May 2013
1 post
This past Saturday, I attended Brooklyn Skillshare, an annual event based around individual artists, performers, and other creative people sharing their knowledge with others in the community… for FREE! From their website:
The Brooklyn Skillshare is a communal, hands-on, learning experience that aims to serve as a jumping-off point in the construction of an autonomous, nonexclusive,...
April 2013
2 posts
March 2013
1 post
January 2013
1 post
December 2012
2 posts
Sick and tired
I have become incredibly lazy and immobile in the face of this (common) cold. I had a small potato & leek soup today for lunch, along with a snack sized bag of Pirates Booty. I didn’t really feel like soup, but the thought of chewing a sandwich or a salad made me tired.
I know it’s bad when even chewing food seems like too much effort.
Almost every day, I go immediately home...
November 2012
11 posts
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Giving Thanks
A few things that I’m thankful for:
My parents, because despite how they frustrate and irritate me sometimes, I know they only mean well… and they’ve always stood by me in the end.
My friends, both near and far, both close confidantes and occasional Facebook interacters… each of them brings something unique/wonderful to my life.
My breakfast-cooking, inter-borough...
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NYSC, goodbye.
$24, 30 days, 7 classes, and 5 locations later… my NYSC guest membership has come to an end. Though I wish I had gone a couple more times within this time period—and I can blame part of this on Hurricane Sandy—I’m satisfied that I got my money’s worth. It basically worked out to $3.43 per class. Not too shabby.
My thoughts on the following classes I’ve tried:
...
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Luck vs. Logic
The weekend before Hurricane Sandy hit, I visited Halim at the neighborhood cafe. He didn’t seem too worried about the impending storm. (Now we see that our neighborhood was largely unaffected—and we are thankful!) \
I do remember that he told Daisy and I this story, which I enjoyed. The details may be fuzzy but the overall concept is accurate:
There are two brothers, Luck and...
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October 2012
8 posts
1 tag
Spinning my wheels
I’m behind on a lot of blog posts I’d like to make… but I guess I just have to start somewhere. Perhaps one day I will catch up, but for now I must just carry on.
I started my NYSC voucher today and tried a spin class for the first time. I was nervous that it would be too hard on my knees. And I was also nervous because I don’t really ride bikes (other than my 15 mile bike...
Foggy math
Took a car service to the airport and in my foggy 5am math, said i didn’t need change for my $40. The ride was originally $35 but i had a coupon for $3 off and somehow thought that was $33. i wanted to give a 20% tip calculated off the original $35, so i figured that was $6… bringing me to $39 total. I didn’t want to be petty and ask for $1 back, which seemed silly at the time....
“If the war had taught her anything, it was to take nothing for granted: that it...”
– The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
TGIF
I can’t stay out late on Friday nights anymore. Most of the time, my preferred Friday activity would be to leave work on time at 6pm, go to the dojo for 2 hours of training, and get home to shower, relax, and maaaaybe go out somewhere in the neighborhood. On my way home from the dojo, I usually pass hoardes of college students traipsing through Soho and the outskirts of NYU, decked out in...
Wearing Asian American Culture On Our (Short-)... →
A great profile of the founder of Blacklava.com, a site whose many T-shirts I have coveted.
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Keep Calm and Carry On
It’s been almost one year since I started kickboxing at a neighborhood Tae Kwon Do school. $400 and about 50 classes later… I am wondering where the time went. Winter, spring, and summer have all come and gone. I’ve taken the mile-long walk home after class through snow, rain, humid summer nights, and crisp fall air. For the most part, I’ve been dutifully going to either...
September 2012
3 posts
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"Fat for an Asian?" Unfortunately, I totally get... →
We all have our issues when it comes to body image. It doesn’t matter what our friends tell us… we all have a little voice inside our head that refuses to listen to anyone else. This little voice is what whispers insecurities, anxiousness, and criticism directly into our brains. It’s very, very difficult to ignore.
“Asian girls are suffering from body image issues and...
A measured breath
Sometimes I feel like our lives are measured in milestones.
Days and weeks stack up, one after the next, in an endless procession—wide expanses of time filled with simply surviving, breathing, existing. These long stretches of inaction are punctuated by milestones, which carve “markers” into our timelines. As more markers are accrued, our lives take shape, twisting and bending...
August 2012
4 posts
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In Memory Of.
His name was Joe. I used to see him sometimes, making the short stroll between his ground-floor apartment and the lobby with great effort. As he pushed his walker back and forth along the granite tiling, he would sometimes get stuck on the slightly elevated part of the floor where the hallway met the lobby. It would take him just a few seconds to lift the walker up over this smallest of obstacles,...
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Time flies... even if you're not having fun.
People say, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” I’m not sure why this saying became such a cliche. Time doesn’t care whether or not you’re having fun. Time is unrelenting. It flies right on by— a procession of days, months, and years— advancing silently in the background, without any regard to what is happening in the foreground.
Maybe the reason...
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“Mamma says giving up is a sin. It’s the same as lying. It’s even...”
– Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
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July 2012
7 posts
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Terminal Point
Without a lifeline of new experiences and fresh moments, a relationship reaches its terminal point. It cannot subsist for long on a diet of past memories, which taste deceptively sweet yet resolve into bitterness.
When a relationship becomes terminal, eventually it ceases to exist. Its branches wither and desiccate. Connections are severed.
A clean break with a sharp knife is sometimes the...
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A visit to the cafe
I stopped by my favorite neighborhood cafe today, in need of a good meal and in search of a catch-up with Halim. I always feel guilty when I go for more than a couple of weeks without seeing him. I don’t want him to think that I’ve disappeared, or that I’ve let the dreaded excuse of “busyness” get in the way of being neighborly. The cafe is one of my...
all is fair in love and war.: Bumping Into Mr.... →
This is a great post on the concept of busyness and how we often hear these days from friends that they are “so busy.” Funny that it has even seeped into the consciousness of our children, as this example of a child whose imaginary friend is even too busy to play with her. How sweet, but also kind of sad.
laurenkung:
My daughter Olivia, who just turned three, has an imaginary friend...
Sometimes life twists and turns and takes you to unexpected places. A year ago, I would never have imagined things would be the way they are today. People come and go. Habits dissolve and new ones form. Some friends disappear, and others resurface. It’s impressive how much life can change in such a short period of time.
We can’t predict the future. We can’t rid our lives of...
June 2012
2 posts
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Blame the drugs
My exercise regimen has been on the back burner lately. I don’t think I’ve taken an actual class at the dojo in 2 weeks. The shame! I have, however, been making a minimal appearance on the mat by going kickboxing last Tuesday and this Tuesday. I’m not sure how it came to this.
First I will blame it on work… and somehow not being able to get out the door on time.
...
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May 2012
4 posts
3 tags
“you know how important exercise is to me, so I understand.”
– What every lapsed martial artist/kickboxer loves to hear when they tell someone they can’t meet up until late at night, due to their workout plans.
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Quotables
I’ve decided to start up my quote book again. Really, it’s a hardcover journal that I keep at home on my bookshelf. I like to think that when I read a book, I will jot down any quotes or passages that I really enjoy. Especially because I like to read literary fiction, or books that tend to contain beautiful prose.
I think it would be something I’d page through from time to time,...
April 2012
7 posts
“The pleasure of remembering had been taken from me, because there was no longer...”
– The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
D told me that there are people who come into your life at exactly the right time that you need them. I’m not usually one that believes in fate… it seems too easy. Thinking that the universe had some kind of plan for each of us seems like a way to pacify ourselves and avoid responsibility for our own choices.
But what if there was some truth to that? Maybe our needs dictate how we...
