Mild Amusement

I took about a week and a half off from work for the end of the year, and I knew that I'd be lax about working out in that time. So, I figured I'd give myself an extra incentive to work out. I made a bet. Well, to be honest, it started out as more of a dare. My friend was saying she's been lax about keeping up with her running lately, so I gave her an "aw, c'mon, you can at least go once per week." In the process of coaxing/goading her to agree to this, though, I promised to run twice per week if she did that. Shortly thereafter, this turned into a bet that I'd run twice as often as she did during the break. We didn't really set any terms to the bet at the time, though. It was more of a joke than anything else. Fast forward about a week, and a bunch of us were walking to lunch. The bet came up in conversation, so I figured it'd be fair to ask for a neutral third party to set the consequences for said bet. The only idea that came up was ...

(The title is a reference to a running gag my siblings & I have. Usually, that line is preceded by something like, "Whatever, you're the troublemaker in the family." This usually leads to a bout of calling each other "Chang" for a while. Should this happen in public, hilarity is likely to ensue) My siblings and I have known each other for over 20 years, so we've had some time to more or less figure each other out. That makes for all sorts of fun when we all hang out at family events, but it also makes gift-buying slightly problematic. We can usually figure out what the other person wants, but that also means that the person is likely to purchase it before receiving the gift. Take my sister's Christmas gift this year. She is a fan of Steve Nash, and as a result, she likes to watch the (Phoenix) Suns. So I figured I'd get her tickets to a Warriors game when the Suns are in town. Short of her actually going to Arizona, that's probably th...

I recently remarked to a friend that you need a sense of humor to run in my family. For example, I got a pack of beer & a weighted jump rope as part of my Secret Santa gift this year. My parents saw the beer, and said, "the gift-giver must think you're an alcoholic." My sister saw the jump rope and said, "the gift-giver must think you're fat." See, sense of humor. My cousin is about to find this out first-hand. See, she was over at our house on Monday while I was at work. My sister was wrapping my present at the time, and she invited my cousin to help out. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but they decided to have some fun with it. Specifically, they decided they wanted to make it harder to open my gift. I haven't opened it yet, but I'm told it has multiple layers of wrapping, and my cousin went to town on it. She even started writing things on the wrapping paper, as an extra taunt. But they told me about it, so I had time to sche...

I was out celebrating my college roommate's birthday last night, and a friend of a friend told me, "I wish you were gay." In its own way, it's flattering that the guy said that. Still, that's one of the oddest compliments I've ever received, and I wasn't quite sure what to say to the guy (if you must know, we all just laughed about it). Actually, I've noticed over the years that last night was no fluke. People don't tell me that I'm attractive or funny. No, instead, I hear things like: "Wow, you have nice eyelashes. They're really long." This one came from a female nurse that helped me out when I was first getting my contacts. Actually, she said the same thing to both my brother and I, so it must have been a genetic thing. I understand why the nurse would notice something like that, but I'm a guy, so it was almost like the compliment fell on deaf ears. "Your heart takes pretty pictures" Another one from the so...

If you've seen me in person anytime after high school, odds are that you've seen me with a shaved head. I started shaving it in college - I got lazy about going to a barber, and doing it myself saved me a few bucks every couple of weeks or so. I understand they weren't the best reasons to make the change, but make a change I did. No one made fun of me and it looked all right, so I ran with it for a while. Fast forward to last month, and I decided to let my hair grow out. No particular reason, I just figured I'd give it a go again. And then, I started hearing about it from a bunch of people I knew. That list includes: My brother, who thought I was trying to impress a girl. He commented that my hair was getting shaggy, I told him I needed to let it grow out before getting a legit haircut. He immediately asked who she was. Because apparently, if I'm trying to impress a girl, the first thing I'm going to lead with is my stylish hair. By the same logic, ...

I was walking into the office this morning, and I noticed this lady about four steps behind me as I walked in the door. My parents taught me to be fairly polite, so I held the door open for her (or as I once told a girlfriend, "Chivalry may be dead, but I'm bringing it back"). She thanked me, and I turned around to be on my way. Maybe it was early & I was tired, or maybe I have some karmic debts I don't remember. Either way, I walked right into an overhanging leaf from a nearby plant. Face-first, no less. It wasn't that embarrassing, but not my best moment. To top it off, we both took the stairs, and there was another door there. I was in front, so I held that door open, too. In return, she promised to bushwhack any offending plants for me. She didn't mean it maliciously, but I was an easy target at that point. So, the moral of today's story: don't hold doors open for people, or if you must, watch where you're going.

I think I've mentioned it before, but for about a year, I've been doing a type of workout called CrossFit . I usually describe it as "circuit training on crack," because most of the work outs involve cycling through various exercises as fast as you can. I don't know how they always pick combinations of exercises that kick your butt, but they do. Anyhow, one of the things that the guy who got me started on it used to always say was, "a lot of the motions are directly applicable to every day life." I've never thought about it much, it was just some little tidbit of information I tucked in the back of my brain. Until today. I'm home sick today, so I get to see the little kids during the day. Well, they get bored after a while, so they usually ask me to play with them for a bit. One of the things they like to do is to have an adult "fly" them. Basically, you throw them up in the air a few times. I remember the first time I saw i...

It's been about a year now that I've been a semi-vegetarian , and all in all, it's worked out fairly well. I've gotten past the stage where the meal feels incomplete without meat, so it's become routine. In fact, every time I go out to eat, my first thought is to look for a vegetarian option. I always find it easier to order something for myself, because then my diet doesn't affect other people's dining options. The problem with that plan, though, is that every now and then I crave a particular non-veggie meal when I go out. When that happens, the opportunity for a veggie meal is squandered, and I end up having to cook a vegetarian meal for myself. I tend to eat a lot, so a salad is almost never an option for me. Couple that with the fact that I've never been a gourmet chef, and my options become severely limited. Actually, my options become a singular option: fried eggs of some sort. I'll either scramble them with a few other vegetables thro...

I interact with little kids quite a bit, mostly because of the whole daycare thing. When they're younger, I spend a lot of time trying to make sure they don't hurt themselves, or doing things like teaching them to walk. But once they learn to talk and gain control over their basic motor functions, that's when the real magic happens. Now, before I start getting flamed, I'm not trying to make fun of the munchkins. I talk to them, and they respond. I watch them, and they act on their emotions. It's just that they're little, so their conceptions of the world are off, or they mis-speak. Either way, the results are often hilarious. For example: Kid: "I want to play with Sam" Mom: "Sam's not here, he's at work. Do you know what he does at work?" Kid: "Eat noodles" I have no idea where that came from, but I apparently have an awesome food/taste-testing job that I don't know about. Kid's mom: "Hey [kid], com...

When it comes to the vanpool, all of the riders are creatures of habit. Sometimes, we get off at a different stop in the afternoon, because we have dinner plans, kids to pick up, classes to attend, or have to be somewhere other than home. The morning is usually far more stable, though. People rarely change where they get on. In all of the time I've been riding, I've seen someone get on at a different stop a handful of times, at most. What absolutely never happens, though, is someone getting on across town. Until now, that is. This guy about my age (that detail will become important to the tale in a moment, promise) normally hops on somewhere near the Glen Park BART station. On the morning in question, though, he strolls up to the van near the outer sunset. That's a good 20-25 minute drive away, and it's not exactly a straight shot, either. Odd, but I didn't really say anything. I greeted the guy, and hopped into the back where I usually ride. He, too, opte...

The last day was finally here. I'd survived a crappy flight, walked around Manhattan for hours, made good friends with the subway system, spent the better part of a day watching musicals, and eaten like mad for an entire day. All that was left was to wrap it all up. We had lunch with one of my travel buddy's high school friends at a Cuban place in a mall, and it was a good time. The "in a mall" part doesn't sound all that interesting, but it apparently used to be a ship that they hollowed out & converted into a mall. So, there, it was actually cool. *sticks out tongue* I hopped on a bus to get to Newark, and my buddy called for a car to get him to La Guardia. Basically, we parted ways soon after. The flights were uneventful, fortunately. So, sadly, the trip was over. That said, there were some things I'll never quite forget: A guy who looked borderline homeless and performed in a roving acapella group in the subway spent about 10 minutes hit...

The last full day of the trip. It felt a little bit like the last full day, because the plan was to intentionally keep it low-key. Case in point: we decided to finally eat in Chinatown, just to compare against the Chinese food to which we're accustomed. I'd actually heard that Chinese food in NYC wasn't very good, so I was morbidly curious. Let's just say I don't entirely disagree with what I've heard. It could have been the place we went, but I think I'm sticking to other cuisines the next I'm out there. I had another high school friend who happened to be in Manhattan for the day, so we planned on meeting up. We had a little bit of time to kill, though, so we headed over to the UN building. I saw the line of flags, so I had to go find the two that are important to me: Peru & China. I found Peru fairly quickly, but trying to take a picture of the flag billowing in the wind proved to be problematic. And some tourist interrupted me just when...

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...

Following the fun-filled day of walking , it would be a fun-filled day of riding the subway (we'll get to that in a second). Seeing as how it was vacation, though, I slept in until something like 11AM. I'm normally not much of a fan of oversleeping, but man, it felt good to be lazy. Anyhow, we were going to try to meet up with one of my friend's friends for lunch, so we headed into Chinatown to meet up with them (Canal St. subway station again). Our timing was a bit off, so we caught the tail end of the meal. We did sit down for a bit & I actually met this mythical friend (I was starting to have second thoughts up until that point). Though we didn't really hang out, she did graciously offer us to join her, and some friends, for dinner. At this point, we still hadn't eaten. So, we jumped on the subway, headed uptown, and found A Salt & Battery . A friend had recommended it, and this seemed as good a time as any to check it out, so there we were. I...

After my crappy flight , I was now in Newark, New Jersey at 7AM on a Friday morning. I had done a little bit of reading up, so I knew which bus I needed to take and where I was going to get off. All in all, getting into the city was surprisingly easy. I suppose speaking the language does make things simpler. Through no real planning of mine (a theme of the trip, at least on my part), I picked one of the later bus stops at which to get off, Grand Central. I actually just figured that getting off at Grand Central would give me options, and heck, it's called Grand Central. That just screamed "decent place to disembark that might be close to some stuff" to me, so that's where I got off. However, it also meant that we drove down 42 nd St to get to my bus stop. That just happens to be a big street, and it gave me a glimpse of Times Square as we drove by. My bus stop choice had accidentally given me a rough layout of the city. Go me. I had about 6 hours to kill...

Somehow, when I wasn't paying attention, I accrued a bunch of vacation time that I need to use by the end of the year. So, I decided to take a trip to New York City to help remedy that situation. The catch is that I still have a project that I'm busily working on, so I can't take a full-blown vacation. Instead, I get to take shorter trips until the end of the year, when my project will be finished. So, New York City for 5 days and 4 nights. I left Thursday night on a red-eye flight, so that I could maximize my vacation time (if I'm going to use vacation time, I might as well get the most out of that time). Also, I tend to get bored on airplanes, so I usually remedy that problem by falling asleep. All in all, it seemed like a reasonable plan - if I slept for the entire flight, that would have given me about 7 hours of sleep. I usually like to work off of more sleep than that, but that's more than enough to function properly. Of course, things don't always ...

I tend to make bets with friends to keep things interesting. It's not like I'm doing it all the time, and it's not like I'm throwing down wads of cash on these bets. Instead, I usually wager punishments or actions. It makes things far more interesting that way, in my mind. Actually, I remember my high school Econ teacher telling me that this is a logical thing to do. See, he had made a bet about Y2K, for the same reason (yes, that should tell you how old I am). The guy actually bet 10 dollars that the world would end. On the surface, that's a lose-lose proposition: either the world ends and he's out of luck, or the world doesn't blow up, and he's out of 10 dollars. However, my teacher now had a story to tell "at cocktail parties." To him, that was easily worth the 10 dollars, so he was actually coming out ahead (there's an econ lesson about utility in there, which is why it was the topic of that day's class). Basically, he was ...

After all of the excitement of the day before the race , I was thinking that the run itself would be pretty mundane. Sure, I expected to be tired at the end, but it was just a run. How much amusement could there possibly in that? Well, they group the runners by expected finish time. If you think about it, that makes sense, because it helps to avoid bottlenecks, and overly large crowds. However, they call those groups "corrals." Yup, they use the same word that is usually used when discussing livestock. Funnily enough, the word is actually fitting. Everyone in the same corral stands in a designated area, crowded around an entrance to the actual course. As soon as that door opens, everyone rushes towards it to start their run. Picture feeding time at the barn, and you'll have a rough idea of how the process goes down. Anyhow, when I signed up a few months ago, I was still planning on running a 12-minute mile. What's more, I added a cushion to account for p...

(Yes, I technically only ran a half-marathon, but I like the alliteration, so I left it off) This weekend was my half-marathon down in San Jose, and it led to all sorts of hi jinx. I actually had to drive down to San Jose twice, once to pick up my race packet, and once to actually run the race. They put on an expo from 9AM to 5PM on Saturday, and I was supposed to pick up my packet between those hours. Yes, you read that correctly: "supposed to." I planned on picking up my packet sometime mid-morning, then driving to Mountain View to meet up with my friend for lunch. The first wrinkle to my plan was that I had some family obligations to deal with that morning. I didn't finish up with that until about 12:30PM, so I decided to switch up the plan. Instead, I drove to Mountain View first, and I'd pick up my packet after that. It's about a 30 minute drive to the convention center from Mountain View, so I figured I still had plenty of time to make it work. Lunch ...

(I was originally going to make this part of the last post . The "Open Bar" and "Closing the Bar" symmetry would have made for a good title, I think. Alas, the last post was long enough as it was, so I separated the two. Anyhow, on with the actual content ... ) For some reason, it seems like there's always at least one friend that I haven't seen in a while, and I need to catch up with that person. The usual fix for this is dinner and/or drinks. It's a tried-and-true solution; you have time to chit chat & figure out what's new with that person, and the food and drink help to keep you entertained as you do so. I happened to have a friend who just came back from a stint on the East coast, so dinner and drinks was the plan. Of course, things got interesting during the course of executing that plan (otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it). Actually, the original plan was just drinks on Saturday night. However, said friend had too much t...

I don't get home past 3AM very often. Even if I'm out drinking or what not, bars & clubs close at 2AM, so I'm usually in before that time. The few times that I have gotten home that late, though, it's been completely unintentional. I don't think I've ever once tried to be out that late. Well, this last time was no different. I was going to hang out for a bit, and then meet up with a friend afterward. Somehow, that turned into me getting home at 4 in the morning, with plenty of mildly amusing stories to tell (and blog about). I started off this latest escapade by watching some live mixed martial arts (MMA) fights at a club. Yes, you read that correctly. There's some company out there that organizes MMA bouts in actual night clubs (for those of you who know anything about MMA, they're associated with StrikeForce somehow). If you think about it, it's not a bad idea. The MMA demographic usually consists of 20-something year old guys, th...

Every year, my company participates in United Way's Week of Caring . It's a good cause, and it's an excuse to get out of the office, so I usually agree to help out. I'll let you decide which of the two is a bigger motivator, but if you pick the second one, we need to have words. Anyhow, this past week was the Week of Caring. There is actually quite a bit of work that needs to be done before the actual event, so every project is assigned a coordinator. Really, it's a sensible way to make sure that the organizations we work with get the help they need. One interesting side effect of this system, though, is that the project coordinator is now a position that gets recognition/exposure. As a result, the various clubs & employee organizations try to show a presence by snapping up projects, putting their people in the coordinator positions, and then filling the project slots with their people. The newbie club is no different, so they scooped up three projects...

A friend of mine recently posted a Facebook status message that said, "if you like it, put a ring on it, don't be mad once you see he want it ... just trying to be subtle." I get that she was trying to be cute about it by quoting a Beyonce song (I'm not linking to the music video because I think it's goofy - Beyonce spends half the time waddling like a duck). But really now? Normally, a well placed smiley can let you get away with all sorts of ridiculousness because you can play it off like you're joking. In this case, not even one of those smileys with the tongue sticking out could save that comment. If you said that sort of thing out loud in the company of two or three people, you'd probably get at least one odd look. Heck, if I was one of those people, I'd give you two stink eyes just to make a point. I have no problem with you wanting more out of a relationship, but that's something you work out with the other half (if that ratio is a...

If you've been reading this blog for a while now, you know that I've been running quite a bit lately. And not surprisingly, that running has provided some health benefits. A friend of mine actually used the word "svelte" to describe me the other day (then again, someone else said I lost a bunch of muscle mass, so it's not going to my head anytime soon). To me, though, the most noticeable change has been a different metabolism. I drink a lot more water, I get hungry more often, and my appetite has picked up. Now that's all well and good if you're consistently running, since the caloric expenditure and the extra caloric intake balance each other out. If, on the other hand, you've been a) lazy, b) busy, or c) sick lately, this can pose a problem. Want to guess which of the three apply to me (hint: no matter what you guess, you'll be right)? I haven't slowed down the running enough to the point where I've lost all of the running benefi...

Before the weekend started I knew I had a good amount of work to do On Tuesday I have some code due, plus home improvement projects anew I figured I had four days free, and I'd finish everything easily But the plans of mice and men fall apart every now and then A few of us started the weekend early we wanted to kick things off merrily the plan was dinner and drinks, but with glasses filled to the brinks after the second round of clinks it turned into a round of "what Sam thinks" I went to a couple of birthdays, one for a friend traveling a ways we're parting ways, so I wanted to raise a glass and send him off with a toast of praise The other friend I've not seen for days and she ended the night in a drunken daze I met up with some college friends it's been too long, so to make amends, we continued the weekend's trends with drinks of alcoholic blends All in all, I had my fun a good reminder I'm twenty some but my tasks were mostly left undone (I did mak...

In many sports, they tell you to learn to be ambidextrous to a certain degree. Basketball players are taught to dribble with both hands, soccer players learn to kick the ball with either leg, fighters learn to throw punches with both hands, etc. Since most people have a dominant hand, accomplishing this feat means that you have to put in extra work to get your weaker, "off" hand to the same level of competency as your dominant hand. Apparently, this is a useful skill to have in all facets of life. I discovered this fact this morning when having breakfast. There's a new kid floating around our house for a couple of days (my mom is substitute-caring for someone), so I was playing with her a little bit. It was time to eat something, though, so I sat at the table for a simple breakfast: orange juice, slice of bread, and an avocado. The little girl looked bored, so I scooped her up to sit in my lap. It kept her from wandering around aimlessly and pulling off random m...

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I think I've become a health nut. It was a gradual descent into madness, to be sure, but it happened nevertheless. Somehow, I went from being the kid who'd eat anything (did you know the 5 second rule applies on the beach?) to being the guy who washed his organic apple before biting into it. I blame three people, really: the guy who I used to take kickboxing with, Michael Pollan, and my mother. Had it not been for them, I probably wouldn't be in the predicament in which I currently find myself. With apologies to Robert Frost, I should've taken the path more traveled. *sigh* Anyhow, I think the first sign of my impending fall was that I started taking a CrossFit class. Now, it's not a full-blown CrossFit class, because the gym people would have a heart attack if they saw me bailing out on a lift/snatch. They're really big on safety at work, so they'd frown upon that kind of a workout. Also, legit Cro...