Miami

Last weekend I headed down to Miami Beach for my boy Andy's bachelor party. It was a fun weekend. The weather never dropped below 70 or 75 degrees. We went partying at clubs, we ate awesome food, we hit up bars along the beach, we took in sun at the beach and swam, we went deep sea fishing, and my Hokies won the ACC Championship to get into the Orange Bowl. Pretty fantastic weekend.

Miami had its bumps along the way too though. People there are not as friendly as in Vegas, in fact some were downright rude. But the overall weather and being around a lot of my close friends made the trip fun regardless.

Here are some highlights from our trip:






Yup, that's me and the "boss" himself...Mr. Rick Ross. Everyday I'm hustling!










Cocktail Waitresses from beach bar "Mango's" doing their thing on salsa night. This bar pretty much became our favorite pregame spot as soon as we realized there were hot waitresses who danced on bars to live music every night.

We Miss You Jack.

6 years later. I still miss you bro. You never forget your best friend from your childhood. That one (or few) person(s) that you grew up with, went to school with, rode through your life's ups and downs with. Jack, you were that guy to me. Through the good times and bad, I could always count on you. You motivated me to be better. And even now, when you're gone to a better place, I am inspired to be half the wonderful person you were.

R.I.P Jack Tse-Hou Chen
August 12, 1982 --- November 16, 2002

Post-Halloween

Yikes, it's been like 2 months since I blogged. Times are a busy. Coaching soccer has really taken off, I'm taking on newer opportunities and responsibilities. Grad School has been very time-intensive as well. Overall though, life is good. I celebrated one of my favorite holidays last weekend. Halloween is fantastic. Beautiful sexy girls everywhere dressed scantilly. Friendly people everywhere giving away candy and chocolate. And all the delicious pumpkin ale you can drink. Mmmm....Mmmmmm.

Here's some pics from my halloween partying last weekend. I'm the jabbawockee (America's Best Dance Crew guy in the mask).






That's me in the middle. Ali the dark wizard on the left. And Mike Davis as the corporate storm trooper on the right.





Here's me and Anna in her leather catwoman outfit.




Here's me and Stella in her corpse bride getup. She and Andy looked awesome in their makeup.

Mounds

So the other day, I'm in the supermarket picking up a self-made salad from the salad bar + a cup of soup. As I get into the register line, I see a girl in front of me purchasing a candy bar. A mounds candy bar. As the cashier attempts to ring up the candy bar, it doesn't go for some reason. Something about the cashier's demeanor made me believe she was new to the job. In any case, she rings the bell for her manager or whatever and asks for a price check.

"Price check on Spunow".

I sat there for a hot second, like "what the hell did she say?". I was mad confused until I took a second to look at the candy bar upside down...the way it was facing the cashier. Sure enough, Mounds upside down spells out "Spunow" perfectly.

I start laughing, then the girl buying the candy bar is like "what?" And I tell her and she starts laughing. The cashier gets embarassed and soon the manager gives her the right price code.

Needless to say, that made my day.

Go Team USA!!!

It's 2008. And two days ago, the Beijing version of the Summer Olympiad kicked off. That's great news for me. I've always been a big fan of the summer olympics. From the outrageous opening ceremonies to the endless supply of dramatic competition to the raw emotion of victory and defeat....nothing brings the world together like this event. This year, there's a lot I'm cheering for.

First off, there's Team USA. Obviously I have to root for my home country. I'm cheering for both the Men's and Women's soccer teams. The men have a long road to prove their anywhere close to the medals at the international level, but I'm optimistic that this young U23 team can hold its own. The women are typically the overwhelming favorites but with Abby Wambach injured this year, the gap may be much closer. Other than soccer, I'm also cheering for the Men's basketball team. Hopefully this year's "Dream Team" can finally get back to the winning ways of the original dream teams and bring the gold back to American soil. In swimming, there's golden boy Michael Phelps who just won his first of what could end up being 8 gold medals this year. That's a new record in and of itself, but he also happens to be 3 more gold medals shy of being the olympic athlete with the most gold medals of all time in all sports. He's amazing. And finally, but most definitely not least, I'm cheering for a man by the name of Justin Spring. He's on the men's gymnastics team and just happened to have gone to high school with me at good old Lake Braddock in Burke, VA. He's 2 years younger than me and competing in his first olympics. He's always been a wild athlete who pushes the edge of his sport going for the most spectacular tricks and performances, so I'm hoping he can lead the US to some medals in that sport as well.

Other than the United States, there are lots of other things to cheer for. I'd like China to win its share of medals, and I'm fairly confident they will. They look especially strong in gymnastics this year, and their womens' soccer team has always been a powerhouse at the international level. A lot has been going poorly for China as a country lately. You got the overwhelming population problem, you got the earthquake killing so many people, you got the pollution and environmental issue going on, and you got lots of political issues to deal with (unrest with Tibet, issues with Sudan, and pressure from many other countries to correct their policies). A great exhibition at these olympics could hopefully put China back into good vibes.

And finally, I have to try to root for my country of heritage: Vietnam. For those of you who missed the opening ceremony this year (which was ridiculously awesome by the way), there was an interesting comment by the announcers when Vietnam came out during the march of nations. Apparently, Vietnam holds over 150 medals from the mathematics olympiad, but only 1 medal in its history at the summer olympics. That medal came from taekwondo a few years back, and that sport remains the only glimmer of hope for Vietnam to medal in this year's event. While I'm not holding my breath, it'd be a great beacon of hope for my poor country to win another medal this year, so I'm hoping that someone gets it done.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I spent a great deal of time while I was on the job at work last month, streaming the Euro 2008 soccer tournament games while I did my work. I already anticipate that I will spend an even greater time watching the olympics this month. You can bet that while I'm at work, I will constantly be streaming something from nbcolympics.com. Just gotta remind myself to do some work every now and then too.

GO USA!!!!!

Hooray!!!

This week, Virginia is trying to do its part to boost the economy by giving its citizens a tax break in the form of tax-free shopping. It's fantastic. It inspired me to do some random shopping. I went to the mall today, in hopes of finding some shirts. First, I went to good old Banana Republic. No luck, nothing that interested me. Then I went to Express. Now ordinarily, I wouldn't even go into an Express because of my boycott. Oh right, my boycott...ummm it's a long story, but basically bottom line is that I used to shop at Structure all the time. It was my favorite store. Then it was bought by EXPRESS and became "Express Men". Not cool. So anyway, I go into Express. Again, nothing really interesting, and the stuff I did like, was not at a price I liked (typical of Express). So I went home empty handed...that is until I saw an auction on ebay for this lovely pair of soccer shoes. I've never clicked a buy-it-now button so fast before. Best part of it all? These shoes retail for $300 and I get them for $225. I can't wait to get them in the mail. Try not to make a mess in your pants. I almost did, just look at these bitches:

Ouch Ouch

Over the past two weekends, I've been taking my United States Soccer Federation D License course to get my certification License. Essentially, in the US (and especially in VA), you're supposed to hold a certain license in order to coach players at certain ages. Up until 14, you're supposed to have an E license. 14-16, D license. 16-19, C License. etc. etc.

So last weekend and this past weekend, I spent a total of 36 hours doing soccer. 3 hours on each Friday in a classroom doing lectures, oral exams, etc. Then on Saturday and Sunday, 10 hours each day on the field going over coaching techniques, topics, and exercises.

Today, after completing this course, I awoke to a severely tight lower back. It was painful to stand earlier today. And now, hours later, as I walk, I get stinging pains in my back as I take each step sometimes.

I've learned from all this that a) I'm not as young and spry as I once was... b) I can no longer laugh at people who use Ben-Gay excessively.

All in all though, it was a fun experience, I met a lot of cool coaches, and hopefully *fingers crossed*, I passed my field exam yesterday and should receive my National D License diploma in the mail in like 3 weeks.

Aside from beating myself up in soccer, concert season is here. I went to Nissan Pavilion last night and saw 311 and Snoop Dogg. 311 is a concert I've been trying to see for like 10 years, and they were awesome. They played all their hit songs so I was singing all night. Snoop Dogg was surprisingly awesome too. I normally don't like rap concerts cuz rappers tend to suck when it's live, but Snoop actually put on a ridiclous show. It was cool.

Next week is my 2nd year of Projekt Revolution. Looking forward to seeing Linkin Park again, along with Busta Rhymes, the Bravery, Chris Cornell, and Atreyu.

What's good?

What's good, indeed! I came to the realization this morning that I hadn't blogged in a while so for those of you who I haven't talked to in a while, and rely on this blog to keep tabs on me...I'm sorry. Since my last entry, post Vegas trip, I've been keeping pretty busy.

Soccer Coaching season has ended. Another great season, leading my boys' team to the top of the league and earning an All-Star coach selection. My all-star squad didn't fair as well, but that was more bad luck than anything. They played well. I'm looking forward to furthering my United States Soccer Association Certified Coaching Licensing this summer before the next season starts up again in the fall.

Flag football season just ended. My Hokies alumni team was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the playoffs this past weekend. So we'll take some time off before we start practicing and getting ready for the fall season again, I guess.

Work has been busy. As you all may or may not recall, I work at MITRE Corporation now. Switched over from Bearingpoint last December. Up until this point, I'd be doing baby coding and busy work, but with the upcoming deadlines for my project teams, I've been tasked with more complicated work lately.

I applied this week for the VT Masters in IT program. It's a completely online graduate program so that's good for me in terms of work, scheduling, etc. MITRE should be footing the tuition for me, so that's a plus as well. Hopefully they accept me so I can start in the fall.

Other than that, everything's more or less the same. I'm still going hard with the Barra Brava, showing support for DC United. This Sunday, I'm going to their game against the LA Galaxy. Here's hoping our boys in red and black put the stomp down on everyone's favorite mancrush: David Beckham.

Anywhoo, that was a quick update, I'll think of something more interesting to write next blog...for now, I gotta get back to work.

P.S. Screw Global Warming, tornadoes, and power outages. Also screw gas prices.

Viva Las Vegas part IV

So this past weekend, I took part in the annual guys' trip to sin city. This trip marked the 4th annual trip that we've taken since we graduated. It's actually the 4th trip in 3 years, but since we graduated half way through 2005, we were able to go late 2005 and that counts as our 4th. We've officially taken one trip each calendar year since 2005. Even if in sum, we've gone 4 times in 3 years worth of days. While Vegas never disappoints, I have to admit this year was my favorite trip that we've taken so far. I attribute this pleasure from this trip to a number of factors, but mainly I think it was because only 5 of us went this year, and all 5 guys were part of the original group of guys that have been going every year. As a result, all of our decision making was a little bit more relaxed and things just seemed to flow more smoothly. We also tried a ton of new places to party (LAX club at Luxor, Jet club at Mirage, Body English at Hard rock), places to eat (24-7 diner at Palms, Nove Italiano at Palms, Little Buddha at Palms, and our recurring favorite: Mandalay Bay buffet), and places to gamble so I think that helped to make the trip new and exciting. Las Vegas seems to be expanding exponentially. There was lots of huge construction going on while we were there, so next year, I suspect there will be like 5-6 new casinos that we'll have to try and visit. And finally, I won about $500-600 this trip. Can't be disappointed with a trip where you come home with more moolah than when you arrived, right? Aside from the very first trip we took, this was my biggest win yet in the city. I actually didn't pay for a single thing with my own money on the last two days of our trip. Woot!

Aside from the regular gambling, late night partying, and excessive drinking, Vegas was Vegas. We saw a lot of celebs again. Amare Stoudamire and Shaq were there for the US team training camp, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz were both there because of the UFC fight Saturday night, and Carlos Mencia (was performing at the Palms, so we saw him at the club partying it up). I didn't have my camera this year, so no Nicky Long papparazzi photos to share. I'm still in Vegas withdrawal right now. It's always like this when we come back...at least for a few days. Already counting down the days till next year's trip!

Fun Weekend.

This upcoming May marks 3 years that I've been out of college and in the working world. I feel like now more than ever, my weekends blow by way too fast. Friday comes around, I'm blast out of work, and next thing I know, it's Monday morning already. So being that the weekends seem to last so short, I've been keeping especially busy trying to make every minute count. This past weekend was especially fun.

Friday night, I went out to Happy Hour with Andy, Stella, Leo, Mike, James, Gaan, Yoshi, and Keith at TGIF in tyson's. Originally, the plan was to go to Top Golf in Kingstowne after HH to continue drinking and get some games of top golf in. But, we didn't leave tyson's till after 10 PM, so we scrapped the idea. So I headed home and watched a dvd before I went to sleep. Boring, I know, but at least I didn't go to sleep early.

Saturday morning, I wake bright and early to coach my kids' soccer game. They were 2-0 going into this game, and this season more than any other, I felt like they would go undefeated the whole season. Needless to say I showed up to the game only to find out that many of our players would not make it. So we played one player down for the entire game. Fortunately, I've trained my kids well enough that they didn't get too gassed throughout the game, and somehow, they pulled out a 3-2 win in the scorching heat. I was blown away. Couldn't be more proud of them. Afterwards, I took them out to our regular post-victory pizza party.

Immediately after pizza, I sped home and quickly showered. I then grabbed $600 in cash from my desk and headed out the door to pick up my best friend Will to head up to Atlantic City for the night. Normally, I have football games Sunday mornings, but this week was a bye week so I took the chance to go party with my friend up there. 24 hours later, I was $600 poorer, but pleased with a fun trip to AC as always. Drowning my financial sorrows, we stopped by Philly on the way home and picked up cheesesteaks from Pat's. It was awesome. I bought like 4 which I've eaten over the couple days since coming home. I also bought 4 to split amongst my cousins.

After returning home, exhausted from AC, I again took a quick shower and headed right back out the door to meet my friends at Sweetwater Tavern for some quick dinner before the Chris Rock show in DC. I had never seen Chris Rock perform, and I don't think I've ever really watched his entire show on HBO or anything before either, so this was a brand new experience for me. As you could imagine, he was eff'in hilarious. I had tears at moments in the show cuz I was laughing so hard. His opening act was awesome too.

So then I came home and laid to rest another great weekend. Not nearly as exciting as my days used to be when I was in school, but seeing as how life seems to be settling down these days for me and my friends, I'll take this great weekend anytime.

One Year Later

WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH.

HOKIES UNITED.

4-16-07

DC Sports

I consider myself a sports fan. I follow most of the major sports relatively well enough to know the general status of most teams. Being that I've spent entire life in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia), obviously I got love for DC teams. Last year, Boston/New England had a great year in sports...and this year I'm hoping it could be DC.

The Capitals just won the Southeastern conference championship...propelling them into the playoffs. I don't know much about hockey, and I couldn't name 5 players on the Caps if my life depended on it...but I can't remember the last time the Caps did something good, so this is exciting. What I do know...is Mr. Ocho himself, Alex Ovechkin, is a beast.

The Wizards are in the playoffs too. I've been a DC basketball fan since the days of the Bullets. I still wish they had never changed their name, but that's another story completely. I've been to a lot of games this season and it's been exciting to actually see my team winning. Gilbert Arenas is back from injury, as is Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, and Deshawn Stevenson. Even Brendan Haywood, the goat of the team, whom I joke on all the time...is have a career season. He's even making free throws. Now the team is in the race for home court advantage. *fingers crossed*

DC United has just started a new season. With a practically new roster that includes new goalkeeper Zach Wells, midfielder Marcelo Gallardo (who is replacing former league MVP Christian Gomez who was traded), and a package of new young defenders and attackers; this season is like watching a brand new team. I'm optimistic that this is the year we make the playoffs and actually succeeed there instead of choking like we usually do. I'm excited cuz this season is the first season I'm watching the DC United as a member of the Barra Brava. These guys are the crazy DC United fan club that waves the flags, and throws the smoke bombs at the home games. It's a completely new and awesome experience watching a game with these guys. For $30, you can join this awesome club, get a free jersey, and get premium discounted seats to any game you wanna go to. http://www.barra-brava.com. Vamos United!

The Nationals. I pretty much know almost nothing about baseball. I don't follow it at all, I don't play it at all (except for one season of t-ball when I was like 8), and I don't talk much about it at all. Quite honestly, I find baseball extremely boring and if it wasn't for the fact that there's a new stadium this year, I probably wouldn't give the Nats another look. Baseball has just never appealed to me very much. Most of the game, the players are motionless. I've never seen any other sport where so many players look almost overweight...chewing tobacco while they play. But, all baseball hating aside, it looks like an exciting season for DC's team. The new stadium is causing a lot of excitement in the city. Since I know nothing about the team or its players, I don't know what their chances are of winning this season, but here's hoping they succeed.

And finally, the redskins. The season is still months away but I'm looking forward to a new season. The loss of Joe Gibbs is still a bit painful, but the players and organization seem optimistic that new head coach Jim Zorn has the abilities necessary to bring this team back to the postseason. Additionally, with the big NFL draft coming up later this month, I'm hoping the skins make good use of their picks and make some smart moves. Signing free agent Jerome Mathis is one step the skins have taken. We'll see if that step turns out to be in the right direction next year. Hail to the redskins! **side note. Congratulations to the Redskins Cheerleaders for being chosen as the hottest cheerleaders in the NFL**

Super Smash

The title says it all. The third installment in the Super Smash Bros series came out over the weekend for the Nintendo Wii. My cousin had it reserved. He picked it up Sunday. Between Sunday and Yesterday, I put it at least 20 hours of play. It's an awesome game.

Aside from my video crack, what have I been up to? Not much. I joined Barra Brava (the DC United Fan club...one of the largest in the MLS). They're the ones who sing and jump up and down all game and throw smoke bombs when DC scores. They're also the best tailgate in DC for United games.

Soccer coaching starts this week. Looking forward to getting back on the pitch with the kids. If they're half as successful as my teams have been over the last year, I'll be ecstatic.

Snowboard season is more or less done for me. I only went on 3 trips this year. 2 day trips and one weekend trip. It was a very slow year for me. I blame the warm weather, me getting sick, and too many other weekend obligations. Oh well, there's always next year.

Wedding season is approaching. Early congratulations to Alice (Lee) & Chris as well as Pammie & Hee. Also almost time for graduation. Congrats to everyone graduating from Tech (and other schools as well). You guys are officially the last group of people to graduate from school that attended undergrad with me...so welcome to the real world. I'll see you at Happy Hour.

March Madness is almost here. Time to study my bracketology. *single tear drop* for my Hokies who fell slightly short of the Big Dance this year. Looking forward to big things in the future from this young squad.

Eff the Flu.

Eff it indeed. So last week I was the latest victim of this serial flu going around attacking everybody. I have never felt so helpless in my life before. I began getting sick Tuesday evening. The following 3 days, I was a zombie...drifting in and out of sleep and hocked up on all sorts of medicines. At one point, I was probably on a cocktail of 5 or 6 drugs at once. It sucked. After coming into work Friday to put in half a days work (just to clear stuff I had missed), I sped home and leapt into the bed.

Saturday was the first day I began to feel better, but even so I still suffered from coughing, stuffy nose, and sporadic headaches. Even today, 6 days after my initial onset of the flu, I still have a stuffy nose and cloudy head. That virus is no joke. Eff that bitch.

While we're on the subject of effing bitches, I'd like to eff the American medical system as well. Thanks a-holes for diagnosing this year's flu bug incorrectly. For all of you who don't know, the way that the flu shot works in our wonderful country is that every year, the doctors try to play Miss Cleo and predict the strain of flu that will make its way across that winter. They then choose the appropriate vaccine to prevent it, and distribute it for preventive use that year. This method is flawed for 2 reasons. First, as we've observed this year, when the flu bug is not predicted accurately, we get the wrong vaccine and the flu runs rampant. Second, and this is even more important, the flu virus gets stronger every year. Once we are treated with a vaccine for one strain, the virus just mutates and gets a stronger strain the next year. This may sound flawed on my part, but here's what I think the US doctors NEED to do. Wait each year with several flu vaccines prepared. When the first flu hits, diagnose it and determine the CORRECT vaccine that should be used....then prescribe it. This way, we get an accurate flu shot for millions of people. Call me crazy, but I like to pay for drugs that will actually keep me from losing a week of my life to illness. That's just me.

Other than that, life is hunky dory for me. Looking forward to recovering completely.

Hooray!

Hooray indeed. The writer's strike was announced today as ending. That is fantastic news for me because I can now watch all my favorite shows again. The last few weeks have been rough, forced to watch a ridiculous amount of reality tv. You know it's bad when even Nicky Long is all reality tv'd out.

My laptop died about a month ago, in case you were wondering why I haven't been online. That didn't help my boredom during the strike either. But I finally got my laptop back this week after fixing it and now I'm back up and running again.

So what has Nicky Long been doing? Well, since the last time we spoke, I've taken my first snowboard trip this season. It was fantastic. I surely hope the weather gets cold again soon cuz this has been a pretty shitty season for me in terms of hitting the slopes. Soccer is going good. Football too. New seasons of both coaching and playing start up soon so I'm excited.

Since we last spoke, I turned 26. I feel so old. Other than that, everything is everything. No real news to share. I'll try to blog more often in the future, but you know how lazy I get, so we'll see.

Happy New Year to everyone who celebrates the Lunar New Year. I can't wait to celebrate this weekend with my family. So much eating, drinking, and gambling. It's gonna be great.

Technology Rocks.

Call me slow, late, behind, whatever you want. I'm ok with it. Last week I bought a PS3. Originally, when they first came out, I thought about buying one...but then I realized it was $600, and I had no real need for one yet. Then it dropped to $500...and I still could find no reason to buy it. Eventually, it dropped to $400, and even at this point, I was content to wait and see if it would drop more before some of the games I really wanna play are released on it (i.e. Grand Theft Auto 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 13, etc.) Even the lure of playing my favorite sports game FIFA online hadn't gotten me hooked on buying the PS3 yet...


....that was until last week. I've always been a big guitar hero fan. And before that, a dance dance revolution fan. So when I heard about Rock Band, I knew it was gonna be fun, but I was in no rush to buy or try it. Then last week I went to a friend's house and he just happened to have the game. We started playing and within the week, I owned a PS3 and Rock Band.

Sufficed to say, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Now that the flood gates have been opened, I find myself shopping online quite often for other games and PS3 accessories. For instance, I'm debating whether to buy the other popular sports games besides FIFA (Madden, NCAA Football, Tiger Woods, etc.) I'm also debating whether to buy a 2nd guitar for Rock Band.


Aside from my dorky infatuation with my new toy, I've been pretty busy lately. Not so much snowboarding since el nino or la nina or whatever it's called has made this such a warm winter....but no, I've been more busy with work, soccer, football, and I supposed hanging out with my cousins and sister while they're home from school.

Next week is the big snowboard trip with all my friends where we've rented like 4-5 houses with 15+ people in each house. It's gonna be a ridiculous weekend at Wisp. Looking forward to it!

On a side note, I still love TV. Lost and Prison Break start up again soon. And last week, one of my all time favorite shows came back, American Gladiators. Technology Rocks. Life Rocks. Rock Band..errr..rocks.