As I get closer to choosing my wheels I need to get new tires as well cuz I need them to fit the 17" wheels... so I'm down to these two options

• Dunlop SP Sport 9000
• Pirelli P7000

Dang.. Peichung sent me this link. New Civic Type-R is only available in Europe... I don't know about you guys, but the line that read:

American Civic Si owners know all about the reedy lower-end delivery of Honda engines, waiting an eternity for the VTEC to kick in, then giddyap. But with the Type-R, the driver gets solid mid-range thrust from 3500 rpm onward, with things getting truly devastating at about 5500 rpm.

As days go by it becomes clearer and clearer how much responsibility has been bestowed upon me as an only child. I'm not trying to make it sound as if I'm stressed or burdened by it. As a matter of fact if it makes me feel anything at all, it makes me feel very important to my family.

I've only begun to realize how much me being an only child mattered to my parents after I had graduated from college. Having lived most of my life under such parents who taught me to be independent, to gives one's best at everything one's serious about (be it partying, studying, or what not), I have had the chance to grow as a rather extremely independent individual. The point I'm trying to make is that it took me a while before I realized that those characteristics didn't neccessarily make me the best candidate for an only child.

Only childs are usually spoiled and very dependent of their parents. However, I've grown to become such an independent person that I thougt graduating from college and becoming somebody who didn't ask his parents for any support (be it mental, financial or what not) was a good thing. That wasn't quite true... The more independent I got the less needed my parents thought of themselves. (The fact that I lived around 7000 miles away from them certainly didn't help.) Now I feel all confused about what I've believed in my whole life.

Part of my philosophy on life revolves around my independence and how it brings me great joy. I can never be satisfied with being fully occupied by one thing nor can I be satisfied with being occupied only partially. I have to be constantly busy with multiple new challenges to feel alive. But, that means I end up spending less time with my parents as I try to please myself... and I know for a fact that I'm going to look back at my life over my parents' death bed and regret not having spent enough time with them while they were alive...

I remember learning a lot from my last break up, one of them being the importance of being there for somebody whenever wherever unconditionally. Why didn't I think that the same chain of thougt applied to my parents? *SIGH*

Given how long I was offline, I think a lil recap is long overdue... so here goes.

I got here this past Saturday and left for ShangHai on Sunday to meet up with one of my very good buddies: Joo. We met around noon and had Zhen Zhu Nai Cha (That'd be bubble tea for you damn foreigners :P ). After having dinner with Joo and her parents later that night we hung out on Mao Ming street literally bar hopping from one bar to another one drink after another. I think we covered around 6 bars or so, just catching up on stuff. Then I felt like dancing so Joo took me to club California. Grr... trance and progressive house music... not my cup o' tea, so we just drank more. On Monday we just went around the market place looking for stuff to buy, but I couldn't find anything. I really wanted to check my e-mail and stuff so we stopped by at Joo's place to do that, but damn... modems suck... It took me forever (it was seriously intolerable) to log into my e-mail account... after like 2 hours I just gave up. Then we headed to Wai Tan for the night scenary. There I just totally forgot that I was in Shanghai... it was pretty much as if I were in Hong Kong. Lights, neon signs, and more lights... pretty cool. We also checked out the tall ass Grand Hayatt hotel to look down on the night scene. Yeah I'm a damn tourist. :P Then we checked out this club that had 1 Yuan Draft beer (now that's CHEAP!!!!), but it was pretty deserted given that it was a Monday night. It could've been cool if it were the weekends, but oh well. It was pretty funny seeing these Chinese girls who really didn't look any older than 16 going up against other Chinese guys (again, no older than 16 I bet) and just hooking up pretty easily... man... I'm telling you... Chinese girls are WAY more aggressive than other Asian girls. ;) Tuesday after some good quality dim sum, I bid farewell to Joo and Shanghai.

Nothing much happened in Beijing until Friday night when I called Paul's brother, Karl, up (he was visiting his parents) and also met up with a hoobae from highschool (Ahrum). Karl had two friends visiting from Corea so we all hooked up and perused the San Li Tun Bar Street. The entire street is filled with bars and people soliciting for sex. It used to be much less obvious when I was living here, but now it's just flat out in your face. Basically a lot less people asking you ig you want pirated DVDs or CDs, and much more people asking you if you want sex. We went into one bar called "Boys and girls", sat down and chilled for a bit with a few drinks, and just kinda looked around in awe thinking to ourselves; "Damn... Beijing has changed" Then we checked out The Den for a little while before we went clubbing at Vics and Mix as I talked about earlier. Having experienced the nightlife of both Shanghai and Beijing all over again, it's pretty obvious that if you're single (or in a relationship, but you're just a jerk), these two wild cities are enough to fulfil your endeavors. Yes, these towns are, in my opinion, just as, if not more, happening as any other big cities in the world. I must be getting pretty tired of Pittsburgh... *SIGH*

Got back from DC last night around 9PM. Things were pretty smooth on the highway, and other cars were going like 8/90 mph so it was pretty fun switching lanes racing against a 2002 Mustang GT and a 2002 Outback 2.5L Limited. Kept me awake at least. ;) Must say long distance driving alone can be pretty boring unless you do something... like downshifting 2 gears to pass other cars once in awhile... kee hee.

Well, I did go check out Club Dream with Jenn and Leila on Fridy. 90% black and I think I saw 2 asian people. Mercedez CLs with ugly ass chrome wheels (the entire wheel is covered with chrome... ewww) were all over the place in front of the club in assorted colors... Lexus SC430 was probably the cheapest car around... dang.. Yves Saint Lauren sunglass wearing, $100 tip tossing big-shots everywhere inside the club just hanging around the bar hogging the bartender and pimping. keh heh.

The music was very diverse. They played everything from old skool KRS one, Gangstarr to Booty Hopping Camron and Nelly with lots of freaky reggae thrown in. All in all I had a blast dancing the night away with Jenn, Leila and Leila's two friends: Tyrone and Kudash(sp?). The only complaint would be that there were very few places to sit and chill. The place was huge, though. 5 levels, 2 of which are outdoors. One of the outdoor level is the rooftop deck and there's a helicopter that goes around shining down on the crowd. All floors were packed and it was soooo friggin hot in there.... dang... there must have been like over 2000 people in that building... The interior deco was mostly wooden and somewhat classy. Can't believe we were there from 11:00 to 4:00 AM... That's right after driving all the way from Pittsburgh to DC non-stop... Pretty crazy ;)

Here's my stab at the definition of being Naive. If you think you've gotten a complete grasp of a person by simply catching up a few times a year (of course you'll tell everyone else that you've known this person for several years), then man... you're pretty damn naive. I think I'm pretty naive, but I think I'm a bit better than some (Yeah, I'm a pretty cocky one, eh?).

I constantly think and rethink to try and understand why people behave a certain way in certain situations, so the duration in which I assume some knoweldge of a person's personality is relatively short. Short as in a few days at the most. I can not even begin to consider telling somebody else that I know someone's personality until I have really spent a significant amount of quality time with this other person (and I actually have to love and care for this person as well, cuz otherwise I wouldn't really want to bother spending that extra effort anyway. ). I can state a fact about the consequences of somebody's behavioral characteristics, but I can never really say that I know that person's personality. For example, I may get hurt because a friend of mine behaves a certain way to me at certain times, but that's the result of that person's behavior at that point in time. Whether or not there are gazillion other variables that have effected his/her behavior at that instance is NEVER known. To conclude that the behavior was a result of a deeply rooted personality trait is beyond my comprehension, really. Yes, people may repeat the same behavior, but that doesn't make it that person's personality. Have you ever considered the fact that YOU get on his/her nerves? And that YOU're the only pain in the ass that makes him/her behave that way? I'm sure you've witnessed time and time again how there are people who's liked by some, but hated by some at the same time. People treat people differently. It's a fact! Accpet it and move on, would you?

Me, for example, used to be so friggin harsh to people I didn't get along with. Now I've gotten a bit better at it and I can actually try and accomodate even if I don't like that person. But if the person gets on my nerves once in a while I stop accomodating and treat that person like crap (just like how would have done before). The side effect of that is that this person has no clue that I really don't enjoy spending time with him/her, and tries to be my "friend" by pointing out those instances where I treated him/her like crap and how I should "fix" it to be this better person. Gimme a goddamn break....

People judge people all the time, I have long accepted that as a fact of life. What amazes me is how long those judgements last. There are professors, researchers, scientists who's been studying their asses off for several decades trying to understand a fraction of human psychology, and they have only gotten so far into it... And for some person you've only known for, say, 10 years to tell you that he/she alreadys knows what your personality is like is simply amazing.... It's not even worth talking to these types of people on this subject. It's simply a waste of time. I'd much rather spend time thinking of ways how I can better understand the ones I really love. These are the types of people who don't spend time trying to understand a person. They simply assume knoweldge by a few examples. It's a shame how many people treat relationship like learning how to solve differential equations or something. Relationship is a study that requires an infinite amount of patience and you have to also go into it realizing that you may never understand it. Well, of course you may be 100 times more intelligent than I am. In which case lemme know so I can personally worship you on a regular basis.