Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Year's End
Like many people I like to take time at the end of the year to look forward to what comes next, even though I shy away from making resolutions and instead try to make plans But also like most people I like to reflect on the year gone by, focusing on the good stuff but remembering, too, the bad.
The area of relationships includes both good and bad aspects. On the downside, I realized near the beginning of the year that, despite a year of resolving to work on our problems and trying to come back together, Adrian and I just couldn't seem to work things out. There's no need to get into details here, it just seemed we both had different ideas about what it would take to restart our relationship. Sadly, we had been moving in different directions, though fortunately we have been able to remain friends (a good thing, seeing as we still live together in the condo we co-own). He has been dating someone since this summer and I'm happy for him.
On the upside, however, things took a nice turn with Stan. We met at a Halloween party in 2007 and had been getting to know each other over time. In February, when he changed jobs and got a more normal schedule, we had more time to hang out and over a few months seemed to develop into "best friends." That development continued and by the time July came around we added "dating" to our description, and the word "boyfriends" entered our vocabulary this fall. So yes, I have a very nice boyfriend, and I'm very happy about that.
That has made my current work situation a little bittersweet. One of the most unique aspects of this year has been my (temporary) return to teaching. I learned at the end of April that I'd been selected for a prestigious academic exchange program. As a result I now live in Singapore, from November 2008 to March 2009, teaching a graduate school course at a major university here. It's fun, as I love teaching and I've always been interested in living in Asia, so this is great and I'm having a blast. It sucks to leave a boyfriend behind for 4 months, but fortunately he saved up his vacation time and we used a frequent flyer ticket to bring him over for 12 days, so YAY for us having an Asian adventure!!
I'm enjoying my time in Singapore and really feel like I'm fitting into the local landscape. I have some nice friends here and am very happy about that. There are still other people I want to meet, people I've known online for a long time, but I'm having trouble organizing my time well. Since I'm about halfway through my time here, I need to do better with that. I'm going to the gym regularly here and have a trainer and am feeling much better about my body, in terms of both health and appearance.
My time in Singapore has created some opportunties for travel. A couple weeks ago I was in Saigon for the first time and I just returned from a trip to Penang with Stan, my first time there as well. I'm hoping to get to Thailand for a weekend and will also be spending a weekend in Hong Kong in February, followed by four days in Tokyo on my way home in March.
There has been a LOT of travel this year. I worked in a couple trips to New York, both on my own and with Stan, and one of those was a quick hop up to see a play with just an overnight stay (I almost went without staying overnight but realized I needed at least one night in the city). I got reintroduced to Don't Tell Mama and The Web and visited a few other nice restaurants and bars, and much fun was had each time.
Short, domestic trips for work included a weekend in Atlanta and a weekend in Portland, my first time there. I got to see one of my old students, who has turned into a much more mature and interesting young man than he was when I first knew him in Colorado (and he was pretty mature and interesting even then!). Later I spent a few days in San Francisco for an academic conference where I got to see an old friend from SF and also see my friends Carol and Giacomo, who were teaching there at the time. I didn't make it to Hawaii for work this year, which is unusual, but I'm determined to make it there next year, for vacation if nothing else. This was also my first year at Gay Disney in Orlando at the end of May, which was a pretty fun weekend with friends. Not sure if I'll do it again, and if I do it may be a bit different, but it was a fun weekend for sure.
The big trip this year was to Southeast Asia, where I spent 3 weeks for work in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, with a couple days' stop up in Hong Kong on the way home. In Bangkok I saw Bom for the first time in a couple years, and also had an adventure with Linh from DC, who was there on an internship. In KL I got to spend time with my blogger friends and finally met DanielHenry and got the chance to know David better, and also got to spend some good times with Eddie (and introduce him to the bloggers!) and William, Alex, and Jason as well. The trip was long, and I was ready to get home when it was over. Other than New York and Rehoboth Beach, that was pretty much it for travel until heading to Singapore in November.
One reason I neeeded to get home was the running. I was training for a big race and needed to get into my routine by early July, and once I did I worked my ass off. After some friends ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2007 they convinced me I should give it a try in 2008, so I committed myself to doing that. I only started running in January (before that, 30 minutes on the elliptical machine was my aerobic workout). By March I ran my first race, a five-miler, and in April I ran the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, a big race in DC. But I managed to injure my knee and couldn't run for a few weeks, and then my Asia trip came up, so I didn't really start marathon training until July. I was running 3 times per week and mostly designed my own training schedule, with encouragement from Ethan and Vu. I got myself ready for the Army 10-Miler in early October and knocked more than 8 minutes off my previous 10-mile time. 3 weeks later came the Marathon, and I kicked its ass. I was thrilled that I ran the whole way, never slowing down to a walk, and I finished in what I thought was a pretty decent time for a first-timer. It was an amazing feeling to do that, especially going from not running at all to running a marathon in only 10 months. To the surprise of everyone, not the least of whom me, six weeks later I ran the Singapore Marathon, and while my time was slower, I still finished ahead of 79% of the runners, so not too bad. I'm kinda proud of myself for setting this goal and achieving it. Physical fitness has never been my strength (pun intended) so I'm very happy this all went so well.
My other physical activity was dragon boating, which I totally got into. After rowing with AQUA in the DC festival back in May I have given some thought to joining DC's dragonboat team but I'm not sure I can make the time committment right now. I've enjoyed watching dragonboating in Singapore (for all the obvious reasons) and would like to hook up with a team here, just to learn some things from them, but I'm kinda out of time in my daily schedule, so we'll see how that works out.
Thanks to all that physical activity I felt comfortable doing some modeling this year. I got to be a part of Vu's calender (last year it was al Asian men, this year it was pairs of folks) and that was fun. I also did two sessions for a professional who was looking for models, one by myself and one with a second person. That was a lot of fun, I got to exlore some interesting ideas and also learned to feel comfortable in front of a camera -- I'm not the most photogenic person in the world, so that was a nice experience.
This has been a good year for friends. In addition to gettig to know Stan better early in the year I also found my friendship with Ethan strengthening, and that has been nice. Linh and I also bonded a bit, and we may have the Spice Girls to thank for that. I formally joined AQUA in January, as one of the "token white guys," heh heh heh. Along the way I've gotten to know a couple new folks and have seen my friendships with others develop over the year. There have been some fun parties, some trips, but to be honest I'm still trying to find the solid ground underneath my relationships in DC. The situation with Adrian and I has, I think, made other relationships a bit unstable, simply because our lives have been so uncertain. Overseas, I finally got the chance to meet Azhan, whom I've known online for a couple years, as well as Derek in Singapore whom I've also known online for a long time, and I've added Jasen, Alan, Joshua, and KK to the "good friends" list as well.
I've barely mentioned "work" in any of this, and that's because work in DC is just not an important part of my life right now. I do it, and I do it well, but it bores me. My bosses have no idea what to do with me and cannot figure out how to use my skills, so my days at the office seem filled with tasks that really don't matter. That's partly why I applied for the exchange program, and that's partly why I did a research project for another agency (that's who sent me on the 3-week Asia trip this summer). I wish they wanted to use me, but they don't, so I look for other opportunties to be useful and to develop my own skills, and I spend a lot of time planning my exit from this career next year.
My concerns about wasting time in this job became very important this summer when I had a health scare. During a physical exam the doctor told me that I had symptoms of colon cancer. A long three weeks later I finally had a colonoscopy and the results were negative for cancer. That's good, and it also reminded me that things can happen and life can end suddenly, so it's best to get the most out of it now rather than waiting for a day that may never come. I emerged from that experience content with my life, realizing that while there are many things I still WANT to do, I think I have done most if not all of the things I HAVE to do in my life. It's comforting to feel I have not wasted my time on this earth.
One new "work" experience this year has been a professional blog I started. I'm not sure what sparked my interest but I began writing a blog that, if done right, can later be turned into a book and developed into a university course. It was a bit "stop and go" as I started it this spring but by the summer knew I hadn't done it quite right. I stoped, retooled it over a couple months,then restarted it in the fall. It doesn't have a lot of readers but it does give me a chance to express myself, so we'll see where it goes.
It has been an amazing year, full of changes good and bad. I look forward to 2009. What will happen then? Well, there will be a major career change late in the year, and once that happens I'll be a bit more open about some things on this website. I'm going to continue running, and in additon to the races I ran this year (except the Singapore Marathon, I think) I'm planning a couple additional ones. I'm also going to continue the gym routines and the nutrition plans I've been working on in Singapore, so I can finally feel healthy and good about my body. Stan is leaving DC for grad school at the end of the summer, and that will create a hole in my life. I'm going to work harder on my DC friendships, and perhaps cut back on the travel a bit so I can focus more on home. Having said that, I still plan a trip to Vancouver, and at least one trip to San Francisco, and there's a good chance I'll have an extended stay back in Thailand, perhaps for 3 weeks in September to go to massage school and kickboxing camp. Hey, why not? My business blog has been picked up as a column for a newspaper so I'll be writing that this year, and I look forward to doing more with the blog itself.
All in all, a very good year. 2008 reminded me that I'm one of the luckiest people on Earth, with good friends, lots of opportunities for adventures, and interesting career possibilities that are pretty much within my own control rather than someone else's. My goal when moving to DC in 2006 was to use this time to set myself up for all the fascinating things that are set to occur for me in 2009. Despite the ups and downs along the way and the interesting (and usually good) changes to my plans, I think I've succeeded in that. 2008 was good, and I'm ready for 2009.
Bring it on.
The area of relationships includes both good and bad aspects. On the downside, I realized near the beginning of the year that, despite a year of resolving to work on our problems and trying to come back together, Adrian and I just couldn't seem to work things out. There's no need to get into details here, it just seemed we both had different ideas about what it would take to restart our relationship. Sadly, we had been moving in different directions, though fortunately we have been able to remain friends (a good thing, seeing as we still live together in the condo we co-own). He has been dating someone since this summer and I'm happy for him.
On the upside, however, things took a nice turn with Stan. We met at a Halloween party in 2007 and had been getting to know each other over time. In February, when he changed jobs and got a more normal schedule, we had more time to hang out and over a few months seemed to develop into "best friends." That development continued and by the time July came around we added "dating" to our description, and the word "boyfriends" entered our vocabulary this fall. So yes, I have a very nice boyfriend, and I'm very happy about that.
That has made my current work situation a little bittersweet. One of the most unique aspects of this year has been my (temporary) return to teaching. I learned at the end of April that I'd been selected for a prestigious academic exchange program. As a result I now live in Singapore, from November 2008 to March 2009, teaching a graduate school course at a major university here. It's fun, as I love teaching and I've always been interested in living in Asia, so this is great and I'm having a blast. It sucks to leave a boyfriend behind for 4 months, but fortunately he saved up his vacation time and we used a frequent flyer ticket to bring him over for 12 days, so YAY for us having an Asian adventure!!
I'm enjoying my time in Singapore and really feel like I'm fitting into the local landscape. I have some nice friends here and am very happy about that. There are still other people I want to meet, people I've known online for a long time, but I'm having trouble organizing my time well. Since I'm about halfway through my time here, I need to do better with that. I'm going to the gym regularly here and have a trainer and am feeling much better about my body, in terms of both health and appearance.
My time in Singapore has created some opportunties for travel. A couple weeks ago I was in Saigon for the first time and I just returned from a trip to Penang with Stan, my first time there as well. I'm hoping to get to Thailand for a weekend and will also be spending a weekend in Hong Kong in February, followed by four days in Tokyo on my way home in March.
There has been a LOT of travel this year. I worked in a couple trips to New York, both on my own and with Stan, and one of those was a quick hop up to see a play with just an overnight stay (I almost went without staying overnight but realized I needed at least one night in the city). I got reintroduced to Don't Tell Mama and The Web and visited a few other nice restaurants and bars, and much fun was had each time.
Short, domestic trips for work included a weekend in Atlanta and a weekend in Portland, my first time there. I got to see one of my old students, who has turned into a much more mature and interesting young man than he was when I first knew him in Colorado (and he was pretty mature and interesting even then!). Later I spent a few days in San Francisco for an academic conference where I got to see an old friend from SF and also see my friends Carol and Giacomo, who were teaching there at the time. I didn't make it to Hawaii for work this year, which is unusual, but I'm determined to make it there next year, for vacation if nothing else. This was also my first year at Gay Disney in Orlando at the end of May, which was a pretty fun weekend with friends. Not sure if I'll do it again, and if I do it may be a bit different, but it was a fun weekend for sure.
The big trip this year was to Southeast Asia, where I spent 3 weeks for work in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, with a couple days' stop up in Hong Kong on the way home. In Bangkok I saw Bom for the first time in a couple years, and also had an adventure with Linh from DC, who was there on an internship. In KL I got to spend time with my blogger friends and finally met DanielHenry and got the chance to know David better, and also got to spend some good times with Eddie (and introduce him to the bloggers!) and William, Alex, and Jason as well. The trip was long, and I was ready to get home when it was over. Other than New York and Rehoboth Beach, that was pretty much it for travel until heading to Singapore in November.
One reason I neeeded to get home was the running. I was training for a big race and needed to get into my routine by early July, and once I did I worked my ass off. After some friends ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2007 they convinced me I should give it a try in 2008, so I committed myself to doing that. I only started running in January (before that, 30 minutes on the elliptical machine was my aerobic workout). By March I ran my first race, a five-miler, and in April I ran the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, a big race in DC. But I managed to injure my knee and couldn't run for a few weeks, and then my Asia trip came up, so I didn't really start marathon training until July. I was running 3 times per week and mostly designed my own training schedule, with encouragement from Ethan and Vu. I got myself ready for the Army 10-Miler in early October and knocked more than 8 minutes off my previous 10-mile time. 3 weeks later came the Marathon, and I kicked its ass. I was thrilled that I ran the whole way, never slowing down to a walk, and I finished in what I thought was a pretty decent time for a first-timer. It was an amazing feeling to do that, especially going from not running at all to running a marathon in only 10 months. To the surprise of everyone, not the least of whom me, six weeks later I ran the Singapore Marathon, and while my time was slower, I still finished ahead of 79% of the runners, so not too bad. I'm kinda proud of myself for setting this goal and achieving it. Physical fitness has never been my strength (pun intended) so I'm very happy this all went so well.
My other physical activity was dragon boating, which I totally got into. After rowing with AQUA in the DC festival back in May I have given some thought to joining DC's dragonboat team but I'm not sure I can make the time committment right now. I've enjoyed watching dragonboating in Singapore (for all the obvious reasons) and would like to hook up with a team here, just to learn some things from them, but I'm kinda out of time in my daily schedule, so we'll see how that works out.
Thanks to all that physical activity I felt comfortable doing some modeling this year. I got to be a part of Vu's calender (last year it was al Asian men, this year it was pairs of folks) and that was fun. I also did two sessions for a professional who was looking for models, one by myself and one with a second person. That was a lot of fun, I got to exlore some interesting ideas and also learned to feel comfortable in front of a camera -- I'm not the most photogenic person in the world, so that was a nice experience.
This has been a good year for friends. In addition to gettig to know Stan better early in the year I also found my friendship with Ethan strengthening, and that has been nice. Linh and I also bonded a bit, and we may have the Spice Girls to thank for that. I formally joined AQUA in January, as one of the "token white guys," heh heh heh. Along the way I've gotten to know a couple new folks and have seen my friendships with others develop over the year. There have been some fun parties, some trips, but to be honest I'm still trying to find the solid ground underneath my relationships in DC. The situation with Adrian and I has, I think, made other relationships a bit unstable, simply because our lives have been so uncertain. Overseas, I finally got the chance to meet Azhan, whom I've known online for a couple years, as well as Derek in Singapore whom I've also known online for a long time, and I've added Jasen, Alan, Joshua, and KK to the "good friends" list as well.
I've barely mentioned "work" in any of this, and that's because work in DC is just not an important part of my life right now. I do it, and I do it well, but it bores me. My bosses have no idea what to do with me and cannot figure out how to use my skills, so my days at the office seem filled with tasks that really don't matter. That's partly why I applied for the exchange program, and that's partly why I did a research project for another agency (that's who sent me on the 3-week Asia trip this summer). I wish they wanted to use me, but they don't, so I look for other opportunties to be useful and to develop my own skills, and I spend a lot of time planning my exit from this career next year.
My concerns about wasting time in this job became very important this summer when I had a health scare. During a physical exam the doctor told me that I had symptoms of colon cancer. A long three weeks later I finally had a colonoscopy and the results were negative for cancer. That's good, and it also reminded me that things can happen and life can end suddenly, so it's best to get the most out of it now rather than waiting for a day that may never come. I emerged from that experience content with my life, realizing that while there are many things I still WANT to do, I think I have done most if not all of the things I HAVE to do in my life. It's comforting to feel I have not wasted my time on this earth.
One new "work" experience this year has been a professional blog I started. I'm not sure what sparked my interest but I began writing a blog that, if done right, can later be turned into a book and developed into a university course. It was a bit "stop and go" as I started it this spring but by the summer knew I hadn't done it quite right. I stoped, retooled it over a couple months,then restarted it in the fall. It doesn't have a lot of readers but it does give me a chance to express myself, so we'll see where it goes.
It has been an amazing year, full of changes good and bad. I look forward to 2009. What will happen then? Well, there will be a major career change late in the year, and once that happens I'll be a bit more open about some things on this website. I'm going to continue running, and in additon to the races I ran this year (except the Singapore Marathon, I think) I'm planning a couple additional ones. I'm also going to continue the gym routines and the nutrition plans I've been working on in Singapore, so I can finally feel healthy and good about my body. Stan is leaving DC for grad school at the end of the summer, and that will create a hole in my life. I'm going to work harder on my DC friendships, and perhaps cut back on the travel a bit so I can focus more on home. Having said that, I still plan a trip to Vancouver, and at least one trip to San Francisco, and there's a good chance I'll have an extended stay back in Thailand, perhaps for 3 weeks in September to go to massage school and kickboxing camp. Hey, why not? My business blog has been picked up as a column for a newspaper so I'll be writing that this year, and I look forward to doing more with the blog itself.
All in all, a very good year. 2008 reminded me that I'm one of the luckiest people on Earth, with good friends, lots of opportunities for adventures, and interesting career possibilities that are pretty much within my own control rather than someone else's. My goal when moving to DC in 2006 was to use this time to set myself up for all the fascinating things that are set to occur for me in 2009. Despite the ups and downs along the way and the interesting (and usually good) changes to my plans, I think I've succeeded in that. 2008 was good, and I'm ready for 2009.
Bring it on.
Labels: Friends, Health, Living in SG, Relationships, Running, Teaching, Travel, Web, Work
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Not Much Happening
I'm still alive, just not writing much. I just haven't had much to write about. I don't want to be filling the screen with negative posts so 'tis best to wait until something more positive comes along. And since I'm going to see the Spice Girls Thursday night, that will probably qualify!
A number of friends have been feeling down lately as well, whether due to romantic problems, job difficulties, or illness. But some have been doing great, writing about holidays with family, and in one case I learned someone is dating...
I am considering signing up for a social networking site using the screen name "Ang Moh." Thoughts?
A number of friends have been feeling down lately as well, whether due to romantic problems, job difficulties, or illness. But some have been doing great, writing about holidays with family, and in one case I learned someone is dating...
I am considering signing up for a social networking site using the screen name "Ang Moh." Thoughts?
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
It's a Small World After All
After getting home from San Francisco Sunday night I had a message from someone on Fridae.com that said, "I was out at a dance club last night, and I saw a guy that looks like you! :)" Well, there's a reason for that...it was me! He lives in SF and was at Badlands, where I was with my friend Paulo. He really thought it was someone who looked like me, only shorter. Hmmmm. Not quite as odd as what happened last January in Dallas, but still...
Also in the small world category...on Thursday, my last night in Hawaii, I had a post-meeting meeting with people from my office who were flying home that night. I figured that would totally screw up my last night, and indeed it wrecked my chance to see Fritz again. As luck would have it, though, I was able to meet up later with Kester, whom I'd met on Fridae. Kester is a very nice, very sweet guy from Singapore who goes to school in Hawaii. Anyway, over coffee, as we were sharing tales, I decided to toss out the names of the few guys I know in Singapore to see if he knows them. Sure enough, he knows my friend Allan...I texted Allan as we were at Starbucks, telling him I was having coffee with someone he knows...and of course, it was morning in SG so he got it and texted back right away, and it was all a little surreal.
Kester's very cool. Glad we got to meet.
In San Francisco i finally got to meet Ben from Fridae...we'd hoped to meet when i was there in March, but alas, he was in Egypt. Damn the luck. And then i got to hang out on Saturday with the aforementioned Paulo, which involved shopping, lunch, shopping, dinner, drinks at Badlands and, if the stores were still open, there would have been more shopping (he helped me pick out a cute corduroy jacket from H&M). I really appreciated him taking the whole day to spend with me, that was very nice.
Overall, Hawaii was a great trip, San Francisco was much fun, but I don't mind the fact that I'm not scheduled for a work trip again until early February!
Also in the small world category...on Thursday, my last night in Hawaii, I had a post-meeting meeting with people from my office who were flying home that night. I figured that would totally screw up my last night, and indeed it wrecked my chance to see Fritz again. As luck would have it, though, I was able to meet up later with Kester, whom I'd met on Fridae. Kester is a very nice, very sweet guy from Singapore who goes to school in Hawaii. Anyway, over coffee, as we were sharing tales, I decided to toss out the names of the few guys I know in Singapore to see if he knows them. Sure enough, he knows my friend Allan...I texted Allan as we were at Starbucks, telling him I was having coffee with someone he knows...and of course, it was morning in SG so he got it and texted back right away, and it was all a little surreal.
Kester's very cool. Glad we got to meet.
In San Francisco i finally got to meet Ben from Fridae...we'd hoped to meet when i was there in March, but alas, he was in Egypt. Damn the luck. And then i got to hang out on Saturday with the aforementioned Paulo, which involved shopping, lunch, shopping, dinner, drinks at Badlands and, if the stores were still open, there would have been more shopping (he helped me pick out a cute corduroy jacket from H&M). I really appreciated him taking the whole day to spend with me, that was very nice.
Overall, Hawaii was a great trip, San Francisco was much fun, but I don't mind the fact that I'm not scheduled for a work trip again until early February!
Monday, December 04, 2006
Take The Monkey's Side
Some people have WAYYYYYYY too much time on their hands:
The Lost Seinfeld Episode
New York was a great weekend, tales to follow.
The Lost Seinfeld Episode
New York was a great weekend, tales to follow.
Labels: Web
