As most of you know, I am extremely competitive at most of the things I do and am probably a pretty bad sore loser. And now that spring has finally arrived with a little consistency in the weather, it got me thinking about all the things I enjoy doing, mainly golf. I was playing a golf buddy who was in town from boston, Mike Kim (who is thoroughly smashed by 14 strokes by the way). Me and Mike are on relatively the same level skill-wise so we're constantly competing, and gambling, who will win the next round. Well, before I left Boston, I lost by a few strokes and have been holding on to that loss for the past 7 months. I thought to myself how badly I wanted to win so I can talk smack whenever the opportunity presents itself, which for me is all the time. As I was thinking how I needed to win, and how I hate losing, I began to realize that most of the things I do in life or enjoy doing, are things that involve winning and those that I consider myself good at. Do I only like playing sports because I enjoy winning? Do I only play volleyball because I think I'm good at it? So let's take a look at volleyball. I have played on a bunch of teams from high school varsity, Maryland Men's team, 9man, etc. All these teams have been pretty competitive, but when I think, 'do I like playing for the sake of liking vball?' The best I can answer is 'maybe.' I rarely ever go to open gym, I never take it upon myself to make a team or schedule anything volleyball related, nor do I attend/watch volleyball on my free time. Hm...now other activities. Would I ever play golf and not keep score? never. Would I enjoy bowling if there were no scores? nope. Would beer pong be fun if I couldn't win? eh, drinking is pretty fun regardless, but probably wouldn't be as fun. It's dawned on me that I perhaps don't really like sports, but I simply like winning. Possibly the reason why I am out of shape because I can't really win anything when I run or exercise. Oh well, that's me.

So who want's to play some golf? I'll destroy you.

It seems that these days no one leaves home without a camera. They're small enough to fit anywhere and they're on virtually every cell phone. But is having pictures of everything a good thing or bad? It could be the documentation of that vacation you took to Jamaica. However, it could also be your coworker or boss unwittingly stumbling across pics of you on facebook wasted or in some homoerotic pose. Not really the desired conversation starter at the water cooler... but my current gripe is not this, but people taking pictures of random people, and by random people, I mean me. Recently, I went to Barnes and Nobles with Duthinh. The second floor no longer has tables and instead has chairs facing the windows. So me and duthinh are sitting next to each other, facing the window, when a middle age guy sits next to me conveniently facing myself. I thought that was a bit odd but didn't really think twice about it. I was fairly immersed into my book when *ding* I get a text message. It's duthinh. "dude, that guy is totally taking pictures of you with his iphone." I peer over and in my peripheral, sure enough, I see an iphone aimed at my face. Next, a couple weeks ago, at dimsum a plate of csb's (cha siu bao) came out so i pounced on those bad boys. While enjoying the csb, alice goes "hey, check out that chick with the camera." i look over and there's this broad with some telescoping lens on the next table blatantly pointing straight at me while my mouth is overflowing with pork. Today, my mom's car got stuck so I went to dig her car out. Some guy slowed down, rolled down his window, snapped a picture of me struggling to push the car, and drove away. More pissed at the fact that he took a pic and didn't offer to help, it got me thinking. Should I be annoyed and get in people's face when that happens, or do I just accept that this is how it is now? When can I slap the iphone out of the man's hand, throw food at the chick ruining my lunch, or yell at the ass driving by?


I guess sometimes it's not such a bad thing. here is our friend Paul. Our other character, if you don't already know, is a more famous Paul, PVD. So the story behind this picture is some guy inside who is also a fan of pvd took pictures of pvd signing autographs. Coincidentally, paul was standing outside in the cold just to get a glimpse of the back of pvd's head. The guy who took the picture happened to stumble across paul's xanga, and thus providing this not-so-random-anymore pictures.

Don't get me wrong, I love pictures. I used to carry my camera everywhere before I lost it and a rebel xsi is second only to a set of mp-57's as my next purchase. But when does this infringe on privacy? it seems like "personal space" is something of the past.

Anyways, for those of you hating on all this snow that just fell, here's a pic from my parents most recent trip to Jamaica. It illustrates why a 30 minute sailing class is not enough.

Red Sox fans.

After living in Boston for the past 2 years you get a sense of how delusional these fans really are. Shirts and hats litter the streets every day. Even during the heart of Football season, with arguably the best team in history, I would see more Red Sox paraphernalia than Patriots gear (I'm glad it is the opposite in DC). Anyways, I try to hate them as much as I can, but with a family full of Red Sox fans, I am unable to hate them all.

For those of you who don't watch sports, the Red Sox were in a heated battle the the Tampa Bay Rays. As my dad is a diehard Red Sox fan, he watched every game, regardless of how late it goes. Even my father, a 60 year old man who hasn't lived in boston for over 25 years, has some lifestyle changes when it comes to the Red Sox.

1. My dad only drinks when the Red Sox win.

My father never drinks. EVER. When friends come into town, he'll buy some beer or wine, then sip it a couple times and eventually tag me in to polish off what's left. When the Red Sox had their miraculous 7 run come back, he ran to the fridge, pulled out a can of beer and proceeded to drink it while skipping around like an Indian performing a rain dance. Albeit, it was probably one of the funniest thing my father has done. The last time i saw my dad drink was when the Red Sox beat the Yankes in the 2004 ALCS.

2. My dad sacrifices sleep, and possibly work, to watch the Red Sox.

So the other day, my dad comes home after work. Since mom is in Korea, I do most of the domestic house work so i ask, "dad, what do you want for dinner?" He quickly responds, "I'm going to take a nap. I was up til 1 watching the game, then until 2 watching highlights and analysts. I was falling asleep at work so I'm not sure, but people might have died." Most likely a joke but probably not the best thing to come out of a physicians mouth.


This kind of makes me wonder how much of a Redskins fan I am. After a win I'm pretty happy. A loss, fairly depressed. On one hand, I feel like I'm being a poor fan, on the other hand, it makes me realize how foolish Red Sox fans are. Either way, Redskins won and Red Sox lost.