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.