http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/340.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/339.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/338.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/337.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/336.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/335.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/334.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/333.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/332.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/331.mp3
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/330.mp3

simplicity

"What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today, may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion."

Henry David Thoreau, author, philosopher, 1854

A "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me" segment recently featured French daredevil Phillipe Petit, aka the nutter who walked between the twin towers on a high wire. He doesn't own a TV.

It's not uncommon. Many do without the guilty distractions of "Mad Men" & my personal fav., "The Daily Show." As I glance around, shrouded in a flurry of clutter on my cubie desk - life feels a bit claustrophobic, well.

What are the things we pursue as distractions merely to pass the time & what is the real stuff of life? Stuff that enriches us, empowers us, and makes a dingy gray sky look like rainbows & gumdrops (certain drugs aside).

pennies

It's amazing what relationships teach you about yourself. My mom used to always say that the more relationships you're in, the more blah you feel about future relationships and the less you know what you want.

While it's true that I'm more confused now than ever... I also feel that a better me has emerged.

Someone recently said that it's easy to start a relationship, but the hard part is growing it into something real, something with passion, love, respect, intimacy, and unconditional devotion -- all that while overcoming anger, hardship, pain and the roller coaster of problems life throws at us. It's about finding someone you want to endure with, someone you want to hold up with all your heart in the darkest hour. I still want that.

Relationships have taught me patience, kindness and generosity. They were better than me in a lot ways and I was undeserving and selfish in more ways than one. This is the better me that has emerged... they've softened me more than toughened me. And I've learned to appreciate more than take for granted.

So as I reflect, it's strange to think what may happen in the coming year. I welcome it with new found exhilaration :)

justification

it's quite incredible what life throws at you. do you ever surprise yourself? actions you take, decisions you made? it's all about trial and error, with some hope that we'll be a bit wiser after we experience the latter.

courage. something i could really use right now.

now & then

"You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life; the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it."

-Doris Lessing, British novelist, 2007

The weather this week is too nice not to blog :) Since i can't wait any longer for the lovely, albeit inconsistent ms. yu to update, here's my once-a-month. BP helped open my eyes this week. I always appreciated how his English lit background marinated into features with that hint of sophistication minus the bullshit. His writing, to quote a fellow admirer, is punchy. No fancy moves or trick plays _ I just want to keep reading from lede to end. It's got me hooked, not wanting more or less. Just enough.

So, I never realized how much i missed writing. Not writing for the sake, but writing for myself. Self-gratification. A much younger, more naive Thunderchi blog accomplished this through convoluted gonzo-esque prose _ it wasn't pretty, but accurately reflected an unfocused state-of-mind att. Motivation? like embracing a lost friend. Here's to more blogging!

Journalists to society are like the dried pieces of 锅巴 at the bottom of your rice cooker _ the leftovers. We're the nosy ones who don't fit anywhere, who have no focus, are ADD, who want to know everything about everyone. Do you ever feel like you were not meant to do anything else but...? As if it's been wired into your body, a surge of adrenaline and child-at-the-candy-store-like excitement jolts you into action. Here comes some cheese. More consistently than any relationship i've chosen in my life, it has not failed me. Things have been a bit rough lately, but as I was sitting down on a story, a sense of relief overwhelmed me. It's never failed me, i thought. Instead, journalism has always instilled hope, trust, passion, compassion, and complete understanding in our relationship. I've grown and it, as well. Thank you for everything.

Rewinding for the past three years and reflecting on memories, one word comes to mind _ improv. Do you ever have such simple, yet deliriously joyful moments (a few seconds even) with someone, you wish those moments were recorded and put into a memory vault of all time greatest hits? This is the best stuff of life. Be it jokes...quotes...physical humor, had-to-be-there moments, or even the orgasm faking / salad dressing separating dates...



I live for this stuff <3>

change is good

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, ... we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along."

Carl Sagan, scientist, author, 1995

Blah blah blah blah blah. September nears its end, so does 'nutha year. reminiscing reminds me to be grateful...of all the opportunities, luck, timing, people...really ask yourself sometime if you deserve all this. a job where you constantly see that many are undeserving. a job where optimism makes or breaks a story...let's rewind...

2005. big move, life changing. sometimes, i wonder what the westchester weekly paper woulda been like. salt lake never had a shot. would i have moved to ny or stayed in denver? watching the industry crumble now is disheartening. ellen, bill, lisa... all those i looked up to & still do. if i had stayed, who would i have met, how would i have changed? ...sliding doors...

06. first post-college job, with little training & no passion for finance, found myself stuck in penguin land panicking about irrelevant deadlines filing bandwidth-reducing FAST protocol and the use of "holdback timers." oy vey. (wendy hears my pain)

07. shanghai...good ol' shanghai. land of love & hate relationships. it's important to fail, vital to suffer & see ugliness, experience doom, pain, unhappiness. shanghai had it all. from writing to architecture. epic FAIL. KO. PWNED. toleration came with the crutches of JC & family.

08. olympics, riots, earthquake. a dust-layered passion for journalism returned. oncoming cheese> my first love>journalism. writing. deadlines, color, editors yelling, corruption, bai jiu, crafting, interviews, stealth mode, angles, fighting, all-nighters, office chain smoking, compassion, breaking news, injustice (ha), adrenaline, scoops, poverty, exclusives, now now now, titillating prose, hot heads, nutters, @#$# words, blood, all in an incredulous system that makes journalism necessary. always faithful, engrossing, challenging, honest & passionate...one could not ask for more.

too early to say for '09. hope ya'll had a good weekend. am posting pix from cuzzin's wedding in Shanghai last weekend. feels like just yesterday we were playing in the sandbox...time flies!!!


gorgeous park in central shanghai, pic perfect weather


my grams & aunt - stealing the flower arrangements bwhahaaaaaaa


cherry tomato wedding cake...yum...




dishin out some mad <3


bride & groom in their new house :)

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short week due to national day festivities...
can't wait for Taipei!!! (more excited to hang w/ party animal extraordinaire, miss liu)

oh, those crazy chinese

I don't know why, but oddly intrigued by CB's article today. It's a sexy subject.

Ok...well maybe I'm the only who thinks that. But seriously! Is the whole concept of having this parade to freak out the whole world? China doesn't really reassure the the masses by promoting our ability to strike countries with our super fancy long range missiles. With as much money as the gov. puts into their defense program and Zhang Yimou directing the 60th anniversary festivities, you'd think they'd pull out some Transformers shit.

Perhaps some badass fighter jets that don't remind us of the cold war? Something exciting! Something fast! Something like F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter! I mean, we can do incredible things, panda dogs for instance:



Or...
Buddha pears!!! can i getta wut wut....booodah booodah!!!

Our imagination has no bounds!

Anyway, lookin' forward to the parade. Even if they are forcing everyone to stay at home and watch it on TV. Will keep ya'll posted with coverage :)

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lyrics to my lazy Sunday afternoon>

here we go now holla if you hear me though come & hear me flow


loungin @ the summer palace: frisbee, soccer, cheese, wine


alcohol + jumping = bad combo (barely saw any air there)




it took us about an hour to find grass we were allowed to sit on