"I don't want to feel bluuuuuuuuuuue anymoooooooore"

Another year, another blog post. Thanks Myra for inspiring me to write this by writing your own.

2015 was ok. Things that happened include promotion, outdoors, travel, friends (old and new), Magic, and beer, to name a few. Some notables from the past ~10 months:



Saw DJ Kristian Nairn, better known as Hodor from Game of Thrones, during his Rave of Thrones show in Denver. I don't follow Game of Thrones and I also don't really listen to EDM, but it was a pretty cool show. I was exhausted from attempting to dance the entire night.



Visited the Great Sand Dunes with family during Memorial Day weekend. The place lived up to expectations: sand dunes and more sand dunes. Also hail and rain and wading across a cold creek.



Won a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier on Easter Sunday, which qualified me to play in a Regional Pro Tour Qualifier 20 minutes from home a few months later. I do not envy the people who traveled 8+ hours to play in it. Missed the top 8 on tiebreakers after narrowly winning the final round of swiss due to my opponent's mistake on a crucial turn, so it's yet another 2-match-wins-away-from-qualifying-for-the-Pro-Tour for me. Also finished in the minimum cash bracket at Grand Prix Las Vegas this year, but wasted a strong start while doing it by trainwrecking the final booster draft deep into Day 2 (still 2 match wins short of a PT qualification). For the most part, I played out of my mind this past summer and ever since these two tournaments my level of play has slid downward to the point where I needed to take a break and regroup my mental state.



Participated in the Dragon Boat Festival again. I feel like we had a fun group of people on our team this year and I look forward to participating again. I began training to be a stern this year but did not feel ready to stern at festival, so hopefully next year I will be sterning dragon boats for real.



Did the Tough Mudder again. They really intensified all of the obstacles this year compared to last year, and as a result I did not successfully complete many of the strength obstacles. Some of us had a hard time walking afterwards, for various reasons. Had more teammates this year, which made the experience much better. Also scraped up my left knee in the Crybaby obstacle while scrambling to escape from the peppermint air makeshift tear gas and got a tetanus shot a few days later just to be safe. Was sick for almost a week afterwards as well.



Been hanging out with Anna (high school friend who found her way to Colorado) more often this year. She's opened my eyes to the mountains of Colorado that I've never explored on my own, including scaling rock slides sideways near the top of fourteeners that probably aren't supposed to be there in the first place (and hopefully skiing next month). Also beer at the Mountain Toad and Rocky Mountain oysters.



Went to my first NFL game, and it was a good one.



Went to a Seattle Rock Orchestra show with Stephen and crew. That was a good show. There was even an astronaut roaming around. Also crashed a date afterwards (oops).



Spent a week in southern California for work, which was the first time that I've ever been to southern California. It was nice. Got to follow some friends online who were tearing it up at a tournament in Vegas while I was in California, which was also nice. Their results that weekend may even inspire me to play more and get better at Magic again too.

Also been reading and listening to some self-help material, because I have issues and want to overcome them. Despite all outward appearances, my inner negativity, low self-esteem and complete lack of confidence in life are really dragging me down mentally and negatively affecting everything that I do. I'm pretty sure they've been with me for forever, but I'm just now recognizing how much it's affecting me and that I need to do something about it if I don't want to succumb to it.

2015, Chapter 1

First off, happy birthday to my brother!

So far, 2015 has been all right. The year started with Grand Prix Denver, where I last-minute audibled to Siege Rhino and made my first GP day 2 in 18 months but finished 9-6 and outside of the money.

My birthday happened and my work friends were awesome and took me out to downtown Denver for Grimaldi's pizza and dessert. (A very fancy ice-cream filled chocolate egg that's dropped onto a platter.)

GP San Jose (Team Sealed format with some awesome teammates) happened where we missed day 2 after a 6-1 start but got to watch the Super Bowl in San Jose while ordering beer by the gallon. We shared 3 gallons of beer between 6 people, then proceeded to get the entire bar involved in the punching bag game for about an hour after the Super Bowl ended in unspectacular fashion.

Also starting to cook a little more often than the past few years. Work friends hosted a wine tasting party where I was assigned to bring a pinot noir and appropriate pairing food, so I baked some Asian salmon to share. We (the software engineers) decided to buy tuxedo t-shirts to wear to the event since the non-engineers wanted to dress up in actual cocktail attire and look classy.

Other highlights in the first two months of 2015:

- Started playing chess, mainly on Chess With Friends. Started 0-4 and now I'm 10-9, but I think I'm about to lose a few games.
- Saw some friends from high school, including one that I haven't seen in 9 years. I think it's fun to reconnect with old friends from time to time, mainly because in some ways we are the same people who we were in high school but in other ways we've changed so much.
- Got stuck in an elevator.
- Got stuck in a Denver lightrail train with the train stopped on a sideways incline.
- Got to play some pickup soccer in February. Not only was it February, but it was 75 degrees and sunny outdoors.

2014 -> 2015

2014 was an interesting year. There were ups and there were downs. I explored a bit outside of my comfort zone. Friends visited me and I visited friends. I ventured off of the continental US twice. Experienced my first all-expenses-paid trip to play Magic. Didn't play as much Magic as I have in the past few years. Played weekly pick-up soccer. (also known as "run around for an hour" for me.) Completed a Warrior Dash and a Tough Mudder. Attended my first three weddings. Attended my first three pay-to-attend concerts. Returned to the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival after a break in 2013, this time as flag catcher, drummer and paddler. Did not shave during the month of November and learned how much of a struggle it is for some Asians to grow facial hair. Worked some crazy hours towards the end of the year as crunch time approaches. I had some lofty aspirations for 2014, but made a less-than-half-assed attempt to see those aspirations and instead did a lot of research to learn how I can get there after failure after failure.

Hoping for a better 2015 in every possible way.

And now, the obligatory photoblog:

I made a painting

AirBNB chickens in Colorado Springs

ROBO TACO in Portland - surprisingly good

Post-Warrior Dash turkey leg (and viking headgear)

Mudder Village

SMILE.

Christmas on a black sand beach

...because I need to end on a positive note

Super Sunday Series Championships 2014

I was fortunate enough to qualify for and participate in the first-ever Super Sunday Series Championships at the Wizards of the Coast headquarters in Renton, WA. For this first one, 39 total players from 20 different countries came. I think there were all of 9 or 10 players from the US, including myself. With flight, hotel, and meals all paid for by the tournament organizer and the chance to meet Magic R&D and other Wizards employees and well as a tour of the Wizards of the Coast offices, it was a sweet deal. The two restaurants that we ate at Saturday night and Sunday night even printed up custom menus for us.

I started the tournament drafting a not stellar U/G draft deck (and lost to the Boon Satyr + Courser of Kruphix U/G deck in round 3) and played R/G Monsters for the Standard portion due to my inability to carve off any time for testing due to work. While the tournament itself didn't go so well for me (finishing 3-6 and 37th place out of 39), the trip was a blast and I would participate again if given the opportunity. Some highlights from the weekend:

• Meeting a bunch of Germans who got a kick out of my name, since I'm not German and also not from China
• Playing against opponents from 8 different countries for the 9 rounds of the tournament (Czech Republic, USA, Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Spain)
• Doing infinite free booster drafts during downtime, even at the restaurants after eating dinner
• Hearing about how insanely expensive Magic is overseas and feeling fortunate that I play this game in the US. For example, in Australia a $6 card that you can buy in the US will sell for $30.
• Learning that kangaroos are actually disliked in Australia, but dingoes and koalas are ok
• Listening to the Germans trolling each other
• Drafting with Marshall Sutcliffe, Randy Buehler and other WotC employees and asking Helene Bergeot to draft with us, but alas she said she doesn't know how to play Magic :(
• Lots of free food and drinks over the weekend
• Seeing 2 inches of snowfall in Seattle on Saturday night and watching all the locals freak out because apparently it never snows in Seattle and therefore they don't know how to drive in snow. Also, a handful of people who came from warm climates (South America, Australia, etc.) had never seen snow in their lives before so it was very enlightening to them.

2014 - 8% Update

I just returned from a short trip to China and thought I'd put down in words what I remember from the trip before my memory washes away completely into the sands of time.

Before I get to the details of the trip, an quick update on books I've read so far in 2014:

• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman: I read this book from start to finish during one gloomy Sunday while my right index finger was healing from a fresh flesh wound inflicted by a vegetable grater. In traditional Neil Gaiman style, the story begins in a very believable world that we're all familiar with, but then suddenly things take a very imaginative turn and mythical things start happening. In this book, a middle-aged man takes a trip to his childhood home and wanders to a lake at the end of the street where memories of his childhood come flooding back. A short novel, it was good but not quite as good as other books I've read by Neil Gaiman, such American Gods and Neverwhere.
• Replay, by Ken Grimwood: Suggested by a former coworker who read it for her book club and thought I'd enjoy it, I read this book in its entirety during the 14-hour flight from Chicago to Beijing. In this time-travel story, a man dies at age 43 in 1988 and comes back to life at age 18 in 1963 during his college days repeatedly (as in more than once and at the same time every time in 1988). The various exploits of the main character during these mysterious time-travel episodes were starting to get a little old when interesting things suddenly started happening after a few "replays" of his formidable years. I probably should have slept more during the long flight but I just couldn't stop reading.

"We'll soar together." - Ken Grimwood, Replay

Now onto the China trip with my mom and my brother. The primary reasons for my trip were my cousin's wedding and seeing relatives who I last saw in 2006. I've never attended a wedding before this one, and being a Chinese wedding it's probably a little different than what I anticipate to see here in the US later this year. There's a lot of superstition surrounding Chinese weddings that I was unaware of, and apparently my brother and I played a key part in that. Also, I had the privilege of being the best man at this wedding for my cousin and would be doing so with zero practice/experience/rehearsal under my belt. According to superstition, the best man and maid of honor need to be single, previously unmarried folk.

We arrived in Beijing Saturday evening, with the wedding the next day (Sunday). According to plan, my brother and I slept in my cousin's bed that night, because superstition says that single folk should sleep there the night before the wedding. Small children should also romp around in that bed at some point before the wedding, which happened at some point before we arrived.

We (the groom, my brother, and myself) got up at 6 in the morning on Sunday, got ready and got dressed, and the groom handed me a stack of red packets of money "for later when I may need them." We then departed in a vehicle adorned with flowers and bow-ties to a hotel to "fetch the bride." The bride, bridesmaids, and friends spent the night at this hotel getting ready for the wedding day. (I should probably mention that all along during this journey wedding photographers and videographers were following along.) Upon arrival at the hotel bedroom with the door closed and barricaded by people, the groom had to prove himself worthy of entering by saying (and singing) various things. After we got in (somewhat forcibly), the bride was seated on the bed in full wedding attire except for her shoes - the groom and I had to find her shoes, which were hidden somewhere in the room. I opened the wardrobe door and a girl jumped out at me asking for red packets - I then proceeded to hand her my entire stack of approximately 8 red packets mainly because I had no idea what I was doing, but that turned out ok because inside the wardrobe she was standing on a pillow with one of the two shoes hidden inside the pillowcase. Locating the second shoe in the room required a hint that my cousin received by handing out more red packets to bridesmaids. After exchanging some more red packets between groomsmen, bridesmaids, groom, and bride, we were on our way out of the hotel with a particular folded-up red blanket in our tow, which would play a key part in the next part of the journey.

The wedding procession (which included a white BMW X-1 adorned with flowers and bow-ties in the front, followed by several black Audi A6's) then headed to the groom's parents' home. Inside the home was an empty bed, and the groom needed to carry the bride without her feet ever touching the ground from the vehicle to the bed and let her down onto the red blanket which also needed to be carried there from inside the vehicle and spread onto the bed in quick fashion lest the bride be dropped too early (we were successful). Dumplings were cooked for the groom and bride, and after eating some dumplings and avidly pronouncing them raw ("sheng," which is homonymous with the Chinese word for "give birth") despite them being fully cooked, some photographs were taken, then everyone was on their way in procession across the city in ruthless Sunday morning Beijing traffic to the hotel where the wedding ceremony took place.

Firecrackers happened (as they did throughout the morning every time we reached a destination in the journey), then some waiting around for wedding guests to arrive, then I was briefed for the second or third time by different people on my duties as best man. The wedding ceremony took place in a large dining room of the hotel where guests would be provided with generous lunch food and beverages. During the ceremony, my main duties as best man were keeper of the microphone (handing it to speakers on stage when needed) and keeper of the secret gift that the groom prepared for the bride. There was the entrance of the bride...

...some ceremonial tea-drinking for the bride's and groom's parents...

...some ring-presenting, some words spoken by various guests, a ceremonial wine-pouring into a cascading wine-glass setup...

...and an exchange of secret gifts, then lunch commenced for the guests. The main speaker of the ceremony was fairly entertaining.

Shortly after lunch began, the bride and groom, followed by the maid of honor and best man, go around to each table of guests and have a small drink with each guest as a kind gesture. Some guests may give the couple a red packet during this, because apparently exchanging money is the thing to do in China during special occasions such as these. During these rounds, the best man carries a platter of candy and cigarettes to appease those who may want those, as well as a small jug of alcohol water on the platter to refill the bride's and groom's glasses after doing "cheers" and having a drink with each wedding guest. It's necessary to fill the bride's and groom's glasses with water because there are a lot of wedding guests to drink with and alcohol would either end the ceremony prematurely and/or end poorly. I was fortunate to have the maid of honor doing the refilling of water while I focused on carrying the platter in my jet-lagged haze.

That's about it! May the newlyweds live happily ever after.

The rest of my trip consisted of seeing relatives, eating, sleeping, and visiting the Beijing Olympic Park, including going inside the Bird's Nest and skirting the perimeter of the Water Cube.

Overall, it was a good trip, although somewhat short for me due to various circumstances. The flight from Beijing to San Francisco was pretty packed and a group of high school students on a "study tour" in the US (visiting college campuses) settled down in the seats all around mine. During the flight, I met Echo and Winona (students in the 2 seats next to me who were embarking on their first trip to the US) as well as their teacher (in the seat across the aisle from me who could have been anywhere between 22 and 37 years old if I were to guess). The students struck a conversation with me and were fascinated in my presence as a Cornell alumnus who could speak both English and Mandarin with a Beijing accent. Winona was quiet and shy like myself, but Echo was extremely outgoing and talkative and spoke with me whenever we were both awake during the flight. She was amazed at how straight my teeth were when I smiled and thought it was funny how my talking resembled that of Wang Leehom, who is one of her favorite Chinese music stars. I like to think that this made the flight from PEK -> SFO very short compared to the ORD -> PEK flight, because the flight did feel very short, but maybe that's because I slept for about half the flight.