AHhHHHHhHHHHH!!!!

Oh my god I am twenty-four years old.

That is so terrifying.

Meatball Mania

At first it was going to be a simple birthday dinner.

Kristy was going to cook meatballs for me and Eugene.

Then we invited Chris.

And you can't invite Chris without inviting Doug.

And then Katie called. So she received an invitation. And then Meghan. And then Rach and Bri and Naia and Dan and Emily. And you can't have a dinner party without letting the neighbors Matt and Ryan know.

So what started out as a simple birthday dinner became a meatball extravaganza.

Meghan made firm and delicious cumin-flavored turkey meatballs.

I made semi-soft turkey/onion meatballs.

Doug brought his mom's yummy frozen meatballs.

And Kristy made squishy beefy meatballs.



Meatballs are the best.

Almost all of my favorite people were in attendance. And for that I was very happy.



This morning I was very productive. I woke up at 8am to play tennis with Uncle Bob. A family friend non-uncle that I call "Uncle" because that's just how we Orientals do it.

Of course I didn't really wake up until 9:30ish when I was already down two sets to a man twice my age.

But now it's 11. I'm energized. And ready to do wonderful things with my life.

But first...Oprah.

525,600 minutes...

I saw Rent today.

And even though I didn't necessarily like all the songs...I loved the movie as a whole.

I cried.

For the first time since I saw Selena back in 1994 or whatever.

Four little drops out of my tear-deficient eyes.

It made me think of my Uncle Benny who died maybe 8 years ago now from AIDS.

When Uncle Benny found out he was HIV-positive, our family kind of turned on him. His father (my grandfather), his brothers...they all deserted him. I still remember the weekend my dad got back from visiting Uncle Benny in San Francisco and broke the news to us over dinner that he had a "brain tumor". It was the first time I'd ever seen my dad cry. He just sat there at the dinner table, bawling.

I wasn't until several years after his death when I learned more about HIV/AIDS in school that i pieced it all together.

I had never understood why my parents wouldn't let us hug Uncle Ben. Or why we had to eat off paper plates at Thanksgiving when he was around. Or why if there was a big family reunion and someone was missing, it was always him.

I can't imagine how horrible and alone he must have felt. And I wish we all could have been there for him.

I don't think Uncle Ben ever took medication. I don't think he had any support or desire to live. The man who had infected him had died a couple years before.

Uncle Ben died alone.

My grandfather refused to attend his funeral. And I think he died years later having never visited his own son's grave.

I feel bad that I know so little about what really happened, because even though almost a decade has passed, nobody ever talks about it.

We visit his "grave" whenever we're in Hong Kong (his ashes sit behind a tiny little slab among thousands in a hilltop monastery), but we never really take time to reflect on his life or his death.

Watching Rent made me think about how different my life would be right now if he were still alive. I feel a deep sense of regret for having been too young to understand.

But I also feel thankful that he came and went before me. I know it's kind of a horrible thing to say, but he cleared a path for me to exist and be accepted within my family. If I had been the first gay Kwan, who knows where I'd be right now. I'd probably be homeless. My dad probably would have yanked me out of school and kicked me out of the house.

I think my dad will forever regret treating Uncle Ben the way that he did. And in a way I think he might see my being gay as his second chance, to do it again differently.

So I cried.

There's only us.
There's only this.
Forget regret.
Or life is yours to miss...

No other road.
No other way.
No day but today......

The movie was so good. The music...SO good.

I just listened to "Seasons of Love" again and got all misty.

I'm just so incredibly thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful friends, both old and new.

I wish I could hug EVERYONE!!!

So much can happen in a year. So much HAS happened in a year.

I really do think that I was supposed to die when that cab jumped the curb and slammed me into a wall almost two years ago now (see picture below).

I still have dreams about it. And I truly believe that there is "no day but today" and that tomorrow is never promised.



So, on the eve of my 24th birthday, I look forward to the year that is to come, and to the awesome new adventures and people that I'm sure it will bring.

And I hope that Uncle Ben is out there right now, watching over me.

A 20-something Thanksgiving

It was one the best thanksgivings ever.

Family and friends. All together as one.

On Friday, we had a 20-something thanksgiving with my parents and all our new and old friends who stayed in LA for the holiday.

Kristy cooked all day with Sandra as sous chef...



...while Euge and I ran around town running errands, picking up random groceries, and searching unsuccessfully for a gravy boat. We also managed to get our hair cut.

And we cleaned the apartment.




Everyone came over and we pregamed and played games with appetizers.



Kristy added some finishing touches to the meal...



And then we sat down to eat.





The turkey came out perfectly moist and delicious. We originally planned on a 14-pounder but upgraded to a 22-pounder when we went to pick up the turkey and realized I could probably eat the smaller one myself in one sitting.



There were also yams, and garlic mashed potatoes, and squashes, and cranberry walnut ambrosia, and beef lo mein, and butter stuffing, and sausage stuffing, and chinese rice stuffing, and the most delicious gravy on earth.

Soooo yummy...soooo full...




We followed dinner with an epic game of Kings...




Then we ate delicious desserts including: Apple Pie, 2 Pumpkin Pies, Almond Cake, Banana Bread, Ice Cream, and Jello-Vodka-Banana-Cool Whip Casserole thing.

And ended the evening somewhat early with a decent amount of intoxication and tomfoolery.



Thanksgiving is the best!

Pre-Thanksgiving fun. And celebrities.

Picked up Sandra from Aeropuerto at 8 AM.

Drove down to Newport. No traffic. Hooray.

Napped until 2ish.

Had lunch with Farshid!



Delicious sushi. And BEER. Yes he is a bad little muslim.

Then we had dinner and went on a boat ride.

Booked it back to Q's for some pre-holiday fun with:

Eugene and Takoko, his new Japanese-speaking-only "friend".



Mike Sacks and Valerio



And of course Kristy and the boys.



BUT...most exciting of all....



Sandra met Bob Saget!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

The Joy of Joblessness

Megoon (5:41:59 PM): i have been watching alias ALL DAY

Megoon (5:42:09 PM): i am so worthless dennis

Monica & Rachel's

Our apartment is totally that. And I love it.

Tonight Katie ditched her salsa lesson to spend some quality time with us.

Two minutes after Katie arrived, Meghan showed up.

A couple minutes after that, Meredith rang up bearing the gift of chocolate birthday cake.

Katie asked me what I did today.

I confessed that I joined MySpace and that I kind of just did that all day (even though I fully acknowledge that MySpace SUCKS and is really just the slutty one-armed step-sister of Friendster).

We ordered delicious Sasian food. A half hour later, half-Sasian Ryan came down from upstairs.

We (I) made a poor movie selection and decided we should watch Reefer Madness. It was entertaining and absurd at times (singing and dancing and starring Neve Campbell and Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell), but for the most part it kind of just sucked. There we were sitting and watching the terrible movie, one big happy friend-mily. I can't wait until Katie moves up to the city.



In other news, I looked into plane tickets to NYC today. For December 2nd. $169. It is verrrrry tempting.

I also discovered the 99 cent store. It is amazing.

Harry Potter...I don't get it...

Kathy, Felix's wonderful, but often flaky, cousin took me out to dinner and a movie tonight for a belated pre-birthday celebration.

We went to see Harry Potter. Only because my other option was Pride and Prejudice.

Now I've seen Harry Potter the first and second. And I fell asleep in both. In the THEATER (the first time in IMAX).

I know I know. I dressed as Harry last last Halloween...



And you'd think that I WOULD like something that has such mass market appeal. And mass market teenage girl appeal at that. But I don't. It just hasn't won me over yet.

Nonetheless, I thought I'd give it one last shot.

To my surprise, I made it through the entire movie. And I was entertained for the most part...but I still do not understand the phenomenon. I mean...all the build up leading to the big Voldemort reveal, only to then have Harry run away screaming...

AND they killed the hot boy.

I think my favorite thing about the movie was that Harry was totally digging the Asian chick but got rejected and then ended up with the Sasian.

The Warner Movie Lot

We are the Warner brothers and the Warner Sister Dot.

Just for fun we run around the Warner movie lot.


I felt like an Animaniac today.

Went to Burbank for lunch with Narns. Looks like she is all settled in at her new job at Legendary Pictures. A teeny tiny little production company responsible so far for only two teeny tiny films...Batman Begins and the new Superman.



We were walking to the commissary when I heard someone call out, "DK!!!!"

It was Tess, who we just saw two nights ago at Q's. Funny how little our little Brown/LA community is. I totally want to get a job on a movie lot just so I can meet people and bump into people. It would be like a campus. And everyone would know who the giant Asian is.

Hmmm....maybe.....

New headshots: Bri Amato

Been so bad at updating these few days.

Sorry.

Took new beautiful shots of Brianne. Quite happy with them. Yay.

Off to lunch on the Warner lot with Naia. Hopefully fun celeb sightings to report.

Birthdiggity Debauchery

Eugene walked home last night.

From WEST HOLLYWOOD.

It's a good 10 mile walk. It took him 2 hours.

He left me two irate messages. One voice, one text.

He stumbled with his eyes closed.

At one point he walked into a telephone pole.

At another point he lay down on the side of the road and took a nap.

"Also tell them Meredith grabbed my ass like SIX times!!!! Like a boy!!!!" Kristy laughs.

Drinking is fun.

I am a bit of a retard.

Ok. So first, let me explain.

It's old news that I suffer from chronic dry-eye.

I've tried eyedrops. I tried other eyedrops. I rinse my eyelids with baby shampoo. I bought $87 prescription eyedrops. I EVEN bought a humidifier.

Nothing works.

Mornings are the worst.

Every time I blink, I can feel my eyelid scraping across my eye. It's uncomfortable, not painful, but I'm sure you can imagine how incredibly annoying (and a little scary, when thinking about the future of my corneas) it is.

This problem is further complicated by my hair, which hangs just long enough to reach my eyes.

When going out, and in pictures, I always put a little gel in my hair to give it some shape. Otherwise when I just let it air-dry after showering, it falls down flat, like this:



Attractive? Only slightly.

Now, not showering is out of the question, because when I don't shower my hair tends to looks like this:



And I can't put gel in my hair until after it has fully dried all straight and stupid (see picture 1) because the mixture of my cheap $2 LA Looks Gel and wet hair leaves a big sticky mess running down my neck.

Now I don't like to blow dry because it is bad for hair.

And below eye length is my ideal hair-length.

So all these little factors lead me to my little hair-in-the-eyes-causing-irritating-dry-eye problem.

Which brings me to this morning...

I don't think it's a big secret that I don't do too much in the morning. I check email. Work on some photos. Check some more email. Drink an orange. And perhaps watch a little TV.

So I'm sitting on the couch. Enjoying an episode of Lost. Brushing my hair out of my eyes every minute or so. I could FEEL the eye-dryness problem intensifying.

I looked around. No hats.

And I'm too lazy to run downstairs to my car where all my hats are.

So...I went into my room...looked around...and fashioned a cool little do-rag.

Out of my underwear.

But my underwear is bigger than my head...

So I tied it with a belt.

I sat there for half an hour, engrossed in Lost, enjoying my hands-free viewing experience and thinking I was oh-so-brilliant and resourceful for fashioning my own little do-rag.

Fifteen minutes later, it suddenly dawned on me that, "I might look really stupid right now. I sure hope Matt doesn't come down to see what I'm up to..."

I leapt up from the couch. Ran to the front door. Locked it. And went into the bathroom to look in the mirror.

And...well...I was right.

Taco Tuesday!

Yes yes. It is taco tuesday around the world. As Oprah would say, "Tacos for EVERYONE!!!!!"

But I don't think I will partake in the tacos today. Or maybe I will. Who knows.

So I have decided to probably not get a job until after I get back from Hong Kong in February. Yes yes. That is a long time off. But I have decided to spend the next few weeks/month aggressively building my portfolio and trying to establish myself as a real photographer.

This will include taking beautiful pictures (of course). But I've also come up with a cool way of enhancing the pictures I take...turning them into fake ads!!!

I think it's cool anyway...



Today's photoshoot...Thesy! Pics to come soon. She has cool eyes.

Guest Blogger: Serial Dater

Woo hoo! Stealing space on other's blogs. Quite fun.

Dennis and I went to Madonna's CD release party tonight. Dennis's height again was put to good use as he flailed his arms about, hit people in the head, and grabbed the free CDs that were being thrown out. He acquired the Madonna CD before the rest of the world. Height rocks.



I am quite excited for the impending birthday party on Friday. It will be the party of the year. All should come. Hotties will abound, both male and female. Hook ups are on the schedule. Drunk people will run rampant. And if you miss it, you'll be tortured by the fun pictures for all eternity.

On Friday, EVERYONE GETS LAID!!!!!

Monday is Funday

We are about to go to the Launch Party for Madonna's CD Release at the Abbey!!!! Very exciting.

Bjoern taught me how to develop pictures in a darkroom last night.

Most exciting, however, is the fact that I have finally added MikeSacks (of "Mike Sacks's South Asian Friendsters" fame) to the cast.

After weeks and weeks of him bugging me to add him already, I finally relented when he came over this afternoon and allowed me to add his face to my portfolio:

And so it begins...

The week kicked off with a bang.

My parents stopped by on their way up to San Francisco and took me and Kristy out to a delicious Italian lunch at Louise's Trattoria.

Then Katie came over and we took some pretty pictures to add to my portfolio.



We then watched Oprah.

Yesterday's story featured Bernadette, a single mother, who was supporting her three children and SEVEN nieces and nephews AND her GRANDMOTHER (who had no teeth) on a Starbucks salary. They lived in a two bedroom apartment and slept three to a bed. Her only dream in life was to meet Oprah.

Well, not only did she get to meet Oprah...Oprah bought her a HOUSE which she had Nate Berkus custom-design!!!!



AND THEN, Oprah personally vowed (from her own bank account, not from one of her charities) to send each and every one of the ten kids to COLLEGE!!!!!

OPRAH'S GOING TO HEAVEN!!!!!!



After changing out of our tear-drenched clothing, we went over to Megoon's where she had cooked us a wondrous meal of chicken and other scrumptiousities.



We followed that with some drunken Karoke at the Gas Lite.





In the words of the Great Katie Del Gershmonster, "our lives kick major ass."

This week is going to be SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Vineyard Pics

A while ago we took a little trip to Pete's Family Vineyard.

I finally uploaded the pics (link is to the right).

I also inducted Mr. Stolpman into the Cast of Characters since I'm sure there are many more funboy adventures to come.

Dennis and Kristy's Day of Fun

I love the rain.

Living in California only makes me love it more. Rainy days here are few and far-between. But when it does rain, it is so very wonderful.

When it rains, everything feels clean. My car gets washed. I can flatten my hair without showering (or washing my head in the sink). My clothes get wet, and then they dry, dewrinkled, as if I had ironed them to begin with.

Rain means board games and watching TV.

I'm not a beach person. I'm a rain person.

Yesterday it rained.

Kristy took the day off work. We woke up bright and early. Got our oil changed, bought a humidifier (to moisturize my eyes while I sleep), Trader Joe-d, cooked, even had Chris over for dinner (and scored a free copy of X-Men Legends 2 while we were at it).

We watched TV and went out for drinks with the boys (Matt and Ryan). I even learned to take some black and white photos with my neaty neato camera.



This week my life seems totally boring and seems to have stagnated. But I think this might just be the calm before the storm.

I also bought a toilet brush yesterday.

Friendsters!!!

I woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise in my inbox.

Jarvis from Singapore sent me a smile!



It's going to be a GOOD day!

Good Day/Bad Day

Heidi woke me up to tell me a funny story about how her dog died and she arrived late for class and was already really upset but then was informed that half the class had gone to do some work in another building and she should join them so she turned to walk out the door, but instead faceplanted into the wall really really hard and everyone saw and she turned back around to the class, which was speechless, and just started bawling and said, "it's just been a really bad day..." as she ran out of class.

The fact that I was the first person she thought of and that she found the situation hilarious and called within a minute of it happening while tears were still streaming down her cheeks is the reason I love her so.

HEIDI I LOVE YOU.

Later, I went to a delicious Italian lunch with Meghan and her friend Ben at Trastevere on 3rd St. which was truly delicious. I brought my Yao Ming jersey and was all ready to return it when I realized I had brought the wrong receipt. That sucked. Got back to my car. Realized I had lost my parking ticket. That sucked even more. I ended up having to pay the maximum amount.

But yay! During lunch I got a call from the office of Ian White, fashion photographer, wanting me to come in to meet with them in a couple of hours. Hooray! Things might be looking up.

Went home. Changed. And headed to Venice to meet with Ian and his studio manager Helen. The meeting went very well. I think they liked me very much and realized that though I am about as inexperienced as I could possibly be, I am intelligent and would pick things up quickly.

We chatted for a good 45 minutes.

Shook hands.

I left the office.

Walked back to my car.

Got in.

Looked down.

Swore.

Smacked myself.

And zipped up my fly.

Life as a potato...

I have spent the past 48 hours sitting on my wonderful couch with a variety of frozen vegetables stuck to my ankle (it's supposed to reduce swelling.)

In this time I have eaten:

1 Turkey Burger Salad
3/4 of an Extra Large Meatball Pizza
1/2 Pint of Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream
19 Grapes
1 Breakfast Burrito
1 Bowl of Pasta
6 Meatballs
2 Bowls of Curry Udon
3 Croutons
13 Pieces of Bread covered in Olive Dip

Adding insult to serious injury (and obesity), I've also been abusing my tear-deficient eyes by watching an endless amount of crappity crap on the telly, the worst of which includes: 5 whole hours of the 101 CRAZIEST TV Moments on E!, Bewitched: The Movie (there was so much promise!), 3 hours of Ultimate Fighter (the boys upstairs made me do it), and the puke bucket of a TV show that is Reunion (which I really only watch as a courtesy to the late Dino Whitman (Sean Faris)).

Many thanks to the lovely people who have come by to visit.

Tomorrow I will start treating myself better.

Drinking is...fun?

Kristy claims that she's pretty much the same person drunk that she is sober.

This is probably true.

Although...I don't think I've ever seen her lie down and wiggle around on an oil stain in someone else's driveway like she did last night...

I probably shouldn't be talking.

After a little foot-in-a-hole incident last night, you can now add "badly sprained ankle" to my list of physical ailments.



Two hundred and thirty pounds of drunk, stumbling Asian exerted improperly on one little joint-thing does not yield pretty results.

In other news, one of our more behaviorally-challenged friends has been banned from our local drinking spot, Q's, for yelling at a waitress. This happened weeks ago, but the issue only surfaced last night when he wanted to meet up for happy hour. Granted, I started walking away from the scene as soon as I realized he was about to behave in an embarrassing way, so I didn't see exactly what went down...but if someone treats a waitress so poorly that she goes and tells her coworkers and managers and they in turn go and ask one of their regulars (me) not to bring "belligerent people" into the bar anymore, then it is obviously a problem.

I mean, it would be SLIGHTLY more acceptable if it just happened in a random bar that we never go to. But behaving like that in a bar where you go once or twice a week, know all the bartenders, and get awesome treatment with free shots, pitchers and, most importantly, CHICKEN FINGERS? It's soooooo not right.

Some people just don't like to take responsibility for the consequences. And it is annoying. Grrrr...

Productivity Continued!

I woke up around 10am. Jumped on the couch and finished reading "The Tipping Point". Then I started re-reading "What Should I Do With My Life" for some inspiration for the new project I'm working on.

Took a break to watch the movie Danny in the Sky. Which was a pretty good Canadian/French movie, starring Ralph Lauren model turned actor Thierry Pepin (pictured below), who plays a model turned stripper turned porn star, and is quite possibly the second most beautiful man in the world (second only to Sean Faris).



Later in the afternoon I got a call from Emily, asking if I was up for happy hour. I said sure, but I was also planning to go to Dian's party later at the Abbey and wanted to know if she'd be joining us. Her response? "We can't afford to go out this month. We're saving up money to go out with you on your birthday because we know you only want us there if we're drunk..."

How sweet is that???

Dan and Emily, I love you guys.

Happy hour drinks are on me! (and the Employment Development Dept of Califronia)

In other news, Kristy and I have become hooked on a blast from the past:

PUZZLE BOBBLE!!!!

We're on TV!

So we were on E! News Live this evening after our drunken appearance at the Halloween Carnival last night!!!!!

Click the image to play the video.

We're shouting "We love Queen Ryan (Seacrest)!!!!!"


Powered by Castpost

It was an awesome awesome night. Me, Kristy, Em, Dan, Megoon, Doug, Chris, Bri, Dian, and Katie all ventured to West Hollywood.

Hundreds of thousands of people, the bars were packed, yet somehow we totally cut the line and double fisted our way into a drunken stupor.

It was a great night.

Pics are up!!!!

Life in LA. What can I say? It is frickin' amazing.

Hooolllwooen part dexu

hellooooooo

is it 6:44 AM?//yyes

amr i still drunk???? yeseeeeee

cane we plesaeeeee talka bout how muoch fun it was list night? ohohohohohooh osoooooo fun.

it was of fun.

frcorwdued crowded crowded yes but such fun

parelsmiano was a hornball and grouuped evry lady friend that came. including! bunt not only briannnnne, megoona, kristiy, katie, dyan, dnmiely, and the mirs. jones.

juts kdidign. i don't konw anyonme neamed joness.

............ee.e.........

we ranned to cacrnivale. kristies f1rst!



everayone. SO DRESSED.

sofriended.




monkdance! must we?



wwe must!



kilers abound



und shthen....we aer on TV!!!!!!!!!!1




songs rejouyous!



we waites in the lining to fiestz



tRRriple fists!!!







i only maken such these faces whilst drunk



so mucany costhumes








foerver yao



gosh it was funt





cabbed home,



i slepe



ON TV!!!!!!!!!!


druenk bloggin eins the b e s st