Yes, we are all already aware of this talk. It gets annoying and such. I wanted to bring it up after viewing this: Orlando Sentinel

But I just want to voice my views anyway. Be happy it’s not coming from an NBA or ESPN analyst.

Surely, Howard would want to play for a championship-contending team. And here are the teams I think that may be possible destinations. Be aware that I will be listing some names that come to mind. And I am not mentioning any players in the draft.

Boston Celtics:
The Good: Experienced veterans (Pierce, Allen, Garnett). Young talent (Rondo, Green, Davis). How frightening the starting lineup would be if it includes Howard. That team is very capable of winning another title. Even after the original Big 3 retires, Rondo and Green will still be there.
The Bad: Injuries are contagious.

Chicago Bulls:
The Good: Young talent (Rose, Boozer, Noah). Balanced support cast (Gibson, Brewer, Korver, Asik). With Rose playing like an MVP like now, Howard can truly dominate the paint.
The Bad: Salary cap.

Dallas Mavericks:
The Good: Similar to the Celtics scenario, except it’s with Nowitzki, Kidd, and Terry.
The Bad: Kidd may retire before 2012.

Los Angeles Lakers:
The Good: Kobe may nearing the end of his years in the NBA, but
The Bad: Gasol or  Bynum may be traded due to this past postseason’s failure to win another championship.

Miami Heat:
The Good: Multiple championships.
The Bad: Salary cap. Also, for someone who demands the ball down low, would Wade, James, and Bosh be willing to give up the ball? Like what Amar’e Stoudemire said last summer: “I wouldn’t even have a chance to hold the ball.” And would Superman #2 really want to become a super villain?

New York Knicks:
The Good: You got ‘Melo. You got Stoudemire. And Howard most certainly enjoys the spotlight, which New York got in Broadway.
The Bad: Knicks may try to obtain Chris Paul or Deron Williams instead.

Orlando Magic:
The Good: This is HIS team. Still young and still able to be a championship contender.
The Bad: Will the organization try harder to obtain championship pieces to this team?

San Antonio Spurs:
The Good: Its core trio is still there. Imagine another Two Towers with Ginobili and Parker.
The Bad: Teamplay execution is awesome, but Howard wouldn’t want to play dull basketball.

That’s it for now. These are just my opinions, not Dwight Howard’s. Any thoughts will be respected as long as there’s no discussion about which superstar is the best and so forth. Remember, we can only watch and imagine.

さよなら！

I’ve seriously had enough. Wannabes telling their friends that they can play, but they can’t. But here’s a specific person I’m mentioning here. This is about my stupid younger cousin.

Sure, I introduced him to rock music a long while ago. Seeing that I play guitar with incredible skill to this day, he probably thinks he can do so too. He takes the half-broken guitar my mom lent him and without doing anything else, began attempting to play “Smoke on the Water.” Yeah… it’s half-broken, meaning the bridge is broken and I managed to repair it to make the guitar to work somewhat. AND, when I meant him not doing anything else, that means he didn’t even tune it!

One day, he tells me he can play that song. I, of course, didn’t believe it. So I asked him one question: “Do you know how to tune a guitar?” His answer? “No.” There you go. He doesn’t know shit. And he makes it worse by asking how. Argh!

He believes he can go straight into advanced level music without learning the basics. First, know your guitar. He doesn’t even know what a fretboard, humbucker, and pickups are. The next step is the easiest: know how to tune. He doesn’t know how. If you don’t own a tuner, there’s something called the Internet. Download a virtual one! And the next is: know how to read music notes. He doesn’t, of course. When he looks at a music sheet, he definitely wouldn’t understand anything. Next is to learn the basic major chords. Right… he doesn’t know what a chord is. Since he can’t do any of those, just quit. Seriously, if you don’t know how to tune, just quit. Don’t waste your time. Just quit.

So he decided to pick up the guitar again after failing the first time. He attempts to learn some stupid music like “Pork and Beans” or whatever it is. He asked me what a pull-off and a hammer-on is. He knows I hate answering stupid questions. Since he knows that, again, there’s something called the Internet. I tried describing them to him, but I think he didn’t get it. After all, someone with no musical talent cannot comprehend such basic knowledge. Later, he asked what finger-tapping is. That was when I exploded with fury. That tells me he’s looking at intermediate/advanced level music. I asked him why is he attempting songs that he can’t handle. He tells me that he makes progress by challenging himself with hard music…

IT’S NOT FUCKIN’ GUITAR HERO, RETARD!!!

Music requires LOTS of hard work, dedication, time, effort, practice, and patience. All of these are necessary to learn ANY instrument. Music is not something you can just pick up from nowhere.

When I was a child, I was taught piano at a piano school. I was taught the basic major chords on the guitar from my mother. I asserted my musical abilities in junior high, playing the clarinet and alto clarinet. I taught myself guitar just as I finished junior high. I made into my high school’s Concert Band in less than a year, playing bass clarinet. My music teacher provided me more knowledge on the guitar as well as the bass guitar. Within those 4 years of high school, I became a much better musician. To this day, I still strive to become better. I am trying to become better on the mandolin and theremin. I wish to purchase/build a shamisen. Do you see this? Talk about YEARS of dedication, hard work, time, effort, practice, and patience. It takes YEARS, not one fuckin’ single day.

So to those who thinks guitar is like Guitar Hero, 死ね.

A little overview of the trip.

Thursday – Left NY around 8pm. Watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen along the way. Just when the movie was getting to the good part, we arrived in Philly around 11pm. Unpacked and registered ourselves in. We received a yellow bag (of all colors!) containing a booklet, shirt, and other stuffs for this huge event. The shirt was blueish, leaning towards the awful light purple BioMed shirt I have from high school. I joked to Kevin that I won’t ever be wearing that shirt. That shirt is more useful on the floor in my apartment.

Friday – Skipped breakfast. Brought the “boys” (David, Phuong, and Johnny) to the cheesesteak walking tour. Met some awesome people from Union College from upstate New York, especially Tori and Allan, though Allan is from another college (just driving his buddies to UPenn). Can’t forget about Thang, the awesome guide from UPenn. Thanks for bringing us to Pat’s King of Steak and Geno’s, the most famous places for their Philly cheesesteaks. Pat’s was really good, after all, it is the origin of Philly cheesesteak. Later went to attend the network activities. Though Allan and I were a late, we managed to get in. Fun indeed. Met more people from Wellesley, Brown, and other universities. Later that evening was the opening ceremony. It was very long. I entertained myself during a speech, which annoyed the people sitting behind us, as Winnie has informed me, haha.

There were performances that evening, with Project D doing a great job. Afterschoolspecial sucked ass. They call themselves a rock band, but they’re CLEARLY a rap/hip hop band. Ugh. They should kick out their guitarist. (I analyzed ALL the guitarists in every group that performed). Yea, the keyboardist, drummer, and the vocalists were much louder than he was. He played a lead part, but no one could hear him! Fail. Now die, bitch. The next band (I forgot the name) was better. I like their guitarist. She has a beautiful voice and was excellent. She understood the acoustics of the auditorium, unlike the previous guy who sucks so bad. Then the third group (I also forgot the name) was a two man group. The singer/rhythm guitarist was good. The other guy? Get the hell out. A half-a-measure solo?! Get out! You’re better off as the backup vocalist.

Later went out to look for a liquor store. Wandered into the ghetto side of Philly. It was very late too. Forgot my keys back in the hotel, because I use them for defense. Yes, I know it sounds silly, but they actually do cause serious damage. We came back to the hotel in one piece. (Anyone wanna go to Bo Sing? HAHAHAHAHA!!)

Saturday – Fire alarm in the morning to start the day. My roomies thought David’s ironing his shirt started it. Winnie’s roomies thought Kevin’s ironing started it, haha. But it was neither. Anyways, wanted to go to the sushi-making workshop, which officially started at 3:45, and I arrived at 3:30, which is supposedly early. But apparently, it was “full.” Yea, there was plenty of space left. Mary yelled at us for arriving late… what? She called us when we were about to leave the hotel. Sure, we were “late.” I wonder how arriving 15 minutes early is considered late.

I didn’t attend the closing ceremony. I was being a good boy by finishing this English assignment I had due the following Sunday. After that, went to the farewell reception. You see, I expected it to be dinner, since it was scheduled to be 2 hrs long and everyone had to be dressed semi-formally. Sure, it was dinner… at a fuckin’ museum! What?! No wonder the food wasn’t as good as I thought it’d be. I joked that the food was probably as old as the artifacts there. But they definitely were not.

Later that evening, party at the Shampoo nightclub!! A majority of ppl in the bus on the way there was girls, so I was content, ha. Some of the guys in the bus just look plain retarded, so yea. Anyways, the nightclub was pretty cool. Only problem there was that there was WAY too much grinding going on. Dude, we’re all here to dance, not rub our asses and crotches. If you want to do that, please do so in a bedroom, not in front of my face. There’s this guy who wanted to dance on the table and tried to push me so he’d have room. I refused to move, of course, because he didn’t ask and he wasn’t polite. He was lucky that I wasn’t in a foul mood, otherwise I would shove him off the table. In a matter of seconds, a bouncer got him to get off. Haha, take that, asshole.

Guest appearance at the nightclub………………………..: QUEST CREW!! Definitely the best dance crew I’ve seen. I didn’t get a good view, but I managed to record them on my Blackberry. The videos are located on my YouTube and Facebook accounts if you are interested. But I must tell you, David had the best view, so I suggest you to watch his video. Quite odd that his video has better visual quality than mine, while mine has better audio quality. I would combine both of them if I do have the time.

And there you have it. ECAASU 2010 at UPenn was certainly a fun experience.

For your viewing pleasure:

さようなら！

I finished all my finals according to schedule. No delays, so it’s all good. After my last day, which was the 21st, I went out shopping, which is very unlike me. I got some stuff, like wireless router and a couple of clothes. I went home and was supposed to be relaxing. Until I saw on my phone that my mother called me twice that very day. Quite odd, considering that she never calls me twice in a row so urgently. So I called back, only to hear my mother sobbing and telling me that she was diagnosed with colon cancer. I proceeded to cry for about 2 hours after the call.

My mindset started to change. I have always been a very fun and optimistic person. But after hearing this shocking news, I have become more serious. Much more serious. But I must stay optimistic. And I think I’m doing a pretty good job so far.

News spread throughout my mother’s side of the family. Her parents, siblings, and in-laws in Hong Kong have been calling ever since they received the news. My mother’s close friends have been doing the same. They have been very caring. My cousins have been contacting me on Facebook and on AIM. They too are very caring. Soon, my father’s side of the family heard the news, with the exception of my father’s brother, his wife, and daughter. Although they will hear about it eventually, for the time-being, we will not tell them. To make the long story short, my mother and I really despise them.

I have heard that of all cancers, colon cancer has the highest survival rate. My mother is a very strong woman. I know that while I was growing up. She has a strong will. She never backs down. I carry that trait from my mother. I have to be strong as well. Not for me, but for my mother. I have to support my mother more than ever. I must not cry in front of her. I have to be there for her. Be strong for her.

I thank my closest friends for the support they have provided me. I really appreciate the treat I received from a very, very good friend of mine, Julius. He has been the most supportive so far. I don’t know how I will repay his kindness and consideration. I thank Aimee, Anisha, and Shirley as well, for their support. I truly am very grateful for friends like these. I wish I have more of them. I have yet to tell my other closest friends about this. And I do believe they too will show the same kindness as the others have. My many other friends have not known about this, so I suppose that is okay. I don’t want to make everyone worry. But thank you all.

I think I should stop typing because I’m starting to become emotional. My mother went to work, so I’m here at home doing nothing so far. I have to hope for the best. I know my mother will fight through. And I know she will win the battle.

I will always be Mommy’s little boy.

I love you, Mom.