New Year's Eve Liveblog From The Suburbs

So, in celebration of the New Year, I have decided to liveblog my New Year's Eve for all of you to enjoy.  This glorious evening, I will be engaging in the New Year's festivities from the couch with my sister, mother, and father in the suburbs of Central Massachusetts.  Let the craziness begin!

5:49 PM  Watching Season 3 of The Office on my computer.  My sister is working on her college essays, my father is watching TV, and my mother is at Ming's Deli helping out my aunts and uncles with the New Year's Chinese food rush.  We were going to join her, but something was said about us being in the way, so I'm spending the early evening with my good friend Michael Scott.  Party's pumping already.

6:26 PM  Dinner is served!  As a tribute to the last year, dinner is comprised of all the leftovers we weren't able to finish before mom left for the restaurant.  Oh, nostalgia.

7:41 PM  Commence baking!  Sister and I are making Heath Bar bark.  Ours will look just like that...after a few drinks, I'm sure...

8:06 PM  Forgot to preheat the oven.  Time to crack open the first beer of the night.

8:07 PM  Mmmmm Budweiser Light Lime...tastes like water with a hint of lime...

8:17 PM  Threw out the rest of the Bud Light, opened a hard cider.  Dad's drinking some 2 buck chuck.  Stay classy, Wong family.

8:37 PM  Just turned on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2013 on ABC.  Father says the announcer is a softcore porn star.  How does he know...

9:11 PM  I like this broadcast.  It's like I'm at a concert, but I'm sitting in my pajamas on the couch, safe from the ever-encompassing reach of Ryan Seacrest.

9:22 PM  750 ml bottle of whiskey, you will soon be mine.  Also, Justin Bieber, why would you ever make an acoustic version of "Boyfriend"?  Actually, why would you make that song in general?

9:27 PM  I like my whiskey neat and out of a glass with pink elephants sledding down a hill.

9:28 PM  Also, I just hit over 500 views for the month of December and consequently for the year 2012!  Love you guys!  Whoever you are...

10:15 PM  Just fried up some rice paper spring rolls and shrimp wantons.  Why is everything so good when it's fried!?!?!? 

10:19 PM  Why is Justin Bieber such a large part of this New Year's broadcast...

10:31 PM  Weight Watchers, stop telling me I need to lose weight.  I'll do it after I finish all of this fried food...

10:37 PM  Dad got up to do Gangnam Style with the TV, but I think he's afraid I will video it and put it on my blog, so he's just sort of standing in front of the TV with his arms crossed now.

10:54 PM   Mom's on her way home with Chinese food!  Weight Watchers, move on over!

11:07 PM MOM'S HOME!  Our kitchen table is now full of chicken wings, crab rangoons, fried shrimp, chicken fingers, and beef teriyaki.  I WILL NOT STOP EATING UNTIL NEXT YEAR.

11:40 PM  I AM SO FULL BUT I AM NEVER STOPPING.  Also, Taylor Swift just came on and my sister went crazy for a second.

11:44 PM  You go, Ryan Seacrest.  Sing that Taylor Swift like it's New Year's Eve.

11:47 PM  Moar whiskey?  Why certainly.  Fill up my pink elephants, please.

11:50 PM  I remember when I was a kid, I used to think the ball in Time Square actually dropped.  As in shattered on the ground.  Did anybody else think that?

11:53 PM  It's almost midnight and it looks like candidates for a midnight kiss are my mother, father, or sister.  Time to draw an attractive face on my hand?  My friend told me this is normal practice...

11:56 PM  I bet all of those people in New York are cold.  I'm very warm right here in my pajamas.

11:59 PM  Zomg it's almost time to count down.  Family's gathered.  Food's eaten.  And I'm the only one with alcohol.  Whiskey is good...

12:00 AM  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

12:01 AM  My New Year's kiss was my glass of whiskey.  Not bad, 2012.  Not bad.

12:03 AM  Why do we drop a ball to celebrate the new year?  Why not, like, a baby or something?

12:04 AM Oh my god, my cousin lost a diamond from her arrangement ring, possibly in the recently ingested crab rangoons.  This is probably not a good thing...

12:07 AM  Still haven't found the diamond...but it's time to play board games with the family!  Have a great night everyone!  Wong, out!  (Sounds better when Ryan Seacrest does it.  Curse him and his iron hold over every American's heart.)

On New Years Resolutions

The New Year is right around the corner, and it’s about that time when everybody decides it’s the season to strive to be someone else.  However happy we may be with our lives, there’s always something we can change to be happier, right?  Maybe we want more friends, or less acquaintances.  Maybe we want something cliché like to lose weight or to end a bad habit. 

Or maybe it’s something original, like to start eating low sodium pickles instead of whatever you were having before, or to start dumpster diving instead of purchasing groceries from a store.

Maybe you’re the type of person who doesn’t like making resolutions.  You’d rather the year be a surprise, or you’d rather that life in general be a surprise.  Whenever you end up trying to plan something ahead of time, it never works out, so why make a resolution?

Maybe you like being surprised.  You don’t want to make a resolution because then if something good happens, there’s a chance that your past self gets all of the credit.  You want all of the credit for yourself!

Maybe you want to find the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Maybe your resolution is to meet new people, or to meet better people.  Maybe you need to meet people who matter instead of investing in people who don’t.  You wasted too much of 2012 caring about the impressions you left on people you never ended up seeing again, and you need to do something different this year.

Maybe you just need to do things better.

Whatever your resolution turns out to be, it’s going to be 2013 soon and the world hasn’t ended yet, so good luck and go out and do something different every once in a while!

The 6 Types Of People You Meet On Megabus

I recently took the Megabus home for the holidays.  For some reason, I always decide to take the 8PM-6AM version of this glorious transportation, and lately, I've realized a pattern in the type of people who seem to ride Megabus.  (All “she’s” and “he’s” are interchangeable with “he’s” and “she’s.”)

The One Who Brings All Of The Food

After about 4 hours of sitting and staring out the window, your mind starts to wander to your stomach, and hunger sets in.  It’s about this time where everyone else on the bus is also hankering a tasty treat, but of course no one remembered to bring anything on the bus…except for this guy.  And his food smells amazing.  I’m talking mouthwatering, succulent, the most delicious-smelling stuff you could ever imagine.  He takes it out of his bag and just devours it like an ice cream cake at a birthday party without any silverware—complete with the mess and the noise.  He’s the guy everyone hates but wants to be at the same time.

The One Who Won’t Stop Coughing

No matter what your starting or final destination happens to be, you will always encounter what I like to call “The Cougher.”  The trouble with this particular individual is you never know if they are hacking up a lung because they consumed several packs of cigarettes earlier that day, or if they are deathly sick and contagious.  You naturally assume the latter and end up spending the entire bus ride trying to avoid breathing.  It’s tough because The Cougher always sits right behind you.

The One Who Wants To Meet New People

I've managed to avoid this individual on every bus ride thus far, but there’s always that one person who wants to make friends.  You’d think this person actually only rides the bus in order to meet new people, and she is outstanding at it.  At the beginning of the ride, she roams the rows, looking for the hint of interest to engage in mindless chatter.  By the time the bus has pulled out of the station, she has already found her victim, who sits next to her, oblivious to the small amount of sleep he will be subjected to in the next few hours.  I’ve managed to escape this fate so far, but the voice of this bugger is heard throughout the bus, making it near-impossible for anyone to get rest.  This one usually finds her victim somewhat near the one who won’t stop coughing, creating a surround-sound of unpleasant bus-noise .

The One Who Makes Himself Comfortable

Without fail, there is always that one person who starts to strip on the bus.  And I don’t mean a sexy, intimate, appealing type of strip.  This guy strips and ends up in gym shorts, a T-shirt, and no shoes or socks.  And his feet smell.  He usually decides to take up two seats for himself, spreading his partially-nude body all over the cushions, hand rests, and windows.  This guy is the reason you should never put your head on the window without some sort of hood or hat protecting you from direct contact—his feet have rubbed that glass in ways you can’t even imagine.  Whenever you look at this guy, you cringe and shift in your seat, hoping it did not contain his counterpart on the bus ride earlier that day.  He is happy with himself and apparently very comfortable, but he is also the reason my mother never rides the Megabus.

The One Who Doesn't Want To Share A Seat

There is a special spot in Hell for this person, and I am not proud to say that I often take on this role whenever I happen to frequent Megabus.  Although the mix-and-match of  Megabus seating is supposed to be a random affair, this person makes a valiant effort to end up as one of the lucky people without a seat-mate.  This person will employ tactics such as becoming The Person Who Makes Himself Comfortable, placing a jacket/bag in their adjacent seat while pretending to be asleep, or just feigning illness.  I've only done one of these, but I have a 100% success rate.  I always feel guilty about this at first, and then I realize I don’t have to spend the next 10 hours with a person next to me, and it’s always worth it.

The One Who Understands “We’re All In This Together”

This is the only person who may stop me from becoming The One Who Doesn’t Want To Share A Seat, but it’s hard to spot this one by first glance.  You could easily end up with one of the aforementioned travesties, but the rewards of sitting next to this person might be greater that sitting alone.  This person will talk, but not enough to keep you from your book, your music, or your sleep.  This person will sleep, but her head will fall nicely between the confines of her own seat space.  This person will be nice and pleasant, but not too intrusive, because this person knows.  This person knows that everyone is in the same boat, or bus, or whatever, and that’s how it’s going to be for the next few hours.  Her comfort is your comfort, and your comfort is hers.  We should all just get along and act like normal people without falling into the extremes of human survival instinct.  If all bus riders were like this, maybe Megabus wouldn't be so bad.

Christmas Eve Dinner!

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!  Tonight, my parents let me and my sister cook Christmas Eve dinner, which was actually really exciting since we love to cook!  We made a four-course dinner, which we decided to serve all at once since we didn't get the timing done quite correctly to serve them sequentially and have the dishes all come out warm.  Enjoy the break from my normal type of posts, and enjoy the pictures!

Corn, avocado, mozzarella, and tomato salad.  Startin' off the meal with a Wong-tradition vinaigrette that's different every time we happen to try and recreate last time's.

Mushroom risotto.  Katherine's arms were tired after continually stirring this bad boy as we poured chicken stock into the pan.  45 minutes or so of an intense Wong-family workout.  Props.

Crispy salmon, roasted tomatoes, and potatoes with scallions, cilantro, and crab meat.  This is perhaps the only fancy-looking thing I can make reliably.  Working on it.  Props to dad for descaling the fish so I didn't cover our kitchen in scales like last time.

Chocolate bread pudding.  We never eat dessert, but we wanted 4 courses instead of 3.  It turned out pretty good, so maybe we will start eating dessert again.

Here's the whole shebang together!  Accompanied with a nice glass of water because us Asians can't hold our liquor.  Who took the picture of dad's plate because he had the biggest piece of fish.

Happy holidays to everyone!  Now, allow me to excuse myself for a night of board games with the family.  And present wrapping.  Gotta get around to that.

Ice Skating On A Frozen Pond

Winter is here, and everyone around me is getting into the spirit of frozen walks to the office and skyrocketing heating bills from landlords.  Personally, I’ve always been a Fall type of person.  I love pumpkin spice and crunching dried pastels, freshly fallen from tree limbs.  The feeling of jumping into a pile of leaves or taking a brisk walk through the city on a perfect autumn day can never be beaten by a trek through the snow in below comfortable outdoor temperature. 

Fall is my safe haven, comfortable and familiar, and winter is a deceptive con artist who woos you with her sparkling icicles and beautiful snowfall, only to bite you in the face with sickness, pneumonia, and fat men breaking into your house at night to “leave you presents” and make out with your mother.  Out of all of these unfortunate happenstances, however, there is one bit of winter that I can never wrap my head around.

There’s something about freshly frozen pond that brings children and adults alike to its shores, arms full of shoes with sharp razor blades on the bottom and hearts full of warmth and joy for the day’s activity.  It’s not that I can’t ice skate—I am perfectly capable of strapping on these deadly weapons and slipping around a rink for a couple of hours, but you will never find me sliding around any naturally frozen source of water.

Maybe it’s the cold outdoors, or the lack of refreshment stand awaiting me when I am done with my slipping.  These are the excuses I make for myself to convince others that I’m just a Debbie Downer party pooper instead of a terrified twenty-something.

I’m afraid of the falls.  On an ice skating rink, the worst thing that could happen if I fall would be a broken bone, or maybe a broken toddler beneath my kneecap.  What happens if I fall on the pond and the ice doesn’t stop me?  I’ll break through the crystalline barrier, falling into a frozen and bitter bath.  The hole I make will start to widen as the weight of the other skaters push the frozen pond to its limit, ultimately consuming the entire skating area.  All of the skaters are swallowed up by the waters beneath their beloved faux rink.  Everyone dies.

I’m afraid of the ice’s weight capacity.  Just how thick is this ice anyway, didn’t anyone check?  What if I possess the magic weight that, once on the pond, causes the entire layer of ice to give way?  I can see the headline now.  Twenty-Something Joins Skating Party.  Mass Casualties.  How can you ever know how much the ice can hold unless you surpass the limit?  I don’t want to know that badly.

I’m afraid of the fishermen.  THESE ARE PEOPLE LITERALLY CUTTING HOLES IN THE ICE AS A LEISURE ACTIVITY.  What kind of sadistic person thinks of sawing through ice that people are skating on?  I have nothing against fishing—fishing is probably one of the sports I may enjoy from time to time.  But weakening the already iffy pond surface that people are unsuspectingly using to skate?  That sounds dangerous.

I’m afraid that nothing will go wrong.  If I decide to join everyone else on the frozen pond and nothing bad happens, I won’t have any excuses to avoid the next outing.  My fears will remain and I will be forced to slip all over a death trap just because it was safe that one time I tried it before.  One time with no incidents does not make for every time with no incidents.  I will still be terrified every time I step out onto that ice.

I’m afraid of the risk.  The consequences.  The possibility of failure.  The possibility of success.  I’m afraid that when I take that leap of faith, that when I strap on those skates and join the party, that I will never be able to sit on the sidelines again as people whiz by.

So no thanks, I’d rather not go pond skating with you.  I think I will just sit inside with my warm cup of hot chocolate and browse my normal blog lineup.  Let’s go back to Fall so I can step on dried leaves and feel safe again.

All I Need Is This

I read something once that said happiness is about stringing together those little moments of joy, rather than having everything in your life fit together perfectly.  I don’t really know what happiness is, but I’m finding out more each day.  Happiness is what gets you out of bed in the morning, makes you drink more alcohol than is healthy for your liver, and urges you to meet that girl on OKCupid, even though the last time you met someone you accidentally told them you were a stripper because you had to fill the awkward silence with something.  I am not actually a stripper.

Maybe happiness is the final state of mental accomplishment, the ultimate motivator.  Every person at every stage in their life is working towards finding it or finding out how to find it.  Maybe happiness is about trying, about taking risks and going for your dreams.  Maybe you are only likely to find it if you never give up.

Maybe happiness is something we are always chasing.  Maybe it’s something we can never catch, but we will always have as the end goal.  In this way, it’s what keeps us running, even after our bodies are exhausted and our minds have given up the race.  Maybe it’s actually the chase that keeps us happy while we try to find whatever it is we are trying to catch.

But maybe a never-ending chase after something we don’t have isn’t a good idea.  If we’re always trying to get something we haven’t got yet, I don’t see how we can ever be happy.  Always wanting more is a surefire way to improve ourselves, but it’s also a surefire way to never be happy with what we have.  Maybe sometimes we need to stop chasing and just stretch our muscles.

A few weeks ago, my roommate had some friends over.  We drank spiked tea and lay around our apartment under a veil of alcohol and laughter.  We lit candles, drank more tea, and dissolved into a daze of feeling and sound.  Maybe happiness was about forgetting to find happiness and just living life.  Maybe sometimes we just have to appreciate what we have in the present.  Our friend took out a guitar and began to play, her soft voice echoing throughout the otherwise silent apartment.  I smiled, closed my eyes, and realized that in this moment, all I needed was this.

Also posted here: http://thoughtcatalog.com/brian-wong/2013/10/you-will-find-happiness-in-the-end/

I Want To Be A Writer

I want to be a writer.  And I don’t just mean that I want to write, I want to have an impact on people.  I want my words to move mountains and carve valleys.  I don’t just want to be read, I want to be heard.  I want my writing to matter.

I want my words to make you feel something, anything.  Something special, something meaningful, something important.  I want to sweep you off of your feet and leave you speechless.  I want to take you on journeys to faraway lands where the sky is blue and the sea is green.  To places where you redefine your reality and rethink what you want out of life.

I want to write something that makes you think.  Something that takes your current beliefs and makes you question their validity.  Something that opens your mind to more possibilities than what you already know.  I want to break the barrier of ignorance and arrogance.

I want my thoughts plastered over the internet, over the world.  I want to reach villages that just got their first computers, and I want to make them happy.  If I can make someone across the globe smile because of something I've written, I can wake up with a smile on my own face as well.  I want people to be happy.

But I really just want to write.  I have all of these thoughts inside of my head, and I want to get them out.  On to paper, on to the web.  Into your head.  I want to express myself, and I want to put it out there for anyone to read.  For anyone to admire.  For anyone to hate.  I want be more than just a binge writer during November.

So, I made a blog.