Who am I?

This has nothing to do with that crazy Jackie Chan movie.

I've done my share of thinking the past few days. I'm not exactly too happy with myself or proud of the decisions I have made these few weeks but it was my decision to do what I did and now I must live through it.

Which brings me to the first question I asked myself, why did I do what I did?

After a couple days of pondering, I believe that life is just a string of decisions that shape who we become. With every decision we make, we must live with the consequences (or benefits) that come along with that decision, whether we are aware of it or not. These consequences/benefits have both short and long term effects. Short term effects could be you get yelled at, you could lose a lot of money, physical harm to oneself or others, get laid, make tons of money, or be commended by others. Long term effects? It shapes who you are, makes you become who you are today, how other people view you as a person. I believe that the person I am today is the summation of every single decision I (or my parents made for me when I was still an infant) have made in the past, what people know as Alan Luan Nguyen.

What if?

What if I didn't flunk the first quarter of 7th grade? What if I didn't live in Singapore for a year? What if we never broke up? What if I didn't transfer to Charter? What if I didn't go to UD? What if I wasn't a computer scientist? Better yet...what if I wasn't Asian? Common pondered in his song Faithful "I was rolling around in my mind it occured/What if God was a her?" What if I had a sister? Hell, what if I was a girl? (I never really put any thought into that, and from stories I've heard, I'm kind of glad I'm not) Point is, many things could have gone very differently. Where would I be if I didn't do what I did? Am I suppose to be where I am? Do I belong here? Yes. Things happen for a reason. If I didn't flunk 7th grade, my mom probably wouldn't have gotten me out of Shue Medill Middle School and taken that job in Singapore. If i didn't live in Singapore, I wouldn't have met my first group of close friends, or discovered my interest in computers. If I didn't go to Charter, I would have never met O'hana. I probably wouldn't have met them either if we didn't break up and you weren't there to console me. Though its not clear why you are where you are, the present is a stepping stone to where you want to be in the future. Sounds confusing, but that made sense in my head.

Last question I promise, Why?

A little different than the first why? I asked. Why do "friends" come and go? Why do people enter our lives only to leave it without a trace? What, then, is the purpose of friendship? Why should you invest time in someone knowing that at some point in the future, they may leave you, never to be heard again? I believe the answer is a combination of the first two answers I gave. I believe friends have an enormous influence on a person's decisions. Do we not ask our friend's opinions before making a decision? But how did you come to meet in the first place? Perhaps your friends are there to help you get to the next step? Perhaps you are helping them get to that next step? Maybe the direction you are going is completely opposite than the way your friend is going, and thus you lose contact.

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my family for helping me get to where I am today, my friends, past and present, for getting me (or helping me) get to that next step, and Fate for taking me down the path I should be taking.

Excuse me sir, is your watch broken?

Contrary to popular belief, there are actually 2 different measurements of time in the world. There is the time that we're all used to, and then there is CP time. CP stands for "colored people" time, and CP time runs a little bit later than regular time. For instance, if you tell a colored person to meet you at 4pm, the colored person will start to think about getting ready to meet you at 4pm, and then finally at 6pm, s/he will meet you whereever.

I don't believe in CP time and it is probably my biggest pet peeve/OCD trait.

Apperently, I didn't get the memo about adhereing to CP time.

I mean, is it really that hard to be on time? I'm pretty sure people are self-aware of how long it takes them to do whatever it needs to get ready. Is it so hard to allow youself enough time before to get ready to be there on time? Let's say, for example, you have to meet somebody at 4pm. It takes 30 minutes to drive to the meeting place, takes you 15 minutes to shower, 10 minutes to change into your clothing, and assuming you are a female (or male...whatever floats your boat), takes you 20 minutes for makeup. So, you take a shower at 2:45, change at 3:00, makeup at 3:10, drive off at 3:30 and arrive at 4. Isn't that easy???

What it comes down to is that people have no time management. Sure, I can understand if someone is 5-10 minutes late, that's understandable. But 30 minutes late? Come on...

But over the years, I've learned to tolerate CP time, but its one thing to be late, and be late and not inform the others that you will be late. If you're gonna be late, at least have the courtesy to let the other party know you will be late. That way they aren't worrying about if they got stood up or if you are alright.

In closing, people who are late and don't call ahead of time piss me off.

Good night. And happy birthday to Sandy(23rd), my sister Jen Sun (28th), and my "recently acquinted and impossible to hang out with because her planner is completely packed" friend Lani(also the 28th).

Random

A few random observations I have noticed in the past couple of weeks:
1) I suck at writing with a time constraint.
2) I really should formulate an idea in my head before I start blogging about it.
3) Never trust any restaurant whose name has "grille", "cuisine", or "garden" after the name of a city. Chances are the food they claim to make really isn't from there. For instance, HYPOTHETICALLY speaking...Saigon Grille: Vietnamese Cuisine. We can automatically assume that place will not serve authentic Vietnamese food. Of course there are more cases, as I hear Kahl-bee isn't very great.

I had something to write about but I lost my whole train of thought.