May 2013
1 post
1 tag
Mother's Day Without Mother
Childhood
“She’s too tired to talk right now.”
This was the reason week after week why I couldn’t talk to my mom on the phone. I was living with my uncle’s family in the States, and my mom was somewhere in Korea dying from breast cancer. By the time the excuses started flowing, she was already dead and I was oblivious.
A couple months later, we’re all...
April 2013
1 post
1 tag
An Overdue Update
I should let you know that I haven’t been posting any of my travel posts or uploading any pictures on Facebook because my laptop was stolen on a train ride from hell through Bulgaria. More on this later. The important thing is that I’m still safe and traveling!
March 2013
14 posts
2 tags
Vienna Travel Tips
Transportation
I bought a 48 hour pass. Didn’t have my ticket checked a single time.
Hostels
Hostel Ruthensteiner: For the love of all that is good, don’t stay here. You have to put in the bedsheets, pillowcase, and blanket cover yourself which is the last thing you want to do when you’re exhausted from travelling all day, there’s no space above beds so you have to...
2 tags
Vienna First Impressions
Alright, so this post is way overdue because I’m not even in Vienna anymore, but I’ll write down what I remember of my first impressions.
I was drinking overpriced hot chocolate at Starbucks out of a huge glass mug (do we have those in the States? I don’t really go to Starbucks so I don’t know) and two young teenagers came into the store to ask for money. This is the first...
2 tags
Prague Travel Tips
Transportation
You can walk pretty much everywhere.
Hostels
The Mosaic House (St. Christopher’s): Great bar, great facilities, and there’s live music, too. The chill-out room for this place wasn’t very social, but there were a lot of people hanging around the bar so it was nice. St. Christopher’s (it’s a chain) hostels are always high quality. If you go here, look...
1 tag
"Where are you from?"
Let’s be real, saying “Fullerton” is out of the question.
I used to say Orange County, but only a handful of people from Europe who have seen “The OC” knew where that’s located and I felt like a snobby American who expects everyone from all over the world to know where Orange County is located.
And then I switched to saying California, but that only delayed...
2 tags
Prague First Impressions
The Czech Republic still uses Czech Crowns, which was disappointing because the ancient Lonely Planet guide that I read on the train said that the Czech Republic would adopt the Euro by 2010. Lies.
Apparently this is also present in some parts of the States, but I was surprised by how all the cashiers in the supermarkets were sitting down as they rang people up. Also a disproportionate number of...
2 tags
Berlin Travel Tips
Clothing
If you go in the winter, dress warm and have shoes without a million holes so that your feet won’t go numb from the snow. Yup, speaking from experience.
Transportation
Unlike London’s Tube, Berlin’s public transit is pretty much based on an honor system. If you do decide to try your hand at fare evasion on the U-Bahn or S-Bahn, be warned that both guys that I met on...
2 tags
Traveling, the Art of Hit or Miss and the...
Walking around indecisively with an unlikely conglomerate of new friends from Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, and Japan and trying doner kebab (vegetarian version, naturally) for the first time.
Watching Peter painfully struggle to translate “bark” into English for a full minute and finding out that the Swedish word for it is also “bark”.
Discussing “The Matrix”,...
2 tags
Berlin First Impressions
It’s cold. Like even-my-overpriced-smartwool-socks-are-failing-me cold. I haven’t seen snow since I ate bucketfuls of it for a full day while having a board strapped to my feet two months ago, so this is definitely conjuring up some good memories.
Berlin parties hard. When I left Club Soda this morning at 5am, there were still a ton of people there. Pretty nuts.
The green man that...
1 tag
Water and Piss, In That Order
There are many customs I love about European countries in contrast to the States, a few being the metric system, great public transit, tipping being what it should be, a sensible drinking age, and paying exactly the price listed on items instead of having to calculate sales tax.
There are also some things I dislike like ending up with 20 pounds of coins in my pocket (this is only a pun in the UK)...
2 tags
Brussels Travel Tips
Eat waffles.
Drink beer.
Leave.
2 tags
Brussels First Impressions
Yesterday, I decided to go to Brussels before heading over to Berlin so I booked a Megabus for 6.50 euros and got here today. Being able to make spontaneous decisions like this is the reason why I love flexible, unplanned traveling.
This is the first time I’m in a city where English is not universally spoken. English isn’t an official language in the Netherlands, but everyone I spoke...
3 tags
Amsterdam Travel Tips
Activities
The Red Light District is fascinating because there’s nowhere else where sexy ladies try to seduce you from behind a window. Some of the guys at my hostel tried the services and told me they had a great time. Except one guy went to a happy-ending massage parlor and his masseuse tried to finish him by fingering his butt but he wasn’t into that at all and screamed. I think...
2 tags
Amsterdam First Impressions
This will be a recurring post for every city that I visit in addition to the travel tips. I should probably make it clear that since these are all first impressions, they’re not necessarily accurate and may just be confirmation biases of horrible stereotypes.
The Dutch have a reputation for being very direct, and so far, I’ve found this to be the case. Within minutes of meeting me, my...
2 tags
London Travel Tips
It’s been three days since I was in London and I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while, but there’s this post about the Speakers’ Corner that I also want to do and it’s been slowing me down so I’m going to skip it for now and add that later. Okay.
I think it’ll be useful for me to jot some travel tips for every place that I go to, so those posts...
February 2013
6 posts
2 tags
Sounds Inside a Hostel Room at 5am
I woke up and I can’t fall asleep and I’m not sure whether I’ve suddenly become accustomed to 5 hours of sleep (hallelujah, praise the Lord!) or whether it’s jet lag even though I swear jet lag never affects me and I’m usually always able to sleep like a baby.
Since I can’t sleep, I’ll write. I’m in a 6 bunk bed room, which means that there are at...
2 tags
London First Impressions
I’m here. I’ve arrived. I’m still alive.
I spent half my time in London today looking for my hostel (no map, no cellphone service, no sense of direction, hooray!) and am resting on my bunk bed, which is a nice change from the tiny seat I was squirming in during my flight for 10 hours, ready to share some observations.
Every conversation that takes place around me is the most...
Ramblings Aboard a Moving Prison
Confined on a bus, this is where I take on the daunting task of writing with pen and paper. My handwriting is already illegible and the fact that the bus shakes so much is not helping matters.
I suppose I should explain my predicament — apparently we have opted for an alternate route in order to avoid mountainous paths covered with snow. While our destination is directly to our south, this...
Until Next Time, SF
Today’s my last day in SF before I take a bus (yes, again) back to LA, spend two weeks at home, then fly to London for a backpacking trip across Europe.
San Francisco has been a wonderful place to live in since I moved here back in October, and I can’t wait to eventually come back and beat all the other startups in achieving world domination. This is assuming that this summer with...
How I Wake Up
1. Hear my iPhone’s alarm going off, it’s the really cranky robot one that my ex-girlfriend used and it’s quite effective because it’s so damn annoying, and swipe away at my desk in order to grab the phone and swipe again to turn it off. Oh, it’s been going off for about 4 minutes now. So this is how I sleep through fire alarms.
2. Lie in bed, think about what I want...
Pursuit of Perfection
Somehow, somewhere along the way, writing blog posts became a daunting task. I have a list of blog post ideas, a huge list actually, and yet when it comes down to write it, I freeze. I have a couple just-barely-incomplete drafts just sitting there, one about mourning my grandma and a couple others. I don’t think I’ve ever really gone into my draft box to finish incomplete posts.
Maybe...
January 2013
3 posts
Moments with Strangers
ONE
“Do you mind if I join you?”
I look up and see an older white lady, probably retired. Sure, I tell her. There’s a table for four right in front of mine also with only one occupant, but she chose mine instead. I guess I should feel happy that I’m more approachable, but then again maybe none of this ran through her head and I’m just flattering myself.
I...
Bus Ride from SF to LA
Instead of flying down from SF to LA for the holiday season, I took a bus from CAShuttleBus instead. I wasn’t in a rush to get home and I thought it would be a fun experience. It was, and I’m planning on taking it back up to SF.
The Good Parts
It’s cheaper, but not by a lot. The bus ride cost me $50 ($45 ticket + $5 tip for the driver) whereas a Wanna Get Away ticket from...
Goals for 2013
I’ve always felt weird making New Year’s resolutions because I tend to think of my life in stages (e.g. college freshman year, sophomore year, year off, etc.) that don’t fall neatly into one year segments that start on January 1st and end on December 31st, but having set start and end dates makes it really convenient to measure progress on set goals.
In that spirit, I’m...
December 2012
7 posts
Politicization and Demonization
This morning, a 20-year-old named Adam Lanza walked into a Connecticut elementary school and killed 26 people, 20 of them children. He then killed himself.
Naturally, people started talking about gun control. Three guns were found at Sandy Hook Elementary School — two pistols inside the school and a rifle in the back of a car. Some of my friends have expressed the sentiment that...
2 tags
Introduction to Photography: Exposure
I purchased a DSLR earlier this week, and I’ve been having a blast with it as you can see by all the pictures I’ve been taking around San Francisco.
Since I am a baby photographer, I’m learning all the basics and figured it would be a good idea to jot down the important bits that I learn so that I can teach myself in my own voice when I need a refresher. If you see anything...
1 tag
My High School Graduation Speech
Despite not being valedictorian, I gave a speech at my high school’s graduation. Here it is.
The Secret Ingredients of High School Now that we’re finally sitting here, we can take the time to look back on the last four years and thank the ones who mean the most to us. Without them, we wouldn’t be here today. They worked hard to put food on the table. They provided...
1 tag
Why You Should Intern At A Big Company
Yes, that is a picture of me and some friends doing pushups. Yes, this was at a party last night. I’ll come back to why this is important in a second.
Having interned at both a “big” company (Facebook) and a “small” company (Twilio), I often get asked whether I would recommend interning at a decent-sized company or at a smaller one. I know this sounds like a cop...
Art and Ego
In my high school’s philosophy class, I watched My Kid Could Paint That, a documentary about a four-year-old who took the art world by storm and sold her paintings for tens of thousands of dollars. I remember sitting there in the dark classroom, thinking that all these art critics were absolutely nuts for believing that a four-year-old’s random splashes of paint were the works of a...
1 tag
A Short Chapter
Let’s start with the bad news. My work with the fundraising agency ended today because I didn’t meet my quota during my 5-day evaluation period.
I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I’m disappointed that I wasn’t wildly successful with this job as it’s one that I found very interesting. I wish there were ways to figure out what I could’ve done differently, but...
3 tags
Canvassing: How to Respond to Rebuttals
There are some common rebuttals that people make when asked to donate: “I’m broke” “I want to talk with my partner” “I’ll donate later on the website” etc.
The technique that my canvassing agency teaches for responding to these rebuttals is called EAST.
E - Empathy (empathize with their concern) A - Address (address their concern) S - Story...
November 2012
22 posts
2 tags
How to Borrow a Stranger's Phone
A man walked up to me today and asked if he could borrow my phone because his had just died. He was supposedly looking for a friend nearby. When I asked him for his friend’s number, he easily recited a phone number by memory. As trusting as I am of people, this was a red flag for me because it was surprising that he had his friend’s phone number so readily memorized. I only know one...
1 tag
Rejection, Rejection, Rejection
Boy, canvassing is hard work.
Today was my first day actually standing out in the street trying to talk to strangers, and it was much different than I expected. I thought I would spend most of my time talking to interested people and convincing them to donate, but instead, the vast majority of it was spent trying to get people to stop in the first place. Since I’m the type of person to...
1 tag
A New Chapter
When I first decided to come to San Francisco, I planned on programming all day, meeting entrepreneurs, and maybe even joining a startup. Well, those plans are on hold.
Today was my first day of working with a fundraising agency that teams up with nonprofits to help them raise money. As there is a blogging policy that I have yet to become familiar with, I’m going to omit both the...
1 tag
Pale Blue Dot
Today I want to share my desktop background with you.
The name of the image above is “Pale Blue Dot” and it was taken by a spacecraft in 1990 from a distance of 3.7 billion miles from Earth. If you want to learn more about the image and Carl Sagan’s extremely eloquent reflections on it, check out this Wikipedia article.
Look closely at that image. In the upper right quadrant,...
1 tag
The Secret to Waking Up Early
Waking up early is an amazing feeling. You’re up before or around sunrise, you can get things done before other people are even awake, and you can take some time to meditate, read, take a walk, or exercise before getting on with your day. Having a great start to your morning really sets the mood for the rest of the day.
Growing up, I struggled immensely with waking up early. I would get...
1 tag
Lessons from a Fire Escape
Look at the picture above. What do you see?
For the entire first month living in my apartment, I saw a window, a latch, and a view of the street below. When a friend in the building mentioned that he climbs up to the roof occasionally, I told him I wanted to try it but didn’t see how I could. It was only after this conversation that I noticed something out the window I hadn’t seen...
2 tags
My First (and Last?) Piercing
The What
I got a horizontal eyebrow piercing, also known as an anti-eyebrow.
The When
Exactly two weeks ago. (The date on the picture above should be 11-6-2012, not 10-6-2012.)
The Why
I always thought that horizontal eyebrow piercings looked really cool, but never gave serious thought to getting one myself. Around a month ago, I somehow got thinking about piercings and wondered why I...
1 tag
When I Inevitably Die
First things first: If I’m ever brain-dead or in a persistent vegetative state, don’t keep my body alive. I don’t want anybody wasting their time and money.
Now that we have that out of the way, I want to declare some wishes for what I hope will take place after I die. Of course, none of these things could happen and I won’t care in the slightest, not even a little bit....
Why haven't you started your blog?
Writing is hard for me. I stumble over my words, I agonize over whether a sentence makes sense to people other than myself, I delete and rewrite and delete again. Thoughts that make perfect sense in my head never seem to come out right on paper.
In the past couple days, multiple people have told me that they want to start blogging. There are many excuses for why they haven’t started...
1 tag
Smile.
One habit I’ve picked up with unexpectedly positive results is smiling at strangers. Smiling is great. I remember laughing by myself while driving one day because I found it so bizarre and fascinating that everyone in the world, regardless of culture or background, contorts their mouth in the same way when they are happy. I’m sure the people driving next to me thought I had gone a...
1 tag
A breakdown of how I was talked out of $100
Last Friday, I went to the mall with only the intention of looking around and checking out the shops. Not once did I suspect that I’d be walking out with $100 worth of skin care products.
Before I get into what happened, you need to know what kind of consumer I am. I’m the type of guy who will spend an hour at Target choosing between different types of bedding and incessantly...
1 tag
First Time: Tanning
I’ve been doing a lot of things recently that I’ve never done before in my life, so every time that I talk about a new experience, it will have the tag “firsttime”. Get excited. We’re starting with tanning.
Well, let me clarify. I’ve tanned non-deliberately before, as anyone who has seen the pale outline of my high school speedo on my otherwise dark cheeks...
2 tags
"I'll put the CD in your bag anyway. God forbid."
When I approached Hakem, I thought he was giving his CDs away for free. But after I took the borrowed Beats headphones off and told him that I enjoyed his rapping, he told me, “18 tracks for $10”. Damn. I should have known better.
I haggled him down to $5, but when he handed me his CD, I realized that I couldn’t take it. I literally couldn’t do anything with it, as my...
1 tag
2 tags
"I'll take you to Nashville sometime"
Darrel was a stutterer. The man in front of me had just brushed right past him, and now he was looking straight at me.
“Hey, I’m not from the city and I’d like to go to Burger King.”
I entertained the idea that he was asking for directions, but he was clearly looking for an act of kindness.
“Sure, let’s go.”
Darrel looked at me, almost in disbelief,...
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
