A few days ago, @Amateurprose wrote a colorful post about his experience meeting up with me this past weekend.  Although he concluded that the hang out was enjoyable, he initially spun a very elaborate tale about me stirring up trouble which ended with him beaten and broken on the ground.

Well, I'm here to say this: I DID actually hurt him, but not due to the reasons he mentioned in the silly story he created.

You see, we were all trying to take some pictures together.  Amateurprose, though, wasn't exactly cooperating.

I respectfully asked him to be nice and not mess around with us.  All of a sudden, he pushed me and challenged me to a fist fight right in the middle of the National Zoo.  I resisted as much as I could, but he kept on egging me on to the point where I could only reply back with violence. 

He got his wish.  Unfortunately for him, that turned out be a HUGE mistake.

At that point, I didn't think sorry was nearly enough to make up for the trouble he brought upon all of us and himself, so I had some...vigilante justice.

Eventually, he was able to regain consciousness in time to take a lovely group shot with @toadywonders, @AncoraImparo, my girlfriend Cindy, and myself.  He did, however, had to cover up his broken jaw.  Poor fella.

Don't feel too bad for him though.  Check out where his right hand is.  A lot of ladies sure are going to be heartbroken when they see this! #rumors

That, my friends, is what really happened this past weekend in DC.

All jokes aside, it was great to finally meet up with the funny and charming @Amateurprose.  I am honored to have taken his Xanga meet up virginity.

Curious to see what my new condo looks like?  Come watch the video below!  It is a bit long (12 minutes), so to make it easier to view I'm putting down some time marks so you may skip around.  If I tag a Xangan, that means I mentioned that person during the video.  Enjoy, and let me know what you think of my new place.

Time Marks

:07 Why I had to move
:21 @toadywonders
:32 Kitchen
1:00 @NimbustheDragon
1:46 Kermit the Frog
1:56 Cooking with Coolio (thanks @Endless21Echos )
2:25 Living room
3:26 My fishes
3:44 My AMAZING view
4:36 Tennis corner
4:52 Bedroom
5:15 Hawaiian girl
5:33 My office
6:47 Bookshelf
7:00 Xangans book
7:11 @wyrdkismet
7:27 @VaneDave
7:45 My bed
8:26 Mini fridge
9:24 @snapeful
9:32 @secade
9:43 Closet
10:11 Bathroom
10:45 Snoopy
10:53 New towel!
11:12 Final thoughts

Now you all know your way around my place if you decide to stalk and rob me.  If you do though, don't be shocked when you encounter me with this.

On Saturday, I had to travel to Philadelphia to make a guest appearance at a work event.  Since I was going to be there anyway, I decided to make it a one day personal trip as well.  My girl has never been and has also never had cheesesteak at all (gasp!), so I was excited to bring her along.

First stop was Chinatown.  We ate at a Sichuan place called E Mei, which I thought was pretty good.  However the girl, being from Sichuan Province, was not impressed.  Hey, I tried!

We did some thrifty shopping after that.  During my browsing, I came upon this shining gem:

After a quick tour of Reading Terminal Market, we walked several blocks over to the famous South Street where we met up with a couple Xangans, Kathy @HollywoodFever91 and Agatha @UnopenedSuitcases

We did some light snacking, since the girl and I were saving our bellies for cheesesteak later on.  However, when I came upon a store that was selling cheesesteak cookies I just had to try it out!

These sodas were pretty tasty, on the other hand.  I have never seen these brands before, so perhaps it's a Philly thing?  Let me know if you seen them anywhere else.

Of course, no Philly trip would be complete without checking out the famous Liberty Bell:

After a short trip to Franklin Square (where we shall do mini-golf next time for sure, Agatha!), I was finally off to the work event that was the cause of this whole trip to begin with.

We had to leave the event early though to go grab some authentic Philly cheesesteak at Dalessandro's.  We share a Philly cheesesteak and a chicken version of a Philly cheesesteak (cheesechicken?), both delicious!  Admittedly, I still prefer the greasy goodness of the traditional cheesesteak.

Oh, there was another reason why I was looking forward to coming here.  I finally met with the mother of Xanga (as I like to call her), the wonderful Beth @SeedSower!

We were only able to hang out briefly since I had to drive 3 hours back home, but I enjoyed the time chatting with her and wish we could continue.  She was definitely one of my top Xangans left I really wanted to meet, so I'm glad it worked out.

Before we parted, she kindly gifted me a bunch of her amazing cards she made.  Aren't they awesome?  Thanks Beth!

Overall, I enjoyed Philly a lot more than I expected.  I forgot how much there really is in the City of Brotherly Love, so I look forward to the next time I can visit when I'm not so in a hurry.  The bench below speaks the truth:

P.S. Sorry for being MIA this past month!  Moving and work really kept me busier than I thought.  I will blog more, I will blog more, I will blog more...

It has been a crazy and hectic past few weeks, which is a major reason why I haven't been updating as much lately.  As some of you know, Todd (@toadywonders) and I are in the process of moving to a new place together.  We're currently staying at a temporary home until the lease for our condo begins this Saturday.

You might be wondering why I'm moving, especially since my old place was pretty awesome and was great for hosting fun events.  Apparently, there is a county specific code that states there can be no more than four unrelated people living in one household.  In other words, a family of 12 is allowed to live in one location, but not 12 random people even though each person has their own room within a massive house.  It's some old, dumb code, but alas it's still a code.

I unfortunately discovered this code the hard way about a month ago, when a county officer rang our doorbell and I just happened to be the one that answered the door.  The county officer said there was complaint by someone about us and wanted to ask me some questions.  I think it was the fact that he was in uniform and I didn't want to cause any trouble that led me to comply with all he asked.  As far as I knew we were doing nothing wrong, so what's the harm of answering truthfully (thought naive me)?

After a brief intro, he asked the following question.  On left is what, in hindsight, I should have done and on the right is what I ended up doing.

My hospitality kicked in or something and I treated the county officer like he was a welcomed guest.  ALEX, Y U NO SHUT UP?! 

After looking around, he then asked me...

Sigh, I know.

My landlord finally came into the house at this point, but by then it was too late.  I had given the officer all the information he needed to give us a notice of our code violation.  I never seen my landlord look so down and defeated.

I felt incredibly guilty and horrible about the situation.  Even though it was technically the landlord's fault, I couldn't help but feel responsible for the mess.  If I hadn't opened that door, 2/3 of us would not have to move out and the landlord, one of the nicest guys I know around here, wouldn't have to be burdened with finding a new way to pay for the property now that he lost a large portion of rent money.

I do feel better now that some time has passed.  I talked to my landlord and he admitted he knew this would come up eventually.  My new place, although more expensive, has a lot of wonderful perks/amenities and the location is quite convenient.  I guess we'll have to do a MTV Cribs video once we're all settled in.

In the mean time, Todd and I will continue to deal with the hassles of moving.  Hope you all had a less stressful month than we did!

TL;DR A county officer found out my house had too many people living there, so many of us had to leave.

P.S. I still haven't found my towel, even after clearing out my room and bathroom.  What in the world happened to it??

Baffled.  I'm absolutely baffled.

Long story short, my shower towel somehow vanished into thin air last night sometime between 9pm-10:30pm.

Here are the facts:  I took a shower around 8:50pm last night and dried myself off with my towel a little before 9pm.  I got dressed and watched New Girl (great show, by the way) on tv from 9-9:30pm.  From 9:30-10pm I was just messing around on my computer.  I was on the phone from 10-10:30pm.  After I got off (THE PHONE, @Cakalusa!), I went to brush my teeth in the bathroom.  I finally notice my towel was missing when I attempted to dry off my hands and it wasn't there.  Huh?

During this whole time, I never once left my room so I know it has to be either in my room or in the bathroom.  I looked everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE:  on my bed, in my pillows, in my laundry basket, in my closet, in my drawers, on the ground near my bed, on the ground everywhere else, behind my desk, in my travel bags, in my fridge, in my PS3, in my tissue box, in the boxers I was wearing, and so on.  I knew I was getting desperate when I started looking up in the air, hoping it was magically floating above me all along.  I've search each area multiple times, but nothing yet.

This is really bothering me!  How in the world can a big towel like that disappear in such a small space?! 

I didn't eat it...

I didn't flush it down the toilet...

What else could explain this?

What do you guys think happened?  Any other possible locations you would suggest looking in my room and bathroom?  I'm accepting any possibility at this point!

I will update you all if I somehow find it in the mean time.  I'm not going to give up and throw in the towel just yet!  ...because well, I can't...

UPDATE (March 9th):  Still have not seen it =(

Magical.  That's the adjective my girlfriend chose to describe how she felt about me traveling and befriending so many people I've initially met through an online site.  Although I made fun of her for picking such a hyperbole, I could see why she saw my experiences that way.  It is rather unusual, and I probably wouldn't have believed it myself just 4 years ago.

Back then, I didn't really have a strong desire to see the world.  I felt content staying in Maryland and truly thought I would stay there all my life.  I was comfortable where I was, and perhaps a little afraid to leave my comfort zone.

In January 2009, I decided to take a trip to California to meet up with a few Xangans.  I left satisfied, and couldn't wait until the next time I got the chance to see my friends from out of town.  I was worried it wouldn't happen again for some time.  How would I have known that it was just the start of many more trips and gatherings to come?

3 years later, it's all of a sudden 2012.  In that span of time I've met up with at least 150 people from here, many of them I've hung out with multiple times and some even becoming my most trusted friends.  It's amazing how things worked out, and I find myself lucky to receive this experience.

In a few hours, I will turn 26 years old.  I don't know how much longer we all will continue doing this unbelievable thing.  I hope it goes on for many more years, but I have a feeling that over time many of us will start to get tied down by our work, our family, or whatever else life throws our way.

I will no doubt be sad if or when this ride stops, but do know I will forever cherish the fact that my mid-20s were filled with all these vivid, happy memories with you all.

Sorry, I'm about a week late on writing about my trip to LA over President's Day weekend.  I caught an annoying cold or something after my red eye flight back (didn't help there was a scumbag crying baby on board -___-), so I've been pretty much sleeping and recovering whenever I had free time.  I'm finally feeling better now though, so here we go!

@Timmmmmmy and I flew to LA to celebrate a friend's birthday, as well as hang out with some Xangans around town.  @Junbelievable08 and @FlipGuy31O did a fantastic time hosting us, so we were well taken care of during our 4 days there.

So, what did we do?

There were a few more things we did, but there aren't any photographic evidence (for good reasons ).

All and all, it was a nice time chilling with new and old friends in the LA area.  I felt sad leaving, as I don't know when will be my next chance to visit SoCal.  When I think about it, it's pretty crazy how long and often I've been able to hang out with all of my far away Xanga friends over the past 3 years.  I wonder how much longer this will last, where we can all still find the time to spend together?  I think I will have to write more about this topic next time.

Tuesdays are really bad for us, so we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day this past weekend.  Since I knew I wasn't going to see her this coming week because @Timmmmmmy and I will be in Los Angeles, I wanted to make sure we had a good time and that she was well taken care of.  One of the things I did was cook her a full course meal, which was actually the first time I've done so.  I've made food for her before of course, but never to this extent. 

After doing some research and picking foods that I knew she would enjoy, I came up with the following simple, yet effective menu:

Appetizer:  Tuna and Tobiko Salad with Japanese Mayo
Main Course:  Asian Flavored Pork Chops with Baked Asparagus and Rice
Dessert:  Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Thanks to @Cakalusa and @amuse_bouche for the idea!)
Drinks:  Kahlua and Ginger Ale (Crazy delicious!)

I was definitely nervous I would somehow mess everything up, being that it was my first time making all of these recipes.  All and all though, everything turned out tasty and the girlfriend was pleased.  Woohoo!

In addition to our Valentine weekend, we also celebrated her birthday the weekend before.  As a gift, I got her a butterfly in a jar.  You know how hard it is to find a butterfly in the winter??  Took forever to finally catch one!

In addition, we spent a comfortable night at a spa & resort hotel in Maryland.  I booked the king suite, which was one of the best hotel rooms I've ever stayed at.  Take a look:

It has been a great couple of weekends...but now, my wallet's hurting .  Oh well, worth it!

You know, I think I've had it too easy for some time. Since high school, I've always felt confident that I can do well on whatever I am responsible for. I still get challenged of course, but I know that if I focus and work hard, I will make it on top and please the people that count on me.

At some point over the past couple of years, I either got too comfortable or I stopped trying as much. Maybe I'm still doing well to the casual observer, but doing well isn't enough for my peers if we're in an environment where excellence is expected. That's where I am currently. I won't go into specific details, but I'll let my geek side show you what I'm dealing with. I'm going to use Hawkeye from The Avengers (the guy with the bow and arrow in the awesome gif below) to explain my situation.

In case you don't know much about Hawkeye, he is a regular (although highly trained and fit) human being that has exceptional aim with his bow and arrow. By himself, most people would probably be impressed by his abilities. Perhaps he has taken for granted how easy it is for him to do what he does, so he doesn't feel the need to train hard anymore. Why not right, if he's already getting the job done?

Hawkeye later joins a team where each member is not only as strong as him, but more powerful in many ways. When he looks over at who he's working with, he sees a technological genius inside a flying weapon, a demi-god, a respected super-human leader, and an unstoppable green monster. Sure, there's another member that's also human like him with comparable abilities, but that doesn't stop the fact that Hawkeye is still in the company of pure excellence.

Suddenly, Hawkeye's abilities really pale in comparison. His other teammates may even start wondering if he belongs with them. For instance, they see that he's limited by how many arrows he can hold and he's more vulnerable than the others when facing the bigger enemies. They understand he's pretty good at what he does, but they also can't help but notice his weaknesses. Maybe even Hawkeye starts questioning himself. "Am I good enough? Can I be better?", he asks. Assuming these thoughts motivate him, he starts pushing himself to be greater than he ever was before to show how truly valuable he is to The Avengers.

So yes, right now I am feeling like Hawkeye in the situation I described here. I'm in a position where I must step up and work extra hard to show I am indeed worthy of my place. I may have made some careless mistakes before, and perhaps I didn't give enough effort as I should have in the past, but not anymore. I hate letting people down, so that pattern is going to end. I KNOW I am capable to be a strong asset, and it's time I show my peers who exactly they're working with.

I AM going to prove my worth. I guarantee it.