Milestones



There are a couple major milestones I felt worth noting about. First, Pablo (my car) reached 100,000 miles a couple months ago. As I have written about before, my relationship to my car is a special one and I felt both proud and thankful for reaching this milestone. Having driven some pretty awful, unreliable cars in the past, I definitely am not one to take this for granted. The dependable yet always fun driving experience that he has provided me throughout these 100K miles mean the world to me. So here's to another 100!



The other noteworthy event of this summer was the end of the "MTV-era" of my life. It actually wasn't an official grand declaration that "I'll never watch MTV again" or something like that, but in an effort to save about $30-40/month on my cable bill, I switched to the Dish Network "All-HD" plan a few months ago. Which means I still get most of the channels I always watched without skipping a beat (i.e. ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network, Discovery, Local channels, etc). But it just happens that MTV does not have an HD feed and thus does not fall within the All-HD package.

For those who have known me over the years, this may come as a pretty big surprise to hear that I finally "gave up" MTV entirely. It surprised myself too, actually, that I barely thought twice about giving up the channel that I used to watch almost religiously.

My MTV days started maybe later than most people, I never really watched it at all until my freshman year of college. But once I did get started, I found myself being absorbed pretty quickly into all the trashy shows and the whole MTV "culture" very quickly.

It started with following the simple daily countdown shows like TRL, or just watching music videos cycling throughout the night with friends. Then the pop music phenomenon took off, a certain "singer" named Britney Spears came along, and before I knew it, my TV was set to MTV almost exclusively. I got sucked heavily into all the trashy shows that MTV became known for, and I even wrote a good amount of entries in this blog talking about or psychoanalyzing the "characters" in all of these shows.

Perhaps I finally grew out of that little phase of my life during this past year or so, and thus it wasn't that hard to give it up this tim. Then again, I still watch Gossip Girl each week (Mondays at 7pm on the CW), so maybe that's not a valid explanation at all... haha. But when I think about it, a show like the Hills which was once my favorite show, no longer interests me as much as it used to. Music-wise, I'm not so in tune with the Emo-craze, punk bands, or even the hip-hop stuff that seems to dominate today's music scene, so it's not like I would watch it for the music factor. The point being that leading up to this decision, I really wasn't really watching the channel that much anyways.

Then as I thought about it more, I realized that the whole "MTV culture" is a pretty unhealthy influence that I am probably better off without to begin with. Not exactly an earth-shattering realization, but I guess I just never really stopped to ponder that part of it. It's a culture that promotes materialism, disregard for authority, and low moral standards. While it was entertaining to tune into the channel for that period of my life, I'd have to say that overall it did not make me a smarter or happier person at all to watch MTV all day every day - it had more of the opposite effect, if anything. The channel is definitely not something I would want my kids watching, for one thing.

Still, it does seem strange nowadays when I hear people talking about those shows, and I have no clue what's going on in any of them anymore. So admittedly, I will miss the "MTV Era" of my life, but like many other parts of my past, not so much that I would actually make a significant effort to go back to re-live it. In any case, as I make note of this milestone, I figured I would pay a short tribute by creating a little top-10 list of Best/Worst of MTV as I remember it:

- VMA's - In the past several years, the show just has gotten overhyped and just isn't the same. But during the prime years, this was actually a legitimately huge event that was worth watching live. The most memorable moment for me, which should come as no surprise to anyone, was Britney's 2000 "fake-strip" performance. Wow, I can't believe how long ago that feels now.



- CT from RW Paris and all the RW/RR Challenges - "I will WORK you. WORK. YOU." What a beast though.

- The Real World as a whole - I've written about this show so many times before in this blog, so no need to really rehash any further. Out of all of them, my favorite entry would have to be: My Real World Application (published 12/12/2005)

- Pimp My Ride - As with many other MTV shows, it got old after a couple seasons. But man were we hooked in the beginning. Xzibit as the host was a genius idea. Ironically, he'll probably be remembered more for that than for his rap career, but that's ok. No shame in that if you ask me.

- Serena Altschul and Ananda as VJ's - Not everyone will remember those names, but I know some who will agree with me that they were very underrated. I wonder whatever became of them. One thing is for sure - they were 1 million times better Jesse, the kid who became a VJ by winning some contest. That kid was quite possibly the most retarded and annoying human being ever

- Punk'd - Seeing Justin Timberlake almost cry like a baby, and call his mommy for help, was priceless. I also found the Jessica Alba episode to be very fascinating, to see how she turned into a major biatch.

- Celebrity Deathmatch - Of all the shows that get cut from television every season, it's amazing that the horrible claymation episodes of Celebrity Deathmatch managed to last as long as it did. Another thought worth noting here is that I probably associate Mills Lane more with this show, than from his work in all the major boxing matches he officiated or even from his own TV show later on, Judge Mills Lane.

- Tom Green Show - Overall not a big fan of the guy, but if anyone defines the word "obnoxious" in the dictionary, it would no doubt be Tom Green. Whatever his specialty was, he just did it so "well" that I almost have to give him credit for that alone. More than that though, I have to admit that some moments from this show made me laugh more than anything else I ever seen in my life. For some reason I can't think of that many right now, but "Undercutters Pizza" seems to come to mind as one of my favorites. And of course, the "Bum Bum Song" may have been the masterpiece of his legacy, before the mediocre movie career. "My bum is on the sweeee-dish"... hahaha



- Jackass - While Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera probably got more attention as the "ringleaders" of the group , I think many of the show's "loyal fans" (such as myself) will agree that Steve-O was the real star of the show. Anytime a segment came up featuring Steve-O, I found myself bracing for something really horrible. From swallowing/regurgitating a goldfish, to snorting a line of wasabi, and stapling his butt cheeks together, very few people in this world manage to disturb yet entertain me at the same time like he did.

- Laguna Beach, season 1 - The love triangle between Steven, LC, and Kristen was one of the most gripping storylines I have ever followed in any show, reality or otherwise. Ironically, the one "character" that I liked the least out of the three, LC, was the one who went on to have the most success. I still miss Kristen. Something about the way that she talked, I just found to be strangely attractive. Haha don't ask me to explain because I can't. By far the best moment of the show, as I'm sure many will agree, was from the "Cabo" episode. This being when Steven was watching Kristen dancing with some other guy at the bar, and yelled "SLUT!!!" across the room. That's a scene I'll never forget.

Beijing Olympics



From a "historical" perspective, one of the defining parts of this summer was the Beijing Olympics. Now, I may not be the biggest Olympics fan out there, but I usually do tune in and try to follow the big events when they roll around every 4 years. First off, I guess I'll be Captain Obvious for a moment and make 2 quick observations that everyone else already made a long time ago:

1. Michael Phelps is a fish

2. Alicia Sacramone is hot

Now that I have that out the way, I guess I would start by saying that with every passing Olympiad since I was a kid, the Games have been steadily losing their luster in my mind. I think a lot of it comes from the doping allegations and judging scandals, which make it hard to take the sports and "winners" seriously. I find myself always wondering what goes on behind closed doors as I watch a lot of these events.

But one thing that actually bothers me more than that issue is what I consider "false patriotism", which seems to always pop up around this time. It's like all of a sudden, for 2 weeks everyone is super pumped about Team U-S-A. And what makes it worse is that I noticed that a lot of this energy spills over into the area of borderline (or outright) racism in this country.

Obviously, these particular Olympic Games hit closer to home for me, being a Chinese-American. Even though my family is from Taiwan and I personally neither support nor identify with the current Communist Chinese government of Beijing, it still bothered me to see a lot of the underlying anti-Chinese sentiments come to light during those couple of weeks that the games were taking place.

Of course, much of the bad publicity was self-inflicted by the Chinese authorities, and I'm not saying that it was wrong for the media to report on and criticize the things that they did. I'm just sad and discouraged, I guess, to see a lot of the negative stereotypes reinforced during these Olympic Games, at least judging by the general public's reaction to these reports. For example, the jokes that started to come out on Leno/Letterman type shows, commentaries by newspaper columnists and internet bloggers, or discussion on sports talk radio, all seemed to hone in on the worst aspects of Chinese stereotypes. It was just disappointing for me personally to see that there is still a lot of distrust and lack of understanding between Americans and Chinese relations.

The thing is that even though I haven't really dealt with a lot of overt racism in my life since I was in grade school, I always got the sense that there was still a significant amount of "latent racism" that was always present underneath the outer surface of today's American psyche. And every once in a while, it seems that these hidden feelings will bubble up to the surface, such as in times like these. As I said, the phenomenon of faux-patriotism that comes out every 4 years around Olympic time just seems to flush out all of this negative energy in people.

Once again, being of a Chinese-American background myself, I think a lot of this hits me more personally than usual. For one, I feel like I have always tried to live my life in a way that shows non-Asians that we aren't all small, sneaky, petty, cheap, etc., as it seems we're often portrayed by the rest of the world. Maybe it sounds cheesy, but as someone who was born into a bi-cultural situation, I do feel a certain sense of responsibility that I should play some part, however little it may be, in promoting better awareness and understanding between the two worlds that I'm caught between.

But of course, I am only one person in this world with a very limited sphere of influence. Sometimes I wonder if it really makes any difference in how other races view Chinese people, based on the way I carry myself around other people. All of these efforts could be completely worthless for all I know. I mean, do non-Chinese people even see me as a representative of the Chinese race to begin with? Who knows.

On the other hand, I definitely believe that a large-scale international event like the Olympics could make a really big impact in this respect. Ideally, something like these Games should promote better understanding between countries and different racial groups in the world, bringing us all closer together in the process of participating in friendly sports competition.

Well, I think it's safe to say that this did not occur at Beijing 2008. Whether it was the constant reports of the Chinese government "faking" things, or accusations of cheating, or just the general attitude of "Us against Them" in the medal count, so much of these games made me feel unusually awkward and even ashamed to be Chinese. Kind of like riding the school bus in 3rd grade all over again. Rather than bringing the different sides closer together, I found it to be accomplishing more of the opposite than anything else.

Anyways, I don't want this entry to ramble on too much about racism in the United States, so I'll leave it at that for now. Some other (less contentious) thoughts I had about this years games:

- The USA women's softball team losing to Japan was, as a wise woman named Alanis once said, "Ironic". Very ironic because the sport was already being canceled for the next Olympiad, due to USA being way too dominant over the rest of the world! It's like 10,000 spoons, when all you need is a knife. Either way, I didn't understand the logic behind that decision to begin with. They give out medals for events like "Olympic Trampoline" and "Walking" without anyone saying a word about it - but then they're gonna boot a real sport like softball instead? How does that make any sense? For what it's worth, I don't think they should even have BMX events, although I had a lot of fun watching it. Dirt bikes belong in the X-Games, not the Olympics. Bring back softball!

- In some of those gymnastics events (like parallel bar, rings, etc.), I always wondered what's the use of having those guys run up to "spot" the gymnasts when they do those tricks/jumps in the air and stuff. If the gymnast really slips or misses the bar, I really doubt that this one guy sticking his hand out is actually going to save them from injury.

- A bittersweet moment was watching Coach K "leading" the "Redeem Team" to the gold medal in Men's Basketball. Note that those are sarcastic quotation marks. If there's one guy I really hate in the world of college basketball (and believe me, there's much more than one person I hate), it would be Coach K. I know there's no originality points for hating Duke, but man... this guy really is so full of himself and so phony in everything he does. And nothing bugs me more than phony people. Of course I'm glad that the US finally took back the gold medal (in a sport we invented!), but I'm annoyed that Coach K had to be a part of it and is going to get credit for being the coach that got it done. As if the American Express and Chevy commercials during March Madness weren't already enough to stroke his oversized ego.

- Taiwan (otherwise known as Chinese Taipei) won 4 bronze medals. Sure, nobody else cares about Women's 48kg Weightlifting, but whatever. Go Taiwan!

A Toast On Weddings



As I'm sure everyone can attest to, weddings are one of the biggest parts of our culture, or probably just about any culture I'm aware of. Go to any bookstore or magazine stand, and you're sure to find a plethora of Bridal magazines with advice on planning the ceremony or choosing the perfect gown. We've all heard stories of "bride-zillas" who turn into psycho monsters leading up to the big day, or the families that do their part to add to the drama of the whole thing. The entire hoopla surrounding the wedding process is something that is well documented in popular movies, TV shows, and it's something that many of us have even experienced firsthand.

For me, I definitely got my share of these experiences in the past few months. If I were to do a word association with the prompt "Summer 2008", my first response, without skipping a beat, would be "weddings". Being the age that we are, I'm sure a lot of other people out there went to their share of weddings this year too, but the difference is, the ones I went to were way more special than yours. Haha, just kidding. But seriously, mine are more important (I just want to get the facts straight before I continue).

For me, the biggest wedding of this year was obviously that of my little sister. As I have shared in the past, me and my sis have had a very close and special relationship over the years, and it was a really emotional experience for me to see her take this step in her life. Emotional in a good way, for sure. I'm not (overly) ashamed to admit that I got teary-eyed more than once that day, especially during that part of the ceremony when I watched her hug my mom and dad.

Another big wedding I attended was for one of my best friends since high school (which happened to be the same weekend as my sister's wedding, in a lovely little twist of fate). If you had asked me a few years ago out of my closest circle of friends, Anuj was probably the last person I thought would get hitched, but he turned out to be the first of our group to "take the plunge". That being said, I couldn't be happier for the guy and it was awesome to see him and Hamsi finally tie the knot.

But one wedding experience I had this year that was new to me, was attending one where I did not know a single person there besides my date. Normally, I'm used to being at weddings where I'm surrounded by friends, which makes it much like a party/social type atmosphere. But in this case, I was on my own for much of the night, especially as she had bridesmaid duties to attend to throughout the festivities. As I said, it was very different than what I'm accustomed to, but it ended up not as painful or awkward as I might have expected.

In fact, being placed in this situation gave me a chance to sit back and observe more about the whole wedding "thing", for once as an unbiased third party. Without having people constantly coming up to me bugging me to drink with them or take pictures or whatever, I feel like I was able to gain a very different perspective on weddings in general. Combining that with all the other weddings I've attended as a close friend or family member of the couple, it really put me in a pensive mode on the subject of weddings in particular (hence the writing of this blog etnry).

It's often said that the wedding day is not for the groom, but all for the bride. I already mentioned the "bride-zilla" effect earlier and after all, every girl (supposedly) grows up dreaming up every detail of her wedding day - from the cut of her dress to the color of the napkins, so it will inevitably mean so much more to her than to anyone else.

But after giving it some more thought, I would argue that the day is not truly about the bride, either. While most of the focus is on the bride, I believe that a wedding is most of all about the friends and loved ones of the couple who are there to take part the celebration. Though it is the bride and groom that are being celebrated, I really feel that the true meaning of the day lies in the fact that they are sharing their celebration with those they have built close relationships with over the years.

Recently, I watched a movie where the 2 main characters were discussing about what their favorite part of each wedding is, and it got me thinking hard about the subject. There's obviously a lot to choose from - some people love to see the first kiss, others look forward to the moment when the father walks the bride down the aisle, and still others find the most meaning in the first dance.

But for me, the part I look forward to the most is hearing the toasts/speeches that are given to the bride and groom at the reception. Maybe I'm kind of demented like that, but I honestly love that part more than any of the other stuff I mentioned. Actually, I think this thought first occurred to me when I watched Julia Roberts give her toast in My Best Friend's Wedding (a movie that seems to grow on me more and more each time I watch it, and once again I'm not ashamed to admit that!). I don't know, it just struck me as a particularly climactic moment of that movie, and got me pondering about why it stuck out to me so much.

As anyone who has been to their share of wedding receptions could attest to, these toasts can sometimes be awkward or just a flat out disaster. I mean, when you have "normal" people with no experience speaking in public, getting in front of a crowd on a day when everyone is hyped up on emotions and alcohol, what else do you expect? In past weddings I have been to, I have seen the father of the bride ramble on incoherently for what seems like an eternity, while the rest of the room has no idea what he is even talking about. I have seen the best man completely embarrass the groom with inappropriate stories from their past, and I have also seen the maid of honor barely squeak out 3 words before she breaks out in tears, as the rest of the room smiles nervously.

Fortunately, I have also seen some really great toasts too, over the years. The best man at my sister's wedding, for example, had everyone at the reception rolling in laughter, which is no small accomplishment when you consider the wide range of ages and cultures present. There have also been some really memorable toasts where the person gave such amazing advice to the couple, or offered a particularly striking quote or Bible verse, so much so that I took those words and held them close to my own heart, even though it was not meant for me.

But regardless of the quality of the toast itself, the reason I appreciate these moments so much is that while it is a time devoted to the bride and groom, it is from the point of view of the friends and family who are closest to them. As I was saying before, the wedding is obviously important to the bride and groom themselves - but I do believe that the real significance of the day lies in the people who are there to witness their union and wish them well.

After all, the two of them have the rest of their lives to dedicate to each other - but this is their one chance to share that happiness with all of their loved ones. So no matter how bad the toast-giver might be at speaking in public, I almost always feel moved by the moment, because I love seeing the genuine care and blessings that these loved ones wish towards the couple, in their own way of doing it.

As I sat in that wedding where I was the "outsider" of the party, I realized that even though I barely even knew the bride and groom, I still felt really touched to see the relationships that they had built and kept over the years. The meaning behind these relationships really shone through as I watched the family members and close friends give those toasts.

Anyways, while the rest of you may continue to attending your weddings and enjoy them for the bouquet toss, the unity candle, cutting the cake, or simply for the open bar - you will most likely find me in the corner somewhere at that wedding, getting teary-eyed as the friends and family are giving their toasts.

Summer Playlist



One way I'll remember this summer (much like I do almost any other period of my life), is by the key songs that were a part of my ongoing playlist. Among the songs that will always remind me of summer 2008:

Usher - Love In This Club
Lil' Wayne - Lollipop
Chris Brown - Forever
Colbie Caillat - Realize
Ne-Yo - Closer
Mariah Carey - I'll Be Lovin' You Long TIme
Taylor Swift - Our Song
Rihanna - Take A Bow

Actually, it wouldn't be all that far off for me to simply characterize this as the "Summer of Rihanna". To be honest, I used to think her music was annoying, but then when I heard "Umbrella" for the first time on the radio, I started to change my mind. Later on, the deal was sealed when I saw her live at the United Center this May, where she was an opening act for Kanye/Lupe Fiasco. Her voice, her style, and overall stage presence really stood out that night, and suddenly I found myself crushing big time. Haha, it's weird because I was never attracted girls with short hair, and the sassy-type personality is usually is a turnoff for me. But Rihanna managed to change all of that in one swoop. Impressive, I have to admit. And as I listened to more of her songs throughout the past few months, they all seemed to grow on me and make me like her even more.

Another memorable concert from the summer was seeing Stevie Wonder in Milwaukee, at Summerfest. I've been to a pretty decent variety of live music shows over the years, from Red Hot Chili Peppers/Foo Fighters concert to a Broadway musical about gay people and HIV (Rent), or from a Britney Spears show to the Vienna Boys Choir at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or Yo-Yo Ma at Ravinia. In among all of these experiences, this Stevie Wonder concert seemed to stand out in my mind. The diversity of the crowd, which had people of just about all ages, races, social class, is something I could not say about any of the other concerts. I guess no matter who you are, you can appreciate Stevie Wonder's music.

Post-Summer Mode

A couple weeks ago, summer officially ended. But for me, summer officially ended yesterday, when the Sox were eliminated from the postseason by the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays. And normally, this would be a somewhat depressing time for me, but actually, I'm still feeling rather upbeat right now. In fact, you might even say I'm downright jolly, and I'm not even sure why.

One thing is that for the first time in a long time, I don't really have anything big planned in the coming weeks/months. No vacations, no weddings, big parties, etc. Even at work, things have slowed down considerably lately, and church activities are settling down as well. I can't even remember the last time I could say that nothing big is coming up, which I guess speaks volumes on how busy I have been in the past year.

Most of us, at least I think, typically like to have something to "look forward" to, and I'm no different. But at the moment, I'm perfectly happy and content to have a (relatively) open calendar in front of me. It gives me time to catch up and reload, and I'll gladly take it and run, especially because I'm pretty sure that I'll be swamped again before I know it.

So in the coming days, I plan on doing just that - catching up on the summer I had and reflecting on stuff as I have always loved to do in this blog. I have to say that overall, it was a phenomenal time for me and memorable in many ways. Last night, I started to go through some of the pictures I took over the past few months, and was completely blown away by how much stuff I did in this time. And that's just the activities that I was able to capture on camera. Another example of why it's nice to have this time to catch up with myself, both mentally and physically.

Detroit What?

The past weekend, I took another weekend mini-trip with a few of the guys, this time driving out to Detroit. Tony hooked us up with tickets to 2 of the White Sox-Tigers games, so of course we couldn't pass that up. And I figured it's always nice to check out other places besides Chicago, so off we went.

As a whole, I found Detroit to be a pretty crappy place. No offense to anyone who lives there, but the city is not very nice at all, with a few exceptions (more on that shortly). From what I was told, most of the "regular" people don't actually live in Detroit but in the suburbs, which would make a lot of sense. Downtown Detroit seemed to be mostly a mix of empty lots, deserted buildings, and random ghettos sprinkled throughout.

The one downtown area that was a bit nicer was near the 2 stadiums, Ford Field and Comerica Park. We found a good mix of restaurants/sports bars around there, and it was pretty cool to just chill around there before and after the games. Also, a 10 minute walk from there got us to the new MGM Grand Hotel/Casino (apparently it's a new unspoken requirement for us to check off whenever me and the boys go on one of these trips). This was one of the nicer casinos I've been to outside of Vegas, although maybe it's only in nice condition because it's still fairly new. I don't know.

We did spend part of the weekend at one of the malls in the suburbs. It's a fairly new mall, and very large (it's actually built on both sides of the road connected by a walkway).

Apparently the locals are really proud of this place, and I have to admit that I was impressed by the variety of stores there. Still, I don't think it compares favorably to Woodfield (and I'm not even that huge of a fan of Woodfield). On a Saturday afternoon, the entire mall was surprisingly empty and just lacked any sort of energy or excitement.

As for the main reason we were there, the games were a blast to attend. Comerica Park is a really nice place inside, very fan friendly and well designed. We got to enjoy one of the games from the Chevy skybox on the 1st base side. It was a nice view, but even better was the free food inside. All you could eat in hot dogs, chili, nachos, pizza, and even sushi rolls. I can't ever turn that down!

Also, I was pretty impressed with the home fans. The park was very full of mostly Tigers colors, and I did not see a lot of invading Sox jerseys like ourselves. At least Detroit people are loyal to their city, which I have to give them credit for.

One last observation I had about Detroit is how integrated the auto industry is with the culture there. The big 3 auto companies all have a very noticeable presence that could be felt almost everywhere we went. Whether it was the old Chevy displays at the mall, the billboards on the side of the road, or the countless sponsorships of just about everything that could be sponsored, there was no denying that this place was indeed the "Motor City".

Sally's New Punishment

My sister actually took this video and sent it to me, but I just had to share it here.

Instead of her old punishment box, Sally's now gets her timeouts by being put on a bar stool in the kitchen. It works because the stool is high enough where she's afraid to jump down.

Haha, I love how she just looks around with a perplexed expression on her face. I miss that little B...

July Unwind

Once again, it's hard to believe that another month flew by. The month of June was another whirlwind experience which in many ways, was one of the most awesome times of my lif. But on the down side, it's also been so busy that I've barely had any chance to sit down and unwind at all.

At this very moment, as I'm scanning through my personal "blog notes" file where I scratch down ideas and thoughts for blogs, what I see are a lot of half-written entries scattered throughout the past few weeks. I have literally not had the opportunity to finish one single thought, before something else pops up and diverts my attention to the next thing.

As someone who really loves to take time to reflect on life as it happens, I do feel a little bit dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities to do that lately. Hopefully, I can still complete some of those entries and post a few of them here sometime soon, but for now, I'll let Taylor do some talking:



Never would have expected to get this from a country music song titled "Tim McGraw", but I really love some of these lyrics. Another perfect example of words capturing that certain unique feeling:

"September saw a month of tears
I'm thanking God that you weren't here
to see me like that

But in a box beneath my bed
is a letter that you never read
from three summers back

It's hard not to feel a little... bittersweet
but looking back on all of that
it's nice to believe

that when you think Tim McGraw
I hope you think my favorite song
the one we danced to all night long
the moon like a spotlight on the lake

when you think happiness
i hope you think that little black dress
think of my head on your chest
and my old faded blue jeans

when you think Tim McGraw
I hope you think of me"

Miami + Caribbean Cruise

As some of you know, I recently took a weeklong vacation in Miami and the Caribbean. And the bylaws of this blogspot clearly state that I have to write recaps anytime I go on long vacations, so here goes.

This was my first time to Miami, and we actually spent pretty much the entire time we were there in the South Beach area. As you might expect, South Beach is a very different experience than Chicago (or the Midwest in general, for that matter). Palm trees, sunny weather, hot girls, and flashy cars everywhere - it's somewhat of a shock to the system when you first get there of how "beautiful" everything is.

However, if I had to describe my impression of Miami in one word, it would be "superficial", and not really in a good way. As pretty as everything appears to be at first, I left the city feeling a bit empty and unsatisfied. For example - at first, it sounds great to have sunny weather and 80 degree temperatures every day, but for some reason it didn't really feel as comfortable as I would have expected. Maybe it's the humidity, or the lack of shade and breeze, but it seemed like the same description of "80's and sunny" was about 10x more pleasant when I went to San Diego, than in South Beach. I'm pretty sure "80's and sunny" in Chicago is nicer too, if we ever get there.

The one area that probably most effectively represents Miami in my mind, is Ocean Ave. As Anuj put it, walking down that street is like going to a exotic car show. All you see are Maseratis, Bentleys, Rolls, Ferraris, Lambos - to the point that BMWs and Mercedes almost seem ordinary in comparison. Now, I'm a car lover as much as any other guy, but even I felt a little sickened by seeing that parade of excess roll by.

I found it to be especially ironic to think that all of these expensive cars are built to be capable of top speeds in the hundreds of mph - yet at most given times on Ocean Ave., the average speed on the road is probably under 5 mph - slower than some of the pedestrians walking along the sidewalks. Obviously, the drivers of these cars aren't there to get from one place to another in the shortest time, but that in itself just seems to sum up the culture of South Beach right there. Lots of show, not much substance.

In fairness, I was only there for a couple days, so it's not enough to form a complete opinion of a place. Sorry if I offended any Miami lovers with my evaluation. On the plus side, I did enjoy the food in Miami a lot, and I was particularly impressed by the Lincoln Ave area. Overall, I would say it's a great place to vacation for a weekend, but I would never want to live there permanently. In that way, I think it's kind of like Vegas, except with more beaches and less gambling.

Right after the Miami leg of the trip was our 5 day cruise in the Caribbean. Something you don't see every day is 11 guys getting together on a boat to celebrate a bachelor party, but that's exactly what our group was up to. It seems like these days, everyone else does the Vegas thing for bachelor/bachelorette parties - but most of the guys in our group have already been to Vegas plenty of times, for other occasions. I definitely liked this idea of doing something different, and now that we're back, I can say that it was really a blast for everyone that came. I'd go so far as to call it a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Lots of memories that will last for years (mostly positive ones, haha).

The unique thing about a cruise with your buddies, other than the fact that you're living on a boat, is that pretty much everything is only a short walk away. At times during this trip, it almost felt like being back in college for a week. I'd forgotten the convenience of having all of your friends living just down the hall in the other cabins, like we had in the dorms at U of I. And I really enjoyed being able to just walk around the ship and find the other guys scattered in random places - whether it was the buffet line, pool area, nightclub, or the most likely place, casino.

On a side note, it was also a reminder of how much we have come to depend on cell phones these days. I really wonder how people ever managed to find each other and meet up for things before we had cell phones? Especially speaking as the main planning lead for this trip, it was a logistical nightmare on some days just to round up all of the people so that we could get something done.

Anyways, I have to say, being on a cruise is one of the most "efficient" ways to vacation. As I mentioned before, everything is pretty much right there on the boat. You live in a room that gets cleaned twice a day by the staff, there's plenty of activities during the day (pools, waterslide, mini-golf, workout room, ping-pong tables, casino), shows to see at night, bars/clubs/lounges for late night, and most importantly, all the food you can eat. When they drop you off on the islands in the morning, all you need is ready to go at the dock. Beaches are always just a walk or quick bus/taxi ride away, shops and restaurants were usually not far either.

In other words, you never really have to think much about what to do on a cruise. We didn't spend much time (if any) planning on places to tour, fiddle around with maps or travel guides, worrying about transportation, converting foreign currency, finding restaurants, hotels, etc. Once you step onto the boat, it's basically 5 straight days of entertainment, escape, and relaxation.

However, the one main drawback of the cruise experience kind of goes hand-in-hand with that same advantage I just described. With everything planned and laid out for you, the whole trip does become a bit too tourist-y as a result. It's nice that they provide shopping on the docks, and offer pre-arranged "excursions" on the islands, but for me, that kind of takes out the excitement of traveling to new places.

When I go on vacations, of course I love beaches, the ocean, sunny weather, entertainment, all that good stuff. But a part of me definitely wants to also take the opportunity to actually dig in and immerse myself in the place I'm visiting. I love to observe the culture and lifestyle of a place and compare it to the other places I've been to. I enjoy the randomness of being in a new setting, and encountering things I didn't expect or plan on. I appreciate having quiet moments on my own, to unwind and reflect on my thoughts, while getting away from the routines of home.

Honestly, I didn't really get to experience much of that on this trip. We'd get dropped of at an island, and then do pretty much only "tourist" kind of stuff while we were there. The only contact we ever had with locals was when they were hosting or serving us as visitors. I never felt like I was anything other than an outsider, and never got to know and understand the subtleties and nuances of each place. Especially considering the fact that we were never at a given place for more than a few hours before moving on. And while it's nice to have all the amenities provided for you at the beach (towels, people bringing you drinks, chairs and cabanas), it also takes away from the feeling of escape and isolation that I like the most about being near the ocean. It's kind of hard to have a peaceful moment, when you are surrounded by hundreds of other people on the same beach and waitresses coming by to take your drink order ever few minutes.

Having said all of that, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining or that I didn't love this trip. It was, after all, a bachelor party for Anuj, and for that purpose, I think it was about as much as anyone could've asked for. I had an awesome time and I think it was worth every bit of effort and money put into planning. If I were taking a vacation with a gf or wife, then of course I would want things to be much different - but this cruise was the perfect setting for 11 guys to party and celebrate together, and I would do it all over again the same way in a heartbeat.

In closing, I know I say this every time I get back from a trip with the boys, but I always value these opportunities more and more as we all get older. Life continues to change constantly, and over time it only gets harder to stay in touch with your friends. In a matter of a few months, some more of us will be moving away from Chicago, a couple of the guys will be getting married (no, not to each other), and people continue on with their lives in different directions. I can't say enough about just how much I appreciate getting to spend that week with the 10 other brothers on this trip. Pirates forever!

Mother May I

Can't believe it's May already. April completely flew by, but it was really an excellent month in more ways than one. I don't have time to cover all my thoughts here at the moment, but figured I'd still leave some thoughts and notes for the record.

- Leona Lewis - "Spirit" is a phenomenal album. She's got an exceptional voice and great songwriters behind the scenes. It's been a while since anyone on the pop scene has shown this much potential. I'm excited for Leona's prospects in the coming years.

- We strung it out longer than expected, but Sally's finally about to move out in a matter of days. For most of the past month, it has just been me and Sallzz at the townhouse, and I have definitely enjoyed these final weeks with the little bastard child. It's been a joy to watch her continue to grow and learn how to behave (even if she still needs a lot of PB time to keep her in check). I'm not sure what it will be like at the moment I have to say goodbye. I'm sure it will be sad, but knowing that she's going to a permanent home with good parents makes it more bearable in the end. I imagine it will be kind of like a father watching his daughter go off to college, or something like that.

- Attended my first Sox game of the year, a very wet affair against the Yankees. Despite the 2 rain delays, it was one of the best Sox experiences I've ever had. The game went back and forth before a Joe Crede single drove home the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. With a fair amount of NY fans in attendance, it was definitely the most exciting non-playoff game atmosphere I have seen in a long time. When it wasn't raining, the weather was actually really nice. And even during the delays, it just meant more opportunities to gorge on the food... haha.

- People say that gray hairs are caused by stress, and I always figured that it was just one of those things people say, but have no real basis. Lately though, I'm starting to believe it more than I did before. I found my first gray hair during one of the most stressful times of my life, and continued to find them occasionally over the years following that, which were also times when I wasn't in the happiest place. But since then, I realized that I haven't noticed any more gray hairs popping up in a while. When I stop to think about it, my stress level is actually pretty low right now and I'm probably the healthiest and happiest I have been in years. I'm eating fairly well, cutting down on drinking, working out/running semi-regularly, and getting good sleep. Granted, this is a very small sample size and far from a scientific observation, but I thought I'd mention it anyways.

Current Playlist

Haven't posted one of these in a while, so I thought I'd share some of the favorite songs on my top 10 most played songs of the moment:

Miley Cyrus - See You Again

"The next time we hang out, I will redeem myself..."
Sure it's a catchy song, but I think it's stayed on my playlist for this long because she says "I will redeem myself". I have no idea why that line cracks me up so much, but it does. I think it just reminds me of something me and the guys would say to each other while playing sports or video games or whatever.

Good Charlotte - Dance Floor Anthem

"Everybody put up your hands, say 'I don't wanna be in love, I don't wanna be in love'..."
No, I'm not gonna become a hardcore emo-rocker, but I have to admit some of their music is surprisingly well done. Quality song.

The All-American Rejects - It Ends Tonight

"When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight, it ends tonight..."
Some songs just have a strange way of capturing the feel of a moment in your life so perfectly. I can't speak for exactly what the band was thinking about when they wrote the words to this song, but I think they might as well have been listening in on one phone call I had in particular, not all that long ago.

Casting Crowns - Who Am I

"Whom shall I fear, whom shall I fear? I am Yours..."
The lyrics seem a little cheesy at first, but in my mind they sums up so well what it means to be a child of God. Recognizing how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of the universe, but at the same time realizing how much we are still loved and cared for in spite of our imperfections, is such an amazing feeling.

Taylor Swift - Teardrops On My Guitar

"He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar, the only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star..."
First Carrie Underwood, now Taylor Swift. Am I turning into a not-so-secret fan of country music? Hmmm... maybe I just love them country gals. Now that you mention it, I did like Shania and Faith Hill too. I must admit that I've always had a thing for girls with Southern accents.

One Republic - Apologize

"I loved you with the fire red, now it's turning blue..."
While I don't agree with the lyrics (I'd like to believe that it's never too late to apologize), this is still one of my favorite songs of the past year. It's another one that's managed to stay on my playlist a lot longer than most songs do. The music carries such a uniquely creepy tone, and I think one day we'll all look back at it as one of the defining songs of 2007-2008. I especially liked how it was used in one of the key moments of an episode of Gossip Girl. Haha - only half joking.

Commodores - Easy

"That's why I'm easy... I'm easy like Sunday morning..."
Had to include some old-school stuff. This song is a perfect example of the phrase, "oldie but goodie". I absolutely love this one.

Britney Spears - Break The Ice

"You got my body spinning like a hurricane..."
A completely mindless song with no meaning whatsoever, that I had trouble even coming up with a favorite line from it. Still, it was my favorite track even last year when I first got the CD. I thought I had listened to it to death at the time, but it's weird how when they start playing it on the radio as a single, it breathes new life and gets you back into the song again.

Flyleaf - I'm So Sick

"So you'll SHUT UP!! And stay sleeping... With my screaming in your itching ears..."
If you ever wondered what a female vocals version of Linkin Park would sound like, wonder no more. Special credit goes to Rock Band for bringing this group to the "mainstream".

Flo Rida & Timbaland - Elevator

"She got a nail kit, she got a hair kit, she got a Gucci bag, brand new outfit..."
One of those beats that gets stuck in my head during the day at work and helps me pretend like I work at a dance club. Only problem is, I can't tell if I'm actually bumping to this song or "4 Minutes To Save The World" by Madonna/Justin Timberlake. I think Timbaland decided his beats were so good, that he could make more than one song out of the same beat and release them at around the same time. At least it's a catchy beat though.

Love Your Mater

"To thy happy children of the future, those of the past send greetings"



As I briefly mentioned before in the last blog entry, a company recruiting effort brought me down to U of I recently for a short visit. After graduating almost 6 years ago, I've been back down to Champaign more than a few times since, the last trip being for the '07 Homecoming weekend. And pretty much every one of those trips has had its share of adventures. Some stories I can share (and have), while others will have to stay classified to protect the not-so-innocent.

This time, however, my trip down to school actually felt much different than all of those previous experiences. A large part of it was probably because I was there on business (and not for wafflemaker hunting), but a lot of little things about this visit made me feel more like an older alum than someone who still kind of fits in with the college students. Definitely a new feeling for me.



One of the notable parts of this visit was staying at the Illini Union hotel for the first time. Like many students, I spent a big chunk of my college years in or around the Union. In between classes, there was no better place to go shoot some pool, grab a bite to eat at the food court, check your email in the computer lab, or find a spot to study/hang out. It was also a common place for job interviews, holding events in the ballroom, or for people to get cold-packs/contraceptives from the McKinley booth (not me of course).

At any rate, I must have walked through the Union at least thousands of times during my 4 years at school, that it was practically a second home. But one part of the Union that I never saw was the 3rd and 4th floor hotel rooms - that is, until now. Some of you may not have even known that there were hotel rooms at the Union, but I'd heard of them before and always wondered what they were like. Well, wonder no more:







As far as hotels go, the Illini Union hotel is pretty average, maybe even a bit below average. It's clean and has all the neccessary amenities, but the rooms are a bit on the small side and the AC/heater is noisy. Of course, it didn't matter to me because I was so fascinated by the novelty of staying overnight at the Illini Union (I'm easy to please like that).

One other thing about the Union that I should mention is that the basement McDonald's is no more! It has been replaced by a Chick-Fil-A.



Out of the 3 big restaurants in that food court, the last one I would've expected to go would be the McDonald's. Yet somehow Sbarro and Rice Garden both outlasted the golden arches. I was pretty shocked.

Whenever I visit Champaign, it seems like the place that changes the most is Green Street. I still remember the days when there was a "CO-ED" theater, dingy little stores that sold records and posters, and multiple Chinese buffets named Yen Ching. Now, the place has been transformed into a pedestrian friendly strip of chain restaurants that I'm guessing would barely be recognizable to an older alum than myself.

This time around, I don't think Green Street changed all that much (although it has only been a few months). The one thing I noticed was that the Legend's sign is orange and blue now (I think it used to be red and green).



My favorite part of the trip, as you might guess, was dinner. I convinced the folks I was with to come with me to Kamakura, one of the nicer places around town for Japanese food. The prices there were always a bit too steep for a college kid to go regularly, but that didn't really matter now that the company was covering the expense. It made me feel particularly special to dine at the Teppanyaki (hibachi) grill side of the restaurant for once, I don't think I ever ate in that section when I was a student.



One last thing about this trip that reminded me that I'm not in college anymore, was picking up a DI (that's Daily Illini, the student newspaper for non U of I grads). The format of the paper has changed to look a little more professional, but what amused me was reading the front page headlines:



I have to say, only on a college campus would you see the top stories be "US Recession May Benefit Environment", and "Bill Aims To Legalize Marijuana".

March Badness

March is always one of my favorite months of the year. It is a time when the winter cold starts to wind down, baseball spring training gets into full swing, and of course the NCAA tourney to spice things up.

Unfortunately, this year we're 0-for-3 so far on those things I just listed. It has been the worst Chicago winter that I can remember in a while, and even as I look at the weather forecast for this week, there's still more snow and single-digit temperatures ahead. As for spring training, I guess I'm cautiously optimistic about this coming season for the White Sox, even though they didn't appear to improve much in the offseason. I'm sure the excitement will hit me eventually, but for now, I'm only half-heartedly following the spring training results. And about the NCAA tournament, well, let's just say this hasn't exactly been a stellar season for Illini basketball.

On top of those things, this March I will most likely have to say goodbye to my favorite sister and my favorite pup. With both of them moving to Minnesota, I will be living in an empty house for the first time since the earliest days when I originally closed on this place. Though I kind of enjoy living alone, and people have already been flooding me with suggestions on turning my place into a bachelor pad, or about what kind of new puppy to get, I'll still definitely miss having both of them around.

Fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom lately - here are a few positive things of note lately:

- Helping my sis pick out a banquet hall for wedding reception is one of the most enjoyable responsibilities ever. Getting to "sample" meals at each place is like a dream come true for me. Now all I need is to get my own show on Food Network, where I do nothing but eat good food.

- Went out to the bars for the first time since the smoking ban went into effect (at least I think it was the first time). It felt kind of weird to leave a bar at the end of the night, and not feel like I was covered in smoke residue. Weird but definitely nice. I could get used to that feeling.

- Normally I don't do the "give up something for Lent" thing, but this year I decided to actually make a commitment, and I am actually very glad that I did. So far it has been a very good experience for me. Even though it was a very small thing to give up, sticking to this commitment has still helped me to see and understand more of the meaning behind the 40-day fast. I'm not sure yet on whether or not I'll continue my "fast" after Easter, but we'll see what happens.

- Heading down to Champaign later this month for a company recruiting thing. If you ask me, it's always fun for a alum to visit the alma mater, no matter the circumstances. This time around it will be on business, so most likely there will be none of the craziness of other recent trips (at least I hope not). By the way, if anyone wants me to pick them up some Pokey sticks or a PrimeTime calzone, let me know. I'll see what I can do.

- Have had my new Nokia N82 for over a month now, and I absolutely love the thing. It's so great to have a camera, mp3/video player, GPS, full internet browser, calendar, etc. with me every time I leave the house, all in one little candybar sized phone. The camera in particular is almost too convenient - I find myself taking pictures of almost everything around me, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing.

One of the very underrated features I like is the "Nokia Lifeblog" software that came with the phone. Basically, it syncs up all the pictures and videos you take, along with text messages you send/receive, etc., and organizes it all in a timeline format. The first time I saw the results, it was actually kind of startling to see my daily life laid out and recorded like that. But I gotta say it's pretty darn cool to see how much a little phone can integrate itself into your life so seamlessly. I was definitely impressed.

- A few years ago, I wrote in this blog about how I loved the "Fall-Back" part of Daylight Savings Time so much, that instead of doing "Spring-Forward" to get back on track, they should just "Fall-Back" 23 more times throughout the year and give up a day in the process. Well, my thoughts on that have definitely changed. "Spring Forward" (which happens this Sunday, I think), is now a very exciting time for me. I'll gladly trade in that extra hour of sleep if it means more sunshine in the days ahead. Gotta have my sunshine.

A Farewell to Sally

After about 5 months of being a quasi-owner to Sally, the little rascal is soon to be moving on to a new home with her mommy in Minnesota. Even though from the beginning we always considered her to be my sister's dog, nobody spent more time with Sally than I did, or put more work into taking care of her during these few months. Through it all, I couldn't help but to grow attached, and of course I'll miss them both when they move away. So of course, I had to write an official farewell blog about Sallzz.

First off, it's probably hard for people who have never owned a pet to fully understand the relationship between an owner and dog. It's a very unique situation that I never experienced myself until we got Sally. I've had pet fish, hamsters, and a rabbit before - but this was (both literally and figuratively) a whole different animal. Not only were those other pets smaller and much less active than a puppy, but I was never really the "owner" of them, not in a true sense. I mean, occasionally I'd get to feed them or clean their cage/tank, but mostly it was my mom and dad who took care of them. To me and my sis, owning a pet was basically like having another toy to play with.

In the case of Sally, however, we basically took on full responsibility of her entire life from the moment we brought her home. And as we quickly found out, she wasn't just a cute little furball that we could just play with for a while, and then put away once we were tired or bored. This was a living, breathing puppy that needed constant attention, careful supervision, and yes, lots of parental love.

When I think back to the first week or so that Sally was here - all I can say is that it was one of the most hectic and stressful times of my life. Every waking moment at home was consumed by the need to keep a watchful eye on her, making sure she wasn't pooping or peeing in the house, chewing what she wasn't supposed to be chewing, or wandering too far off somewhere. During nighttime hours, it was impossible to get continuous sleep because she would whine and fuss for attention (even by puppy standards, Sally is definitely the needy type). I probably averaged 3 hours of rest a night that week, and even those hours were not very restful.

In the times that I did have to leave the house, my mind was always pre-occupied on what she was doing with no one around to supervise. Not out of curiosity, but more of hoping that she wasn't pooping in her cage or freaking out that nobody was there. I never left her alone for more than a few hours at a time, and constantly worried if we were being bad parents for letting her cry so much (especially as the tear stains where becoming noticeable). I worried whether we were traumatizing a baby for life by ignoring her whining, wondered whether she would ever learn to hold her bowels for more than a couple hours, and questioned whether I was training her the wrong way whenever things weren't going right (which was quite often).

Comparing then and now, it's so amazing to see how much Sally has grown in the time since. She's still clingy, and she still whines if you leave her alone in a room for too long, but it's not nearly as bad as before. Also, after a lot of early frustration, she eventually did become housebroken and we can actually leave her alone for up to 9-10 hours at a time now. We were even able to teach her a couple tricks, which would have been inconceivable if you asked me in the early days. And instead of biting and teething on everything and everyone, she's moved onto licking everything instead (not very healthy, but much less destructive, so I'll take what I can get).

As much as Sally has grown, though, it's kind of surprising for me to also think about all the ways I've grown and learned from taking care of her in only these short few months. Not just in the sense that I know a lot more about dogs and how to take care of them than I did before. But from a broader point of view, I think this whole experience also forced me to become a much more patient person, and taught me to be more willing to sacrifice myself for someone else. I'd even go as far as to say it taught me a little more about love, especially from the perspective of a parent. In some ways, I feel like I got a little glimpse of not just what my own mom and dad went through to raise me, but also some more understanding how God views us, as our creator and "heavenly father".

Like I described before, there were so many frustrating moments especially in the beginning, and it took quite a while for me to get used to giving up my own freedom for the sake of responsibility. Even today, there's some times when Sally's shenanigans can get so aggravating and I feel like dropping her off in a box on someone's doorstep. But at the same time, I've been realizing that all of that stuff in itself is the most rewarding and meaningful part of raising a puppy.

Everyone loves to see a cute and playful puppy, and we all love to play with and pet the furry little thing - but only the owner can truly appreciate everything about their dog in entirety. Being responsible for her daily necessities, saving her from the entanglements she gets into, and simply watching out for her well being at all times - all of this I learned on the fly in the past few months, and am a better person for it. Especially as I'm assuming that I'll go through a lot of the same experiences the day I have a real child of my own. It's most gratifying to see her grow up so much, but that much more meaningful to know that I was there and played a big part in helping her get there, every step of the way.

One thing I will never forget is the feeling I got the first time I held Sally in my hands; when she was still so tiny (barely weighing 2 lbs), and she was just trembling and looking up at me with eyes of wonder. It was an emotion I'd never experienced before - an indescribable combination of amazement, fear, love, and a million other feelings. To realize that the little thing I held in my hands was such a precious life, one that needed my care and attention more than anything else, it's hard to describe just how deeply that impacted me. I imagine that I'll experience an feeling similar to that (but many times more intense) when the day comes for me to hold my own baby.

Pardon the tangent here, but I think that throughout the course of our lives, there come certain moments when you experience a feeling that just captivates you, one that will stand out in your mind for as long as you live. I can certainly think of a select few that I could point to in my own life: the first time I learned how to ride a bike on my own, the day I dedicated my life to God, the first time I held hands with my girlfriend, the first time I heard the words "I love you" said to me, the feeling I get from staring up at the stars and the moon on a clear night, the way my heart skips a beat when the phone rings from that special someone, the thrill of watching a big home run live at a game, or the first time I discovered White Castle burgers with Jalapeno cheese. You can't ever predict these things, and you can't recreate them no matter how hard you might try - but after it happens, you know how lucky you were to be a part of it and your life is never quite the same.

Obviously, some of these moments are more significant than others, and I don't mean to trivialize any single one in particular by lumping them all into a single category. All I'm trying to express here is, there's much more to adopting a puppy than counting the amount of joy or the amount of extra work it brings into your life. I know a lot of people will read this and say "it's just a dog", and a few friends have already suggested that I simply replace Sally by getting another puppy. While I might do that eventually, I have to say it's not nearly as easy as that. Relationships, whether with people or pets, don't just come and go like interchangeable Brita filters. It will definitely take time and thought before I would consider "moving on".

Yes, I admit that I'm way more sappy than your typical person (and if you're a regular reader of this blog, you already knew that). But I do think that those who have owned a pet and invested as much of themselves into taking care of it as I have, would be able to relate much more with everything I've been saying, even if it's not quite exactly the same for everybody. In my mind, Sally is much more than "just a dog" and she always will be. And even though she's leaving here soon, I'll always save a cherished home for her, at least in memory.

For now, I thought I'd make a little video dedicated to the little troublemaker, bringing back one of my favorite songs from back in the day:

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

"I'm from the city in the Midwest, best city in the whole wide wide world..."

Just thought I'd throw out a CD recommendation for any hip-hop fans out there. Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" is probably the best album I've listened to in a long time, hip-hop or otherwise.

I'll admit I may be biased because I always like the Chicago-area artists, but in my opinion Lupe is one of the most talented MC's out there today. Some people are born to sing, others born to dance - and then there are those who are simply born with the gift of rapping. As I listen to "The Cool" (as well as his last album, "Food & Liquor"), I definitely get the feeling that he was born with that special talent to be an MC. It's something that not everyone in the hip-hop world has - for example, I always felt like Kanye West lacked that natural flow in his delivery, and his music isn't as good as it could be. So when you hear someone who really has the skills, it stands out that much more.

The lyrics on "The Cool" are also very well done. Even though I don't necessarily agree with everything that he says, most of it is thought provoking at the very least. While I enjoy your typical mindless radio song about "Apple Bottom jeans and boots with the fur" as much as the next person, I can't help but to wish for a rapper that tackles some more meaningful topics, or goes a little deeper into the psyche of his community. Although I should also point out that at the same time, I think there have been other rappers (or groups) that try too hard to be intellectual or social revolutionaries, but in the process it seems as though the music suffers and they start to lose relevance to real life. I think Lupe does an exceptional job of integrating genuinely thoughtful lyrics with music that still resonates with the listener.

Of course, no rap album can be considered good without having good beats. Fortunately, "The Cool" does not fall short in this category either. The whole CD is packed with some really solid beats, mostly original as far as I can tell. One of the tracks is particularly unique, as "Gold Watch" loops a clip of some lady yelling some gibberish. As weird as that description sounds, it still somehow manages to work. It's actually my favorite song on the album, if I had to pick one.

Other songs that I liked the most were "Hip Hop Saved My Life" and "Intruder Alert". Overall, I wouldn't say this is a very "radio-friendly" album, and I doubt there will be too many singles that reach the top 40 charts. I will say that I think a lot of the songs need a few listens before they start to grow on you, which is a good thing. All of which is a big reason why I felt the need to spotlight the album it out here to begin with. I really believe it's too good of a CD to be lost in the shuffle because of not enough mainstream airplay.

This will sound like an unusual comparison, but in a lot of ways, the album that "The Cool" reminds me most of is Radiohead's "OK Computer", one of my favorite CDs of all time. Obviously each covers a very different genre of music, but the style and approach of both albums seems to generate a similar sort of feel in my mind. Neither disc has much of your typical 4-minute catchy radio single, and neither artist fullly "fits in" with the other artists in their category of music. But when you listen to each song on the CD, almost every single one of them holds up strongly in their own right. There's not much "filler" like what you often find on most other albums - I'd go as far to say that both "OK Computer" and "The Cool" are complete masterpieces that you can listen from beginning to end.

If there is one complaint I have with "The Cool", it would be that there are too many other artists featured throughout the album. I know that it's the trend these days in music to include as many collaborations as possible, but I'm not really a fan of that trend. Especially in this case, I don't think they add much value to the music. As much as I love old-school Snoop Dogg, he hasn't put out anything worthwhile in a long time, and his part in "Hi-Definition" (track 8) is more pointless than anything else. Most of the other featured artists are from lesser known singers or groups, and they did not seem to be all that talented, at least not enough to make the songs significantly better. I think Lupe would have been much better off trimming down the collaborations and keeping this album cleaner.

That one negative aside, I would still rate "The Cool" a solid 9 out of 10, and I strongly recommend to anyone looking for a good rap album to listen to.

More Than Anyone Cares To Read About Home Repair

For no apparent reason (other than a string of bad luck), a whole bunch of things have been breaking in my house lately. My garage door, thermostat/heater, toilet, fridge, and a sizable list of other little stuff have all been dying in the past couple months. Even my car has been acting up with the heater and CD changer going down, but that's another story.

Some of these things I've been able to fix or replace on my own, while others I had to hire someone to come and fix. But in any case, I have been learning a lot about home repair from the experience having all of these things break on me. And I must say, I am becoming quite the Bob Vila (or should I say Ty Pennington?) with my newfound understanding of household appliances and such. My future wife will be so lucky to have a handyman like me... hahaha.

In what should suprise no one who regularly reads my blog, seeing the process of fixing all of these things got me thinking about some deeper applications towards life in general. A lot of characteristics about home repair definitely remind me about working on your own problems and issues, especially since I feel like I've been going through a lot of that in the past year.

One thing I've noticed is that problems usually don't just pop up suddenly and without warning. Once in a while, you'll have an appliance randomly die on you for no reason, but more often than not, things break in stages rather than all at once. My garage door, for example, would still be able to open about half the time in the beginning, before getting steadily worse over time to the point of not opening at all. The fridge started out with just noises from the fan, then the noises got louder, and ice started forming on the walls, and finally it stopped working completely.

Point being, not every issue demands immediate attention. In our lives, we may sometimes notice weaknesses about ourselves - perhaps it's a bad temper, maybe it's a gambling/smoking/alcohol/drug addiction, or maybe it's just a feeling of general unhappiness, depression, whatever the case may be. But it's rare that any of us do anything about them right away, probably because there isn't an apparent need to.

The good news is that these problems aren't necessarily going to come up in your life every day - most people can still function normally and go about their daily lives without being dominated by these issues. But the bad news is that usually, these problems tend to get worse over time, not better. We can often find ways to get around them or minimize the impact, but without actually dealing with our problems, they rarely (if ever) go away on their own.

Going along with this, another common thread I've seen between most of these situations is that you can temporarily fix a lot of things, by changing some sort of "sensor" to ignore the warning signs. When my heater was acting up, the easy solution at first was to turn up the thermostat and force it to keep going. In the case of the fridge, those fan noises would go away if you raised the temperature by a little bit to ease the burden of the cooling system. And my garage door opener also had a "sensitivity setting" that you could tune by turning a knob on the control box.

Not many people know about this, but if you turn the control box's sensitivity knob all the way down, your garage will think it's funny to kick babies, while if you turn it to the other end, it will cry uncontrollably while watching the Notebook on the Lifetime Channel. (Okay, so I made that part up.)

But seriously, I think we usually know when something's not right with ourselves. As I described earlier, you should be able see signs of your own weaknesses early on. You might find yourself struggling at work/school, maybe you're hurting the people around you, and you simply don't feel entirely at peace in your heart. And deep down you realize that eventually, you will have to deal with those issues.

In the meantime, though, the easy thing to do is find ways to avoid the root of the problem. There's many ways I could list, but many times the first thing we try is to run from the problem, and hope that it doesn't come back to bite you later on. Sometimes we might plead ignorance or resort to denial, and pretend that those issues don't exist. Finally, we might convince ourselves that we don't care (going back to the "sensitivity setting" analogy), that it's not really a big deal and we can just live with the warning signs.

Whatever our "method" of choice, I think again, you can only rely on these superficial solutions for so long before they get worse. Turning down the "sensitivity setting" might buy you an extra week, an extra month, or maybe even years will go by before things really break down. If you're really stubborn, you might be able to go your whole life pretending like nothing's wrong. But for most of us, it's really just a matter of time before you'll have to do something about it. And unfortunately, the longer you wait, the more likely that the problem will get harder to fix as you go along, or even spill over and affect other areas of your life.

Anyways, I've already taken this metaphor further than I should have, but I just wanted to make one last connection between home repair and self-help (also the most important). The positive thing I've taken out of it all is that based on what I've been seeing, coming up with the right solution - in either case - is almost never as complicated as you might think.

Not that every problem is easy to fix, that's not what I'm saying at all. But I think a lot of times, we're afraid to deal with a certain obstacle because we assume that it's going to be too hard. We're afraid to open up the black box and look inside, because we don't know what we'll find. As people often say, we fear things we don't know or understand - and this is certainly the case when it comes to trying to "fix" yourself. You start off by wondering what's broken inside, then questions start mounting about how much it might cost you or how much work it will be to fix, and before you know it, you're assuming worst case scenario. Then you start finding ways to avoid thinking about the problem, and convincing yourself that you don't need help.

I always pictured the garage door opener box to be filled with all sorts of nasty stuff - a mess of cables, grease, and gears inside, kind of like the evil machines in the Matrix movies. But when you actually take the time to pull up a ladder and toolbox to open it up, you'll find that it's not nearly as complex or intimidating as you thought. It's actually just 1 chain and a couple of gears (though actually I learned that the correct term is "sprocket" in this situation).

The same goes for a thermostat, refrigerator, toilet, or whatever it might be. None of these things are as complicated as you think they are, if you are willing to actually face up to it and take one step at a time. Even in the appliances that you have to hire professionals to repair, the situation is never as hopeless as it might seem. You just have to be willing to ask for help from the right people.

I think when we have shortcomings, flaws, weaknesses about ourselves, it's easy to give up and just accept them for what they are. But maybe that's only because we think it's too hard to change and we're afraid of seeing the ugliness and mess of gears inside ourselves. The problem with that line of thinking is that not doing anything about it only makes it worse, in the end we are only hurting ourselves and people around us by avoiding it. Everyone has issues that need to be fixed, but what I'm saying is that most of the time, the solution is not as impossibly convoluted as you think - again, if you are willing to take it one step at a time and give yourself a fair chance to work on it.

Finally, I guess to end with a word of encouragement to those who have managed to read this far, as the cliche goes, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". When you finally make an honest effort to address your problems at their roots, and you start to make some real progress in addressing your issues, I do believe that it's more than worth every ounce of energy and sacrifice it takes to get there. The worst thing you can do is give up on yourself and lose hope, because there's ALWAYS hope.

No matter how bad you might feel about yourself at a given point in your life, or how difficult it might be to grow yourself, I really believe that it's that much more rewarding when you are able to find your way back "home" - to get to the point where you can feel right again with who you are. As the words to one of my favorite songs goes, "You can't love, if you you don't love yourself". Maybe it seems like you'll be happier to forget about your problems, but there is a better way and a better place in life - and I really do believe that we owe it to ourselves (and the people who love us) to get there.

Thoughts on SuperBowl XLII

Leading up to this year's Superbowl, I found myself caring a lot less about the so-called "Big Game" than I have in the past. It's kind of weird because I remember all throughout high school and college, the Superbowl was such a huge deal for me and my friends. Especially last year when the Bears were involved, the hype could not have been any bigger for one game.

But this season, I mostly stopped paying attention to football once it became obvious that the Bears weren't going to be a factor. Even though the media kept hyping up all the storylines - Patriots quest for 19-0, Brett Favre's resurgence, Jessica Simpson distracting the Cowboys, Patriots cheating behind the scenes, the continuing Colts vs. Patriots rivalry, etc., I couldn't help but feel a bit bored by it all.

Maybe "bored" isn't the right word, but "uninspired" seems to describe my feeling pretty well. Something about the atmosphere and background leading up to the Superbowl was completely uninspiring to me, and I couldn't quite figure out exactly why I felt that way.

The thing is, as much as I dislike how ESPN tries to manufacture off-the-field stories, I guess the fact that they do, highlights what sports is all about to the me as a fan. As I have written about in the past, the biggest reason I follow sports is because I love watching the storylines that go along with the games. I mean, the highlights are great and all, and nothing compares to the excitement of watching a great game in person. But ultimately, sports to me is one giant reality show that trumps anything Mark Burnett or MTV's producers could ever put together.

William Shakespeare once wrote, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players". Though he was referring to actors and comparing a scripted play to life in general, I find this quote to be particularly applicable to the world of sports. Whether it's on a basketball court, a baseball diamond, or a football field, these are all but "stages" for the "players" to entertain the audience with their unscripted dramas.

Few people will make the effort to go watch a movie or a play purely to see a talented actor or actress. It's certainly nice to see an Oscar-worthy performance as compared to Keanu Reeves - but usually, most of us are drawn to the plot of a story much more so than the skills of those who act it out.

In the same way, sports is about much more than high-flying dunks, spectacular touchdown catches, and points on a scoreboard. It's about the people who make those feats possible and what makes them special. Not just the athletes themselves, but the coaches, the organizations, and of course the fans as well. When we watch a game, we're not just rooting for a random logo on a jersey, but who's wearing that jersey and what it stands for.

Having said all of that, it brings me back to my point of feeling uninspired by the Superbowl this year. Although there was no shortage of subplots in the 2007-08 NFL season (many of which I listed above), none of these stories really took hold of my attention this year. No matter how supposedly "unique" or "intriguing" it was made out to be by the media, I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the storylines, one way or another.

Giants players predicting a victory despite long odds? Been there, done that. Randy Moss with off-the-field troubles? He's been having incidents probably since he was in his mother's womb. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are winners? Like we didn't already know that from their 3 championships this decade. Even the pursuit of 19-0 didn't seem all that special - maybe it's never been done in the NFL, but there's been plenty of monster teams in the history of sports, and plenty of "David and Goliath" matchups like the Pats vs. Giants this year.

I don't know, something about it all just seemed so contrived, old, tired, and I actually started to feel a little disillusioned about the way sports was heading in my mind. Maybe I finally reached the point where I had watched so much sports over the years, that I thought I'd seen it all. It certainly seemed like ESPN was recycling the same formula over and over, and I'd seen every possible ending to every possible storyline.

As I thought about how the Superbowl might unfold, words to the Bon Jovi song kept playing in my mind: "it's all the same... only the names will change". Another year, another Superbowl, another champion to be added to the list in the NFL's history books. It's like watching a movie when you feel like you've already seen the same story 100 times before. How can anyone get excited for that?

And for about 3 1/2 quarters of football on Sunday, not much happened in the game to change my mind. There were some impressive plays made by the Giants defense, but overall, sloppy offense by both teams led to very little scoring from either side. Not much to get excited about if you were a Giants or Patriots fan, let alone a casual observer like me. When the clock started to wind down in the 4th quarter, Brady threw a TD pass to Moss to put them ahead, and as Randy was doing his "swim move" celebration (not sure I understand that one), I think we all figured that would be the final chapter of Superbowl XLII and New England's historic 19-0 season. Boring, to say the least.

But what happened in the moments that followed was simply incredible. It wasn't merely unexpected, it was probably the last thing I thought would happen at that moment. Just when I thought sports was becoming formulaic and overly predictable, the last few minutes of that game takes place, reminding me of how awesome sports can be sometimes, and why we waste so much of our lives to watch people running around on a field.

Of all people, Eli Manning leads his team on a game-winning touchdown drive against one of the (supposedly) greatest teams ever, and in the biggest game of his life no less. On the key play of the drive, he escapes the clutches of several pass rushers and launches a desperate throw towards David Tyree (certainly not his #1 option). And Tyree, someone you've never heard of unless you're really into NFL football, makes one of the most amazing catches of all time. A day later, I still can't believe he was able to trap the ball between his arm and his HELMET and hold onto it as he fell, all the while having Pro-Bowl safety Rodney Harrison draped on him. Everything about that play was ridiculous, crazy, and awesome.

It's been a while since a single play has caused me to spontaneously jump up and yell out of sheer exhiliration. The last time I can remember anything similar was in the 2005 Elite Eight game between Illinois and Arizona, when Deron Williams hit a game-tying 3 to bring the Illini back from 15 down in the 2nd half. In moments like those, you don't even think about what else is going on. All you know is that something completely insane just happened and you'll never experience something quite like it again.

In a way, this was more captivating than Deron's shot, because I'm not even a Giants fan (not saying it made me happier, just that it was a more thrilling moment). I actually happened to really dislike the Giants for the past few years, partly because of Eli and the whole draft/trade debacle with San Diego. And it's hard for me to root for New York in anything to begin with, especially when all you ever hear about is New York teams in the national media. Add onto that annoying personalities like Tom Coughlin, Plaxico Burress, and Jeremy Shockey, it doesn't make for a likable team. On top of that, Randy Moss has been my favorite NFL player since he was a rookie with the Vikings, so a part of me kind of hoped that he would win the championship, even if I wasn't actively rooting for it.

The odd thing is, not only did that sequence of events win the game and the NFL championship for the Giants, it also won me over and totally changed my opinion of that team and the story behind it. All of a sudden, I stopped seeing Eli as a pampered brat who lived off the family name, and dug his own hole by demanding to play in New York instead of San Diego. Instead, I kind of started to feel bad for the kid - overshadowed by his father and older brother his whole life, disrespected by just about everyone around him.

And Plaxico Burress, even though he's still a typical big-mouth wide receiver and probably always will be, I have to give him props for the fact that Tom Brady now looks like the idiot for their pre-game trash talk (see link). Even Coughlin seems to deserve some redemption for lightening up a little bit after Tiki Barber's smear campaign against him during the past year or two. The only guy on the team that I still despise is Shockey, and in a bit of poetic justice, he was never a real part of this championship. It's only fitting that no one is sorry that he missed the entire playoff run with his injury.

What I appreciate most about the whole thing is that this Giants victory wasn't your typical underdog/David vs. Goliath story. We've seen that story before in sports in the form of crazy upsets, and dare I say, it's kind of played out at this point. "Rooting for the underdog" has become such a cliche these days that sometimes, I almost end up feeling sorry for the favorites instead.

There will be many self-proclaimed analysts who choose to compare this game to Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson, or Villanova upsetting Georgetown, but as for me, I don't see it that way at all. This was one of those sports stories that you just can't categorize or compare to anything else. It was a crazy, unique series of events, but it didn't feel like a fluke that the Giants won. And as much as people villainized Belichick and the Patriots for cheating/trash talking/running up the score, it still seemed kind of silly to make this matchup into a "good vs. evil" thing. There were plenty of reasons to dislike both sides, just as each team had its redeeming qualities too. If you ask me, it's much more interesting to dissect a situation like that, than to simply break everything down into black and white terms.

In the end, I guess it just makes me happy to know that no matter how many games I may watch in my lifetime, or how many times it might seem like the same storylines repeated, that at least once in a while, something like the end of Superbowl XLII can still surprise and inspire me as a fan. The world of sports can definitely be a frustrating one at times, and as I get older it does seems to be getting worse for wear - but it's definitely nice to be reminded now and again of why I still watch.