The best I could do for my mother and my aunt was to always make them laugh. My best memories of my family in Toronto are always the late nights sitting around talking around the dinner table while eating "Siew-Ahp-Jook" (roast duck porridge). Whether it was some stupid accent that I could immitate or some story about my uncle and dad in some random situation, it was always hilarious watching my mom and her sisters sit around cracking up.

The whole weekend has been a blur. I've kept busy with school work, preparing for interviews, and trying to get out and away from my apartment. I've been able to talk and spend time with those who matter to me most, which has definitely helped. Hopefully they all know how much they've helped and how much I appreciate it all.

There isn't much to say really. Dealing with grief is something everyone does in his or her own way. As for me, it's best to think about my godmother laughing with my mom and their sisters - laughing so hard their stomachs hurt and their eyes watered up.

Goodbye, Lan-Yee, I miss you and your laugh. I will always be there for M & J.

Love,
-T

As the light turned green and I drove past the Mega-Segway rider, the truth was revealed. What I mistook to be a Segway, was in fact the motorized wheelchair of a handicapped Veteran, with this 260 lb dude standing on the battery!!!! Keep in mind that there were about 6 grocery bags hooked onto the wheelchair. I can only imagine that this wheelchair had to contain at least a V6 engine in it as the two of these guys plus the groceries were easily over 5-bills!!! ....Gotta love The Roc.

Anyhoo....FINALS ARE OVER!!! Truth be told, they were so so. I finished a marketing class a few weeks ago and we did our presentation for the client company. It all went quite well. We'll see how everything turns out. Mostly, my mind has become increasingly focused on finding a job. I graduate in less than 3 months now, yet the bulk of the "action" for interviews will come primarily in April and May. That's just what the market demands out on the West Coast, most tech companies are hiring for 2-4 weeks out. Some have longer interviewing processes, but almost none of them hire 3-4 months in advance. I'm off to spring break in SF this coming week, so I've been working hard to get a few meetings out there with some contacts. The thing is, I'm in a pretty decent spot with the network I've been building. I've done A LOT of work with contacts and networking through friends, so I can't complain too much about that. It's probably the impending "3 months from graduation" deadline that's seeping into my mind. Luckily, I speak regularly with some good peeps who've assured me that this is the process for the West Coast. It makes it harder that I'm out in NY, but c'est la vie....this is where I am and I have no regrets.

So some business ahead during what I can safely assume is my LAST EVER spring break, but trust me, I'll have some good times too. Family, friends, golf, good food, and hot sunshine (hey - 62 degrees is THIRTY degrees warmer than it is here in the 585).

One of the big things I have planned is to learn how to make Peking Duck from my mother, complete with pancake thingees!!! Like most chinese food, it's actually easier to make than you may think...but man-o-man...that's some good freakin' food!! We'll see, hopefull my version turns out true to taste, you can rest assured that pics will follow if I make it right.

It's 3:43 am and I'm currently "packing" while watching some DVR'd PGA golf. Alas, I think it's time to retire to bed....good night, y'all!!!

Music of the moment: Dai-Lo's Best Mix, created by JLin
Food of the moment: Uggh....I'm about sick of ROC food....it's all about good food next week!!!
Toy of the moment: I'll get to dust off my golf clubs next week!!!

All for now...hope your end of the web is all good!!!

Chow,
-TC

Anyways, random thoughts are over. Brain is working off and on after studying so long. Finals week is this week. Job search is in full gear. Spring break and SF are next week. Uggghh....

Song of the moment: Paula Cole, Feeling Love

Food of the moment: Pasta Fagioli (courtesy of "Mom" at OTR)

All for now...

Chow!
-Tc

This year the bash was held at a local art gallery, which I found out was once actually part of the UR Student Union (random, but interesting). This year, they charged $25 for "non-drinking" tickets and $40 for UNLIMITED drinks (?!?!!!). $15 for unlimited drinks?!?! Shoot, that's a layup.....I think most of us drank $15 worth in our first 5 minutes there!!! .....No? It was just me??!?! ok, mi malo....Needless to say....there were a lot of people having a good time in expensive clothing.

As for "Bob", from last year's hilarity and hi-jinx (see last year's BJB entry ), he was comparatively sober. No real drama to report on for the most part, which is not to say we were mellow. I'm mostly thankful that there was no aftermath to deal with as there was last year. All in all, a great time was had and we got to see some people that don't normally come out. Fake gambling was exactly what it always is....a tease . Pictures should be up on my Flickr feed soon.

What else is new? Hmmmm...the job hunt continues and classes are keeping me busy. I'm DYING to play some golf right now (what else is new?). It's Wed and I'm in an effin' strogging class (def str-og: to bore, the state of mind where you are ready to push a pencil through your eardum to try to puncture the active parts of your brain). Time to go to Wed Night Karaoke at OTR!!! Yeah, OTR is really the place to be on Wed nights as I've referenced on previous nights. You can also read about OTR here at my buddy Jason "the Tuscaloosa Kid" G's site. Big props to J for accurately capturing the magic of "KY6", the "Heinnikin, Hennisssy Man", and the sweet songs of the ALHP ("Angry Lesbian Hockey Players").

Random NBA note: It's nearing the NBA trade deadline and Isaiah Thomas continues to wreak havoc on the NBA's most wretched franchise. To quote a friend "the Knicks now have a payroll larger than Microsoft" and 7 guys that need to shoot the ball 40 times a game to be happy. Good work building on your legacy!

Song of the moment: ANYTHING G'n'R sung by the ALHP's
Food of the moment: Sha Cha beef at Cantonese House.
** warning: in 3 weeks, I will know how to make Peking Duck!!**

Anyhow, that's all for now. Hope all's well on your end of the internet.

Chow,
-TC

I know this is probably a shock to those who know me best, but it's true. I'm studying for a midterm in Cases in Finance, one of the trully great classes here at B-school. It looks to be a litshoad of work and hairpulling during the test. Alas, it will be over in slightly over 5 hrs. No worries.

My gameplan would normally be to go to sleep for a few hours. However, I'm feeling ambitious today. By the time I'm done w/ this, I'll be able to hop into the shower, drive to starbucks, then catch a bus to school to study there until the test. We'll see. Sleep sounds good, but I worry about the extreme exhaustion that my brain will realize it is in if I go to sleep.

Lately, I've been staying up watching movies or tv shows til the wee hours of the night (actually, now that I think of it, it's really a tradition that runs through my family...from my grandmother to my mother and sister and my aunts and cousins...we're just a bunch of nocturnal couch potatoes). In fact, I'd guess that I've probably had 7-8 hrs of sleep in the last 2 days combined on account of newly downloaded movies and TiVo'd shows. Oh well. What is life, if not to enjoy the work of others...even if it's watching Sportscenter for the 17th time in one night, it's all good.

Thursday I'm heading up to Canada to go 'ouwt and a'bouwt with my Canuck cousins, eh. My grandfather is turning 9-FREAKIN-7, so it's a good time to visit.

Anyhow...time to get back to the Market Value Balance Sheet and Corportate Valuation. Woo. Hoo.

- Song of the moment: Session, Linkin Park's Mr. Han
- Food of the moment: Saigon Palace Large Pho...again....because it's DAMN COLD and it's DAMN GOOD. (right now?!?!...an egg mcmuffin sounds pretty damn good too!)
- Desired gadget of the moment: a Motorola SLVR phone (but Verizon's about 2 years behind the rest of the planet on updating their damn phones)

!!! Shameless plug for my gal Pita!!! Check out her new show on Fox in a few weeks: The Loop, Pita's Bio

Ok, that's all for now.

Chow.
-T

New goals!?!? New objectives???! Not really....I am on a 5 month....scratch that...4 month journey to find a J-O-B!!!! Am I just looking for a job to pass the time? To cash a paycheck?!?!? Looking for an outlet to release my extreme amounts of intelligence? Or am I looking for a place to pick up hot chicks??!?!?

Hmmm.....

Anyhoo...things are busy here in the ROC. I'm taking some of the best and toughest classes at school. I'm looking for something to do in 5 months. My friends have things going just as nuts as I do...but it's all good.

After a night of good friends, drinks, and Caddyshack, it's off to bed I go for now.

Hope all is well with you all.

Take care.

-T

2005 was a year of mixed emotions. I embarked on a big adventure when I packed up and went to B-school in NY. We said good-bye to our grandmother on the cusp of my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary (yes....SEVENTY). A loved family member discovered she was sick. You realize what you want and what you need when your perspectives change.

2006 will be another year of changes. I'm sure they won't all be wonderful and fantastic, but I am sure that things will be great this year. I'm the type of person that generally doesn't want to jinx things for myself by saying them outloud, but It's just a feeling that I am sure of (...excuse me as I go knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder, run outside, spin around and spit, and say 3 hail Mary's).

I hope you all had a great Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/Tet/Saturday/New Year's! I may not have spoken to all of you out there, but you can be sure that I've thought of you all these past few weeks. Whether it is something that reminded me of you, a present I wanted to buy for someone, or something said to make me laugh, you guys are always on my mind.

Food of the moment: I'm in SF...only one thing: Vien Houng Noodles baby!!!

Tunes of the moment: Memoirs of a Geisha Soundtrack (Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman are incredible in this)

Toy of the moment: iPod Nano (big props to the case I got from Agent18.com)

Best to everyone, I promise more chuckles next time.

Chow,
-TC

For the next few weeks, we are on winter break. As I type, I'm sitting on United Fl# 151 from ORD to OAK (thankfully, my Premier status has afforded me the luxury of avoiding the Seat of Ass**) to return home for 3 weeks of golf, good home cooking, family stuff, spoiling my main little-man Kyle, and friends. I'll also mix in some business since I'll need a job in a few months. I will bask in warm 50+ degree weather!!! Shoot, I may have to wear sunblock now that my body is used to the subarctic conditions of The ROC. What's that you say?!? No gloves or scarves? No fear of hypothermia when I walk from my front door to my car??!?! What is this craziness you speak of??

While we're on the subject, I'd like to share with you non-crappy weather people the concept of freezing rain. This occurs when you have are in the grey zone of "IMPOSSIBLY COLD WEATHER, BUT NOT QUITE COLD ENOUGH TO MAKE SNOW IN THE ATMOSPHERE" temperatures. This generally occurs right around 20 deg F. You ain't seen nothin' til you've seen an entire parking lot covered in a sheet of ice. Since I didn't have a jackhammer or a diamond tipped drill, I wasn't able to clear off the impenetrable layer of ice on my windshield. You really haven't experienced cold misery until you've stood outside for 30 minutes trying to knock glaciers off your car with a plastic scraper.

On to bigger and better recent events. I recently felt the joy that Michelangelo must've felt when he completed the Statue of David. The completion of one's greatest achievement is enough to bring a man to his knees. Did I create a Nobel worthy theory of economics? No. Did I cure a disease? No. Did I create a beautiful work of art?....to some, the answer would be yes. Behold the majesty of...HOMEMADE CHA-SIU !!

(click to enlarge)

Truthfully, making cha-siu (Chinese BBQ Pork to those that are not in the know) is not nearly as complicated or difficult as you may think. Essentially, it's a roast pork tenderloin, but the key is the execution. The succulent cha-siu pictured above was dead on with what you could get in any self-respecting Chinese BBQ eatery. In honor of this milestone achievement, my blog has been renamed accordingly.

EDITOR'S NOTE: on a recent trip to Toronto, I discovered that my great-grandfather owned a shop that sold Cha-siu, roast pork, Chinese sausages, etc. This totally explains it all. The "Cha-siu Genome Project" is under way to see whether the cha-siu sauces have somehow penetrated our family’s bloodlines.

** Seat(s) of Ass is defined as the aisle seats in the 3 rows closest to the bathroom. Next time you're on a plane waiting for the bathroom and standing in the aisle, count how many times the Seat of Ass people's elbows are bumped by the asses in queue for the bathroom. Trust me...it's a lot.

Food of the moment: Cha-siu!!!
Song of the moment: Diamonds from Sierra Leone, Kanye West

All for now!

Chow,
-T

And thus, I set off onto I-90 East and headed to New Hampshire to visit my cousin and her family (See Flickr link to the left for pics) Little did I know that Mapquest was going to put me on a interstate throughway and spit me onto a 1 lane backroad intrastate route. Freakin' Go@*@*@$mn M%&her%fu!#in' website. While I did get to see much of Vermont and New Hampshire's backwoods and small towns on Rte. 7, I would've rather spent the extra hour and a half of driving with my cousin's kids. In fact, I'd have rather spent that hour and a half sitting in a bucket of molten lava or twisting a coathanger into my eardrum. Oh well.

The weekend was great actually, we spent much of it shuttling the kids around, eating, thinking of where/what to eat, and bundling and unbundling the kids. There was at least 5 minutes of hilarity when my nephew Ryan looked like the kid from "A Christmas Story", unable to bend any joint in his body b/c of the massive amount of padding surrounding him. My cousin Renee made a huge feast fit for 10 people..(Turkey good... mmmmmm), granted there were 3 of us and 2 kids. Suffice it to say, we had leftovers. My great accomplishment was teaching my 18 month old nephew to say "Hiiiiiyaaaa" with a little kung-fu action chop.

Anyhow, it was great being there. The drive home was much less adventurous with 300 fewer curse words running through my mind.

So...here we are, with a week and a half left of the winter quarter. Then it's Winter break for a month!!!

****moment of silence for all of you who are working and don't have a month off ****

****done swearing yet?****

I'm planing to kick it around here for a week or so before I go back to SF for a month. Once there, I plan to golf, eat some tasty homecookin', schmooze, play w/ my nephew, bask in the balmy 60 degree heat (don't laugh....that's 40 deg warmer than it is here)....the possibilities are really endless.

Song of the moment: Johnny Cash, "Boy Named Sue"

All for now.

Ciao,
-T

"Mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers mainly during the morning. High 37F. Feels like 27F"

Guess which of the above forecasts are relevant to the frozen tundra in which I live? Yep, snow fell for the first time yesterday. Things are still busy here at school. Classes are going, projects are being done. I'm trying to help my friends with their job searches through any contacts that I may have. Other than that, a lot of thought and research is going into the companies that I want to work for come June 06. Hopefully the stars align and things work out. As much as I like Grande Lattes, I don't want to be ringing you up for one come July 06.

If the snow signals anything to me, it's a sign of change in the air. Recently, I found out something about someone that I care for a great deal. Things have changed. In virtually every facet of my life, I've always been able to help or point someone in the right direction for help. I don't do things in expectation of recognition, I just do them. Now, I feel more helpless than anything and it leaves me empty. As a dear friend recently told me, sometimes there's nothing to do but be there for those who need you. Sometimes you gotta just stand there together to face things.

So here I stand, waiting for more snow to fall.

-T

Given the short, cold days around here, my friends and I have decided to throw a good ol' fashioned Chili Cookoff!!! The 3 competing division - Dante's Inferno Chili, Vegetarian "Meat is Evil" (those of you who know me, know that this was not by my choosing), and Meat-a-licious! Awww, yeah!! Tune in next week to see who is the Iron Chef of chili!

BTW - I'm trying to figure out what to do for the upcoming school breaks. If you've got a good suggestion, let me know!!!

Music of the moment: Kanye West (sampling Dave Brubeck is cool!)
Food of the moment: PHO (hot and delicious!!!)

All for now...

Chow,
TC

"*" denotes extreme sarcasm

Summer officially ended with a nice little BBQ that me and my buddy/neighbor threw outside our aparments. Great time overall and I managed to avoid giving anyone salmonella poisoning, which is always a bonus when BBQ'g chicken in the dark. Ahhh...salmonella, schmalmonella I say!!! What's a little bacterial infection, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps when you're knocking back a few cold ones with some friends?

The reality of the 2nd year B-school experience kicked me in the arse when a bunch of us attended a National MBA jobfair in Anaheim a few weeks ago. So there we were, a mile from the "Happiest Place on Earth", in what seemed to be the "Busiest Convention on Earth". The place was chalk full of every major company you could think of, as well as every possible white shirt/black suit/power tie combo on earth. Yes, a real life MBA meat market. It was all good for me. The jobfair really helped me realize that my job search strategy is sound and not totally insane. The highlight of the jobfair was probably the Target party and Bullseye the dog (who looks uncannily like Spuds McKenzie with different mascara).

Another cold hard reality that smacked me upside the head happened during a happy hour with my old co-workers. The sky didn't fall after I left (ok, maybe a chunk of the sky fell), which was not the big shock. The cold hard glove of reality was the realization of how I used to live, just like my successful co-workers still live...vs my moderately extravagant student lifestyle. New cars, new gadgets, new office space in a ritzy building, great new developments all around. I couldn't be happier for all of them actually. Good peeps, all of them.

So here I am now, entrenched in our Fall Quarter. As my friends in banking, finance, and consulting all do interviews and deal with the whole job search, I sit here and twiddle away. Why you ask? My target co's, in tech sector and on the west coast, don't even start considering June hires until February at the earliest. Thus, I twiddle away. My stress begins after my friends all have jobs and are relaxing. Terrific!

Anyhow, I apologize to all who awaited my random thoughts. I was busy twiddling my thumbs.

Peace out, eat some trout!

Chow,
TC

To me however, it comes down to the simplest of things...good food, good friends, good conversation, some adventure, some excitement, toss in a little romance and shake til done! I've really experienced it all these last few weeeks - $0.75 noodles on a street in bangkok that was absolutely heavenly, kick-boxing fights from the 5th row, scamming people slightly for the greater good (see previous - story on United Premier lounge), fine dining, random- long-philisophical-hypothetical conversations with friends on the subway, seeing new places and new faces. If possible, add in a sprig of fleeting romance here or there and you've got yourself a WICKED vacation.

I highly recommend these kind of things to all my friends. I just wish they would take my advice more often.

Alas, it is 5:30 am and I have to leave in 1.5 hrs to get on the subway to the train to the airport. It is time to nap.

I will epilogue later, I promise.

Til then, chow.

-TC

As for the "lotsa water", apparently I'm slightly dehydrated out here. I guess sweating constantly and taking in less fluids is a recipe for som hurtin' down the road. I started feeling a bit off on Sunday. By Monday, I was full on knocked on my arse.

Unfortunately, this may eventually lead to a curtailing of my normal gastric adventures since I'm still not digesting food too easily.

We shall see. Off to Thailand tomorrow AM!

Chow,
-TC

Heading out tonite with my B-school friend Kenji (pictured in previous posts), who is doing his internship training here in HK.

Thursday I leave for Thailand where things should be slightly more hot and possibly slightly less humid. Translation: 4 showers per day instead of 5.

All for now...more later.

Chow,
TC