Is A Soda Too Much To Ask

having spent the past few hours meandering about the streets of DC in a desperate search of a Bank of America, i turned to the local 7-11 outside the foggy bottom metro stop to rehydrate. as i perused the tiny store, i was drawn to the fridge full of sodas and other sugary soft drinks that my health conscience tells me to avoid (seeing how a trader joe's was only a few blocks further...but as i had just spent the last 2 hours metro-ing and walking, i was too lazy to make the effort.

now i wouldn't say its hot by any DC summer standards, but it's definitely too warm for my san "perfect weather 75% of the year" diego ass. so i succumbed to that little person inside of me that says: eat and drink whatever, i'm still young and heal...i was gonna say healthy, but i had just almost passed out from walking about 2 miles. i ended up pulling out three bottles of soda...all of which would definitely be considered unhealthy by any means.

having escaped from the heat of the unwelcoming and scary "outdoors", i returned to my haven of Digg-ing and updating myself on Lindsay Lohan's rehab recovery DUI. and in the daily navigating of the web, i stumbled upon this article about the increasing health risks of drinking soda.

already feeling the effects of not having exercised in the past YEAR...now drinking my beloved dr. pepper may put me at risk of serious disease. damn you health conscious scientists!! wasn't the world just dandy when we were getting sick and dying earlier and thereby not over-populating the planet which has now been super saturated with our toxic wastes to a level where we face catastrophic risk from an unstable environment when world leaders who were meant to work for their respective constituencies are busy trying to shape their legacy around policy and wars that has made no one safer and everyone angry...

so all i'm saying is...can't i drink my soda without having to be worried about dying one day?

East Coast Madness

now this is a story all about how, my future came calling right about now. so take a moment, just sit right there, while i tell you how i became the "fill in the blank yourself based on how much you like me" of a town called DC.

in west America, born and raised, breathing in smog is how i spent most of my days. chillin' out maxin' and relaxin', enjoyin' SD weather out there on the beach...when an ungrad degree, after a grueling four years, i was finally forced out to see the world in the clear. so my mom was proud, she said, "ur gonna get a masters out in DC"

i landed with my folks and when we arrived, the hotel said wait so we left to go play. and after the red eye, i had nothing to give...but i said naw forget it, lets go get me someplace to live.

three, four, five days later and not having seen a sight, we closed a deal and realized DC was alright. so i've looked at my kingdom, i was finally there, to challenge my future, as the "fill in the blank yourself depending on how much you like me" of DC.

Time Well Spent

ahhh...now that i find myself filling out a bed alone again, i guess i'll return to my blogger world with an update on yours truly.

while bush added more "compromising" rhetoric to his iraq funding stance, i've just been chillin' out, maxin' and relaxin'...and where better to spend my brief hiatus between china and DC back where i've called home for the last four years...sunny san diego (although the weather ranged from as cold as sd gets to as hot as it gets...i soaked it in as i look ahead to the smothering humidity of a DC summer).

now having spent the previous 6 months in shanghai, what better way to celebrate my return by enjoying my second most favorite pastimes...yes yes, stuffing my face with food.
*warning...the pictures below my not be suitable for the health conscious:


i know, i know...however strong my love for food may be, it can never compare to the voracity of my fellow blogger and brother, aptly named, the sushipanda.

but beyond the burritos, chili rellenos, double-doubles, buckets of kfc, donovans AND flemmings...there were plenty of other great moments which i will list in order of awesome-ness:

1. a one-year anniversary for myself and nam (to the stalkers who notoriously attach themselves to my girlfriend...BACK OFF!!). you made it :P

2. a hilarious and unforgettable spin on the classical tale of Oz.

3. a musical experience with a concert under the stars.

4. a comedy show of unending laughter.

*the video quality sucks, but just enjoy the material

there were definitely innumerable memories beyond those, but i'll cut it short as to take into account the slightest possibility that there will be another reader of this blog who might not be as interested or invested.

but one last thing...thank you, Nam, for letting me stay at your place...feeding me...entertaining me...and above all that, being you.

Praying For A Miracle

after one of the most embarrassing Lakers games i've seen in my entire life this past tuesday, i ended what was a promising night with disdain and frustration. the euphoric daze of having scarfed down a 8-piece bucket of kfc, i looked forward to an exciting, contested playoff basketball game...only to be completely let down by my beloved Lakers.

but today is thursday, game 3 is in progress...and after a first quarter, i find my boys trailing by 14 again. so am i in for another disappointing night as i wait for an inevitable sweep in the first round? or maybe a kobe vs. the Suns offensive bananza? or am i just going to hope above all hope to see a unified, energized, competitive Lakers team with a dominant Odom, an involved Kwame, and a defense unsee in a gold jersey in quite some time?

now i'm not expecting the Lakers to pull out 4 games in this series, but i do expected my boys to put up a fight...much like the jump-off the seat, heart racing games of last year's series. so here i am, praying for a miracle to the pagan basketball gods of Magic, Doc, Bird, and Jordan. please please please...from a fan to his team, i just want to watch a game worth watching. and hopefully, with that, a win.

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

*Post hoc ergo propter hoc is Latin for "after this, therefore because of this", is a logical fallacy which assumes or asserts that if one event happens after another, then the first must be the cause of the second.

there are no words that can be said about the recent tragedy at Blacksburg...so i'll leave it at that.

i know this story has been unfolding for a few days now, and i hadn't planned on an entry for this issue. but after watching continuous coverage and numerous pundits speaking practically verbatim, i've gotten annoyed at the politicizing and the war-drum beating.

and because we don't have answers to why something like this happened, we will undoubtedly do what we always do...find something or someone to blame and try to add reason to the unexplainable. whether it be the continual failing gun control argument...or the violence in video games and media discussion...or the lack of magical premonition by police debate. whatever it is, we're all going to be drawn into this blame-game frenzy perpetuated by the media's need to feed our hunger for reason.

my beef with all this is this...why must it take such a tragedy to prompt the discussions of stricter gun control? why do we profile all gamers as mass-murderers because one kid snapped? and most importantly, how is it conscionable for us to just exploit the lives of these victims to push a political agenda?
perhaps its my idealism...or i'm just naive...but none of this happened because of any of the aforementioned reasons. we find it easier to place blame than to accept what we do not understand. if finding a cause for this individual's blatant mental health issues is the only way we can cope with this, then at least find some reasonable excuse...and not just pass blame. there are many perfectly sane, perfectly safe individuals who play video games or enjoy a violent action flick or own a handgun. lets not unfairly profile them into a category of mentality unstable murderers. and lets return to the real topic at hand...the tragic loss of life, the heroism of those who reacted quickly to save others, and the hope that we can recover and never see these types of headlines again.