Chinese New Year Extravaganza

It's the year of the tiger, it's the feast from the Moms
Rising up to the challenge of the Hot Pot
And the last known survivor has to eat all the nomz
And he's watching us all in the Year... OF THE TIGER!

Phew!  My stomach has finally settled since the Chinese New Year to end all Chinese New Years.  My parents teamed up with Bob's parents to bring the festivities to good old Charlottesville tonight, allowing us to celebrate the lunar new year with a few of our close friends.  We used five hot pots, which may or may not have definitely set off the circuit breakers multiple times throughout the night.  But it was totally worth it!  Everything from the fish balls to the beef slices to the bok choy to the shrimp was uber-tasty.

I think it was mostly rewarding for me just to see Lee, Jim, Jon, Neil, Randy, and Tri eat until they were about to pass out.  I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said we each consumed at least two pounds of food per person.  And that, my friends, is what Chinese culture is all about.

Be Mine

I checked my mailbox at school this morning and was pleasantly surprised by a Hershey's chocolate bar from Steph and a box of Nerds from Tina.  Unfortunately, the Nerds came with one of those elementary school Valentine's Day cards, and this one in particular didn't necessarily do much to reaffirm my sense of masculinity.  Thanks a lot, Tina...

And, completely unrelated to the above, I was kind of in a funk all day today.  I can't exactly pinpoint what it was that put me in a bad mood, but I dunno, maybe it had something to do with the, oh, TERRIBLE HEMATOLOGY LECTURES or the IMPENDING DOOM OF CUMULATIVE FINAL EXAMS or the OMNIPRESENT THREAT OF BOARDS.  Whatever the cause, I'm issuing a blanket apology to anyone that I may have annoyed with my sourpuss demeanor.

On the bright side, all of my anger disappeared after I got off of the phone with Dia Dia and Niang Niang, which is what I call my maternal grandparents.  I had called them earlier tonight to wish them a happy Chinese New Year.  As it turns out, several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were already at the house, getting ready for New Year's Eve dinner.  Naturally, they passed the phone around until I got to catch up a little bit with everyone that was there, which took over half an hour.  It's been over two and a half years now since I last saw any of them, and talking to them just now made me realize how much I miss everybody.  Apparently they don't miss me quite as much, though: my uncle won't permit me to come back until I've found a girlfriend AND taught her how to greet him properly in our village dialect.  Such typically high Asian standards...

Missed My Calling

The more I studying I do, the more daydreaming I do about what it would be like to have a different life.  What if I had never given up the childhood dream of becoming an astronaut?  Or a paleontologist?  Or a marine biologist?  Or, to be more timely, a YouTube star?  Okay, so I would much prefer to be a professional musician, touring around the country and playing my music in front of audiences of thousands.  But baby steps, right?

Here's a guy who's well on his way to... well, somewhere that's more exciting than the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library.  I like this medley a lot, but then when I checked out his original music, I was a little underwhelmed.  Ah well, he can at least make a life for himself doing covers, which ain't half bad.

Stories from the Interwebz

Sometimes I worry about my sanity.  More and more often I discover myself talking not in normal English, but instead using words from LOLspeak.  I was discussing this disturbing trend with Nosheen and Lee, when Lee regaled to me the following tale:

My sister recently told me a story about her band director.  He was putting people in rows designated by letters and saying stuff like, "You all are in the A row as in 'Apple.'"  And when he got to O, he said, "You are in the O row as in 'O Hai.'"

Remember a few years ago when there was that big push to bring Ebonics into the academic curriculum?  Maybe they should look into doing that for LOLspeak instead.  In fact, I'd like to volunteer myself to chair the committee that presents this proposal to the Senate.

I mean, i can haz leedership role in teh itteh bitteh congreshunal committeh??

EDIT: In the spirit of all things lulz, I present you with Textbook FAIL (or is it ESL WIN?).

I Feel Fat

I had lunch with one of my professors from college today.  He suggested that we go to Lemongrass, which was fine by me since it's probably my favorite restaurant on the Corner.  It wasn't even half an hour after we finished, though, that the food coma started setting in, followed closely behind by a sense of remorse.

Part of the problem is that I have somehow convinced myself that all Asian food is healthy, even though this is a far cry from reality.  It's even less likely to be true when I consume 2-3 times the normal serving size at every meal.  But how can I resist, when beef and noodles make my taste buds so happy?

I've always believed that the best way to lose the guilt (and the excess pounds!) is to laugh it off.  And on that note, enjoy the following video I stole from Cameron's Gchat status.  Just make sure you don't watch it in the library, or you might end up under the table and crying like I did.  From laughing, of course.

What If?

What if Emi were an astronaut-welder cyborg?

What if Mel had black hair?

What if Sunny had blonde hair?

What if I wore "purfume" to the hospital?

What if some creepy guy in the parking lot of Harris Teeter took a picture of Lee climbing the new Barracks Road snow mountain?  Oh wait, that actually happened.

Post-Game Show

Let's have a little recap of Superbowl XLIV, shall we?

Lee, Steph, and I took advantage of the $5 nomz at Trinity Irish Pub tonight.  Their pulled pork sandwiches are AMAZING, although I would argue that the portions are not quite large enough.  After having a teaser of a dinner, Lee and I joined our friends in watching the Superbowl in Mulholland Lounge, since the party had been relocated from Ashtree Apartments following the unexpected loss of electricity on 14th Street.

We had a lot of fun watching the game at school, but Mary, the only non-medical student present, probably had the most fun when she took home the $25 prize at the end of the Superbowl.  And right here, right now, I'm going to prove that I can take good pictures of Mary that don't involve her scarfing down a Gus burger in the middle of the White Spot (although I would argue that those pictures are good as well):

Ugh, now I'm supposed to pull my act together and do the Epidemiology problem set that's due in class tomorrow.  Why can't medical school just be fun and games all the time?  It's so unfair!!