greetings. this will be my last post from CA. actually folks, i am not writing this from a hotel, but rather am writing this text in my convertible, with the top down, along highway 1, parked by the ocean. its a tad overcast so its not as nifty as i'd like, but this is still pretty groovy. i was just watching the ocean earlier, marveling at God's creation--the ocean, the beach, and pelicans. (i turned on my laptop to look for directions, not explicity to write this post, in case you think i am a massive blog dork).

today was uneventful. i woke up early, did my work thing, and am now about to drive over to pasadena to visit a friend from college. probably the most interesting part of my day was just now, watching the pelicans. they would fly about 30 feet from the ocean surface, then suddenly dive in the water headfirst to snag a fish, make a big spalsh, then pop up at the surface, bob along in the waves, and gulp the fish down. yay for pelicans.

anyway, i'll be posting this later when i get to my friends house, since i need to check work email anyway. i have to wake up ugly early tomorrow morning since my flight is at 7:40 and it will take about 1 hr to get to the airport... ugh. at least i get to sleep on the plane and its a direct flight. alright. time to hit the road...

hello. at my friends house. i am about to head to bed. dinner was good. i am full. time to sleep...
posted by Dan Chu at 2:40 AM

greetings again from ca. eh. today was relatively uneventful.

an interesting thing happened in the morning. i was eating a ding dong, this hostess treat (little round chocolate cake filled with white cream) when i kinda choked on it and coughed a little. two minutes later, i felt something funny in my nose. so i blew my nose and long behold, out came this dime-sized chocolate piece of the ding dong. i was thought, "whoa. that's freaky." i guess the ding dont particle got caught in the air passage in my mouth when a coughed, and decided to exit through my nose. this has happened to me before with rice. i know this has happened to some of you heavy rice eaters. you accidentally choke on rice, then two days later it comes out your nose. the human body is wierd, but i'd rather have the ding dong or rice come out my nose than fall into my lungs.

anyway, after my day in santa monica, i put the top down in the covertible and drove up highway 1 to the town of oxnard. highway 1 is this scenic drive that follows the pacific coast in CA. the thing about convertibles is that you smell everything, good and bad. mmm... the salty ocean air. eww... i think i just drove by a farm with horses and cows. anyway, it was a fun drive--sun on my face, ocean on my left, wind in my hair. if you guys think my hair looks funny after wearing a hat, you should see if after an hour plus drive in a covertible at highway speed. look kinda like a pineapple. so i need to revise the coolness scenario from my previous post...

random onlooker: "hey, who's that cool guy driving the convertible?. oh, no sunglasses, he's only semi-cool. whoa! what the heck is going on with his hair?! what a dork!"

that's basically my day. now to bed. i am pooped...
posted by Dan Chu at 2:01 AM

greetings again everyone. first, my sincerest congratulations to all fans of korean soccer. it was an impressive showing and an exciting game.

my morning actually started at 5am. i was both watching the soccer game and awaiting word if my meetings were cancelled or not due to the forest fires. just as the overtime period was about to start, my coworker calls and says, "dan, let's roll. we're on." booo. i wanted to watch the rest of the game. anyway, i reluctantly got in the car and started driving, and the only station i could find that was broadcasting the game was this spanish radio station. i don't really understand spanish but i figured i'd try to folow the game anyway and just listen for the word "goooooaaaaalll". then suddenly, the game stops and they go to commercial. mer? then my phone rings.... dan: "hello?" person on the ohter end: "GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!" it was sam, calling me with the game update. i guess i missed the goal on spanish radio. oh well. but thanks to sam for providing a near spanish radio experience.

anyway, i drove by the fires that threatened to cancel my meeting. it was surreal. the tops of these mountains were ablaze in red flames and spewing smoke. quite a sight.

an observation about california people. i probably met about 300-400 people at my client site. they were all very happy and friendly. when i met a similar number of folks down in ny, people were more grumpy. so i give props to ca for happy people. oh, and one of those 300 people asked, on behalf of her coworker, about my marital status, and if i enjoyed poetry or not. haha. i ate lunch outside. it was ~100 degrees. i sat on these metal lattice chairs that were sitting out in the sun and they were hot. my butt was getting cooked on those seats. hot buns. hahaha. [you can insert your bad joke sighs here.] i think i have grill marks on my butt.

after the work thing, i had dinner with some old family friends. chinese food on the west coast is much tastier than in boston. then i drove out to santa monica, where i am now and am about to head to bed. folks, i am stinking tired. good night.
posted by Dan Chu at 2:34 AM

greetings from ontario, california. i am going to depart from my usual format of posting stories from the past and instead post about the present. i figure it is easier to write about my trip than expend enormous amounts of thinking energy reaching back into my brain looking for stories of my past (and present) stupidity and dorkiness.

anyway, as most of you know, i am in ca for a work trip. my original trip plan was that i would be writing from victoville, ca--further north, more in the high desert, closer to mr sun yun's house. however, i am stuck here in ontario--in the valley, in the burbs, but near a in and out--b/c forest fires near victorville have shut down the area. oh well.

in spite of this mild detour, today has been good. why? allow me to list the reasons:

a) i woke up early to watch the US beat mexico in the world cup. yay.
b) my flights were smooth and i slept on the entire boston to dallas leg. yay.
c) i rented a convertible. this is cool. i was supposed to get a stupid mid-sized car but i convinced the rental agent to get me the convertible for only $8 extra. now i can fool native californians into thinking i am cool. see, to the random observer, if they see me cruising around in a convertible, they'll probably think "hey, that guy looks cool." they won't know that i am actually stricken with mild dorkyness, i have not changed my hairstyle in 12-13 years, or that i was in 3 drama production in high school. but, i left my sunglasses in boston so i can only look partially cool. they'll think "whoa, nice convertible. oh, no sunglasses. bummer [sigh]. i guess he's semi-cool, but cool enough."
d) i found an in and out and ate a double cheeseburger. mmm. those burgers are honkin' good.
d) the weather here is stinkin nice. about 75 degrees, no clouds, low humidity, and slight breeze. dang, if i only had time to play golf.

anyway, i need to go to bed. i have to wake up at 5:00am to see if my meeting tomorrow has been cancelled due to forest fires. if yes, i watch italy v. korea. if no, i do meetings all day. (boo).
posted by Dan Chu at 1:39 AM

hello all. so i am sitting in my dining room at my home on long island right now witnessing this family ritual that occurs every time i visit--my dad interrogating his sons (he's currently grilling my younger brother--the middle one) on their "love lives" (or technically, the lack thereof).

actually, my dad started this evening by questioning me. typically, his line of questioning goes from general to specific. it starts with something like "so dan, how are things going?" (prime me up with a soft question--typical dan response "good".) "how's your social life?" (the setup question--typical dan response "active, but not overly so".) "do you hang out with females?" (now he's getting specific--typical dan response "somtimes. it depends".) "why don't you hang out with girls? isn't it normal for guys your age to hang out with girls?" (he purposefully accuses me to see if i get defensive and accidentally slip information to him. however, i am aware of his ruseful tactics, so the typical dan evasive manuever is--"girls smell bad." ok, just kidding on that. dan--"i balance things out. balance is heathly." anyway, this exchange goes on for a bit until it becomes clear to him that i really do nothing but spend butt-loads of time at work and hang out in central square playing mah jong, foosball and the like. he finds himself in mild disbelief, and mutters all sorts of phrases that imply i am a loser. clearly bored with my life (or lack thereof), and like a hungry, ravenous tiger, he went on to attack his next prey, my brother. i listened in amusement and started this post.

dad: what about [fill in her name]? you know, i bet she likes you. hasn't she sent you an email?
keith: well, lots of people send me emails. that doesn't mean all of them like me. your logic is flawed.
dad: yeah, but why would she email if you she doesn't like you? your logic is flawed.
keith: that doesn't make any sense. why would...
dad: [cutting keith off] have you ever hung out with her one on one? isn't that something?
...and this goes on for keith's entire roster of female friends...

by the way, my mom is not an innocent bystander. yes, she remains verbally quiet. but she actively does things to keep me seated in one spot, like stuffing me with food, thus preventing me from fleeing by foot.

so if any of you ever wondered what its like in the "la casa de chu" (translation: house of chu), this is it. i am spending 8+ hours with my mom and dad at the us open tomorrow. fortunately, we have the be quiet while the golfers are hitting so he'll only be able to whisper questions at me, and i can use the defense "sssshhh dad, tiger woods is putting..."
posted by Dan Chu at 2:04 AM

i need to issue an apology. i was re-reading some of my old posts and realized i included a factual error.

the hit-the-crowbar-in-my-face incident was not the only time i got stitches. i also received stitches on my head when i was this little wee bit of a child. but like the crowbar story, it resulted from my own stupidity...

one nice summer day long ago (pre-school age dan or earlier), my mom took me to a local park. young dan was happily going up and down a slide when i noticed this peculiar girl playing on the slide to my right. she was climbing to the top of the slide, and instead of swooshing down, she would stand up, thrust her arms in the air, and release this primitive roar. then, in the rush of her triumph, she would plop down on the slide and glide back to earth.

watching her, i thought, "dang it, that's cool--i can do that too." so i too climbed the slide with great conviction, i too stood at the top and thrust my arms in the sky, and i too released a primitive roar (although it probably sounded more like a squeak) . but, at that exact moment in mid-roar (or mid-squeak) i suddenly lost balance, and toppled over the edge of the top of the slide. fortunately, the top of my head hit the ground first and generously absorbed the impact for the rest of my body. i still recall hitting the ground, with the rest of my body kinda scrunching on top of my head. anyway, i started bleeding and my mom had a conniption. she took me to the doc, where i got my first stitches.

the consequences of this fall continue today. i am afraid of heights and i am convinced it is related to falling off that stupid slide. i am also deadly afraid of any girl on a slide. (haha. although a part of me thinks she was this deceitful punk and played this trick on me purposefully, just to watch me tumble off the slide and bleed.) it is unclear if the impact had any influence on me turning into a dork. but since it was my stupidity that led copying that girl's actions, it looks like my dorkness was not an effect of the fall, but was with me all along beforehand (and continues today).

anyway, sorry again about that factual error. i will do my best to uphold the historical accuracy of future postings...
posted by Dan Chu at 5:25 PM

so the u.s. open (one of the four most important professional golf tournaments in the world) is coming up this weekend and its being played on the bethpage black on long island. its like 5 minutes from my house (i used to ride my bike there and get there in 20 minutes) and built on land previously occupied by the massapequa native americans. my home town is named after that tribe. anyway, let's give it up for long island!

this is significant because this is the first time the u.s. open is being played on a public course. typically, the u.s. open is played at these ultra-exclusive country clubs. the bethpage black is a public course, open for play to anyone, priced relatively cheaply, and owned by ny state's tax payers (so in a way, roger's parents and my parents own a miniscule share of the course). i really like the symbolism and idea of holding this top tournament at a course available to everyone.

this is also significant (personally) because i learned to play golf at bethpage. i have many fond memories there. my earliest rounds of golf were played on bethpage's other courses (they have a total of five courses, each named after a color--yellow, green, blue, red, and black). back in junior high and early high school, i used to have this paper route that pulled in about $30 per week. on saturdays, i'd go with my friend to bethpage to play 9 holes, sometimes even 18. we'd have my mom or my friend's mom drop us off since this was before we could drive, pay $12 to play 9 holes, $3 for a bucket of driving range balls, and $5 for a bowl of post-golf chili and soda. the post-golf chili was the absolute best way to conclude our day of golf. mmm... chili. mmm... golf.

i had this set of old irons my dad got for dirt-cheap at a garage sale and a set of old woods that my neighbor gave me (2 and 4 woods made of wood...how often do you see those?). so my friend and i would spend our summer weekends just hacking away at the grass (and occasionally hitting the ball) learning the game. since there was only 2 of us, they always paired us up with two random old guys, and they would give us pointers and stuff like that. thinking back, those afternoons were lazy, relaxing, and just simply idyllic. good ol' bethpage treated me well...

...

...i am actually going home this weekend to attend the us open golf tournament. i view this trip as a homecoming of sorts for my golf game, especially since i have been playing a lot more recently. i always feel a small swelling of pride when a tiny part of my personal history reaches the limelight. it will be neat watching tiger woods, david duval, and all these other golf pros walking around my old stompin' grounds. i am almost tempted to shout out at them, "hey buddy, watch the grass. that's my grass!" i think returning to bethpage will also give me a chance to appreciate again an old familiar place that got me started on a sport i love. so...thanks bethpage. i am looking forward to hanging with you again...
posted by Dan Chu at 5:20 PM

mmm...world cup soccer. so i've officially caught world cup soccer fever. i watched a bunch of fun games this weekend and might get in the habit of waking up early before work to watch games in the morning. i love watching world class soccer, partially b/c i used to play soccer eons ago back in the late 20th century. a couple of memories stick out from those days of yesteryear...

1) in 9th grade, i used to wear glasses all the time. after taking a number of balls in the face and repeatedly breaking my glasses (and repeated fixing them with tape and looking like a dweeb) my mom finally allowed me to get contacts.

2) in 7th grade, before puberty hit and i was this tiny twerp, i remember sitting on the sideline and crying because my coach didn't let me play (see! i do have feeling(s) and I am sensitive. hah!). i think he noticed during halftime and put me in for parts of the 2nd half, hence making me feel a little better. however, i remember feeling like an idiot after the game for crying. fortunately, the post puberty story is happier. i developed both some facial hair and some speed, so i started every game i played from 8th grade on and captained 3 teams. nowadays, the only time i cry is when it think of the manhood i permanently lost while watching "kate and leopold". [shiver.]

3) i played this intramural game in the rain my senior year of college and got really really muddy. when i got home i hopped straight into the shower, but forgot to bring along a towel and clean underwear. after the shower, i realized i had no clothes to put on post-shower. (i couldn't put on my muddy soccer gear, that would ruin the point of the shower). left with no choice, i made the butt-nekkid dash across the hall from the bathroom to my room. wooosh! then a blur of whiteness! i practically dived into the safety of my room. i still give thanks daily that no one saw me.

i actually kinda miss playing soccer (since i really don't play anymore). i guess that bums me out, but maybe i'll get a chance to play a game or two sometime soon.

posted by Dan Chu at 5:15 PM

ugh. so i am sitting here in my cube at work and my butt is all wet. this is really really uncomfortable.

common reader (you): "this is interesting. i wasn't expecting to read about wet buttocks on your blog. tell us dan, why is your butt wet?"

well, i just ran the corporate challenge, this 3.5 mi race going from the boston common, down comm ave to kenmore, and back. it was stinking raining and all the runners got soaked. i got soaked. my hair got soaked. my shirt got soaked. my shorts got soaked. and yes, my butt got soaked.

see, the thing is i have to return to the office to finish some work. so i got back, sat in my chair, and started feeling really uncomfortable. so i got up, looked down at my chair and noticed that my wet butt left an this huge wet spot on my chair. uhh, let me clarify. my butt is not huge, but it left a distinct butt shaped water mark on my chair. i hope it dries and does not leave a permanent mark. that would be embarassing.

anyway, knowing this is a problem, i grabbed a towel from our showers (we have fresh towels in the office), grabbed my coworkers chair (spare, not his normal chair) and laid a towel down on the seat. but i still feel wet. this wetnesst thing is really really uncomfortable and it is tough concentrating. have you ever tried to contemplate the strategic issues effecting a $6 billion business with a wet butt? i think not.

ugh. alrighty, well, if they figured out how to land a dude on the moon, i am sure i can figure out how to finish my work given my burdensome circumstances. time to tough it out and get back to work...

posted by Dan Chu at 9:02 PM

scars. i have a number of them on my body. mostly from doing stupid things to myself. let's count a few...

1) right elbow. massive gash from diving on a rock before a soccer game.

2) right index finger. gash from stickin my finger into the spinning propellors of a model airplane engine (high school science project). the stupidity does not end there. so sticking my finger into the spinning blades caused massive bleeding. i flip out, run into the bathroom, take my bleeding finger and stick it under cold running water. anyway, this then accelerates the blood loss and i start getting really light headed and come close to blacking out. once the room started spinning, i was like "whoa" and had to then lie down on the bathroom floor just to get the blood back into my head. by the way, i did pretty well on the science project and won $100.

3) nose bridge. this one came when i was doing forward flips on my parents bed. i landed a little late in my rotation. my knee banged into my face, smooshing my glasses into my nose, causing a big cut. my mom asked what happened and i told her i ran into a door. it is not clear if she believed me but she never pressed me on that. i think she figured one of two things: a) if i was indeed stupid enough to run into a door, there was no need to rub that in further. b) if i was lying and desperate enough to use running into a door as an excuse, what i really did must of been so extremely stupid, there was also no need to rub that in further either.

4) eyebrow. this is the only time i got stitches. i was removing nails from my bedroom in junior high with a crowbar and i accidentally pulled the the stupid crowbar into my face. immediately after i bonked my noggin, my brother stares and me and is like "uh dan, you're bleeding." i didn't feel anything but then notice a blood gushing out of my head. doh. so i walked around school with stitches for a couple of days. all my friends were like "did you get into a fight?" i had to tell them, "no, i hit myself with a crowbar." i felt like a dweeb.

i have not accumlated any scars recently. i've been more careful now that i am old and fragile (not busted). ok, back to work...

posted by Dan Chu at 4:23 PM

uhm... ok, here's a recent story. you all probably have not noticed, but i recently switched from wearing those tiny tiny tiny soccer shorts to wearing those baggy and long basketball shorts.

it started when i noticed that everyone (males) wore long shorts. gene? black and grey shorts, knee length. roger? yellow shiny shorts, knee length. bernie? orange shiny shorts, knee length. mike? below the knee...and so on. i would look around the room and notice i was the only dude showing acres of my white-as-butt thighs b/c i wore these puny little soccer shorts. (back in college, in didn't really matter b/c i hung out with guys who played some soccer, so we all showed our thighs and didn't think anything of it.)

so in the past month, i went out and collected some basketball shorts. i like them lots. to be honest, i kinda consider myself a modest fellow. i don't like people seeing my bare feet (hence a sharp sock tan line). i don't like taking my shirt off (hence my massive farmers tan). and i will *never* wear a button-down shirt and unbuttoned top two or three buttons without a t-shirt beneath, hence showing tons of chest. these long basketball shorts now provide me with the extra-modesty and coverage i have long wanted. buying long shorts does not signify any move away from my current style. this move was purely practical. so don't be thinking i am going to be wearing black or anything like that anytime soon.
posted by Dan Chu at 2:55 PM

ok, apologies. i just read my post and that's kinda gross. you probably didn't want to learn that about me. i promise my next post will be more pleasant.
posted by Dan Chu at 1:11 PM

no thanks to rog for getting me sick. i caught his stupid broke illness (for details, check out his blogs from last week). now i have all the same symptoms and am feeling sick. boooooo. but i had chicken soup for lunch and will likely go home early today from work (translation: leave at a normal time) and rest up.

anyway, any of you all ever have an illness that is permanently scarring? mine occurred the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in HS. i basically caught a parasite at the beginning of the summer. (if you have a weak stomach, stop reading here). the primary symptom of parasites? diarrhea. everyday for nearly 1.5 months, i would have the runs. sometime twice, three times a day. most folks that age look forward to a summer of romping, playing, and frolicking but i found it terribily disruptive to be constantly interrupted by a trip to the toilet.

dan's friend: "hey dan, do you want to come out and frolick?"
dan: "are we gonna be frolicking near a toilet? i got mad runs."
dan's ex-friend: "nah. oh, i don't want to hang out with you anymore."

fortunately, the parasites went away and everything returned to normal. yay.
posted by Dan Chu at 1:09 PM

yay. i can now throw another piece of evidence onto the massive heap of things that prove i am a spineless sheep following yet another fad. some other fads i've followed? reebok pumps. trying to grow a quasi-mullet (3-5th grade, it was in style on long island. fortunately, my mom didn't like the look and the mullet never had an opportunity to develop. so i got stuck with the typical asian-bowl cut up until junior high. then puberty hit and i realized the bowl cut was not helping me get attention from girls so i started parting my hair. but now that i think about, i don't think i have gotten any more female attention in the 13 some odd years of the post-bowl era than in the pre-bowl era. why do i feel like i should be making some conclusions about my life from this realization? ). anyway... oh, and wearing hyper-color t-shirts.

so, folks, welcome to my stinkin blog. the purpose of this blog? i think its three-fold:

1) tell stories from my childhood
2) tell stories from the present
3) fit in with the cool crowd b/c they all have blogs

ok, its lunch time. i will officially post something at a later time.
posted by Dan Chu at 12:20 PM

Testing testing testing. stinkin.
posted by Dan Chu at 12:05 PM