Update

Looks like it's been several months since my last update to this blog. Not sure if anyone still checks this page, but some of you out there may be wondering what happened to me?

Don't worry, you're not alone - I've been wondering the same thing.

The truth is, there's a lot that's been going on in my life during the past year, and it would probably take way more than one blog entry to cover it all. I'm not sure that I'm ready to talk about everything at this point, anyways. But I did feel the pull to write a little something here right now, for whatever reason.

I started this blog way back in 2002, and I guess in the 5 years that's passed since then, I've kind of lost track of the reasons why I decided to put the time effort into this thing to begin with. Part of it was to stay in touch with friends, to give people a little window into what's going on in my world. I also tried to use it as kind of a creative outlet for myself, to talk about random stuff outside of work and hopefully keep my writing skills sharp in the process. The last thing I wanted was to become another stiff enginerd with no sense of humor, no social skills, no clue on what's going on in the world outside of op-amps and transistors.

But I think mainly, I saw this blog as an informal record of my life after college, a way to store up some memories about who I was and how my life was developing throughout my 20's. Kind of like being able to look back at a photo album and re-live parts of your life, I'd hoped to be able to look back at my blog and recall what it was like to be "me" at different stages of my life.

Which is why it's kind of ironic (and sad) that I haven't written at all in since last year. Out of all the years of my life, I think the past 12 months of my life have been the most challenging and filled with changes. Yet, I have not really written much about it so far. The thing is, I can feel myself growing a lot as a person, and a lot of things about my life have been changing. But it definitely has not come without a lot of growing pains to go with it. I've been telling people that I feel like I've aged 10 years in only a matter of months, and that's honestly what it feels like for me.

I know it is annoying that I'm basically writing only in general terms, but as I mentioned earlier, I don't know if I'm ready to talk much in detail about everything of the past year or so. I'm still trying to sort out a lot of feelings on my own and hopefully in time, I'll feel comfortable being more open again to share my life and thoughts on this blog.

Anyways, for those that care and still read this blog, yes I am still here. I can't promise I'll be back to writing regularly like before, but I will try to post more again soon.

For now, here's a picture I took today at the Asian supermarket:

Britney: Paris Is My Idol

Wow, just when you think she can't disgrace herself any further, Britney Spears says she looks up to Paris Hilton. How sad is that. I feel like Michael Jordan just came out of retirement again, and announced that he wants to remake his game by training under the tutelage of Ben Gordon.

Divorcing K-Fed was a a good move, but looks like it's one step forward, two steps backward for Britney. In the words of Justin Timberlake, "it's breakin my heart to watch you run around, cause I know that you're livin a lie..."

Brit-Fed Split Up

Britney Spears Files for Divorce

Now I'm really disillusioned. Nick and Jessica breaking up was one thing. But if Britney and Kevin couldn't keep it together, what hope do the rest of us mortals have??

Early Christmas

In the past, I think I've commented on how Christmas season seems to start earlier every year. It's gotten pretty ridiculous in the last couple years, as we're seeing Christmas stuff show up in stores before Halloween is even over.

At first, I think the phenomenon annoyed me, because I saw it as another representation of corporate greed imposing their will on the public. Kind of like Hallmark making up holidays, we see these retailers depending so heavily on the holiday shoppers that they try to stretch the season out as much as possible. (As if Christmas wasn't overly commercialized already).

But this year, I'm starting to see the whole thing a little differently. Not that I like the commercialization, but now I'm kind of glad that Christmas season is starting early. I mean, I love Christmas season - the movies, the songs, the overall "holiday spirit". If people want to make it last longer, I should be all for it, right?

In a way, I think I've started to depend a lot more on Christmas season to get me through the winter. Especially in the last few years, when it seems like the cold weather and shorter daylight of winter has hit me harder than it used to, when I was a kid.

Like right now, I'm already dreading the next few months of snow, blistering winds, walking out of work to gloomy gray skies. When it snowed that one day a couple weeks ago, I refused to bring out my heavier coat in one last act of denial, preferring to brave the cold temperatures in my thin windbreaker (it did not do the job). I find myself thinking more about when I could take a vacation to somewhere warm, to escape the Chicago winter for a while. And I'm already looking forward to next summer, even as summer 2006 barely ended a few weeks ago.

As I said before, I didn't always feel this way. I don't remember hating the winter that much when I was little. I remember it being cold, but it's not like I would ever dread an entire season. But yeah, now when I know winter is coming up, all I can think about is how much it sucks to leave work when it's dark already, the hassles of driving in snowy weather, having to bundle up in a million layers when I go outside just so I don't freeze to death, how the wool in my sweaters makes my neck itch, or the way my normally moist lips start to become dry and crack (yes, I still refuse to use chapstick). I just want it to be July again so I can wash my car, go to baseball games, and grill food on my deck.

Anyways, I guess what I'm getting at is, with all the depressing thoughts about winter, I especially need the happy thoughts about Christmas season to counteract all of that. Winter may suck otherwise, but what could be better to cheer everyone up with than getting multiple days off from work, exchanging presents, seeing the houses on your block decorated with lights, listening to Christmas music, spending time with family, or watching Home Alone and Home Alone 2?

Personally, it scares me to imagine what winter would be like without Christmas season. I seriously think a lot of people would crack during the long winter, if there wasn't anything to look forward to. So if the department stores want to bring out the holiday stuff a little earlier than expected, I will no longer complain.

Weak Stream

Haha.... Bill Simmons's take on the ads for BPH, which some of you might recall I wrote about a while back:

Common side effects from Flomax are "runny nose, dizziness and a decrease in semen; upon standing, a sudden decrease of blood pressure may occur, rarely resulting in fainting." Call me crazy, but wouldn't you rather have a weak stream of pee over any of those other symptoms? We should vote on this on ESPN.com's main page.

*****

I think I've had the following conversation about 5 times during the last couple weeks (with a different friend each time):

(The song by Brooke Hogan with Paul Wall comes on the radio)
Friend: This song is pretty catchy, I kinda like it.
Me: You know who sings it right?
Friend: No, who?
Me: Hulk Hogan's daughter.
Friend: What??! No way, are you serious?
Me: Yep.
(awkward silence ensues)
Friend: Wow. I did not know that.

Seriously, same exact conversation, just different friend. I understand though, that knowledge can be a pretty powerful revelation when you find out. I know because I experienced the feeling myself about a month ago. I, too, thought the song was catchy, until I realized who was singing it.

It doesn't help that the video is retarded and features our heroine Brooke "battling" (if you can call it that) some other skanky girl on the dance floor. Now whenever I hear the song and/or see the video, I can actually feel myself becoming less of a person. To share this feeling with all my many readers, enjoy below. Prepare to get served:



Yep. I think I finally reached my limit. The guy who obsessed about Britney Spears for years, liked O-Town and Eden's Crush when they were hot, draws the line at Hulk Hogan's daughter singing with Paul Wall rapping. Actually, I think Danity Kane has also crossed that line too, so yeah, they didn't make the cut either. Sorry girls. Don't worry though, I still bump that Ciara song (with Charmillionaire) in my car every morning on the way to work. Now that is a catchy song.

*****

I know I told myself (and everyone on this blog) that I was done with watching Laguna Beach, but what do you know, I got sucked into another season. At first it was easy to not care about the show, because none of the people in this season were that interesting or attractive, but MTV just plays that show so freaking much, and there's nothing else to watch sometimes. After catching a mini-marathon of LB this weekend, that Tessa girl kind of grew on me. She's not at the level of Kristin, but still something about her has that certain charm.

Maybe it helps that she's half-Asian, and I feel bad for her that all the other girls seem to hate on her for no reason, except jealousy. You can almost hear them saying to each other, "How dare she steal 'our' boys attention away from us? She doesn't even have blonde hair and blue eyes!" (or in the case of Cami, "disgusting rolls of body fat and the worst personality ever"). So yeah... even if Tessa's "character" does nothing for my race except continue to portray the "exotic looking Asian girl" stereotype, I'm still pulling for her out of sympathy.

Another thing drawing me into the show is the love triangle centering around Cameron. It is so inexplicable and ridiculous that I just have to see how this thing turns out. Actually, I guess since it involves 4 people (Cameron, Jessica, Tessa, and Kyndra), it's not technically a love "triangle". "Love quadrilateral" doesn't quite have the same ring though.

Of course, one of the reasons I decided to stop watching LB in the first place is because the show was definitely starting to feel too staged. I know the producers have to stir up stuff to keep things interesting and boost ratings, but I wish they wouldn't insult my intelligence too much. For example, the "scene" where Tessa supposedly sees Cameron cuddling with Jessica at his birthday party and storms out, is pretty blatantly obvious that it's spliced and edited to look that way. I really doubt that scene ever happened.

I guess by being 26 and watching a show about spoiled teenagers, I'm basically asking for my intelligence to be insulted, but still. I notice stuff like this as I'm watching.

Mock me if you will, but I bet you're still humming that Brooke Hogan song right now.