children's retreat

kids are the best.

i plan on having 10 and forming a family band.

world cup and stuff

1.  call me a soccer noob, but i think it'd make the games more interesting if people knew exactly how much time was left during stoppage time.  the way it is now, only the ref knows how much time is left.  can't they hook something up to the ref's stop watch so it shows the time remaining on a main scoreboard somewhere?  some of the most exciting moments in sports have involved amazing plays that occurred as time ran out.  i'd argue that a large part of that excitement is because fans know exactly how much time is left for the player to make a spectacular play.  maybe i'm just whining. 

2.  children's retreat this weekend.  somehow, in the midst of all the (sometimes) annoying kids, incomprehensible skits, bug bites and sleepless nights, i always manage to have a good time. 

3.  i really wanna watch toy story 3.

frustration is eating my soul

F APPLE.COM AND THE NEW IPHONE.  I JUST WANT TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY, STEVE JOBS.  WHY DO YOU TEASE ME WITH THESE STUPID ERROR MESSAGES.  GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER APPLE. 

weekend update

i went to a baby shower for my cousin and his wife yesterday.  things have definitely been changing in my family.  i have 5 aunts and uncles on my dad's side and they all have 2 children apiece (if you wanna see a pic, click here).  so, i've grown up being surrounded by cousins; some older and some younger.  now, all my older cousins are getting married and having kids, so there is a new generation on the rise within the pyon family.  imagine how crazy it would be if each cousin in my generation (12 total) all had 2 kids like their parents.  family gatherings would be CRAZY (24 kids running around).  at that rate, we could start our own country within a couple generations.

btw, i learned that your cousins' kids are called 'first cousin once removed' (not second cousin, like i always thought).  the 'once removed' refers to the fact that they are a generation younger than you.  people who share great grandparents (but not grandparents) are considered second cousins.  there's your interesting fact of the day.

stephen strasburg was born 11 days before me

...that makes me just a little depressed.  i'm pretty sure i couldn't even strike out a little league team 14 times in one game. hooray dc baseball.  the goal is to see him pitch live at least once this summer.  anybody up for another nats game?

completely unrelated (and tmi), but i hate pooping at work.  it seems like everyone on my floor suddenly has the urge to go too right when i sit down.  might as well open the door and have a party in there.  also, the toilets are automatic so you can't courtesy flush unless you want to stand, wait for the little sensor thingy and sit back down.  sometimes that doesn't even work.  oh, and another thing, there are way too many people who either a) have conversations in the bathroom while doing their business or b) talk on the #*%&@ phone.  newsflash, the person on the other line can tell .  hang up for 5 mins and call them back later.  your kids' daycare schedule/this evening's dinner plans/your fantasy baseball squad/whatever meaningless thing you're talking about can wait.  am i wrong to be annoyed by this?  as far as i'm concerned, men's rooms are for taking care of discrete personal business, not talking.  i swear, today i saw two guys just chatting it up while parked in front of side-by-side urinals like it was no big deal.  i'm pretty sure they made eye contact multiple times too.  gross. 

in the past two weeks, i've bought two wedding presents for two different weddings.  i don't think this is something i'll grow accustomed to anytime soon.  going to friends' weddings (where i am the sole invitee in my family) is still kind of a weird idea to me.  don't worry, i plan on waiting a long time before i subject any of my friends to this situation (but when i do, we gonna have a party....).

random post, but i promised i'd write more so here it is.

i don't update enough...

...but i like to think i have (or had) a good reason.

i used to update this blog quite frequently about any random event that happened in my life (hair cuts, chinese food delivery etc), but somewhere along the line i think i decided that people didn't want to hear about that mundane stuff and that i should only update when an big event or semi-important activity happens (thanksgiving, graduation, moving).  my whole reasoning for this paring down was because i didn't want to come off as too self-obsessed or over-invested in the social media scene/online social interactions in general (aka a fb/twitter/constantly update about everything-phile) as some people are prone to do.  the only problem is, ever since i started working, those important events/activities seem to happen less and less.  i've also noticed i usually write a significant amount when i post.  maybe i just avoided it for awhile because i knew i couldn't invest the time that i felt was needed to make a decent post that people would want to read.  but maybe its not so much about the readers as it is about just writing.  whatever the reason, this blog has suffered enough, so i guess i'll change my blog philosophy up a little bit just to get back into it.  i'm pretty sure only a handful of people read this anyway.  and you guys probably aren't impressed by me trying to take this thing too seriously.

i won't give myself a schedule for updating (no weekly updates), but hopefully i can find inspiration through smaller, more insignificant events in my life and that will lead to more frequent (maybe shorter) updates.  actually now that i think back, over the past couple months, things have happened, i've just been in such a writing funk that i think i downplayed them in my mind as un-blogworthy.

some occurrences that may be worth mentioning:

• first time missing out on an obx trip.  extreme jealousy does not even begin to describe my feelings during that week.  now everyone else is happy and tan.  if only the florescent lights in my office could emit powerful uv rays...
• ate some pad thai at a place that beat bobby flay in a "showdown with bobby flay" episode.  it was pretty good, but i really can't taste the difference among the various pad thai's i've had over the years.  maybe a little hyped, but its fun to say i ate there.  the whole place is decorated with pictures from the event.  i guess if your chef beats bobby flay, you advertise the crap out of it. 
• my sister and i decided we were gonna eat healthy and exercise about a week ago.  since then, we've jogged once, did one p90x workout and eaten a truckload of fast food, sometimes at ungodly hours (thanks, ihop).  willpower ftw.
• sometime during the past month or so, i decided that since i was now a semi-independent "working stiff,"  the next logical step in my transformation was to update my wardrobe with some essentials (dress shirts, khakis in different shades, dark jeans etc). but, i kind of went overboard with my spending.  in the past month, ive bought at least 6 shirts, 5 pairs of pants, and 4 pairs of shoes(!).  that may not seem like a lot to some of you hardcore shoppers out there, but this is coming from a guy who used to wear one pair of sneakers till they fell apart and never owned more than 2 pairs of jeans at one time.   i shopped more than my mom and sister combined.... i think i have a problem.  its not like i look for deals either.  i just see something i think i need and buy it, regardless of whether it is on sale or not (my mom would kill me).  the thing about one of the stores that i shop at is that they make well-made, simple, classic clothing that screams "i'm a wardrobe essential! buy me now. everyone has at least one of me in their closet!"  and these essentials all happen to be in one place so there's no need for me to go anywhere else.  and they all just happen to be ridiculously overpriced.  i guess that's how they get you.  i know they could be found somewhere else for cheaper, but i find myself making up excuses to continue shopping there.  ("but this shirt fits better and has a cool little stitching detail on the inside that only i can see when i hang it up at night.")  one day it'll probably catch up to me.  i'll be broke and starving in a cardboard box surrounded by my endless supply of shoes and dress shirts.  anybody feel like going shopping?
• i really need to move closer to work.  3 hours of my day is spent commuting.  think of all the blog posts i could have written.... although,  i think i should resist renting an apartment and just save up for a place of my own in the future.  a few inconvenient years is worth it in the end right? 

that's all for now, hopefully the next one doesn't take so long.

final exercises

i don't know why U. Va. has to be all different and call it 'final exercises' instead of graduation like most schools, but i guess tradition isn't a thing to be messed with.

for those of you who missed me at church on sunday, no, i wasn't sleeping in or playing hooky; i went down to charlottesville for my college graduation ceremony.  i actually drove down the day before with my dad to disassemble my bed and load it into the car.  i felt kind of bad because he drove two hours, did some manual labor, then drove back 2 hours.  oh well, he got a free meal out of it. 

the rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking, and reminiscing with old friends whom i hadn't seen in awhile.  it's nice to know that i have some friendships that remain (mostly) the same without regard to time and distance. after visiting some of our old haunts (for perhaps the last time? at least for awhile), i went back to my apartment (now bedless) to get some sleep.  what i didn't realize was that our normally 4 person apartment was to house 6 people that night.  i guess i got lucky because i got to sleep on the loveseat, but it still was far from ideal.  also, some nice people decided to party it up right outside our window the night before graduation, so between the lumpy couch and their drunken shenanigans i found it hard to fall (and stay) asleep.
regardless, the morning came and i had a graduation to attend.  the night before, i had set my alarm really early to beat the expected shower rush and it paid off.  only my roommate was up before me, so we decided to hit up a local diner for breakfast.  when we got back, the apt was a flurry of activity with both showers running, hair dryers plugged into hall outlets, people frantically searching for digital camera batteries and of course, caps and gowns being fussed over. 

throughout this whole ordeal, i think i did a good job staying levelheaded.  maybe it was because i really "graduated" back in december, but i remember being pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.  i just wanted it to be over so i could go home and eat a nice meal out with the family.  it wasn't until i was standing in a bustling crowd of 6000 of my peers in the shadow of the rotunda's impressive facade that i started to feel a tinge of accomplishment and pride.  the previous four years of frozen dinners, studying, procrastinating, late night chinese food, relationship-making, and learning had all led up to this day. 

the ceremony itself was a blur.  i'm sure the speaker had lots of good things to say, but those words are probably already forgotten by 90% of us.  it was supposed to rain (i even brought an umbrella with me), but the clouds parted right as the ceremony started and the sun came out.  (enough to give me a mild sunburn)  we really couldn't have asked for better weather. (last year's class didn't have it as good, it rained all morning) 

here are some pics.

from my econ dept diploma ceremony

brother bear + sister bear

la familia

got my papers, so long suckas!

congrats class of 2010! wahoowa!