Phil’s blog

Christmas vacation has been great. I arrived at Dulles ~3am Friday the 22nd, spent a week in NoVA, and am now in Jackson, TN visiting my dad and relatives. Highlights:

• Having lunch with Syl and Justine at Panera and catching up on Syl’s love life.
• Pot luck dinner at Hao’s place with Elaine, Justine, Syl, Rajib, Abe, Abe’s sister Diana, Vickie, Matt Mah, and Rong. Delicious food + good company + dogs = awesome time.
  
• Playing Gears of War co-op with Rong until 5am. I had intended to go home at 1:30 but we couldn’t stop.
• Last-minute Christmas shopping on Christmas eve with Mom, Andrew, and Dennis.
• Exchanging presents. I got an Xbox 360 from the family (which I asked for after playing Gears of War). From Justine and her family: a sushi book, a Christmas ornament, a gift certificate for a pedicure (not that I have bad feet, but Syl likes making me pretty :), a tie, a glass sake set, a money clip, a stuffed foxy, a $50 gift credit card, and a pair of super-rare yellow and black Asics like the ones Uma Thurman wears in Kill Bill which I had tried unsuccessfully to find in the past but Teeny somehow found.
• Getting a pedicure at Nail Pro in Fair Oaks. For the most part it felt quite nice, but when she was removing dead skin and trimming and cleaning under my nails, I was a bit tense. The scrubbing also tickled a lot. I opted for clear nail polish just for fun.
  
• Feasting on delicious leftovers at the Kwan house.
• Catching up with Junghoon and Stephen at Stephen’s house.
• Dinner at la Madeleine with Junghoon, Stephen, Chris, Matt, and Ben. 5 out of 6 members of my UVA suite from 2nd and 3rd year! All we needed was Dave to be complete, but he was in LA for work. It was still great to catch up with the old gang, and the food was pretty good! I like the self-serve arrangement because you don’t have to tip and the delicious bread+jam are unlimited.
• Lunch at Super H Mart with Carlton, Syl, and Teeny. We ordered some dishes from the in-store Korean restaurant that were outstanding. Kalbi and bibimbop are always good, and we got this beef stew with noodles that was amazing. We also tried cold, spicy noodles which weren’t so great.
• Seeing Curse of the Golden Flower with Carlton, Teeny, Syl, Cons, and Patty. I wasn’t that happy with the ending but there wasn’t a clear side to root for since each character had done something selfish. The fighting was pretty sweet though, and the scenery and cinematography were great.
• Trying unsuccessfully to make sushi. Almost everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. The tuna we got at Super H Mart was bad, we accidentally used sticky rice instead of sushi rice (or even regular medium grain rice) and had to use leftover rice from a day or two before, the avocados were bad and we had to make a last minute run for fresh ones, we couldn’t find a suitable quantity of roe or good pickled ginger (Super H was only selling large containers of each), we ran out of rice vinegar, and we didn’t have a good knife for cutting the salmon. By the time everything was ready, we were too hungry to actually make rolls. What we ended up with were bowls of leftover rice, Japanese seaweed/sesame seasoning, mutilated salmon, and slices of avocado and cucumber. It tasted ok but I’ve definitely done much better in the past. I’ll make it extra-good next time when I’m back in my own kitchen.

I’ve been asked a few times now what I want for Christmas and I never have a good answer. I told my mom I’d come up with a list to stall for a while, but now I actually have to write that list. So here it goes:

• something that makes me think
• something that keeps me sharp
• something that reminds me of good times
• something that facilitates good times
• something well designed
• something beautiful

This probably doesn’t help at all, but seriously, anything would make me happy :]

I’ve gotten a taste of some other styles this past month:

• Aikido: Tried out a class at City Aikido with my friend Radu. The purpose of Aikido is to stop your opponents without hurting them, and the focus seems to be on redirecting, throws, and joint locks. For most of the class we worked with different partners practicing moves demonstrated by the instructor. It didn’t seem very practical to me, at least the way they practiced in the class, because the attackers were supposed to do very unrealistic things such as approaching the defender and grabbing his or her wrist. The attackers would also cooperate when you tried to redirect or otherwise manipulate them. I wondered how some of the upper-level folks would fare in a real fight. Several of them were older people, including the instructor. Radu and I agreed that it wasn’t quite what we were looking for.
• Master Uddin’s workshop: This was the guy who showed me that qi was real back in August. He came back to the Oakland school to do a workshop on general fighting principles, not really for any particular style. We focused on critical distance (distance at which your opponent can attack you) and footwork this time, and did a bit of work on takedowns. I think what benefited me the most was the stepping work: staying low, stepping with one foot at a time, only stepping when necessary, and facing at an angle to your opponent’s center, ideally towards his or her outside. Master Uddin is inspiring to watch; he can improvise quickly, his reflexes and speed are insane, and he has an incredible understanding of positioning. I will definitely keep coming to these despite the ~75 minute drive from Mountain View to Oakland in traffic.
• Muay Thai: Radu has been training at the Fairtex school in Mountain View for a couple of weeks and recommended it, so I tried an intro lesson. This style is relatively simple. We learned stepping, punches (jab, backhand, hook, uppercut), kicks (something like a round kick and a thrust kick but I don’t know their proper names), a knee thrust, and blocking of round kicks. Most of it was pad work, in which the instructor would hold pads and call out different combinations. We also did a bit of conditioning at the end: abs, push-ups, and squats. It was awesome. If I weren’t so short on time and I weren’t already doing wushu, I’d probably join.

The rest of my Thanksgiving vacation:

• Wednesday: Took my mom, brother, and cousins to dinner at Blue Ocean in Fairfax. We ordered a sushi boat, sukiyaki, and a dish consisting or rice steamed in a pot with mushrooms, vegetables, and small pieces of shrimp and possibly chicken. I wasn’t a huge fan of the sukiyaki because I’d prefer salty instead of sweet broth, but the rice dish was amazing. The seasoning was just right and I liked how it was slightly crisp where it touched the sides of the pot (not sure if that’s intentional). My mom had to call a couple of hours in advance to give them time to prepare it. Wish I remembered the name of it. Afterwards I took my brother and cousins bowling where we got schooled by Winnie.
• Thursday: Mom’s Thanksgiving meal was better than ever because she brined the turkey this time, which helps it retain moisture during cooking. In the evening I went to Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo in DC with Justine’s family. The feats were impressive, especially the intro in which the acrobats do tricks hanging from giant, spinning, swinging chandeliers. The music was also solid.
• Friday: Thanksgiving meal #2 with Rong, Songbin, Stephon, and others at Fabi’s house (French lady who trains at O-Mei VA). She prepared a delicious roasted, stuffed goose (said she couldn’t find a turkey), and people prepared the standard side dishes. We played poker until 3am - the first time I’ve played for real money, and I lost $15 but it was fun :]
• Saturday: Saw Happy Feet with Justine, Rong, and Songbin. I don’t think I appreciated it as much as Justine did, but I certainly enjoyed it. Went to dinner with some old highschool friends afterwards and then to Matt and Chris’ place where we played Guitar Hero 2 and Halo 2 until 5am. Good times.
• Sunday: Hung out with Justine and went to Shilla bakery (for like the third time that week).

It was a good week. Can’t wait ’til Christmas!