Danny ChaiI cannot believe I’ve been tagged. Whatever, love of the game.
1. Four Jobs:
a. Hot dog vendor at Great America. Not a hot dog stand, but the booth in the Farmer’s Market. My advice: avoid the chili dogs. I’ll skip the details, but take my word for it.
b. Piano accompanist. K@thy Yung got me this gig for her voice classes during college. I accompanied her an hour a week and got paid for it.
c. Lab assistant. I was pre-med once upon a time, then switched junior year. So I took 4 quarters of chemistry, 2 chem labs, 3 quarters of bio, 2 bio labs. I’m one PChem class short of the requirements. I also worked in a cancer research hospital for two summers. What a waste.
d. Software engineer. Boring.
2. Four Things I Wish I Had Done Earlier:
a. Switched out of pre-med. I dunno, maybe it will be relevant again someday but it feels like a waste at the moment. Had I been symbolic systems from the start, I could have taken way more interesting classes. Definitely would have taken more philosophy. And gotten a better foundation in C.S. Oh well.
b. Realized that smart people can play sports. While growing up, I held this dichotomy in my mind, that there are smart people, and there are athletic people, and they are fully disjoint sets. I don’t think that changed until college, when I met people who were apparently intelligent but also athletic and cool. Not all of them, but enough to finally shatter my preconceptions. Back in 7th grade I was invited to join a couple soccer clubs but I didn’t, nor did I join the junior high team, because in my mind, nerds didn’t play sports. I wish I had; maybe I wouldn’t be so physically awkward now.
c. Stopped washing my face. I’m serious. Jieun thinks I’m delusional, but I promise you, my acne got way better once I stopped washing my face so much. My theory is, if you pay too much attention to your face, it dries it out and irritates it and makes it worse. Ever since I stopped washing it so much, and almost never with soap, my complexion’s gotten much better. You should see pictures of me from high school – my face was a disaster. Nowadays, I only get one zit every few weeks or so. Unless I’m sleep deprived. Which I am now. So I currently have a full spectrum of zits, the cluster zit on my left cheek, surface zit on my left chin, and the dreaded deep tissue zit on my nose. Not good times.
d. Figured out what I want to do with my life. Which I still don’t know. But in the meantime, being a dad is pretty nice.
3. Four Places I Have Lived:
a. Columbus, OH for less than a year. But I visited my home years later. Highland Street.
b. Bay Area – Sunnyvale (on Hollenbeck), San Jose (Rice Dr.), Los Altos (with Minho’s family).
c. Houston, TX – but only for summers. But since I’ve been going “home” there for so many years, in some weird way it feels like home.
d. Sunnyvale, with my wife. Here’s an odd fact about me. One reason I’m hesitant to call into national sports-talk shows is because I don’t know where to say I’m from. San Jose? Sunnyvale? NorCal? “NoCal”? Silicon Valley? Seriously, no clue. And that’s enough to keep me from calling.
4. Four Countries I Have Been To:
a. Portugal – my first mission trip, summer of ’93.
b. Korea – summer of ’95. Most people go to Yonsei; my mom sent me to KAIST in Taejon. I should have went to Yonsei. The only thing I learned that summer was how to play Bust-A-Move and what the inside of a video-bang looks like.
c. Canada – various road trips and family trip. I’ve been now to Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Banff, Toronto, Montreal, Kamloops. I’m a huge Canada fan.
d. Tahiti – we were just talking about this with another couple, but if you ask me, it’s better to go on a honeymoon to an English speaking place. The combination getting used to spending 24-7 with each other and dealing with a foreign tongue is too big a transition, I think.
5. Four Countries I Would Like to Visit:
a. Argentina. I wrote about this before, right? I’ve been getting Travelocity travel updates on Argentina ticket prices for years now. I don’t think it’s ever gonna happen though.
b. Mexico. Just because it’s somewhat absurd that someone who’s lived in CA as long as I have has never been to Mexico. The closest I’ve gotten is the illegal immigrant crossing signs in San Diego.
c. Czech Republic, or wherever Prague is. My cousin told me that Prague is for “lovers”. That sounds pretty nice.
d. Peru – before tourists destroy Machu Picchu. I fully realize that I’d be contributing to that. But it’s getting destroyed anyway, so I might as well see it before it’s gone.
6. Four of My Favorite Dishes:
a. Maguro ochazuke from Saizo
b. Fried apple pie, e.g. from KFC or airport McDonalds
c. Grilled pork baguette sandwich from Lee’s Sandwiches
d. Barbacoa hard tacos from Chipotle
7. Four Sites I Visit Daily:
a. jack.html
b. del.icio.us
c. Flickr
d. tvtorrent.info
8. Four Software Applications I Cannot Live Without
a. XBox Media Center
b. Azureus
c. Firefox
d. PuTTY
9. Four Things I’ll Never Forget:
a. Avogadro’s Number
b. The name of the person who filmed JFK’s assassination
c. The G.I. Joe public service announcement where Footloose explains what to do when you get a nosebleed. (“Tilt your head back!” “That’s the wrong thing to do.”)
d. The code to get 30 lives in Contra.
10. I Tag….
a. Eric
b. J@ames H@n
c. M@rshall
d. Andy Hu@ng