25 random things

I took this out of facebook to put it here in my blog.. is that against the rules?

1. I have lived in 3 countries: Taiwan (Three separate occasions, 10 + 3 + 1.5 for a total of 14.5 years), Canada (4.5 + 5), Japan (1 + 1.5) . Oh and the US for the past 6 months (switching units as a homage to our phys class), but we all know that's just a part of Canada.

2. I've been driving for 10 years but still don't own an "official" driver's license. Been stuck in an intermediate level up in BC and have actually failed a driving test in my only attempt to upgrade to a full license.

3. I've challenged a bus to a game of low speed chicken (as it appears to the untrained eye) and apparently overestimated the ability of a bus to maneuver. Let's just say that my car kept me safe, and I would liken the impact of an airbag to having the crap beat out of me by a muppet.

4. I think I'm genetically predisposed for long distance relationships. In all the relationships I've been in, I'm flying distance away approximately 80% of the time. To put that in perspective, I was genuinely excited to be in the same time zone as my gf when I moved to the US for school. But that's all gonna change soon!

5. I keep a clean kitchen (I try), but a messy room (don't have to try). 

6. I used to go by the name Oscar back when I first started learning English. I memorized the spelling by saying "O-S- CAR", as in "This is a CAR", the most complex sentence structure known to me at the time. I eventually dropped that name because I didn't like the character Oscar the Grouch - he lived in a garbage can - even though I hardly ever watched the show.

7. My current English name was given to me by -- *drum rolls* -- our real estate agent. That's gotta be one of the worst ways to get your name.... I think we were going to see a couple places when we first moved to Canada and the topic of names, or lack thereof came up. I kinda wish now that I use my Chinese name instead, although that would be terribly confusing because one of the characters in my name is spelled the same way as the the ubiquitous family name "Chen".

8. I speak Mandarin, English, and enough Taiwanese and Japanese to survive on those languages as a mentally-challenged person with a speech impediment. 5 years of French classes has left me no more than "bonjour" and "merci" to show for it. Picked up the word "merde" in Japan though.

9. Because of my frequent relocation in the past few years, I've kept a very tight list of personal belongings with the total weight under 50kg so it would fit in the luggage without costing extra fees. This includes my entire wardrobe, laptop, and photography equipment.

10. I own 3 cameras, 3 lenses and a strobe (flash). They are being neglected these days T_T

11. I started photography when I first worked in Japan and love it love it love it. I "photowalk" because I'm not a creative guy and am not suited for any deliberate style of photography. I would like to do more portraits though. I wish I had more time for photography nowadays.. maybe when I'm done with classes.

12. I have been blogging on a regular basis since I think 2002 and have over that time operated 6 blogs, two of which (one primarily in Chinese, the other in English) are still being regularly updated. I spend way too much time on blogging.

13. I've been watching/playing basketball since the 7th grade. Sad to say though my skills in the game have not grown as much as my knowledge of the NBA. I did touch the rim exactly 1 (one) time in my life.

14. As a kid I took 6 shots of the Hep-B vaccine. I had just taken the 3rd shot in a 4-shot vaccine in Taiwan when we moved to Canada, where they had the 3-shot vaccine. They couldn't just give me 75% of the last shot, so they redid the whole thing.

15. I've been stitched up once and have never broken a bone, mainly because I'm a pansy and don't do anything dangerous (except #3). The stitches I got as a toddler running into the corner of a table; I was less of a wuss back then. It's right on my face but you can't see it since it's in the corner of my eye and blends in perfectly with my wrinkles which I've had since elementary school.

16. I love food - to eat and to cook, though that is not to say I'm any good at it. I'm particularly partial to large pieces of dead animal. Yum.

17. My dream house would have a place to sleep, a bathroom and a ginormous, decked-out kitchen: giant fridge, freezer, kitchen gadgets, gas stove, grill, oven, lots of counter-top space. If I can eat, sleep and shit, I'm a happy man.

18. I prefer to sleep on hard surfaces, ideally on a thin futon on the floor (hardwood or tatami). Soft mattresses give me backache.

19. When I go to a hotel, the first thing I do is bounce on the bed. I usually can't do this at home because of #18

20. I enjoy playing Mahjong (for money, of course). Back in college, we'd play as often as once a week, typically starting around 8 or 9pm, and occasionally till dawn. I've lost my touch the last couple of years because I had no one to play with in Japan. I try to find time to play here. I've also timed myself trying to identify the entire set of tiles by "feeling" it with my thumb. Of 144 tiles, I got 8 wrong. I can't remember the time.

21. I've been approached twice by "scouts" in the streets of Taipei, once to be in a Nokia tv ad, the other in some match-making show. I turned them down, never finding out if they were scams or not. My mom still brings it up every now and then, saying I should've taken that ad gig. (Mom, it's been TEN years!!)

22. As a kid I learned quickly to say that I wanted to be a doctor when I grow up to make the adults happy. I'm turning out to be an engineer, which incidentally doesn't make me any less asian! My mom still tries to convince me to go to med school though.

23. When I was in kindergarten, I had my water bottle snatched away from me by a monkey on my way to school. I never got the water bottle back. It was some random monkey (are any monkey in the streets NOT random?) that was chained to a cage and left outside some store. Curiousity contaminated my water bottle with rabies (maybe).

24. I identify myself as Taiwanese first and Canadian second. I don't like being called Chinese for political reasons, though I am ethnically Chinese (as opposed to being of Chinese nationality).

25. I was selected to a class for the gifted back in elementary school in Taiwan. We got to skip regular classes for 3 hours a week, play go, take field trips, and keep a hamster in our special classroom. I have no idea how any of that had anything to do with being gifted, but it was fun.