Really random night...

It's past 4AM in the morning and I just felt like writing about this random night.

I had a pretty tough day at work, with a zillion things due-- but I still left at 5:30 in order to make a family dinner in Flushing (and let me also mention that the annoying associate--whom I mentioned in an earlier post-- is being even more difficult now, in order to cover herself =P).

Afterwards, I went to help my wonderful skydiving friend move into her new apartment and along with our other Penn friend, we went to some bar on the Lower East Side.

Strangely enough, we ran into one of my coworkers at the bar-- which I totally wasn't expecting, since this girl lives in Connecticut!!

And we also saw some Penn kids. Specifically, this douchebag guy (i.e. the former president of our Vietnamese Students Association) came over to us and told my friend how he knew "Doug"-- which he thought was my name, for some weird reason.

Some people never seem to stop ticking you off... =P

Anyway, I might be doing a 1-miler race in the morning, so I should prolly get to bed.

Goodnight, world!

My vision's back!! No longer seeing "Grey" on Thursdays...

OK. My "dilemma" from last week has completely solved itself.

Tonight's crappy episode of "Grey's Anatomy" has convinced me to completely drop that show from my Thursday night lineup.

So from now on, it's going to be an hour on the treadmill to watch "Survivor" on Thursday nights!!

"Grey's Anatomy" was so stupid tonight that I couldn't believe it. I have no clue what the heck anyone sees in the annoying, whiney, indecisive Meredith.

It was always terribly obvious that the writers create ridiculous scenarios in order to try to drive the plot-- but now, they're recycling some of these near-impossible medical conditions!! (A kid impaled by a tree branch??? C'mon!! You did the impaling thing in the train wreck episode last season!)

In summary: the show SUCKS.

On "Survivor", they mixed members from all 4 tribes into 2 large tribes (which was similar to an idea I had before this season started airing), but now that all the races are together, things look a ton worse than before and the problems are really starting to boil.

This white man named Jonathan is being a total bigot, as he keeps referring to the non-white folk as "the Asians" or "the black guy". I really hope he gets kicked off soon.

And moreover, the Koreans are being really exclusive among themselves-- which was something I really hoped would not happen. I mean, couldn't we just all stick together as a big, unified group-- for ONCE??

I thought it was waaaayyyy too soon for the tribes to combine-- this was only the third episode of the season!

But nevertheless, I'll continue to watch.

To my Asian brothas and sistas on "Survivor": continue to perform well and make us proud-- but stop being exclusive!! =P

ROAR!!!

OK, they finally posted the results of the Tunnel to Towers Run and my "official" time is 34:40. I finished 385th, out of 796 timed male runners-- which puts me in the top 50%, but I'm still PISSED!

The reason I'm annoyed is because I know the time is wrong!!! >:O

I got to the starting line of the race at 10:10AM (the race started at 10:00AM), and I got to the finish line when the clock read 37:XX-- so my time should have been closer to 30:00 minutes or less!!

I did an aquathlon this summer-- .5 miles of swimming, followed by 3 miles of running, and my split was 07:32 and 31:28 (I'm sure the swim was probably mistimed, since I'm really not that fast...).

But anyway- if it takes me just over 30 minutes to run 3 miles AFTER swimming half a mile in the Hudson, HOW CAN IT TAKE ME NEARLY 35 MINUTES TO FINISH A 5K ON A REGULAR DAY???

Grrrrr....

I just really hate to face the fact that I'm getting old and slowing down... =(

(And for the record, I also did a 5K and a 4-miler in March, along with another 5K in May and in all of those races-- I did well under 10-minutes/mile!!)

Now I'm signing up for a 1-miler on Saturday, just to see how slow I really am...

I'm kinda nervous, cuz there are going to be actual athletes (from the Olympics and stuff) in this event-- but my gym buddy's hoping to run in it, so I'll be the supportive teamster.

Results to be posted after the event...

USA! USA!!

So, I ran a 5K race today with my wonderful friend who accompanied me to the wedding and skydiving last week.

This was the annual "Tunnels to Tower Run"-- which is held in memory of Stephen Siller, a firefighter who died on September 11th, 2001.

The run basically recreates every step that Stephen took that day, when he ran all the way to Manhattan to help out the victims. And the proceeds from the event benefits orphaned children (Stephen Siller was also an orphan) and fire departments.

Interestingly, we actually ran into people from the London Fire Department today-- who came all the way from England, just to participate in this!! Can you believe that?? There were 80 of them (men and women)!! And they were really nice too!

There weren't any female police officers (at least not from what I saw), but many male officers held banners for each of the nearly 400 men in uniform killed that day. They high-fived us as we ran through the tunnels.

I'm not sure what my time was (it'll be posted sometime soon), but my sister tells me that she might've seen me on TV passing the finish line-- which is really cool!! And I know that I dashed past this huge group of guys from the army towards the end-- and they were a super-quick team!

Here's a pic of the two kids from Penn with whom we ran, next to my skydiving buddy and ME (I get the orange tag, since I paid an extra $5 for a timing chip)-- at the FINISH line:

Props to the London Fire Department for supporting their firefighter brothers in the United States of America. And thanks to Mayor Guiliani, who (along with his many contributions to New York City) also came to make a speech at this event!!

I think I'm going to go back to sleep now. I haven't been getting enough rest lately!!

Dilemma...

So one week ago, I spent an hour on the treadmill-- watching the racist edition of "Survivor".

Basically, I knew that I wouldn't be able to get home in time to watch the whole thing, so I stayed at the office til' 8, so that I could head directly to the gym (just a few miles from work) and watch from there-- while also running 5 miles and burning 700 calories.

HOWEVER, tonight was the season premier of "Grey's Anatomy", which started right after "Survivor"-- so I had a conundrum...

Can I handle BOTH these diverse groups of people, while still making it to the gym??
AND...





??










So I could either stay at work until 8 and spend two hours at the gym, or just leave work early and go home-- completely skipping the gym. =P

I chose the latter option and I have to say that I was disappointed. Although my fellow Asian Americans are doing me proud on "Survivor", the episode was just plain boring.

Meredith was being her usual annoying self on "Grey's Anatomy". And a plague outbreak??? Come on!!!

I don't know if I should keep planning Thursdays nights around the telly anymore. =/

To my credit, I did go to this track in Westchester to do a few laps after work, but the groundskeepers started locking in the gate when it got dark and I had to jump the fence. =P

Oh the things we do...

High School Physics haunts me again...

So weird!!

I left work after 8PM again (I had arrived early at 7AM today), and as I was walking back to my apartment just a few minutes ago, I run into one of our old Physics teachers, Dr. Rappaport, from Stuyvesant High School!

What a trip!!

Surprisingly, he actually remembered me and told me that he left Stuy in 2001-- a year after my class graduated (it figures that he lost hope after my wonderful class graduated). He's been teaching at a New York private school for the last few years and now he's going off to Washington D.C. to teach at an inner city school!

The New York City public school system really did a number on him, I guess. =/

He kinda rolled his eyes when I told him that I'm a marketing research consultant, but I guess he hears that a lot from us Stuy grads. =P

Dr. Rappaport also grabbed my business card, before we parted-- since I mentioned that I'm still partially involved with Stuy and I guess he still cares about improving my old high school.

Oh, the memories...

P.S. Arrrrgggg!!!!!! Happy International talk like a pirate day, ye mateys and scurvy wenches!! =)

Mondays are a bitch...

Geez, I can't believe that this week started so badly.

I can't quite pinpoint what made today so annoying, but the entire day was just awful.

Thank goodness for Cosi's, though. I just had a grilled chicken with fresh mozarella and wasabi mayonnaise sandwich and I'm feeling a bit better--sure beats the leftover ramen I had from Momofuku's (which was EXCELLENT when it was fresh and hot) for lunch.

I'm going to go sleep away this day now. I need to wake up at 5AM to get to work, anyway. =P

Back from a wild weekend...

Wow... This past weekend has been so eventful that I feel like I need a total detox.

My friend got married yesterday and I think it just hit me that she's now someone's wife.

When she walked down the aisle (to Savage Garden's "Truly, Madly, Deeply"), our friends from high school got all teary and I'm getting kinda sentimental thinking about it right now. Our girl has really grown up!!! And to think it's been nearly 10 years since I met her! I honestly can't believe how time flies...

The wedding was amazing and seemed to never seemed to end, but I had to leave with some friends at around 1:30AM so that two of us could go skydiving the next day.

So today, we took the journey to and from Allentown, PA. We figured that since our friends had the courage to get married, we would find a new way of taking a plunge-- out of an airplane!

And it was pretty AWESOME!

Here are some photos of me:


Here I am in the plane, smiling as I nervously look out the window. My tandem instructor is right behind me.










Here I am, trying to make the "hang loose" sign, while my instructor apparently licks my hair.











A better view of our freefall, which lasted about 1-minute... Notice that I'm giving the thumbs-up sign!

(There are also a lot of closer-up photos of my face, while I was in freefall. However, I am choosing not to post them, as they look pretty disgusting-- with my skin flapping back towards my bones in the wind.)

And here we are, as our parachute opens...

And here we are after the fall...

Unfortunately, my friend was in another plane- so I don't have any good photos of her right now. :(

Will post one of us both, as soon as I can, though...

This was such a roller-coaster weekend that I seriously need some way to ease my way back into normal life. The dullness of my real life is hitting me pretty hard!!

First Night

So, I've finally created a blog-- something I said I would do weeks ago.

But now that I've finally got this space to write in, I'm at a bit of a loss for words...

I guess I should introduce myself first: I'm a 24-year old Ivy League graduate, trying to make his way through the world from the view of his tiny studio apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

I wanted a name that would capture my Asian American heritage, but also be somewhat fun and describe my feelings of aimlessness and eagerness to learn-- so one of my coolest friends in the world came up with "Yellow American Grasshopper".

I hope you all will enjoy reading this!!

Some random thoughts today:

• One of my best friends from high school is getting married on Saturday and I'm really excited for her--her fiancé is extremely cool! I've already gotten my suit pressed and I'm sure it's gonna be a great time, seeing everyone again. :)
• Thursday night's "Survivor" episode wasn't as horrible as I imagined it could be-- I was pleasantly surprised that the Asian males on the show were pretty well-built and everyone in that tribe was fluent in American English. The other tribes also seemed to have pretty decent representatives for their respective ethnicities, although the white guy who got exiled was pretty dumb; not only did the fool lie about knowingly stealing the chicken from the Asian team, but he was also the only one to refer to other contestants by their race! =P
• Work was pretty good this week. Things were busy, so I felt really productive. And one of my coworkers is going on vacation for a week and a half, so I get to keep a watch on his projects. Fun!

Anyway, I better get some beauty rest so that I can be fresh for Love's wedding.

Cheers!