being Chinese. I'm glad my mom and dad made me learn how to speak read and write it, because it doesn't matter if I was born in this country, if I'm a citizen, educated as an American, people will always see me first with black hair and chinky eyes so I better not think I'm white. Even though I don't scribble AZNPRYDE all over the place and go around running my mouth about Michael Chang and Michelle Kwan, I bet I appreciate being Asian just as much as anybody out there. There's no way I'd ever choose to be white or black over being Chinese, cause that's who I was born as and that's who I'm gonna die as. Not everything about Asians is great, not everything is great about white people or black people either.

Everyone should have some amount of pride in who they are. If you don't like the image your race portrays, don't join the crowd just to fit in, and definitely don't desert your heritage and hate on your own people, but do your best to make the people around you see that not everyone fits those negative stereotypes. For my part, I know I'm already a nerd so it will be hard for myself personally to convince others that not all Asians are math geeks. But maybe someday I'll be able to do something to help the world in some way, so people won't think all Asians are selfish, greedy, and opportunistic (see Cantonese-accented trade federation from Star Wars Episodes I and II). As one person among billions, I probably won't be able to change the whole world's perspective, but at least I should do my part to not make it more negative. Everyone else should try to do the same.

Cell Phones

"you gotta learn to hold your own
they get jealous when they see you with your mobile phone"

While 2pac's words seem terribly strange today, and in a way somewhat ironic, it wasn't all that long ago that mobile phones were something only the rich could afford, an impractical device that was expensive, bulky, and unreliable. Nowadays, just about everybody carries these things around, they've become small, cheap, and just barely reliable enough for the general public to use, thanks to advances in technology in recent times.

Still, a good deal of people (though it's a rapidly shrinking population) have managed to hold out and avoid getting a cell phone all this time. I must say that I am impressed with these people for staying out of the mix. When everyone else is rushing to get something, it's hard not to get caught up in it all and want to get one yourself. I remember slap bracelets when I was young and how everyone had them so me and my sister wanted them too. Ok, so that isn't a great analogy. Slap bracelets are basically extinct now because they are worthless beyond the initial 5 minute entertainment value. Cell phones do have legitimate use and they're here to stay, like it or not.

As for me, I took the "cell phone plunge" a couple years ago myself after my mom was sucked into one of those big ol' PrimeCo ads in the paper that promised a free phone and called itself a "College Student Special" or something. Naturally, my mom (who is that type of typical Asian mom who buys like 300 gallons of milk when it's on sale at Dominicks) rushed me to sign up for that so-called special deal. Eventually, I was left with a pretty crappy phone that I never asked for and a year of crappy service on my contract.

A lot of people reading have probably experienced something similar in their own lives, when their mom or dad decides they need a "Son/Daughter Tracking Device," strap a cell phone to ther kid, and send them merrily off to school. In my case, my mom never actually called me that much on my phone, partly because I was a well behaved child, got decent grades, and never really made them worry. Probably equally as important a factor was her being Chinese and unwillingness to waste a "long-distance call" from the (630) to the (217) area code.

Anyways, as the story goes, I soon became attached to my PrimeCo Audiovox phone (mostly because my sister was able to program Britney Spears' "You Drive Me Crazy" as its ringer), but eventually I got tired of the PrimeCo stuff and switched to Cingular and a new phone with free nights and weekends. This is the phone I've been using for the past year, and I've found that while I once thought I would never have any use for a cell phone, it's become almost an extension of my right hand, and I doubt I could ever go back to life without one.

Now, I can't go anywhere without taking my phone with me. I realized this fact a couple months ago when I had to send my phone in for repairs and was left without it for a few hours. It felt so weird not having my phone, I know it's dumb but all I kept thinking is, what if my car breaks down here and I gotta call someone? What if someone has to reach me and it's a real big emergency? Logically, neither of these situations has ever presented itself when I've had my phone, so I don't know why they were such big issues then.

Still, there are times when having a cell is such a convenience that it's almost a necessity. Trying to get everyone to meet at the same restaurant at the right time is a whole lot easier, especially if multiple cars are driving and it's a busy night. When I pick up my sister outside her dorm, I can afford to be lazy and call her from my car to come out while I wait. Any time I leave my house and forget the directions to where I'm going (that's pretty much every time I go anywhere), my little Nokia friend is there to help. When I'm at the store getting some orange juice for my mom, I can always check to make sure if she wants extra pulp or calcium rich. These might all seem like little things, but added up, it's a convenience that once you're used to, it's hard to live without.

Of course, there are side benefits to having a cell phone as well. For someone as disorganized as me, using my phone to store people's numbers is a simple enough convenience that even I can utilize. When I forget my watch or I'm stuck in a dark room, my phone is there. Bored on long car rides? Play Snake for high score. It's also fun to confuse someone next to you by calling his/her cell phone and hanging up (works better for those without caller ID).

Unfortunately, having a phone can also be a major burden at times. I've become so popular that it's hard to go a few minutes without someone calling me. Ok, so that's not true, but I still sometimes get the sense that I no longer own the cell phone, it owns me. Just the fact that I can't go anywhere without having it with me is a bad sign. Other people have the worse habit of forcing themselves to pick up the phone every time it rings, no matter what the situation, and without considering if it might be rude to the person you're talking to face-to-face, or thinking about what kind of place and time it is (I'm sometimes guilty of that myself, so please forgive me while I work on changing for the better). I would say that there are very, very few things important enough that someone could be calling for that they couldn't leave a message and wait for you to call them back when it's more appropriate.

Before I launch into a whole thing about cell phone courtesy, I better stop and just say a couple final thoughts. First, props to whoever is still living happily without a cell phone, for you are the last cowboys of our society and should be proud of it. But eventually the world will pass you by, I'm sad to say. If you do already have a cell phone, try not to depend on it too much. You lived without one before, just see it as a convenience and not a duty. I'll try to do the same for myself.

Keep in Touch

Remember in high school, at the end of each year we'd get each other to sign yearbooks, trying to record the signatures and memories you had with each person throughout that past school year? I don't happen to reminisce about high school too often, but when I was cleaning and organizing my room recently, I was struck with the urge to pick that old yearbook up and flip through it.

The first thing that surprised me was how young everyone looked in their pictures (including myself, of course). As a senior in college seeing the incoming freshman, I'd always wondered whether or not I looked that young myself 4 years ago, and there I had my answer.

When I started reading the notes of people who had signed my yearbook, it brought back many great memories, but I also couldn't help feeling some amount of regret at how many times the words "keep in touch" came up in those signatures, and how few of these people I had actually kept in touch with.

I was fortunate enough to attend college at a place where a lot of DGS grads decided to go, and among this group were a few people that became my closest friends throughout the past few years, and who I'll definitely be close with for years to come. I'm very thankful for having these guys as friends all this time, and also for the few others I was able to keep up with during the summers, Thanksgivings, or Spring Breaks that didn't go to Champaign. But the vast majority of my friends in high school just kind of faded off and I can only wonder where these people are now and what they're doing.

Now, all that high school stuff is in the past. I can't really expect to be "friends 4-ever" with everyone I've ever hung out with. To be fair, the whole keeping in touch thing is a 2-way deal, and it's not all my fault for failing to do so after high school. Circumstances change, people change, and none of this can be avoided.

But as it stands, I know that I left college little more than a month ago making a lot of those same promises to stay in touch with people I'd met at school. I honestly hope that I have become wiser in these past four years and that this time, not as many of my close friends will be lost in the shuffle.

Still, all this is easier said than done, and this will be one of the toughest challenges I've ever faced which I can't simply hope it into fruition. I'm already seeing that everyone has his/her own life to live, with or without me, and that in many cases, distance will be the foremost barrier to overcome. One of my roommates is headed to Berkeley for grad school, a couple friends are in Texas working already, and some others are staying in Champaign for more school too. And even though a few are gonna be working in the area, their jobs will likely allow for very limited time to hang out like before as they sleep at the ungodly hour of 11pm to wake up early for an 8 hour day.

For me personally, a bigger hindrance than distance is a sense of laziness, or at least a lack of dedication. When change comes, I usually end up sitting back and losing track of everything, seemingly helpless to exert any control over my own situation. But what it really comes down to is going with the flow while hanging on to what you can. There's no point in swimming against the tide, you'll just end up being swept backwards by the waves with a mouthful of salty water. But whenever possible, I'll have to make it a point to find ways to talk to and meet up with the people I can. Relationships, even among guys, don't sustain themselves, as I've already learned from post high-school experience. And I've also learned that making the effort to keep a friend is something I'll never regret doing.

While I'm on this general topic, I want to recommend that everyone who hasn't started a blog should do so. In only a week or two of writing these entries, I've found that it's not only a great way to organize your thoughts and release some of your creative writing energy, but also a way to share a little of what's going on in your own life to whoever takes time out to read. I know of a couple other people's blogs and I enjoy reading what they have to write. It's not a relationship in itself, but it's almost like talking to the person on the phone once in a while and just keeping in step with the new times.

You might say, as my sister did, that your life is too boring and uneventful to keep a blog. But look at me, I work at home with my dad all day, and at night I just watch baseball or sit around, maybe waiting for someone to call me to do something, and then I get ready to sleep around 11 or 12. Sure, it's true that my blogs aren't all that interesting to read, but that's cause I suck at writing. Life is as interesting as you make it. No matter how little or how much is going on, there's always something to write about. You'd actually be able to write more often if you have less other stuff to do. So I definitely think everyone should have a blog of some sort and just update it as frequently or infrequently as is reasonable. Not only will you give people like me with no life something to read, but I'm willing to bet that you'll get a lot out of the blog-writing habit yourselves, if you're ready to put some time and effort into it.

Also, a couple people have commented on my blog and I really like when people tell me something I wrote was true, or funny, or even wrong or disgusting. Just knowing that someone is reading what you write is pretty rewarding, even if it's only a few people. I'm considering upgrading to blogpro or whatever that is called so that people will be able to leave comments on my posts. But for now, don't hesitate to send me a quick email or IM if you have something to say or add to what I wrote.

Jusrede

For those of you that are wondering what the title of my blog means, it was supposed to be a joke. I thought it would be funny to name my blog like the way Musiq Soulchild spells. (his name is just "Musiq" now). His CD's have been titled "aijuswanaseing" and "juslisen." get it now?

Not that he's my favorite artist out there or anything, but aijusthautitwhuzphunea. His songs aren't bad actually. If i can recommend from his first album "Mary-Go-Round," "Girl Next Door," and "Love," in addition to his current single "Half-Crazy" off the second album.

As for my blog title, I will probably change it eventually. I'm still messing with the template too, and maybe I will add some links sometime as well.

Guys are from Jackass, Girls are from Dawson's

In an attempt to get more in touch with my sensitive side, I've been giving some extra thought to the differences between guys and girls. Now, I'm pretty sure that I already know about the physiological differences, so I won't write about that. But I'm still learning a lot about how girls are compared to guys in terms of how they think and act, especially in relationships.

It took quite a keen eye to note that girls are, in general, more thoughtful than guys. Yes, that is why you read my blogs, to learn such earthshattering information. Anyways, we all knew that much already, but there's still a lot I'm observing.

For example, guys never call each other "just to talk." Speaking from a personal point of view, my typical phone conversation lasts under a minute and involves only the basics: what you wanna do, when you wanna meet, and where. We (guys) don't curl up with the phone on our beds and giggle about which girls are "cute" or who's going out with who. Not that we never talk about that stuff, but it's rarely done over the phone. The same goes with email. The only long phone conversations I have (5 mins and over) are with those of the female variety. Not that it's terrible or anything, but girls have to understand that guys aren't used to that kind of thing. We aren't trying to be rude or insensitive when there's a long pause because there isn't anything to talk about, and we say "Ok, well i guess I'll talk to you later then."

Another thing is what guys value in relationships. We don't typically care about getting gifts and remembering special dates, but it's important to know that your bro's got your back when it counts. We don't have to have breakthrough moments of crying our eyes out telling each other about all our past breakups and childhood drama to be good buds with someone, all it takes is half an hour of playing video games or basketball with someone and feeling like you identify with each other. It's also okay to not see your best friends all the time. If one of my friends goes on vacation or something, I never feel dissed if they don't call me regularly or email me to keep in touch, cause they'll be back soon anyways.

Girls, on the other hand, are real sticklers when it comes to those little things. You better not forget a girl's birthday, Mother's Day, an anniversary of any type, or Martin Luther King Jr. Day, because they sure won't. It's hard for guys to understand that stuff like flowers, cards, or a simple unexpected phone call mean so much to a girl, considering that we don't need (or even want) any of that ourselves. Girls can't be best friends with someone they met 3 days ago - it takes years, or at least one of those breakthrough moments I described above.

There's tons of other differences. Guys can just hang around, chill with each other and do nothing, while seeing nothing wrong with that. Girls have to be doing something when they're together, whether it's shopping, painting their toenails, talking about guys, going out and dancing, whatever... but they look at guys and call them bums and losers for doing nothing. In reality, we aren't doing "nothing" per se, that's just called "chillin" and it's one of the ways we bond. Guys (typically) don't pay as much attention to the lyrics in songs or who sings it, while girls are more sensitive about that. Guys are good drivers, girl's aren't. Guys are more easily entertained by shows like MTV's Jackass, while girls need intricate storylines in stuff like Dawson's Creek. Guys are bigger than girls. Girls are better cooks (not trying to belittle that, but I personally believe that girls are better at paying attention to detail and that makes them better at cooking). Guys are more emotionally stable, girls are emotional rollercoasters - they reach higher highs but lower lows. (A word of advice for guys getting into new relationships: find out as soon as you can when "that time of the month" is and brace yourselves accordingly.) Guys "think the idea of punting a small dog is funny" (quotes because I got that one from one of those email forwards once).

Now, I'm not ripping on either guys or girls here. Not even all of this stuff I'm saying is true because there are plenty of exceptions, and don't be insulted if you're a guy who likes to cook or follows Dawson's Creek. But if you haven't already, think about the things I just wrote and tell me if I'm off base here.

By the way, it's been a slow past few days work-wise, and that is why I have been writing such long entries.

Baseball

It's always bothered me that surprisingly few people truly enjoy and appreciate the game that is supposed to be "America's Pastime." Personally, I love the game more than any other sport... watching it on TV, watching it live, playing it, playing fantasy baseball, base-ically (ha-ha) anything to do with it. Though I'm sure a lot of people are baseball fans, I would definitely guess that more people nowadays prefer to watch football or basketball, as I always hear the word "boring" used incessantly in association with the game.

Sure, on the surface, baseball seems to be a lot slower than the other sports. Players take timeout in between every pitch or whenever they feel like it. Bulky hitters like Mark McGwire dominating the highlights suggest that most players share a similar physique (or aspire to achieve one like his). Games typically last 3 hours long, but could easily surpass 4 depending on the circumstances, and they play almost every day for a whole summer. Compare that to 2 1/2 hrs for an NBA game (or 2 for NCAA), or NFL's one game a week schedule, and I guess it's somewhat understandable that people get tired of watching baseball.

Those who think speed is not a major factor in baseball, however, are greatly mistaken. I think a good argument could be made that baseball is the most speed-dominated game out there of the 4 major sports, including hockey. For starters, consider that the typical Major League pitcher throws at least a 90 mph fastball. That means that the ball travels from the pitchers hand to the plate in well under a second. Thus, in that fraction of a second, the hitter has to pick up the location of the ball, try to guess what kind of pitch it is, decide to swing, and hit the ball accordingly. That's no easy task, let me just tell you that it's hard enough to play catch with my friend who claims (and I believe him) to throw in the 60's speed-wise.

Speed in the form of a player's ability to run is also a huge factor in baseball. When a fielder has great acceleration, it can make the difference between an out and a triple. When a hitter is extremely fast out of the batters box, (Ichiro is a good example) it forces the defense to hurry, increasing the likelihood of errors as well as adding a dimension to a hitter's On-Base Percentage in the form of infield hits. Being fast out of the box can also save outs by avoiding the back end of double plays. When a baserunner is a threat to steal, it limits the pitcher's effectiveness by forcing him to shorten his delivery, while also making him more apt to throw fastballs rather than off-speed pitches in order to make it easier to prevent a stolen base.

Sure, when it comes to continuous play, baseball is no match for other sports. But to me, there are so many reasons I could list on why its such a great game. There's so many things to consider in every situation, and even after years of watching the sport, I'm still learning more subtleties of the game, because it is by far the most complicated of the major sports.

The human aspect is also much more prominent in baseball, and that is probably the single best thing I like about the game that separates it from the others. Every pitch and every play involves the call of an umpire. Every umpire has his own style and his own strike zone. Every manager is faced with many decisions throughout the game and the way he handles them usually determines the outcome of the game, making him much more important than a coach in basketball or football. To bunt, or not to bunt? Leave the starter in, or take him out for a lefty? Play the infield back with less than 2 outs, or concede the run for an out? Not only this, but there are many unwritten rules within the game that everyone is supposed to play by. Don't steal a base when your team has a big lead. Don't time pitches in the on-deck circle. Don't show up the pitcher after hitting a home run, especially if you're a rookie. Break one of these rules, and you can expect to get a fastball thrown at you or at one of your teammates. Throw at someone who doesn't like it, and risk him charging the mound and the benches clearing for a brawl.

I could go on and on about all the great things about baseball, little and small, that have made me a die-hard fan. But, my blog entries are getting long and boring, and I risk losing the attention of those who actually read it.

Thoughts On Looking Young

For as long as I can remember, my appearance has always made people think that I am younger than I am. In an earlier blog I already told the story about the Sox game and how the guy wasn't gonna give me a beach towel, but there are a million other stories I could tell like that one. It's not uncommon for people to mistake my little sister as being older than me. No matter where I am, or what it is, I get asked for ID. Last Spring Break when I went to Vegas, I got carded at every table; at one point I was even carded twice at the same table, when both pit bosses working the area spotted little babyfaced joe at different times (no lie, you can ask the people I went with).

Just today, when I ordered a Bud Light at TGI Fridays during dinner, the waitress (who probably wasn't old enough to drive herself) didn't ask me for ID at first. Me and Olivia looked at each other right away and were both shocked that for once, and maybe one time only, somebody actually looked at me and thought, "He looks old enough, I don't need to check this guy." Of course, that didn't last long cause she ended up asking me for my license anyways when she came back, before handing me the bottle.

Earlier this week, I went with my dad to a store to buy some computer stuff, and since he forgot to bring his wallet, I had to pay wiith my credit card. I can't say for sure if this is because I look young, but the cashier asked to see ID before authorizing my card and signature. I wouldn't be surprised though.

One of the worst ones was sometime this past semester when I went to see a rated R movie. The ticket guy asked me for my ID but not my friend who was with me (who I'm pretty sure was younger than me). Now, at the time, my license was being held as bond for my traffic ticket so I could've been screwed. Oh, but lady luck smiled upon me that night as my friend did have his ID and was able to show that he was 21 and over. Thus, he was an adult and I could watch the movie because I was accompanied by an adult. How awesome! Not only does the guy not think I am 17 and over (I was 22 for those of you keeping count at home), but the only reason I was let in is because I was accompanied by an adult - who is actually a friend that is younger than me and much less mature, I should add.

I can even remember not too long ago, when I was probably 14 or 15, and my parents would still pass me off at Old Country Buffet as a child (12 and under). I was really short back then and didn't really hit my growth spurt till about sophomore or jr year of high school when most people get it around junior high, no later. No girls ever paid attention to me because they like the older-looking guys and that wasn't me (and still isn't... I'm lucky enough to have found a girl who doesn't care).

So, what's funny to everyone else is pretty much an ongoing annoyance and minor insults for me. A lot of people think it's not so bad, plus I know in 10 or 15 years I will be happy I look younger than my peers. But there are times I really think that looking older would be so much better. You know, I wouldn't even be surprised if sometimes I walk into a job interview, and the interviewer takes one look and thinks "we can't hire this guy... no one's gonna respect or listen to a guy that looks like he's in high school." Not that I would blame them, cause can you imagine entrusting an important engineering job to a high schooler, or someone who looks no older than one?

I think what it comes down to is respect... people naturally respect those who look older. Even if I am much more intelligent and mature than someone, they are more likely to command attention or respect if their appearance suggests that they are older. Not the way I'd like it to be, but nothing I can do about it, right? It's just something I will have to live with... what do you all think, should I tape my drivers license to my forehead from now on?

My Take on Pop Music... and Music in General

Last year, I wrote a fairly long essay on Britney Spears, detailing several arguments as to why she should not be hated as much as she is, and why people should not immediately rush to judgement when they hear that I'm a fan. Not too long after that, a friend wrote something of his own, the topic being "Why I Hate Pop Music." I've recently been able to read what he wrote, and I think it's worth reading for anyone who is interested. Though I still don't agree with everything he's written, at least it's pretty well organized and thought out (more so than you can say about my britney essay), and it's good to see that he cares about what he is writing, even if it is an opposing view. To read, click here (there is also a link there to my original Britney essay)

Now, hopefully people did not mistake my Britney essay as being a complete endorsement of all that is pop music and pop culture. The essay was, as I said, written more as a defense of Britney, as well as myself, for the reason that nearly every person I knew hated her and ripped on me for being a fan. Also, let me say that I'm definitely not writing this little piece to be meant as a retort to Brian, because the last thing I am interested is engaging in a war of words over something like this. What I'm writing isn't really directly against what he's saying anyways. However, I do want to clarify some things about my personal opinons about pop music, or music in general.

Why I Like(d) Pop Music
First of all, believe it or not, I've never really liked pop music all that much. At the time I wrote the essay, I'll readily admit that I did indeed listen to a lot of the Britney and Christina stuff, or the Backstreet and NSync, etc. This was for a few major reasons:

1. A couple years ago, it seemed to me that a lot of other genres of music were going through a overall down period, lacking much of the originality or inspiration it once had. For example, hip-hop was getting to the point where every song was about big ol' booties and making the benjamins. Alternative music had also become rather old with seemingly the same exact guitar riff heard ubiquitously, not to mention the fact that every lead singer was doing his best Eddie Vedder impersonation. Even in the realm of Christian Contemporary music, I was finding it increasingly hard to identify with any of the newer artists and forced to look back to the good old days of Jars of Clay and DC Talk. (There were exceptions, of course, but I am talking in general). It wasn't that all of this music was terrible, just that it had maybe "fallen back down to earth" from the highs of a few years back.

2. Where unoriginality and a dearth of talent plagued other genres, the world of pop music was ripe with blossoming artists, bringing an intriguing new wave of songs that was taking the pop category to new heights. Long before a beast named TRL invaded this country, my idea of pop music was basically limited to "artists" like Celine Dion or Rod Stewart. That might not have been completely accurate, but at least in my mind, pop music was pretty boring, harmless, 93.9 WLIT stuff (not trying to diss the LITE, I would never). Anyways, when all these new pop songs started coming out with nice beats, catchy tunes, and well-produced videos, it was as if a whole new genre of pop was replacing the old, and I was forced to take notice.

3. I think the opportunity to see Britney Spears live in concert was one of the biggest reasons I became a fan of hers, her music, and other performers like her. It might sound a little dumb, but it's much like how I became so attracted to baseball, or how I became a Sox fan. To make a long story short, my grade school used to give free Sox tickets for Straight A's/Perfect Attendance. The consensus among a lot of people I know is that baseball is boring, and I don't blame them for feeling that way. As for myself, I probably would have the same feelings, had I not been lucky enough to get a chance to go to games at the ballpark in person and appreciate the game, its nuances and just how impressive the scope of the game really is; in other words, things you don't get from watching the highlights or even watching an entire game live on TV. In the same sense, hearing a song on the radio is one thing, seeing it on MTV is another, and experiencing it at a concert is a whole new level of its own. Not that her voice was so much better live (it's mostly lipsync anyways if you didn't figure already), but being able to see such a large-scale production, to understand how much work was put in by everyone involved and really be immersed in the energy of the whole thing was something that surprised me a great deal. The concert in itself didn't make me like pop music, but it did help me to see it in a new light and maybe allowed me to appreciate it more as a different way to enjoy music.

There were some other less obvious reasons that I found myself playing 98 Degrees and Mandy Moore mp3s all the time, but I want to keep this relatively short.

What Has Changed Since Then
Today, I don't listen to nearly as much of the pop stuff as I did back then, though once in a while a song will still catch my ear and invade my head for a while. Why the change, you ask? It's not that I've suddenly decided or realized that pop music is wrong, but there are still logical explanations I can give. For starters, reasons #1 and 2 above don't apply nearly as much to the current music scene as they did back then. Thanks to some great recent work by artists like Incubus, Outkast, U2, or Alicia Keys, there is reason to be optimistic that artistic creativity will once again flourish through the medium of musical expression. (Alicia Keys, by the way, still borders on being pop music but more on that later).

On the other hand, a sharp decline in the quality of today's pop music is proving to be a disturbing reminder of the shortcomings of such a genre (or industry, better put). Not only have shows like "Making the Band" (O-Town) or "Pop Stars" (Eden's Crush) made a complete mockery of anything related to pop music (didn't think it was possible to bring shame to the shameless), but it's also apparent that both time and originality are quickly running out for these people. When Britney, Backstreet, and N Sync first stepped onto the scene in this country, they and their producers had tapped into a void of the American consciousness and were breaking new ground. Say what you will about capitalizing on the young impressionable ones of the nation (with idle time and disposable income), but they had found fertile ground in the market and were good at what they did. Contrast that with today's saturated market; everything being done has already been done, each new boy band or female star is virtually a clone of the previous, and the quality of the music is suffering along with the decline in originality.

To be fair, you couldn't have expected pop's heyday to last forever. After all, bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains once ruled the airwaves and record sales but eventually they either self-destructed or lost their artistic edge of originality. And once 2Pac got himself rich and moved out of the ghetto, is it any wonder he stopped rapping about the trials of poverty and racism and was left with lyrics about money and hoes? Now in the case of pop music, they were never artistic or inspiring about what they did, but at least they were somewhat original and fresh at one time. As I said, that one positive about pop music back then is now losing its steam, and the inevitable result is that I grow more and more weary of the same old stuff I'm hearing and move back to better written and more relevant material.

Some Final Thoughts
If I had to summarize how I feel about pop music and music in general, the most important thing I would like to say is that there are different kinds of music and that everything should be taken for what it is, without mistaking it for what it's not.

As I've said before, there are some bands and individual artists in the world of music that have produced truly magnificent work by their own creative and original talent. Even I can't deny that this is the highest form of music, when an artist creates something that actually serves to inspire those who can relate to and enjoy it. For me personally, this includes bands like Smashing Pumpkins or artists such as Tori Amos, for example. I can't say enough how much I admire these people for not only their musical talent but also for their amazing intellect and ability to challenge someone like me in the music they create. It's this kind of music that is very, very important to me and dear to my heart for that very reason, and the many great experiences I have encountered in my life because of these artists' contributions have given me truest sense of respect for them.

There are also those in the world of music with great God-given talent, either in the form of a great voice, perhaps as a guitarist, DJ, songwriter, or whatever it is. Based on these talents alone, they still have a great potential to inspire people and provide enjoyment to others, but might not have the experiences to draw from and the ability as a whole artist to generate music that can challenge us intellectually, or in other aspects of life which we might be able to relate to. Some examples I can think of might include Yo-yo Ma, who is an incredibly gifted cellist but is limited in playing music written mostly by other composers. [As a side note, classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven really fascinate me because while their music has no words and was written hundreds of years ago, there's no doubt that their songs have the special ability to transcend speech and time to affect and stimulate people in a way that's hard to explain. And I'm not trying to belittle Yo-Yo Ma in any way, because he still has the ability that few others have to interpret a song with feeling, translating someone else's composition and expressing it in an original manner.] I tend also to believe that Alicia Keys falls into this category. She's got a great voice, but her success has owed much to having great producers and being promoted heavily in the media. I still bought her CD and enjoy listening to it a lot, but I just can't yet justify putting her in the same category as the artists I mentioned above. Of course, she's still young in age and I think as she matures she has the potential to be one of those great artists.

That basically leaves what is, in my opinion, a huge gray area that includes what most people would call pop music, but also includes all of the less musically gifted but still successful people in the industry. Besides the expected list of boy bands and girl groups, and solo pop stars like Britney, I also throw into this group stuff like Limp Bizkit, Ja Rule, Usher, Kid Rock, Pink, Enrique Iglesias, Metallica, or Jennifer Lopez. Basically, anybody whose music lacks any real substance and depends primarily on image, production and promotion, and a certain amount of luck to be where they are. My goal is not to bash all of these people for not being musically talented; after all, I was a big fan of Britney Spears, who is probably the epitome of all these things, and I still follow her music/career to some extent. I'm just saying that the "pop" music we listen to nowadays isn't really just limited to the teenybopper tunes, but that if you stop and think about it carefully, a great deal of what many of us enjoy listening to is actually not much different from, and no better than the typically labeled pop music (at least from an artistic point of view). Within this category, there are still of course different types of performers, and it's also important to note that there are also vast differences in the quality of the music. An analogy that comes to mind is movies: consider the two films Austin Powers and Jingle All The Way (there was nothing else to do on the plane ride to Taiwan). Neither movie is supposed to be inspiring, but I enjoyed Austin Powers because it was well done, while Jingle All The Way still haunts me now and then because it was utter crap.

The point I'm trying to make here, in a circumlocutory way so it seems, is that there are different kinds of music, and from each kind you should already know what to expect. Music in its highest form is meant to be an inspiration; while in other cases, there is music for the less noble purpose of providing entertainment and enjoyment. If someone feels that pop music is so bad that listening to it is a weight on their conscience, or believes that it is so worthless that listening to it is a waste of time, then I can respect that. The people who bother me are the ones who are such huge fans of Limp Bizkit and Ja Rule but find it so compelling to tell me that Britney Spears is terrible. I've never denied that image is one of the biggest, if not the single biggest factor for Britney's success, but image is also just as important for posers like Fred Durst and Ja Rule.

All I'm saying is, listen to the music that you like, but you should always know what you're flooding your brain with; take the serious music seriously, but don't put too much stock in what isn't. To me, it's ok to enjoy a little "candy" while not getting carried away to the point of rotting your teeth. At the same time, I would recommend that everyone should listen to and learn to appreciate at least some quality music because I have found in my own life time after time that great music by great artists makes for great food to the soul. If I can say one last thing in closing: Pop music never was, and never will be a form of artistic expression, but as long as people don't listen to it so much and so exclusively that they lose track of reality, then it's okay in my book.

The MLB Extra Innings Package offers up to 35 regular season, out-of-market games a week. Due to my lack of a spare $159 laying around, as well as my mom and dad's apparent but puzzling lack of interest in receiving those "extra innings" to our home each week, I am unable to follow certain big games (such as last week's Curt Schilling/Pedro Martinez matchup) or more importantly, my fantasy players on live TV. Instead, I am relegated to technology's next best deal, semi-live java applets or Flash programs such as ESPN's GameCast, CBS Sportsline's GameCenter, or MLB.com's GameDay.

These little pieces of heaven offer all some simple graphics representing games at hand, namely a picture of a baseball field and the names of players who occupy each base/position. Refreshing itself frequently, I receive text-based updates of the latest plays thanks to my trusty cable-modem internet connection. All three of the sources I mentioned above are pretty solid, but there are of course limitations, just like watching the game on TV is not nearly as great as being there in person. When GameCast tells me Barry Bonds reached on an infield single, or Jason Giambi was caught stealing 3rd, I can't help but be puzzled as to how a guy with hamstring issues and has at times been unable to reach 2nd base on a hit off the wall somehow got an infield hit, or what in the world a slow man like Giambi was doing trying to steal 3rd in the first place. If i had been watching on TV, at least I would be able to see that the infield hit was a high chopper that was a little misplayed, and that Giambi was thrown out in a botched hit-and-run play.

Anyways, what I was originally gonna write about was that someday I envision living with, or near a few of my fellow baseball lovers with maybe 40 bucks of disposable income to chip in to get that deal. Kind of like the Tyson-Lewis fight, when maybe 15 people or so showed up and put in some contributions and everyone got what they wanted. But that Extra Innings thing does sound pretty sweet.

On a side note, Chip Caray has to be the worst baseball announcer ever. I guess if you don't pay attention to what he says, or watch Cubs games that much, he doesn't seem all that bad. But honestly, every time I watch a game with him announcing, I feel like throwing oranges at the tv set, or at least writing a long-winded hate letter to WGN bashing his ineptitude. First of all, he's calling the game on TV, so he doesn't have to always be talking. Shut up once in a while and just let the viewers watch. Also, stop using words like "scalded" or "out by an eyelash" so much. And if he says "swung on, belted!" one more time I will likely flip.

The worst is how none of what he says makes sense when you think about it. Bases loaded, the batter hits a line drive that's caught, and Chip says "liner, caught! everybody's safe!" No, not everybody is safe, because the batter is out, you idiot. "Everybody's safe" is what you say when the batter reaches on an error, or a good bunt, or a fielders choice that failed to get the runner. Or today, after the 6th inning, he feels compelled to say "Jason Bere - pitching a gem!" when the guy has given up 4 runs on 6 hits and walked 3 through six. Just cause he retired the side in order and struck out Adam Everett to end the inning does not make it a "gem." A gem is giving up no hits, or maybe 2 or 3 at most, and no runs (or maybe a solo homer even). Jason Bere's stats weren't even technically classified a "quality start" (6+ innings, 3 or fewer ER). Another irritating thing was when Todd Hundley was picked off 1st base to end the inning, and he starts telling the Greek myth of Sisyphus and how he pushed a rock to the top of a hill, and then had to push it back or some crap. um, right... Why, Chip, why? can't you just say, Everett, Hernandez, and Vizcaino coming up in the bottom half?

i'm pretty puzzled by the fact that my dad likes to watch Fear Factor... i can't stand watching it sometimes but i guess I can understand the simple appeal. just that my dad was the one who used to always get on me about watching too much sports, how it was a waste of time and I should be studying or doing something more productive. to be fair, it was probably a good thing back then that he made me work, and now he doesn't really care as much about it.

still, fear factor?? have you ever seen that show? i've been so fortunate enough to catch all of about one and a half episodes of pure unadulterated family fun. thank goodness that I did not miss such quality stuff like the skee ball/pig uterus eating event, or having bugs crawl over you while picking out colored snakes and sticking them in a bucket for points. and these contestants are all either dumb as rocks or just plain annoying (or both)... where do they find these people? not to mention the host... was he on some sitcom before, i think as a dumb repairman type guy on Newsradio maybe? he tries too hard. that guy almost makes Jeff Probst on Survivor seem cool.

by the way, is it a rule on TV that the host of any major show has to irritate me? especially the male hosts, that is... how many non-young-teenage-girls actually like Carson Daly? What about non-middle-age-women who think Regis is "the man"? AJ from BET's 106&Park is pretty flaming too, and I already mentioned Jeff Probst.

One guy who i actually like is Alex Trebek (in a purely platonic heterosexual way, of course). you may think i am joking but that guy has been around so long his style must have grown on me. he's way too intelligent for any of us and pretty downright nerdy at times, but can you imagine anybody else hosting Jeopardy? maybe it's just me, but i like how his jokes aren't really funny at all but he thinks they are, and everyone kind of just figures he's a dork (hey, that reminds me of myself). and he doesn't try to mack on all the female contestants, probably cause he's got no game anyways. the way i see it, how can you NOT like alex trebek? after all, he's just a harmless old smart guy.

oh yeah, one other thing that i think is hilarious is how my grandma loves Wheel of Fortune. she doesn't speak more than 3 words of English, yet she never misses a show and she goes crazy when they hit the $5000 or a prize. It doesn't make a difference that she will never be able to guess the words herself at home in a million years. Maybe she thinks Pat Sajak is hot (haha just kidding... ewwww). Isn't Wheel of Fortune one of the longest-running game shows in this country? besides The Price is Right, I think. What does that say about what kind of shows really appeal to the general public... it's not really how clever the game is, but how well it's all packaged. it's gotta be all about the shiny wheel and flashy prizes, the studio crowd providing excitement, and watching contestants jump up and down winning some money that they will end up blowing in a week anyways and half of which will probably go to taxes right off the bat.

come to think of it, most of the popular shows in Taiwan (besides soap operas, which run in primetime there actually) are basically game shows which are designe usually to humiliate contestants, mostly "celebrities," otherwise known as just the latest pop singers who have one song that is played on a 5 song playlist on the radio or MTV asia. and the hosts there are all pretty annoying too. well, it's really only one or two hosts that are on every night in a differently themed show on one of the three channels of public TV. thank goodness for cable hookup and ESPN when I was there.

just to clarify, I do not watch TV 24 hours a day. i used to watch a couple shows regularly (like Simpsons or Friends) but now it's usually just surfing around the channels a few times a day when i get a chance to sit down. and now pretty much the only thing I like watching a lot on TV is baseball. and maybe conan o'brien too.

it's been awhile since little old joe has felt so exhausted. after an afternoon of softball, my knees were about to give and all i wanted to do was lie down for the rest of the day. i have to admit i was a little surprised at how beat i was feeling. it's only been a few weeks since school when i was in probably the best shape of my life... and i haven't exactly been sitting around this whole time doing nothing. maybe i am getting old, wouldn't that be sad.

it didn't help at all watching the tyson-lewis fight later on either. boxers are all pretty crazy and even though they don't seem too smart, their bodies gotta be so incredibly conditioned, probably more than i can imagine. even though tyson got owned, it was still pretty impressive how many punches he took and that he was still standing after then 8th round. i mean, some of those replays were just plain brutal, he got jacked so hard i'm surprised his brain isn't complete mush by now. actually, it probably has been mush for a while now. so that's what a person turns into when he takes one too many punches, biting ears, talking about eating kids and stomping on their testicles... remind me not to fight lennox lewis ever

watching boxing got me to wondering, how would someone like bruce lee do against a boxer. bruce lee never loses a fight. i'm sure he could dodge pretty much any jab easily or block and counter with some pretty mean 1-inch punches of his own. too bad he died though, what a bummer eh...

went to the sox game... the first i've been to this season but hopefully not the last. it was just me and olivia this time, and we got pretty good seats, not up front but on the lower deck between home and first base. Here is the recap if you wanna know what happened in the game... i was gonna throw a fit when they screwed up in the 9th, but decided to play it cool so my girlfriend didn't think i was a fool.

even though they lost like that though, it was a good time. it was "carribbean night" or something, so they had a little theme going and people dressed up in shark suits. haha shark suits are awesome. the cool thing was the first 10,000 fans over 21 got a free White Sox beach towel courtesy of Jose Cuervo. the uncool thing was when olivia walked in ahead of me and they handed her a towel, then i went in and the guy just looked at me. I asked him if i could take one, and he was like "are you 21?" so I was like what the crap you know? i'm 22 man... plus it's just a frickin towel! meanwhile olivia is laughing her head off... nothing like some good old mockery to make my night complete

there were postgame fireworks which were actually good too. fireworks at Comiskey Park are very underrated and watching them is a really nice show.

there is no point to my story. i don't really wanna make this blog just a diary or something like that, but in the interest of keeping it updated, a lot of entries will probably be just randomness (with a little cleverness sprinkled in, don't worry).

so my sister's taking summer school session II, and I drove her down to Champaign yesterday, having to run a couple errands there anyways. when I moved out only a few weeks ago, i had already experienced some of the weirdest and saddest feelings, knowing that a chapter had closed in my life. In the past four years i had experienced many of the best times i can imagine while growing in so many ways... and so quickly, graduation arrived and it was all over in a flash. looking back into an empty apartment for one last time, i couldn't help but feel choked up thinking about the endless memories left in that place. the sappy part of me that rarely sees light of day suddenly seemed to overwhelm my mind, and for some reason, I could only think of sad songs like "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye to Yesterday" by Boyz II Men or "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan.

Of course, eventually I got over all those feelings. Actually, it didn't take long once I got home and was thrown back into life back in Darien, with my old room and my momma and poppa. not that all was forgotten from my times at U of I... just that home life basically came by like a 7'2" 350 pound Shaq and shook the sentimental crap out of me.

then, i made my triumphant return to my old stomping grounds for a day. had to pick up some mail, stop by Engineering Hall, do some random errands. i thought it would just be simple as that, but as soon as I exited Neil from I-74 another huge wave of weirdness swept over me. I honestly don't know what it was or how to describe it. Maybe it was just the fact that I had taken that road a million times before without ever thinking twice, I had passed those ugly houses on the side of Springfield Ave. on the way from my apt to Meijer or Best Buy or Chilis on Prospect... and now i was perhaps taking my last drive through ghetto old Champaign so I should treasure it. same with everything else, I must have walked through Everitt to get to Eng Hall hundreds of times before, logged into EWS machines thousands of times, walked down Healey to get my car a few times a day, stopped by the Union or chilled on the Quad for whatever reason. And once I finished my list of things to do late in the afternoon, it almost felt like I was done with classes for the day and I should call up some friends to go hang out or do something, but probably nobody was even in town. Not only that, but going through my phone number list on my phone, it was such a depressing thought that half those numbers were now out of service. I was almost even physically drawn towards Grainger, thinking I must have something to study, before realizing that those days were behind me.

Now you'd think a sensible, logic-minded person such as myself should be able to take a step back, and see how silly all of this was. Do I really miss school? The campus was never all that great... after just about every ECE test i cursed the department and told myself I just wanted to graduate... i don't even know how much money the punks at campus parking sucked out of me. But there's no denying that a part of me wishes I could go back to all that, if only to experience another day as a college student. and in the same way I know it can't ever happen like that.

It was my time to go, and no matter how fondly I look back at the memories, there's no sense in fighting the winds of change. Life moves fast, usually faster than I would like it to. But all I can say is, live with no regrets... If you're an entering freshman, figure out what it is that you want out of college and go for it. If it's a 4.0 GPA, then so be it. If it's to meet as many people as you can, fine. But don't look back 4 years from now and say, "I wish I had studied more" or "Why was I such a bookworm" because by then it will be too late. For me, I know if I had studied a little more, maybe I would have had better grades. But honestly, how much is it gonna matter if you don't learn as much about Electromagnetics, if you were able to make valuable relationships that you can take with you beyond life in school. Not that you would never use book learning, but I learned the most from other people. I also learn the most from my own mistakes. (hmmm... maybe i need a lesson in English, or in logic. how can I learn the most from more than one thing?)

Anyways... all this ended up being a lot more sappy than I intended. I promise not all my writings will be like this.

in the not too distant future, jychen@students.uiuc.edu will be no more... and leaving with it will be my .plan, which all of about 2 people read religiously for the past few years on UNIX. anyways, in the little time that's passed since graduation, I've not yet found (or even looked, to be fair) something to fill the .plan-writing void. Of course, there is the small AIM profile that i update now and then with my trademark wittiness, but that doesn't even come close. By the way, for those of you reading this and dont ever read my plan, I've already written a little tribute to how great .plans are compared to other stuff. maybe one of these days I will cut and paste that here. anyways, i guess i don't expect blogs to be quite like good old UNIX .plans but i'll post stuff here regularly nonetheless. (or at least i plan to)

maybe, if i get a rush of ambition, i will try to make a webpage but don't count on it. for the time being, i would be honored if you bookmarked this page. and feel free to check it whenever you feel a little "spice-ay"...