No excuses!

I am absolutely terrible at reading books! 50 books in a year is about a book a week. I really really need to finish this. Since April Fools is a pretty cool day, I'm going to use that as my starting and finishing day. Between April 1st 2012 and April 1st 2013, I'm going to finish 50 books. I've already started on like 4 books (They Call Me Coach by John Wooden, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, and gasp... The Game by Neil Strauss). FYI, I'm reading The Game not entirely because I want to sleep with supermodels, but more because I want to know what it's about. Besides, knowing how to sleep with supermodels... It can only help right?

So I hope to finish those 4 books by May. Next up on the list I have The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, When the Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, The Rivalry by John Taylor, Gone with the Wind by Mitchell Margaret, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

That will actually keep me occupied for another month or so. I hope to get some Mitch Albom in there, also have to finish fucking Life of Pi... Reread The Princess Bride and The Catcher in the Rye... I'll try and read a couple books on my sister's bookshelf too... I also completely forgot that I have Free Darko's The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball. Wow.

I'll try and tear through these, then we'll see about buying a Kindle. I also have the Game of Thrones Box Set but I've never really gotten into those books yet.

Also if anyone cares I got two numbers on that $640 million Mega Millions. Pretty close right? Not.

What is my motivation? I guess it's just me conforming into being a non-conformist. I'm part of this so-called internet era where we are starting to move away from old things... Hold on... Isn't that what humans have been doing since the beginning of time? There was a time period when humans started using light bulbs instead of candles? Assholes!

A New Era

My MacBook Pro arrived (it's just fun to call it a 'MacBook Pro' instead of a 'laptop') and it is pretty cool. I might miss torrenting free software... but we'll see how it goes.

Late Summer Nights

Are the best time for reflections. I think.

I remember coming to America and thinking that I had bonds with friends that will never be broken. Some people here I've known for up to 10 years. I remember being convinced that on graduation day, I will graduate thinking I'm a proud student of Sha Tin College. I never felt I would be emotionally attached to all that is Palo Alto.

But in three short years, it's pretty different. In three years, days and months have gone by where I have never thought of a single person from Hong Kong and they have never thought of me. Before I left, my mom told me my high school friends don't mean much at all, and I was convinced that she was wrong. Well my mom was right. It was a bit of a bitch move by her but there are a lot of people that I haven't talked to. The few inside jokes I have with some of these people are hard to recall and require some memory stretching. Everyone is growing up

and leaving to college, and this summer may be the last time I get to see some of these guys.

Feelings are stupid.

Growing Up

I haven't written in this blog in ages. I've been more preoccupied with writing about basketball and recently with tumblr, I've been doing some blogging over there... but tumblr is more of a microblogging thing and I don't want to write about my thoughts there because people read my tumblr a lot more than they read my blogspot thing.

So I've going to be 18 in about a week and a bit. I will legally be an adult... And it's really quite intimidating. I realize that it won't be a random sudden change. I won't wake up one day and have all this extra burden just because I'm 18... because my age is a just a number. I realize the change will be kind of gradual. I didn't wake up one day and turn from a child to a teenager. But still, it's intimidating. Being 18 always seemed like miles away, and now it's only days away. There is no turning back and I'm going to turn into an adult.

I'm actually really scared. Even when I was 16, I thought people that were 18 were old, and I don't feel too different from when I was 16. I will start to be more responsible and I will start to face what they call the real world. Retreating back to my home, thinking that mom and dad will help me out whenever is no longer an option. Parent notes used to be able to get me out of everything, but it's not the same anymore.

I usually scoff at people that write about stuff like this. Growing up is something that happens to everyone and it's just stupid to bitch and moan about it, but now that my teenage years are slipping away from me... it's just really weird.

I feel a bit better writing about it I guess. Meh. Until next time.

I have decided to...

Write in this blog more because I don't want a period in my life where it wasn't recorded.

But I don't feel like writing now so bye.

5 months, 1 day

it was fun while it lasted

we

like things we can't have

it kinda sucks.

NBA Jam Remake

I love NBA Jam. Just today I decided to hook up my PS3 controller onto my PS3 so I can play NBA Jam with a controller and it's awesome.

Anyway, EA announced a remake so if they remade NBA Jam, teams would look like this.

Atlanta - Joe Johnson and Josh Smith

Would be a fun combo. Good shooter who isn't a midget and a great dunker guy.

Reserves - Al Horford, Jamal Crawford

Boston - Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce

Both guys are well rounded. They'll probably scale Pierce down a bit on the athleticism to keep down the amount of Jordan-esque players.

Reserves - Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen

Charlotte - Gerald Wallace and Raymond Felton

I wanna say Stephen Jackson for that second spot but you may as well go with the guy that's already there. Gerald Wallace will be a fun NBA Jam guy.

Reserves - Stephen Jackson, Tyson Chandler

Chicago - Derrick Rose and Luol Deng

I would swap out Deng for Noah when I play. Derrick Rose was made for NBA Jam.

Reserves - Joakim Noah, Kirk Hinrich

Cleveland - LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal

Probably the second best duo after Kobe and Gasol. Crazy. LeBron might be maxed out on everything.

Reserves - Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Dallas - Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd

Jason Kidd was on NBA Jam TE as a rookie and this year he gets to start. They're gonna pad Jason Kidd's shooting and with Dirk this is a fun team since they'll shoot the lights out. The next 2 guys are a tough call between Marion, Howard and Terry but I'll give it to Marion and Terry.

Reserves - Shawn Marion, Jason Terry

Denver - Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups

Melo will have close to max everything except defense and Billups could have close to max everything except for dunks. Great team to roll with. The Nuggets were made for NBA Jam.

Reserves - Nene, J.R. Smith

Detroit - Rodney Stuckey and Richard Hamilton

Or something like that? Tayshaun Prince? A Ben Gordon/Richard Hamilton team would be fun as hell to play with though.

Reserves - Ben Gordon, Tayshaun Prince

Golden State - Monta Ellis and Anthony Randolph

If it were me I'd go Curry/Randolph. It'd probably be my go to team.

Reserves - Andris Biedrins, Stephen Curry

Houston - Aaron Brooks and Yao Ming

Since T-Mac doesn't seem to be staying here for long. Brooks will be a fun player to use and I don't know what they'll do with Yao Ming.

Reserves - Trevor Ariza, Carl Landry

Indiana - Danny Granger and Troy Murphy

What a sorry ass team. Granger will be good.

Reserves - TJ Ford, Roy Hibbert

Los Angeles (Clippers) - Baron Davis and Blake Griffin

Baron is great for NBA Jam. So is Blake Griffin. Good underrated team.

Reserves - Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman

Los Angeles (Lakers) - Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol

Crazy good team. Bron/Shaq duo comes close. It's just unfair how good the Lakers are.

Reserves - Lamar Odom, Ron Artest

Memphis - Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph

Toss up. Maybe Mayo should be up there. I think most guys will want to go Mayo/Gay. Memphis have a good team.

Reserves - OJ Mayo, Marc Gasol

Miami - Dwyane Wade and Jermaine O'Neal

Maybe Beasley. Not sure. Wade is made for this game.

Reserves - Michael Beasley, Udonis Haslem

Milwaukee - Brandon Jennings and Andrew Bogut

Jennings will be fun to use. Jennings/Redd for some serious 3 point damage.

Reserves - Michael Redd, Ersan Ilyasova

Minnesota - Al Jefferson and Jonny Flynn

Nothing too special.

Reserves - Kevin Love, Corey Brewer

New Jersey - Devin Harris and Brook Lopez

Should be a pretty good team in the game.

Reserves - Yi Jianlian, Chris Douglas-Roberts

New Orleans - Chris Paul and David West

Another solid team. Chris Paul won't be as effective and will just be like every other point guard.

Reserves - Peja Stojakovic, Emeka Okafor

New York - David Lee and Danilo Gallinari

The Knicks will actually be a really really fun team to roll with. David Lee should be one of the fastest bigs in the game and Gallinari will shoot the lights out.

Reserves - Wilson Chandler, Al Harrington

Oklahoma City - Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook

Kevin Durant will be LeBron level in terms of effectiveness. Probably will lose some points for defense but NBA Jam wasn't really about defense.

Reserves - Jeff Green, James Harden

Orlando Magic - Dwight Howard and Vince Carter

Godly combination. Dwight Howard should be one of the most effective bigs in this game and Vince Carter will be like 8 tenths of a Kobe which is good enough to be very good.

Reserves - Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson

Philadelphia - Andre Iguodala and Allen Iverson

Double AI. Fun team to run but no real bigs. Here's hoping Brand gets a little boost.

Reserves - Elton Brand, Louis Williams

Phoenix - Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire

Essentially the same as Stockton/Malone. A very effective combo but sadly something like Baron Davis/Blake Griffin could end up being better since Baron can finish easier. J-Rich is an awesome addition.

Reserves - Jason Richardson, Channing Frye

Portland - Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge

Roy will be awesome. Everyone else on the Blazers will be average.

Reserves - Greg Oden, Andre Miller

Sacramento - Tyreke Evans and Kevin Martin

Great guard combination with the slash/shoot. Tyreke Evans will own this game.

Reserves - Jason Thompson, Omri Casspi

San Antonio - Tim Duncan and Tony Parker

Lacks some shooting. Parker will be a blur.

Reserves - Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson

Toronto Raptors - Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu

Bosh will be a pretty awesome guy in this game. Turkoglu should be raining 3s easy.

Reserves - Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon

Utah - Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer

I'm starting to get bored.

Reserves - Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko

Washington - yawn

First everything of the '10s

First person I talk to on the internet - Kim

First person to say the word - antediluvian (i figured no one said that in the 10 minutes it took me to realize I forgot to do this this year. last year I was the first person to say fuck in hong kong)

First song I listen to - The Beatles - Come Together

First person I call (also first person I talk to) on the phone - Jamie

First text message from - Matthew

First unrealistic imaginary scenario - jordan says (8:34 AM):
i kind of want to sleep
but deep down i have this hope that something cool will happen
KIM. ♥ bring it on, 2010! says (8:35 AM):
like what..?
jordan says (8:35 AM):
a pizzaman
comes up to my door
and says
it's on us.
and i get a free pizza.
sweet

First outfit of 2010 - teal ish uniqlo heattech thing. pink t-shirt with a pocket, some boxers, uniqlo chino pants that i bought in 2009.

First injury - bumping my temple-ish area onto the corner of my clothes tray holder metal thing.

It has come to my attention...

That when I mention having a blog, people are somewhat interested, so I have decided to add some intellectual content to this blog so I can show off my smartness and my unique sense of humor.

Currently I am really hungry. I just had like a 3 hour nap and it felt really good. The best part about having a nap is that when you make up it feels like it's a new day so you've essentially made 1 day into 2 days. How amazing. Anyway currently I am starving and my mom is too busy telling my sister her life story about marriage and kids and jobs and how everyone did it in the good old days. It's really boring and I can't interrupt them because if I interrupt them it i bad. But seriously I am like starving right now I want to eat. And I can't really work when I'm hungry... Because it hurts my stomach and my brain.

OMG I AM ACTUALLY HUNGRY.

So anyway by tomorrow I have to make up 2 math homeworks, make up 2 english homeworks, do bio and get history notes so I can do my make up quiz.

UGH.

ok I interrupted them. now i can eat.

bye bye.

Quick observations from the NBA season

A lot of the young Centers are more promising now. Roy Hibbert has shown he can block some shots, Brook Lopez has showed signs of dominance, Marc Gasol is currently 2nd in rebounding.

Again Chris Bosh is off to a strong start.

Derrick Rose hasn't been able to back up his playoff performance.

Iverson is probably done.

Detroit is the best defensive team in the league.

Carmelo should see himself climbing up that top 10 players list.

Celtics, Heat, Magic, Suns and Lakers are the only teams to have lost 1 game... Suns and Heat don't really belong there so here's what they're doing well.

Suns
Nash seems motivated.
Amare is back.
Grant Hill is a rebounding machine.
Channing Frye fits the system well.

Heat
Dwyane Wade is good
JO isn't sucking as much dick as last season.
Q-Rich!?

Rookies
Chase Budinger is a total steal.
The Point Guards are strong. Evans, Flynn, Jennings, Curry are all showing promise and Ty Lawson is making the most of his minutes.
Dejuan Blair is a total steal.

A quick race to MVP right now...

1. Kobe Bryant (5-1)
2. Steve Nash (6-1)
3. Dwight Howard (5-1)
4. Carmelo Anthony (5-2)
5. Dwyane Wade (5-1)
6. LeBron James (4-3)
7. Paul Pierce (7-1)
8. Dirk Nowitzki (4-2)
9. Chris Bosh (3-3)
10. Aaron Brooks (4-2)

Something like that.

Gives Me Hope?

It's weird. In a way, it's something to be proud of because of how the school got together but then, this should never have happened in the first place. Our school gained some national attention and after getting it for something bad we got some nice attention. A friend of mine who lives in the same apartment as me got semi-featured in an L.A. Times article and it just seems really inspiring. What a wonderful school. kind of.

Comfort things

When I eat rice out of cup (like an actual cup) it makes me feel really warm and happy inside. I think it's because when I was in the hospital when I was 3 my mom and dad came to the hospital with cha siu rice and I couldn't finish like the whole take out box so they put it in my cup and I ate it out the cup and I guess it's just those things that make me happy.

100 Must Read Books

Sometimes when people are having a conversation they'll be like "Oh yea! It's just like Lord of the Flies!!" and I will know what they are talking about but sometimes they will be like "Oh yea!! It's just like Animal Farm!" and I will have no idea what they are talking about.

Because I need to prepare myself for all of life's situations, I have found a list of 'must read books'. I feel this list I found is more manageable than a 1001 book list so I found this '100 Must Read Books: The Essential Man's Library' because I am a real man.

The link can be found here.

http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-library/

First up is

The Great Gatsby

I'm gonna go to the school library and check it out. Whopee.

If you didn't know

2 days ago a 4th person in my school committed suicide. (A 3rd person did it at the beginning of the year but I didn't post that I think. There was also another attempt).

Don't want to go too deep into this but yea it's a weird world out there.

Fun day

Even though I should be doing my homework, today was such a fun and eventful day that I thought I should blog about it.

So today I woke up semi late and I quickly microwaved my fried rice and packed it back in the takeout box and I ran all the way to the far side of school in time for the PSAT.

I think I did ok on it. But that's the boring part. When I got out I saw some really weird disgusting bugs that kept flying around everywhere. Jon (I'm just going to say all these names. This blog is kinda for me so if you don't know who these people are then too bad) downloaded a new app for iPhone/iTouch (no idea) which was a gun app and he started to shoot everyone with it.

After a while we all hung around the quad a bit and then I went to work on posters that I was supposed to work on a long long time ago with May and Alan (aka Gay Hsueh). We went to the gym of my apartment and after a while we got bored. May's hoodie smells really good but I feel like such a creeper for saying that.

I went back to the quad and we had just missed the Jamba Chug (stupid game anyway) and after a while me, Brian and Leon hopped into Henry's Porsche (DAMN) where we rolled down our windows and played African-American music with enhanced bass. After a while we started seeing a couple of Mehicanos so we rolled out windows up and pretended to be good kids.

When we got to Hong Kong Bistro we saw Paula who was there by herself (what a loner) and we went in.

I've actually eaten in Hong Kong Bistro once and I'd say it's pretty typical cha chan teng type food at a slightly higher price than what we're used to in Hong Kong. We literally ordered things that had pictures and I wanted to show off my Cantonese skills but Henry took over the spotlight and ordered "triangle, square, star, diamond" We ended up getting this creamy cheesy baked seafood rice, beef curry, beef cubes, singapore fried ho fun and baked pork chop rice (where other people were informed of the meaning of pork chop). The second group that came in Kevin's car came later where none of them shared and they had to eat a hugeass plate of food over and over and over again. Lance came along a little later. He rode on his bike because that's what he always does but this time he crashed and he got a hugeass nasty cut on his arm it was really nasty.

We managed to finish most of the food and Alan came over to eat a little more. When he got to the pork chop I said "Hey Alan do you like pork chops?" he looked up and he said "yea" and everyone laughed at him but he didn't get it.

We left and Lance got bandaged up by Paula with love and care and then the same 4 people + Paula rode on Henry's Porsche (DAMN) and we did the same thing as we rolled down the windows and blasted black music. This time I knew the lyrics a little better so I could say YEAA SMACK MY BITCH I SMACK YO BITCH U SMACK MY BITCH MY BITCH U BITCH along with the music.

After a while we saw a group of real black people then we were like SHIEETT and we quickly muted the music and rolled up the windows. The black guy was crossing the road and when we crossed our car he stopped for a bit and we were all hella scared and as soon as we turned we continued our blackness.

We got to Gunn where people were working on the floats and I wasn't really impressed. We got like the shape of it but it didn't look super cool.

I hung around for a bit and I got my stuff and then I waited for the bus to get to Water Polo.

The schedule for the game was all messed up and no one knew what was happening and we ended up getting in the game early. I got kicked out the fun bus that Coach Scott was driving because I believed in letting the guys that get minutes get their pick so I ended up going in Spencer's Mom's car which was a pretty sweet and comfortable ride.

When we got there we saw the Varsity girls destroy their opposition (15-0? 16-0?) and JV girls take one and JV boys lose (partly due to bad officiating).

When it was Varsity boys, the guys played kinda sloppy during the first 3 quarters (also partly due to bad officiating) and Coach Scott lost his cool near the end of the 3rd. The official gave him a yellow card and he kept arguing and then he gave him a red card and he got ejected. The quarter ended with us down 4 (I think). Good thing we had 2 coaches. When the quarter ended Coach Brian gave a little talk and we quickly let in another goal. Everyone on the bench was all sad and we kinda crumbled and we thought we lost the game but all of a sudden we are able to tie it up with about a minute left. Berenfeld scored a goal that pulled us within 1 and the game tier was a goal that I thought didn't go in. Spencer went into beast mode and didn't let anything in.

In overtime we completely destroyed the opposition. 4 goals in the first half of overtime and then they scored 1 goal in the second half of overtime but we sealed the deal with another goal. Great comeback and just a great great moment. I was watching from the bench (aka the Gentleman's club) the whole time but it was just a great moment. Coaches told us about the poor performance the first 3 quarters but they said that we should be very proud of that comeback.

It's always weird how people say we when they are associated with a team even if they weren't actually part of it.

But awesome day. Now to wrap it up with some studying.

crazy chinese woman goes berserk on a black woman on the SF muni in chinatown

This is crazier than Bus Uncle or anything weird. So after trying to listen to this woman's heavily accented and super fast and pissed off Cantonese what I got is that the black woman was hogging up a space so the chinese woman got super pissed. She keeps saying FAK YEW!!! FAK YEWW!!! YEW ARE STEWPIAT!!! and eventually the black woman is like "SAY IT AGAAAAIN!!"

so the chinese woman is like

FAAKKK YEWW!!!!

The black woman punches her in the face then the chinese woman goes insane and starts flailing her arms at her then she gets the black woman in a good position then keeps punching the black woman's head.

The bus full of chinese people cheer her on including an overenthusiastic man who says things like

"HIT HER" (he says this like a kazillion times)
"DON'T BE SCARED HIT HER"
"HIT HER UNTIL SHE'S SCARED"
And when the lone civilized chinese person tells the black woman to get off again he quickly shouts another

"HIT HER"

Crazy ass fight. I just find it kinda depressing because it seems like everytime there is a crazy asian breaking out (Bus Uncle, weird couple in the MTR, the lady who missed a flight and now this) the asian ALWAYS seems to speak cantonese.

Bad image to us cantonese speaking folks.

Stop interrupting my site.

FUCK U KANYE. IT'S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN.

Mmm yummy subway

Subway is really good. For $5 people think it's a good deal but if you convert $5 it's like 39 dollars Hong Kong (and I haven't included tax) and at that price you can get a pretty sweet meal like a baked pork chop rice with drinks and stuff at a Hong Kong fast food place.

But then Subway is probably healthier. Usually I get a meaty meatball marinara or spicy italian or someting but today I got the oven roasted chicken breast and it is DELISH.

The consistency of the chicken is like...

Chicken McNuggets.

Which means I should be scared, but it's so good...