What's on my mind: (4/13/00)

So to be quite honest, that last survey thing I did was lame. I'm getting tired of lame surveys, so I decided to make my own. Here it is.

Name
Daniel Chai

Why did your parents give you that name?
My parents narrowed it down to 3 names before I was born. Two of them were Paul and Daniel, because they admired the Bible characters. The third was Lewis, after C.S. Lewis. They went with Daniel. I'm very glad I'm not a Lewis. It just doesn't roll of the tongue the same way DannyChai does.

Where do you consider your home and why?
Good question. I've always found it hard to answer surveys that say where your hometown is. I was born in Columbus, Ohio, raised mostly in San Jose, and currently my family lives in Houston. I think it's a common occurrence among college students to not feel like they have a home anymore, but it was particular strange for me because my parents moved right before I made the transition to college.

Anyway, nowadays I refer to home as my place in Palo Alto. But in a deeper sense, I feel very comfortable, and "home" when I'm in Houston. So that's my answer.

How many siblings do you have? What are their genders? What's the birth order?
I have one younger sister, 2 years younger than me.

Can you swim?
Yes.

Boxers or briefs?
Briefs all the way.

Do you wear colored underwear?
I own not a single piece of colored underwear.

Where do you get most of your clothes?
Honestly, my sister and my mom get most of my clothes. But they get most of them from the Gap, especially my sister.

Do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?
I move around a lot when I sleep, but I mostly sleep on my side. On my back the rest of the time.

How many showers do you take in a typical week?
4.

Do you make your bed daily?
I never ever make my bed.

Deodorant or anti-perspirant?
Deodorant. Anti-perspirant causes Alzheimer's Disease. But honestly, I don't even use deodorant that much. I'm terrible.

Do you pluck your eyebrows?
No.

How many servings of fruits or vegetables do you eat a day?
Whatever they stick in my sandwiches or other meat-based entries. I'm pretty bad. But trying to improve.

What season do you like best?
I love the Spring. It's not too hot, but sunny, and good weather makes me happy. Weather affects my mood a lot.

Are you allergic to anything? What?
I have seasonal allergies, but it's not severe (usually). I'm also allergic to plums. If I eat them, I get hives all over and have to go to the hospital.

Who's your favorite Smurf? Why?
Toughy. He's this random Smurf that appeared in only 1 episode ever and was just this punk with a bad attitude.

What sports did you play in high school?
None. I always give the semi-true excuse that Bellarmine was too good at all sports for me to participate, but the truth is I was either too lazy or not outgoing enough. For sports, at least.

Have you ever had surgery? Why?
I have never had surgery.

Favorite way to relax
Playing a guitar or piano. I could play for hours, days, even, and not get bored.

Best meal you ever had
I would say it was either a dinner at Jardiniere in San Francisco or a lunch at Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley. The Jardiniere was just a great atmosphere, and the food was exquisite, especially the dessert. I had a goat cheese pizza at Chez Panisse Cafe in high school that I still remember. It wasn't very fancy, just memorably tasty. And my mom had a French Onion soup there that was also quite good.

Favorite character in a movie, TV show, or novel
Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption. Seriously, I watch this movie every so often just to keep me going in my Christian walk. It's a great reminder.

Who do you find attractive: Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow or both?
Someone told me their theory that all people find exactly one of these women attractive. It's an interesting theory. It works on me - I think Cameron Diaz is attractive, and Gwyneth Paltrow not at all.

What do you consider your best body part?
OK, so I'm asking this because once one of my youth pastors asked this as kind of an exercise in honesty and true humility. At the time, most other people said I have good teeth. I had nothing to do with that - 5 years of braces did. But honestly, no one else likes them, but I like my eyes. They're bigger than most Korean eyes, and accompanied by nice lashes and sankapool.

What's your favorite Disney movie? Why?
I love The Little Mermaid. So the animation honestly sucks, and whatever, but to me, there's this innocence and joy about the whole thing. The entire story, the music, just exudes this childlike joy that makes me really happy. For some reason it just jives with me. Every movie since has seemed to me, just a little too formulaic or forced.

What's the best class you've ever taken? Why?
I would probably have to say Philosophy 80 at Stanford. It dealt with the problems of free will, of personal identity, and knowledge, and it just totally blew me away. It was extremely well taught, and very thought provoking. Plus I got an A+ in it (toot).

What's the worst class you've ever taken? Why?
Philosophy 160A: First Order Logic. The professor's goal was to make it as hard as possible. And he succeeded. It was pure torture, and the amount I learned was questionable. Pure agony. I'm not overstating it. The students actually mounted a revolt that quarter. It was that bad.

What's your dream job?
I'd love to be a music producer.

What's your most memorable or most recurrent dream?
When I was young, I would dream I was flying a lot. I had two modes. In one, I would just kind of hover above the ground, so I like floated around instead of walking. Another mode was serious soaring through the air. But to do that I needed to get a running start.

I seriously dreamt I flew a lot, like several times a week. I still do, but not nearly as much. The most common dream I have nowadays, which isn't that frequent, is that my teeth are falling out. I really can't understand it.

What's your biggest pet peeve?
Stubborn people who insist they're right when they are wrong. Nothing, and I mean nothing, annoys me more.

What's your biggest fear?
I'm most afraid of being bored in life. I can deal with mediocrity, or other things, but there's something fundamentally frightening to me about constant boredom. I can't totally explain it.

What do you feel is your greatest earthly accomplishment?
I think it was winning Musicfest U.S.A. in junior high. Because it was the one time in my life where I could say I was a part of a group that was the best in the nation, and back it up. That's just an incredible feeling.

What quality do you most wish you had?
I wish I was more naturally loving. Because I'm not. It kind of is related to my laziness, but, I'm just not good at loving people. I think I'm good at being affectionate, but those are two different things.

If you could ask 1 question to everyone you knew, what would you ask and why? (and it can't be this question)
I think I'd want to know what motivates people. It just said a lot about their desires, their hopes, and their attitudes.

If you could ask 1 question to God, what would you ask and why?
I'd ask Him why He chose the model of evangelism that He did. It's kind of like in Contact. She finds the other society, and she thinks they need to just tell the entire Earth, but the guy (looks like her father) says, after thousands of years, they've realized that this slow way of convincing people is the best way. Little steps. I'm sure God knows best, and that His system is best, but I don't understand it and I would like to.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about you?
It's toned down quite a bit, but there used to be a bizarre idea that I was super social. I'm really not. I am fundamentally shy, and I spend more time by myself than most people I know. I don't think people fully realize that.

Imagine you're in the desert. You've gone hours, perhaps days without water. You are as thirsty as is humanly possible. You finally come across a large pitcher of water and a glass. How many glasses of water would you drink?
Three.