*March 1st, 2010 UPDATE*

Damn, you all are definitely making my day.  Expect a full reply to all of you after the day’s over. 

P.S. This is actually how my face looks right now: ^____________^

*END UPDATE*

I will be turning 24 on March 1st, this coming Monday (yuck, I know).  When I think back to my birthday last year, I can’t remember much.  Nothing comes up immediately to mind, which bothers me.  I had to look back at the entry I wrote last year to remind myself that nothing really celebratory happened.  My parents apparently took me out for dinner, but my friends didn’t do anything for me.  I actually wrote that I didn’t mind it, but honestly… I kinda did.  I didn’t want to sound selfish, but I was hoping for my friends to do something for me like we’ve done before for our other friends that had birthdays over the years.  Alas the message didn’t go through.  (Update: Actually, I just remembered I DID go out for lunch with friends a few days later.  Whoops!  Man, I’m losing my memory with age XP)

When I think about my favorite birthdays, they all involved my closest friends taking time out to make my birthday feel like it was the most loving day of the year.  A couple of years ago, my closest friends from high school and college all found time to have dinner with me at a fancy place in Baltimore, which meant a lot since it was a bit out of the way and expensive.  During my freshman year of college, my different group of friends all threw me individual birthday celebrations.  Basically, I ended up having a birthday week, with each day being hosted by a different set of friends.  Needless to say, I had a big smile on my face that whole month.

In the end, my top favorite birthday has to go to my 18th birthday, when my high school girlfriend threw a surprise birthday party for me.  As I walked into a friend’s house, she somehow managed to get all my closest friends to pop out and ambush me.   They proceeded to shoot silly string all over me as I fell to the ground in shock, completely covered in colorful crap (hmm, that doesn’t sound quite so wonderful from the way I wrote that).  Believed me though, I was extremely appreciative that everyone went through all that trouble just for me.  Oh how I miss feeling that cared for by my friends.  With everyone’s schedule nowadays, I’m not sure if I’m going to experience anything like that anytime soon.

Anyway, I really don’t want my birthday this year to be as forgettable and unimpressive as last year, so I was wondering if some of you would like to help me out.  I was thinking between now and my birthday, would anybody want to highlight my birthday by sending me shout outs, maybe in picture/audio/video form?  Perhaps, something like this:

I’ve actually never received birthday shout outs in the manner I described above, so that would make it even more special and memorable.  If you don’t want to I’ll understand (I suppose my parents could be my fall back plan once again -_-), but if so please leave me a link so I can check it out!  It’s always the little things that mean a lot to me, so I’ll definitely love and appreciate anything you do

This past Thursday night, I was lucky enough to attend David Choi’s first East Coast show in DC!  For those that don’t know who he is, he’s a pretty famous YouTube star and a very talented musician.  I actually met David Choi the last time I was in San Diego, but he only played one song then.  This was my first actual show of his I’ve attended.

Doing his thing

The venue had a very intimate feel to it, which matched the show’s vibe.  The place was sold out and filled with mostly teenage girls (not too surprising).  David Choi’s performance was awesome.  The friends I was with kept mentioning how great he sounded live, and I have to agree.  He was visibly nervous at the beginning, but started getting into his grove as he played through his 16 song set.  Throughout the show and afterward he was extremely fan friendly, interacting with as many people as possible.  You got to have high respect for someone who’s well known but is still able to keep things humble and real.

My recording of David Choi performing Better You (the first time he played that song in front of an audience)

At one point in the show, David asked the audience whether or not they were on certain social network sites.  As expected, Facebook and Twitter got a huge response.  What I didn’t expect was the response Xanga got, especially compared to how little response MySpace received.  Going in, I knew that five other Xangans would be there, so I figured there would just be small cheer coming from us.  Instead, I clearly heard more cheering amongst the audience.  Hmmm, I wonder who they were?

Here were the Xangans that I was fortunate enough to meet up with:

omggsoozin was the person who first told me about the show.  Had it not been for her, I may not have attended.  Thanks Soozin!


I came to the show with these lovely ladies, retarded_beautiful and tigerdauphin.  Both weren’t really fans before this show, but I think it’s safe to say they’ve been converted.

Here with Scrooge0, cluelessazn13, and her friend Luke.  This is my third time meeting up with Scrooge0, but the first time with cluelessazn13.  We were suppose to meet up in DC when Wong Fu Productions came by, but plans fell through.  I’m glad things worked out this time!

Of course, I had to get a picture with the man himself:

Awesome, he remembered me from San Diego =D

I promised jeannie_dot_com that I would ask David Choi to give her a shout out.  He kindly obliged:

What a really good time.  If you get a chance to catch any one of his remaining Northeastern shows I would highly recommend it!

In honor of the holiday, I decided to make this a special edition of XangaSecret featuring only secrets relating to love, heartache, and everything in between.  It is not surprising that there are quite a few declarations of Xanga crushes in this video.  Something else I observed that I found interesting was how many of the secrets had similar themes.  It seems that people aren’t as alone in their thought processes as they might think. 

As you watch this, you may notice the music is different this time around.  The song I used is titled “The Rain”, by fellow Xangan MyxlDove.  Don’t worry theacematt2 fans; I’m sure I’ll be using his music again in future videos.

Hope you enjoy:

RE: After seeing someone post a comment about NVPhotography, I have to confess; I feel the same way. He is friggin’ hot, I want to take away his virginity (I know he’s waiting, but I would wait for him!). I will wait for you, will you wait for me? *wink*

P.S. I’m more attracted — sexually/physically/etc — than that other girl to NVPhotography.

“Okay, I get it, but who are you? Message me or something, this is getting even more odd. I just wish the mystery girl (or actually, mystery girls) would come out and tell me who they are! It’s so weird and kinda cute but strange, ya know?” -NVPhotography

“I think it is so cool that NVPhotography is waiting to have sex. I think that is so romantic and it makes me happy to know that not everyone in this world is giving themselves away like it’s nothing. ” -fireflywishes

RE: I would give my heart to ordinary_gir1. If only she was single and near me.

“Aww, thats so sweet. I am surprised that someone feels that way about me! Thank you Stranger With A Secret!! <3” -ordinary_gir1

RE: I want to ask a Xangan who lives locally if she’ll meet me for coffee or go out for drinks. However, I’m too afraid she’ll think I’m crossing the line and block me. Then, we’ll never meet.

“There are two fairly popular Xangans who live about 10-20 minutes away from me.  I suggested meeting once, and they apparently had no interest in doing so.  It was a little upsetting.” -methodElevated

“I’m kinda glad that I’m not the only one who kinda fears meeting up with a female Xangan close to me for fear that she may read into it too much and not want anything to do with me on here.” -Rob_of_the_Sky

“I wish more people on networking sites would reach out to me, especially if they live in my area. But I’m so paranoid that I don’t put where I really live. I’m pretty sure it still says “Sunnydale, CA” which isn’t even a real place.” -Covergirl_For_Sanity_Fair

As usual, I will post up more of your replies to these secrets on this post as they come.  Feel free to leave some anonymous secrets below.  There’s a good chance you’ll see them in a video in the near future!  For more information on how to submit a secret and how this all works, check out some of the previous XangaSecret posts:

What’s Your XangaSecret?
XangaSecret: Volume I and Volume II
XangaSecret: Volume III and Volume IV
XangaSecret: Volume V and Volume VI
XangaSecret: Volume VII

Valentine’s Day is coming up, as I’m sure a lot of you are aware of.  Am I fan?  Eh, not particularly.  Thank goodness Chinese New Year is on the same day this year so I have something to celebrate.  All in all, nothing really comes to mine when I think about my past Valentine’s Day experiences, except for this one memory.  I’ve mentioned a little about it in the past, but didn’t go into much details.  I haven’t thought about this memory in a long time and was only reminded of it after finding this old receipt (below) while cleaning out my wallet.  I’m a little hesistant to tell this story since it happened so long ago when I was a different person, but since Valentine’s Day is coming up I figure this would be a good excuse to tell it.

That sure was a lot of money for me back when I was a poor undergrad.  More on this later.

Let me give you a brief back story.  This memory took place in 2005, when I was only 18 years old and a freshman in college.  At this point in time, I have been with this girl (who would eventually be my longest and most valued relationship to date) for almost six months.  In fact, our six months anniversary was February 20th, six days after Valentine’s Day.

Now, there’s something else you need to know about me during this time.  During this period I was probably at my most hopeless romantic peak, so forgive me when I describe to you some of the more sappy stuff I did.  I remember feeling like my mojo was rocking and as if I could do no wrong, love-wise.  I was really into this girl and I wanted to make sure she knew how much she meant to me.  With that in mind, I devised a plan to make our first Valentine’s Day together and our six month anniversary the happiest it could be.

Phase one involved taking her out for Valentine’s Day without alerting her of my follow up plans.  To do that, I figured I distract her by going all out during our date that evening.  First, I decided to wear a red sash with the word “Cupid” on it.  While initially embarrassed being seen in public with that on, I eventually didn’t care what everyone else thought.  She loved it, and that was all that mattered.

Looking back, it is a little cheesy.  Oh well, what’s done is done.

The second thing I did to distract her was giving her a pseudo gift.  During our dinner and movie date, I presented her a handmade basket filled with chocolate, candles, and a bracelet with matching earrings.

After some um, “fun times”, I had to return her back to her college (we went to separate colleges, but we were close enough).  The night could have lasted longer, but it was a school night for the both of us and we had exams to study for.  As she started walking off, I suddenly called her back over to my car and told her I forgot something.  I opened up my trunk to reveal a huge gift box, much to her surprise.  Man, what a reaction from her!  Had nothing else gone right, her expression at that moment would have made all my efforts totally worth it.  Seriously, that look on her face will forever stay with me.

Anyway, in this big box contained five smaller gift wrapped presents.  I told her that she could open up only one gift per day until our 6th month anniversary.  Over the next five days, she slowly opened each present one by one.  I forgot which order she opened them up, but in the end she had received all of the following:

The Breakfast Club poster (one of her favorite movies)

Brad Pitt poster (one of her favorite actors)

Starry Night poster (her favorite artwork)

A Snoopy stuffed animal (I liked him, so I thought she would as well)

Lingerie (Hey, you know…)

(Sorry, no image of this)

A sketched drawing I made of her (rather bad, but it’s the thought that counts right?) and a comic book containing hand drawn cartoon representation of our past memories together (of all the gifts I gave her in this box, this was my favorite one.)

Finally, I had one last gift to give her, the most imporant of them all.  On the day of our six month anniversary, I gave her this steady ring to represent how seriously I took our relationship:

Not the exact ring I got her, but close enough.  She would wear this ring everyday until our relationship ended after two years together.

It was a remarkable week for me where all my romantic endeavors actually panned out.  Five years later, my life has changed quite a lot.  I can no longer identify myself as that guy I was in 2005, although I still feel some of his old tendencies.  I’ve definitely calmed down since then, for better or worse.  Still, I wouldn’t take back how I was.  I gained a lot of wonderful memories and learned many life lessons from that time.  I look forward to the next time I am able to make another girl smile the way she did that Valentine’s Day night.

——————————
Oh, in case you’re wondering…

I’m planning on putting out the next XangaSecret video this Sunday.  It will be a Valentine’s Day edition containing only love-related secrets, both happy and sad ones.  The music for this upcoming video will be provided by somebody else this time around too.  Hint: it’s another Xangan and probably someone you know. 

I’m still accepting more secrets to be added to this video, so if you have some please send them my way very soon so I can put them in.  Thanks!

I always wondered why it took my brother so long to shampoo his hair.  Here’s the video proof exposing his secret:

Just a short skit video one of my friends suggested we make.  Since we were already snowed in at home, we decided to go for it.  Can you guess what inspired this video?

Speaking of snow, here’s what we have to deal with in Maryland this weekend!

Snowmageddon 2010

Quick video I took yesterday while it was still snowing.  We ended up getting around 3 feet of snow by the end of all this!

First image when we open our garage.  Like our snow cooler?

Our street has not been plowed yet.  Not sure if it will be today.

Progress

Even our neighbor’s hummer was no match for the snow!  It got stuck almost immediately.

It’s funny, I’ve heard several people say that I’m an interesting person recently.  While I take that as a compliment, I’m not sure how accurate that statement is.  If I am, I sure don’t feel like it a lot of the time.  Seriously, I feel like a lot of people would probably get bored of my current low key lifestyle.  I’m not seeing anybody, so there’s no love life to keep me engaged.  During my free time, you’ll probably find me playing tennis, watching a movie/television show, reading, or surfing the net as oppose to going out and partying (as a lot of my peers seems to enjoy).  The rest of the time I’m either working at a tennis club, being a graduate student (which I’ll be quite occupied with this semester, so that might mean less updates on my part), or sleeping (getting up at 4:30am for work really messes up my sleep cycle!).  Occasionally I will travel, but I do that in order to spice up my routine life. 

I truly admire the lives of so many other people I’ve encountered on here.  Many of you can attest to the fact that we got a variety of people on this site.  I can’t name everyone, but here are a few that pop into my mind:

It’s Ando from Heroes!

I wish I had as many celebrity interactions as CareyGLY.  I think he meets a celebrity every week, if not every day.  Check out his posts and you’ll won’t have to search long before you see a familiar face in one of his many pictures.  I guess living in Los Angeles really increases one’s chance of bumping into a star. 

What an awesome cover

It’s almost criminal how beautifully skylar_rose can write.  Did you know she has a book out that you can buy at Barnes & Noble?  Surely not many people can say that. 

I can’t believe that’s a sushi cake.  Do want!

Every time I see a new cake created by Joanna_said_SO, I am utterly amazed at her shear talent.  Her creativity blows my mind.  If she ever agrees to it, I would seriously hire her to make my wedding cake (and every other cake now that I think about it). 

Swap places with me, please?

Luvs_u has an attractive occupation.  She goes all over the place doing make-up for shoots.  I would love to live a day in her shoes and see all that she gets to see.  Did I mention she has done work with Playboy girls? 

So yes, I’m a firm believer that everyone has their own interesting and unique stories to tell the world.  If I’m interesting, I think I’m only about as interesting as everyone else.

P.S. I hope you guys don’t mind me borrowing your pictures!